Fiji's e-Govt Push (off the cliff)

At an ICT presentation this past week at the University of the South Pacific, the government ITC programme manager responsible for the overall implementations was quite honest describing some frustration with the Microsoft-laden development effort taking place. According to him, the development effort is unfortunately slave to a number of set ideas when it comes to user interface and/or experience issues. Oh well...there goes $20M.

To be fair, his openness when referencing the challenges was refreshing and the overall initiative is a good one. However, I have trouble comfortably seeing past the reality that so much time, money, resource and effort could be wasted by this big government ICT spend taking place right now. 

Computing is not about computers. Computing is about people. Unless people are at the center of the development process, any application built for them will likely fail. In the six years I've spent here, this one idea is still considered a foreign concept and there is little that I can see happening in Fiji's e-Government which appears to be based around good user-centered design. For applications like these, the total absence of any real usability testing, for example, is the equivalent of throwing China's "donation" into the sea.

The problems start early:

The e-Govt homepage itself has been developed to be "secure" which is certainly a bit unconventional and since the secure certificate they appear to be using is expired, it's the first user experience hiccup in a long list of hiccups. For an Internet population still very much getting used to online applications and for a general public already a bit jittery about digital security, it's far from a comfortable introduction to online government services.

Awards Fail

In today's 'comedy' category comes the headlines listing off of FijiTV's website.

It begs the question of what award Air Pacific actually won?

Vodafone Fiji - TopUp Crew TV Spot

We've been working on this one for a while...finally, this TV spot for Vodafone Fiji will start airing from today. It was a helluva lot of fun to work on. The whole things started with just the lyrics. The concept grew from there.

LYRICS:

Text top up with a Top Up Crew

I was
Strolling down the street
Try’na calling my friend
When out of the blue
My mobile goes dead

My credit ran out
Do you know what it said
I need a top up now
Or I'll be seeing red

Its so 
Its so easy
Its so 
Its so easy

ya’know 
back in the dayz
When my credit was spent
I had to enter all those digits
Then I press SEND

But today was different
I wasted no time
Top Up Crew took my money
Got me on the line

Its so easy to top up 
Its so easy to top up

A 15 dollar top-up 
And my world was shook 
Coz 15 seconds was all it took!

And just like that 
I was back on the street
Redialin' my friend n
Steppin’ to the beat

Text top up with the top up crew
Text top up with the top up crew

Fiji Buses: A Cultural Danger

About fifteen years ago, I was a backpacker visiting Fiji. I moved around mostly by hitchhiking which, at the time, was extremely easy to do. I have no idea if this is still the case here but I rarely see hitchhikers alongside the road in Fiji. I'm not referring to people flagging down vehicles for rides with a flick of a wrist in a vertical fan motion, though. I am referring to actual thumb in the air, walking backwards, hitchhiking. Maybe it's a foreign concept.

Anyway...it was mostly hitching that I did. One day, I was encouraged to take a local bus from Nadi to Seashell Cove along the Coral Coast. I was going to chill out and camp for a week there and a person in Nadi told me that local buses were an element of society worth experiencing for myself. The bus I boarded was one of the typcal massive steel beasts out there with the canvas flaps for windows and it belched black smoke as think as tar into the air. It looked like this..not unusual:

The ride was ok as I remember it but the bus was extremely loud, hot and crowded. At least when I'm hitching, I could talk to the people in the car and listen to what they had to say. In that bus, anything under a scream was inaudible. 

But I persevered and rode on in my state of traveler bliss...

Oceanic TV spot...

In today's "It's all about me/us" post, we put together a short TV spot for Oceanic. Now airing on MaiTV...

President-elect Obama and Fiji [Water]

Keeping the celebration going, I was pointed to a Flickr feed taken by Obama campaign photographer, David Katz.

Here's Obama and Biden:

Notice the two men embracing one another warmly, looking to the future and the importance of the moment. Notice how this is all taking place above a bottle of Fiji Water. Life is good. (You can also see another bottle in the far right of the shot.)

Here's another shot from the feed. It's of Obama watching McCain conceding. What a cool moment that must have been for him. He was not alone, though. Joining him in the moment were his family, close advisors and three bottles of Fiji Water.

If there is any doubt about whether President-elect Obama will support Fiji, I think it's answered here. Life is indeed good.

There are some fantastic images in this collection, most include bottles of Fiji Water with my new president-elect. Check them out.

From what I understand, Barack Obama perspires Fiji Water. That's how friggin' good this guy is.

Our New President, Children and Rainbows

As if things weren't strange enough throughout this entire election campaign, I watched the announcement of Barack Obama winning the American presidency on the Al-Jazeera network. It seemed entirely fitting and everything was wildly positive.

This is the only time that I can remember ever feeling true pride for my home country. Before I get flamed for that comment, I have to point out two things.

1. I've got a really shitty memory.
2. I did feel enormous pride in the country immediately after 9/11 but much of that pride came from the worldwide support for the United States and not necessarily just the domestic American reaction. That was a pretty different time, though, and that feeling has been drained away by the painful and crushing presidency of George Bush and the damage it has done to the entire world.

I have lived much of my adult life outside of the United States, first in Japan and then in Fiji. When I was younger, I never had much of an interest in politics. As I got older, I still never liked what I saw. Ever. I was entertained by the personality that was Bill Clinton but politics itself never did much for me. That has never changed until about six months ago when I began listening to Barack Obama speak.

The Media in Fiji - Missing the Mark

I'm a media junkie. 

Today, however, must be a slow news day because the Fiji Times (4 Nov 2008) chose a story about a man who eats light bulbs as it's lead front page article.

I suppose when there is little news to report, a human interest story fits the bill. However, I can't remember such ridiculous content getting front page billing ever before.

On a more serious note, I typically find an absence of balance too common in Fiji's media. I won't generalise about all the media outlets (I think both MaiLife and Island's Business do an effective job with their journalism) and I won't generalise about every single story written which appears in the papers either. However, certain articles and topics that are reported on demand a more balanced analysis for the sake of readers.

Philadelphia Phillies 2008 World Series Champions

My hometown team, the Phillies, won the World Series this week. I've been perusing every single video I can find of the winning moment...Philadelphia's first major sports championship win in 25 years. Philly is a sports city.

This was one of the best videos I've come across but all of them capture the energy in the ballpark that night. I wish I had been there. The final pitch is at :54 seconds just in case anyone has difficulty seeing. ;p

Congratulations to the 2008 Phillies. Just awesome...