[OKFN-IN] [open-government] Article on India's Open Government Platform

Thu Aug 9 13:46:24 UTC 2012

Thank Pranesh!

We'd love to continue to talk with folks from the OGPL about synergies
with the OKFN's open source data management system, CKAN:
http://ckan.org/

It would be great if these were interoperable at the very least!

J.

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
> Dear all,
> Informatics Magazine, printed by by the National Informatics Centre, had the
> Open Government Platform (OGPL) as its lead story (written by Neeta Verma,
> Alka Mishra, and D.P. Mishra).
>
> http://goo.gl/0rXjI (PDF)
>
> # OPEN GOVERNMENT PLATFORM #
>
> ## An Open Source Solution to Democratizing Access to Information and
> Energizing Civic Engagement ##
>
> By
> NEETA VERMA
> Sr. Technical Director
>
> ALKA MISHRA
> Sr. Technical Director
>
> D. P. MISRA
> Principal Systems Analyst
>
> If government could release these datasets in open format for people to use
> & reuse, a whole lot of new innovative apps could be built around these
> datasets to provide better, customized services to citizens.
>
> Online publishing of Government data in open format shall play an important
> role in enhancing transparency and accountability of the government. It
> shall enable new forms of citizen engagement & innovation in citizen service
> delivery. More customized & personalized services could be offered to
> citizens. When implemented at large scale it shall bring a paradigm shift in
> development of e-governance applications. At NIC we have recently developed
> an Open Government Platform (OGPL) to enable government ministries &
> departments to launch their open data initiative.
>
>
> ### CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW ###
>
> OGPL as a product caters to two sets of users - the government and the
> citizen/civil societies. It facilitates government departments to contribute
> their datasets, Apps, tools, documents, services etc., which gets validated
> and published, after passing through a predefined workflow to the citizen
> interfacing data portal. The single-point citizen interface is designed in
> such a way that catalogs can be searched with ease and datasets can be
> accessed/downloaded in various open formats. It also provides a platform for
> citizens and civil societies to engage with government on various aspects of
> socio economic development.
>
> OGPL also facilitates building of subject specific communities through
> Citizen engagement modules. Communities shall discuss online the kind of
> datasets, government should release and also what kind of apps should be
> developed around these datasets. This shall provide first hand information
> to government as well as developer communities on public demand and
> prioritize their schedules accordingly.
>
>
> ### OGPL COMPONENTS ###
>
> OGPL essentially consists of three major modules
>
>         * Dataset Management System
>         * Data Portal
>         * Monitoring and Management
>         * Dashboard
>
>
> ### DATASET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ###
>
> Dataset Management system or DMS shall be used by all contributing
> ministries, departments as well as organisations using which, authorized
> officers of the departments can contribute datasets, documents, services,
> tools and apps which shall then be processed through a predefined workflow
> of moderation & approval to ensure that datasets being released in public
> domain are in compliance with existing acts & policies of the government
> concerning privacy, security etc.
>
> Through DMS each Ministry/Department can contribute their datasets in the
> form containing a set of Standard Metadata elements. After passing through
> various stages of moderation and approvals, these datasets gets published on
> the data portal viz. data.gov.in
>
>
> ### DATA PORTAL ###
>
> Data Portal is the citizen facing frontend of the OGPL which shall provide
> single point access to all the datasets, apps as well as services. Portal
> has a strong component of search, discovery as well as citizen engagement.
> The development of the data portal is in compliance with the Guidelines for
> Indian Government Websites (GIGW).
>
> This Citizen interfacing Data Portal would also have a Communities component
> built into the system. This component facilitates Forums/Discussions around
> various datasets, apps available on the portal as well as platform to
> express and discuss the kind of datasets & apps they would like to have.
> This shall give first hand input to development community for building new
> components, apps. It shall also give input to departments as what kind of
> datasets are more useful and accordingly can raise the priority of their
> release.
>
>
> ### MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT DASHBOARD ###
>
> Monitoring and management dashboard of OGPL helps government monitor &
> manage its Open Data Programme through three dimensions
>         * Metrics, analytics & feedback from citizens: Metrics help
> understand amount of datasets uploaded, updated by different Departments.
> Frequency of upload is also available on a single dashboard.
>         * Analytics module gives use perspective in terms of their usage of
> datasets, Number of downloads, aggregated ratings provided to datasets
> determine their value and to some extent quality of data released by
> government.
>         * Feedback from citizens provide government with first hand input
> from citizens on quality, relevance of datasets, new datasets needed, kind
> of apps need to be developed etc.
>
>         Open government platform can be used in multiple ways. One can
> directly publish their datasets after one time registration &
> authentication. Departments could build their subject specific catalogues
> through a cloud based services of OGPL. One can also ask for independent
> installation of OGPL with customized look & feel. OGPL can be used by any
> central or state government department, organisations as well as district
> and panchayat administrations. It can also be used by private organisations
> as well as non government organization and civil societies to bring in more
> transparency in their functioning.
>
>         OGPL isn't simply about setting up a new web platform, moving to
> cloud computing or adopting open standards but it's about establishing a
> platform to enhance transparency, accountability & foster development of
> Innovative applications to better serve the citizens & other stakeholders.
> Open government data is gaining a lot of popularity & acceptance with
> governments across the world. Its led by government themselves, development
> communities, international organisations. OGPL is a perfect platform for
> them to launch their open data initiative.
>
> ***************
>
> Boxes:
>
> ### 1. Note by BK Gairola ###
>
> In India, National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) has been
> recently notified by the Government. According to this policy, all
> government departments shall release their datasets in open format for
> citizens and other stakeholders to freely use & reuse. To make these
> datasets easily accessible by citizens, policy has also mandated NIC to
> provide technology solution for establishing an Open Data Portal
> (http://data.gov.in) for Departments, Subordinate Offices and Organizations.
> OGPL implementation in India is being executed by NIC, DeitY in close
> coordination with DST.
>
> OGPL is an open source product with generic architecture, which would easily
> facilitate other organizations and institutions to adopt for their open data
> initiatives. Communities could also contribute further by developing
> innovative apps around datasets and also enhancing the product in terms of
> features & functionalities.
>
> The purpose of the platform is to enhance access and use of government data
> to foster innovation, promote transparency, accountability and public
> participation. I am sure it shall go a long way in democratizing the
> government information.
>
>
> ### 2. INDO-US COLLABORATION ###
>
> Open Government Platform (OGPL) was developed jointly by India & US
> government as a result of announcement made by President Obama and Prime
> Minister Manmohan Singh during the Indo-US Open Government Dialogue in 2010.
> OGPL leverages on the best practices & features of the India’s
> “India.gov.in” and the “Data.gov” of United States.National Informatics
> Centre (NIC) from Government of India and General Services Administration
> (GSA) of United States executed the development of OGPL. Open Government
> Platform, developed to promote access to government data and information and
> energize citizen engagement was launched by Hon’ble Minister of
> Communications & IT and HRD, Govt. of India during a press conference held
> on 30th March 2012 in New Delhi in presence of Dr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to
> Prime Minister of India. Secretary(DEITY), DG(NIC) & Joint Secretary, MEA
> also participated in the press conference, Senior officers from US
> Government & US Embassy were also present along with GSA team in India. CIO,
> US Government along with Deputy CTO also addressed the event over video
> conference.
>
>
> ### 3. OGPL – AN OPEN SOURCE SOLUTION ###
>
> Open Government Platform is completely developed using Open Source Stack. In
> fact complete management of the collaborative development of OGPL by two
> teams stationed in two continents of the world was also handled using open
> source tools.It complies with the best practices of open source development,
> which helps in leveraging the strengths of future versions of the open
> source base products used in development of OGPL.
>
> OGPL being an open source initiative not only facilitates cost saving in
> terms of software and licenses but also facilitates community participation
> in terms of further development of product with additional components and
> innovative apps around the published datasets. This shall define a paradigm
> shift in the manner electronic government applications shall be developed in
> future. The entire source code is made available to public for review,
> feedback and participation for further development and enhancement.
>
>
> ### 4. CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT ###
>
> OGPL has a strong component of Citizen engagement. Citizens can view,
> download datasets as well express their opinion on the quality of datasets,
> they can rate the datasets on a scale of 1 to 5. One can embed a dataset in
> their blog or web site as well as contact the owner of the datasets for any
> query or clarification. One can also publish or connect the datasets on
> their social media pages such as facebook, twitter etc. for wider reach.
>
> Ratings given by citizen are transparently shared on the portal in terms of
> number of views, current star rating which help new visitor understand
> quality of data sets, its popularity. Portal also enables visitors to submit
> their ideas, feedbacks and as well suggest datasets they would like
> government to release in open domain. These ideas are further rated by
> citizens to help government allocate priority in release of data sets.
>
> FOR MORE DETAILS CONTACT:
> Ph. +91-11-24305370, 24305395
> Visit us at http://ogpl.gov.in
> Share your thought at
> www.facebook.com/opengovplatform
> Email us at nic-ogpl at nic.in
>
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash  · Programme Manager · Centre for Internet and Society
> @pranesh_prakash · PGP ID 0x1D5C5F07 · http://cis-india.org
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Jonathan Gray

Head of Community
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg