Digital Municipalities

In developed countries, administrative front
offices are becoming increasingly more
sophisticated, with e-government facilities
and applications. Public administrations are
finding ever-improving interfaces to serve
customers while optimising their operations.
They are also discovering the increasing
functionality that can be achieved through
popular social media platforms. At the same
time Hungary is responding to these
phenomena with a significant phase delay,
and regional inequality has been observed.
Although public administration should show
a uniform level of development and service
portfolio in each part of the country,
Hungary is experiencing very large extremes,
which do not always stem from the existing
framework, disadvantages, settlement size,
and ethnic backgrounds. A great deal is at
stake if uniform development is not ensured:
some areas will become invisible not only in
cyberspace and in Hungary’s thematic maps,
but at the same time will not be able to
provide basic administrative services to those
who live there. These areas are currently
referred to as ‘administratively disadvantaged’
districts. This situation worsens the livelihood
of the affected population and on the longterm
the survival chances of these settlements
as well. In this paper, we shed some light on
the factors responsible for the regional
inequalities in the infocommunication
technologies (ICT) facilities of Hungarian
local governments. Similar trends have been
observed in Slovenia, Slovakia, and the Czech
Republic, too.

The advent of new communication technologies has increased the public interaction and mutual relations of the municipalities with their stakeholders. This fact reshaped the statecitizen cooperation of municipalities and service delivery models in terms of formation,
implementation and supervision of local policies for public benefit and has introduced the egovernance concept. E-governance allows municipalities to operate more efficiently, transparently and interactively while enabling citizens to take advantage of online services
quickly and easily, independent of time and space. In addition, new media environments and e-governance practices provide citizens to express their complaints, requests, and suggestions regarding municipal services and local policies or participate in decision-making processes
that will provide common urban benefits. This study reflects a cross-sectional part of TUBITAK research project no.117K012, conducted to explore the e-governance services of 13 Kocaeli municipalities in new media environments, in terms of citizens and municipality.
For this purpose, social media accounts and corporate websites of the above mentioned municipalities were observed for 3 months. The data obtained was analyzed regarding the effectiveness and suitability of the services such as; e-municipality, social media and mobile communication in new media environments in the context of e-governance. The findings were evaluated by the content analysis method based on "Digital Governance in World Municipalities" research scale of Newark E-Governance Institute, a research still in progress for ten years. Research findings have the potential to provide guiding data for municipalities and for the programs which will be developed to improve citizens' digital participation levels.

Az innováció folyamatosan áthatja az életünket. Így van ez a közigazgatással is. Napjainkban is számos közigazgatás fejlesztési tervvel találkozhatunk, akár az eljárásrend, akár az alkalmazandó eszközök vagy akár a személyzeti politika kapcsán. Jelen tanulmányban megpróbálom összefoglalni, hogy a közigazgatás helyi szintjén, az önkormányzatok életében hogyan is jelent meg és teljesedett ki a digitális innováció Magyarországon és ennek milyen hatásai voltak a társadalomra. Milyen eszközök segítségével sikerült az önkormányzati feladatellátást hatékonyabbá és gyorsabbá tenni és ez a tendencia hogyan változott meg 1950-től napjainkig. Kulcsszavak: gépesítés, számítástechnika, szoftver, széttagoltság, ASP rendszer, egységesítés Innovation is constantly penetrates our lives. This is also the case with public administration. Today, there are many public administration development plans, with regrad to the terms of procedure, applicable tools or even staff policy. In this study, I will try to summarize how digital innovation has appeared and fulfilled at the municipalities in Hungary and the impact of this on society. What tools have been used to make municipalities tasks more efficient and faster, and how this trend has changed since 1950 to the present. Keywords: mechanization, computer science, sotware, fragmentation, ASP system, unification