Personalization in E-Government: An Approach that Combines Semantics and Web 2.0

In Europe, large parts of the population use the Internet in their daily life: at work, during their leisure time, or for accessing information, purchasing goods or communication. They now expect public administrations to provide the same level of service that they are accustomed to when using online banking, flight booking or electronic shops. Increasingly, they also expect the types of personalization and user adaptation offered by such commercial services.1 The current norm for e-government portals, which is to confront different citizens with a one-size-fits-all Web interface, is not the optimum way to deliver public sector services because every person is an individual with different knowledge, abilities, skills and preferences. The conventional brick-and-mortar office has a more human face because the clerk can respond to different people in different manners. That is why people tend to use the conventional office rather than the e-government services. To transfer some of the humanity to e-government portals, it is necessary to build adaptive portals for public services. Such user-adaptive portals will increase the usability, and, thus, the acceptance of e-government, enabling administrations to achieve the, as yet, elusive efficiency gains and user satisfaction, which are the primary goals of e-government projects.