e-Development Thematic Group/Global ICT Department, IT SLC Quickstart, GDLN;

 

Development Gateway Foundation, ECCB, and IIS Russia

    

organized a Global Dialogue workshop on

Tuesday April 1, 2008; 9:30 am - 12:30 pm ET
Location: MC C2-137 (1818 H Street, Washington DC) & Live Webcast

Event Photos

Opening Remarks

• Philippe Dongier, Manager, Global ICT Dept., World Bank

Welcome & Introduction

• Samia Melhem (Moderator), Senior Operations Officer, Global ICT Dept., World Bank; and Chair, e-Development Thematic Group
• Oleg Petrov (VC Facilitator), Program Coordinator, e-Development Thematic Group
• Juan Navas Sabater, Senior Operations Officer, Global ICT Dept., World Bank, on behalf of OECS E-Government and Regional Integration Project

Speakers

• Reinhard Posch, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Government of Austria (keynote address,  via videoconference)
• Randeep Sudan, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, Global ICT Dept., World Bank
• Jaijit Bhattacharya,  Country Director at Sun Microsystems India (via videoconference)

Country Discussants

• Yuri Hohlov on behalf of Russia
• Anurag Sinha on behalf of OECS
• David Sawe on behalf of Tanzania
• Victor Kyalo on behalf of Kenya
• Helio Varela on behalf of Cape Verde
  

Program Description

Given the complexities of designing and implementing e-government applications, institutional structures are extremely important for achieving success. Traditionally, governments have established specialized ICT agencies/organizations to deal with technology issues in the public sector. Such agencies variously deal with policy, operational and procedural aspects of e-government. However, rapid changes taking place in technologies and business models, require a fundamental rethink of the organizational structures and institutional designs for ICT organizations supporting e-government. Apart from the public sector, the private sector has some useful lessons of experience to offer in this regard. For example, Integration/SOA Competency Centers are playing a useful role in rationalizing and coordinating IT deployments, in cost effective and efficient ways.

This workshop will discuss the role of a new generation of e-government organizations which could extend the role of e-Government "Centers of Excellence" or "Competency Centers" in keeping with emerging technology and organizational trends. These organizations could potentially help expand and scale-up successful e-Government approaches, including those using Service Oriented Architecture and Web 2.0 technologies. These "e-Gov 2.0" organizations could be designed as hybrids with flexible structures, drawing expertise from government agencies, academia, private sector and industry. The session intends to explore promising approaches to the design of such organisations drawing upon successful experiences from the private and public sectors. The session will discuss the applicability of such next generation e-government organizations to different environments. In environments where e-Government projects are risky and, involve high level technical skills, and domain expertise, such approaches could effectively meld the business of government with new technologies and business models to achieve future oriented and high impact eGovernment applications.

Target Audience

This workshop is targeted to government clients in OECS countries who will be joining via videoconference but will be open to audiences in Russia, Cape Verde, Kenya, Tanzania, and Washington DC and a global audience via live webcast.

The proposed session will attempt to answer the following questions:

1. What changes in technologies and business models are likely to impact organizational structures supporting e-government? What will be the impact of Web 2.0 technologies?
   What will be the chief characteristics of successful organizational models for advancing e-government in the future?
2. What are examples of good practice in organizational design (drawn from both the public and private sectors), for addressing the needs and requirements for successful e-government?
3. How should governments go about establishing such new generation organizational structures for supporting e-government? What could be the business model for such a center to ensure sustainability? What could be the role of private sector in such centers?
4. What skills and competencies should such organizations possess?  Which services/functions should such centers provide?
5. Are there any innovative approaches to organizational design, catering to e-government deployments in a regional context?

Additional information on this seminar, such as the agenda, speaker profiles and slides will be placed online as they become available at http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment. The event will be webcast live for Country Offices and remote audiences to enable remote participation, and several country offices will also be connected via videoconference.

The Webcast videoclip is available at:

http://streaming3.worldbank.org/ramgen/CITPO/10653289/egovernment_20080401.smil

Participants from outside the Bank will need a building pass for this seminar, please RSVP and feel free to invite others. To join our mailing list, please write to edevelopment@worldbank.org

About e-Development Thematic Group

e-Development Thematic Group is a global forum and community of professionals interested in the role of ICT in development,  open for participation by both World Bank staff and external clients and partners. The e-TG is hosted by Global ICT Dept in collaboration with ISG, WBI, PREM, and other partners. Visit us at http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment to download materials for this and all previous e-development seminars (over 120 since 2000). Watch some of the recent events sponsored by the e-Development Thematic Group if you missed them (with links to videos, slides, speaker profiles, background materials etc.)