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  3 

   Establishing ‘driving licences’ or ‘passport’ qualifications.  France, Italy and the UK 

have schemes which grant simple IT qualifications, particularly aimed at  low-  skilled 

groups.  

  4 

   Building trust, or allaying fears.  The US 1998 Child Online Protection Act used schemes 

to provide ‘kitemark’-type verification, or certification of safe services.  

  5 

   Direct marketing campaigns.  According to the report, only the UK, with its UK Online 

campaign, is marketing directly to citizens on a large scale.   

  Internet  governance 

  

Internet governance

  describes the control put in place to manage the growth of the Internet 

and its usage (as discussed at the end of  Chapter   3   ). 

 Dyson (1998) describes the different layers of jurisdiction. These are: 

   1 

  Physical space comprising each individual country where its own laws hold.  

  2 

  ISPs – the connection between the physical and virtual worlds.  

  3 

  Domain name control ( 

www.icann.net

 )  and  communities.  

  4 

  Agencies such as TRUSTe ( 

www.truste.org

 ).   

 The organisations that manage the infrastructure also have a significant role in governance.   

  

  E‑government 

  

E-government

  is distinct from Internet governance. (In  Chapter   1   , we noted that e-govern-

ment is a major strategic priority for many countries.) To achieve the potential cost savings, 

some governments have set targets for both  buy-   and  sell-  side e-government. In the UK, the 

government’s main target was: 

 That by 2005, 100% of dealings with Government should be capable of being delivered 

electronically, where there is a demand.   

 Although this target is to be applauded, it was not met and we can view this as the 

UK government’s  dot-  com bubble. Although many services have been created, adoption 

rates tend to be low and the government is having to invest in marketing usage of these 

services. 

 In Australia, the National Office for the Information Economy, NOIE ( 

www.noie.gov.au

 ), 

has created a strategic framework which has the following themes. This summarises the types 

of actions that many governments are taking to encourage e-business within their countries.