The eGovernment Summit in Saudi Arabia






The 3rd Annual Kingdom eGovernment Summit was held in Riyadh, on 25th and 26th of September 2012.  The Summit aimed to build awareness and accelerate the integration of e-Government in the day-to-day activities of the public sector and the services it offers to businesses and citizens. 





Leading solution providers had the opportunity to meet up to 150 influential Government officials representing a variety of key Saudi Arabian governmental bodies, giving experts the chance to discuss business solutions and upcoming ICT projects in Saudi Arabia and the GCC Region.





I had the pleasure to be among the invited experts / speakers, together with friends and colleagues from other European Union member states, such as Jeremy Millard (DTI, Denmark), Carlos Jimenez (Catalunia Administration), Blaz Golob (CeGD, Slovenia), Frank Leyman (Belgian Administration).







View of the audience at the Interoperability Session


My first talk targeted Open Data and Collaborative Governance, briefly presenting some "lessons from he field" and some insights on the ENGAGE Open Data e-Infrastructure project.  You may find my presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/charalabidis/open-data-and-collab 





Then, I had to moderate a session on eGovernment Interoperability, stating progress in European Union: European Interoperability Framework, National Interoperability Frameworks, SEMIC.EU,  the CIP Flagships (STORK, PEPPOL, SPOCS), W3C and IEEE working groups on interoperability in public administration formed a good part of the agenda.







View of the panel at the Open Data session







The Al Maasmak castle at the old city








Riyadh is a city of 5 million people, with several spots that are worth visiting, like the Kingdom Tower (where you can see the whole city from 300 metres / 99 stores high) or the Al Masmaak Castle (where a very important battle took place on 1902, eventually leading to the establishment of Saudi Arabia independent state).  











 




With Blaz Golob, CeGD Ljubljana, at the Kingdom Tower / view of Riyadh