Government & Web 2.0

This research started by exploring how Government can make use of Web 2.0 and Social Networking applications to help those underserveds in developing countries. The research turned out to be harder than expected due to the lack of case studies in developing countries.

The key to the difficulty lies in the nature of Web 2.0 and Social Networking applications. For governments to use the Web 2.0 and social networking applications to help the underserveds, there must first be ready deployment and access to Web 2.0 and social networking applications.

The fundamental requisites thus to Web 2.0 and Social Networking applications are:-

• Ready access to Internet - This means easy, affordable, convenient access to the Internet
• Broadband capacity - Web 2.0 and social networking applications generally require more bandwidth than static Web 1.0 applications
• Literate population - Ability to understand what is on the web....which is generally a written media...though recently video applications like youtube tend to blur that line. Even then, there is a need to cater to different languages.
• Relevance - Many in developing countries does not have leisure time to use the Internet for leisure in view of the work necessity of poverty. This means that the Web application must be of relevant to them, particularly if there is cost involved.

An example will be Africa. Only 4% of Africans have access to the internet. They pay the most in the world, around $250-300 a month, for the slowest connection speeds. E-commerce barely exists. Nigeria's 140m-odd people have but a few hundred decently trafficked websites in their domain. Blogging is a vibrant but peripheral activity. Article on this:- http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9990626

It can be seen that in least developed countries, it is a challenge just for the government to provide access to means of communications, i.e. mobile phone and Internet to the general population. The focus of the government is thus on providing access (which is the 1st requisite) rather than leveraging on Web 2.0 applications. This is usually done in the form of Internet kiosk or center - where a centre in the community provides Internet access. (Example in Kenya - Article: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-47033-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html). Such Internet centers however are not as convenient and flexible as mobile phones. Due to the affordability of mobile phones (including Grameenphones), the reach of mobile phones in least developed countries is much more than Internet.

Even if access is available, there is also the problem of literate people and whether they are able to use the websites. There may not be websites in the native language, particularly with the bulk of the sites are international sites. This limits the potential of Web 2.0 and social networking apps.

Lastly, there must be relevance....Much of Web 2.0 and social networking apps currently in the first phase involved curiosity and interest rather than real-world applications. This is particularly so for least developed countries that can least spare the time and resources for such leisure.

As such, the possible governments that can leverage on Web 2.0 and social networking tools are those that:-

• Population have ready access to broadband capacity Internet
• Literate population with experience in surfing the Internet
• Presence of Web 2.0 and social networking tools that are comprehensible to the local population.

The government can then follow on the last bit - which is to provide relevant information on Web 2.0 and social networking applications - to serve its local population.

Generally, the governments that can meet the first 3 requisites are mostly developed countries or advanced developing countries...The typical targeted audience of Web 2.0 and social networking applications by governments are those who are literature, comfortable with using Internet and have easy access to broadband Internet.
A typical usage in this context would be the use of Web 2.0 by Australian Government as part of their upcoming elections http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/15/wgoogle115.xml