E-Solutions for Governments

Location: England and Wales. Year: 2015. Developers: the UK government.

Solution: to launch digital plea system for citizens 'Make a Plea', e-service to allow those charged with minor motoring offences to make their plea online, rather than in person. During the pilot in Manchester nearly a third of people used the digital service to make a plea. Benefits: the website should ensure that police and the courts can focus their resources on more serious or complex cases.

"Wider modernisation of the courts has included investing £160 million in digital technology for courtrooms including video links, wifi and improved IT systems to end the system’s reliance on paper.” Shailesh Vara, the UK  Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid

Location: South Africa. Year: 2015. Developers: South African government.

Solution: to launch ‘The South African Government app’. This mobile app links users to mobile friendly South African government website, www.gov.za. The app is available for a free download for both Android and Apple mobile devices. Benefits: citizens have wealth of information and services at the fingertips through the app.

"The app was developed at the back of evidence that there was an increasing appetite for government information." Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South African Communications Deputy Minister

Location: Suzhou, China. Year: 2015. Developers: Winsun, Chinese 3d printing company.

Solution: to open 3d printer plants all over the world. China aims to establish 3D printer plants in 20 countries in the next few years, including Dubai, Britain and France. What is more, Egyptian government has already signed a deal for 20,000 single-storey dwellings in the desert. Winsun will provide the printer and formula for making “ink” from sand, and the houses will be printed on site. Benefits: the state becomes the world player of innovative 3d industry, not only producing, but also exporting 3d technologies.

“We’re turning from a company focused on producing and selling construction materials to a company exporting technology… These houses you see are made by our first-generation printer. We’re now developing generation six." Ma Yihe, Winsun’s CEO

Location: India. Year: 2014. Developers: the National Informatics Center (NIC) of India.

Solution: to implement Mehgraj, national cloud computing architecture for government department and agencies. On Dec., 2014 61 departments used services of the National Cloud. The government is also developing an accreditation mechanism for private players, and is examining potential revenue models. Further, the focus is on developing applications for the e-Gov AppStore in tandem with private players. Benefits: Mehgraj will accelerate delivery of services and optimise spending on ICT.

“Meghraj is an extremely important and relevant technology to create a paradigm shift in the way government procures IT, and deploys e-Gov applications across the country.”  Renu Budhiraja, Senior Director, e-Governance, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY)

Location: China. Year: 2014. Developers: Chinese governments.

Solution: to provide a trust rating of cloud computing vendors, with only those passing strict benchmarks for security allowed to be involved in governmental schemes. Benefits: it improves information security while using cloud computing technologies.

"The basic idea of the security rating mechanism is to find trustworthy hardware, software, and service providers to ensure the government has total control of the entire ecosystem." Zuo Xiaodong, vice-president of industry group China Information Security Research Institute

Location: Dubai, the UAE. Year: 2015. Developers: the UAE government; international team of 180 researchers, designers and experts.

Solution: to open the Museum of Future Government Services. Benefits: it is a new approach that will pave the way for citizens and governments to work together to address future concerns.

"The Museum of Future Government Services highlights that the future will belong to those who can imagine it, design it and implement it today. We cannot wait for the future; it has to be designed and built today." Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai

Location: Delhi, India. Year: 2014. Developers: Attero, e-waste Indian company.

Location: Estonia. Year: 2015. Developers: Estonian government.

Location: India and the U.S. Year: 2015. Developers: Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, and Barack Obama, the U.S. President.

Solution: to use hashtag #askobamamodi on twitter for inviting questions from public to be answered during the diplomatic negotiations.  Benefits: it makes diplomatic negotiations open and attractive for public. It is a good opportunity to reveal latent issues. 

The Tibetan National Congress (TNC), an independent Tibetan political party, launched a social media campaign to tweet the following question to the two world leaders: "China's occupation of #Tibet is a regional security threat. How can we resolve it to secure peace? #AskObamaModi". "From the perspective of regional security, it is critical that India and the U.S. enhance their cooperation to address the destabilizing situation in Tibet. Our Twitter campaign seeks to place this issue on their agenda, as well as in the larger public discourse."  Jigme Ugen, President of Tibetan National Congress

Location: Singapore. Year: 2014. Developers: National Library Board (NLB).

Location: initially the U.S. Year: 2012. Developers: Clay Johnson (founder) and information diet activists from different countries of the world.

Solution: to open information diet community in your country. The countries which already opened information diet communities are the next: the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Australia, Romania, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Italy. Benefits: people will consume proper information that matches their interests. It minimizes the risk of mass manipulations.

Location: the City of Minneapolis, the U.S. Year: 2014. Developers: Council of the City of Minneapolis.

Solution: to choose the data sets for open data portal according to analysis of popular information requests from citizens. The City plans to continually add data sets over the coming months and years. Benefits: it makes city information easily accessible for residents to increase transparency and improve quality of life.

Location: Ghana. Year: 2015. Developers: Mobile Web Ghana, World Wide Web Foundation and the African Media Initiative.

Solution: to form a community of civic minded technologists and open data experts, and put them at media organisations to drive data journalism. This community of civic technologists will develop and use apps to analyse and interpret open data from sources such as the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI). Benefits: these civic minded technologists will serve as catalysts who help create the internal systems and resources necessary to entrench data as a critical component of the Ghanaian newsroom culture.

Location: Cape Town, South Africa. Year: 2015. Developers: representatives of Cape Town directorates.

Solution: to add the option ‘Suggest a Data Set’ on the open data portal. On the Cape Town Open Data Portal you can see the next proposition: ”Interested in a specific data set? Let us know which one. We will look into your request and see if the data is available, as well as how long it will take to compile and post the data to the site.” Benefits: it increases government transparency as the public are invited to request data they would like to see on the portal. Open data sets created by requirement could be used by scientists, analysts and businessmen who are able to provide valuable recommendations for city development or propose investing.

"We envision that hundreds of data sets will be available over time." Patricia de Lille, Mayor of Cape Town

Location: the U.S. state of New York. Year: 2015. Developers: state pf New York authorities.

Solution: to announce throwing used electronic devices into the trash illegal. New Yorkers can drop off their old electronics, such as televisions, phones, printers, and computers, at places like the Gowanus E-Waste Warehouse. The state is the 23rd state to pass an e-waste law since 2006. Benefits: it saves ecology as old devices are either sent off for eco-friendly recycling, or given a face-lift and a shot at a second life.

Location: Kazakhstan. Year: 2015. Developers: governments of Kazakhstan; 3D Lab Developers of Kazakhstan.

Solution: to produce 3D printers in the country as it has competitive cost of production. Benefits: saving costs on 3D printers import. “These innovative devices are becoming increasingly popular around the world, but consumers face big challenges with such services. Our 3DLAB developers offer a turnkey service, which includes production, training, maintenance and constant software updates. Our price is 20-30 percent lower than that of our competitors”. Damir Yegizbayeveneral, General Director of the Centre for Technology Commercialisation

Location: India. Year: 2015. Developers: the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), a branch of the Government of India; international partners; the Puducherry government.

Solution: to set up a 3D manufacturing facility in the city to help industries with fast emerging technologies.The Ministry urged the Puducherry government to allot 5 acres of land at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Puducherry for establishment of an Extension Centre of Flavour and Fragrance Development Centre (FFDC) here for benefit of people in and around the city. Benefits: Puducherry would be ideal for the Extension Centre due to the heritage portion of the city and the sense of beauty, flavour and fragrance here.