m-Government: The Next Frontier in Public Service Delivery

The World Bank is hosting an online and in person seminar on m-government, whih I understand to be the creation of an interface between the government and the public via the medium of the mobile phone.

m-Government:

The Next Frontier

in Public Service Delivery

Thursday, 29 November, 2007; 8:30 - 11:00 am ET
Location: MC C2 137 (1818, H Street NW, Washington DC) & Live Webcast

Welcome and Introduction

Samia Melhem, Senior Operations Officer, Global ICT Department, World Bank; and Chair, e-Development Thematic Group
Vikas Kanungo, Chairman, The Society for Promotion of e-Governance, India & Convener, eGovWorld 2007

Opening Remarks/Keynote address

R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary (e-Governance), DIT, Government of India

Speakers

Ibrahim Kushchu, Associate Professor and Director, Mobile Government Consortium International and Author, "m-Government: An Emerging Direction in e-Government", UK
Hannes Astok, Member of Parliament and former Deputy Mayor, City of Tartu, Estonia

In preparation for the seminar, you might check out Jan ChipChase's 16 minute long talk on mobile phones. He is a social scientist working for Nokia, and he is thinking very deeply about the impact of mobile phones, including the impact in developing nations. The talk was made earlier this year at the TED conference.

Chipchase notes that there are roughly half as many mobile phones as people in the world, but that in large numbers of villages in poor countries there is already one or more mobile phones that are shared by the community. There are huge numbers of mobile phones manufactured per year, and Chipchase points out that in China and India there is an industry springing up to refurbish or repair mobile phones.

He also points out that there are nearly a billion illiterates in the world, and I would suggest that there are many more people who have very limited literacy. Still, these people are using mobile phones, getting help from others to do so when necessary.

Mobile phones have already changed our culture. For most of us, we will not go out of the house without keys, money, and a mobile phone. (I remember when I would not go out without a check book, while now I leave the check book at home and take a credit card. I still wear a watch, but I realize that it simply duplicates the time telling capability of my cell phone. I just bought a Kindle, and will generally be carrying it when I go out as well, but then I read a lot and like to be connected.) In Africa, people are using mobile phones as an alternative to ATMs (I remember what a wonder the ATM was, removing the need to get cash by going to the bank during banking hours.) Chipchase also pointed out that Africans use prepaid cards as a means to make money transfers, the innovation having being invented by one or more anonymous individuals and spread through imitation.

Chipchase does not describe the ways in which drug dealers adopted pagers and cell phones, nor other ways in which innovative bad guys have appropriated the technology for their own ends.

Chipchase noted a case in Africa in which villages identify the houses with cell phone numbers. It may be that the cell phone will become a critical element of our identity. The technology is new, and still evolving quickly. Mobile phones may go from being a "fashion accessory" to being an "item of clothing". They are already being used for emails and surfing the web, and new "killer apps" will surely appear.

Surely they will play a key role in health service delivery. I predict they will change the way in which educational services are delivered. The multitasking people of the next generation, mobile phone wired, will be culturally different than the current generation, and will consequently have different expectations of government and demand different ways of interacting with government.