In this paper,* the authors state that the governments world over
have to give precedence in a number of sectors to social rather than
financial objectives. But this lack of alternatives, according to
them, needn't lead to indifferent performance. For them there are
many quantifiable measures of success in the public sector, but
rarely a single, uncomplicated bottom line.
According to Leslie and Tilley, public sector organisations face a
number of challenges: first, public-sector organizations are often
monopolies that administer and deliver essential services, such as
education, health care, law enforcement, and social welfare to entire
populations, second, public-sector organizations usually have broad
social objectives, such as reducing crime, that make it harder for
them to rank goals, and third, the workforce of the public sector
presents specific challenges.
In sum, the authors contend, that it is hard to inject a sense of
momentum into large, complex bodies that are insulated from
competition and have mixed, nonfinancial missions. The authors
nevertheless believe that organizational-design ideas, if implemented
together, can help reduce managerial complications and focus the
staff on doing the right things in the most efficient way.
The authors, therefore, suggest the following "five levers that
can move the public sector": 1. Strengthen the top team, 2.
Separate the design and provision of services, 3. Define the role of
the organizational center, 4. Integrate performance management, and
5. Learn new skills.
Keith Leslie is a principal and Catherine Tilley is a consultant in
McKinsey's London office.
Dr D.C.Misra
December 1, 2004.
__________________________________________________________________
*Cyber Quiz: Review of Leslie, Keith and Catherine Tilley (2004):
Organizing for effectiveness in the public sector, The McKinsey
Quarterly, Number 4, available:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?
ar=1509&L2=19&L3=69&srid=17&gp=0 (accessed: December 1, 2004).
Blogs have come to stay and many of them are thriving by offering
independent comments, views and tips on tech issues and technologies.
For the first time, TechWeb, a website for information technology
(IT) professionals, has compiled a list of best tech blogs based on
readers choice. Here are then "Top Ten Independent Tech Blogs
2004," based on "First TechWeb Network Best Independent Tech
Blog Readers Choice Awards" 2004:
Top Ten Independent Tech Blogs 2004
______________________________________________________________________
1.Groklaw (Pamela Jones)(Legal issues of open source technology),
http://www.groklaw.net,
2.AliceandBill.com (Alice Hill and Bill O'Brien)(tech topics),
http://www.aliceandbill.com,
3.CrackTalk (Terry Blount)(Update and links concerning tech issues),
http://cracktalk.blogspot.com/,
4.Slashdot ("News for Nerds"), http://slashdot.org,
5.Daily Dose of Excel(Dick Kusleika)(tips-n-tricks for Excel
enthusiasts), http://www.dicks-blog.com,
6.jkOnTheRun (James Kendrik)(mobile technologies),
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun,
7.Longhorn Blogs(Next version of Windows), http://longhorns.com,
8.The Enterprise System Spectator (Frank Scavo) (Observations on
enterprise systems),http://fscavo.blogspot.com,
9.Smallbiztechnology.com (Ramon Ray)(Technology for small businesses),
http://smallbiztechnology.com, and
10. VarLinux (Open source), http://www.varlinux.org
______________________________________________________________________
(Source: http://www.techweb.com/blogawards/winners.html, accessed:
November 30, 2004).
In mid-October, Tech Web asked its readers a question: what
independent tech blogs do you think are best? In the first phase --
which lasted three weeks – TechWeb asked an open question: tell
us about up to five blogs that you visit. About a thousand
nominations naming just over 400 blogs were received. Then ten
finalists were put to vote and, based on the result, the "top ten
list" prepared. For details, visit the website:
http://www.techweb.com/blogawards/winners.html
(accessed: November 30, 2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 30, 2004.
Mobile Government Consortium International (MGCI) is a La Jolla, CA-
based international association for mobile government practitioners.
Check it at
http://www.mgovernment.org/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 29, 2004.
Check
NIC (National Informatics Centre), Department of Information
Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,
Government of India (2004):
Management of Government of India Websites:
Guidelines for IT Managers,
New Delhi,the Author. Prepared for the Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, Version 1.0,March, at:
http://webservices.nic.in/guidelines.pdf (31 pp)
(accessed: November 27, 2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 27,2004.
Cyber Quiz: OPR-10: Review of Jain (2004): Using the lens of Max
Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy to examine E-Government Research
Jain examines contemporary E-Government related research and
literature from the perspective of Max Weber's theory of
bureaucracy.He finds two major, prevailing themes emerging from his
exercise. The first theme is that IT (information technology) is a
tool for `reforming' bureaucracy. The second, somewhat
contradictory,theme is that E-Government failure may be explained as
a consequence of bureaucracy (characterized by hierarchy, division of
labour and rigidity of rules). He illustrates both the themes by a
number of case studies from developed as well as from developing
countries including India.
Jain concludes that current E-Government research does not offer
adequate clarity on the issue of how E-Government and bureaucracy
impact each other in reciprocal ways. He calls for future research.
Very heavily documented (it cites 78 references) and thus valuable on
this score alone, Jain views E-Government from a very wide variety of
perspectives. No one interested in E-Government should miss to read
this valuable paper.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 27, 2004.
__________________________________________________________________
*Jain, Aby (2004): Using the lens of Max Weber's Theory of
Bureaucracy to examine E-Government Research, 37th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences – 2004, available:
http://astro.temple.edu/~jain/ETEPO03.pdf (accessed: November 27,
2004).
This is a noteworthy contribution* by Georg Aichholzer
(aich@...) of Institute of Technology Assessment, Austrian
Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
(http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/welcome.htm) to the steadily growing
literature of e-government. The paper is noteworthy as Aichholzer
uses `scenario analysis' for the assessment of e-government
projects which has been used only in a few e-government projects so
far.
Aichholzer notes two features of e-government projects:
implementation and risk. He notes the implementation problems of e-
Government projects citing examples of a number of failed e-
Government projects in Europe entailing substantial public costs. As
regards risk, he contends that the e-government projects "entail
risks on at least two levels: with respect to implementation success
and with respect to long-term sustainability."
In this paper the author is concerned with sustainability noting,
citing van der Heijden et al. (2002: pp. 142) **, `an established
instrument to improve strategic decisions in a context of change,
uncertainty and complexity is the scenario method.' A common core
element of scenario methods "is to explore possible development
paths and plausible, usually alternative images of the future."
The author cites the example of the European research project PRISMA
(Providing innovative service models and assessment)
(http://www.prisma-eu.net/), completed in 2003, which used scenario
method in e-Government.
The scenario process, according to the author, took place in 2002 and
dealt – among others – with the future of e-Government
towards a time horizon of 2010. "It used the STEEP approach to
analyse the overall contextual environment of e-Government in Europe
in a two-stage process: 1.Macro-scenarios for 2010, and 2.
Implications for e-Government strategies. As a result of scenario
analysis, the following three scenarios emerged: (1) "A
prosperous and more just Europe", (2) "A turbulent wo
rld",(3)"Recession and re-orientation." The author then
discusses various implications in each of these scenarios.
In conclusion, the author observes: "But in sum, scenario
approaches can be a useful tool for drawing attention to neglected
risks, thus enhancing strategy development and promoting the
sustainability of e-Government, which also helps to transform public
administrations into more future-oriented, adaptive learning
organisations." A useful tool of analysis, the scenario method
can provide useful guidance to e-Government practitioners in the
design,implementation and impact assessment of e-Government projects.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 27, 2004.
______________________________________________________________________
*Aichholzer, Georg (2004): Scenarios of e-Government in 2010 and
implications for strategy design, Electronic Journal of e-Government
(EJEG), 2(1)1-10, available: http://www.ejeg.com/volume-2/volume2-
issue-1/v2-i1-art1.htm (accessed: November 27, 2004). Keywords: e-
Government, risk, future, scenario method, strategy, Europe
**van der Heijden, K., Bradfield, R., Burt, G., Cairns, G. and
Wright, G. (2002) The Sixth Sense. Accelerating Organizational
Learning with Scenarios, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Copenhagen, Denmark-based Global Consensus, initiated in 2003, has
come out with a list of top 17 challenges facing the world and what
to do about them based upon social cost-benefit analysis. The
exercise is based upon the question: "What would be the best ways
of advancing global welfare, and particularly the welfare of
developing countries, supposing that an additional $50 billion of
resources were at governments' disposal?" The basic idea was
"to improve prioritization of the numerous problems the world
faces." The exercise is expected to help decision-makers in
taking investment decisions.
For this purpose, a panel of some of the world's best economists
was constituted to evaluate various proposals. The members were
Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University, Robert Fogel of the
University of Chicago (Nobel laureate), Bruno Frey of the University
of Zurich, Justin Yifu Lin of Peking University, Douglass North of
Washington University in St Louis (Nobel laureate), Thomas Schelling
of the University of Maryland, Vernon Smith of George Mason
University (Nobel laureate), and Nancy Stokey of the University of
Chicago.
The economists met in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 24-28, 2004 and
assessed various challenges. Out of the final 17 proposals ranked by
the economists, 3 were rated very good, 6 good, 4 fair and 4 bad. The
following is then the list of Top 17 Global Challenges as it emerged
in Copenhagen Consensus 2004:
Top 17 Global Challenges 2004
______________________________________________________________________
Very Good
1 Diseases: Control of HIV/AIDS
2 Malnutrition: Providing micro nutrients
3 Subsidies and Trade: Trade liberalization
Good
4 Diseases: Control of malaria
5 Malnutrition: Development of new agricultural technologies
6 Sanitation & Water: Small-scale water technology for livelihoods)
7 Sanitation & Water: Community-managed water supply and sanitation
8 Sanitation & Water: Research on water productivity in food
production
9 Government: Lowering the cost of starting a new business
Fair
10 Migration: Lowering barriers to migration for skilled workers
11 Malnutrition: Improving infant and child nutrition
12 Malnutrition: Reducing the prevalence of low birth weight
13 Diseases: Scaled-up basic health services
Bad
14 Migration: Guest worker programmes for the unskilled
15 Climate: Optimal carbon tax
16 Climate: The Kyoto Protocol
17 Climate: Value-at-risk carbon tax
______________________________________________________________________
Source:
http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Files/Filer/CC/Press/UK/copenhagen_
consensus_result_FINAL.pdf (accessed: November 26, 2004).
For details, visit the website:
http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/ (accessed: November 26, 2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 26, 2004
Cyber Quiz: List-20: Top Ten Most Beautiful English Words 2004
Following are Top Ten Most Beautiful English Words 2004 outside
United Kingdom:
________________________________________________________________________________
1. Mother, 2. Passion, 3. Smile, 4. Love, 5. Eternity, 6. Fantastic,
7. Destiny, 8.Freedom, 9. Liberty, and 10. Tranquility.
________________________________________________________________________________
This list is based on a survey in 102 non-English-speaking countries
conducted by the British Council (http://www.britishcouncil.org/), on
the occasion of its 70th anniversary, for compiling a list of 70 most
beautiful words (n= 40,000). Here is the complete list of 70 most
beautiful words:
_______________________________________________________________________________
MOST BEAUTIFUL ENGLISH WORDS OUTSIDE UK, 2004
_______________________________________________________________________________
1. Mother , 2. Passion, 3. Smile, 4. Love, 5. Eternity, 6. Fantastic, 7.
Destiny, 8. Freedom, 9. Liberty, 10. Tranquillity,
11. Peace, 12. Blossom, 13. Sunshine, 14. Sweetheart,15. Gorgeous, 16. Cherish,
17. Enthusiasm, 18. Hope, 19. Grace, 20. Rainbow,
21. Blue, 22. Sunflower, 23. Twinkle, 24. Serendipity, 25. Bliss, 26. Lullaby,
27. Sophisticated,28. Renaissance,29. Cute 30. Cosy,
31. Butterfly, 32. Galaxy, 33. Hilarious, 34. Moment, 35. Extravaganza, 36.
Aqua, 37. Sentiment, 38. Cosmopolitan, 39. Bubble, 40. Pumpkin,
41. Banana, 42. Lollipop,43. If, 44. Bumblebee, 45. Giggle, 46. Paradox, 47.
Delicacy, 48. Peekaboo, 49. Umbrella, 50. Kangaroo,
51.Flabbergasted, 52. Hippopotamus, 53. Gothic, 54. Coconut, 55. Smashing, 56.
Whoops,57. Tickle, 58. Loquacious, 59. Flip-flop, 60. Smithereens,
61. Oi, 62. Gazebo, 63. Hiccup, 64. Hodgepodge, 65. Shipshape, 66. Explosion,
67. Fuselage, 68. Zing, 69. Gum, and 70. Hen-night.
________________________________________________________________________________
Source: BRITISH COUNCIL
For details, check Mother's smile is fantastic, BBC News, World
Edition (November 25, 2004, Thursday), at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4039537.stm (accessed:
November 26, 2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 26, 2004.
The Copenhagen Consensus is a project inspired by Bjorn Lomborg,
former Director of Environmental Assessment Institute, an independent
institute under the Danish Ministry of the Environment in Copenhagen,
Denmark in late 2002. The project aims "to improve prioritization
of the numerous problems the world faces, by gathering some of the
world's greatest economists to a meeting where some of the biggest
challenges in the world would be assessed."
The project makes use of an expert panel "to make a ranking of
various economic estimates of opportunities that would meet these
challenges. The outcome should be a prioritized list of opportunities
meeting the biggest challenges. This list could be beneficial to
decision-makers all over the world."
Check the website at
http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.asp?ID=158
Dr D.C.Misra
November 26, 2004
The First Mental Calculation World Cup 2004 event was held on October
30, 2004 in Anneborg-Buchholz, Saxony, Germany, the home town of Adam
Ries, a German master of Calculations, in which 17 participants from
10 countries participated.
The World Cup winners were: 1. Combined event: Robert Fountain (Great
Britain), 2. Addition: Alberto Coto (Spain), 3. Multiplication:
Alberto Coto (Spain), 4. Square Root: Jan van Koningsveld
(Netherlands) and 5. Calendar Calculations: Matthias
Kesselschläger (Germany).
India had the second largest contingent (3 participants) after host
Germany's largest contingent (5 participants). United Kingdom
provided the third largest contingent (2 participants). Remaining
seven countries -Algeria, France, Iran, Lebanon, The Netherlands,
Spain, and U.S.A.- had one participant each.
The Indian contingent consisted of Divesh Ramanlal Shah (rank 10),
Arun Mangal (rank12) and Rajeev Kumar (rank 16) (Figures in
parentheses show the overall ranking).Our congratulations to winners
and all the participants. We hope that this will become a regular
event attracting more participants worldwide.
For details, visit the website:
http://www.recordholders.org/en/events/worldcup04/results.html.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 25, 2004.
An ancient Indian system of Mathematics based on the Vedas, the Hindu
scriptures, Vedic Mathematics was reportedly rediscovered by Sri
Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960) based on sixteen sutras (or word
formulae). The website claims that "it is perhaps the most
refined and efficient mathematical system possible."
The website aspires to become "a central resource on the Internet
on all aspects of Vedic Mathematics." Kenneth Williams is the
technical author. Check the website of Academy of Vedic Mathematics,
Lancs, United Kingdom, which offers, among other things, tutorials,
discussion group, books for sale and correspondence courses, at
http://vedicmaths.org/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 25, 2004.
Bottom Ten Countries in Press Freedom 2004
_______________________________________________________
Rank Country Note
_______________________________________________________
1 (167) North Korea 107,50
2 (166) Cuba 106,83
3 (165) Burma 103,63
4 (154) Turkmenistan 99,83
5 (163) Eritrea 93,25
6 (162) China 92,33
7 (161) Vietnam 86,88
8 (160) Nepal 79,17
9 (159) Saudi Arabia 79,17
10 (I58) Iran 78,30
_______________________________________________________
Note: Figures in parentheses indicate the reverse rank,
that is, rank in freedom of press.(n=167 countries).
Source:Compiled from http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11715
(accessed: November 24,2004).
For details, visit the website:
http://www.rsf.org/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 24,2004.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontièrs)(www.rsf.org)
is a Paris-based international organisation which "functions like
a press-freedom news agency." Every year, on 3 May, it celebrates
World Press Freedom Day. On this occasion, it publishes a report of
the status of press freedom in more than 150 countries. It compiles
the Worldwide Press Freedom index since 2002.
It compiled the index for 2004 by asking its partner organisations
around the world, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and
human rights activists, to answer 52 questions to indicate the state
of press freedom in 167 countries. This index is based solely on
events between 1 September 2003 and 1 September 2004. It does not
look at human rights violations in general, just press freedom
violations.
Reporters Without Borders compiled a questionnaire with 52 criteria
for assessing the state of press freedom in each country. It includes
every kind of violation directly affecting journalists (such as
murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats) and news media
(censorship, confiscation of issues, searches and harassment).
A scale devised by the organisation was then used to give a country-
score to each questionnaire.The Statistics Institute of the
University of Paris provided assistance in processing the data
reliably and thoroughly.
Top Ten Countries in Press Freedom 2004
_________________________________________________________
1 Denmark 0,50
- Finland 0,50
- Iceland 0,50
- Ireland 0,50
- Netherlands 0,50
- Norway 0,50
- Slovakia 0,50
- Switzerland 0,50
9 New Zealand 0,67
10 Latvia 1,00
________________________________________________________
Source: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11715
(accessed: November 24, 2004).(n=167 countries).
For details, visit the website:
http://www.rsf.org/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 24,2004
In this paper*, Choudrie et al. outline the initial results of an
ongoing research study that evaluates the accessibility,quality and
privacy issues concerning the first phase of e-business in
government,the web portal presence.They describe the issues related
to the accessibility,quality and privacy of state government web
portals of countries that have been considered to be benchmark
measures of good e-government practices," (ranked as `best
practice'countries by Accenture (2002: Technology in Government:
Riding the Waves of Change,http://www.accenture.com/), namely,
Singapore (http://www.gov.sg), Finland (http://virtualfinland.fi),
Canada (http://canada.gc.ca), Hong Kong (http://info.gov.hk) and
Australia (http:// australia.gov.au).
Choudrie et al. undertake an analysis of web portals using ranked web
diagnostic tools.WebXact(http://webxact.watchfire.com) was used to
gauge accessibility, quality and privacy. Netmechanic
(http://www.netmechanic.com) was utilised to monitor broken links in
the HTML code of the portals.World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s
HTML validator (http://validator.w3.org) was used to validate the
HTML code of the portals.For colour blindness,vizcheck
(http://www.vischeck.com),which simulated how the colour schemes used
by the respective portals impacted upon people with various forms of
colour blindness,was used.
The authors acknowledge the benefits to the government sector in
copying the techniques and technologies used in private sector but
argue that "in a hurry to replicate the highly dynamic e-business
environment governments may be overlooking basic e-customer-service-
criteria (such as quality, accessibility and privacy)." They
conclude that "in a hurry to embrace the first phase of
e-governance (the web portal presence) many governments are
neglecting accessibility,quality and privacy criteria."
Choudrie et al. also note that "Results of our experimental
research using performance metrics and web diagnostic engines also
exemplify the significance of such tools in the design and delivery
of web portals.While such tools(WebXact,Netmechanic)are widely used
in commercial website/web portal design and delivery,there is little
evidence to suggest that they are used in the government sector."
The authors,who belong to Department of Information Systems and
Computing,Brunel University,Uxbridge,United Kingdom,now propose
"to undertake a study that will incorporate other variables such
as education and age and their impact upon website quality."
This is a very useful paper whose findings have practical utility to
e-government practitioners not only for developed countries but also
to developing countries who continue to struggle with various issues
of web presence.It is an innovative study as it points out,perhaps
for the first time in the knowledge of this reviewer,to the practical
utility of web diagnostic tools of private sector to e-government
portals.The study also points out that the e-government portals are
not the "done things" but require to be constantly monitored
by performance metrics in case they have to serve the citizens
efficiently.We compliment the researchers for their excellent study
and hope that more such studies will come from their stable as e-
government has raised the expectations of the citizens worldwide for
more efficient government in the 21st century.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 24,2004
_____________________________________________________________________
*Choudrie, Jyoti, Gheorgita Ghinea and Vishanth Weerakkody (2004):
[online] Evaluating Global e-Government Sites: A View Using Web
Diagnostic Tools, Electronic Journal of E-Government, 2 (2),
September, http://www.ejeg.com/volume-2/volume2-issue2/v2-i2-art4.htm
(accessed: November 24,2004).
Cyber Quiz: List-16: Top Ten Safest U.S. Cities* 2004
______________________________________________________
1. San Jose,CA
2. El Paso,TX
3. Honolulu,HI
4. Austin,TX
5. New York,NY
6. Louisville,KY
7. San Diego,CA
8. San Antonio,TX
9. San Francisco,CA,and
10.Fort Worth,TX
_____________________________________________________
*Cities of 500,000 or more (32 cities)
Source: Morgan Quitno Corp, as reported by The
Associated Press,Trenton,NJ,November 22,2004.
Morgan Quitno Corp publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual
reference book.The rankings are based on six crime categories:
murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.
Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI in October, were used to
determine the rankings.
For more details,visit the website:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6555449/?GT1=5809
(accessed: November 22,2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 23,2004.
Cyber Quiz: List-17: Top Ten Most Dangerous U.S. Cities* 2004
_____________________________________________________________
1. Detroit,MI
2. Washington,DC
3. Baltimore,MD
4. Memphis,TN
5. Dallas,TX
6. Philadelphia,PA
7. Columbus,OH
8. Nashville,TN
9. Houston,TX, and
10.Phoenix,AZ
_____________________________________________________________
*Cities of 500,000 or more(32 cities)
Source: Morgan Quitno Corp, as reported by The
Associated Press,Trenton,NJ,November 22,2004.
Morgan Quitno Corp publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual
reference book.The rankings are based on six crime categories:
murder,rape,robbery,aggravated assault,burglary and auto theft.
Final 2003 statistics,released by the FBI in October,were used
to determine the rankings.
For more details,visit the website:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6555449/?GT1=5809
(Accessed: November 22,2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 23,2004.
EDUSAT,a collaborative project of Ministry of Human Resource
Development(MHRD)(http://education.nic.in),Indira Gandhi National
Open University(IGNOU)(http://www.ignou.ac.in)and Department of Space
Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO)(http://www.isro.org and
http://www.isro.org/edusat),is the first Indian satellite "built
exclusively for serving the educational sector.It is mainly intended
to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance
education system" for India.Its objectives include provision of
extensive ICT support for education.For details,visit the website:
http://www.edusatindia.org (accessed:November 23,2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 23,2004.
While the initial excitement about them may be on the wane,the
government websites continue to interest e-government scholars and
practitioners worldwide and rightly so as they are the portals
offering government service delivery to citizens.In a way,they are
also the single most important indicator of e-government status and
thus deserve attention on this score alone.
Zhou,a former employee of the Xinhua News Agency in Beijing,China
(1993-2000) and currently a doctoral student at in the School of
Journalism and Electronic Media,University of Tennessee at Knoxville,
has therefore done well by undertaking this study which analyses the
opening pages of 177 government websites in China on the ground
that "no studies were found that systematically explored the
content of both national and provincial Chinese government
websites."
The study reports that " broad e-governance, e-knowledge, and e-
service functions were implemented at sites of national, costal,and
inland government units.Generally,national and costal sites were more
sophisticated,but inland sites seemed designed to meet the specific
needs of government,citizens,and businesses in inland areas."
According to the author,the findings suggest that "China may have
begun to achieve its goals of facilitating government functions via
the Internet."
Dr D.C.Misra,
November 23,2004.
______________________________________________________________________
*Zhou,Xiang(2004):E-Government in China:A Content Analysis of
National and Provincial Web Sites,Journal of Computer- Mediated
Communication,JCMC,9(4),July,available:
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol9/issue4/zhou.html(accessed:November
23,2004).
On Thursday,November 18,2004,Google launched the beta version of
its academic search engine,Google Scholar.According to Anurag
Acharya,Principal Scientist,Google,it is "a free service that
helps users search scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed
papers,theses,books,preprints,abstracts and technical reports."
(http://groups.google.com/googleblog/2004/11/scholarly-
pursuits.html).
Only the other day (November 20,2004;Message 163)we mentioned
about another academic search engine in this column,Penn State's
Cite Seer.Now the search leader Google has launched an academic
search engine,Google Scholar.Incidentally, Google Scholar has an
interesting slogan too:Standing on the shoulders of giants.For
details* about Google Scholar,visit the website:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#about
Dr D.C.Misra
November 22,2004.
___________________________________________________________________
* Also see Rajghatta,Chidanand (2004):Indian Acharya is the toast
of geekdom,Sunday Times of India,New Delhi,November 21,p-10.
The World Puzzle Federation (WPF) is an international organization
dedicated to puzzles. According to the website, the goals of the WPF
are: "to provide the means for an international exchange of
puzzle ideas; to stimulate innovations in the field of puzzles; to
supervise the annual World Puzzle Championship (WPC) and other puzzle
activities; and to foster friendship among puzzle enthusiasts world-
wide." Will Shortz (USA.) is its Chairman and Peter Ritmeester
(The Netherlands) its General Secretary.
It has the following 23 members: 1. Argentina, 2. Belgium, 3.
Bulgaria, 4. Croatia, 5. Czech Republic, 6. Estonia, 7. Finland,8.
France, 9. Germany, 10. Hungary, 11. India, 12. Japan, 13. Korea, 14.
Peru , 15. Poland, 16. Russia, 17. Slovakia, 18. Switzerland, 19. The
Netherlands, 20. Turkey, 21. Ukraine, 22. United Kingdom, and 23. USA.
The Indian team is represented by Mr. Hendrik Hardeman, Managing
Director,Novax Media Pvt. Ltd. No.1240, 10th Main, 12th 'B' Cross, II
Stage,West of Chord Road,Bangalore 560086, Tel: +91.80.23498695, E-
mail:hardeman@... Global Cyber Quiz Forum congratulates Mr
Hardeman in taking the initiative for promoting the event in India.
We would of course like to hear more from him.
The site also hosts a WPC Forum for "puzzles, riddles, ideas,
solutions and puzzling discussion." Check it at
http://www.worldpuzzle.org/forum/list.php?f=1.
For details, visit the website:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org/about.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 21,2004
The World Puzzle Conference (WPC) 2004 took place on October 12 –
17, 2004 at the Adriatic coast in Opatija, Croatia. Individual winner
was Niels Roest (Netherlands) and the USA (4481 points) won the
team event.
The next four individual winners were: 2. Ulrich Voigt (Germany), 3.
Roger Barkan (USA), 4. Zoltan Horvath (Hungary), and 5. Michael Ley
(USA).The following were next four teams: 2. Germany (4392 points),
3. Hungary (4303 points), 4. The Netherlands (4099 points), and 5.
Canada (4015 points).
And where did the Indian team stand? Did you guess it? At the bottom
of 22 countries (22nd position: 1506 points)! Of course an important
achievement is that it is at least one of the 22 countries which
participated in the event.For details about the Indian team, contact
Mr. Hendrik Hardeman, Managing Director, Novax Media Pvt. Ltd. No.
1240, 10th Main, 12th 'B' Cross, II Stage, West of Chord Road,
Bangalore 560086, Tel: +91.80.23498695, E-mail: hardeman@....
The first championship took place in New York in 1992 and since then
the championships are being regularly held every year. All puzzles
presented at a World Puzzle Championship (WPC) are cultural- and
language-neutral. We in the Cyber Quiz Forum congratulate all the
winners and participants in the event, including the India team to
whom we wish better luck next time. For details, visit the website:
http://www.worldpuzzle.org/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 21,2004.
The first print bimonthly journal of One World South Asia (OWSA), a
New Delhi-based civil society organisation, called Mainstreaming
ICTs (MICT), was launched in September 2004. It focused on Food
Security and Hunger.
The journal aims "to provide a platform for critical debates on
the role, scope, and experiences related to the use of ICTs in
development interventions in South Asia. It also seeks to address the
concerns of policy makers, practitioners, donors and other
stakeholders in the ICT4D sector."
The Nov-Dec 2004 issue is on Primary and Girl Child Education. The
Jan-Feb 2005 issue will focus on HIV/AIDS and March-April issue on
Rural Livelihoods.
Now, as informed by Manish Kumar, Manager, ICT Research, OWSA,
Mainstreaming ICTs is available online. Check it at:
http://southasia.oneworld.net/section/mict.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 20,2004.
Cyber Quiz:Website Watch-7:CiteSeer.IST:Penn State's School of
Information Sciences and Technology
CiteSeer.IST is an academic search engine and digital library.It
searches 716,797 documents.It is hosted by Pennsylvania State
University(Penn State)'s School of Information Sciences and
Technology.According to the website it is
"a scientific literature digital library that aims to improve the
dissemination and feedback of scientific literature, and to provide
improvements in functionality, usability, availability, cost,
comprehensiveness, efficiency, and timeliness. Rather than creating
just another digital library, CiteSeer provides algorithms,
techniques, and software that can be used in other digital
libraries."
CiteSeer indexes Postscript and PDF research articles on the Web, and
provides a number of other features.For details, visit the website:
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/citeseer.html
Dr D.C.Misra
November 20,2004.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)'s 2004 ranking of full-time
MBA programmes shows the dominance of US schools as 16 of the top 20
are US schools, with Kellogg ranking number one and Stanford, Tuck,
Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, Wharton and Stern all featuring in the
top ten. Only two European schools feature in the top ten, namely,
IMD in Switzerland (rank: 5), and IESE in Spain (rank 9). And the
only Indian business school included in the top 100 rankings is
Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad (rank: 64) but it has
the unique distinction of being the best school in the category
of "Open new career opportunities."
The methodology for ranking included following ranking criteria and
weightage: A. Open new career opportunities (35%) (1. Diversity of
recruiters, 2. Assessment of careers services, 3. Jobs found through
the careers service, 4. Student assessment), B. Personal
development/educational experience (35%) (1. Faculty quality, 2.
Student quality, 3. Student diversity, 4. Education experience), and
C. Increase salary (20%) (1. How much did your salary increase after
graduating? 2. Leaving salary), and D. Potential to network (10%)
(1. Breadth of alumni network, 2. Internationalism of alumni, and 3.
Alumni effectiveness).
The following is the list of Top Ten business schools:
1. Kellogg School of Management(Northwestern University),US
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business,US
3. Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth College),US
4. Harvard Business School (HBS),US
5. International Institute for Management Development
(IMD),Switzerland
6. Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago,US
7. Columbia Business School,US
8. Wharton School,University of Pennsylvania,US
9. IESE Business School (University of Navarra), Spain, and
10.Leonard N Stern School of Business (New York University), US
(Source:http://mba.eiu.com/
index.asp?layout=view_article&eiu_article_id=727660272,
accessed:November 20,2004).
For details, visit the website:
http://mba.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=2002rankings,
(accessed:November 20, 2004).
Dr D.C.Misra
November 20,2004.
Three lecture under the MindTree Lecture Series (July 10 –
October 2,2004) are available for download:1.Nine Key Factors Behind
a Successful Technical Career (242 K PDF),2.Transitioning to Mid
Level Positions - Challenges and Issues (223 K PDF),and 3.Life After
40 for Information Technology (IT)(273 K PDF).
MindTree Consulting, started in 1999 by 10 industry professionals who
came from Cambridge Technology Partners,Lucent Technologies and
Wipro,is an international IT-consulting company co-headquartered in
Somerset,New Jersey and Bangalore,India.The founding team was led by
Ashok Soota who was at that time vice chairman and president of
Wipro, one of India's largest software companies.For details,visit
the website:
http://www.mindtree.com/ping_me.html.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 19,2004.
Claimed to be "An exciting new forum for policymakers,
practitioners,and technology industry leaders in addition to
academics and researchers," and "the first and only peer-reviewed
academic journal in the area," the Journal of E-Government is
"a new professional journal focusing on the application and
practice of e-government in its broadest sense—using information
technology to enhance the delivery of public services and
information." It was launched with a special issue in its sister
publication, the Journal of Political Economy.
The Journal of E-Government is produced by the Center for E-
Government at the University of Southern California and published by
Haworth Press, Inc. Gregory G. Curtin, Research Professor and
Executive Director of the Center for E-Government of the University
of Southern California is, its Editor-in-Chief. The Journal is not
available online thus considerably marring its value to independent
researchers who are not affiliated to any institution. The contents
of its second and latest issue are, however, available online. Visit
for details the website:
http://www.egovjournal.com/
Dr D.C.Misra
November 18,2004
The Electronic Journal of e-Government (EJEG) is an online journal
that "aims to publish articles and papers that contribute to the
development of both the study and practice of all aspects of e-
Government and web-enabling technology in the public sector."
Edited by Frank Bannister, an ex-civil servant and now Senior
Lecturer in Information Systems and Director of the Management
Science and Information Systems Studies programme at Trinity College,
Dublin, Ireland, it "accepts academically robust papers, topical
articles and case studies that contribute to the area of research in,
and practice of e-Government." It is published by Academic
Conferences Limited, England*. For details visit the website:
http://www.ejeg.com/index.htm
Dr D.C.Misra
November 18,2004
______________________________________________________________________
*Academic Conferences Limited, Curtis Farm, Kidmore End, Nr Reading
RG4 9AY, England, Tel: +44 (0)1189 724148, Fax: +44 (0)1189 724691,
Email: info@...
First Monday is one of the "first peer–reviewed journals on
the Internet solely devoted to the Internet."According to its
site,since its start in May 1996,it has published 557 papers in 101
issues written by 662 different authors.It is being published in
cooperation with the University Library at the University of Illinois
at Chicago.Edward Valauskas is its Chief Editor.Access it at
http://www.firstmonday.dk/.
Dr D.C.Misra
November 18,2004
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