E-Government out of the Box

As of January 1st 2011, electronic files issued according to the AVG (allgemeines Verwaltungsverfahrengesetz, a law describing the principles of administrative procedures relevant for all federal levels) must be digitally signed. Failures to follow the procedures may result in public complaints resulting in invalid administrative orders. Existing solutions are either open source proof of concept implementations or costly, therefore not suitable for small and smallest municipalities. Digital signatures are required; besides that a fair amount of utilities can be envisioned. Especially committed public servants have lots of valuable ideas which should be aggregated and analysed. Informal communication between administrative personnel, effortless retrieval of documents and information and a common knowledge base created by collaborative means are only a few possible tools. The envisioned tools have to be fully embedded in an existing IT-infrastructure and should not require interdependencies to other components, if possible.