Liberia E-Government Strategy

eGovernment Web
Development Strategy
Government of Liberia
- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-
Prepared for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications with the support of USAID/GEMS
by:
Olivier Alais
Executive Director | Soukeina
[email protected]
And
Anthony Waddell
Senior ICT Advisor | IBI International
[email protected]
Publication
June 2016 (Version 1.0)
Legal notice
This document is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0) license
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
Table of contents
1. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 8
1.1
Review ........................................................................................................................... 8
1.2
Research ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.3
Meetings with MACs ..................................................................................................... 8
1.4
Group meeting: proposition and feedbacks analysis .................................................. 8
1.5
First workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis ................................................... 8
1.6
Second workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis .............................................. 9
1.7
Report............................................................................................................................ 9
2. Current state ..................................................................................................................... 10

2.1
Reference documents ................................................................................................. 10
2.2
Considered MACs ........................................................................................................ 10
2.3
Websites snapshot ...................................................................................................... 10
2.4
Open Budget Initiative in Liberia ................................................................................ 17
3. Analysis and recommendations ........................................................................................ 18

3.1
Reference documents ................................................................................................. 18
3.2
Inventory and need assumptions................................................................................ 18
3.3
Open budget initiative ................................................................................................ 19
3.4
Overview ..................................................................................................................... 19
4. Future state ....................................................................................................................... 21

4.1
Vision: Creating an open ecosystem ........................................................................... 21
4.2
Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 21
4.3
Actions......................................................................................................................... 22
4.4
Propositions ................................................................................................................ 23
4.4.1
4.4.1.1
In-house web development .......................................................................... 23
4.4.1.2
Outsourcing web development .................................................................... 24
4.4.1
4.5
Digital Development services................................................................................... 23
Centralized Web Platform ........................................................................................ 24

Under Service Communities........................................................................................ 24
5. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 25
5.1
Guiding principles........................................................................................................ 25
5.2
Stakeholders landscape .............................................................................................. 25
5.3
Recommendations for MACs websites ....................................................................... 26
5.3.1
Contents ................................................................................................................... 26
5.3.2
eServices .................................................................................................................. 26
5.3.3
Open source technology .......................................................................................... 27
5.3.4
ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) ................................................................. 27
5.3.5
Community manager ............................................................................................... 27
5.3.6
Web design............................................................................................................... 27
5.3.7
User-centered design ............................................................................................... 27
5.4
5.4.1
Goals and objectives ................................................................................................... 27

Government goal 1.1: Creation a cost-effective and connected eGovernment ..... 28
5.4.2 Government goal 1.2: Creation of an open ecosystem with included all major
stakeholders ......................................................................................................................... 29
5.4.3 Private sector goal 2.1: Implementation of the eGovernment Web Development
Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 29
5.4.4
Private sector goal 2.2: Organization of capacity development Workshops .......... 30
5.4.5
ICT communities goal 3.1: Development of integrated and active ICT communities .
.................................................................................................................................. 30
5.4.6
Academic goal 4.1: Development of ICT skills ......................................................... 31
6. Proposed initiatives ........................................................................................................... 32

6.1
Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit ....................................................... 32
6.2
Centralized Web Platform ........................................................................................... 32
6.3
Rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk Network .......................................................................... 32
7. Explanation of concepts .................................................................................................... 34

7.1
eGovernment .............................................................................................................. 34
7.2
Open source software ................................................................................................. 34
7.3
Open standards ........................................................................................................... 35
7.4
Open content .............................................................................................................. 35
7.5
Open educational resources ....................................................................................... 35
7.6
Open data.................................................................................................................... 35
7.7
Technological neutrality.............................................................................................. 36
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 37
References ................................................................................................................................ 38
Appendix 1: Open government ................................................................................................ 39
The open government partnership ...................................................................................... 39
Principles of open government data .................................................................................... 40
Appendix 2: Web standards ..................................................................................................... 43
Web design and applications header ................................................................................... 43
Web of devices ..................................................................................................................... 43

Web architecture ................................................................................................................. 44
Semantic web ....................................................................................................................... 45
XML technology .................................................................................................................... 45
Web of services .................................................................................................................... 46
Browsers and authoring tools .............................................................................................. 46
Appendix 3: Embassies websites ............................................................................................. 47
Appendix 4: Open ecosystem ................................................................................................... 49
eGovernment ....................................................................................................................... 49
Relationships across modalities ........................................................................................... 49
Strengths of open source software ...................................................................................... 50
Definition of open source software ..................................................................................... 51
Definition of open source licenses ....................................................................................... 52
Open standards .................................................................................................................... 52
Open standards requirements ............................................................................................. 53
Open standards - national considerations ........................................................................... 53
eGovernment projects specify open standards ................................................................... 54
Particular benefits of open standards .................................................................................. 54
The 5Rs framework .............................................................................................................. 56
The scope and nature of open educational resources ......................................................... 56
Licensing and types of open educational resources ............................................................ 57
Some examples of open educational resources materials .................................................. 58
Institutional support ............................................................................................................. 58
Conditions of open data ....................................................................................................... 58
Executive summary
This document presents the eGovernment Web Development Strategy for the Government
of Liberia. In the first chapter, the methodology used to develop this strategy, based on an
iterative model, is introduced. The second chapter gives an overview of the current states of
the eGovernment in Liberia. The third chapter gives an analysis of the reference documents
and some recommendations. The fourth chapter gives an overview of the future states of
the eGovernment in Liberia and the fifth chapter suggests a methodology to implement the
strategy. The sixth chapter proposes three initiatives, a Self Evaluation and Digital
Development Toolkit, a Centralized Web Platform and a Rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk Network.
The last chapter defines important notions to build an open ecosystem in Liberia.
eGovernment is the use of ICTs to improve the performance of Government. The
eGovernment Web Development Strategy supports the Government of Liberia to improve its
eGovernment capability and to improve its ranking. In the eGovernment maturity model,
Liberian Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs) rank at the level of Web Presence and
Interaction. This strategy guides the development of eGovernment towards a Distribution
stage. The strategy will request the installation of sustainable infrastructures to serve public
entities and citizens while a secure infrastructure is needed to rise to the Transaction level,
supporting operations inside and outside the government.
The Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit includes a scaling tool to measure the
current stage of an institutions public digital service.
Revision of the Garner Group eGovernment maturity model
The development of any digital services either can be done in-house or by outsourcing
service development. Adoption of a shared-service offered by GoL is also an option (eg. use a
Centralized Web Platform to deliver services).
The Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit supports MACs to build digital services.
This toolkit will be online and it will define principles, personas and methods to develop
digital services for and with citizens.
The Centralized Web Platform will be an infrastructure providing services to share

information, knowledge and contacts inside the MACs. This platform will be based on an
Open Source CMS template such as Drupal, Jumla or WordPress, and will harmonize MAC
websites, which would like to be part of this initiative.
Finally, the Rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk Network will provide centralized information and
services for the rural population.
1.
Methodology
The eGovernment Web Development Strategy has been developed following a participative
and iterative model, including review, research and personal meetings to understand the
context and the current eGovernment state. Then, a group meeting and two workshops
were conducted at MoPT to present the current state of the strategy and encourage
feedbacks on it.
1.1 Review
A desk review was conducted to understand the current state of ICT within various MACs
using key Liberian documents.
1.2 Research
A desk review was conduct to review eGovernment initiatives from others countries. This
research permitted insight into the approaches and challenges other countries faced while
implementing an eGovernment strategy and how they were able to overcome them.
1.3 Meetings with MACs

Individual meetings were held with ICT specialists from various Liberian entities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MoPT);

The Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA);
The Civil Service Agency (CSA);
The National Bureau of Concessions (NBC);
The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA);
The Ministry of Health (MoH);
The Governance Commission (GC);
The Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP);
The Ministry of Education (MoE);
iLab Liberia
These meetings were useful to understand the current state of ICT within various entities.
1.4 Group meeting: proposition and feedbacks analysis

The eGovernment Web Development Strategy was introduced at a workshop of ICT
Specialists convened by MoPT in a community-of-practice. It was a good opportunity to
present the first strategy ideas and have feedback from MACs ICT specialists.
1.5 First workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis

A workshop was organized at MoPT with MACs ICT specialists to discuss issues and solutions
concerning ICT in the government. During this workshop, one hour was dedicated to the
eGovernment Web Development Strategy. A presentation was given introducing the first
strategy framework then a discussion around it was facilitated in order to get feedbacks.
1.6 Second workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis

A second workshop dedicated to the eGovernment Web Development Strategy was
conducted at MoPT. A presentation was given on the current state of the strategy, new ideas
were introduced, and discussions facilitated on a potential NICTCC and a Digital Services
Toolkit.
1.7 Report
The development of two documents constituted the last step:
The eGovernment Web Development Strategy report;

The Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit.
2.
Current state
This chapter presents an overview of the eGovernment current state in nineteen MACs. It
introduces a reference documents list, the nineteen considered MACs and a websites
snapshot.
2.1 Reference documents

The GoL has adopted several ICT policy documents, the main ones being:
The National Telecommunications and ICT Policy 2010-2015;

The Access to Broadband Connectivity in Liberia in the Post-Ebola context: A
Roundtable with Public, Private and Civil Society Sector Stakeholders;
The e-Government Strategy 2014-2018;
The National Universal Access Program Strategy 2014-2017;
e-Government Interoperability Framework;
Open Government Partnership: National Action Plan of the Republic of Liberia.
2.2 Considered MACs

Nineteen government entities, taken into consideration because they have presence on the
web, are:
1. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MoPT);
2. The Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA);
3. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) ;
4. The Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT);
5. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ);
6. The Ministry of Mine and Energy (MoLME);
7. The Civil Service Agency (CSA);
8. The National Bureau of Concessions (NBC);
9. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA);
10. Ministry of Health (MoHSW);
11. The Governance Commission (GC);
12. The Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP);
13. The Ministry of Education (MoE);
14. e-liberia (MoPT);
15. The Executive Mansion;
16. Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI);
17. Ministry of National Defense (MoND);
18. Ministry of Transport (MoT);
19. Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS).
2.3 Websites snapshot

In order to grade these websites, a classification originally proposed by Gartner Group, and
amended to include the expansion of open government, is used. This is a five-stage model
10
involving Web presence, Interaction, Transaction, Transformation and Distribution to

measure the eGovernment maturity.
Stage
Web presence
Interaction
Transaction
Transformation
Distribution
Description
Governments provide a website to post basic information to public.
The website provides information such as MAC name, MAC address,
MAC phone number, hours of operation, staff member names and
basic informative contents.
Users are able to contact MACs through websites (e.g. e-mail, contact
form), do self-service (e.g. download documents), and have a social
media presence. The website provides information such as online
contact (email address or contact form), downloadable documents in
open format and links to working and active social medias.
Users (including customers and businesses) can complete entire
transactions online. The website provides information such as
encrypted communication, electronic payment system and online user
profiles.
Governments transform the current operational processes to provide
more efficient, integrated, unified, and personalized service. The GoL
information systems are interoperable and eServices are fully
integrated across administrative boundaries.
Citizens get more directly involved in the governmental process by
participating to the political decisions using distributed digital tools.
Government provides services as a platform to its citizens. Citizens are
part of public discussions and decisions through a democratic process.
The following snapshots have been taken on December 11 th and 12th, 2015. The Websites
have been visited again on February 10th and 11th, 2016.
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MoPT)
URL
http://mopt.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Email, contact form, pdf files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
Latest news January 25th, 2016
Comments
Social media are present on the
main page but are not set
properly
11
Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA)

URL
http://lipa.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news January 15th,2016
Comments
There is an eLearning platform
(http://lipaelearning.net).
The top Management page, the
Principal
staff
page,
the
Resources page, the Course page
are empty.
The social media links are
broken.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)
URL
http://www.mofa.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media Yes
Services
Pdf, doc, video and audio files
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news February 8th, 2016
Comments
The MoFA provides an online
service to request passport
(https://secure.liberiapassports.c
om).
Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT)
URL
http://www.micatliberia.com
Stage
Interaction
Social media Yes
Services
Newsletter, pdf and video files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
Comments
The welcome page is up-to-date
with recent information.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
URL
http://www.moj.gov.lr
Stage
N/A
Social media No
Services
Welcome page
Responsive
No
Currency
N/A
Comments
Under construction
12
Ministry of Mine and Energy (MoLME)

URL
http://www.molme.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Contact form, email, Online
application for mineral operation
license
Responsive
No
Currency
Launched on December 15, 2015
Comments
Private dataset on mining
licenses and payments
Civil Service Agency (CSA)
URL
http://www.csa.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news December 18th, 2015
Comments
News and press release up-todate
National Bureau of Concessions (NBC)
URL
http://www.nbcliberia.org
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Responsive
Yes
Currency
N/A
Comments
Information on concessions
available
Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)
URL
http://moa.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Contact form, pdf and video files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
Updated with dates
Comments
Social media icons are present on
the website but are not
functional.
13
Ministry of Health (MoHSW)

URL
http://www.mohsw.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media The Ministry is updating site on
February 11th, 2016
Currency
The Ministry is updating site on
February 11th, 2016
Services
Email, pdf files
Responsive
N/A
Comments
Search function powered by
Google
Governance Commission (GC)
URL
http://governancecommissionlr.o
rg
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Contact form, pdf files
Responsive
No
Currency
Updated with no date
Comments
Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP)
URL
http://mfdp.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media Yes
Services
Contact form, newsletter, pdf,
video files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
Latest news January 14th, 2016
Comments
Last newsletter from June 2014.
Telephone directory is empty.
Audio files not available.
Ministry of Education (MoE)
URL
http://moe.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Pdf files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
Latest news December 3, 2015
Comments
The main interface has been
translated in French and Spanish.
14
e-liberia (MoPT)
URL
Stage
Social media
Services
Responsive
Currency
Comments
Executive Mansion
URL
Stage
Social media
Services
Responsive
Currency
Comments
http://www.eliberia.gov.lr
Interaction
Yes (only Twitter)
Yes
N/A
Official portal of GoL
http://www.emansion.gov.lr
Interaction
Email, video and pdf files

No
Updated website with current
news and press releases on
Liberia
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI)
URL
http://www.moci.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media Yes (Facebook only)
Services
Email, pdf files
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news December 17th, 2015
Comments
Senior staff emails available.
Contact form has some errors.
Ministry of National Defense (MoND)
URL
http://www.mod.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Contact form
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news October 11th, 2012
Comments
Few contents, user gets ISLAMIC
GHOSTS TEAM message if trying
to download a document from:
http://www.mod.gov.lr/doc/
Spelling errors
15
Ministry of Transport (MoT)

URL
http://www.mot.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Hot line, pdf files
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news January 21st, 2016
Comments
Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS)
URL
http://moys.gov.lr
Stage
Interaction
Social media No
Services
Minsters email, pdf files
Responsive
No
Currency
Latest news November 20th, 2015
Comments
The web site is empty except the
home page, the ministers CV and
a Who we are paragraph.
16
2.4 Open Budget Initiative in Liberia

Open Budget Initiative
URL
http://mfdp.gov.lr/index.php/the
-budget
Stage
Interaction
Social media Yes
Services
pdf files
Responsive
Yes
Currency
N/A
Comments
This initative is part of the
Ministry
of
Finance
&
Development Planning. It has a
presence on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/Ope
n-Budget-Initiative-Govt-ofLiberia-354192398023885/
The Open Budget Initiative is part of the Open Government Partnership that President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf committed Liberia to in 2011. This initiative is to ensure fiscal transparency in
government budgetary transaction. This initiative gives access to seven dataset in PDF
format on:
The Citizen Guide to the Approved National Budget for FY2015/2016

National Budget FY 2015/16
Summary Budget Preparation Calendar FY2016/17
Medium Term Expenditure Framework Budget Manual
Draft National Budget FY2015/2016
FY2015-16 Budget Framework Paper
Final National Budget 2014/2015
17
3.
Analysis and recommendations
3.1 Reference documents

Reference documents give a global vision of what the eGovernment should be in Liberia and
how to build an eGovernment.
According to the current official documents, information standards have been developed,
eLegislation is defined and eServices have to reach all citizens. It is highlight that the
government of Liberia has to provide digital services for common services such as national
identification cards, passports, driver's licenses, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage
certificates, and voter registration cards.
These documents state that the GoL should develop an eGovernment and Shared Services
strategy from which both urban and rural areas can benefit. Also, the GoL should provide
eServices instead of only static websites. Thus, all citizens should have access to ICT services
in the territory of Liberia and from abroad. The GoL has to strengthen its web presence and
find adapted solutions to reached citizens outside Monrovia. According to the Nethope
report on the Liberia broadband technical assessment, only 10% of the population have
subscription to the Internet and mostly are using 2.5/3G in Monrovia.
This study has identified opportunities to improve the reference documents. The Liberian
population is spread all over the country, some of them are expatriates, and the government
should provide services to all of them. The lack of infrastructures outside Monrovia is a
challenge and the GoL should provide adapted solutions to reach the last miles.
Moreover, the eGovernment strategy should review procurement strategy. Indeed,
information systems are immaterial and cannot follow the same procedures than furniture or
common goods. Procurement for information systems should focus on data management
with the ability to build a system in an iterative manner. GoL needs to rely on internal
technical team to adapt information systems to their needs and follow its implementation
according to the GoL vision.
MACs should adopt an interactive web presence but sharp standards and procedures have to
be defined before implementing eServices. For the implementation of an eGovernment Web
Development Strategy, an open ecosystem overviews is proposed, including a preference for
the use of open source software, open standards, open content and open data when it is
possible. Indeed, open source software should be considered in all procurements and design
decisions especially for web services.
Standard Web tools cannot permit the government to reach all citizens in rural areas and
adapted solutions, using other channels, such as feature phones, radio stations or TV should
be explored.
3.2 Inventory and need assumptions

All the MACs taking into account have a web presence. Most of the MACs websites have
been developed independently of a common policy or strategy. MACs tried to do their best
18
with their actual skills and common sense. MoPT have been involved in some websites
specification to recommend practices. These websites are a good start for GoL onlinepresence.
There existing portfolio of GoL websites also exhibits weaknesses, including:
Loss of control of websites. This means MACs no longer have access to webservers
and web services to update websites, or to migrate websites and databases;
Loss of control of domain administration;
Domain names are not standardized, with different entities operating in .com, .net as
well as the .gov.lr domain;
A few MACs have multiple websites, as older sites are abandoned;
There is little consistent branding or design;
Readability and ease of use for visitors with low literacy levels;
Accessibility (Vision and Hearing impaired);
Access from smartphone platforms and a range of browser types are not setup
properly;
Broken links;
Outdated information.
To support improvements to MAC online offerings a practical eGovernment Web

Development Strategy and a Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit giving
commands, instruments and methodologies to develop websites and services should be
welcome by the Liberian ICT community.
It is also important to underline that most of the MACs included in this study are currently at
the web presence and interaction stages. A secure infrastructure is needed to go to the
transaction level and support operations inside and outside the government.
3.3 Open budget initiative

Having these data online is a good step for the GoL and it is a proof of transparency. It is
could be interesting to have these dataset available also in a CVS format in order to compute
them more easily. The open budget initiative is also present on Facebook and has more that
1.000 like.
3.4 Overview
Overview of the current situation has shown the strengths and weaknesses of the existing
ICT ecosystem stakeholders active on the web.
Pros:
On level of MACs a web presence is noticeable;

There are several local ICT SMEs, which can develop website and eServices;
Some ICT skills are in the MACs;
Most important MACs are at the level two (interaction) of the eGovernment maturity
model.
19
Cons:
There is no web presence in the research and higher education sector;
There is no public ICT curriculum at the public university;
Web presence baseline in the government is very fragmented and there is virtually no
exchange of information;
There is no strong coordinating body or initiatives, neither common collaboration
platform;
The quality of service is poor in Monrovia;
No governmental infrastructure;
Some MACs have no presence on the web.
All cons have a common denominator, which indicates a lack of knowledge, experience and
coordination. GoL needs to accelerate the creation, management and sharing of knowledge
between all stakeholders.
Strategy has to use existing pros and has to address four main pillars:
Reinforce web presence;

Reinforce interactivity with citizens;
Common collaboration and technology platform for civil servants;
Empower the ICT ecosystem.
20
4.
Future state
4.1 Vision: Creating an open ecosystem

The development of an information society in Liberia shall be based on a shared and open
knowledge-based society, open standards, technological neutrality and broadly available ICT
to empower citizens and the private sector. Effective use of ICTs can bring benefits to an
open knowledge-based society by:
Achieving enhanced human capital;

Increasing the growth of a knowledge-based society;
Reducing the digital divide;
Reducing the software piracy rate;
Increasing interoperability among systems;
Reducing total cost of ownership;
Increasing growth in the local ICT industry;
Enhancing local ICT companies, universities and the public sector.
To realize the ICT vision of the government, it's necessary to encourage an ambitious and
dynamic ICT ecosystem, which will involve collaboration of all stakeholders. It will be
necessary to integrate in this ecosystem all of the existing knowledge and experience for the
mutual benefit of all stakeholders. All stakeholders should be part of the ecosystem, which
provides the resources and means for the realization of their respective visions and missions.
An open ecosystem is preferable that a closed one because it boosts innovation by providing
tools to improve the ecosystem.
An ecosystem encompasses the policies, strategies, processes, information, technologies,
applications and stakeholders that together make up a technology environment for a
country, government or an enterprise. Most importantly, an ICT ecosystem includes people:
diverse individuals who create, buy, sell, regulate, manage and use technology. An ICT
ecosystem is defined as open when it is capable of:
Incorporating and sustaining interoperability;

Empowering collaborative development;
Supporting transparency.
Increasing these capabilities helps create flexible and service-oriented ICT applications that
can be taken apart and recombined to meet changing needs more efficiently and effectively.
4.2 Recommendations
Recommendations for the development of eGovernment and shared services in Liberia were
given during the Roundtable, which was hosted by the Liberian Ministry of Post and
Telecommunications (MoPT), the Liberian Telecommunications Authority (LTA) and USAID,
held on Friday, May 16, 2015, in Monrovia, Liberia. These recommendations are:
21
The GoL should develop an e-Government and Shared Services strategy from which
both urban and rural areas can benefit;
The development of the strategy will require coordination, cooperation and
information sharing simultaneously;
Currently, eGovernment is limited to websites that are mainly sources of information
rather than providing useful services;
There is little synergy between the creators of these websites and the citizens and
businesses that were intended to benefit from them;
A major challenge posed by the lack of eGovernment today is that there is a long
paper trail for citizens and businesses to interact with government. If you need to
interact with the government in some way (e.g. obtaining a birth certificate, renewing
a license), you must travel to the right Ministry in person, wait in long queues, and
often pay for the forms you are filling in. This is even more challenging in rural areas
that are less serviced by government. The stakeholders believe a holistic
eGovernment and communications approach, integrated across government
agencies, is the place to start;
Low levels of literacy and ICT literacy present a challenge to the development and use
of eGovernment services. Yet the stakeholders feel that if the services are provided
citizens will use them if you build it, they will come;
The best possible approach to eGovernment is to focus on user-friendliness and
implementation;
If the Government of Liberia starts with an ePortal, the content must be developed
with the target audience in mind and placed in the hands of the right people to
ensure that the content is managed and updated;
To implement and facilitate uptake, radio can be used as a medium for teaching
people to learn about the governments ICT strategy and how they can use it;
In rural areas, where there are few cybercafs, we suggest that schools be used as
centers of learning for key ICT efforts. This has two purposes: first, students, the new
generation, must learn to be technologically literate. Second, they will teach the
adults in their lives.
4.3 Actions
A broad-based Stakeholders Workshop on Short-term Priority of ICT Projects jointly
convened by the MOPT, Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) and USAID-Liberia was
held on December 15, 2015 in Mamba Point. The eServices Group recommended actions to
take to better-enhanced eGovernment services in Liberia:
The Chief Information Office (CIO) and the Project Management Office (PMO) be
resourced to enable them to implement GoLs eGovernment programs. Presently it
is grossly incapacitated. This is not just about funding, but also capacity building and
training;
Provisioning of reliable, affordable and sustainable Internet Access to MACs, with
effective utilization of capacity available at the Cable Station;
The Creation and Advocacy for an ICT institution/Agency with authority to implement
ICT/eGovernment programs in Liberia. The Ministry of Science and Technology or the
22
National Information and Technology Agency were the suggested names for the
proposed institutions. Strategies to achieve this should be put in place;
The Mini Shared Services Center be implemented to enable MACs to gradually enroll
into the program;
Outsourcing to the private sector should be considered for the development and
operation of eServices and facilities.
These are some of the steps for GoL to create a cost-effective and connected eGovernment
to increase competitiveness, improve web presence, increase interoperability and reduce
total cost of ownership. GoL shall also foster all measures to design and create sustainable
ICT communities, disseminate ICT skills, empower citizens, boost private sector and train ICT
professionals.
4.4 Propositions
4.4.1 Digital Development services
The history of digital service development reflects a very high failure rate, with some
estimates that 60 to 70% of all ICT initiatives in developed countries fail to meet their
objectives. Great care is needed to maximize the opportunity for success. Factors that need
to be taken into consideration include:
The development of digital services requires specialist technical skills, often
distributed across a team. It is very often the case that people skilled at
understanding requirements and designing solutions are not the same people who
have the technical skills to build the service;
Development needs to be determined by the business needs of the organization, and
not by the IT technical team;
Sustainability of the solution is a key requirement. Dimensions of sustainability
include technical, financial and managerial aspects;
MACs have three options to provide a digital service: in-house, outsourcing to the private
sector or using a Centralized Platform.
4.4.1.1
In-house web development
A few MACs may have the right human resources internally to develop a digital service or
could find them in another public entity. It could be the right solution to easily manage the
entire project; utilizing existing resources to save on additional expenses; allocating as many
resources as available to build it quickly; resources are allocated within the operating
budget; it avoids cultural boundaries, and it avoids questions on ownership and control.
On the other hand, the know-how required for web development changes fast, and the inhouse resources need to be technically up-to-date. A project manager could be needed and
additional resources may be required, such as designers, extra developers, testers and
others. It also could be difficult to keep the service updated and maintained if in-house skills
are not retained.
23
4.4.1.2
Outsourcing web development
It may be possible to find a private sector firm or NGO expert in the design, development,
and promotion of digital services. Benefits of outsourcing are:
Cost advantages;
Increased efficiency;
Focus on core areas;
Save on infrastructure;
Access to skilled resources;
Time zone advantage;
Fast and good services.
Thus, an external enterprise can easily maintain the service while solid professional
development firms tend to have low turnover on staff, so the same developers are there to
keep the service updated. It is much easier for a developer to learn GoL needs than for a GoL
staff to learn web development.
On the other hand, cost can seem high and it can be risky if the wrong development firm is
chosen. GoL must make sure that it owns all rights to the code and content.
4.4.1 Centralized Web Platform

Today platforms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, AirBnb are dominant. A platform is a
web-based information system, which provides specific services to a community of users. A
platform is very useful to build a community, to easily share information and to provide
specific services to a community of citizens.
To implement the vision, GoL could build a centralized platform including all MAC
information in it. This platform could run on the Government Cloud Platform and should be a
single portal to access all GoL eServices and information. This centralized platform could be
developed using a CMS such as Drupal, WordPress or Joomla. Each MAC would only have to
provide content to the platform. Each MAC would have its own page based on the same
model. At minimum, each page should including several sections such as: Home, About,
Mission, Vision, Staff Directory, Our Projects, Our Services, Contact. The standard should be
state by the CIO office and NICTCC could handle technical aspects.
4.5 Under Service Communities

Liberia has only 10% of Internet penetration and it is mainly in Monrovia and around. Others
mediums such as TV, radio stations, and newspapers could be used to bring governmental
services to the population. Rural one-stop-shop kiosks could be also deployed to bring
eGovernmental services to the 90% of the population without Internet access.
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5.
Methodology
5.1 Guiding principles

The aim of GoL when preparing eGovernment documents is to foster an open information
society and as such, is non-exclusive, non-discriminatory and providing common platform for
collaboration and upgrade the current ICT usage with the new open concepts. As from
general principles stated in the national reference documents, we can conclude the guiding
principles for implementing an eGovernment Web Development Strategy:
Purpose driven choice of best of breed, with intention to provide the best solutions
from different models, technologies and solutions;
Least disruptive to operations, as implementation of eGovernment guidelines are a
process of the evolution and not the revolution;
Co-existence with other legacy proprietary system and extend functionality and life
span;
Levering on existing facilities, hardware, communications, knowledge and expertise
already present in ecosystem;
Not driven or controlled by any hardware or software vendors.
The eGovernment Web Development Strategy has to be based on existing, approved national
documents as well as documents that are adopted and are in the implementation phase. To
ensure eGovernment suitability and sustainability, this strategy provides an ICT ecosystem
model adapted to Liberia. Each stakeholder has a defined function in order to run
eGovernment functionalities properly.
5.2 Stakeholders landscape

We could consider four typical groups: MACs, Universities, private sector and ICT
communities. The usual duties for these groups are the followings:
MACs must implement various national ICT policies to improve GoL web
performance.
The universities should work on the development of ICT skills. The Liberia Institute of
Public Administration (LIPA) is a MAC responsible for the capacity development of
civil servants.
The private sector is responsible to develop and provide websites, software and
eServices. They also have a role in capacity development.
ICT communities, including NGOs and informal groups, should develop ICT skills into
the population.
At the MACs level:
Seventeen websites taking into consideration are at the interaction stage;

They provide contents and the possibility to interact with MACs;
On some websites, whole sections are empty;
Five MACs have a social media presence using platforms like Facebook or Twitter;
25
All the websites, which are at the interaction stage, propose pdf documents online.
5.3 Recommendations for MACs websites

Despite a good GoL web presence, it is necessary to increase the digital authority of the
government and to provide new services.
Government wishes to deliver services in an effective, transparent and efficient way, with
improved accessibility to residents and businesses across Liberia, including in rural areas.
eServices is one channel to service this need.
Oversight for designing and delivering eServices rests with the CIO program, which is
responsible for setting standards and ensuring harmonization and interoperability of
systems. ICT Initiatives can be initiated at MAC or Centralized level, but are dependent on
sufficient buy-in and capacity of stakeholder.
5.3.1 Contents
MACs need to continuously work on content development, suitably adapted to web reading.
A website needs to provide accurate, interesting and up-to-date content which should be
authoritative and as complete as possible. MACs need to commit themselves to regularly
contributing to and reviewing the content of their websites. Ideas are discussed in the
Toolkit. They also need to use social media platforms to communicate efficiently with the
public.
Pdf is a perfect format to download a file, store it locally, and print it out. In some case, it
could be more effective to propose online forms. Indeed, some administrative forms could
be online such as the online passport service (https://secure.liberiapassports.com) in order
to provide better interactivity with citizens.
MACs website are providing some data in pdf format but it would be better to provide
datasets in CVS format. It is difficult to extract data from pdf files. CVS is an open standards
file format for dataset and should be used for open data initiatives.
5.3.2 eServices
It is important to offer contact options to site visitors. Most of the MACs understand already
this requirement. It could be an email address, a contact form, a call center or a chat.
Additionally, it could be effective to have a public servant repository (yellow pages) detailing
MAC personnel.
Search engine optimization is important. MAC websites have to be easily findable with
search engines, and websites should be optimized to have a good ranking.
Sites should be easily searchable. As sites grow and develop visitors will need help to find
the resources they are looking for. Search facilities, and Quick Links provide such help.
26
5.3.3 Open source technology

MACs should use open source Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wordpress,
Drupal or Joomla. They are good tools to build websites and are free to use, except if you
want to use proprietary templates or services. It is important to update these CMS regularly
in order to avoid pirate attacks and data loss or corruption. Webservers and websites must
be secure using security tools such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for private transactions.
Templates should be used that are designed to work on any devices, meaning content is
easily accessible on workstations, as well as tablet and smartphone screens.
5.3.4 ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain)

The subdomain .gov.lr must be use for all MACs websites and services. It is a way to
increase web presence, build authority and to promote a national presence.
5.3.5 Community manager

MAC webmasters should act as community managers. They have to empower MAC staff as a
community to interact with their websites. CMS give the possibility to have several users
publishing on a website and it should be a norm. The IT technical teams must resist the
temptation to insist that they are the only authorized people to publish on the website. It
should also include the Communication Units and others who develop good content.
5.3.6 Web design

MACs web design should be simple, providing easy access to useful information. A good
example is the New York City Green Book (http://www.nyc.gov/greenbook), which has a
functional design covering a treasure trove of information important to citizens.
5.3.7 User-centered design

MAC websites should be focused on citizens and less self-centered. Citizens are visiting
websites to look for information. Provide them with what they need; they must have an easy
access to relevant information. Information, which is not relevant for visitors, should be
removed.
5.4 Goals and objectives

For GoL the goals should be:
Creation a cost-effective and connected eGovernment;
Creation of an open ecosystem with included all major stakeholders;
For the private sector, the goals should be:
Implementation of the eGovernment Web Development Strategy;
Organization of capacity development Workshops.
For ICT communities the goal should be:
Development of integrated and active ICT communities.
27
For universities the goal should be:
Development of ICT skills.
5.4.1 Government goal 1.1: Creation a cost-effective and connected

eGovernment
Objective 1.1.1
Procurement tech neutral, focused on
innovation, sustainability and open solutions
Objective 1.1.2
Reduced total cost of web platform
ownership
Current situation
Not technology neutral
Procurement system for ICT is

inadequate, based on procurement
of goods
Global practice fair competition

requests for tech neutrality
Current situation
Proprietary software piracy
Costly maintenance
Open solutions as foundation to

lower integration costs
Few accurate financial records on ICT

spend
Objective 1.1.3
Increased interoperability among systems
Current situation
Enterprise architecture developed,
although not yet implemented
Objective 1.1.4
Usage of open solutions wherever it's
possible
Current situation
Open solutions are in place in some
MACs as the Ministry of Health
Legislature moved to open solutions

but it failed
Objective 1.1.5
To gain know-how and experience using
open source software for eGovernment
projects
Objective 1.1.6
Take the control back on public websites
Current situation
No or very little know how about
using open solutions
Objective 1.1.7
Increase cyber security
Current situation
There is no documented cyber
Current situation
Some public entities lost control on
their websites while there are not
able to do any update
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security strategy
Objective 1.1.8
Provide an universal access
Current situation
Only 10% of the population have
access to the Internet
5.4.2 Government goal 1.2: Creation of an open ecosystem with included

all major stakeholders
Objective 1.3.1
Governmental cloud platform
Objective 1.3.2
Promotion of open models in ICT private
sector
Current situation
There is no central governmental
infrastructure in use
A data center is on project
Importance of national cloud

infrastructure in terms of supporting
MACs activities
Current situation
Little influence from the public sector

on the private sector
5.4.3 Private sector goal 2.1: Implementation of the eGovernment Web

Development Strategy
Objective 2.1.1
Development of digital services
Current situation
Some websites and services are
developed in country
Objective 2.1.2
Maintenance of digital services
Current situation
maintained in country
Objective 2.1.3
Installation of infrastructures
Most of the websites are developed

in the US
Most of the websites are maintained

in the US
Current situation
Some companies are able to install

local area network infrastructures
No company can setup metropolitan

area network infrastructures
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Objective 2.1.4
Maintenance of infrastructures
Objective 2.1.5
Web hosting
Objective 2.1.6
Web domain name (ccTLD .lr)
Current situation
Some companies are able to maintain

local area network infrastructures
No company can maintain

metropolitan area network
infrastructures
Current situation
No company provides local web

hosting
Current situation
No registrar to buy .lr web domain
5.4.4 Private sector goal 2.2: Organization of capacity development

Workshops
Objective 2.2.1
Development of ICT skills for professional
Current situation
developed in country
Most of the websites are developed

in the US
Objective 2.2.2
Current situation
Provide Linux Professional Institute (LPI)

certification
No LPI certification available in country
5.4.5 ICT communities goal 3.1: Development of integrated and active

ICT communities
Objective 5.1.1
Create national ICT communities
Current situation
One active ICT community
Objective 5.1.2
Support national ICT communities
Objective 5.1.3
Link national ICT communities to
international ones
Several disseminate geeks
Current situation
No public funding for ICT

communities
Current situation
No national exchange program
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5.4.6 Academic goal 4.1: Development of ICT skills

Objective 4.1.1
Support public and private universities to
produce ICT skilled professionals
Current situation
No ICT program at the public
university
Objective 4.1.2
Support LIPA on ICT training sessions
Current situation
No ICT training sessions
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6.
Proposed initiatives
6.1 Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit

The governmental web presence has to be strengthened and harmonized to further
legitimize the Liberian ICT capability on the web. A Self Evaluation and Digital Development
Toolkit should be provided online to support website and eServices development.
A digital development toolkit is an online service for public ICT officers, as well as private
sector developers, to find a methodology to build or improve websites by following design
and technical specifications. This service will define useful information such as public
websites policy, supply chain procedure and websites management.
6.2 Centralized Web Platform

A centralized government platform provides opportunities to improve efficiencies. This
platform could host a Centralized Web Platform, configured to allow MACs to easily host
websites and related eServices. It could be based on an Open Source CMS, with common
templates applicable to all MACs. MACs would be responsible for content creation and
responding to interaction, with the platform providing a secure and efficient technical
foundation
This platform will support the next generation of eGovernment services. It is intended to
help GoL operate more efficiently, and will save public sector cash flow.
This platform will provide an important central information technology infrastructure with
full cloud computing functions.
6.3 Rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk Network

This rural one-stop-shop kiosk network will provide and centralize information and services
for citizens. It will provide smart, cost-effective, modern public services to the population.
Administrative information will be available, such as links to the online passport request
service, legal Q&A concerning the GoL laws, online access to birth certificates, administrative
forms, text of laws and public datasets from MACs with offline and online access.
In this one-stop-shop kiosk citizens can also access services typically offered by InternetCafs:
Use a word processor to create job applications and other documents;
Consult an offline Wikipedia;
Photocopy documents;
Take digital pictures with a rugged digital camera and print them out;
Watch movies and listen to music;
Access the Internet if theres a GPRS connection provided in the locality.

The equipment include in a one-stop-shop is:
A rugged PC;
32
A solar system equipment;

A scanner;
A printer;
A rugged digital camera and its printer.
Such one-stop-shop kiosks can be located at the County Community Centers, which are
being open across the country, as well as at other government facilities.
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7.
Explanation of concepts
eGovernment, open source software, open standards, open content, open educational
resources and open data are concepts that have different meanings and scope to different
authors. To avoid any misunderstanding, we refer to the six most commonly used definitions
that are used in this document. Deeper explanations of these concepts are in appendix.
7.1 eGovernment
According to the World Bank, eGovernment refers to the use by government agencies of
information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing)
that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of
government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of
government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen
empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management.
The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience,
revenue growth, and/or cost reductions. Thus, eGovernment refers to the use of ICT to
improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government.
7.2 Open source software

The concept of open source is increasingly being used beyond software to represent the
development and sharing models of intellectual work. For the purposes of this document,
we use the narrower concept of the open source as a software movement.
The open source movement is a broad-reaching movement of individuals who support the
use of open source licenses for some or all software. Open source software is made available
for anybody to use or modify, as its source code is made available. Some open source
software is based on a share-alike principle, whereby users are free to pass on the software
subject to the stipulation that any enhancements or changes are just as freely available to
the public, while other open source projects may be freely incorporated into any derivative
work, open source or proprietary. Open source software promotes learning and
understanding through the dissemination of understanding. The main difference between
open source and traditional proprietary software is in user and property rights, the
conditions of use imposed on the user by the software license, as opposed to differences in
the programming code. With open source software, such as LibreOffice, users are granted
the right to both the program's functionality and methodology. With proprietary software
programs, such as Microsoft Office, users only have the rights to functionality. Examples of
popular open source software products include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Android and
LibreOffice.
Open Source software is a computer software with its source code made available and
licensed with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and
distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Very often open source software is
developed in a public, collaborative manner and is the most prominent example of an open
source collaborative development model. Strengths of open source movement and open
source software are numerous.
34
7.3 Open standards

An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use
associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed. There is no
single definition and interpretations vary with usage.
The terms "open" and "standard" have a wide range of meanings associated with their
usage. There are a number of definitions of open standards, which emphasize different
aspects of openness, including of the resulting specification, the openness of the drafting
process, and the ownership of rights in the standard. The term "standard" is sometimes
restricted to technologies approved by formalized committees that are open to participation
by all interested parties and operate on a consensus basis.
The definitions of the term "open standard" used by academics, the European Union and
some of its member governments or parliaments such as Denmark, France, and Spain
preclude open standards requiring fees for use, as do the New Zealand, South African and
the Venezuelan governments. On the standard organization side, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) ensures that its specifications can be implemented on a royalty-free basis.
7.4 Open content

Open content is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998, which describes a creative work
that others can copy or modify. The term evokes open source software, which is a related
concept in software.
When the term Open Content was first used by Wiley, it described works licensed under the
Open Content License (a non-free share-alike license) and perhaps other works licensed
under similar terms. It has since come to describe a broader class of content without
conventional copyright restrictions. The openness of content can be assessed under the '5Rs
Framework' based on the extent to which it can be reused, revised, remixed and
redistributed by members of the public without violating copyright law.
7.5 Open educational resources

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely
use and reuse, without charge. That means they have been authored or created by an
individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. For some of
these resources, that means you can download the resource and share it with colleagues
and students. For others, it may be that you can download a resource, edit it in some way,
and then re-post it as a remixed work. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license
that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
7.6 Open data

Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and
republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of
control. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "Open"
movements such as open source, open hardware, open content, and open access. The
35
philosophy behind open data has been long established, but the term "open data" itself is
recent, gaining popularity with the rise of the Internet and World Wide Web and, especially,
with the launch of open data government initiatives such as Data.gov and Data.gov.uk.
7.7 Technological neutrality

Technological Neutrality is the freedom of individuals and organizations to choose the most
appropriate and suitable technology to their needs and requirements for development,
acquisition, use or commercialization, without dependencies on knowledge involved as
information or data.
36
Conclusion
This document introduced the eGovernment Web Development Strategy. Its main focus is to
guide the Government of Liberias online presence towards a Distribution stage by
empowering citizens and supporting transparency in all instances of the government. To
reach this goal, three initiatives have been introduced: the Self Evaluation and Digital
Development Toolkit, the Centralized Web Platform and the rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk
Network. The first initiative, the Toolkit, will support GoL with a methodology to build useful
digital services for the Government. The second one, the Centralized Web Platform, will
support GoL with dedicated and specialized national services. The third one, the kiosk, will
provide eGovernment services to rural people.
Thus, GoL web presence could be a mix of independent sites and a Centralized Web
Platform.
Usefully implemented, this strategy encourages the Government of Liberia to increase its
web presence, empower citizens and intensify its authority at the international level.
37
References
The National Telecommunications and ICT Policy 2010-2015. Government of Liberia, 2010, p
52
The Access to Broadband Connectivity in Liberia in the Post-Ebola context: A Roundtable
with Public, Private and Civil Society Sector Stakeholders. Government of Liberia, p 18
The e-Government Strategy 2014 2018. Government of Liberia, 2014, p 48
The National Universal Access Program Strategy 2014-2017. Government of Liberia, 2014, p
20
e-Government Interoperability Framework. Government of Liberia, 2014,
Liberia broadband technical assessment components 2 and 3 final report. NetHope, 2015, p
66
Open government partnership: four year strategy 2015-2018. Open Government Partnership,
p 46
The 8 Principles of Open Government Data. Online <http://opengovdata.org>
Open source strategy for Mauritius. Astec Global Consultancy Ltd, 2014, p 98
Standards - W3C. Online <http://www.w3.org/standards>
What is open government?. Online <http://opensource.com/resources/open-government>
A Citizen Oriented E-government Maturity Model. Brunel University, 2009, p 14
Defining the "Open" in Open Content. Online < http://opencontent.org/definition>
The Open Definition. Online < http://opendefinition.org>
Open Source Initiative. Online <https://opensource.org>
e-Government. Online <http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ict/brief/e-government>
e-Gov Research and Resources. Online <http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ict/brief/egov-resources>
Open Government Declaration. Online <http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/opengovernment-declaration>
38
Appendix 1: Open government

In general terms, an open government is one with high levels of transparency and
mechanisms for public scrutiny and oversight in place, with an emphasis on government
accountability.
Transparency is considered the traditional hallmark of an open government, meaning that
the public should have access to government-held information and be informed of
government proceedings. In recent years, however, the definition of open government has
expanded to include expectations for increased citizen participation and collaboration in
government proceedings through the use of modern and open technologies.
The open government partnership

The vision
Open government partnerships (OGP) vision is that as more governments become
sustainably more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to their own citizens,
with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of public policies and services, as well as the
level and scope of public participation. This will require a shift in norms and culture to
ensure open and honest dialogue between governments and civil society.
The mission
OGP provides an international platform to connect, empower and encourage domestic
reformers committed to transforming government and society through openness. It also
introduces a domestic policy mechanism, the action planning process, through which
government and civil society are encouraged to establish an ongoing dialogue on the design,
implementation and monitoring of open government reforms.
Guiding principles
OGP governments and civil society participants share the belief that governments perform
better when they invite and facilitate public input and oversight. Each government that joins
OGP commits to uphold the guiding principles outlined in the open government
The open government declaration, including (among others):
We uphold the value of openness in our engagement with citizens, in order to

improve services, more effectively manage public resources, promote innovation,
and create safer communities.
We commit to increase the availability of information about governmental activities,

support civic participation, implement the highest standards of professional integrity
throughout our administrations, and increase access to new technologies for
openness and accountability.
39
We will report publicly on actions undertaken to realize these principles, consult with
the public on their implementation, and update our commitments in light of new
challenges and opportunities.
We pledge to lead by example and contribute to advancing open government in

other countries by sharing best practices and expertise.
Our goal is to foster innovation and spur progress, and not to define standards to be
used as a precondition for cooperation or assistance.
Principles of open government data

Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with
the principles below:
Complete: All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid
privacy, security or privilege limitations.
While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the
open government data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made
available electronically to the extent feasible.
Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not
in aggregate or modified forms.
If an entity chooses to transform data by aggregation or transcoding for use on an Internet
site built for end users, it still has an obligation to make the full-resolution information
available in bulk for others to build their own sites with and to preserve the data for
posterity.
Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.
Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.
Data must be made available on the Internet so as to accommodate the widest practical
range of users and uses. This means considering how choices in data preparation and
publication affect access to the disabled and how it may impact users of a variety of software
and hardware platforms. Data must be published with current industry standard protocols
and formats, as well as alternative protocols and formats when industry standards impose
burdens on wide reuse of the data.
Data is not accessible if it can be retrieved only through navigating web forms, or if
automated tools are not permitted to access it because of a robots.txt file, other policy, or
technological restrictions.
40
Machine processable: Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.

The ability for data to be widely used requires that the data be properly encoded. Free-form
text is not a substitute for tabular and normalized records. Images of text are not a substitute
for the text itself. Sufficient documentation on the data format and meanings of normalized
data items must be available to users of the data.
Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.
Anonymous access to the data must be allowed for public data, including access through
anonymous proxies. Data should not be hidden behind walled gardens.
Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.
Proprietary formats add unnecessary restrictions over who can use the data, how it can be
used and shared, and whether the data will be usable in the future. While some proprietary
formats are nearly ubiquitous, it is nevertheless not acceptable to use only proprietary
formats. Likewise, the relevant non-proprietary formats may not reach a wide audience. In
these cases, it may be necessary to make the data available in multiple formats.
License-free: Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret
regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.
Because government information is a mix of public records, personal information,
copyrighted work, and other non-open data, it is important to be clear about what data is
available and what licensing, terms of service, and legal restrictions apply. Data for which no
restrictions apply should be marked clearly as being in the public domain.
Online & free: Information is not meaningfully public if it is not available on the Internet at
no charge, or at least no more than the marginal cost of reproduction. It should also be
findable.
Permanent: Data should be made available at a stable Internet location indefinitely and in a
stable data format for as long as possible.
Trusted: The Association of Computing Machinerys Recommendation on open government
(February 2009) stated, Published content should be digitally signed or include attestation
of publication/creation date, authenticity, and integrity. Digital signatures help the public
validate the source of the data they find so that they can trust that the data has not been
modified since it was published. Since provenance is for originally published documents, it is
not a reason to prevent the public from modifying government documents.
A Presumption of openness: The presumption of openness rests on laws like the Freedom of
Information Act, procedures including records management, and tools such as data catalogs.
41
Sunlight Foundations Open Data Policy Guidelines state, Setting the default to open means
that the government and parties acting on its behalf will make public information available
proactively and that theyll put that information within reach of the public (online), with low
to no barriers for its reuse and consumption. Setting the default to open is about living up to
the potential of our information, about looking at comprehensive information management,
and making determinations that fall in the public interest.
Documented: Documentation about the format and meaning of data goes a long way to
making the data useful.
The American Association of Law Librariess Principles & Core Values Concerning Public
Information on Government Websites (March 24, 2007) noted that it is as important for
users to know the data is current as for the data itself to be current. Their principles state,
Government websites must provide users with sufficient information to make assessments
about the accuracy and currency of legal information published on the website.
Safe to open: The Association of Computing Machinerys Recommendation on open
government (February 2009) stated, Government bodies publishing data online should
always seek to publish using data formats that do not include executable content.
Executable content within documents poses a security risk to users of the data because the
executable content may be malware (viruses, worms, etc.).
Designed with public input: The public is in the best position to determine what information
technologies will be best suited for the applications the public intends to create for itself.
Public input is therefore crucial to disseminating information in such a way that it has value.
42
Appendix 2: Web standards

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for
the World Wide Web. This organization defines Web standards as follow.
Web design and applications header

HTML & CSS header: HTML and CSS are the fundamental technologies for building Web
pages: HTML (html and xhtml) for structure, CSS for style and layout, including WebFonts.
JavaScript Web APIs header: Standard APIs for client-side Web Application development
include those for Geolocation, XMLHttpRequest, and mobile widgets. W3C standards for
document models (the DOM) and technologies such as XBL allow content providers to
create interactive documents through scripting.
Graphics header: W3C is the home of the widely deployed PNG raster format, SVG vector
format, and the Canvas API. WebCGM is a more specialized format used, for example, in the
fields of automotive engineering, aeronautics.
Audio and video header: Some of the W3C formats that enable authoring audio and video
presentations include HTML, SVG, and SMIL (for synchronization). W3C is also working on a
timed text format for captioning and other applications.
Accessibility header: W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has published Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to help authors create content that is accessible to people
with disabilities. WAI-ARIA gives authors more tools to create accessible Web Applications
by providing additional semantics about widgets and behaviors.
Internationalization header: W3C has a mission to design technology that works across
cultures and languages. W3C standards such as HTML and XML are built on Unicode, for
instance. In addition, W3C has published guidance for authors related to language tags bidirectional (bidi) text, and more.
Mobile Web header: W3C promotes One Web that is available on any device. W3Cs
Mobile Web Best Practices help authors understand how to create content that provides a
reasonable experience on a wide variety of devices, contexts, and locations.
Privacy header: The Web is a powerful tool for communications and transactions of all sorts.
It is important to consider privacy and security implications of the Web as part of technology
design.
Math on the Web header: Mathematics and formula are used on the Web for business
reports, education materials and scientific research. W3Cs MathML enables mathematics to
be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this
functionality for other types of content.
Web of devices
43
Mobile Web header: W3C promotes One Web that is available on any device. W3Cs
Mobile Web Initiative helps ensure the best user experience on mobile devices, taking into
account device capabilities, location, and other context information.
Voice browsing header: The W3C Speech Interface Framework is a suite of specifications
(e.g. VoiceXML) integrating Web technology and speech interaction. VoiceXML, PLS, SISR,
SRGS, SCXML, and CCXML all contribute to the Speech Interface Framework.
Device Independence and Content Adaptation header: Devices come in many shapes,
capabilities and sizes which define constraints on the content these devices can handle.
Device descriptions, content transformation guidelines, device APIs and CC/PP help
developers to optimize the user experience.
Multimodal Access header: Increasingly, interactions with devices doesnt only happen with
a keyboard, but also through voice, touch and gestures. The W3C Multimodal architecture
and its components (EMMA, InkML) allow developers to adapt applications to new
interaction modes.
Web and TV header: With the advent of IP-based devices, connected TVs are progressing at
a fast pace and traditional TV broadcasting is quickly evolving into a more immersive
experience where users can interact with rich applications that are at least partly based on
Web technologies. There is strong growth in the deployment of devices that integrate
regular Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and SVG, coupled with various device APIs.
Web architecture
Architecture Principles header: Web Architecture principles help to design technologies by
providing guidance and articulating the issues around some specific choices.
Identifiers header: We share things by their names. URL, URI, IRI is the way to name things
on the Web and manipulate them. Some additional addressing needs in the Web Services
stack motivated some additional layers.
Protocols header: Protocols are the vehicle for exchanging our ideas. HTTP is the core
protocol of the Web. W3C is also working on XML Protocols and SOAP in relation to Web
Services.
Meta formats header: XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is used to build new formats
at low cost (due to widely available tools to manipulate content in those new formats). RDF
and OWL allow people to define vocabularies (ontologies) of terms as part of the Semantic
Web.
Protocol and meta format considerations header: Documents on the Web are loosely joined
pieces by identifiers. It creates a maze of rich interactions between protocols and formats.
Internationalization header: W3C has worked with the community on
internationalization of identifiers (IRIs) and a general character model for the Web.
the
44
Semantic web
Linked data header: The Semantic Web is a Web of data of dates and titles and part
numbers and chemical properties and any other data one might conceive of. RDF provides
the foundation for publishing and linking your data. Various technologies allow you to
embed data in documents (RDFa, GRDDL) or expose what you have in SQL databases, or
make it available as RDF files.
Vocabularies header: At times it may be important or valuable to organize data. Using OWL
(to build vocabularies, or ontologies) and SKOS (for designing knowledge organization
systems) it is possible to enrich data with additional meaning, which allows more people
(and more machines) to do more with the data.
Query header: Query languages go hand-in-hand with databases. If the Semantic Web is
viewed as a global database, then it is easy to understand why one would need a query
language for that data. SPARQL is the query language for the Semantic Web.
Inference header: Near the top of the Semantic Web stack one finds inference reasoning
over data through rules. W3C work on rules, primarily through RIF and OWL, is focused on
translating between rule languages and exchanging rules among different systems.
Vertical applications header: W3C is working with different industries for example in
Health Care and Life Sciences, eGovernment, and Energy to improve collaboration,
research and development, and innovation adoption through Semantic Web technology. For
instance, by aiding decision-making in clinical research, Semantic Web technologies will
bridge many forms of biological and medical information across institutions.
XML technology
XML essentials header: XML is shouldered by a set of essential technologies such as the
infoset and namespaces. They address issues when using XML in specific applications
contexts.
Efficient interchange header: XML standards are omnipresent in enterprise computing, and
are part of the foundation of the Web. Because the standards are highly interoperable and
affordable, people have wanted to use them in a wide variety of applications. However, in
some settings (on devices with low memory or low bandwidth, or where performance is
critical) experience has shown that a more efficient form of XML is required.
Schema header: Formal descriptions of vocabularies create flexibility in authoring
environments and quality control chains. W3Cs XML Schema, SML, and data binding
technologies provide the tools for quality control of XML data.
Security header: Manipulating data with XML requires sometimes integrity, authentication
and privacy. XML signature, encryption, and xkms can help create a secure environment for
XML.
45
Transformation header: Very frequently one wants to transform XML content into other
formats (including other XML formats). XSLT and XPath are very powerful tools for creating
different representations of XML content.
Query header: XQuery (supported by XPath) is a query language for XML to extract data,
similar to the role of SQL for databases, or SPARQL for the Semantic Web.
Components header: The XML ecosystem is using additional tools to create a richer
environment for using and manipulating XML documents. These components include style
sheets, xlink xml:id, xinclude, xpointer, xforms, xml fragments, and events.
Processing header: A processing model defines what operations should be performed in
what order on an XML document.
Internationalization header: W3C has worked with the community on
internationalization of XML, for instance for specifying the language of XML content.
the
Publishing header: XML grew out of the technical publication community. Use XSL-FO to
publish even large or complex multilingual XML documents to HTML, PDF or other formats;
include SVG diagrams and MathML formulas in the output.
Web of services
Payments header: W3C seeks to integrate payments seamlessly into the Open Web
Platform. The result will be new business opportunities, an improved user experience for
online transactions, reduced fraud, and increased interoperability among traditional
solutions and future payment innovations.
Security header: Transferring data from one domain to another domain or between
applications needs sometimes a secure transaction and well defined document
authentication. XML Encryption and XML Signature are key pieces of the XML security stack.
Internationalization header: Internationalization of Web services concerns service
descriptions, communicating language and locale, and internationalization of humanreadable messages exchanged by services.
Browsers and authoring tools

Browsers, media players header: There are many types of tools that allow us to read the
Web, including browsers, media players, publishing platforms, social networks, bots,
aggregators, forums, and media-sharing sites.
Authoring tools, social media header: The Web is not a read-only medium. There are many
types of tools for publishing content, including authoring tools and environments, content
management systems (CMSs), social media profile pages and apps, blogging tools and sites,
microblogging tools, social bookmarks, forums, and video and photo sharing and more.
46
Appendix 3: Embassies websites

Here is a list of the Liberian embassies with a websites. There is no policy on the domain
name which should be under .gov.lr. Half of these links are not working.
Embassy
Website address provided by the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs
Liberia
Embassy
Washingto
n D. C.
Perminant
Mission of
Liberia to
The United
Nations
Liberian
Embassy
Brussels
http://www.liberianembassyus.org/
Website address
(URL) broken or
working
Working
http://www.liberia-un.org/
Working
http://liberia.visahq.com/embassy/Belgium/
Working
Liberian
Embassy
London
Liberian
Embassy
Paris
http://www.embassyofliberia.org.uk/
Broken
http://www.embassyofliberia-paris.org
Working
Liberian
Embassy
Germany
Liberian
Embassy
Rome
Liberian
Embassy
Beijing
http://www.liberiaembassygermany.de/
Working
http://www.liberiaembassy.it
Broken
http://liberia.visahq.com/embassy/China/
Working
Liberian
Ebassy
Addis
Ababa
Liberian
Embassy
Abuja
http://liberia.visahq.com/embassy/Ethiopia/%20-%2041k
Working
http://www.afdevinfo.com/htmlreports/org/org_30068.ht Broken
ml
47
Liberian
Embassy
Freetown
Liberian
Embassy
Conakry
Liberian
Embassy
Accra
Liberian
Embassy
Abidjan
Liberan
Embassy
Cairo
Liberian
Embassy
Rabat
Liberian
Embassy
Tripoli
Liberian
Embassy
Pretoria
Liberian
Embassy
senegal
Liberian
Embassy
Geneva
http://www.news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20058356.
shtml%20-%2028k
Broken
http://www.kln.gov.my/perwakilan/conakry/event%20%2021k
Broken (wrong
website)
ml
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassiesof/Liberia%20-%20126k
Broken
http://www.yellowpages.com.eg/profile/MTI5MjY3/Liberi
a---Embassy.html%20-%2085k
Broken
http://www.liberianembassyrabat.com
Working
ml
http://www.embassypages.com/missions/embassy19051/
Working
http://http//liberia.visahq.com/embassy/Senegal/%20%2041k%20-%20Cached
Broken
http://www.liberia-unog.ch/
Working
48
Appendix 4: Open ecosystem

eGovernment
eGovernment can be seen simply as moving citizen services online, but in its broadest sense
it refers to the technology-enabled transformation of government. It is Governments
strategy to reduce costs, whilst promoting economic development, increasing transparency
in government, improving service delivery and public administration, and facilitating the
advancement of an information society.
Reducing Costs: Putting services online substantially decreases the processing costs of many
activities compared with the manual way of handling operations. Efficiency is also attained
by streamlining internal processes and by enabling faster and more informed decisionmaking.
Promoting economic development: Technology enables governments to create positive
business climates by simplifying relationships with businesses and reducing the
administrative steps needed to comply with regulatory obligations. There is a direct impact
on the economy, as in the case of eProcurement, which creates wider competition and more
participants in the public sector marketplace.
Enhancing transparency and accountability: eGovernment helps to increase the
transparency of decision-making processes by making information accessible - publishing
government debates and minutes, budgets and expenditure statements, outcomes and
rationales for key decisions, and in some cases, allowing the on-line tracking of applications
on the web by the public and press.
Improving service delivery: government service delivery, in the traditional process, is time
consuming, lacks transparency, and leads to citizen and business dissatisfaction. By putting
government services online, eGovernment reduces bureaucracy and enhances the quality of
services in terms of time, content and accessibility.
Improving public administration: eGovernment administrative components, such as a
computerized treasury, integrated financial management information systems, and human
resource management systems, lead to greater efficiency in public administration. Features
include the integration of expenditure and receipt data, control of expenditure, human
resources management, intelligent audit through data analysis and the publishing of
financial data.
Facilitating an eSociety: One of the main benefits of an eGovernment initiative consists of
the promotion of ICT use in other sectors. The technological and management capacities
required for eGovernment administration encourage, in turn, the development of new
training courses and modules in schools and universities trying to supply the required skills
and capabilities to the market
Relationships across modalities

eGovernment usually describes relationships across 3 modalities:
49
Government to Citizen: deals with the relationship between government and citizens. G2C
allows citizens to access government information and services instantly, conveniently, from
everywhere, by use of multiple channels.
Government to Business: consists of eInteractions between government and the private
sector. The opportunity to conduct online transactions with government reduces red tape
and simplifies regulatory processes, therefore helping businesses to become more
competitive.
Government to Government: Governments depend on other levels of government within
the state to effectively deliver services and allocate responsibilities. In promoting citizencentric service, a single access point to government is the ultimate goal, for which
cooperation among different governmental departments and agencies is necessary. G2G
facilitates the sharing of databases, resources and capabilities, enhancing the efficiency and
effectiveness of processes.
Strengths of open source software
The collaborative nature of the open source community creates software that can
offer customizability and, as a result, promotes the adoption of its products.
The open source community promotes the creation of software that is not
proprietary, resulting in lower costs.
Individuals who have intrinsic interest in code writing and software creation motivate
the development of open source software within the community. This differs from
proprietary software, the development of which is often motivated through potential
monetary gains.
An open source tool puts the system administrator in control of the level of risk
assumed in deploying the tool.
Open source provides flexibility not available in closed products. The hope is that
individuals make improvements to an open tool and will offer those improvements to
the original developer and community at large. The give-and-take of the gift economy
benefits the entire community.
Open source licenses and software can be combined with proprietary software. While
open source was initially seen as a threat to corporations, some companies found
ways to strengthen their proprietary code with open source code, re-releasing it as an
improvement.
In the event of market failure, programmers and innovators work together to make
sure that the software still works.
Security improvement of operating system.
50
Definition of open source software

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open
source software must comply with the following criteria:
Free redistribution: The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the
software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from
several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
Source code: The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source
code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source
code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a
reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The
source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program.
Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of
a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
Derived works: The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow
them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
Integrity of the author's source code: The license may restrict source code from being
distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with
the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must
explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may
require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original
software.
No discrimination against persons or groups: The license must not discriminate against any
person or group of persons.
No discrimination against fields of endeavor: The license must not restrict anyone from
making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the
program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
Distribution of license: The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the
program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those
parties.
License must not be specific to a product: The rights attached to the program must not
depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is
extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's
license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as
those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
License must not restrict other software: The license must not place restrictions on other
software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must
51
not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open source
software.
License must be technology-neutral: No provision of the license may be predicated on any
individual technology or style of interface.
Definition of open source licenses

Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the open source definition. In brief, they
allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. To be approved by the Open Source
Initiative (also known as the OSI), a license must go through the Open Source Initiative's
license review process.
The following OSI-approved licenses are popular, widely used, or have strong communities
(as defined in the 2006 Proliferation Report):
Apache License 2.0

BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" license
BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" or "FreeBSD" license
GNU General Public License (GPL)
GNU Library or "Lesser" General Public License (LGPL)
MIT license
Mozilla Public License 2.0
Common Development and Distribution License
Eclipse Public License
Open standards
Many definitions of the term "standard" permit patent holders to impose "reasonable and
non-discriminatory licensing" royalty fees and other licensing terms on implementers and/or
users of the standard. For example, the rules for standards published by the major
internationally recognized standards bodies such as the IETF, ISO, IEC, and ITU-T permit their
standards to contain specifications whose implementation will require payment of patent
licensing fees. Among these organizations, only the IETF and ITU-T explicitly refer to their
standards as "open standards," while the others refer only to producing "standards." The
IETF and ITU-T use definitions of "open standard" that allow "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" patent licensing fee requirements.
There are those in the open source software community who hold that an "open standard" is
only open if it can be freely adopted, implemented and extended. While open standards or
architectures are considered non-proprietary in the sense that the standard is either unowned or owned by a collective body it can still be publicly shared and not tightly guarded.
The typical example of open source that has become a standard is the personal computer
originated by IBM and now referred to as Wintel, the combination of the Microsoft operating
system and Intel microprocessor. There are three others that are most widely accepted as
open which include the GSM phones (adopted as a government standard), Open Group
which promotes UNIX and the like, and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which
created the first standards of SMTP and TCP/IP. Buyers tend to prefer open standards, which
52
they believe, offer them cheaper products and more choice for access due to network effects
and increased competition between vendors.
Open standards requirements

The Requirement: An "open standard" must not prohibit conforming implementations in
open source software.
The Criteria: To comply with the Open Standards Requirement (OSR), an "open standard"
must satisfy the following criteria. If an "open standard" does not meet these criteria, it will
be discriminating against open source developers.
No intentional secrets: The standard must not withhold any detail necessary for
interoperable implementation. As flaws are inevitable, the standard must define a
process for fixing flaws identified during implementation and interoperability testing
and to incorporate said changes into a revised version or superseding version of the
standard to be released under terms that do not violate the OSR.
Availability: The standard must be freely and publicly available (e.g., from a stable
web site) under royalty-free terms at reasonable and non-discriminatory cost.
Patents: All patents essential to implementation of the standard must:

o Be licensed under royalty-free terms for unrestricted use, or
o Be covered by a promise of non-assertion when practiced by open source
software
No Agreements: There must not be any requirement for execution of a license

agreement, NDA, grant, click-through, or any other form of paperwork to deploy
conforming implementations of the standard.
No OSR-incompatible dependencies: Implementation of the standard must not

require any other technology that fails to meet the criteria of this requirement.
Open standards - national considerations

From the national viewpoint, the usage of open standards by a government is even more
important. In this information age, a government will need to use IT solutions to ensure that
it has adequate and reliable information to enable it to govern the country effectively. It is
vital that these IT implementations make use of standards that are open as far as possible. In
cases where open standards are not available, the government may want to consider other
standards that are freely available for usage and implementation. It should also take into
consideration how open these standards are and whether they have the possibility of
becoming open standards later.
53
All this can help ensure that there is less likelihood of its information systems being locked in
later by any single technology or product. It is also in the interests of national security that
open standards are followed to guard against the possibility of over-reliance on foreign
technologies/products. Imagine the implications to a sovereign nation if the electronic
records of its citizens are kept in databases that can be accessed readily only by proprietary
software from a foreign vendor or the documents of the government are kept in a format
that belongs to a vendor who thus has total control over its accessibility both now and in the
future.
eGovernment projects specify open standards

Many countries have started on eGovernment projects or initiatives, most of which have
policies stating that, as far as possible, open IT standards and specifications are to be
followed. Countries that have such policies include Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom,
the Netherlands, France, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.
The European Union's EIF, a framework to facilitate the interoperability of its member
countries' eGovernment services, recommends the use of open standards for maximum
interoperability.
In addition, more and more public sector agencies all over the world have adopted or are
considering adopting policies that require open standards.
Another important national benefit is that open standards will make it easier and, in some
cases, the only possible means for local companies to participate as major players in
supplying services and solutions to the government. This is because the local companies
usually lack the strength and resources of multinationals and may be strong only in certain
areas or solutions. The government can leverage open standards to mix and match solutions
from different suppliers in order to give the local suppliers a chance.
It is a reality in the IT world that the main language used and supported by all mainstream
software is English and because of this it is sometimes difficult to produce electronic
documents in another language. The availability of an open character coding standard,
Unicode, designed to support the worldwide interchange, processing, and display of the
written texts of diverse languages makes it feasible for the translation and localization of
software and electronic office documents for nations or cultures whose language is not
English.
Particular benefits of open standards

Open standards are particularly beneficial to some IT activities or services. Some of these are
examined in greater detail here.
File formats
Modern information systems generate data (lots of it in many cases) that have to be stored
in some form of electronic file formats for efficient storage, retrieval and exchange. If their
specifications are not publicly known, only software and systems from the owner of these
54
proprietary formats can readily access them. Also, the exchange of information is essential
to the functioning of modern society. This exchange will be severely hampered if non-open
file formats are utilized as products from one vendor may not be able to retrieve, access or
store the information from the products of another vendor properly. Since there is no
guarantee that commercial products and the companies that produce them, will survive in
the long run, there is a real danger that access to these records will be hampered by the fact,
that there will be no appropriate tools for read them.
In some cases, while the format may be known, it may be the property of a particular party
and this party may control the way the format evolves or is used. In such cases, users can
have very little say or control over the format. Also it may be possible that the owner may
not publish the format specifications at a later stage for a new version. So while compatible
systems can be created that can access the files now, there is no guarantee of this when a
newer version comes out. In addition, there have been cases where, when a proprietary
format becomes popular and is widely used by the industry, the owner of the format starts
to impose restrictions like charging a fee or royalty charges (if it is patented) for using the
format at a later stage. The case of Microsoft attempting to charge flash drive makers and
manufacturers of devices, such as digital cameras, a licensing fee for using its File Allocation
Table or FAT file format is a good example of this.
All this shows that it is of utmost importance that electronic file formats should follow some
specifications that are accessible to all interested parties and also be developed by processes
that are open and easy for any party to participate. In other words, they should be
implemented using open standards. It is vital in today's information-centric society that the
data from which information is derived can be stored and exchanged following standards
that are open so that no single party or even group can control the access to this data.
Office Applications
This lack of complete compatibility between documents created using MS Office and the
competing alternatives has prevented some users from using or migrating to the latter. This
effectively results in a specific product/vendor lock-in.
This example illustrates that open and standardized file formats are needed to give users the
flexibility and freedom to choose and use products from different vendors and to prevent
them from being locked in to a specific product and/or vendor. The published
OpenDocument standard from OASIS and ISO (ISO/IEC 26300) for office applications offers
this. Currently, applications that support this open format include StarOffice, KOffice, IBM
Works, AbiWord, LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org. Microsoft does not support this but
instead it has come up with its own XML-based file formats for its office suite. Again, while
the MS Office XML schemas are publicly published and licensed for use royalty-free, they are
owned by a single vendor (Microsoft) and hence are subject to the potential abuse discussed
previously for non-open formats. In an attempt to allay fears over this and acceding to the
requests of some of its biggest customers, the Microsoft Office XML file formats have been
submitted to European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) International for
development as formal standard.
55
Internet services and applications

The Internet is perhaps the best showcase of how when technologies are implemented using
mainly open standards, there is almost universal accessibility, acceptance and benefits. Most
networking infrastructure of the Internet is implemented based on open standards drawn up
by IETF. In addition, many services and applications running now as well as being planned for
the future are being implemented following open standards and recommendations from
several bodies notably, IETF, W3C and OASIS. As a result, today, it is possible for one to
access major services offered on the Internet using a multitude of environments ranging
from commodity PCs, hand-held Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile devices to
proprietary set-top black boxes and TV sets. Without this adherence to open standards, the
Internet would not be as ubiquitous as it is today.
The 5Rs framework

"Open content" is content that is licensed in a manner that provides users with the right to
make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law. These permissions
are granted to users free of charge.
The primary permissions or usage rights open content is concerned with are expressed in the
"5Rs Framework:"
Retain- the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download,
duplicate, store, and manage);
Reuse- the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study
group, on a website, in a video);
Revise- the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the
content into another language);
Remix- the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content
to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup);
Redistribute- the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your
remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend).
Content is open to the extent that its license allows users to engage in the 5R activities.
Content is less open to the extent that its license places restrictions (e.g., forbidding
derivatives or prohibiting commercial use) or requirements (e.g., mandating that derivatives
adopt a certain license or demanding attribution to the original author) on a user's ability to
engage in the 5R activities.
The scope and nature of open educational resources

The idea of open educational resources (OER) has numerous working definitions. Often cited
is the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation which defines OER as: "teaching, learning, and
research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an
intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open
educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming
videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access
to knowledge". The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
56
defines OER as: "digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students, and
self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning, and research. OER includes learning
content, software tools to develop, use, and distribute content, and implementation
resources such as open licenses". (This is the definition cited by Wikipedia's sister project,
Wikiversity.) By way of comparison, the Commonwealth of Learning "has adopted the widest
definition of Open Educational Resources (OER) as materials offered freely and openly to
use and adapt for teaching, learning, development and research.
Given the diversity of users, creators and sponsors of open educational resources, it is not
surprising to find a variety of use cases and requirements. For this reason, it may be as
helpful to consider the differences between descriptions of open educational resources as it
is to consider the descriptions themselves. One of several tensions in reaching a consensus
description of OER (as found in the above definitions) is whether there should be explicit
emphasis placed on specific technologies. For example, a video can be openly licensed and
freely used without being a streaming video. A book can be openly licensed and freely used
without being an electronic document. This technologically driven tension is deeply bound
up with the discourse of open source licensing.
There is also a tension between entities, which find value in quantifying usage of OER and
those, which see such metrics as themselves being irrelevant to free and open resources.
Those requiring metrics associated with OER are often those with economic investment in
the technologies needed to access or provide electronic OER, those with economic interests
potentially threatened by OER, or those requiring justification for the costs of implementing
and maintaining the infrastructure or access to the freely available OER. While a semantic
distinction can be made delineating the technologies used to access and host learning
content from the content itself, these technologies are generally accepted as part of the
collective of open educational resources.
Licensing and types of open educational resources

Open educational resources often involve issues relating to intellectual property rights.
Traditional educational materials, such as textbooks, are protected under conventional
copyright terms. However, alternative and more flexible licensing options have become
available as a result of the work of Creative Commons, an organization that provides readymade licensing agreements that are less restrictive than the "all rights reserved" terms of
standard international copyright. These new options have become a "critical infrastructure
service for the OER movement." Another license, typically used by developers of OER
software, is the GNU General Public License from the free and open-source software (FOSS)
community. Open licensing allows uses of the materials that would not be easily permitted
under copyright alone.
Types of open educational resources include: full courses, course materials, modules,
learning objects, open textbooks, openly licensed (often streamed) videos, tests, software,
and other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. OER may be
freely and openly available static resources, dynamic resources which change over time in
the course of having knowledge seekers interacting with and updating them (such as this
Wikipedia article), or a course or module with a combination of these resources.
57
Some examples of open educational resources materials
Full university courses, complete with readings, videos of lectures, homework

assignments, and lecture notes.
Interactive mini-lessons and simulations about a specific topic, such as math or
physics.
Adaptations of existing open work.
Electronic textbooks that are peer-reviewed and frequently updated.
Elementary school and high school lesson plans, worksheets, and activities that are
aligned with state standards.
Institutional support
UNESCO is taking a leading role in "making countries aware of the potential of OER." The
organization has instigated debate on how to apply OERs in practice and chaired vivid
discussions on this matter through its International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP).
Believing that OERs can widen access to quality education, particularly when shared by many
countries and higher education institutions, UNESCO also champions OERs as a means of
promoting access, equity and quality in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
Conditions of open data

A work is open if its manner of distribution satisfies the following conditions:
The work shall be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable

reproduction cost, preferably downloading via the Internet without charge. The work
must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the work either on
its own or as part of a package made from works from many different sources. The
license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale or distribution.
The license must allow for modifications and derivative works and must allow them
to be distributed under the terms of the original work.
The work must be provided in such a form that there are no technological obstacles
to the performance of the above activities. This can be achieved by the provision of
the work in an open data format, i.e. one whose specification is publicly and freely
available and which places no restrictions monetary or otherwise upon its use.
The license may require as a condition for redistribution and re-use the attribution of
the contributors and creators to the work. If this condition is imposed it must not be
onerous. For example if attribution is required a list of those requiring attribution
should accompany the work.
The license may require as a condition for the work being distributed in modified
form that the resulting work carry a different name or version number from the
original work.
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
58
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the work in a specific field of
endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the work from being used in a business, or
from being used for genetic research.
The rights attached to the work must apply to all to whom it is redistributed without
the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
The rights attached to the work must not depend on the work being part of a
particular package. If the work is extracted from that package and used or distributed
within the terms of the works license, all parties to whom the work is redistributed
should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original
package.
The license must not place restrictions on other works that are distributed along with
the licensed work. For example, the license must not insist that all other works
distributed on the same medium are open.
59

Liberia E-Government Strategy

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eGovernment Web

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

Meetings with MACs ..................................................................................................... 8

Group meeting: proposition and feedbacks analysis .................................................. 8

First workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis ................................................... 8

Second workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis .............................................. 9

2. Current state ..................................................................................................................... 10

Reference documents ................................................................................................. 10

Considered MACs ........................................................................................................ 10

Websites snapshot ...................................................................................................... 10

Open Budget Initiative in Liberia ................................................................................ 17

3. Analysis and recommendations ........................................................................................ 18

Reference documents ................................................................................................. 18

Inventory and need assumptions................................................................................ 18

Open budget initiative ................................................................................................ 19

4. Future state ....................................................................................................................... 21

Vision: Creating an open ecosystem ........................................................................... 21

In-house web development .......................................................................... 23

Outsourcing web development .................................................................... 24

Digital Development services................................................................................... 23

Centralized Web Platform ........................................................................................ 24

Stakeholders landscape .............................................................................................. 25

Recommendations for MACs websites ....................................................................... 26

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

Open source technology .......................................................................................... 27

ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) ................................................................. 27

Community manager ............................................................................................... 27

User-centered design ............................................................................................... 27

Goals and objectives ................................................................................................... 27

Private sector goal 2.2: Organization of capacity development Workshops .......... 30

Academic goal 4.1: Development of ICT skills ......................................................... 31

6. Proposed initiatives ........................................................................................................... 32

Self Evaluation and Digital Development Toolkit ....................................................... 32

Centralized Web Platform ........................................................................................... 32

Rural One-Stop-Shop Kiosk Network .......................................................................... 32

7. Explanation of concepts .................................................................................................... 34

Open source software ................................................................................................. 34

Open standards ........................................................................................................... 35

Open content .............................................................................................................. 35

Open educational resources ....................................................................................... 35

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

Web of devices ..................................................................................................................... 43

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

Revision of the Garner Group eGovernment maturity model

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

The Centralized Web Platform will be an infrastructure providing services to share

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-

1.3 Meetings with MACs

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MoPT);

1.4 Group meeting: proposition and feedbacks analysis

1.5 First workshop: proposition and feedbacks analysis

- eGovernment Web Development Strategy-