View/Open - Scholarly Commons Home

Another interesting examples is an experiment that was carried out in New Delhi by a
computer software company to provide internet access to poor community by placing a
computer in a wall (Goldstuck, 2003; O'Conner, 2002). This poor community is without
better education and no training is provided, but the technology seems to have some
impact on this community as the children begun to know how to use the computer of
their own. This shows that it requires only minimal intervention to learn computer
skills.
This is an example of a “digital doorway”. In the area where there is limited
infrastructure of physical telecommunication especially in rural areas, it is most
appropriate to use GPRS technology to have connectivity to Internet. If restrictions set
by regulatory policies can be overcome or adhere to, educational and government
institutions can be accessible from rural areas (Goldstuck, 2003). The case of Vanuatu
in terms of mobile and wireless infrastructure is discussed next.
2.9 The case of Vanuatu
E-government cannot be successfully deployed if policies and regulations are not in
place. The same applies to the deployment of m-Government. At the time of conducting
the field study, it has been observed that there is currently no policy drafted that refers
to e-Government. According to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department
of Finance, the Ministry of Finance and the office of the Prime Minister are responsible
for compiling policies that relate to e-Government.
Furthermore, the recent liberalisation of the telecommunication market in Vanuatu
- 53 -