[Ilugc] Software from Kenneth Gonsalves
- From: prem@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Prem Kurian Philip)
- Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 15:36:39 +0530 (IST)
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:24:19 +0530
From: satyaakam goswami <satyaakam at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Ilugc] Software from Kenneth Gonsalves
To: ILUG-C <ilugc at ae.iitm.ac.in>
Message-ID:
<CALre89k7Lef96LTv65YCk0y23ot5Gg5XggP6OJr1g9pNiQp2Hg at mail.gmail.com>
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if it's not here https://bitbucket.org/lawgon/ , i doubt it to be
there.
Satya, yes, that is a useful link.
also let me know what you are working on , we are planning for a
Hackathon
on data.gov.in datasets , we can suggest this as an idea to be worked on
.
-Satya
fossevents.in
I apologise for the late reply.
I had spoken to KG in 2010 that I would be willing to help with the costs
of server hosting and also with development if a website were to be setup
for hosting data specific to India because the documentation available in
India is in such a deplorable state that hardly anyone is sure about
whether it is accurate or not.
If you go to a government department each person present there will have a
different idea of what the current policy is with respect to all sorts of
things.
About the software - I was considering something that allows both adhoc
unstructured document style data (wiki-style data) as well as structured
(read: columnar) data. A sort of a wiki but with the ability to host
searchable columnar data.
Taking about data, I am considering all sorts of data. Some example data:
a) Data on crime categorised by nature of crime in taluk, panchayat,
district, state etc.
b) Government schemes and policies across departments.
c) Government procedures and policies - example:
- What are the licenses and permits needed for setting up a restaurant
- How does one deal with the loss of a voter's id
- What are the banned fertilisers and agrochemicals, etc.
d) Contact numbers for various people in government and local bodies
Example: the contact numbers for the Additional Engineer, Lineman etc,
local beat constables/SI, municipal councilors, MLAs, etc all categorised
by locality.
e) Other example data:
- Prices of food, grain etc across time in different parts of the country
- Native bird, animal and fish species in different parts of the country.
With the Pallikarnai marsh being actively destroyed by the government in
just a few years a lot of these native species in these marshes could
become extinct.
- Local utilities, libraries, parks, daycare centres, schools, colleges,
theatres, malls, PDS shops
- Places of interest - museums, beaches, sports clubs
- Dates and times for the local government meetings, panchayat meetings,
and other meetings open to locals.
This is just a sample.
There should be an ability to attach PDFs and other documents to all data
- example: application forms for various government departments.
Also, the policies and procedures should have support for it to be
ratified by one or more government officials to indicate that the data is
indeed correct. If the data is not ratified, it should be marked as such.
A more informal ratification by ordinary citizens who have actually
verified that the procedures/policies actually are correct should also be
provided.
Also, all procedures and policy documentation should have a counter which
indicates how long it has been since it has been updated - to indicate
that it may not be current. Once data goes past a threshold in terms of
"currentness", it should be marked as such and be brought to the attention
of moderators for review and updates or archival.
I was also considering building in moderated forums, and also having a
local petitioning system which will direct an email to be automatically
delivered to the correct authorities.
Also, if this could be developed with a web service API such that the data
can be queried remotely and also updated remotely it may be possible to
integrate this into existing solutions.
Example use cases:
- Local weather data from 2007 November 12 compared with today's data in a
desktop or mobile app.
- Compare data on the price of wheat in 2010 January vs today's data -
again in a desktop or mobile app.
- Take a picture of a fish on your mobile phone and upload it to the
website tagged under the name of a local fish species. This could then be
checked by moderators and experts and then either accepted into the
website or moved into a different section.
It is pretty ambitious but I am seeing it as a public utility and not a
commercial venture. Most of this functionality is already available in
Mediawiki, Alfresco etc, but it would be good to tie in Openstreetmap etc
into it and also include better tools for searching and querying columnar
data and ofcourse, there will be work required in developing a secure web
service layer which allows for API key generation (similar to Google map
API keys) etc, different levels of access, moderation etc.
Apart from the software development work, considerable work needs to go
into getting content and keeping it current. All software that needs to be
developed should be developed as open source and so yes, something like a
hackathon by FOSS enthusiasts would definitely help.
Regards,
Prem Kurian Philip
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