CIOPune.in

Discover easier commutes on Pune's buses

2010-08-16T03:27:00.000-07:00

Tired of driving to or back from Hinjewadi, Magarpatta or Kharadi everyday? Check out the busses you could take on the upgraded version of Pune Transit the application below or open it in a new window.

You can also find out which bus can take you there on your mobile! Just sms PMT your location to Hinjewadi to 092200 92200*!

In a fraction of a minute you will get a message with the routes.

We've got all connecting busses onto the system now- so you will be told your options for the first bus (route 1) and the next bus (if needed) that you need to change on to (route 2). You can search for your locations by scrolling the map and clicking or simply typing the name of your location into the search box "from" and "to". Select the route that was found to view the stations on the selected route (in case there are more than one routes). If you select a station the map will automatically centre to the station and highlight it. So play around and find out the world of Pune that you can visit on way back from work!

Thank you for the appreciation, following and spreading the word for the previous versions. Let me know how much you like this too! Do not forget to write about the features you would like to see! Email me at ciopune"at"ciopune.in.

* Only your mobile carrier's charges will apply, there is no additional fee levied for this service.

Get your mobile to find your bus!

2010-07-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Want to go shopping to Mandai on Sunday morning? Tired of parking problems along Laxmi road or Mandai? Try the Public Bus.

Find out which bus can take you there on your mobile! Just sms PMT Aundh to Mandai to 092200 92200*!

In a fraction of a minute you will get the message: Routes [21D, 21ND, 25D, 41D, 60D, 88D, 113D, 113AD, 225D, 298D, 322D, 354D] connect [Aundh] to [Mandai]. D is for down routes, U is for up routes. Some routes have other alphabets which simply are part of the route number itself.

Thanks to the shared-data and crowd-sourcing governance we now have the latest routes on the system, look for them! Thank you PMPML for participating in the shared data initiative!

Do you know the bus routes to travel from where you live to your workplace? Or bus routes your kids could take to school or college? Or the route to take to the Movie Theater or restaurant? Or the bus route to the Katraj Zoo, the Kelkar Museum or Sinhagad from where you are? It’s all now an sms away!

Expect connecting busses to be listed soon. Also look out for the timetable and journey time to be indicated shortly.

If you are on a computer with internet access you can continue to use the previously released Pune Transit application with the updated data.

We are also going to open up your participation to help yourself to receive alerts of the bus location for the bus route you are interested in. Watch out here for how this works.

Let me know of features you would like to see! Email me at ciopune"at"ciopune.in.

* Only your mobile carrier's charges will apply, there is no additional fee levied for this service.

Census 2011 in Pune

2010-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Census 2011 is on across the country. Many people have been asking questions about the who is conducting it, must they participate, what do they do if they miss it? Here is an information link that you can look at and find your answers, add your questions or even answer the questions posed by others.

Managing Pune's Public Transport

2010-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Late March 2010 we had launched the First Version of Pune Transit. I am happy to announce the new version of the application below or open it in a new window.

You can find the busses passing through the location where you are or look for a direct bus between any two points on a map. Yes, we are working on connecting busses, so you can plan a multi-bus journey too, watch out for that soon.

Mapping the thousands of bus-stops across the city is a mammoth task- the bus drivers and conductors are already helping to map them. Out of the over 375 bus routes across Pune We've mapped a several routes and more than a several hundred bus stops (from over thousands). If you know a bus route, you too can help to locate the bus stops on a route on the map just sign in on the application to volunteer.

You can rate the bus route to help capture the best (and worst) user rated routes and why. Many users have been activly rating their bus routes already!

Soon you will be able to rate and submit issues about your bus-stops too. PMPML, are you listening?

We are working to help you (or the traffic Police) see on the map where to expect bus congestion given the time of the day. We even have a simple SMS alert module that can update subscribers to the departure or arrival of busses at their bus stops (or of busses on bus-routes they are interested in).

The system can also allow issuing monthly or annual passes online – along routes, between stops or within circles. It will therefore show route preferences and congestion right on the map, to enable better scheduling and even pricing!

We are working to enable you to add and suggest your dream routes. My own dream routes? Yellow-lines from (and to) schools to 8 or 16 hubs. Green lines from 8 hubs to industrial and commercial zones. Red lines that ply along 3-5 circular routes. I’m waiting to mark them on a map soon!

We are also working to crowd-source information on daily travel- If we map the daily travel of all the good netizens who volunteer this information we would not only be able to reroute ourselves (or change the time we use the road) but it can help the PMPML create better bus routes (once there is information on points between which people want to travel and when), the Traffic Police to better manage congestion (once there is information about points and time of congestion) and perhaps even the Municipal Bodies to better design road routing (one-way, two-way, right and left turns, parking zones), road engineering (width, dividers, signals, circles, lanes, segregation) and even town planning (development control rules, building permissions, aligning roads and buildings).

Be part of the future of urban transportation, the future is arriving.

Crowd Sourcing Information Systems for Pune

2010-01-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

Background

This is an invitation to all CIO's in Pune- an invitation to create shared Information Systems.

As all you CIO's know, Cloud Computing[1] has radically altered the models to deploy software, platforms and infrastructure across user communities. It has brought shared computing power, massive scalability, elasticity of use, pay-as-you-go and self-service scenarios for users.

Web 2.0[2] has opened the potential to tap the collective knowledge of the entire value chain. This has transformed business models to include the long-tail (or many very small niches of customers) thus radically altering the economics of providing services or deploying “products”. It significantly altered the ability to exchange information across silos with open models and API’s that facilitate the rapid development and deployment of consumer value through mashups.

Both of these present an opportunity to reach out value to consumers of information through diverse media and applications in a cascade of consumption by different cloud based mashups. This presents opportunity for the information starved governance sector, to offer the potential for disruptive growth and consumption of information for good-governance.

The Office of the CIO of Pune, set with the mission to enable shared information systems and facilitate connection and collaboration, sees this as the logical platform to address the goal of enabling connections and collaboration for good governance.

Pune's CIO's can then tap this opportunity to search and discover information and Information Systems that till now may have been hidden or unavailable. The infrastructure companies, the platform companies, the software companies as well as the telecom companies can tap into this significant opportunity to deliver value to Pune.

Value Proposition and Strategic Intent

In order to facilitate search, discovery as well as integration of various information services and products that may be of value to making Pune an Information City, the ciopune.in will serve as the single point of integration for various cloud based initiatives, particularly Web 2.0 based initiatives, to create various Shared Information Systems for Pune[3]
ciopune.in aims to provide a high visibility platform

for government agencies, NGO’s and businesses to host or share their Pune databases and maps and promote open governance
for Pune based government agencies, NGO’s and businesses to discover value offerings and generate rapidly developable mashups
for citizens interested in Pune to discover apps from third-parties that they could use for free or subscribe to receive information
to infrastructure and platform service providers to submit their value offerings for easy search and discovery
for software providers to host their applications or provide easy search and discovery of their cloud based offerings

At the core of ciopune.in is the intent to spur innovative information use through make Pune related data, maps and apps becoming more accessible and usable. This kind of access fostering innovation is also expected to facilitate creativity and ingenuity. Increasing the ability of the public to discover, understand, and use the vast stores of Pune related data, maps and apps not only increase good governance but also unlock Pune’s economic and social value.

Design Principles

A vibrant democracy depends on straightforward access to high quality data, visual representations and tools. ciopune.in will develop an ecosystem to provide developers, researchers, businesses, government agencies and the general public with a means to generate and access data, maps and diverse apps about Pune in a framework that allows easy discovery and access.

The key design principles for ciopune.in include:

Focus on Access: ciopune.in will be designed to increase access to resources that enable information generation, representation and sharing. The goal is to strengthen democratic institutions and the Pune economy through a transparent, collaborative and participatory platform while fostering development of innovative applications (e.g. visualizations, mash-ups) and analysis by third parties.
Open Platform: ciopune.in will use a modular architecture with application programming interfaces (API) to facilitate shared services for agencies and enable the development of third party tools. The architecture, APIs, and services will evolve based on public and agency input.
Focus on Discovery: Resources will be classified by type (data, maps, apps, infrastructure service links, platform service links, software service links), users (agencies or individuals who have submitted the resources) and sector (demographics, health, education, energy, mobility, waste, food, consumables etc.).
Focus on Consumer Participation: The platform will allow the consumers of resources to rate, comment and recommend features to resources they can consume on the platform.
Program Responsibility and Easy Submission: The participating vendors, agencies and individuals will be responsible for ensuring resource quality, providing context and meaning for the resource, protecting privacy and assuring information security associated with the resource. Registered users from different user categories will be able to submit and manae their portfolio of resources.

Operational Overview

ciopune.in website will incorporates three perspectives to present a catalog of existing resources:

Resource Catalog: This will include a catalog of data, maps, apps, information systems, infrastructure service links, platform service links and software service links available on ciopune.in.
Sector Catalog: This will include a a catalog of resources available for the demographic, health, education, energy, water, waste, food, consumables, landuse and environment sectors to begin with.
Agency Catalog: This will include a catalog of resources that were submitted by different agencies: the PMC, PCMC, PCB, DCB, KCB, Pune Collectorate, Pune Divisional Commissionerate, Pune RTO, PMPML, MSECDL, Irrigation Dept., Forest Dept., Census of India, NGO’s etc..

Each catalog will allow users to submit suggestions on including new members to its category: for example new resources, new sectors or new agencies.

Each resource page will feature a rating and comment submission mechanism.

The site will also feature a mechanism for user accounts and submission of resources through the accounts. It will provide a means to verify official users. It may incorporate a way to access to paid resources in future versions.

Conceptual Architecture

ciopune.in is expected to have the following modules:

User registration and management: This will enable users to create accounts to be able to upload resources (data, maps, apps, links relating to Pune) on to the ciopune.in site.
Resource Upload and Resource Management Capability: This will enable users to upload, permit access to all, select users or no-one, modify meta-data and delete resources through their account.
Resource rating mechanisms: This will enable registered users to comment, rate and recommend resources for specific tasks.
Search and catalog engines: This will enable present the resources as different catalogs as well as enable the search and discovery of various resources using simple and advanced criteria.

Partnerships and Costs

Government agencies and NGO's will be the key partners responsible for populating ciopune.in with high value, authoritative data.

Technology Companies and vendors will be key partners to help develop, maintain the platform as well as be responsible for populating ciopune.in with apps, information systems, infrastructure service links, platform service links and software service links.

Each of the Partners functional roles related to ciopune.in will include:

Ensure the identification and evaluation of resources for inclusion in ciopune.in. Such a process must include: a) screening for security, privacy, accessibility, confidentiality, and other risks and sensitivities; b) adherence to the agency’s Information Quality Guidelines; c) appropriate certification and accreditation (C&A); and d) signoff by the program office responsible for the resource.
Submitting and cataloging resources included on ciopune.in, being mindful of the significance of exposing data, maps and apps through ciopune.in in terms of the authoritative and high quality nature of resources being included in a CIO Initiative.
Ensuring that authoritative resource are made available in formats that are platform independent and machine readable.

This is an opportunity for Pune IT companies to present their data, apps, maps and other services for Pune and generate significant synergies. Please email your suggestions, comments, proposals and value propositions to cio.pune@gmail.com.

Endnotes

[1] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a draft working definition of cloud computing which defines the term as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”. For the full text of the NIST definition of cloud computing, including its five essential characteristics (on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service), three service models (Software as a Service — SaaS, Platform as a Service — PaaS and Infrastructure as a Service — IaaS), and four deployment models (Private, Community, Public and Hybrid Cloud), please refer to: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/index.html.

[2] Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design,[1] and collaboration. O’Reilly who is credited with the concept looks at Web 2.0 where the "Web as Platform", where software applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop believes the activities of users generating content (in the form of ideas, text, videos, or pictures) could be "harnessed" to create value. Web 2.0 sites have an "architecture of participation" that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.

[3] Similar initiatives with focus on data and apps have been launched by the Obama administration at http://data.gov and http://apps.gov. Tim Burners Lee has advocated similar approaches for the UK http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/10/berners-lee-downing-street-web-open and Gordon Brown has also announced a similar initiative of the Digital government.

Managing mobility in Pune

2009-12-27T01:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a placeholder for listing, tracking and crowd-sourcing solutions to mobility issues in Pune.

Pune Issues

2009-12-01T07:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a placeholder for listing, tracking and crowd-sourcing solutions to issues in Pune

The Pune H1N1 Wiki

2009-08-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Did you know about that you can help yourself and the city to deal with H1N1 on a wiki? Here is the place where you can crowd-source to collaborate, coordinate and deal with H1N1.

Containing the H1N1

2009-08-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

H1N1 is spreading. The response is still uncoordinated, slow, confused, messy and lacking a clear direction. What could a coordinated, quick, focused response look like? Here is a first look at a better coordinated system.

What if you could help yourself?
If you’ve got flu, you should be able to register yourself on phone, through an sms or on the internet. A quick set of questions should be able to assess if you need to be tested for H1N1. If you do, then the information system should schedule you for test on one of the 15 mobile collection centers closest to your home. You should be intimated during your conversation the expected time when the unit will visit you and conduct the test. At the same time the mobile unit would be sent an SMS of your location. The blackberry on the mobile unit would indicate the google map of your location and allow them to update the information system as soon as the sample is collected.

The collection team would do a collection round for three hours and then shift to another vehicle as the first one goes to drop off the samples. The collection vans would be fumigated every day.

Can the patients get the right medical attention at home in time?

The diagnostic centre would log the results onto the website minutes after the results. You get a telephone call, sms or email from a dedicated team responding to the web-site updates. The google map gets automatically updated to track positive locations.

The closest of the 15 mobile rapid action teams of doctors gets an sms alert and a map of the address their blackberry. The new patients would now be under medical advice at home within 3 hours of diagnosis. A quarantine team would also visit and advise the family, neighbors set up waste disposal mechanisms, provide masks and advise about hygiene. The family physicians would be contacted and advised on a daily check and reporting. Patients needing hospital attention would be shifted immediately.

Can the spread be contained through information?

All airlines, railways, buses would log passenger lists to a health check site. All patients are checked in these databases and co-travelers in the city are visited by the containment team for a quick check-up and advise.

All the classes in schools of children in the families of the travelers who were exposed to a patient would undergo a check every morning after a class assembly. School assembly to be discontinued immediately. The school medical team to register a case of flu on the phone, through the mobile or on the net. A special team would visit the school for containment, hygiene and closure advisory.

All the co-workers of a patient would undergo a check-up and advice within a day. Periodic follow-up would be scheduled as needed.

What if there was a health monitoring team?

Instead of the central government, state government, local government and the dozens of associated agencies making different statements, there would be a single agency that would report on the health, the advisories and the action plans. Different agencies would have to agree to the directives of this single agency and implement them.

Containing H1N1

Undoubtedly there is more than this needed. This is just a glimpse at an alternate way of dealing with the crisis. Do build the ways to contain this virus. We need more coordinated, focused and simple action and we are running out of time. Coordinate your efforts on Pune H1N1 Wik i.

Pune Giki

2009-08-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

Did you know about the Pune Governance Wiki? Here is the place where you can crowd-source governance and collaborate to build your city.

Life with a Punecard

2009-05-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

Punecards is round the corner if you wish it. It may no longer be a dream of the distant future. But we need to desire it strongly enough before it happens. What will a Punecard world look like? What will you be willing to do to make this a reality?

I travel to Zensar. Ganesh has already intimated the security at the gate of my meeting with him and my Punecard number. When I mention my name the security pulls up my photograph retrieved from Punecard in the visitors expected list he has. I can just pass through as the picture matches. He can also quiz me with any profile details if he is in doubt.
I exchange my Punecard – my digital visiting card – with the people at the meeting. My visiting card is now current even when my mobile or email change.
At the admission desk of the university I provide my Punecard number- the clerk uses that to fill up my form. I could well have filled up the form online from home through Punecard. In one click I am able to provide all the details that are required by the admissions committee.
All educational institutes are now uploading my educational certificates to my Punecard account. I can now provide a digital degree certificate to those who ask it of me.
My privacy is now better controlled. I provide information digitally to whom I may want. Every provision of information also leaves behind an audit trail so I know anytime who took what information from me.
My data on Punecards is scattered between multiple servers and strongly encrypted. I can have a premium account to increase transaction security.
The RTO just needs my Punecard number to register my vehicle. My neighbor, who is still at the silver card level and not a platinum cardholder like me, has to add certified copies of various certificates along with the PuneCard number. I can just provide the number!
My Punecard now facilitates cashless bus travel- All I need to do is flash my card and enter my PMPML pin into the small machine next to the driver.
Surprise- Just after few weeks of using the Pune Card on PMPML busses and the bus routes and frequencies seem to have improved to match my needs!
My kids have got enrolled into a free “Yellow Bus” service to take them to school automatically. The pickup and drop of points have been intimated to them and me on the Punecards account.
My neighbor who works at the Magarpatta IT park has automatically got enrolled to a “Red Bus” service to take him back and forth at a time that he specified!
The Municipal and Cantonment bodies now offer me all civic interactions on my Punecard account. Now all the documents that relate to me automatically available to me on my account - the birth records, properties I own, their approved plans, NOC’s, building permissions, the licenses I have obtained; all digitally certified – I can even back them up on my computer if I wish. No longer do I need to run around for these services.
At parking lots I simply provide my Punecard number and my PIN – no more cash to dole out here!
The parking lots have got reconfigured over the year to accommodate the short and long park vehicles and cope with the loads. Nice to see a responsive local body!
I just moved houses- Thanks to Punecard I just update my profile on PuneCard and all relying parties that I transact with automatically update my address. A verification intimation is sent instantly to my email and mobile.
Applying for an insurance policy is a click away- my Punecard profile simply fills up the form here as it does for the mutual fund I apply for.
Lol! I could just walk away with the new mobile phone in 5 minutes with my Punecard! With dynamic “KYC” provided by the card, telecom companies now use this for fast track mobile and internet account registration.
The police are happier now that Pune is a safe city. Crime prevention is now far easier. Tracking a criminal is minutes away.
Voting online will soon be possible with the integration of Punecards into the ECI’s voting system.
Whenever my profile changes, I start with an unauthenticated profile. As I provide my details to different organizations the authentication count of my profile increases.
My Punecard account tracks the use of my information- I now have a record of who I have shared my profiles with. I can opt to stop sharing update details of my profiles.
When I sign up for my club I provide my Punecard number. My club uses Punecard’s premium services that allow them to provide club-members directory, calendars, alerts and much more.
My company can now allow me to manage my profile- no more request letters or repeated form filling for expense reports, travel indents, reimbursements, address, phone, email changes; all of these are filled through Punecards.
My company can now provide a digital certificate for employment- My supervisor can endorse the projects I participated in. My references are people on Punecards, themselves with a public profile on Punecards.
As a Punecard holder I now have a firm reference of my city backing me for getting a job, for being an entrepreneur and doing good business.
With Punecard premium services I can have my own home page with a public profile and opt to be listed in a searchable directory as a punekar!
To upgrade my Silver Punecard to Gold I can visit any of the Gold Relying Parties. They simply sign me up as a subscriber to their services and verified at least three of the documents required by Punecard.
I got my Platinum Card by visiting a certified authority who uploaded my photograph and fingerprints and verified the certificates I had carried with me. I don’t need to leave unsecured photocopies of these certificates anymore- all Punecard relying parties can just access them online now, and I know who accessed them.
I registered myself for postpaid charges on various services. I now use my card in the bus, parking lots, public phones etc with my PIN or thumb-print to authenticate my use. At the end of the month I pay for the services I used. My Punecard account page lists my usage and the amounts.
My Punecard allows third parties to provide me applications around my secure identity- I am glad that my bank, hospital, insurance company are now allowing me to bank my information with them on my Punecard account.

Do you participate in the governance of your ward?

2009-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

How many people live in your electoral ward? How many families is that?

What is the ecological footprint of your ward? How much electricity can be supplied to your ward, what is the demand? How many million litres of Petrol/Diesel does your ward need, everyday? How many cars (or maybe bikes) are registered in your ward? Or by-the-way how many can park or drive in the ward?

How many bus routes (or bus trips) ply how many people (r what percentage) from your ward everyday (for work, to school or to markets?)? Do you know the congestion points (and times) of places in your ward?

How many new building permissions were granted this month in your ward? How many new tenements or commercial establishments or Sq Ft Commrcial space will that be? How many Ha of open spaces, play grounds and gardens exist in your ward?

Are there any waterbodies that are being conserved in your ward? How many tons of green or non-green solid waste or sewage does your ward generate and treat? How many million litres of water does your ward consume or fall short of every day? How much of it comes from the wards own rainwater harvesting?

How many people are born, marry, die, move into or move out of your ward every day?

Do you participate in the governance of your ward? Use the map to locate your ward, share and view information.

Tweet for Pune!

2008-12-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

Imagine you could SMS to everyone. Imagine you could let everyone know there is a traffic jam at the University circle. Imagine you could send out an invite to the tree-planting drive on the Baner Hill. Imagine you could message the world that admissions open for the educational course you have been waiting for. Imagine you message out reports of malaria in your neighborhood or choose to report births, deaths, suspicious activities, new shops, sale offers, rentals….

Imagine as a government agency you message out water closures. Imagine you message out flood alerts, road closures or diversions, bus, train and air departures or arrivals, waste collection notices, new project announcements, vip visits, dates of elections, urls of actionable sites...

That’s like a twitter of birds- hundreds of messages all at once…No wonder that these public messages sent on the internet are called tweets.
Of course you do not want to have thousands of tweets clogging up your life and that’s why tweeters like @pravinnirmal are enabling location specific tweets on pages at the governance wiki. See the tweets at the bottom of this page on the governance wiki. Give it a try. This way you can see the tweets sent by anyone on a location on a page devoted to that location. You can even go edit that page and add your two-cents worth.
You can also signup on tweeter and choose to follow tweeters like myself, Barack Obama or anyone else! By following a tweeter you can see all the tweets the person sends out. Others interested in your tweets may choose to follow you too.
With the White House tweets, the US senate floor tweets, the US house floor and even the US Supreme Courts on twitter tweeting away, should the rest of the world be behind?
Cities in the US have begun tweeting. Look at: San Marcos, Texas, Greensborocity, North Carolina, Killeen, Texas, Round Rock, Texas, McAllen, Texas, Plano, Texas. The Police in Austin, Texas, are using tweets for law and order advisories, notices and quick reassurances.
Can we have our ward officers, the Pune Police, the Pune RTO, the Pune Collector, the PMC, the PCMC, the Cantonment Boards, the MIDC, the PWD, the telecom companies in Pune, the Income Tax commissionerate, the Service tax commissionerate, the Pune University and even the businesses in Pune tweet?
All this is simple and free. Just sign into Twitter and start listening to the whole world- or talking too! Well not exactly the whole world, but to the whole world signed into twitter. If you are a government agency or a business in Pune you may qualify for some help and customization to get your tweets increasing your impact and effectiveness. Just email cio.pune@gmail.com to request your office to show the way to the rest of India.

Using a Wiki for Governing Pune

2008-11-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

The growing city

Just 10 years ago Kothrud, Warje, Hadapsar, Viman Nagar, Sinhagad Road, Satara Road, Kondhwa, Mundhwa, Aundh, Baner Road, Wakad etc. were yet opportunities for planned development. Just two years ago the JNNURM was an opportunity to renew Pune.

With two Municipal Corporations and three Cantonment Boards in addition to a dozen or more other Governance agencies constituted to implement an act (rather than govern the city), it is no wonder that the bounds of the act wall the city’s ability to govern itself.

Governance?

Ever wondered why decades of efforts of well meaning and powerful people keep Pune from implementing the Development Plan? Or solve the traffic woes? Or have a coordinated strategy for dealing with H1N1? Or deliver potable water or even just water all the year around? Why garbage disposal blows up in the face of the city? Why does the carrying capacity of Pune continue to be ignored in dealing with its woes?

Have a voice?

Why can the stakeholders have a say in the development of Pune? Do you have a voice? The Pune Giki (governance wiki) is intended to do just that- It is a website where you can voice the issues , conduct polls, share reports and documents, build shared visions, even track the administration, processes and people.

Will it change the city?

Change begins a step at a time. The first step is to recognize the need for shared and open conversations. Just like wikipedia, the encyclopedia created by people like you and me, has transformed the way knowledge is shared, a governance wiki can alter the way we govern ourselves.

If you are part of one of the dozens of governance agencies, this is your opportunity to reach out and involve the people in projects, announce events and processes, even create people’s participation. If you are a resident of Pune – or just one of those people who loves Pune, you may want to contribute by starting conversations on issues.

People have already been discussing dozens of issues . Join the conversation or create your own. Welcome to the beginning of participative governance.

Requesting a Service from your Government Agency

2008-09-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

With support from numerous NGO’s, government officials and IT companies in Pune, the Office of the CIO has designed and deployed a Service Request System developed by Persistent at the Pune Municipal Corporation. They still prefer to call it as the Grievance Redressal System (GRS). Hopefully a look at the best practices will help them to move ahead enlarging the scope of services and renaming it to Service Request System.

Hopefully this application will become part of a shared Service Request System for Pune, not just a SRS for one government agency. The Pune resident should be able to request a service without needing to think about which agencies job it is to provide the service. So if there is a parking request, traffic control request the shared system should be able to let the appropriate agencies- the municipal body, the police, the RTO, the PMPML or the Collectorate know right away.

This system can help identify the functional areas where the agencies need to allocate budget. It can help identify the priorities in each electoral ward across the city. It can even help the agencies to coordinate the development and service delivery works across multiple departments.

This system will work best if it can also provide a visual feedback of:

How many services were attended to in each geographical and functional (health, waste management, licenses, certifications, permissions etc) area every day, week, month and year to date
How many services are pending in each geographical and functional area for one week, one month or longer
Services repeating themselves in a geographical area
Most requested services for each functional areas of service
Department/officials processing most services and least services per day and year to date

The software provides for such a display and hopefully the government agencies who deploy the system will enable it on their websites soon.

It is good to see the global best-practice enabling citizens to request a service from their government agency come to Pune. Here are some of the best-of-the breed websites enabling online service requests from citizens and organizations:

The City of Augusta in Georgia, USA for example allows citizens to fill up this simple form to request a service.
Or look at the complete list of online services offered by the city of Boston.
The City of Fresno in California is another city enabling on-line request of services
The city of Tampa, Florida alos offers an online Customer Service Centre
Many state and county government sites too offer online services- although there is not enough consolidation of services into simple usable categories. See for example the online services of the State of Michigan.
Look at the Government of Idaho State’s online Citizen Services
Or look at the online eServces offered by the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Or see the services on website of the Montgomery County in Maryland.
Or the online services offered by Alameda County in California.
The French government too offers online services to its citizens.
Or look at the online services of the US Department of Posts.

Hopefully we can do Pune proud by learning and improving these best practices in the versions of the GRS to come!

Pune 2015

2008-05-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

Pune 2015. Of the 4 million, over 3 million citizens of Pune are using Pune-card and most of them keep track of the card-transactions through their ilife account. About 5 percent users still prefer a quarterly paper-statement of their ilife.

I log in as Anupam.Saraph at the punecity.gov.in site. It is the single point for my ilife. Single windows are passé. No longer do I need to go to “singe-windows” at different departments or offices of the local, state or central government, I simply log into my ilife. Better still my bank, insurance company, hospital and even my local grocer are ilife enabled.

The pain of providing the same information over and over at different counters is history. The first time I registered myself to ilife, through my computer at home, I was asked to provide information to identify myself. I was requested to visit any one of the 14 ward offices to provide a photograph and my thumbprint to receive my Pune-card, my username and a password to access ilife. That was it.

My Pune-card provides me with cashless bus-travel, parking and entry into all electronic access public locations as well as electronic entry enabled private locations. It works as a cash-card and also replaces time-consuming procedures with countless forms to make applications. It simplifies and secures transactions as I can simply allow the service providers to swipe my card and take my thumbprint to access information. Only information that I have marked as allow through Pune-card will be accessed at points-of-transaction. The transaction is updated in my account on ilife.

When I log in my account includes records of every institution with whom I did a transaction, either using the Pune-card or directly through ilife. Government departments, businesses and service providers have registered themselves to use Pune-cards and ilife. In one-step through a single-point they gain access to the reliable, authentic and consistent information that they need from me thus enabling them to shorten the time it takes to service my requirements.

ilife has made my life more hassle-free and organized. All my transactions are filed into my account, no longer do I need to search for documents, certificates or obtain “NOC’s” for any transaction- even my photographs and signatures have become unnecessary. From my birth, education, marriage records to tracking my assets and accounts, my income and expenses even my taxes all get organized securely and with full privacy by ilife.

Pune having become the country’s first city to be unwired has device connectivity across the city through secure channels. Thousands of card-readers, traffic sensors, flow-meters, switches can now communicate information or take instructions on secure channels across the city. This has enabled Pune-card readers to instantaneously access the ilife servers to query or update information.

ilife’s open source and open standards have enabled it to create an eco-system of services by diverse service providers. A whole industry of businesses has flourished providing solutions to enable their services onto ilife.
Even my travel has now become more hassle-free as I subscribe to itravel solutions built by third parties using the ilife framework. I can view my travel route for congestion before a journey- even book a route, at a price, for guaranteed average-time or lower travel times. I can get mobile alerts for bus routes I subscribe to or choose to be informed if the bus is delayed.
Other service providers enable my son’s tutoring for the courses he has chosen. iteach manages the city-wide teachers and the courses they run and allow me to book myself or my son onto any course run by a specific teacher at a venue- the various schools or colleges.

The city’s water distribution is now monitored over the unwired network as also the city’s lighting system. I am alerted into my ilife account of any system failures, scheduled closures or quality issues. I can in turn contribute to alerting the utilities about any problems or failures.

ilife now enables me to view my electoral ward’s map. I can choose to view the schools and display schools that can be reached on a bicycle track from my house. I can look for theaters and markets and check for bus routes that will take me directly there. I can look for restaurants I can walk to or parks and gyms that I can jog to. Third parties are running ipage services (the replacement of the yellow pages) to businesses to add additional query-able information updates about their business into the basic information on the map. Hotels are adding tariffs and booking-gateways. Restaurants are adding menus and home-delivery-gateways.

A vibrant collaboration to build the communities around local self-help is on through wiki-enabled web-pages. This has helped to bring world-class infrastructure standards to Pune. The city has already distinguished itself in creating a collaborative development plan that identified visions for the next 20 years, the challenges for the city over the next 20 years as well as various strategies to address these challenges. The city ran a world-wide simcity based competition to “Design for Pune” and generated a huge dialog about the challenges and strategies for the city. It also built a strong sense of belonging in the city, a commitment to common visions and a tremendous positive culture to address challenges and make visions happen.

As a result of this alignment, the city has made a transition to non-fossil-fuel based transportation systems, become energy surplus, has a 100% water access for 24x7 and the countries best record on recycling and managing waste. It has also been able to get the largest carbon-credits through the huge corridors of greening accomplished across all the city’s watersheds.
Web 2.0 based technologies have resulted in creating city-resource planning (CRP) across local-state and central government authorities.

Pune in 2015 is the country’s first icity. The Prime Minister has called for the creation of ilife servers in every city to ensure good-governance. The UN has decided to replicate the Pune model across the world for ensuring sustainable development and stable and value yielding economies.

Creating Collaboration in Governments

2008-03-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

Wikis
Wiki’s are websites that allow users to add, remove, edit and change content. Unlike typical websites wikis are invitations to collaborate, self-organize and create order from chaos.

The best-known wiki is Wikipedia, the free content collaborative encyclopedia with over 7.2 million articles. In March 2000 Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger initiated the then radical goal of creating a publicly editable encyclopedia. Today Wikipedia is ranked amongst the top 15 most visited sites in the world and its publicly edited content is recognized by Nature as having similar accuracy as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The success of Wikipedia is attributed to it using the features of a wiki. Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make mistakes. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of pages.

The "Recent Changes" page on a wiki provides a list of all the edits made within a given timeframe. The “History” page on a wiki allows to track all the edits made to a page since its posting. Wiki’s also help track the contributions of different users making vandals and vandalism easy to spot and correct.

Wikis also provide for creating pages with restrictive access- only those with a valid access can view, add, remove and change the content on these pages. This allows the creation of wikis with access to registered users or controlled groups.

Decision Making in Government
In a government the process of decision-making is a collaborative process- whenever new ideas are proposed, applications are made or decisions need to be made the government creates a ‘file’. This file then takes a journey back and forth through the hierarchy of the government from the clerk who generated it to the Minister or even the Chief Minister and then back. The file travels through the government office across through a path defined by a ‘book of rules or procedures’, tradition of the office or a path marked by the person who created the file. It can also be redirected to other people, departments, and ministries. Sometimes files remain on a table for long periods.

Each file has a right hand side of the proposal backed with supporting documents and a left hand side that tracks its journey and the comments or ‘notations’ of those who receive, ‘study’ and forward the file.

A wiki is an ideal way to enable this government wide collaboration of decision-making. Instead of a file a wiki would create a wiki-page on the file-topic. All who are given access to the wiki could see new pages or edits on old pages using the “Recent-Changes” feature or simply search for pages with categories relevant to them. They can then just make any changes, which then become instantly available to all across the government.

With a wiki the government office is well equipped for quick turnaround and transparent decision making.

Imagine- no more file tracking, no-more wait. No more barriers of departmental walls to seek out information on relevant projects.

Imagine a complete transparency of the changes made by everyone who contributed to the process. Imagine the Right to Information Act (RTI) simply granting access to the relevant pages and no painful searches for information that does not exist.

Collaborating with citizens
Governments traditionally do not collaborate with citizens- inputs of citizens can at best be heard through citizen-groups, lobbyists, NGO's, media focus or representations. Governments therefore become very insular and loose the sense of purpose of activities in a sector or area.

By creating wiki’s that allow citizens to add, modify or even delete information the government can create collaborative-governance. For example a draft development plan could be ‘opened-up’ to citizen collaboration in the form of wiki pages. Citizens would then be able to fill in the gaps, add content and collaborate to developing a better region.

The opportunity
There are enormous possibilities to use the power of the internet to not only create collaboration in government but empowering the democratic process beyond the electoral process. It is an opportunity to see other offices, departments and citizens as partners and not adversaries. An opportunity to create shared visions and empower powerful missions.

Creating collaborative systems

2007-09-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

Roles

To cooperate you need to share a common goal with those you cooperate with. Most of the time the failure of cooperation is from an inability to share a common goal.

To collaborate you do not need to share a common goal- rather for you to work together to evolve goals, some of which may be shared and others may find strong disagreement.

To participate you do not need to work together- you only need to take part.

Unfortunately we use the word cooperation to describe what at best may be a participation. Most systems that enable, reinforce or cause success of these roles are therefore often accidental and not by design. It is not uncommon therefore to encounter a poverty of systems that enable, reinforce or cause success of participatory, collaborative or cooperative roles.

At best most democratic processes result in participating. They enable participation by franchise. However they do not reinforce participation- the participant is rarely rewarded by the act of participating. It is little wonder that democratic processes report poor turnouts and hung verdicts. H.G.Wells in his Anticipations has even predicted democracy to be a passing phase.

The value and endurance of the outcomes depends on what roles people play. It depends on the systems that enable, reinforce or cause the success of the roles.

Collaborative roles

Participative decision making requires those with a stake in the decision to take part- it does not require a voice nor a result favorable to the participant. Unless of course you want the participant to continue to participate.

Collaborative decision making moves a step ahead- it focuses on having people work together and discover common goals and even define common projects. Systems that enable collaboration ensure a voice for every participant. Such systems ensure they reinforce dialog and reward positive attitudes and working together.

Systems that enable participation, collaboration or cooperation can be restricted to a set of predefined participants (closed) or they can be open to participation from anyone.

Decision making

Meetings in organizations are a participatory process- they provide a means to participate. They do not necessarily provide the participants with a voice. They also do not require the participants to work together.

Decision making in governments is perhaps the best example of collaborative decision making. Yet unfortunately in most governments collaboration lacks a proper system to enable, reinforce and reward working together.

In a government decisions are made through a “consensus” evolved from people working together. Decisions start as a proposal, complaint, suggestion, request or even a brochure that is put on a government file. The file journeys through the government hierarchy based on the “rules of business” of the government or sometimes on the route explicitly suggested by the initiator of the proposal. This requires that all people who are part of the route work together to evolve a consensus. While this system enables different participants to work together, this system does not reinforce working together nor does it reward working together.

On-line collaboration

Wikipedia is perhaps the best example of online open collaboration. Anyone can take part in creating wikipedia. All you need to do is visit www.wikipedia.org and create an article on a subject of interest to you or just modify an existing article to incorporate your suggestions. It is the working together of man individuals interested in the topics on wikipedia that shapes each article. The more the people who take part the better is the final product, the greater is the value and benefit to the contributors.

Wikipedia thus not only enables collaboration but it reinforces it- authors take part in each others articles and make positive contributions. Negative contributions are quickly removed by other participants. Wikipedia also rewards the contributors with the end product: the allowing them to enjoy the fruits of articles they initiated, authored and edited.

Wikis in business and government

Businesses and governments can use a wiki- the open source software that allows you to create user-editable websites like the wikipedia- to create collaborative systems. Such systems can be open or restricted to private participation.

Wikis offer themselves as excellent means to adress the many collaborative needs of business and government: creating customer support, providing customer-driven services, designing new products, writing manuals, creating relevant projects, discovering missions, negotiating, gathering data, benchmarking, discovering what works- or what does not, understanding the progress, capturing changes in the environment.

Need of the hour

All projects and problems require a participative, collaborative or cooperative role. If we do not create systems that enable, reinforce or reward the role we desire we will not have the performance that we desire.

Thankfully designing participatory, collaborative and cooperative systems is getting easier and easier!

Take it to a new level

2007-05-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

For the people, by the people, of the people- take it to a new level.

To participate in making a difference visit Giki.

Giki, the government wiki

2007-05-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

It’s finally out there! Thank you to the many of you who supported the initiative- you are far too numerous for me to name you all- my gratitude to you for caring about a better world! Special thanks to Chad Lupkes for helping improve the concept, seeding intial pages and for his enthusiasm and commitment to making a better world!

Government wiki or Giki is a wiki application designed to be used by governments and citizens alike. It's mission is to help citizens and government organizations to form a community around common purposes to make the world a better place.

Wikis are increasingly used internally by companies and public sector organizations, some as prominent as Adobe, Microsoft and the FBI. They represent an alternative to centrally-managed Content Management Systems. They potentially allow a more flexible approach to Project Management than dedicated software.

Features of Giki

Features of giki specifically helpful to citizens and organizations include:

creating a participatory space for evolving a common purpose, mission and sharing visions.

updating project and budget information and benchmarking against similar activities elsewhere in the world.

sharing functions and procedures and discovering best practices with other similar bodies elsewhere.

keeping organizational information: its constitution, its organizational structure and contact information current.

evolving a way for cross organizational dialogue where common or shared purpose matters.

Using Giki

This wiki space is a great opportunity for citizens to evolve a shared vision with government agencies- to learn and update information on the functions offices of different agencies, to compare practices worldwide.

It’s great for governments too- One way to organize communities around missions. Great possibility space to listen to what the purposes government organizations should serve in a new world. A fantastic way to see and share the practice of government.

This is a wiki to help the community to create a better world for everyone. Remember, we're all in this together!

Giki is YOUR single point to connect with communities, share purpose, missions and practices for local and global governance.

Giki will include articles for government departments for different countries, states and towns across the world. It will include information on the constitution, purpose, mission, offices and indicators of performance. It may include a history or timeline of people in office, purpose and focus at the time, rules, laws, and performance indicators.

In fact it will contain the information that will help YOU to build a better world fro everyone.

The idea is to get the community to share and evolve purposes, missions, document critical issues, performances and create a chaordic model of governance from a "Neutral Point of View" of wiki.

An example

Imagine a small government disconnected without a web-site can now reach out to the community it serves. Or dedicated citizens can help people from thier communities connect around their governments.

Imagine helping your government to discover what purpose is more relevant now- as against the decades or centuries ago that its constitution was laid out.

Imagine government departments discovering common projects, practices. Or just projects addressing the same space and that need to be coordinated. Even in the same town!

Imagine the community from San Francisco creating a wiki page on the DMV there- its purposes, practices, goals, programs and performance.

Imagine someone in Bangalore or Delhi making a similar page for the Department of Transportation or Road Transport Organization. Perhaps many more across the world have a similar page.

Now imagine the opportunity to connect- create common purposes, evolve best practices. Imagine the opportunity to create global citizenry and local responsibility.

Making it happen

Like to see a different way to make your voice be heard? To live a life that matters? To contribute to the "long now"? To address the long tail of government?

Newbies to wiki's can experiment adding and editing at http://government.wikia.com/wiki/Sandbox .
If you have used wiki's like wikipedia before just go straight to http://government.wikia.com/wiki/Giki.. Those who would like to learn more about using wiki's can go to a quick tutorial. Don't worry even I learnt how to do it for this project in 15 minutes! If you would like to experiment before you make contributions use this area, its called a "sandbox".

Many of you are experienced and passionate about building communities, build a community around issues that matter to you. Remember this is a space about mutual respect and love. So long as you do not violate that it's your second chance to live a life you would like to live.
And of course, invite your friends and family in this adventure to make a difference.

May your efforts bear many successes and your experiences fun and rewarding!

tags technorati : wiki government world