E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation so Far and Citizen's Adoprtion Strategies

In general, E-government is an abbreviation of the phrase electronic government. It is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organisations. The implementation of e-government begins since the launch of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by Malaysia government. It was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. The vision of e-government is to bring the government, businesses and citizens working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. Its implementation in Malaysia has improved tremendously and has achieved a greater result.


E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. Under this flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of e-government applications.



The e-government projects are

1) Project Monitoring System (PMS)
It is an online system created to monitor the implementation of government project, such as the entire lifecycle of national program (i.e: from the project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion).

2) Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
This is an integrated, technological Human Resource Management Information System for the Malaysia Public Service, incorporating Global Best practices in human resource that can deal with the challenges of the K-Economy. In other words, it standardizes all human processes for federal, state, statutory body, and local authority services.

3) Generic Office Environment (GOE)
This is a powerful document and office management solution that enables users to effectively and efficiently manage their office environment. It introduces a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia technology which in term allows efficient communication.

4) Electronic Procurement (EP)
It is a system which enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through the internet. Suppliers market their goods, present their pricing, process orders and deliveries by “opening a shop” on the World Wide Web.

5) Electronic Service (E-Services)
This is a project that allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in the transactions with government and utilises payment such as telephone and electricity bills, police summons and etc. This is accessed via multi channel service delivery like the Internet and kiosk machines.

6)Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
This project is a stop-centre for labor market information that will be accessible to public.

7)E- Syariah
This seventh project, E-Syariah is a case management syaytem that integrates the processes related to managing cases for the Syariah courts. This system application consists of Syariah Court Management System, Office Automation System, E-Syariah Portal, Syarie Lawyers Registration System and Library Management System.


Citizen's adoption Strategies


In order to encourage citizens to adopt e- government, the government must build citizen's trust in government, in the Internet, and also in the compatibility of the e- government system.

The government should also create awareness among citizens about e- government. This can be done through giving seminars, putting advertisement in television, published in newspapers, or advertisement through radios.

In addition, government should inform citizens about the advantages of e- government. For example, government could encourage the adoption of online license renewal by emphasizing its convenience and speed compared to the traditional method of visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office. Online license renewal can be completed from the home or office at anytime. It can be done anywhere that is convenient to the citizens. The online service is also quicker than the traditional method since citizens do not have to travel to a physical branch of the DMV and then wait in line.

Reference:

• http://www.mait.com/admin/enews_images/MAIT%20Country%20Intelligence%20eNews96_37.pdf
  

• http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
  

• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-e-government.htm
  

• http://www.egov4dev.org/success/definitions.shtml

• http://www.ejeg.com/volume-2/volume2-issue-1/v2-i1-art2-carter.pdf

• http://www.dcc.ufla.br/infocomp/artigos/v7.2/art01.pdf

A Review on a Post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog

I have read a post entitled “New Rules for Cyber Cafes Soon” on Legal from My E-Commerce blog. It is stated in the post that Malaysian government is setting up new guidelines to be enforced on Internet and cyber cafes in order to control these businesses and prevent them from causing social ill.


In my opinion, some of these new rules may be inappropriate to be applied and will cause great losses to those businesses. One of the guidelines is that those cyber cafes have to be closed by midnight. In my opinion, this is quite inapplicable because most of the youngsters visit cyber cafes late at night and stay there for a long time, even after midnight. One of the reasons for them to visit cyber cafes is their long operating hours which extend to late midnight, and some even operate for 24hours. This is the main feature of cyber cafes and it is hard for it to be changed. If the rule is applied, they may experience great losses.

On the other hand, the rule of having a book log to record the entry and departure time of the patrons is inappropriate and unnecessary. Most of the patrons might end up filling up false details, such as false names, false identification card numbers, or even false signatures. It may end up be a useless recording and it is a waste of time doing it.

Therefore, the government should revise those guidelines to ensure its usefulness and that it brings more pros than cons to the society.



However, some new rules are beneficial to the society. For example, cyber cafes are not allowed to use tinted glasses. Some youngsters may skip their tuition classes or run out of schools to go to these places secretly without the knowledge of their families. Therefore, non- tinted glasses may make them feel uncomfortable and reduce the chances for them to do so.



The rule saying that those under 12 years old must be accompanied by parents or guardian and only allowed to stay up to 10 pm is also advantageous. Young children should be discouraged to go to these places, especially without parents’ consents. They should also avoid hanging around at outside til late night.

In addition, the rules which prohibit cyber cafes from selling cigarettes and alcohols, providing gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element is good for the society. These harmful items and unconstructive elements should be eliminated to avoid those naïve youngsters from being contaminated. It is an important step to be taken in order to build a healthy society.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to achieve its organizational goals. Corporations are looking for opportunities to make them more outstanding and competitive. There are two main corporate blogs which are internal blog and external blog.

Internal blog is accessed through the corporation’s intranet. It is a weblog that any employee can view. Through the internal blogs employees can participate and discuss corporate issues. It encourages direct communication between various layers of an organization and shows a sense of community.


External blogs is a publicly available weblog where employees, teams or spokespersons can share their views. It is used to announce new products and services, to explain and clarify policies or to react on public criticism on certain issues.

Corporate weblog shows a company's culture and is less formal than traditional press releases. Corporate weblog is a representation of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction. It helps the company to achieve transparency. It allows companies to communicate their products and affairs with their customers in a more casual environment.

Corporate blogging let customers know that the company cares about their opinions. Customers are able to interact with the company by leaving comments and providing valuable feedbacks or insights that can be brought back into the business. Through these communications, companies can find better ways to satisfy customers' needs and wants, thus facilitating goodwill in the community.

Corporate weblog is also a form of advertising for companies because it allows everyone to access to it and it is the best way to reach to many readers. Thus, company's brand can stay fresh in customers' mind. For those customers who are interested in a particular company, they will constantly access to the website to know more about their products and new promotions offered. For that reason, corporate weblog builds brand awareness and loyalty and increase brand visibility.


This website is about benefit of corporate weblog, if you are interested u can refer to it.
http://www.scoutblogging.com/2006/04/what_are_the_benefits_of_corpo.html

The website below is about 15 companies that really get corporate blogging. If you are interesting you can view it as extra information.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysia universities: Pros and Cons from the students Perspective

In this new era, the traditional teaching method applied by Universities has evolved into a technological method through the introduction of e-learning. Well, e-learning is the modem process of education where part of the learning experience takes place without face to face communication between the teacher and his students. This is a method where tutors or lecturers post up several course modules on the university intranet, and students will have the access to these sources. However, there are some pros and cons in adopting these technologies.

The pros of e-learning include reduction of travelling cost and time. With e-learning, students can access to the internet and get the resource that are needed in seconds without the need to travel all the way to the college to get those resources. This helps students to save the transport costs, which then can be used for other necessary areas. Besides that, it allows students to get resources anywhere they want as long as they have the access to a computer and internet.

Another advantage of e-learning is that it provides wider learning options for students, where it is not restricted to the geographic location. In other words, it means that a student studying in Malaysia can still access to the resources uploaded by foreign University. This makes the life of a student easier in his process of study and learn more about foreign knowledge. This also builds a link between local and foreign students from all over the world. Furthermore, more information or opinions can be exchanged among them.


Although e-learning provides benefits, there are also some inevitable cons. One of the cons of using e-learning is that it might be a bit costly. In order to use e-learning, certain installation costs are needed, such as high-speed internet costs and software applications. Therefore, it requires some costs to implement e-learning.

Besides that, unmotivated learners or students with poor study habits might find it difficult to follow e-learning as they are not familiar with the structure and routine of the process. They may require much more time to understand it.

E-learning sometimes might not be working successfully due to the slow or unreliable internet connections. This may cause inability to access to the resources or inability to upload the resources in time.

Problem with developing relationship with classmates might also occur. With the reliance on e-learning, face-to-face interaction is lesser leading to lack of social relationship development in the society.

References:
http://www.about-elearning.com/e-learning-advantages-and-disadvantages.html
http://www.elearners.com/resources/elearning-faq5.asp