Since the 1990s, Seoul has continually pursued its ICT (Information and Communication Technology) plans to build an efficient, IT-based city government able to provide a convenient information service to the public, systematically manage administrative information, and ensure transparency. Out of these goals, the city’s e-Government was born. In the early days, the city’s efforts were centered on computerization and automation of administrative duties such as management of taxes, human resources, finances, and geographic information, etc. Automation was further driven by introduction of the electronic signature to assist document control. This move significantly enhanced efficiency in administration, providing a platform on which signed documents could be shared. Of course, prior to that, the Internet made administrative services faster and easier.

In 1999, the City of Seoul Ordinance on Information was passed, forming the legal basis to implement plans and programs to make the city and its administration “smarter”. This was a turning point in Seoul’s administrative service, a new engine to drive e-Government forward. On March 15, 1999, the Smart Seoul Planning Group was founded to oversee the e-Government program, and an outside expert was invited to be its CIO (Chief Information Officer) and then to head it as a way of giving the system authority. The city now had an environment where its e-Government plan could take flight, embracing a wide spectrum from computerizing administrative duties and providing service to the public, to involving the public in assuring e-democracy. Thanks to the rapidly advancing ICT, Seoul was able to take its first step as an e-Government and strengthen its capabilities for digital administration and digital democracy.


<Figure 1> Progress of Seoul's E-Government


 

From 1999, Seoul’s ICT plan revolved around the 4-Phase Basic Strategic Plan for Informatization of Metropolitan Seoul. Phase 1 (1999 – 2002) was a period of preparation for e-Government, promoting the introduction of ICT in the administration, urban structure, living, and industrial sectors and building the infrastructure for e-Government.
Phase 2 (2003 – 2005) was a period for introduction of e-Government. To keep this introduction systematic, an e-Government roadmap was developed. This included linking and integrating the ever-growing administrative information service and information resources. As a result, Seoul’s e-Government began to take its form as a proper electronic framework.
 

During Phase 3 (2006 – 2010), the u-Seoul Plan was pursued. The city’s e-Government was connected to m702 mobile portal to grant people the ability to access and participate from anywhere and at anytime. For u-Seoul, the wireless infrastructure was built on a trial basis. The open Web 2.0 was also introduced to encourage people to participate and share, and GIS (Geographic Information System)-based administrative service and intelligent urban management were incorporated in the plans to build a safer city.
In accordance with Phase 4 (2011 – 2015), Smart Seoul 2015 was undertaken to enable the open e-Government, linked with Seoul City 2.0. Based on the wired and wireless infrastructure, communication and participation was more actively promoted by disclosing public information, providing services tailored to resident needs, and analyzing big data. The public sector worked with the private on big data analysis to address the night bus routes and other urban issues. Documents and content data were disclosed to residents, and Seoul’s open, shared data and space information were used by the private sector to develop diverse applications and services.


<Figure 2> Basic  Strategic  Plan for Informatization of Metropolitan  Seoul & Vision




 

3.1 Preparation for e-Government (First Basic Strategic Plan, 1999 – 2002)

The City of Seoul Ordinance on Information was enacted and the Smart Seoul Planning Group was founded in 1999. During the period 1999-2002,
the focus was on ① providing a user-friendly administrative service; ② enabling the online administrative system; ③ enabling knowledge-based administration; ④ revitalizing the local economy through ICT; and ⑤ building and advancing the information infrastructure. Plans were developed across the 4 sectors of administration, urban infrastructure, living, and industry, and the administrative information system spread rapidly. Introduction of the open system, cyber customer center, and the open online civil service system were successful and these programs were selected as outstanding examples at the International Anti-Corruption Conference and OECD high-level policy seminar.
 

 

3.2 Seoul ICT Master Plan (Second Basic Strategic Plan – Phase 1, 2003-2004)

During this period, emphasis was on ① integrating rapidly expanding information resources to maximize efficiency; and ② upgrading the e-Government infrastructure. Integration was conducted from the perspectives of i) the administrative system; ii) service to residents; and iii) IT resources.
Integration of the services to residents was website-based. Websites for each service were brought together into one user-friendly interface. For this job, the One-Click Civil Service was opened and the Cyber Policy Forum began to listen to resident input.
Integration of the administrative information system was initiated through introduction of a new document control system and an integrated city/gu district information system program. Opening of the Data Center on February 4, 2004 coincided with integration of information resources and IT infrastructure, with the Data Center playing a central role. In addition, Seoul’s high-speed fiber optics network called e-Seoul Net (183 km) was opened, propelling the e-Government plans without restricting network capacity.
The integration of resources and the involvement of residents were what helped Seoul to rank first in the United Nations e-Government Survey of the top 100 performers, conducted by Rutgers University (USA) and Sungkyunkwan University e-Government research institute (South Korea) and sponsored by the UN and the American Society for Public Administration, in 2003, and is evidence that Seoul’s model has been acknowledged by the world for its excellence.
 
 

3.3 Seoul ICT Master Plan – (Second Basic Strategic Plan – Phase 2, 2005 – 2006)

In 2005 and 2006, the information security system was the key to ① encouraging people to use the e-Government service; ② building the e-Government management platform; and ③ ensuring the stability and reliability of e-Government.
To promote use of the e-Government service, a satisfaction survey was conducted to improve service quality, and further projects involved the public in implementation. Besides website integration, content, video, and GIS portals were used to invite more people to access the service. Other ways to involve more people included the assistance to the Cyber Policy Forum and community activities; cyber education to help people become more familiar with ICT and narrow the information gap; and distribution of free computers to the marginalized.
The integrated and efficiently upgraded e-Government infrastructure allowed the city to revamp its policies and procedures to push ahead with its e-Government plans. The EA project methodology was used to introduce electronic reporting and meeting features in the internal work procedure. With increased resident participation, the digital administration became more mature and widespread.
Seoul introduced the integrated system and advanced management methods to protect the e-Government system from outside threats. It obtained BS7799 accreditation, thereby enhancing the stability and reliability of e-Government.
 
 

3.4  Customized e-Government (Third Basic Strategic Plan, 2007 – 2008)

This was a stage where the e-Government service was tailored based on the integrated system so that civil services can be accessed by anyone at anytime and from anywhere.
The introduction of Web 2.0 and the upgraded One-Click Civil Service offered better, easier services while the online idea-sharing “Seoul Oasis” and “Cyber Policy Forum” invited more people to participate in running the city. In 2008, their success was what helped Seoul to win the UN Public Service Awards.
The information system continued to expand. The Clean Finance, civil service, automobile and benefits information systems were added to the new system, and a dedicated team was created to support integration.
To build the u-City platform, the m702 mobile portal was built to allow access to online civil, traffic, environment, cultural activities and booking services from computer or mobile phone. Technology was also applied for urban safety, with the u-Children program as a good example. Moreover, GIS-based data warehouse, underground facilities, and road management systems were rebuilt, and mobile GIS platform and business models were identified to reinforce the safety of e-Government.


 

3.5  u-Seoul (Third Basic Strategic Plan, 2009 – 2010)

For u-Seoul, ① the u-Service and ② the u-Infrastructure were broadened. Wireless infrastructure was built for the city, and Euljiro-2-ga was turned into “Ubiquitous Street”. The u-Seoul children’s safety system and u-TOPIS were also installed. The u-Safety and u-Healthcare systems (both from u-Seoul) were featured in TIME magazine and on the UN website.
Digital administration continued, and Seoul built its own business processing system, such as the document control and electronic approval systems. Developed by the Ministry Of Public Administration & Security, the Onnara e-document system was improved to take document control and sharing systems to the next level. In addition, the Clean Finance information system was built, and 4 state-assisted institutions adopted the ERP system to make every aspect of financial management transparent, aiding the digital administrative services to become more pioneering and creative.
To ensure that e-Government remains secure, an integrated security and safety management system was introduced to bring together information security resources scattered among the city and gu district offices. The city also became the first local government to build a security control center, which is linked with the security control centers of the Ministry Of Public Administration & Security and the National Intelligence Service. The center dramatically improved round-the-clock responsiveness to cyber attacks. A wireless control system for 119 emergency directives was built, as was the u-Seoul information security system, to continually ensure security of the e-Government system.
Seoul put much effort into global cooperation, sharing its achievements and experience with e-Government with other cities around the world. Based on these efforts, Seoul established WeGO in September 2010 and held the first assembly in Seoul, reminding the world of the city’s global presence and IT leadership.
 
 

3.6  Launch of “Smart Seoul” (Fourth Basic Strategic Plan, 2011 – 2015)

With a vision to create a “Smart Seoul for and by Everyone”, Seoul’s new Basic Strategic Plan “Smart Seoul 2015” was launched in 2011. It pursued plans in 4 areas: ① smart, communicative government; ② smart, sustainable living; ③ smart green spaces; and ④ smart, creative global economy. The new plan took Seoul’s e-Government one step closer to a smarter paradigm.
For a “smart, communicative government”, the city revolutionized its information service in line with the new “open, sharing and engaging” paradigm. Public content and data were open to the public, and resident accessibility was improved to enable full use. The mobile service for smart devices was upgraded, and further boosted by the public Wi-Fi and wireless infrastructure.
In 2012, the “open, sharing and engaging” City Government 2.0 was pursued, enabled by the Communication Plaza and the Open Data Plaza, a city first in South Korea, thereby giving open access to public information and data. It became a strong platform for e-Government, which supports the “communicative, open, engaging and sharing” City Government 2.0 and the “open, sharing, communicative and collaborative” City Government 3.0.
Thanks to its open platform of big data, mobile, and spatial information as well as its global collaboration based on the city network of WeGO, Seoul was able to announce the launch of a fully collaborative e-Government in 2013. The m-Voting-based mobile service boosted communication with residents and sharing of policy. Users of the mobile service, introduced in the early stages in 2012, more than doubled by 2014.
In 2014, the city attempted to enhance communication with residents and resolve administrative issues through the use of big data and public data collected by way of private-public collaboration. One example is the Night Owl bus, chosen as the most loved policy in Seoul and used by 2.7 million people annually. The data disclosed and used in the process is accessed more than 860,000 times a day, making it one of the most popular city services.
Those citizens who do not have easy access to information were also engaged to allow access to the benefits of the city’s sustainable welfare programs. The “PC of Love” program was provided to welfare beneficiaries, the disabled, single parents, and families from multicultural backgrounds. ICT education programs were also offered, and in 2012 alone, some 16,371 people completed training courses. Consultations and online safety education were also offered to minimize potential adverse effects from going online, attracting 150,000 people.
To make Seoul a Green City, the CCTV network and CCTV integrated control center were installed, and the u-Seoul Safety service was provided to some 2,500 children from low-income households for the prevention of crime. In the meantime, Seoul Guardian, a mobile safety system, was linked to the 120 complaint service to push disaster and incident alerts and otherwise protect people from danger.
In terms of creativity, budgetary feasibility reviews were utilized to make the digital administrative service smarter and more collaborative. ICT plans pursued by different departments were reviewed for feasibility, after which the departments were encouraged to share their work and cooperate if applicable. At the same time, the need for security was emphasized to assure the public of the security and reliability of the information system.
In terms of infrastructure development, Seoul upped its responsiveness to cyber threats to make its e-Government a more secure institution while working to help its Data Center become greener with the introduction of cloud computing. The Data Center was certified as eco-friendly, as it enhanced efficient use of IT resources and cut energy costs.
Programs were also launched to vitalize the smart industry. Construction of an IT complex is underway, scheduled to be completed in 2016. Other programs include the Seoul App Center and Gaepo Digital Innovation Park. The GIS service was expanded to cover the city’s policy map and the 3D interior space modeling service, used to develop major policies and use as performance indicators. Young talented minds took part in GIS development, creating new jobs in the market. It also expanded in scope to be used as a platform to provide services useful in daily life.


 

4.1 Integration of Administrative Information Services & Resources, and Seoul’s Data Center

As part of the 4-phase Basic Strategic Plan, Seoul now has a strong administrative information system comprised of some 490 different sub-types. Some 78% – 385 types – of the total was developed by the city itself to satisfy specific needs in providing administrative services. Seoul’s 144 teams and departments have independent systems optimized to their responsibilities. With these systems in place, they are able to provide civil services in the most effective way and to ensure transparency and efficiency, encouraging more people to take interest.
Since the first Basic Strategic Plan, the administrative information systems have continued to grow and expand. In 2003, information resources that had been scattered across institutions and sectors were brought together as one system. On February 24, 2004, the Data Center was opened and began operating around the clock. In 2014, the Data Center was upgraded for better efficiency and environmental-friendliness and was certified as a “green” center. Thanks to the center, service interruptions were reduced by 76% on monthly average and the services are provided non-stop 24 hours a day all year round. It also allowed for a strong and efficient e-Government platform that ensures quality of the services provided.
While physical resources were integrated by the Data Center, integration of the information systems and applications were completed by Enterprise Architecture.
By ensuring the interactive operability of the information systems comprising 4 layers – technology, data, application, and business – and integrating varied resources, information can be managed in a coherent manner, paving the way for an enterprise-wide IT management system.

 

4.2  e-Seoul Net and u-Seoul Net

For the first global city, Seoul opened its 183 km-long high-speed fiber optics cable network called e-Seoul Net, connecting itself to 35 major institutions. With this network, Seoul was able to expand e-Government services without restricting network capacity or being limited by budget. When it was first opened in 2003, it was the 2 Gbps backbone network. In 2009, it was upgraded to 20 Gbps, allowing the e-Government system to use and process large data.
In 2011, u-Seoul Net was opened to transmit audio, video and multimedia (e.g., traffic, CCTV data). U-Seoul Net uses fiber optics as well as Wi-Fi, Wibro, USN, and CCTV sensors to allow for diversified service communications, and for people to access useful services related to prevention of disasters, incidents, crime, and even illegal dumping.

<Figure 7> e-Seoul Net Organization / <Figure 8> U-Seoul Net Organization



<Figure 9> E-Seoul Net Organization

4.3 Ranking First in the UN e-Government Survey for 6 Consecutive Years

In 2003, under the sponsorship of the UN and the American Society for Public Administration, Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA) and Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea) conducted the e-Government Survey to identify the top 100 performers. In the first survey, Seoul was selected as the top performer.
In the e-Governance survey by Rutgers University, there are 2 categories – digital governance in the evaluation of the public service and digital democracy in the evaluation of citizen participation. The evaluation considers not only the presence of an e-Government service but also the quality of the service, exploring the aspect of citizen participation and digital democracy. The survey offers a comprehensive view of the quality of the IT, e-Government service, and citizen engagement.

<Table 10> Top Cities for Electronic Government Inspection in '13 and '14




The first evaluation in 2003 looked at 5 categories – Privacy & Security, Usability, Content, Online Services, and Citizen Participation. Seoul earned a total score of 73.48, much higher than the second-ranking Hong Kong (66.57).
Since 2003, Seoul has ranked first 6 times in the last 11 years (2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2014). The latest evaluation in 2014 showed that Seoul’s e-Government was excellent in all categories – Privacy & Security, Usability, Content, Services, and Citizen Participation. In the last category, Seoul’s score was more than double that of New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, demonstrating that Seoul’s e-Government is particularly unique in citizen participation. It is a crucial platform that supports the 4-year plan of the city’s 6^th government elected by popular vote in 2014, as expressed in the motto – “Together, Seoul”. It can be seen that the city’s administrative services were designed with citizen participation in mind.

 

4.4  World e-Government (WeGO)

4.5 Communication & Big Data, Open City Government 2.0

From 2007 to 2011, Seoul reviewed the Night Owl bus program, and by the end of 2012, city buses ran for an extra 2 hours for 19 days. The program was received positively and suggestions made to operate some city bus routes 24 hours a day. In early 2013, a university student sent a proposal via social networking to the mayor of Seoul about the night bus program.
The city began to analyze big data. It signed a business agreement with KT and analyzed 3 billion calls during the night when the buses were in operation and 5 million pieces of data on taxi travel in Seoul. To identify the distribution of floating population across Seoul and verify the demand for travel, Seoul was divided into 1,252 hexagons (with a radius of 500 m), which was the assumed distance to and from a bus stop that people would be willing to walk at night. Seoul then established and analyzed the big data model to identify the floating population and their desired destinations at night. As a result, the locations where bus travelers usually gather as well as their travel patterns were identified, based on which optimized bus routes were charted.

<Figure 10> BIg data problem definition / <Figure 11> Modeling / <Figure 12> Floating Population



<Figure 13> Night Bus Route / <Figure 14> Routes Optimization / <Figure 15> Optimization Cases



Considering the nature of a night bus, resources (buses, manpower, etc.) were rather limited. Compared to daytime buses however, the night bus routes optimized by big data analysis were more efficient than was expected:

• Complaints from route changes due to night bus optimization were reduced by data analysis;
• After optimization, the number of passengers increased by up to 10%; and
• Nine night bus routes were able to provide the desired services to 42% of the nighttime bus travelers.
• Other indirect benefits included:
• With the new bus service as an alternative, the rate at which taxis refused to serve customers was reduced by 8.9%;
• The number of women out at night increased by 11.8%; and
• Nighttime safety improved.

4.6  Interactive Citizen Participation & Digital Democracy

Pursuant to the Basic Strategic Plan phases, Seoul’s ICT budget has been executed in a strategic manner. Since 2002, the ICT budget has accounted for 0.5 – 1% of the city’s total budget. The year 2002 was when the first outcome of the first phase was to be revealed, and it can be seen that the size of investment in 2002 (the year of preparation for e-Government), 2009 and 2010 (the years when the results of u-Seoul were out), and 2013 and 2014 (the period of implementing the Smart Seoul 2015) were relatively high.

<Figure 16> Seoul City Digitaliztion Expected Future



Phase 1 of the Basic Strategic Plan for Informatization pursuant to the City of Seoul Ordinance on Information in 1999, Seoul’s ICT budget was KRW 58.4 billion, only 0.66% of the total budget (KRW 8.87 trillion). By 2002, when Phase 1 plans were nearing finalization, investment increased by a significant margin, to KRW 142.9 billion (1.22%) of the total budget (KRW 11.67 trillion). During the introduction of e-Government, the major focus was on tasks designed to enhance government efficiency, such as computerizing all administrative duties, introducing the online civil service system, integrating all computerized resources, and building the Data Center. Through these efforts, the online civil service, integration of information resources, and e-Seoul Net were realized.
From 2003 to 2008, investment remained between KRW 110 billion and 120 billion. Between 2009 and 2010, investment expanded to cover the later part of the u-Seoul plan – Phase 3 of the Basic Strategic Plan. In 2010 alone, KRW 170.4 billion – 0.8% of Seoul’s total budget of KRW 21.25 trillion – was invested, establishing the foundation for development of the u-Seoul infrastructure, u-Seoul Net, a ubiquitous onsite civil service system, and the online/mobile infrastructure for citizen participation. The “ubiquitous” infrastructure was particularly helpful in launching urban safety projects such as u-Healthcare and u-Children Safety. It also enabled 24/7 joint cyber threat response and cooperation between all institutions in Seoul and the National Intelligence Service’s security control center, significantly expanding the u-Infrastructure platform and enhancing the response to cyber incidents.
 
In 2014, during Phase 4 of the Basic Strategic Plan (Smart Seoul Master Plan), Seoul invested KRW 158.2 billion (0.65% of the total budget of KRW 25.4 trillion). The main programs included: resolution of traffic and safety issue with big data and the disclosure of public data, all of which were praised as outstanding examples of digital and scientific administration. In South Korea, Seoul was the first public institution to adopt such a framework. Moreover, the mobile-based interactive communication tool – mVoting service – was also provided. Scheduled to be completed in 2016, the IT Complex in Sangam DMC will be the hub of interactive communication between people and government agencies, boosting the digital-based economy. It will serve as a platform on which a smart, digital government can communicate and share information with residents.