I love my country, Uganda, to bits. I get worked up when people get cynical about it and use other countries to bash mine. One darling of the cynical Ugandans is Rwanda. However, with regard to embracing modern information technology to interact with their citizens and the world at large, Uganda's leaders trail Rwanda's by universes. Uganda's leadership is almost non-existent on the Internet on a personal level. When they are there, it is usually as part of a news strory.
Modern communication has taken on a very vital aspect of the process of communicating - feedback and therefore interactivity - thanks to the internet. During the campaigns for this year's general elections, a new medium was employed in Uganda - mobile phone auto text and voice messaging. While these have the personal touch, very useful for deeper effect, there is hardly any way for the recipient to give feedback. The ability for feedback makes parties in the communication process feel a valued part of whatever is being communicated. The internet, through email and social networking media, has the advantage of people being able to give feedback on communication if and when they feel like it. Some feedback will be abrasive, but at least the communicator got the opportunity to vent.
Which brings me back to my disappointment that we don't have a strong presence of our leaders on, especially, internet social networking media. The government's own spokesperson, Minister of Information and National Guidance and veteran communicator, Mary Karooro Okurut, is 'personally' absent on the internet. The Uganda Media Centre, which is under her and should be advising her, has a Twitter account but last 'tweeted' anything on 20th April ... 2010! The ministers of ICT, education, health and agriculture, who should be moving us towards modernity are themselves absent on social networking media. The disappointment continues in the autonomous departments that should be cutting through the red tape of the public service machinery including National Information Technology Authority and Uganda Communications Commission. Our own parliament, which is supposed to promote open governance has a Twitter account that is 'protected'. What have they got to hide - bills?
Our leaders will be very vital in the promotion of modern technology in the country only if they understand it well. They don't have to be proficient, which I think is what the older ones are afraid of. The more the populace know that they can interact with their leaders, the better their quality and the easier it is to mobilise them. The need to use the internet to communicate with their leaders will also greatly improve literacy and, therefore, the quality of our human resource. This will attract more investment.
[This this was post written, the Prime Minister of Uganda has opened a Twitter account - @am_mba]
Modern communication has taken on a very vital aspect of the process of communicating - feedback and therefore interactivity - thanks to the internet. During the campaigns for this year's general elections, a new medium was employed in Uganda - mobile phone auto text and voice messaging. While these have the personal touch, very useful for deeper effect, there is hardly any way for the recipient to give feedback. The ability for feedback makes parties in the communication process feel a valued part of whatever is being communicated. The internet, through email and social networking media, has the advantage of people being able to give feedback on communication if and when they feel like it. Some feedback will be abrasive, but at least the communicator got the opportunity to vent.
Which brings me back to my disappointment that we don't have a strong presence of our leaders on, especially, internet social networking media. The government's own spokesperson, Minister of Information and National Guidance and veteran communicator, Mary Karooro Okurut, is 'personally' absent on the internet. The Uganda Media Centre, which is under her and should be advising her, has a Twitter account but last 'tweeted' anything on 20th April ... 2010! The ministers of ICT, education, health and agriculture, who should be moving us towards modernity are themselves absent on social networking media. The disappointment continues in the autonomous departments that should be cutting through the red tape of the public service machinery including National Information Technology Authority and Uganda Communications Commission. Our own parliament, which is supposed to promote open governance has a Twitter account that is 'protected'. What have they got to hide - bills?
Our leaders will be very vital in the promotion of modern technology in the country only if they understand it well. They don't have to be proficient, which I think is what the older ones are afraid of. The more the populace know that they can interact with their leaders, the better their quality and the easier it is to mobilise them. The need to use the internet to communicate with their leaders will also greatly improve literacy and, therefore, the quality of our human resource. This will attract more investment.
[This this was post written, the Prime Minister of Uganda has opened a Twitter account - @am_mba]
