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 <mailto:wangechi@africanedevelopment.org> 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