IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The government launched a radical overhaul of its IT strategy today which it says will save the public sector £3.2bn annually in IT costs.

The new initiative aims to facilitate greater sharing of resources across the public sector in the use of hardware and software where departments have traditionally taken a more siloed approach.

The HHS said in the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2011-2015 released Sept. 12 that collection, sharing and analysis of health data on a broad basis will improve care and reduce costs.

Das will Obama nun durch eine Direktive ändern. Sie sieht laut einem Memorandum des Weißen Hauses vor, dass die Behörden innerhalb eines Jahres die vom CIO der US-Regierung Steven VanRoekel ausgearbeitete Strategie für ein "Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People" umsetzen müssen.

Here are a few excerpts and statistics that caught my eye. And browse the document yourself in the embedded player below.

After riding into Washington on a tech-savvy campaign, the Obama administration is trying to spread the same new-media focus across the government, even to some unlikely areas such as international diplomacy.

At a panel discussion this afternoon at Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, a senior adviser at the State Department described the efforts underway to bring the agency into the Web 2.0 era.

The overall target of the plan emphasizes international standards for IT human resources and the key role played by the industry, especially software and digital content as well as services, in GDP growth and exports.

IT industry is expected to contribute around 8-10 per cent of the country’s GDP and its revenue growth to double or triple the GDP growth rate by 2020.

“Network operators must be encouraged to share infrastructure which, I believe, will enable them to make savings and maximise broadband deployment to the home and business as well as reduce the cost to communicate,” she said.

The workshop drew inputs from senior managers from the departments of Science and Technology, Basic Education, Higher Education and Training, Health, Trade and Industry, Home Affairs, Public Service and Administration, Arts and Culture. There was input also from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and the State Information Technology Agency.

Expectations are also high that the new strategic plan would transform Zimbabwe into a knowledge society and contribute significantly to the growth and development of the national economy.

The revised information and communication technology policy framework seeks to give strategic direction for sustainable national development through the application of ICTs.

The policy will replace the one formulated in 2005 so as to accommodate recent sectorial developments.

"In terms of the ICT document, we are in the process of concluding it. The draft document is being circulated to various Government departments," he said.

"We are presently reviewing the old ICT policy of 2005 to make it adapt to current technological developments in the sector," he said.

Eng Kundishora said the ministry would soon facilitate some consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders to come up with input for the proposed new national ICT policy frame- work.

The team has been holding consultative meetings with stakeholders throughout the country on the ICT policy since June this year.

The draft policy is expected to be presented to Cabinet once all the views gathered have been consolidated into the document.

Policy consultations started on Tuesday in Marondera and proceeded to Mutare yesterday.

Consultation in other towns and cities has been slotted for later this month. The final review will be in Harare on July 26 after which the ICT Ministry will prepare a draft that will be used to formulate the national ICT policy.

The discovery of writing skills made it possible for man to remember disease and how to manage it.

Results of that 2 000-year-old discovery are the institutions of knowledge we see today that now form the pillar of present-day health care practice.