Blockchain Technology: Potential Applications for Public Sector E-Procurement and Project Management

The foundation for future education, teaching, training, learning, and performing infrastructure - The open interoperability conceptual framework approach

The proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education, Teaching, Training, Learning, and the operational application (Performing) of acquired knowledge, skills, and competencies in contemporary social environments has directly influenced the transformation of early Networked Learning (NL) concepts into a Global Learning Infrastructure. Creating cooperative/collaborative stakeholders networks composed of learning subjects, objects, and competencies consumers, exposes the significant potential for gaining overall social progress. The main challenging obstacles of such globalization are: embedding semantics into the competence credentials carriers, trusted dissemination of verifiable competence tokens, the heterogeneous ontologies mapping, and sustainable service delivery infrastructure. The mainstream motivation of our research is the specification and development of a conceptual framework that fosters the interoperability of different stakeholders, whether individual or institutional, to declare, share and maintain the representative collections of information resources related to the particular Education, Learning, Teaching, Training, and Performing (Research, Development, Production, and Service) endeavors. In this article, we have specified an open, heterogeneous, interoperable conceptual framework capable of orchestrating past, current, and future paradigms to foster building the foundations for comparative analysis and evaluation of traditional and nontraditional competency-building processes, joined with students' portfolio creation, dissemination, and management. It is a starting specification that would serve for the future: open, heterogeneous, cooperative/collaborative, service-oriented software framework specification and development.

Mitigating bureaucratic inefficiencies through blockchain technology in Africa

With the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) wave engulfing African governments, the need to do, and use something new has already infiltrated many public sector organizations. While modern technologies are being embraced in the private sector, African governments are emulating new technologies and other Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to advance their economies while managing the risk that these sophisticated technologies can trigger. Blockchain technology is one of the emerging 4IR technology that is believed to have the capacity to mitigate bureaucratic inefficiencies, although scholars argue implementing such comes at a higher price. To understand how blockchain can help reduce inefficiencies in African bureaucracy, the researchers employed the systematic literature review analysis where documents from various databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were systematically sampled depending on how they offer meaningful data concerning blockchain implementation. The analyses of these secondary sources revealed multiple challenges and opportunities associated with blockchain technology in the African government. The challenges include poor project management, weak institutions that do not uphold accountability and transparency in data entry using blockchain, unavailability of blockchain infrastructure, risk-averse attitude, and absence of institutional readiness. By implementing enabling technology policies in government, the study revealed that blockchain could help improve taxation in African bureaucracies and mitigate data altering and errors while maximizing efficiency. Further merits in public healthcare and education can be realized by using blockchain technology. The conclusions drawn from this study have shown that for African bureaucracy to thrive using blockchain technology, there is a need to prepare public sector institutions to embrace blockchain technology. At the same time, investment in soft and technical skills remains fundamental to mitigate inefficiencies in public service provision. Institutional readiness is another deterrent to blockchain technology as public administration regard this technology as demanding since it may require change, and management where institutions and structures are reshuffled to respond to the demands of blockchain technology in the delivery of public goods.