Challenges of the Information Officer of the Digital Age

My beloved brothers and sisters in information and communication industry in Ghana, verily, verily, I say unto you that the world wide web with its offspring, the Internet, brought about by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is very, very useful indeed! If it weren't so, I wouldn't have told you so. But it all depends on how you use its tools to advance your course.

When doing a research to write this feature, I browsed the web and used the Google search engine to look up the definition of the three key words in the headline above namely, "challenge", "information" and "digital." I was amazed at the thousand and one shades of meaning available on the net. Yet, for purposes of this article, I just picked the basic meanings that best suit my intention. And that intention was to try as much as possible to write on technical subjects without much indulging in technical jargons, so that ordinary readers can enjoy reading the piece and understand the real issue at stake.

Thus, Challenge was defined as "a situation or difficulty that tests one's ability to do something." Information - "a collection of related data; knowledge about a topic; data that have been processed into a format that is understandable by intended audience." Digital - "generally, information is expressed, stored and transmitted by either analog or digital means. In a digital form, this information is seen in a binary state as either a one or a zero, a plus or a minus. The computer uses digital technology for most actions."

Analogically, let's say that, as an Information Officer of the digital age, it was possible for me to obtain the meanings of these words on the Internet while using the computer. Otherwise, I would have been obliged to look for a big dictionary, which might not be available for me at the time of writing. The challenge that would have confronted me would have been my inability to obtain these definitions on the Internet instantly if I had not acquired some basic knowledge or the technique of utilising the tools of ICT to search online or the web.

In Ghana, Information Officers, like any other professionals, have been contributing their quota to the development of the nation from time immemorial. They have been discharging their duties by disseminating government information to the people. They do this by interpreting government policies and explaining less understood or misunderstood issues to the people at the grassroots. They, in turn, send feedback to government by informing the authorities about the sentiments, views, opinions the real feelings of the people on such policies or programmes for necessary reviews or modifications in the best interest of the governed.

For example, the implementation of national policies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme, the National Youth Employment Programme, the Cedi Redenomination Programme, the Education Reform, the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, the National Identification Programme, just to mention a few, are issues that Information Officers have been supporting other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as other public and private organisations to educate the public about their value to society without playing politics with them at all. And where the desired impacts are lacking they have the responsibility to alert Government. Information Officers are professional civil servants who are mandated to play this role to assist any government in power for the prosperity of the nation.

Each year when the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning presents the national budget to Parliament, especially where new policy statements are made in the budget, all Regional and District Information Officers are convened in Accra for orientation. Experts from the Finance Ministry are invited to educate and explain policy issues to these Information Officers to enable them to understand and be well informed themselves first before they go back to their various districts to interpret the policies to ordinary citizens in their own local languages.

The latest policy issue, for instance, was the Communication Service Tax, popularly known as "Talk Tax." Again, when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) came up with the Redenomination of the Cedi programme last year, this orientation was organised for Information Officers, who in turn, went to every corner of the country to explain the programme to the people at the grassroots, in addition to radio and television publicity embarked upon the BoG. This was how the Cedi Redenomination public education campaign was very, very effective and successful nation wide.

One principal and traditional means by which Information Officers have been discharging these functions in deprived and rural communities in the country was the use of the famous Information Cinema Vans. Today with the availability of over 130 FM Radio stations and appreciable number of television stations in the Ghana, Information Officers have access to other communication channels to complement the use of Cinema Vans. Again, Information Officers have the opportunity to diversify the use of Cinema Vans by producing video films, DVD and CD documentaries to supplement their traditional means of disseminating public information to the citizenry.

Now, with the Digital Age, ushered in by ICT, which has transformed the globe into a miniature community, and changed the way things are done from archeology to zoology, Information Officers, too, have new challenges to encounter. As Digital Information Officers now, therefore, there is no way they can discharge their duties effectively and efficiently if they do not acquire some basic knowledge and skills in the application of ICT tools. They need to know something about E-Government strategy. In this context e-Government simply means electronic government or government online.

About 20 years ago or so, the United Nations called on governments the world over to reengineer governance by adopting e-government strategies so as to provide public services to their citizens online. Singapore which was one of the countries in the world to adhere to the UN's call quickly coined a slogan: "Any service that can be provided electronically must be provided electronically." Little wonder by 2004, when UN conducted a global survey to ascertain which countries were providing effective public services to their citizens online, Singapore was second only to Canada. In fact, Canada was first in e-government strategy with Singapore and US sharing the second position before others followed, according to that survey. The question is how Singapore, a very tiny island with a population of less than six million with no natural resources whatsoever, share a position with the all might America in e-government strategy? Whether we like it or not, Singapore is a world superpower in ICT. Period!

E-government has objective and scope. Digital Information Officers need to know some of the basic e-government terminologies such as Government-to-Citizen (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B), Government-to-Employees (G2E) and Government-to-Government (G2G) etc, so that when they are disseminating government information electronically, they will know exactly what they are about.

Even though the digital gap between Ghana and Singapore may take some generations to bridge, it is gratifying to note that the Government of Ghana has also heeded the UN injunction for adoption of e-government strategy to provide public services to its citizens online. One of measures the Government adopted to this end was the establishment of the Government of Ghana Portal which is being managed by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation since 2003.

At the moment the Portal provides information on all sectors of the economy online. It also publishes major development oriented news on daily basis. It is yet to provide public services online. This has to be done in collaboration with some public services providers. Measures are being put in place for online services delivery on the Portal professionally. One particular development partner which supported the Information Ministry in the establishment of the Ghana Portal under what was known as Ghana Dot.Gov Project was the International Institute for Communication Development (IICD), based in the Netherlands.

It is commendable to observe since 2003, the IICD has maintained its technical and financial support to the Ministry of Information in terms of capacity building in ICT for staff of the Ministry and provisions of some equipment such as computers for the management of the Ghana Portal. Having realised that it is only when Information Officers are trained in ICT that they can cope with the demands of the digital age, the IICD has accepted a proposal to help the Ministry to establish an ICT Training Centre within the Ministry to provide constant training and technological upgrading for staff of the Ministry, the Information Services Department and as well as other MDAs in the country.

At the time of writing this piece, work has started on the ICT Training Centre project. UNDP has also been collaborating with the Information Ministry in the capacity building in ICT as reported in a previous article titled: "Ghana's Community Information Centres (CICs) Project on Course," published in the Daily of May 29, 2008. IICD is also supporting the CICs project in some rural communities in Northern Ghana.

Ghana Government itself has embarked upon other far reaching e-government projects to make the provision of public services to citizens online a reality in the country. For instance, there is a major E-Ghana Project with the support of the World Bank being undertaken by the Ministry of Communications to transform the whole nation into an e-society. Within the framework of this project, a National Optic Fibre Backbone was needed as infrastructure development leading to achieving that goal. In fact, Ghana's Ministry of Communications has already completed the first phase of the National Backbone project.

The Ghana Information and Communication Technology Directorate (GICTeD), which is responsible for the e-government component of the E-Ghana Project, is feverishly linking up with other MDAs to ensure the delivery of the following national tasks for the country to be classified among e-government nations of the world:

1. Establishment of Internet registry for Ghana;

2. Establishment of Digital Signature Registry;

3. Establishment of Certified Electronic Mail System for MDAs and

4. Establishment of Electronic Document Workflow System for Ghana. These entire digital infrastructures must be in place to enable the Information Officer to meet the challenges of the digital age squarely.

Mawutodzi K. Abissath is a Ghanaian journalist, writer, poet and blogger. He is EzineArticles.com Expert Author, author of Kofi Annan the Great - poetry, Friends of Tomorrow-Poems for Young Children and Co-author of Traditional Wisdom in African Proverbs.

He writes from Accra, Ghana

The Digital Gypsy's Dilemma: The Best Place To Live For An Internet Based Business

If you've got a digital business that really only requires a connection to the net to do business, your concerns boil down to having a cost structure that maximizes your profit while providing you with a high quality of life. Being productive is difficult in an environment where you're miserable. Having a high quality of life isn't a guarantee of success, but it sure makes it easier to be productive.

The problem is that most of the really enjoyable places aren't exactly what we'd call "low-cost" and in order to live in a nice place you're business will have to really produce, or you'll have to hold down a job while you try to build your internet business. At some point this juggling act gets out of hand and your business will demand enough time that you can no longer hold down a job to pay the bills. If your internet business isn't producing enough to pay the bills, your only options are to downsize and cut expenses, burn capital in hopes that your business will produce more later on or give up on the business altogether.

Those can be hard choices. Our vote is to minimize expenses and save as much money as long as possible. The lower your burn rate the longer you last, and thus the better your chances of success.

For many people, this means trying to find a low-cost location that still provides high-quality infrastructure, and that usually means living somewhere that isn't that desirable and doesn't offer a very high quality of life. Sure, there are places in Kansas where they're practically giving away houses, but who wants to live in Kansas? The people who want to live in Kansas are already there, but the state has a declining population because of all the people who are moving out. Same goes for North and South Dakota. Just think "40 degrees below zero" and you'll get an idea why.

Most entrepreneurs agree that they are more productive in a pleasant environment.

Radically Lower Your Costs By Moving Offshore

One of the best solutions to the dilemma is to move abroad to a low-cost location with excellent infrastructure, and in this article we'll discuss the relative advantages of Margarita Island.

Margarita is an island off the coast of Venezuela, and it's the largest of the three islands that make up the Venezuelan State of Nueva Esparta. Margarita is the lowest-cost island in the Caribbean, but it has the added advantage of not being an independent country. If you've been to other Caribbean islands, you already know what we're talking about: Island nations have to be self-supporting, and they usually do this through the mechanism of sky-high customs fees, so everything on the island is very expensive.

Margarita has excellent infrastructure, with DSL available in the major cities of the island. Margarita is also known as a "free port" which doesn't mean that there are no customs duties, but rather that the national sales tax (14.6%) doesn't apply there. It has an airport with direct flights to Frankfort and Toronto (but not to the US- for that you have to transfer at Caracas), so travel isn't that difficult. It isn't like other island locations where "you can't get there from here- you have to go someplace else first."

Cost Of Living On Margarita

Where Margarita Island really shines is the low cost of living. A single person or a couple can live comfortably on less than $1000 a month (if they own their own home or apartment), and that includes having a housekeeper and going out to eat at nice restaurants several times a week. The low cost of living is combined with tropical island living- you only need a single wardrobe, and formal dress is practically unheard of down here.

Housing: Housing costs are reasonable. If you're looking for an apartment in a nice area, plan on spending somewhere between $40k and $70k for a nice 2 bedroom 2 bath (quite often you can find fully furnished apartments for sale). Rental apartments can be had for anywhere from $400.00 to $800.00 a month for really nice places: ocean view, secure building, nicely furnished, nice neighborhood. Housing in less desirable neighborhoods will run anywhere from $200.00 to $300.00 a month, but your Spanish had better be pretty good.

Medical Insurance and Medical Costs: Medical insurance for an individual will cost about $150.00 to $200.00 per month, although if you're young and healthy you can do without and just go to the public clinic if you get sick (they're free). Your Spanish needs to be good enough for basic communication, and if you're hospitalized you must have someone who isn't sick who can help care for you (the public hospitals don't provide linens, blankets or meals). Medical costs for dental work are really cheap (typically 10% to 15% of what you'd get charged in the US), and just about any medical procedure you can imagine is available on Margarita for 15% to 20% of what you'd pay in the US. If you've got a young family, you'll really see your costs drop.

Having a baby by C-section will cost about $2500.00 (all inclusive) for a 2 day stay at a good private hospital.
Having a baby naturally would cost about $1000.00 (all inclusive) for a 2 to 3 day stay at a good private hospital.
Getting braces with a good orthodontist will cost about $900.00 to $1600.00, depending on how much work is required.
Minor liposuction is a hundred dollars or so, major liposuction will go upwards of $300.00 to $600.00.
A major cosmetic overhaul, combining liposuction with a facelift and a breast-job will be less than $3000.00.
Chelation therapy (IV with Sodium EDTA) is about $20.00 per session.
Basic doctor visits cost about $20.00 to see a good private physician.

Vehicle Insurance: Getting insurance for vehicles offers you two choices: Full coverage or liability only. The full coverage costs about 15% of the book value of your vehicle annually. Liability insurance costs about $130.00 annually. It doesn't matter what kind of vehicle, they don't care if you have a drivers license or not, and there is very little paperwork if you're in an accident and they have to pay.

Vehicles: Used vehicles are expensive, new vehicles are cheap (compared to the US), and for lots more information read our article on buying a vehicle on Margarita [http://bulletproofretirement.com/public/220.cfm]. The cost of everything associated with owning a vehicle is cheap. We just had a water pump replaced, and the cost was $74.00: parts were $45.00, labor $29.00. Gasoline is about 12 cents per gallon, so get used to filling your tank with pocket change.

Food: Food costs are highly variable compared to the US, based on what you want to eat and whether you can eat the local products or whether you're brand-loyal to an imported brand. We see our food costs hovering around 1/2 of what we spent in rural Kentucky, but we don't buy a lot of processed food.

Entertainment: This is a highly variable expense. Going out to eat is cheap, with a 4 to 5 star restaurant costing $30.00 to $40.00 for two, including a few drinks per person. Buying a bottle of wine will adjust the price according to your tastes in wine (wine is also cheap). Dinner and coffee for 2 at a nice restaurant will cost less than $20.00, and you can eat a full meal at a lot of places for about $5.00 to $6.00. Movie tickets cost about $2.00 and going to the beach can cost anything from nothing (bring your own umbrella, drinks and food) to $20.00 to $30.00, depending on whether you rent an umbrella and chair and eat at one of the beachfront restaurants. Going to an internet cafe costs about 50 cents per hour, and sitting at the mall people watching doesn't cost anything.

Phone: Plan on spending about $40.00 to $60.00 a month for combined home phone and cellular phone, and if your area can get DSL, you can look up the charges on CanTV's webpage to see what you'd have to pay.

Electric: Depends on your accommodations and usage. We have friends who pay about $15.00 a month, and we've paid about $100.00 a month running the AC 24/7 in a large apartment. Some people bribe a power company guy to "fix" their meter so that it's somewhat slow, and some people just hook up a wire to the power line (an illegal hookup). It's common.

Water: Water is pumped over from the mainland, and it's unbelievably cheap: maybe $2.00 to $5.00 per month. Garbage pickup is included in the water bill. If you have an apartment you'll probably see this expense covered in your condo fees.

Getting Residency

Americans are hung up on the idea of doing things "by the book" but Latin America isn't like that: in most cases there is a solution to your problem that involves paying an official to take a special interest in getting your problem solved. It's possible to live on Margarita as a tourist, going to the airport every three months and paying someone at Immigration about $40.00 to stamp your passport with an exit and entry stamp, extending your stay another 3 months. You're only supposed to be able to do this once, but they don't care. You're spending money on their island and you aren't causing problems, so what's the problem? You want to stay? You have money? No problem.

It's also possible to get a permanent residency visa without too much trouble, and there are lawyers on the Island who can help "expedite" this issue for a fee. You're paying them for their help and what they do to get you taken care of is their business. The permanent residency visa is good for 5 years and you can get a Cedula (national ID card) so you won't have to carry your passport around with you. This makes you legal, and you won't have to worry about your immigration status.

Permanent residency status qualifies you for citizenship after a while (the amount of time depends on when the next election is- it seems Señor Chavez has been allowing people to become citizens if they'll vote for him). This is a great deal because Venezuela is issuing Andean Community passports that meet all the security requirements for travel in the modern world, and it's good for visa-free travel to 56 countries, including almost all of Europe. In today's world having a second passport is an extremely wise idea: you don't know what the future holds.

Doing Business

The ideal situation is to sell to the US or Europe (charging US or European prices) while living in a really low-cost place area that provides a high quality of life. Margarita is perfect for a digital entrepreneur who wants to do this. The money you make will go a lot further than you'd believe, and what you don't spend you can either save and invest or put back into your business.

Regulation of digital businesses on Margarita is non-existent. There are no licenses, permits or other issues involved. You can pretty much do what you want- and it isn't a matter of hiding, there's nothing to hide from. Because your status is essentially that of a tourist, you're handled with kid-gloves: the authorities don't want to annoy the goose that lays the golden eggs, so tourists are pretty much left alone to play and spend money.

Taxation is another interesting issue. As a US citizen, if you reside outside the US you've got an $86,000.00 tax exemption (your wife can also make $86,000.00), so you've got tax-free income between $86,000.00 and $172,000.00. Venezuela doesn't tax you on money you make outside the country, so in effect you've got the best of all worlds: an extremely low cost of living, high quality of life and no taxes.

What it comes down to is having a business model that works, and having the time to do business. A business model that wouldn't support you in the US might very well give you a lifestyle on Margarita that you couldn't ever have in the US. If you put the time and effort into your business you might eventually see it grow into a really nice income producer. While it's growing you'll avoid taxes and have a really low cost of living. At such a time as your income is high enough, you can take your business anywhere in the world that has a 'net connection.

We don't know of any place in the US where you can have such a low cost of living and high quality of life as Margarita, and with its excellent infrastructure it's a perfect place for a digital entrepreneur.

Copyright 2006 Bulletproof Retirement

All Rights Reserved

Brian Botta

[http://bulletproofretirement.com]