Team
Our team are:
- • Professor Michael Blakemore, Project Director
- • Neil McDonald, Project Manager
- • Frank Wilson - Interaction Design Ltd., UK
- • Tomas Sabol - Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
- • Dr Helle Zinner Henriksen - Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
- • David Esteban - Techforce SL, Spain
- • Nicola Hall, Senior Research Manager, ECOTEC
- • Rasa Juciute, Researcher, ECOTEC
- • Kevin Leitch, Web Developer
Professor Michael Blakemore, Project Director
Michael Blakemore is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Durham, and joined ECOTEC as Technical Director on 1 November 2007. He has researched and written extensively in eGovernment and Public Sector Information (PSI) policy and strategy. He has been a plenary rapporteur and evaluator for the European eGovernment Awards 2005 and is an expert consultant, reviewer, rapporteur and evaluator for "Smart Government", eGovernment, Frameworks 5 and 6, TEN and eInclusion sectors. Project work he has been involved with include large online statistical dissemination services for UK Labour Market Statistics and for Eurostat, information society and governance development in rural Jordan, and labour market PSI strategy for the government of Turkey. Recently he has been invited to contribute on eGovernment and Globalisation in India, Italy, the UK and the Czech Republic. He was Technical Director of the European Commission's DG Information Society's study on citizen-centric eGovernment, which was carried out by ECOTEC (www.ccegov.eu) between 2006-7.
Neil McDonald, Project Manager
Neil is a Senior Consultant in ECOTEC's European Policy Division and has 15 years professional experience. He was Project Manager for our DG Information Society study on "organisational change for citizen-centric eGovernment" (www.ccegov.eu), having previously managed another study for the same DG on the contributions of EU policies and programmes to the Lisbon Agenda. Neil is an experienced project manager and has also worked on a series of EU communications and dissemination projects in the field of information society, including PROACTe accompanying measure under the IST Programme/FP5), Safer Internet and the compilation of fiches on Key Action 3 concerning the results of technology-enhanced learning RTD. Other recent ICT-related work has included an evaluation of the eDemocracy Pilots projects for the Scottish Executive, evaluation of the economic impact of ICT programmes funded by the East Midlands Development Agency and contributing to the evaluation of the EU's eLearning programmes 2004-2006 and their impacts on people, practice and policy. He has a wealth of experience in evaluation and economic impact assessment, as well as thematically in the areas of energy and environment and innovation.
Frank Wilson - Interaction Design Ltd., UK
Frank Wilson has substantial experience in RTD addressing socially disadvantaged groups, including work with the TIDE (disability) programme, work in London addressing integration of minorities, empowerment of third sector groups through ICT exploitation, and support for initiatives aimed at reducing social dependency in London, Berlin and Rotterdam. His background in Psychology and Ergonomics equips him to support integration of people and technology in a manner sensitive to the task requirements and wider objectives of the complexity of roles in a multi-channel and multi-service network. His work in developing self-sustaining models of work creation (PERIPHERA and FLEXWORK), and new business models predicated on completely new services (TRIAS and ESTRELLA) allow him to contribute new perspectives on solutions for both service delivery strategies and service sustainability.
Tomas Sabol - Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
Tomas Sabol brings to this group extensive project management and research skills into Information Society policy and practice in Eastern Europe and New Member States. Tomas is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia. His research interests are in the area of knowledge modelling, semantic technologies, knowledge management, e-Government, e-Business, information society and knowledge economy development. He has extensive experience in educational and R&D EU projects (coordinator of the IST eGovernment projects Webocracy IST-1999-20364 and Access-eGov, FP6 STREP Contract No. 027020), and also as subcontractor in EC tenders. Tomas has worked as evaluator, reviewer, rapporteur of IST projects, European eGov Awards (in 2003, 2005, 2007), and eParticipation projects. He was member of the eEurope Advisory Group - Expert Chamber (working also in the eInclusion Working group); and is member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the “Information Society Developments in the New Member States and Candidate Countries” Research Program of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, JRC; national correspondent of the eBusiness W@tch etc.
Dr Helle Zinner Henriksen - Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Dr Helle Zinner Henriksen, PhD is associate professor in digital government at Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School. She has a M.Sc. in law from University of Copenhagen and a PhD in Management of Information Systems from Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests include: impact of IT in public sector with particular focus on e-services, adoption and diffusion of IT in the public sector, and regulation of eGovernment. HZH has published in international journals on the listed topics. Helle adds a business school research focus through existing research into eGovernment and e-Participation, and extensive experience in relevant EU projects including: the network of excellence Demo-Net (FP6-2004-27219), e-Factors which investigates e-Business Models (IST-2001-34868), and eBhutis which develop a standards-based eGovernance information system to improve coordination amongst public and private sector stakeholders (ASIE/2004/90311). She, Tomas Sabol and Frank Wilson have existing links in EU-funded Information Society activities.
David Esteban - Techforce SL, Spain
David Esteban brings a business focus in the area particularly of local government, for example through his close involvement with inclusive eGovernment initiatives such as e-Catalunya and Gencat in Spain, which uses Web 2.0 and social networks technologies to maximise social inclusion. He is founder and Managing Director of Techforce SL, and has combined experience from responsibilities and activities in the field of telecom's applied research and business and strategic consultancy for the private sector (banking, telecom, industry) and for the public sector (Central, Regional and Local Public Administration both at the National and International level). Experience in international business promotion and in entrepreneurship development (founder and shareholder of several IT-related international companies both from services and industrial activities). He has been active since 1988 in European RTD Programmes (partner in projects, reviewer/auditor and panel rapporteur and also as expert participating in programme policy development and support). Esteban, Wilson and Blakemore have established cooperation through evaluation and review activities in DGINFSO projects.
Nicola Hall, Senior Research Manager, ECOTEC
Nicola Hall is a Senior Consultant in ECOTEC’s Social Policy Division specialising in research, policy analysis and evaluation at local, regional, national and EU levels. Nicola has seven years experience of research methodologies, including quantitative research (postal, face-to-face and telephone surveys) and qualitative research (focus groups, depth interviewing) as well as online research methodologies (email and internet surveys, online discussion forums and accompanied browsing). Nicola has experience in a variety of social policy fields including new technologies and communications including testing websites, DVDs and leaflets, and expertise in e-government, e-democracy, and e-learning. She has recently managed evaluations of a community e-democracy web portal for the Scottish Executive and the ex-post evaluation of the European Commission’s e-Learning Programme 2004-6 to inform the new generation of programmes for DG Education and Culture. Nicola was also a key member of ECOTEC’s study team exploring citizen centric e-Government for DG Information Society and Media.
Rasa Juciute, Researcher, ECOTEC
Rasa joined ECOTEC in 2007 and was previously a research student working on an eHealth initiative for the UK National Health Service in Wales, while a research student at Kingston Business School (London). This project concerned an analysis of international experience of ICT implementation in the European national health care sector. Prior to that, Rasa was a Research Fellow at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius (Department of Informatics and Statistics). Projects here included contributing to "Roadmapping eGovernment RTD 2020: Visions and Measures towards European Citizenship and Innovative Government" and "Strengthening capacities of authorities dealing with IT and data security". In Lithuania she was a trainee in the Department of European Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Regional Development, Ministry of Public Administration, Reform and Local Authorities, contributing in particular to preparatory work for Lithuania's accession the EU.
Kevin Leitch, Web Developer
Kevin is an experienced web designer and developer with a wealth of academic and practical experience gained over eight years working with a very wide variety of clients ranging from small SME's to very large multinational corporations and in a variety of sectors. He joined ECOTEC in 2006 and is leading our programme of web development. He has designed and built numerous websites and web-based surveys including www.ccegov.eu .Core skills include: Writing semantic, valid (X)/HTML; Valid CSS 2; Unobtrusive Javascripting; AJAX; Interface Design; Human Computer Interaction; Accessibility; Usability; Bespoke Survey design and construction. Kevin will play a critical technical role as part of the Core Team, in particular providing the capacity to carry out the expert audit function required by the evaluation.