Barack, Agreed. To be FRANKLY HONEST,it will be entirely of no value at all to carry out strategy meetings after strategy meetings when little impact is felt on the ground - as in, the average person you and I meet out there has no inkling of what it's all about. E-Government will only make "national" sense, when delivery and access is felt right upto the grassroots. It's not happening yet. We need to decentralize and devolve, and take ICT to the citizens, asap. I think it will defeat the purpose to build up capacity just to equip our hq offices with the latest technology and forget who are our real customers - those who need service delivery, and the tools to interact with Govt. While at it, we have work cut out. We need to apply a portion of the resources we have to transport this Technology to those at grassroots. Market it to them, sensitize them on it's relevance as one way that would promote uptake. Mediums of delivery, are as crucial - such as Broadband. Infact this is of top priority. It's still too costly, for those who would need to interact with Technology, maybe just to access basic Govt. services. We need to decisively drive pricing downwards for broadband at grassroots level as a matter of urgency, otherwise projects like E-Learning, will make little sense to those who need equipping most. We have to bring service providers around the table and impress upon them why we feel they hold the key to the nation's developmental agenda, and why it's important they partner to drive pricing to 10% of the current rates, especially in low income areas - and institutions of basic learning. Is it a far fetched idea..? I do not think so... Lastly, please let's drive out "vested" interests from the national agenda, and be pragmatic.. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Barrack Otieno Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 7:44 PM To: [email protected] Cc: ke-users; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] E-Government is it a myth or a reality? Listers, I have been following discussions on this list that seem to be touching on the above mentioned subject. We seem to be spending large sums on meetings strategizing and restrategizing however are we really making any headway? at this point in time we are still required to "fill in some forms" whenever we seek government services is this e-government? we are now talking about shared services i thought e-government implemented a project that networked most government offices, however you have to travel physically to offices to get services, at times we confuse the public with ICT jargon what the public needs is efficiency and effectiveness in service provision. ICT4D on the other hand has been infiltrated by commercial interests, i wonder what should prevail when "commercial" and "public" interests meet, probably we should spend more money on change management, capacity building and awareness campaigns as opposed to this "strategy meetings" which will only lead to analysis paralysis My thoughts -- Barrack O. Otieno Administrative Manager Afriregister Ltd (Ke) P.o.Box 21682 Nairobi 00100 Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 +254202498789 Riara Road, Bamboo Lane www.afriregister.com www.afriregister.co.ke ICANN accredited registrar. Skype: barrack.otieno _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: [email protected] Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/harry%40comtelsys.co.ke