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
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