Africa’s mobile economic revolution – Killian Fox, Guardian, Jul 11
Half of Africa’s one billion population has a mobile phone – and not just for talking. n 1998, there were fewer than four million mobiles on the continent. Today, there are more than 500 million. In Africa, where a billion people use only 4% of the world’s electricity, many cannot afford to charge a computer, let alone buy one. This has led phone users and developers to be more resourceful… The most dramatic example of this is mobile banking.
First fines issued by ICO for Data Protection Breaches – Nov 10
The £100,000 fine for Hertfordshire [for two serious incidents involving council employees faxing highly sensitive personal information to the wrong people], together with a £60,000 penalty imposed on employment services company A4e for the loss of a laptop, are the first monetary penalties issued by the ICO
How government can engage young people online – May 10 – Alex Howard, O’Reilly Radar
Young people don’t want to be the government’s friend on Facebook. They aren’t likely to welcome an official dropping into an online conversation uninvited. And if you want to communicate with them where they live, you need to be on mobile. These are just a few of the insights danah boyd shared with me this week…
Consider the financial crisis, suggests boyd. “Some of the most screwed-over people are college students or recent graduates with student loans. The press covers it, but where are the politicians? This is a moment to engage students. If we don’t meet them on those terms, technology won’t make it magically happen.”
In digital combat, US finds no easy deterrent – NYTimes, Jan 2010
But in cyberattacks, the damage can range from the minor to the catastrophic… It is difficult to know if small attacks could escalate into bigger ones. So part of the problem is to calibrate a response to the severity of the attack.
Information is power and who’s controlling our information? – Gary Lyndaker, Jan 2010
Tight budgets and political forces are driving state governments toward operating in an emergency mode and we respond by privatizing more government work. As illustrated by the examples given here, an increasing number of the people performing IT work are not state employees
European governments can ignore social media… or not? – Andrea Di maio, Gartner blog, Nov 2009
They’ll certainly try… “Most feel comfortable in starting with tackling internal collaboration and – although they know very well that their employees are already using consumer social media – they’d rather ignore the impact that these media might have on internal collaboration goals”
Open Gov is a dialogue, not a monologue – John Geraci, O’Reilly Radar, Jul 2009
“There were some interesting apps in there, but overall they didn’t meet with the mayor’s agenda for the city.” A city that opens up its data but expects that people building on that data should follow the mayor’s agenda is going to fail miserably in its attempt at creating an open system.
Open gov is a dialogue between governments and constituents, not a monologue. Everyone gets to decide what gets talked about and what gets built, not just the people with the data.
The Government we deserve - Jeffrey Phillips, Thinking Faster, Jul 2009
Here we stand, still the best nation on earth in terms of quality of life, freedom of expression, and opportunity for any individual.
Yet, many of our freedoms are taken for granted, and our population is less involved and less enthusiastic about its governance than ever before. Far too few people are aware of the impending legislation in their state and federal congresses, and are far too removed from the day to day governing. We as a people have allowed a permanent political class to evolve that dictates what we do, how we live and how we interact.
Rethinking the use of IT in public services – Jerry Fishenden, former MS UK CTO, Jul 2009
…the UK’s spend on IT in the public sector is running at around 150% of what is spent annually on the NHS drugs budget. So citizens have a right to ensure that this spend is returning proportionate benefits to them in the way their public services are operated and delivered. At present, it is not clear that this is the case. Indeed, it is difficult to determine precisely where current IT spend is going and precisely how it is improving (assuming it is, of course) the quality and effectiveness of our public services.
…there is a more fundamental question about the effective configuration of government itself to be considered. After all, many of the UK’s administrative and functional structures are there by accident rather than design. So a review of the functions and capabilities required of government is a necessary precursor to deciding where IT fits and what budgets are most appropriate.
…Pivotal to this debate is consensus on the idea that the public sector needs an efficient, secure information architecture that recognises fulfilment is localised (not centralised), and which takes account of the reality of our digital age (most specifically the Internet and the World Wide Web).
In achieving this consensus, one of the largest problems currently being considered is the tendency (whether intentional or as a by-product of inadequate technological expertise) to misdirect IT towards some kind of UK digital uber-state, which, unlike the Internet and WWW, seems to be envisaged as a centrally imposed monolithic database state without citizen consent. To use technology to potentially set a democratic state against its own citizens seems not only expensive (politically, technologically and financially), but to be a significant missed opportunity. We need to rethink how IT becomes an ally of the citizen, and the UK’s best interests, rather than being seen as a negative.
What we are all seeking, I hope, is an approach to reform of public services where technology plays a positive role as a policy lever, helping renew the configuration of government and public services in a way that builds citizen trust and delivers better quality and more efficient services.
The ups and downs of digital Britain – Vikki Chowney, Jun 2009
Every man, woman, child and their dog has been talking about the Digital Britain report released by Lord Carter (Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting in the UK) this week. The aim of which is to act a guide for the future development of the digital media space in Britain. (downloadable PDF)
All things considered, I wonder whether the digital space really requires government intervention to make it work better and more effectively at all. So many parts of this space have done very well up till now with a bare minimum of government interference, thanks to the likes of a healthy start-up marketplace, some forward-thinking entrepreneurs and more importantly, a nation that has embraced new technology with gusto.
Precious little business investment is going forward worldwide. The only chance for the United States to recover is if we can capture most of this investment. How can we do that? We would have to convince businesses that this is the best country in the world in which to invest and operate.
We need to set a credible goal of reducing government spending to 30 percent of GDP within two years and 27 percent within five years. If we can’t count on vibrant economic growth, this will involve dramatic changes to government benefits.
How good a job would you do at your company if customers were required by law to buy your product? That’s the situation faced by public school management today. We keep slipping behind other countries in the subject areas that matter in the highest paying jobs
Mass transit is critical to business in the parts of our country where workers use public transit to get to work. Public transit unions should be eliminated because a strike at a mass transit system can shut down an entire city.
Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture for Brazil – talking at Google Zeitgeist, May 2008
The 21st century technologies represent a huge challenge to regulations. The revolution generated by the convergence of digital technologies obliges us to reinvent the way we do almost everything. I believe that anybody with public responsibility should look into the digital distribution of Intellectual Property as the most direct and powerful way of democratizing knowledge in the history of mankind. But instead we see almost every formal institution insisting on bluntly calling the digital distribution “Piracy”.
More links
- Bright side of Government blog – Microsoft Government team
