eID - Systemic Change of the Identification of Citizens by Government

Systemic Change of the Identification of Citizens by Government – Electronic Identity Management as a Complex Technical Innovation and its Organisational, Legal and Cultural Matching in Selected European Countries

In Europe an innovation process is observable from traditional identity management systems (IDMS) to electronic identity management systems (eIDMS). The states to be investigated in this project have decided to introduce electronic identity cards (eID-cards), however, with rather different concepts and media.
The proposed project will achieve three main tasks:

* Comparison of the outcome of the innovation process, i.e. the technical, organisational and legal characteristics of the IDMS;
* Comparison of the innovation processes including planning, implementation and outreach, looking at actors and conflicts of interests;
* Explanation of differences by identifying relevant factors such as structure of state, organisation of civil registration, privacy legislation, citizens’ trust in their government, influence of IT industry and many more as well as the process of innovation.

The differences in approach and systems in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain will be the object of a comparative analysis. For ITA the focus is on the introduction of eID-cards in Austria.