Towards interoperable E-Government - identifying and classifying G2B services in the European metropolitan area Rhine-Neckar

E-Government can transform and improve the entire scope of administrative actions and political processes. Hence, EGovernment is both, vision of a future government and the reality we can experience today. E-Government is not an objective per se; it has rather to be seen as measures of organizing public governance for better serving citizens and enterprises. Conversely, E-Government services are often developed and implemented by a top-down approach without reflecting the use of the services by involving the potential users. Hence, this paper advocates implementing services on regional level – assumed to be the social context of E-Government. The presented survey conducted in the European metropolitan area Rhine-Neckar (MRN) among self-employed citizens identified the most requested E-Government services in the region as a first step. The case of the MRN allowed classifying the services into several groups distinguishing by the level of regional influence. The case suggests that the more influence a region – or public administration at local level has – the more a bottom-up approach of identifying and implementing E-Government services should be followed. In decentralized structures such as the MRN the question is also raised whether E-Government programs should move outside the organizational boundaries of known hierarchical administrative structures.