Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Local Governments Should Adopt a Business Model
On Friday, May 20 2005, Janice Brodman wrote: I would like to propose what may be a somewhat radical approach to using ICT to strengthen local governments (LGs): We should be thinking of LGs -- and encouraging them to think of themselves -- as companies do. We have had some very bad experience of this concept in various levels of government. Too often, the company that government models itself on is Enron. :-( I have a different idea. Let us make our NGOs into companies, like the microcredit institutions, and like the organizations that help poor artists and craftspeople sell their wares on eBay and Overstock.com, and like ITC in India, which puts computers into villages so that farmers can see world crop prices at no charge. ITC also offers to buy at prices publicly pegged to the Chicago Board of Trade, thus increasing farm income and (they say) getting better quality product at lower cost than the alternatives. Suppose we put all of this together. Create computer software and training in local languages for applications that will increase village income, such as e-commerce, and get the microbanks to place them (along with wireless Internet equipment) and make the loans for buying them, as they do with cell phones. Then let us see what kinds of health, education, and other programs we can deliver over these computers to increase local income further and faster, and how villagers can talk to each other about wider cooperation, including producer and consumer co-ops. Let us also see what kind of development portal we can create to sell to the no-longer-poor farmers and artisans and to their families. Do you think we can get a government to think of itself as the Sears and Montgomery Wards of more than a century ago? -- Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist Encore Technologies (S) Pte. Ltd. The Village Information Society http://cherlin.blogspot.com This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
[GKD-DOTCOM] What's on the Horizon for ICT and Local Government?
What's on the Horizon for ICT and Local Government? GKD members have identified a number of cases where ICTs have improved local government performance, and outlined major obstacles and critical success factors. With increasing emphasis on decentralization in developing countries, the role of ICT in improving local governance will become more ever more important. As GKD members have noted, technologies make it possible to gather, analyze and distribute information in new ways that promote better responsiveness, transparency and efficiency. But technologies are only part of the solution -- national and local policies, citizen knowledge and power, and incentives influencing local government officials all affect the outcomes. During this week, we would like to discuss how local governments could - and should - be using ICT in the next three years. We would like to focus on: * Identifying successful cases that should be brought to scale: We in the development community hear many accounts of ICT for local government accompanied by a great deal of hype. We would like to cut through the hype and identify concrete uses of ICT that have had a positive impact, and determine what is needed to bring them to scale. * Identify new and emerging ICTs that can provide important tools for improving local government: What exciting new technologies are becoming available over the next 3 years, and what other inputs are needed to make them effective. Key Questions (1) What cases of ICT for local government show concrete positive impact and should be brought to scale? What is needed to bring them to scale successfully? (2) What technologies have already shown great promise in the field and should be promoted over the coming three years? (3) What new technologies will soon be available, which can help improve local government performance? What is needed to use them effectively? (4) Should the ICTs we introduce, and our strategies for introducing them, be different for different kinds of communities, e.g., for different levels of local government (regions, districts, cities), different sized municipalities, and rural communities vs. urban communities? (5) Based on what we have learned, what are the critical success factors and pitfalls for helping local governments use ICT? Please provide a case that demonstrates each of those factor(s)/pitfall(s). This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] RFI: IT Training Curriculum for Rural Community Local Government
On 5/20/05, Femi Oyesanya [EMAIL PROTECTED] asked: What ICT training curriculum do you then introduce to the leadership of, take for example, a tribe of nomads, so that he/she can begin to think of policies that will use IT to improve rural livelihood ? I have been thinking about the essential dichotomy between our urbanised, land-centric view of ICT and the cultures of nomadism. While it seems true that the twain don't meet, it is also true that we need to ensure that nomadism as a way of life not be allowed to vanish. To do this, certainly nomads need to be armored against the creeping growth of landowners. Is ICT going to be another of those tendrils? I believe not, provided the tools can be developed by and placed within the controls of nomads themselves. But how can this happen, if the landowning cultures are the only ones looking for ways to deliver these tools? Nomads too live by rules, only those aren't the same rules as landowners. Current ICT propositions are based on the kind of rules with which fixed-property societies exist. I fear neither hardware nor software solutions exist that truly deliver intelligent edge devices to people who aren't locked to land. I am not sure we have here on this List people who were once from such cultures, who can at least opine with some authority on such a topic. I hope I am wrong. -- Vickram This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
[GKD-DOTCOM] RFI: Survey Instrument for ICT Needs Analysis of LGs
Dear GKD Members, This has been a very rich source of information on ICTs and Local Governments. Does anyone have or know of a survey instrument, (e.g., a questionnaire), that can be used to elicit information from the LGs on their ICT needs. I think that some needs analysis would help the development of the course topics and contents. Your help here would really be appreciated. Thanks for all the contributions. Vesper Owei This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
