Web portals in the domain of CIS: towards categorization of services in Indian

environment-an evaluationSubarna BandyopadhyayAssistant Librarian Grade-II, Deptt. Of Education,University of Burdwan

Dr. Parthasarathi MukhopadhyayAssistant Professor, D.LIS., University of Burdwan

What is Community

The Term ‘Community’ has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location sharing an environment

(wikipedia, 2010).

Community : a two-dimensional concept

The term ‘community’ has two dimensions – i) ‘community of place’ and

ii) ‘community of interest’.

What is CI

CI is information for the problems and crises encountered by the individuals in their lives. In sort, CI is the information in the community and for the community.

Basic Categories of CI

Survival information such as related to health, housing, income, legal protection, economic opportunities, political rights, civil rights etc.

Citizen action information needed for effective participation as individuals or as group members in social, political, legal, and economic processes

Local information

What is CIS

LA Working Party says CISs are those, which assist individuals and groups with daily problems solving and with participation in the democratic process.

What is community web portal

A community web portal is a web site that functions as a point of access to information about the community in the WWW environment. It presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. The target group being versatile in nature the language interfaces are generally multilingual.

Functions of Community web portal(CWP)

Community Information ServicesSurvival informationCitizen-action informationLocal information

Community communication and interactionintra community activityInter community activity

Objectives

To make an overall study of web portals available in India

To investigate whether these portals have followed any standards in the organization of community information.

How far they are justified in providing information according to the requirements of the community members.

How a unified list can be utilized in digital CIS

Scope of the study

The study is limited to some major web portals available in India - Government based, NGO based and Public-Private Partnership Initiative(PPPI) based.

Methodology

The major thrust areas of CI available in each web portals were studied thoroughly and were listed separately.

Then major broad categories as well as their sub categories were identified and compiled as a single unified list.

This unified list has been incorporated in a software architecture for providing browsing based retrieval (under process)

List of Some major e-Government initiatives

State covered Name of the initiatives

URL

India National portal of India

http://.india.gov.in

India One india Explore

http://explore.oneindia.in

Andhra Pradesh E-seva www.esevaonline.com

Chhattisgarh CHIPS www.chipsbooks.com

Gujrat Mahitishakti http://zunia.org/mahitishakti

Gujart Gujrat stateportal

www.gujrat.india.com

List of Some major e-Government initiatives

State covered Name of the initiatives URL

Gujarat Vibrant Gujarat http://www.vibrantgujrat.com

Himachal Pradesh Lokmitra http://himachal.nic.in/lokmitra/

Kerala Akshaya www.akshaya.kerala.govt.in/index-php/new-thrust

Maharastra Information Junction http://maharashtra.govt.in/english/webRing

WestBengal Banglar Mukh www.banglarmukh.com

Homepage of WB Govt. portal

Kerala Govt. web portal homepage

Some major NGO/PPPI based CIS Initiatives

Name of the initiatives State covered URL

Community information centre(CIC) of NIC

North-Eastern States www.idrc.ca/panasia/-

E-choupal-ITC MP,Karnataka,AP,UP,Rajasthan,Maharashtra

www.itc-echoupal

Gyandoot Dhar ,MP www.gyandoot.nic.in/dhar-district

Information Villege Project of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation(MSSRF)

Ten villege near Pondicherry

www.mssrf.org/ect/index.htm.

Some major NGO/PPPI based CIS Initiatives

Name of the initiatives State covered URL

One World SouthAsia South Asia www.oneworldsouthasia

TARAhaat UP, MP, Punjab www.tarahaat.com

A NGO Web portal home page

Web portal home page

Web portals : a comparative study

Comparative study based on-Language interface(mono/bi-lingual,multilingualetc.)

Community communication services(Discussion forum, Mailing list, Instant messaging , etc)

Community interaction services(Blog, Wiki, RSS, etc)

Emergency support services (Ambulance, hospital, etc)

Self information (software used, standard used etc)

Web portal’s score in comparison

Name of the initiatives Score (Max. Score)

Akshaya 2

Banglarmukh 4

CHIPS 2.5

Community information centre(CIC) of NIC

1.5

E-seva 1.5

Contd…

E-choupal 2

Gujarat state portal 3

Gyandoot 1

Information junction 1.5

Lokmitra 1.5

Mahitishakti 1.5

Contd…

MSSRF 1

National portal of India 3

One India explore 3

One world South Asia 1.5

Tarahaat 1

Vibrant Gujarat 2

Unified list

open the list

Use of Category List in Structured Browsing

Conclusion

From the study following constraints are revealed These web based services do not follow any standards in

organizing community information resources and services are not multilingual.

Approaches are not integrated. Efforts are isolated and experimental in nature.

In this circumstances a standard category list is required for organizing community information resources. It may help structured browsing in digital CIS

THANK YOU