Abstract
This chapter proposes policies and programs to use e-government and e-society for public sector transformation and social inclusion that provide maximum impact only when integrated with other elements of e-development. A holistic approach to e-government and e-society develops the enabling policies and institutions that promote ICT adoption and diffusion. It raises public awareness and e-literacy at large, while investing in the specialized technical and leadership skills for a knowledge society. It also promotes local competencies and ICT services to support user-producer linkages and mutual learning for e-government and e-society. Additionally, it induces investment in extending and upgrading the information infrastructure for a competitive knowledge economy and an inclusive information society.
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Notes
- 1.
The figure is a highly simplified representation of the key enablers and application areas of ICT and the many possible interdependencies among them.
- 2.
A 2D approach to ICT in development is advanced in Chapter 12 of the GITR 2007–2008. It covers some key elements of the e-development framework, and shows how useful this would be as a diagnostic approach to secure a balanced course between the ICT infrastructure (including capabilities to support infrastructure) and ICT ecosystem (policies and institutions). Our proposed framework is more comprehensive and detailed, and includes ICT systems as part of the hard infrastructure, and human resources and technological capabilities as part of the ecosystem or soft infrastructure. Yet, the GITR shows that the 2D model can help manage a balanced course and take account of interactions among these composite dimensions.
- 3.
For a review of many national e-strategies, see World Bank (2006, 87–124).
- 4.
For a significantly more detailed analysis of these institutional models and institutional innovations and their strengths and weaknesses, see Hanna and Qiang chapter “Trends in National E-Government Institutions” in Information and Communications for Development 2009 : Extending Reach and Increasing Impact; and a more expanded version in Hanna (2007b) e-Leadership Institutions for the Knowledge Economy.
- 5.
The number of nations who turned to such task forces is notable: Singapore in 1992, USA in 1993; followed by Japan, Korea, China, and Brazil, among others. See Wilson (2004).
- 6.
India provides an example of the services provided by the central department of IT at the federal level. The department diffuses and scales up successful priority e-government applications at the state level and adapts and matches central support to local state priorities.
- 7.
The same arguments can be made for other knowledge economy institutions (Hanna, 2007b). Much of the experimentation, support services, and partnerships must be forged at the regional, city, and cluster levels where cooperation, competition, and institutional partnerships occur.
- 8.
For such leadership qualities, in general, see Zander and Zander, 2000.
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Hanna, N.K. (2010). Toward a Holistic Approach to Government and Social Transformation. In: Transforming Government and Building the Information Society. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1506-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1506-1_9
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