COMNET-IT '95

WORKSHOP REPORT

 

Foreword

The workshop on National Information Technology Policies and Strategies in Commonwealth Countries was held at the Hotel Phoenicia in Floriana, Malta fromOctober 30th to November 1st, 1995. The objective of the workshop was to provide substantive input to the future work of COMNET IT - to guide its direction and agenda.

The workshop had three principal aims:

To bring together people engaged in national policy development to share experiences and expertise concerning the development and implementation of national information technology policies and strategies;

To propose "guidelines" for formulating national and information technology strategies in Commonwealth Countries and

To encourage member countries that have not already developed national information technology policies and strategies to do so.

 

The workshop provided the venue for the launching of COMNET-IT - The Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development as an independent foundation domiciled in Malta. COMNET-IT’s mission is:

To promote a networking of institutions and individuals with the purpose of accelerating social and economic development through the use of computer networks.

The participants comprised a group of specialists in information and related technologies. Participants were from governments, academia and industry: policy makers engaged in the development and implementation of national IT policies and strategies. They came from 20 countries, from both the developing and industrialised world, and from six international agencies. Their personal expectations of the workshop, and hence their main area of interest, are summarised in Appendix A.

The results of the workshop are aimed at top level policy makers concerned with the development of national and international information technology policies and strategies. The sessions included a review of experiences in policy and strategy development in Commonweatlh countries and discussion of the issues that must be considered when developing such policies.

This report on the COMNET-IT workshop draws from a number of sources. The workshop itself provided a number of presentations and papers, the editorial committee provided input into the background and wrote the conclusions and recommendations. The Working Groups convened at the Workshop provided the set of issues which are reflected in the Chapter sub-headings. Participants at the workshop and other interested parties provided input to the proceedings through an electronic discussion list set up by the Information Systems Department at the National University of Singapore. In addition, there were several references to other documents and reports some of which are mentioned here. Finally, the deliberations of the workshop was greatly assisted by the electronic meeting support software package, GroupSystems, provided by Dr. Jay Nunamaker and Dr. Robert Briggs of the University of Arizona. Mr Peter Holm of Groupvision, Denmark provided a network of twenty-five laptop computers on which the GroupSystems software was run.