Officials discuss social media e-Governance and international case studies during second day of e-Governance summit

After reviewing the achievements of the First National Action Plan, Al Amaee presented details of the Second National Action Plan's initiatives, displaying a particular focus on staff development, "We are working with Boston University to train CIOs within the Government -already 62 individuals have gone to the university and are undergoing training."

Understanding the ever-changing role of social networking outlets, Fadi Salem Director of Governance and Innovation Programme at Dubai School of Government, UAE, explored the various ways governments can use social media to help increase knowledge sharing and innovation between and among government entities, citizens and the private sector.

He noted, "There is a shift of the way social media used - in 2010 people were used to make social connections, 2011 it had to do with political activism and journalism, and in 2012 it was increasingly concerned about the development of society and institutionalising the civil works".

He highlighted the complexity of harnessing this year's trend however, noticing the uneven spread of active internet users, "70% of GCC residents on social media are under 30 and only 33% of the population on social media is female."

Salem's address was followed by an interactive panel discussion during which participants examined just how the government can implement social media use to communicate with citizens and still maintain the culture of Saudi Arabia.

The panel was led by Dr Saeed Al Dhaheri, Adviser to the Minister of Information System at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UAE, and by Matt Poelmans, Director of e-Participation Institute at CitizenVision, the Netherlands.

International alternatives and case studies were also under the magnifying glass as Saudi Arabia's officials looked beyond the GCC for expert advice on increasing user-friendliness for it e-Governance initiative.

Danish expert and Head of the Agency of Digitisation at the Ministry of Finance in Denmark led a workshop for attendees to learn how to reduce costs by allowing citizens to practice self-service on the internet.

Hosted by French business information group naseba, the 3rd Annual e-Government Summit closed with a workshop led by Dr Mohammed Aal Salem, Dean of e-Learning and Distance Learning at Jazan University.

The workshop provided an overview of Single Sign-On 'SSO' and how universities benefit from it. SSO is a concept of accessing and using multiple software systems under a single screen.