Cooperative Architectures The Italian Way Along e-Government

In Italy, the need for a better coordination of efforts and investments in the area of government information systems motivated the Italian Parliament in 1993 to create the Authority for Information Technology in the Public Administration. The initiatives undertaken by AIPA include: the definition, design and deployment of a Nationwide Public Administration Network to connect public administrations; and the definition and deployment of a Nationwide Cooperative Information System atop the network to facilitate increased organizational efficiency and effectiveness of administrative actions. In the last few years, some cooperative projects aiming at the development of specific cooperative systems in different areas have been experimenting with different technologies, architectures, and approaches to cooperation. This chapter describes and compares these projects, focusing on the organizational characters of their approaches to cooperation; and it proposes some guidelines for the future Nationwide Cooperative Information Systemof the Italian Public Administration.