Basic Report

Informatization environment of society is experiencing a rapid change due to advancement of smart information and communication technologies. Smart informatization forms a new type of informatization paradigm by integrating and converging various devices and technologies and with technological and industrial innovations, smart informatization requires the government to review and restructure general landscape of its informatization policy.In order to keep up with such environmental changes, public service by the government is gradually becoming smarter. It means that as people came to communicate with the government anytime and anywhere thanks to the widespread use of mobile devices such as smart phone, tablet, PC, etc., a growing number of mobile-centered services are launched. Such trend is best shown in increasing introduction of public applications.Mobile Government Portal (m.korea.go.kr) provides information on applications and mobile websites of Korea’s public agencies and as many as 1,222 applications of public organizations were found to be registered on this site at the end of 2014. However, some criticize that many of them are redundant and have reduced to only a waste of budget. In order to determine whether such criticism is grounded and to find solutions for improvement, there comes the need for the research study to look at whether public applications are properly operated and policy plans is also required to solve the problem.In case of local government, in particular, it may provide a new type of administrative services to its people via public applications and if used effectively, such applications may enhance the level public satisfaction on the administrative services. This is why public application has a significant meaning. Therefore, an in-depth research regarding the above matters is quite necessary.By acknowledging the above-mentioned changes of environment and the need for research, the present study has conducted the research with a focus on current status and improvement plan of public applications of local governments. For the research, analysis elements for status research were selected and analysis framework was created. For development status, the public applications developed by all metropolitan local governments were examined. In addition, operation cases of public applications by the city of Seoul and other countries were studied.The result of development status is as follows: It was shown that there are as many as 209 public applications operated by all local governments and many of them are related to culture, tourism, administration, civil complaint and transportation. Also, it was found that the local governments provide similar applications and such applications are poorly utilized compare to the expenses spent on them. Lastly, it was confirmed the local governments are providing one-way public applications centered on the provider.The result of case research is as follows: The city of Seoul was determined to have better management on its public applications compare to other local governments since it invents and operates a variety of related systems while continuously paying attention to development and operation of public applications. Meanwhile, it was found that public applications are also on the rise in other countries by improving users’ satisfaction with various contents to see and providing information closely related to the people’s lives.Problems on public applications found through status research and case research are as follows: First, the local governments do not have any systematic guidance yet regarding public applications and second, the public applications by the local governments showed too low utility level compare to the expenses spent and lastly, the local governments have excessively developed applications while failing to reflect the demand and to have systematic management on them. Improvement solutions for the above-listed problems are as follows: In terms of development, the demand for application should be accurately identified and a thorough validity review should be made. Also, the information to be provided should be realistic and valuable and two-way interaction should occur via the application. For operation, the ordinance on operation of the public application should be drawn up, a proper management system should be designed, regular inspection should be made and active promotion and education should be required.As being an initiating research, the present study made comprehensive examination and suggestion through the above results regarding various aspects of public applications, the representative type of smart service provided by the local government. Therefore, the present study may contribute as a groundwork to the follow-up researches to be conducted on related areas. In addition, the present study gives policy implications to working-level public officials at the local government since it suggested practical ways to more effectively operate the public applications.