TECHNOTES SERIES 226
By Ike Señeres
“A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR THE DELIVERY OF PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAMS”
There is a popular notion that mankind was not really able to fully
utilize television technology for socioeconomic development, and in that sense,
it could be considered as a wasted technology. Add to that the observation that
the television sets have become idiot boxes instead of being used for
information and education. Given that as a backdrop, it should become the
common goal of all mankind to fully utilize information and communications
technology (ICT) for socioeconomic development, in order not to waste it again,
as we have done with television technology.
There was a time when ICT was simply called information technology
(IT), until some bright guy figured out that information and communications
should converge into one technology. For those who do not know the difference
between the two, information pertains to computer hardware and software, while
communications pertains to signal carriers and networks. Now that these two are
combined, the same challenge would still apply, and that is the challenge of
utilizing the technology for socioeconomic development.
As it has already happened, television technology has now also
converged with ICT, albeit in two different manifestations. The first one is
the emergence of over the top (OTT) programming. OTT is a relative term,
because it refers to being on top of internet protocol (IP). The technology
that originally started out as voice over internet protocol (VOIP) has now also
evolved into voice and video over internet protocol (VVOIP). To some extent, it
could be said that VVOIP is the protocol that makes OTT work. As it is now, OTT
programming is already being touted as the technology that will replace over
the air (OTA) programming or frequency based programming.
The second one is the emergence of multimedia, which is really
nothing more than the convergence of voice, video, film, music, animation, images,
texts, and everything else that could be digitally combined into one
production. As it is now, multimedia productions could still be aired over the
usual frequency based television infrastructure, but there is a growing trend
towards broadcasting via OTT programming. Somewhere in between is broadcasting
via cable access television (CATV), but that too is fast becoming digital, as
more and more CATV networks are converting from copper cables to fiber optics.
It could also be said that social media could be considered as
part of multimedia, in much the same way that mass media could also be
considered now as being part of multimedia. Truth to tell, the lines between
social media and mass media are fast disappearing, as social media content is
now being shown by mass media outlets, and vice versa, mass media organizations
are not showing their content in social media. As this two-way convergence
happens, the challenge remains the same, to utilize the combined media for socioeconomic
development.
In fairness to many mass media organizations, they are now using
their infrastructure for public service programming, a good thing that social
media websites are also doing. What seems to be lacking in this overall
equation is the use of ICT and multimedia on the part of national government
agencies (NGAs) and local government units (LGUs), for the delivery of public
service programs. For example, not too many NGAs and LGUs are engaging the
services of business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, despite the fact that
our country is supposedly the call center capital of the world.
To a large extent, it could be said that the BPO industry is
really just an offshoot of the customer relations management (CRM) technology. Although
CRM technology has been around for many years, it is widely known that not too
many NGAs and LGUs are using it, at least not as much as the private sector is
already using it. As we already know it, the private sector is already widely
using voice, non-voice, live chat and video conferencing as their CRM tools,
using as well BPO services as their means of delivery. To be specific, the
private sector is using OTT and VVOIP technologies for video conferencing.
As it is now, it could be said that the NGAs and the LGUs are more
inclined to use in-person tools as the principal means of delivering their
public service programs. What this means is that for the most part, their
clients or applicants have to physically go to their brick and mortar offices
in order to transact with them, using paper forms for the most part. In order
to change for the better, it is now time for these NGAs and LGUs to have a
paradigm shift in the delivery of their public service programs, and the only
way for them to do that is to start using CRM technology.
In order to effectively start using CRM technology, the NGAs and
LGUs have to comply with the Electronic Commerce Act (ECA) when it comes to the
admissibility of electronic evidence, as provided for in that law. As that law
provides, there is now supposed to be data parity between electronic evidence
and paper evidence, meaning that both should be now equally admissible. If only
these NGAs and LGUs would accept the legality of data parity, there would be no
more need for their clients to physically go to their brick and mortar offices
in order to transact with them, since these could now be done online.
As I see it, many government employees who are in charge of
delivering public services would always require their clients to submit the
paper evidence, out of fear that the Commission on Audit (COA) would eventually
disallow the transactions if these are processed solely on the basis of
electronic evidence. Be that as it may, perhaps the solution to that is for the
COA to officially declare that the legality of data parity is now acceptable to
them, meaning to say that electronic evidence is now equally admissible just
like paper evidence. To give credit where credit is due, the Supreme Court has
already declared long ago that facsimile copies sent through fax machines are
already equally admissible as the original paper documents.
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