United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Lazio Region, in central Italy, is one of the most important regions in Italy accounting for 10% of the GDP. The per-capita income is more than 13% above the national average. The economy of Lazio is strongly influenced by the structures of Rome, which has a particular role as capital. In fact even tourism is almost completely concentrated in this town.

Regions, Provinces and Municipalities are local autonomous authorities with their own statutes, powers and functions in accordance with the principles established by the Constitution. Lazio is one of the 20 Italian regions.

The regional capital of Lazio is Rome, that is also the capital city of the Italian Republic; Lazio is divided into 5 provinces: Rome, Latina, Frosinone, Viterbo and Rieti, divided into 378 local units called municipalities.

The legislative power is exercised by the State and the Regions in compliance with the Italian Constitution and according to the EU legislation and international law.
The State has exclusive legislative powers for some issues as expressly established in the Art. 117 of Italian Constitution.

The Regional Council is the legislative body of Lazio Region. Council members elect the President of the Council and the President's Cabinet. The Regional Council monitors the Regional Executive Committee's activities and performs all those functions provided by the Italian Constitution, by the Lazio Region 's Statute and by law.

The Region carries out its functions through three main bodies: the Regional Council, the Regional Executive Committee and the President.
The Regional Executive Committee is the executive body of Lazio Region. It is headed by the President, who sets the guidelines and it is made up of 16 Regional Ministers entrusted with the performance of regional services.

The Regional Ministry for Consumer Protection and Administrative Simplification aims at informing and protecting citizens, and making regional services more accessible and efficient for consumers, companies and other institutions in the region of Lazio. Its main objective is to protect citizens’ rights and improve life quality. In this modernization process, eGovernment plays a crucial role in bridging the digital divide, simplifying administrative procedures, allowing real time data and information exchange so that no citizens are left behind.

Among the others, the following are the main priorities of the Regional Ministry:

• Defining the technological framework of the Regional Information System (SIR);
• Developing new digital networks in order to involve small villages;
• Simplifying administrative procedures;
• Implementing multi-channel systems and creating new thematic portals for citizens;
• Carrying out information and training activities on consumer protection.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
T-informo is the experimental t-government service developed by the Municipality of Rome and Lazio Region in co-operation with RAI, Telespazio, University of Rome “La Sapienza” and LAit S.p.A., Lazio region government-owned corporation. Co-financed by CNIPA (Italian National Centre for ICT in the Public Administration), T-informo provides for contents and services accessible through TV to all citizens who have a digital terrestrial decoder at home. The project aims at bridging the “digital divide”, involving those citizens who are not very confident in using Information Technologies and, for this reason, cannot participate actively in the Public Administration renewal process. The T-Informo project wants to make the digital terrestrial television the perfect tool for strengthening the relationship between citizens and the Public Administration, being characterized by transparent and user-friendly systems. On November 8th, 2006, during the Com-Pa, the annual Exhibition of Public Communication, the T-informo project was awarded the prize “La Pubblica Amministrazione che si vede – La Tv che parla con te” (the PA you can see – the TV that talks to you”. The competition, announced by Formez (Training and Study Centre depending from the Public Administration Department of the Prime Minister’s Office) was presented by Luigi Nicolais, Minister for Reform and Innovation in the Public Administration. The prize was awarded with the commentary: “ The examined product represents a best practice to reuse for what concerns the comprehension and promotion of new interactive services through an emerging technology such as the digital terrestrial television. The design and the animation help citizens to understand the provided services and how to use the application. The involvement of all main local stakeholders of Lazio makes T-Informo a value-added service. The layout is pleasant and well studied.”

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Starting date of the project: 5 June 2006 Press conference: 7 July 2006 COMPA prize competition: 8 November 2006

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
T-informo, the public utility experimental platform on DTT offers to all users information and services about the following public institutions: the municipality of Rome (coordinator), the Province of Rome and the Lazio Region. All of them are content providers, so they feed the system with their contents and services. The testing phase involves a sample of 397 families of the Region of Lazio, in 40 areas of the Municipality of Rome, the Province of Rome and the region of Lazio. These families have been provided with a free decoder and installation and a manual. A toll-free Help Desk number is available (800.01.22.23) and ensures technical assistance to all users about the project. The T-informo channel can be accessed connecting a digital decoder to the TV, tuning in to RAI Tre Channel and pressing the red button of the decoder remote control. Afterwards, selecting the T-informo service from the menu the user can to access the welcome page of the system. Connecting the decoder to the telephone plug it is possible to receive free information on hospitals and duty pharmacies, or even consulting the lists of kindergartens and day nurseries of the Municipality of Rome through the “return channel”.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The main objective of the project is providing information and services of the three Public Administrations involved. Information includes cultural life, events, health and childhood related issues. The available services concern mainly the health sector (search for pharmacies and health structures) and the cultural field (libraries). The objectives of the project are in line with the European, national and local strategy which aims to bridge the digital divide, involving those citizens who are not very confident in using Information Technologies and, for this reason, cannot actively participate in the Public Administration renewal process. The T-Informo project wants to make the digital terrestrial television the perfect tool for strengthening the relationship between citizens and the Public Administration, being characterized by transparent and user-friendly systems.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
In addition to the home page welcoming the user to the system, T-Informo is organized in the following categories: Index: information and interesting facts about Rome, as well as regional weather forecasts and real life stories told by Lazio citizens; Latest News: up-to-date news about the activities carried out by Lazio Region, the Municipality of Rome and the Province of Rome; Health and Social Affairs: information and useful news for elderly people. This section is divided into several sub-sections which can be accessed by pressing the numerical buttons of the digital decoder’s remote control. The sub-sections offer the following services: Search for hospitals: Connecting the decoder to the phone line, the user can receive information on a selected hospital or unit, through the return channel. The information sheet includes the address, contacts and a description of the selected infrastructure. Search for duty pharmacies: with the same search method used to find hospitals. Search for ASL (Local Health Authorities): it enable users to have access to information about Lazio health authorities. Search for elderly centres in Rome. Education and Employment: news from Lazio Region and the Province of Rome about timing and services of: Job Centres: it offers a list of all the job centres located within the province of Rome and the possibility to search for job vacancies Training courses: it provides information about training courses; Day nurseries and kindergartens: thanks to the return channel, the user can find out his/her child place in the municipal results list, by filling in the school, the municipality, the child’s date of birth and surname. Tourism and Culture: it shows a calendar of the cultural events – art, music, theatre, expositions, etc. – proposed by the three administrations within their respective areas, as well as: Rome municipal and provincial Libraries Directory Cultural routes to discover popular cultural and culinary traditions Directory of Museums of the municipality of Rome; How do I?: including information on helpful services provided to citizens, such as “How do I” get the Identification card; Transports, providing citizens with useful information from ATAC (the agency responsible for Rome’s transport system) in addition to: regular updates of Rome traffic information the possibility to calculate a route to reach a destination within the city of Rome. All the stakeholders involved in the T-Informo initiative, play a specific role in the development of such an innovative channel which would enable Lazio citizens to participate actively in the Public Administration’s activities in a transparent, clear and easy way directly from their TVs.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The users involved in the project showed significant interest in the T-Informo initiative. They were the real “protagonists” as they participated actively with advises and proposals aimed at enhancing the system interface and contents. The communication campaign included the distribution of information material in the Public Administration infrastructures and ads on public transports. The campaign attracted the interest of those citizens not involved in the experimental phase of the project, who contacted the Help Desk to get detailed information.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The sustainability of the T-Informo project is concrete. The three administrations involved in the project showed their commitment to pursuing the initiative in close cooperation even when the testing phase is over and CNIPA (National Organism for ICT in the Public Administration) funds is not reallocated. The digital terrestrial media, thanks to the spread of TV, facilitates the transferability of the project to those contexts which lags behind in ICT infrastructures. Furthermore, the Content Management System used to edit contents, is easy to use and manage and requires low maintenance. It is developed on an open source platform. The contents, now in Italian, can be translated into other languages. The CMS is a flexible system and allows for the transferability of the project to other platforms, thanks to the use of the multiplatform Java programming language.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The use of the Content Management System (CMS) makes the content organization and editing easier, ensuring content availability on the T-Informo channel in short-time. No problems of CMS management were reported thanks to the possibility to define a workflow process which enabled the working group, disseminated in the three different administrations, to work in coordination during the publication stage, in order to avoid overlapping. Most difficulties were experienced during the executive planning, when the organization, definition and standardization of roles and work procedures were carried out. To this end, the delivery manager – external to the administrations - played a key role, being entrusted with the duty of guiding the stakeholders throughout the planning, organization and delivering of documents for the co-financing body’s monitoring.


Institution Name:		Lazio Region
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Marco Noccioli
Title:		Regional Ministry for Consumer Protection and Admi
Telephone/ Fax:		+ 39 (06) 0651686721
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		mnoccioli@regione.lazio.it
Address:		Via Rosa Raimondi Garibaldi 7
Postal Code:		00145
City:		Rome
State/Province:		Lazio Region
Country:		Italy

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information