Abstract
In this article, the authors analyze the Government On-line (GOL) initiative launched by the federal government of Canada in the winter 2000. The primary objective of GOL is to allow Canadians and non-Canadians to access public information and deal with the federal government via a single Web portal. The authors argue that GOL is not a simple technological change and that its designers will have to deal with many organizational issues and challenges in order for the project to succeed. The most important issues are: integration of services difficulties, necessary structural changes, insuring performance and accountability, organizational identity issues, security and human resources skills.
