Information Policy

Mobile money: Getting to scale in emerging markets

More than a billion people in emerging and developing markets have cell phones but no bank accounts. Many low-income people store and transfer money using informal networks, but these have high transaction costs and are prone to theft. Mobile money is beginning to fill this gap by offering financial services over mobile phones, from simple person-to-person transfers to more complex banking services. To date, there have been more than 100 mobile-money deployments in emerging markets; at least 84 of them originated in the past three years

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Financial_Services/Banking/Mobile_money_Getting_to_scale_in_emerging_markets_2951

Special Report: Can Governments Keep Up Their Open Data Initiatives?

By Wayne Hanson

This report is based on the activities of the Digital Communities program, a network of public- and private-sector IT professionals who are working to improve local governments’ delivery of public service through the use of digital technology. The program — a partnership between Government Technology and e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government — consists of task forces that meet online and in person to exchange information on important issues local government IT professionals face.

 

More than 1,000 government and industry members participate in Digital Communities task forces focused on digital infrastructure, law enforcement and big city/county leadership. The Digital Communities program also conducts the annual Digital Cities and Digital Counties surveys, which track technology trends and identify and promote best practices in local government.

 http://www.digitalcommunities.com/magazine/Open-Data-Sustainability.html

IAB Europe: 1 In 5 Ad Euros Now Spent Online

Europe’s online market grew 14.5% year-on-year and is now valued at €20.9 billion. By comparison, the overall European advertising market – excluding online – grew at just 0.8%. According to IAB Europe's annual AdEx Benchmark survey, one in five advertising euros in Europe is now spent online. Video is commanding a significant and growing share of spend with sound and measurable results. The explosion of big data is also enhancing targeted advertising capabilities and improving monetisation of publishers' inventory

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/27516-one-in-five-advertising/

Tell the ITU: The internet belongs to us!

The internet we’ve come to know and love -- one that's open, decentralized, and governed by many stakeholders -- is threatened.

Right now, several countries, including China and Russia, are proposing to expand the powers of a non-transparent global institution, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), allowing it to change the rules on how our internet is used and governed. And what's worse, the ITU won't even release their negotiating documents to the public or give internet users a seat at the table.

The ITU isn't used to public accountability, but together we can change that. Let's tell the ITU that we don't want a secretive body where only governments have a vote deciding the future of our internet!

Click here to sign the petition demanding the ITU makes its plans public and we'll work on delivering the petition at their next planning meeting.

The ITU gives every country one vote -- that's why it’s crucial we call upon our individual governments to support our cause. Multi-stakeholder governance of the internet is one of the reasons we can so easily access sites around the world, share with our friends on social networks, and participate in a global community. 

Now, with the ITU renegotiating a new treaty this year, China, Russia, and others are pushing proposals that would give governments greater control over how you access the internet. Imagine how that might impact your privacy, security, and freedom of speech online.

The ITU has played an important role in telecommunications and spectrum management and its use for development, but this is not cause for expanding its mandate. While an evolution of internet governance is needed (including an examination of the role of the US), it should evolve in the same way that it was originally designed -- in an open, decentralized, and inclusive manner.

Civil society needs a voice in the ITU negotiations. We've cosigned a letter with other organizations including the CDT (USA), CIS (India), FGV (Brazil), EFF (USA), and EIPR (Egypt) urging all stakeholders to be a part of this process and for the ITU to be transparent in their negotiations.

Click here to join us in our call to keep the ITU from regulating the internet, publicly release its plans, and respect our role in the internet's future by signing the petition below. 

Singapore e-gov services still not global

By Liau Yun Qing

SINGAPORE--While the country leads in e-government implementation, few locally developed e-government applications or services are adopted in the global market. This is an issue ICT regulator, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), hopes to fix.

During a media Q&A held here today, James Kang, assistant chief executive of government chief information office at IDA, said Singapore had a low number of products and services in the global e-government landscape, noting that this was "ironic" as the city-state was placed in leading positions in several global indexes on e-government.

For instance, the country ranked No. 1 in the World e-Government Ranking 2012 by Waseda University; No. 2 in the Global Information Technology Report 2012 by World Economic Forum (WEF) and INSEAD; and No. 10 on World E-government Leaders 2012 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Thus, a lot more needs to be done to bring Singapore-developed "world class" e-government products overseas, Kang said.

IDA plans to address this through the "productization" of locally-developed e-government applications, he said. The government agency will link local businesses to international market accelerator and help them gain exposure overseas, he noted.

The ICT regulator in 2009 set up an entity, IDA International, specifically focused on exporting e-government expertise around the world.

E-gov innovation through public-private cooperation
IDA also hopes to drive innovation in the procurement of e-government services.

During his presentation at the IDA Industry Briefing 2012, Kang introduced plans to pilot the "innovation procurement process" which aims to change existing e-government procurement rules to encourage the adoption of more inventive applications and services.

Koh Chin Yong, IDA's assistant director for the government infocomm governance division, explained the process as a "co-creation" of e-government services by the public and private sector, adding that the pilot will commence in the next two years.

Elaborating, Koh said a government agency will be able to issue a request for proposals when they have an IT problem that cannot be solved using products currently available in the market. IT suppliers then can propose different solutions based on the problem, he said.

From the proposals, the agency can then shortlist a few IT vendors which will each develop its own prototype, he added. The agency will evaluate and shortlist some prototypes to pilot he said, adding that each stage of evaluation can comprise more than one supplier. After the trial, the most successful service will then be implemented by the government agency.

Koh explained that this process is different from the current system where procurement is dependent on paper-based proposals.

The new system will provide a level playing field for IT suppliers as proposals will not be based on previous track records, since all products here will be new, he added.

When asked, IDA declined to comment on processes it had in place to eliminate IT procurement fraud.

Earlier this year, top ranking officials were suspended from their duties following allegations of misconduct involving a female executive from an IT company that had supplied products to local government offices.

IT players welcome government tenders
During his presentation, Kang said the Singapore government will increase its ICT tenders to S$1.2 billion (US$936.7 million) this financial year from S$1.1 billion (US$857.8 million) last year. In contrast, governments in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe are were cutting down on their ICT spend, he said.

Last year, one-third of contracts were awarded to multinational corporations while the rest went to local suppliers, said Kang, who described this "a balanced proportion".

Several IT players which ZDNet Asia contacted welcome the news.

Joe Ong, managing director for Hitachi Data Systems in Singapore, said: "The sustained government investment in technologies that enable operational efficiency and productivity in the public sector, reflects the positive impact of technology on Singapore's infrastructure and its capability to provide a high standard of public sector services to citizens."

Joshua Soh, managing director for Cisco Systems in Singapore and Brunei, said: "With this announcement, IDA is reinforcing Singapore's leadership in creating a connected and collaborative government that uses innovative technologies as a foundation for new government services.

"Technology and the network have changed the way governments and public sector agencies collaborate, and the sustained investment by Singapore will create a highly-connected, future-state community," Soh said.