An Information Ecology Approach to Sustainable E-Government among Small Island Developing States in the Pacific

Regional and global strategies to bring the benefits of e-government to Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have been less successful than anticipated despite large amounts of aid expenditure. National policies and projects likewise struggle to overcome the barriers of geography, isolation, climate, education, language and economic resources that face all Small Island Developing States (SIDs) when implementing ICT infrastructure and applications. In addition, cultural factors specific to each PIC must be taken into account when developing e-government applications, including cultural attitudes to knowledge and the dissemination of information. The paper proposes a new framework, based on the concept of an âinformation ecologyâ that will acknowledge the way in which information ecologies influence behaviors at several levels, including regional, national, sub-national and local. We believe that this framework will better support the development of locally grounded, culturally relevant, sustainable and effective e-government policies in the region. The paper outlines some of the background to this project and progress to date.