Feature | FutureGov - Transforming Government | Education

Central Government

The Philippines’ e-election miracle

The critics said the whole thing was a disaster waiting to happen. And they were very nearly right. But once the dust had settled on May 11th 2010, observers were hailing the Philippines’ first e-election as a ‘miracle’.

Central Government

Should policy be debated in social media?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently appointed 200 people to read ...

Central Government

Easy ways for govts to go green

As we enter the coming decade there seems to be ...

21 June 2010 | Feature

Learning beyond the classroom

The majority of learning takes place outside the classroom. How can educators take advantage of this reality through anywhere, anytime learning solutions, such as iPads, smart phones, eReaders and laptops? Kelly Ng investigates.

7 June 2010 | Feature

How China's govt portal serves 400m

China’s central government portal, gov.cn, is billed as the country’s most authoritative citizen-facing web site. But how does it fare in the eyes of a web design agency and a China citizen?

30 April 2010 | Feature

Making Malaysia's Schools Smarter

Malaysia launched the national Smart School programme more than a decade ago. Has the initiative produced ‘smarter’ students? Kelly Ng speaks to the Ministry of Education and the Multimedia Development Corporation to reveal their progress in modernising Malaysia’s schools.

27 April 2010 | Feature

Can mobiles close the digital divide?

Everyone in the world above the age of five is expected to own a mobile phone within the next decade. So how can and will governments in Asia use these ubiquitous devices to deliver services to its poorest citizens?

27 April 2010 | Feature

Securing the East Asia Games

Despite some niggling scepticism from the media, Hong Kong successfully staged the East Asian Games in December 2009. Wong Yuen-lee, the Games’ Director of Operations, reveals how communications, training and 60 contingency plans helped all go according to plan.

18 March 2010 | Feature

Unlocking efficiency at Changi Prison

The doors of Singapore’s maximum security correctional facility were unlocked for Robin Hicks and Kelly Ng to find out how technology has made one of Asia’s most high-tech jails more secure and efficient.

23 February 2010 | Feature

Malaysia banks on ICT to meet 2020 development goals

Malaysia’s Government CIO has hailed ICT as a “key enabler” to fulfil Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s mission to transform Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. Speaking at the FutureGov Forum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (23rd February 2010), Dr Nor Aliah Zahri, Government CIO and Deputy Director General of the Malaysian …

19 January 2010 | Feature

Ending the tyranny of distance

In remote areas such as Qinghai Province in China or the northern reaches of Thailand, videoconferencing is proving to be the most effective way yet of connecting disparate communities in far flung places. Robin Hicks and Wang Zhen explain how.

19 January 2010 | Feature

Should data centres be outsourced?

Government data centre outsourcing contracts can help local IT players grow. This creates jobs and boosts the local economy. But the real dynamics of data centre outsourcing have been slow to take off in Asia. Why?

19 January 2010 | Feature

Government Cloud: Public or Private?

Asia‘s first ever public sector summit on cloud computing suggested that the economics of cloud computing trumped other concerns - but that private clouds would be the necessary first stepping stone to prove the technology could deliver.

7 January 2010 | Feature

Building a healthy Malaysia

Like many of its neighbours, Malaysia has been experiencing changing disease patterns. The era of acute infectious diseases and malnutrition has been succeeded by one of chronic diseases and lifestyle related illnesses. So the country’s healthcare strategy has had to shift from making traditional health and hygiene improvements to promoting healthier lifestyles and managing chronic diseases.

7 January 2010 | Feature

Moving from planning to impact

Government is back, and it is not going away anytime soon. Following a tumultuous 12 months in which governments throughout the region had dramatically increased their role within national economies, the 132 delegates to the FutureGov Summit, Asia’s annual gathering of senior government officials, took time out of the busy schedules to share what had worked well, and lay out their plans for the future of public administration.

5 January 2010 | Feature

Schools: The Public sector’s green Champions

169 education executives participated in a FutureGov Research survey on the future trends transforming teaching and learning in June. The results, from 13 countries across Asia Pacific, will have put a smile on the faces of tree huggers.

13 November 2009 | Feature

Industry experts: private cloud is where the action is

Cloud computing has been drawing attention from public sector organisations, as well as the IT industry. To many, the paradigm is no longer dismissed as conceptual hype, but a too-good-to-miss opportunity to save money, energy and be more efficient.

2 November 2009 | Feature

Improving tax collection efficiency in Asia

The pressure on government to efficiently deliver services has probably never been greater. Such is life for governments during downturns. Systems are under stress. And yet extracting tax revenue from citizens and businesses to fund huge economic stimulus packages has probably never been more difficult.

15 October 2009 | Feature

Doing the rounds

Mobility solutions for healthcare professionals have been advancing rapidly. Here is FutureGov’s annual review of the key issues facing the fast-growing sector

1 September 2009 | Feature

How will technology change the future of healthcare?

The future does not bear thinking about for many healthcare practitioners in Asia, which is faced with the world’s fastest ageing population. FutureGov asked a group of experts for their views on how technology could clear a safer path for the sector.

24 August 2009 | Feature

legislator pushes for a bigger role for it

Dr Samson Tam is an entrepreneur who has made an indelible mark on Hong Kong‘s electronics industry. In the next phase of his career as a legislator, he wants to change society through the use of information technology.

17 July 2009 | Feature

Legislator keynotes at Hong Kong govt event

Honourable Dr Samson Tam, Hong Kong’s Legislative IT Councillor, will open the Government Information Forum in Hong Kong on 19 August at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

23 June 2009 | Feature

Connecting the countryside

Programmes for rural communities will only be successful if local concerns are taken into account and local people are empowered.

16 June 2009 | Feature

Oncology on-air in India

Using the satellite-linked telemedicine network, expert oncologists at Tata Memorial Hospital in India are able to deliver quality cancer care to patients all over India.

19 May 2009 | Feature

Elections electrified: the end of the paper ballot?

Election fever is gripping Asia, from India to Indonesia. And the elections are increasingly going digital. Why is electronic voting gradually displacing the paper ballot? Robin Hicks sizes up the candidates

10 May 2009 | Feature

Making everyone ‘Stand Tall’

A group of extraordinary medical professionals from Hong Kong have been helping rehabilitate young amputees who survived the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Now, communications technology is helping them achieve their vision even more effectively.

16 March 2009 | Feature

The identity management catch-22

FutureGov’s research arm has identified ‘ID Management’ as one of the top three priorities for the public sector in 2009. A few years ago, the United Kingdom’s Customs and Revenue admitted to losing the financials details of 25 million citizens.

11 March 2009 | Feature

Security in a wireless world

Robin Hicks Editor FutureGov in interview with John Cunningham, Director of Enterprise Wireless for Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Business in the Asia Pacific region.

25 February 2009 | Feature

Governing in a downturn

Tough times call for tough decisions. FutureGov investigates how governments are modernising as the global economy begins to unravel

18 February 2009 | Feature

The need to know: Business Intelligence & the public sector

With torrents of information flooding into your organisation, do you have that sinking feeling? Amelia Kwok learns how government agencies are leveraging Business Intelligence for operational effectiveness.

18 February 2009 | Feature

Healthcare on wheels

Sometimes handheld devices are deemed unsuitable for the needs of clinicians – in this situation the answer may be to add wheels.

4 February 2009 | Feature

Buyers’ guide to: conferencing solutions

Conferencing solutions have gone mainstream in big enterprise environments – now we take a look at the different approaches to bringing people together.

4 February 2009 | Feature

CRM & citizen-centric government

As the pressure for government mounts to do more for the community, the deployment of CRM solutions enables the effective targeting of resources to where they can best meet citizens’ needs. Report: Amelia Kwok.

2 February 2009 | Feature

Building resilient government data centres

If you are going to put all your data eggs into a single basket, it had better be a secure one.

21 January 2009 | Feature

Australia govt adopts Gershon's recommendation

How should government spend on ICT? Australia has decided to implement in full the recommendations of Sir Peter Gershon UK Treasury’s former Chief Executive.

19 December 2008 | Feature

Governments need to enhance operations with Business Intelligence

Adaire Fox-Martin, Vice president, Public Services, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan, discusses the importance of Business Intelligence to APJ’s public sector agencies.

20 November 2008 | Feature

Public sector information management

Government organisations need more effective strategies to manage their information and create better knowledge sharing and collaboration within their organisation.

31 October 2008 | Feature

Industry veteran to join IDA Singapore as assistant CEO

James Kang, an IT industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, will join the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore on December 1st, 2008 as the Assistant CEO.

30 October 2008 | Feature

One step closer to the omniscient clinician

Clinical intelligence solutions, followed by patient-centric and diagnosis-related ones, are expected to be the next major trend in clinical decision support tools. Analysis: Christine Chang, healthcare technology analyst with Datamonitor.

30 October 2008 | Feature

Integrated Healthcare: The Push for Quality & Productivity

The virtual explosion of costs in the healthcare sector affects all, from private payers to the government, hospitals, individual care providers and patients. But despite rising costs, hospital budgets have remained more or less the same. Today’s healthcare organisations must face growing pressure to optimize clinical and business systems and improve patient satisfaction.

30 October 2008 | Feature

Managing heterogeneity

Open Source is not a religion; it’s a licensing choice. As government organisations embrace Open Source Software (OSS) on a case-by-case basis, IT environments are going to have to successfully manage solutions that interoperate across the licensing divide. As we find out, pragmatism is already ruling in IT departments around the region.

23 October 2008 | Feature

Transformational records management in Singapore

How do you plan for scalable records management? What different approaches are organisations taking to the business of information management? Can public sector organisations find the skilled staff to manage information registries?

23 October 2008 | Feature

Medics on the move: enterprise mobility in Asia's hospitals

Jianggan Li speaks to those who are on the forefront of providing best tools to clinicians at the bedside

23 October 2008 | Feature

Buyers’ guide to: secure printing

We review the latest generation of MFPs to see how government offices can manage sensitive data without sacrificing productivity.

23 October 2008 | Feature

Network intelligence in a successful SOA implementation

Though it has been around for a while, the concept of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) still conjures an air of mystery. Perhaps it’s the term SOA that sounds intimidating. Simply put, SOA is about achieving a connection among integrated systems to allow different applications to exchange data.

14 October 2008 | Feature

Green office: reducing government’s environmental impact

How civil servants can reduce their carbon footprint by working smarter and greener in the office.

10 October 2008 | Feature

Grey govt - Asia's public sector learns to cope with an ageing population

Asia is ageing. We look at the impact an ageing population has on government service delivery and its efforts to retain talent and knowledge as a large percentage of workers reach retirement age.

10 October 2008 | Feature

City Hall and GIS

Mapping technologies are changing the way city and local government operates.

9 October 2008 | Feature

Making WiMax mission critical

Benhur Mesfin, Director of Business Development & Strategy Wireless Broadband at Motorola Asia Pacific, explains why WiMAX can be operated privately.

9 October 2008 | Feature

Future education in Singapore

With the advent of Singapore’s FutureSchools project—whereby the next generation of students will be equipped with ICT in every area of their studies—we interview a leading secondary school in the country to get an insight to these students’ lifestyles come the invasion of technology into classrooms.

30 September 2008 | Feature

Building e-government in Macao

A major e-governance initiative undertaken by the Macao SAR Government in collaboration with the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology through its Centre for Electronic Governance, and major local institutions, the e-Macao initiative aims to build a sustainable foundation for the effective use of ICT by government agencies.

25 September 2008 | Feature

SOA: Enabling next generation govt

We take a look at how the government is using Service-Oriented Architecture to reduce the cost and increase the agility of public sector IT infrastructure.

23 September 2008 | Feature

Home alone: Govt gets serious about remote working

In the past decade, working from home, otherwise known as telecommuting, has been drawing attention globally in both the private and public sectors.

20 September 2008 | Feature

The Creative Classroom

Future schooling in Singapore—from educational computer games to virtual field trips.

17 September 2008 | Feature

Why WiMax?

The wireless broadband technology has been the ‘next big thing’ for some time. FutureGov assesses when and in what circumstances it will take off and what it means for the public sector. Report: Jianggan Li.

5 September 2008 | Feature

Australian college invests in high performance network

Mercedes College deploys 10gb a second connectivity in new fibre network.

29 August 2008 | Feature

The rise and rise of green printing

Amelia Kwok reviews solutions that can help largescale public sector organisations conserve energy, reduce waste, and use other environmentally-friendly features.

28 August 2008 | Feature

Raising the standard for research and education networks

Dai Davies, General Manager at Europe’s advanced research network DANTE, talks about the challenges of meeting rising user demands and fending off cyber threats.

12 August 2008 | Feature

Setting state government IT policy in India

R S Sharma, Principal Secretary in the Information Technology Department of the State Government of Jharkhand, India, is responsible for formulation of State policies in the IT and e-governance area. He shares his perspectives on the implementation of various IT projects in all the Departments of the State Government.

7 August 2008 | Feature

WiMax around the world

Jianggan Li rounds up his interviews with the people behind WiMax deployments in France, the Netherlands and the United States.

3 August 2008 | Feature

IT recycling

As awareness about toxic e-waste grows, more of the region’s government agencies are promoting the message of re-use and recycle.

1 August 2008 | Feature

Why e-government isn’t working

E-government needs to go niche if it is to remain relevant and it needs to be relevant if it is to succeed online. James Smith thinks aloud.

3 May 2008 | Feature

Sri Lanka's citizen services call centre

Sri Lanka demonstrates that developing nations can harness call centres to bridge the digital divide and deliver new levels of citizen service.

12 September 2007 | Feature

Web 2.0 = SOA in the wild

What makes Web 2.0 applications different to the earlier generation of online offerings? In Web 1.0 we were trying to push innovation at users. Now the pressure is the other way – the users are pulling and shaping Web 2.0.

25 August 2007 | Feature

Campus networks in Asia

Students today learn in a connected, information-rich world that exists outside the campus and IT is upgrading to mee the new expectations.

15 August 2007 | Feature

Fighting dengue fever with GIS

The National Environment Agency (NEA) in Singapore started deploying GIS in 1992 in order to develop a real-time Aedes mosquito control and monitoring system.

6 August 2007 | Feature

Chinese university builds and manages a consolidated data centre

Huang Dawu and Song Shibing of Peking University share their experience of constructing and maintaining their data centre. Interview: Jianggan Li.

1 August 2007 | Feature

Building a single point of contact for Australian social services

John Wadeson, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) responsible for IT with Centrelink discusses the ongoing challenge of managing Australia’s largest government contact centre network. Interview: Jianggan Li.

25 July 2007 | Feature

Putting a doctor in every Indian village

Krishnan Ganapathy reveals how videoconferencing proved to be a cost-effective bridge between urban healthcare resources and rural patients in India. Professor Krishnan Ganapathy is the Head of Telemedicine for Apollo Hospitals and Honorary Advisor to the Armed Forces Medical Services of India.

2 May 2007 | Feature

Korean e-government for export

South Korea lends a helping hand – with strings attached.

25 April 2007 | Feature

Managing the transition to wireless working

Asian governments are increasingly cutting free from their wired infrastructure with a view to increasing efficiency and citizen outreach.

29 December 2006 | Feature

Banking on information: KM at the Bank of England

Simon Mills, Head of Information Management for the Bank of England, discusses the role of Knowledge Management at the United Kingdom’s central bank with Sarah Sim.

28 December 2006 | Feature

Driving user participation for government intranets

Dr Mingu Jumaan, Director of Sabah State Computer Services Department explains the process of achieving organizational buy-in for your intranet.

20 December 2006 | Feature

Fiji inaugurates e-government programme

Ratu Jone Kubuabola, Fiji’s Minister for Finance and National Planning, shares details on the Pacific state’s US$20 million e-government plans. Report: Gerald Wang.

20 December 2006 | Feature

Singapore school leverages ICT for global immersion

Technology is making the world a virtual classroom at Nanyang Girls High School.

18 December 2006 | Feature

Making IT outsourcing work in Hong Kong

Alfred Ng, Assistant Chief Information Officer at Hong Kong’s Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, explains how outsourcing expands government delivery capabilities. Interview: Jianggan Li

12 December 2006 | Feature

Overcoming obstacles to PPP in Singapore

Singapore is farming out S$1.3 billion (US$843 million) worth of projects to the private sector over the next 3-5 years, allowing it to operate big public projects. Analysis: Professor Wang Shou Qing & James Tan.

4 October 2004 | Feature

Asia leads world in e-government rankings

Taiwan and Singapore vie for top two slots in the latest e-government rankings, but what impresses is the Asian region’s strength in depth.

9 August 2004 | Feature

Engaging Singapore's citizens

As Singapore celebrates its 39th National Day today, it is worth taking a closer look at the achievements one of the region’s e-government leaders writes James Smith.

3 August 2004 | Feature

Mobile feedback in the Philippines

In the Philippines up to 150 million text messages are sent each day. By contrast there are only 3.2 million internet users in the country. So when the Civil Service Commission examined creating new channels for citizen feedback, it realised that the wireless channel was the way to go.

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