Cover Story
The Government’s Courtship with Social Media By using social media, government agencies and departments are now closer to citizens than ever before ONKAR SHARMA onkars@cybermedia.co.in
It is feared that governments might face challenges in using social media, mainly in maintaining the secrecy of private and confidential information. But the positives would outweigh the negatives in the long run, experts believe 14 | November 30, 2011
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n instrument of change, a driver of connectivity, and a vehicle for rapid information sharing, social media has earned a number of accolades and so has gained a lot of traction in all its facets. In today’s world, opinions and viewpoints on this instrument of change has a lot of influence. It holds the potential to exert change, spark a revolution, and help win the elections. Whether it’s Obama’s election campaign or the trail of revolts that changed the face of Middle East politics or Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement in India, social media has played, if not the greatest, a very important role in spreading the word around and influencing the mass. India is one of the countries that has tried to break the conventional shell and enter the social media for not only change but also for establishing a connect with citizens to fetch reforms and work on grievance redressal in a better way. And, it really seems a step taken in the right direction when we take into account the government’s failure over the years to provide basic services. visit www.dqindia.com
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Social Hues (formerly Vangal Software): To Track the Usability of Government Pages on Social Media Government and ministries worldwide are looking at new ways to communicate and social media is no longer an afterthought. In developed nations like the US, 90% of public sector organizations are leveraging social media to inform decision-making, communicate externally with citizens/other organizations, as well as internally between colleagues. In India, we’ve witnessed the beginnings of social engagement with the ministries of law and justice, defense, space, tourism, and youth affairs and sports taking the lead using the platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. Engaging with content in video, audio, and text formats through various social networks combined with mobility are the reasons for the popularity and widespread adoption of social media.
Use of Facebook and Twitter for Various Departments Facebook
All Figures in %
Total Number of Relevant Reactions = 423
All Figures in %
All Figures in %
79
9
15
13
7
60
8
4 14
n n n
Law and Justice Tourism Youth Affairs and Sports
n Youth n n n n
Affairs and Sports Tourism External Affairs Communications and IT Law and Justice
12
27
12 15
25
n There
will be transparency between people and the government n It is a good citizen engagement initiative n High time the government reaps benefits of social media n Government just talks but does nothing n The move will bring about a bottom-up change in the image of the government n Social media is a vital tool to create awareness on government policies and invite citizen participation
Reactions for use of social media by ministers of the Indian Government —People are happy that social media will help connect with the youth in a better way and ensure transparency between public and the government —Mentions also indicate that this initiative cannot reap maximum benefit unless implemented perfectly. Netizens suggest a pilot implementation of the same
India’s Governance 2.0 Haul
Social media seems to have given a chance to various infamous departments to reform their image. And in the in past couple of years departments like Delhi Traffic Police, India Post, and others embarked upon the social media bandwagon. Suddenly, Indian internet users had a place where they could register complaints on open forums and make suggestions. Largely the steps are scattered around ministries and certain departments of the state and central government. It might be because of the low rate of computer literacy in the country. But close on the heels of countries like the US, Australia, DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
and the UK, etc, Indian government has realized the potential that social media reserves. In addition, it is feared that governments might face challenges in using social media, mainly in maintaining the secrecy of private and confidential information. But the positives would outweigh the negatives in the long run, experts believe. In order to tackle the issue, the government has unveiled the draft of Social Media Framework and Guidelines.
Agencies and Bodies Using Social Networks
Different state and center government agencies are using social mevisit www.dqindia.com
dia for quite some time now. They have successfully used the platforms. Here is a list of some of the major agencies that have sparked interest among the users in India and aboard. n Delhi
Traffic Police: It’s on Facebook for quite some time now and is one such example that has utilized the social networking site for the good of citizens. Through the page, Delhi Traffic Police has achieved success in disseminating timely advice on jams, accidents, and other traffic updates. On an average, the department posts up to 20 posts per hour on its Facebook page and outlines a survey done November 30, 2011 | 15
Cover Story Central Government Activity on Social Media
State Government Activity on Social Media
Total Number of Users
All Figures in %
51,293
20,247
45
22
19,575
n n n n
Defense Space Youth Affairs and Sports External Affairs
n Maharashtra
25
26,562
18
n n n n
Delhi Traffic Police Kerala Tourism Bangalore Pradesh Tourism Madhya Pradesh Tourism
—The Indian Defense is highly valued for its informative posts —ISRO keeps its fans on Facebook engaged with the latest updates
—Delhi Traffic Police’s official Facebook page has 20,73,600 posts, which has made the department the highest user of social media among other ministries
by Social Hues (previously Vangal Software). In addition, the department has been able to contain the number of accidents on the roads and punish the errant drivers. It has got citizen assistant in punishing the law-breakers on the roads. The page currently has more than 87,228 likes. Link: https://www.facebook. com/#!/pages/Delhi-Traffic-Police/117817371573308
http://twitter.com/#!/keralatourism http://www.youtube.com/keralatourism
n Kerala
Tourism Department: It has exploited the powers of social media and internet to the fullest, as it has been able to woo people through its pages. Its Facebook page has 114,762 likes. Similarly, it has exploited the prowess of other platforms such as Twitter (where it has posted more than 2,000 tweets with more than 7,000 followers) and YouTube (where its videos have garnered more than 2,698,672 views and 1,300 subscribers). Links:https://www.facebook.com/ pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143 16 | November 30, 2011
Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143#!/IndorePolice
n Madhya
Pradesh Tourism Department: The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department saw a great interest in the users after it enabled its ‘Hindustan Ka Dil Dekho’ campaign using Facebook (where it boasts of 11,605 likes) and Twitter (where it has posted more than 200 tweets). Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143#!/pages/Madhya-Pradesh-Tourism/115182578548783 n Indore
Police Department: It has also gone on Facebook (where it boasts of 1,890 likes) and Twitter in order to keep a close connection with the citizens. In addition, the department has been maintaining a regular blog in Hindi. Besides, the department also have a Google Map of police stations in Indore allowing netizens to locate one in the event of emergency. visit www.dqindia.com
Police Department: It went on to using the mobile platform in order to maintain law and order. It launched an SMS based complaint tracking system (CTS) ‘Turant Chovis’ aimed at redressing citizen complaints by sending a message first response within 24 hours and resolving the issue within 30 days. Plus the department owns a Facebook page where it has more than 2,000 likes, but has not posted any information other than the primary information. Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143#!/pages/Maharashtra-Police/103788652993721 n Ministry
of External Affairs: It was extremely appreciated for its recent debut on Twitter (@IndianDiplomacy), especially when it was very efficiently used during the recent crisis in Libya and Middle East. The account was started on July 10, 2010. At present, the account has more than 18,000 followers. In addition, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has also joined Twitter, thereby becoming the face of the department on the web. The account proved a great help while evacuating Indians from Libya during the crises. Plus the department has a YouTube account, which hosts several documentary films on various subjects. n Municipal
Corporation of Delhi: It has integrated on its website the process of form filling and submission in order to reduce the hassle faced by citizens. Online forms include birth certificates, information on filing an RTI appeal, tax submission forms, veterinary licenses, etc.
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Cover Story Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143#!/pages/ Municipal-Corporation-of-Delhi/106030789427235 Post Office India: Indian Postal service, world’s largest postal network, opened its account on Twitter in order to interact with users and citizens. The Department of Posts (which comes under Ministry of Communication and Information Technology) leverages Twitter as a customer-relationship management tool. The department have been addressing the queries posted by users in relation to their letters and parcels, etc. They have posted more than 400 tweets and currently have more than 8,500 followers. Besides, the department have also launched an ‘ePost Office’, which would add up as an e-commerce platform in the future. Link: http://twitter.com/#!/PostOfficeIndia n
n The
Chronology of India’s Tryst With Social Media 2009 2009: Shashi Tharoor, then Minister of State of External Affairs starts tweeting. Oct 2009: India Post joins Twitter becoming the first government department to use New Media. 2010 March 2010: Indian Embassy, Argentina joins Facebook June 2010: Indian Embassy, Argentina joins Twitter April 2010: Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) joins social media to attract tourists May 2010: Delhi Traffic Police launches a Facebook page June 2010: Karnataka State CID joins Facebook and Twitter July 2010: Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs launches its Twitter page followed by Facebook, YouTube, Scribd, and Issuu Blog. Nov 2010: Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj joins Twitter. Dec 2010: Kanpur Police joins Facebook. Dec 2010: Kanpur police lodges its first complaint through Facebook Dec 2010: Hoshiyarpur (Punjab) Police joins Facebook.
face of Census 2011: Indeed the proof of social media coming to help in developmental work is the usage of Facebook and Twitter for Census 2011. The initiative allowed citizens to fill in their complete and accurate information. Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourism/261195883143#!/Census2011
2011
n Planning
Commission of India: Planning Commission of India is also on Facebook through which it urges users to submit their expectations and ideas for the 12th Five Year Plan. It plans to include them in the approach paper which will be tabled before the cabinet and National Development Council.
Feb 2011: Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao joins Twitter.
n BCCI
March 2011: Indian Ambassador to Bahrain joins Twitter and becomes the first Indian Ambassador to have an official Twitter account.
and CWG: The Twitter accounts of departments of BCCI 18 | November 30, 2011
Jan 2011: Embassy of India, Sofia joins Twitter. Jan 2011: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) launches its Facebook page to ensure effective monitoring of garbage lifting at areas under its jurisdiction. Jan 2011: J&K Traffic Police launches its Facebook page. Jan 2011: Census 2011 joins Facebook. Feb 2011: National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) makes a debut on social networking site Facebook.
Feb 2011: Indian Embassy Washington DC joins Facebook. Feb 2011: India’s biggest jail Tihar launches its Facebook. March 2011: Official Spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs joins Twitter. March 2011: Head of the consular, passport, and visa division joins Twitter.
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Cover Story and CWG (that come under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports) have a very good Twitter engagement with 1,79,982 followers and tweets combined.
Social media seems to have given a chance to various infamous n Government Railway Police: departments to Indian Railway Police has also logged on to Facebook recently in an reform their image. attempt to address passenger comAnd it has happened plaints. Passengers can directly post in past couple their complaints to the Government of years when Railway Police (GRP) on its Facedepartments like book profile page. In addition, passengers can even lodge a complaint Delhi Traffic Police, against their fellow passengers. All India Post, and they have to do is to provide their others embarked contact details and e-mail id. upon the social Link: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Kerala-Tourmedia bandwagon ism/261195883143#!/pages/Indian-Railways/79139289546
India Vs the World
Although Indian government is not too late in adopting information technology, but how sophisticated are India’s social media drives? It cannot be known without looking into social media presence of rival nations. Other countries like the US, Canada, Russia, and Australia, etc, have reaped on the power. In the US, for every social media success story like Barack Obama’s 2008 grassroot campaign, there are also examples of career-wrecking gaffe, such as Weinergate, when New York Republican Anthony Weiner accidentally tweeted a picture of his crotch. In addition, the federal agencies like FBI and CIA are using Facebook and Twitter for a long time now and taking its help in cracking a sleuth of cases and keeping a track of user behavior. Many believe that Twitter has become a kind of soapbox in America on which many politicians directly speak to their constituents. The White House itself has taken to social media to help push some of its initiatives. Recently, Obama held a DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
Twitter town hall where he received and answered questions through Twitter and pledged to start tweeting from his own official account. Canada is also taking advantage of social media as most Canadian politicians have a social presence, which they or their teams manage. Some governmental departments are even taking steps to integrate social media into government operations. After Facebook’s January 2010 launch in Russia, the number of users grew by a whopping 376%. Since most of the users are under 27 years of age, hence this young generation of socially active Russians is forcing the government to follow suit. A year ago, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, paid a visit to Twitter’s offices, created an account, and sent out his first official tweet. Today he is a prolific user with more than half a million followers. Since last autumn, Russians have been able to participate in meetings of the Presidential Commission for Modernization and Technological visit www.dqindia.com
Development of Russia’s Economy through online tools. Way back in 1995, India’s Asian counterpart Singapore joined the online party with simple websites, and now is tapping on Web 2.0 and social media for public communication. The situation is no different in Hong Kong where officials are encouraged to choose from a mix of online and offline channels. Hong Kong officials have already used social media to conduct various ‘e-engagement activities’ on different policy initiatives. Plus the Hong Kong government also has a directory on its official website GovHK, where it includes the names of officials who use blogs and social media. In Asia-Pacific, Australian government agencies are all set to implement their own social media policies, opening up Facebook and Twitter in the office. In China, the government reportedly hires commentators, dubbed as ‘50 cent army’, who are paid to post positive comments. Overall, the picture in Asia and the world indicates rapid dissemination of the virus called social media in the government circles.
Control and Censorship
What seems convenient on the surface is not always sunshine and roses. As stated earlier in this writeup, it is essential to define a Laxman rekha to avoid the misuse that may lead to wicked situations and throw governments into an embarrassing state. Using it with caution and responsibility is much more important for the government and its officials. Since the government has already borne the brunt when Shashi Tharoor was in the government, hence the government’s move to implement Social Media Framework and Guidelines is a timely and good step. n November 30, 2011 | 19
Cover Story
It’s a Mandate! On a positive note, DIT has started the process of drafting the framework for the use of social media. Will this framework be able to live up to the global standards, and expectations and needs of citizens? Rukhsar Saleem rukhsars@cybermedia.co.in
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fter social media enabled protests in the recent past in the country against the Government of India, the Department of Information and Technology (DIT) under the Ministry of Communications and IT, not only realized the potential of social media as a platform but also sensed the urgency to deploy this medium to put a halt on further damage and reach out to its people with more transparency. This realization led to the making of a draft for the framework and guidelines for the use of social media for the government organizations after consulting various media experts, social media consultants, and lawyers. This draft was consequently released in the month of September, 2011 for the public feedback and discussion in an open forum. “After filing and assessment of the feedbacks, the final policy is expected to see the light of day by December-end,” says Abhishek Singh, director, e-governance, DIT. DIT is formulating this framework and guidelines with the purpose of enabling all departments/agencies of the Government of India to adhere to them while choosing any social media as per the classification done by Kaplan and Haenlein in 2010—collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. It will be entirely up to each department to decide its own social media platform and design the roadmap for its deployment as per its requirements. This draft has made an excellent attempt to educate—right from the beginning—about the social media, its various platforms, its us20 | November 30, 2011
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The Framework Comprises 6 Elements n Objective: n Platform:
Why an agency needs to use social media? Which platforms to use for interaction?
What are the rules of engagement for account governance including account creation, login and passwords, account status; response and responsiveness; resource governance; content governance including content creation, moderation, records management; legal provisions; data and information security governance? n Governance:
n Communication n Pilot:
Strategy: How to interact?
How to create and sustain a community?
n Institutionalization:
How to embed social media in the organization
structure?
Social media is a powerful tool to become the people’s voice, this is the time to invest in it and be a winner
Key Caveats that the Guidelines Highlight and Must Be Kept in Mind n All
accounts must be created and operated in official capacity only
n As
social media demands literally 24x7 interactions, some responsiveness criteria may be defined and a dedicated team may be put in place to monitor and respond n There
should be congruence between the responses on social media and traditional media n Relevant
provisions of IT Act, 2000 and RTI Act must be adhered to. Some important aspects that must be kept in mind include: If the said government department provides such social media facilities on its network, it receives, stores, or transmits any particular electronic record on behalf of another person or provides any service with respect to that record. As such they become intermediary under Section 2(1)(w) of the amended Information Technology Act, 2000 n Compliance
with ISO 27001 and The Information Technology Rules, 2011 (reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) for security practices and procedures
age, and laid emphasis on defining the objective very clearly. Based on that objective, departments can make an informed choice and do voluntary disclosure of non-confidential information.
Need for Using Social Media
Singh says that this initiative is bound to bring more transparency between government and citizens and various stakeholders. He further added that this initiative is planned to strengthen all the National e-governance projects (center and state level), urban and local departments/agencies, ministries, and upcoming 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). Singh stresses on the fact that this will not only ensure enDATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
hanced outreach (with 35 mn users on Facebook, 15 mn on Orkut, 900 mn mobile users), 24x7 real-time engagement, and two-way individual interaction but will also play an instrumental role in managing frivolous and misleading perceptions about the government. This is certainly a positive government initiative and looks quite holistic for the development of the country and matching international standards, echoes Pradeep Chopra, co-founder, Digital Vidya and Soch.la
Global Social Media Policy Scenario
Today, social media is being used across the world by different governvisit www.dqindia.com
ment agencies although governments may not be the early adopters but the proliferation of social media in the national media has ramped up its importance for governments and speedy adoption around the world. Countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, the US, and the UK have adopted social media officially and designed national level policies for this new kind of media. US President Barack Obama’s famous 2008 electoral campaign’s social media enabled success and New York representative Anthony Weiner’s ‘Weingate’ are not hidden from anyone. Not only American top leaders use social media for their personal use but its Web 2.0 Security Working Group (W20SWG) as Federal CIO Council (FCIOC), operating under Information Security and Identity Management Committee (ISIMC), Network and Infrastructure Security Subcommittee (NISSC), has drafted the Version 1.0 of the guidelines for the secure use of social media by its federal departments and agencies in September 2009. This set of US FCIOC guidelines clearly emphasizes its departments and agencies that adopting social media technology is a risk based decision and not a technology based one whereas its Indian counterpart is emphasizing on November 30, 2011 | 21
Cover Story List of American Organizations and Their Social Media Policies American Red Cross—Social Media Handbook for Local Red Cross Units City of Hampton, VA—Social Media Policy City of Seattle—Blogging Policy US Air Force Air Force Blog Assessment US Air Force New Media and the Air Force US Army Corps of Engineers—Jacksonville District Social Media User Guidelines US Coast Guard Social Media—The Way Ahead US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Blogging at EPA for Greenversations US Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising US General Services Administration’s (GSA) Office of Citizen Services (OCS): Blog Policies US Navy Web 2.0: Utilizing New Web Tools
objective based decision-making to adopt social media. The federal government of US has taken many social media technology based initiatives in light of the memorandum for transparency and open government to engage with the public. The Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra mentions, “Web 2.0 technologies are essential to tap into the vast amounts of knowledge in communities across the country.” Kundra has also developed a 5-point plan to enable the administration’s
agenda—open and transparent government, lowering the cost of government, cybersecurity, participatory democracy, and innovation. In support of this US central social media policy, its several states, cities, and departments also have formulated their individual set of guidelines to regulate the use of social media like style and usage guide of the Government of Catalonia’s social networks, City of Seattle blogging policy, Missouri Department of Transportation
Australian Government—Social Media General Guidelines for Using Social Media Principles of Engagement n
Be credible. Be accurate, fair, thorough, and transparent
Be respectful. Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. Be cordial, honest, and professional at all times n
Listen before you talk. Before entering any conversation, understand the context. Who are you speaking to? Is there a good reason for you to join the conversation? n
n
Write what you know. Know your facts and cite your sources
If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction n
n
Be responsive. When you gain insight, share it where appropriate
Caution When Using Social Media “If it is online - it can be found. If you delete it - it can still be found. Even if you secure it - it can still be accessed.” —Tim Scully, head of cybersecurity operations center, Department of Defence, Commonwealth of Australia
22 | November 30, 2011
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(MoDOT) social media policy, NYC social media customer use policy, Web 2.0—utilizing new web tools by the US Department of Navy, social media—The Way Ahead for the US Coast Guard, Air Force Blog Assessment, New Media, and the Air Force. Similarly, the UK government has formulated a template Twitter strategy for government departments. For example, through its department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), it handles citizens’ queries through its Twitter account @BISgovuk. BIS also has a YouTube channel among its other digital channels. The health department of UK interacts with the people through its 2 Twitter accounts— #1 @VicGovHealth—for health sector information including health alerts, careers, news, and events #2 @BetterHealthGov—for consumer health information including healthy living, conditions and treatments, relationships and family, and healthy recipes. On the same lines, the New Zealand government has made regulatory changes in 2010 for its public and non-public service departments under the Public Finance Act (PFA) to use Web 2.0 tools to integrate technology, social interaction, and content creation. The Government of Australia is one of the first to deploy this media and has been very aggressively making use through its social media guidance for the agencies and staff. The Australian government has very maturely identified the objectives, opportunities, and risks associated with this platform. Therefore they have laid down precisely designed guidelines for the agencies hosting social media, and staff using social media for their personal and official use separately. The country’s cyber laws have acknowledged the risks like cybersecurity, time wastage, bandwidth, advertising, privacy,
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Cover Story “We are just providing the framework and guidelines for the use of social media, but it is entirely upto every government department/ agencies disposal to choose the suitable platform” Abhishek Singh, Secretary DIT and director, e-governance, DIT
“Social media initiative, without knowing in advance how one will track the success of that initiative, is a failure”
This framework should enable the use of social media in an integrated manner with ongoing monitoring and measures in place like corporates have done worldwide
Gaurav Mishra, project manager, global analytics, social media, campaign performance, web analytics and digital strategy, HP India
accessibility, and terms of services in the guide, and also has provided aid for their management. Russia has also geared up to optimize the opportunities thrown by social media especially with the launch of Facebook in January 2010 as the number of users under 27 years of age increased by 376%. Presidential commission for modernization and technological development of Russia’s economy through online tools has created a forum called i-Russia.ru where citizens can post comments and connect their social networks. The commission is also the first government body in Russia to get its own mobile application.
Uphill Task
From government bureaucrats to DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
lawyers to social media experts to citizens, all echo the same opinion and sound hopeful over this initiative by the Government of India. The real challenge lies in finally drafting the policy to address not only the age old or present issues but also the future risks associated in a country where the internet, privacy, and cyber laws are weak and population is huge as compared to other countries, says Pradeep Chopra. Although Singh comments on this and says, “In India, very miniscule percentage of population (10%) is using social media so it is quite manageable at present.” He cites the example of Common Services Center (CSC); in his capacity, CSC’s portal has been doing well from last one year and is not facing any problem in handling the online trafvisit www.dqindia.com
fic there. But from this fact, another challenge emerges for the Indian government that is to provide the basic internet facility to the masses to enable sizeable population to benefit from this platform. And on further introspection and comparison with other countries, Prateek Shah, independent social media consultant and trainer, cites that education is a big differentiation factor. In India with 74% literacy (as per 2011 census), the challenge is not only to educate rest of the 26% of the population but also to educate those bureaucratic leaders who are unaware of this medium’s benefits—who are expected to promote the use of this medium for addressing the queries of their respective domain/area. So, training and education is very important at November 30, 2011 | 23
Cover Story “Education and awareness for citizens, bureaucrats and other key stakeholders, are must to realize the full potential of this dynamic media”
It is also very important for social media experts to find out the major key performance indicators for the success of every event/ conversation/ discussion and understand the efficacy
Pradeep Chopra, co-founder, Digital Vidya & Soch.la;
“With this framework and guidelines for social media, government has entered a ring of fire—social media is too dynamic in nature. But no option is left for the government now except to adopt this media” Prateek Shah, independent social media consultant and trainer
each stage of this framework from the development stage to implementation to maintenance and monitoring the success of this framework. The Government of India also need to understand the importance of social media intelligence to bring out the actionable social media data for further decision making, says Gaurav Mishra, project manager, global analytics, social media campaign performance, web analytics and digital strategy, HP India. India, as a developing nation, can improve its strategies and policies through social intelligence by making informed marketing and business decisions with insights found in social media data. Technology and analytics can turn social media to deliver actionable insights. The social media initiative— without knowing in advance how one will track the success of that initia24 | November 30, 2011
tive—is a failure. Defining metrics for this planning process can help the government to focus on finding a successful strategy which will ensure the tracking methods in the framework from the day one. Mishra futher explained that as per Forrester research, most social media initiatives target one of the five objectives— listening, talking, energizing, supporting, or embracing. The right option is to pick one and go with it because it helps in defining the social media success metrics. It is also very important for social media experts to find out the major key performance indicators for the success of every event/conversation/discussion and understand the efficacy (tonality/persuasiveness) of each social media activity by any department/agency. A few important KPIs can be—share of voice on different earned/paid media, audivisit www.dqindia.com
ence’s demographic segmentation, active advocates participation, level of influence, virality, buzz trends, campaign/event specific buzz trends, top influencer metrics, listening metrics like sentiment analysis, and conversation volume to measure the effectiveness of this medium. With signs where other countries are leveraging social media as a powerful tool to become the people’s voice, this is the time to invest in social media and be a winner in the race for valuable customer engagements. Let’s focus more on ‘media’ instead of ‘social’ for targeted deeper engagements with citizens, concludes Mishra. Governments and social media have reached at a stage of amicable partnership whereas social media is not a fad and it is here to stay and bring about good change, concludes Chopra. n
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Cover Story
For the People DIT and NIC are spearheading a movement that looks like a search for excellence by the government websites and a desire to make them citizen-centric. A tough task but worth trying! DRISHTI D MANOAH drishtim@cybermedia.co.in
I
f ranking improves quality, then the Government of India’s initiative on indexing and ranking government portals is surely noteworthy. ‘Indexing and Ranking Government Websites and Portal’ is a project under discussion, being commissioned by National Informatics Centre (NIC), funded by Department of Information Technology (DIT), and implemented by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD). If we trace down the line a bit, we will see a chronological order of things that actually led to the idea of indexing and ranking, and the turning point actually came when the government felt the need to transform its websites from inward-looking portals to citizen perspective. 26 | November 30, 2011
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| DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
How it All Began...
By 2004, there were around 5,000 government portals, but none of them were publicized or promoted well enough. Undoubtedly, these websites were inward-looking, talking mostly about their policies and structures rather than providing information for the citizen’s use. Many a times, the department websites posted information that people weren’t aware of and most of the time couldn’t locate the needed information due to poor navigation architecture. As for the design of these websites, it was usually decided by individual departments with some advice from NIC. Eventually, NIC felt the need to give all these 5,000+ websites a citizen/end-user perspective and assist people get the right kind of information with ease. There came the turning point! Sometime in 2004, a committee was set up, where a foundation of India Portal was laid and the idea
was discussed. In the same year, the National E-governance Plan (NeGP) was launched and India Portal soon became one of the mission-mode projects. After lots of blackboard discussions, India Portal was launched in November 10, 2005, to enable a single-window access to information and services being provided by the various Indian government entities. Various Indian government ministries and departments (central/state/district level) contributed to the content of this portal. The portal is a mission-mode project under NeGP, designed and maintained by NIC, DIT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MoCIT), and the Government of India. Soon after India Portal went live, it was realized that the individual department websites linked through India Portal were not up to the mark and after a few pages of search, the end user lands up in those websites without getting
much help or information. It was realized that if India Portal needs to grow and make it a seamless experience for the end user, then these individual department websites need to be worked on. That is when the genesis of the ‘guidelines’ came. NIC and DIT developed the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) for departments to follow and make their websites better.
Guidelines to Awards to Indexing
The guidelines were drafted after high-level discussions and by conducting a survey of around 1,000 state and central government websites, keeping in mind all categories of people in India (illiterate, semi-literate, not internet-savvy, not print-friendly, etc). A scrutiny was done on what kind of information is available on these 1,000 websites and what needs to be made available. Thereafter, the ‘Generic Infor-
After trying encouragement through recognition and awards, the government is now embarking on a journey to rate the thousands of government websites.
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Cover Story mation Architecture’ was defined, which is an integral part of GIGW. To get the websites compliant to these guidelines, one way is for the department to approach private players by issuing tenders. The other way is to go through NIC’s standard panel—National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI)—under which there are a number of agencies that provide IT solutions to the government organizations. The government departments can take services from any of these agencies in order to save time and energy required to process fresh tenders for the private players. Many government portals are already compliant to the GIGW; some of them being the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Social Justice, Cabinet Secretariat, Prime Minister’s site (under security audit at present), and many websites of the Uttarakhand state government. Meanwhile, training programs have been organized across the country
If the guidelines are to be followed, the government websites will have to be recreated — a mammoth and time-consuming task
by NIC to educate government departments on the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites.
Guidelines for Indian Government Websites: Challenges
Surely the guidelines, if followed, will not only improve the quality of the government websites, but will
also help citizens get required information from these sites easily and effectively. But there also is the fact that if the guidelines are to be followed, the websites will have to be recreated. While many departments initiated the process and many others have shown genuine interest in doing so, the task is mammoth and time-consuming. To add to it, there’s a dearth of developers in the industry who can develop the websites keeping in mind all the parameters as mentioned in the guidelines. So even though the intentions are honest, translating them to making a citizen-friendly website will take time. Therefore, to accelerate the process, in 2009, the Web Ratna Award was instituted under the overall ambit of NIC. These awards mainly focus on the content quality (major parameter being online services) of a website and aims at motivating departments to improve their websites as best as they can. Today, there are about 7,000 government websites, and these awards could only encourage the good to become better, but could not really jolt the dormant websites still. Thus came the idea of indexing as a progression from awards. The government is now embarking on a journey to rate the thousands of government websites on various parameters.
Indexing and Ranking— What’s The Need?
Several global-ranking schemes proved to be very successful in ensuring adequate attention and resource allocation by the top managements to portal projects. In addition, these ranking schemes did pave the way for internal automation, standardization, and back-end process integration through interoperable software and hardware platforms globally. 28 | November 30, 2011
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Cover Story Along similar lines, the Government of India too clearly understood the need to develop a peer list of government portals based on assessment of diverse criterion, including specific areas such as service maturity levels, horizontal and vertical integration, and so on. This will result in an overall ranking of all the portals. All too often, the 7,000+ government websites existing today are chosen and implemented solely by the IT department without any clear focus of business objectives or design or resource commitment. Moreover, most government portals today are in preliminary stage, without proper arrangements of regular updates. Therefore, ranking of these government websites should be able to make the government departments and agencies in India understand the importance of developing one-stop portals and constantly working on improving their quality.
Indexing and Ranking— What Will It Do?
The ‘Indexing and Ranking Government Websites and Portal’ project intends to undertake an extensive exercise of ranking various government portals on a regular basis. There will be several criterion for evaluation, centered around design quality, information, and services directly linked to good governance. To begin with, an achievable number of 750 websites (central, state, services, and district level) will be evaluated, indexed, and ranked. These include websites of apex institutions, ministry/ departments, state/UT portals, service oriented sites (central and state level), urban local bodies, state/UT departments (35 states, 5 departments; the departments yet not decided). The first ranking 30 | November 30, 2011
Challenges Faced by the 7,000+ Government Websites and the Need for Ranking n More than 7,000 portals by various government organizations n Diversity of information sources n Lack of consistency n Lack of content authoring capabilities and management of portals n Timely updation of contents n Lack of top management commitment n Providing multi-lingual facility to common people n Unavailability of technical skills n Non-integration of back-end processes
Few Global Indexing and Ranking Schemes n A United Nation E-governance Readiness Index: This is a country-level index and it
comprises the web measure index, telecommunication infrastructure index, and human capital index—equal weights assigned to all 3 dimensions. n European Union E-governance Ranking: This is a country-level e-government
ranking framework and involves the following assessment—the development of 20 basic services against a 5-stage maturity level (stages in the model are: information, one-way interaction, two-way interaction, transaction, and targetization), e-procurement visibility, e-procurement process availability (pre-award), e-procurement process availability (post-award), user focus, life event measurement, and horizontal enablers. n Waseda University E-governance Ranking: This is a country-level e-governance
ranking and consists of 7 dimensions—network preparedness, required interfacefunctioning applications, management optimization, national portal, CIO in government, e-governance promotion, and e-participation—all related to public sector, and the relationship between government and its stakeholders. n Brown University’s E-governance Ranking: This framework is applicable to e-
governance ranking at country, federal ministry, state, and city levels. It is a 0-100 point e-government index. Four points are awarded to 18 dimensions/features. n Marc Holzer’s E-governance Ranking: This framework is applicable to states and
cities. It comprises of 5 dimensions—privacy/security, usability, content, services, and citizen participation.
is expected to be out by mid-year 2012, and will be followed by an evaluation process in every 2 year. After studying the outcome and the feedback of the first phase of indexing, the advisory council will decide whether or not to consider more websites for the next phase of indexing. Web Ratna Award then will become an outcome of indexing and ranking. visit www.dqindia.com
Looking Ahead
Whether the indexing and ranking can finally jolt the notso-good government websites is for the citizen to wait and watch. Nevertheless, it’s worth trying, as rightly quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow”. n | DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
Cover Story
Transforming the Dialog Can our government squander even a day without taking advantage of one of the greatest shifts of our generation—social media?
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n July 2011, the Iceland government crowd sourced the creation of its constitution. The draft, which was presented to Iceland’s parliament, was an outcome of the constitution council’s engagement with its citizens through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. Although a ballsy move by the government, no verdict can be reached immediately on whether it was the right thing to do. Nevertheless, Iceland’s out-of-the-box thinking and conviction in the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ aligns with their strong belief in their educated citizens and the democratic process. There is no doubt that social media has helped democratic movements to express dissent against authoritarian rulers or underperforming governments. But now, governments globally are starting to listen to the public pulse, opinion, and attitude on social networks and are taking action based on it. They are also finding innovative applications to engage public in the conversations. If done right, listening gives governments the ability to assess, reinforce, or recalibrate based on their findings. It allows them to engage in an honest and open manner with citizens encouraging civic participation. It can be used to preempt disruptive and unlawful behavior to ensure that peace is maintained. It can also be leveraged for a variety of civil services that improve the effectiveness of central and state government initiatives. Social media is mainstream. There’s really no debate any more. The numbers look like this—1 bn people worldwide and approximately 60 mn in India are using various social networks. We can argue whether social networking is accelerating mobile usage in India or vice-versa, the trend globally has been real-time social media (used for information sharing, gaming, and commerce). It has been a huge driver for people wanting to use the broadband services on smartphones. Real-time social sharing features and mobile support have been the main triggers for widespread adoption and significant growth. With the popularity of the medium used for information sharing, comes expectations.
90% of the public sector organizations are using social media for one or more of the following reasons—inform policy decisions, communicate externally to citizens and other organizations, and internally for their own employees and contractors. In India, we’ve just started to see it emerging. The Ministries of Defense, Space, Youth Affairs and Sports, External Affairs, Tourism, and Law and Order have taken initiative to engage with the public through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Here are a few simple examples of how the state government and citizens will benefit from social media— n Real-time updates and communication on crimes and public call-to-action during times of crisis n Real-time traffic updates on peak traffic times, congested roads, location of public transportation (exact location and status of bus number 7, etc) n Advance communication on planned and initiated infrastructure expansion projects n Crowd source ideas and opinions for urban planning initiatives n Mobilize volunteers and social workers for variety of public help initiatives In all honesty, there are lot of open questions that still need to be answered. The rate of adoption and the rapid growth of it for a variety of reasons including human psychology and inclination to build relationships, create networks, engage with people, and drive action indicates that social networking is here to stay and keeping away is not an option. To quote Dave Saunders, madisonmain.com “You can’t tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there.” n
Transparency, Authenticity, Engagement Governments globally have integrated social media into their communications and media policies. In the US, DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
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VINITA ANANTH The author is CEO and founder, Social Hues maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in November 30, 2011 | 31
DIT E-procurement Guidelines
Timely and Comprehensive In a pioneering step, the Department of Information Technology has come out with comprehensive guidelines on e-procurement by the government departments
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ll’s well that ends well. The latest guidelines that the DIT has come out with regards to e-procurement is today touted as one of the best in the world. “In fact, it is one of the first such guidelines to come out. Apart from multilateral development banks, very few agencies have such a guideline in place,” says Jitendra Kohli, managing director, ElectronicTenders.com, a company that is a technology solution provider in the space.
Spilling the Beans
Apart from creating a solution in e-procurement space, Kohli is an activist. He, in many ways, is the force behind forcing the government to take a hard look on this concept right from the time when steps of the Government of Andhra Pradesh to put eprocurement in place got mired in controversy. Way back in 2008, Dataquest, as an IT publication, was one of the first media houses to expose the corruption in a story titled The Suresh Nanda Saga in its April 15, 2008 issue. Kohli was extremely helpful with information and explanation as we required. Dataquest’s effort—and those of others like Kohli himself—did not go in vain. Soon, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), then headed by Pratyush Sinha as the CVC, decided to take it up. The CVC asked Transparency International for help. The Transparency International created a document called e-Procurement Integrity Matrix, which like Dataquest, turned to Kohli for help. It acknowledges his contribution explicitly on the report.
Inspired by the Past
The report was validated by an independent vigilance advisory council with members drawn from the industry. Sources say Infosys’ chief mentor 38 | November 30, 2011
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The Red Flags and the Guidelines Red Flag Reference (Red Flag # 1)
Some Important References of Corresponding Sections of DIT Guidelines where the Related Issues have Been Addressed Mainly Annexure-I (Section 2.0 and Section 3.0).
In most e-procurement systems, the ‘Bid-sealing/Bid-encryption’ methodology is poor/ flawed.
In addition, some parts of sections like 1.2, 3.1, etc and relevant portions of Annexure-II, III, IV also have relationship with these issues
Specifically, where PKI is used for bid encryption, clandestine copies of bids can be stolen through spyware and secretly decrypted before the Online Public Tender Opening Event, resulting in a compromise of confidentiality. Similarly, confidentiality can be compromised where the ‘main bid-encryption’ is done at database level, and only SSL encryption is done during the transit phase from bidder’s system to the e-procurement portal (Red Flag # 2) In most e-procurement systems, instead of ‘Online Public Tender Opening Event’, there is only a rudimentary ‘Online Tender Opening’.
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 6.3), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I. In addition, relevant portions of Annexure-II, III, IV also have relationship with these issues
Merely opening bids ‘online’, and then separately making them available for display to the bidders subsequently, and/or from a different location/ screen (ie, user interface) without the simultaneous online presence of bidders, does not fulfill the requirements of a proper and transparent online Public TOE. The transparency related significance of opening bids in ‘Public’, and carrying out various activities such as ‘counter-signing’ of each opened bid by the TOE officers in the simultaneous presence of the bidders has been given done away with. E-procurement systems where online TOE is conducted in this non-transparent fashion, without the simultaneous online presence of the bidders, gives rise to the possibility of bid-data tampering. (Red Flag # 3) Most e-procurement systems do not have the functionality to accept ‘encrypted (ie, sealed) detailed bids’. Some systems ‘do not encrypt the technical bid at all’, ie, neither the electronic template of the technical bid, nor the detailed technical bid. In such systems, typically ‘only summarized financial data in electronic templates’ is encrypted. This is against the established practices of ensuring confidentiality of technical bids. (Red Flag # 4)
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 2.5), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I (eg, Sections 6.1, 6.2, etc).
Many e-procurement systems do not have the functionality for digital signing of important electronic records, which are part of the eprocurement application. As a result, such e-procurement systems are not in full compliance of the IT Act 2000, and certain guidelines of the CVC.
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 6), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I.
In addition, relevant portions of Annexure-III, IV also have relationship with these issues
In addition, some parts of sections like 3.1, 4.1, etc, and relevant portions of Annexure-II, III, IV also have relationship with these issues.
(Red Flag # 5) In most e-procurement systems, functionality of the e-tendering system is limited (eg, all types of bidding methodologies are not supported). In some cases only ‘Single-stage: One-envelope’ bidding is supported. Similarly, many systems do not support the submission of ‘supplementary bids (viz modification, substitution, and withdrawal)’ after final submission, but before elapse of deadline for submission. This is against the established practices of manual tendering. DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 6.1), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I. In addition, some parts of sections like 3.1, 4.1, etc, and relevant portions of Annexure-II, III, IV also have relationship with these issues.
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DIT E-procurement Guidelines (Red Flag # 6) ‘Entry Barriers’ are being created in many RFPs for e-procurement, on the entry of new players on the basis of ‘unjustified eligibility criteria’, and by insisting on ‘irrelevant experience’. Caution: It must not be forgotten that e-procurement is an emerging technology, and if entry barriers are created, apart from discouraging competition, the government will not have the benefit of better and more reliable e-procurement systems. Furthermore, experience of tenders conducted using ‘rudimentary eprocurement software’ would not only be irrelevant but misleading. (Red Flag # 7) Many e-procurement systems are such that it results in abdication of powers of the concerned officers of the Government Purchase department. Furthermore, in some situations it results in handing over the private-keys (PKI) of the concerned officers to others, which is a violation of s-42(1) of the IT Act. (Red Flag # 8) There is lack of clarity about where e-reverse auction is to be used. It is obvious that the government does intend to replace sealed-bid tendering with e-reverse auction. Also, there are guidelines about ‘not negotiating’ after the financial bids are opened, except possibly with L1 (which is contrary to the concept of reverse auction). At the same time, reverseauction could be useful in some situations, eg, commodity purchases. In such a scenario, it is important to clarify where reverse auction can be resorted to. (Other Issues) Most of the certificates that vendors often boast of are minimum qualifications and should be treated as necessary but not sufficient requirements. But many a times, they are taken as certificates of excellence. Security tests like Cert-In, STQC, OWASP, etc, are useful but general in nature, and do have anything specific to address the intricacies of e-procurement. ‘e-Procurement Certification’ related to government guidelines (as mentioned in CVC Circular no. 23/06/010 dated 23rd June, 2010) are still awaited.
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 8), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I. In addition, some parts of sections like 3.2, 4.1 etc, and relevant portions of Annexure- III also have relationship with these issues.
Mainly Annexure-I (Section 5), and also relevant portions in other sections of Annexure-I. In addition, some parts of sections like 4.1 etc, and relevant portions of Annexure- II, III, IV also have relationship with these issues. While there is indirect mention of this in Annexure-I [Section 2.0 (iv)] and Annexure-II, essentially the required clarity has not been provided.
DIT’s Guidelines on e-procurement (dated 31/8/2011) is a move in that direction. In addition, under Section 5.2 with sub-sections having titles— Application Functional Testing, Application Security Testing, etc, should address these issues once such certification testing is developed by STQC and implemented.
The DIT e-Procurement Guidelines based on the Red Flags raised by Dataquest
NR Narayana Murthy was a key member. The current guidelines draws heavily from that report, though it’s far more comprehensive. But it took some time to get the things moving. Meanwhile, Dataquest continued to campaign. In April 2011, in an issue focused on anti-corruption movement, covering Anna Hazare’s movement, Dataquest invited Kohli to write a guest article on the flaws in the current e-procurement practice. The article, published in April 30, 2011 issue of Dataquest, listed a few concern areas, called Red 40 | November 30, 2011
Flags (The table gives where the guidelines tackles those concerns). “Now that a comprehensive set of guidelines on e-procurement have been issued, it is important that proper testing methodology (covering in detail the security, transparency, and functionality related issues) is developed by DIT at the earliest and implemented without diluting the issues and concerns described in DIT’s own guidelines. From the public and government’s perspective, it is very important to ensure that when e-procurement is resorted to, the public is not taken visit www.dqindia.com
for a ride by unscrupulous e-procurement vendors and conniving officers. Only when that happens, will genuine benefits of e-procurement accrue to the public, and possibility of e-tendering/e-procurement scams reduced,” says Kohli. It is still a journey. But with the guidelines, a major milestone has been achieved. Sources in the DIT say it has seen interest among outside government agencies as well. To that end, it is a pioneering effort. n A Dataquest Report maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
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