Contenu du sommaire : Les téléservices publics

Telecommons versus Public Teleservices : Delivering Online Collaborative Public Services. Telecommons are teleservices resulting from public sector and non‑commercial private sector cooperation. The commons movement together with the massive surge of open data have forced administrations to make public data available to all. Specific groups of stakeholders or “digital communities” will therefore become new partners which the administration must take into account. We review their involvement particularly in the open data movement and consider how they have cooperated in a number of public services in areas such as healthcare, the environment, urban planning and public transport. We therefore postulate that e‑government has pro‑actively opened the door to new ways of conceiving new types of public services, both for and with the public.

— Teleadministration: An Economic and Democratic Driver for the European Union? — With the development of trans‑European communications networks, teleadministration at national level is a central part of the EU's multi‑faceted approach. The Community institutions have also introduced teleservices, now deemed to be essential in stimulating the economy and growth in Europe. Acting as a model, the Commission gives them a democratic role which does not always correspond to reality.

— Domain Name Registration – A Public Service? A Recurring Question — The new legal framework, established by the law of 22 March 2011, for managing the .fr domain name, does not fundamentally change the nature or organisation of the French public domain name service. Moreover it does not eliminate the main sources of legal uncertainty which include absence of legal characterisation of domain names and scarcity of addresses. The reason behind this is that French authorities are bound by the very specific international governance of this activity.

— Extraqual: An Extranet System for Quality and Simplification of Law — The French Government's General Secretariat set up an extranet in May 2010 known as Extraqual: “improving quality and simplifying law.” Monitoring tables, good practice guides and information on the various stages of standard?setting activity are made available to all in the central administration. Everything from the development of impact studies to monitoring the application of laws is covered. Legal drafting assistance and the publication of laws are provided as well. This digital collaborative space, providing assistance and promoting best practices, is now a tool which is valued and used by all stakeholders involved in the process of producing legal norms. It has taken on great importance in the work of the legal affairs departments of various ministries and in the SOLON community (Online Organisation System of Normative Operations).

— Defense: Teleservices and Confidentiality Keywords — The Ministry of Defense is central to the republican state. Like other ministries, it contributes to the teleservices surge. Nevertheless its specific, fundamental mission is to protect security and national defence secrets. It must skilfully maintain a balance between teleservice developments and strict observance of all forms of secrecy. This is achieved by adding to the rigidity of secure control over information systems, the provision of information on a “need to know” basis and procedures for providing people with security clearance.

— Teleservices, Online Services or Remote Services? Terms for the Modernisation of Administrative Relations — Electronic or digital administration involves administrations as well as their constituencies. However in some applications, the use of the term “teleservice” has led to a focus on measures implemented to simplify relations between administrations and the citizens. Making a distinction between online services, remote services and teleservices would make it possible to distinguish between on the one hand, the confirmation that public services are limited solely to provision of services, and on the other, the consolidation of the rhetoric according to which a user is no longer an active player but rather subjects of public service.

— Analysing the Operative Role of Teleservices as an Instrument of Clarification — Electronic administration is a necessary result of teleservices. They enable to broaden the current meaning given by the administration and the right to “relations with users”. Teleservices make it possible to address the effects of a technology which has become an integrated component of daily life. Through teleservices, public services can provide access to users and attracts users no longer through ICTs but rather with the help of ICTs. The concept of micro‑persuasion understood as influence driven by the technology itself, makes possible the study of attitude shifts of new interactive, connected users. The concept of macro‑persuasion, understood as the attempt to modify behaviour through a dedicated tool, makes possible the study of the dematerialisation of social relations.

— New Technologies and Taxation. A Fiscal e‑Contract on the Horizon? — The development of e‑commerce has significantly modified the approach to taxation and tax payment systems. The States' use of new information and communications technologies to improve their relations with taxpayers amplifies this phenomenon. This “New Economy” radically changes the nature of taxes as well as the legal regime applied to taxation in such a way that a new concept of contract‑based taxation is being developed.

— Telemedecine and Public Teleservices — Telemedecine, defined as remote medical practice using information and communications technologies, is generally presented by its supporters as a powerful lever for modernising healthcare systems. It nevertheless leads to a number of questions the first of which concerns how it should be classified: the question arises as to whether telemedecine can be considered to be a public teleservice. Other questions concern whether or not its legal regime is commensurate with the challenges inherent in this sector.

— Ambiguities Stemming from the Dematerialisation of Legal Procedures Involving Foreigners — The performance of teleprocedures involving foreigners' rights has turned out to be disappointing on two fronts. First of all only a limited number of formalities, essentially visa and residence permits requests, are handled using teleprocedures. Secondly, the effects of these modest initiatives have been impaired by the motivation behind public authorities' actions. They were very rarely motivated by a true desire to improve relations between an authority responsible for exercising public power and users who find themselves in a peculiar situation.

— Public Teleservices and the Right to Data Confidentiality — The considerable rise in the use of public teleservices calls for debate on the effective protection of the user's right to confidentiality of personal data. It would appear that users have very little control over their personal data, as regards the collection, processing and exchange of data between administrations and as far as the reuse of data outside of the public teleservice system. The right to confidentiality is in fact guaranteed by ensuring the security of exchanges and of information systems, its legal and technical frameworks being rather unstable.

— Rights of Citizens Using the Internet and Public Teleservices — The relationship between public teleservices and users' rights is complex. On the one hand, teleservices can be viewed as a potential threat to the fundamental rights and equality of citizens, but on the other hand, they are seen to hold promise. They promise the continued delivery of public services in a difficult economic context, a commitment to further strengthen existing rights covered by public service, and finally a promise of implementation of new rights under public service and of a new model of administrative citizenship. This fundamental ambiguity lies at the centre of public teleservices.

— Opportunities for Improving Public Teleservices Through “Big Data” Analysis — By mashing up the ever-increasing amounts of data available to administrations, the analysis of Big Data provides numerous opportunities for improving public teleservices. This contribution focusses on developments which make it possible to improve services available to users and the performance of public administrations.

— Electronic Administration, Supporting Public Service Innovation — Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have enormous potential for innovation as regards the ways governments function and provide services. Successful improvements have been made in terms of online public service availability and provision, often surpassing all expectations and in spite of the challenges specific to the public sector. Governments worldwide face many challenges including the accelerated pace of technological development, the complexity of governments' tasks and the high number of stakeholders involved in designing and providing services. This article focusses on the main developments in the use of ICTs which favour innovative public service provision and highlights some of the persisting challenges.

— The Civil Servant Vote in 2013 or the Crisis of the State Apparatus — An analysis of how civil servants voted in the 2012 presidential election demonstrates that they rejected Nicolas Sarkozy more than they actually supported François Hollande. Such an analysis also reveals that two developments affect their political behaviour and signal an identity crisis. In the first round, their vote varied depending on their category and their job. The civil service seems divided different socio‑political worlds quite distant from each other, especially under the influence of level of education of its membres. The analysis highlights also an historical increase of the extreme-right vote.