Keynote Speech by Mr. Stephen Mak, JP Deputy Government Chief Information Officer at the "Web2.0 and Business Innovation: Generating Value with Lead Users" Workshop
29 August 2007

Hubert, Distinguished Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning!

It is my honour to speak with you today on such an interesting theme - "Web 2.0 and Business Innovation: Generating Value With Lead Users". I'm sure this workshop provides an excellent opportunity for our knowledge and experience sharing in business innovation powered by the use of information and communications technology (ICT).

Indeed, the programme today has put its focus on "Web 2.0" and "Lead Users", which are two important components that affect our potential and ability in moving towards a truly Information Society.

Today, we are connected in one way or the other by means of various networks and communication channels. In April this year, I had the opportunity of visiting the Korean Ubiquitous Dream Hall. The exhibits projected the scenario of future lifestyle in a ubiquitous networking environment in which anyone can use computers and networks in a secure manner anytime, anywhere with anyone. I believe this is already starting to happen in Hong Kong.

On a more sober note, in 2003, the United Nations (UN) endorsed and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organized the World Summit on the Information Society. The objective was to develop and foster a clear statement of political will as well as take concrete steps to establish the foundations for an Information Society for all. Subsequently, the Declaration of Principles was made to ensure, among other things, that everyone could benefit from the opportunities that ICT can offer by improving access to information and communication infrastructure and technologies as well as to information and knowledge.

How does Web 2.0 feature in the development of the Information Society?

The rise of Web 2.0 has changed the usage pattern by inviting individuals to create digital contents for sharing. There are now a variety of channels whereby people can use to express themselves such as through blogs, podcasts, photo sharing and video sharing sites. As a result, the increase of such users-driven demands has also called for the emergence of a new class of social, collaborative and participative service on the Internet.

Today, our young generation has developed a habit of searching the Web for just about everything, from publicly available information to sharing personal experiences among peer groups and other communities of interest. Boosted by the adoption of broadband Internet and the rapidly rising popularity and ubiquity of mobile access devices and services, the traditional mode of one-way information flow from the content creator to the information consumer is undergoing a fundamental, perhaps even irreversible change to the multiple directional mode of flows.

A typical Web 2.0 service usually builds on a network of cooperating data services, offers web services interfaces and contents syndication. It will automatically get better when more users contribute to the contents. Therefore, the success of a Web 2.0 service depends on the design to offer good user experience and create the desired social impact.

Here, I would like to make a small digression and mention the importance of "Concepts" put forward by Edward de Bono in his Book "How to Have a Beautiful Mind".

He said that people spend a fortune on their bodies, their faces, their clothes to improve their physical appearance trying to be more attractive. But an easier way to become a beautiful person is to have a beautiful mind that is fascinating, creative and exciting. Being attractive is about using imagination and expanding creativity.

By applying the thinking to businesses, this would mean the advice to innovate and create attractive, beautiful (metaphorically) and appealing new services. He spent quite a bit of his book talking about the importance of breaking things and communication into "Concepts" to facilitate easy understanding, acceptance and alignment or harmony. I think there is a lot to be learned in applying this principle to the design of goods and services with a view to gaining user acceptance and adoption - and more importantly getting the attention and interest of Lead Users and garnering sustainability of the goods and services.

Besides the good use of ICT, we also need innovators, leaders and advocators to drive and fly throughout the journey of building our Information Society. Who are the Lead Users?

In 1986, Professor Eric von Hippel published a paper "Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts". He defined that "Lead users are users whose present strong needs will become general in a marketplace months or years in the future". According to Professor Hippel, "lead users often attempt to fill the need they experience and hence, they can provide new product concept and design data as well".

Well, I am sure you will learn more on this topic from Professor Fuller during his talk later in the programme. But I would like to share with you how we see the Government playing the possible role of a Lead User and generating opportunities for innovation.

Since 1995, the Government has made available topical information for dissemination to the public over the Internet.

In early 2000, we launched the Electronic Service Delivery scheme to further our scope and scale of providing public services online. Our work received various awards and recognition from international organizations for being very innovative in its time.

Since 2003, the Hong Kong Identity Card has been renewed by a new generation of identity cards that is based on the multi-application smart card technology that citizens can use for self-service immigration clearance for traveling (the e-Channel), public library services, storage of a digital certificate for electronic authentication in secure transactions, etc.

Over the years, we continued to enhance our e-government infrastructure and architecture, provide easily accessible and user-friendly e-government services, and joining up Government bureaux and departments in order to offer one-stop services. To enhance our public services, we will take every opportunity, e.g. through public consultation, user satisfaction surveys, workshops, study groups etc. to identify the core needs of our users in the community.

In order to provide our citizens with ubiquitous access to information, applications and services on the Internet, we have recently launched the Government Wi-Fi Programme to facilitate their convenient access to the Internet by installing Wi-Fi access points at some 350 designated Government premises. We also encourage the private sector to make good use of the broadband Internet access and wireless technology so that everyone can participate in the development of Hong Kong into a digital society.

The Wi-Fi programme will facilitate Government departments to enhance their service delivery in the mobile and wireless mode as well as stimulate the development of innovative wireless applications in different business sectors.

To follow through the Government's core value of being 'Proactive, Pragmatic and Always People First', we have launched the Government portal "GovHK" (www.gov.hk) on 3 August which provides a one-stop government online information and services to the public. By taking a citizen-centric approach in public service delivery, the GovHK portal has marked a new milestone in the development of e-government services in Hong Kong.

The content and the features of GovHK are originated from the user perspectives, with the information and services grouped by clusters or subjects for easy and user-friendly access by different users in the Residents, Business & Trade, Non-Residents and Youth categories.

In the new era driving towards the Information Society, the Government is committed to supporting citizens by adoption of approaches that will facilitate their ways of creation, consumption and reuse of information in the online mode. We have implemented projects employing Web 2.0 technologies in launching government web sites with the objective of enhancing users' experience in consuming government information.

The Government also promotes and enables the reuse of government generated contents by value-added service providers in the private sector. Existing examples include weather information, traffic information, traffic condition snapshots, air pollution index, etc.

While the ultimate end users are citizens who consume the e-government services, I can assure you that the Government will continue to take an active Lead User role in collaboration with industry and innovators as far as possible. With reference to the Web 2.0 concept, opportunities already abound. It is up to us to develop our "Beautiful Mind" by:

- Enhancing and improving existing services and interfaces;

- Extending our service through new service models such as public-private-partnerships;

- Expanding our channels of services to take advantage of the wireless and mobile technologies; and

- Transforming and enhancing our modes of service delivery, and public opinion collection and engagement with citizens.

We are on the way to developing the next stage of e-government. Our target is to provide citizen-centric services that will promote an accessible, accountable and efficient government and encourage public participation in the information society development, cultivate knowledge creation and knowledge sharing within and among the government, businesses, and the community.

To this end, we are mindful of the new and fast emerging "Web 2.0" concepts with the following characteristics:

- Invite greater participation of users to create content for sharing;

- Adopt open service model through the provision of open application programming interfaces;

- Adopt lightweight technology (such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)) and development techniques to creating interactive web applications;

- Use simple and standardized web feed formats (such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS)) to publish frequently updated pages, such as news and weblog feeds; and

- Implement decentralized and distributed processes to combine contents from more than one source or web feed into an integrated service.

From a government perspective, we need to be aware of the issues that originate from or are compounded by the Web 2.0 developments. These include for example issues on intellectual property and copyright protection, data privacy exposure, and sustainable business models, etc.

The community also needs to be sufficiently advised of the implications and to partake in ensuring the proper use of the associated technologies while they enjoy the convenience and flexibility of more ubiquitous and liberal information sharing and exchange. That said, these should not stifle our creativity and desire to innovate, and I'm sure today we will benefit from insights from distinguished speakers and panel discussions.

Before I close, I would like to congratulate the Communications Association of Hong Kong for hosting this event and bringing together thought leaders of the information and communications industry and academia. I wish you all a very rewarding morning.

Thank you.

- END -