1. March 12 1
ICTs to Deepen Democracy
Tony Ming
Commonwealth Secretariat
2. Agenda
• The Commonwealth
• Disruptive Technologies
– Web 2.0
– Mobile Devices
– The Internet
• Re-engineering Citizens / State Relationships
• Virtual Networks
• Democratization of Knowledge Creation
• Implications for Governments
2
3. The Commonwealth
• A unique family of 54 developing and
developed nations and over 90
Commonwealth Agencies;
• 2 billion people – 30% of the world’s
population and over 50% are youths;
• Every continent, many races, faiths,
languages and cultures;
• Shared values and principles: democracy,
good governance, human rights and the
rule of law, socio-economic development,
gender equality, tolerance, respect, and
peace and security; and
• Shared history, language, legal and other
structures
Celebrating Diversity
March 12 3
4. Commonwealth Connects
Genesis:
– The 2005 CHOGM in Malta, endorsed the recommendations
of a report prepared by a Coordinating Committee which
resulted in the creation of Commonwealth Connects.
Purpose:
– Sharing the ICT wealth of the Commonwealth
– Through transfer of knowledge and expertise between the ICT
advanced and ICT-disadvantaged member states
– Through codifying and sharing good practice, software and
experiences
Areas of focus:
– Building policy and regulatory capacity
– Modernizing education and skills development
– Entrepreneurship for poverty reduction and wealth creation
– Promoting local access and connectivity
– Regional networking, local content and knowledge
Based on the principles – share, learn & improve
March 12 4
5. I think there's confusion around what the
point of social networks is ...... What we're
trying to do is just make it really efficient for
people to communicate, get information and
share information.
Mark Zuckerberg – Founder of Facebook
5March 12
6. What is Web 2.0
“... As a platform, spanning all connected
devices, delivering software as a continually
updated service that gets better the more
people use it, consuming and remixing data
from multiple sources”
Bill O’Reilly
6March 12
7. Features of Web 2.0
• Social networking
• Virtual meetings
• Collaborative tool
• Web Personalisation
• Communities of interest
7March 12
9. Internet
• Networks within networks
• New digital pathways
• Virtual Highway
• Unregulated and Open
9
1.8 b internet users
234 m websites
March 12
10. Radical Redesign
Web 2.0 + Mobile Technology + Internet
=
Re-engineering of citizens to state relationships
10March 12
11. Citizens State Relations
• New forms of civil society
groups
• Point of entry is virtual
• Ability to exert pressure
• Interest based
communities
11March 12
12. Virtual Networks
• Creation new non-physical
networks
• Removal of social / class
barriers
• Educated youths are
prominent in this space
12March 12
13. Democratization of Knowledge Creation
• Power to creators of
knowledge
• Disintermediation of
communication channels
• Levelling the playing field
13March 12
14. Implications
• eGovernment to Gov 2.0 to eDemocracy
• Demand for increase in Governance and
Transparency
• Deepening of Democratic Values
• More responsive state
• Harness the power of people
14March 12
18. March 12 18
Building Capacity for Development
• Trained over 500 Government
officials (2009 – 2011) in the
following areas:
• National ICT Strategies
• eGovernance
• Business Process Re-
engineering
• Conducted over 30 technical
missions
