There's an interesting story told by ARD (public TV, Channel One) in Germany today. Germans have the ability with the national ID card issued (over the past eight years) to perform a number of online requests through their local/regional network.
An example....if your passport is running out, you can use the card and the pin number....via your computer at home, and request a new passport (cost being deducted out of your bank account). Another example, you moved from house A to house B....instead of wasting an hour down at the local town-hall, you go online and register the move.
ePerso, the name for the card.....is a pretty nifty tool. You could, over a five-year period, probably save twenty man-hours of time and avoid having to deal with bureaucrat clerks.
How many Germans have turned on this card? Twenty-six million, out of a population of 82-million.
Is ePerso being actively used? No. The government can't really provide any data that suggests that the card has made a difference or is preferred over an actual physical visit. Part of this problem revolves around the initial year when it started, and various failures....which just provoked people into the stance that it was worthless. Most of the government folks will say the bugs have been worked out and it functions as advertised now.
A 'remake' of the whole system to make it more friendly and capable? It might help, but you'd have to invest a ton of money, and hope to avoid the bug-period like this ePerso went through.
In some ways, I admire the ID card, and all of it's capabilities. On paper, the ePerso has a ton of possibilities, but then convincing people that you can easily sit at home and never have to deal with bureaucrats ever again? It just makes me skeptical.
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