Thursday September 10, 2009
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/10/nation/4657478&sec=nation
Meetings anywhere, anytime
By LESTER KONG
Introducing MyMeeting – a web-based, paperless meeting management and
decision monitoring application based on the open source development
model.
The degree of success of Public Service Delivery decisions often
hinges on the way meetings are held to reach those decisions and how
effectively the actions to implement them are carried out.
Since decisions reached during those meetings can be implemented by a
host of agencies, effective coordination is essential.
Otherwise, problems may arise from miscommunication, difficulty in
monitoring the implementing agencies, and non-systematic storage of
documentation.
The need existed to have a more efficient and effective system for
meetings which would satisfy the diverse requirements of the chairman,
members and the secretariat, as well as enable and facilitate timely
implementation and monitoring of the meeting’s decisions.
With rising ICT development costs and a need for software
independence, a programme was formulated to incorporate more Open
Source Software (OSS) into the public sector’s internal and external
service delivery initiatives.
Hence the Malaysian Public Sector OSS Master Plan was launched
together with the Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC) as the national
OSS reference centre.
Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning
Unit (MAMPU) director-general Datuk Normah Md. Yusof said that all
these factors drove the creation of MyMeeting – a web-based, paperless
meeting management and decision monitoring application based on the
open source development model.
For innovations: Datuk Normah receiving the prestigious Public Service
Innovation Award (AIPA) 2008 from former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi. Looking on is Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.
“MyMeeting is developed for the use of all government agencies.
“We anticipate significant cost savings as well as opening up the
opportunity for human resource development, especially enhancing the
technical competency of our developers through system customisation,”
she said at a recent interview.
She went on to explain that MyMeeting’s flexible, open design enables
agencies to customise their functions and application to suit the way
they need it to work to meet their varied environments and job
requirements.
“For example, Public Service Department localised MyMeeting to suit
its own specific agency requirements and in the process enhanced the
technical skills of its developers,” she added.
MyMeeting has also resulted in more effective monitoring of meeting
decisions and their implementation status, streamlined the efficiency
of communication among meeting members and made information-sharing
more timely.
MyMeeting was officially unveiled to the public by the Chief Secretary
to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan at the Malaysian
Government OSS Conference (MyGOSSCON) 2007.
MyMeeting’s success was eminently recognised by the Government,
receiving the prestigious Public Service Innovation Award (AIPA) 2008,
presented by former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“MyMeeting became the first open source application by the Government
of Malaysia (GOM) to be licensed under the GNU General Public License
version 2 (GPLv2).
“This represents a significant Malaysian contribution to the global
OSS community while maintaining GOM’s ownership of the application,”
said MAMPU ICT policy and planning deputy director Tan King Ing.
She said, already, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Brazil have expressed
interest in using MyMeeting and South Africa is using it as an OSS
pilot.
Tan said MyMeeting fully enjoys the benefits of the collaborative
development process of open source and is now available in the leading
global OSS repository SourceForge.net for download by developers and
end users.
She said people from all over the world can use MyMeeting, enhance it
and re-contribute to the OSS community.
“Based on constructive feedback and requests received through mailing
lists and MyMeeting’s user group, it has been significantly enhanced
and its capabilities expanded in subsequent versions,” she added.
Now at version 2.2, MyMeeting is in use by at least 23 government
agencies, including Public Service Department, Election Commission,
Health Ministry, Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry,
Education Ministry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti
Sains Malaysia.
To date, 72 agencies have attended training on MyMeeting and are in
various stages of active implementation.
Tan indicated that for the secretariat, MyMeeting eliminates the
majority of mundane administrative tasks by facilitating meeting
preparation with to-do check-lists and meeting attendance functions.
“It automatically emails invitations and alerts for the meeting, then
follows up with reminders to update the status of agreed actions.
“It also saves the secretariat countless hours spent previously
calling for feedback and churning out vast volumes of meeting minutes
and status reports,” Tan said.
The meeting chairman using MyMeeting can easily monitor and review the
performance of meeting members and provide timely feedback on the
status of their action items.
“The software also uses a centralised data bank of electronic meeting
documents to enable easy access – anywhere, any time.
“This feature reduces the dependency on the secretariat for the most
up-to-date information.
“This is empowering for the chairman and meeting members.” she said.
A total of RM80mil is saved annually in printing costs, telephone
charges and delivery of meeting documents based on conservative
average of 500 meetings per agency with 25 members per meeting,
according to OSCC MAMPU.
In terms of time savings, nearly two million man-hours or up to 800
business days would be made available yearly which would otherwise be
spent on administrative tasks such as issuing meeting invitations,
making phone calls, compiling action item status and preparing the
usual meeting reports.
Tan said MyMeeting is affordable and straightforward for the public
and private sectors to implement due to zero licensing fees, MyMeeting
support website with online resources such as a demo website,
guidelines, manuals and FAQs.
“It is also platform-neutral, which lends itself to installation on
Microsoft Windows™ and Linux operating systems.
“MyMeeting enables ongoing online discussion and promotes a
transparent and competitive environment for implementing meeting
decisions.
“OSCC MAMPU is the single point of reference to lead and support the
public sector in its OSS implementation.
“Services offered by OSCC MAMPU are many and varied, with OSS research
and development being one of the most significant services,” said Tan.
She encouraged all public sector agencies to use freely the many
functional services offered by OSCC MAMPU.
For further information, contact OSCC MAMPU at 03-83191201 or send an
email to helpd...@oscc.org.my OSCC MAMPU provides free demonstrations,
technical support and training for MyMeeting, as well as other
products to the public sector.
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