The training that attracted District Information officers,
District planners and Chief Administrative officers from all the Rwenzori
region districts was conducted at St. Josephs’ Virika conference hall from 17th
-18th October 2012.
In his welcoming remarks, the Executive Director thanked the
leaders for having honored the invitation and realized the importance of their
participation. He also told them to embrace these tools and show more commitment
and that also UCC and NITA-Uganda had funds to support districts in as far as
ICT is concerned. He challenged district leaders to show concern and contact
UCC for this support.
In his first session the ICTO RIC-NET introduced and
explained the project objectives to the participants and told them what RIC-NET
is mandated to do and provide to the districts which among others included
trainings.
He further led the participants in an introduction to web
browsing and explained a number of terms that users have always miss
interpreted and used interchangeably. This attracted attention from members and
they also participated in asking a number of questions that led more
understanding of the terms and ICT. He also led them through some other social
media later and introduced them to skype one of the easiest and quick means of
communication and information sharing. Most of the participants signed up and
saw how it worked and got excited about this new tool to them. They appreciated
and pledged to use this tool even when in their offices.
In the second session the ED RIC-NET also gave more
information about ICT and information sharing in trying to curb the information
gap. He took the participants through blogging where most of the members signed
up and created personal blogs. This was necessary because the current
technology of websites uses almost the same method for updating and since the
districts’ staff will be updating their websites, it was mandatory for that
introduction. The session was so interesting and day one was concluded by a
skype conference that everyone enjoyed and realized that there was no need to
move from office to office to conduct small discussions and share files but
rather to use this technology to save time.
Day two started with a recap of day one that was led by the
ICTO. A number of issues covered in day one were highlighted commented upon.
The ICTO started the first session by introducing the
participants to content management systems (CMS) a dynamic technology that is
being used to develop their websites. He explained to them that the most CMS
applications are joomla and word press that do not need a lot of ICT knowledge
to members if they are to basically update the sites with data. He gave more
details about joomla and permissions that can be granted to users at different levels
including managers, Authors, editors among others and what each of those
categories are supposed to do. He further logged in to one of the sites to
demonstrate how the district leaders will be logging in to their sites and update
them. “We are impressed by this training and we would like that you give us the
passwords and we do a hands on updating with you” said District planner
Kyegegwa. The ICTO explained that it would be possible only after being done
with the designs and that since designing was still on they would not get the
login details but will receive them as soon as their sites are done and receive
more hands on trainings.
Later in the afternoon the ICTO introduced the District
leaders to the concept of the E-library where he said it would be part of their
websites where the district would upload all public documents like District
Development Plan, District budgets among others. He also demonstrated and
showing them a sample Electronic library and how they will be uploading files
which he emphasized must be converted to pdf formats before being uploaded. He also
informed the participants that RIC-NET procured a hosting server and therefore
has started webhosting in addition to the activities it runs.
He later finalized with showcasing the already designs of
the districts at the following sub domains;
He said that kabarole and kasese were already online but
being redesigned using the modern technologies and bundibugyo was also already
online hosted at www.bundibugyo.go.ug
and that the training was an entry point to Ntoroko.
In the way forward after the training members suggested
that;
Ø
M.O.U for kyegegwa be signed as soon as possible
Ø
Kamwenge launch be organized soon
Ø
Kyenjojo MOU be harmonized and signed
Ø
More trainings be conducted
Ø
Ntoroko be considered and looked at if possible
before end of year especially for a meeting with leaders.
Ø
Information be collected for those sites and
sharing the links with other district leaders they think they can give input.
In his concluding remarks the ICTO thanked the members for
participation and emphasized that they should embrace ICT since it’s the way to
go in this rapidly growing world and that this would even ease their work since
they would have enough references for information access.also reminded
districts that had received E-society centers to utilize them and make use of
the staff deployed there to get more skills and hands on trainings. He told
them to always respond in case they are again called upon for any other training
and departure was at 3:00pm.
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