The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing 2008 
costs and in one word, more efficient and effective organization. 
In this regard, a research program has been started in order to 
develop policies and plans necessary for NCC to arrive in this 
new era. This paper will discuss about achievements and 
developments in the mentioned research program. 
2. E-GOVERNMENT CONCEPTS AND MODELS 
E-Govemment or electronic government, also known as e-gov, 
digital government and online government is a governance 
method based on use of internet technology as a platform for 
exchanging information, providing services and transacting 
with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government 
(Wikipedia). The primary models for E-Govemment are: 
■ Govemment-to-Citizen or Govemment-to-Customer (G2C) 
model which is the online non-commercial interaction 
between local and central Government and private 
individuals, rather than the commercial business sector 
(G2B). For example Government sectors become visibly 
open to the public domain via a Web Portal. Thus making 
public services and information accessible to all is the main 
goal of this model. 
■ Govemment-to-Business (G2B) model which is the online 
non-commercial interaction between local and central 
government and the commercial business sector, rather than 
private individuals (G2C). 
- Govemment-to-Govemment (G2G) & Govemment-to- 
Employees (G2E) model which is the online non 
commercial interaction between Government organisations, 
departments and authorities with other Government 
organisations, departments and authorities. 
Within each of these interaction domains, four kinds of 
activities take place: 
■ Pushing information over the Internet, e.g. regulatory 
services, general holidays, public hearing schedules, issue 
briefs, notifications, etc. 
■ Two-way communications between the agency and the 
citizen, a business, or another government agency. In this 
model, users can engage in dialogue with agencies and post 
problems, comments, or send their requests to the agency. 
■ Conducting transactions, e.g. lodging tax returns, applying 
for services and grants. 
■ Governance, e.g. online voting, and campaigning. 
2.1 Benefits of E-Government 
Improving quality of life for citizens is the main benefit of a 
good government and good governance method. Among many 
advantages of E-Govemment concept, one can consider the 
following items as the most important ones: 
■ Better and on time service to customers 
■ Decreasing costs and administrative size of government 
■ Sound and smooth flow of information among citizens, 
private sector and public governmental agencies 
■ More efficiency in organizational processes 
■ Effective, efficient and decentralized government 
• Interoperability between service providers and customers 
■ Shorter distance between citizens and government 
■ Social equity resulted from availability of information for 
all 
2.2 E-Government requirements 
Implementation of E-Govemment idea requires lots of efforts in 
a systematic and designed plan. Obviously all of these 
requirements can not be mentioned in this paper but these plans 
must aim a defined target which could be considered as follows: 
■ Using communication networks as correspondence highway 
between main government structure and lower levels of 
government agencies and customers of governmental 
services. 
■ Replacing current methods and processes with simple and 
efficient ones. 
■ Increasing the efficiency and affectivity of government 
agencies in management level by flattening their 
management pyramid. 
■ Improving responsibility against customers and interacting 
with them in order to provide better services. 
■ cutting administrative expenses and complexity of work 
processes in governmental organizations by joining up the 
parallel systems and eliminating redundancy among them. 
2.3 Obstacles in establishment of E-Government 
There are many problems and obstacles that E-Govemment 
establishment process in Iran as well as other developing 
countries will face with. They can be categorized in social, 
cultural, legal, IT infrastructure, and security aspects that 
among them the following items must be carefully considered: 
■ Insufficient PCs and internet connections in organizations 
as well as public access. 
■ Low speed networks. 
■ Lack of efficient banking system. 
■ Unwillingness of supreme management level to accept new 
initiatives particularly to E-Govemment concept. 
* Resistance against change. 
■ Shortage of computer literacy and IT knowledge among 
officials and citizens. 
■ Lack of coordination among organizations. 
* Separation between classified and unclassified information. 
■ Vast investment needed for establishment of IT network 
and data banks. 
3. E-GOVERNMENT IN IRAN 
The progress toward implementation of E-Govemment in Iran 
has recently received the interest of the authorities and policy 
makers. The requirement for an adaptive approach in its 
development, and relevance as a recommended loom is realized. 
Providing an obvious explanation for E-Govemment in Iran to 
cover its cultural, social, and political characteristics, and also 
its actual and prospective position considering access to science 
and technology, will be an important measure in ensuring its 
success. 
From a theoretical point of view, e-govemment in Iran is 
perceived as a major view in the phase of rising to a new 
performance level, including reducing the operations cycle time; 
responding to intolerant and challenging citizens in receiving 
quality, cheap, and immediate services ;and also fulfilling the 
government staff, whom bear the shortcomings of the systems.