Transcript Community web portals in India: a unified approach to the

Web portals in the domain of CIS: towards
categorization of services in Indian
environment-an evaluation
Subarna Bandyopadhyay
Assistant Librarian Grade-II, Deptt. Of
Education,University of Burdwan
Dr. Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay
Assistant Professor, D.LIS., University
of Burdwan
What is Community

The Term ‘Community’ has been defined as a
group of interacting people living in a
common location sharing an environment
(wikipedia, 2010).
Community : a two-dimensional
concept


The term ‘community’ has two dimensions –
i) ‘community of place’ and
ii) ‘community of interest’.
What is CI

CI is information for the problems and crises
encountered by the individuals in their lives. In
sort, CI is the information in the community and
for the community.
Basic Categories of CI



Survival information such as related to health,
housing, income, legal protection, economic
opportunities, political rights, civil rights etc.
Citizen action information needed for effective
participation as individuals or as group members in
social, political, legal, and economic processes
Local information
What is CIS

LA Working Party says CISs are those, which
assist individuals and groups with daily
problems solving and with participation in the
democratic process.
What is community web portal

A community web portal is a web site that
functions as a point of access to information
about the community in the WWW
environment. It presents information from
diverse sources in a unified way. The target
group being versatile in nature the language
interfaces are generally multilingual.
Functions of Community web
portal(CWP)

Community Information Services




Survival information
Citizen-action information
Local information
Community communication and interaction


intra community activity
Inter community activity
Objectives




To make an overall study of web portals available in
India
To investigate whether these portals have followed
any standards in the organization of community
information.
How far they are justified in providing information
according to the requirements of the community
members.
How a unified list can be utilized in digital CIS
Scope of the study

The study is limited to some major web
portals available in India - Government
based, NGO based and Public-Private
Partnership Initiative(PPPI) based.
Methodology



The major thrust areas of CI available in
each web portals were studied thoroughly
and were listed separately.
Then major broad categories as well as their
sub categories were identified and compiled
as a single unified list.
This unified list has been incorporated in a
software architecture for providing browsing
based retrieval (under process)
List of Some major e-Government
initiatives
State covered
Name of the
initiatives
URL
India
National portal
of India
http://.india.gov.i
n
India
One india
Explore
http://explore.one
india.in
Andhra Pradesh
E-seva
www.esevaonline
.com
Chhattisgarh
CHIPS
www.chipsbooks
.com
Gujrat
Mahitishakti
http://zunia.org/
mahitishakti
Gujart
Gujrat
stateportal
www.gujrat.indi
a.com
List of Some major e-Government
initiatives
State covered
Name of the initiatives
URL
Gujarat
Vibrant Gujarat
http://www.vibrantgujrat.com
Himachal Pradesh
Lokmitra
http://himachal.nic.in/lokm
itra/
Kerala
Akshaya
www.akshaya.kerala.govt.i
n/index-php/new-thrust
Maharastra
Information Junction
http://maharashtra.govt.in/
english/webRing
WestBengal
Banglar Mukh
www.banglarmukh.com
Homepage of WB Govt. portal
Kerala Govt. web portal homepage
Some major NGO/PPPI based CIS
Initiatives
Name of the initiatives
State covered
URL
Community
information
centre(CIC) of NIC
North-Eastern States
www.idrc.ca/panasia/-
E-choupal-ITC
MP,Karnataka,AP,UP,R www.itc-echoupal
ajasthan,Maharashtra
Gyandoot
Dhar ,MP
www.gyandoot.nic.in/dh
ar-district
Information Villege
Project of M S
Swaminathan Research
Foundation(MSSRF)
Ten villege near
Pondicherry
www.mssrf.org/ect/inde
x.htm.
Some major NGO/PPPI based CIS
Initiatives
Name of the initiatives
State covered
URL
One World SouthAsia
South Asia
www.oneworldsouthasia
TARAhaat
UP, MP, Punjab
www.tarahaat.com
A NGO Web portal home page
Web portal home page
Web portals : a comparative study
Comparative study based onLanguage interface(mono/bi-lingual,multilingualetc.)
Community communication services(Discussion forum,
Mailing list, Instant messaging , etc)
Community interaction services(Blog, Wiki, RSS, etc)
Emergency support services (Ambulance, hospital, etc)
Self information (software used, standard used etc)
Web portal’s score in comparison
Name of the initiatives
Score (Max. Score)
Akshaya
2
Banglarmukh
4
CHIPS
2.5
Community information
centre(CIC) of NIC
1.5
E-seva
1.5
Contd…
E-choupal
2
Gujarat state portal
3
Gyandoot
1
Information junction
1.5
Lokmitra
1.5
Mahitishakti
1.5
Contd…
MSSRF
1
National portal of India
3
One India explore
3
One world South Asia
1.5
Tarahaat
1
Vibrant Gujarat
2
Unified list
open the list
Use of Category List in Structured
Browsing
Conclusion
From the study following constraints are revealed



These web based services do not follow any standards in
organizing community information resources and services are
not multilingual.
Approaches are not integrated.
Efforts are isolated and experimental in nature.
In this circumstances a standard category list is
required for organizing community information
resources. It may help structured browsing in digital
CIS
THANK YOU