ment applications. Wireless network signals are broadcast over
the public airwaves, making them
vulnerable to hacking and interception. Being small and portable,
mobile devices can be easily stolen
or lost, putting the data stored in
them at constant risk of falling M-Police
into the wrong hands. Disclosing
critical personal information on
wireless Internet and location-based services makes citizens more
concerned of privacy issues in m-government.
There are a number of inherent
limitations for usability of wireless
networked devices such as small
screens and keypads. Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP)
phones can only access sites that are written in WML,
which is not compatible with HTML. This means e-government Web sites must be rewritten in WML
and have just enough information to fit the small
screens of wireless devices. Time to translate HTML-
WML along with the lack of enough broadband
slows the access speed. Limited computational power
and memory, shorter battery life, poor display resolution, and limited Web browsing ability are other limitations in using m-devices.
Accessibility and interoperability are also challenges. Wireless Internet access is still costly and the
coverage area of existing wireless networks is limited.
In the U.S. and throughout the world, a large number of areas do not have Wi-Fi or fixed broadband
connectivity. The new technology of WiMAX (which
is fixed broadband wireless technology) promises to
offer standardization, interoperability, and lower cost.
The cities of San Francisco and Philadelphia are planning to offer WiMAX wireless Internet connections
for everyone, either with a very low cost or for free.
Applications
SMS alerting
services
G2C SMS notifications
(
Government-to-Citizen)
Government Agencies
Hong Kong
Singapore
Download non- Japan
legally binding content
Description
- Text messages to mobile phone users
during SARS
- Provide parking ticket reminders,
national service obligations, and
passport renewal notification
- Download information on tourism,
disaster prevention, and child rearing
Parking enforcement
IEE (Internal
Efficiency and
Effectiveness)
M-local tax
management system
Korea - Police officers retrieve information
using mobile devices
- Print tickets on the spot
Anyang, Korea - Parking inspectors collect parking lot
information using PDAs
- Print receipts on the spot
Uijeongbu and Kunsan, Korea - Allow officers to access tax information
on the spot
- Transfer the data to the local tax
database
Table 3. Examples
of m-government
applications in Asia.
dard (AES). As the number of wireless users continues to increase, issues are resolved, and technology
advances, more innovative m-government applications will emerge and m-government will become an
increasingly important aspect of government functions. c
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CONCLUSION
M-government has demonstrated great potential
and shown a promising future. There is no doubt
that m-government will be a part of the trend of m-commerce becoming a major part of the proliferating e-commerce in the private sector. As wireless
technology rapidly advances, some of the technical
obstacles for m-government could be overcome
soon. Fourth Generation (4G) technology along
with better wireless Internet access technologies will
offer increased bandwidth for faster wireless access
to the Web. More security features are becoming
available, such as the Advanced Encryption Stan-
SILVANA TRIMI ( strimi@unl.edu) is an associate professor of
Management Information Systems at the University of Nebraska–
Lincoln.
HONG SHENG ( hsheng@umr.edu) is an assistant professor in the
Department of Business Administration at the University of
Missouri-Rolla.
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