Dear
Colleagues,
African eDevelopment Resource Centre together with OASIS, the International
Open Standards Consortium, the World Bank's Global Information and
Communication Technologies Department/e-Development Thematic Group and World
Bank Institute invite you to attend a Global Dialogue workshop on Open
Standards for Government Transformation: Enabling Transparency, Security and
Interoperability on April 17, 2009, 2.15 pm at the Kenya Global Development
Learning Centre.
This one-day workshop offers a unique opportunity for professionals in public
administrations and the private sector to share experiences in using open
standards for transforming government. Issues surrounding public
financial management, e-procurement, cloud computing, electronic
identification, security, and interoperability frameworks will be discussed.
This workshop will help practitioners in Washington DC and 8 other cities (as
well as online participants) to better understand the different choices they
have in order to make better policy, strategy and technology decisions when
designing and implementing ICT components of their projects, which will
maximize development impact and sustainability of these investments.
Open standards allow different systems, platforms, and devices to communicate,
and are at the very core of the new ?open? architectures. Open standards
provide choice and interoperability between systems. The Internet, based
largely on the framework of the TCP/IP and HTML standards, is a strong example
of open standards-driven innovation. Leading governments have begun to
emphasize open standards as part of their policy frameworks on ICTs. For
example the UK has recently come out with a Government Action Plan on
"Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use". Developing countries need
to incorporate open-standards while leveraging ICT for development.
Open standards and interoperability are important for rolling out convenient
'one-stop' services for citizens and businesses. They are also important for
avoiding waste in public expenditure and unnecessary duplication of
investments. These issues are particularly relevant in the context of the
current economic crisis. For ensuring interoperability across government, it is
necessary to focus on organizational structures that help exchange of data and
information (organizational interoperability), evolving a common language for
understanding various functions of government (semantic interoperability) and
dealing with technical aspects to ensure that different systems can talk to
each other (technical interoperability).
Distinguished speakers from all over the world will examine the relevance and
promise of open standards to developing and transition countries in their
pursuit of good governance and better service delivery. Onsite attendees will
be joined via interactive video links with officials from client countries,
including Russia, Moldova, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and many
others will join via live webcast.
The following questions will be discussed among others:
+ What should be the institutional structures for ensuring compliance to open
standards and interoperability across government?
+ What mechanisms should be put in place to ensure that interoperability
standards/frameworks are kept current in the context of rapid changes in
technology?
+ What arrangements should be put in place for connecting developing and
transition countries with international standards bodies and leading public
administrations in an era of cross-border interoperability?
This workshop is part of the broader Government Transformation Initiative (GTI),
a collaboration of World Bank with the private sector and other stakeholders.
The initiative focuses on building capacity of government leaders to pursue
ICT-enabled public sector transformation. The GTI will develop and
promote viable business models and best practices through peer-to-peer
knowledge sharing and training events. A project development facility to
support selected Governments in setting up the enabling environment and
initiating concrete related projects is also contemplated.
Attendance is free, but registration is required. If interested in attending
please send your request to wangechi@africanedevelopment.org
Kindest
regards
Andrew
Karanja
African
eDevelopment Resource Centre
eDevelopment
House : : 604 Limuru Road
Old Muthaiga : : P O Box 49475 00100
Nairobi : : Kenya
T +254 20 3741646/7 : : C +254 725 650044
Training : : Research:
:Consultancy: : Publishing