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September 25, 2001THE RILEY REPORT – September 2001 By Thomas B.Riley (Tom@Rileyis.com)
Following is the Riley Report for September 2001. Please feel free to pass this on as you see fit. If you wish to use any part of the Report in an offline publication please acknowledge the author or contact the author if to be fully republished offline. If you are not currently subscribed to the Riley Report (there is no charge) you can email info@rileyis.com and simply put subscribe in the body of the text. You can also go to the Riley Report at: http://www.rileyis.com/rileyreport/ and subscribe there.
This month's column introduces the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance (CCEG). Their web site (http://www.electronicgov.net) is now online. E-governance and e-democracy are core values that are integral to governance in all Commonwealth countries. This column describes the nature and purpose of the Commonwealth Centre. As Chief Executive of this Centre I thought that readers of the Riley Report might be interested in this development as the Centre will be dealing with many of the issues addressed in the Riley Report columns.
INTRODUCING THE COMMONWEALTH CENTRE FOR ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE
http://www.electronicgov.net/The Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance (CCEG) is a think tank operating under the auspices of an e-Governance program of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK. CCEG is a legal entity incorporated in the United Kingdom and Canada in November 2000. It operates on a global scale, with a board of Directors and Advisory Council from around the world. Members come from government, the private sector and civil society. The Chair of the Advisory Council is Michael Turner, Assistant Deputy Minister, GTIS, PWGSC. The Vice-Chair of the Council, and co-Founder of CCEG is Rogers W’Okot-Uma, Chief Programme Officer, Management and Training Services Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK. The Chair of the Board, and co-founder of CCEG is Thomas B. Riley, President of Riley Information Services Inc.
The purpose of the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance is to provide insight and knowledge on the changing nature of governments in our growing technology infrastructures. The CCEG is working to develop sets of best practices on how best to use technologies to implement the goals and objectives of public administration. It is the goal of CCEG to work with governments and international organizations to contribute to the growing knowledge base on e-Government, e-Governance and e-Democracy. CCEG hopes to be able to contribute to developments in these subjects in both a theoretical and practical manner. Part of CCEG’s mandate is to offer workshops and seminars in developing countries throughout the world on various aspects of e-Government. Much of the focus of CCEG will be on the multitude of information and administrative policies that will be needed as developing countries increasingly implement new technologies.
To date, CCEG has conducted two international studies on the nature of electronic governance and what tools governments need to compete in the knowledge economy. These studies can be found at: http://www.rileyis.com and on this web site: http://www.electronicgov.net/publications. CCEG has also hosted a workshop called the Electronic Library Project in London, UK. This was to explore the possibilities of governments sharing information and knowledge with each other on a global basis. (The minutes of this workshop can be found at: http://www.electronicgov.net )
CCEG has also conducted a series of workshops on electronic governance in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, London, England (4), Malaysia and Canada. CCEG will continue to conduct such studies and workshops and will also be holding an annual conference in different countries around the world. The first annual conference will be held in Ottawa, Canada in February, 2002.
The Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance plans to work with a number of international organizations on various aspects of e-government, e-governance and e-democracy. CCEG is currently developing an international tracking project that will look at the ways governments are moving towards e-government and implementation of new technologies in services delivery and government programs. This project will include annual reports on developments in difference countries. More information will be forthcoming on this project in 2002.
If you have questions or wish to contact us, please do so. We look forward to input and hearing from people. CCEG will provide periodic updates on developments on this web site.
Thomas B. Riley
Chief Executive
Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance
http://www.electronicgov.net
Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow
Riley Information Services Inc.
http://www.rileyis.com
Tom@Rileyis.com
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