(RPG-022) “DATABASES FOR GOVERNANCE”

Veteran IT experts say that we need not computerize, just because there is a computer. What they probably mean is that we should have more objective reasons for deciding to computerize, and simply having a computer should not be the sole reason.

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Having been a mountaineer in my younger days, I am fully satisfied by the reason given by mountain climbers why they climb mountains. “Because it’s there” is the reason given, and certainly it is a logic that only mountaineers could fathom and understand.

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Dwelling now on the subject of governance, I am more inclined to reason like mountaineers do, that we should computerize “Because it’s there”, arguing this time that it would be a waste of resources not to computerize, if the computers are already there to use.

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Are we already “computerizing” by simply using applications such as word processing and spreadsheets? This is a relevant question because many government units are using their computers solely for these purposes, and nothing more.

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Without any argument, we could say that government units could build their data by simply using document files and spreadsheet tables, but if that is all they do, could we really say that they are actually and functionally using databases for governance, in the form and structure that real databases ought to be?

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As a means of helping local government units (LGUs) build their own databases for their own governance needs, I am offering them licensed database software for free. The offer is worth 100 dollars per license, but I have no takers up to now. Could it be that most LGUs have not yet learned the importance of using databases for governance? In the absence of real databases, I would dare to say that “It’s not there”, meaning that these government units have nothing to work with, to begin with.