Technology giants are scrambling to help Kenya digitise its processes to increase access to public information entrenched in the new Constitution. Internet giant Google has just unveiled an online access of more than 2,000 copies of the Hansard, a collection of parliamentary debates that date back to the past four decades, weeks after it did the same with the Kenya Gazette.
Another US tech giant, IBM has also announced that it is partnering with the government to propose a framework to support the development of an electronic voter masterplan, months after its delegation volunteered to boost operations of the Postal Corporation of Kenya, in what is emerging as a departure of the tech firms eying to grow their presence in the country from their heavy reliance on the private sector.
“Our consultants will review the experience of the recent electronic voter registration pilot and compare this with global e-voter frameworks and evolving standards,” said Mr Anthony Mwai, the country general manager at IBM East Africa.
The government will today deepen its efforts to create a more transparent executive when President Kibaki presides over the launch of a new Open Government Data Portal, which will for the first time make several large government data sets available to researchers and the general public.
The data will be available online in a flexible, user-friendly platform that will allow users to view different data including the national census data at national, province, and county levels, compare different data sets, create maps and other graphics, and directly download data for their own use.
Full Article: Business Daily: – Corporate News |State goes hi-tech with launch of online data.