Electronic Communication Strategies of the Danish Evironmental Administration
Dorte Bennedbæk, Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Copenhagen
Hugo Prestegaard, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Copenhagen
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Summary
Strategies for use of electronic publication in Danish
environmental administration, especially based on the strategies of the Danish
EPA and electronic communication strategies of the Danish Ministry of
Environment and Energy will be described. The new Danish national information
policy and its influence on these strategies will be represented. An account is
given of the Ministry's priorities relating to the national information policy
plan "From vision to action". The homepages of the whole Ministry are found in
http://www.mem.dk/.
The Danish environmental administrative system is found in Figure 1. The
regional and local authorities are responsible for direct environmental control
of trade and industry, agriculture and farming, the open land etc.
The Danish EPA is one of the agencies of the Danish Ministry of
Environment and Energy. Figure 2 shows the organization of the ministry. The
main functions of the Danish EPA:
- Advising the Minister
- Guidance to and advising of counties and municipalities
- Preparation of parliamentary bills and statutory orders
- Supervision of the environment
- Appeal: The agency decides on complaints against the municipal councils' and
county councils' decisions in individual cases.
The agency administers the Environmental Protection Act, the Chemical
Substances and Products Act, pesticides etc.
Seen from a communication point of view all work done in the Danish EPA may be
defined as information and communication activities. You may say that the
Danish EPA is a knowledge institution.
Figure 3 shows how to use the Internet in a knowledge institution.
- organized collection of information and knowledge
- current communication
- public relations, including electronic publication
- Publish research results - appropriation for research and development at
about 40 - 50 mill. pr. year = 12 mill DM
- Give guidance and advice to the population
- Show DEPA as an efficient and open agency
- Use information as a regulatory instrument
Division of labour between the Danish EPA divisions and the Information
Department
Once a year we examine the divisions' work programmes and define the annual
information/communication strategies/plans for the divisions.
- The divisions are responsible for the information activities within their
field
- The Information Department is responsible for the information quality
- Always use the best available tool, publication, meeting, conference, film,
tv, brochure, etc.
- Define very narrow target groups and use the most appropriate information
tool
- Find relevant partners for cooperation - trade, industry and organizations,
other agencies (consumers), NGO etc.
In relation to external information activities we see the Internet as an
extra dimension to the other information activities. It is a tool that makes it
easier to reach/get in touch with certain target groups. And that is how we use
it. It means that we will use the special facilities of the electronic elements
and media, and not only copy the printed material.
The first target group is international cooperation. We have produced in
English
- A homepage
- An electronic magazine, Danish Environment
- Reports for meetings
- Danish Environmental Administration, a book describing environmental
protection in Denmark, with links to
- Laws and regulations
- The Danish aid programmes (l00 mill. to Eastern Europe)
- Systems export, export of environmental know-how. This publication has also
been translated to Spanish and other languages (Chinese).
Later we will use Internet for national target groups. The annual information
strategy 1996 contains several activities.
But perhaps the national strategies for electronic publishing will force us to
change Danish EPA strategies.
In relation to organized collection of information and knowledge we have a
library in DEPA for internal use only. Last year we examined the quality of the
knowledge of the employees related to the daily work. 69% felt they had an
incomplete knowledge base most of the time. So now we plan to establish a
special Intranet system for the employees in DEPA. Based on the specific tasks
and the employees in the single divisions, we will make relevant information
systems/databases available for the staff for selfservice or services by the
library staff.
Some facts about Denmark that make it easy to administer and manage the
Danish society.
- The language is Danish; which is also to some extent spoken by the population
in Greenland and in The Faroe Islands.
- It is a small country.
- The population is well-educated.
- We have a very good infrastructure: Mail system, public transportation, roads
etc.
From the beginning of the computerization in the 1960's Denmark centralized the
use of computers in the public sector. It was used for registration/recording
of tax payers, licensing etc. In the 1970's for cataloguing and circulation of
books in libraries etc. But it was never coordinated. However, in 1992 the
first recommendations for a coordinated Danish information policy were
published. The report defined the national information resources. Dorte
Bennedbæk was a member of the small working group of experts behind these
recommendations.
Until 1990 the computers and the network were not good enough and much too
expensive.
In the beginning of 1994 a new group with a large number of members
representing all aspects of the Danish society started preparing the strategy
"The information society year 2000". The work was finished in October 1994, and
it deals with the coordination of all aspects of information in the Danish
society and the increasing use of IT, especially in public administration. The
Ministry of Environment and Energy has decided to take the lead in the use of
the Internet. The national strategies will influence our daily
communication/information work because:
- A large number of Danish citizens, trade and industry, libraries, schools,
universities etc. will have acces to the net.
- From January 1, 1997 all Danish publications published by the state shall be
delivered in an electronic form to a central electronic library. We still wait
for the exact technical definition of a state publication. This will give a lot
of problems and difficulties with copyright etc. and it might be expensive.
DEPA publishes about 300 publications per year. Until now we have published 4
electronic books. It has cost us about 250,000 Danish crowns = 62.000 DM, and
many hours of proofreading.
But is very important always to ensure that the target groups are reached by
the most appropriate tools, and that strategies are used efficiently without
overload of information. But perhaps we will be able to reduce the number of
printed books per year. Let's see.
Statement to Parliament on "Info-Society 2000" and IT Political Action
Plan 1996.
The Statement can be obtained from the Internet-server:
http://www.fsk.dk/fsk/
The philosophy within the plan
is that correctly used, IT will be a source of:
- Economic development,
- Growing employment,
- Improved quality of life and a cleaner environment, -
- Contribute to a much more open and decentralised society.
It should support:
- Free access to information and exchange of information.
- Democracy.
- Personal development, one of the means being to support the individual in his
working situation and in his leisure time.
- Openness in the public sector, making it more transparent, contributing to
the promotion of efficiency and rationalisation in public institutions and
enabling them to provide better services.
- Sustaining of the disadvantaged of society.
The Electronic Service Network of the Public Sector Policy:
- Public administration is to be interconnected in a comprehensive
electronic service network
- Information already supplied by citizens and companies to one public
institution and which can be transmitted electronically is not to be requested
by another public institution.
- Citizens and companies wishing to communicate electronically with public
authorities are to be given this option.
- Concurrently with the replacement of IT systems, public institutions are to
change gradually from paper-based archives to electronic processing and filing
over the coming years.
National Strategy:
- National IT-strategy
- State server and data base
- All state publications in electronic form from January l, 1997
- HTML standard or Adobe PDF.
Internet Policies:
- Part of information policy
- Part of IT strategy
- Decentralized responsibility
- Variation in agency strategies
- Centralized guidelines, search facilities, maintenance etc.
- All employees will obtain free access.
Ministry of Environment and Energy Policy:
- News, pressservice
- Accessibility
- Information service
- Development of IT projects
- Revision of information strategy.
IT presentation:
- 2400 pc-workstations
- 11 public institutions and 26 state forest districts
- More than 150 locations throughout the country
- Nation wide network
- Also people working in developing countries.
- In 1995 the ministry made an EU tender for a new IT platform. Unisys A/S was
given the order. The installation is now being carried out.
The electronic office project:
Software:
- Imaging and document storage: Infolmage Folder
- Filing system and workflow management: ScanJour / Oracle
- E-mail, calendar, fax and bulletin board: MS Exchange
- Word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation: Microsoft Office
- Full text search: BRS search
- Optical character recognition (OCR): Omnipage
- Internet Browser: Netscape
- Server OS: Windows NT
- Clients OS: Windows 3.11 / 95
- Transmission protocol: TCP/IP
Internet homepage:
http://www.mem.dk
DEPA's English Internet homepage:
http://www.mst.dk/depa/index.htm
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