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ranga
USA
149 Posts |
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Ousman
USA
103 Posts |
 Posted - 16 Oct 2006 : 20:15:29
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| These computers will mostly be decorating the offices of bureaucrats. E-government is still ways away. Most Gambians can hardly afford a square meal. Buying computers and getting them hooked up online to access government services is way of kilter for them. |
http://Gambian.blogspot.com |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 16 Oct 2006 : 21:38:03
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Ousman could you tell me what you think e-gov should be. i find the idea very complicated especially for african countries. i have been following these types of discussion for years now and at one point Linux was seen as a possible way out.
but then that itself needs educated people to run the system. |
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Ousman
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 16 Oct 2006 : 23:31:01
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E-government is a complicated issue. Most of us see it from a western perspective. And therein lie the problem. My idea of a minimally effective e-government will entail a system or systems that will enable and empower citizens of a given country to be able to do the following:
1.Citizen access...people have come to expect immediate access to information. For government agencies, moving their traditional counter services to the Web is a cost-effective way to provide better services. At least this is true in the most western socities
2.Land management: This comes under citizen access. However a system could be develop as part of an e-government program that manages all of your land use and community development activities including permits, building safety, inspections and reviews, zoning, project plans, code enforcement, and more. It allows staff between this different agencies to have access to input data, verify activities, check permit status, and obtain complete parcel information instantly. You can speed up the process of getting from application to occupancy, while reducing errors and data redundancy with a single database.
Come to think of it, Putting governments like the Gambia's online shouldn't be an onerous task. True network and system security will come to play. Others might bring up the fact that why put services online when most of the populations you are trying to serve have no clue what it is all about.
However I still think that if agencies within the same jurisdiction can access documents from each other via the web, this will go a long way in cutting the red tape involve in the paper system we have today.
I am still at work and kinda caught up in some issues, so excuse my convulted idea, but i think you get the drift. |
http://Gambian.blogspot.com |
Edited by - Ousman on 16 Oct 2006 23:32:08 |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 00:04:42
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in the mean time i was reading the website of the gov department responsible its very good and talks about their intentions.
www.doscit.gm |
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Momodou
Denmark
11703 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 01:23:07
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quote:
Originally posted by njucks
in the mean time i was reading the website of the gov department responsible its very good and talks about their intentions.
www.doscit.gm
Sorry Njucks, I unintentionally deleted part of your posting above. Anyway you have already posted the text about Gambia Post Office in another thread. Please accept my apology.  You still have two days to edit you posting above.
Thanks for the link to this Government site www.doscit.gm. I hope the authorities are aware that there is a link at the bottom of the page which leads to dating and teenage chat sites. Some of these sites can have negative consequences or bad influence on our youth who might become innocent victims of such sites if they are not properly monitored. I would suggest they ask the webmaster to remove the link to "Elfasoft". |
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Ousman
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 01:57:53
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Njucks
Browsing through the doscit site, I realized that they have some fancy policies outlined, but It occurs to me that their projects/achievements page is still stuck in 2004. I wonder what became of those objectives they outlined and were looking forward to accomplishing. Maybe in addition to Momodou's observation vis-a-vis a link to dating and teenage sites, someone need to tell doscit to update their site to reflect their most recent projects and achievements.
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http://Gambian.blogspot.com |
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Ousman
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 02:17:31
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Njucks wrote:
at one point Linux was seen as a possible way out. but then that itself needs educated people to run the system.
I believe that validates what Philip Emeagwali is saying here:
When African men and women of ideas, who will give birth to new ideas, have fled to Europe and the United States, then the so-called African Renaissance cannot occur in Africa. It can only occur in Paris, London and New York. There are more Soukous musicians in Paris, than in Kinshasha; more African professional soccer players in Europe, than in Africa. African literature is more at home abroad than it is in Africa. In other words, Africans in Europe are alleviating poverty in Europe, not in Africa. Until the men and women of ideas - the true healers of Africa - start returning home, the African Renaissance and poverty alleviation will remain empty slogans. After all, the brightest ideas are generated and harnessed by men of ideas.
http://www.allgambian.net/commentary_63.htm
Linux has the potential to alleviate most of the information gap provided the technical savvy to educate folks back home is available. The challenge facing our generation is: how do we entice this intelletual prowess to return home?
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http://Gambian.blogspot.com |
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ranga
USA
149 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 08:12:45
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Ousman, I suspect there are more than enough smart young Gambians to lead the way. In due course I suspect Gambians elsewhere would want to come back home.
Linux is a good idea. Even more important is cheap access to knowledge through the Internet. In the US, they provide free access to the Internet in public libraries. I wonder if the new donation may be used for such a purpose.
More than e-Government, just providing broadband Internet connections in every town in Gambia is the best the Government can do to help Gambians. And yes, some uninterrupted power would be good too!
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T.K. "Ranga" Rengarajan
Founder, Geoseed Project
http://www.geoseedproject.com
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 10:28:58
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Momodou this is the second time i have fallen victim to this practice by Admin/Moderators on the Bantaba. What is the complaints procedure??? I want guarantees it will not happen again
Ous, well i think we should ask ourselves why they do well abroad. First its the environment they work in, but also because they are not only given a chance but allowed freedom to think freely. this encourages creativity and people take risk to develop ideas.
But conditions change and sometimes the reasons why people left can sometimes no longer be there. its a personal choice for everyone.
i think IT is different from other sector in that its more flexible. you dont have to be physically in the gambia to make things happen!
perhaps e-gov should not target citizens in the first instance as most people dont have access to PC. however is the focus is to offer more data and information , regulations, forms to companies and investors then i think it can work.
with the licencing issues also, for example should all govt documents be saved as .doc, .dot or .pdf?? and then Achieving ??
Linux and open source to me offers a lot but you need the people to write the programs etc.
we can learn also from small towns in Germany or Norway who have moved completely to Linux. like Bergen,Schwabisch Hall and Munich in Germany
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6119153.html
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-1010740.html?tag=nl
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Edited by - njucks on 17 Oct 2006 10:32:09 |
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Ousman
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 17 Oct 2006 : 16:56:02
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Njucks wrote:
perhaps e-gov should not target citizens in the first instance as most people dont have access to PC. however is the focus is to offer more data and information , regulations, forms to companies and investors then i think it can work.
I agree with you on that point. Linking government departments and thereby facilitating information flow between them will go a long in cutting the cost involved in running most of these institutions.The side effect could be the redundancy of thousands of government employees. If you think they are underemployed(as I do), wait till you implement a sound e-government environment. You will have to lay off numerous people. This scenario requires governments to implement policies that will make private investment and employment viable to cater to the thousands it will have to let go. That is part of the calculus to this e-government thingy. |
http://Gambian.blogspot.com |
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