| M-Government: The New Frontier in Transforming Public Services |
| Last updated: Feb 05, 2008 07:15 AM |
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You are invited to share your views on m-Government in general, and to the questions below. These questions are from a Nov 29th Global Dialogue videoconference "M-Government: The New Frontier in Public Service Delivery" organized by World Bank, DGF and many other partners (http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/mgov2), and your comments would be most welcomed!
According to the ITU, the total number of mobile users worldwide as of late 2006 was about 2.7 billion and the number of internet users was just above 1.1 billion.
+ Does this provide a strong case for leveraging the mobile channel to dramatically improve access to public services to those who can afford to use a personal or shared mobile phone (e.g. as in Village Phone programs)?
+ Does this create an opportunity to connect in the near future the next two billion people to the benefits of e-government, e-health, e-education, e-banking and e-commerce?
+ How exactly can Mobile Government transform the lives of common people in developing countries? What are best examples of such impact? What are the types of services which can be easily provided on mobile phones/devices ("quick wins") and what the more strategic high-impact services ("killer applications")?
+ What are the key constraints to making this vision a reality? What are the critical success factors and lessons learned?
+ Should the government agencies and the development community take this opportunity to drastically improve access to information and services much more seriously? How should governments and donors change the way they do business to take full advantage of mobile technologies?
+ What is the role of the private sector? Are there successful business models (e.g. PPP) for private sector companies to support value-added m-government services?
In addition to providing comments of 1000 characters or less from the right side of this page, dgCommunities members are invited to send longer comments to be considered for inclusion in this forum to dgContent@dgfoundation.org.
Longer comments submitted:
John Daly, Contributing editor, Development Gateway, and a Director of Americans for UNESCO
Hannes Astok, Member of Parliament & former Deputy Mayor, City of Tartu, Estonia
Stephane Boyera and Jose Alonso, W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
""mGovernment and eDemocracy" provided by Emmanuel C. Lallana, PhD, CEO ideacorp, former Commissioner, Commission on Information and Communications Technology, Office of the President, Republic of the Philippines
Interview with Rain Rannu
Event Summary
Videoclip: 
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مركز دراسات الحكومة الالكترونية
مع التقدم الحاصل في تنفيذ الخدمات الحكومية وتقديمها عبر الانترنت وسرعة انتشارها في كافة الدوائر، كان لا بد من التأكد أن تلك الخدمات متجانسة ومتناسقة ومكملة لبعضها البعض ومطابقة للمعايير العالمية الموضوعة والمعتمدة. ولا يمكن أن تكون الحكومة الالكترونية فعالة وكفوءة إذا لم تتطابق رؤيتها وأهدافها مع رؤية وأهداف الدولة وتخدم سياساتها الاقتصادية والاجتماعية. يسعدني أن أقدم إليكم موقع مركز دراسات الحكومة الالكترونية زالذي يهتم بموضوعات تطوير الوجه الالكتروني للحكومة وكلي أمل أن يستفيد منه الباحث العربي
www.egovconcepts.com
Abbas Badran
Non-governmental organization / civil society
United Arab Emirates
Date posted:
Feb 05, 2008 07:15 AM
M-Governance would include all: education, adminstration and overall social and economic development. The question is: how do we implement it? This is the crux. Accessibility and economical viability vis a vis mobiles is another issue. Mobiles for governance and mobiles of governance, for the people, by the people!
Ananya.S.Guha
IGNOU
INDIA.
INDIA.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Dec 20, 2007 12:43 PM
m -goverenance may be used in also Public Distribution system in India. In an estimate Rs16000crores of subsidy is siphoned every year in name of poor people . If we give subsidy to poor people in shape of electronic recharge voucher andwe will make that arrengment that they will be free to purchase rationed comodities from any shops at current price. As they purchase subsidy will directly deducted from their electronic voucher and will go in seller account. If we develop this type of programme we can serve poor people well and save a lot of money from corruption.In this way we will get rid off two type of pricei n market i.e one market price and second is rationed price. ajay
ajay singh gangwar
Governmental organization
India
Date posted:
Dec 18, 2007 03:33 AM
Tanzania: Wanted to know about implementation challenges for PPP in this area, especially with regard to the consequences on ownership of infrastructure, data and the transactions themselves. Asked if how to ensure governments don't feel threatened by such services (picking up on the theme from Russia) and thus seek to delay them instead of gaining a sense of urgency about the value of creating and delivering m-gov services. Asked about costs and what policy measures were taken to ensure that ordinary people could afford the services, while distinguishing between costs in terms of: acquisition of mobile devices; access to connectivity; access to power supplies; in addition to the intrinsic cost of each m-service. Asked how records of transactions are made and kept, especially for purposes of authenticating and auditing payments. Asked if there was information on what revenues were generated/increased for government, as well as for GDP
Oleg Petrov
Inter-governmental organization
United States
Date posted:
Dec 17, 2007 05:38 PM
Rwanda: Asked for any information about successful examples of PPP. Asked how affordable mobile phones were in India. Asked if anyone could tell them how much useful information could be sent via mobile, given the small screen size.
Ghana: Wanted more information on financial aspects. Asked if it wasn't necessary to make government services more efficient first, before trying to make them available over mobile. Asked if there was any information available about how literacy issues could be overcome. Wanted more information on the kinds of initiatives and any success stories.
Oleg Petrov
Inter-governmental organization
United States
Date posted:
Dec 17, 2007 05:37 PM
Kenya: Asked for details of the hurdles overcome by Estonia. Asked what security issues arose and how they were dealt with. Asked how to create a good environment for e-gov to flourish. Asked how Estonia managed the change process. Asked for information on the ownership model for the Indian Service Access Points. Also, how to manage the roll out of the SAPs. Suggested that handsets might cost too much to handle m-gov apps and asked for comments/responses. Asked how India managed the localization of content.
US/Washington DC: Given that Estonia developed its suite of services over 7 years, is incremental development inevitable or can they identify key success factors that would enable other countries to proceed more quickly and more efficiently?
Oleg Petrov
Inter-governmental organization
United States
Date posted:
Dec 17, 2007 05:37 PM
The Nov. 29 M-Gov dialogue concluded with a vigorous Comments, questions and answers session. Feel free tom post here your own answers:
Philippines: Made observations about the limitations of the mobile device and stated that they thought a blending of e-government and m-government was needed.
India: Asked what could be developed in terms of a PPP ownership model. Asked if there could be a Village Phone program for India. Requested guidance on how people could approach government or industry for development ideas.
Russia: Commented that there was disagreement amongst themselves about the desirability of enabling m-government. Asked if Estonia had considered creating m-services for people with disabilities.
Ukraine: Asked for more detail about the public services already implemented and under development in the UK.
Oleg Petrov
Inter-governmental organization
United States
Date posted:
Dec 17, 2007 05:35 PM
Mobile Government provides a plenty of services and could help under development countries properly. So, it will be an added value for public sector with special applications in Medical Sector, Public Administration etc helping citizens and businesses. It will be just the start providing help to people who real are needed. Electronic and Mobile Government is a consortium of public administration modernization providing faster services to citizens and business.
GEORGIOS KAPOGIANNIS
Education / Think tank / Research
United Kingdom
Date posted:
Dec 13, 2007 09:59 AM
M-government is an ideal platform to reach the masses quite efficiently and effectively, as the penetration levels are high in the Indian Context. Many of the day to day questions with respect to the newly formed legislation, "The Right to Information Act -India" can be transacted to through Mobile technology, even payment can effected through Mobile. It is a right intervention at the time.
Sabarish Karunakar
Governmental organization
India
Date posted:
Dec 05, 2007 02:41 AM
I am indain and working as administrator in one local area Tikamgargh of Madhya Pradesh in capacity of Chief Executive officer of loval body. My basic responsibility was to make plan for development and to disperse money to saler local bodies that is Village Panchayat.there was a heavy corruption in delivery system of money from district to village level.To curb this in some extent i was succesful because i had given my mobile number to all head of village and asked them to ring me whenever and wherever some one asked money for corruption.Hence bu using mobile connctivity i was successful in decreasing corruption level from 50%to 5%.
ajay singh gangwar
Governmental organization
India
Date posted:
Dec 05, 2007 12:51 AM
The concept of a mobile govt is nebulous.It can also imply use of all technologies, not only the mobile phone. The idea here is how ' mobile ' we can be, with the help of integrated technology.Thus we can have mobile, libraries, mobile learning centres, mobile medicine shops etc.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 30, 2007 01:09 PM
I would like to know the challenges that Estonia faced in overcoming mgovernment acceptance including cultural challenges
Jim Yonazi
Education / Think tank / Research
Tanzania
Date posted:
Nov 29, 2007 10:40 AM
I think m-government is just one channel for providing e-Government services, just like telecenters can be a channel for accessing e-Government services. However, only certain services can be provided on mobile end-user devices like cell phones and PDAs. There are limitations, no?
Barbara Fillip
Consultant / independent
United States
Date posted:
Nov 29, 2007 09:43 AM
e-Administration is an e-Platform for e-Governance. It can integrate the Central Government, State Government and Local Government at the Village / Block Level and the citizens for G2C and G2G communications and work flow. It can integrate mobile phones and landlines for voice communication and registering citizen's issues / petitions on line from any time, any where for response by authorities. All citizens service providers as telephone companies, electricity authorities, banks, insurance companies, etc. can be integrated into the tool, for enhancing levels. A hub and spokes model od networking for communication is recommended for this. For more details see http://ll2b.blogspot.com.
Kris Dev
Non-governmental organization / civil society
India
Date posted:
Nov 27, 2007 04:15 PM
This is in response to Mr Karmakar's observations.This is exactly what I am trying to say: the reach and costs of the mobiles must be brought down.This is the only practicable solution.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 26, 2007 01:22 PM
The Reach of Mobile phones when compared with Internet is very high, but in a Developing country Like India, The communication cost is still high, it that can be brought down, it will be a wonderful tool for e-gov application, some of them are already in place in India.
Sabarish Karunakar
Governmental organization
India
Date posted:
Nov 26, 2007 06:41 AM
In developing nations the mobile can be used for the following:
-social and economic transformation
-the mobile can be used for services, b usiness transactions etc
- for education, interactivity by both voice and text
- medical aid
In short the services the mobile can render throughout a country, especially in rural areas is immeasurable.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 25, 2007 01:16 PM
My contention is very simple but strong:for education, the mobile MUST be used. How people might ask?- in the same as the corm of is used.This will be another example of electronic learning , or another form of it.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 24, 2007 03:19 AM
The telecentre movement in East Africa, and India is a very happening thing as far as community development is concerned. These initiatives are taken normally by NGOs, but there is govt intervention. Mobile culture should be integrated with technology here. Mohammed Younus' innnovations in telephony can be emulated in all developing nations. The point is today the world is rich in technology, but access is what needs to be addressed.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 24, 2007 03:15 AM
The first consideration is to develop cheap mobiles.While it is accessible to the middle class in developing nations, villagers must have access to cheap mobiles. It must percolate down.We must have the bottom up sensibility.Then there is the question of sensitising users for advocacy.What can they be used for. Telecentres, and village resource/knowledge centres must maximize use of the mobile, and lend them to the folk at cheap rates. And for all these endeavours the govt must give full and committed support.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 23, 2007 08:51 AM
I would like to congratulate the organisers of this conference.
The Key Constraints/Critical Success Factors in Africa as I see them are: 1)Much as the number of mobile phone users has increased, the telecommunications infrastructure has not developed at the same pace; 2)Internet connectivity in Africa is a major challenge and we need to address the high cost of internet services; 3)Another constraint is localisation of content for the local communities; 4)We also need to let the communities decide what mobile services they want - this must not be dictated by the governments.
Nodumo Dhlamini
Education / Think tank / Research
Zimbabwe
Date posted:
Nov 23, 2007 03:33 AM
A mobile govt? What do we mean by it ? A govt that moves? Or are we talking of mobile phones? The thematic perception of this conference is at once ambiguous and complex.And what a wonder! This is what attracts me to this e confernce. Mobile everyhere-telepnones, vans, libraries, schools, colleges, universities, what have you.
And the answer : communication technologies, from the simple printed word, to the more simple simputer.
Remember , when Caxton invented the printed text it was a ' hi ' tech revolution! Agreed?
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 21, 2007 02:31 PM
I think mobile phones will not only be used for communication with primary care providers, but also linked to biomedical monitoring equipment for people under treatment, and as reminders to enhance compliance with prescribed courses of treatment.
Kids are using mobile phones to enhance learning, working in teams more easily. They will soon have an encyclopedia and a dictionary at hand permanently, which will not only change learning, but also change what needs to be learned.
Check out more with my recent posting:
http://tinyurl.com/285vh6
John Daly
Consultant / independent
United States
Date posted:
Nov 21, 2007 01:05 PM
The most important m-government initiative is a fraud-proof voting system which is being suppressed by the West and its supposedly pro-democracy global institutions (i.e. Carter Center, IFES and International IDEA). Is Development Gateway sufficiently independent to publish this comment? Mr Alex Weir, Conakry
alex weir
Consultant / independent
Zimbabwe
Date posted:
Nov 21, 2007 12:17 PM
We are talking a great deal today of e learning , which has become synonymous with the computer and the internet.Mobile learning is very much a part of e learning.Any electronic device used for education, is part of it.Technologies such as the mobile appeal to the senses, arouse curiosity, a phenemological experience-and can be used to interact speedily, both voice and text interaction, like the computer.Teaching in its best sense must appeal to the senses-hear, 'see' and perceive.
Ananya Guha
Education / Think tank / Research
India
Date posted:
Nov 21, 2007 12:03 PM
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