Perspectives for using software agents in e-Government applications

Abstract

Governing a country includes a set of decentralised processes. Moreover, in the unions ofcountries with integrated economic space, the decentralisation issue gains the attention. The mostknown examples of federated governments are two of the biggest world economies: the UnitedStates of America and the European Union. The decentralisation is even more significant whenconsidering resources for businesses. Specifically the workforce, the land and the infrastructure arecommonly managed at the local or the sub-local level. The paper addresses the issues concerningcitizens’ mobility (both for personal and professional purposes) and businesses’ pan-Europeanoperations.Application of autonomous software agents to aid cross-border businesses operations andcitizens movements is addressed. The paper presents the possibility of making citizens’movements smoother and involving less paperwork. To support these ideas, the foundations andconclusions from Infocitizen initiative are introduced.In the conclusions of the paper, it is suggested that the agent-based technology for openingagents-ready virtual offices by agencies at all levels of government should be used. It wouldbenefit the users if they were allowed to set up software agents to act on their behalf and to searchall possible locations in order to find required resources. The mentioned task would be impossibleor extremely resource-consuming when done manually.