Delegates, in breakout sessions, consider and report back to conference on a number of highly topical or emerging issues. In 2004 the subjects are Trusted Identity; Open Source and Government-to-Government Applications.

Affinity Group Workshop:
Chair: Hans Werner Ksica, Austria

Subject #1: Trusted Identity: getting the right balance
Facilitator: Jacob Navot (Israel)

Description of Affinity Group 1
As federal and local governments move towards delivering interactive on-line e-gov services to their constituents there arises the problem of how to manage a secured delivery of such services that correlates to privacy protection laws and regulations.

The use of trusted-id systems seems to be the right answer since they provide a high certainty of identification and authentication, and a high resistance to tampering. In some countries, however, the increasing use of trusted-id has drawn a lot of public criticism, on the ground that it violates individual privacy - the existence of digital means with which a person could be extremely identified with high levels of accuracy threaten to sharply diminish anonymity and informational privacy on the Internet.
A person can be tracked and personal information can be attained.

To what extent should governments use trusted-id systems?
What is exactly the right balance?
Is the use of trusted-id, or to a greater extent the use of trusted systems, will impose more restrictions on people's use of information?
Is the technology safe enough to use?
Will id-cards fraud rate rise?

Subject #2: Open Source
Facilitator: Robyn Fleming, (Australia)

Description of Affinity Group 2
The use of Open Source Software has in recent years undergone rapid change, making headway into areas previously dominated by a select number of industry players. Increasingly there are large scale deployments in government and in industry. The increasing maturity of open source technologies offers benefits to Government agencies. It provides increased competition and greater flexibility and choice of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions to meet business needs in the public sector. It encourages innovation in product development and provides new markets opportunities for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). By conforming to open standards, Open Source Software enhances interoperability and exchange of data.

However there are ongoing debates about risk, licensing, support and maturity of open source. This Affinity Group Session will discuss differing approaches to the Open Source issue among member countries - what policy environment is in place? What are the key areas Open Source is being used for? What broader applications are in use? What have been the incentives and barriers to its use?

Subject #3: Government to Government applications
Facilitator: Arvo Ott (Estonia)

Description of Affinity Group 3
The development of information systems and increasing need for creating e-services requires the development of government-to-government applications. A typical government structure sets obstacles to the integration of systems.

• information technology integration mechanisms (ICT architecture, unified service layer, etc)
• organisational and legal mechanisms (in development as well as in system administration

Jacob Navot	Robyn Fleming	Hans Werner Ksica
Arvo Ott	Robert Assirati	Paul Waller
Claudio Gabriel Interdonato