[UgaBYTES] Fw: October 2008 Issue of " Information Technology in Developing countries"

[Dean Mulozi]

Dear all, 
The follwing may be intersting to you. 

Regards 

Dean Mulozi,
Lusaka, Zambia.    


> From: IFIP Newsletter <ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in>
> Subject: October 2008 Issue of " Information Technology in Developing countries"
> To: chris_fwa at yahoo.com, cmaitland at ist.psu.edu, cr_4_agriculture at yahoo.com, crdas at yahoo.com, cscarone at hotmail.com, Csekaran at worldbank.org, dadalo at tiscali.it, darbarik at yahoo.com, Dbhatia at worldbank.org, dc_misra at hotmail.com, deanmulozi at yahoo.com, delaboni at yahoo.com, dev_kamal at hotmail.com, dharamgaon at yahoo.co.in
> Date: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 11:27 PM
> Dear Subscriber,
> 
> Warm Greetings! The October 2008 issue of ‘Information
> Technology in Developing Countries’ is now available at:
> http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/current.htm
> 
> The current issue of Information Technology in Developing
> Countries includes articles that discuss why genuinely
> successful, high-yield e-government projects are so
> difficult to find and even more difficult to measure, the
> state of e-government implementation in Malaysia, how Web
> 2.0 is changing the basic character of the Internet, a few
> e-government initiatives in India, a book review, and
> announcements of forthcoming conferences. The first article
> "Pursuing Truly Successful e-Government Projects:
> Mission Impossible?" by Stephen Ruth and Robert Schware
> provides examples of three e-government projects that have
> succeeded because they have addressed policy issues upfront
> and/or the two crucial questions that project stakeholders
> eventually ask: “What’s in it for me?” or “Why
> should I be involved in this e-government project?” The
> article discusses these issues in the light of three cases -
> Nangi Village Outreach (Nepal), Nemmadi (Karnataka, India),
> and MK Connects (Macedonia) - in which the beneficiaries are
> citizens who are assisted by the systems, and not by
> bureaucrats or faceless agencies.
> 
> The second article "E-government in Malaysia: Barriers
> and Progress" by Sharifah Alhabshi attempts to explore
> the nature of e-Government challenges and achievements from
> within Malaysia, and to review and understand disparate
> e-Government rankings given to Malaysia in three surveys
> undertaken by international institutions, the United
> Nations, Brown University and Waseda University. The
> research involved web surveys carried out on 71 agencies
> within Malaysia’s 281 ministries, and exploration of the
> objectives and the criteria used by each of the institutions
> in producing e-Government rankings through comparison of the
> three institutions’ rankings and review of the rankings
> from a human and economic development perspective. Amit
> Ranjan's article on "How Web 2.0 is Changing the
> Basic Character of the Internet" talks about the
> evolution of the Internet, which started as a means of
> sharing information for academic and military purposes, soon
> became the backbone of business communications, and is now
> getting social - people have taken center stage and
> technology has taken a backseat. The author points out that
> Web 1.0 focused more on technology while Web 2.0 is far more
> humane - it focuses on people and how they can collectively
> influence its developing character. The author illustrates
> how this next wave of the Internet is being put to new uses
> like development of social networking websites,
> content-centric communities etc.
> 
> Kiringai Kamau's article "Grassroots Involvement
> for Real ICT Impact" demonstrates the immense potential
> of locally developed data processing solutions for raw data
> collection and the eventual processing of the same for
> sustainable development. This article is followed by Kris
> Dev's case on the "Biometric Smart Card (BSC)"
> initiative. It describes the work done by the author and his
> team in the states of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh in the field
> of biometrics for unique identification and tracking of
> benefits extended to poor citizens under the Work for Food
> Programme and National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGP)
> Scheme. Dr. Monisha Borthakur's article on the Common
> Services Centers (CSC) Scheme describes the implementation
> status of the CSC scheme in India. The CSC Scheme aims to
> improve the quality of delivery of services to citizens
> especially those living in rural areas. Over 14,000 CSCs
> across ten states have been rolled out till date. Attempts
> have also been made to bring together all stakeholders,
> including the service providers (SCAs), to enable drawing up
> of the CSC roadmap ahead keeping in mind the challenges
> faced by the first mover SCAs. The next article features the
> "Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Program" that has been
> initiated in Karnataka, India to promote idea generation,
> concept development, research, community development, rural
> linkages and student exchange programs.
> 
> Elena Maceviciute's book review on "Change
> Management in Information Services" gives an overview
> of the concepts, approaches and cases discussed in the book.
> Conference announcements include the annual eASiA conference
> to be held in November in Malaysia. This three-day
> international event will include active conferencing;
> networking and focus on five emerging application domains of
> ICT for Development - e-Government, ICT in Education, Asian
> Telecentre Forum, ICT enabled Health services and Mobile
> application and services for development. Other conferences
> included in the current issue are the International
> Conference on E-government and E-governance to be held in
> Turkey in 2009, the 3rd International Conference on
> Information and Communication Technologies and Development
> (ICTD2009) to be held in Qatar, and the 10th IFIP Conference
> whose theme is "Assessing the Contribution of ICT to
> Development Goals".
> 
> 
> We hope you will find this issue interesting and we look
> forward to receiving your feedback on the same. We welcome
> your contributions for the forthcoming issue of the IFIP WG
> 9.4 Newsletter. Interested contributors are requested to
> refer to the guidelines for authors available at:
> http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/guidelines.htm or may
> mail us at: ifipnewsletter at iimahd.ernet.in
> 
> The October 2008 Issue can be directly accessed at:
> http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/oct2008/oct2008.htm. A
> downloadable PDF version of this Issue is also available on
> our website (URL:
> http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/oct2008/oct2008.pdf) to
> ease access and facilitate printing.
> 
> With Best Regards,
> Editorial Team, IFIP WG 9.4 Newsletter.
> 
> Editorial office:
> Centre for Electronic Governance,
> Indian Institute of Management,
> Ahmedabad - 380 015, India
> Tel.: +91 79 6632 4128
> URL: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/wg.htm