Something that has been lacking is
personal view. She says that information
“
knowledge sharing amongst operators
services relevant to a local community and
and with governments, which needs to
in the local language are vital. Such informa-
tion is not available most of the time, except
be encouraged,” says Samia Melhem.
in paper-based directories that are often out
of date, making them unreliable.
“There is also a major role for donors and
development agencies in terms of raising
use of open standards for e-governance awareness, as they usually have excellent
implementation, and delivery of services on access to government leadership, to high
mobile phones in emerging markets. level officials in charge of ICT strategies,”
Mr. Stephane Boyera of the W3C feels says Melhem.
that interest from government is growing.
“In 2006 we held a workshop in Bangalore
Pioneering markets show the way
about the mobile channel and there was While early e-governance and m-govern-
little interest. Now, 18 months later, several ance deployments in emerging markets are
big organizations are involved and many likely to focus on simple information-based
governments are beginning to realize the services, the scope for highly sophisticated
mobile’s potential as an information and digital delivery of public services is almost
communications technology (ICT) platform.” unlimited. A few countries are showing the
possibilities.
Local knowledge
Dubai’s m-governance initiatives, for
is critical
example, offers a wide range of SMS-based
Boyera continues: “The workshop’s key out- push and pull services. Pull services allow
put is the need for coordinated action be- users to ask about government services by
At your
tween operators and academia, regulators sending a keyword along with the query to
fingertips!
and practitioners to define the guidelines. a Dubai eGovernment short code. A response
Lots of projects are finding different issues is immediately sent. Push services allow
and until now there has been no forum to people to receive information from various
•
Explore more about
exchange the experiences. Setting up such a government departments via SMS.
the Digital World Forum at:
forum is one of our main goals, and is also “Those governments that have been the
www.digitalworldforum.eu
the rationale for our participation in Digital fastest to develop internet-based services
World Forum, an EU-funded project that fa- tend to be the ones that are first to move
•
The World Wide Web
vors a bottom-up inclusive approach.” into m-governance,” believes Melhem.
Consortium (W3C) has two
According to Boyera, governments and One of the most advanced countries in
new initiatives that were
operators also need to work with local non- e-governance is Estonia, which is also see-
launched in June. See more
governmental organizations in the field who ing a rapid rise in m-governance services.
about W3C eGovernment
know which services will be adopted. He Mobile devices in Estonia are being used to
at:
www.w3.org/2007/eGov
gives one example of how local knowledge pay more than 50 percent of parking fees, to
and more about the Mobile
can help: “Many in the mobile community report utility problems such as faulty street
Web for Social Development
believe that voice-based services have real lamps, to make doctor’s appointments, to
Interest Group at: www.
potential. Yet in many places in Africa with notify students of exam results, and more.
w3.org/2008/MW4D
a strong person-to-person story-telling cul- The foundation for this growth in m-gov-
ture, people do not appreciate talking to a ernance is Estonia’s advanced e-governance
•
Read more about To-
machine. There is a real cultural barrier here. infrastructure built up over the last decade.
wards Effective E-govern-
“We have seen large and ambitious This is enabling complex e-governance serv-
ance: The Delivery of Public
schemes failing, whereas small, local com- ices that require inputs from more than one
Services Through Local
munity initiatives have succeeded.” information system.
E-content at: http://www.
A good example of the efficiency gains
nokiasiemensnetworks. Governments and
such services bring is an online system for
com/egovernance operators must work together
new parents to apply for social security ben-
The World Bank’s Melhem has a similar efits. Previously, people needed to complete
6 Expanding Horizons 3/2008
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