I wonder how many government offices and organizations use only licensed software, and nothing else? There is not much data available on this, but when I put this question to a few IT managers in government, they sounded evasive. And when I asked some vendors, who supply hardware and software, or those systems integrators who implement end-to-end projects, the clear answer was that there are lots of illegal software in use in the government.
The reasons might be many, but if the government itself is using unlicensed software, either knowingly or unknowingly, there is not much it will be able to do to stop others. Therefore, it is a serious matter, and must be addressed immediately.
First and foremost, there should be no difference of opinion on whether using pirated software is a crime or not. If organizational heads and CIO’s are yet to convey in no uncertain terms that software piracy is a crime, they must do so immediately. There should be organization-wide campaigns to make people aware of what is pirated software, and why it should not be used. There should be clear guidelines on what is legal and what is not, and preferably, penalties for acquiring illegal software. Of course, for those who resort to this for reasons of cost, recommended options of freeware, and open source will be a big help.
Quite a few crusaders of licensed software, especially those representing the software companies, are now realizing and accepting that promotion of licensed software in Kenya needs motivation rather than coercion and force. Therefore, they are ready and open to suggestions and feedback for working about mutually win-win solutions. Government, being one of the biggest IT users in the country, must actively put its act together on this front and initiate a dialogue with software vendors. I am sure users in the Government can work out some very clear benefits that they except from licensed software, and share that with vendors. As far as my understanding goes, software companies are today ready to consider many of the demands they would have ignored earlier.
It is very important that software piracy should be considered a serious offence at the government level. This will send a strong message across the nation, and Kenya will be seen as a safe place for intellectual property. Secondly, and more important, in the coming years there are going to be lots of IP that Kenyan companies will develop. And if they will have to be protected and valued in Kenya, government or the law enforcer have to take the first step. And then it will not be the MNCs but the Kenyan entrepreneurs and Kenyan economy that will lose.
Thanks!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
How Barack Obama Used The E-governance In His Presidencial Election Race
In obama's mind this was the question he wanted to answer for the all Americans,Open Government is the main plank, but what about the roadblocks? All eyes were and are on the US President Barack Obama, who assumed charge of his office on January 20, 2009. He has also set an ambitious agenda for e-governance. Obama had very successfully used information technology IT in his presidential campaign.
For example, according to reports on www.barackobama.com more than 280,000 people created accounts, users created over 6,500 grass-roots volunteer groups and organized more than 13,000 off line events using the website, and over 15,000 policy ideas were submitted through the website. The Internet operation was looked after by ninety-five people. Obama has built a treasure trove of database of more than 10 mn supporters.
Since change was the main plank of Obamas election campaign, the transition site has also been named after change, set up as http://change.gov/. More is expected from him in the field of IT and e-governance once he enters the White House.
What then is Obamas agenda for e-governance? In a nutshell, it is open government. He, however, has many items in his agenda but the following ten items appear to be particularly noteworthy.
Transparent and Connected Democracy: The agenda proposes to integrate citizens into the actual business of government by a number of measures including Making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities, thereby lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a website, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens to easily track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
Open Government:All available technologies and methods are proposed to be used to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington, giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago. Most modern communications infrastructure will be used to realize this vision.
Federal Chief Technology Officer: The agenda proposes to appoint the nations first CTO to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the twenty-first century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an inter-agency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.
Openness of the Internet:Realizing the importance of the Internet as the most open network in history, the agenda proposes to maintain the openness of the Internet. The agenda strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. They have a right to receive accurate and honest information about service plans.
Protection of Children:An important item on the agenda is protection of children on the Internet. The agenda proposes to work to give parents the tools to prevent reception of programming that they find offensive on television and on digital media. Again, it will encourage improvements to the existing voluntary rating system, exploiting new technologies like tagging and filtering, so that parents can better understand what content their children will see, and have the tools to respond. The agenda treats a sanity not censorship approach of the Common Sense Media, a private entity, as a model.
Public Media 2.0: The agenda will encourage the creation of Public Media 2.0 the next generation of public media that will create the Sesame Street of the Digital Age and other video and interactive programming that educates and informs. The agenda will support the transition of existing public broadcasting entities and help renew their founding vision in the digital world.
Right to Privacy: The agenda notes that dramatic increases in computing power, decreases in storage costs and huge flows of information that characterize the digital age bring enormous benefits, but also create risk of abuse. We need sensible safeguards that protect privacy in this dynamic new world. The agenda therefore proposes to strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and will harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.
Next Generation Broadband: The agenda realizes the importance of broadband in so many words: Full broadband penetration can enrich democratic discourse, enhance competition, provide economic growth, and bring significant consumer benefits. Moreover, improving our infrastructure will foster competitive markets for Internet access and services that ride on that infrastructure.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights at Home and Abroad: The agenda recognizes the importance of intellectual property rights by stating that intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age and emphasizes the need to update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated. The agenda proposes to protect intellectual property rights at home and abroad.
Healthcare: The agenda proposes to invest $10 bn a year over the next five years to move the US health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records and phase in requirements for full implementation of health IT and commit the necessary federal resources to make it happen.
Many of these items are routine, mundane and incremental. Nevertheless three items of his agenda are striking and deserve a close look.First open government. This will be a very challenging task. The issues here are the extent to which government will open up consistent with the requirements of security and protection of privacy of citizens, and making government transparent and accountable. Obama, of course, has taken up the gauntlet when he makes a daring commitment in his agenda: (he) will use the most current technological tools available to make government less beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists. In a speech in Des Moines, LA, on November 10, 2007 Obama had forcefully declared,and I quote“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists and won. They have not funded my campaign and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am President.”
Blueprint for Change;Obama and Bidens Plan for America declares Obama and Biden will close the revolving door between the executive branch and K-Street lobbying shops. Their appointees will serve the American people, not their own financial interests. It will be quite interesting to watch as to how Obama and his team goes about it as lobbyists are firmly entrenched in Washington, DC.
Second citizen participation in government decision-making. An integral part of open government, it is also a very challenging area as despite living in democratic regimes citizens have no participation in decision-making, a task performed singularly by the legislators who, once elected, forget about the citizens until the next election. The nearest governments have gone for citizen participation in government decision-making is to seek citizens views on governments specific proposals. But this is usually an eye wash as citizens views may be taken as a mere formality without being taken into account in decision-making, leave alone having an impact in decision-making.
Third, federal chief technology officer. This has been talked about for quite some time. It is going to be a very challenging task for the incumbent as co-ordination is no cakewalk. On the contrary, it is quite problematic as CTO/CIO will protect his turf and the method of working. Quite often he is immune to external advice. The agenda proposes to suitably legally empower him. In such a case he will be a Super-CTO or Super CIO and his authority is likely to be resented by agency CTO/CIO.
Here is, however, wishing Obama and his team all the best in implementing his ambitious agenda for the Great Americans.Courtesy of DNA and AP.
Thanks!
For example, according to reports on www.barackobama.com more than 280,000 people created accounts, users created over 6,500 grass-roots volunteer groups and organized more than 13,000 off line events using the website, and over 15,000 policy ideas were submitted through the website. The Internet operation was looked after by ninety-five people. Obama has built a treasure trove of database of more than 10 mn supporters.
Since change was the main plank of Obamas election campaign, the transition site has also been named after change, set up as http://change.gov/. More is expected from him in the field of IT and e-governance once he enters the White House.
What then is Obamas agenda for e-governance? In a nutshell, it is open government. He, however, has many items in his agenda but the following ten items appear to be particularly noteworthy.
Transparent and Connected Democracy: The agenda proposes to integrate citizens into the actual business of government by a number of measures including Making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities, thereby lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a website, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens to easily track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
Open Government:All available technologies and methods are proposed to be used to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington, giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago. Most modern communications infrastructure will be used to realize this vision.
Federal Chief Technology Officer: The agenda proposes to appoint the nations first CTO to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the twenty-first century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an inter-agency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices.
Openness of the Internet:Realizing the importance of the Internet as the most open network in history, the agenda proposes to maintain the openness of the Internet. The agenda strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. They have a right to receive accurate and honest information about service plans.
Protection of Children:An important item on the agenda is protection of children on the Internet. The agenda proposes to work to give parents the tools to prevent reception of programming that they find offensive on television and on digital media. Again, it will encourage improvements to the existing voluntary rating system, exploiting new technologies like tagging and filtering, so that parents can better understand what content their children will see, and have the tools to respond. The agenda treats a sanity not censorship approach of the Common Sense Media, a private entity, as a model.
Public Media 2.0: The agenda will encourage the creation of Public Media 2.0 the next generation of public media that will create the Sesame Street of the Digital Age and other video and interactive programming that educates and informs. The agenda will support the transition of existing public broadcasting entities and help renew their founding vision in the digital world.
Right to Privacy: The agenda notes that dramatic increases in computing power, decreases in storage costs and huge flows of information that characterize the digital age bring enormous benefits, but also create risk of abuse. We need sensible safeguards that protect privacy in this dynamic new world. The agenda therefore proposes to strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and will harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.
Next Generation Broadband: The agenda realizes the importance of broadband in so many words: Full broadband penetration can enrich democratic discourse, enhance competition, provide economic growth, and bring significant consumer benefits. Moreover, improving our infrastructure will foster competitive markets for Internet access and services that ride on that infrastructure.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights at Home and Abroad: The agenda recognizes the importance of intellectual property rights by stating that intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age and emphasizes the need to update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated. The agenda proposes to protect intellectual property rights at home and abroad.
Healthcare: The agenda proposes to invest $10 bn a year over the next five years to move the US health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records and phase in requirements for full implementation of health IT and commit the necessary federal resources to make it happen.
Many of these items are routine, mundane and incremental. Nevertheless three items of his agenda are striking and deserve a close look.First open government. This will be a very challenging task. The issues here are the extent to which government will open up consistent with the requirements of security and protection of privacy of citizens, and making government transparent and accountable. Obama, of course, has taken up the gauntlet when he makes a daring commitment in his agenda: (he) will use the most current technological tools available to make government less beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists. In a speech in Des Moines, LA, on November 10, 2007 Obama had forcefully declared,and I quote“I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists and won. They have not funded my campaign and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am President.”
Blueprint for Change;Obama and Bidens Plan for America declares Obama and Biden will close the revolving door between the executive branch and K-Street lobbying shops. Their appointees will serve the American people, not their own financial interests. It will be quite interesting to watch as to how Obama and his team goes about it as lobbyists are firmly entrenched in Washington, DC.
Second citizen participation in government decision-making. An integral part of open government, it is also a very challenging area as despite living in democratic regimes citizens have no participation in decision-making, a task performed singularly by the legislators who, once elected, forget about the citizens until the next election. The nearest governments have gone for citizen participation in government decision-making is to seek citizens views on governments specific proposals. But this is usually an eye wash as citizens views may be taken as a mere formality without being taken into account in decision-making, leave alone having an impact in decision-making.
Third, federal chief technology officer. This has been talked about for quite some time. It is going to be a very challenging task for the incumbent as co-ordination is no cakewalk. On the contrary, it is quite problematic as CTO/CIO will protect his turf and the method of working. Quite often he is immune to external advice. The agenda proposes to suitably legally empower him. In such a case he will be a Super-CTO or Super CIO and his authority is likely to be resented by agency CTO/CIO.
Here is, however, wishing Obama and his team all the best in implementing his ambitious agenda for the Great Americans.Courtesy of DNA and AP.
Thanks!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How Can We Bridge The Digital Divide In Kenya?
To bridge this divide we have to make the government agencies and their customers-other government agencies, businesses, and individuals-get IT comfortable
E-governance is the latest buzz word. There is a lot of excitement about it in the industry because of the Ksh. billions that is planned to be spent in this area. And with a mention in the latest finance budget, no one is left in any doubt of its importance to the country.
There are many ways to define e-Governance. All of them go beyond 'computerizing the government'-a term that is used often, but means little. A more general definition is-it is a way of empowering citizens by bringing in transparency in the system and reducing corruption. To me it means using information technology to provide better services to customers by the government sector organizations. I like this description because it puts the focus right where it should be-customers and services.
There is a lot of talk about the urban and rural digital divide. There is also another divide that is constantly widening. The corporate vs. non corporate one. In many areas such as private banks and telecom, we are seeing increased levels of customer service courtesy use of information technology. In many others such as property, judiciary, and other aspects of governance we see very little use of technology to make the citizen's life better. And this is the Digital Divide.
G2C or citizen-centric e-Governance projects will be successful only when the masses start using them. This needs first the applications-with in built process changes to make things more efficient-and then they need access points for citizens. Bring down the cost of a computer to less than Ksh 10,000 and see its numbers rise as quickly as those of mobile subscribers. The Internet came to Kenya before the mobile phones. Then what has made mobile services beat Internet services in subscription numbers hands down? In January 2008, the subscriber base touched approximately 20 mn connections. It became a mass phenomenon in 3-4 years when the handsets became cheap and readily available, call rates crashed and because mobile phones were easy to use and had a high utility. Nobody had to push mobiles. They just happened because the conditions fell in place. Can these conditions be duplicated for computers?
Computerizing the government departments and making the incumbents use even e-mail is no mean task.
The G2B story is not a happy one either. By and large government processes with respect to industry are not computerized. Information about laws, rules and regulations, clearances are available on websites, which are often dated. Online applications and clearances are a rarity. And of course the processes are from the previous century. It is appreciated that making these things happen in the government sector is a complex job. But there is little evidence of a strong move towards making these applications happen.
Ultimately if the governance has to become better the government has to become more efficient. G2G makes its own contribution to the great Kenyan digital divide. Computerizing the government departments and making the incumbents use even e-mail is no mean task. But even basic steps like these can improve decision making and therefore the quality of service to the citizens.
E-Governance will happen when we get the above examples and much more going. That needs a massive overhaul of much of the government working. This can happen if there is a push from the top and a pull generated from the bottom. Ministers and secretaries have to insist on using computes themselves. And then they have to provide the computes, the communication infrastructure and the training to their departments.
We have come a long way from the time that the need for such initiatives was questioned. But we have also taken a long time over it. It would be a tragedy if the act-time is as long as the talk- time.
Thanks.
E-governance is the latest buzz word. There is a lot of excitement about it in the industry because of the Ksh. billions that is planned to be spent in this area. And with a mention in the latest finance budget, no one is left in any doubt of its importance to the country.
There are many ways to define e-Governance. All of them go beyond 'computerizing the government'-a term that is used often, but means little. A more general definition is-it is a way of empowering citizens by bringing in transparency in the system and reducing corruption. To me it means using information technology to provide better services to customers by the government sector organizations. I like this description because it puts the focus right where it should be-customers and services.
There is a lot of talk about the urban and rural digital divide. There is also another divide that is constantly widening. The corporate vs. non corporate one. In many areas such as private banks and telecom, we are seeing increased levels of customer service courtesy use of information technology. In many others such as property, judiciary, and other aspects of governance we see very little use of technology to make the citizen's life better. And this is the Digital Divide.
G2C or citizen-centric e-Governance projects will be successful only when the masses start using them. This needs first the applications-with in built process changes to make things more efficient-and then they need access points for citizens. Bring down the cost of a computer to less than Ksh 10,000 and see its numbers rise as quickly as those of mobile subscribers. The Internet came to Kenya before the mobile phones. Then what has made mobile services beat Internet services in subscription numbers hands down? In January 2008, the subscriber base touched approximately 20 mn connections. It became a mass phenomenon in 3-4 years when the handsets became cheap and readily available, call rates crashed and because mobile phones were easy to use and had a high utility. Nobody had to push mobiles. They just happened because the conditions fell in place. Can these conditions be duplicated for computers?
Computerizing the government departments and making the incumbents use even e-mail is no mean task.
The G2B story is not a happy one either. By and large government processes with respect to industry are not computerized. Information about laws, rules and regulations, clearances are available on websites, which are often dated. Online applications and clearances are a rarity. And of course the processes are from the previous century. It is appreciated that making these things happen in the government sector is a complex job. But there is little evidence of a strong move towards making these applications happen.
Ultimately if the governance has to become better the government has to become more efficient. G2G makes its own contribution to the great Kenyan digital divide. Computerizing the government departments and making the incumbents use even e-mail is no mean task. But even basic steps like these can improve decision making and therefore the quality of service to the citizens.
E-Governance will happen when we get the above examples and much more going. That needs a massive overhaul of much of the government working. This can happen if there is a push from the top and a pull generated from the bottom. Ministers and secretaries have to insist on using computes themselves. And then they have to provide the computes, the communication infrastructure and the training to their departments.
We have come a long way from the time that the need for such initiatives was questioned. But we have also taken a long time over it. It would be a tragedy if the act-time is as long as the talk- time.
Thanks.
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