A strong privacy policy is the first step in building that trust. Citizens need to be assured that their data will be used only for the purpose for which it is being collected. This explicitly rules out selling personal information to third parties for commercial purposes. As for identity confirmation, I think the trend here is clearly a rise in the use of biometrics. As we have seen in the law enforcement arena, when governments work together the citizen is better served.
More work needs to be done on integrating within functional areas, such as human services.
More important, stakeholders beyond the technology community must be made a part of these initiatives. E-government is about service delivery, not technology, and government managers at all levels need to be involved. There is an untold story behind the wonderful decrease in crime that we have been witnessing across the country. There are many reasons for this decrease, but government's adoption of technology in the public safety arena has clearly been a significant contributor. By passing electronic information amongst themselves, local, state and federal governments can cooperate more effectively and support each other in their respective missions.