Main Application Form 

                                         NOMINATION FORM FOR 
                           NATIONAL AWARDS FOR E­GOVERNANCE 2008­09 
Name of the Organization :Kerala State IT Mission
Name of the Department : Department of Information Technology
Name of the Project        :  Content Management Framework (CMF)
Award(s) Applying for    :  EXEMPLARY HORIZONTAL TRANSFER OF ICT­BASED BEST 
PRACTICES
Objective of the Project   : Content Management Framework aims at migrating all the
department websites to free and open source-based framework , thus enabling each
department to maintain its own website without depending on the service providers. The
process includes using free and open software which allow the user to change the content
and design of a website himself / herself through a username and password-access
control. Apart from helping the user departments to manage their own websites, it
standardizes the templates of all government websites. CMF also intends to combine all
the government websites and to provide a single window for all government services.
Date of Launch of Project :  November 2007
Coverage (Geographical) : About 50 websites have been migrated to CMF since the
beginning of the project in November 2007. This includes 19 ministers' websites too. The
KSITM also intends to transfer the websites of all the departments, which amount to about
90, to the new framework, which will soon be completed. It also intends to include all
official websites of municipalities, gramapanchayats, welfare boards, schools and the like
in the framework, which amount to more than 2,500.  
Beneficiary of the Project : Government and the public
Please provide the following details about the project nominated for the National 
award for e­Governance 
(i) Situation before the initiative:  The web portals of government departments are the
official government source of information. So proper advancement and periodical
modernization of these websites are inevitable. Extreme care and attention should be
taken in all aspects of its maintenance since whatever is hosted on the site is authentic.
But often, while updating the information on the website, the content has to be passed
through many hands before it reaches the actual change-maker. It results in considerable
delay in updating the information. Moreover, as the change-maker is removed from the
actual content maker by several degrees of transaction, there is often no connection
between the information being generated in the department and the information being
posted on the website. It is also difficult to motivate the officials to keep sending
information to the service provider for updating. So, many government websites carry
information that are out-of-date. Apart from this, the government websites are not user
friendly; they are confusing by design and are not searchable. They are not able to
provide the content in local language. But with the migrating the websites to CMF, the
departments themselves can update the data, even in local language.
(ii) Strategy Adopted: The problems related to the existing system were identified and
methods were adopted to solve it. Solution providers were identified as National
Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) and
Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation (KELTRON). Then came the policy
directive regarding the migration of all departmental websites to the content management
framework and the use of local language. The project makes use of applications like
Joomla, in accordance with the government policy of promoting free and open software.
Instead of carrying out the changes on the website on a centralised manner, the new
system enables the user departments to update the websites themselves. Content
management framework paved way for process reforms in the website management
methodology. Empowerment of user departments to manage their own site was the main
step in this regard. Another reform was related to the standardisation of rates for migrating
websites. A government order was issued instructing the user departments to maintain a
minimum content to be uploaded on the website. Another order was issued directing the
user departments to constitute a team within each department in order to carry out the
updations on the website. Capacity building like training the nodal officers of the user
departments was carried out.
(iii) Result Achieved/ Value Delivered to beneficiary of the project:  The new system, Content
Management Framework, helps to avoid the delay in updation as well as the need of a
web-service provider for content management. As any user with normal word-processing
skills can update the website and change the layouts, the website can shed its antique
look and will always contain fresh information which is very helpful for the public. CMF
also tries to combine all the government websites and provide a single window- Kerala
web portal for all government services. CMF standardises the templates of all government
services and provides facility for the use of local language, which will make it more user-
friendly.
The new framework also gives a breathing space for those government organisations
which have been burdened with the umpteen number of requests it received, based on
the Right to Information Act (RTI). The government websites migrated to CMF, promotes
the concept of `right to information' without creating additional burden on the employees.
It helps the government websites voluntarily carry the updated information, which will be
very helpful for the public. This considerably reduces the number of the requests based
on RTI.
Other distinctive features/ accomplishments of the project: 
  1. CMF encourages pro-active information sharing
2. The ownership of the websites were shifted from the hands of webservice providers
to the respective departments.
3. Brings in more transparency and efficiency in governance with quick updating of the
information.
Details of Owner of the nominated project 
Owner of the project :  Kerala State IT Mission
Designation : 

Contact Address :  Director, Kerala State IT Mission, ICT Campus, Vellayambalam, 
Thiruvananthapuram
e­mail address :    director@keralaitmission.org   Fax : 0471 ­ 2314284

Telephone : 0471 – 2319449                              Mobile Number: 9446469449
Details of team for the nominated project 
Team Members with their Role Designation (Please mention all key officers/ staff whose 
contributions were most significant for the success of the Initiative) 
              
Name (s):  S.B. Biju
Designation (s): Mission coordinator
Name (s):  Arun
Designation (s): Special officer, FOSS 
Name (s):  Raji N.R.
Designation (s): Assistant Project Coordinator

  Declaration by the owner of the project nominated for the National Award 
                                     for E­Governance 
I/We hereby declare that the particulars furnished above are correct and true to the 
best of my/our knowledge. I/We have gone through the information on the Award 
Scheme published in the Website of the Department of Administrative Reforms and 
Public Grievances (http://darpg.nic.in) and the terms and conditions. I/We shall 
abide by the decision of the Jury for declaration of the award. 
Place:                                                   (Signature) 
Date                                               Seal of Organisation 

                                AWARD SPECIFIC FORM

   ‘EXEMPLARY HORIZONTAL TRANSFER OF ICT­BASED BEST PRACTICES’

1. Appropriateness of Context & localization of best practice (Give details 
   about local language support etc. )

   Information provided in local language will easily reach the common man even if he is
not English-literate. So it is surely the local language that suits a government website.
Rightly understanding this, Content Management Framework supports Unicode-based
Malayalam enabling technology in the cybersphere. So the websites in the new
framework carries the content in Malayalam also.
The website www.entegramam.gov.in came as an offshoot of the migration of the websites
to the content management framework. These websites of panchayats provide all the
details regarding the respective panchayat on the cybersphere. It carries details on the
history of the village, the day-to-day programmes, resources available, labour bank, job
opportunities etc. The panchayats have started to publish their beneficiary list through the
repective entegramam websites. This project helps to uphold the local content and the
local language in the cybersphere.

2. Scalability (Give details about extent of automation, Ability to leverage shared
   NeGP infrastructure, Number of connecting nodes etc. )
  Once the department websites have been migrated to Content management framework,
it can be managed by the respective departments. A common infrastructure for web
hosting by the various departments is provided at the Data Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
While considering the security aspect of these websites also, using this common
infrastructure proves to be more convenient. The project is scalable as the websites
migrated to CMF can handle the growing amount of work, even if the content is increased
by leaps and bounds.

3. Sustainability (Give details about sustainability w.r.t. technology (technology 
   used, user privacy, security of information shared­ Digital Signature/Encryption 
   etc.), Organization (hiring trained staff, training etc.), financial (Scope for 
   revenue generation etc. ))
Organisation:
CMF is a project of Kerala State IT Mission and the technology support
providers were identified as National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for
Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) and Kerala State Electronic
Development Corporation (KELTRON). Kerala State IT Mission has
 mandated a content management governance mechanism in each
department headed by State Information officer. The technology support
team gives instructions and guidance to the officer concerned or the content
management team of the various departments.
Sustainability, security:
 Content Management framework is sustainable as it makes the user confidently abandon
the old process (in which the content has to be passed through many hands before it
reaches the actual change-maker of the website) which is ime-consuming. The new
method not only enables the user to update the data, but also ensures more transparency
and efficiency in governance by providing the latest information. By providing reliable
information, the website is sure to draw more visitors in the cybersphere. As stated
earlier, the content management framework uses free and open applications which help
reduce the cost of maintaining the website by several degrees. Moreover, the source
code is available with the user and he/she can include any new facility on the website as
per the growing requirement. As free software is accessible by all and a community-
based development occurs continuously all over the world, many new features are often
included in the open applications. So, the websites in the new framework can easily inherit
the new features. The common infrastructure provided at the Data Centre for web hosting
ensures security too.

4. Cost Effectiveness (Give details about impact on cost incurred w.r.t. Overhead 
   cost, direct and indirect cost, mandays/man hours required to do a job etc. )
Content management framework helps to save a huge amount of the state exchequer in
terms of licensing cost and operational cost by enabling the departments to do away with
the costly proprietary software and the service of the web-service providers. Once these
websites are migrated to the new framework, the information provided by them will always
be the latest and the public can rely on it. This helps the public avoid their visits to the
respective departments in order to avail information, thus saving their time and money.
The departments can also do away with the section of enquiry and thus can save the time
and energy of a personnel who is entrusted with the task of answering the queries from
the public.
Content management framework also enables the website to include new facilities as
per the requirement. These facilities of a departmental website can be duplicated by other
departments too, which again help to save money.
5. Innovations to original Project (Give Details about number of steps involved 
    in process, identification and removal of bottlenecks/Irrelevant steps etc.)
The Kerala state IT mission has approached this project with a total comprehensive plan.
1 The first stage involved was identifying the problems related to the existing department
websites. Once the problems are listed from each department, the methods to solve these
problems were sought.
2 As part of trying to solve these problems, total solution providers were identified as
Solution providers were identified as National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for
Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) and Kerala State Electronic Development
Corporation (KELTRON).
3 Then came the policy directive regarding the migration of all departmental websites to
the content management framework and the use of local language. It was decided to
make use of free and open applications like Joomla, in accordance with the government
policy of promoting free and open software.
4 Content management framework paved way for process reforms in the website
management methodology. Empowerment of user departments to manage their own site
was the main step in this regard. Another reform was related to the standardisation of
rates for migrating websites. A government order was issued instructing the user
departments to maintain a minimum content to be uploaded on the website. Another
order was issued directing the user departments to constitute a team within each
department in order to carry out the updations on the website.
5 Capacity development programmes like training the nodal officers of the user
departments were carried out.