Are eServices Getting Better?

When SiliconCaribe writes about T&T lagging behind on e-services, I have to chuckle. I recall teaching my own father prior to 2005 how to use email - and he used email to try to contact various government entities. It didn't work out so well. After his death in 2005, I tried doing the same and came up with almost exactly the same results: crickets.

Where email addresses appear on government sites, they need to be not only checked but responded to. This has been lacking, though I have no evidence as of this year that demonstrates this particular problem. I will be delving into that as the year progresses.

But there does seem to be some form of a silver lining. As poorly done, poorly updated and as poorly communicative as many of the government sites are - the politicians found Facebook. Some even seem to read what others write, breaking the cycle of using social media for broadcast alone. See General Election Social Media Usage: The Missing Link.

More importantly, there seem to be more serious discussions about Trinidad and Tobago happening on Facebook - where people are kludging around the government's lack of responsiveness on websites and trying to get their say in.

Is it getting better? Maybe. But are e-Services getting better? I think it might be a good start to find what e-Services are actually available. In that there seems to be... nothing. Maybe they should start with a place for whistleblowers to submit information.