Wednesday, June 22, 2005

eGovernment Handbook for Developing Countries

A Project of infoDev and The Center for Democracy & Technology

The eGovernment Handbook For Developing Countries offers guidance to government officials and others in the developing world, presenting for the first time a comprehensive index of e-government models and resources, focusing on success stories in the developing world.
This handbook presents a compilation of roadmaps for policymakers considering electronic government as a mechanism for reform:
Part I examines the three phases of e-government, defined as publish, interact and transact, and offers examples of each phase and recommendations for implementing successful e-government projects.
Part II focuses on the actual process of achieving e-government policy goals, focusing on the transformation of government through ICT. It addresses five key determinants of success, again using specific examples
Part III takes a different look at e-government, addressing seventeen challenges and opportunities that arise in developing and implementing e-government projects.
The Appendix consists of multiple indexes of exemplary sites, case studies, and published papers, categorized by the phases, processes, challenges, and opportunities of e-government.
read the Handbook:
download the full report (PDF, 3.8MB, 41 pages)
visit the eGovernment Handbook web site (hosted at the Center for Democracy and Technology)

eGovernment HandbookFor Developing Countries
Contents
Introduction
Part I: The Phases of E-Government
Publish Interact Transact
Part II: Transforming Governments
Process Reform Leadership Strategic Investment Collaboration Civic Engagement
Part III: Challenges and Opportunities
Infrastructure Development Law and Public Policy Digital Divide E-literacy Accessibility Trust Privacy Security Transparency Interoperability Records Management Permanent Availability and Preservation Education and Marketing Public/Private Competition/ Collaboration Workforce Issues Cost Structures Benchmarking/ Qualitative Methods
Appendix: Reports and Other Resources

Friday, June 17, 2005

Network of professionals that have been or are currently working with Datamatix Group.


Mr. Joe Clabby
Vice President
Summit Strategies USA & Datamatix International Advisor

Noted for his research/analysis and public speaking abilities, Joe Clabby, former President, Bloor Research North America, and Vice President, Aberdeen Group, has written dozens of specialized analytical reports on computer technology vendors as well as spoken around-the-world on evolving computing trends. Mr. Clabby has a strong background in networking, systems platforms, operating environments, business application reengineering, as well as program-to-program communications.

Mr. Stephen Brogan
President and CEO
EPIONET Ireland

Stephen Brogan is a Strategist and Entrepreneur. Stephen has over 20 years experience in management, business development and information systems. Prior to founding Epionet, Stephen spent four years as an IT and Management Strategist at Trinity Institute, the Executive Management Institute of Trinity College, Dublin and in this capacity he successfully worked at the most senior executive level with many of Ireland's largest companies. Stephen worked for nine years with Siemens Medical in technical sales and business development. He was with Technico Communications for two years where he was responsible for developing new business in wide area computer networking. He also spent two years with Workstations, an IBM computer local area corporate network service provider.

Ms. Shauneen Furlong
Independent Consultant
Territorial Communications, Canada

Shauneen Furlong is currently an Independent Consultant who lectures on e-Government and project management with the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Business, and is currently studying how to develop project managers to successfully move the Government on-Line initiative to the next level. She has recent senior executive level experience in a number of Government of Canada central agencies and departments over a period of 20 years, most recently Executive Director, Government on-Line, Government of Canada. She is one of a handful of Canadian executives who were part of the policy development and implementation team in the Treasury Board Secretariat that initiated the Government on-Line initiative across the federal government, and then moved on to being responsible to deliver GOL within a federal regulatory department.

Dr. Khaled Bin Abdullah AlSabti
e-Government Program Director
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, KSA

Dr. Khaled AlSabti is the e-Government Program Director at the Ministry of Communications and IT, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz rewarded him the King Abdulaziz First Class Medal in 2004 for his scientific and innovative contributions. He is also the ICT Minister's advisor for IT. He is currently chairing the Arabic ICT Strategy Team in the Arab League. Dr. AlSabti managed the development of the first National Information Technology Plan in Saudi Arabia back in 2004. He was a board member of the Saudi Computer Society (2001-2004). In addition to this, he holds an on-leave faculty membership position at the Computer Science Department of King Saud University, Riyadh.

Mr. Jawad Abbassi
Founder & President
Arab Advisors Group

Mr. Abbassi has more than 12 years experience in the telecommunications, Internet and datacommnications fields. Mr. Abbassi founded the Arab Advisors Group in 2000. As president of Arab Advisors Group, Mr. Abbassi directs the research and consulting activities of the company in addition to steering its marketing operations. Mr. Abbassi led and coordinated Arab Advisors Group research projects to date in addition to overseeing the research reports and literature produced by the team. Mr. Abbassi is also a frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars related to technology and communications in the Arab World.

H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Ateyatella Al Khalifa
Acting President
Central Informatics Organization, Bahrain

Presently Acting President of The Central Informatics organization (CIO), Bahrain. The CIO is responsible for conducting various census, elections, providing IT services for various ministries including operating a large wide area network, generating government statistics, maintaining the central population register, etc.

Dr. Elizabeth Lane Lawley
Professor
Rochester Institute of Technology

Elizabeth Lawley is an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of technology, where she has been teaching classes since 1997 in web application development technologies. Her teaching and research specializations include XML and semantic web concepts, and the social impact of Technology, with a specific focus on social software tools. Prior to joining the faculty at RIT, she founded and managed one of the first Internet training consulting firms. She is currently the principal investigator on an NSF-funded grant exploring reasons for the under-representation of women in information technology education.

Mr. Ahmed Bahrozyan
Head of e-Government Services Section
Dubai Municipality, Dubai, UAE

Currently, Head of the e-Government Services Section within the IT Department in Dubai Municipality. His role involves the day to day management of Dubai Municipality e-Government initiative, the support of our online applications and the line management of the staff within the e-Government Services Section. His role also involves working closely with the Chairman of our e-Government Steering Committee and with senior management within the IT Department in ensuring that we continue to develop online services and use e-Government concepts to improve internal processes, reduce costs and improve the levels of service to our customers.

Mr. Andrew Carvin
Director
Communications Policy Education Development Center

Andy Carvin is Program Director of the EDC Center for Media & Community in Newton, Massachusetts. Andy serves as Coordinator of the Digital Divide Network, an online community of nearly 7,000 activists, policymakers, business leaders and researchers in more than 115 countries working to find solutions to the digital divide. Andy is also coordinator of EDC's E-Government for All initiative, which promotes policies and practices to ensure that e-Government services are accessible to marginalized populations. Andy is the author of the pioneering online education resource EdWeb: Exploring Technology and School Reform, launched in 1994. Named by NetGuide magazine as 'One of the Top 50 Places to Go Online', EdWeb was one of the first websites to advocate the use of the World Wide Web in education.

Dr. Elise Collins Shield
President
CommonWell Institute International, Inc.

Dr. Elise Collins-Shields has committed her life to creating women leaders worldwide. She is the founder and President of CommonWell Associates Ltd, a consulting firm with international focus. Elise specializes in creating and sustaining leaders through leadership institutes, strategic planning, private consultation and renewal workshops for executives. She is currently project director for the ATHENA Foundation Global Links project in which young women students from Zayed University, United Arab Emirates, are being mentored by high achieving professional women from the U.S. and Canada. She also conducts Leadership Institutes for the third and fourth students at Zayed University on an annual basis.

Mr. James Archibald
Director of Translation Studies
McGill University

He serves as the accredited representative of McGill University’s Office of International Research to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and he is a member of several research groups including Orbicom (UNESCO Chairs in Communication) and CAST (Canadian Association of Schools of Translation). He is currently the Vice-President of the Association for Business Communication (ABC) and has served as a long-standing member of the Modern Language Association (MLA)-ABC Joint Committee. Dr. Archibald is a Chevalier in l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Mr. James Smith
Managing Editor
Public Sector Technology & Management Magazine, Singapore

James Smith is the Managing Editor of Public Sector Technology & Management, the region's only dedicated government technology magazine. James is a published expert in CRM and Knowledge Management for the public sector, and has formerly managed the region's largest call centres and customer service conference. He brings broad awareness of the technology adoption and implementation issues facing administrations in the wider Asian region

Dr. Sofiane Sahraoui
Associate Professor of Information Systems
AUD Sharjah

Dr. Sahraoui is an Associate Professor of MIS at the American University of Sharjah, in the UAE. He received his Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Pittsburgh in the USA in 1994. His research interests are in Open Source Software, IT planning, enterprise modeling, and the management of IT change in general. He has been published in leading academic publications such as the Journal of Information Technology Management, the Journal of End-User Computing, Behaviour & Information Technology, Human Systems Management, and others. He has consulted for various organizations particularly in the Gulf and regularly participates in international and regional conferences and seminars. Recently, he chaired the Open Source Track at the IRMA international conference in New Orleans, LA, in May 2004.

Dr. Ehab Moustafa
Principal Consultant
Smart Square Innovation Centre, UAE

Dr. Moustafa is a Graduate Engineer and has 25 years of business experience including 16 years as an International Consultant. He started his professional career as a Scientific Research engineer with JEUMONT SCHNEIDER of France. He is also the co-founder and R&D Director of a systems integration company distributing Ing.C.Olivetti's line of computer systems and peripherals and AT&T's data processing & computers product line to clients in the banking, business and government sectors.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Regional Forum on Reinventing Government in the Arab States:

Integrity, Transparency and Accountability in the Public Sector

21-23 March 2005
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Regional Forum on Reinventing Government in the Region of Arab States is organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UNDP Programme of Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR), in partnership with the Dubai School of Government in the UAE.

The forum, one of several regional events worldwide, is an integral part of the preparatory activities for the 6th Global Forum on Reinventing Government, to be held in Seoul, Republic of South Korea from 24-27 May 2005. The themes of this forum contribute to the main theme of the 6th Global Forum, which is: Toward Participatory and Transparent Governance.

Objectives
The objective of the forum is to assist governments in achieving their goal for increasing integrity, transparency and accountability in public agencies. The forum also aims at building the capacity of government institutions and the civil society to work together towards instituting a culture of integrity in the delivery of public services. This will be achieved by sharing the experience of participating Arab countries in instilling and practicing the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability in public institutions, as well as leading discussions on good practices and approaches that further the agenda of those countries for improving the quality and delivery of public services to the satisfaction of investors and the public at large.

Purpose
The forum will provide an opportunity for participating countries to share their experience and examine the factors that lead to the success and/or impediment to their initiatives. It will provide a venue to discuss feasible recommendations, as well as build a network amongst the countries for continued learning and joint development of best practices.

In addition to national consultants who prepared country-specific case studies for this event, international experts from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the TIRI Organization (UK) will share their experiences with the participants. The conclusions and recommendations of this forum will be presented at the 6th Global Forum on Reinventing Government next May.

Dates and Venue
The Forum will be held at the Novotel Hotel in the World Trade Center, Dubai, from 21-23 March 2005

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

e-Government Brings Significant Change, not only in SK, but also in the Arab world






Jeong Kuk-hwan, assistant minister for e-government at the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, said an integrated administration reinvention system will bring a significant change to the current government system from next month.

``If the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries applies for expanding their internal organization, which is an assignment to our ministry, related maritime ministry officials will be able to monitor the entire administrative procedure of our ministry in real time under the new system,’’ Jeong explained in an interview with The Korea Times.

``It will also let us evaluate each of our officials’ ability and competitiveness automatically,’’ he said.

``Several ongoing projects, including providing government services via Web sites, mobile phones, PDAs or even television sets are all moving toward our ultimate goal of providing ubiquitous government services, which means people will be able to gain access to necessary information at any time and any place.’’

Regarding additional costs that new electronic methods might create, which are feared to leave the have-nots behind in the fierce race for better information accessibility, he did not deny such negative side effects.

However, he emphasized the ministry’s effort to educate and financially support those who are not familiar with up-to-date information services.

``One of the two major obstacles that I have faced was criticism over the low adoption rate, or acceptance rate, of the newly-established electronic government services in the beginning stage,’’ he said. ``Many people have just criticized our new system wastes taxpayers’ money, but I’d like to ask them to be just a bit more patient until it starts to bear fruit.’’

``The other challenge was to seek support from other government agencies in sharing information, mostly classified information, in order to build up a competitive and substantial electronic government system.’’

The 49-year-old expert in the field of government reinvention based on information technologies has been responsible for several key initiatives for electronic government since August 2000. They include the G4C (Government for Citizens) project, Information Network Village Project, Government-Wide System Integration Project and IT application projects for local government administration.

The integrated online portal, www.egov.go.kr, the center of the G4C

project, which started its operation in November 2002, was one of the main reasons South Korea was ranked fifth in the Global E-Government Readiness Report 2004 of the United Nations.

05-24-2005 18:58