What you give is what you get (WYGiWYG)- Make your World a bit better, a lot faster- Part 3

Just to refresh your memory, in Part # 1 of my blog on this subject I referred to WYGiWYG (What you give is What you get) as a Crowd Source Ideation and Application Development platform where you and me can come together and put together an application, market it, get it going and hand it over to the Government when the benefit of the application is there for anyone to see.

In this blog, as planned earlier, I am going to elaborate on the Framework for Integrated Helpdesk for good Governance (Through Public Opinion and Feedback), an example for an Application/ Infrastructure that can get built through this WYGiWYG platform

“A Problem needs to be reported first in order to be solved”,

That is the basic premise behind this “Integrated Helpdesk”. This is a proposal to enable the various public interfacing functions/departments of State Govts.  and/or the Central Govt. to listen to the actual problems of the people and to their views/Requests for improvements through an Integrated Helpdesk. This Help desk will facilitate to Collect Public Opinion, General Feedback and Complaints (in Certain Cases) and to channel it to the appropriate govt. departments or functions so that govt. departments functions get a real feel of what are the genuine needs for the public and thereby can plan and actionize tasks/ projects to resolve genuine problems of people in good time. It also brings about increased public participation in governance and nation building.

 The Need for an Integrated Helpdesk

Hanging Electrical Wires, People Robbed in Broad Daylight, Pot Holes that Break Cars, Broken Water Pipes, Pre-Paid Taxis at Railway Stations that Carry Fake Rate Cards… one can go on and on like we have been doing it for ages now.  We have discussed all of these problems over and over again and have ridiculed government after governments.  Integrated Helpdesk can pave the way to take these discussions seriously and make it matter.

The Use of this Integrated Helpdesk will be two fold

1. To Enable Public to Share Opinions/Views and Participate in Nation Building

There is an abundance of good ideas around infrastructure development and governance that is being discussed in vain by a huge mass of highly qualified Arm chair critics (this blog is probably a good example). It is in the interest of all stakeholders that we develop a communication channel that can be used get these valid opinions from the public and bring it to the notice of ones who are empowered to make the changes a reality.

2. To Enable Public to Report critical Issues (Like Crime) as a complaint in a timely Manner

We are aghast at hearing incidents of Crime and wish the place was crime free. Yet many of us do not come forward to Walk into a Police Station to register the complaint or dial the Control Room Number 100 for the fear of being looked up as a culprit despite having gone there as a victim. Hence when the Crime goes un-reported, more crime happens as the Police do not have enough information to prevent such crimes in the future. Hence we need to ensure vital information gets reported and collected so that the concerned govt. functions can act on them.

A Sketchy High Level Design for this App is as follows:

Scope

Illustrative List of Public Facing Government functions

(POLICE, TRAFFIC POLICE, Water and Sewage, Electricity, Urban Development/City Planning, Public Transportation, Railways, Aviation, Health and Sanitation, Consumer Rights Protection, CBSE, STATE EDUCTAION Board, Election Commission…)

Type of Complaints

Individual (Personal) Issues can be reported for some Government Functions where as only General Issues (Suggestions/Opinions/Feedback) can be reported for some other Government Functions

End User Channels

The Proposed Channels for the Integrated Helpdesk would be the following:

• Multi Language Self Service Portal
• Multi Language Call Center
• Multi Language Mobile User Interface

Implementation Options

This application can be implemented in one or both of the following ways

• To enable Every Individual, the access to Call Center/Self Service Portal (or)
• To Enable Community based access to Call Center/Self Service Portal (One User ID per community. A Community may have multiple definitions (Eg. Residential Associations, Corporate Offices…) to ensure an exhaustive coverage.)

Inputs to the System

• From the Individual or Community Representative – The Complaints
• From the Government Function – The Response and the Follow up Information to the Complaints

Outputs from the System

• To the Government Functions and Other Stake Holders -  Consolidated Reports, Assignment of Individual Issues/Tickets
• To the Individual or Community Representative – Status Updates for Complaints/ Localized Emergency Alerts Through SMS, Mails and Updates on Portal

FAQ

1.       Don’t we have such systems already

Yes, a few disparate system do already exists like

·         100 for Police Control Room

·         BBMP Already has a Portal and a Number you can call in

·         Other Helpdesks for other Govt. Functions

2.       What are the Problems in Existing Systems:

·         Lack of Awareness of Existence of Such systems

·         Lack of Awareness of Processes in Existing Systems

·         Inconsistency of the Service Provided (Example - Was not able to Place a Traffic Complaint in English/Hindi to the Traffic Control Room Number 103 in Bangalore)

3.       What are Advantages of Proposed Integrated Helpdesk:

·         Integrated, Scalable, One Number for all Issues, Shared Services across States and Cent Govt.

·         Multi-Language Helpdesk to Cater to the Cosmopolitan Nature of the Indian Cities

·         Consistency of Service Levels throughout the Country across a range of issues

·         Can double up as Emergency Response System to Send Quick and Critical Localized Alerts to the Masses.