The development of more e-governance puts demands on the citizens' IT-skills. Today the most public authorities have a channel strategy to meet the need of all citizens. This means that the citizens can communicate with the authorities by telephone, letter or in person in a citizen service centre - the communication does not have to be online (OECD 2003: 165). There is an ongoing discussion about what the citizens, being part of the digital divide, should do if the channel strategy is closed. This paragraph contains a short discussion of the aspects and consequences.
Until the digital divide is reduced some citizens will need to contact the authorities in an analogue manner. The digital divide is a barrier to the development of e-government in that people who cannot access the Internet will be unable to benefit from online services. A way to narrow the digital divide is to give more information about the digital communication possibilities. The citizen service centres play a
central role because the centre is the closest personal link between the public administration and the citizens. However, for most citizens transactions with government are relatively rare and will not generally provide individuals with the main incentive to increase their IT-skills. This precondition will change with the increasing digitalisation.
Sahl-Madsen (2011: 6) wants to sustain the citizen service centres as long as it is necessary. She believes that the need for the service centre will change a long with the increasing number of citizens who use the Internet. The official deadline when the majority of the citizens should communicate with the public authorities online is in 2014. The channel strategy will still exist after 2014 but the digital services should be the preferred choice. This means that some citizen service centres will close and the opening hours will be narrowed (Idem, VTU 2010b: 15). Jensen (2010: 13) and Akdogan (2010: 10) agree that we should keep the channel strategy in some form. Rindsig (2010: 6) adds that the municipalities are worried about the rapid digitalisation because they see themselves as the citizens access to the authorities and it creates concern when a larger part of the citizens does not understand this access. Thus, Rindsig also wants to sustain the channel strategy. Thereby there is an agreement that e-government services need to be developed as part of a broader service channel strategy, especially given the digital divide. The Minister of Science (2011: 7) highlighted that more digital services will be mandatory in the future.
OECD (2003: 37) pointed out a more fundamental problem, many e-government initiatives have been developed from the supply-side with a build and they will come focus. The government has adapted a push-strategy where the digital efficiency measures are forced through by means of compulsion (Østergaard & Olesen 2004: 150, Andersen 2007: 15). Whether a push- or a pull-strategy is the best is debatable. However, as shown in chapter 3, the number of Danes who use SKAT's webpage is relative low. This indicates that simply putting information and services online does not automatically draw the citizens. OECD (2005: 47) emphasises that e-government is a management agenda, not a technology agenda . The design and user-orientation of an official webpage together with more attractive contents is of great importance for the Minister of Science (2011: 6). She stresses that to attract citizens it requires more than relevant contents and a user-oriented webpage. In relation to this aspect Andersen (2007: 13) stresses that the public authorities have become far better to deliver online information and digital services but it is difficult to make the citizens use the self-service solutions.
Citizens of all age groups prefer personal service. Even the youngest age group prefers the analogue channel, but the digital channel was almost as preferred. The lack of personal contact and direct answer are some of the most significant barriers for digital contact to the authorities (Andersen 2007: 16). Nevertheless, the citizens' perception of digital services is far from being homogeneous. Andersen (Ibid: 19) highlights that there has been a lack of understanding and motivation for using digital self-service
solutions. The citizens' IT-readiness is exaggerated. Andersen (Ibid: 20) suggests to increase the use of digital services by an vulgarisation of the public webpages, more rapid and better finalisation of electronic requests from the citizens and a reward for using the online solution.
According to Andersen (2007: 19) the conception of the self-sufficient citizen who has IT-skills to filter and combine information needs to be reconsidered. The politicians should evaluate how far the administration technically can develop to include the citizens and they should consider where the border line between a legislative consideration and a public sector with a political element is. This point of view illustrates the ongoing need of a channel strategy. Yet, there is to a larger extent a great potential of using the citizen service centres as a learning platform because it is a place where the public authorities are in direct contact with the citizens. The authorities have a unique possibility to motivate and inform the citizens about digital services. Thereby the channel strategy could be used as an indirect way of narrowing the digital divide. There is a need to motivate the citizens to demand more e-governance.