Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing

Gang SONG
Department of Information Systems
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom.
e-mail: [email protected], web page: http://mobility.grchina.com
Abstract: The convergence of mobile communication and mobile computing technologies opens up
new horizon for mobile interaction and mobile working. The use of mobile technology in government
sector not only provides an alternative channel of communication and public service delivery, but
more importantly, it can address the mobility of government itself and in this way transcend the
traditional e-government service delivery model by bring personalized, localized and context aware
services close to its mobile citizens. A number of mobile government initiatives have been proposed
globally to take advantage of this opportunity for better public service delivery. In this paper an
example of such a mobile government initiative in a district of Beijing is presented. Based on the
study this paper argues for a further paradigm shift from e-government to mobile government. With
the challenges and opportunities provided by mobile ICT, government should be aware of the
potential of mobile government to transcend the traditional e-government models, which pay undue
attention to online Internet portals.
Keywords: mobile government, e-government, mobility, organizational change, Beijing

1. Introduction
The rapid diffusion of mobile ICT such as laptops computers, mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital
Assistants) has, along with email, instant messaging and other networking services, offered many new
possibilities for the mobilization of interaction (Srensen, 2003). There is a rapidly growing interest in the
concept of mobility and the various issues that arise in being mobile, both for the individual and the
organization (Kakihara, 2003). The challenges that this poses for governments is considerable; for example,
how are government activities reshaped in an always-on society, and how can government exploit the
possibility of a more connected, responsive and fluid workforce (Maio, 2002)? While the conventional egovernment efforts have focused on providing access to services through internet portals, it has so far not
addressed the mobility of the government itself, or the mobile society at large.
This paper first briefly reviews the literature on mobility, e-government, and mobile government and then
goes go to answer some of these questions through an analysis of the case of a mobile government initiative
in one of Beijings central districts. The case is analyzed drawing on theories of mobility and e-government
studies, and the meaning of being mobile and the significance of mobile technology application in the
government sector are explored. From the perspective of duality of mobility, a distinct fluidity with strong
potential for organizational change is identified in mobile government practice. Finally by drawing from
Mol and Laws three social topologies of mobility, the paper proposes a paradigm shift from conventional
e-government, with its focus on Internet portals, to mobile government or m-government. This paper also
calls for future research in this direction.

2. Towards a Mobile Society

With the rapid diffusion of mobile ICT, we now see a rapid increase in mobile interactions between people
and also in mobile work supported by technology. (Kakihara and Srensen, 2002a). The body of research
on mobility is expanding rapidly with increased attention given to the rapid diffusion of mobile
technologies such as GSM telephones, PDAs, microwave Local Area Networks (for example
Bluetooth), and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The number of mobile users is increasing and in
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

many countries, through wide spread use of advanced mobile phones, has already surpassed the number
of households with internet access. (Roggenkamp, 2004) Research on mobility in the sense of human
movement combined with technologies that are portable and hence mobile themselves, leads to
functional characterizations of mobile technology use (Kristoffersen and Ljungberg, 2000).
Kristoffersen et al. (1998) talked about local, regional and global mobility, and Kristofferson and
Ljungberg (2000) classified mobility in three modality of travelling, visiting and wandering; while
Kakihara and Srensen (2002a) discussed spatial, temporal, and contextual aspects of mobility to
illustrate the relationship between mobility and human interaction. Spatial mobility means shift from
rigidly confined to moving freely. Temporal mobility means change from linear clock time to social
time. Contextual mobility means a shift from locally conditioned to flexibly coordinated interaction.
These technologies can be described as socially profound technologies (Smith, 2000) because they
bring the power and connectivity of computer networks into the gap between humans as they interact in
physical space. These are tools that can help people organize and coordinate their interactions and
exchanges both just in time and just in place (Smith, 2000). Thus, when exploring the driving
forces of mobility and mobile technology, Kristoffersen & Ljungberg (2000) suggest that it will lead to
a society which evolves more cooperative work practices in place of bureaucracy, and organizations
that are more responsive and service oriented.
Mol and Law (1994) proposed three distinct metaphors of social topologies, namely, region, network
and fluid. The region is a distinct topology in which objects are clustered together and boundaries are
drawn around each region cluster. Therefore, region is characterized by boundary. The network is a
topology whereby relative distance is a function of the relationship between components which
constitute the network. Complex connection of nodes creates the whole network structure. This
topology can be characterized by relationship. Fluid is a topology whereby neither boundaries nor
relations mark the difference between one place and another. Instead, sometimes boundaries come and
go, allow leakage or disappear altogether, while relations transform themselves without fracture.
Sometimes, then, social space behaves like a fluid. A fluid world is a work of mixtures and variation
without boundaries and transformation without discontinuity. Kakihara and Srensen (2002a) suggest
and discuss further the adoption of the fluid metaphor of mobility, while Pica and Kakihara (2003)
theorize mobility as a duality of stable interaction and fluid organization.

3. E-Government and M-Government

Governments have long recognised the potential of ICT to bring about fundamental changes, not only
in the way they function but also in their relations with other organisations, societal groups and
individuals. Both in their relationship with the citizen, inter-organisational arrangements, and in intraorganisational activities, ICT and Internet technology in particular, has seemed to promise enormous
opportunities to reinvent government, to increase efficiency and effectiveness in public sector (AlKibsi et al, 2001; Layne and Lee, 2001) .
Heeks (2000) suggests three main factors which have contributed to this phenomenon. The first factor
is the perception of unsustainable levels of public expenditure that do not produce efficient public
services, due to waste, delays, mismanagement, corruption or poor organizational and management
skills. The second factor is the resurgence of neo-liberalism which emphasizes the efficiency of market
competition and the need to make government more business-like. The third factor is the rapid
development of IT and the increasing awareness of its potential. Chadwick and May (2003) examine
the origins of the recent shift towards e-government in three cases: the United States, Britain, and the
European Union and set out three models of interaction between states and citizens that might underpin
the practice of e-government, namely the "managerial" model, the "consultative" model and
"participatory" model.
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

In the e-government literatures, there are many articles and studies talking about the use of Internet
technology to provide effective and efficient services to the public, to reinvent government and to
transform the government (Heeks, 2000; Al-Kibsi, 2001; Prins, 2001; Silcock, 2001; Fountain, 2001;
Ho, 2002; Gant and Gant, 2002; Mellor and Parr, 2002; Moon, 2002). Many academics and
practitioners put great importance on E-government initiatives focused on Internet portals. As Fountain
(2001) argues, Internet technology does not mean all for government. Due to limited Internet
penetration, there is also concern that e-government may exacerbate digital divide and raise the issue of
inequalities among citizens (West, 2000). The rapid development of mobile technologies such as
internet enabled mobile phones, PDA, Wi-Fi and wireless networks, has spurred the development of mcommerce and m-business models, which are perhaps equally relevant to government (Sadeh, 2002). In
this way a new channel is provided through which to deliver government services to citizens in more
effective and perhaps cheaper ways. Such use of wireless technologies to deliver government services
is usually called mobile government or simply m-government (Ghyasi and Kushchu, 2004).
While e-government is the conventional government services made available for citizens through
electronic means such as internet connected computers and other devices. M-government is defined as
the strategy and its implementation involving the utilization of all kinds of wireless and mobile
technology, services, applications and devices for improving benefits for citizens, business and all
government units. (Kushchu and Kuscu, 2003). Mobile computing in local government tends to mean
delivering services in the field in the streets, in peoples homes or other convenient locations. It is
usually understood as meaning taking services to the customer or to the relevant location, rather than
the customer having to visit council offices to access services. (Goldstuck, 2003)

4. A Mobile Government Initiative in a Beijing District

4.1. Local Governance
There are three level of government in Beijing: the municipal level headed by the mayor, the district
level, and the neighborhood level. Below the neighborhood level, there are residents committees
usually functioning as autonomous organizations for the residents. Dongcheng District is a central
urban district of Beijing with a registered population of 625,000, covers an area of 25.38 square
kilometers. This district boasts its world famous cultural and historical heritage and Tiananmen
Square, where the national ceremonies are usually held, is just in this district.
With its fast economic development China has experienced a rapid urbanization during the last two
decades. The cities are changing fast with a large amount of construction, while the relatively much
weaker management of the city is a common problem of most Chinese cities. The fragmentation of
responsibility among dozens of government departments, the lack of proper maintenance of the
municipal infrastructure and street scene is widely recognized. Problems are usually solved in three
ways. The first is by campaigns regularly launched by local government before some special occasions
such as national congress session or on the eve of national holidays. The second is by inspection
carried out by the relevant government department, utility company or other entities that provide public
services. The third is by reports from the residents when they encounter problems such as water supply,
or damage of infrastructure, or fly-tipping.
For information from the residents to reach the top of the district, it usually passes the through
bureaucracy of the residents committee, neighborhood committee, representatives from specialized
departments at neighborhood committees, specialized department of the district, municipal
administration of the district, deputy head of the district, and the head of the district. Not to mention
the bureaucracy in each of these departments.

Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

Orders from the top also need to go through the bureaucracy in reverse. The specialized department, or
relevant government at the lower level, may dispatch a task to a relevant party to go to check and solve
a problem. Though there are already Internet connections among the government departments, they
only serve as an alternative communication tool alongside telephone and fax. Employees usually stay
at their office, wait for the dispatch of tasks and then to go the site to work. During the work they
usually make some notes, which are keyed in afterwards back at the office. This process is highly
inefficient. Responsibility intersections among the specialized departments exacerbate the situation.
Many times, when one department dispatches staffs to investigate the situation, they found it is not
their responsibility and it is re-reported to the hierarchy for reassignment to another department.
4.2. ICT Development at a Glance
According to statistics from CNNIC (2005), there are 9.4 millions Internet users in mainland China in
December 2004 with penetration rate of 7.16%. There is already some discussion about the extent to which
big e-government investment will deepen the digital divide in China as the majority of citizens cant benefit
directly from e-government projects based on Internet access. Comparatively, the number of mobile phone
users has reached 33.5 million (MII, 2005) with a penetration rate of 25.5%. Big cities have a much higher
Internet and Mobile penetration.
Beijing is the capital city of China with a population of 14 million. By the end of December 2004, Internet
user arrives 4.02 million with a penetration rate of 27.6% (CNNIC, 2005), the mobile phone use achieved
13.359 million with a penetration rate of 90.6% (BMBS, 2005) in Beijing. The high penetration of mobile
phones attracted many government departments to try to take advantage of it to deliver a better service.
These services mainly focus on use of short messaging service (SMS) to deliver information to citizens,
such as taxation department use of SMS to deliver information about tax collection, police authority to
delivery information about emergencies, education department to release result of exams. In contrast, the
case this paper focuses on the case of one central district in Beijing and shows the use of mobile technology
to deal with the mobility of government itself.
4.3. Mobile Government Initiative and its Implementation
As the fragmented, highly bureaucratic and inefficient city management problem is widely
acknowledged, the leadership of the Dongcheng District decided to take advantage of ICT to reinvent
the municipal administration. Here we refer by municipal administration to the management of urban
infrastructure (street lighting, drainage, water supply facility, all kinds of underground pipelines etc.),
housing, gardens, construction, environment protection, and city appearance. Under the leadership of
the head of the district, this project started from the beginning of 2004 and is now in operation. The
district uses grid technology, dividing the area of 25.38 square kilometers into 1652 cells; each cell is
assigned a 6 digit number, the first two digits represent the neighborhood (at sub district government
level), the second two represent the community (respect residents committee), the last two represent
the exact cell. A through survey about the public facilities in the district was also carried out to map the
locations of each public facility in a GIS system. Each public facility has been assigned an 8 digit
number and is placed in relevant cell.
The project also identified 4 layers of responsible entities: the first is the district government; the
second is the 10 neighborhood committees; the third is the 137 residents committees; the forth are the
institutions in the relevant 1652 cells.
In this project the District Government split the supervision function from the management function.
Two centers were established: the Supervision Center and the Command Center. The Municipal
administration supervision center was newly established to be independent of the existing municipal
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

administration commission. The supervision center recruited 400 supervisors with each responsible for
about 12 cells about 180,000 square meters area and up to 1400 public facilities. The supervisors patrol
their responsible areas to spot, check, report, monitor the municipal administration related problems
and ensure the problems are properly solved. Each supervisor is equipped with a mobile handset to use
when patrolling his or her cells. The District Municipal Administration has been renamed to become
the District Integrated Municipal Administration, a name change to emphasize its coordination
responsibility. It operates the command center that coordinates all the specialized departments and
lower level governments, as well as providing coordination with other relevant government
departments at the municipal level.
At the Supervision Center, the location of all supervisors at work can be located and displayed on a big
screen. All the location information is refreshed every 15 minutes through the GPRS network. The
information and working status of the supervisor at work, as well as the information of the
communities without a supervisor at work can be checked on the screen. All the reported issues are
also displayed in different color and symbols; this makes it easier for checking and following up. The
Supervision Center also operates a call center to receive phone calls of complaint from the public.
The Command Center receives task from the Supervision Center and coordinates with all relevant
departments to get things done. From analysis of the historical data, they found there are a total of 37
specialized departments at the district level which are relevant to municipal administration, such as
district civic police, district cleaning department, district gardening department, district civil affairs
administration. There are also 21 relevant departments at the municipal level, such as municipal
engineering department, municipal road administration, water supply company, gas supply company,
central heating company etc. The tasks received are assigned to the relevant specialized department of
the district through the network, and the processing status is then monitored. A special section was set
up in the District Integrated Municipal Administration to coordinate with the relevant departments at
the municipal level. At the Command Center there is also a big screen, with the processing status of all
the issues shown.
With GPRS connection to the supervision center through the mobile handset, supervisors can receive
instruction from or make phone calls to the center. They also receive complains from the residents (or
transferred from the call center at the supervision center), confirm it, and send the information back to
Supervision Center. If necessary, the supervisor can take photos with the mobile handset and send
these back together with the position on the GIS. The Supervision Center then passes the information
on to the Command Center. With accurate information about the report and the location of a problem,
the Command Center can easily allocate the responsible department. The responsible department can
then sends out staffs to location and solve the problem. After the problem is solved, the supervisor can
visit the place and confirm it. Only after this, will a report be marked as clear.
What is very interesting is that, when the residents saw the supervisors taking photo with their PDAs
near their residence, they were reluctant to believe that would work - Before you have Internet, egovernment, now you even have camera! No use at all, but a waste of money. When they found that
local environmental problems had really been solved in a much more efficient way, the residents were
very happy. Indeed, residents are increasingly like to ask the supervisors in their community for help if
they encounter any problem and sometimes invite the supervisors to their house and have a talk.

5. Analysis
In the Case of Dongcheng District in Beijing, the mobile system, together with the grid management
and process reengineering has enabled the district to better manage its mobile work with both
efficiency and effectiveness. Through the split of the enforcement and supervision, the process is
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

changed, and stimulated the resolution of the problem. The reinforcement of the coordination
functionality of District Integrated Municipal Administration has facilitated the information flow
between the fragmented departments. In mobile government implementation, the most important issue
is the alignment of organizational change with organizational strategic goals, followed by information
flow integration and then technology issues (Song, 2005). Mobile technology thus must go together
with other management measures. The involvement of the top leadership of the district in the initiative
and their full support has certainly been a key factor to success.
The arrangement of the mobile supervisors in the cells not only clarified their responsibility but also
actively brings the services to the citizen. Citizens dont need to find a telephone or Internet access to
complain or to solicit a public service through virtual interaction. They can just ask the supervisor to
get information through from their mobile handsets. While mobile services such as SMS bring
information and interaction to people through highly personalized mobile phones; the supervisors, with
mobile handset on the move, bring personalized, location and context based physical services to
citizens. Information is collected, transmitted from and delivered back to field real time, at the location.
After the implementation of the mobile government project, the supervisors dont need to sit before the
computer or telephone at the office desk and wait for the complaints information get through from the
call center. The supervisors also become a government consultant for the residents thus providing
much better services with the fluid interaction achieved when they are on their patrol. While egovernment focusing on Internet use in this district failed to live up to its expectation, the fluid mobile
work practice was achieved by bringing public service to citizens face to face. Before the
implementation of the mobile system, any problem had to go through a complicated bureaucracy, and
almost always got lost and remained unresolved after a long time because of the lack of supervision.
Unclear reports used to cause the wrong department to send out their staff to the scene but could not
get things done. But now with the mobile supervisor in the field, with GIS and GPS enabled mobile
handsets with cameras, it is easier to spot the exact problem and the specific facility without ambiguity.
The management of a district is highly geographically constrained by boundary and government
organization is highly hierarchical. Through the integration of mobile system and GIS, GPS enabled grid
management, we can observe a managed fluidity which is different from the fluidity of post modern
professionals as phrased by Kakihara and Sorensen (2002b). The fluid interaction enabled by mobile
handset in local or regional mobility has fitted well in to a hierarchical structure. From the perspective of
the duality of mobility by Pica and Kakihara (2003), we can call this a managed fluid organization. We can
also observe a more fluid information flows from supervisor at field to command and supervision center
and vice versa. What is more interesting from this case is that the supervisors at mobile work have
closer contact with the citizen and build up trust with them something much easier to do in the local
context.
We should thus also be aware of the stable interaction side of mobility in this case. As the supervisors
are in constant connection with the supervision center, and theirs location and activities are
continuously monitored, it is more manageable while causing some controversy over privacy issues. In
the case of Dongcheng District, the newly hired supervisors for mobile work have been highly inspired
by the change brought by their work and the positive reaction from the citizens. They also dont need
to report periodically to the center about their locations and working status as all this is highly
automated. The stable interaction of mobile work has helped the supervisors to focus more on their
work and helped the fluid interaction with the center and the target citizens. The fluid information flow
between the center and field achieved in this case has enhanced better hierarchy control with higher
efficiency and has shown strong potential to eradicate complicated bureaucratic procedures. With this
managed fluidity, we could expect flatter but enhanced hierarchy in the government sector. With better
central control and fluid interaction facilitated by mobile technology, we can also expect more
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

integration of government departments instead of functionally fragmented departments and may also
expect a kind of vertical integration. Such integration helps to internalize the friction among different
governmental departments and potentially change it into internal cooperation. Vertical integration will
help to facilitate public-private partnership for better service delivery. While the mobile government
initiative is still in its early stages, we may expect more organizational change in the future.
We could also notice that, by the implementation of this mobile government initiative in Dongcheng
District, the local government have created a distinct work environment, a fluid platform for the
coordination of the highly mobilized interaction of people, objects, voice, image and data. This work
environment can be characterized by its fluid topology, though we recognise it as a managed fluidity,
where such heterogeneous elements in the distribution of operations dynamically interact with each
other in both physical and virtual spaces and thereby provide effective and efficient services to the
citizens.

6. Conclusion
Since the industrial revolution, most work has been carried out in offices, factories, shops and other
fixed locations and only in the last few years has it become feasible to move information work away
from the fixed desk. For local government this has the potential to take the work closer to the public,
allow more integration of services and provide employees with a more flexible approach to work. In
this way, mobile government can bring the service near to the citizen and the local environment.
From the case study, we find that while the e-government initiatives have failed to live up to
expectations for local citizens, mobile government initiatives have rebuilt trust through closer
interaction with the citizens and more effective and efficient service delivery. The stable interaction
and managed fluid organization with great potential for enhanced hierarchy and vertical integration can
provide a suitable underpinning for mobile government initiatives. We have observed a distinct
managed fluidity in local mobile government practices and a strong impact on organizational change. It
facilitates a fluid information flow and interaction both within the government departments and
between the government and citizens.
Table 1: Social Topology, ICT and Government Service Delivery Model
Social Topology
Region
Network
Fluidity
Characteristics
Typical ICT
Application

Interaction

Variation &
transformation
Mainframe, local
Telephone, Internet, e- Mobile phone, PDA,
network, (and Premail, end user
Other
convergence
ICT)
computing
technology,
Mobile
computing
or
Ubiquitous computing
Physical
and
co- Virtual
Virtual+ Physical
Boundary

Relation

located
Government Service Hierarchy
Delivery

Internet Based EGovernment services

Mobile Government

While technology such as telephone and Internet can enable virtual interaction and build up networks
of nodes to transcend the limitation of boundary, the convergence of mobile information and
communication technology further enables fluid coordination of work across space and time with an
emphasis on being local to provide highly personalized, localized, context aware services to local
Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.

Mobile Government

http://mobility.grchina.com

citizens, thus bridge the virtual and the physical. We therefore share the views of Abowd et al. (1997)
when they maintain that effective use of mobile technology can, if well implemented, give rise to an
interaction paradigm shift. Thus based on the discussion in this paper and drawing on the three
metaphors of social topology proposed by Mol and Law (1994), I would like to propose a shift from
Internet based e-government to m-government with a resulting growth in the fluidity of mobile
interactions (See Table 1).
Though the mobile government initiative in Beijing is still in its initial stages, we find the outcome is
up to now mainly positive. It certainly suggests that local government should pay attention to the new
mobile technologies and theirs impact on organizations, and face up to the challenges and opportunities
it offers to transcend the traditional e-government model, a model which pays undue attention to online
Internet portals. But we also recognise that the essential benefits come from an alignment of
organizational change and process re-engineering with these mobile technologies. In being mobile, we
should think beyond the potential of the mobile technology alone, rather we should think more about
the meaning of mobile government as a reshaping of government itself. And this should certainly be
the topic for further research.

Acknowledgement
I am very grateful to Dr Tony Cornford of the Department of Information Systems at the London School of
Economics and Political Science who has helped me greatly in preparing this paper.

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About the Author

SONG Gang is a Chevening scholar at Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics
and Political Science (LSE). He is also Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Administration Commission,
Beijing, China.

Song, G. (2005). Transcending e-Government: a Case of Mobile Government in Beijing. The First European
Conference on Mobile Government, Sussex, July 2005.