In addition to helping local governments think in terms of delivering
value (just as businesses must do), there are two other crucial elements
that I think help deal with the concerns of Peter Burgess and Ed
Cherlin. These elements have to do with using ICT to improve GOVERNANCE,
not just GOVERNMENT:
(1) Educating the community about its own rights and responsibilities,
just as we've started educating stockholders about their rights. When
citizens know their rights, and have access to information sources
beyond the local elite, change can happen. Of course, we don't expect
citizens to be auditors. But they can assess the value to themselves of
local government activities. ICT can help to promote this aspect, by
using Internet and other media to provide information. Often it will
require an intermediary, like the citizen service centers in Brazil,
which Gary Garriott mentioned. The centers' staff use ICT to tap into
information databases to get the information requested by citizens. Of
course, radio and other mass media can also be used, or a combination of
Internet and radio, like the Kothmale Internet Community radio project
in Sri Lanka, which takes questions from listeners, searches the
Internet and broadcasts the answers.
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/highlights/internet_radio_130599.html
(2) Using effective change management methods that are effective in
changing cultural values and beliefs. Anyone who has worked in
organizational change knows that changing culture is extremely
difficult. What works best is to REINTERPRET existing values rather than
trying to replace them. For example, if the local government feels that
their future lies in serving citizens and that using ICT (e.g., a
website) would dilute citizens' sense that they are being served by
government, you can help them see that ICT can INCREASE citizens' sense
of being served. Or in the case of local governments that are concerned
with the perks and prestige of controlling resources, you can show that
ICT can promote prosperity in the community, and that the local
government will have greater prestige. For local government officials
who fear that ICT adoption will eliminate some government jobs, you can
provide evidence that ICT does not reduce local government jobs, and
often spurs an increase in local government jobs.
Regarding Ed Cherlin's suggestion about a Sears-type local government --
I'm not sure I understand the suggestion, but I *think* he means that we
strengthen local enterprises, and then have local governments support an
infrastructure that facilitates e-commerce. If so, it's an interesting
application of the ideas in my previous message. But to make that
happen, local governments have to realize that they must be part of the
overall effort to make their communities competitive and, eventually,
more prosperous.
Cheers,
Janice
--
Janice Brodman
Director
Center for Innovative Technologies
EDC
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On 05/23/2005, Edward Cherlin wrote:
On Friday, May 20 2005, Janice Brodman wrote:
I would like to propose what may be a somewhat radical approach to using
ICT to strengthen local governments (LGs): We should be thinking of LGs
-- and encouraging them to think of themselves -- as companies do.
We have had some very bad experience of this concept in various levels
of government. Too often, the company that government models itself on
is Enron. :-(
..snip...
Suppose we put all of this together. Create computer software and
training in local languages for applications that will increase village
income, such as e-commerce, and get the microbanks to place them (along
with wireless Internet equipment) and make the loans for buying them, as
they do with cell phones. Then let us see what kinds of health,
education, and other programs we can deliver over these computers to
increase local income further and faster, and how villagers can talk to
each other about wider cooperation, including producer and consumer
co-ops. Let us also see what kind of development portal we can create to
sell to the no-longer-poor farmers and artisans and to their families.
Do you think we can get a government to think of itself as the Sears and
Montgomery Wards of more than a century ago?
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