eGovernment interoperability with open standards

Governments have the objective of using Internet as one of the channels for communicating with citizens and companies. They launch quite a number of initiatives to do so, both nationally and in international (EU) projects. Many of these initiatives lack a clear architecture in themselves and coherence with other initiatives. This paper presents a framework for government architecture based on an architectural framework and supported by open standards. It will show how an architectural approach will lead to a consistent and clear specification of required technology. The framework identifies government services as the basis for information disclosure and business transactions, supported by web services. We will show how technology like natural language systems can be the basis for government service and their associated web service discovery. The article refers to solutions and laws that are implemented in the Netherlands.