Fatimid Heritage Foundation Invites to Join Development Gateway co-sponsored Global Dialogue on Mobile Government

Fatimid Heritage Foundation invites to join for a Development Gateway co-sponsored Global Dialogue on Mobile Government: The New Frontier in Transforming Public Services. The event will take place 08.30 - 11:00 am ET on November 29, 2007 in Washington D. C. and in Delhi; you can also join via live webcast and online discussion forum, or via videoconference from one of several other participating cities. The event is co-sponsored by the World Bank, the Development Gateway Foundation, e-GovWorld, e-Gov Monitor, and IIS-Russia.

Mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier for transforming government towards citizen-centricity and one-stop multi-channel delivery. They extend the benefits of remote delivery of government services and information to those who are unable or unwilling to access public services through the Internet or simply prefer to use mobile devices. In theory, many government services can now be made available on a 24x7x365 basis in any place covered by mobile networks, which today means almost everywhere.

According to an estimate by R. Chandrashekar, Additional Secretary (e-Gov), Government of India, (keynote speaker at this seminar), up to 50-60% of government services in India can be delivered via mobile channels. This emerging trend in public service delivery has often been called "Mobile Government" (M-Government) and is part of a broader phenomenon of mobile-enabled development (m-development), which leverages the mobile revolution to enable development impact. The organizers hope to address the following questions at the Global Dialogue on Mobile Government:+ According to the ITU, the total number of mobile users worldwide as of late 2006 was about 2.7 billion and the number of internet users was just above 1.1 billion. Does this provide a strong case for leveraging mobile channels to dramatically improve access to public services to those who can afford to use a personal or shared mobile phone (e.g. as in Village Phone programs)? Does this create an opportunity to connect in the near future the next two billion people to the benefits of e-government, e-health, e-education, e-banking and e-commerce?+ How exactly can Mobile Government transform the lives of common people in developing and transition countries? What are the best examples of such impact? + What are the types of services that can be easily provided on mobile phones/devices ("quick wins") and what are the more strategic high-impact services ("killer applications")?+ What are the key constraints to making this vision a reality? What are the critical success factors and lessons learned?+ Should government agencies and the development community take this opportunity to drastically improve access to information and services? How should governments and donors change the way they do business to take full advantage of mobile technologies?+ What is the role of the private sector? Are there successful business models (e.g. PPP) for private sector companies to support value-added m-government services?

This Global Dialogue seminar is organized as an integral part of the eGovWorld 2007 Conference taking place in New Delhi on Nov. 29-30, 2007 (www.egovworld.org) and will connect a large and high profile audience in India with experts and e-government champions in other countries for sharing ideas on how to take public services transformation to the next level with the help of mobile technologies.

More information about this event is available at http://go.worldbank.org/RLCVF90NBO

JOIN LIVE WEBCAST:The Webcast links are at: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live(registration is not required but is recommended). If you would like to send in advance questions for speakers, or if you have any questions on how to access the webcast and e-discussion, please email mailto:edevelopment@worldbank.org

JOIN DISCUSSION FORUM:
Fatimid Heritage Foundation strongly encourages you to post your views on the discussion forum created for this event to promote the good image of your respective counties, at:http://topics.developmentgateway.org/egovernment/discussion/default/showDiscussion.do~id=5303?intcmp=916

P.S. Feel free to forward this invitation to all who may be interested!