Hippi desak pembangunan e-government

Wakil Ketua Umum Hippi Wawan Setiawan mengatakan e-government sangat penting bagi pengembangan TIK, mengingat keberadaannya yang mampu menjembatani berbagai kepentingan, terutama untuk menditribusi layanan kepada masyarakat.

Himpunan Pengusaha Pribumi Indonesia (Hippi) mendorong pemerintah untuk serius membangun e-government, sebagai bagian dari dukungan terhadap pengembangan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi (TIK).

Wakil Ketua Umum Hippi Wawan Setiawan mengatakan e-government sangat penting bagi pengembangan TIK, mengingat keberadaannya yang mampu menjembatani berbagai kepentingan, terutama untuk menditribusi layanan kepada masyarakat.

Menurut dia, Indonesia saat ini sudah mengalami perkembangan yang cukup signifikan terhadap TIK, tetapi peran pemerintah masih sangat minim dengan e-government yang belum berjalan sesuai yang diharapkan.

Dalam hal ini, keberadaan e-government diharapkan mampu dijadikan sebagai alat yang antara lain untuk mempresentasikan kinerja pemerintah, transparansi data, dan mensosialisasikan berbagai kebijakan yang berhubungan dengan masyarakat.

“E-government sebagai bagian dari TIK ini seharusnya dapat menjembatani antara pemerintah dengan masyarakat, sekaligus menjadi dasar untuk pengembangan TIK yang cenderung sudah menjadi kebutuhan dalam masyarakat,” ujarnya di sela-sela National E-Government Inisiative, Digital Development Forum (DDF) 2011, hari ini.

Konsep e-government juga terkait dengan model e-business lainya, yaitu business to business, business to customer, customer to customer, dan customer to business.

Sementara itu, sejumlah negara di Asia saat ini juga terus berupaya untuk membangun e-government yang akan disinergikan dengan berbagai layanan elektronik lainnya, dalam mendukung pengembangan TIK

Bisnis Indonesia

Pidato Lengkap SBY Soal SMS Fitnah

suaramerdeka.com

Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) menggelar jumpa pers khusus menyikapi beredarnya SMS yang menyudutkan dirinya. Merasa difitnah, SBY membantah tuduhan-tuduhan tersebut.Berikut isi pidato lengkap SBY saat berbicara di Bandara Halim Perdanakusuma, sesaat sebelum keberangkatannya ke Kalimantan Barat, Senin (30/5/2011):

Saudara-saudara, selama dua hari libur, saya menerima tamu dan bertemu dengan banyak sahabat. Kita bicarakan banyak hal termasuk yang beredar di masyarakat, berkaitan dengan pemberitaan yang tidak jelas sumbernya, mengandung fitnah yang sangat keterlaluan.

Kalau bicara fitnah, banyak orang negeri ini yang menjadi korban, saya salah satunya. Selama mengemban amanah melalui pemilu yang sah dan demokratis, saya kira ratusan fitnah datang kepada saya. Selama ini saya memilih diam. Satu kali dua kali manakala fitnah itu keterlaluan, maka demi nama baik dan merupakan hak saya, saya perlu memberi penjelasan.

Banyak saudara-saudara kita di republik ini yang juga sering jadi korban fitnah. Tapi mereka tidak percaya, tidak bisa bicara dan tidak punya ruang. Mudah-mudahan yang saya sampaikan ini bisa mewakili mereka yg selama ini menjadi korban fitnah.

Saudara, sebagai WNI dan kepala negara saya sedih dan prihatin jika ada saudara kita memiliki perilaku menyebar fitnah tanpa beban apapun, tanpa merasakan. Tadinya saya berharap dengan teknologi informasi yang berkembang seperti SMS, Twitter, BB dan semua jenis media online itu bisa meningkatkan kehidupan bangsa. Itu yang harus dilakukan, bukan media itu digunakan untuk menyebarkan fitnah dan pembunuhan karakter, caci maki terhadap siapapun. Bukan cuma saya, tapi siapapun yang jadi korban teknologi informasi dewasa ini.

Saudara, apa yang saya ketahui, fitnah yang dilemparkan oleh seseorang dari tempat gelap sangat luar biasa. Saya katakan dengan bahasa terang, mereka tidak bertanggung jawab, tidak ksatria, pengecut karena tidak menampakkan diri.

Janganlah terus menerus menyebarkan racun fitnah. Muncullah secara ksatria, mari kita berhadapan demi hukum dan keadilan. Itu 1000 persen tidak mengandung kebenaran. Katanya ada mega skandal Bank Century, itu-itu lagi. Disebutkan tindakan saya yang tidak terpuji. Ada lagi dikatakan PD punya tabungan Rp 47 triliun dan demokrat harus menjelaskan. Terbalik logikanya. Dia yang menuduh dia yang membuktikan.

Jangan lakukan sesuatu dengan sembunyi melalui apa yang beredar sekarang ini. Zaman dahulu dengan alasan demokrasi belum mekar, belum ada kebebasan berbicara dan organ kekuasaan negara bisa ambil tindakan. Mungkin orang takut sampaikan pendapatnya. Sekarang tersedia media massa yang mendiskreditkan di antara kita. Ada tersedia dan sah. Silahkan saja, itu bagian dari kebebasan berbicara.

Saya tidak bisa menerima jika cara seperti itu berlangsung di negeri kita. Saya menyeru supaya tidak diteruskan. Saya juga menyeru mereka yang difitnah untuk menggunakan haknya.

Saya ingin menyeru pada masyarakat Indonesia, janganlah negeri ini jadi tanah dan lautan fitnah, tidak akan mencerdaskan bangsa. Marilah kita menjadi bangsa yang benar-benar beradab, civilized. Justru saat ini kita harus menyatukan langkah untuk bekerjabersama meningkatkan kesejahteraan rakyat.

Saya juga ingatkan, muncul situasi sekarang ini kegiatan mengadu domba satu sama lain. Mari kita aware satu sama lain.

Saya juga imbau media massa, yang punya peran sangat luhur juga, ariflah. Bayangkan kalau sebuah sumber yang sangat tidak jelas diangkat menjadi sumber berita. Rakyat kita ini dapat apa. Mestinya kita bersyukur ketika negeri kita saat ini memiliki momentum, telah melalui masa gelap. Jangan kita merugi energi kita habis untuk menghadapi hal-hal seperti ini. Kehidupan yang bermoral, beretika, beradab, segalanya dipertanggungjawabkan secara ksatria, tidak pengecut.

detik.com

Australia invests on a one-stop shop for human services IT

The Federal Government of Australia will invest more than $530 million over the next four years to consolidate the ICT infrastructure of Centrelink, Medicare and the Child Support Agency.

Over the next four years, the Department of Human Services will move to a single shared gateway for the three portfolios, with a single security management system for payment systems across the three agencies. All department staff will also move to a single portal, desktop and email system.

The department will also invest in a new data recovery centre to house customer data, and move to a single consolidated data management system.

The government will invest a further $157.6 million to develop the single online portal for customers of the three support agencies to manage their information and make transactions in the one place, using a single secure log-in.

The department is expecting to make $140.4 million in savings over the next four years through greater automation of services and processes via the new online portal. The department is expecting to cut down on the amount of paperwork through the development of the online portal that will allow customers to fill out forms securely online to apply for new services or update their details.


futuregov.asia

Singapore outsources maintenance of the National Service Portal

Singapore’s Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) awarded NCS Group, a regional IT and communications engineering solutions provider, a new five-year contract to manage and maintain the National Service (NS) Portal, Data Centre and Call Centre.

The NS Portal is one of the top websites in Singapore today, listed in 2010 as No. 1 by Hitwise, a global online competitive intelligence service, in the Organization Community category.

Under the new agreement with MINDEF, NCS will provide end-to-end services, including setting up of infrastructure, management and operation of the NS Portal, continuous enhancement of e-services, and management of the call centre and the data centre. NCS will also provide round-the-clock Security Operating Centre (SOC) monitoring, which includes Intrusion Prevention and Detection Systems.

“The NS Portal is not just about a positive e-service experience; it’s about the community of men and women serving the country. We are excited for the opportunity to continue sharing our expertise in technology with MINDEF, and be part of the efforts to engage the NS community,” Chia Wee Boon, Chief Executive Officer of NCS Group said.

The portal receives an average of 7.9 million page views and 564,000 e-transactions a month. Over 400,000 servicemen have used the portal to make NS-related transactions and stay connected with their NS friends.

futuregov.asia

LG CNS Signs MOU on e-Government with Panama

LG CNS signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on e-Government collaboration with the Panama government at its headquarters in Seoul, on the 27th. At the gathering, attended by 20 guests including LG CNS CEO (Dae Hoon Kim), Secretariat of the Presidency for Governmental Innovation in Panama (Eduardo Jaén), and Director of the Applied Technology Directorate in Panama (Eduardo Briceño), LG CNS agreed to actively support the Panama e-Government Project, which includes security solutions consulting.

At this meeting, the CEO stated, “Based on our experience in engaging in large e-Government businesses in and out of the country, LG CNS plans to actively support the promotion of the Panama e-Government Project. In the near future, LG CNS will utilize its experience in global security solutions to step up its advancement into the South & Central American markets.”

On a different note, LG CNS has successfully completed its projects of establishing the Mongolia Emergency Information Network (EIN) system and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) of the Indonesia Police Agency, and is preparing for its second phase of operations. LG CNS is also currently engaging in other overseas e-Government businesses, including the Morocco National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and the Indonesia National Financial Information System (NAFIS).

PRweb

German government wants nuclear exit by 2022 at latest

Germany will shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government agreed on Monday, in a reaction to Japan's Fukushima disaster that marks a drastic policy reversal.

As expected, the coalition wants to keep the eight oldest of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. Seven were closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. One has been off the grid for years.

Another six will be taken offline by 2021, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said early on Monday after late-night talks in the chancellor's office between leaders of the center-right coalition.

The remaining three reactors, Germany's newest, will stay open for another year until 2022 as a safety buffer to ensure no disruption to power supply, he said.

Merkel backtracked in March on an unpopular decision just months earlier to extend the life of aging nuclear stations in Germany, where the majority of voters oppose atomic energy.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and junior coalition partner the Free Democrats (FDP) met on Sunday after an ethics commission ended its deliberations this weekend.

"It's definite: the latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022," Roettgen said after the meeting. "There will be no clause for revision."

Some politicians had wanted a clause allowing for the agreement to be revised in future. The FDP had wanted no firm date but rather a flexible window for the exit, plus the option of bringing back at least one of the seven oldest nuclear reactors in case of emergency.

The coalition agreed to keep one of the older reactors as a "cold reserve" for 2013, if the transition to renewable energies cannot meet winter demand and if fossil fuels do not suffice to make up for a potential shortfall.

IMPACT OF FUKUSHIMA

A massive earthquake and tsunami in March crippled Japan's Fukushima plant, causing releases of radioactivity, sparking calls for tougher global safety measures and prompting some governments to reconsider their nuclear energy strategy.

The German decision still needs to go through parliament and leaders of the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens were present at parts of the meeting to enable a broad consensus.

The decision could still face opposition from RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW, the utility companies that run the 17 plants, mostly because of plans to keep a disputed nuclear fuel rod tax.

The coalition wants to retain the tax, which was expected to raise 2.3 billion euros ($3.29 billion) a year from this year, but so far has not been levied. With the immediate exit of eight plants, however, it will raise less than envisaged.

Sources had said the government was mulling scrapping the tax in return for the four big power providers supporting an earlier exit from nuclear energy and not suing the government for its policy U-turn.

Juergen Grossmann, chief executive of the biggest power provider, RWE, has lobbied for nuclear plants to stay open longer, arguing a quick exit would cost energy-intensive industry dearly and could threaten Germany's industrial base.

Before Merkel shut down the oldest plants for three months, Germany got 23 percent of its power from nuclear plants.

Her about-turn has done little to regain her support, but has drawn scorn from the opposition and from within her own party ranks. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against nuclear energy at the weekend all across Germany.

Nuclear policy is heavily disputed in Germany and the issue has helped boost the Greens, which captured control of one of the CDU's stronghold states, Baden-Wuerttemberg, in an election in March.

Merkel's majority in the Bundesrat upper house vanished last year after the CDU failed to hold onto North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. Losing Baden-Wuerttemberg, a vote held after Fukushima and fought in part over energy issues, dealt another blow to Merkel's authority.

Germany to decide on nuclear phase-out plans

Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition is expected on Sunday to formulate a timetable for closing Germany's nuclear power plants and a plan for replacing their output.

Merkel in March backtracked on an unpopular decision just months earlier to extend the life of aging nuclear stations in Germany, where the majority of voters opposes nuclear energy.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), her Bavarian sister Christian Social Union (CSU) party and junior coalition partner the Free Democrats (FDP) were meeting on Sunday after an ethics commission ended its deliberations this weekend.

After meeting with heads of the federal states and just before the start of the coalition meeting, Merkel said:

"I think we're on a good path but very, very many questions have to be considered," she told reporters, referring to the costs of electricity and a secure power supply.

"If you want to exit something, you also have to prove how the change will work and how we can enter into a durable and sustainable energy provision."

Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported an agreement among the coalition was not expected on Sunday and the coalition parties had already called another round of crisis talks next weekend, but it gave no sources.

EXIT IN 10 YEARS?

The ethics commission, set up by the government after the Fukushima disaster to report on the future of Germany's nuclear power industry, will present its findings formally on Monday.

A draft of the commission's report, seen by Reuters, concluded that nuclear power can be phased out by 2021 at the latest, a call that the conservatives support.

One sticking point could be that the junior coalition partner FDP does not want a firm date but rather a flexible window for the exit, plus the option of bringing back at least one of the seven oldest nuclear reactors in case of emergency.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in March crippled the Japanese nuclear power plant, causing releases of radioactivity, sparking calls for tougher global safety measures and prompting some governments to reconsider their nuclear energy strategy.

Merkel shut the seven oldest reactors just after Fukushima while her government decided on the future of the industry. Some analysts believe they will never reopen.

The government also may decide to scrap a tax on nuclear fuel rods, which was expected to raise 2.3 billion euros ($3.29 billion) a year from this year, but so far has not been levied.

Media reports have suggested the tax may be scrapped in return for the power firms supporting an earlier exit from nuclear energy.

Merkel's about-turn on the decision to extend the life of nuclear power stations has drawn scorn from the opposition and from within her own party ranks.

The 17 nuclear power plants are run by four utilities -- RWE , E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW.

Juergen Grossmann, chief executive of Germany's biggest power provider RWE, has lobbied for nuclear plants to stay open longer, arguing a quick exit would cost energy-intensive industry dearly and could threaten Germany's industrial base.

Last week, environment ministers from Germany's federal states called for all seven suspended reactors to be permanently shut, while the federal environment ministry argued that nuclear power could be phased out entirely by 2017.

Before Merkel shut down the oldest seven plants for three months, Germany got 23 percent of its power from nuclear plants.

Nuclear policy is more closely watched in Germany than in some of its neighbors and has boosted the Greens party, which has risen from rank outsider to take control of one of the CDU's stronghold states, Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Merkel's majority in the Bundesrat upper house vanished last year after the CDU failed to hold onto North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. Losing Baden-Wuerttemberg this year, a regional vote held after Fukushima and fought in part over energy issues, dealt another blow to Merkel's authority.

reuters.com | telegraph.co.uk

Make eGovernment services more accessible

On 27 May the Council adopted conclusions on the European eGovernment action plan for the period 2011-2015. The aim of the action plan is to promote the take-up of eGovernment (electronic government) services at local, regional and EU level, in order to make them more accessible and available for citizens and businesses throughout the EU regardless of their country of origin.

The action plan sets out specific practical measures aimed at ensuring that, by 2015, among other things it will be much easier for people to apply for and access social security and health benefits, transfer pension rights from one EU state to another or study anywhere in the Europe.

Moreover, inclusive and accessible electronic government services will help people with disabilities and other groups at risk of exclusion to be more self-reliant and able to use self-service solutions through digital interaction with public administration.

For businesses, seamless cross-border eGovernment services will make it easier to open a branch or subsidiary in another EU member state or to provide their services or goods anywhere in Europe.

Under the action plan, users will participate in shaping online public services in order to ensure that those facilities are best suited to their needs.

In addition, joint action on eGovernment by member states will contribute to a more efficient use of public resources and to reducing public expenditure. It will also reduce administrative burdens by simplifying procedures and communication, and improve organisational processes by using innovative technologies such as electronic services for the ageing society.

Another positive consequence of using eGovernment services is that it will reduce public administrations' carbon footprint.

The action plan aims to increase the use of eGovernment services to 50 % of EU citizens and 80 % of EU businesses by 2015.

To achieve this, the member states are being asked to undertake specific practical tasks such as raising awareness of and building trust in eGovernment services among EU citizens, encouraging the use of social networking and collaborative tools to facilitate more fluid communication between public administration and citizens, enhancing the security and privacy of eGovernment services and increasing citizens' trust and confidence in them.

consilium.europa.eu

Copier and Printer – A National Security risk?

From Plaza eGov

Data breaches are big business – of the worst kind – and it might be happening right under your nose from your imaging and printing devices, says Pierre Mirlesse, Vice President, Managed Enterprise Solutions, Imaging & Printing Group of Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific & Japan.

Data breaches from your imaging and printing devices can cost a government agency millions of dollars in damages and pose a serious breach of privacy laws.

A popular television network in the US recently revealed and what could possibly be the biggest threat to a government agency.

Nearly every digital copier or printer built since 2002 contains a hard drive that stores an image of every document scanned, copied or emailed by the machine.

In the process it makes the machine a digital time bomb filled with information that might be highly personal or sensitive data.

A technology consultant in New Jersey, USA was shocked to find out the printers he bought had images of thousands of documents with highly sensitive data including national crime division’s detailed accounts of adult offenders including their addresses with specifics of their offense; one of the devices from an insurance firm had images of 300 pages of detailed individual medical records.

Arguably this was a serious breach of privacy laws and potential threat to national security.

With the velocity, veracity and volume of security breaches increasing at a dramatic rate, protecting government networks is one of the most critical national security challenges facing governments today.

Governments have sophisticated procedures for securing paper documentation and protecting electronic data stored in PCs and servers.

However, the process of turning electronic information to paper documents is often overlooked.

As printers have evolved from simple output devices to multi-functional, networked tools (MFPs), they can be as vulnerable as PCs.

To ensure that data being printed remain confidential, it is important to first assess your imaging and printing environment to understand the possible vulnerabilities:

1. Output tray: How many documents are sitting in your MFP output trays in your department right now? Are they confidential? Who can see them, pick them up and share them? 
2. Hard disk: Did you know printers and MFPs are equipped with a hard disk where copies of the data sent for printing are stored? A printer leaving your agency could have a drive full of sensitive information.
3. Network: An internet search for “sniffers” will pull up numerous applications to intercept print jobs as they travel over the network to a printer or MFP.
4. Control panel: MFPs are powerful devices. Wit hout full visibility over access and use of the device, you can’t control use and prevent abuse.
5. Input tray: Organisations often use special media to print official documents, prescriptions or cheques. Without secure input trays, these media can be tampered with or stolen.
6. Fleet control: Controlling a handful of printers is easy enough, but systematically securing an entire fleet of devices requires thoughtful planning and a tailored solution.

By assessing your fleet and determining what types of devices you have, how they are used and by whom, you can implement security features and solutions that greatly reduce the chance of a breach.

The following three steps will help reduce the chance of compromising information on your output devices:

Secure the Document by ensuring your device can support

• Authentication – HP MFPs support authentication. A variety of numeric keypad, proximity, and swipe-card solutions are also available. 
• Control panel lock – Using a password to prevent unauthorised users from changing device configuration.
• Private PIN printing – HP MFPs allow a personal identification number per print job, which is only released after that PIN is entered at the control panel.

Secure the Device with

• Disk drive lockout – The hard disk drive on many HP LaserJet MFPs and printers can be physically secured using a lock that requires a physical key for removal. 
• Hard disk overwrite – HP MFPs and printers provide built-in capability for overwriting data stored on them, allowing sensitive data to be safely removed.

Protect the Network with

• Encryption – Encryption of network-transmitted data stored on hard disk drives secures print jobs from the printing client to the MFP‘s or printer‘s internal printing engine.
  
• Server-based access control like Windows NTLM, LDAP, Kerberos, and Novell authentication and authorisation. Most HP MFPs have device-based LDAP authentication.
  
• Usage reporting – Track usage for all models by job, user, device, or application via the HP Web Jetadmin Report Generation plug-in.
  
• Content security management – Control document access, revision, and lifespan from HP Information Lifecycle Management Solutions and HP Secure Printing Solutions.

futuregov.asia

Open govt for better disaster preparedness in Japan

In the wake of March’s earthquake and tsunami that claimed 14,000 lives, the Japanese government is planning to introduce two measures meant to reduce the number of casualties.

First is to make tsunami warning alerts more accurate and tailored for the individual; and secondly, the government will move towards a more transparent and open government approach to raw disaster data.

Horoichi Kawashima, Special Advisor, ICT, Saga Prefecture, told FutureGov Asia Pacific that the IT professionals and government officals are discussing ways to reduce the number of casualties based on lessons from the March 2011 disaster.

“We are talking about making our relationship with citizens more proactive and providing accurate information to each citizen depending on where they are located,” Kawashima said.

He said that the government should have accurate monitoring information on what time the tsunami wave will hit which locations, how high it is, and where is an appropriate safeplace depending on each citizen’s current location.

“With a more pro-active approach to each individual, we can send a tailored message. So a citizen located in District A should be told which safeplace to go to, and which route to take. If we had a better alarm system that is more accurate and pinpoints exact locations to individuals, it will be a way we can reduce the number of casualties.”

He says that the current voice announcement system only has a single message which “some people didn’t take seriously”.

Kawashima also said that the government should disseminate information that they have quickly—regardless of how accurate it is. His rationale is that if the information was available to the public and foreign governments, “people can interpret the raw data and get comfortable with what is actually happening”.

“Although some interpretations might be wrong, having more information sets people at ease. During the nuclear disaster, there were a lot of criticisms from the private sector and foreign governments on why more information wasn’t provided quickly and transparently,” Kawashima said.

“We are thinking about making our local government and the central government release raw data quickly even though it might not be perfect.”

futuregov.asia

Fuel rods may have melted in more Japanese reactors, company says

Nuclear fuel rods in two more reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan are believed to have melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis, the owner of the facility said Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a "major part" of the fuel rods in reactor No. 2 may have melted and fallen to the bottom of the pressure vessel 101 hours after the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the plant.

The same thing happened within the first 60 hours at reactor No. 3, the company said, releasing a worst-case scenario analysis.

The fuel is believed to be sitting at the bottom of the pressure vessel in each reactor building.

Tokyo Electric also released a second possible scenario for reactors 2 and 3, one that estimates a full meltdown did not occur. In that scenario, the water inside the reactors stayed at a higher level. Tepco estimates the fuel rods may have also broken in this second scenario, but may not have completely melted.

Temperature data shows the two reactors have cooled sufficiently in the more than two months since the incident, Tokyo Electric said.

A March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at Fukushima Daiichi, causing the three operating reactors to overheat. That compounded a natural disaster by spewing vast quantities of radioactive material into the atmosphere.



Tokyo Electric has already reported that damage to the No. 1 reactor was more extensive than previously believed. The company says the fuel rods at the heart of the reactor melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck, the remnants of that core are now sitting in the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel at the heart of the unit and that vessel is now believed to be leaking.

Tokyo Electric has avoided using the term "meltdown," and says it is keeping the remnants of the core cool. But U.S. experts interviewed by CNN say that while they may be containing the situation, the damage has already been done.

"On the basis of what they showed, if there's not fuel left in the core, I don't know what it is other than a complete meltdown," Gary Was, a University of Michigan nuclear engineering professor and CNN consultant, said this month. And given the damage reported at the other units, "It's hard to imagine the scenarios can differ that much for those reactors."

A massive hydrogen explosion -- a symptom of the reactor's overheating -- blew the roof off the No. 1 reactor unit the day after the earthquake, and another hydrogen blast ripped apart the No. 3 reactor building two days later. A suspected hydrogen detonation within the No. 2 reactor is believed to have damaged that unit on May 15.

In Unit 1, the remnants of the fuel rods are going to be far cooler than they were at the worst of the accident, more than two months ago. That mass likely resembles "a pile of gravel, with a central portion of it being liquid or close to liquid," said Kenneth Bergeron, a physicist and former staffer at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

"What's going to be true is that portions of the debris bed will be at different states, different temperatures, and some of it will be liquid," Bergeron said. The liquid portion still has the potential to burn through the bottom of the thick steel pressure vessel, which he said is already likely to be leaking through damaged seals around the machinery that drives the reactor control rods.

Jack DeVine, who helped lead the cleanup of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant after the 1979 partial meltdown there, said the pressure vessel itself was "probably fine," but pipes and valves that lead into it are "softer spots" that are probably the source of the leak.

CNN

45 Juta Anak Indonesia Tidak Tercatat Kelahirannya

LSM yang bergerak di bidang kesejahteraan anak, Plan Indonesia, mengatakan masih banyak anak-anak Indonesia yang tidak tercatat kelahirannya sehingga rentan diperdagangkan dan mengalami kekerasan.

"Pendaftaran kelahiran adalah kunci untuk mengakses layanan kesehatan, mendaftarkan diri di sekolah, mewarisi harta, mencegah eksploitasi anak dan mencari pekerjaan. Ini adalah bukti identitas dan memungkinkan orang untuk mengklaim hak-hak dasar mereka," kata Direktur Plan Indonesia John McDonough, di Jakarta, Rabu, sehubungan peringatan Hari Anak Hilang Internasional.

John McDonough mengatakan di Indonesia hanya 32 juta anak yang tercatat kelahirannya, sementara lebih dari 45 juta anak tidak tercatat kelahirannya (SUSENAS 2007).

Ia mengatakan, dalam kehidupan bernegara ada lebih dari 45 juta anak di Indonesia yang tidak diakui keberadaannya secara sah oleh Negara, dan tentunya mereka sangat rentan terhadap perdagangan anak dan kekerasan terhadap anak lainnya.

Hal yang sama juga terjadi di negara-negara berkembang. Menurut LSM Plan, jutaan anak-anak di negara berkembang memiliki risiko lebih besar untuk diperdagangkan, diculik atau dilecehkan. Pasalnya, banyak dari mereka yang tidak memiliki akta kelahiran, sehingga tidak tercatat dalam data kependudukan.

Secara global, diperkirakan 1,2 juta anak diperdagangkan setiap tahunnya. Pada saat yang sama, ada sekitar 51 juta anak, atau satu dari tiga kelahiran anak di dunia tidak terdaftar. Mayoritas kelahiran yang tidak tercatat berasal dari negara-negara di Asia Selatan dan Sub-Sahara Afrika.

Anak-anak yang tidak terdaftar itu tidak memiliki posisi hukum, dan karenanya tidak memiliki hak-hak dasar seperti pendidikan dan kesehatan. Pengalaman Plan dalam berurusan dengan kasus anak hilang dan perdagangan manusia di negara-negara seperti Pakistan dan Nepal menunjukkan bahwa akta kelahiran dapat melindungi mereka.

"Anak-anak yang tidak tercatat kelahirannya tetap menjadi tidak nyata dalam tataran kehidupan berbangsa dan bernegara, sehingga mereka lebih rentan terhadap pelanggaran hak asasi manusia," Nadya Kassam, Ketua Global Advokasi Plan.

Lebih lanjut Nadya mengatakan, "Mereka hadir namun secara legal dianggap tidak ada. Akibatnya pelaku perdagangan manusia dapat dengan mudah menyelundupkan anak-anak yang tidak tercatat kelahirannya melintasi perbatasan, dengan memalsukan umur dan identitasnya. Kita bahkan tidak bisa secara akurat memperkirakan skala kejahatan ini karena ribuan anak yang hilang tidak ada dalam hitungan pemerintah."

Sejak tahun 2005, kampanye pencatatan kelahiran yang dilakukan Plan telah memfasilitasi pendaftaran lebih dari 40 juta orang di 32 negara, sebagian besar diantaranya adalah anak-anak. Kampanye ini telah membantu terbukanya akses pencatatan kelahiran di 10 negara bagi sekitar 153 juta orang lainnya.

Plan Internasional, sebuah organisasi kemanusiaan dan pengembangan masyarakat yang berpusat pada anak, mengkampanyekan Pencatatan Kelahiran untuk Semua (Universal Birth Registration) dan menyerukan dilakukannya pencatatan kelahiran segera bagi setiap anak di dunia.


Depdagri

Korean city projects to be an international convention city

An official of Busan CVB said, “Launching the MICE Cards in Busan for the first time in Korea proves Busan as a developed international convention & conference city.” and added, “We are always striving to provide a better environment for the hosting of international conferences in Busan.”
(english.busan.go.kr)

Busan Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Korea Tourism Organization recently introduced Meetings, Incentive Travel, Convention, Exhibition (MICE) Cards to various visitors at the 5th International Conference on Surface Plasmon Photonics.

This marked the debut for MICE cards in Korea. 10,000-won MICE cards were given to participants as souvenirs, and card holders will be able to recharge the card in designated information desks and use it for the next 5 years.

About 600 domestic and international conference participants will have the opportunity to use these MICE Cards, which are a kind of debit card that people can use after recharging them. By paying with these cards, users can enjoy discounts at various cultural facilities, including galleries and museums, shopping centres and department stores, as well as markets and tourist facilities, including tourist attractions, restaurants, casinos, spas and bars located close to the conference venue.

MICE Cards can also be used for transportation. The card also comes with information on sightseeing in Busan, so users can enjoy discounts while sightseeing in Busan.

According to a representative of Busan Convention & Visitors Bureau, “Launching the MICE Cards in Busan for the first time in Korea proves Busan as a developed international convention & conference city. We are always striving to provide a better environment for the hosting of international conferences in Busan.”

.futuregov.asia

Taiwan searches for public disaster warning media

The National Communications Commission (NCC) is looking for effective media to broadcast earthquake-related information immediately after a temblor is detected by the Central Weather Bureau.

The commission is working to establish an automatic alert system to warn the public before disasters strike. Two short-term proposals have been delivered, both of which could be accomplished within three years.

The first would involve telecom operators providing a location-based service (LBS), which can disseminate disaster-prevention text messages in potential disaster zones using mobile devices.

Currently, Chunghwa Telecom is the only operator using an LBS. It used the service to alert residents of Keelung and Yilan County and motorists along the Suhua Highway after the US’ Pacific Tsunami Warning Center included Taiwan in the tsunami-warning areas following Japan’s massive March 11 earthquake.

The second proposal would ask terrestrial TV services to connect to the weather bureau’s system, Chen said. If an earthquake is detected, an earthquake alert would be shown on the screen.

According to the NCC, the possibility of developing the cell-broadcasting service is not high at present because the most current third-generation phones or smartphones are not equipped with such a function. However, mobile phone manufacturers said they would be able to adjust their assembly lines to incorporate such a feature if the government sets the new specifications.

The NCC will present its proposals to the National Disasters Prevention and Protection Commission, but the Executive Yuan will make the final decision. 


.futuregov.asia

ICT training for Brunei civil servants

Under one of the country’s e-Government Strategic Plan initiatives, Developing Capabilities & Capacity, Brunei has been training its civil service staff in ICT through the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) programme.

From February to March 2011, 44 civil servants completed the ICDL programme which covers modules meant to impart basic knowledge in handling computers especially in utilising e-mails and ICT systems—an objective in line with the e-Government Strategic Plan’s target to have 100 per cent e-mail usage in the civil service.

Sharifah Hajah Fatmah bte Shaikh Haji Ahmad, the Director of Civil Services Institute (IPA), said the government has plans to further proliferate this programme.

“The IPA has provisioned for more trainings to be done, allocating a target of 2,000 officers and staff to participate for the 2011-2012 period,” Ahmad said.

She added that all programmes are in line with the Brunei civil service’s needs and desire to “lessen the skill gap” so as to boost productivity and performance of individuals.

Through ICT training programmes for the civil service, officers and staff of Brunei’s civil service would be more competent, competitive and equipped with skills that are needed to contribute to quality and productivity improvements, said Ahmad.

.futuregov.asia

Pengumuman pemenang lelang E-KTP molor

From Plaza eGov

Pengumuman dan penetapan pemenang lelang proyek E-KTP ditunda lagi hingga awal Juni. Seharusnya, pengumuman dan penetapan lelang itu diumumkan pekan ini seiring berakhirnya masa sanggah. Sekretaris Direktorat Jenderal Kependudukan dan Catatan Sipil Kementerian Dalam Negeri Elvius Dailami mengakui molornya pengumuman dan penetapan pemenang lelang tersebut. "Kami akui memang agak molor tetapi saya yakin semuanya akan berjalan sesuai dengan waktu yang direncanakan," katanya, Kamis (26/5).

Elvius beralasan, lambannya penetapan pemenang lelang ini lantaran adanya cuti bersama yang membuat semua jadwal menjadi berantakan. "Satu hari itu bernilai buat kami," tegasnya.

Saat ini panitia lelang sedang memproses proses penawaran harga. Menurutnya, penawaran harga itu tidak bisa dilakukan dalam waktu yang singkat lantaran pertanggungjawabannya tinggi.

Dia mengatakan, panitia lelang harus mencek ke lapangan barang apa saja yang ditawarkan. Dia berjanji dalam beberapa hari lagi prosesnya akan tuntas.

Anggota Komisi II DPR Akbar Faisal mengatakan, penundaan penetapan lelang ini jelas akan mengganggu jalannya penerapan E-KTP. Dia mencurigai, adanya ketidakjelasan anggaran E-KTP ini. Sebab, dia mengatakan ada anggaran senilai Rp 384 miliar yang diberikan ke daerah untuk pemutakhiran Nomor Induk Kependudukan (NIK) tidak digunakan dengan baik. "Bahkan ada kepala daerah yang mengatakan bahwa uang yang diberikan pemerintah sebagai uang yang dibagikan begitu saja,” tambahnya.

Penerapan E-KTP Molor

Penerapan Elektrik KTP (EKTP), yang direncanakan mulai Juni, molor sampai Agustus. Keterlambatan ini disebabkan perangkat pencetakan KTP tersebut belum turun dari pemerintah pusat.

Penyebab terlambatnya perangkat tersebut dari pusat ke kabupaten/kota seluruh Indonesia belum diketahui secara jelas. “Kami tidak tahu, tanya pusatlah kenapa terlambat pengiriman peralatan tersebut. Akibatnya,E-KTP diluncurkan Agustus mendatang,”ucap Kepala Dinas Kependudukan dan Catatan Sipil Kota Medan Darussallam Pohan,kemarin.

Peralatan tersebut antara lain, webcam (untuk foto), pemindai tanda tangan, pemindai sidik jari, dan komputer. Peralatan ini nantinya akan didrop ke kecamatan. Dinas Kependudukan dan Catatan Sipil hanya menyediakan personel.Personel yang disiapkan adalah empat orang untuk satu kecamatan.

Namun, mereka akan menambah personel sesuai jumlah set peralatan yang dikirim pemerintah pusat ke masing-masing kecamatan. “Kami hanya siapkan personel saja dan tempat.Banyak personel tergantung peralatannya. Kalau dua set minimal enam orang satu kecamatan, kalau tiga sembilan orang. Personel nantinya akan dibina dan diambil dari pegawai. Untuk sementara pegawai kami di-BKOkan ke kecamatan,”tambahnya.

Tidak ada kendala mengenai tempat untuk memproses pembuatan E-KTP. Masing-masing kantor camat punya aula yang bisa dimanfaatkan. “Sarana tidak ada masalah. Aula kantor camat bisa dimanfaatkan untuk proses pembuatannya,” katanya. Di Medan, warga wajib EKTP berjumlah 2.1 juta jiwa lebih. “Selesainya dua sampai tiga bulan karena seluruh Indonesia diproses.Setelah itu,selesai satu hari kalau hanya perpanjangan,” tegasnya.

Apabila E-KTP belum terbit dan KTP manual sudah mati, masyarakat tidak perlu panik. “Sebelum keluar E-KTP,maka KTP lama diperpanjang. Begitu keluar baru kami tarik yang lama.Tidak ada masalah,” pungkas pria yang pernah menjabat Camat Medan Denai ini. Sementara itu, Camat Medan Kota Irvan Siregar mengatakan, mereka siap men-erapkan E-KTP, bahkan menjadi pilot projectpengurusan dan pelayanan masyarakat di kantor camat.

Rencananya mereka akan menambah satu lantai kantor tersebut.Penambahan ruangan ini untuk para staf kecamatan. Ruang kerja staf sekarang bisa untuk pengurusan E-KTP dan urusan lainnya, sehingga masyarakat bisa lebih dimudahkan.“Kami siap dan tidak ada masalah.Intinya kami terus berupaya meningkatkan dalam memberikan pelayanan, ”tandasnya.



Kontan  | Harian Seputar Indonesia

Indonesia to issue electronic IDs in September

From Plaza eGov

In September, the Indonesia government will begin issuing electronic identification cards, known as E-KTPs in 197 districts in Java and Bali. The government has budgeted Rp 5.9 trillion (US$690 million) for the E-KTP project.

These smart cards will have electronic chips containing citizens’ information such as birth date, land ownership, tax status, and hold biometric fingerprint data along with a new permanent identity number which the government said will lead to “greater administrative order”.

Raydonnyzar Moenek, Ministry of Home Affair’s spokesperson, said that E-KTP will be distributed in two phases.

“The first distribution will be done in 197 districts in early September through the end of December 2011. That will be followed by 300 districts in 2012.”

“In order to provide all citizens throughout the country with an E-KTP, we are going to send out officers equipped with laptops and electric generators that will then be used to verify the information of citizens,” Moenek said. “We will also record their fingerprints.”

.futuregov.asia

Information security, e-governance discussed at Kuwait exhibition

lonelyplanet.com

With the aim of executing e-government projects, the Third Kuwait Info Security Conference and Exhibition was launched yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It will be held on May 25 and 26 and is being organized by Pro Media. Apart from different workshops, an exhibition accompanying this conference will also be held.

Information security is an important issue that is related to the life of all those who deal with Information Technology. It depends on safety as well as its security and ability to reach out," said Abdullatief Al-Suraie, Director General Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT). He was speaking during the opening ceremony yesterday.

All evidences prove that Kuwait has entered the era of information to establish an information community that fulfills the wishes of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in transforming Kuwait to financial and commercial center," he added.

This conference will be held in cooperation with the different state bodies to develop the IT sector. It aims to increase efforts made to realize the e-government system, "This will develop the public work improve the performance, which will provide better government services to public," stressed Al-Suraie.

The e-government projects, supervised by the Central Agency, deals with the information security and its privacy, "The Agency also works toward improving and developing the tools and ways of using and protecting information according to international standards applied in this field," he added.

According to Al-Suraie, in order to safeguard oneself from security dangers, users have to be aware of the threats and dangers of authorities, "The companies and utilities should build a network of trustful relations with companies working in the field of consulting and information locally, regionally and internationally. Companies and individuals need the information security for their different fields of work. Hackers led the public and private sector organizations to search for new tools to protect the
ir information," he concluded.

Abdullateef Al-Abdulrazzaq, Chairman Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS) noted that this conference is an opportunity to benefit from the experiences of experts and specialists in IT security and e- crimes, "Not preserving and protecting confidential information may lead to disasters, not any less than natural catastrophes," he said.

The recent spate of earthquakes that devastated Japan has taken a toll on companies as well, "For instance, the Japanese Sony Company recorded losses that amounted to $208 million. Later, some hackers penetrated into the security system of the Company, which caused losses that amounted $ 171 million. This shows that the electronic pirating caused 71 percent of the loscaused by natural disasters," concluded Al-Abdulrazzaq.

kuwaittimes.net

Bangladesh: 20m to Have Internet Access by Year End

lonelyplanet.com

With vigorous attempt of the government to make more people tech savvy to achieve the vision of the Digital Bangladesh, internet accessibility is going to be doubled in less than one year.

An official at the ministry of posts and telecommunications told the news agency on Thursday that internet users in Bangladesh would be around 20 million by the end of this year with a phenomenal increase in the internet connections. Currently, 10 million people are using internet regularly from 1.1 million internet connections.

According to Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh, 60 internet service providers in the private sector are now offering internet services, besides the state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited.

Citing the findings of a report, the official said on an average 10 people used a connection for sending emails and browsing web sites.

Considering the phenomenal growth rate, driven by increasing number of ‘internet population’, he said they were expecting another 10 million people on the online trail from 1 million new connections by the end of 2011.

The number of internet connections was 0.6 million (six laky) in 2009 when the present government came to power with a strong commitment of making the country digitally enriched by 2021. Over the past two years, internet users grew by around 84 per cent to 1.1 million in 2011 from 0.6 million in 2009. The number of connections is projected to be 2 million by this year.

.unpan.org

Fate of Data.gov Revealed; US Gov Almost Completely Drops the Ball

thehopkinsonreport.com

When the annual budgets for e-government initiatives including Data.gov were slashed by 75% last month, it didn't look good for the tech side of transparency. Today federal CIO Vivek Kundra has adressed the fate of these e-government programs in a letter to congress: "No project will go unaffected" he said.

Data.gov, the repository for publicly available data that was promised as a platform to power software and analysis created by and for the public, will remain open. But "there will be no enhancements or other development to address needs for improvement." According to an analysis of Kundra's letter by the watchdog Sunlight Foundation, Data.gov may slow drastically in its efforts to both offer more data and ensure the quality of that data. Other programs, specifically the Fedspace social network for collaboration between federal employees and the Citizen Services Dashboard for reviewing the quality of federal services, will be shut down.

It's amazing that a time when the private sector is growing fully aware of the huge potential in Big Data, the US Federal Government can barely maintain its own minimal projects on the topic.

Global consulting firm McKinsey published a major new report this week on the topic of big data, saying it "will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus as long as the right policies and enablers are in place."

Discussing that report, leading data visualization blogger Nathan Yau writes:

"I've said it before, but if digging into data is your idea of fun, there's a whole mess of excitement and adventure headed your way. There are lots of opportunities already out there in marketing, journalism, tech, the Web, government, and pretty much everywhere you look. And more importantly, there are lots of opportunities that you can make for yourself. This is a great time for data heads."

It's heartbreaking that the Federal Government's engagement with this historic meta-opportunity appears to be waning already.

.readwriteweb.com

Deputy minister: Azerbaijan determines concrete steps for transition to e-government

In accordance with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's order on some measures in the field of provision of e-services by government agencies, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan starts the analysis of the current situation to develop specific measures in this regard within three months, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology Iltimas Mammadov said.

Mammadov said the Presidential order determines the specific directions for the transition to e-government and use of e-services in the territory of the Republic.
The order tasks the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies to accelerate the interaction with other government agencies.

"The transition to e-government does not mean the transition of only one ministry or department. Each department must prepare a related infrastructure for the introduction of e-services to further ensure their connection to a single e-government portal. "This, in turn, will create for them the possibility of mutual use and exchange of existing information," said Mammadov.
Concerning preparedness of ministries and departments of Azerbaijan to introduce e-services, Mammadov said it is at different levels in different departments.

"There are certain structures where the use of e-services is at a very high level. This is the Ministry of Taxes, State Customs Committee. The e-services are used at the Ministry of Education to a certain degree. But there is a structure where the work in this direction only begins. Therefore, the Presidential order will improve the process of informatization and level of preparedness of those departments where e-services are not yet applied, as well as further enhance the level of informatization of those departments where the infrastructure for e-service delivery is at a high level," said Mammadov.

Funds will be allocated for this that will create the necessary conditions for transition to e-government and using a single portal of e-services, Mammadov said.

en.trend.az

Australia invests on e-mental health portal

Photo by Leland Francisco (Lel4nd), Flickr.

The Australian government is investing A$14.4 million (US$15.5 million) over five years to develop a single e-mental health online portal to make it easier for people with mental illness to access information and services.

The portal seeks to provide online training and support to general practitioners, indigenous health workers, and other clinicians working in the mental health field. In addition, it will be a substantial help to those in regional Australia struggling to gain access to face-to-face treatment as well as those who seek for information and medical attention anonymously.

The e-mental health portal will consolidate existing but often “scattered” websites and telephone services to give people access to a range of online or telephone-based services through a “virtual clinic”.

It will give consumers access to a range of online assistance at different treatment levels and give health workers access to information, training and other related resources that would help them deliver health services and treatment.

The portal joins a roster of single-stop Web shops announced by the government, including the allocation of A$38.7 million (US$41.2 million) to the Human Services portfolio over four years for the completion of its single website and telephone number.

According to the federal government, a part of the funding will be met from agency resources, and will support the continued development of a single portfolio website which will include a personalised Web browsing that will enable users to find information relevant to their personal circumstances.

futuregov.asia

China firm tells of Fiji Government project

Alcatel-Lucent has told how the Fiji Government has completed its e-Government phase one project acquired from Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent’s flagship company in China.This initial deployment links Government offices, data centres, and remote Government service hubs at community centres and provides VoIP telephony via the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX.

The other phases in the operation include Genesys Contact Center solutions along with a pilot deployment of a multi-service IP network based on the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 9700, OmniSwitch 6850 and OmniVista Network Management System (NMS).

Said Rajeev Singh-Molares, President of the Asia-Pacific region for Alcatel-Lucent: “Alcatel-Lucent is committed to helping Governments become dynamic enterprises by increasing productivity through dynamic employee and public engagement, thus transforming how business is done.

“It is through this transformation that operating costs are cut and government image is enhanced while interactions and collaboration with the business communities and citizens are made easier and more successful.”

The Fiji Government recently unveiled its data centre, to provide a secure environment ensuring privacy and integrity of the information kept by the government and assures workers and citizens alike that their most confidential information stays that way.

Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and Jim Yao, executive vice president of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, attended this government Data Centre Opening Ceremony.

Through its services, Alcatel-Lucent is helping Fiji’s Government employees to work more efficiently allowing them to deliver improved public services.

“I acknowledge Alcatel-Lucent which participated in this project,” said Commodore Bainimarama.

“e-Government not only means a leaner, more cost-effective government but it also makes government systems and processes transparent.”

Alcatel-Lucent is a leader in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in applications and services. With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organisations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach.
TMCnet

Where technology should be used to improve policy-making, and is not

Since the dawn of Information Society and E-Government programs, the objective of increasing transparency and citizen participation in policy-making has been high on the agenda of most countries, states and cities. Terms like e-participation, e-consultation, e-petition have been used to indicate different ways in which IT could ease the engagement in political decision-making.

The advent of Web 2.0 has increased the appetite for even greater and more effective engagement, also in view of the shifting attitude in Internet use, with more people creating content through blogs, wikis and social networks of all sorts.

Open government initiatives have provided the platform for more systematic engagement, by promoting the provision of more information, by pushing departments and agencies toward innovative ways to involve citizens in discussions about city planning, budget formulation, trash management, environmental monitoring and so forth. Mechanisms such as idea contests, unconferences, jam sessions, policy blogs and fora are proving very helpful. However, most of these are applied relatively late in the policy-making process.

Policy-making includes the following phases:

• Conception: policies are usually initiated by parliamentary or government committees. These ma be consulting with targeted constituencies (such as consumer or professional associations, unions, political parties).

• Drafting: the original idea is developed into a draft text, which usually undergoes a number of inter-departmental consultations; the outcome is a draft that is ready for public consultation

• Public consultation: the draft is exposed to the public for a general consultation.

• Finalization: the input received through public consultation is processed, together with further internal debate. The outcome is a final draft that goes through parliamentary or government discussion or both for approval.

The focus of electronic participation and, more recently, of open government has been primarily the public consultation. The main goal is to provide additional, easier and more compelling channels for citizens to be enticed to participate. With open government, there have also been modest attempts at addressing the drafting phase, by using policy wikis, and even the conception phase through idea collection initiatives.

What is still missing in most cases, though, is the use of technology much more upstream in the policy-making process. The increasing wealth of data that people put online every day provides an invaluable source of information to explore existing issues, to uncover trends, desires, sentiments that can inspire the conception of new policies. Of course creating a web site or a Facebook page or a discussion forum where citizens can propose ideas is a step in the right direction, but somewhat self selects the audience: in fact only people who have a vested interest or a passion for a particular issue will participate. But what about all the conversations where people share problems, suggestions, even solutions, which do not happen on an e-participation web site, but pop out from online communities where people socialize for reasons that have nothing to do with politics?

This is a classical example of what I call the asymmetry of open government. Rather than just creating avenues for people to participate, governments should listen to what people say in their own communities, and distill stimuli to conceive new policies.

Of course I am not advocating eavesdropping, but being attentive to where people debate in the open, and engage – once again at an individual level (civil servants and political staffers alike) – on the citizen’s own turf.

There are a few reasons why this is not happening, some good and some less good. The risk of being perceived as intruding or controlling citizen free speech is clear and present, and this is why it is up to individual employees and not to the government organizations they work for to engage.

This can be a time-consuming activity, and its ROI on the efficiency and effectiveness of the policy-making process may be difficult to demonstrate. This is why government employees’ engagement in external social networks (in the context of their job role and responsibilities) is so important, as they become the eyes and ears that are needed to advise their hierarchy and ultimately senior political leaders on the conception of new or amended policies.

I honestly believe that the problems above can be overcome. But what is a much thornier issue is the potential risk that this approach poses to those institutional counterparts to government, such as formal associations and political parties, that would see the disintermediation of the policy-making process as a threat to their own existence.


==============
Andrea Di Maio is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research, where he focuses on the public sector, with particular reference to e-government strategies, Web 2.0, open government, cloud computing, the business value of IT, open-source software, green IT and the impact of technology on the future of government.

Arkansas.gov Unveils First-in-the-Nation Features, Officials Say

Arkansas this week officially released a redesign of its state website, Arkansas.gov , and mobile version, which state officials said has two new features not found on any other portal: Text4help and an e-government services geolocation widget.

The Text4help feature allows users of the mobile version to input a question about government services in the form of a text message. Customer service staff then respond back in a text message with an answer.

Arkansas Chief Technology Officer Claire Bailey said Text4help is included in the mobile version of Arkansas.gov and other mobile-enhanced service the state offers, such as the YOUniversal Financial Aid System.

For example, a user could text, “Where do I go to pay property taxes for Pulaski County?” and receive a text message with a link to the county’s site. Bailey said providing services via text message caters to tech-savvy citizens.

“We really want to be ready for that next generation and we’ve got to be able to in public sector produce services that are for all generations,” Bailey said.

Janet Grard, general manager of Arkansas.gov, said on the mobile version of the website users access the Text4help feature by tapping a button on their mobile device’s touchscreen.

The service also is available on iPad. However, the iPad functionality technically isn’t text messaging, but rather real-time instant messaging.

The state also has added a free, e-government services geolocation widget to Arkansas.gov designed for local and community websites that want to embed code for city, county or state online services within their own website. Because it’s geolocated, the widget returns search results based on the user’s location.

“Arkansas.gov is sharing our services through a piece of content that you can put on your website,” Grard said. “We have more than 1,000 services in our database listing that ranges all levels of government, so we can serve out all of those levels of services in one location on that community site [users] may be most engaged in.”

Text4help and the geolocation widget were developed in conjunction with NIC USA, the state’s vendor partner.

govtech.com

e-Government Yang Membuat Cerdas (bag.2) : Komite Pendukung Ekspor e-Government

Tanya : Rencana-rencana apa saja yang kini dipersiapkan pemerintah Korea agar berkembang menjadi pemerintah yang pintar

Dominican Republic government visits Korea for e-government cooperation. Kim Nam-seok, vice minister of Public Administration and Security (3rd from the right), Jose Anibal Sanz, director of Dominican Port Authority (3rd from the left), Chang Gwang-soo, PH.D, Assistant Minister in Informatization Strategy Office (on the right)- IT TIMES

MOPAS telah mengumumkan Smart Government Plans pada Maret lalu dalam merespon berbagai perubahan yang terjadi dalam lingkungan teknologi informasi smartphone, tablet PC, SNS, dan komputasi awan sebagai persiapan menuju masyarakat masa depan.

baca bagian 1

Rencana kami untuk menyediakan sebuah bidang layanan-layanan mobile e-Government yang luas, yang sebelumnya terbatas pada komputer, dan memungkinkan masyarakat mengkustomisasinya sesuai dengan kebutuhan setiap individu masyarakat.

Selanjutnya, pemerintah mengaplikasikan berbagai teknologi IT termaju untuk memecahkan berbagai masalah  termasuk bencana alam, dan perlindungan anak. Pemerintah akan berkembang secara progresif menuju sebuah sistem kerja yang pintar dimana masyarakat dapat bekerja DIMANA SAJA dan KAPAN SAJA mereka inginkan. MOPAS kini sedang merencanakan untuk membangun 500 Pusat Kerja Pintar (50 pemerintah dan 450 swasta) yang berada dekat dengan area pemukiman diseluruh penjuru negeri pada 2015 mendatang.

Setelah pembukaan 2 Pusat di Dobong dan Bundang tahun lalu, pada 2011, MOPAS akan membangun 8 Pusat di kawasan Metropolitan sehingga pegawai negeri dapat mengakses layanan-layanan ini.

Pengembangan selanjutnya, kami merencanakan penciptaan pekerjaan-pekerjaan yang sesuai dengan smartwork, merestrukturisasi sistem kepegawaian, dan juga memberlakukan "SmartWork Promotion Act". The Smart Government Plans akan memacu produktivitas pegawai dan juga berkontribusi kepada pemecahan ragam masalah sosial seperti angka kelahiran yang rendah, penduduk usia lanjut, dan polusi.

Tanya : Dapatkah anda menjelaskans kepada kami mengenai STANDARISASI INTERNASIONAL e-Government?

Ada dua cara untuk internasionalisasi standarisasi sistem e-Government: menstandarisasi melalui badan internasional, dan menstandarisasi dengan menguasai mayoritas pasar e-Government yang sangat luas. Sistem e-Government Korea kini sedang menjadi standar internasional dalam arti sistem e-Government dasar yang meliputi pengadaan, perpajakan, dan paten, tetapi kami masih mengalami kesulitan dalam menstandarisasi melalui dominasi pasar-pasar internasional.

Layanan-layanan e-Government Korea unik dalam arti bahwa kami telah mengembangkan berbagai layanan yang dikustomisasi berdasarkan kebutuhan masyarakat yang dibuat oleh pemerintah sendiri , ini yang menjelaskan mengapa pemerintah tak membayar berapapun untuk membeli berbagai paket yang dipasarkan perusahaan berskala MNC, dan pemerintah menjadi pemilik hak cipta sistem-sistem e-Government yang dikembangkan itu.

Akan tetapi untuk mengekspor sistem e-Government ke negara-negara lain, bagian signifikan sistem harus dimodifikasi agar sesuai dengan lingkungan lokal atau standar-standar internasional, dan akibatnya perusahaan IT Korea kehilangan daya saing harga. Karena alasan inilah, kami telah mengembangkan Kerangka Standar e-Government yang dapat digunakan baik untuk pasar Korea maupun internasional. Kerangka tersebut adalah sebuah perangkat penunjang pengembangan, yang menyediakan, dimuka, berbagai fitur umum pokok untuk membangun sistem informasi, ini membantu penghematan sebesar 20 hingga 30 persen biaya atau waktu untuk melakukan pembangunan.

Mulai sekarang, berbagai proyek baru e-Government harus menggunakan kerangka standar tersebutm dan MOPAS akan membantu secara aktif dalam hal permohonan dari pemerintah negara lain terhadap kerangka standar e-Government Korea.

Tanya : Apa saja fokus utama dari Komite Pendukung Ekspor e-Government?

Di pasar e-Government internasional, perusahaan-perusahaan IT Korea menjual produknya, misal sistem e-Government yang dioperasikan oleh pemerintah Korea, untuk pemerintah negara asing. Sehingga menjadi tak terelakan bagi pemerintah Korea untuk membangun hubungan kerjasama dan kedekatan dengan perusahaan-perusahaan IT serta juga dengan berbagai pemerintah negara asing agar sistem e-Government Korea dapat menjadi yang terdepan di pasar-pasar internasional.

Oleh karena itu MOPAS sedang mengupayakan fasilitasi seperti kerjasama misal dalam hal menjelaskan target ekspor teknologi e-Government kita senilai 200 juta dolar ke para CEO perusahaan IT pada Maret lalu, juga membangun hot line dengan para pejabat dan pakar terkait yang akan memampukan perusahaan-perusahaan IT Korea untuk berbagi informasi proyek dan meminta dukungan pemerintah di waktu yang tepat. Kementerian secara khusus akan fokus pada proyek-proyek kerjasama dengan berbagai pemerintah negara asing dan organisasi internasional serta mendukung perusahaan-perusahaan swasta dalam melakukan proyeknya sendiri, kami akan meningkatkan peran kami sebagai MEDIATOR sehingga perusahaan-perusahaan Korea terhindar dari persaingan sengit yang tak sehat di pasar internasional.

(selesai)

Martin Simamora | IT TIMES