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Improving information management practices is a key focus for many organisations, across both public and private sectors (Robertson, 2005). The PC Magazine defines information management as a discipline that analyzes information as an organizational resource. The discipline covers the definitions, uses, value and distribution of all data and information within an organization whether processed by computer or not. The following is a more contemporary definition of information management given by Duffey and Assad (1989, p. 6):
(Information management) is the planning, organising, developing and controlling of the information and data in an organisation (at both corporate and individual levels) and of the people, hardware, software, and systems that produce the information and data.
Duffey and Assad’s definition implies that information management is a broader concept that includes information sharing within and across organisations. Impact Consulting (2007) report that one of the most organisation-focused benefits of electronic information management is information sharing. Many government systems specialists argue that government and public institutions are not simple but complex and mammoth bureaucratic establishments with a set of information silos that erect barriers to the access of information and make the provision of services cumbersome and frustrating (Kumar et al., 2007). However, with the emergence and proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Gichoya (2005), argues that it is possible to improve efficiency and effectiveness of internal administration within governments and to relocate government services from government offices to locations closer to the citizens. This relates well to an earlier insistence by Tapscott (1995), that ICTs support the “age of network intelligence”, reinventing businesses, governments and individuals. Throughout the world, use of ICTs for government reinvention is increasing, though developing countries are still in the early stages of full-scale ICT deployment.
While ICTs have been harnessed in many governments throughout the world, the European Commission (2003) reported the emergency of ‘islands’ of government that are frequently unable to interoperate due to fragmentation resulting from uncoordinated efforts at all levels of public administration. Information sharing across government agencies provides new opportunities to enhance governance, which can include improved efficiency, new services, increased citizen participation, and an enhanced global information infrastructure. Referring to knowledge sharing and information, the Canadian International Development Agency’s Knowledge-Sharing Plan (2007) explains that it is an effort at “knowledge pooling” amongst diverse participants across all sectors of the economy in order to consolidate existing knowledge and generation of fresh intellectual capital with a view to improving programming in governance and development (CIDA, 2007).