Apitep Saekow

Bio: Apitep Saekow is an academic researcher from Thammasat University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Interoperability & Cross-domain interoperability. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 4 publications receiving 23 citations.

Towards a Practical Approach for Electronic Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF)

Abstract: Nowadays, many countries have adopted electronic Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) for their interoperable systems. The e-GIFs normally set out the policies, standards, guidelines and technical structure. Our literature review shows that the failure that governments face regarding e-GIFs includes lack of experience in their implementation. In fact, only following the suggested open standards, policies and contexts guideline in e-GIFs may be insufficient. The successful e-GIF adoption needs more practical implementation support. This paper proposes a practical approach to electronic government interoperability. The approach considers the adoption of Interoperability Practical Implementation Support (IPIS) tool. In this paper, we develop the IPIS tool and evaluate the results. A comparison between approaches with and without the IPIS tool illustrates significant differences. The case in this paper is a Thailand e-GIF pilot project to build a common XML schema standard for data exchange.

The Challenges of Implementing e-Government Interoperability in Thailand: Case of Official Electronic Correspondence Letters Exchange across Government Departments

Abstract: In November 2006, Thai Government announced Thailand electronic government interoperability framework (TH e-GIF) as a collection of technical standards, methodologies, guidelines and policies to enable electronic data exchange across government agencies. The first challenging project was to implement the semantic interoperability for exchanging official electronic letters across 29 government agencies using 15 heterogeneous software systems developed by different vendors. To achieve the project goal, a holistic approach was designed in which many policy-makers and practitioners had to involve in collaborative activities. This chapter explores the approach in details. It includes the process of data harmonization, modeling and standardizations using a number of UN/CEFACT specifications, UMM, CCTS and XML NDR, and other international standards. From this project the first national XML schema standard was produced. This chapter also introduces a methodology of extending the interoperability to legacy systems based on web services technology. Finally, it describes risk managements with the key success factors for the electronic interoperability development in Thailand.

Bridging the gaps in e-government interoperability implementation: Towards a realistic approach

Abstract: In recent years, e-government interoperability frameworks (e-GIFs) and enterprise architectures (EAs) have been extensively developed as mechanism tools for achieving the interoperability. However, several researches indicate that only adopting both e-GIFs and EAs may not be inadequate. There have been numerous obstacles and barriers such as bureaucracy, compliances, capacity and enforcement that can produce the gaps in progress towards realizing the achievements of e-Government interoperability. This paper defines two main existing gaps arisen between concepts and practices as well as among three dimensions (organizational, semantic and technical) of interoperability. The paper proposes a pragmatic approach to bridging them by adopting repository services, support tools and collaborative activities. The paper also illustrates an approach architecture, design methodology and system design based on UN/CEFACT standards. At last, it significantly describes how the approach can reduce the gaps and can be one of the key solutions to the implementation of e-Government interoperability.

Efficient Implementation of E-Government Interoperability in Labour Market Information Systems based on Service Oriented Architecture: A Case of Thailand

Abstract: In many countries, governments have been developing electronic information systems to support in labour market in form of on-line services, web-based application as well as one-stop service. One of the biggest challenges is to facilitate the seamless exchange of labour market information (LMI) across governmental departments. This chapter introduces an efficient implementation of Thailand’s egovernment interoperability project in LMI systems using service oriented architecture (SOA) based on XML web service technology. In Thailand, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) has developed a Ministry of Labour Operation Center (MLOC) as the center for gathering, analyzing and monitoring LMI to assist the policy makers. The MOL consists of four departments: department of employment, department of labour protection and welfare, department of skill development, and social security office. Thsse departments utilize electronic systems to manage LMI such as employment, labour protection and welfare, skill development and social security. Provincially, MOL has 75 branches called “labour provincial offices” located at 75 provinces in Thailand. Each office has developed a “Provincial Labour Operation Center or PLOC” as the operating center in the province where the information system called “PLOC” system has been developed to analyze and monitor the localized labour information for the provincial policy-makers. Since these systems differ, it requires the process of data harmonization, modeling and standardizations using UN/CEFACT CCTS and XML NDR for achieving the common XML schema DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-789-3.ch018

Enterprise architecture for e-Government

Abstract: We discuss the role of Enterprise Architecture as a prerequisite to e-Government implementation, and underscore how simply taking an IT perspective is a serious mistake. We discuss the influence of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) guidance on E-Government and the holistic perspectives respectively to better assess their viability. We argue that those who take an IT-centric narrow view confuse the new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) mandated Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Reference Models as providing a methodology for satisfying government legislation and as a replacement for the FEAF. This confusion is often the result of agencies' zeal to satisfy whatever OMB issues as guidance and their over reliance on external contractors who are charged with building their EA and in so doing emphasize selling their products. With such an emphasis they cannot demonstrate the business value of the EA they deliver and instead are primarily product focused.

Enabling Future Education with Smart Services

Abstract: The future of the education system will restructure through information communication technology (ICT), which is a comprehensive approach to innovate education systems, methods, and management. The new paradigm of ICT in educations is smart services, which enhances the education efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. The education smart services in Thailand, called NEdNet (National Education Network), are integrated systems including network infrastructure services, education information services (EIS), and Learning services, which facilitator of higher-order thinking skills, support learner-centered, self-directed learning, tailored learning and decision supporting. The first part of NEdNet is network infrastructure systems. Ministry of Education proposed National Education Network (NEdNet) project to develop national education network and provide enough bandwidth for all levels of education. NEdNet is the integration of UniNet Network [6] for higher education, MOENet for schools and VECNet for vocational institutes. NEdNet supports usage of the entire education system with the following bandwidth 1) 293 university connected by dark fiber, which will have bandwidth 1-10 Gbps, 2) 415 vocational institutions, which will have bandwidth 100-1,000 Mbps, and finally 3,000 schools, which will have bandwidth 10-100 Mbps. NEdNet also investigates the coming technology such as 3G, WiMax and FTTx for last mile access networks. NEdNet provides either community internet or research education network (REN), which connected to Internet2 in USA., JGN2 in Japan, TEIN (Trans Eurasia Information Network) and APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network). The second part of the NEdNet is education information services (EIS) using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure, which provides information for management and executives in three levels. The first level is national level, which establishes a comprehensive e-government project using TH e-Gif (Thailand e-Government Interoperability Framework) [1] to enhance efficiency and quality of general services such as procurement, service delivery, monitoring and evaluation and etc. The second is local level, which shares data and information among education administration organizations and other government departments. The last is school level, which handles education administration in a more efficient, convenient, and innovative way. The last part of NEdNet is Learning services, which provides cloud computing facilities for cyber learning system, digital library (ThaiLis) and educational broadcasting services called E-TV and Teacher TV (IP-TV). These services provide education resources for economically and geographically disadvantaged students and Thailand Cyber University (TCU) for adults to promote lifelong learning. In conclusion, NEdNet is the education smart services, which can contribute to learning outcomes of traditional curriculum domains and can play a greater role in the future education. The network infrastructure decreases students digital-divided in Internet and research networks. The other services are more relevant to quality of education resources, extending learning beyond classrooms, student-centered learning and national competitiveness.

Information Stewardship in Cloud Computing

Abstract: Cloud computing ecosystems of service providers and consumers will become a significant part of the way information services are provided, allowing more agile coalitions, cost savings and improved service delivery. Existing approaches to information security do not readily extend to this complex multi-party world. The authors argue for a mathematical model-based framework for the analysis and management of information stewardship that makes explicit both the expectations and responsibilities of cloud stakeholders and the design assumptions of systems. Such a framework supports integrated economic, technology, and behavioural analyses, so providing a basis for a better understanding of the interplay between preferences, policies, system design, regulations, and Service Level Agreements. The authors suggest approaches to constructing economic, technology, and behavioural models and discuss the challenges in integrating them.

Developing a service oriented E-government architecture towards achieving E-government interoperability

Abstract: E-Government offers a new electronic channel by means of which citizens and government ministries can interact with one another, unconstrained by the locations and schedules; and thereby improving government effectiveness. However, realizing this vision is strictly depending on the ability of diverse computing systems owned and managed by different government ministries to be able to interact together across all ministerial boundaries. This ability is known as e-government interoperability. Since ministries have built their computing systems independently with specifications and solutions relevant to their particular needs but without adequate attention to the need to interact with other ministries systems, this has result in a patchwork of heterogeneous computing solutions that have limited coherence and are largely uncoordinated.Therefore, during the last few years, e-government interoperability has been an important research area. To this direction, although several approaches have been proposed, all these approaches would be insufficient since they are theoretical solutions and technically focused. In this paper low level e-Government architecture is proposed driven by Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to solve the architectural problem in achieving seamless egovernment interoperability. This architecture acts as unifying architectural vision and helps in finding a common understanding of e-government and its realization.