UN hails digital move for Afghans
The United Nations is claiming that an important move forward has been made in attempts to bring Afghanistan into the digital age.
One of the barriers holding back the adoption of IT in the country has been that there is no software to support communication in its offical languages, Pashto and Dari. With more than 80% of the population using these languages, most government and business offices still rely on the typewriter.
Now a team of Afghan, Iranian and Irish IT and language experts have produced a report - the Computer Locale Requirements for Afghanistan - that details what needs to be done for computers to handle Pashto and Dari characters and documents - including date and time conventions, and character sets.
The study is now being distributed to computer and operating system manufacturers, including Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat and Apple.
· www.evertype.com/standards/af
NHS plan scrapped
Plans to create foundation hospitals are creating uncertainty over the rationalisation of the NHS's outdated IT portfolio. The NHS shared services initiative, slated for abolition under the reforms, is responsible for two national IT projects. One, the delayed scheme for a finance and e-commerce system for the NHS's 600 separate financial departments, will not now go ahead, the Department of Health said.
However the second, a shared electronic staff record for all employees will continue as normal, a spokesperson said. The system, supplied by a consortium of McKesson, IBM and Oracle, is supposed to create a single payroll and human resources system for all NHS hospitals by early 2006.
Foundation hospitals will not be able to opt out from another central initiative, the electronic health records systems being procured as part of the £2.3bn National Programme for IT.
Management help
IT specialists wanting to break into top management often hit a glass ceiling. The Society of IT Management, which represents staff in local government, is offering a way through. It is sponsoring up to five members a year to take an MBA at the Open University. The idea is "to equip ICT managers to take their place in the boardroom", the society said. It will pay 50% of fees during the first three years of a course. Students can choose from a general business or technology management MBA. The first intake is this autumn. Applicants must be SocITM members, work for a local authority and have a first degree together with management experience. www.socitm.gov.uk
Local vote down
Electronic voting in last Thursday's local elections seems to have been used mainly by regular voters, rather than persuading the apathetic to cast a ballot. Turnout in Stratford-upon-Avon, which added internet voting to its use of electronic voting in polling stations, found turnout declined by 9% on 2000, the last comparable election. Swindon said that e-voting increased by 75% on 2002, with 11,055 e-votes including 349 via digital television - but overall turnout was slightly down.
However, Sheffield, which claimed the world's largest e-voting pilot, found that 20,845, or 42% of voters, in its 15 e-voting wards used electronic channels, giving them turnouts 10% higher than in other wards.
Sheffield reported problems with hardware for its voter registration system, although this did not affect the vote. But St Albans had serious problems with computers for electronic voting at polling stations according to the Register, meaning some voters had to use paper ballots.
www.odpm.gov.uk/pns/Display -government press release on e-voting.
www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30540.html
www.theguardian.com/online - last week's Online coverage
Education concern
Education standards body Ofsted says that in 10% of further education colleges, many IT students do not complete their courses. In a report, it points to a wide difference among colleges in performance, particularly in the higher levels of FE qualifications, and says that overall, there is too much unsatisfactory IT teaching. On the brighter side, Ofsted found that the quality and accessibility of computing facilities was generally good.The report also praised adult further education IT courses. www.ofsted.gov.uk
Embassy project cut
The Foreign Office has cancelled an intranet, directory and database project linking its embassies and offices, having already spent £9.5m. In a written parliamentary answer, foreign secretary Jack Straw said the project with Fujitsu Systems was cancelled after a review showed that boosting security to a level sufficient for current threats would have pushed the price from £23.5m to £42m over six years. Computing newspaper pointed out that the plans were finalised months after September 11 2001, when increased security risks became apparent. www.computing.co.uk/News/1140564
