eGov 2.0

I attended an interesting World Bank videoconference event yesterday on "Next Generation Organizational Models for e-Government." First I keep marveling at the technology that enables the participation of so many different locations across the world -- I think 13 different locations were connected via videoconferencing for the event. I still remember a few years ago when there were always technical difficulties with some of the sites, especially when such a large number of sites were connected. Whether the technology has evolved or the people have mastered the technology, the last few events I have attended or watched via webcast have been close to flawless. It is now a well-oiled machine with participants completely comfortable with the medium, including simultaneous translation (for Russia) that was so seamless that it took me a while to realize that it wasn't the speaker I was hearing but the translator.

Congratulations to the team putting these events together! It is really a testament to their extensive experience doing it over and over and improving continuously.

Now to the theme of yesterday's event. I really heard two themes. The first one was about the organizational structure needed to support successful e-Government initiatives. It is better to have a centralized body or to decentralize responsibilities for e-Government? If there is a centralized body, how large should it be? What should be its responsibilities? How can countries maintain a certain level of e-Government expertise (capacity) in a decentralized environment? Can a matrix organization model help to address some of the challenges?

The discussion reminded me of a chapter in Richard Heek's "Implementing and Managing eGovernment: An International Text," where he discusses the advantages and disadvantages of centralized vs. decentralized approaches and the evolution towards hybrid models.

In essence, this first theme was a more traditional discussion around how to structure e-Government support organizations within a government structure, including some discussion of the role of the private sector.

The second theme I heard revolved around the potential impact of web 2.0 technology and the emergence of new organizational models potentially leading to eGov 2.0. I used the words "potential" and "potentially" in the sentence above because while the ideas are being discussed, there are very few governments that have taken the lead in applying web 2.0 technologies and business models.

A lot of the discussions around web 2.0 focus on the social networking aspects and how the technologies enhance participation and engagement of the people (especially youth at this point). The potential impact of web 2.0 in terms of participation and engagement with government entities was mentioned but I was more struck by the potential of web 2.0 in terms of the application of new business models, new approaches to revenue generation. A key obstacle to the implementation of e-Government initiatives in many emerging countries has been the lack of funding and the limited base of taxation. In such contexts, innovative revenue generation models are certainly going to be welcome.

Clearly, there is still going to be a huge problem for countries where PCs and the Internet are not widespread yet. Both access to computers and the bandwidth are going to be key. Perhaps we need to start talking about m-Gov 2.0 (next generation mobile government).

For more information about yesterday's event at the World Bank, see the eDevelopment site.

Fiction with a Mission

I can't remember a time when I was more excited and sure that I had come up with a great idea than when I suggested the use of fiction as a way of conveying key lessons learned around telecenters. I had been reading a lot about the use of storytelling as a knowledge sharing tool and then case teaching as a method for teaching. We were looking for something innovative, not just another toolkit or cookbook and so I suggested that we develop a fictional country with fictional characters and a plot. Through their experiences, the main characters would come to identify key lessons learned and develop a process for others to use. While the initial reaction to the idea was somewhat positive, the final word was "no, this isn't going to fly."

I've come to realize that an idea that fails isn't necessarily a bad idea. Sometimes the timing is wrong, the manner in which the idea is introduced is less than ideal, or some other contextual element is acting as a barrier.

It's quite possible that I could not have made it fly but I haven't given up on the idea of using fiction. Since then I've discovered a series of "business novels" that are doing something similar to what I meant to try. In other words, I didn't come up with a brand new idea. It already existed. I just wanted to make it work in the context of a development-related issue.

I've compiled a reading list related to this theme of business novels and I'm working my way down the list. I've now read "Jack's Notebook" by Gregg Fraley and "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson. "Jack's Notebook" is about Creative Problem Solving and "Who Moved My Cheese?" is about change and how people deal or fail to deal with change. These two books are different in style: "Jacks' Notebook" has a real plot and characters, it reads like a simple novel; "Who Moved My Cheese?" is more akin to a fable. However, they are both written with a primary focus on conveying a set of key principles or concepts, using a storytelling approach. Mainstream novels may have an underlying theme but don't have as their primary function to teach anything. Their primary function is to entertain the reader.

Here's my reading list:

Patrick Lencioni's Business Fables

* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni.
* Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors
* The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees)
* The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable.

Jeff Cox's seven business novels

* The Goal
* Zapp
* Quadrant Solution
* Heroz
* The Venture
* Selling the Wheel
* The Cure

Other Examples

* Flying Fox
* Runamok
* The Management Game
* Who Moved My Cheese
* Jack's Notebook
* Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting, By Steve Litt
* The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management

My hope is to learn from these examples of "didactic fiction" and come up with a development-related version. If you are reading this and you know of some existing examples in development-related fields, please let me know.

WikiMindMap

Click on the map to enlarge

WikiMindMap is a web-based tool that transforms Wikipedia articles into a mindmap. I haven't figured out yet how to use the tool on a different wiki, if it is at all possible.

The mindmap above corresponds to the article on telecenters in the English version of Wikipedia. I used "telecenter" simply because I am familiar with the content of the "telecenter" article on Wikipedia and I wanted to see how that familiar content would translate into a mindmap.

Hooked

Trying to find the right mix of pens, notebooks, and electronic tools to keep track of projects, to-do lists, planning, random thoughts and reflections is not easy. I've never seen the world as either/or. I don't want to switch to an all digital file system but I do want the convenience of being better able to quickly find a note I jotted down six months ago without having to flip through pages and pages of a notebook.

I was focusing on personal knowledge management this week, not only as something I'd like to have a very good handle on for my own personal purposes but also as the starting point for more productive collaborative efforts and organizational KM. Somehow I ended up jumping into a discussion on the KM4Dev (Knowledge Management for Development) List, asking a question about tools that might help me address some of my personal knowledge management challenges, and ended up testing out TiddlyWiki.

TiddlyWiki is not a software per se but an html page full of code in the background that allows you to have a personal wiki on your desktop or on a USB key. All you need is a browser. It took me a good 30 minutes to figure out the key "this-is-how-it-works" principle, probably because I was looking for something more complicated. In the end, it's extremely easy to start with the basic version.

A couple of things hit me while I was playing around, figuring out how it worked and how I was going to use it for my own purposes:

1. The more languages you know, the easier it is to learn a new one. I don't know a lot of HTML but having a minimal understanding of what HTML does helps to grasp how other languages work -- without ever wanting to become a programmer or to master any of these languages. I have now experienced three different types of wikis. They each work slightly differently but once you get the basic principle, it's relatively easy.

2. Tagging is similar in some ways to coding in qualitative research. Until this week, when I used my newly created TiddlyWikis extensively for personal knowledge management purposes and for a research project activity, I had not fully understood the purpose and value of tagging. The more I experiment with new technology tools the more I am convinced that experiencing the tools, hands-on practice, is essential for people to realize and fully understand what these tools can help you with. Once I made the connection between tagging and coding in qualitative research, I was better able to integrate it into my own thinking/tagging practice.

I am now hooked on TiddlyWiki.