Towards a Framework for Supporting GIS Competencies in Local Government

Information and communications technology (ICT) has become essential to the operations of organisations and communities worldwide, with huge sums of money, resources and user expectations invested in their implementation (ODPM, 2002). Yet many ICT projects fail to achieve their objectives, which may in part be attributed to a failure to understand how individuals and organisations learn to use and adapt to ICT (British Computer Society, 2005; Cabinet Office, 2000). This paper is based on research undertaken in 2006 that explores the implementation of one particular form of ICT, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), in a particular type of organisation, namely local government, where GIS usage continues to expand rapidly. The technology is considered fundamental to the achievement of local e-government, facilitating ‘joined-up ’ services and access to information. GIS are complex, offering numerous opportunities for future development as well as considerable scope for things to go wrong, and thus present a particularly acute learning issue. Key constraints to unlocking the full benefits of GIS in organisations include organisational structure and remit, lack of awareness of potential applications, the skills base, and management support (Birks et al.