Monday, March 20, 2006
Status of e-government - not up to scratch
Hello - welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly slot about what the Internet's got - I am your friendly host Steven Lang – this week we have a quick look at how far down the road we've comed in terms of e-government. Is government using informational technology effectively?
Some years ago one of the hottest buzz-words in a sector renowned for hot – but short lived buzz-words was "E-government" – Everyone was talking about it – we kept hearing about how the government was going to put everything on-line and we would soon be able to do all official transactions on the internet.
It was such a fantastic prospect that they even established the State Information Technology Agency – web site address: www.sita.co.za/ . International experts came flooding to this country to tell us about e-government - and a number of local officials made overseas trips.
Almost all government departments set-up web sites – the only one that doesn't appear to have any web presence is the Presidency itself – which is strange because the president is well-known for his weekly letter on the ANC web site.
There is even a central Batho Pele Portal site – you can find it at www.gov.za - it says South Africa government online - putting people first.
The Portal site needs revamping – while it has hundreds of useful links to many parts of the government's online presence – it is far from intuitive. There is a lot of information available but finding it is not easy.
In fact I found a links page on the SA web site that gives you a much better picture of what government resources are available online – check out www.saweb.co.za/links1.html
By the way the SA web dot co dot za is an excellent portal page if you are looking for information about our country.
The individual government sites are patchy – some have loads of information – while others see their main function as nothing more than blowing the trumpet of the relevant minister – plus the usual organograms, ministers' speeches, vision and mission.
While that type of information does have its place, it is not really practical for most of us.
In my view, the city of Johannesburg is closest to having some sort of realistic e-government infra-structure. You can receive your monthly bills on line – and that has been working well for some time now. To become an online user of the site you have to go through a tedious registration process – which is fair enough – but then when you want to look at your online account – they expect you to remember your account number – come on guys through my registration you already have so much info about me do you really need an account number?
I believe you can also type in your electricity and water readings on line – the idea being that you don't have to rely on those strange people who demand to look at the meter readings at odd times of the day.
Then there's a link to "Free Maps" of Johannesburg - but when I tried to look at a free map all I got was a lengthy disclaimer - but no map.
A very useful feature tells you whether you have outstanding traffic fines or not. I just typed in my ID number and hey - guess what - I have no outstanding traffic fines. So that's the good news.
More good news is that you can find the full script for this program and the links I've mentioned on the Cybersurf Bl;og which will pop up on your screen if you type in www.cybersurf.blogspot.com - one more time cybersurf dot blogspot dot com.
As we wrap up today's edition of Cybersurf - here is an important notice - as from next week - Cybersurf will be coming to your on Wednesday mornings not Mondays. So let's make a date for Wednesday mornings as from next week at about a quarter to eight. Cheers for now.
Some years ago one of the hottest buzz-words in a sector renowned for hot – but short lived buzz-words was "E-government" – Everyone was talking about it – we kept hearing about how the government was going to put everything on-line and we would soon be able to do all official transactions on the internet.
It was such a fantastic prospect that they even established the State Information Technology Agency – web site address: www.sita.co.za/ . International experts came flooding to this country to tell us about e-government - and a number of local officials made overseas trips.
Almost all government departments set-up web sites – the only one that doesn't appear to have any web presence is the Presidency itself – which is strange because the president is well-known for his weekly letter on the ANC web site.
There is even a central Batho Pele Portal site – you can find it at www.gov.za - it says South Africa government online - putting people first.
The Portal site needs revamping – while it has hundreds of useful links to many parts of the government's online presence – it is far from intuitive. There is a lot of information available but finding it is not easy.
In fact I found a links page on the SA web site that gives you a much better picture of what government resources are available online – check out www.saweb.co.za/links1.html
By the way the SA web dot co dot za is an excellent portal page if you are looking for information about our country.
The individual government sites are patchy – some have loads of information – while others see their main function as nothing more than blowing the trumpet of the relevant minister – plus the usual organograms, ministers' speeches, vision and mission.
While that type of information does have its place, it is not really practical for most of us.
In my view, the city of Johannesburg is closest to having some sort of realistic e-government infra-structure. You can receive your monthly bills on line – and that has been working well for some time now. To become an online user of the site you have to go through a tedious registration process – which is fair enough – but then when you want to look at your online account – they expect you to remember your account number – come on guys through my registration you already have so much info about me do you really need an account number?
I believe you can also type in your electricity and water readings on line – the idea being that you don't have to rely on those strange people who demand to look at the meter readings at odd times of the day.
Then there's a link to "Free Maps" of Johannesburg - but when I tried to look at a free map all I got was a lengthy disclaimer - but no map.
A very useful feature tells you whether you have outstanding traffic fines or not. I just typed in my ID number and hey - guess what - I have no outstanding traffic fines. So that's the good news.
More good news is that you can find the full script for this program and the links I've mentioned on the Cybersurf Bl;og which will pop up on your screen if you type in www.cybersurf.blogspot.com - one more time cybersurf dot blogspot dot com.
As we wrap up today's edition of Cybersurf - here is an important notice - as from next week - Cybersurf will be coming to your on Wednesday mornings not Mondays. So let's make a date for Wednesday mornings as from next week at about a quarter to eight. Cheers for now.
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The only site that you had good things to say about in this broadcast was Jo'burg, yet it was the one site adress you omitted - why?
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