Ghana drives e-government

Ghana and the International Development Association of the World Bank have signed financing agreements totalling $313.3 million to support sectors of the economy, reports Ghana Web.

The e-Ghana project with additional financing of $44.7 million will enable the country to leverage ICT to generate growth.

Through public-private partnerships, the e-Ghana project aims to develop the IT-enabled services industry and to improve efficiency and transparency of e-government applications.

The Australian IT services market is set to rebound in 2010 and 2011, according to Gartner, states Computer World.

According to the research firm, the local IT services market suffered a 2% decline in growth in 2009, however 2010 is expected to see a growth rate of 2.4%, and 3.4% growth rate in 2011.

Gartner says the resources sector is also investing in new and existing projects to meet export demand and is building IT infrastructure and applications to support those projects.

The Internet may soon be a greener place thanks to new research that looks set to slash the carbon footprint of Internet surfing by introducing nano-technology to computer servers, says CNN.

Researchers from Sweden's Institute of Technology have discovered that adding nano-particles to water can improve servers' ability to conduct heat by around 60%. This nano-fluid could then be used in cooling computer servers and reduce the total amount of energy needed to keep temperatures down.

According to research by IT firm Gartner, data centres account for 23% of global ICT-related carbon emissions. That's around 0.5% of the world's total carbon emissions; equivalent to aviation and growing faster.