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Technology in Government

Editor

Jaijit Bhattacharya

GIFT Publishing Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management New Delhi

III

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2006 Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, New Delhi


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IV

FOREWORD
This book is a very timely book when technology for E-government is being treated as a dumb bought-out commodity. The pendulum has swung from people being intimidated by technology to people now assuming technology to be a simple issue to handle in E-government. I have seen the inappropriate use of technology in the decades that I have spent in NIC. From technology being used as a fashion statement with the so called latest PCs being purchased every other year and then declared obsolete even before the purchasing process is over, to nuances of technology being ignored to the detriment of the project. Unfortunately, we are still plagued with the problem of having too few people who understand how to completely leverage technology to achieve the goal of joined-up government. In the quest for de-mystifying E-government, practitioners like myself have inadvertently passed the message that technology is the simplest component of E-government and therefore can be conveniently ignored. Such an assumption has come back to haunt us as we see project after project not able to deliver to its full potential. I would like to congratulate the editor for doing a fantastic job of presenting the technology issue in government. I sincerely hope this book goes a long way in bringing back the importance of technology in E-government and sensitizes people to the power of mathematics and computer science to improve the quality of governance.
Dr B K Gairola

Preface
The E in E-government is the outcome of technology enablement of the government. More specifically, we are referring to Information Technology. We have come a long way from the days when E-government simply signified a web presence of the various government departments. E-government now represents the complex IT enablement of back-end processes of the government in a manner that it allows the government not only to be more efficient and effective but also to perform new processes which would have been impossible to perform without technology. Such processes are enabled by mathematical algorithms and computer science tools such as data mining, semantic web approach, generic location coding and so on. It is not sufficient to merely delve into various mathematical techniques and computer science algorithms for a technologically sound implementation of e-government. It is necessary to also have a dynamic infrastructure that is robust and scalable enough to support the mission critical business of governance but also flexible enough to permit changes in governance processes as and when required. Such E-governance infrastructure requires robustness at all layers, starting from the network, to the servers, to operating systems, software and applications. With enormous progress made in not just the technology but also how the technology is delivered, it is imperative to re-examine how we create the digital infrastructure for e-governance. Robust operating systems like Solaris is now available as open source software. Java has also been made open source. Open standards such as Open Document Format (ODF) that is an ISO standard, have allowed cheaper and better open source office solutions to be more widely adopted. Such developments are revolutionizing the way in which E-government infrastructure is being deployed. Finally, it is also necessary to study the kind of applications and systems that are being developed using the current development tools and techniques. This book covers the latest thoughts on E-government systems, technology models of E-government and E-government infrastructure. Hopefully, this book will be useful guide for conceptualizing and developing the next generation of e-government systems.

Jaijit Bhattacharya

VI

Contents
Foreword Preface E-government Infrastructure 1. Standards and Enterprise Architecture Framework For E-Governance: Select Aspects Suchitra Pyarelal A Proposed Framework for Enterprise Architecture (EA) Assessment Maryam Vahid and Ali Kazemi Moghaddam The Challenges of Adopting Open Source Software in Promoting E-government Bhasker Mukerji, Vinod Kumar and Uma Kumar Suitability of Service Oriented Architecture for e-Procurement Manas Ranjan Patra and Rama Krushna Dash v vi

1 10 22 32

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The Art of Project Management for Speeding up the E-governance Implementation V.S.R Krishnaiah 41 State Data Center Dynamic Design and Components Ajay Ahuja Voice Biometric based User Verification: An Exemplary Tool for Secure Identification Sadaf Tanveer Challenges in RFID Deployment- A Case Study in Public Transportation Kamlesh Laddhad, Bernard Menezes, Karthik B and Kaushik Dutta. Software Obfuscation for Information Systems Assets Management: E-governance Perspective Tapasya Patki, Swati Khurana, Revati Patki, A. B. Patki and V. Prithviraj 46

58 67

8. 9.

75

10. Energy Implication and e-waste Generation: Environmental Impact of IT Industry Anuradha Sen, Jaijit Bhattacharya, Amit Shrivastava, M.G.Dastidar 85 and T.R. Sree Krishnan Technology Models of E-government 11. Semantic Web: An Introduction with Reference to E-governance Rakhi Tripathi and M P Gupta 12. A Semantic Web Approach for e-Government Process Coordination Lakshmi Iyer, Rahul Singh, Fergle DAubeterre and Al F. Salam 13. Data Mining across heterogeneous databases for detecting Income Tax evasion using approximate name search G T Venkateshwar Rao, Bhavani Shanker Chitoor, Venkat Reddy K. and venugopal Rao G. VII 94 108

121

14.Generic Location Coding System for E-governance Applications Susant Kumar Panda, Susanta Kumar Mohapatra and Jagannath Prasad Bakshi 15.Defining the Below Poverty Line Population Using Data Mining Techniques Vishnuprasad Nagadevara and Kumar Sunil Gulati 16.Predicting Electronic Toll Collection Service Adoption: An Integration of the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior Cheng-Kiang Farn, Yi-Wen Fan and Chun-Der Chen 17. Multi Attribute Decision Making for E-Procurement Auction Sidhartha S. Padhi and Pratap K.J Mohapatra

130 136

145 155

18. Lags in diffusion of E-governance: Addressing Time-to-Public and Time-in-Public Amrutaunshu N. Nerurkar and Gyanendra Narayan 167 19. Distributed Intrusion Detection System (DIDS): A Mobile Agent and Distributed Sensors Based Approach Rizwan Ahmed, Kamlesh Kelwade and M.S. Khatib 176 20. Role of Evolving Technology on Efficient Implementation of E-government Dilip Kumar Sharma, G P Sahu and Gopalji Varshneya 21. Fraud Prevention In Allotment Of Shares in IPOs Using A New Approximate Name Search Bhavanishanker Chitoor, Venkat Reddy K, Venugopal Gouravelli and Venkateshwar Rao G T E-government Applications 22. Towards a Strategy for Implementing E-Governance ApplicationsA Case Study of Integrated Fertilizers Management Information System P Suri and Sushil .K. 23. Status Information Management System by NIC: A G2G Application Moiz Hussain Hussain Ali and Yogesh Arvind Khadayate 24. A Case Study on Malaysias E-Perolehan (E-Procurement) Initiative Maniam Kaliannan, Murali Raman, Halimah Awang and Magiswary Dorasamy 186

198

206 224

232

25. Construction of E-procurement Site on the Web: Case Study of www.bdtender.info 243 Abdus Sattar Syed and Q M A Abdullah 26. e Grama: A Roadmap to Bridge the Digital Divide in Orissa Rama Krushna Dash, Manas Ranjan Patra and Susanta Kumar Pand 27. Human and Computer Interaction for Increasing Effectiveness of Information Based Decision Making: A Case of Health Organisation Hitesh Gupta, Sandeep Sharma, Jaiveer Singh and Priti Agarwal 28 E-land Record Information System in North Sikkim L.P Sharma . 29 Building Institutional e-Prashasan Kosh: NIC Initiative Surinder Kumar and Shefali Dash 30 Implementing Data Warehousing Solution in the Electricity Industry Umakanta Panda Author index Subject Index VIII 250

256 266 276 285 297 299

Standards and Enterprise Architecture Framework for E-governance: Select Aspects


Suchitra Pyarelal1

ABSTRACT
Reusing tried, tested and successful e-governance solutions requires standardization of developmental methodologies, processes and components. Interoperability of e-governance applications from the technology point of view as well as data standardization across applications are necessary prerequisites for achieving this goal. This paper examines the various aspects of Standards and Enterprise Architecture Frameworks in e-governance. Attributes of different Frameworks are discussed and compared. The concept of a Service Oriented Framework is introduced and finally some action points indicated.

Keywords: Standards, Interoperability, Enterprise Architecture, e-Governance, Frameworks

1. Guiding Prienciples
Most countries have evolved or are in the process of evolving strategies for standards and e-governance frameworks for government businesses and allied sectors. It will help IT managers and software developers to access a single point of reference, when ever need arises, to locate appropriate Standards and Architecture specifications that should be followed for a specific project. This can be achieved by bringing together the relevant specifications under an overall framework. In complying with these specifications, system designers can ensure interoperability between systems while retaining the flexibility to select different hardware and systems and application software to implement any specific solution. The underlying dimension of this approach is that the government is perceived as a single entity with seamless flow of information across individual ministries and departments. Standards and an Architecture Framework are essential to support uninterrupted and seamless flow of information and to improve the coherence of Information Systems maintained by any concerned agency. Such a Framework will define the set of specifications to facilitate government systems to communicate and inter operate with other systems, both within the government and external to it, efficiently and effectively. What began as e-governance frameworks or Interoperability frameworks soon underwent a paradigm shift to Enterprise Architecture frameworks with Interoperability as the main attribute. In the process of evolving these Frameworks, the business processes and its articulation assumed greater importance in relation to technology factors. The current e-governance practices are fraught with many inherent deficiencies and shortcomings. Oftentimes, significant mismatch occurs in the system with far less output compared to the data input. The
1

National Informatics Centre, Dept. of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi, India (Phone: +91-11-24365515, E-mail:suchitra@nic.in)

Technology in E-government

systems are monolithic and are not designed for cross-platform interoperability and information sharing. Some other challenges that need to be addressed include: Data preservation: There is always a lurking danger in locking the data with a proprietary software or vendor. Such data could be irrevocably lost when attempting to export it to another platform or whenever the vendor disappears. It is pertinent to note that the life cycle of critical data is more than that of any program. Vendor Lock-in: Freedom of choice of new vendors is curtailed on account of the need to preserve compatibility with existing products and data. As always happens, it becomes difficult for small vendors to compete with large, established vendors, resulting in captive markets. Absence of Data and Meta data standards: This is a matter of great concern. Lack of well defined policies and standards: This occurs in several areas of E- Government practices. Some of the important guiding principles to be observed while evolving E-Governance Standards are indicated below: Interoperability: - Interoperability allows seamless exchange of information, reuse of data models and interchangeability of data across systems. Open Standards: - Open Standards are expected to provide interoperability, data preservation and freedom from technology and vendor lock-in. Adoption of Open Standards will facilitate storing of electronic national records and data using open data file formats. Flexibility:-The framework should facilitate adoption of new technologies and allow managing any change in the governance process. Collaborative: -Must provide a platform that will allow various stakeholders to make use of the repositories such as reusable models, data and Meta data etc. Sustainability: - While addressing the above issues, the framework must be amenable to a continual growth process. Technology The technologies adopted should be open so that they can be interfaced with other systems.

2. Open Standards
Although there is no collectively agreed definition of Open Standards, they are commonly defined as Publicly available specifications that provide a common method of achieving a particular goal. Sometimes Open Standards are referred to as voluntary consensus standard. Some of the attributes of open standards include: Public availability for implementation and gathering of specifications. Defined, created, and maintained by a specific and recognized party. Widely used, consensus based, published and maintained by recognized industry standards organizations. Developed collaboratively through due processes by independent international bodies. All interested parties are able to participate in its development. Accepted as de-facto standards by the industry. Maintained by non-profit organizations and have inherent open decision-making procedure. Intellectual properties on a royalty free basis; or under non-discriminatory terms at a reasonable fee or no fee at all (RAND) Available for re-use without constraints In general, international standards agencies (such as IETF, OASIS, W3C, and ISO) prefer to invoke no patents or irrevocable royalty-free patents for their standards. However, they do allow the inclusion of 2

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patents that can be licensed under RAND terms in their standards. Patent policies revolve around a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) policy, either with some form of royalty or royalty-free or a combination of both. Nevertheless, some organizations do not consider a RAND encumbered standard as an open standard.

3. Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Architecture Frameworks


Enterprise Architecture (EA), according to John Zachman, a pioneer in popularizing it, is a set of primitive artifacts that constitute the knowledge infrastructure of the enterprise. It is purely structural (Zachman John, Enterprise Architecture Artifacts vs. Application Development Artifacts) Another popular interpretation of Enterprise Architecture is: Think of architecture in terms of planning a city rather than planning a building. Architecture provides building codes that limit near-term design options for the sake of the community, but these codes do not tell individuals what kind of buildings they need. Like building codes, architecture should consist of a set of principles, standards, guidelines, and statements of direction that permit step-by-step, business-driven implementation without sacrificing integration. N. Dean Meyers For any enterprise to be responsive to the contemporary and changing needs and requirements, the vision and goals of the enterprise need to be defined along with a methodology for implementation. Enterprise Architecture refers to a description of all key elements and relationships that make up an enterprise and connects this to its Information Strategy. The architecture aims at aligning the business processes and goals of an enterprise and the applications and systems that constitute its technical infrastructure. Enterprise Architecture must integrate the existing information systems on a continuous basis and cannot be considered as a one time effort. Some of the perceived objectives of Enterprise Architecture are as follows (Perkins Alan, Strategic Enterprise Application Integration) To facilitate quality software engineering and enterprise change management by linking strategic requirements to systems that support them and by linking the business model to application designs. To enable deriving strategic information consistently and accurately from operational data. To promote data sharing, thereby reducing data redundancy and maintenance costs. To improve productivity through component development, management and reuse thereby reducing the software development cycle time. Enterprise Architecture framework (EAF) is a communication model for developing an Enterprise Architecture (EA). Rather than being architecture per se, it presents a set of models, principles, services, approaches, standards, design concepts, components, visualizations and configurations that guide the development of specific aspect architectures. (Japp Schekkerman,2004) The role of Enterprise frameworks is to facilitate the transformation of an enterprise to adopt a businessvalue driven approach that will help to achieve the vision of the enterprise and support its business processes. The Enterprise Architecture framework cuts across Business, Data, and Technology while ensuring the integration of legacy applications. The EA will provide linkages with the business processes, information and technology while the Enterprise Architecture framework comprises of guidelines, standards, policies and business rules that defines the enterprises software engineering environment.

4. Enterprise Architecture Framework


In this section some of the popular EA frameworks are examined for evaluating the applicability of EA in the Indian scenario of e-governance.

Technology in E-government

Fig. 1: Business and Technology Related Enterprise Architecture Benefits (Jeanne W Ross & Peter Weill, 2005)

4.1. The Zachman Framework The Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework is a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an enterprise that are significant to the management of the enterprise as well as to the enterprises system (John Zachman 1992).According to Zachman, Enterprise Architecture aims at mapping and designing an organization entirely: in a horizontal and a vertical dimension. The Zachman Framework moves from a vertical integrated approach with respect to data, process and technology to a horizontal approach. Data, Process and Technology are looked at across the enterprise, each with its own characteristics .The Zachman framework has evolved as an industry standard in enterprise information architecture designs. The underlying principle of the Zachman Framework is the alignment of an organizations processes, structures and objectives. It is composed of two dimensions, both of which are comprehensive and primitive. The horizontal dimension is comprehensive in the way it distinguishes an issue from the six linguistic interrogatives: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. The vertical dimension contains an extensive set of perspectives, which are relevant to analyze complex entities. Within the framework, the perspectives are necessary to place the entities into context. 4

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The Zachman Frameworks approach is in tune with the requirements of e-governance and provides a good starting point. The concept of Governance transformation with the help of information and communication technologies go far beyond re-engineering the existing processes. The Zachman framework enables to go in depth and breadth across to undertake an effective analysis. 4.2. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) The Open Group Architecture framework (TOGAF), developed by the Open Group in 1995, focuses on mission-critical business applications. The scope of definitions of EA includes business Architectures, Data Architectures, Application Architectures and Technology Architecture. TOGAF reflects different levels of abstraction in an architecture development process and facilitates the understanding and collaboration between actors at different levels. The Figure II below shows the Open Group Enterprise Architecture Framework. (The Open Group, TOGAF, 2003) The TOGAF foundation architecture provides a framework for arriving at the organization-specific enterprise architecture that addresses the business requirements. (The Open Group, TOGAF, 2003) The TOGAF architecture development method provides an effective methodology to implement enterprise information system architecture. The TOGAF resource base is a set of resources including guidelines, templates and background information to help in the use of Application Development method. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) mainly focuses on the implementation of efficient information system architecture. The separation of different architectures and multiple levels of abstraction are also required within an e-governance framework. To conceptualize a potential e-governance framework,

Fig. 2: TOGAF EA Framework (The Open Group, TOGAF, 2003)

Technology in E-government

case databases as well as an efficient analysis, design and implementation methodology are absolutely necessary. TOGAF aims at providing a practical, standardized methodology of implementing successful EA to organizations. TOGAF offers a set of methods and tools for developing a broad range of IT architectures. 4.3. The DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) The Department of Defense (DoD) Architecture Framework (DODAF) Defines a common approach for describing, presenting, and comparing DoD enterprise architectures. The principal objective is to ensure that the architecture descriptions can be compared and related across organizational boundaries, including joint and multi-national boundaries. The DoDAF describes a set of 26 work products to ensure uniformity and standardization in the documentation and communication of architecture. The list of products is further refined into four views: all views (AV) and three architectural views that include operational view (OV), system view (SV), and technical standards view (TV). Briefly characterized, the AV is the overarching information describing the architecture plans, scope, and definitions. The OV focuses on the behaviors and functions describing the DoD mission aspects, both war fighting and business. The SV describes the systems and applications supporting the mission functions. The TV describes policies, standards and constraints. The current DoDAF version indicates a subset of work products that should be developed at a minimum (essential). These include: AV-1: Overview and Summary Information. AV-2: Integrated Dictionary. OV-2: Operational Node Connectivity Description. OV-3: Operational Information Exchange Matrix. OV-5: Operational Activity Model. SV-1: Systems Interface Description. TV-1: Technical Standards Profile.

The 26 DoDAF views are designed to document the entire architecture, from requirements to implementation. (D.B. Robi Lockheed Martin, 2004) 4.4. Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) The Federal Enterprise Architecture is a framework designed to help agencies identify opportunities for business improvement via standardization, interoperability, consolidation, data sharing. The FEA consists of five related reference models that describe enterprise domains that may benefit from standardized taxonomies to facilitate improvements to business processes: Business Reference Model (BRM): Provides a standardized taxonomy of business services Performance Reference Model (PRM):The PRM provides a line of sight between IT investments and the agency programs they support Data and Information Reference Model (DRM): The DRM provides a standardized taxonomy of data classifications that can be used to identify opportunities for data sharing and exchange. Service Component Reference Model (SRM): The SRM is based on the idea of service components that link IT services to business processes. Technical Reference Model (TRM): The TRM provides a standardized taxonomy for services, specifications and technologies. FEA maps requirements for technology architectures, models and standards. This approach enables agencies to make the right decisions at the big-picture level, avoiding duplicate development as well as 6

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expensive dead-end paths and inflexible technologies. To sum up, Enterprise Architecture Frameworks (EAF) aim at adopting an approach that will capture the current architecture, do the gap analysis to bridge the current and envisioned architecture and finally the implementation. EA considers the business processes of the entire organization, breaks them down into compartmentalized units. The goal is to adopt the best practices for cross agency data sharing and provisioning better quality services to constituents. The Architects must factor access and availability, scalability, manageability, interoperability and security requirements into the infrastructure blueprints.

5. Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) and its importance in Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
SOA is a business & technical strategy to expose business functionality & data within and between enterprises. SOA governance needs to span all domains of the architecture including security, integration; management, development, and orchestration of publish services and associated information to a reference system. The fig III Below shows the areas in SOA and the associated standards. As a Framework, SOA provides patterns for design, development, deployment and management of IT services that support public services in ways that are network-aware, reusable and available to other participants in the network as independent services that the participants access in a standardized way. Action steps needed for moving E-Government towards SOA: Service-Enable Data First: Look for the most heavily utilized databases with the most requested data elements and begin exposing this information first. Utilize an Enterprise Service Bus: An Enterprise Service Bus is a software (a messaging engine) that makes services reusable and available to users, applications, business processes, and other services. Identify Frequently Repeatable Processes: These will exist across agency boundaries and are candidates for re-use. Establish Standards: Application developers need to understand, support and follow standards. Organizations need to provide developers with adequate training to successfully make the shift to utilizing Web services.

Fig. 3: SOA and Standards(Sun Microsystems, Sun Tech days, 2005-06

Technology in E-government

Just Start Experimenting: Develop SOA and Web services mindsets by experimenting with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds on agency Web sites, have the RSS feed provide information that is of interest to the public or employees, encourage employee Web logs viewable at least from inside the firewall, and try audio and video pod casting for government-to-citizen communications. Create a Web Services Library: Develop a library of Web services that can be shared across regions. Provide a broad range of data, from virtual travel services for state employees to citizen payment engines and citizen directories. (Service-Oriented Architecture: Making Collaborative Government Work,2006

6. Suggested Methodology and Approach to an Enterprise Architecture framework


Standards that are provided by the business views of the enterprise information architecture ensure that processes and information can be interconnected across departments. Integration of information architecture requires that standards are adopted in the EA framework. (Melissa Cook, 1996) With a sound and tested EA ,based on Standards in place, it will be far more easier to achieve interoperability between the ICT systems. While the Standardisation will ensure interoperability, the EA will ensure that all functions and processes in the organisation are captured. A study of the existing business processes in the present state must be undertaken. The framework adopted must provide a methodology to articulate the current business needs and project a plan for meeting with future requirements. Gap Analysis and Migration plan should be a part of the implementation strategy. Another factor is that since the EA framework does not address the need of a single system in the enterprise , but covers multitudes of systems , it must go hand in hand with the Specifications and Standards set for interoperability. The Top-Down approach in building the architecture taking the business strategy first and moving down to the technology architecture. The current architecture must be scaled to meet the future one in an iterative process without too much detailing of either of these. Building a registry of reusable processes: The business processes at the enterprise level need to be captured and modeled to reusable components. Any change in the processes at the enterprise level will not lead to making changes at the software level. Building Data and Meta data Standards: The role of Data and Meta data Standards assumes importance in that it should be understood the same way by all applications. Common Data definitions and Standards for data exchange play a major role in the framework. A registry of Data elements and Meta data that will serve the needs of the enterprise: Here again, while identifying the data, a horizontal approach as recommended in the Zachman framework need to be adopted. Instead of considering all the data elements, those that have potential for reuse and interoperability in egovernment services must be considered. The Registry of Data Standards facilitates access to the concertedly aligned data elements

7. Concluding Remarks
Although many e-governance strategies are formulated and implemented, they lack the holistic architectural approach. Current practices in the domain of e-governance are primarily technology-driven and target improvements in internal and external processes, without following the Total Architectural picture of transformation. This deficiency can be alleviated by establishing an Enterprise Architecture framework that support the enterprise services factoring the organizational and information requirements and facilitating the integration of siloed processes. The Framework will be a reference model for all E-governance architecture implementations. Effective Enterprise Architecture typically leads to lower IT costs, provide better 8

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management inputs and ultimately results improved business performance. The Enterprise Architecture initiatives may involve redesign of the existing Governance processes. As Governance process assumes a major role in the overall enterprise framework, one of the major challenges here will be re-engineering the processes. The concept of Governance process re-engineering (GPR) requires that core processes be interconnected, requiring standards and an architectural framework.The Governance processes must be integrated end-to-end in the framework. Each domain in the area of e-governance is to be regarded as an independent entity, which together make up the overall architectural e-governance framework. The EA must be applicable not only to the main enterprise but also in the sub domains of the enterprise.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Alan Perkins Strategic Enterprise Application Integration Visible Solutions D.B. Robi Lockheed Martin Enterprise DoD Architecture Framework and the Motivational View Integrated Systems and Solutions in CrossTalk : The Journal of Defense Software Engineering(April 2004) National Informatics Centre(2004) Interoperability framework for E-Governance Version 1.0 Japp Schekkerman(2004) How to survive in the jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks -Creating or Choosing an Enterprise Architecture Framework Jeanne W Ross and Peter Weill, Understanding the benefits for Enterprise Architecture: Vol V, Jul 2005 Research Briefing , Centre for Information Systems Research, Massachusetts Institute of technology Zachman John., Enterprise Architecture Artifacts vs. Application Development Artifacts Zachman John The framework for Enterprise Architecture, in Background, Description and Utility (1992),Background, Description and Utility (FIFA) Melissa A. Cook (1996). Building Enterprise Information Architecture: Re-engineering Information Systems, Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Architecture: Making Collaborative Government(2006) A Strategy Paper from Centre for Digital Government The Open Group (2003) the Open Group, TOGAF as an Enterprise Architecture Framework

About the Author


Suchitra Pyarelal holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from the College of Engineering (Guindy), Anna University, Chennai. She is presently the Technical Director and Head of the E-Governance Standards Division at the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Dept. of Information Technology, Govt. of India. she has worked at the District, States (Assam and Kerala) and National headquarters of NIC in several capacities. During the last three years, Suchitra is focusing on various aspects of E-governance Standards and is currently involved in the development of Interoperability Framework for E-governance Applications.

A Proposed Framework for Enterprise Architecture (EA) Assessment


Maryam Vahid1*and Ali Kazemi Moghaddam2

ABSTRACT
Increasing investment on information technology has forced to measure business value. Importance of architecture assessment is critical to assess business values. There are some maturity and assessment frameworks that have not scientific foundation and are based on practice in some specific enterprises. We have introduced an architecture assessment process and guidelines to improve architecture performance. We investigated on architecture assessment frameworks and evaluate them to find the best proposed model for enterprise IT Architecture assessment to evaluate enterprise architecture outputs and capabilities. We validated findings with Delphi techniques. So, we have an architectures overview and assessment models and then found the best criterias to evaluate architecture outputs. Then we have proposed a comprehensive model that takes in hand all aspects. In this method we have three assessment processes for project definition pre architecture phase, architecture and implementation of architecture assessment. The paper provides clear framework to assess and validate EA in three domain of defining problem in architecture initiation phase, approaches in architecture phase and EA issues in implementation phase.

Keywords: Enterprise, Architecture, Assessment

1. Introduction
The main goal of every organization is to achieve complete alignment of IT with business operations and optimizing processes to meet employees, customers and stakeholders needs. Enterprise architecture is the most popular approach to view all of organizations facets together and try to align them. So, good enterprise architecture will help organizations to reach optimum performance and arrive at their goals [EA validation full version, 2004]. EA is an effective tool for aligning business and IT. Well defined alignment is a key factor in EA success. It is inevitable for managers to know that good EA is a necessary tool for their business success [Richard Burk, 2004] because it views all of organizational aspects in an integrated way. Prerequisites of good architecture are first; existence of defined business goals and second, acceptable organizational readiness (cultural, people, process and budgeting plans). Development of EA is an ongoing process. Enterprise architects of an organization must hardly work to mature and improve EA to make it adaptive solution. Adaptive enterprise architecture is required for business success in current situation with its rapidly changing conditions. Unified continuous assessment of EA is an important action for ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of EA anytime at various conditions. Currently organizations are using maturity models and assessment frameworks for evaluation of efficiency and

School of Management and Accounting, Allame Tabatabaie University, Iran * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +98-9329430800, E-mail: maryam.vajdivahid@gmail.com) School of Industrial Engineering, Khajehnasir Tousi University, Iran

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effectiveness of enterprise Architecture [www.zdnet.fr, 2005]. Current assessment frameworks and maturity models mainly focus on evaluation of EA results and its implementations. It seems that they dont concentrate on the process of EA development and implementations. Current assessment frameworks just focused on defining problems of enterprise architecture results only. There isnt an integrated approach that comprehensively views all process steps of EA development and execution, including EA justification, EA project definition (RFP,...), vendor selection, EA project management, and EA implementation process, while these subjects may be the root causes of EA results failure and diagnosing them before finalization of EA will dramatically decrease the risk of EA failure . In this paper, a comprehensive framework will be proposed which focuses on assessment of EA imitating, development and implementation process from failure causes point of view. Popular EA Frameworks such as Zachman and etc dont have specific methodology or well-defined approach for assessment of their results or the process of results development. Proposed framework will define a process and a number of tools which guide us through the complete lifecycle of EA Process from defining the EA project to implementing it and will introduce some key indicators for assessment of each step. By lifecycle, we mean three phases of project justification, definition and initiation (mainly for decision makers), enterprise architecture development and finally implementation. The integrated unified framework for assessment will be introduced here for assessment of EA process as a whole to make EA more responsive to its defined mission.

2. Literature review
The purpose of every EA assessment framework is to understand how well the architecture is aligned with its expected goals [The case for architecture assessment, 2005]. Architecture assessment involves experiments, modeling and scenarios that exemplify requirements, as well as assessment by experts who look for gaps and weaknesses in the architecture based on their experience [bredemeyer, 2005]. If you have organization units commitment for EA review and organization re-architecture, it will be simpler to gain their agreement on an assessment project. If you are not sure of their support, do what is necessary to ensure about their support, for the purpose of assessment and discovering problems. There are many frameworks and maturity models for EA assessment that should be considered. We found some of them. So firstly, we introduce popular assessment frameworks and maturity models and then analyze their strengths and weaknesses in a comparative way. Some performance evaluation frameworks was chosen and investigated to find key elements of them. We studied on frameworks which is useful to implementation. The first one which we consider here is the maturity model which has been developed by US Department of Commerces (DoC) with name of IT Architecture Capability Maturity Model (ACMM) [ACMM, 2004]. Its main goal is to aid organizations in conducting internal assessments of their readiness in regard of EA implementation. This framework represents the key process components of a productive IT Architecture. This framework composed of three sections, 1) Architecture maturity model 2) IT architectures process characteristics of operating units at different maturity levels and 3) IT architecture capability maturity model scorecard. The first two sections explain the Architecture Capability Maturity levels and the corresponding architecture characteristics for each maturity level to be used as measures in the assessment process [TOGAF 8, 2004]. The following section describes specified levels of IT Architecture Maturity Levels: Level 0 None. No IT Architecture Program. No IT Architecture to speak of. Level 1 Initial. Informal IT Architecture Process Underway. 11

Technology in E-government

Level 2 Under Development. IT Architecture Process Is Under Development. Level 3 Defined. Defined IT Architecture Including Detailed Written Procedures and Technical Reference Model. Level 4 Managed. Managed and Measured IT Architecture Process. Level 5 Optimizing. Continuous Improvement of IT Architecture Process. EAMMF is another maturity framework. GAO developed the EA Management Maturity Framework (EAMMF) GAO as a result of government-wide survey about government agencies EA Program. EAMMF outlines some steps toward achieving a stable and mature process to manage the development, maintenance and implementation of EA. Establishment of current maturity level gives a roadmap to have good EA management and helps improving it. By using this maturity framework, organizations will be capable to manage EA effectively [EAMMF, 2004]. EAMMF is a comprehensive method of architecture management that provides a roadmap for EA planning and a sequential approach for increasing flexibility in architecture. EAMMF has foundation to attain higher maturity. Amount and depth of assessment will vary depending on user needs and purpose of assessment. EAMMF allows users to assess and understand any enterprise, regardless of whether that enterprise is an organization or an agency. This program is suitable to define what to be done and how to be done [EAMMF, 2004]. Another framework which we consider here is OMBs EA assessment framework which has designed to help organizations to assess their capability of EA program. This framework gives a roadmap for organizations to assess their current architecture and help them develop solutions to improve it cautiously and integrate it with decision making process. They can resolve issues and utilize potentials of EA development and improvement. OMB assesses maturity of EA in organization, capabilities to improve it and EA products development and integration with other related architecture (FEA) and finally gives potentials for collaboration of IT and business sides. OMB EA assessment framework has four main assessment categories which are integration, governance, business alignment and change. In each category, you should assign level 0 to level 5 with a framework. You assign Level 0 for organizations that have not any architecture and level 5 for good optimized architecture [OMB framework, 2005]. FEA PMO cooperates with Governance Accountability Organization (GAO) on how organizations collaborate to achieve effectiveness and efficiency. This program helps stakeholders to revise architecture and identify gaps. This model uses scorecards to review results. FEA PMO provides guidance for organizations to ensure that they achieve business goals and results [FEA-PMO, 2004; GAO, 2005]. FEA PMO has developed guidance to evaluate utilization and adoption of FEA in execution phase [FEA-PMO, 2004]. FEA PMO uses number of methodologies to ensure agency adoption, utilization and execution of enterprise architecture. Some key metrics and focus areas are: Cross agency opportunities Case studies and results EA with integrated IT security, Geospatial and record management architecture and implementation Budget submission Agency assessment score Use of EA collaboration tools Improvement in Agency transition planning Improvement in defining projects aligned with business goals and developing IT. Improvement in EA practice capabilities and skills sets [FEA-PROMO action plan, 2004]. To define scope of assessment it is necessary to understand assessment needs and purposes. [EAMMF, 12

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2004] FEA PMO assesses government agencies for alignment of their performance with strategic initiatives and drivers to ensure that federal government use architecture to promote performance. It uses performance evaluation systems to provide feedback to key metrics. EAEASC is another program for assessment that will investigate on impact of architecture in business processes and performance. After this assessment, an organization will have a good attitude about IT investments outcomes and whether any updating required. The Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) is the appraisal method associated with CMMI. The SCAMPI appraisal method is used to identify strengths, weaknesses, and ratings relative to CMMI reference models [SEI, 2004; ACMM, 2005; TOGAF 8, Enterprise Edition, 2004] Adaptive and dynamic architecture enables enterprises to change and manage complexities inherit in large government agencies. NASCIO enterprise architecture maturity model provides a path for architecture and procedural improvement in organization. As the architecture matures, process controls and effectiveness of architecture will be improved [NASCIO, 2005]. Here we will briefly discuss aforementioned frameworks to better understand why a new approach will be proposed as subject of this paper. About GAO and OMB frameworks, GAO assessment framework seek opportunities to identify the extent to which an organization has developed EA that support agency program performance by influencing IT planning and investment decision, while OMBs framework focuses on faithfulness of the outputs of EA program. Some other frameworks focus on EA process phases. Some frameworks have focused on EA development. In contrast, some of other frameworks have focused on implementation issues. As it is clear, there is not any integrated and unified approach for EA assessment which both addresses the EA Process and EA results. Also there is not enough consideration of EA project definition and initiation process in these frameworks. These frameworks have some insight to decision making process to start architecture and goal setting; but there is not any comprehensive analysis method in them to answer some key questions to define architecture.

3. Proposed integrated assessment framework for EA lifecycle assessment


As mentioned before, existing frameworks of EA assessment which reviewed in the literature dont have an integrated view on both architecture process and architecture outputs assessment. We found some models focused on the assessment of architecture implementation that their aim is to improve architecture performance. Some other frameworks focused on architecture process improvement. So, some of them have concentrated on architecture development process and others have concerned about implementation process. We proposed a three phased framework. The first phase is architecture initiation process which the organization is underway decision making with this process about EA project, architecture and implementation. The next phase is architecture phase problem definition without analysis frameworks, methods and model used for architecture but with focus on common architecture and outputs problems and finally we have insight to implementation phase in architecture and change management process. These three parts of model will be defined in the next section. We studied EA assessment frameworks and maturity models to measure EA through defining weaknesses, strengths and organizational needs for good architecture. Our method is composite indicators development and validation of them with unstructured interviews with management and stakeholders. Then, we defined unified process that is result-oriented and comprehensive architecture assessment model in contrast to other architecture assessment models. This model has defined EA assessment model with considering greatly on management and other stakeholders views. We proposed a comprehensive process model for assessment with consideration on developing key problems to consider in EA management process for effectiveness of architecture. In contrast to many frameworks that focused on architecture details and methods, we have 13

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consideration on integration of EA, using life cycle process that is tool for defining, managing and implementation of EA. We proposed architecture initiation phase and aligning architecture definition process with business requirements. We have divided architecture assessments in three main categories; basis of this division is alignment of assessments to initiation, planning and implementation phases. The figure 1 shows a comprehensive view to this process. As you see in this figure, there is assessment lifecycle and divided framework in three phases. The first phase is architecture initiation process. In the second phase, architecture process that we used guides and indicators management uses it as critical success factor for assessment success in assessment. We define this three phased framework with comprehensive view on architecture. In the third phase, we have implementation process guides and indicators to have an integrated view on implementation issues. In the lifecycle, we have an overview on each phase of comprehensive architecture assessment framework and then define key element of architecture assessment for each phase.

Fig. 1

3.1. Architecture Initiation EA literature stresses the need for EA initiatives to take value enhancement as the primary objective rather than technical perfection. Traditional ROI expect cost of investment to be returned within the scope of initiatives. Some others proposes the use of return on assets (ROA) as an alternative, which focuses more on value enhancement through increase in productivity of capital assets. ROI is only factor to conspire about architecture. We have not found any architecture initiation assessment model to consider EA initiative as a process to guide decision makers about these investments. We have proposed a process to guide decision maker and directors of EA in organization to start good architecture. Architecture in big enterprises is complicated process. EA management should analysis investment on EA. We have chosen big governmental enterprises with budgeting system to propose unified process that can be complete used agencies. So, we considered big enterprise problems to define assessment process for architecture initiation phase of EA lifecycle. In some big government enterprises, may be there is no documented goal and objective for EA. EA philosophy is not documented and there is no strategic thinking for IT. In contrast, management has commitment about it. Alignment of EA in business goals and strategies for management is an important activity in EA initiation. Customization of methods to complete prerequisites and document all strategic planning is required. We have considered architecture preparation phase to define why and how develop and implement architecture. 14

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In the other hand, a good defined architecture will have evolutionary outputs. In architecture initiation phase should consider define and manage organizational issues and project definition. Figure2 shows the architecture initiation process. In some enterprises, management has not any view about EA and its function on helping to achieve goals. So, there is some upper level of e-government or other integrated projects to define and manage enterprises. In these cases, requirement definition phase is required. So, we have defined why we should plan for IT to solve commitments issues in initiation process. Some enterprises have not any comprehensive view on how define and manage EA. After management commitment we should define policies and guidelines to start EA. We had not found any framework to

Fig. 2

consider these issues before start architecture. We should define how to manage EA and align it with business goals. We have considered this part as a step of EA initiation process. In many EA projects, we should consider a unified process to manage architecture project start up. So, we have considered this phase of architecture assessment process model. Some of key benefits of this phase is first, defining policies and procedures for an enterprise to develop, maintain and oversee EA, second is integration of EA with enterprise IT management process including, strategic planning, capital planning and program/ project management. We have used this process to define key indicators to assess project definition process. There are some architecture initiation problems that affect architecture. These processes are not defined in other architecture assessment frameworks. We have found some indicators to assess preparation work, goals definition and requirements for architecture. This phase is very important to successfully define and manage architecture.

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3.2. Architecture Phase of EA Lifecycle Assessment Many of frameworks that we found focused on architecture phase and consider architecture steps as key element of EA success. Maturity models developed to assess organization in level of developing and practice of architecture. There are various methodologies and framework guide for architecture. All of them are process - oriented and have not any consideration to outputs. So, many planning will be failed with using these methods. One of main deficiency of frameworks is lack of architecture initiation phase, which we considered as key part of unified process. Architecture phase of EA assessment and practice life cycle has been proposed with result oriented approach to practice of EA in business domain. We proposed a three step phase that is formal in many EA methods. Step one, is gathering of good data for analysis. Second, is analysis of these data to develop a comprehensive architecture and third is EA results and outputs. Data gathering will help big enterprise to have good analysis material about architecture causes and manage it. So, gathering good data about business processes, people and goals is one of main cause of developing good architectures. Data gathering techniques will help to answer key questions that should be defined. The creation of architecture vision is central both to aligning the architecture team and gain management sponsorship. Consulting with and assisting the developers community in their use of architecture is important in facilitating successful adoption and appropriate use. All part of analysis in architecture is an art for these cases and architecture effectiveness will be limited because of organizational issues. For the architecture team to be successful in analysis phase there must be a leader and the team members must collaborate to bring their creativity and experience to bear on creating an architecture that will best serve the organization. To successfully validation of analysis phase of enterprise architecture, we make use of external reviewers. We should use additional people from outside the architecting team to help provide an objective assessment of the architecture. Experiences of external reviewers and developing enterprises IT architecture team is a major factor in accuracy of the result of EA assessment. Figure 3 shows the architecture phase of lifecycle. We have proposed key metrics for each step of architecture. In data gathering step, there is problems with lack of suitable techniques for data gathering and analysis. Some key factors have defined that should be measured in assessment of EA. Lack of comprehensive and useful data gathering analysis approach is one key problem in architecture. There isnt customized methodology that should be compatible and adaptive with different kind of industries and their problems. Lack of good knowledge on data gathering approach is another problem that should be considered. In many cases, analysis is not a technique, but it is art of selecting good and suitable methods from variety of methods and frameworks and analyzes whole enterprise. This part of process needs creativity that can help developers to align technical side with business side of architecture and solve problems. In spite of this, we have found common metrics to evaluate analysis with some specifications. We will not have good analysis, if we dont consider fast changing of business environment. We should have adaptive architecture with updating and maintenance techniques. In analysis step, we should aligned architecture with IT strategic drivers to consider fast changing elements. So, one of key metrics in architecture is alignment of IT with business goals and strategies. Defining outputs is third step of architecture phase, that we should consider some metrics to have good projects and plans for implementation. We should consider changes in this phase and use some architecture adoption metrics to maintain outputs with high quality. Change management and the activities of Release and Configuration Management are significant part of maturity in an IT organization [SEI, 2005]. This is especially critical in the later phases of large projects where workarounds may show up as solutions to poor design. The assessment will have an evaluation change in business processes, operations and deployment technology. 16

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Fig. 3

Other results that should be evaluated, is quality of implementation plan, the environmental analysis precision and project definitions feasibility study. The plan should be assessed about alignment with environmental and technical side of organization. The sequence plan, target architecture and gap analysis should be evaluated to define analytic problems to define and implement plan. The quality of analysis will have direct influence on having good and feasible plan. We have used these metrics to evaluate architecture in this phase without having detailed view on process of defining architecture. Developer art and knowledge about business and industry specification has key effect on architecture success. 3.3. Implementation Phase Result of using implementation phase of integrated EA life cycle include measurement of effectiveness and value of EA in organization, measuring achieving goals and critical results and then improvement in mission performance, customer service and delivering cost savings. Proper release management review steps and environmental testing will identify non-compliant technology. The implementation of these processes effectively forces changes to go through the proper life cycle, where architectural fit is assessed [www.ecinst.com, 2004]. 17

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We have divided the implementation phase to solution domains that is popular in much architecture works. The output of architecture phase is target architecture that we should have an impact and environment analysis to define project and manage it. Defining good project in time and budget scale is first step of architecture. We should integrate solutions and aligned them in business domain to success in implementation. Restructuring is key part of implementation work that should be aligned with strategic drivers. Infrastructure development is another key element in EA implementation. Figure 4 shows the implementation phase of lifecycle. Changes will have direct effect on plan feasibility and architecture results. So, controlled change will be another assessment factor required to evaluate in architecture assessment. You can assess Change Management

Fig. 4

process to protect architectural investment form failure. Managing changes in enterprise, environment and people insight is one of the most important factors in implementation failure or success. In this framework, we have shown that good impact analysis on projects is critical factor in all phases that should be causes of failure. One of key element of good architecture is defining aligned projects with strategy map which is suitable on time and budget limitation. Defining good architecture can have consistency and have strategic view to technical and organizational restructuring solutions, is an art. This process shows that we should have implementation strategies to manage projects definition and executions. We should consider projects relationship with each other and have business strategy alignment in doing projects. Implementation assessment model the system structure fails if it does not support the services or functionality that users value, or if the qualities associated with this functionality inhibit user performance or are otherwise unsatisfactory [www.bredemeyer.com, 2005] We should have policies and great knowledge about architecture implementation to align technical solutions with business solutions this factor is important to solve business domain key problems to meet management needs and get expected ROI of architecture investment. Another assessment factor is dealing with business and technical solutions. We have defined key factors to assess implementation. There is some environmental factor that we should consider change of them. These factors has found in many enterprise. Evolution of man insight with technology promotion is another factor that will affect outputs and result of architecture. In theses case there is not assessment framework or architecture maturity model to assess. In 18

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the outputs, lack of culture in using outputs will have good impact on results.

4. Conclusion Remarks
This paper is good practice for EA management lifecycle and assessment. We have derived this framework from studying many architecture assessment frameworks and maturity models in practice. All of these frameworks have not comprehensive view on architecture and have focused on architecture, only. This framework is an integrated unified process that is comprehensive and result-oriented which has focus on effectiveness. This framework has been unified architecture and implementation assessment methods and considered initiation phase before start architecture to integrate IT planning with business plan to have effective architectures and implementation to attain business goals. Architecture initiation phase is useful for specific enterprises with funding system. We have used performance management methods to assess implementation of architecture and evaluate business performance. We have considered efficiency metrics in budgeting process of architecture initiation and implementation phase. This metrics help users to assess architecture and update and revise enterprises architecture in development and implementation phases to revise architecture and will be a guide in the whole lifecycle.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 [Kslpic, Bernus, 2002] Brane Kslpic, Peter Bernus, Business Process Modeling in Industry, the powerful in enterprise Management, Computer in industry journal, 47(2002) 299-318, (www.elservier .com) [NASCIO, 2004] CIO council maturity model for Enterprise Architecture, 2004 [OMB, 2005] Department of budget, Federal Government, OMB EA assessment work, 2005 [ACMM] Architecture Maturity Model, Department of Commerce, USA federal Government, 2005 [IFEAD, 2005] IFEAD 2005 survey on enterprise architecture, 2005 (enterprise-architecture. info) [FEA, 2004]http://www.go-planet.com/government_fea.asp [DoD, 2003] DoD Framework and software architecture Workshop report, 2003. [Richard Burk, 2004] Richard Burk, Government Computer News Volume 24, 2004 [FEA-PROMO action plan, 2004] Federal Government Action Plan for Enterprise Architecture assessment program, 20046)http://www.harriskern.com/index.php EAMMF GAO EA maturity and WPO. ROI and EA[www.bredemeyer.com, 2004] http://www.bredemeyer.com/howto.htm [ecinst.com] http:// ecinst.com/index.php [EA Assessment, 2004] The case for architecture assessment, assessment EA [www.bredemeyer.com, 2004] http://www.bredemeyer.com/howto.htm [ACMM, 2004] Architecture Maturity Model, Department of Commerce, USA federal Government, 2004 [TOGAF 8, Enterprise Edition, 2005] http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8- doc/arch/p4/ maturity/mat.htm, 2005 [EA Validation, 2004] EA validation full version, 2004 [Richard Burk, 2004] Government Computer News Volume 24, Richard Burk, 2004 [SEI, 2005] SEI criteria for achieving Level 2 of their software capability maturity model [www.zdnet.fr, 2004] http://www.zdnet.fr/feeds/rss/techupdate/

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Additional References:
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Information Technology http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov U.S. Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council [3]http://www.popkin.com/customers/ customer_service_center/downloads/do financenet.gov/fed/cfo U.S. Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council http://cio.gov Rational / Case wise announcement September 2001, http://www.casewise.com/announcedetail.php?id=15; http://www.rational.com/partners/tech_corner.jsp www.enterprise-architecture.info/Extended Enterprise Architecture, Institute For [10]Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD).htm http://www.gsa.gog/portal/gsa/ep/ contentView.do?bodyOnly=true&contentId=13264&contentType=GSA_BASICwnloads.htm http://www.ewita.com. www.enterprise-architecture.info w.Veasey. Philip (2001), Use of enterprise architectures in managing strategic change, Business process management journal Harmon, Paul (2002), Developing an Enterprise Architecture, Pop kin Co. Turban Efraim (2001), Information technology for management, Prentice-Hall international. Inc The Handbook of Information Technology in Business. Thomson learning corp. (2001) Finkelstein Clive (1997), Enterprise Information Architecture visible system corporation. Perks Col. Beveridge,Tony(2003). Guide to Enterprise IT Architecture. Springer -Verlag New York, Inc Spewak Steven (1990). Enterprise Architecture Planning http://government.popkin.com /methods/relational_data_modeling http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp / XML Beans Where Java meets data- ADTmag_com.htm http://government.popkin.com/methods/idef.htm http://government.popkin.com/frameworks/teaf.htm http://www.popkin.com/products/system_architect/sa_abm_for_dodaf.htm http://government.popkin.com/systems_engineering/systems_engineering.htm http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/corbafaq.htm http://www.pbmi.org Carol Orouke, Neal Fishman, Waren Selkow(2003), Enterprise Architecture Using Zachman Framework, Allen Sayler(2002), Architectural Discussion of FEAF Using RUP and UML. IBM Software Group http://viking.gmu.edu/http/Syst621Sp02/vg621/Ch01_02.pdf The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Forth Edition, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company IEEE STD 610.12-1990, IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~perry/work/papers/swa-sen.pdf Kruchten, P., The 4+1 View Model of Architecture ,IEEE, November 1995 (Vol. 12, No. 6), pp 42-50 [Garlan. D., Shaw. M., 1996] Garlan. D., Shaw. M., Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline, 1996, Prentice Hall http://www.cio.gov/documents/fed_enterprise_arch_guide_feb_2001.html John A. Zachman, A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 26, No 3, 1987. IBM Publication G321-5298 (Phone: +1-914-945-3836 Fax: +1-914-945-2018).

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58 59 60 61

http://wwwoirm.nih.gov/policy/itmra.html http://www.cio.gov/Documents/fedarch1.pdf http://www.treas.gov/teaf/teafv1.pdf http://www.c3i.osd.mil/org/cio/i3/AWG_Digital_Library

About the Author


Maryam Vahid is presently working as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Information Technology (IT) Development Company, Tehran, Iran. His work is on development and marketing of eCommerce systems, hosting, domain, CMS and portal Solutions, web services, ERP and CRM solutions. He has previously worked as an IT consultant and project director in Haseb System Consulting Company, Tehran, Iran.

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The Challenges of Adopting Open Source Software in Promoting E-government


Bhasker Mukerji1*, Vinod Kumar1 and Uma Kumar1

ABSTRACT
The adoption of OSS is not free of challenges. The existing literature on the adoption of OSS by the government organizations mainly focused upon the increase in usage of OSS but did not critically evaluate the challenges associated with OSS which should be taken into consideration before adopting an OSS. This paper reviews the OSS literature to explore the various challenges linked with OSS. This would be very beneficial for the decision makers in the government organizations to evaluate the chosen OSS before adopting it. This paper also discusses the benefits of e-government, evolution of OSS and its benefits in government context.

Keywords: E-government, open source software, challenges associated with OSS, benefits of OSS

1. Introduction
The Open source software (OSS) is considered a boon for the countries who cannot afford the expensive proprietary software to develop e-government. The developing countries cannot afford to pay hefty license fees for proprietary software. The government organizations in Africa, Asia and South America are adopting OSS solutions because of its low cost and availability of cheap skilled programmers in their countries to customize the software to their needs (Enav, 2003). In a study conducted to track the usage of OSS, it was found that OSS is extensively promoted in countries like India, China and Taiwan followed by South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand in Asia. In South America, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are encouraging the use of OSS in all sectors of the government whereas in Africa, South Africa is extensively reaping the benefits of OSS followed by Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria (Noronha, 2003). Colleges, universities and technical institutions in developing countries have financial constraints in spite of getting financial support from the government therefore OSS is now being extensively used in academia and public sector. Many developing countries have a large pool of easily available skilled personnel who can modify the source codes of an OSS to meet the specific needs of the government organizations. The various types of OSS like compilers, firewalls, networking software, operating systems etc. prove to be extremely useful in promoting e-government. The pirated copies of the proprietary software which are widely used among the masses in the developing countries are more glamorous than the OSS but the manufacturers of these proprietary software do not make any intense effort to stop the illegal usage because it would do more damage to them and would prove to be a boon in disguise for the OSS. If the producers of proprietary software try to prevent people from using the illegal copies then it would tremendously increase the usage of OSS which will not be beneficial for the proprietary software developing companies (Bokhari
1

Eric Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +613-520-2600 Ext.6327, Email: bmukerji@connect.carleton.ca)

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and Rehman 1999). In India, which has multiple languages (the official census lists 114 major languages), the proprietary software based on one language, generally English hinders the spread of computers all over the country (Noronha, 2002). An effort is being made to enable Linux console for widely popular Indian languages so that people can use computers in their native language. An operating system has been created in Malayalam which is expected to facilitate the spread of computers among those people who do not know English but proficient in Malayalam. There is an increase in the usage of OSS in government organizations and major public sector enterprises like UTI Bank, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, New India Assurance, LIC, BSNL and IRCTC. The State governments in many states are encouraging the use of OSS in schools and hospitals. In most of these public sector enterprises and government organizations, Red Hat is the leading software provider (Becker, 2003; Noronha, 2003) Venezuelas government is working on a ruling to use OSS in public administration all over the country. Some government organizations have already started using OSS and the ministry of education and sports have reported of having saved more than two million dollars by using OSS for handling payroll, network management, web services and others. The big proprietary software companies like Microsoft are using their influence to discourage the Venezuelas government from exclusively using OSS and are giving away licenses at a very low fee (Sojo, 2004). Brazil has also reduced the heavy software license fees that it pays to Microsoft and has chalked out a social program called digital inclusion, aimed at bringing computer access to the 80 percent of Brazilians using OSS which is a very cheap alternative to proprietary software (Karp, 2003). The prime goal of the federal Institute for Information Technology in Brazil is to promote OSS throughout the government by adopting open source systems in the ministries, offices, schools. I. In China, the government has planned to install 140,000 PCs running on Linux in primary and secondary schools which is considered to be the largest installation of Linux in desktops in Asia. The pirated copies of Microsofts OS were used in mass scale in all sectors but after joining WTO, China had to act against piracy. This increased the usage of OSS in local as well as national government agencies like National Ministry of Science, National Labor Unit and municipal corporations. The Chinese government has made it mandatory to use indigenously developed software in government departments which has given a big boost to the adoption of OSS (Marson, 2005). The adoption of OSS by an organization is not free of challenges. There are many significant issues related to its efficiency, security, reliability etc. Incidentally, the existing literature on the adoption of OSS by the government organizations mainly focused upon the increase in usage of OSS but did not critically evaluate the challenges associated with OSS which should be taken into consideration before adopting an OSS. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge by reviewing the OSS literature to explore the various challenges linked with OSS. This would be very beneficial for the decision makers in the government organizations to evaluate the chosen OSS before adopting it. This paper also discusses the benefits of egovernment and use of OSS in building the IT infrastructure in government organizations which facilitates the development of e-government. The remainder of this paper is structured into three sections. The following section provides a brief review of e-government and its benefits, followed by the evolution and definition of OSS, benefits of OSS, challenges associated with OSS and finally the conclusion.

2. E-government and its Benefits


E-government refers to the delivery of information and services online through the Internet or other digital means (Muir and Oppenheim, 2005). It is about delivering improved services to citizens, businesses and other members of the society through drastically changing the way governments manage information (Accenture, 2002). However, the e-government challenge is not a technological one; rather, it is to use 23

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technologies to improve the capacities of government institutions while improving the quality of life of citizens by redefining the relationship with them (Gautrin, 2004). Initially, e-government may seem like another option but in the face of rising demands ensuing from demographic, economic, social, and global trends, e-government no longer appears to be a matter of choice but compulsion for any country wishing to enter the 21st century as a competitive nation in the world arena. The governments have been viewed as complex, mammoth bureaucratic establishments with a set of information silos that erect barriers to the access of information and make the provision of services cumbersome and frustrating. With e-government the quality of services provided to citizens and businesses can be improved tremendously while attaining greater efficiency for all participants. The provision of 24/7 services improves the level of satisfaction among citizens and enhances their acceptance of the public sector (Stiftung, 2002). E-government can result in significant cost savings to governments and all the parties involved. The potential savings are huge, but are dependent on how quickly adoption rates go up (Eggers, 2004). The services offered by the e-government are categorized in three phases: publishing, interacting, and transacting. Government websites are primarily being used to obtain information and limited progress has been made in interacting with citizens and online business transactions (Accenture, 2004). There are a number of potential benefits of e-government to the citizens. It gives citizens more control on how and when they want to interact with the government. Instead of visiting department at a particular location or calling the government personnel at particular time specified by the government, citizens can choose to receive the services at the time and place of their own choice. The accessibility of government services also increases since despite governments mammoth infrastructure, there are always a limited number of personnel interacting directly with the citizens and waiting time could be long even on the phone. The electronic delivery of government services, especially availability of different forms and the option of electronically submitting tax returns etc. culminates into a considerable saving of time and money for individuals. Technology now makes it possible to personalize the website to a point where delivery of services could be tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual, thereby increasing the satisfaction of citizens from government services (Gilbert and Balestrini, 2004). The adoption and usage of online government services has a special significance for developing countries. Unlike developed countries, the governments in developing countries have incessant shortage of resources. They are always short of personnel and facilities to provide adequate services to their citizens. The concept of information and service provision through phone is non-existent in most of the developing countries. A personal visit to the department and face to face interaction with government personnel is mandatory to receive any type of service. Getting a form from a government department, so conveniently available online in a number of developed countries and taken for granted, could cost citizens of developing countries significant amount of time, effort, money and frustration. The online delivery of government services, therefore, could tremendously increase accessibility and bring significant time and cost savings to citizens in developing countries. The element of transparency built in the online channel, could also alleviate corruption, a serious problem in a number of developing countries. Therefore, e-government could virtually revolutionize the provision of government services in developing countries. Access to the Internet by citizens is a serious issue but it could be dealt with by providing public access terminals. The development of e-government can be divided into four stages (Gartner, 2000); 1. Existence stage In this stage, the government departments have online presence and citizens can access relevant information about the aims and objectives, current news and other information which can only be known previously by visiting the office. 2. Interaction stage At this stage, the citizens are provided access to all the relevant forms for download and email is used to facilitate smooth flow of communication with them. 3. Transaction stage At this stage the citizens can fill and submit forms online, pay their bills or dues online. 4. Transformation stage this stage comprises of the long term goals of the government in providing better services to the citizens and bringing significant changes in the government procedures. All these four stages 24

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require investment in the IT infrastructure which increases as the government moves towards transformation stage. Heavy investment in establishing IT infrastructure to develop e-government raises few questions related to the software to be used - the total cost of adoption, challenges and benefits associated with the software. The government department can either choose proprietary software or open source software (OSS). In the past only proprietary software were available from the proprietary software developers like Microsoft but the rise in the development of OSS has given another option to the government organizations.

3. Evolution of OSS
The market is full of variety of software performing different tasks depending upon the requirements of the user. Software bought from the market are different from other manufactured goods mainly because customer gets only the right to use the compiled program which can be installed in the computer but the user cannot make any modifications in the source code, cannot redistribute it without the permission of the software developer. Software companies heavily guard the source codes of their software by associating them with the most stringent form of license to safeguard their investment in terms of time and money. The license regulates the use of software and prohibits the user from copying or redistributing it. The proponents of free software do not consider these restrictions to be fair and argue that this prevents the maximum utilization of the software. Richard Stallman, a programmer at MIT started the free software movement in the mid 80s and formed free software foundation (FSF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promote free software. He started this social movement to challenge the dominance of proprietary software. Free Software is the software which is given away along with the source code so that the users can modify them to meet their requirements. FSF came up with its own license to prevent appropriation of free software by the proprietary software developers. It is important to clarify here that free software does not mean that the software is available at free of cost (Bretthauer 2002). The meaning of free in the context of free software is the freedom to - use it, modify the source code to meet his requirements, redistribute it either free or charge a fee, create derivative work and distribute it. Other than that, the companies were not interested in joining the free software movement because the word free does not make lot of sense in the business world. The term open source software (OSS) was suggested by Christine Peterson, founder and VP of Foresight Nanotech Institute, California in 1998 in a meeting presided by Eric Raymond, a prolific writer and a supporter of OSS. The purpose was to sort out the confusion created by the word free and replace it with something that would be acceptable to the companies. Open Source Initiative, a non-profit organization was formed which provided the Open Source Definition to clearly define the concept of OSS and remove the misconceptions. A number of criteria has been established which determines whether a particular software is an open source or not. Richard Stallman did not accept the change and still continues to run his Free Software Foundation. 3.1 Definition of OSS OSS is software where the source code is released for the users to analyze, modify and redistribute without any proprietary right restrictions (Waring and Maddocks, 2005). The open source definition suggests that an access to the source code of the software is not good enough to explain the concept of open source. The distribution terms should meet the following criteria (OSI website) Free Redistribution: The license should not prohibit a person to sell a software which has used an OSS as a part of the package and the complete package is a combination of software from various sources. Royalty or fee in any form should not be charged from the seller. Source Code: The whole objective of the open source is to make the evolution of programs easy. Any OSS must come with the source code so that the user may modify it to meet his requirements. If for any 25

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reason the source code doesnt come with the software then it must be ensured that it is easily available (e.g on Internet) and every user has access to it. Derived Works: The license associated with the OSS should allow modifications and derived works and must be distributed with same terms as the license of the original software. Integrity of the Authors Source Code: The modified version of the software should be given a different name or version number to make sure that no one can seize someone elses work. The source code of the OSS must be made easily available and the unofficial changes should be provided as separate patches so that the original official version remains intact and the maintainers can decide later whether to incorporate the changes or not. Discrimination against persons or groups: The license should not prohibit any one from using the OSS. The concept of open source can only flourish if more and more people from different discipline and different countries participate in the development process. Therefore, everyone should be allowed to contribute, use and distribute the software. Discrimination against fields or endeavor: The license should not restrict the usage of the software in any specific discipline or for commercial use. The proponents of the OSS want the commercial developers to join the open source movement and major software developers are participating in the process. Distribution of License: The rights associated with the software applies to everyone who is using it and there is no need for any additional license when redistributed further. License must not be specific to a product: The right associated with a particular program is not contingent upon any particular software distribution. License must not restrict other software: The license associated with the OSS should not put any kind of restrictions on other software distributed along with it.

4. Benefits of OSS in Government Context


The use of OSS reduces the expenditure of the government on IT by drastically cutting the hefty license fees paid to the proprietary software developers. The cost of development and the time to develop the proprietary software is very high therefore, the proprietary software developing companies charge high license fees to cover the development costs and make profits. It was found that 26% of all the proprietary software projects fail and 46% face increase in the budgeted development cost (Reel, 1999). The OSS is an alternative for the organizations that are not willing to pay license fees (Andersson et al., 2005). The governments in developing countries are encouraging the usage of OSS in the public sector enterprises because it helps them to save their limited financial resources which could be better utilized in other areas. The low cost of the OSS has helped its widespread adoption at different government and organizational levels (Spinellis and Szyperski, 2004). The adoption of OSS by the governments also reduces the dependence of the government on proprietary software developing companies and allows them to use their in-house skills and support from the OSS development community to modify the source code of the OSS according to their needs (Krishnamurthy, 2003). The flexibility to modify the source code to perform a specific task is probably one of the major benefits associated with the adoption of OSS. Linux, a very popular OSS can run older computer systems, which makes it a popular choice in the third world countries where systems which are obsolete for the western world are still in use in government organizations (Leibovitch 1999). Another key benefit of OSS is its scalability. Linux can run older computer systems, which makes it a popular choice in the third world countries where systems which are obsolete for the western world are still in use (Leibovitch, 1999). The benefits of adopting OSS can also be traced in developed countries like UK, Canada and other 26

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European countries. Waring and Maddocks (2005) conducted a study to determine the factors that facilitates the increase in adoption of OSS in government organizations in a developed country. They examined six local government and two central government organizations in UK and found that long term savings, reliability, scalability and customizability are the most important reasons behind the adoption of OSS. Similar reasons are generally given for the increase in adoption of OSS in developing countries which shows that all governments, either in a developing country or developed country are ethically obliged to spend the tax payers money judiciously. OSS has got acceptance in both developing and developed countries although they are more beneficial for the developing countries in promoting e-government. Another benefit of adopting OSS is related to the geographical location of the members of the OSS development community. They are working at different time zones and at different parts of the globe which ensures quick response in case of any problem with the software. The quality of OSS is also found to be of higher quality compared to its equivalent proprietary software and the development cost is much lower (Haruvy et al., 2003; Wheeler, 2001). The OSS is very reliable because of its stringent peer review during its development stage (Andersson et al., 2005; Murphy, 2001; Vowler, 2003). It is assumed that the source code of the OSS is tested by a large number of members thus reducing the chances of having any bug in the software. The reliability and security of OSS is an ongoing debate and is not yet established. Other than that, there are many challenges linked with OSS which play vital role in determining the sustainability of OSS.

5. Challenges associated with OSS


The adoption of OSS is beneficial for the government organizations in the developing as well as developed countries but it also has some challenges which should be considered before taking the decision to use OSS in their IT infrastructure. The sustainability of OSS is contingent upon whether the organization has pondered upon the challenges given in Figure 1 anChallenges of using OSS

Fig. 1: Challenges associated with OSS

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5.1. Customer Support One of the barriers in the adoption of OSS is the lack of required support from the developing community to meet the installation and technical problems. The proprietary software development companies have an army of customer support personnel to solve the problems of the users (Leibovitch, 1999). Andersson et al. (2005) found two major challenges related to adoption of OSS from their study of nine organizations More technical knowledge is required to deal with OSS compared to proprietary software. The technical support from the OSS community might not be available for the chosen OSS. The level of required customer support would vary depending upon the level of adoption of OSS. For the government organizations, it is essential to have 24/7 availability of technical support which is provided by the proprietary software developers. In the time of crisis, although the whole community is there to fix the problem, but no one is bound to provide the desired help promptly. Therefore the desired support may not be available when required (AlMarzouq et al., 2005). Companies like Red Hat, distributor of Linux, fulfill this need and provide their clients the required technical support. The other companies which generate their revenue by providing services to their customers using OSS develop their expertise in limited number of open source products; widely used by the companies. But, for the relatively less popular OSS products, the support only comes from the community that developed the software which is extremely unreliable. The government organizations should either approach the service providers ( such as Red hat) and take their services in choosing, installing, maintaining and upgrading the OSS used in their organization or they should develop in-house expertise to be able to fix the problems. 5.2. Required Technical skills Another challenge is that so far, the developers of OSS are also the users of OSS. Most of the OSS products are used by the technically skilled users but non-technical users are still relying upon the proprietary software which are relatively more user friendly and do not require specific technical skills (AlMarzouq et al., 2005). Although the source code is distributed along with the software but it is no use if the user doesnt know how to modify it to adapt the software for personal use (Krishnamurthy, 2003). The lack of detailed documentation is also a major hindrance in making OSS popular among the non-sophisticated users. The users of OSS are generally skilled users who can easily install and solve minor problems without any documentation (Lerner and Tirole, 2002). It is essential for the government organizations to estimate the level of complexity of the chosen OSS and the availability of the in-house skills 5.3. Total Cost of Ownership Microsoft conducted a study to prove that the total cost of ownership of Linux is 15 % to 20% higher than running Windows XP. Their explanation was based on the difference in the level of service and support provided by the Microsoft, switching cost to another platform, customization and installation of the OSS, training of the employees within an organization (McGrath, 2004). There is no other empirical study from a third party supporting their claim. The adoption of OSS provides long term benefits but the short term cost of adoption could be higher for the organizations (Vaughan-Nichols, 2004). The government organizations should conduct a study within their organization to estimate the total cost of adopting the chosen OSS before taking any decision 5.4. Non-customer Centric Approach of Development Proprietary software development companies focus upon the ease of use of their software and develop software which can be easily installed and used by the non-technical users. Nadeau (1999) said, In every release cycle Microsoft always listen to its most ignorant customers whereas Linux and other OSS developers, on the other hand, tend to listen to their smartest customers. The objective of OSS development community 28

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is to develop a software, which solves an existing problem. The challenge to find an efficient solution to the problem motivates the developers to actively participate in the development process. They do not take into consideration the ease of use factor, thus develop software which might be extremely useful but requires high level of expertise to be able to use it. The government organization should evaluate how easy it is for their employees to use the chosen OSS otherwise a complex OSS would not be extensively used by the nontechnical employees. 5.5. Legal Complexities The risk of infringement associated with the OSS creates hindrances in its adoption. SCO Group Inc. sued IBM claiming that its proprietary code is released by IBM as a part of Linux source code (Kalina and Czyzycki, 2005). The complexity and the number of the licenses makes it difficult to understand the legal implications if the organization is using many OSS (Vowler, 2003). The government organizations planning to switch to OSS should completely understand the legal restrictions associated with the chosen OSS. 5.6. Multiple Versions New versions of the OSS are frequently released which makes it difficult for the organizations to choose the appropriate version of the required software that fits its requirements and once the decision is made then keeping track of the updates (Krishnamurthy, 2003). The frequent release of new versions is the major hindrance in the widespread adoption of OSS by the organizations. The government organizations should either take the services of the service providers like IBM, Red Hat or continuously monitor the release of new versions. 5.7. Lack of Accountability The OSS is developed by a community which mainly comprises of volunteers therefore there is a lack of accountability. In the case of proprietary software, the seller is accountable for the product and any malfunctioning product is replaced. Since, the OSS is acquired from the community that developed it and issue the disclaimer of any accountability, the user gets in trouble if the software does not function as expected. Other than that, OSS projects are not deadline driven therefore the government organizations thinking about adopting a chosen OSS which is in the development stage should be prepared to put extra effort by utilizing their own resources, if the software is not ready in time. It would also help to develop inhouse experts who would be able to maintain the software and fix the problems if they occur. 5.8. Lack of Standardization of Quality The software development process is not standardized in OSS communities because the level of participation, communication varies in each OSS development project. There are numerous OSS projects at Sourceforge.net having only few members. Therefore the software produced also varies in quality and it would be wrong to assume that all OSS are of superior quality (AlMarzouq et al., 2005). The government organization should evaluate the quality of the chosen OSS in terms of its reliability and security before adopting it.

6. Concluding Remarks
The existing literature on the adoption of OSS by the government organizations discusses the benefits of using OSS in terms of the revenue that can be saved but it fails to reveal the challenges that should be taken into consideration. There has been an increase in the number of government organizations using OSS which plays a major role in implementing an effective and efficient e-governance. There are many benefits of OSS but at the same time, there are many challenges associated with it. The government organizations should not be swayed away by the popularity of OSS and should take the decision of adopting OSS after cautiously 29

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evaluating the challenges associated with the OSS. The usability of the chosen OSS should be assessed because, generally the users of OSS are technically skilled. Usability is different from utility and has five characteristics (Nielsen, 1993) ease of learning, efficiency, memorability, error frequency and subjective satisfaction. The required technical skill to efficiently use OSS is strongly related with the usability of the OSS. The non-technical employees will adopt OSS only if it scores high on the above mentioned five characteristics of usability. The availability of customer support, the installation and maintenance cost of adopting OSS, the legal complexities associated with OSS, availability of multiple versions of OSS, the lack of standardized quality and the lack of accountability related with the performance of the OSS are the most important issues that needs careful consideration. The widespread adoption and sustainability of OSS is contingent upon whether the government organization has carefully evaluated the challenges associated with the OSS. One of the limitations of this paper is that it only provides the list of challenges which should be given due attention but fails to provide any previously tested solutions. Empirical research should be conducted to determine the factors that are taken into consideration by the government organizations while choosing an OSS and whether or not they have assessed the challenges mentioned in this paper.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Accenture Report (2002). The Government Executive Series: E-Government Leadership Realizing the Vision. Accenture Report (2004). The Government Executive Series: E-Government Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value. AlMarzouq Mohammad, Li Zheng, Guang Rong, and Varun Grover (2005). Open source: Concepts, benefits and challenges, Communications of the AIS, Vol. 16. Anna Andersson, Hassler Karin, and Nedstam Josef, (2005). Open Source Business Models in Practice: A survey of Commercial Open Source Introduction, Lund University. Becker D. (2003). India leader advocates open source, News.com, Available at: http://news.com.com/ India+leader+advocates+open+source/2100-1016_3-1011255.html. Bokhari Shahid H. and Rehman R. (1999). Linux and the Developing World, IEEE Software, 16 (1), 5864. Bretthauer David (2002). Open Source Software: A History, Information Technology and Libraries, 21 (1), 3-10. Eggers William D. (2004). Boosting E-Government, Deloitte Research Public Sector, FTA Annual Conference, p. 14. Enav P. (2003). Israeli government picks Open Source productivity suit over Microsoft, eWeek, Ziff Davis Media Inc., December. Gartner (2002). Developing fully functional E-government: Four phases of E-government. Gautrin Henri-Franois (2004). Report on E-Government: Connecting Quebec to its Citizens, MNA for Verdun, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier, p. 292. Gilbert D. and Pierre Balestrini (2004). Barriers and benefits in the adoption of e-government, The International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 286-301, Haruvy E. and Prasad A. and Sethi S. P. (2003).Harvesting Altruism in Open Source Software Development, Journal of Optimizing Theory and Applications, 118 (2), 381-416. Jonathan Karp. (Sep 2003). A Brazilian challenge for Microsoft - The Governments preference for open source software may tilt the playing ground, The Wall Street Journal. Ira Kalina and Czyzycki Alice. (2005). The Ins and Outs of Open Source, Consulting to Management, 16 (3). S. Krishnamurthy (2003). A managerial overview of Open Source Software, Business Horizons, 47-56. Evan Leibovitch (1999). The Business Case for Linux, IEEE Software, 16 (1), 40-44.

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18 19 20 21

Lerner Josh and Jean Tirole (2002). Some Simple Economics of Open Source, Journal of Industrial Economics, 50 (2), 197-234. Ingrid Marson (2005). China: Local software for local people, CNET News.com. Nick McGrath (2004). What exactly are the merits of Open-Source software? View#2, IEE Review. Muir A. and Oppenheim C. (2002). E-Government - Report on Developments World-Wide on National Information Policy, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Available at: http:// www.lahq.org.uk/directory/prof_issues/nip/eg.html Murphy T. (2001). Evaluate Open Source Risks, Available at: http://ftponline.com/wss/2002_10/online/ tmurphy. Nadeau. T. (1999). Learning from Linux, Available at: http://www.os2hq.com/archives/linmemol.htm Noronha Frederick (2003). Developing Countries Gain from Free/Open Source Software, Linux Journal (May). Noronha F. (2002). Indian Language Solutions for GNU/Linux, Linux Journal, Available at: http:// www.linuxjournal.com/node/6282 accessed on 03/10/2006 Nielsen J. (1993). Usability Engineering. Boston, MA: Academic Press. Reel John S. (1999). Critical success factors in software projects, IEEE Software, 16 (3), 18-23. Sojo C.A. (2004). Venezuela embraces Linux and open source software but faces challenges, Available at: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1439. Spinellis D. and C. Szyperski (2004). How is open source affecting software development?, IEEE Software, 28-33. Stiftung B. (2002). Balanced E-Government: E-Government Connecting Efficient Administration and Responsive Democracy, A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, p. 24. Vowler J. (April 2003). Finding out the hidden cost of open source, Computer Weekly. Vaughan-Nichols S. J. (Jan 2004). Novell embraces Open Source, eWeek, Ziff Davis Media Inc. Waring Teresa and Philip Maddocks (2005). Open Source Software implementation in the UK public sector: Evidence from the field and implications for the future, International Journal of Information Management, 25, 411-28.

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About the Authors


Bhasker Mukerji is a PhD candidate at Eric Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. His specific areas of research are Technology Commercialization, E-commerce, E-Government adoption, Technology adoption and management and Information Systems. Vinod Kumar is a Professor at Eric Sprott School of Business. His areas of research are Managing the innovation process, Small businesses, Incubating technology, Enterprise system adoption and implementation, E-commerce technology strategy, Adoption of E-Government, Supply chain management, Improving performance of production and operation systems, Manufacturing flexibility, Technology transfer, Quality in R&D and Innovation management in defence and high tech sector. Uma Kumar is a Professor at Eric Sprott School of Business. Her areas of research are Technology management, ERP adoption and implementation, Risk management in ERP adoption, Performance metrics in e-commerce, E-Government, Forecasting and monitoring technology, Efficiency in new product development through e-commerce, Managing R&D internationally, R&D and innovation policy, Project management, Survey studies and statistical analysis for business problems.

31

Suitability of Service Oriented Architecture for E-procurement


Manas Ranjan Patra1*and Rama Krushna Dash2

ABSTRACT
In recent times, many new areas are being explored for the realization of electronic governance apart from achieving effective administrative control and better dissemination of information. Electronic procurement is one such areas which can, not only help streamlining the entire procurement cycle but can encourage greater participation of small and medium sized enterprises in the procurement activities. This paper explores the suitability of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a possible enabling technology for e-procurement. Our exploratory study shows that the inherent complexity of e-procurement that involves interaction across multiple parties and heterogeneous implementation technologies can be handled by SOA.

Keywords: Service Oriented Architecture, e-procurement, web services

1. Introduction
Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has led to a paradigm shift in the way governments have begun to think about public administration and execution of activities through greater participation of public and other enterprises. Among others, purchase of goods is a frequently occurring activity in most of the government organizations, yet a cumbersome and time-consuming one. A typical organization spends lot of time in locating potential suppliers of specific items, requesting for price quotes, evaluating bids, selecting suppliers based on various criteria such as price, performance, brand value etc., placing orders in the appropriate format, tracking a purchase process and finally making payments. The situation becomes much more complex when it is required to deal with unexpected events such as cancelled order, sudden change in policies, violation of terms and conditions, or emergency purchases. In such cases one looks for the best alternatives to handle the situation. Possibly, a quick access to information repositories with alternatives or a proper tracking mechanism can help deal with the crisis. Researchers have looked at different technologies, business models and implementation paradigms to efficiently handle such exigencies. In [2], the authors have investigated different business models for Internet-based e-procurement to highlight their benefits in reducing search costs and streamlining the coordination among the trading partners. In (Beu Amer & Vaucher 2002), an agent-based approach has been proposed for multi-market package procurement of goods and services. The autonomous characteristic of software agents is used to monitor all procurementrelated activities. ---------------In [3], the authors have shared their initial experience in developing a computermediated e-procurement system for the Singapore Government. In [11], the authors have highlighted the use of web service orchestration technology to create citizen-centric processes. Drawing motivation from these works, our paper explores the suitability of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a technological framework
1

* 2

Dept. of Computer Science, Berhampur University, Berhampur 760 007, Orissa, India Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-9437145430, Email:mrpatra12@gmail.com) National Informatics Centre, Berhampur 760 004, Orissa, India

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to carry out electronic procurement. Our aim is to critically analyze the contemporary technologies and see whether they can be used for applications such as E-procurement that involves multiple parties and require a high degree of interoperation.

2. E-procurement
Electronic Procurement (e-procurement) essentially includes all aspects of procurement related functions that are supported by different electronic communication channels. It is being extensively practiced both in public and private sectors. A procurement scenario typically includes activities such as raising requisitions for purchase by different departments/individuals, evaluation and validation of the requisitions by purchase department, sending of purchase order to seller firm, processing of purchase order by seller firm in consultation with the inventory system, contacting suitable shipping agency for shipment, and settling of payments through bank once the items are delivered.

3. Suitability of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)


The present economy is geared towards globalization, profitability, transparency, and reachability. This can only be achieved through strategic use of available technology in different functional areas of any organization be it a public or private sector. In the emerging economy organizational activities such as procurement, dissemination of information, outsourcing of jobs could involve partners cutting across geographical boundaries. For small and medium size parties to participate and benefit form such global activities, their visibility and ease of operation is of paramount importance. This can be achieved to a large extent by adopting the service-oriented architecture, which enables one to design and deploy modular services for third part consumption. Further, the model provides higher-level abstraction for organizing applications for large-scale, open, and dynamic environments, thereby improving productivity and application quality. The notion of service-oriented development can guarantee flexibility in global cooperation.

4. Service Oriented Architecture


Service-orientation is a new way of thinking about software systems that require interoperability. The suitability of this paradigm to the contemporary business world has been highlighted in [6,8]. It helps one to identify certain high-level functionalities that can be deployed as logical units. The notion of service has been defined in different ways in the literature. Each of these definitions contributes to the appropriateness of the service-oriented paradigm in modeling interoperable distributed heterogeneous business applications. In [7] service has been defined as a location on a network that contain machine-readable description of messages it receives and optionally returns, after appropriate internal processing. Service has also been described as a functionality of an application that can be used in the development of distributed applications through an integration paradigm called service-oriented computing [4]. Service has been described as an encapsulated unit of functionalities [10]. In the context of web services, a service is viewed as an application or business logic that can run on a web server by exposing its functional capabilities to clients [5]. One thing that is apparent in all these definitions is that service is a conceptual entity that facilitates certain actions in response to a set of stimuli from its environment. The stimuli can be in the form of messages or explicit invocation of programs that trigger some internal processing at a service provider, which may not be visible to a service consumer. In the sequel, service-oriented computing has emerged as a possible computing paradigm to provide common interface to applications, thereby enhancing the interoperability and reusability of already available functionalities of applications running on different /platforms. This would help in rapid integration of applications and automate most of the business processes of enterprises. Though it appears to be an ambitious proposition but the way the notion is being supported by current technologies, it seems to provide the next generation computing infrastructure for enterprise integration. 33

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i) Basic components of SOA The Service-Oriented Architecture centers around three service entities namely, service provider, service consumer, and service registry. ii) Service Provider A service provider is one that wishes to provide a service either as a means of generating revenue or to facilitate interaction with partners. In order to expose its service(s), the provider publishes the service(s) along with service descriptions. It further provides standard interfaces to access service(s). iii) Service Consume A service consumer is one that wishes to use a service to meet its business needs. Thus it tries to locate one and if successful begins to interact with the service. The only requirement here is that service consumers and service providers must have common and standardized means to access and interact with a service. iv) Service Registry The service registry provides a location for publishing and locating services. The registry must provide a consistent taxonomy to facilitate a uniform means of describing the service being provided, description of the service provider, and information regarding how to access and interact with a particular service. Besides this, the registry needs to provide a programmatic means of publishing and locating services. v) Web services Web services seek to implement SOA. Services are viewed as self-contained modular applications that are loosely coupled and can be accessed directly via the Internet using standard interfaces. Internet allows Web services to be accessed by other web services as well as customers, suppliers, and trading partners in a platform agnostic manner. Thus web services can provide a number of benefits for intra- as well as interorganizational interactions. vi) The Technology support Web services advocate interoperability and platform-neutral communications as opposed to specific development languages, or component models. In contrast to CORBA, COM, and EJB, which allow platform interoperability but employ their own component model and format for distributed information communication, Web services are standards based and provide for flexible application integration. It is a conglomeration of several key technologies such as Extensible Markup language (XML) which provides a standardized and platform-neutral syntax for exchanging data across heterogeneous setups, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) which is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) which WSDL defines a standard description mechanism for Web services and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) which is used to define a registry of available Web services. Such technologies support kind of global electronic yellow pages enabling service providers to publish their service descriptions which can be made use of by the interested parties. This can facilitate an agile environment where the service providers and service consumers can interact to meet their business objectives. vii) Web services Orchestration and choreography Web services technologies are becoming the de facto standard for integrating heterogeneous applications through the use of XML. One of the major challenges in the use of this standard is how to connect the web services as a part of a business process. The two terms namely, orchestration and choreography are being used in connection with facilitating an open, standard-based approach for connecting web services together 34

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to create high-level business processes. While orchestration describes how web services can interact at a message level, including the business logic and execution order of the interactions from the viewpoint of one of the interacting parties, choreography is more collaborative in nature involving multiple parties and multiple sources. Choreography is associated with public message exchanges that occur between multiple web services, rather than a specific business process executed by a single party. Standards such as BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services), WSCI (Web Services Choreography Interface) and BPML(Business process Management Language) are designed to simplify the interaction among the web services. BPEL4WS is a specification that models the behavior of web services in a business process [10]. It is a layer on top of WSDL, in the sense that WSDL defines the specific operations to be performed and BPEL4WS defines the order the operations are to be sequenced. WSCI is an XML-based specification for service collaboration that supports message correlation, sequencing rules, exception handling, transactions, and dynamic collaboration. BPML is a meta-language for describing business processes. Some of the features of BPML includes, recursive composition, scheduling of tasks, ability to compose sub-processes into a large business process etc. The use of these technologies has the potential to facilitate activities like eprocurement that involves multiple parties operating from different implementation platforms.

5. Modeling e-procurement using SOA


A typical procurement scenario is depicted in figure 1 which shows the involvement of the buyer agency, the supplier, the shipping agent, bank etc. The figure provides a high-level description of possible interactions across the parties and also the activities internal to the parties, which need not be made visible to the other parties.

Fig. 1: Procurement scenario

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Each of the parties can expose their operations as a web service by hiding the implementation details. For instance, a buyer would see the item details and quoted price and even know how to place on order for an item using certain interfaces but may not know how exactly the order is processed at a seller. The interactions among the parties involved in the procurement scenario are modeled as an UML sequence diagram as shown in figure 2.

Fig. 2: Sequence diagram

6. A Case study: Central Purchasing System


In order to streamline the procurement of computers, peripherals and network equipment, a government agency decided to entrust the responsibility to a Central Purchase Department (CPD). The branch offices were instructed to make all purchases through the CPD as far as possible. In certain cases, the branch offices were permitted to procure certain items in case of emergencies but in consultation with the CPD. The benefit of such a centralized purchase was manifold: 1) maintaining uniformity of hardware and software used at different branch offices, 2) taking advantage of discounted prices for bulk purchases, and 3) better maintenance contracts with the vendors. Whenever the branch offices need some items they intimate CPD, which in turn maintains a database of such requests. Periodically, the CPD initiates a procurement process and makes necessary arrangement to supply the requested items at the branch offices. The CPD tries to maintain an up-to-date database of potential vendors, their products along with price, discount offers, upcoming products, change in government purchase policies etc. In case of urgency, when a branch office needs to procure certain items directly from a vendor, it can seek product and vendor information from the CPD. Keeping these requirements in mind it is proposed to model the entire application in terms of web services. Figure 3 depicts the application scenario modeled in a service oriented architectural style. 36

Manas Ranjan Patra and Rama Krushna Dash / Suitability of Service Oriented ....

Fig. 3: Central Purchasing

Vendors publish their product-related information through their respective web services which are maintained in a service registry. The CPD access such information periodically and maintains its own database. The CPD also submits its requirements to the service registry in search for prospective vendors. The vendors can access such requirements and make their offers time to time. The branch offices access the web services at the CPD and can submit their purchase requests, the CPD in turn asks for price quotes, selects vendors and monitors the entire procurement cycle until the items are delivered at the branch offices. Such a system can facilitate access to most recent product-related information and can ease the purchasing process. Further, the activities can be easily tracked and monitored ensuring timely delivery of items.

7. Implementation
A prototype implementation has been attempted using XML, J2EE, Web Services Development Tomcat 5.0 application server. A sample XML code for seller registration is given below. <?xml version=1.0" encoding=UTF-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE reg [ <!ELEMENT reg(Supplier+)> <!ELEMENT Supplier (name,items+,address)> <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT items (item+)> <!ELEMENT item (#PCDATA)> <!ATTLIST item id CDATA #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT address (URL,phone)> <!ELEMENT URL (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT phone(#PCDATA)>]> <reg> 37

Technology in E-government

<Supplier> <name>ABC Suppliers</name> <items> <item id=1">lap tops</item> <item id=2">LCD panel</item> <item id=3">key boards</item> <item id=4">Pen Drives</item> </items> <address> <URL>http:abc.com</URL> <phone>04012345678</phone> </address> </Supplier> </reg> A supplier can participate in a e-procurement by providing necessary product related information through an interface as shown below. Likewise, an interested buyer can specify its requirements through appropriate interface (as shown below) for further processing at the suppliers end.

8. Concluding Remarks
In this paper we have explored the possibility of using features of SOA in implementing e-procurement that usually involves massive interactions across multiple parties. This is typical of government purchases. 38

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We have identified the nature of interactions and have tried to model those using the SOA. The technologies that enable web services and their integration has been discussed to certain level of details to help one understand the potential of web services technology to facilitate complex applications that require interoperation. Interested parties can join an e-procurement activity by providing a set of web operations to quote their prices, publish item specifications, and ordering functions. We continue to explore how standards such as, BPEL4Ws, WSCI and BPML can be used in integrating activities in e-procurement scenarios that involve multiple parties and multiple implementation platforms. The objective of our continuing work is to make the effective use of SOA in modeling and implementing applications that are typical of government organizations which require greater degree of inter-operation among the parties involved in typical government application scenarios.

References
1 2 Ben-Ameur H., Vaucher S. et al. (2002). Towards an Agent-based approach for multimarket package eprocurement, Int. Conference on electronic commerce Research (ICECR). Dai Q. and Kauffman J. (2001). Business models for Internet-based E-procurement systems and B2B electronic markets: An exploratory assessment, IEEE Proc. 34th Hawaii International Conference on system sciences, pp. 1-10. Devadoss P.R, Pan S.L. and Huang J.C, Structural analysis of e-government initiatives: A case study of SCO, Decision Support Systems, 34, pp. 253 269. Dijkman R.M. and Dumas M. (2004). Service-oriented design: A multi-viewpoint approach, International Journal of cooperative information systems, World scientific publication, 13, (4), pp. 337-368. Greenwood D and Calisti M. (2004). Engineering Web Services- Agent Integration, IEEE Proceedings, Available at: www.whitestein.com/resources/papers/ieeesmc04.pdf. Hull R. and Benedikt M. et al. (2003). E-Services: A Look behind the Curtain, Proc. 22nd ACM symposium on principles of database systems (PODS), San-Diego, CA, June. Lomow G. and Newcomer E. (2005). Introduction to SOA with web services, Available at: http://

3 4 5 6 7

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www.informit.com/articles/. 8 9 10 11 Rust R. T. and Kannan P.K. (2003). E-Service: A new paradigm for business in the electronic environment, Communication of the ACM, 46, (6), pp. 37-42. Talwar V. and Wu Q. et al. (2005). Approaches for service deployment, IEEE Internet Computing, MarchApril issue, pp. 70-80. Weerawarana S. and Francisco C. (2002). Business process: Understanding BPEL4WS, part 1, IBM developerWorks. Jassen M. and Gortmaker J. et al. (2006). Web Service Orchestration in public administration: Challenges, roles, and growth stages, Special issue on e-Government, 23, (2), pp. 44-55.

About the Authors


Manas Ranjan Patra is a Reader in Computer Science having about 20 years of teaching and research experience. He holds a Masters degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is a recipient of United Nations Fellowship and has worked in the International Institute of Software Technology, Macau. He has about 35 research publications to his credit. His research areas include software engineering, service oriented modeling and multi-agent systems. Rama Krushna Dash is a Technical Director (Scientist-E) working with National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India for the last 18 years. He holds a Masters degree in Physics and Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science. He is involved in different E-Governance projects of NIC. He has led the group in the implementation of the e-grama project. His research interests include e-governance and software engineering.

40

The Art of Project Management for Speeding up the E-governance Implementation


V.S.R.Krishnaiah1

ABSTRACT
E-governance Projects will transform the way in which public services are organised and delivered. However, there have been a number of failures in IT Projects in general and Egovernance Projects in particular. Making use of the Project Management techniques and methodology is essential for E-governance implementation in the country. Many a time software engineers and/or civil servants are asked or assigned to be project managers because of their technical experience and potential leadership skills. The complexity and challenges posed by Egovernance projects warrant these persons to acquire the project management skills to plan, schedule, control tasks, and cost a project.

Keywords: Electronic Governance, Project Management, IT Projects, and Software Failures

1. Introduction
Governments at all the three levels in India, Central, State and Local, are committed to harness E-governance as an enabler for ushering in a new era of digital governance where services will be delivered to the citizens through convenient and easily accessible delivery channels. The Central Government is keen that the information technology (IT) revolution should not be confined to a few IT savvy states like Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka. It is firmly committed to spread the IT revolution to all the other states. The National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) of India conveys the resolve of the government to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for delivering efficient government services and enhancing transparency in governance. Several Government agencies are now adapting ICT to improve service delivery and transforming relationships with citizens, business and other arms of government. In order to empower the people in the rural areas and to bridge the digital divide, a framework for rural service delivery through Common Service Centers (CSC) is being under taken. This project will provide all services and information of the Government at the doorsteps of the common man. In this technological explosion under the e-governance program today, large amounts of funds are directed towards IT infrastructure, and software development. Despite the enormous advances in the IT industry, there are still many failed IT projects. Knowing the common underlying problems that cause most IT projects to fail will help the project leadership and teams avoid making those same mistakes over and over. The survey of literature on IT Projects gives a clear picture of high Failure rate in IT and e-governance

National Informatics Centre, New Delhi-110003, India (Phone: +91-11-24305770, 9899750010, E-mail: vsrk@nic.in)

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Projects. Most governments experience problems when implementing large IT projects. Budgets are exceeded, deadlines are over-run and often the quality of the new system is far below the standard agreed when the project was undertaken. The Standish Group (7) estimated that only 28% of all IT projects in 2000 in the US, in both government and industry, were successful with regard to budget, functionality and timelines. 23% were cancelled and the remainder succeeded only partially, falling on at least one of the three counts. In a survey conducted by the Heeks (4), the following interesting facts came to light. 15% are Successes Most stakeholder groups attained their major goals and did not experience significant undesirable outcomes 50% are Partial Successes Major goals for the initiatives were not attained and/or there were significant undesirable outcomes 35% are Total Failures The initiative was never implemented or was implemented but immediately abandoned Glass who author of an interesting book on software runaways, also brought to the notice of project managers about more number of failures in software projects.The defines a runaway project as that which goes out of control primarily because of the difficulty of building the software needed by the system. Out of control is taken to mean schedule, cost, or functionality that was twice as bad as the original estimates. The profiles 16 of the largest and most highly publicized software failures over the last decade. Familiar development projects that were profiled included the Denver Airport baggage handling system, the IRS modernization project and the American-Hilton-Marriott-Budget Confirm project. Glass does a tremendous job at dissecting the projects and identifying the cause or set of causes that contributed to each of the projects downfall. The lists the major failures types and illustrates each failure with one of the 16 failed software projects. The ultimate cost of these failed projects or the death march projects , a term coined by engineering Yourdon(9), are beyond what any organization can afford to pay. These projects cut the creative and risktaking soul out of an organization. Good people leave, survivors hide and cynics abound. These projects might not constitute a large portion of total project portfolio, but they account for a very large portion of expenditures and credibility (or lack thereof). Death March projects dont evolve into disasters by accident; the seeds of destruction are planted at inception. The sad fact is that there are many in IT who know in advance that these projects are doomed to failure

2. Analysis of Software Project Failures


The author has been closely interacting with several project leaders and analysed the reasons for failures in some of the projects, which have faced problems including the budget overrun and couldnt be delivered in time. As these projects have been implemented in the government sector, it is not feasible to name them and hence the analysis is limited to find the broad causes for the failures. It has been found in many a project; scope definition is not documented and signed by the software development agencies and the sponsor of the projects. The creeping scope has had ripple effects in many government IT projects. Estimation of resources is very rarely done and manpower is deployed on ad-hoc basis. These projects have not made use of wisdom given by Brooks(1), who had articulated the need for the estimation and the futility of deploying more resources at the end, which results more delay. Sometimes, the persons who are in charge of these projects are fine technical people but they dont have inherent liking to use project management practices. Charette (2) analysed thirty large software failures happened between 1993 and 2005 under a heading Software Hall of Shame in his paper Why Software Fails?. The common factors for software project failures, found are as follows:

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Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals Inaccurate estimates of needed resources Badly defined system requirements Poor reporting of the projects status Unmanaged risks Poor communication among customers, developers, and users Use of immature technology Inability to handle the projects complexity Sloppy development practices Poor project management Stakeholder politics Commercial pressures

It can be observed from the above that except for the use of immature technology and sloppy development practices, the rest of the factors are due to poor project management. It is clear that the mangers, who directed those software projects that brought hall of shame, did not possess the skill of project management. Therefore, the persons who are going to handle the e-governance projects must not only understand the importance of Project Management but also comprehend the nuances of art of project management.

3. Need for Use of Project Management Practices


E-governance projects are distinguished from on-going operational tasks in the government organizations and they have a unique and specific goal, have specific start date and end date, and require a diverse set of human resources, each of whom brings specified needed skills and knowledge to the project tasks. Therefore there is a need to understand the management of these projects vis-a vis the routine operational tasks. The earliest conceptualization of managing tasks as project is to be found in the principles of management propounded by Chanakya, better known as Kautilya, who lived around 320 BC, more than 2300 years ago. Kautilya, the author of the first ever comprehensive treatise Arthashastra, advocated that every new work should be undertaken in the project mode to ensure its efficient and successful implementation. Chanakya- sutras, the project mode mantras were very popular in India for grooming the kings and princes to become good administrators. Thus, the project managers of 21st century would find it interesting to note that some conceptualization of project management did take place in the ancient times. The Project Management Institute (PM), an international professional society, recognized currently as the leading certifying agency for project management professionals, has created a Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). PMBOK defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed the stakeholder needs and expectation from a project. The project manager must have competence and managerial ability to manage the competing demands of Scope, Time, Cost, Risk, and Quality. PMBOK guide gives methods for managing integration, scope, resources, risk, people, and communication. These methods are integrated via five processes that apply to all knowledge areas: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. PMBOK methodology acknowledges and accommodates the fact that projects operate within an organizational context with resource constraints and in response to multiple, often conflicting stakeholder demands.

4. Discussion
Project execution, particularly the Mission Mode Projects of NeGP and other large IT projects for achieving e-governance, has become increasingly multi-dimensional and multi-functional and needs the services of professionals who have expert skills in monitoring the project in terms of tasks and sub-tasks, time and cost 43

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overruns and the effective management of project resources. The project manager must possess multitude of varied skills and knowledge to deal with large number of people, processes, different technologies, vast resource mobilization and resource management. Therefore, it is necessary for the project manager not only to demonstrate technical, diagnostic, and decision-making skills and techniques to solve problems, but also to exhibit the art of management which includes making decisions and solving problems using a blend of intuition, experience, instinct, and personal insights. The managers of e-governance projects who masters this art will put into use their conceptual, communication, interpersonal, and time-management skills to accomplish the tasks associated with managerial activities so as to enable the e-governance projects accomplish thier objectives successfully. The author who was involved in two major e-governance initiatives in G2G sector by initiating, successfully operationaliasing and replicating the projects (PAO-2000 and CPS) in more than 100 sites, has displayed some of these skills and the following are his practical advice to the project managers to complete the E-governance projects with less failure rate and for speedy implementation. Have a clear vision, a statement of requirements and project outcomes Describe what the system must do for the users and how you measure the performance of the system and its output. Be realistic in firming up the stakeholders expectations. Project plan should encompass all the phases of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) including the software maintenance and handholding. Decomposition of project plan into work items and getting the resources for completing these items as per the work schedule. Adequate staffing policies resist hiring more programmers to speed up the process of development until you analyse what is slowing down. Resolving the team conflict in time Conflict is bound to happen as IT professionals and the domain experts will have different views of the problem solving and sometimes ones ego will not allow him to see the others viewpoint. Active stakeholder involvement- Finding time from domain experts is very difficult and the project manager really need to engage these experts with his persuasive, convincing and influential ability and knack. Have strategic focus and executive management support throughout the project execution by keeping the progress reports in the domain of executive management as well as important stakeholders.

5. Concluding Remarks
E-governance Projects have a significant role to play in the nations journey towards digital government. These projects will certainly improve the government services, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to the citizens, business and employees. Some of the e-governance applications like Bhoomi in Karnataka, CARD in Andhra Pradesh, MCA-21 of Ministry of Company Affairs, Government of India demonstrated the efficiency with which services can be delivered to the citizens and business firms. These e-government applications have cut the processing time from several days to a few minutes. It is a common feature in the execution of IT Projects that the requirements are rarely frozen. The project manager is always under pressure to accommodate the functionality changes as the scope creep in and moves stealthily. Project management demands a lot of skills and efforts; multiple vendors, multiple sites, multiple teams and different project management processes make this even trickier. It is an art to resolve conflicts, manage resources, mitigate risks and also meet the client expectations.

Acknowledgements
The Author would like place on record the encouragement and inspiration he received from Dr.Y.K.Sharma, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre and Mr.V.N.Kaila, Principal Chief Controller of 44

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Accounts, CBEC during the execution of CPS and PAO-2000 projects respectively. These projects are now replicated in several Central Government offices.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Frederick Brooks (1995). The Mythical Man-Month Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition, Addison-Wesley. Charette Robert N (2005). Why Software Fails? IEEE Spectrum Volume 42, Issue 9, pp42-49 Robert L Glass (1998). Software Runaways: Lessons Learned from Massive Software Project Failures, Prentice-Hall PTR. Richard Heeks (2002). E- governance for Development : Success and Failure rates of E-government in Developing/Transitional Countries, IDPM, University of Manchester. Krishnaiah V.S.R (2003). Managing Risk in Large E-government Projects in M.P.Gupta (ed) Promise of E-Governance, PP 272-275, Tata McGraw Hill, 2004, New Delhi Krishnaiah V.S.R. (2005). Critical Success Factors for Ensuring Better Services, E-GOV Special Issue on Citizen Service Centres, Vol. 1, Issue 5, pp9-10 Project Management Institute (2004). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) - Third Edition. Standish Group (2001).Chaos Study-2000 Research Paper, available online at http:// www.standishgroup.com Yourdon Edward (2004). Death March, Prentice-Hall PTR, 2nd edition.

About the Author


V.S.R. Krishnaiah is a Senior Technical Director in the National Informatics Centre of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (I.T), Government of India. He holds PhD in Systems Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and also, he is a Certified Software Quality Professional (CSQP). He has 24 years of experience in IT specializing in the areas of Management Information Systems, E-Governance, Project Management and Knowledge Management. He has authored 28 papers, published in national and international journals.

45

State Data Center Dynamic Design and Components


Ajay Ahuja1

ABSTRACT
As a part of National E-governance plan, Government of India has a clear vision of making all Government services accessible to the common man in his / her locality. As a part of this initiative Department of Information Technology is promoting and guiding various sates across the country, to setup and design State Data Centers to host Citizen Services. This paper proposes Dynamic Reference Architecture for the State Data Centers. This Architecture, can be adopted by the States and Dynamically Changed, Provisioned, used and re-used with the change in IT Application requirements. The paper also discusses a sample Reliable, Highly Available, Scalable, Space and Power efficient data Center configuration.

Keywords: State Data Center, Dynamic Reference Architecture

1. Introduction
E-governance is a top priority item on the list of administrative reforms of governments. Indian Government has a very clear agenda of promoting e-governance on a massive scale. It has a mission to Upgrade the quality of governance by vastly improved delivery of government services in Government-to-Citizen (G2C) & Government-to-Business (G2B) domains. Government is clear on use of Information and Communication Technology to enable easy, efficient and effective access to Government Services. As a part of National e-governance plan, Government of India has a clear vision of making all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality. This is to include all services related to a life cycle of a common man. The ultimate goal is to have web-enabled AAAA (Any information, available Anytime, from Any device to Anybody) Some of these Services include the following:
1

Birth Certificates Health Care for Children School Admissions e-learning Student Scholarships Examination Results Employment Services
Sun Microsystems India Pvt Ltd. The Capital Court, 5th Floor, Munirka, Olof Palme Marg, New Delhi 110067, India (Phone : +91-9810306919, E-mail: ajay.ahuja@sun.com )

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Vehicle Registration Passport Drivers License Marriage Certificates Property Registration Land Records Agriculture Utility Services Taxes Municipality Services Insurance Services Pensions for the Senior Citizens Heath Care for Senior Citizens Death Certificates

Fig. 1: e-Governance Initiative As a part of this initiative, Government of India through its National e-governance Plan is intending to setup connectivity infrastructure, which will include the following:

State Wide Area Network Connectivity (SWANs) Citizen Service Centers as front-end (CSCs) State Data Centers to host these Services and data. (SDCs) This paper highlights State-of-the-art Dynamic Reference Architecture for designing a State Data Center. It provides complete details with actual hardware and software products and technologies, along with services, to meet State Data Center requirements. It is a pre-designed, pre-tested group of components for a small to medium data center and provides a production ready target environment for hosting Government to Citizen Services.

2. State Data Center Architecture


A State Data Center is the heart and Soul of the National e-governance initiative. It provides far more than the technology aspect of a business. An average data center has grown in complexity in terms of new technologies, fast growth, data growth, security needs etc. The approach should be simplifying the data center with products, technologies and services offering ease of deployment, better resource utilization, easy management and lower total cost of ownership. Enclosed State Data Center Architecture is an approach and guideline for safely and reliably designing and building data center configurations, simplifying complex issues and dramatically reducing timeliness. The result is faster Return On Investment (ROI) and improved availability, sustainability, manageability and security of mission critical systems providing Government Services to the Citizens of India. The Architecture comprises of set of best practices in areas critical to data center success. It includes the following components: Data Center layout LAN Design SAN Design Server Tiers (Tier 0,1 and 2) 47

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Backup Design Management Cluster Ongoing operations and management The goal of this paper is to deliver a production ready State Data Center Architecture. The outcome is a production ready Dynamic Data Center is a rack, which can be deployed at various States. It is Dynamic, modular, Integratable and Secure, can be grown, integrated or expanded as the need be. The architecture is an implementation framework, and flexible combination of Servers, Storage, Middleware software, LAN and SAN infrastructure.The architecture incorporates best practices providing a number of advantages over an ad-hoc approach to creating a production ready system. The solution helps to improve availability, scalability, security, flexibility, and manageability, while helping the Government bodies to achieve lower cost of ownership and a reduced time to production readiness. Following design goals are kept in mind to architect the state-of-art State Data Center to host Government to Citizen and Government-to-Government Services. Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) Scalability Security Manageability Flexibility Modularity

The State Data Center implementation uses enterprise-grade components that are highly reliable with the ability of a system component to repeatedly produce the same results in accordance with the specifications. Service Availability is a critical success factor for State Data Center. Outages cannot only cost money in lost business and employee productivity, but may also effect on Government credibility and friction in Government Citizen relationships and even breach regulatory requirements. The proposed State Data Center Architecture is a flexible combination of Servers, Storage arrays, Open Standards Middleware Stack and Secure and Strong Operating Environment software, as well as LAN and SAN infrastructure. All of the components of the proposed State Data Center Architecture are designed to be available, scalable, secure and manageable. As an option the whole solution can be deployed across two sites, across the state, separated by up to 200 Km or more, to offer protection against local disasters. The disaster protection model will vary from State to State and will depend on State and government policies. As an example one State can act as Disaster recovery site for another, or Central nodal agencies like National Informatics Center (NIC) or Third party private organizations can host the Disaster Recovery sites for the sates. The models and concept of disaster recovery is beyond the scope of this paper and is discussed elsewhere. This paper focuses on the Architecture, design and components within a local State Data Center. The State Data Center serves as an ideal starting point for a wide range of e-governance data center projects. These include: web hosting, Data Hosting, e-portals, consolidation projects, SAP and Oracle deployments or any other small or large scale G2C or G2B application implementation. The proposed Solution Architecture is Dynamic, flexible and modular. The design can be used for lowest cost, least risk and fastest deployments. The SDC is an integrated, tested solution that provides the data center with a number of advantages over an ad-hoc approach to creating a production ready system. States choosing this approach will benefit from increased availability, better scalability, greater security and agility with a lower cost of ownership and a reduced time to production readiness. These respective advantages are 48

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Fig. 2: State Data Center Features

achieved by: Designing a solution that has no single points of hardware failure and combining it with a set of run books that minimize the downtime caused by procedural error. As an option the system can also protect against local disasters when deployed across two sites. Using components that can be doubled in capacity from their initial configuration without disrupting services that are already in production. The Dynamism is built in the design and components used Implementing a defence in depth security approach. Networks use multiple VLANs to separate traffic, networked storage is split off into zones and operating environments are appropriately minimized and hardened throughout. Virtualizing all servers and storage resources. Services can be quickly provisioned by allocating resources from these pools or by migrating existing services to new systems. Consolidating compute and storage into highly utilized resource pools. Large, scalable servers host multiple services under the control of a resource manager thereby reducing the points of management while still meeting service level agreements. Creating a component based design with clearly defined, well-documented interfaces. The proposed State Data Center is an excellent starting point for states to implement Information and Communication Technologies in Government framework leading to effective and efficient e-governance services.The innovative dynamic design approach leverages significant automation and virtualization technology to deliver truly flexible and efficient consolidated and dynamic Web-based application infrastructure. 49

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Fig.3: State Data Center Architecture

3. Components of Proposed State Data Center (SDC) Design


The following components are being proposed for the SDC design. The Solution Design Architecture is a compact, Scalable, Modular, Highly Available, Reliable and Secure. It is a Solution design, which can start small as Data Center Solution in a rack and grow along with the needs of users and Application requirements. The SDC Architecture has to have the following critical components: Servers Storage LAN SAN Operations Console Backup Solution

3.1. Servers At the heart of the SDC design and architecture, should be a server cluster consisting of two networked servers running the High Availability Cluster software to enable a number of core data center services to be made highly available. These services include: Databases, a domain name service (DNS), NFS and SAMBA file services, a centralized system messages log (syslog), a directory service, as well as management and monitoring applications. Each service can be implemented in a Virtual Container. The Operating environment should provision for Virtualization and Containerization, enabling fault isolated Virtual independent Soft partitions without any performance degradation. The Servers should be compact high performing servers taking very less space and power.

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Apart from these servers two additional Servers are recommended, to host variety of Data Center Applications and Web Services. Most of the e-governance Services can be hosted through the web. The initial initiative for most of these e-governance projects is to web enable citizen services. This layer caters to web and Application Services. Two Servers are recommended for this, each running web and Application services in Load Shared mode. The Servers should be compact high performing servers taking very less space and power. Another Standalone Server is recommended as a backup and Restore Server connected to a entry level tape library. The Server should be loaded with GUI based auto scheduled backup solution. Each Application Server should also be SAN ready, and should be provided with Fiber ports. This server may also be loaded with a Archival Management Software. Following Design parameters should be kept in mind in architecting and designing the Server tier for the SDCs. The Servers should be highly Reliable with minimal Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) The Servers should be highly Available with Redundant Components like CPU, Memory, I/O, System

Fig.4: State Data Center Infrastructure

clock etc. The Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) should be minimal. The Servers should be Serviceable Online. It should be possible to replace crucial Components like CPU, Memory, I/O, power, cooling fans etc without affecting the online users. The Servers should support mixed speed and future generation processors within same box, to ensure easy upgradability and full investment protection. The Servers should be High Performing (Sized based on Application requirement) The Servers should consume minimal Power. The Servers should be Space Efficient, taking minimal Space, and should be rack mountable. The Servers should be evaluated on SwaP (Space Watt and Performance) matrix. The Servers should be loaded with Secure Operating Environment (Unix is recommended for all backend Servers) Depending on the application requirements, Consolidated or Horizontally Scalable Systems can be provisioned. The Operating System should have provision to provide Consolidation using soft partitioning even on Horizontally scalable Servers. 51

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3.2. Storage The Storage in any Data Center, specifically in the SDCs has to be state-of-art high performing, Modular and Scalable. A State Data Center should have SAN enabled Fiber Storage, Which should be Modular, easily expandable and Scalable. A 5 TB Fiber Storage is recommended in RAID 0+1 configuration. This will take care of immediate and near future requirements of the Data Center and can be dynamically provisioned and configured based on the Application and user needs. Following design parameters should be considered in architecting SDC Storage Storage Proposed should be based on Open Standards and should be able to connect and operate with variety of heterogeneous systems. Should be Interoperable with variety of Unix and Windows environments. Storage should be Modular. It should be possible to scale the Storage, including disks, array controllers, cache etc. The Storage System should be Flexible in terms of easy configuration and easy manageability. The Storage should be Scalable in terms of capacity and performance and should be easily scalable as and when needed, depending on user and application requirements. The Storage should have provision for Compliance features and data services to archive, store, and delete data based on policies. The Storage system should have in-built Availability features, should be configurable as RAID 0,1,0+1 and 5 at hardware level. There should be provision for Hot Spare disks for High Availability The Storage Solution should have Disaster Protection (Copies on and off site). There should be provision to maintain and keep multiple copies of Production volumes on Site and also off site. The Storage solution should ensure Hierarchical Storage (online, near-online and offline) Applications in Government, now demand, or are required by law to have greater disaster protection. To meet this requirement, the architecture should provide the hardware and software to clone and keep multiple copies of data across the two sites. The tape and data management policies should be designed in such a way so as to ensure data protection in the event of disaster. Generally, 50% processing capabilities and 100% data capabilities are provisioned at the DR Site. The Policies and design may vary from State to State. 3.3. LAN The SDC Local Area Network (LAN) should be configured in redundant mode, using at least two Gigabit rack mountable LAN Switches. The SDC LAN performs two key functions: firstly to enable users to access data center services and secondly to provide secure networking infrastructure over which operators and systems administrators can manage and monitor data center servers and devices.Following Design parameters should be kept in mind while designing LAN for the SDCs: The LAN should be Redundant, Resilient and Scalable. The infrastructure should support Secure Virtual LANS (VLANS). There should be Secure VLANS for the Cluster interconnects, Applications network, public connect, management network, backup network and console. The VLANS should provide Security through separation. Should be provision able Dynamically with application needs. The VLANS should Guarantee access to Bandwidth and QoS. All Components including Servers, Storage, SAN Switches, Tape libraries etc should be connected to LAN The Design should have provision for additional LAN Ports per Server. This will add to the dynamism of proposed design and easy upgradability and integration to future requirements. 52

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3.4. SAN The SDC Storage Area Network (SAN) should allow online (disk), near-line and offline (tape) data storage resources to be consolidated, enabling higher utilization and better management of resources. Implementing a SAN and connecting storage devices to it helps to reduce the total cost of ownership of the data center storage assets. The SAN is architected to achieve four main goals: increased data availability; the ability to scale the storage resources; consolidation and re-use of the storage pool; and to facilitate protection from disaster. These features allow data center storage administrators to perform online maintenance and upgrades; grow the SAN as more systems and storage are deployed. Following Design parameters should be kept in mind while architecting SAN for the SDCs. Increase Data Availability Ability to Scale Storage Resources Consolidation and re-use of Storage pool Facilitate Disaster Protection Manageability Virtualization and Zoning/Security

3.5. Centralized Operation Console The SDC should being provided with a centralized console, which can be used to control, monitor, manage ALL the servers and storage in the data center. The console should be placed outside or mounted within the rack. The System should be loaded with Management Softwares, which helps capture any alarm or event generated by the data center components and helps take a remedial action. The Management Software should be based on Open Standards and should be able to manage the variety of Servers and Storage components of the Data Center. 3.6. Backup and Archival Software As mentioned above, the SDC should have a backup server which will be connected to a entry level Tape Library should have a minimum of two drives and 30 slots, to facilitate daily and Monthly automated backups. This Server should be loaded with a auto scheduled, GUI based backup Software. The configuration will vary and scale from sate to sate depending on the amount and type of data to be backed up. 3.7 Thin Client based Secure Access The SDC should be provisioned with State-of-art Ultra Thin Clients. The thin client is a unique approach to network computing that incorporates a more hierarchical setup than the traditional everyone-connectedto-everything architecture made standard by traditional PC workstations. The ultra-thin client, as its name suggests, serves primarily as a tightly controlled remote display into the users desktop environment on the server. Being completely stateless, the ultra-thin client stores no information about the user environment, user session, or machine state. The users session is created (or resumed) on the server when a user accesses the server, typically via smart card authentication. Screen output is stored on the server (or redundant servers) and sent to the client in extremely optimized, compressed packets. Thus, the thin client achieves performance levels comparable to expensive high-end PC workstations without the attendant overhead. This ultra-streamlined approach greatly simplifies the computing environment while adding session security unattainable with the PC. Centralized computing options offer economies of scale as implementation sizes grow and make possible the use of server conglomerates. These are groups of servers, such as in a server farm (but not limited to the same location), that work in harmony and offer redundancy, session reliability, and 53

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hot-desking as far as their collective networks extend. The SDC should be provided with a Thin Client Server with minimal of 10 thin client Appliances to do normal day-to-day jobs in a secure and easy manner. 3.8. Operating System Operating System is the heart of any IT infrastructure. It is the user interface to the Systems.Following Design parameters are a must for the Operating System for SDCs. Should be easily manageable. All Administrative tasks should be done using GUI. Should have high Availability features including but not limited to High Availability Cluster, Network and Disk Multi path, Dynamic Configuration Commands, Volume Manager to configure various RAID levels. The Operating environment should be Modular, with easy provisions for adding software modules, patches. Should have provision for online Hot patching at Kernel and Application levels The Operating System Should be Binary Compliant ensuring transparent execution applications across various versions Should be online Upgradeable to newer versions Should have state-of-art Security features including, but not limited to Security hardening kit, firewall, cryptographic framework, Process and user level privileges Should be able to predictively detect and correct faults, without affecting the users Should have monitoring tool to monitor, trace and analyze the System Should have provision for resolution of system problems and bottlenecks, reducing downtime and yielding dramatic performance improvements. The Operating System should be able to Provision and virtualize resources across applications as on need basis. This will help to provision resources dynamically across present and future applications leading to a dynamic data center

4. Dynamic Infrastructure: A Key to State Data Center Design


States that depend on Web-based applications for Citizen Services need agile, flexible, and secure infrastructure in order to prosper. The basic Design Proposed above, and the corresponding infrastructure must be ready to respond on demand to serve new e-governance opportunities, address sudden changes in load or Applications, and solve emerging technical challenges. The Design Should be based on Dynamic Infrastructure for Application Service offerings, to provide a complete set of technology and services that assist in the creation of an agile and secure Web and Application services environment. This innovative approach leverages significant automation and virtualization technology to deliver truly flexible and efficient consolidated and dynamic Web-based application infrastructure.The Servers, Storage, Operating System, network and Management tools should be chosen in such a way so as to Dynamically provision and flexibly change based on Application and User needs. Following are the key design parameters of Dynamic Infrastructure: Dynamic and automated configuration and provisioning for Servers and the Networks. The Architecture design should be such that there are provisions to reconfigure, reuse and reutilize the Servers for variety of Applications, new and old. The Servers should be virtually configurable in isolated zones, each zone catering to separate Application or web service. The Configuration and Provisioning of zones should be easy and dynamic to take care of present and future application needs of State Data Centers. It should be possible to Consolidate, Create and grow 54

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Application workloads dynamically without re-cabling. The Design should have Easy and Rapid deployment, provisioning and growing of web-based applications. The Design and Architecture should be secure. Security should not be compromised in deploying and re-deploying different applications, dynamically on the same infrastructure. The Design should have comprehensive security , from virtual networks to the underlying platforms and web applications. The Network Switches and Operating Environment should be flexible and secure to achieve the desired level of dynamic provisioning and virtualization.

Fig. 5: Summarizes the Components of a Typical State Data Center.

5. A Sample Configuration
Following Figure gives a sample configuration for a Dynamic Infrastructure for State Data Center. The Configuration constitutes a Compact, Flexible, minimal Power and minimal Space Dynamic Infrastructure Data Center in a Rack. The Infrastructure includes: 2 x Servers (for DB, DNS, File Servers) in Highly Available Cluster Mode 2 x Application / Web Servers in Load Shared Mode FC SAN Storage, which is Data Services (DR) Ready Redundant SAN Switches Backup Server with Tape Library Thin Client Server with Thin Client Terminals Management Console Redundant LAN Switches Load Balancer Firewall and Router

6. Concluding Remarks
The Architecture and design proposed in this paper can be used as a reference in designing State Data Centers. This is a generic architecture, which can start small as a data center in a rack and grow with the growth in user and application requirements. A Sample Configuration has also been discussed in this paper. 55

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Fig.6: Sample Configuration

This is a small Data Center Configuration, also called as Data Center in A Rack Solution, designed taking into consideration the key data center requirements like Reliability, Availability, Security, Scalability, Power and Space. Virtualization at Server and Network levels has been recommended for Dynamic design of a State Data Center. By using virtualization and pooling, users can avoid dedicating groups of resources to specific applications, and share their environment dynamically. This enables consolidation, re-purposing, as well as dynamic allocation to support desired service levels. The paper presents a Dynamic Data Center Solution, generic Architecture design, which can be deployed for variety of e-governance Applications. This can be Dynamically provisioned or re-provisioned in line with the changing Application and User requirements.

References
1 2 3 4 5 URL: National e-governance Plan at the National Portal of India available at http://www.india.gov.in Accesed on 15 July 2006. URL: Rapidly Deploying Dynamic Web Services, White Paper , March 2006 available at http:// www.sun.com/ Accesed on 15 July 2006. URL: Data Center Reference Architecture, Solution Brief available at http://www.sun.com/service/refarch/ datacenter.html Accesed on 15 July 2006. URL: Good Governance through ICT available at http://home.nic.in/files/policy/ICT_Book_New.pdf Accesed on 15 July 2006. URL: New Standard for calculating Server efficiency available at http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/ swap/ Accesed on 15 July 2006.

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About the Author


Ajay Ahuja works as Senior IT Architect with Sun Microsystems India Pvt Ltd. He has Post Graduate qualifications in Engineering and Management and has over 17 years of IT industry experience in various capacities. At present, he is responsible for Sizing, Designing and Architecting IT Solutions for the Government, Education and Defence sectors.

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Voice Biometrics based User Verification: An Exemplary Tool for Secure Identification
Sadaf Tanveer1

ABSTRACT
Security breaches in recent times have proven that much of todays electronic data is not secure. As we move to IP networks the risk is further increased. Many methods to secure networks and data have been proposed to keep data confidential by securing data using cryptography and by authenticating users with the help of passwords or online signatures before granting them access. The drawback of such techniques is user inconvenience in remembering multiple passwords, moreover passwords can be easily guessed and online signatures can be forged. This paper presents a method of biometrics based user verification for e-commerce. In this paper I present some biometrics-based methods for authenticating a user. I will further highlight the vital components for establishing one such system based on Voice Biometrics and then explain how this approach can be used for providing a non-porous environment for e-Commerce activities.

Keywords: Biometrics, Speaker Verification, Speaker identification, TAM

1. Introduction
E-commerce has become an increasingly important information technology application in all sectors of society. It refers to transactions completed over a computer-mediated network that involves the transfer of ownership or right to use goods or service. According to Laudon and Traver (2003), there are seven unique features of E-commerce including Ubiquity, global reach, universal standards, richness, interactivity, information density and personalization or customization. E-Commerce has made access to information easier and faster but this convenience comes with an overhead of maintaining security because information can be modified or deleted by unauthorized access. Therefore there should be a mechanism of preventing unauthorized access to the resources by having reliable means of user or client verification. Many passwords based, online signature based and token (ATM or Smart Card) commonly referred to as access cards based identification and verification systems (Lee & Kiin 2005) have been proposed and implemented but such kind of systems do no provide a high degree of security and user convenience. In todays time virtually all the business activities are being done online (e-commerce), let us consider a typical scenario in which a user has three saving bank accounts, one demat account, three credit cards with different banks and he also has web accounts for reserving air tickets, movie tickets etc. In a typical E-

Department of Computer Science, Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500034, India (Phone: +91-9347007065, Email: sadaftanveer@yahoo.com)

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verification scenario for accessing each of these accounts user is given a unique username and password or in some cases may be given an access card like an ATM card and he is required to provide his Network ID, a valid combination of a username and password to the authentication server, each time he wants to access each of these services, thus a user is required to remember multiple usernames and passwords, which is highly inconvenient. If he chooses to keep same network IDs for all these accounts then with one correct hacking attempt, all of his assets are exposed. Moreover, passwords can be easily guessed, access cards can be stolen and online signatures can be forged. Thus, new methods of user verification and identification are required which will provide a high degree of security and even higher degree of user convenience for carrying out online transactions. Protection of information resources must involve a process that unambiguously identifies and authenticates users. Biometric identification refers to identifying an individual based on his or her distinguishing physiological and/or behavioral characteristics called a biometric identifier (Jain et.al P-999). It tries to associate/ disassociate an individual with previously determined identity or features based on how one is (on the basis of some physical trait). Because many physiological or behavioral characteristics are distinctive to each person, biometric identifiers are inherently more reliable and more capable than knowledge-based and tokenbased techniques in differentiating between an authorized person and a fraudulent impostor. Many types of features can be used as identifiers or tokens for biometrics-based verification like face, voice, fingerprints, iris, DNA and vein; these features are extracted by using appropriate recording devices, are processed and then stored as an identification template for the user. Some enabling biometric technologies include: Face Recognition: Digital cameras are used to capture the images and then the captured image is matched to the image/picture stored in a database where critical attributes such as the overall facial structure, distances between eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw edges are matched for comparison. A user usually stands within some distance from the camera and is required to perform some human facial movement, like smiling. This is to enable the system to identify a mould or fake face. In this method the decision is typically made in less than 5 seconds. Iris and Retina based recognition: Human eyes are very unique and hard to fake and based on this two methods are used: Retinal scanning analyzes the layer of blood vessels at the back of the eye. Retina is scanned using a low-intensity light source and an optical coupler. A person is required to look closely in the device and focus on a green light while scanning is performed. The whole process takes 10-15 seconds. Since there is no known way to reproduce or fake a retina, no additional attempt is made to check false acceptance. Another method of eye recognition is Iris- scan of more than 200 points in the colored tissue surrounding the pupil. In this case user can be either close to the video camera or some distance away, depending on the device. The verification is done in less than 5 seconds and the process involves focusing a beam of light on the eye to watch for pupil dilation. This is to prevent users from fooling the system. Both methods do not require users to remove glasses and are not at all harmful to eyes. Voice recognition: It is a process of validating speech (some phrase spoken by user) through the microphone. The entire process takes 5 to 10 seconds authentication requires a user to reproduce low and high sound frequencies. Vein Biometric: Face or hand vein thickness and their locations are considered being unique enough to identify a person. An infrared scan from a curved reader device performs a vascular scanning process and then compares it to the database records to find a match. A user places a hand on the metal plate with guides on it to take more than 90 measurements of the length, width, thickness and surface of the hand and a number of fingers with hand geometry scan. It is a simple, fast and accurate procedure, but unable to tell the difference between a living and a fake or a dead hand, if pressure is properly applied. 59

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Unfortunately, human hand geometry is not unique, although if a way will be developed to combine hand geometry with any other method, the authentication process can be successfully used. Fingerprinting :One of the oldest ways to check a persons identity is fingerprinting. With fingerprinting a user gently places fingers against a small reader device. Characteristics such as whorls, arches, and loops are recorded along with the patterns of ridges, furrows, and minutiae. Depending on the security level in the organization some of them require six or seven identical points, where law enforcement agencies prefer twelve. Biometric based verification methods like face recognition, fingerprints recognition and iris-detection have gained wide acceptance in enterprises for employee verification because such systems are very secure and convenient to use and if the same kind of systems are used for e-commerce activities like one mentioned above will provide a single sign-on parameter to access multiple domains and accounts. In a typical IT biometric system, a person registers with the system when one or more of his physical and behavioral characteristics are obtained. This information is then processed by a numerical algorithm, and entered into a database. The algorithm creates a digital representation of the obtained biometric. If the user is new to the system, he or she enrolls, which means that the digital template of the biometric is entered into the database. Each subsequent attempt to use the system, or authenticate, requires the biometric of the user to be captured again, and processed into a digital template. That template is then compared to those existing in the database to determine a match. The process of converting the acquired biometric into a digital template for comparison is completed each time the user attempts to authenticate to the system. Biometric is an enabling technology that can make our society safer, reduce frauds and lead to user convenience. For a particular biometric to be acceptable it should adhere to following requirements: Accuracy and Performance: It should offer a correct decision by providing positive identification, it verifies the input biometric sample based on the claimed enrolled identity of a particular user and the result is either accept or reject based on a single match just like network logins and any e-commerce activity carried out using our credit cards. Security: A good biometric system should not expose the data or accept fraudant data. This can be achieved by either using liveness detection (Derakuchami 2003) or by making use of multi-model use of biometric (Jain * Ross 2004). Privacy: It should provide an irrefutable proof of identity of a person. Acceptance: The extent people are willing to accept for a particular biometric in their daily lives. This is probably the most critical issue concerned with the use of biometrics The proposed system uses voice biometrics for providing user authentication

2. Voice Biometrics
Human beings are blessed with a capability to recognize the voice they hear and this interpretation of sound we hear can tell us a lot about someone, we can associate this voice with someone. The invariance in the individual characteristics of human voice is primarily due to relatively invariant shape/size of the appendages (vocal tracts, mouth, nasal cavities, lips) synthesizing the sound system. The words we speak are broken down into individual components called phonemes and each phoneme is delivered with some pitch, cadence and inflection. These three aspects of voice give each of us our unique sound. For using voice as a biometric parameter, we need to capture voice sample through a microphone attached to a computer, a microphone of good quality is capable of noise reduction as well and thus it provides better voice components being extracted, after capturing the voice and the components captured are then converted into digital signals and these signals are transmitted to the destination (e-commerce server /e-governance portals) using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)[7] where authentication is done 60

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using verification technique. Reference template (voice sample with a sample ID), also called reference voiceprint, of every user is taken and stored at the server. During the user identification phase as shown in figure 1 input speech is compared against all the templates and a match is made to find the appropriate sample ID, this can be used for providing a user with a new user ID if he forgets his existing User ID as in case of forgotten user names and passwords in network ID based systems. In verification phase as shown in figure 2 features are extracted from the sample and it is compared against the template of the user and if the result is equal or more than the threshold value then the users claim is accepted otherwise it is rejected.

Fig. 1: Speaker Identification Model

Speaker verification can be: 2.1. Text-dependents Here user is required to log-on to the system using his login ID and then he is asked to speak out his password into the microphone if it is correct, user is authenticated. Text-dependent systems provide strong authentication. 2.2. Text-dependent with speech recognition User is only required to speak out his login Id in the microphone and Speech recognition decodes the input, and speaker verification uses the same input as the biometric sample it compares to the reference voiceprint.

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2.3. Text Prompted It is challenge-response kind of system, Text-prompted systems ask the speaker to repeat a series of randomly selected digit strings, word sequences, or phrases. Text prompting requires longer enrollment than text-dependent technology. 2.4. Text-independent It accepts any spoken input, making it possible to design non-porous verification applications that examine the ongoing speech of an individual. The ability of text independent technology to operate unobtrusively and in the background makes it attractive for customer related applications, because customers need not pause for a security check before moving on to their primary business objective. Text-independent technology

Fig. 2: Speaker Verification Model2

is most secure but it is more difficult to implement than text-dependent or text-prompted technology because it requires longer samples of speech and is more sensitive to the acoustic quality of the input [9] This approach is most suitable for biometric applications for providing network security for e-commerce applications. The proposed system uses text-independent verification because it offers a high degree of protection and security.

3. Speaker verification and identification


A speaker verification system is composed of two distinct phases, a training phase and a test phase. Each of them can be seen as a succession of independent modules. The first step consists in extracting parameters from the speech signal to obtain a representation suitable for statistical modeling as such models are extensively used in most state-of-the-art speaker verification systems. The second step consists in obtaining a statistical model from the parameters. A speaker identification system gets a test utterance as input. The task of the system is to find out which of the training speakers made the test utterance. So, the output of the system is the name of the training speaker, or possibly a rejection if an unknown person has made the utterance. For verification of an utterance,
2

Human Interface Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan

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the input is the speech signal to be verified against the name of the speaker whom it is identified as. The expected result is a yes-or-no-decision, the acceptance of the test utterance if it does originate from the proclaimed speaker, or a rejection [9]. 3.1. Feature extraction Here the objective is to reduce the amount of data available as sample to information which is essentially required. Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) are used for feature extraction MFCC: These are coefficients that represent audio, based on perception. It is derived from the Fourier Transform or the Discrete Cosine Transform of the audio clip. The basic difference between the FFT/ DCT and the MFCC is that in the MFCC, the frequency bands are positioned logarithmically on the mel scale which approximates the human auditory systems response more closely than the linearly spaced frequency bands of FFT or DCT.Experiments show that the parameterization of the MFC coefficients, which is best for discriminating speakers is different from the one usually, used for speech recognition applications. For example, speaker recognition error rates might be reduced if the standard MFCC feature dimension for speech recognition is increased. Feature recognition process cuts the digitized audio signal, which is the sequence of sample values, into overlapping windows of equal length. The cut-out portions of the signal are called frames, they are extracted out of the original signal every 10 or 20 ms. The length of a frame is about 30 ms. For speaker recognition tasks, sometimes longer frames are used in comparison to the feature extraction method used for speech recognition in order to increase spectral resolution. Each frame in the time domain is transformed to a MFCC vector called feature vectors, each vector represents cepstral properties of the signal within the corresponding window. Vector quantization: Vector quantization is a speaker modeling technique used for coding the feature vector extracted from MFCC. For recognition systems it is important to be able to estimate probability distributions of the computed feature vectors. Because these distributions are defined over a highdimensional space, it is often easier to start by quantizing each feature vector to one of a relatively small number of template vectors, which together comprise what is called a codebook. A typical codebook would contain about 256 or 512 template vectors. Estimating probability distributions over this finite set of templates then becomes a much simpler task. The process of quantizing a feature vector into a finite number of template vectors is known as vector quantization. The process takes a feature vector as input and finds the template vector in the codebook that is closest in distance. The identity of that template is then used in the recognition system. [10] In the training phase, reference templates are generated and verification thresholds are computed for each phonetic category. In the verification phase, after the phonetic categorization, a comparison with the reference template for each particular category provides a verification score for that category [11]. The final verification score is a weighted linear combination of the scores from each category.

4. Voice Biometric: Users Perspective


Technology acceptance and its use is an issue that has received the attention of researchers and practitioners for many decades, successful investment in technology can lead to enhanced productivity of the system, while failed system can lead to undesirable consequences [12]. For successful deployment of any technology it is crucial to do a feasibility study in advance. Technology Acceptance Model [13], best explains how a user reacts to a particular technology. Technology Acceptance Model proposes that factors like perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, perceived strength of control are critical antecedents to technology acceptance decision [13]. To this model can be referred to explain why voice biometric is good candidate for possible integration to E-commerce systems. Perceived Usefulness: It is the extent to which a person believes that using a particular system would 63

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enhance his job performance [13], it is directly proportional to increase in the use of a particular technology (E-commerce is our case). Biometric based methods as already discussed are more efficient and more reliable as compared to existing system based on Network IDs, PKI and digital signatures. Perceived ease-of-use: The degree to which a person feels that using a system would be free from efforts [13], again an important parameter in acceptance of a particular system. Voice biometric requires a single sign-on parameter (voice print of the user) for authentication and this is something user inherently posses, he just need to utter few words in the microphone attached to his PC and soon he is logged into the network, if he is an authentic user, it is definitely better then any of the previously implemented user verification methods like Network IDs, Access Cards plus PIN, Digital Signatures etc., where user is required to remember passwords, PINs and keys respectively. Perceived Strength of Control: Users perception about the security that a system offers, is a major factor that leads to acceptance of a particular system. Biometrics-based technologies are applied most often in security, monitoring, and fraud prevention where they positively identify individuals and distinguish one person from another. This characteristic differentiates biometrics from all other forms of automated security. An access card system can, at most, determine only whether a person has a viable access card, and password can determine only whether the person knows the proper password. None of them verify that the person presenting the card or entering the password is the individual authorized to do so. Biometric systems determine whether a biometric sample, such as a fingerprint or voiceprint such as spoken password, comes from a specific individual by comparing that sample with a reference biometric. Feasibility: Another factor that plays a vital role in the acceptance of any technology is its feasibility in terms of availability of resources and economy for implementation of a particular system. E-commerce is basically defined as an act of carrying out online transactions with a PC. A higher percentage of Ecommerce users make use of PC for online transaction and a small percentage of users use mobile devices for doing so (M-Commerce). Unlike any other biometric based technology like fingerprint based verification, users are required to either purchase new devices enabled with fingerprint reader modules like PDAs or to integrate a finger print reader, drivers and backend fingerprint handling algorithms with the existing PC. It turns out to be much more expensive than using voice biometric wherein the recording device for collecting the voiceprint of the user is just a microphone, which most of home PC users already have (Table 1). For successful deployment of any new technology it is crucial to do a feasibility study in advance. A comparative study of various technologies used for user verification in e-commerce was carried out and a survey was conducted in accordance with TAM, among technology aware users. Findings of the survey are summarized in table 1. As shown in table 1, voice biometric emerges as the best candidate for possible integration as a user verification tool for E-commerce provided it provides a high degree of security and strength of control. Fingerprint biometric, has been in market for quite sometime and it has already been integrated into smart cards and PDAs, the scope of usage of fingerprint technology is limited to its use in an access card or carrying out transactions using PDAs or computers which have inbuilt fingerprint reading modules. Whereas most of the E-commerce activities are carried out by users using their home or office PCs thus any new technology that we want to incorporate to enhance the performance of the system should be integrable with the existing system without incurring much effort and expenditure. For integrating fingerprinting with the existing system we, either need to buy a new device or attach a fingerprint reader module which costs around $ 75.while integration of voice biometric only require good quality microphone that costs less that $5.

5. An Illustralition
Two primary components of voice biometric based user verification system are training phase and testing phase as shown in figure 3. 64

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Table 1: Comparison of Technologies with reference to TAM.


Parameter Technology
Network IDs Access cards Online Signatures Face Biometric Iris Biometric Fingerprint Technology Voice

Perceived Usefulness
Medium Medium Low Medium High High High

Perceived Ease-of-use
Low Medium Medium Low Low Medium High

Perceived strength
Low Low Low Medium High High Medium

Feasibility
High Medium Medium Low Low Low High

During training phase, see figure 3, input speech is provided for feature extraction for enrollment and a voiceprint (template) is obtained and it is identified with a sample ID within the sample template repository. Each user ID maps to one sample ID. During testing phase, see figure 3(b), user provides his User ID and speech sample to the system, from the sample template repository; voiceprint of the concerned user is presented for comparison against speech sample provided for verification and a score is generated which is normalized by taking into consideration various parameters like background noise etc. if normalized score is above a threshold level set by the system, user is accepted otherwise he is rejected.

Fig . 3: Functional model showing various steps in voice biometric based user verification system

6. Concluding Remarks
This paper presented the concept of voice biometric based user verification system and have looked at 65

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the possibility of its utilization in e-commerce domain. Voice biometric refers to automatic identification of person based on his voice. It provides better solutions for increased security requirements of our information society that traditional identification methods like network IDs and access cards lack. With increasing awareness among people about effectiveness of biometrics for protection of privacy and guarding against frauds, it is likely to be the technology of the future for e-commerce.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Laudon C and Traver. C. (2003), E-commerce: Business, Technology, Society, Second Edition, Addison Wesley. Yi J, C Lee and Kim J. (2005). Online signature verification using temporal shift estimated by phase shift gabor filter, IEEE Transaction On Signal Processing Vol. 53 pp. 776-783. Jain A.K., Bolle R. and Pankanti S. (eds.) (1999). Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society. Kluwer Academics, New York. Jain A.K. and Ross A. (2004). Multibiometrics systems, Communications of The ACM, special issue on Multimodal Interfaces, Vol 47,1,pp. 34-40. Derakuchani R. et al (2003). Determination of Vitality from A non-invasive Biomedical Measurement for use of fingerprint Scanners, Pattern recognition, 12, pp 383-396. Furui S. (1997). Recent Advances in Speaker Recognition, Pattern recognition letters 18,pp. 859 872. Ghai Irvind S. (2003). VOIP enabled e-commerce, Internet telephony: The Top 10 trends in VOIP Magazine. Jain A.K., Prabhakar S. and Pankanti S. (2002). On the similarity of identical twin fingerprints, Pattern Recognition, 35,pp. 26532663. Markowitz J. Ieri and Domani Oggi. (1999). Speaker recognition yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Proceedings of COST250 Workshop on Speaker Recognition in Telephony (Rome, Italy, Nov. 10). European Co-operation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research. Makhoul J., Roucos S. and Gish H. (1985). Vector quantization in speech coding, Proceedings of the IEEE, 73(11), pp. 15511588. Reynolds D. A. (1995). Speaker identification and verification using Gaussian mixture speaker models, Speech Communication, Vol. 17, 12, pp. 91108. Gupta M.P, Kumar P. and Bhattacharya J. (2004). Government Online: Opportunity and challenges, New Delhi: TMH. Davis F.D (1989). Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13, 3, pp. 318-340.

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About the Author


Sadaf Tanveer is Assistant Professor in Department of Computer Science at Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Osmania University Hyderabad, India. She has obtained her M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Her Specific areas of interest include Information systems, Mobile Communication, Network Security and Biometrics. She has previously lectured in Faculty of Management Science and Information Technology Jamia Hamdard Delhi.

66

Challenges in RFID Deployment A Case Study in Public Transportation


Kamlesh Laddhad1, Bernard Menezes1, Karthik B1 and Kaushik Dutta2*

ABSTRACT
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags have been proposed for use in novel ways for hundreds of applications. RFIDs hold the promise of revolutionizing business processes. This paper focuses on how RFID Technology can be used to solve problems faced by public transport in metropolitan cities of the country. Automated tracking of buses can be used to provide useful estimates of arrival times and enhance commuter convenience. There are, however, formidable obstacles in the way of widespread RFID deployment. From a systems perspective, we highlight and explore the problem of data capturing, storage and retrieval and how Event, Condition and Action (ECA) rules developed for active databases can help us in managing the huge number of events generated each day. We also discuss how the collected data can be used to predict bus movement timings in order to provide better service.

Keywords: RFID, ECA, Data Management, Forecasting, Public Transportation.

1. Introduction
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags have emerged as a key technology for real-time asset tracking. It is an automated identification technology that allows for non-contact reading [1] of data making it attractive in verticals such as manufacturing, warehousing, retail [2, 3], logistics, pharmaceuticals [4], health care [5] and security. RFID systems are foreseen as replacement to the legacy bar code system of identifying an item. One of the major advantages of RFIDs over bar codes is that it is a non-line-of-sight technology - thus every item need not be handled manually for reading. In addition, RFID readers can read tags even when they are hidden. The primary focus of this paper is the use of RFID technology to solve problems faced by commuters and bus (transport) operators in many metropolitan areas. We will use Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport undertaking (popularly known as BEST) which operates in Mumbai as our case study. The Mumbai bus system is one of the largest in the country in terms of number of buses and its operation. Often the buses are overcrowded. As a result commuters usually spend long hours at bus stops waiting. The bus arrivals at a particular stop are stochastic variables thanks to traffic congestion. This unpredictability can be partly alleviated by deploying a bus tracking and reporting system. There are a couple of ways to address this problem; one approach is to use the Global Positioning System (GPS) and another is through the use of RFIDs. In this paper, we propose a solution using RFID technology and present issues related to its deployment.

1 2

KReSIT, IIT Bombay, India College of Business Administration, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, US * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-22-2576 7906, E-mail: bernard@it.iitb.ac.in)

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In section 2 we briefly introduce RFID technology and its components. Section 3 explains the solution for the proposed problem using RFID Technology. In sub-section 4.1 & 4.2 we pose the challenges of handling huge number of events and discuss how ECA rules [16] can be used in a distributed manner to handle event explosion. Section 5 provides a framework for using the collected data in predicting arrival times for buses at different stops.

2. Components of an RFID System


RFID technology consists of the following three components: Tag, Reader and the Middleware which interacts with backend database. RFID Tag [1]: consists of a microchip with data storage, limited logical functionality and an antenna which is tuned to receive radio frequency waves emitted by a reader or transceiver for allowing wireless transmission of data to the reader. For retail applications, the identifier takes the form of an Electronic Product Code (EPC). RFID scanner/readers [1]: It usually consists of a radio frequency module, a control unit and a coupling element to interrogate the tags via radio frequency communication. Readers are usually connected through middleware to a back-end database. RFID Middleware: This refers to specialty software that sits between the reader network and the true application software to help process the significant amount of data generated by the reader network. Middleware is responsible for cleaning the data eliminating false reads besides performing aggregation and filtering of data. Also, by monitoring multiple readers, middleware can detect the movement of RFID tags as they pass from the read range of one reader to another [6, 7, 8].

3. Proposed RFID based Solution


We first propose a solution based on RFIDs followed by an introduction to the GPS based solution. 3.1 RFID based approach Each bus could have an RFID tag affixed to it while the readers are conveniently mounted at intersections, lamp posts or bus stops. The crucial information associated with a tag is the specific bus number, the capacity of the bus, the route number currently plying and the termination point (for example, during non-peak hours a bus may terminate at a depot before its usual terminating point). Tag readers continually monitor passing buses and transfer this information in real-time to a central computer. A commuter with access to a cellphone could subscribe to the following service from the mobile network provider. The subscriber may enter his destination stop, D, (and optionally location of nearest bus stop) on his cellphone in the comfort of his home. The system will inform him of the relevant buses closest to him and expected arrival times of these buses. The above service can be provided by the mobile network operator. The provider contacts a central computer to obtain the set of buses traveling to D through the closest bus stop to the customer. This list is obtained in sorted order and could possibly be filtered or enhanced in some way depending on the preferences of the customer. For example, if there are several bus stops in proximity to the commuter, information on relevant arrivals at all these bus stops can be provided. The provider can provide customized service to each subscribing commuter for a small fee. This service can be used for multiple purposes to locate and control bus movement in the metro city. For example, in the event of an accident causing traffic congestion on a particular road, the buses leading to the road can be informed. In some cases, the routes of the bus can be changed temporarily and accordingly bus driver can be informed via wireless network. Or if it is found that a particular bus was stuck in traffic and that has led to a smaller gap with the next bus, the bus driver of the next bus can be informed to slow down to increase the gap. Many such applications can be thought of based on such an 68

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RFID application. Before describing some of the research challenges in deploying such a system, we first describe an alternate technology that can also achieve similar objectives. 3.2 GPS based approach A GPS tracking system uses GPS (Global Positioning System) [14] to determine the location of a vehicle, person, or pet and to record the position at regular intervals in order to create a track file or log of activities. The recorded data can be stored within the tracking unit, or it may be transmitted to a central location, or Internet-connected computer, using a cellular modem, 2-way radio, or satellite. This allows the data to be reported in real-time; using either web browser based tools or customized softwares. More often, GPS receivers are used for navigation, positioning, time dissemination, and other research. Research projects [15] include using GPS signals to measure atmospheric parameters. Though GPS based systems are widely used in the developed countries, there exists some serious limitations of this technology in developing countries like India. Firstly the coverage of GPS system in developing countries is not as wide. Secondly, effective implementation of a GPS system will require mapping the roads to the GPS system. Such mapping so far does not exist for metro cities in India. In the developed world, road infrastructure is almost static. However in the developing world metros (e.g. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad), new roads are being constantly built and layout of old roads is frequently changed. This will require remapping of roads at regular intervals. On the other hand with RFID systems new roads and change of old roads will require just reinstalling few RFID scanners or changes in the positions of these scanners.

4. Research Challenges of RFID based Solutions


There are many technical challenges associated with deployment of RFIDs. For example, there are problems with false or missing reads as a result of radio waves being easily distorted, detected, absorbed, or interfered with. There are a number of system-level challenges such as determining the number, type and placement of readers. In this paper we primarily focus on the challenges related to data management which deals with capturing, storing and querying RFID data. 4.1. Data management problem BEST runs over 335 bus routes in Mumbai [13]. The average time between two buses on a route is about 15 minutes. But, due to traffic congestion and peak crowds, the maximum time may exceed 30 minutes. Overall, there are around 3380 buses in B.E.S.T. which carry around 45,00,000 passengers everyday. B E S T buses, on many routes run for 21 hours (from 4:00AM to 1:00AM) a day. So the number of trips along a route will be 84 trips (21 x 60 /15), on an average. Thus, with 84 trips per bus route, and an estimated average number of bus stops per route = 17, we could estimate the number of events that will be generated in this scenario as below: 84 trips x 335 routes x 17 stops = 4,78,380 events Processing and relating so many events to derive a meaningful real-time decision is a challenging task. The above estimates occur in the case when readers are placed at bus stops and depots and when only BEST buses are taken into consideration. If the data is captured not only from bus stops but also from several traffic lights to get intermediate information between two bus stops the number of events will further increase. This situation will be exacerbated if other kinds of traffic movements such as taxis, trucks are also monitored. Managing such high volume of events and generated data poses the challenges to applications as well as back-end databases. This data is often redundant and needs to be filtered/cleaned and consolidated in order to occupy less space in database. In doing so, care must be taken that no useful information is lost. Researchers 69

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in the database community have presented techniques and models for warehousing as well as cleaning/ filtering RFID data. EPC-IS [9] and PML Core [10] are the RFID system standardization efforts by auto-ID center. [9] summarizes the data characteristics, models data as events and provides some reference relation to represent data. Dynamic Relationship ER (DRER) presented in [17] is an expressive temporal data model which enables support for basic queries for tracking and monitoring RFID tagged objects. A simple observation that objects move together in initial stages bring a couple of more proposals. Hu et al. [12] used bitmap data type to compress the information corresponding to objects that move together. RFID-Cuboids [11] are a new warehousing model that preserves object transitions while providing significant compression and pathdependent aggregates. FlowCube [11] is a method to construct a warehouse of commodity flows. Some of these are simple representations of various relationships in the Relational DBMS (e.g. [17]). 4.2 Real-time Decision Making In this sub-section we describe how the application of Event-Condition-Action (ECA) [16] framework can address some of the real-time event management issues. Assume that we record each instance of reader-tag interaction with the help of a tuple: {object_epc, location, timestamp}. Here, object_epc is Electronic Product Code used to uniquely identify an object (the bus and the route), location denotes the place where the interaction took place (say in some bus stop), and timestamp denotes the time at which the interaction took place. Each event is characterized by certain dimensions like time of scan, location of the reader, etc. Similarly, the conditions and actions also have some dimensions. Consider an example event that the distance between two consecutive buses is below a certain threshold. This can be expressed in the ECA form as: EVENT e1 = {location = l1, timestamp = t1, epc = {route1, bus1}} EVENT e2 = {location = l2, timestamp = t2, epc = {route2, bus2}} EVENT e3 = {e1 AND e2} CONDITION = {e2.l2 = e1.l1 + 1 AND e2.t2 < e1.t1 + threshold AND e1.route1 = e2.route2} ACTION = {Notify bus driver of e2.bus1 to slow} It is possible to dynamically add, delete and modify such rules without interrupting the system. Moreover such ECA rules will be invoked in real-time by a distributed ECA framework. These ECA rules can also be used to do several data management tasks data cleaning, data aggregation and prediction. 4.3. Scalability As the amount of data generated by RFID system is enormous, scalability of the proposed system is an important aspect. A couple of techniques can be employed in order to make our system scalable. Data Aggregation: In many scenarios, granularity of recently generated data is more important as opposed to old data. So we can have multi-layered data architecture with high granularity recent data at the top and consolidated, less granular data towards the bottom. If for example, the data on individual bus movement is required for immediate action or for analysis over a day. However beyond few days, the historical data of individual buses will be of much less interest. Rather it will be more interesting to know the aggregated overall bus movement data. Following this, in our proposed RFID system, the historical data will be aggregated and stored. This is a very good example for layered architecture for data storage on basis of aggregation. But this assumption may not always hold true. Sometimes, special events might take place making it necessary to violate this generalized structure. E.g., for future application it will be logical to study the movement pattern of individual buses on the day of the Mumbai bomb-blast (7/11). Such analysis can be used to effectively plan for disbursement of traffic in case of a future terrorist attack. So, individual bus movement data needs to be kept for that particular day. It is possible to describe such data aggregation rules based on the proposed ECA framework. 70

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Partitions: Second option for scalability is to maintain data partition on various temporal attributes. Event Explosion: Each time the tag is scanned a tuple is produced indicating location of object and time of scan. This tuple directly or indirectly leads to an event (assume filtering of tuples is not done). So, the number of events generated will be proportional to the number of objects which need to be tracked or monitored. This on an average is large. We can have a centralized event manager which identifies all the events in the systems, checks for conditions associated with it, evaluates these conditions and finally fires events. This event manager will also be overloaded and will become the bottleneck for our system. The solution is to distribute the job of the event manager. The whole purpose behind this distribution is to capture events as close as possible to its generation point and execute corresponding action if the

Fig.1: Data Aggregation & Partitioning in Databases

conditions defined are true. As an example, consider the ECA when a bus arrives at bus stop A, if a previous bus of the same route has left A, beyond a threshold time then inform the bus driver to increase the speed. This ECA can be executed locally within the RFID scanner or a nearby computer to which the RFID scanner is connected. The event need not be propagated to the centralized system. Such a system will reduce the number of events to be handled at any single location. To achieve the optimal execution of RFID ECA rules, the system should be able to specify the location of event detection, condition checking and action handling.

5. Turning Data into Valuable Information


Consider that a customer has queried the system at time t to obtain an estimate of the earliest arrival time of Bus # 251 at stop S3. Figure 2 shows the locations of two instances of Bus # 25 closest to the customer. The closer of the two busses is between stops S1 and S2. To estimate the arrival time of this bus at S3, we need to forecast the following times: Time to complete hop h1 and Times to traverse hops h2 and h3. The estimated arrival time of this bus at S3 is t plus the sum of the above delays. We next attempt to answer 71

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the customers query by formulating it as a problem in the domain of forecasting theory. Let r , h (ti ) be the time taken to traverse the hth hop on bus route r given that the bus starts from its depot at time = ti. The variable i is the bus departure index it corresponds to the ith departure of Bus # r since bus

arrival records were maintained. denotes an estimate of delay. Specifically, r , h (ti , t ) denotes the time,
estimated at time t, to traverse the hth hop on bus route r given that the bus starts from its depot at time = ti. Estimated times can best be analyzed by considering two categories of days normal or regular days (these are typically working days in the week) and other days (these include week-ends and other holidays.) Let Tr,h denote the time series

r , h (t1 ) , r , h (t2 ) ,

...

Note that t1, t2, t3 . . . are the departure times from the depot of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd buses, etc. plying on route r. We clarify that, if there are n departures per day, then the first n terms of the series, Tr,h correspond to the departures on Day 1, the next n departures are those on Day 2 and so on. For simplicity, we include only regular days in the series. We expect to mine certain patterns from such series. In particular for a given series (and hence a particular hop on a specific route, r),

Fig.2: Estimating the earliest bus arrival time.

Values of successive terms in the series would tend to be close. The hop delay at 5:00 am (early morning, low-traffic load) would not be a good indicator of hop delay during evening rush hour (say at 6:00 pm). On the other hand, hop delay at 6:00 pm yesterday may be a better predictor of todays hop delay at 6:00 pm. Observation 2 suggests a form of seasonality with period n in the time series (where n is the number of departures of Bus # r on any given regular day). We thus see that the traversal time for hop h on route r may be estimated with the aid of previous terms in the series, Tr,h. This, however, may not always be the case. Consider, for example, a road accident or other such event that creates congestion at a certain point in the road network. All routes that converge at that point may also be affected. This means that hop delay estimates should also factor fresh information concerning
2

Bus # 25 denotes a bus that follows Route # 25. Typically this number appears on the front and side of the bus.

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hop delays encountered on other routes that intersect the route of interest to our customer.

Fig.3: Relating delay in traversing the 3rd hop to corresponding delays in previous trips.

6. Concluding Remarks
Practical RFID systems are involved in real time tracking and monitoring of events. The system performs appropriate actions in response to events based on certain conditions. It is natural to consider the use of the Event, Condition and Action (ECA) framework to address event management issues. Since the number of events captured by many RFID systems is very large, clever filtering and aggregation techniques should be employed. We are currently engaged in the development of a RFID rule based management system using existing RFID middleware from Sun. Transportation is a fertile area for deployment of RFID-based systems. Tracking of buses and other vehicles in crowded metros could greatly benefit commuters who could plan their trips to avoid long delays at bus stops. In this paper, we suggested the use of RFIDs for bus tracking using readers placed at strategic locations, such as bus stops, and/or traffic intersections. Events such as arrival of buses can be used to generate useful information such as earliest arrival time of a bus on a given route at a given stop. By informing a commuter about bus arrival times the commuter can save valuable waiting time. We formulated the goal of estimating bus arrival times as a forecasting problem which could use the many mature techniques developed for seasonal time series as well as regression analysis.

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References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Bill Glover and Himanshu Bhatt. RFID Essentials - Theory in Practice. Walmart. http://www.walmart.com Albertsons Inc. https://www.albertsons.com RFIDs in Pharmaceuticals. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/840/1/1 RFIDs in Healthcare. http://www.rfidgazette.org/healthcare/index.html F Wang and P Liu (2005).Temporal management of RFID data. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases. Sun Microsystems, Inc. The Sun Java System RFID Software Architecture, March 2005. I-konnect. The Sun Java System RFID Software Architecture, May 2005. Harrison M (2003). EPC information service - data model and queries. Technical report, Auto-ID Center, October 2003. Floerkemeier C., Anarkat D., Osinski T. and Harrison M (2003). PML Core Specification 1.0. Technical report, Auto-ID Center, September 2003. Gonzalez H , Han J, Li X, and Klabjan D. (2006).Warehousing and analyzing massive RFID data sets. In The 22nd International Conference on Data Engineering. Hu Y, Sundara S, Chorma T, and Srinivasan J. (2005). Supporting RFID-based item tracking applications in oracle DBMS using a bitmap datatype. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases. BEST Undertaking. About the Organization, http://www.bestundertaking.com/org_info.asp Wikipedia: Global Positioning System, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS Dana Peter H.. The Global Positioning System, http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/ gps_f.html Norman W. Paton and Oscar Daz (1999). Active Database Systems, ACM Computing Surveys. Fusheng Wang and Peiya Liu (2005). Temporal management of RFID data. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Trondheim, Norway. Sun Java System RFID Software 3.0 (Developers Guide, Installation Guide and Administration Guide), http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/434.2

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About the Authors


Bernard Menezes is currently Professor and Head of the K. R. School of Information Technology at IIT Bombay. He was a visiting faculty member at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque and an assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests include Network Security, Forecasting, smart E-business and RFID applications. He has published extensively in national and international journals and conferences. He has supervised over 50 MTech / Ph D students. Kaushik Dutta is currently a visiting assistant professor in the K R School of Information Technology at IIT Bombay. He is an Assistant Professor in the College of Business at Florida International University. His research interests include design and development of emerging technologies, electronic Commerce, mining web log data, building scalable e-business infrastructures, database Systems, and data Management. He has published widely in number of international journals and conferences. Kamlesh Laddhad is a MTech student in K R School of Information Technology at IIT Bombay under the supervision of Prof. Bernard Menezes. His specific areas of research interest are Databases (Query Optimizations in particular), Search Engines, RFID Applications and Object-Oriented Systems. Karthik B is a MTech student in K R School of Information Technology at IIT Bombay under the supervision of Prof. Bernard Menezes. His specific areas of research interest are Wireless networking, RFID security, security in e-commerce applications, Object-Oriented systems and databases.

74

Software Obfuscation for Information Systems Assets Management: E-governance Perspective


Tapasya Patki1*, Swati Khurana1, Revati Patki2, A.B. Patki3 and V. Prithviraj4 ABSTRACT
Management of infrastructure, resources and information assets is gaining significance in providing services based around e-governance. Information assets need to be protected from corporate viewpoint. Super-scalar activities of e-governance are subject to oversights, and legal actions can jeopardize the trust. Obfuscation tools in a way attempt to remove context from compiled code while preserving its execution integrity. This helps organizations to enhance electronic discovery and litigation readiness programs. Commonly used software obfuscation techniques target data structures & abstractions, control flow, program identifiers etc. Authors propose a fuzzy logic support, which can aid the process of selection of appropriate classes for design obfuscation to prevent reverse engineering encountered on Java and .NET platforms.

Keywords: E-governance, Software Engineering, Fuzzy Logic, Software Obfuscation, Similarity Measures, Fuzzy Software Obfuscator

1. Introduction
Early efforts of the Government to computerize administrative processes during the twentieth century paved the way for e-governance in the twenty first century. E-governance is extending the administrative and the government services effectively to the public by deploying Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) on a nationwide scale. ICT based administration is bound to facilitate efficiency and transparency in the process of disseminating information to the public and other agencies. With the rapid expansion of egovernance projects, the e-service sector is evolving on the horizon, and is shaping up in the form of Information Systems based around E-Governance initiatives. Thus, apart from the corporate sectors, the evolving e-service sector is also likely to make a significant impact on the Infrastructure Resources Management and Information Systems Assets (ISA) management activity. While the financial balance sheets of corporate houses make provisions for the depreciation of the hardware and the network ICT infrastructure, the software portion of ISA has not been addressed as a part of financial & accounts statement practice. An organizations ISAs are the primary resources associated with its information systems. It includes information that may be contained in files, databases, paper-based reports, electronic documents, firmware items, and software tools. The hardware and the networking components of ISA are static implying that these have an initial constant value in the form of procurement of capital goods with provisions for annual maintenance. However, the software components of ISA of an organization are growing on a continuous basis. This usually happens in the form of release of advanced versions of existing software.
1

2 3 4

Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India * Corresponding Author : (Phone: +91-11-24361013, Email: tapasya_patki@yahoo.co.in) Department of Computer Science & Engineering, AVMP College of Engineering, Amravati Department of Information Technology, Government of India Department of Electronics and Communication, Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry

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In the era of web-based delivery of services, most of the applications in corporate sectors and in EGovernance programmes are based on popular technologies like JAVA and .NET. These technologies are typically platform independent (including the operating systems) and thus are more widely used than C/C++. However, they suffer from an inherent limitation both Java and .NET based software are subject to easy code extraction and tampering, as compared to their C/ C++ counterparts. For instance, the Java byte code can be easily reverse engineered. Software engineers now face a brand new challenge of precluding and prohibiting reverse engineering (Aggarwal and Singh, 2005). Obfuscation based approaches for software protection to prevent infringements of intellectual property rights of algorithms, represent an emerging area of research. Obfuscation is a popular technique used to complicate the source code (PreEmptive Solutions). Obfuscation makes the code difficult to understand when it is de-compiled, but it typically has no effect on the functionality. Obfuscation programs are used to protect Java and .NET code by making it harder to reverse engineer the code. Obfuscation tools employ tricks to foil the decompilers, thus reducing program understandability. The software metrics do not cover the program understandability directly. Much of the valuable information about a program is likely to be hidden in the comments, strings and identifiers, although these are not included in any software metrics formula (Chidamber and Kemerer, 1994). Software architectural design models have not addressed obfuscation issues in the past (Murthy,and Prasanna Kumar, 2003). In the subsequent sections, we describe software protection through software obfuscation methodologies. The existing software obfuscation methods are discussed for their effectiveness for protecting software programs against reverse engineering. We propose a fuzzy logic based solution framework for software obfuscation challenges in the Object Oriented Programming Systems (OOPS).

2. Issues & Trends in Software Protection


Computer software is a valuable asset involving time, money, and intellectual investment in its production. Software theft is not only a big loss to the developer but also is a great threat to the end user and hence public protection of software has been a subject of attention and concern (Herzberg and Pinter, 1987). Software tampering with malicious intent of placing a bug in the end users system is a dangerous possibility. Since the software codes are available in an architecture independent format, they are susceptible to the acts of decompilation and reverse engineering. Often the companies that design software do not intend to make algorithms and design logic used in their program widely known. In the past, approaches to increase security of Information Systems Assets primarily focused on a variety of control systems. These included: Technological control systems Legal control systems Socio-cultural control systems Market related control systems

However, the use of legal control systems, though important, is not adequate in the network economy (Petrovic, 2004). Recently, the US has proposed some amendments to the Federal Rules on Civil Procedure on Electronic Discovery, which is likely to be operational by end of the year 2006. The existing electronic discovery solutions are primarily reactive in the nature. The proposed Federal legislative initiative encourages putting in place an electronic discovery plan in the organizations. Such initiatives will enable organizations to realize efficiencies in the legal matter collection and review process (Guidance Software, 2006). Code Obfuscation will also help the organizations to enhance their electronic discovery and litigation readiness programs in the context of ISAs management. E-Governance is a massive activity spread over the nations ICT map. E-Governance initiatives are common in most countries industrialized as well as developing. The difference between the E-Governance practices in the industrialized and the developing countries is in the 76

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available ICT infrastructure with specific regard to protection of the information assets built for delivering services around the E-Governance programmes (Saxena, 2004). A general analysis reveals that usually no provisions are made for preventing reverse engineering while drawing the software systems specifications, during the requirements analysis phase either by the vendor or by the owner. In order to safeguard the ISAs, software obfuscation techniques are being developed by the software engineering specialists. However, at present, it is seen more like a retrofit solution rather than a design philosophy. Following primary focus areas in software protection application field include (Stytz and Whittaker, 2003): a. Algorithms (Watermarking, Obfuscation, Performance degradation while using pirated software) b. Environment (Integrated Development Environments) c. Benchmarks & Metrics (for application security) d. Integration (combining multiple application security techniques)

3. Existing Obfuscation Transformations


Obfuscation deliberately transforms the software into an identically functioning but purposefully unreadable form, which is implemented in a high level programming language like Java. Obfuscation Transformations can be broadly classified into two classes: Surface Obfuscation and Deep Obfuscation. Surface obfuscation deals with the obfuscation of concrete syntax of the program. Deep obfuscation attempts to obfuscate the actual structure of the program, by changing its control flow or the data reference behavior. 3.1. Taxonomy of Obfuscation There are four types of obfuscation techniques that have been proposed in the literature. These have been outlined below (Collberg et al., 1997, 1998). Figure 1 depicts the schematic diagram of Software Obfuscation schemes.

Fig. 1 : Taxonomy of Obfuscation Methods

a. Control Flow Obfuscation concentrates on obscuring the flow of control and the purpose of the variables in individual procedures. Opaque predicates like the if statement that always evaluate to true on program execution, may be introduced. The variable names may be changed so that they do not provide any insight into the data that they actually represent. Control Aggregation, Control Ordering and Control Computation are the fundamental methodologies that obfuscate the control flow of the program. 77

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b. Data Obfuscation makes the interpretation of the data members of a program more difficult. By the usage of simple arithmetic operations, we can obtain the value of a variable from the ancillary variables. This type of obfuscation influences the data structures that are present in the program. Here, we have two sub categories data aggregation and data ordering. c. Layout Obfuscation alters the information that is unnecessary for the execution of the program, but is extremely important for the documentation purposes and for the better understanding of the code (for example, the comments and the identifier names). The debugging information can be removed as well. It scrambles the logic inherent in the breaking of a program into various procedures. d. Design Obfuscation is a newer technique of the code obfuscation that focuses on the design-level transformation of source code, rather than concentrating on mere functional transformations. This ensures that even the high-level language constructs of a program do not facilitate the process of reverse engineering. This also supports the class-based object oriented design techniques, and thus permits the usage of the powerful techniques likes inheritance, polymorphism and data hiding.

3.2. Design Obfuscation Methods


Design obfuscation encompasses the following techniques: a. Class Coalescing b. Class Splitting c. Type Hiding The class coalescing method of the design obfuscation is a program transformation that replaces two or more classes in the program with a single class. There can be a few situations, when a set of classes cannot be merged into one, due to their dependencies. The class splitting obfuscation is a program transformation that replaces a class in the program with a number of classes. Various issues regarding the number and the type of the parameters used in the methods of a class have to be considered for this purpose. Also, the dependencies have to be taken into account. The type hiding (interfacification in terms of Java) obfuscation uses the concept of Java interfaces to obscure the design intent. In Java, the interfaces are used as lightweight type definitions. This is done to facilitate multiple inheritances. This method uses a potentially large number of interfaces that are implemented by the existing classes.

3.3 Control Flow Flattening


Control Flow Flattening aims to obscure the control flow logic of a program by flattening the Control Flow Graph (CFG) so that all blocks appear to have the same set of predecessors and successors. A dispatcher variable and a switch block are used to aid the entire process. At the time of execution, each block assigns the dispatcher variable a value that references the block that should follow it. The switch block then uses this value to jump indirectly, through a mapping table, to the successor.

4. Role & Scope of Fuzzy Logic in Software Obfuscation Tools


Software protection has been considered as an amalgamation of watermarking, tamper-proofing, and obfuscation philosophies (Collberg and Thomborson, 2002). Various schemes reported in the literature use obfuscation as a binary phenomenon on a random basis (Cifuentes and Gough, 1995). The existing obfuscation methods rely greatly on the obfuscators subjective decisions when it comes to coalescing or splitting a class. A tool with features to suggest partition of classes into two divisions, namely, the classes to split and the classes to coalesce, does not exist. This turns out to be a major bottleneck in the obfuscation process when user wants to selectively participate in an obfuscation process. A need for an obfuscator with cognitive 78

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support is felt. In order to illustrate the need, we first introduce the basic preliminary concepts of Fuzzy Logic and then explain its utility in e-Governance software. Fuzzy Logic (Zadeh, 1965, 1976; Klir and Folger, 1988) techniques allow system modeling using linguistic hedges for handling imprecision, partial truth, uncertainty and approximations. The theory of binary logic is based on the assumption of crisp membership of an element to a certain set. An element x thus either belongs to (i.e. has a membership value of 1) or does not belong to (i.e., has a membership value of 0) a particular set X. Conventional logic systems can be extended to encompass normalized values in the range of [0,1]; thus introducing the notion of partial membership of an element to a particular set. The variable in a fuzzy system is generally described linguistically prior to its mathematical description, as it is more important to visualize a problem in totality to devise a practical solution. A fuzzy set F, on a collection of objects, X, is a mapping mF (x): X [0,a] Here, mF (x) indicates the extent to which x X has the attribute F, thus it is the membership function. In general, we use a normalized fuzzy domain set, for which a = sup mF (x) = 1 The membership function can be generated with the help of mathematical equations. Typically, it can be in trapezoidal, triangular or in the form of S or p - curve. The support of a fuzzy set, F, S(F) is the crisp set of all x X such that m (x) >0. The three basic logical operations of intersection, union and complementation can be performed on fuzzy sets. 1. The membership mC (x) of the intersection C = A B satisfies for each x X, mC (x) = min {mA (x), mB (x)} 2. The membership mC (x) of the union C = A B satisfies for each x X, mC (x) = max {mA (x), mB (x)} 3. The membership mC (x) of the complementation C = A satisfies for each x X, mC (x) = 1- mA (x) In addition to the membership function, the fuzzy logic uses the notion of hedges. The linguistic hedge is an operation that modifies the meaning of a term or more generally, of a fuzzy set. The distribution of the membership function as indicated above can be modified so that the concept captured by the modified fuzzy term is stronger (concentrated) or weaker (dilated) than the original term. If A is a fuzzy set then the modifier m generates the (composite) term B = m(A). The linguistic hedge comprises concentration and dilation. These are discussed below. Concentration: The operation of concentration on F set results in a fuzzy subset of F that the reduction in the magnitude of the grade of membership of an element in F is relatively small for those values which have high membership and relatively large for those which have low membership. The operation of concentration is defined by: CON (F) = F p mcon, A (x) = ( mA(x) ) p, where p >1

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Dilation: The operation of dilation on F set results in a fuzzy subset of F that the increase in the magnitude of the grade of membership of an element in F is relatively small for those values which have high membership and relatively large for those which have low membership. The operation of dilation is defined by: DIL (F) = F q mdil, A (x) = ( mA(x) ) q, where q <1 In practical cases, the values of p and q are usually 2 and 0.5 respectively. Illustration: Consider an e-Governance scenario dealing with design of user modeling. User modeling is inherently uncertain and typical rules could be of the following type. Situation #1: Inter departmental web service module: Rule: If sender is a close department then action = reply very soon. Here, close department could be under the same Ministry (like Department of Telecommunication under Ministry of Communications & Information Technology for Department of Information Technology server request) or a department under different Ministry with identical activities (e.g. Department of Science & Technology). We define fuzzy set close and also a fuzzy set soon with hedge very (concentration operation with p=2) Situation #2: End user citizen interface module Rule: If user has selected several options from the menu and has undone a few, then moreorless on-screen help needs to be provided when the user logs in again. Here, fuzzy terms several, few and moreorless are linguistic hedges. In order to provide the help in the context of the second situation above, a concept hierarchy needs to be established so that appropriate help is generated depending upon the observed behavior of user in selecting and deselecting the radio button(s) or checkboxes as reported by key logging module. In a dynamic environment, this help is triggered from many classes (and not from a single class as is usually handled in implementations with static methodology). This scenario calls for an approach where an instance can have a membership in more than one class. Neither the membership needs to be a numerical quantity nor it is explicitly stored for any particular instance. An instance may be a close match when one subset of data variables and functions is considered while it may be close for another class with different data and functions, are focused. (A class in Java has consists of a combination of data items and functions - constructor being also considered as a function.) In the classical OOPS, a class hierarchy follows a sub-class/super-class order. A sub-class is derived from a super-class either by reducing the crisp ranges of super-class attributes (data items and functions) or by adding the new attributes in the sub-class. Unlike this, for the fuzzy case, due to the imprecision of the attribute ranges, class X has some graded inclusion degree to a class Y, then class Y also has some graded inclusion degree to X resulting into a network instead of hierarchy. Thus, an object can have fuzzy membership in two classes (Baldwin and Martin, 1996). Similarly, a crisp objects gets defined at the time of creation and has a fixed position in the hierarchy. In contrast, a fuzzy object, has a unique feature in that the class of an object is not necessarily defined at the time of creation; thus its position in the hierarchy may not be fixed. This has been illustrated Figure 2. In case of multiple classes, the scenario is much more complex and possesses multiple dimensions. Fuzzy classes provide us means of modeling with words for real word applications encountered in e-Governance. Fril++ software is environment for fuzzy object oriented logic programming (Rossiter). 80

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In the preceding paragraphs, we have seen OOPS design using class based on the fuzzy logic. In the subsequent paragraphs, we propose a framework for software obfuscator, based on Fuzzy Logic (FL) principles. In a large program with a number of interdependent classes, the selection of two classes to be merged is a randomized process. Application of FL to this selection process can permit us to pick the classes that are most suited for merging. Let Classes (P) be the set of classes defined in a program P. Let n be the cardinality of the set Classes (P). We need to produce subsets Mergeablei (C1, C2), where C1, C2 Classes (P), where 1 i k and 1 k n/2. We also need to produce the subsets Splittablej (C). The basic algorithms for generation of the Mergeablei (C1, C2) and Splittablei (C) using FL is presented below. In OOPs, a typical class consists of data members (DM) and methods (M). DM can have other classes as types also. We use data and methods as basic units to

Figure 2 Crisp and Fuzzy Inheritance in a two-class system

associate a fuzzy parameter from the fuzzy term set (underwhelmed, balanced, overwhelmed). We use data and methods to define fuzzy membership functions over the class domains in a normalized fuzzy set (Patki and Khurana, 2006). In this section, we use these fuzzy sets for obfuscation. Figure 3 illustrates the details of the process. a. Fuzzy Class Coalescing Step 1: Generation of the membership function values for overwhelmed, balanced and underwhelmed classes based on the data members and the methods of the class. Step 2: Identifying the classes for merging (using the underwhelmed membership function). b. Fuzzy Class Splitting Step 1: Generation of the membership function values for overwhelmed, balanced and underwhelmed classes based on the data members and the methods of the class. Step 2: Identifying the classes for splitting (using the overwhelmed membership function). Performance, reliability and support are important parameters for developing obfuscation tools to counter reverse engineering. These tools should provide user configurable support for to facilitate software patch distribution to existing customers. While some pessimists may still continue to feel that there is no specific 81

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need for FL based obfuscation, and the conventional obfuscation techniques will be useful for all applications of Java/.NET, this assumption is likely to be short lived. There will be a need arising out of programming language features like that of Ruby to use FL based obfuscation. Ruby programming language has attempted to bring programming closer to the application space of the user (Thomas et al., 2004). Rubys Object oriented features are designed to add an instance during runtime, allowing this instance of a class to behave differently from the other instances of the same class. Here, conventional obfuscation is not useful and FL based approach deriving membership function as described in this section is perhaps the only option as of now. Such possibilities have not been examined in the literature in the past as the focus was primarily on Java/ .NET, which did not provide run time execution features like Ruby, as descried above. The detailed discussions are beyond the scope of this paper.

5. Concluding Remarks
This paper brings out the relevance of software protection in the context of ISA management. Software obfuscation techniques proposed in the paper promise removal of bottlenecks in the protection of Information Assets from reverse engineering. Corporate houses and other software developers are likely to be benefited by incorporating an in-house organizational policy requiring usage of obfuscation as a standard design practice, instead of retrofit solution on a case-by-case basis. It is felt that, in future, the incorporation of obfuscation philosophy along with other anti-tampering techniques in product suites will be a design criteria in software engineering. A Fuzzy Logic based framework in an OOP environment is likely to provide enhanced software protection for Java and .NET based information system assets.

Acknowledgements
Authors acknowledge the interactions they had with many software engineering professionals who have been actively interested in software protection. Discussions with Mr. Mahesh Kulkarni, Group Coordinator, Center for Development of Advanced computing (CDAC), Pune have been enlightening. Comments from the reviewers and suggestions from the editors have been helpful in shaping the paper.

References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Aggarwal K.K., and Singh Y., (2005). Software Engineering: Programs, Documentation and Operating Procedures, Revised Second Edition, New Age International Publishers Baldwin, J.F., and Martin, T.P. Fuzzy Classes in Object Oriented Logic Programming, FUZZ-IEEE-96, p.1358-1364 Chidamber S.R., and Kemerer C.F. (1994). A metrics suite for object oriented design. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 20(6), 476-493 Cifuentes Cristina and Gough K. John. (1995). Decompilation of binary programs. Software - Practice and Experience, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 811-829, July, 1995 Collberg C., Thomborson C., and Low D, (1997). A Taxonomy of Obfuscating Transformations, Available at: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~collberg/Research/Publications/CollbergThomborsonLow97a. Accessed September 27, 2006 Collberg C., Thomborson C., and Low D, (1998). Breaking Abstractions and Understanding Data Structures. Proc. IEEE Intl Conference Computer Languages (ICCL98) Collberg C., and Thomborson C., (2002). Watermarking, Tamper-proofing and Obfuscation- Tools for Software Protection. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 28, No. 8, pp 735-746 Guidance Software, (2006). Halluburton Streamlines Its Computer Investigations. IDC Customer Spot light, pp 1-4 Herzberg Amir and Pinter Shlomit S., (1987). Public protection of software. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, vol. 5, no. 4, pp 371-393, November 1987.

6. 7. 8. 9.

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10. 11. 12.

Klir G.J. and Folger, T.A., (1988). Fuzzy sets, Uncertainty and Information. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 355 Murthy D., N., and Prasanna Kumar, R.V. (2003). Software Architectural Design Model for e-Governance systems. TENCON 2003 pp. 183-187 Patki, A.B., Raghunathan, G.V., and Khurshid, A. (1997). FUZOS Fuzzy Operating System Support for Information Technology. In Chawdhry, P.K., Roy, R., Pant, R.K. (Eds.), Soft Computing in Engineering Design and Manufacturing, Springer, 131-140 Patki Tapasya, and Khurana Swati, (2006). Summer Training Report. Department of Information Technology, New Delhi Petrovic O., (2004). New Focus in E-Government: From Security to Trust. In Towards E-Government Management Challenges, ed. M. P. Gupta, TMH, New Delhi, pp. 6-16 PreEmptive Solutions. Java and .NET Obfuscation FAQ, Available at: http://www.preemptive.com/ obfuscation-faq/, Accessed September 27, 2006 Rossiter Jonathan. Object Oriented Modeling with Words, Available at: http://www.enm.bris.ac.uk/ai/, Accessed September 27, 2006 Saxena K. B. C., (2004). Towards Excellence in E-Governance. In Towards E-Government Management Challenges, ed. M. P. Gupta, TMH, New Delhi, pp. 26-34 Stytz M.R., and Whittaker J.A., (2003). Software Protection: Securitys Last Stand?, IEEE Security & Privacy, pp 95-98 Thomas D., Fowler, C., and Hunt A., (2004), Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmers Guide, Second Edition, OReilly Media Inc. Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy Sets, Information and Control, (8), 338-353 Zadeh, L. A. (1976). A fuzzy-algorithmic approach to the definition of complex or imprecise concepts, Int. Journal Man-machine Studies, (8), 249-291

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

About the Authors


Tapasya Patki is a final year student of B. Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) programme, in Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi. She has an internship experience of over four months at the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, where she specialized in applications of Fuzzy Logic and Rough Set Techniques. Her areas of interest include Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Outsourcing. Presently, she is exploring potentials of Soft Computing to Knowledge Management Practices and Software Code Obfuscation. She is also a Violin soloist and an amateur poet. Swati Khurana is a final year student of B. Tech (Information Technology) programme, in Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.

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Energy Implication and e-Waste Generation: Environmental Impact of IT Industry


Anuradha Sen1*, Jaijit Bhattacharya1, Amit Shrivastava2, M.G. Dastidar2 and T. R Sree Krishnan3

ABSTRACT
With rapid growth of IT industry globally in recent years, a need has been strongly been felt to consider the consequent environmental implications. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the present scenario in the context of two major concerns viz. the increase in energy consumption and the production of e-waste and its disposal. Comprehensive statistical studies suggest that the problem of disposal of obsolete computers is reaching staggering proportions. Taking cognizance of the situation, some remedial measures has been proposed by regulatory bodies. In this paper we examine these proposals and make additional recommendations to tackle a number of unaddressed problems, with a specific focus in the Indian context.

Keywords: computers, IT, e-waste, energy, environment

1. Introduction
There has been a phenomenal growth in IT (Information Technology) industry in the recent years. India is also moving towards globalization and modernization. The usage of computers and internet is penetrating in all segments of the society. According to the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) report [1], until 1991, there was about 1 computer per thousand people, whereas in 2004, this figure has risen to 11 and is slated to go to 20 per thousand by 2010 amounting to about 20 million computers. Desktop sales crossed 4.6 million units registering an annual growth of 29 percent, while the Notebook shipments exceeded 0.43 million units at 144 percent growth rate over 2004-05. With sound macroeconomic condition and buoyant buying sentiment in the market, Desktop sales are expected to touch 5.6 million units in fiscal 2006-07, while overall PC shipments would exceed 6 million. The growth in PC sales can be attributed not only to the significant consumption by industry verticals such as telecoms, banking & financial services, manufacturing, retail and BPO/IT enabled services, but also to the major e-Governance initiatives of the Central and State governments. The economic and social implications of IT have gained much attention in the last decade. The less discussed an even the less understood are the environmental implications of the Information Technology revolution. Transforming technologies such as the combustion engine or electricity have had an enormous impact on the scale and character of environmental problems. Energy is expensive and increasingly scarce.
1

2 3

Sun Microsystems(India), New Delhi-110067, India * Corresponding Author: ( Phone: +91- 9818783385 Email: anuradha.sen@sun.com) Centre for Energy Studies,Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110016, India Department of Biochemical Engg. & Biotechnology Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110016, India.

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Adequate supply and efficient use of energy in IT industry are of vital importance to economic prosperity, national security and pollution control. Problems with the supply and generation of power are well known. Fossil fuels contribute to global climate change; dependence on foreign oil leaves the nation vulnerable to economic shocks and national security threats; limited refining capacity and bottlenecks in distribution networks lead to regional shortages on an unpredictable basis. Therefore, there is an intimate connection between energy, the environment and sustainable development[2]. A soceity seeking sustainable development ideally must utilize only energy resources which cause no environmental impact. However, since all energy resources lead to some environmental emissions, use of increased energy efficient servers would reduce their negative impact thus helping in environmental sustainainability. Governments are rightly concerned with promoting development of new, cleaner sources of energy and ensuring plentiful, diversified access to the traditional sources. Another effect of IT revolution is generation of e-waste, which is a popular informal name for electronic products which have become obsolete or have reached their end of useful life. For example, old computers, TVs, monitors, mobile phones, PDAs etc. constitutes the components of e-wastes. The PC sales has increased, but on the other hand rapidly changing technology is making computing machines obsolete very quickly. Most models do not have a shelf life more than 3-5 years. It is estimated by the National Safety Council that 75% of the obsolete computers are stored, and by 2007, these stored computers will amount to about 500 million and required to be disposed. A preliminary investigation by the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Taskforce estimates suggest that total WEEE generation in India is approximately 1,46,000 tones per year [3]. The huge quantities of computers and other electronic equipment produced in IT industries are made up of multitude of components, some containing toxic substances which if not handled properly can have an adverse impact on human health and the environment. Often, these hazards arise due to the improper recycling and disposal processes used. The nature of the basic material technology is not currently suitable for recycling. As new technologies enter the market approximately every two years, e-waste is a mounting concern. The estimate is that 20 million devices become obsolete with many kilos of toxins in each year. Therefore, IT is a double-edged sword in terms of its effect on the environment, with both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, IT is a tool to improve the efficiency of production and distribution systems and may contribute to a shift towards environmentally light consumption patterns. It reduces usage of paper thus saving trees. IT also contributes to economic growth and reduction in consumer prices, which could conceivably stimulate increased consumption larger than efficiency improvements. Thus the benefits of the IT revolutions has been proved and well enumerated. However, when these benefits are extracted at the expense of environmental pollution, health hazard and depletion of limited energy resources, then it becomes a real problem. There is a need to know more about all these factors. This understanding lies in with the important task of planning social response that will maximizes the positive aspects of IT and minimizes the negative ones. Unless steps are taken to deal with these issues the wrong side of the IT revolution will show its face. In the present paper an attempt has been made to analyze the current scenario of energy usage and ewaste generation in IT industry. The environmental implications of these two major issues have been discussed along with the remedial steps and some recommendations have been suggested.

2. Energy consumption and its environmental implications


In IT industry alone there are several sectors using computers. The extent of usage depends on their need. Energy is used both to run these computing machines and for cooling purposes. The utilization of energy in various sectors is discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. Data Centers use a lage amount of energy. According to a report conducted by the Robert Francis Group in US, 41% of Fortune 500 IT executives identified power and cooling as problems for their datacenters [4]. 86

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In a typical datacenter, every watt of power directly consumed by information technology (IT) equipments requires another watt of power for indirect power needs including power transmission, appliance cooling and lighting. The average annual utility cost for a 100,000-square-foot datacenter has reached $5.9 million. Datacenter energy costs are expected to increase as companies deploy greater numbers of servers which consume more power, and in the process, emit more heat that needs to be dissipated. Datacenter electricity costs are already in the range of $3.3 billion annually. The above statistics shows how much energy can data centers consume. There is no accurate figure available for the number of data centers present in India which are mushrooming with the increased demand of the present business pattern. India is likely to face soon similar energy requirement for its data centers. As mentioned above, the sales in desktops and PCs in 2006-07 has crossed 5 million. On an average, a desktop consumes 200 watt of energy, which implies a minimum of 1000 MW increase in energy consumption. This alarming trend is expected to continue in the years to come. The increased level of energy consumption will accelerate erosion of non-replenishible sources of energy production, primarily coal, as well as cause atmospheric pollution in form of increased levels of carbondioxide and other pollutants released by thermal power plants. A simple estimate shows that an annual production of 1000 MW of electricity requires about 8 million tons of coal and 13 million gallons of water and produces emissions as shown in Table 1. Table 1 : Emissions related to 1000 MW of electricity generated
Emissions
Carbon monoxide CO2 Ash Sludge Arsenic Cadmium and other toxic metals Sulfur dioxide Nitrogen oxide Small particles in the air

Quantity
4000 tons 20 million tons 700,000 tons 1 million tons 1300 pounds 20 pounds 50,000 tons 55,000 tons 3000 tons

3. Remedial action
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on 12th July, 2006, which requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the use of energy-efficient servers that can reduce the power demand of data centers packed with equipment [5]. The Energy Star program is a voluntary labeling program developed by EPA and U.S. Department of Energy in 1992. This labeling program is widely used in a variety of consumer and building products. The products must meet certain minimum energy efficiency federal standards, as a part of the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, 1987. Similar legislation is also adopted by many other developed countries. In India, the National Energy Labeling program was officially launched on 18th May, 2006, for the first time by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) [6]. This is a significant step towards ensuring efficient use of scarce energy resources. It has been made mandatory for many electronic products to get certified by BEE. The certification of PCs, Laptops and servers are yet to be made mandatory under this program. Improvements in datacenter energy efficiency can yield great savings. They reduce direct energy consumed 87

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by IT equipment and also reduce indirect costs by reducing the need for increased floor space and more cooling equipment to dissipate server-generated heat. Energy efficient servers are currently available and perform as well as, or better than, less efficient counterparts. For example, servers built with multi-core processors can decrease power consumption and heat generation while increasing computational output, resulting in significant energy efficient gains and large cost savings. IEEE has come out with a Standard 1680 with the support of EPA(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) in which it mentions that all desktops have to have a Energy Star label to as a certification of energy efficiency. An example of a successful international voluntary initiative is that all applicable products of Sun Microsystems comply with requirements of Energy Star. The considerations required while installing new hardware in a datacentre are as under : Evaluate the infrastructure and its cost including the environmental impact and cost of exit Move towards more efficient, sustainable technologies and ways of running a business, such as : Chip multithreading Green buildings Proper equipment choice Better equipment layout Data center siting More efficient cooling technologies Even, switching from fossil to renewable energy The policies which would help government to enforce energy conservation steps by IT communities are: Revisit the proportion of time and funds spent by governments on increasing the supply of energy at the expense of efforts to decrease the demand. Establish tax incentives and government procurement guidelines that motivate computer professionals to purchase energy efficient servers and other data centre components. Foster voluntary industry efforts to develop energy efficient computing products and engage in public private partnership that highlight and promote the cost benefits of energy efficient datacentres. 3.1. Sources and Characteristics of e-waste The term e-waste encompasses ever growing range of obsolete electronic devices such as Desktops, Laptops, Servers, TVs and other display devices, cellular phones & pagers, printers, scanners, DVDs, CDs and other storage devices which have been disposed off by their original users [7]. In general, computer equipment is a complicated assembly of more than 1,000 materials, many of which are highly toxic, such as chlorinated and brominated substances, toxic gases, toxic metals, biologically active materials, acids, plastics and plastic additives. These mixtures and material combinations are hazardous to health. The major sectors generating e-waste include individuals, small businesses, large businesses, institutions, governments and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Due to the new technologies, the rate of obsolescence is very high. The harmful substances present in e-waste are given in Table 2 [8]. 3.2. Disposal Practices Disposal of e-wastes is a particular problem faced in many regions across the globe. Landfilling e-waste is the most widely used method of disposal. Incineration is also being practiced for some parts of the computer, especially cables. About 3%-5% of the computers that have been discarded by their users are reused. Re-use involves direct second-hand use or use after slight modifications of the original functioning equipment like memory upgrades, etc. In order to combat the environmental impact of improper electronic waste disposal, many organizations have opted to recycle their old technology. Though recycling is gaining popularity, rates of recycling are still very low. After all possibilities for re-use have been exhausted and a computer is slated for disposal, it is sent for recycling which means that the old raw materials are reclaimed and used in manufacture of new products. 88

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Table 2: Harmful substances present in e-waste


Substance Occurrence in e-waste Halogenated compounds: PCB (polychlorinated Condensers, Transformers biphenyls) TBBA (tetrabromoFire retardants for plastics (thermoplastic components, cable bisphenol-A) PBB (polybrominated insulation) biphenyls) TBBA is presently the most widely used flame retardant in PBDE (polybrominated printed wiring boards and casings. diphenyl ethers) - Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) Cooling unit, Insulation foam - PVC (polyvinyl chloride) Cable insulation Heavy metals and others: Small quantities in the form of gallium arsenide within light - Arsenic emitting diodes - Barium Getters in CRT Power supply boxes which contain silicon controlled - Beryllium rectifiers and x-ray lenses Rechargeable NiCd-batteries, fluorescent layer (CRT - Cadmium screens), printer inks and toners, photocopying-machines (printer drums) - Chromium VI Data tapes, floppy-disks - Lead CRT screens, batteries, printed wiring boards - Lithium Li-batteries Fluorescent lamps that provide backlighting in LCDs, in - Mercury some alkaline batteries and mercury wetted switches Rechargeable NiCd-batteries or NiMH-batteries, electron - Nickel gun in CRT Rare Earth elements Fluorescent layer (CRT-screen) (Yttrium, Europium) - Selenium Older photocopying-machines (photo drums) - Zinc sulphide Interior of CRT screens, mixed with rare earth metals Others: - Toner Dust Toner cartridges for laser printers / copiers Americium(Radio-active Medical equipment, fire detectors, active sensing element in substance) smoke detectors

The developed nations produce millions of tones of e-waste each year. Many old electronic goods gather dust in storage waiting to be reused, recycled or thrown away. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as much as three quarters of the computers sold in the US are stockpiled in garages and closets. When thrown away, they end up in landfills or incinerators or more recently are exported to Asia. [9] . A study compiled by the Graduate School of Industrial Administration of Carnegie Mellon University, concludes that in the year 2002, 12.75 million computer units went to recyclers in the U.S. Based on this estimate, and with a rate of 80% moving offshore to Asia, the total amount would equate to 10.2 million units. Most of the developing countries depend for their technological support on the developed countries. This makes them very vulnerable to phenomena like e-waste dumping by the industrialized nations. 89

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In India, most of the recyclers currently engaged in recycling activities do not have this expensive technology to handle the waste. Computer scrap is managed through various management alternatives such as product reuse, conventional disposal in landfills, incineration and recycling. However, the disposal and recycling of computer waste in the country has become a serious problem since the methods of disposal are very rudimentary and pose grave environmental and health hazards [10]. 3.3. Environmental Implications Landfills are prone to hazards because of leachate which often contain heavy metal resources. Even stateof-the-art landfills which are sealed to the long term are a cause of great concern due to the danger of releasing hazardous emissions.. Over the years, e-waste leads to chemical and metal leaching finally resulting in groundwater contamination. Mercury, for example, will leach when certain electronic devices such as circuit breakers are destroyed. Lead has been found to leach from broken lead-containing glass, such as the cone glass of cathode ray tubes from TVs and monitors. When brominated flame retarded plastics or plastics containing cadmium are landfilled, both PBDE and cadmium may leach in to soil and ground water . In addition, Landfills are also prone to uncontrolled fires which release toxic fumes [7]. Incineration of e-waste, particularly printed circuit boards and cables, to extract the metals out of it; often leads to the formation of harmful toxic gases like dioxins and furans, which escape to the atmosphere and contaminate it. Acid and sludge obtained from melting computer chips, if disposed on the ground causes acidification of soil. The health hazards due to e-waste constituents are shown in Table 3 [11].

4. Current Status
In an effort to counter the unsustainable and unjust effects of free trade in toxic wastes, an international treaty known as the Basal Convention was created in 1989 by UNEP to control the trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. This was formed to respond to concerns about toxic wastes from industrialized countries being dumped into developing countries. It was also for this reason that the Basal Convention in 1994 agreed to adopt a total ban on the export of all hazardous wastes from rich to poor countries for any reason, including for recycling. In the past decade the organization focused on establishing the control, but more recently its working to fully implement its goals to minimize waste generations [12]. Already, a few countries like Japan, Malaysia and Singapore have taken steps to manage this e-waste. Some of these countries already have laws and regulations in place that ban the import of hazardous e-waste. Domestic recycling has also been adopted. In fact, Malaysia has a plant that is dedicated to handle e-waste. At the same time, some countries have yet to wake up to the perils of e-waste. In countries like Sri-Lanka and Vietnam, there is very little awareness and initiatives on e-waste management. Besides handling its own computer waste, India now also has to manage the waste being dumped by other countries. The Basal Convention was signed by India on 15th March 1990 and ratified and acceded to it in 1992. Over the years, Toxics Links has regularly claiming that large quantities of e-waste is being dumped on to Indian shores in the name of recycling [13]. A study has been done by BEA(British Environment Agency) and the report complied by the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling (ICER) and is being used to help target investigative and enforcement work by Environment Agency officers. The report comes as a warning; the Environment Agency has announced the stepping up of activity to identify illegal exports. It is in the process of identifying around 23,000 tones of waste being shipped to countries in the Far East, the Indian sub-continent, West Africa and China without the right authorization from the Environment Agency. So trade in e-waste is camouflaged and is a thriving business in India, conducted under the pretext of obtaining reusable equipment or donations from developed nations. It is high time that the Government and Port Authorities in India implement the Hazardous Waste Rules and check the illegal imports of hazardous e -waste at the entry points itself. A national WEEE task force headed by Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and consisting of officials/ representatives of Min. of Environment and Forests, Ministry of 90

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Table 3: Effects of e-waste constituent on health


Source of e-wastes Constituent Solder in printed circuit boards, glass panels and Lead (PB) gaskets in computer monitors Chip resistors and semiconductors Cadmium (CD) Health effects Damage to central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and kidney damage. Affects brain development of children. Toxic irreversible effects on human health. Accumulates in kidney and liver. Causes neural damage. Teratogenic. Chronic damage to the brain. Respiratory and skin disorders due to bio-accumulation in fishes. Asthmatic bronchitis. DNA damage. Reproductive and developmental problems; Immune system damage; Interfere with regulatory hormones Disrupts endocrine system functions

Relays and switches, printed Mercury (Hg) circuit boards Corrosion protection of untreated and galvanized steel plates, decorator or hardener for steel housings Cabling and computer housing Hexavalent chromium (Cr) VI Plastics including PVC (by burning)

Brominated Plastic housing of electronic flame equipments and circuit retardants boards. (BFR) Front panel of CRTs

Short term exposure causes: Barium (Ba) Muscle weakness; Damage to heart, liver and spleen. Beryllium (Be) Carcinogenic (lung cancer) Inhalation of fumes and dust. Causes chronic beryllium disease or beryllicosis. Skin diseases such as warts.

Motherboard

IT, regulatory agencies (representatives of State Pollution control boards SPCBs), NGOs, Industry association/ Industry experts and producers both formal and informal was formed in July, 2004.[3]

5. Recommendations
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has emphasized the need for recycling and re-use of end-of-life electronic equipment to minimise electronic waste generation. However, only concern will not suffice. Appropriate legislation and its enforcement is absolutely essential to tackle this problem. A plan of action for e-waste management has to address the above mentioned issues in order to come up with a sustainable solution. The most important participants/stake holders in any action plan would be the Government and corporate policy makers, NGOs and environmental activists/scientists. There are different options available for computers besides just throwing them away (or storing them). 91

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Many computers are built in a way that allows them to be repaired or upgraded, which means they can be reused. With little effort, these computers can be as good as the PCs currently on the market. The other viable option is recycling. Computers are manufactured with a variety of elements, like plastics, glass, steel, gold, lead, mercury, cadmium and fire retardants that can be recaptured through recycling and used again. If thrown away, these computers can release toxins to the environment, potentially polluting the groundwater we drink and the air that we breathe. Recycling the resources in computers also eliminates the need to obtain these elements from nature, decreasing production impact on the environment. By eliminating e-waste, the environment is protected, resources are saved, organizations in need benefit and we can make a difference in the quality of our environment. The customer support services by the IT industry should cover the management of redundant IT equipment. The government rules should make it mandatory for the OEMs to buy back their products at the end of the life. Thus the OEMs have to be equipped with recycle and disposal facilities of the rejected IT hardware. This would ensure a safe disposal of e-waste. Buying Green could be another important option. Environmentally responsible electronics use involves not only proper end-of-life disposition of obsolete equipment, but also purchasing new equipment that has been designed with environmental attributes. IEEE Standard 1680 phrases the criteria for manufacture of desktops, notebooks, computer monitors to make them environmental friendly. The criteria addresses the reduction/ elimination of environmentally sensitive materials like Cadmium, Mercury, Lead etc. [14] Some leading computer manufacturing companies strictly comply to the environmental friendly requirements and so it is advisable to acquire such computers only. For example, Sun Microsystems avoid the use of hazardous substances where possible. The company has a unique product take back and reuse programme which recycles, reclaims and reuses both components and entire systems to the benefit of its customers and the environment. In fact less than 1% enters the waste stream.

6. Concluding Remarks
The continued and expanded use of electronic information and communication technologies is likely to be a key to achieve global sustainability. However, with the current industrial technology and infrastructure, the electronic products have unacceptably high social and environmental impacts. Therefore, while acquiring these electronic products one must consider that the electronic items are made up of fewer toxic components and are recyclable, energy efficient, designed for easy upgradation or disassembly, environmentally preferable and have take back options. Finally, it is the responsibility of every individual to work for a cleaner environment. Therefore, buying energy efficient and eco-friendly computers would make the world a better place to live.

References
1 2 E News http://www.mait.com/ Ibrahim Dincer, Marc A. Rosen, Energy, environment and sustainable development http://www.e-waste.in/ accesed on 15 August 2006. H. R. 5646 co-sponsored by U. S. representatives Mike Rogers (R- MI) and Anna Eshoo( D- CA) http:/ /www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&arcticleId=HYPERLINK http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&arcticleId=%0D 9001753%0DHYPERLINKhttp://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do? command= viewArticleBasic&arcticleId =%0D 9001753%0D 900175 IIEC e-notes-July2006, http://www.iiec.org/ http://www.e-waste.in/weee_basics/ www.ewaste.ch/facts_and_figures/hazardousmaterials/substances/ www.greenpeace.org accesed on 15 August 2006. Agarwal Ravi , Ranjan Rakesh and Sarkar Papiya , Scrapping The Hi-tech Myth, Computer Waste in India, www.toxicslink.org. accesed on 15 August 2006.

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http://modelun.uaa.alaska.edu/forms/briefing_UNEP.pdf www.toxicslink.org. http://standards.ieee.org/ announcements/pr_1680epa.html accesed on 15 August 2006.

About the Authors


Anuradha Sen is a Executive in the Public Policy Department at Sun Microsystems. She has also worked in various research projects in IIT, Delhi. Jaijit Bhattacharya is the Country Director, Government Strategy at Sun Microsystems and he is responsible for the creation of the next generation of solutions for the governments, based on open standards. The author has submitted his PhD thesis to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in IIT Delhi. He is B.,Tech in Electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. M. G. Dastidar is associated with Centre for Energy studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi as Associate Professor. After receiving her doctoral degree from Chemical Engg. Dept. of the same institute in 1979, she has been actively involved in teaching/ research in the areas of de-ashing and de-sulphurization of coal, ash handling/ disposal and energy conservations in coal based thermal power plants, coal conversion processes (pyrolysis/gasification), coal slurry treatment in washeries and allied industries and Environmental Biotechnology . Amit Shrivastava is pursuing M.Tech from Centre for Energy studies. IIT Delhi, after completing B.E (Mechanical). T.R. Sreekrishnan is a Professor in the Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology Department. His interests lies in Waste Engineering and Environmental Biotechnology-Development, modelling and optimization of aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment processes for high strength and toxic industrial waste streams. Biodegradation of xenobiotic compounds. Production of biodegradable polymers. Development of biosensors for monitoring environmental pollutants.

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Semantic Web: An Introduction with Reference to E-governance


Rakhi Tripathi1 and M.P. Gupta2

ABSTRACT
No one can deny the success of the web. It has immensely revolutionized the flow of information. However, in order to access the information, it requires human intervention. As the web is getting bigger and bigger the various problems of handling and managing information and knowledge are coming into the picture. To derive new information that is not clearly asserted requires proper reasoning with knowledge that is enclosed in the application. To overcome these problems the concept of Semantic Web is introduced. The vision of the Semantic Web, as proposed by Tim Berners-Lee et al., is to evolve the current Web to one where information and services are understandable and usable by computers as well as humansto create a Web for machines. This paper provides an introduction to Semantic Web and discusses about the other aspects: Ontology, Knowledge Management, Web Services and their approaches. Governments are most potent organizations where semantic web and its related approaches might bring in some organized ness in its data and set out a useful knowledge management infrastructure. At the end some challenges have also been enumerated.

Keywords: Semantic Web, Knowledge Management, Ontology, Web Services and E-governance

1. Introduction
The web as we all know represents an ocean of the information composed of randomly interrelated data warehouses associated with particular domains and enterprises. However, the information that is presently stored usually does not have a clear meaning attached to it that would facilitate its retrieval and manipulation, both automated and manual. The main idea of the Semantic Web is to address this deficiency (Bell and Yang, 2006). The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries (www.w3c.org). Though Semantic Web is not very old, a lot of work has been done diversely in its field. The work of semantic web ranges from distributed information systems to artificial intelligence. The need of Semantic Web strongly arises in the area of e-commerce and egovernment. Various tools have been developed over the years for Semantic Web like to improve the process of search (discussed in detailed later), searching of images, building ontologies etc. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 gives the meaning of Semantic Web along with its importance and evolution. Section 3 highlights some terms that have been the basics for Semantic Web: Ontology, Knowledge Management and Web Services. Section 4 discusses the layers of Semantic Web. Section 5 compares the various approaches
1

School of Information Technology (IT), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India (Phone: + 91-9871442163, Email: rakhi@it.iitd.ernet.in) Department of Management Studies (DMS), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India

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of searches since 1998 and comment on it. A brief description on the tools that have been developed over time is given in Section 6. Section 7 briefly describes the various approaches of Semantic Web in different sectors with a focus on Government sector. Upcoming challenges faced by researchers in the field of Semantic Web are outlined in Section 8. Finally, concluding remarks are stated in Section 9.

2. Web Semantic and Its Evolution


There is enormous data on the web that is neither interrelated nor has a meaning attached to it. There is no common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. In order to solve this problem Semantic Web is introduced in late nineties. The Semantic is a web of data or one can say a global database that exchanges information by putting documents with computer-processable meaning (semantics) on the World Wide Web (Lee). It allows a person, or a machine, to start with one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected by being about the same thing. The evolution of Semantic Web can be traced from the year 2000 onwards. Before that research on information and knowledge management was going on. The following table shows the evolution of web and from there semantic web and its elements. Way back in 1989 different types of Information Systems for

Year 2005 2003 2000 1998 1994 1989 New Tools of Semantic Web Web Services Semantic Web + Ontology XML + Knowledge Management World Wide Web + HTML Different IS for different OS Growth

Fig. 1: Evolution of Semantic Web

different operation systems were used, then the World Wide Web (or www) was introduced along with HTML in 1994. By 1998 the need for structured information was felt that was absent in HTML. Hence, XML was introduced which had both the content and some indication of what role that content plays. After 2000 when Semantic Web was introduced, its various elements: ontology and knowledge management were also highlighted. At present, a lot of work is being done on Web services (2003) that transform the Web from a collection of information to a distributed device of computation. The process of reusing the information includes both savings and new discoveries. Reusing the information is also a part of Semantic Web which has not been discovered yet. The goal of the Semantic Web initiative is to create a universal medium for the exchange of data where data 95

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can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. The Semantic Web is designed to smoothly interconnect personal information management, enterprise application integration, and the global sharing of commercial, scientific and cultural data. Data here does not mean human documents. Figure 2 shows the use of data by various sectors starting from local user to the public. The need for Semantic Web is everywhere but the most is needed by public.

Fig. 2: Use of Data Importance of Semantic Web

A question arises how secure are the browsers after using Semantic Web? The answer being is not at all a threat to existing browsers (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/) as Semantic Web is adding something to the WWW, not replacing it. The Web will continue to evolve and adapt and the Semantic Web is part of this evolution. New challenges will be addressed in terms of usability, accessibility as the Semantic Web becomes more pervasive. Semantic Web is gaining attention of researchers. There are a range of disciplines and technologies needed to achieve the Semantic Web, the artificial intelligence (AI) community appears the most engaged.

3. Relevant Terminology
Semantic Web has some vital elements: Knowledge Management, Ontology and Web Services that enhances its properties. All the elements are inter-related: Ontologies are made for knowledge management and web services. Web Services has all the knowledge data. Also, knowledge management further requires ontology and web services in order to form a semantic web (See figure 3 below). The following subsections talk about these subsets. Ontology Ontology is categorizing things that exist in some domain. Ontologies were developed in artificial intelligence to facilitate knowledge sharing and re-use. Since the early 1990s, ontologies have become a popular research. The reason ontologies are becoming so popular is largely due to what they promise: a shared and common understanding of some domain that can be communicated between people and application systems (Ding et. al, 2001). The aim of ontology is categorizing knowledge in domain and its development is 96

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Fig. 3: Semantic Web and its pillars

often a cooperative process involving different people, possibly at different locations topic investigated by several technological research communities. Many definitions of ontologies have been proposed over the last decade. (See the table) Table 1: Definitions of Ontology
Author Gruber (1993) Definition: Ontology An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization Gruber (2000) A logical theory accounting for the intended meaning of a formal vocabulary, i.e., its ontological commitment to a particular conceptualization of the world Weng and Tsai (2006) Ontology is made capable to describe metadata in order to build one complete glossary that will clearly define the data found in the World Wide Web (WWW) Remarks Only conceptualizes the meaning of Ontology Apart from conceptualization, also refers to possible domains with meaning Definition focuses on Semantic Web

For humans, ontologies enable better access to information and promote shared understanding and for computers they facilitate comprehension of information and more extensive processing. Knowledge Management Knowledge management involves with acquiring, maintaining, and accessing knowledge of an organization.It aims to exploit an organizations intellectual assets for greater productivity, new value, and increased competitiveness. Due to globalization and the impact of the Internet, many organizations have dispersed increasingly in geographical terms and are structured around virtual teams. With the large number of on-line documents, several document management systems have entered the market (by Carole Goble, Robert Stevens, and Sean Bechhofer). However these systems have severe weaknesses: (Ding et al., 2001) Searching information: Existing keyword-based searches retrieve irrelevant information, which features 97

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a certain word in a different context, or may miss information where different words about the desired content are used. Extracting information: Human browsing and reading is currently required to extract relevant information from information sources. This is because, automatic agents lack all common sense knowledge required to extract such information from textual representations. Moreover, they fail to integrate information distributed over different sources. Maintaining weakly structured text sources: It is a difficult and time-consuming task when such sources become large. Keeping such collections consistent, correct, and up-to-date requires a mechanized representation of semantics and constraints that help to detect anomalies. Automatic document generation: Adaptive web-sites that enable a dynamic re-configuration according to user profiles or other relevant aspects would be very useful. The generation of semi structured

Fig. 4: Knowledge Management - Value to Organization

information presentations from semi-structured data requires a machine-accessible representation of the semantics of these information sources. Figure 4 shows how the Knowledge Management can add to the Value of any organization like public, private or government. Web Services Web Services are Web-accessible programs and devices, the latest generation of distributed computing, that will transform the Web from a collection of information to a distributed device of computation. Web services and the Semantic Web have a symbiotic relationship. The W3C Web Services Architecture Working Group defines a Web service as a software application identified by an URI, whose interfaces and bindings are capable of being defined, described and discovered as XML artifacts. A web service supports direct interactions with other software agents using XML-based messages exchanged via Internet-based protocols. The Semantic Web infrastructure of ontology services, metadata annotators, reasoning engines and so on will be delivered as Web services. In turn Web services need semantic-driven descriptions for discovery, negotiation and composition. Web Services have entered the research agendas of many research communities and are being proposed as the means for remote interoperable access of components and software systems (Bell and Bussler, 2006).

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The encountered problems with development of Web Services are: Its ontology building in itself is time consuming. The dynamic nature of the field. The exponential rise in the number of bioinformatics Web services over the past year required a further two months effort to maintain and extend the ontology. Lack of guidelines on how to build the domain specific ontology, or indeed how to relate it to upper level ontologies. Differing interpretation of the myriad of standards SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, XML Schema etc.; and how they relate Not all web services platforms use the same access protocol in the WSDL bindings they generate

4. Layers of Semantic Web


Semantic Web has various layers enclosed with it. Tim Berners Lee has specified various layers for the semantic web (see Fig. 4):

Trust: Trusted Systems Proof: Inter-engine Interoperability Ontology: Web of meaning RDF: Cross-App Interoperability XML: Interoperability with App HTML: data transmission
Fig. 5: Layers of the semantic web.

At the lowest level there are protocols for communication including TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for data transmission. At this level one does not deal with syntax or the semantics of the documents (Thuraisingham, 2004). The next level is the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) layer that includes XML schemas for document exchange. After the XML layer is the RDF (Resource Description Framework) layer uses that XML syntax but has support to express semantics. One needs to use RDF for integrating and exchanging information in a meaningful way on the web. Next come the Ontologies and Interoperability layer. By using ontologies different groups can communicate information. That is, ontologies facilitate information exchange and integration. Ontologies are used by web services so that the web can provide semantic web services to the humans. Ontologies may be specified using RDF syntax. Finally at the highest-level one has the Trust Management layer. The separation of assertions from the resource, and the ability to assert facts about facts, is intended to support a tangled accumulative web of third party assertions over resources by those other than the resource creators or owners. The Semantic Web is envisioned as a democracy where everyone can annotate resource or an annotation. The Semantic Web 99

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is changeable, inconsistent and will contain many dubious, outdated or conflicting statements (Goble et al., 2005). Metadata on the metadata ties assertions (inferred or stated) to a context such as its origin or creation date. This is important for intellectual property, provenance tracing, accountability and security as well as untangling contradictions or weighting support for an assertion.

5. Semantic Web Approaches for Search


There has been an evolution for various approaches of Semantic Web for search: Syntactic Search, Navigational Search, Metadata Search (Syntactic Metadata, Semantic Metadata) and Query by Example. All the approaches are a subset of Semantic Web but are not disjoint. Metadata Search further has two subsets: Syntactic Metadata, Semantic Metadata. The following figure depicts these approaches and is further explained in the following Table 2. Table 2 : Different Search Engines developed over the years (Chiang, Chua and Storey, 2001)
Syntactic Search o The most common search on structured and semi structured data. o Documents are discovered, classified and referenced in a search database by human subject expert. o The database instances are accessed through Boolean searches. Metadata Search o Improves on syntactic search. o Uses relevant aspects of document schema. o Types: Syntactic: syntactic elements of a document are considered e.g. titles Example: Google before 2002 use to use it. Semantic: Usually performs in specified domain. Domain specified knowledge is used to enhance the precision and recall of the query. Query by Example (QBE) o In QBE the search engine is given a sample document. It then retrieves the relevant documents. o The user can expand the example document pool and refine the search by selecting appropriately relevant documents from those returned by search engine. o QBE is used for non textual searches example images. Navigational search o Simulates the web browsing search processes. o An autonomous agent is given sample page that contains the links. It then traverses the links, evaluating each page it encounters for relevance to a search specification. Remarks Syntactic search is limited, QBE is useful in specialized domains only and Navigational search simulates web browsing search processes. All the three have their own limitations. Its Semantic metadata approach that appears to be the most promising for retrieving the relevant web documents

A Semantic metadata approach appears to be the most promising for retrieving the relevant web documents. Syntactic search is limited, since the context of the search is not considered. Although QBE is useful in very specialized domains such as querying for images, it is difficult to deploy for a generic search. An agent that performs navigational search typically must have search specification represented using one of the other search strategies. The main difficulty with a semantic metadata search is the rapid deployment of metadata representations for multiple contexts. 100

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Fig. 6: Various Search Engines

6. Semantic Web Tools


Different tools have been developed for Semantic Web as well as its elements over the years. There are tools on search (images and data), ontologies and web services. CREAM: CREAting Metadata for the Semantic Web OntoTrack: A semantic approach for ontology authoring A genetic fuzzy agent using ontology model for meeting scheduling system NAMA: a context-aware multi-agent based web service approach to proactive need identification for Semantic Web personalized reminder systems OWL-QLa language for deductive query answering on Syntactic the Semantic Web Search Swoop: A Web Ontology Editing Browser Metadata Search The Ontolingua Server: a tool for collaborative ontology construction Syntactic Conceptual-model-based data extraction from multiple-record Web pages Metadata Search Composition of Semantic Web services using Linear Logic theorem proving Value creation in web services: An integrative model Semantic Annotation and Provenance Tracking in Semantic Web Photo Libraries Metadata Search

Most of these tools though have been developed but have not been deployed commercially. Some tools Navigational Search are discussed in detail below. Flink
Query by Example

Flink employs semantic technology for reasoning with personal information extracted from a number of electronic information sources including web pages, emails, publication archives and FOAF profiles (By Peter Mika, 2005). The acquired knowledge is used for the purposes of social network analysis and for generating a web-based presentation of the community. Flink can be summarized in three points. First, Flink is a demonstration of the latest Semantic Web technology (and as such a recipient of the Semantic Web Challenge Award of 2004). Second, Flink is intended as a portal for anyone who is interested to learn about the work of the Semantic Web community, as represented by the profiles, emails, publications and statistics. Flink will also contribute to bootstrapping the nascent FOAF-web by allowing the export of the knowledge in FOAF format. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, the data collected by Flink is used for the purposes of social network analysis, in particular learning about the 101

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nature of power and innovativeness in scientific communities. CREAM: Creating Metadata for Semantic Web CREAM allows creating relational metadata (By Siegfried Handschuh, Steffen Staab, 2003), i.e., metadata that instantiate interrelated definitions of classes in a domain ontology rather than a comparatively rigid template-like schema. CREAM is geared to allow for the easy and comfortable creation of semantic metadata. CREAM allows for the a posteriori annotation of existing resources. A posteriori creation of metadata involves the consideration of an item (e.g., a document) by an agent (possibly, but not necessarily, a human agent) and its description with metadata. The design of the CREAM framework pursues the idea to be flexible and open. Therefore, OntoMat, the implementation of the framework, comprises a plug-in structure, which is flexible with regard to adding or replacing modules. Document viewer/editor and ontology guidance/fact browser together constitute the major part of the graphical user interface. Because of the plug-in structure they can be replaced by alternative viewers.

7. Application Areas
In various sectors the problem of data and information management has been a serious problem. Semantic Web has been applied to various sectors like medical sciences, geographical etc. Different tools of Semantic Web have been developed to meet the specific requirements of each sector. Table 3 gives a list of sectors in which Semantic Web and its elements have been applied. Apart from what is presented in the Table 3. Government is the most relevant sector where Semantic Web can be very useful. Government deals with different information infrastructures, human beings, administration models and the relations between theses entities. The semantics of Government is tied to corporate cultures within the many institutions and agencies of government. For this reason, a basic agreement on the meaning of terms and processes is necessary before any form of alignment of ontologies can take place. As stated by Gupta et al.(2004) data is raw numbers and facts whereas information is processed data; and knowledge is info made actionable. In Government there are multiple diverse data sources: Unstructured data that lies in the form of rules, procedures and concepts, guidelines etc. Data referring to facts and figures treated as operational idea. Structured data: data derived from information that can be stored in computerized form database and further be used for decision making. There are attempts to achieve some sense of organized ness into data and knowledge management through various applications of e-government. E-government is unique because of its enormous challenge to achieve interoperability: given the manifold semantic differences of interpretation of, e.g., law, regulations, citizen services, administrative processes, best-practices, and, last, but not least, the many different languages to be taken into account within and across regions. Setting up seamless e-government services not only requires information integration but process integration as well. The role of semantics in Government is (Figure 7): Interoperable processes/services at various levels: technical, semantic and organizational. Technical refers to the topics of connecting systems, defining standard protocols and data formats; semantic concerns the exchange of information in an understandable way, whether within and between administrations, either locally or across Countries and with the enterprise sector; Organizational to enabling processes to co-operate, by re-writing rules for how Public Administrations (PAs) work internally, interact with their customers, use ICTs. 102

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Table 3 : Applications of Semantic Web


Discipline Knowledge Management (KM) Specific Issues o Discusses key issues related to the application of KM in e-government o Knowledge Management for health care network and a tool (virtual staff) Semantic Web o Exploiting the Web service semantics in the healthcare domain o Dedicated to medical science Ontology o This paper presents E-Connections as a suitable formalism for combining OWL ontologies. The applicability and usefulness of E-Connections is combined. They have extended the syntax and semantics of the OWL-DL recommendation and have discussed the issues of handling URIs and imports in this new framework. o Medical Science o A model is proposed to evaluate an organizations position in a technology adoption space by evaluating its current level of information technology (IT) sophistication. The model identifies critical factors necessary for the successful adoption of Web services technology along three dimensions intranet, extranet, and Internet. o E-Negotiation o E-commerce applications o Influence of Web services on business process flexibility and analyses its impact on organizational adaptation. Author (Year) Metaxiotis and Psarras (2005) Kuntz, Minier, R?uicka, Corby, Corby and Alamarguy (2005) Dogac, Laleci, Kirbas, Kabak, Sinir, Yildiz and Gurcan (2005) Kim, Ha, Lee and Kim (2004) Grau, Parsia and Sirin (2005) Country Greece

France Turkey

Korea US and Spain

Web Services

Calvo, Maojo, Billhardt, Sanchez and Remesal, Rey (2005) Chen, Sen and Shao (2005)

Spain US

HongKong Chiu, Cheung, Hung, Chiu and Chung (2004) Tatemura and Hsiung (2005) Moitra and Ganesh (2004)

US

India

Integrated data/application: the integration of applications with the aim of gathering and transforming processes and the corresponding back office practices. (Self-) Adaptivity problem including knowledge update (Ontology management): The system should be flexible to update. It should be able to adapt new generating techniques of Semantic Web. The deployment of Semantic Web in e-governance has barely begun. Though different semantic web architectures have been proposed and implemented yet a major part of e-government has been untouched. The researchers are facing various challenges in applying Semantic Web to this vast sector (Section 8).

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Fig. 7: Role of Semantic Web in Government

8. Challenges
Though Semantic Web is not very old, its becoming very important now days because of the problems in handling the huge ocean of information and deriving knowledge from it. Semantic Web with a simple concept of web of machines has a lot more to present. There are various challenges that are faced by researchers and these can be the future area of research: As the web is growing very fast, the reasoning engines must perform quickly and robustly. One of the practical challenges for ontology management system research is how to create missing component technology pieces, and to engineer them with existing results from prior research work for providing a holistic management system. Our proposal provides a means of addressing many of the problems associated with commonly used egovernment paradigms by adding to the overall system in terms of flexibility and interoperability. Future work includes the implementation of the ontology scheme, taking into account the specific features of different E-government services. (An ontologically principled service-oriented architecture for managing distributed e-government nodes) Proof and trust: As an open and distributed system, the Semantic Web bears the spirit that anybody can say anything on anybody. People all over the world might assert some statements which can possibly conflict. Hence, one needs to make sure that the original source does make a particular statement (proof) and that source is trustworthy (trust). (Lu et al., 2002) Standardization: Integration and interoperability is always the concern of any open system. This is especially the concern of the Semantic Web, an open system that has to be scalable at the Internet level. Currently, a number of ontology representations languages have been proposed (Corcho, et al., 2000) and various ontology library systems have been built (Ding & Fensel, 2001). Adoption: Since ontologies evolve over time, how to extend and update existing ontologies is an important issue. This includes the searching, editing and reasoning of ontologies in an ontology library system. (Lu et al., 2002) Extracting data from the diverse sources and provide interoperability would be essential for the success of the new e-governance infrastructure initiative. These data sources are likely to be databases, documents 104

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on the web and various legacy systems. The problem is significantly complicated because raw data as stored in the database is not entirely useful and one needs to have the necessary wrappers to extract info from these apps. 9. Concluding Remarks This paper attempted to trace the evolution of Semantic Web along with its architecture (layers), the various search engines developed and its different tools. There are various elements of Semantic Web: Ontology, Knowledge Management and Web Services and they are inter-related. Semantic Web has been deployed in various sectors; few examples of the applications have been listed but one of the main targets for Semantic Web is to deal with the issues in e-government as the Government has enormous data. In egovernance Semantic Web can be useful in integrating data and application and interoperating the processes and services within the Government. Also for knowledge updates Semantic Web is required. Though the importance of Semantic Web has grown immensely over the years, still there are many areas in which the researchers are facing challenges and that need to be solved over the coming years.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bell D., Bussler C., (2006). Industrial Semantics and Magic, IEEE Educational Activities Department, 10, 95-96 Casey M., and Pahl C., (2003). Web Components and the Semantic Web, Electronic Notes Theoretical Computer Science, 82 No. 5 in

Charif Y., and Sabouret N., (2006). An Overview of semantic Web Services Composition Approaches, Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 146, 3341 Chen L. and Chue W., (2005). Using Web structure and summarization techniques for web content mining, Information Processing and Management, 41, 12251242 Chen A. N. K., Sen S. and Shao B. B. M., (2005). Strategies for effective Web services adoption for dynamic e-businesses, Decision Support Systems Chiang R., Chua C. and Storey V., (2001). A smart Web Query method for semantic retrieval of web data, Data & Knowledge Engineering, 38, 63-84 Chiang, R., H., Chua C. and Storey V., (2000). A smart web query engine for semantic retrieval of web data and its application to e-trading, Proceedings of Fifth International Conference on Applications of Natural Language Systems Chiua D. K.W., Cheungb S.C., Hungb P.C.K., Chiuc S. Y.Y. and Chungc A. K. K., (2004). Developing eNegotiation support with a meta-modeling approach in a Web services environment, Decision Support Systems, 40 (2005), 51 69 Dogac A., Laleci G. B., Kirbas S., Kabak Y., Sinir S. S., Yildiz A. and Gurcan Y., (2005). Artemis: Deploying semantically enriched Web services in the healthcare domain, Information Systems, 31 (2006), 321339 Digital Equipment Corporation, Altavista home page 1995, http://www.altavista.com Ding Y., Fensel D., Klein M., and Omelayenko B., (2002). The semantic web: yet another hip?, Data & Knowledge Engineering, 41, 205227 Editorial, (2005). World Wide Web Conference 2005Semantic Web track, Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web 3, 245246 Filo D. and Yang J. (1994) Yahoo Inc online http://yahoo.com Guest Editorial, (2003). The Semantic Web: an evolution for a revolution, Computer N e t w o r k s , 4 2 , 551556 Goble C., Stevens R., Bechhofer S., (2005). The Semantic Web and Knowledge Grids Grau B. C., Parsia B. and Sirin E., (2005). Combining OWL ontologies using E-Connections, Web Semantics:

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Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web, 4 (2006), 4059 17 18 19 20 21 Gruber T. R., (1993). A translation approach to portable ontologies. Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199-220 Gruber T.,(2000). What is an Ontology? (White paper), http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-anontology. Gupta M. P., Kumar P. and Bhattacharya J., (2005). Government Online: Opportunities and Challenges, Tata Mc Graw-Hill Publishing Company Limited Handschuh S. and Staab S., (2003). CREAM: CREAting Metadata for the Semantic Web, Computer Networks 42, 579598 Kuntz R. D., Minier D., Ruicka M., Corby F., Corby O. and Alamarguy L., (2006) Building and using a medical ontology for knowledge management and cooperative work in a health care network, Computers in Biology and Medicine, 36, 871892 Kim H. G., Ha B. H., Lee J.I. and Kim M. K., (2004). A multi-layered application for the gross description using Semantic Web technology, International Journal of Medical Informatics (2005), 74, 399407 Lee T., B., Hendler J. and Lassila O., (2001). The Semantic Web, Scientific American Lu S., Dong M., and Fotouhi F., (2002). The Semantic Web: opportunities and challenges for nextgeneration Web applications, Information Research, (7) No. 4 Metaxiotis K. and Psarras J., (2005). A conceptual analysis of knowledge management in e-government, Electronic Government, (2), No. 1, 77 Mika, P., (2005), Flink: Semantic Web technology for the extraction and analysis of social networks, Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web 3, 211223 Moitra D. and Ganesh J., (2004). Web services and flexible business processes: towards the adaptive enterprise, Information & Management 42 (2005), 921933 Needleman M., (2000). the 3C Semantic Web Activity, Elsevier Science Inc, Serials R e v i e w 2 0 0 3 , 29:6364 Tatemura J. and Hsiung W.P., (2005). Web service decomposition: Edge computing architecture for cache-friendly e-commerce applications, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 5 (2006) 5765 The Semantic Web and Web Services, Information Systems, 31 (2006) 229231 Thuraisingham B., (2005). Security standards for the semantic web, Computer Standards & Interfaces, 27, 257268 Weng S., Tsai H., Liu, S. and Hsu C., (2006). Ontology construction for information c l a s s i f i c a t i o n , Expert Systems with Applications, 31 112 W3C Web Services Architecture Working Group (2002), Web services architecture requirements Yuwono B., Lee D., L., (1996). WISE: a World Wide Web resource database system, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 8 (4)

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34

About the Authors


Rakhi Tripathi is a first year PhD student in the School of Information Technology at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi under the guidance of Prof. M. P. Gupta. Her specific area of research is Semantic Web. She has previously worked as a Project Scientist for two years under the project Establishment of Nation-wide QoS Test-bed in the Department of Computer Science at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. M.P. Gupta is Associate Professor of IT at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. His research interests are in the areas of IS/ IT planning, E-Business and Egovernance. Dr. Gupta has authored acclaimed book Government Online and edited two others entitled Towards E-Government and Promise of E-Governance, published by Tata McGraw Hill, 2004. His research papers have appeared in National and International Journals/Conference Proceedings. He was the recipient of the prestigious Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) fellowship of Shastri Indo Canadian Institute,

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Calgary (Canada) in the year 1995-96. He supervised e-governance portal Gram Prabhat which won the IBM Great Mind Challenge Award for the year 2003. He has coordinated several national level seminars apart from the major events such as International Conference on e-Governance 2003 (18-20 December 2003). He is a member of International Program Committee of the International Conference on Business Information System (BIS-2003 at Colorado) and (BIS-2004 and 2005 at Poznan). He is life member of Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management (GIFT) and Systems Society of India.

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A Semantic Web Approach for E-government Process Coordination


Lakshmi S. Iyer1*, Rahul Singh1, Fergle D Aubeterre1 and Al F. Salam1

ABSTRACT
Since e-government services extend across different organizational boundaries and heterogeneous infrastructures, there is a critical need to manage the knowledge and information resources stored in these disparate systems. Semantic Web technologies provide the foundation to enable exchange of knowledge and information to coordinate business processes. We present a vision for egovernment process coordination based on the existing work in Semantic Web, including ontologies, knowledge representation, multi-agent systems and web-services; Knowledge Management (KM); and e-government processes. The proposed approach can support the transparent flow of semantically enriched information and knowledge, and enable collaborative processes within and across governmental agencies.

Keywords: E-government, Semantic Web, Process Coordination, Ontology, Intelligent Agent.

1. Introduction
E-government employs information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly web-based applications, to provide access to and deliver information/services to the public, businesses, other agencies, and governmental entities in a timely and efficient manner (Dippo 2003; Scherlis and Eisenberg 2003). While there is no single accepted definition for e-government, the United States E-government initiatives broadly state that the goal of e-government is to create new partnerships among levels of government. These partnerships facilitate collaboration between levels of government, and empower state and local governments to deliver citizen services more effectively (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/c-2govern.html). Examples of public sector services include online application processing for government jobs, determination of eligibility for government benefits, filing taxes, obtaining birth certificates/marriage licenses, renewal of driver licenses, application for grants and casting votes. These examples represent a small part of the broad spectrum of services that potentially can be rendered online. Novel and efficient delivery of services, faster and cheaper communication and coordinated activities and processes are some key by-products of this technological revolution (Devadoss et al. 2002). These can enhance relationships among governments, citizens, and businesses and improve core business operations through re-examination of internal processes. e-government is regarded as the preferred way to allow for interoperability among government agencies and its customers (Eyob, 2004). Government agencies and their partners, including other government agencies, private contractors, consultants and customers, are aggressively embracing the use and delivery of government services via the
1

Information Systems and Operations Management, Bryan School of Business and Economics, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +1- 336-334-4984, E-mail: lsiyer@uncg.edu)

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Web (Jaffry, Atif, & Idrees 2005; Sharma & Gupta, 2004, Medjahed, et al. 2003). Even though several advances have been made in the area of taxonomies, ontologies, and thesauri development (Prokopiadou, Papatheodorou, & Moschopoulos 2004), such efforts do not support process coordination across and within government agencies. Given that e-government services extend across different agencies and organizational boundaries and infrastructures, there is a critical need to manage the knowledge and information resources stored in these disparate systems (Teswanich, Anutariya, & Wuwongse, 2002). The Semantic Web vision (Berners-Lee et al., 2001) provides the foundation for semantic architecture that supports the transparent exchange of information and knowledge among collaborating organizations. To realize the potential of dynamic coordination of activities, organizations need to consider how emerging technologies such as the Semantic Web can be used to develop intelligent and knowledge driven information systems that support business processes both within and across organizations (Singh et al., 2005). Preliminary work by Klischewski and Jeenicke (2004) examine the use of ontology-driven applications based on Semantic Web technologies to support egovernment services. Wagner, Cheung, Ip, and Bttcher (2006) propose the use of Wiki technology for building Semantic Webs for e-government. In this paper, we focus on an approach to manage knowledge for coordination of e-government processes through the systematic application of Semantic Web technologies. Semantic e-government integration applies fundamental work done in Semantic Web technologies, including ontologies, knowledge representation, multi-agent systems and web-services, to support the transparent flow of semantically enriched information and knowledge, including content and know-how and enable collaborative e-government processes. The next section provides insights into e-government processes followed by components required for Semantic e-government process coordination. We then present an ontological analysis for Semantic e-government and an illustrative example of for Semantic e-government process coordination in the G2G context. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research.

2. E-government Processes 2
While e-commerce allows for businesses to transact with each other more efficiently (B2B) and for businesses to have a closer relationship with customers (B2C), e-government focuses on making the interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and businesses (G2B), inter-agency or inter-ministries (G2G) more friendly, convenient, transparent, and inexpensive (Fang, 2002). Belanger and Hiller (2005) classify e-government into six categories: government delivering services to individuals (G2IS), government to individual as a part of the political process (G2IP), government to business as a citizen (G2BC), government to business in the marketplace (G2BMKT), government to employees (G2E), and government to government (G2G). The reader is referred to Belanger and Hiller (2005) for a comprehensive explanation of each category. A more simplified classification is used by the US Governments General Accounting Office (GAO) and Office of Management Budget (OMB). They use government to citizen (G2C), government to businesses (G2B), government to employee (G2E), and government to government (G2G) (GAO, 2001; OMB, 2002; Carter and Belanger, 2005). E-government processes are very complex and unstructured. First, public administrations have complex goal structures with a high degree of legal structure. Often government processes are built around bureaucratic and hierarchical structures, which make it difficult to streamline e-government processes. Second, the degree of cooperation in the public sector with other agencies (i.e., local, state, federal government) is superior in comparison to the private sector. Third, the public sector handles and generates tons of information; in fact, it represents the biggest single information resource for the creation of value-added content and services. Fourth, even though many recurrent processes are legally controlled and highly formalized, the nature of the decision-making process in the public sector is somehow tailored to each situation (Traunmuller & Wimmer,

Adopted and modified from Iyer et al. (2006)

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Table 1: Phases of e-government Development


Phases
1. Presence

Goals
To make information about government services available to the public.

Characteristics/Requirements
To have a placeholder on the Internet. e-Government processes can be considered streamlined processes and the needs for cooperation are low. Knowledge management, e-mail best practices, content management, and synchronization of metadata and information content are needed to support e-Government processes. Business process re-engineering (BPR), relationship management, online interfaces, and channel management are of vital importance for the realization of e-Government processes. e-Government processes require integrated services, changes in value chain, processes and services redesign, and relationship management (G2G, G2B, G2C, and G2E).

2. Interaction

To provide basic search capabilities, electronic forms, electronic communications, and hyperlinks to other important sites. To build self-service applications for the public to access online where the Web is used as an alternative delivery channel

3. Transaction

4. Transformation

To deliver government services to all constituents in a way that makes the government totally transparent. Examples include highly tailored websites, where government information is pushed to citizens with seamless interfaces for all the agencies involved in the transactions

2001). Finally, democratic governments are characterized by the principle of distributed control. In such context, agencies and/or ministries are organized into relatively independent levels and branches with preestablished procedures of checks and balances, resulting in a complex and lengthy process of negotiation among constituents (Scholl, 2005). Having a clear picture of the stages of e-government development is very important to understand the characteristics and cooperative information and knowledge resource sharing requirements of complex egovernment processes. In this research, we utilize the Gartners four phase model of e-government as a framework to determine the type of e-government processes and the needs of cooperation among the different constituents. The goals, characteristics and requirements of each e-government development phase are summarized in Prokopiadou, Papatheodorou, & Moschopoulos (2004) highlight that government related information is very fragmented and dispersed and that public services do not have the information and knowledge systems to ensure data interoperability, efficient information delivery, and transparent information flow within multilevel administrative channels. An examination of the literature on cooperative resource exchange over interorganizational systems involved in ebusiness processes reveals that integrative technologies that facilitate the transparent information and knowledge exchange and representation is required to realize the benefits of E-government process coordination. The vision is to attain dynamic collaboration and cooperation among all constituents throughout a virtually shared information environment characterized by the seamless and transparent exchange of meaningful information and knowledge. In this context, it is noteworthy to mention that both the European Commission (EC) and the U.S. have realized the importance of information and process integration for their e-government endeavors. The EC has focused their efforts towards the development of the European Interoperability Framework (i.e. e-government interoperability framework) (European Commission, 2004), the architecture guidelines for administrative networks (European Commission, 2002), and a position paper that highlights the importance of interoperability for e-government services 110

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(European Commission, 2003). Similarly, in the U.S., governmental leaders recognized the critical importance of intergovernmental integration and efforts to attain such integration are currently underway (Pardo et al., 2004). For instance, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is developing the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), which is a business-based framework for Government-wide improvement that will help to transform the federal government to one that is citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-based (OMB, 2002). In the next section, we present the components required for e-government process coordination.

3. Components for Realizing Semantic E-government Process Coordination


3.1 Semantic Web, Ontologies, Description Logics, and Intelligent Agents The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning to allow machines to process and understand the information presented to them (Berners-Lee et al. 2001). Ontologies provide a shared and common understanding of specific domains that can be communicated between disparate application systems, and therein provide a means to integrate the knowledge used by online processes employed by organizations (Klein et al. 2001). Ontology describes the semantics of the constructs that are common to the online processes, including descriptions of the data semantics that are common descriptors of the domain context. Ontology documents can be created using standardized content languages like BPEL, RDF, OWL, and DAML to generate standardized representations of the process knowledge (Thomas et al. 2005). Computational Ontology documents are based on Description Logics (DL) formalisms for knowledgerepresentation (Li & Horrocks 2004). DL provides formal linear syntax to express descriptions of top-level concepts in a problem domain, their relationships and the constraints on the concepts and the relationships imposed by pragmatic considerations in the domain. DL supplies the language to build composite term descriptions from primitive concepts (Baader & Nutt 2003). We use SHIQ-DL (Li & Horrocks 2004) for its expressive power and OWL-DL, is based on the SH family of DL. OWL is the W3C standardized approach for semantic web ontologies using DL as the knowledge representation mechanism. These provide the basis for developing machine-interpretable knowledge representation and computational ontologies in OWL-DL format to support knowledge integration in Semantic eBusiness. Newell (1982) provides a functional view of knowledge as whatever can be ascribed to an agent, such that its behavior can be computed according to the principle of rationality. This provides the basis for functional knowledge management using agents through explicit, declarative knowledge represented using standard knowledge representation languages. A fundamental implication is that knowledge must be available in formats that allow for processing by software agents. DL-based knowledge representation provides the formalism to express structured knowledge in a format amenable for normative reasoning by intelligent software agents. OWL documents, with domain ontologies and rules, allow knowledge sharing among agents through the standard Web services architecture (Singh et al. 2005). Agents work on a distributed platform and enable the transfer of knowledge by exchanging messages through FIPA compliant agent communication languages through Web services using SOAP and XML. These technologies provide the knowledge representation and exchange mechanisms to allow for knowledge integration, which enable collaborating organizations to seamlessly share information and knowledge to coordinate eBusiness processes. 3.2 Semantic Knowledge Management The Resource Based View (RBV) provides the broadly accepted management perspective where organizational knowledge is a valuable resource (Wernerfelt 1984) and its transferability directly affects organizations performance (Tallman et al. 2004). Central to inter-organizational knowledge management is the nature of the knowledge exchange, what knowledge is to be shared and under what conditions (Loebecke, van Fenema, & Powell. 1999). We focus on mechanisms for knowledge representation and exchange made 111

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possible by Semantic Web technologies. Knowledge management, including knowledge exchange, transpires in the context of an organizational process to achieve its objective. This requires explicit knowledge and mechanisms that allow for its appropriate exchange and use in the e-government process context (Metaxiotis & Psarras, 2005). e-government processes provide an integrative and holistic perspective to integrate knowledge of resources involved in a process and process knowledge including process models. This research uses an explicit definition of knowledge declarative enough for standards-based knowledge representation languages and can be processed using agent-based reasoning mechanisms to reach useful inferences. These pragmatic restrictions on knowledge are made for practical reasons to build effective and practical knowledge-based systems that are both viable and useful. We focus on Component knowledge, including descriptions of skills, technologies, tangible and intangible resources, and Process knowledge, typically embedded in the process models of workflow management systems as coordination knowledge for complex processes. 3.3 E-government Process Coordination The Semantic e-government process coordination idea is built upon transparent information and knowledge exchange across seamlessly integrated systems over globally available Internet technologies to enable information partnerships between participants (Singh et al., 2005). Such transparency enhances the utility and extensibility of knowledge management initiatives of government entities by adding the ability to exchange specific and transparent knowledge, utilizing unambiguously interpretable, standards-based representation formats. Implementing and managing such high levels of integration and coordination of processes over distributed and heterogeneous information platforms such as the Internet is a challenging task with significant potential benefits for organizations embracing collaboration. Transparent exchange of semantically enriched information and knowledge can yield significant benefits including improved satisfaction, increased productivity, and real-time resolution of problems and discrepancies throughout e-government processes (Iyer, Singh, Salam & DAubeterre 2006) Workflows establish the logical order of execution between individual business activities in business processes within and across organizations. The Workflow Management Coalition (1996) describes business process as a sequence of activities with distinct inputs and outputs and serves a meaningful purpose within an organization or between organizations. Process knowledge represents a business process in a form that consists of a network of activities and their relationships, criteria to indicate the start and the termination of the process, and information about the individual activities, including participants and data, and their coordination (WfMC, 1996). Activities are fundamental tasks that human and software agents in a system must perform to accomplish their individual and organizational, system-wide goals. The notion of workflow is a coordinated set of business activities performed by various actors or agents necessary to complete a business process (van der Aalst & Kumar 2003). Here, workflows are subsumed in process knowledge through the coordination relationships between the dependent businesses activities in an egovernment process. Coordination of business activities is fundamental to organizing work and managing the complexity in social systems and business organizations. Malone et al. (2003) define coordination as managing dependencies among activities and provide taxonomy of dependencies among activities and resources. In activity-resource dependency activities have a sharing, flow or fit dependency with a resource. This notion of the coordination constructs are based on Malone et al. (2003) and are similar to those in van der Aalst and Kumar (2003). These coordination constructs are used to develop activity-resource coordination in the process knowledge representation of e-government processes.

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4. Conceptualization of Semantic E-government Processes: An Ontological Analysis


Ontologies provide representation of the semantic content of a problem domain, including pertinent objects, their inter-relationships and constraints. Computational ontologies contain the common syntax and semantics to model and represent system artifacts. Ontological analysis of a problem domain begins with concept descriptions that specify the fundamental concepts relevant to the problem domain. The inter relationships and constraints between fundamental concepts describe the dependencies between domain concepts, primitive or derived, and provide specificity to the problem domain model. The result of ontological analysis provides knowledge representation that specifies the semantic content of the problem domain. We refer the reader to Baader & Nutt (2003) for a full range of DL constructors. In an E-government process, agents, human or software, represents a government entity to perform activities on its behalf. Activities are coordinated through access to the resources owned by a government entity. Individual activities are performed by agents on individual resources. Resources, including information and knowledge owned by a government entity, coordinate activities performed on them. Here we consider information and knowledge as the central resources used by agents to perform activities. In the context of egovernment processes, some example of resources are information and/or knowledge related to legislation, information sheet (general information//procedures), and public records (Prokopiadou et al., 2004). Given that the government entities has complex procedures and plans to execute and coordinate activities-resources, Process knowledge, which is embedded in the process model, is a key component of this conceptualization An essential set of concepts fundamental to model e-government Processes include government entity, agent, activity, resource, coordination, information and knowledge. The conceptualization for the Egovernment Process is shown in Figure 1. In an E-government process, Government Entity is represented by an Agent to perform Activities, coordinated by information and knowledge resources. Elementary descriptions of atomic concepts in semantic E-government processes include: Government Entity, Agent, Activity, and Resource. Elementary descriptions of the atomic relationships in semantic Egovernment processes include: Represents ( IsRepresentedBy -) Performs ( IsPerformedBy -) Coordinates( HasCoordination -) These atomic concepts and relationships are used to develop axiomatic knowledge representation terminology to describe relationships between the concepts in the semantic e-government processes domain. A resource is related to an activity through a Coordinates relationship, where the resource coordinates business activities through various coordination mechanisms. Resource $ (Coordinates . Activity) Activity$ (HasCoordination . Resource) Activities depend on resources and require coordination mechanisms to resolve these dependencies. This activity resource coordination mechanism allows explicit modeling of the coordination of activities in the e-government process using knowledge resources involved in e-government processes. The coordinates relationship between resource and activity is an abstract, general relationship, which is specialized by relationships where a resource may coordination activities through a CoordinatesFlow, CoordinatesFit, or CoordinatesSharing relationship. We utilize the relationship inheritance hierarchies to specify the relationships between activities and resources. In addition, the CoordinatesFlow is further 113

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specialized to capture the activity-resource coordination where the resource coordinates the flow of activity by either being produced by or consumed by an activity. This inheritance hierarchy of the coordinates relationship allows rich and complex description of the coordination mechanisms in an e-government process through relationships between Resources and Activities: Resource $

Fig1 Concepts and Relationship conceptualization in Semantic e-Government processes (adopted from Singh and Salam, 2006)

(e0 CoordinatesFlowProducedBy . Activity) (e0 CoordinatesFlowConsumedBy . Activity) (e0 CoordinatesFit . Activity) (e0 CoordinatesSharing . Activity)

5. G2G Process Coordination: An Illustrative Example3


Recent advances in semantic web based technologies offer organizations, including government agencies, the means to exchange knowledge in a meaningful way. Unambiguous representation of domain knowledge using standard-based knowledge representation formats allows ontologies to be shared among integrative system components through multiple software agents responsible for various e-government processes. This allows for a common understanding of domain concepts and process elements across multiple human and software agents through the knowledge contained in ontologies. This knowledge exchange is only possible using ontologies that must be developed and accepted by participating government agencies as a requirement for automated knowledge sharing. Secondly, there is a need to represent the rules for processing and interpreting transactions based on the ontologies. The third requirement is to develop a mechanism to represent ontologies and rules that allows for interpretation by both intelligent agents and human decision makers. These requirements define the systems components needed for representing, storing, managing, and using ontologies and corresponding rules for knowledge exchange among participating entities. Without integration of intelligence and knowledge the benefits of intelligent knowledge-based e-government integration remain elusive. Organizations engaged in ebusiness processes in the knowledge-based economy are members of knowledge networks. Government agencies that have to coordinate with other agencies become part of a knowledge network in the e-government context. Knowledge networks allow participants to create, share, and use strategic knowledge to improve operational and strategic efficiency and effectiveness (Warkentin, Bapna, & Sugumaran, 2001). For the purpose of this paper, Information and knowledge are the primary resources pertinent to the conceptualization in Semantic e-government processes.
3

Adopted from Iyer et al. (2006)

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Knowledge services, composed and delivered through the integration of intelligent agents and the Web Services Architecture, provide a mechanism for the exchange of domain specific knowledge to inform decision activities embedded within organization processes weaving through these knowledge networks. Operationally, knowledge can be represented using domain document comprising the ontology of the problem domain and the rules document with business rules for the specific business context. The domain document contains attributes relevant to the business domain problem under consideration. The rules document contains organizational rules that suggest and explain user actions and decision paths (Singh, et al., 2003). Process Knowledge which is represented using DL will form the basis for the ontologies that describe resources and their inter relationships in e-government Processes. DL for e-government processes includes the Coordinates (i.e.: CoordinatesFlow, CoordinatesFit, and CoordinatesSharing) relationships that map the activities and resources dependencies. The proposed vision uses intelligent agents, which represent government agencies, as the basic abstraction used for knowledge encapsulation and exchange to supporting collaborative activities. Software agents interact with knowledge schema to affirm the accuracy of decision models used by the knowledge agents. Knowledge exchange and delivery is facilitated through the exchange of the domain knowledge objects among intelligent agents. Local knowledge agent interacts with the heterogeneous repository of raw data to generate domain specific knowledge. We do not specify the storage representation in the proposed model (Figure 2) since data maybe represented in multiple formats, including flat files, relational tables or XML documents. Extracting data from the repository provides the context and syntactical representation to create domain attributes pertinent to the decision problem. This generates domain specific knowledge as domain attribute information and decision rules for the specific problem context. The system ensures that the knowledge format conforms to requirements for sharing and use across the distributed and heterogonous platform. We use the domain knowledge object as the modular abstraction for knowledge representation and knowledge exchange facilitation. Once created, domain knowledge is made available for all agents in the system by sharing the domain knowledge object between the local and global knowledge agents. The global knowledge agent manages the knowledge available in the knowledge schema and allows other agents to be aware of, request and receive the domain knowledge in the system. The system utilizes the domain knowledge object as the modular knowledge abstraction for communication of knowledge between the multiple agents of the system. Therefore, when the domain knowledge object is shared with an agent of the system, the agent becomes aware of the problem context descriptions and the rules that govern decision-making for the specific problem context. The global knowledge agent is responsible for maintaining the collection of domain knowledge available in the knowledge schema. The Knowledge Agent contains methods to generate rules to support ad-hoc queries by the user agent. This is supported through the interactions of the Knowledge Agent with the Knowledge schema which is implemented using set of XML documents. The knowledge schema allows for dynamic storage and retrieval of the knowledge contained in a domain knowledge object. Thus, the knowledge is available to all the agents in the system through the activities of the KM behaviours of the knowledge agent object. In this respect, the interactions among the agents in this system are modeled as collaborative interactions, where the agents in the multi-agent community work together to provide decision support and knowledge-based explanations of the decision problem domain to the user. Users (i.e.: government agencies) can interact with the system through User Agents that are constantly aware of all domain knowledge contexts available to the system, through a registry of domain contexts of the domain knowledge objects. This registry is published and managed by the knowledge agent. This allows every User Agent, and hence every user, to be aware of the entire problem space covered by the system. The User Agent requests and receives the knowledge available for a specific problem domain by making a request to the knowledge agent, at the behest of the user. The knowledge agent, upon receiving this request, shares a domain knowledge object with the user agent, thereby making problem domain information and decision 115

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Fig 2: Semantic G2G Process Coordination4

rules available to the user agent. The knowledge agents also service any ad-hoc queries that cannot be answered by the user interface agents, such as queries regarding knowledge parameters that are not available to the user interface agents. In such cases, the Knowledge agent can provide such knowledge to the user agents. This information is shared in the form of two W3C compliant XML document object model (DOM) objects, Domain and Rules. These documents represent an enumeration and explanation of the domain attributes that are pertinent to the problem context and the rules for making decisions in the specified problem context. Once the domain knowledge object is available to the User Agent, the User Agent becomes problem domain aware and is ready to assist the user through a decision making process in the specific problem domain. It is important to note here that each participating government entity controls its own activities and resources. Thus, local authority and control is maintained and only its agent is assigned appropriate roles to represent the functions of the organization. Appropriate coordination of inter-governmental activities can occur through semantic exchange of roles across knowledge domains (Ray et al., 2000).

6. Concluding Remarks
Government agencies that have to coordinate with each other and other entities become part of a knowledge network in the e-government context. To improve operational and strategic efficiency and effectiveness, participants in a knowledge network must create, share, and use strategic knowledge (Warkentin et al., 2001). Workflow systems by themselves are not sufficient to realize the benefits of e-government process coordination. The application of integrative technologies that facilitate the transparent information and
4

Original version of this figure appeared in Iyer et al. (2006)

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knowledge exchange and representation is required. Advances in Semantic Web technologies including ontologies, knowledge representation, multi-agent systems and web-services support the transparent flow of semantically enriched information and knowledge to enable collaborative e-government processes within and across governmental agencies. Several applications and benefits of Semantic Web in the areas of enterprise application integration (EAI) and e-commerce have been recognized; however, according to Klischewski (2004) Semantic Web technologies is still at new phenomenon in the E-government domain. In this paper, we proposed a knowledge management for Semantic E-government process coordination framework for a distributed platform where the domain knowledge is represented through ontologies and available to the intelligent agents in the system. Intelligent agents deliver the knowledge to the user interface to support decision-making activities. Our Future research includes the instantiation and evaluation of the proposed architecture, so that the utility and feasibility of Semantic e-government process coordination framework can be established. In addition, in order for us to craft ontologies that conceptualize and represent e-government knowledge, services, and processes, we have to have a thorough understanding of laws, regulations and the legal structure of public administration. Likewise, a research agenda aimed at designing methodologies for developing specific e-government ontologies and methods for populating such ontologies is required. Finally, an area that needs further research is related to e-government security and privacy. Even though some government initiatives in the authentication domain and privacy principles are taking place, those security standards do not address specific issues related to semantic e-government. The challenge is to develop standards and architectures that allow for the discovering, delivering, and composition of e-government services in a secure and reliable environment.

References
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About the Authors


Lakshmi Iyer is an associate professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She obtained her PhD from the University of Georgia, Athens. Her research interests are in the area of e-business processes, e-commerce issues, global issues in IS, intelligent agents, decision support systems and Knowledge Management. Her research work has been published or accepted for publication in CACM, eService Journal, Annals of OR, DSS, International Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Encyclopedia of ORMS, Journal of Information Technology Management, Journal of Data Warehousing and Industrial Management and Data Systems Rahul Singh is an assistant professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He obtained his PhD in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests are in the area of the design of systems that apply intelligent technologies to business decision systems. Specific interests include intelligent agents, knowledge management systems, data mining and machine learning systems. His research work has been published in CACM, eService Journal, Information Resources Management Journal, Journal of Decision Systems, Int. Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems, Int. Journal of Production Engineering Socio-Economic Planning Sciences and The Encyclopedia of Information Systems. Fergle DAubeterre is a Doctoral Student in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He obtained his MBA from Central Michigan University. His research interests include knowledge management, global IT management, Semantic Web and IT security and privacy. He has published papers in journals such as Information Systems Journal, the Proceedings of Global Information Technology Management, and the Proceedings of Americas

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Conference on Information Systems. Al F. Salam is an associate professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He earned both his MBA and PhD degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research interests include ebusiness and emerging technologies, intelligent systems in eBusiness, and information technology management. His research has been published in CACM ,Information & Management, eService Journal, CAIS, Information Systems Journal, Int. Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems , and Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications.

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Data Matching and Collation Across Heterogeneous Databases for Detecting Income Tax Evasion using Approximate Name Search
G T Venkateshwar Rao1*, Bhavanishanker Chitoor2,Venkat Reddy K2 and Venugopal Rao G3

ABSTRACT
Only 35 million citizens pay Income tax in India, which is abysmally low. The inability of the Income Tax department in India to process the vast economic data from different external sources by proper data matching and collation is one of the major reasons for low tax base. In the absence of unique number to the taxpayer the only way to match and collate all the transactions of a person across the databases is by matching on the name and address. The name, which is the primary matching attribute, varies for a number of reasons. The existing approximate name matching solutions are based on phonetics or on pattern recognition, both of which have limitations. This paper briefly explains the challenges and complexities involved in name matching and present a new and innovative approach of approximate name matching using a combination of phonetics and pattern recognition. This is achieved by performing mathematical calculations on hashed value of strings generated using prime number theory. The pilot project using this approach is implemented which has shown very good results.

Keywords: Approximate name search, deduplication, Pattern similarity, Phonetic similarity, Phonem

1. Low Tax Base in India and Reasons


In India, only about 35 million pay Income Tax out of 1000 million population which translates into a tax base of about 3.5%. Out of this, 98% are marginal taxpayers. A recent study showed that there are only about 70000 cases in the entire country where the income disclosed exceed 10 lakhs which makes it clear that tax evasion is widespread. This tax base ratio of 3.5% is abysmal vis--vis developed countries where it varies from 30% to 50%. The Income Tax department in India collects lot of information about economic affairs of the citizens from different agencies. In the absence of unique number to the taxpayer the only way to match and collate all the transactions of a person across the databases is by matching on the name and address. The inability to meaningfully match and mine the above data and detect all the transactions of one citizen across the data bases and link it to the Income Tax records to verify which transactions are disclosed and which are not disclosed has been a major failure of the department which is the single most important reason for low tax base. Honble Finance minister of India also wants that the information must be properly collated and mined. If this issue is addressed properly by using a powerful approximate name search technology it can push up the voluntary compliance, which can increase the tax base and the tax revenues significantly. It may be kept in mind that the most important reason for better voluntary tax compliance in the western countries is due to the perception by the citizens about the ability of the tax authorities to track
1

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Addl Commissioner of Income Tax, DGIT (Systems), New Delhi, India * Corresponding Author: (Email: gtvrao@yahoo.com) Posidex Technologies P Ltd, 34, Arvindnagar, Hyderabad, India Software Consultant, Peralta Blvd, Fremont, CA, USA

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any transaction. The name of the citizen, which is the primary matching attribute across the databases, varies for a number of reasons. The existing approximate name matching solutions used are based on phonetics or on pattern recognition, both of which have limitations. We briefly explain the challenges and complexities involved in name matching and present a new and innovative approach of approximate name matching using a combination of phonetics and pattern recognition. This is achieved by performing mathematical calculations on hashed value of strings generated using prime number theory. The pilot project using this approach is implemented which has shown very good results.

2. Previous Work on Name Matching


Name matching, which is a part of text search and text retrieval has lot of research interest. Most of the early-published work on name matching was done by the statisticians addressing it as the record linkage problem, that is, the task of identifying duplicate records in databases. For example, significant research was performed by the United States Census Bureau to identify duplicate census records [11, 12]. De duplication using name matching has been studied by Newcomb and others [9]. Sunita Sarawagi and others have studied the name matching for de duplication with active learning [5]. L. Karl Branting had given an overview of the different name matching solutions for different applications [4]. G.T.Venkateshwar Rao has developed a name search algorithm called MIPPRA Multi Iterative Phonetic Pattern Recognition Algorithm as dissertation work for award of M.Tech. in computer science submitted to the Osmania University Hyderabad, India [1]. G T.Venkateshwar Rao and others [2,3] have studied the concept of name matching in allotment of unique number and querying on large tax databases. W. Cohen and J Richman [6] have studied on machine learning to match and cluster entity names as a problem of Information Retrieval. G Kondrak [7] has discussed a new algorithm for the alignment of phonetic sequences for textual similarity as a problem in computational linguistics. R.Lutz and S. Greene [8] have applied the concept of measuring phonological similarity of the case of personal names. The concept of Fuzzy Pattern Matching for name matching was examined by Dubois, D. and others [13].

3. Why is Name Matching Difficult?


The difficulty of name matching arises from the wide variety of possible orthographic variations of names. These variations can take a number of different forms. Some of them are as under. One name G. Venu Gopal Rao may vary as under Punctuation Prefix Noise Split name/Concatenation Order of writing Abbreviation Spelling Missing/Extra parts G. Venu Gopal , Rao Mr. G.Venugopal Rao G.Venu gopal Rao G Venugopal Rao,G Venugopalrao Venu Gopal Rao G, Venu Rao G Gopal G.V.G.Rao G.V.Gopal Rao G Venu Gopala Rao G Veni Gopala Rau G Venu Gopal G venu Rao

4. Existing Technical Approaches to Name Matching


The above orthographic-variation sources punctuation, prefix, noise, split name/concatenation, order of writing, abbreviation, spelling variations, and missing/extra parts have typically been approached with cultureindependent string matching techniques. The first approach is based on phonetic similarity using phonetic codes. This approach depends on measuring the similarity of the letters in the pattern and target in terms of probable pronunciations of the pattern and target. The most common approach to phonetic similarity assessment consists of using a hash 122

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function to map names to phonetic encoding. Phonetic codes are constructed for the searched text, while the database is previously indexed using those codes, which act as hash keys. Two names match if their phonetic encoding are identical. Different types of phonetic codes are used like soundex, NYSIS, metaphone, double metaphone, caver phone etc are available and are used. A limitation of all these approaches is use of pronunciation heuristics that are insensitive to many contextual factors that affect pronunciation. They are designed for English language that too for American and British names are not suitable for non-English languages though some special soundex codes have been developed for non-English names. Typically, these stabilization algorithms either cause too many incorrect records to be found, or miss too many relevant records. Two extensive studies examined the results of the basic Soundex algorithm, using statistical measures to gauge accuracy. Study #1 Results: Only 33% of the matches that would be returned by Soundex would be correct. Even more significant was the finding that fully 25% of correct matches would fail to be discovered by Soundex (Alan Stanier, September 1990, Computers in Genealogy, Vol. 3, No. 7). Study #1 Results: Only 36.37% of Soundex returns were correct, while more than 60% of correct names were never returned by Soundex. (A.J. Lait and B. Randell, 1996) Nevertheless, these algorithms are still in use in many law enforcement and national security applications. The next approach is to use different types of textual similarity metrics like hamming distance, edit distance also known as Levenshtein distance, n-gram indexes, Ratcliff/ Obershelp pattern recognition, Jaro-Winkler distance, Needleman- Wunsch distance, Smith-Waterman. These metrics calculate the similarity of two strings being compared as a number between 0 and 1, value 0 means the strings are completely different and value 1 means perfect match of the strings. Intermediate values correspond to a partial match. While Levenshtein distance is the first and popular others have improved by giving weights to the position of the character within the string.

5. New Approach to Name Matching


Of the two approaches discussed in the previous paragraph the first approach depends on the phonetics and pronunciation and the second approach depends on the pattern similarity. Both are used in actual applications in isolation of each other. A need was felt for more efficient name matching software particularly when dealing with large data volumes. The first author has come out with a new approximate name search engine called MIPPRA Multi Iterative Phonetic Pattern Recognition Algorithm that was conceived and developed as part of the M.Tech. Thesis submitted to the Osmania University Hyderabad. Here he has conceived a concept of matching the names by breaking the name into tokens and matching the tokens based on characters present in the tokens. This concept was, subsequently, further developed by the other authors and another related algorithm called PrimeMatch was developed where in a new concept of retrieval was developed and the concept of the representing the parts of the name as large prime numbers in stead of characters was conceived and implemented. This new approach also makes an attempt to combine the concepts of both phonetics and pattern recognition and is found to give better results. 5.1. Underlying concept behind the new approach The search logic of the new approach is based on number theory, phonetics and pattern recognition. It uses complex mathematical calculations and empirical expressions to determine a match. The name is divided into a set of tokens based on the spacing. For example if a name S has three parts it will be converted to three tokens S1, S2, S3. Before proceeding further, the computational complexity involved in matching the names has to be analyzed. The possible comparisons involved due to variations associated with a name: The computational complexity can be known if we can determine the number of possible comparisons between two names. If S is the source 123

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name containing 3 tokens (S1, S2, S3) and T is the target name having two tokens (T1, T2), the following are the possible comparisons. a) Where the order of components is changed while spelling remains same. In addition to the order, certain components may be merged, split. This will lead to m!xn! Combinations where m, n are the number of tokens in source & target respectively. For example if S1, S2, S3 are tokens on source side and T1, T2 are tokens on the target side, the resulting combinations on the source side are S1S2S3, S1S3S2, S3S2S1, S2S1S3, S3S1S2, S2S3S1 (6) which are compared for equality against the resulting combinations on the target side viz., T1T2, T2T1 (2). Thus 6x2=12 comparisons are involved. b) Where certain components are misspelled and the order of components changed as well but no merger or split takes place i.e., the number of parts is the same on the source & target side. This will lead to nxn! Comparisons. Here a 1-1 relationship has to be established between the source & target tokens though in any order of the tokens. For example if S1,S2,S3 & T1,T2,T3 are tokens on source side & target side respectively the collection of mappings checked are c) Where there are spelling variations, order changed together with certain components merged/split. This is the most difficult variation to handle as all possible variations act in conjunction. Any variation a name could be subjected to, is definite to fall in this category even if it does not fall in the above two steps. No of composite tokens generated with primary tokens: n No of composite tokens generated when 2 are merged within n tokens: No of composite tokens generated when r are merged within n tokens:

m m! n n! T1, r)T3, T2) r) S3 n , {( S1 T1, S2 T2, T3) ( r=1 ( S2 ! r=1 ( ! S3 , S1 m ( S1 T2, S2 T3, S3 T1) ( , S1 T2, S2 T1, T3) S3 ,
S2 T1, S3 T2)} ( S1 T3, S2 T2, S3 T1) ( , S1 T3,

nP2

Total number of composite tokens is:

nPr

Thus if the number of parts in the source and target are m & n respectively, the total number of combinations are For example if S1, S2, S3 & T1,T2 are tokens on source side & target side respectively, the composite tokens on the source side are S1, S2, S3, S1S2, S2S1, S1S3, S3S1, S2S3, S3S2, S1S2S3, S1S3S2, S3S2S1, S2S1S3, S3S1S2, S2S3S1 (15) and the number of tokens on the target side are T1, T2, T1T2, T2T1 (4) and the total combinations tried are thus 60. Thus the total comparisons are sum of the above three. The number of comparisons thus is very large

r=1

nPr
=

r=1

n! ( r) n !

indeed particularly when working on very large databases.

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5 2 Two Step Process .. Historically the problem of identifying matches in the large database is typically addressed in two distinct stages. In the first step, called retrieval, a computationally inexpensive procedure is used to find an initial set of candidate strings. In the second step, called similarity assessment, a more accurate, but also more computationally expensive, procedure is applied to each element of the candidate set to determine the actual matches. 5.3. Retrieval through Phonems The first step is retrieval. Historically several alternative approaches have been applied to retrieval. The simplest approach is exhaustive matching, i.e., applying the similarity measure to every pattern/target pair. This is tractable only for the smallest pattern and target sets. A second approach indexes patterns using a hash function, like phonetic encoding. The hash value of each target string is then used as a key to retrieve the set of all patterns sharing the same hash value. Soundex is one such hash function. For example, the Soundex encoding of the target name Mohammed, M530, would be identical the encoding of the pattern names Muhamet and Mohamed. However it must be remembered that in general, any hash function that ensures matches between some similar strings will fail to match other, equally similar strings. Multiple independent hash functions are therefore required to insure high recall. A number of other hash functions have been developed. In n-gram indexing, a third approach to retrieval, each pattern string is indexed by every n-element sub string, i.e., every sequence of n contiguous letters occurring in the pattern string. The candidates for each target string are retrieved using the n-grams in the target as keys. The authors have proposed a new efficient hash key called Phonem for efficient retrieval, the objective being the data set after retrieval should have least possible false positives without missing the probable right matches. Few representative characters from the given name are identified and a set of numbers is generated out of them based on prime number theory. This set is called a Phonem set and each number is referred to as Phonem. Each phonem is a prime number which in turn is formed by prime numbers. The elements of the set will represent all possible variations of the given name discussed earlier. These are generated based on the degree of the exhaustiveness the search. The more exhaustive the search the more are the elements in the set. For a name with n parts, if it is intended to match with names having parts varying from (n-l) to (n+m) parts, l & m being the upper and the lower bound, the number of elements in Phonem set would be

k= n l

nP

+ 10m

For example for Gouravelli Venugopal Rao the associated Phonem will be 399 and the Phonem set is {21,11571,798,57,1197,9177,133,1995,7581,3,6783,2793,399,7,4389,5187,19} for l=2 and m=1 which means the target name can have number of parts between 1 to 4 since the source has 3 parts and 2 is the lower bound and 1is the upper bound. During the retrieval all the names where all those records having a phonem value equal to any of the element within the set are retrieved from the database. This set ensures that the target names with any variations of the given source name are picked up for further examination. This retrieved data set will be subjected to the similarity assessment. 5.4. Similarity Assessment through token matching As explained earlier, during retrieval the possible names from the large target data are identified based on the value of Phonems. The next step is similarity assessment that involves detailed matching. The name is converted into a set of tokens, each token representing a part of the name. A token has group of characters and a numeric value generated for the token based on the characters present in the token using a proprietary 125

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hash function that uses prime number theory. These are referred to as primary tokens, which have a 1-1 relation with the parts of a name. Thus the number of primary tokens is equal to number of parts in the name. Various combinations of primary tokens generate a set of composite tokens. How the tokens are matched: A pair of tokens (from both primary and composite token collection) choosing one each from source and target is checked for pattern similarity and pronunciation similarity. In the check for pattern similarity, the two tokens are checked for the closeness of their spelling without considering their pronunciation. Essentially it is a measure of the number of characters common between the two tokens along with their position in the strings. In pronunciation similarity the two tokens are checked for the phonetic similarity without considering the way they are spelled. The check for pronunciation similarity will be carried out only on failure of first criteria. Separate empirical expressions are used for pattern and pronunciation similarity. The constants and exponents within these mathematical expressions will influencing the quality of match (liberal or tight) and can be fixed by the user. Once all the tokens of the source name are compared with those of targets, based upon the total number of tokens matched, a match is decided which could be classified into a non matched, narrow or exhaustive match. Typically a narrow match means all the tokens on both source and target are matched. Exhaustive match means all tokens on one side (source or target) are matched and few tokens on the other side are not matched. Figure1 and Figure2 pictorially represent the matching process. Figure1 represents the pattern similarity and Figure2 represents pronunciation similarity. Three parameters Param1, Param2 and Param3 are calculated using proprietary hash functions and checked whether they satisfy the expressions discussed above. These remain constant for given pair of tokens. The location of point within the feasible region corresponding to a set of tokens will depend on these values and therefore is also fixed. Param1 and Param2 are considered for Pattern similarity and Param 1 and Param 3 for Pronunciation Similarity. The regions of Pattern and Pronunciation similarity are user defined. The degree of closeness will define the boundaries of these regions. The user can fix the Degree of Closeness (a value between 0 and 1), which defines the matching region. The constants and exponents within the mathematical expressions are calibrated with the value of the Degree of Closeness. Thus while the position of a point is fixed, the user may alter the degree of closeness which alters the matching region and decides a match. The following illustration depicts the matching process with this approach. The match basis reported in the table below is for a degree of closeness of 0.77. Source Name: Gouravelli R Venugopal Source Phonem: 399 Source Phonem Set: [133,19,21,3,399,57,7,11571,1197,1995,2793,4389,5187,6783,7581,798,9177] Target Name: Veni Gopal Gorawelli Rao Target Phonem: 2793 Here the Target Phonem is an element of the Source Phonem Set and is thus retrieved from the database. Once the record is fetched from the database, matching is performed between the tokens as under. i) The hash value corresponding to Gouravelli from source and Gorawelli from target are sent for matching which will result in a match. ii) The hash value corresponding to Venugopal from source is compared with composite token generated from Veni & Gopal from target, which will result in a match. iii) Since on the source side only R is left and an expanded Rao exists on target side, the system will 126

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Fig.1: A pictorial representation of the Pattern Similarity to determine a match

Fig. 2: A pictorial representation of Pronunciation Similarity to determine a match.

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Table 1: Associated Parameters


Source/Target Token Gouravelli/ Gorawelli Venugopal/ Veni Gopal Param1 .6849 .9020 Param2 .7822 .9160 Param3 .8756 .9850 Match Basis Phonetic Similarity Pattern Similarity

interpret Rao as an expanded form of R and declare them as matched. PrimeMatch has the flexibility of defining the minimum number of expanded matches for complete name match. Those tokens, which are matched, are said to be exhausted. In this case, since the tokens on either side are exhausted, the names are treated as match The associated parameters for the tokens are given in Table 1

6. The pilot project


The pilot project for the data matching and collation was done on the data across 10 databases with a total of about 40 lakh records relating to one year in one state. The data bases are PAN database, RRR database, OLTAS database, Banks fixed deposits, Credit cards, Four wheelers, Cellular phones, High spenders on electricity, Property owners, Land line telephones, Form 15H. The new search engine using approximate the name search matching has been used successfully on this data of the pilot project to match, collate and mine the data and develop economic transaction profile of tax payers which can be used to identify the tax evasion. The solution has been benchmarked against the existing solution with the department developed by other vendor and is found to be superior in terms of speed, high accuracy in matching, and reduced false positives. It is now being considered for implementing for the entire country.

7. Concluding Remarks
The need of name matching arises in a wide variety of contexts. Development of powerful approximate string-matching algorithms has improved the accuracy and efficiency of information retrieval and characterbased similarity assessment The authors present here an approach to approximate name matching technology that is capable to handle all conceivable variations in the name in international context using combination of both phonetics and pattern recognition where matching is done representing the name as large prime numbers. It overcomes many of the shortcomings of the existing algorithms that uses only phonetics or similarity metrics and deliver better accuracy and reduced false positives. It is scalable to meet the most demanding search volume from thousands to millions of records with the high speed and efficiency. The effectiveness of the approach was validated by the pilot project done at one station and subsequent decision to use it for the entire country.

Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support received from P.A.Chowdary IRS Chief Commissioner Of Income Tax (retired) and S.S. Khan IRS Director General Of Income Tax, New Delhi.

References
1 2 Venkateshwar Rao G.T. (1997). implementation of two by four scheme using data matching Osmania University Hyderabad (dissertation for M.Tech. in Computer Science) Venkateshwar Rao G.T., Chitoor Bhavanishanker, Venkat Reddy K, and Venugopal Rao G (2005). An alternative solution to biometrics Systems to ensure uniqueness in allotment of identity numbers In Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on E Governance ICEG 2005 page 8 Lahore, Pakistan Dec 2005 Venkateshwar Rao G.T., Chitoor Bhavanishanker, Venkat Reddy K and Venugopal Rao G (2005). Intelligent

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Data Mining to build 360 degree transaction profile of citizens for detecting tax evasion through a revolutionary name search engine, Third International Conference on Innovative applications of Information Technology for developing world, AACC 2005 Kathmandu Nepal Dec 2005. 4 5 Karl Branting (2003). A Comparative Evaluation of Name-Matching Algorithms International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law ICAIL pages 224-232 2003. Sarawagi Sunita and Bhamidipati Anuradha (2002). Interactive de duplication using active learning, Proceedings of the ACM-SIGKDD, International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Edmonton, Canada 2002. Cohen W. and Richman J (2001). Learning to match and cluster entity names. In ACM SIGIR 01 Workshop on Mathematical / Formal Methods in Information Retrieval 2001. Kondrak G (2000). A new algorithm for the alignment of phonetic sequences. In Proceedings oft h e First meeting of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL2000), pages 288295. ACL, May 2000. Lutz R. and Greene S. (2003). Measuring phonological similarity: The case of personal names. White paper, Language Analysis Systems, Inc. 2003. Newcombe H.B., Kennedy J.M., Axford S.J. and James A.P. (1959). Automatic linkage of vital records. Science, 130:pages 954959, 1959. Alvaro E. Monge and Charles P. Elkan (1997). An efficient domain-independent algorithm for detecting approximately duplicate database records. In Proceedings of the SIGMOD 1997 Workshop on Research Issues on Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, pages 2329, Tuscon, AZ, May 1997. Wrinkler W.E. (1995). Matching and Record Linkage, In B.G.C et al, editor, Business Survey Methods, Pages 355-384, New York: J.Wiley, 1995.Available from http://www.census.gov. Wrinkler W.E. (1999). The state of record linkage and current research problems. RR99/04, http:// www.census.gov/srd/papers/pdf/rr99-04.pdf, 1999. Dubois D., Prade H., Testemale C Weighted fuzzy pattern matching Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Volume 28, Issue 3, December 1988, pp. 313-331.

6 7

8 9 10

11 12 13

About the Authors


G T Venkateshwar Rao belongs to Indian Revenue Service (IRS). He is currently working as Addl. Commissioner of Income Tax in DGIT (Systems) New Delhi, India. He holds Post Graduate Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India as well as Post Graduate Degree in Industrial Management from Indian Institute of Technology Chennai, India. His areas of interest include name search and deduplication in large databases. He was the project coordinator for the deduplication of PAN database of Income Tax Department, India. Bhavanishanker Chitoor, Mr Venkat Reddy are Directors of Posidex Technologies, a software development company dealing in developing solutions for database search and data exchange. Mr.Bhavanishanker Chitoor holds Postgraduate degree in civil engineering from BITS, Pilani, India. Mr.Venkat Reddy holds Post Graduate Degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, AP, India. Both share common interest in developing innovative solutions for approximate name search and querying on names in very large databases as well as developing data import solutions for importing data from wide variety of formats. Venugopal Rao G is software consultant based at US . He holds Post Graduate Degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal AP, India. His interests include database management, administration and advanced sql tuning.

129

Generic Location Coding System for E-governance Applications


Susant Kumar Panda1, Susanta Kumar Mohapatra1*, and Jagannath Prasad Bakshi1

ABSTRACT
Besides human beings, geography or geographic locations act as the most common determinant behind any human oriented initiative. e-governance being one of the most important human administrative initiative of the present era, naturally relies upon and extensively makes use of the different geographic entities and locations to represent and store the relevant data. This naturally calls for evolving a suitable geographic location codes for use in the e-governance oriented applications. But with the proliferation of large number of initiatives at the International, National and the local levels, making use of the data pertaining to the same geographic locations, it has become absolutely imperative to devise a suitable location coding system for use by the various applications so as to ensure sharing, exchange and integration of data. Such a location coding system, to be applicable and acceptable universally, should be based on a completely invariant foundation of permanent nature but having sufficient flexibility to not only handle the geographic and administrative variance but also allow for continuous growth and evolvement. This paper provides the outline of such a system which could be adopted by most of the e-governance oriented applications.

Keywords: Location Code, E-governance, Middleware/Application Server, Enterprise Bean, Metadata, Standards & Best Practices, Enterprise Architecture

1. Introduction
E-governance initiatives in India has taken a giant stride with the launching of the National e-governance Plan (NeGP). The plan seeks to create the right governance and institutional mechanism towards ensuring citizen-centricity by adopting suitable standards and best practices. Under NeGP, a number of mission mode projects are being implemented throughout the country. Moreover, a number of independent initiatives are also underway in various states. In this context, it is quite pertinent to address the standards and methods to be adopted in order to exchange and share the data among the various e-governance applications. The majority of data used in such applications are linked to various locational units, corresponding to geographic or administrative domains. But presently they are adopting a separate and non-standard locational coding systems to represent and store their data. Thus, in this scenario, it has become very difficult, if not impossible, to share, exchange and integrate the data between applications as required in an integrated inter-operable framework. This problem could be addressed to some extent with the adoption of metadata, but it is far more advisable to go for a generic location coding system which would not only address the above issues, but also pave the way for an adaptive data infrastructure based on an enterprise data architecture model. Such a coding system to provide a host of benefits such as (i) code maintainability, (ii) extensibility,
National Informatics Centre (NIC), Bhubaneswar, India Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-674-2501339, Email: skm@ori.nic.in)

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(iii) code sharing, and (iv) a common shared data definition or metadata across the various e-governance applications. In the present scenario, there are a number of locational coding systems in use in India. Some of the are the RGI ( Registrar General of India) code and ECI ( Election Commission of India) code. RGI, in 1991, used a 16 digit location code (e.g. 1400303001010002) for urban data and 18 digit code for rural (e.g. 140030003000300005) data at the State level. The first two digits represented the district. The next four digits represented the taluk/Tahsil in case of urban areas. In case of rural areas, six digits were used to represent the development blocks. The next six digits stood for the town/village panchayat. The last four digits were for representing the wards. In the 2001 Census, the coding is slightly different from 1991. The State/Union Territory is represented by two digits each in the code. In the State level data, the first two digits denotes the district. The next four represents Taluk, Tahsil, P. S., Development Block, Circle or Mandal as is relevant to each State. The town as well as the village is represented by eight digits and the wards by four. Beginning with the first village of the first district to the last village in the last district, there is a continuous running number code for each village. The eight digits provided to represent the village helps addition of new villages in future without distributing the overall scheme. Thus as seen from the ECI coding system, there is a trend to go away from composite intelligent coding system to a permanent non-intelligent, non-composite coding system as already initiated for the villages. This has been done keeping in mind the maintainability as any code change or addition of new key column in a composite coding system generates a cascade effect down through foreign key relationship. Further more, intelligent keys denote the organizational or application domain specific meaning associated with them, and with any change in the organization/business logic, the codes also needs to be changed. This explains the trend of RGI gradually towards adoption of Permanent Location Codes which are nonintelligent and more flexible by nature. As the primary purpose of the various codes is to provide an efficient and interlinked data processing mechanism for the computer software/RDBMS, immediate association of the meaning with the codes is not important as it could be obtained from associated link tables. As far as the need to provide meaningful information to the public is concerned, computer software could provide in a user friendly and context sensitive way. Thus the trend initiated by RGI needs to carried on to its logical end and evolve a suitable generic location coding system for adoption in e-governance applications.

2. Generic Location Coding System(GLCS)


The proposed generic location system, henceforth referred to as GLCS, is based on an invariant design framework completely independent of any spacio-temporal variations which might arise in different geographic, political or administrative domains from time to time. The basic invariant design structure is based on the three separate components: core location entities, locational inter-relationship and interface with other location codes. A pictorial representation of these invariant design components in the context of e-governance is depicted as follows: The various data items to be kept under the three invariant components are; (a) Core location entities Location Language Codes Location Units Location Codes Location Domains Locational Domain Migration Paths

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Fig. 1: Invariant Design Components Linked To Applications Through Business Logic

(b) Locational Inter relationships Location code Location unit Link Location code Location code Link (c) Interface with other location codes Metadata of mapping table External Coding Agency Code Code Mapping Table (for linking RGI, ECI etc codes) Table 1 : Location Language Codes
Sl No
1 2

Column Name
locationLanguageCode locationLanguageName

Data Description
tinyint(1), Not Null varchar(100), Not Null

Remarks
Location Language Code Language Name in English to denote Location (English, Hindi, Oriya etc.)

Table 2 : Location Units


Sl No
1 2 3

Column Name
locationUnitCode locationUnitName locationLanguageCode

Data Description
tinyint(1), Not Null varchar(100), Not Null tinyint(1), Not Null

Remarks
Location Unit Code Location Unit Name in the specified Language (State, District, Taluka etc) Location Language Code

Table 3 : Location Codes


Sl No 1 2 3 Column Name locationCode locationName locationLanguageCode Data Description integer(4), Not Null varchar(100), Not Null tinyint(1), Not Null Remarks Location Code Location Name in the specified Language Location Language Code

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Table 4 : Location Domains

Table 5 : Location Domain Migration Path

Table 6 : Location code Location unit Link


Sl No 1 2 Column Name locationCode locationUnitCode Data Description integer(4), Not Null tinyint(1), Not Null Remarks Location Code Location Unit Code

Table 7 : Location code Location code Link


Sl No 1 2 Column Name locationCode linkedLocationCode Data Description integer(4), Not Null integer(4), Not Null
11

Remarks Location Code Linked Location Code


tinyint(1), Not Null tinyint(1), Not Null Location Unit Code Code Location Domain

Sl No Column Name Name Column Data Remarks SlMapping Table Name No Column Name DataData Description Description Remarks Column Remarks No Column Data Description Table 8 : Metadata 11SlNo codingAgencyCodeName tinyint(1), integer(4),Not Null of the Location code of the external ofSlNo externalLocationCode Data DescriptionDescription Remarksexternal Remarks Not Null SlNo integer(4), Not Null Code Serial Number of

22 22
2 3 3 4 3 3 4 5 3 6 7

Coding Mapping Table agencyagency ParentLocationUnitCode tinyint(1), Null locationDomainName varchar(50), Not Null Location Unit Code Name Location Domain codingAgencyName varchar(100), Not Null NotName of theGLCS location code of external GLCSLocationCode integer(4),Not Null mappingTableName varchar(100), Not Null of the the higher theMapping Unit Coding Name GLCS Location Unit Code Agencyin(RGI, Locationspecified locationUnitCode tinyint(1), Not Null Table specified ECI etc) locationDomainCode tinyint (1), Not Null in theCode ofDomain Codecoding Location the external Language (Revenue, externalCodingAgencyCodetinyint(1), Not NullNull tinyint(1),Not Language fieldSerialNumber Field Serial Number Development, Census, agency locationLanguageCode tinyint(1), Not Null Location Language fieldName varchar(100),NotNull Field Name Election etc) Code Field Data Type fieldDataType varchar(50),NotNull

locationUnitCode locationDomainCode

fieldDescription languageCode

locationLanguageCode

varchar(300),NotNull tinyint(1),NotNull

varchar(150)

FieldDescription Code Field Description Language Code

Location

Language

Table 9 : External Coding Agency Code

Table 10 : Code Mapping Table

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3. Attributes of the GLCS


There are host of attributes of the GLCS which are given as follows: Flexibility Simplicity Extensibility Maintainable Comprehensive Customisable Application Friendly Suitability in Adaptive Enterprise Data Architecture

4. Implementation Strategy
The implementation strategy for GLCS must start with the formation of an apex committee at the international/ national/ state levels. In addition to work out the broad policies and guidelines, the apex committee must work out all the relevant locational units relevant to various e-governance oriented applications. They must also entrust the creation, maintenance of the location codes and finalization of location business rules pertaining to the different locational units to specified organization/ department. Those organizations/ departments will work as the sole custodian for the assigned location item and corresponding location codes. The access to the GLCS code tables would be allowed through a suitable Application Server such as;

Fig. 2

J2EE SDK 1.4 (Sun) WebLogic (BEA Systems) WebSphere (IBM) iPlanet (Sun & Netscape) JBoss (Open source) 134

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5. Concluding Remarks
GLCS is important for e-governance applications in an enterprise adaptive architecture for one simple reason: Its needed. Numerous e-governance applications should no longer take resource to isolated nonstandard location coding system so as to avoid potential future pitfalls in terms of lack of access and sharing of location based data. But the input provided for GLCS in this paper can by no means be deemed complete, as it has to continually evolve to keep in pace with the dynamism and rising aspirations of the various stakeholders in the e-governance arena.

References
1 2 RGI Coding System, Registrar General of India 2001 Census Handbook URL: Concept Paper on Permanent Location Masters for Data Exchange in e-governance projects, NIC Karnataka State Unit. Available at http://egovstandards.gov.in. Accessed July 15, 2006.

About the Authors


Susant Kumar Panda has done his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from N.I.T, Calicut in 1982 and M.Tech in Industrial Management from IIT Kharagpur in 1987. Since 1990 he has been working at Natioanl informatics Centre, Orissa State Unit at Bhubaneswar. He is currently working as a Senior Technical Director & Head of Orissa State Unit. He is in charge of all the activities being done by NIC in the state of Orissa. He may be contacted at skp@ori.nic.in and his phone No is 91-674-2500980 Susanta Kumar Mohapatra has done his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from I.I.T, Kharagpur in 1985 and M.Tech in Computer & Information Sciences from Hyderabad Central University in 1987. Since 1988 he has been working at Natioanl informatics Centre, Orissa State Unit at Bhubaneswar. He is currently working as a Technical Director and is in charge of a number of initiatives such as the Land records computerisation project and the e_governance initiatives such as e-Sahayata and Janavani in Orissa.

135

Defining the Below Poverty Line Population Using Data Mining Techniques
Vishnuprasad Nagadevara1* and Kumar Sunil Gulati2

ABSTRACT
Poverty reduction is one of the overreaching goals of the international community. In general, identification of the poor is based on the definition of poverty line using income or expenditure levels as proxies or by access or ownership of assets. Realizing the drawbacks of such measures, some countries have resorted to the use of relative poverty concept, which in itself is difficult to operationalize. Ultimately, poverty measurement has to be recognized as multi-dimensional. This paper presents an alternate approach to facilitate identification of poor and enable betterfocused targeting of the poverty alleviation programmes.

Keywords: Poverty alleviation; Poverty line; Clustering.

1. Introduction
Poverty reduction is one of the overreaching goals of the international community. The Millennium Declaration, issued by the world leaders in 2000 has set out eight Millennium Development Goals. The very first of these goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. This particular goal has two targets; the first is to halve the Proportion of population whose income is below US$ 1 per day by 2015, and the second is to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, by 2015. Even the other Millennium Development Goals such as reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, Combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria etc. need to focus on eradicating poverty and hunger, directly or indirectly. In order to target the developmental programmes to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it becomes necessary to identify the poor. Before one can identify the poor it is first necessary to define what is meant by poverty. This paper, therefore briefly reviews alternative conceptualizations of poverty and discusses issues in the measurement of economic dimensions of poverty. It highlights the problems in the collection and measurement of information on household income and expenditure, which have become a proxy for measurement of poverty. It also examines alternative measures of, or proxies for, household welfare. Finally it suggests the use of data made available through the House Listing Data generated by the Census of India, 2001, for identifying the families that need to be targeted by various developmental programmes.

2. Review of Literature
Traditional measurement of poverty had been on the basis of income and expenditure, below certain level, thus defining the poverty line. This follows the assumption that a persons or familys well-being
1

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India * Corresponding Author: (Phone : +918026993144, Email: nagadev@iimb.ernet.in) Commissioner and Special Secretary Finance, Government of Haryana, Chandigarh, India

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depends on the material standard of living (Atkinson, 1987, 1989, Ravallion 1992). While the assumption could very well be valid, there are associated difficulties in not only measuring the income and expenditure levels, but also in defining the level below which the person or the family could be considered to be poor. Thus it is being recognized that poverty measures based on income or expenditure of the house presents only a limited picture of the well-being and at best could be a static measure of poverty. Some of the welfare economists started using different measures such as household asset indices, access to or ownership of various household assets and services(Filmer and Pritchett, 1998; Montgomery et al., 2000; Sahn and Stifel, 2000) for defining the welfare. Even with these measures, it is necessary to understand the behavior of the household when faced with temporary or permanent setbacks. When the household faces a temporary setback, it is likely that the consumption of food, clothing and other services would be curtailed in order to protect the assets such as land, housing, livestock, jewelry, durables etc. On the other hand, if the household is faced with a setback of permanent nature, it is likely that it may liquidate these assets also (Agarwal 1991). Other attempts have been made to develop different set of indicators that would include other aspects of well-being such as personal security, access to community resources, social relations etc. (Sen, 1985, 1987; McKinley 1997; Micklewright and Stewart, 2001). Ultimately, it has been recognized that poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon and consequently, any definition of poverty needs to take into account various factors that impact the well being of the household or individual. Irrespective of the definition used, the level of poverty in any country will depend on two major criteria, namely, the definition of the poverty line and how people are ranked in terms of welfare. The definition of the poverty line not only determines who is poor and who is not poor, but also determines who is entitled to receive publicly sponsored benefits. As such, the determination of poverty line is a matter of debate and controversy (Olson Lanjouw, 1997). A change in the definition of the welfare indicator that results in a change in the ranking of the population will result in a different set of people being defined as poor, even if the poverty line remains the same. Yet this aspect often receives less attention from the analyst despite the fact that the purpose of most poverty analyses is to identify the characteristics of the poor (Falkingham and Namazie, 2002). In general, there are two main approaches to defining a poverty line. The first is what is called an absolute definition of poverty, which assumes that it is possible to define a minimum standard of living based on basic needs. The other is the relative approach, which defines poverty in relation to a generally accepted standard of living in a specific society at a specific time, and goes beyond basic physiological needs. Many governments and agencies are concerned with the objective of reducing absolute poverty. The definition of poverty inherent within the MDG of eradicating world poverty is an absolute one; i.e. one is considered poor if surviving on less than US$1 dollar per person a day. Relative poverty is where poverty is defined in relation to a generally accepted standard of living in a specific society at a specific time, and goes beyond basic physiological needs. Peter Townsend argued that Individuals can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged or approved in the societies to which they belong (Falkingham and Namazie, 2002). Unfortunately the definition of relative poverty is much more problematic. The so-called acceptable norms of the society are very subjective in nature. While it is possible to identify the goods and services that form part of the absolute poverty, it becomes very subjective when it comes to identifying the goods and services that are socially acceptable in the case of the relative poverty. In order to get over this problem of subjectivity, the European Commission defined the household as poor if it has a level of total expenditure below half the national average. This has the advantage of allowing comparisons across countries, whilst using a country-specific measure. The idea of using 50 per cent of the current year average as a poverty line was proposed in the 137

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1960s by US economist Fuchs because it was a line that would automatically rise as living standards rose. It is extremely difficult to quantify the welfare or well-being of the individual or the household. The best possible indicators of welfare are the actual consumption of food and other goods as well as consumption of services such as education and health and the level of standard of living. Generally, income and expenditure data are used to measure the level of consumption. It is not only easier to measure the poverty in terms of income or expenditure, but also easier to understand. But, a monetary definition of poverty does not take into account the terms on which that money is received and, in particular, of the time spent working (Piachaud, 1987). Furthermore, a money-metric definition tells us nothing about the environment in which people live and work. In India, the Below Poverty Line (BPL) Census is conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development in the beginning of each Plan period. It is done by the State governments and Union Territory Administrations to identify and target the BPL persons under various programmes of the Ministry. The last BPL Census was conducted in 1997 in all States and Union Territories. Poverty in India is estimated by the Planning Commission based on the Quinquennial Consumer Expenditure Surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). The Ministry of Rural Development conducted door-to-door enumeration of all the rural households in the country in 1992 and 1997 so that the programmes of the Ministry could be well targeted. The methodologies, however, adopted in these two censuses for identification of BPL families were different and the results are, therefore, not comparable. Nor are these results comparable with the poverty ratios estimated by the Planning Commission. Consequently, the methodologies adopted for the identification of BPL households in 1992 as well as in 1997 attracted criticisms from different quarters. With a view to improving the methodology for identification of BPL households in the BPL Census for the Tenth Plan, the Ministry of Rural Development had constituted an Expert Group comprising administrators, academics and planners. The Expert Group made a number of recommendations to improve the design and content of the BPL Census to be conducted for the Tenth Plan period. The revised methodology takes into account 13 attainable socio-economic parameters, namely, operational holding of land, housing, clothing, food security, sanitation, ownership of consumer durables, literacy, labour force, means of livelihood, status of children, type of indebtedness, migration and nature of assistance preferred for assessing the poverty level of each rural household. Each household will be ranked according to the total score obtained for classification into poor and non-poor (Bhatnagar, 2003). While the new methodology of identification of BPL adopted by the Government takes the multidimensional nature of the poverty, its main drawback is that it does not include the environmental factors that govern the quality of life. While it takes into account some of the factors such as literacy levels, it ignores aspects such as type of fuel used in the kitchen, access to drinking water as well as the source of such water etc. While there are many such variables, which measure the quality of life, which in turn is an important measure for poverty. This paper attempts to use the data that is made available through the household listing sample data from the Registrar of Census of India.

3. Methodology
The data available from the Census of India Housing Microdata Sample (CIHMS) is used to create clusters of households in the urban as well as the rural regions of the state of Haryana. These clusters are ranked based on various factors that measure the welfare level of the family. The clustering exercise is carried out both at the state level as well as at the individual district level. These clusters are then identified as the rich or poor clusters based on the extent of factors within each of the clusters. These clusters are then analyzed to identify the poverty level of the individual districts. The characteristics of these clusters could be used to define appropriate measurement for the poverty, both in the rural and urban sectors of the state, 138

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specific to each district.

4. Data
Census of India is one of the largest operations for collecting data on various items on census basis. Some of the census data has been made available in the public domain to enable individual researchers carry out their own analysis. The Office of the Registrar General, India (ORGI) is making available for public use, sample data from the Census of India 2001 Houselist records, Census of India Housing Microdata Sample (CIHMS), as part of the data dissemination program. The confidentiality of individual level information is maintained by excluding all data items leading to individual identity. The information on population in the household has also been removed. Two types of data that are being made available for CIHMS- one at national level (one per cent sample) and the other at State level (five per cent or ten per cent sample). The basic difference between these two sets is that the State sample would allow the user to generate estimates at national, state and district levels, while, the one per cent sample would allow tabulation only at national and state levels. Only records relating to households are available, i.e., the non residential houses are not included in the data files. This data has been prepared by the ORGI based on the data collected in the Houselisting Operations in the year 2000 throughout India. To improve the sampling efficiency, the household records within each district were first stratified into homogeneous groups on the basis of place of enumeration, tenancy, type of house, electricity and improved source of drinking water facility as stratification variables. In all, 72 strata are formed in each district. The household records were further sorted by all the geographic codes: Tahsil/ Taluk/ P.S./ Development Block/ Circle/ Mandal, Town/ Village, Ward (for urban), Houselisting Block Number, and Household Number within each of the 72 strata. This sorted frame provides a high level of implicit stratification. Finally, a systematic random sample from this sorted frame has been drawn within each district.

5. Analysis and Results


The Houselisting data is available for all the states in the country. The state of Haryana is selected for the purpose of this study. The total sample size for Haryana state is 176,646 households spread over 19 districts. The number of rural households is 122,784 where as the number of urban households is 53,862. The database contained 29 variables. These variables are grouped under different categories and presented in Table 1. A detailed list is given in the Appendix Table 1. The above variables are used to create clusters based on the similarities across variables. Cluster analysis is one of the most commonly used data mining tools for exploring structured data. It falls under the category of unsupervised data mining. It is the process of grouping objects into clusters such that objects within the same cluster are similar and objects across clusters are dissimilar. Cluster analysis makes no apriori assumptions about the number of groups or clusters. The grouping is done based on the similarities or dissimilarities. The grouping is done based on the Euclidian distances (or squares of Euclidian distances) when dealing with numerical data. When the variables are categorical in nature, the dissimilarities are measured by the percentage of disagreement or by converting the categorical variables into binary variable and then measuring the extent of disagreement. The households are segregated into rural and urban households at the state level and clustering is done for each of the segments. In addition, the clustering analysis is carried out for each of the 19 districts separately within each segment, i.e., rural and urban. Based on the similarities and dissimilarities among variables listed in Table 1, it was decided to create 4 clusters in each of the segments as well as in each of the districts. Once these clusters have been formed, these are ranked based on the desirable level of characteristics of each of the variables. For example, the cluster having the maximum percentage of houses with electricity 139

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Table 1: List of variable


Category Type of Location House related Caste Water Amenities in the House Other Amenities Variables Rural or Urban Type of House, Type of ownership, Type of roof, Type of wall, Type of floor, Condition, Rooms, Couples, Independent Rooms SC/ST/Others Water Source, Availability on the premises, Improved source of drinking water Kitchen, Electricity, Latrine, Drainage, Bathroom, Light Source, Type of fuel Access to banking, Radio, Television, Telephone, Bicycle, Scooter, Car/Jeep

has been ranked 1 and the cluster with lowest percentage of houses with electricity is ranked 4. In other words, lower the rank, the better are the characteristics and vice versa. Similar rankings have been given to each of the clusters based on each variable. Thus, each of the four clusters is ranked based on each of the variables. Finally, the average rank for each cluster is calculated. The Cluster of Rich and the Cluster of Poor are finally identified based on this average rank. The cluster with lowest average rank is termed as the Rich cluster because it has maximum percentage of households with the desirable levels of the variables listed in Table 1. In the same way, the cluster with the highest rank is termed as the Poor cluster because it has the lowest percentage of households with the desirable levels of the variables as listed in Table 1. Thus the Rich and Poor clusters are identified for each of the districts in both rural and urban segments. The characteristics are then summarized for further analysis. The summary of all characteristics for the districts for both the rich and poor clusters in the rural areas of Haryana is presented in Table 2. The overall characteristics of rich and poor clusters based on the clustering analysis of all the rural households in the state as a whole is presented under the head Haryana Rural. The average of the district-wise characteristics of the poor and the rich clusters is presented under the head Average. The standard deviation across all the districts for the Poor and the Rich clusters is presented under the head STD. It can be seen from the above table that there is a significant difference between the poor and rich clusters in rural Haryana. It is expected that the differences in terms of the housing conditions will be high, which is obvious from the above table. The houses of the poor are characterized by the temporary or semipermanent structures, thatched roof, mud walls and mud floor and just about livable or dilapated condition. Similarly, the amenities within the house are also significantly different for the poor and the rich clusters. The poor clusters do not have separate kitchen or bathroom or latrine. More important is their dependence on fuels such as cow dung cake and crop residue. Even among the rich, the use of LPG for fuel is still low. Similarly, the predominant source of lighting is kerosene for the poor clusters where as the rich clusters depend predominantly on electricity. The rich clusters have improved drinking water source. The water is available within the house premises for more than 50 percent of the rich clusters as compared to less than 15 percent for the poor clusters. The ownership of a car is very low in both the clusters. Large proportion of households in the rich clusters does possess other amenities such as radio, television, and even bank account. The poor clusters do not even have the possession of bicycles. The most striking difference between the poor and the rich clusters is that the poor clusters are dominated by Scheduled Caste population. These castes constitute more than 40 percent of the households in poor clusters, where as the corresponding percentage in Rich clusters is 9.88 only. 140

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Table 2: Characteristics of the Poor and Rich Clusters of Rural Haryana Households
Poor Item Level Permanent Type of House Temporary/Semi Permanent Good Rich STD 0.17 0.22 0.12 0.22 0.17 0.12 0.17 0.06 0.12 0.17 0.20 0.01 0.19 0.20 0.16 0.01 0.01

Haryana Haryana Rural Average STD Rural Average House Related 43.29% 32.95% 0.26 86.66% 84.15% 56.71% 26.31% 67.06% 25.27% 0.44 0.10 13.34% 68.32% 31.68% 12.56% 21.36% 56.80% 93.93% 28.02% 15.83% 39.86% 98.44% 86.80% 43.66% 87.75% 98.44% 1.32% 15.85% 67.28% 32.72% 14.94% 20.91% 55.19% 94.04% 27.39% 16.01% 41.11% 98.55% 83.11% 44.88% 83.41% 98.55% 1.24%

House Condition Livable/Dilapated Roof Thatch Mud Floor Cement Wall Burnt Brick Firewood Crop Residue Fuel LPG Electricity Available Bathroom Yes Latrine No Kitchen Yes Electricity Light Source Kerosene Source of drinking Improved water Waste None Water Water availability Within Tap Water Source Hand Pump Bank Account Scooter

73.68% 74.73% 0.22 54.06% 64.03% 0.26 79.86% 81.59% 0.11 12.74% 10.47% 0.10 69.16% 69.86% 0.22 Amenities in the House 41.91% 43.58% 0.15 34.70% 29.23% 0.19 1.26% 1.58% 0.01 0.00% 12.46% 0.25 13.23% 11.12% 0.05 83.60% 85.30% 0.08 19.00% 19.07% 0.08 0.00% 12.46% 0.25 96.08% 83.63% 0.24 Water 54.32% 41.37% 57.33% 36.97% 0.22 0.17

88.05% 20.74% 58.46% 46.41% 38.95%

83.24% 19.57% 55.94% 44.07% 38.50%

0.19 0.13 0.23 0.16 0.19

13.33% 13.84% 0.08 33.50% 34.00% 0.15 33.49% 35.08% 0.18 Other Amenities 21.37% 2.51% 20.43% 2.40% 0.07 0.01

Yes Yes

74.06% 34.64%

72.64% 35.50%

0.10 0.15

The scenario is not very different in the case of urban Haryana. The characteristics of the poor and the rich clusters of the urban households of Haryana are presented in Table 3, in the same format as that of Table 2. The housing conditions of the poor households in urban Haryana are somewhat better than their 141

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counterparts in Rural Haryana. Nevertheless, the conditions are still far below those of the rich cluster of the urban Haryana. Similarly, the dependence of the poor cluster on the firewood and such other fuels is also high, where as the fuel used by the rich clusters is predominantly LPG. Similarly, the access to kitchen, bathroom and latrine is low in the case of the poor clusters. While the average of the characteristics of the Table 3: Characteristics of the Poor and Rich Clusters of Urban Haryana Households
Poor Clusters Item Level Haryana Urban 45.25% 54.75% Average 41.87% 58.13% 21.23% 63.82% 49.51% 56.36% 25.21% 74.96% 46.39% 12.59% 9.39% 64.55% 14.29% 70.50% 14.85% 64.55% 31.31% Water Source of drinking water Improved Waste Water None Water availability Within Water Source Bank Tap Hand Pump Yes 65.11% 38.91% 19.61% 43.48% 42.24% 9.54% 60.69% 30.04% 25.00% 49.08% 32.33% 12.63% 0.29 0.11 0.17 0.16 0.16 0.06 98.58% 2.80% 97.32% 91.29% 5.35% 92.19% 97.28% 5.15% 93.78% 88.75% 6.83% 90.01% 0.04 0.07 0.12 0.09 0.05 0.07 STD 0.25 0.33 0.07 0.06 0.24 0.12 0.10 0.16 0.12 0.13 0.07 0.28 0.08 0.12 0.07 0.28 0.27 Rich Clusters Haryana Urban 98.21% 1.79% 89.11% 10.38% 1.37% 0.66% 62.48% 95.69% 1.93% 0.24% 96.62% 99.60% 99.22% 0.42% 99.18% 99.60% 0.13% Average 98.29% 1.71% 86.85% 12.67% 1.30% 1.29% 63.91% 94.78% 3.18% 2.39% 92.59% 99.52% 98.20% 3.56% 98.28% 99.52% 0.22% STD 0.01 0.01 0.07 0.07 0.01 0.02 0.11 0.03 0.04 0.08 0.13 0.00 0.03 0.12 0.03 0.00 0.00

House Related Permanent Type of House Temporary/Se mi Permanent

Good 17.03% House Livable/Dilapat Condition ed 62.64% Roof Floor Wall Thatch Mud Cement Burnt Brick Firewood Crop Residue Fuel LPG Electricity Available Bathroom Yes Latrine Kitchen Light Source No Yes Electricity Kerosene 37.62% 64.01% 23.87% 64.88% 44.15% 11.87% 7.15% 0.59% 14.45% 72.23% 13.41% 0.59% 88.33%

Amenities in the House

Other Amenities

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district-wise poor clusters do match with the characteristics of the poor cluster of the state as whole, there is a strong mismatch with respect to the two electricity related characteristics, namely access to electricity and electricity as the lighting source. Even in the case of the urban Haryana households, the poor clusters are dominated by the Scheduled Caste families, which should be a matter of serious concern. Another interesting aspect of the differences between the poor and rich clusters of Haryana is the standard deviation of the characteristics across the districts. Tables 2 and 3 indicate that the standard deviation of the poor clusters across the 19 districts is much higher as compared to that of the rich clusters. This indicates that there is a large variation among the poor clusters across the districts. The same is not true with the rich clusters. This observation holds good for both the rural and urban households. The implication of this finding is obviously that the developmental programmes that are aimed at the poor (or those below poverty line) have to be targeted differently in different districts. The actual quantum of the standard deviation provides clues as to which characteristic needs to be focused more. For example, among the rural Haryana, there is a wide variation in housing conditions across different districts. Similar is the availability as well as the use of electricity and source of drinking water. These are the aspects that need to be addressed immediately, especially in those districts where large a percentage of households do not have access to these amenities. Needless to say, the variation with respect to amenities such as car, telephone or scooter is very low, since almost every household in the poor clusters is devoid of such amenities.

6. Concluding Remarks
While it is necessary to target the development programmes aimed at those living below poverty line, the usual approaches of using income and/or living conditions and access to various amenities are fraught with many limitations. With the availability of large amounts of data through the census and such other data collection activities, other techniques such as clustering could be easily applied to identify the characteristics of the households below poverty line. These characteristics can then be used to identify the needs of the households at a decentralized level, say, the districts or even at the taluk or tahsil level. The present paper has demonstrated the use of clustering technique in identifying these characteristics of the urban as well as the rural households below poverty line living in various districts of Haryana. The present analysis is based on forming four clusters in each of the districts, both for rural and urban households. The analysis can be fine tuned further by trying out more number of clusters (more than four) and identifying the one containing the poorest households. This approach also helps in formulating guidelines differently for different districts or taluks. It also enables the policy makers to identify the problem areas that need to be focused in different regions of the state. Thus, this approach appears to be much better for policy formulation and strategizing implementation as compared to the traditional income-expenditure based poverty line approach or asset based definition of poverty.

References
1 Agarwal B. (1990). Social security and the family: Coping with seasonality and calamity in rural India. Journal of Peasant Studies, 17 (3): 341-412. Also in Ethisham J., Dreze J. Hills., and A. Sen (eds), Social Security in Developing Countries, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1991). Atkinson A.B. (1987). On the measurement of poverty. Econometrica, Vol. 55: 74964. Atkinson A.B. (1989). Poverty and Social Security. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Atkinson A.B. and Micklewright J. (1992). Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bhatanagar A. (2003). Identification of families below poverty line. Available at http://pib.nic.in/feature/ feyr2003/fmay2003/f220520031.html. Accessed November 6, 2006 Gulati Sunil Kumar (2005). Analysis of Amenities Data of Haryana. Census of India, Janganana Bhavan, Sector 19, Chandigarh

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Falkingham Jane and Ceema Namazie. (2002). Health and Poverty: A Review of Approaches to Identifying the Poor. DFID Health Systems Resource Centre, London Filmer D. and Pritchett L. Z. (1998). Estimating wealth effects without income or expenditure data or tears: Educational enrolment in India. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, No. 1994, Washington DC: World Bank (also published in Demography (2001) Vol. 38, No. 1). Filmer D. and Pritchett L. Z. (1999). The effect of household wealth on educational attainment: Evidence from 35 countries. Population and Development Review, Vol. 25, No. 1. McKinley T.(1997). Beyond the line: Implementing complementary methods of poverty measurement. UNDP Technical Support Document. Available at http://www.undp.org/ poverty/publications/tsd/tsd3/ tsd3.pdf. Accessed November 6, 2006 Micklewright J. and Stewart K. (2001). Child well-being in the EU and enlargement to the East, in Vleminckx K. and Smeeding T. (eds). Child Well-being, Child Poverty and Child Policy in Modern Nations. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 12950. Montgomery M., Gragnolati M., Burke K. and Paredes E. (2000). Measuring living standards with proxy variables. Demography, Vol. 37, No. 2: 15574. Olson Lanjouw J. (1997). Behind the line: De-mystifying poverty lines, UNDP Technical Support Document. Available at http://www.undp.org/poverty/publications/ tsd/tsd3/ tsd3.pdf. Accessed November 6, 2006 Piachaud D. (1987). Problems in the definition and measurement of poverty, Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 16: 14764. Ravallion M. (1992). Poverty comparisons: A guide to concepts and methods, LSMS Working Paper, No. 88, Washington DC: World Bank. Ravallion and Chao (1989). Targeted policies for poverty alleviation under imperfect information: Algorithms and applications, Journal of Policy Modelling, Vol.11: 21324. Sahn D. and Stifel D. (2000). Poverty comparisons over time and across countries in Africa, World Development, Vol. 28, No. 12: 212355. Sahn D. and Stifel D. (2001). Exploring alternative measures of welfare in the absence of expenditure data. Mimeo paper, Cornell University. Sen A.K. (1985). Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam: North Holland. Sen A.K. (1987). The Standard of Living: Lecture II, Lives and Capabilities, in G. Hawthorn (ed.) The Standard of Living. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 2038. Sen A.K. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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About the Authors


Vishnuprasad Nagadevara obtained his Ph D from Iowa State University, Ames Iowa. He is currently Professor in the Quantitative Methods and Information Systems Area at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. His current research interests are Data Mining, Application of Management Techniques to Agriculture, Education and Entrepreneurship. Kumar Sunil Gulati obtained his Bachelors and Masters degrees in technology. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1984. He belongs to Haryana Cadre and is currently Commissioner and Special Secretary Finance, Government of Haryana. He also served as Director, Census Haryana.

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Predicting Electronic Toll Collection Service Adoption: An Integration of the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior
Cheng-Kiang Farn1, Yi-Wen Fan1 and Chun-Der Chen1*

ABSTRACT
In order to reduce the number of vehicles stuck in congestion, especially for stop-and-go traffic at toll plazas, the establishment of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems has been a hot issue and dominant trend in many countries. Taiwan has joined the crowd, adding an ETC system to its toll roads in early 2006. However, despite the potential benefits for motorists, the utilization rate has been lower than expected during the introductory stage. The objective of this study is to advance our understanding on the critical antecedents of motorists intention of ETC service adoption by integrating both Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) perspectives. Through empirical data collection and analysis from highway motorists who had not installed on-board units (OBU) for ETC service in Taiwan, we found that system attributes, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, indeed positively engender motorists attitude towards ETC service adoption. Moreover, results also reveal that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control positively influence the intention of ETC system adoption. Implications for practitioners and researchers and suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study.

Keywords: Electronic toll collection, technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior.

1. Introduction
As congestion and service disruptions in highways continue to escalate, especially for stop-and-go traffic at toll plazas, government officers are beginning to realize that traditional transportation strategies are no longer effective. Faster, more convenient, and information technology related solutions must be carried out in order to meet the demand for expansion of the current highway system. Consequently, the establishment of electronic toll collection (ETC) system has been a hot issue and dominant trend in many countries. ETC is a fairly mature technology that allows for electronic payment of highway tolls. By using vehicle-to-roadside communication technologies (e.g., microwave, infrared communication, or GPS technology), motorists purchase on-board units (OBU) that electronically identify vehicles as they pass through a toll plaza without stopping or even slowing down (Decorla-Souza & Kane, 1992). ETC not only eliminates the traffic queue at tollbooths and improves safety for the motoring public, but it also coupled with potential impacts on personal travel behavior, commercial vehicle operations, and great electronic commerce opportunities in particular (Golob & Regan, 2001).
1

Department of Information Management, School of Management, National Central University, Taiwan, Republic of China * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +886-3-422-7151 ext. 66548, Email: marschen@mgt.ncu.edu.tw)

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In Taiwan, Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co. (FETC), the build-operate-transfer project contractor, was commissioned by the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau to install the nations first ETC system in 22 toll plazas along two North-South highways, which carry 5 million to 6 million vehicles per year. After being tested in a variety of conditions, the construction of ETC was completed by end 2005 and launched on February 10, 2006. Furthermore, government officers announced that a satellite-based vehicle positioning system (VPS) will be implemented in 2008, and the entire system should be operational by July 2010. Eventually, the Taiwan authorities envision that all manual tolls will eventually be replaced. However, during the initial stage of the first three months, despite with the potential benefits for motorists, large-scaled TV commercials, and diverse promotion activities for ETC system, the utilization rate of large vehicles (e.g., tourist coach, truck, container car) is about 20 percents. Especially, the utilization rate of ETC lanes among small vehicles (e.g., private cars) is only about 6.5 percent by May 6, 2006, showing that the individual use of ETC service has been lower than expected (http://www.fetc.net.tw, 2006). The objective of our study is to uncover the important factors affecting the intention of ETC service adoption. Although the application of ETC service is still in an early stage and why motorists choose (or do not choose) ETC is far from being completely understood, comprehending the determinants of ETC service adoption would help our government officers better deploy and manage their information technology resources and enhance overall effectiveness. Moreover, the initial adoption of an e-service is also the crucial driving forces to further influence continued use of the service (Kwon & Zmud, 1987). In order to provide a solid theoretical basis for examining the important antecedents for ETC service adoption, this paper integrates two important streams of literature under the nomological structure of the theory of reasoned action (TRA): (1) the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989), and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). As the focus of this study is on the ETC service adoption setting, the integration of TAM and TPB for our research framework should be in a more comprehensive manner to examine the intention and acceptance of ETC service

2. Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses


2.1. The Technology Acceptance Model The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989, 1993; Davis et al., 1989) is an adaptation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). TAM was specifically tailored for modeling user acceptance of information system with the aim of explaining the behavioral intention to use the system. In this model, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were considered as two predecessors affecting attitude toward a technology, which affects behavioral intention to use that technology (which, in turn, leads to its actual use). Perceived usefulness referred to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance, and perceived ease of use is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort (Davis, 1989). Based on TAM and applied to the context of ETC service adoption, the OBU of ETC system equipped on motorists vehicle that is perceived as facilitating the transaction process and easy to operate is likely to be accepted by consumers. TAM has received substantial attention in the information systems literature because it focuses on system use, has reliable instruments with excellent measurement properties, is parsimonious, and is empirically sound (Pavlou, 2003). For evaluating technologies or making comparisons between user groups or applications within and across organizations, TAM is useful and robust. However, TAM is criticized for ignoring the social influence on technology acceptance so it has limitations in being applied beyond the workplace (Fu et al., 2006). Several empirical studies have suggested that TAM could be integrated with other acceptance and diffusion theories, thereby including variables related to both human and social factors and improving its predictive and explanatory power (e.g., Taylor & Todd, 1995; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000).

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2.2. The Theory of Planned Behavior The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has shown strong predictive utility for a wide range of behavioral intentions and actual behaviors, and a recent meta-analysis conducted by Armitage & Conner (2001) also provides support for the efficacy of the TPB. TPB asserts that behavior is a direct function of behavioral intention, and behavioral intention is determined by the individuals attitudes towards performing the behavior, the subjective norms held by the individual, and the individuals perceived behavioral control over the act (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude refers to an individuals positive or negative feelings about performing the target behavior. TPB predicts that the more favorable an individual evaluates a particular behavior, the more likely he or she will intend to perform that behavior (Ajzen, 1987). Subjective norms reflect the persons perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question. The more an individual perceives that significant others think he or she should engage in the behavior, the greater an individuals level of motivation to comply with those others (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Perceived behavioral control reflects perceptions of internal and external constraints on behavior (Taylor & Todd, 1995). This perception of volitional control or the perceived difficulty towards completion of the act will affect an individuals intent as well as the successful performance of that behavior (Ajzen & Madden, 1986). 2.3. Hypotheses Development Neither TAM nor TPB have been found to provide consistently superior explanations or predictions of behavior (Taylor & Todd, 1995; Venkatesh et al., 2003) since factors influencing consumers adoption of technology can vary, depending on the technology, target consumers, and context. However, as Chau & Hu (2002) stated, in a nutshell, theory testing follows replication logic and hence makes theory comparison an attractive approach, i.e. generating support for a theory (or some theories) and, at the same time, singling out the potential limitation of others (p.298). Dishaw & Strong (1999) also suggested that an integrated model may provide more explanatory power than can either model alone. Therefore, we proposed a research framework integrating elements derived from both TAM and TPB since they are leading theoretical models and have accumulated fairly strong empirical support involving various end-users and business managers. In the context of ETC service adoption, TPB suggests that a motorist is more willing to adopt ETC service if he or she has positive attitude towards using ETC, wants to comply with other important peoples opinions on the use of ETC, and has the requisite resources, skills, or opportunities. In additions, by using TAM as a basic structure for our research context, favorable system attributes of ETC system, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, will positively influence motorists attitude toward ETC system service. Moreover, perceived usefulness has a direct effect on attitude toward ETC service, and perceived ease of use has a direct effect on perceived usefulness of ETC system. Accordingly, the hypotheses are as presented in Figure 1.

3. Research Design
3.1. Sample and Data Collection A self-administered questionnaire was used for our research purpose. Since this paper was targeted at individual motorists of private vehicles who had not installed OBU yet for examining the effects of TAM and TPB variables on the intention of ETC service adoption, we employed trained doctoral students as interviewers to conduct this study and mall-intercept personal interviews (Bush & Hair, 1985), were administered in several major rest areas along two North-South highways in Taiwan. Participants were first asked whether they had not installed OBUs for using ETC service. If so, after briefly elucidating our research purpose, they were invited to participate and complete the survey 147

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Fig. 1: Research Framework and Hypotheses

questionnaires. A total of 300 questionnaires were sent out and a total of 264 completed questionnaires were returned. Since 9 questionnaires were invalid, 255 responses were obtained and valid (85.00% response rate). According to the demographic information derived from our sample, we found that 77.25% are males and majority of respondents (80.78%) are in the age group of 30-39 and 40-49 years. In additions, most respondents are highly educated with 86.67% of them attaining at least diplomas or postgraduate degrees. Moreover, the frequencies of passing toll plazas shows that 41.57% of our respondents are relative but frequent highway motorists and they pass toll plazas quite often (ten times per day, one time or above per day, and several times per week). 3.2. Measurement Development To test the framework, we paid particular attention to issues of operationalization and measurement in this study, following Venkatraman & Grant (1986). We operationalized the variables in two ways: (1) for those variables that have been previously employed in research setting, we adopted the measures with acceptable measurement quality; and (2) for those variables that were unique to our conceptual model, we developed operational measures, which we assessed for content validity through discussions with faculties and doctoral students for clarity. Respecting Nunnallys (1978) recommended procedures, we developed multiple items for each construct when possible. The preliminary instrument was pilot tested and reviewed, and all items were five-point, Likert-type scales anchored at strongly disagree (1), strongly agree (5), and neither agree nor disagree (3). The scales of the intention of ETC service adoption are adapted from Yu et al. (2005). For measuring attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, the items are adapted from Taylor & Todd (1995). The perceived usefulness scales are adapted from Moore & Benbasat (1991). Finally, as for perceived ease of use, we adopt it from Bhattacherjee (2000).

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4. Data Analysis and Results


4.1 Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity In analyzing the collected data, this study followed the two-step procedure suggested by Anderson & Gerbing (1988). We estimated and re-specified the measurement model prior to incorporating the structural restrictions. Convergent and discriminant validity of the remaining items and scales were tested with confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) using the LISREL 8.50 program (Bentler & Chou, 1987). The result of the CFA indicated that the measurement model provided a very good fit to the data: x2(131)=328.37, Bentler Bonett Normed Fit Index (NFI) = 0.95, Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) = 0.96, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.97, Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) = 0.88, and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.077. Convergent validity was assessed based on the criteria that the indicators estimated pattern coefficient was significant on its posited underlying construct factor. We evaluated for the measurement scales using the three criteria suggested by Fornell & Larcker (1981). (1) All indicator factor loadings () should be significant and exceed 0.5. (2) Construct reliabilities should exceed 0.8. (3) Average variance extracted (AVE) by each construct should exceed the variance due to measurement error for that construct (e.g., AVE should exceed 0.5). Allvalues in the CFA model exceeded 0.5 and were significant at p=0.001 except two indicators for perceived usefulness were dropped due to their cross-loadings. We drop these items from further analysis. Composite reliabilities of constructs ranged from 0.87 to 0.97 (see Table 1). AVE, ranging form 0.63 to 0.95, was greater than the variance due to measurement error. Therefore, all three conditions for convergent validity were met. Table 1: Reliability, Correlation Coefficients and AVE Results

Notes: 1. The main diagonal shows the square root of the AVE (Average Variance Extracted). 2. ATT for attitude, SN for subjective norm, PBC for perceived behavioral control, INTENT for intention of ETC service adoption, PU for perceived usefulness, and PEOU for perceived ease of use. 3. Significant at p < .01 level is shown in bold. Before examining the discriminant validity, however, we found some constructs, attitude, perceived behavioral control and perceived usefulness, may cause a multicollinearity problem because of their high correlation. Multicollinearity may lead to artifactual outcomes because of the effects of two or more predictors 149

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being substantially confounded (Miles & Shevlin, 2001). Multicollinearity is indexed by the variance inflation factor (VIF) statistic; there has been little agreement in the literature, however, as to a suitable VIF cutoff point at which the problem should give cause for concern. Recommended VIF criteria for problematical levels of multicollinearity encompass values of 2.50 (Allison, 1999), 4.00 (Miles & Shevlin, 2001), and 10.00 (Everitt, 1996). We followed the procedure suggested by Miles & Shevline (2001) and the VIF values of these constructs are all less than 3.4, showing there is no serious multicollinearity problem. Finally, discriminant validity was shown when the square root of each constructs AVE is larger than its correlations with other constructs (Chin, 1998). As illustrated in Table 1, the square root of the AVE is larger than all other cross-correlations. Hence the latter test of discriminant validity was also met. In addition to reliability coefficients and AVE values, Table 1 also reports the correlation matrix, means, and standard deviations of the studys principal constructs. 4.2. Hypothesis Testing The research model presented earlier was tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Overall, the goodness-of-fit of the structural model was comparable to that of the previous CFA model and provided evidence of adequate fit. As shown in Figure 2, attitude (b=0.22, p<0.05) is positively associated with the intention of ETC service adoption, rendering support for H1. In additions, both subjective norm (b=0.23, p<0.001) and perceived behavioral control (b=0.36, p<0.001) were also significant predictors of the intention of ETC service adoption, thereby supporting H2 and H3. Furthermore, among these three building blocks of TPB, perceived behavioral control has the strongest effect on the intention of ETC service adoption than others. The impact of perceived usefulness (b=0.58) and perceived ease of use (b=0.38) on attitude are significant at p=0.001. Therefore H4 and H6 can be accepted. This shows that system attributes, both perceived

Fig. 2: Data Analysis Results

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usefulness and perceived ease of use, are important antecedents in forming motorists attitude towards ETC service adoption. In other words, ETC system service that is not advantageous for motorists and does not help them perform their toll collection needs is not likely to be received favorably and form positive attitude towards it in spite of careful implementation efforts. Meanwhile, it shows that perceived usefulness has no significant impact on the intention of ETC service adoption, and thus H5 cannot be accepted. For the result in perceived usefulness, previous empirical studies on TAM have shown inconsistence for either with significant influence (Moore & Benbasat, 1991; Chau, 1996) or with insignificant influence on behavioral intention to use (Chen et al., 2002). It might imply an indirect influence of perceived usefulness on the intention of ETC service adoption via the mediator, attitude towards ETC service adoption in our model. Besides, perceived ease of use has a strong effect on perceived usefulness (b=0.61, p<0.001), validating H7 and allowing the inference that perceived ease of use fosters a motorists perceived usefulness towards ETC system service. We will discuss these findings in details in next section.

5. Discussions
This study aims to shed light on the critical antecedents of motorists intention of ETC service adoption by integrating both TAM and TPB perspectives. The overall explanatory power of our research model was relatively high; a R-square of 61% for the intention of ETC service adoption, a R-square of 74% for attitude towards ETC service adoption, and a R-square of 38% for perceived usefulness were obtained, suggesting that both theories are capable of explaining a relatively high proportions of the variation of the intention of ETC service adoption. Several insightful results could be summarized from our research framework as follows. First, motorists perceived behavioral control was the most important predictor of the intention of ETC service adoption. This finding is consistent with Mathiesons (1991) identification of perceived behavioral control as an important determinant to behavioral intention. Our result also reinforces that the inclusion of perceived behavioral control significantly improved the prediction of intentions (Ajzen, 1991). Following TPB, therefore, it is expected that motorists perceived constraints (or resources) of carrying out the transaction of ETC affects whether or not that behavior will be carried out. For example, higher price and the installation fee of OBU might increase the degree of perceived external constraints of a motorist, thereby decreasing the willing to adopt ETC service. Second, subjective norm suggests that behavior is instigated by ones desire to act as important referent others act or think one should act, and it appeared to be the second most important determinant of a motorists intention of ETC service adoption. Our finding is similar to the ones reported in Bhattacherjee (2000) and Karahanna et al. (1999) which indicated that subjective norm influences behavioral intention towards system use and subjective norm could influence intention to use as strong as attitude does. Indeed, subjective norm has been found to be more important in early stages of system development and was a more important predictor of intention for people who without prior experience (Taylor & Todd, 1995). Accordingly, it is reasonable to expect that the effect of subjective norm on the intention of ETC service adoption should indicate significance and is as strong as attitude does. Third, our finding supports TPB and TAM, which both predict that attitude toward behavior is a significant determinant of behavioral intention. Attitude has long been shown to influence behavioral intentions (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). This relationship has received substantial empirical support. For our research context, this highlights that motorist attitudes could strongly determine their willingness to use OBU for ETC service. Fourth, we also confirmed that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use determine attitude towards ETC service adoption. The results reveal that motorist perceptions of the ease and effectiveness of ETC service may indirectly lead to motorists intention of ETC service adoption via their attitude. Moreover, 151

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the significant positive effect of perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness is also confirmed, and this is consistent with the results from many prior studies that examined TAM. Lastly, perceived usefulness appeared to have no significant effect on the intention of ETC service adoption. A plausible explanation is that perceived usefulness might often indicate its influence on the intention through the mediator of attitude. Moreover, the ETC service adoption context in this study is focused on the stage of initial adoption and voluntary use of ETC service. Motorists positive perceived usefulness in using ETC service may not immediately lead to a behavioral intention to use, rather than firstly form a favorable attitude to use ETC service. In other words, potential users such like motorists would need to take a period of time to carefully change their psychological state to adopting ETC service.

6. Concluding Remarks
Given the turbulence of many industries, understanding what facilitates the delivery of products and services to satisfy customers needs offers scholars and practitioners continuously and increasingly important challenge. By integrating two important intention-based theoretical perspectives, TAM and TPB, we expect to provide meaningful insights in a more comprehensive manner that jointly predicts user acceptance of ETC service. This could be especially valuable for government policymakers and BOT vendors for their policy development and marketing practices. However, we also acknowledge that a number of research limitations exist in our research which should be overcome in the future. First, the conclusions drawn from our study are based on cross-sectional data. With our cross-sectional data, we only took a snapshot of this model. A stricter test of our argument, however, would be to use a longitudinal study to evaluate this aspect more critically since the implementation of ETC service is only the beginning in Taiwan so far. By using a longitudinal study in the future, we could investigate our research model in different time periods and make comparisons, thus providing more insights for ETC adoption phenomenon and more contributions for both TAM and TPB perspectives. Second, while we believe the results of this study add considerably to our understanding of ETC service adoption, the precise relationships between various theoretical lens and consumers adoption intention and behavior remain to be explained. Hence we expect future research to focus both replicating these findings in other contexts and on furthering our understanding of the precise mechanisms driving this process. For example, since the role of transaction cost is also of fundamental importance for adequately capturing motorist behavior in ETC service adoption context, it is crucial to acknowledge and incorporate the existence of a competing perspective (e.g., transaction cost theory) that provides a different explanation of why motorists adopt ETC service. Meanwhile, our research findings might have policy implications for the implementation of ETC and egovernment related services. Our research results revealed that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control could positively influence motorists intention of ETC service adoption. Moreover, the impact of perceived behavioral control has the strongest effect on it. Accordingly, this highlights the need that several strategic plans should be done synchronously for gaining motorists trust and engendering the intention of ETC service adoption as soon as possible. First, as discussed earlier, perceived behavioral control refers to perceptions of internal and external constraints (e.g., skills, information searching, available budget, time and places for OBU installation) on behavior (Ajzen, 1987, 1991). Likewise, we suggest that government policymakers and BOT vendors could lower the OBU price and establish more service encounters for OBU installation, thereby increase the convenience and willing for ETC service and lessen motorists possible external constraints. Next, the advertising and marketing plans of convincing ETC system performance report or adopters successful experience toward ETC service might also serve the possible and effective ways for attracting potential or non-adopters. To conclude, the results of this study demonstrate that while the TAM is useful in predicting ETC service 152

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adoption, the integration with TPB could provide a more complete understanding of behavioral intention. This should help to better manage the system implementation process by focusing attentions on several control factors such as system attributes, individual preference, social influences, and individual constraints in the ETC service and related e-government issues.

References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Ajzen I. (1987). Attitudes, Traits, and Actions: Dispositional Prediction of Behavior in Social Psychology, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 20, pp. 1-63. Ajzen I. (1991). The Theory of Planned Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), pp. 179-211. Ajzen I. and Fishbein M. (1980). Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. Ajzen I. and Madden T.J. (1986). Prediction of Goal Directed Behavior: Attitudes, Intentions and Perceived Behavioral Control, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22, pp. 453-474. Allison P.D. (1999). Multiple Regression: A Primer, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press. Anderson J.C. and Gerbing D.W. (1988). Structural Equation Modeling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-Step Approach, Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), pp. 411-423. Armitage C.J. and Conner M. (2001). Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review, British Journal of Social Psychology, 40(3), pp. 471499. Bentler P.M. and Chou C.P. (1987). Practical Issues in Structural Modeling, Sociological Methods and Research, 16(1), pp. 78-117. Bhattacherjee A., (2000). Acceptance of E-Commerce Services: The Case of Electronic Brokerages, IEEE Transaction on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part A: Systems and Humans, 30(4), pp. 411-420. Bush A.J. and Hair J.F. (1985). An Assessment of the Mall Intercept as a Data Collection Method, Journal of Marketing Research, 22(2), pp. 158-167. Chau Y.K. (1996). An Empirical Assessment of a Modified Technology Acceptance Model, Journal of Management Information Systems, 13(2), pp. 185-204. Chau P.Y.K. and Hu P.J.H. (2002). Investigating Healthcare Professionals Decisions to Accept Telemedicine Technology: An Empirical Test of Competing Theories, Information & Management, 39, pp. 297-311. Chen L.D., Gillenson M.L. and Sherrell D.L. (2002). Enticing Online Consumers: An Extended Technology Acceptance Perspective, Information & Management, 39, pp. 705-719. Chin W.W. (1998). Issues and Opinion on Structural Equation Modeling, MIS Quarterly, 22(1), pp. 716. Davis F.D. (1989). Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly, 13(3), pp. 319-340. Davis F.D. (1993). User Acceptance of Information Technology: System Characteristics, User Perceptions and Behavioral Impacts, International Journal of Man Machine Studies, 38(3), pp. 475-487. Davis F.D., Bagozzi R.P. and Warshaw P.R. (1989). User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models, Management Science, 35(8), pp. 982-1003. Decorla-Souza P. and Kane A.R. (1992). Peak Period Tolls: Precepts and Prospects, Transportation, 19(4), pp. 293-311. Dishaw M.T. and Strong D.M. (1999). Extending the Technology Acceptance Model with TaskTechnology Fit Constructs, Information & Management, 36(1), pp. 9-21. Everitt B.S. (1996). Making Sense of Statistics in Psychology, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Fishbein M. and Ajzen I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research, Addision-Wesley, Reading, MA. Fornell C.R. and Larcker D.F. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables

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26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

and Measurement Error, Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), pp. 39-50. Fu J.R., Farn C.K. and Chao W.P. (2006). Acceptance of Electronic Tax Filing: A Study of Taxpayer Intentions, Information & Management, 43(1), pp. 109-126. Karahanna E., Straub D.W. and Chervany N.L. (1999). Information Technology Adoption across Time: A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Pre-Adoption and Post-Adoption Beliefs, MIS Quarterly, 23(2), pp. 183-213. Kwon T.H. and Zmud R.W. (1987). Unifying the Fragmented Models of Information Systems Implementation, In: Boland, R.J. and Hirschheim, R.A. (Eds.), Critical Issues in Information Systems Research. Wiley, New York, pp. 227-251. Mathieson K. (1991). Predicting User Intentions: Comparing the Technology Acceptance Model with the Theory of Planned Behavior, Information Systems Research, 2(3), pp. 173-191. Miles J.N.V. and Shevlin M.E. (2001). Applying Regression and Correlation: A Guide for Students and Researchers, London: Sage. Moore G.C. and Benbasat I. (1991). Development of an Instrument to Measure the Perceptions of Adoption an Information Technology Innovation, Information Systems Research, 2(3), pp. 192-222. Nunnally J.C. (1978). Psychometric Theory, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York. Pavlou P.A. (2003). Consumer Acceptance of Electronic Commerce: Integrating Trust and Risk with the Technology Acceptance Model, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 7(3), pp. 101-134. Taylor S. and Todd P.A. (1995). Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models, Information Systems Research, 6(2), pp. 144-176. Venkatesh V. and Davis F.D. (2000) A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies, Management Science, 46(2), pp. 186-204. Venkatesh V., Morris M.G., Davis G.B. and Davis F.D. (2003). User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View, MIS Quarterly, 27(3), pp. 425-478. Venkatraman N. and Grant J.H. (1986). Construct Measurement in Strategy Research: A Critique and Proposal, Academy Management Review, 11(1), pp. 71-86. Williamson O.E. (1993). Calculativeness, Trust, and Economic Organization, Journal of Law & Economics, 36, pp. 453-486. Yu J., Ha I., Choi M. and Rho J. (2005). Extending the TAM for a T-Commerce, Information & Management, 42(7), pp. 965-976.

About the Authors


Cheng-Kiang Farn (ckfarn@mgt.ncu.edu.tw) is a Professor in the Department of Information Management at the National Central University in Taiwan, ROC. His teaching and research interests focus on electronic business, SCM and knowledge management. His major publications have been in the areas of electronic business and management of IS. Cheng-Kiang Farn is also a consultant to many government agencies and enterprises. Yi-Wen Fan (iwfan@mgt.ncu.edu.tw) is an associate Professor in the Department of Information Management at the National Central University in Taiwan, ROC. Her teaching and research interests focus on organizational information management, electronic commerce, and information system applications. Chun-Der Chen (marschen@mgt.ncu.edu.tw) is a doctoral student of information management at the National Central University, Taiwan, R.O.C. His current research interests include e-Government, ecommerce, e-business, information systems, Internet marketing, and organizational behavior.

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Multi Attribute Decision Making for E-procurement Auction


Sidhartha S. Padhi1* and Pratap K.J. Mohapatra1

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a model for judging competitiveness of construction contractors, which is a multi-attribute decision making process for contractor selection in Government. Current selection methods are reviewed and six main concepts out of these are generated for selection: bid price, quality, time of completion, past performance, location and size of the firm. The proposed selection model uses evaluation criteria related to these concepts and involves a process with two main stages: contractor pre-qualification on the basis of their technical bid and the choice of the eligible contractor among the pre-qualified contractors on the basis of their financial bid to get the maximum technical utility at the least cost.

Keywords: Procurement auction, pre-qualification, multi-attribute decision-making, competitiveness

Introduction
Generally, government organization outsources its construction projects of buildings, port works, roads, drainage, and waterworks through tender/RFQ (Request for Quotations). Contractors play a major role in such projects. This is why contractor selection constitutes a critical decision for government. The selection process should embrace investigation of contractors potential to deliver a service of acceptable standard, on time, in proper location, with standard team size, and within budget. The methods used for selecting contractors in order to award public projects in the government sector are generally based on evaluation of technical bids followed by the principle of acceptance of the lowest bid price among the technically qualified contractors. Thus the first-price sealed-bid forward auction is followed by first-price sealed-bid reverse auction [1][2]. However, contractor selection based on lowest bid price of technically qualified contractors cannot be a solution. When they are not ranked based on their competitiveness of submitted technical and financial bid. But they are only asked to clear the line of pre-qualification for technical specifications, that creates a major cause of tender fixing problems [3][4]. Using a multi-criteria scoring approach for evaluating contractors with respect to their financial and technical abilities, quality standards, past performances, and other tangible and intangible characteristics may help solve this problem. Usually, a selection procedure that called pre-qualification, is employed to screen out these contractors having low technical capabilities; the remaining bidders are then evaluated for further consideration. This helps to minimize the amount of abortive tendering of contractors [5]. So in the present situation the procurement auction is a combination of two types of auction format: in the first step, government looks for the higher technical specification (pre-qualification) and in the second step, it looks for

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91- 9932750541, Email: spadhi@iem.iitkgp.ernet.in)

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the lower financial bid among the pre-qualified contractors. An effective selection approach should integrate pre-qualification as part of any selection exercise; introduce a standard secondary investigative procedure for evaluation of contractors. This study proposes such a decision model for selection of construction contractor by the government in the public sector that goes beyond the traditional minimum cost model.

2. Electronic Reverse Auction


Reverse auction, alternatively known as Procurement Auction or Upside Down Auction, is the opposite of a traditional forward auction [40]. Here multiple sellers of products vie for the business of a single buyer; therefore, the price is driven down. Bidding continues until a pre-established bidding period ends or until no seller is willing to bid any lower. Reverse auctions have been identified by many large organizations as an effective tool to achieve procurement savings, especially for situations where there are many suppliers and when product complexity is low. With the advent of Internet, more and more companies are adopting its online version [43]. The theory of procurement auctions traditionally assumes that the offered quantity and quality is fixed prior to source selection. Hence bidding competition is restricted to the price dimension. While such an approach may be appropriate for auctions of homogeneous goods, most procurement includes heterogeneous offerings of suppliers [10][25]. Traditionally, these types of negotiations are resolved through bilateral bargaining or sealed-bid tenders, where a buyer asks for bids in unstructured or semi-structured format and the buyer selects one or more of these bids manually. Recently, multi-attribute reverse auctions have become a popular means of automating this process further. The negotiable attributes are defined in advance, and suppliers can compete either in an open-cry or sealedbid fashion on multiple attributes [42]. This process allows more degrees of freedom for suppliers in formulating their bids, while at the same time leveraging the competitive forces of an auction to drive the negotiation to equilibrium. Expected gains of multi-attribute auctions are: increased speed of the negotiation, higher market transparency, and higher degrees of allocative efficiency. Also, many critics of reverse auctions like Emiliani and Stec [41] argue that online reverse auctions rarely deliver savings that are as great as advertised by auction service providers, as savings from reverse auctions dont account for extra expenses resulting from problems such as poor quality, late deliveries and supplier non-performance [44]. Broadly, the objectives of this paper is to Formulate a model for judging competitiveness in a multiattribute procurement auction.

3. Literature Survey on Bid Evaluation Problem


A large number of authors have considered multi attribute bid evaluation in e-procurement as a complex problem. Their main observations on this problem are given below: Bid evaluation with limited budget in a multi-attribute selection procedure is a major problem for the buying organization [14][27]. It creates problem on selecting most favorable bidder considering multiple number of attributes [7][8][11][12][14][19][23][27][36]. Lowest cost base selection creates problem in project completion time and quality of material [7][11][19][36]. Factors that influence a procurement process are important, but setting their priority in determining a winner is tough to deal [16][28]. Conversion of all the attributes to a single attribute, that is price, is not easy to do for bid evaluation [13]. Want et al. [11] use unit price-based modeling approach to deal with the bid evaluation problem. Bid evaluation for a heterogeneous product is a major problem area [10][25]. Selecting the most favorable winner in a post-auction negotiation process is a problem in the presence 156

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of multiple numbers of attributes [18] [22]. Bid evaluation is a problem of identifying a bidder that wins the bid of the highest value from a lot of winners in a combinatorial (combination of works assign to different set of suppliers) auction with configurable bid [8][17][34]. Table 1 gives the modeling approaches used in the solution of the winner determination problem. Table 1: Modeling approaches to the problem of bid evaluation
Model Model basis Used/Developed by Talluri and Ragatzl [20] Shyur and Shih[28] Dobler and Burt [27] Weber and Desai [21] Beil and Wein [23] [24] Bichler and Kalagnanam [9] Nath et al. [10] Narahari et al. [8] Hinkle et al.[25] Kameshwaran et al. [17] David et al. [16] Wei et al. [26]

Multi attribute decision AHP making model ANP Linear wt. Graphical method Outranking Multi Objective Integer programming Decision making model DEA Goal programming Probabilistic approach Cluster Lagrangian Heuristic AI Others Game theory ANN

Pricing out Teich et al. [13] Unit price based modeling Wang et al.[11]

Twenty-eight attributes for bidder selection were selected after a thorough review of recent papers on vendor selection criteria. The attributes are categorized into 9 groups and 6 clusters (Table 2). The numbers within the brackets in Table 2 indicate the serial numbers of the papers given in the references, appearing at the end, which have indicated the attributes as important

4. Determination of importance weights of the attributes


We have used the Analytic Hierarchic Process (AHP) for determining the importance weights of the attributes. The basic assumptions that we have made are the following: The contracts are awarded to a single bid. All the attributes were assumed to be independent of each other. AHP is a method for decision-making developed by Saaty [9], which works on the principle of pair-wise comparison between all the attributes. Here we used the Super Decision 1.6.0, for AHP analysis. The weight values obtained were later used in the priority function for bidder selection. Figure 1 shows the hierarchical step-wise procedure for winner determination. The following values of weights were obtained for the six clusters. Bid Value - 0.427 Quality - 0.121 Time of Completion 0.085 Past Performance 0.253 Location 0.064 157

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Size of the firm 0.051 The inconsistency index obtained was 0.0403, compared to the allowable limit of 0.1. Table 2: Groups of Attributes

Cluster Location Bid Value

Offer of the lowest price [29][35] Profitability of the supplier [30] Quality Consistent conformance to specificatio [32] Likelihood of long-term relationship [30] Product appearance [33] Quality Product reliability [33] Quality philosophy [31] Time of Consistent meeting of delivery Time of Completion Deadlines and delivery lead time [33][38] Completion Performance - Ability to change production volum rapidly [29][30] Flexibility Ability to set up for new products at sh notice [30] Communication openness [38] 5. Current Practices for Contractor Selection Prompt response to requests, [32] Willingness to resolve conflict [30] Various procedures such as open tendering, selective/restricted tendering, pre-qualification, or negotiation financial records [30 Willingness to reveal Past are currently in practice for constructor contractor selection in government [7][31]. -Every contractor can - Assets and liabilit Performance Financial conditions Performance [30][37] apply for an open tendering process. After the bid evaluation process, theCapabilityis awarded to the optimal contract Supplier representative's competen bidder. When a construction contract needs special expertise and/or high technology, the government can [30][38] apply for call for a selective or restricted tender. Only the contractors who fulfill project requirements can Technical capability [30][31][38] such a tendering procedure. After-sales support, [30] Capability for incremental improveme 158 [30][38] Cost-reduction capability [32] Design capability [29][33] Financial conditions [30][37] Experience Closeness of past relationship [38] Communication openness [38] Frequency of Performance awards received by winning the supplier [32] award Size of the Size of the company [35] Size of the

Group Location Current Site location Bid Value

Attribute Geographical location [35] Current site location [35][38]

Sidhartha S. Padhi and Pratap K.J. Mohapatra / Multi Attribute Decision Making for ....

Fig. 1: Hierarchical list of attributes

Pre-qualification, on the other hand, is a screening phase which follows the principles of the first-price sealed-bid forward auction. Here the minimum capabilities, below which none of the contractors would be considered for the evaluation phase, are established. Finally, a negotiation procedure is implemented when no application is made for the procedures mentioned above, or when the contract is too complex and/or unique to identify technical and financial features [35]. One of the most frequently used procedures for selecting contractors is competitive bidding or RFQ (Request for Quotation) where the lowest bid price bidder is awarded the contract [3]. To be sure, there are some modifications to this presently followed four-objective contractor selection procedure based on the lowest bid price, best quality, minimum time of completion and the past performance. The point here is that 159

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modifications for selecting a qualified contractor should be clearly defined. Emphasis directed towards encouraging the lowest bid price should be redirected towards establishing contractors ability for achieving governments satisfaction by supplying higher technical bid, which includes financial capability, project competition time, high quality of completed product, good past performance record, location of the firm and size of the firm [6]. The outcome of a construction project can be measured in terms of bid price, time of completion, quality achieved, location and firm, and the size and hence they can be regarded as the six main concepts for contractor selection procedure [39]. Based on these main concepts, a list of criteria can be generated. These criteria are utilized at contractors pre-qualification that is another frequently used procedure of selecting contractors [5]. As mentioned above, qualified contractors from a group of interested applicants are identified with respect to pre-qualification criteria [5][7]. All criteria used at the pre-qualification procedure should be clearly and unequivocally established and conveyed to the applicants.

6. Current Situation in India Government


All construction project owners in Government sector use the same contractor selection method as stated in Central Public Works Department manual [31]. The rules stipulated in the previously mentioned Decree are based on the Central Tender Law [33]. Only those contractors who meet the mandatory requirements can apply for tender. These requirements are related with financial status of the contractors. If the unused portion of any cash credit and/or unused portion of a letter of credit of the contractor are less than 10% of the project owners cost estimate for the project or if the contractor firm has a tax liability, the contractor cannot apply for tender. There is a two-stage process for the selection of contractors that have passed through mandatory requirements filter: contractor pre-qualifition and determination of lowest bidder among pre-qualified applicants. At the first stage, applicants are evaluated and scored with respect to four main pre-qualification criteria: ability to timely complete projects, organizational expertise, availability of experienced technical staff, availability of resources such as machinery and equipment. Contractors having a score less than a threshold value are screened out. The average values of the scores of the remaining applicants are calculated. Contractors having a score greater than or equal to 85% of the average value prequalify for the second stage. If the number of pre-qualified contractors is less than five, all the remaining applicants having a score greater than or equal to the threshold value are considered as pre-qualified. At the second stage, bid prices are taken into account. The differences between the governments estimated cost (reserved price) and the bid prices are calculated. The contractor having the highest value of such difference is awarded the contract. In other words, lowest bidder wins the contract. At the pre-qualification stage, the maximum possible score that an ideal contractor can get is 100 points. Unless otherwise stated, the threshold value used for elimination is 85. In some special and important projects, this value can be increased to 95 with the permission of the regulatory member. To calculate the score of contractors with respect to the main criterion of ability to timely complete projects, the financial status and workload criteria are used.

7. A Critique of Current Selection Process in Government


Although the Government in the public sector must necessarily be held accountable for their decisions and as this becomes more difficult when selecting successful contractors concentrating on few of the parameters: bid price, quality, and time they wont give good results and that leads to major causes of project delivery problems [3]. Contractors participating in a tender with lower bid prices to stay in business are likely to be risky from a governments point of view, since later on they might search for raising additional income through their claims or cutting costs to compensate thereof. As a result, there might occur extensive delays 160

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in the planned work schedule, cost overruns, serious problems in quality and increased number of litigations. Combining contractors technical score with their financial score can be a solution to the problems of contractor selection. Nevertheless, the present practice method explained in the above section does not consider the pre-qualification score at the second stage. This score is only used for pre-qualification procedure at the first stage. Because of this lowest bidder after pre-qualification method, a contractor having the lowest pre-qualification score can be awarded the contract if it has the highest discount rate even if there are some ideal contractors having 100 points as pre-qualification score and a discount rate being a little bit less than that of the winner. The model proposed in this paper combines the contractors performance with respect to pre-qualification criteria with its bid price. Another drawback of the current selection method is the limitations on the main pre-qualification criteria and the fixed weights of criteria and sub-criteria. To handle such problems here we have used AHP tool to eliminate inconsistency in priority selection of attributes by expert opinions. Secondly, if government does not get any of the contractors who have a bid price (B.P) less then the reserved price (R.P) then it goes for negotiation with the contractor. In this case, government has to compromise with many of the technical aspects to reduce the cost that creates problem for finding out the most competitive contractor in terms of their technical utilities and bid price. However, it is very difficult to select competitive contractor using the present practice. So here, we propose a new model to select the competitive contractor who quotes a competitive bid.

8. Flow Chart of Proposed Contractor Selection Process


As per the present practice, the selection process starts by taking the summation of the technical score. From which they select some of the contractors, who qualify the pre-qualification round based on the government requirement. Then they consider the contractor to be winner who has submitted the lowest financial bid among the pre-qualifiers. But in our case/we assign the contracts to that contractor whose 2 technical utility is more then the bid price as shown in figure.2.

9. Proposed Model for Competitive Contractor Selection


In this model, we have considered procurement is a two-stage process: in its first stage the government looks for higher technical specifications that are directly proportional to the technical score of the contractor. Taking sine function of technical score in Y-axis and radian value of technical score on X-axis we plot the curve (sine of technical score Vs technical score) its always an upward curve between 0 to ( ). And the second stage is the financial bid, selecting the lowest price that government has to pay for the corresponding technical bid is a downward curve as negative sine function of financial score is inversely proportional to the financial score of the contractor between 0 to (-). When we plot both the curves in the same plain, we get a correspondence between technical score and financial score. The commodities/service to be procured through minimizing financial expenditure (Axis-OY) could have one-to one correspondence with the technical score (Axis-OY). In the case of contractor-E, the given offer could be a score of 10 in technical specification, and 10 in financial bid. In this particular case, contractor-E is rational in his offer. In case of contractor-D, the offer could be a score of 20 in its technical bid as well as in financial bid. Again, contractor-D is behaving rationally. This way all the five contractors could come up with rational behavior. However, in reality, there is a lot of space for indeterminacy. The offer of contractor-E could be, technically, of a very high order but financially he could demand disproportion cost. Likewise, contractor-D could offer a medium level technical commodities/ service. However, demand an unrealistically low price. Contractor-C meets all the parameters and bid a fair cost. (Figure-3) 161

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Fig. 2

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The scenario changes drastically when the behavior of the contractors leaves the plane of rationality. Contractor-A offers the highest technical specification (adding 100 values) but quotes lower cost than contractor-B. Whereas contractor-B offers lower technical specification than cont-A and quotes comparatively higher cost than contractor-A. Contractor-C offers technical specifications that meet the required selection parameter and asks for a competitive price that is higher than cont-D & E in technical as well as in financial bid. Similarly, contractor-D provides higher technical specification but quotes less price then contractor-E, but contractor-E offers less technical specification than contractor-D and asks higher price than contractorD. (Figure-4) After following the above procedure, we got straight lines (figure-4) joining the sine values of technical score and its corresponding financial score. While analyzing the slope of each line it shows that less the slope more competitive the contractor is. After sorting slope of the lines, we can rank the contractors based on their slope value. After analyzing the slope values of the lines represented in Figure-4 contractor-A, is most competitive than the rest of the qualified contractors. Rest of the contractors can be ranked according to their ascending order of their slope.

10. Concluding Remarks


In this paper, a state of the art related to the contractor selection problem was presented. We summarized the different selection criteria, the various problems of contractor selection and the existing method for selection. The approach suggested in this paper requires that the decision should be made in two stages. In the first stage, we select technically qualified (pre-qualification) contractors. Secondly, we make relationship among the technical score and the financial score of the pre-qualified contractors. In this process, we find out

Fig. 3

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the competitiveness in their quoted bid. This can be used in e-procurement environment for judging the competitiveness of contractors. In our future work we can extend this model for detection of collusion and the phantom bidder in an on line procurement auction. Secondly, we can use this model in pricing of an item on the basis of its technical and financial aspects in an oligopoly market.

Fig. 4

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About the Author


Sidhartha S. Padhi is a Research Scholar in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India Pratap K. J. Mohapatra is working as Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India

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Lags in Diffusion of E-governance: Addressing Time-to-Public and Time-in-Public


Amrutaunshu N. Nerurkar1*and Gyanendra Narayan1

ABSTRACT
E-governance services have shown promising value-proposition for the enhancement of standard of living of the citizens over the last decade. However, the implementation and diffusion of the eGovernance service faces tremendous time-lags, especially in developing countries. The proposed hybrid model identifies various phases and their components in implementation of e-Governance service which form the key factors of the time-lags. The model introduces the key concept of time-to-public and time-in-public and the effect of time-lags on them. It also discusses the horizontal, vertical time-lags and provides basic assessment framework for addressing them for faster dissemination of the service and its scope-enlargement.

Keywords: Diffusion framework, Time-to-public, time-in-public, assessment framework, Scope enlargement, e-governance, hybrid model

I. Introduction:
Primarily e-governance refers to online availability of government services. However, restricting the understanding of e-governance at this primitive level has lead to many widespread negative consequences in realization of ultimate goal of e-governance. The slow speed of implementations, failures and cost escalations are to name a few. The collaboration between stakeholders to develop the system as well as to reap out the benefits in most effective and efficient way is one of the prime objectives. Electronic Government is a form of organization that integrates the interactions and the interrelations between and among government and citizens, companies, customers, and public intuitions through the application of modern information and communication technologies [4]. E-governance is a philosophy where electronic equipment and facilitating software are just the means rather than the goal. In subsequent sections we would put a brief overview of our understanding, aspects of e-governance and a model to address the problems arising due to time lags and other issues. With changing world and wide spread use of information technology the expectations of citizens have increased. Rather than a simple regulator the government is perceived to be more like facilitators. Decreasing role of government in regulations, reforms and steps for efficiency are indicating towards the same. ICT has changed the scenario dramatically diffusion models may be: Critical Flow model: This model requires understanding of strategic application of the information set. It has four major dimensions viz. Information Recognition, Information Procurement, Informations Strategy Alignment and Segmentation of the effective user group. These four dimensions cover all aspects of information from sourcing to strategic mapping and dissemination to the target segment.
1

Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India * Corresponding Author: (E-mail: Amrutaunshu@iitb.ac.in)

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Broadcasting Model: It is an information centric model for initial evolution phase of e-governance. It focuses on providing useful governance information already available to the wider public domain through the use of ICT and convergent media. The philosophy is that the better informed citizens will be better benefited from the government services. It provides alternative channel for providing government information. Comparative Analysis Model:This model provides strategic learning and arguments. If a certain project takes X time in certain district it should take equivalent time in another district with similar influencing factors. The deviation in the significant amount is matter of concern and gives birth to argument and thus improvement in the process. Although various models have captured different aspects of e-governance there is a gap of rural-urban divide and hierarchical progression which need to be addressed in a holistic and contextual manner.

2. Diffusion of E-governance Services


The S-curve of Technology diffusion gives the idea how the technology percolates in the society. However given the Indian context and naure of e-governance at variance with the pure technology the S-Curve may not be exactly same. In the case of a typical technology product the S-curve of diffusion may look like as shown in figure [1], however same may not hold true for e-governance services. S-curve of diffusion is a plot of number of adoptions against the time. Also it depicts frequency vis--vis time. In highly populated Indian context, adoption curve will take longer than expected time to get flattened. Several reasons are responsible for the same. We will discuss horizontal time horizon in this context which outlines the different phases through which all services must pass through to get a wider acceptance. Though at large scale the curve may take longer time than the expected, in limited localities and with intense efforts the curve may get replicated faster at local level. Example of Bhoomi [1] [2] is apt in this context. Bhoomi- an electronic land record system is in widespread use in Karnataka but the use of same is very much limited in other parts of the country so we may see stagnation in number of people using the service at Karnataka level, a country perspective puts the situation at lower parts of the curve. Same is true for frequency of adoption curve. It starts fast, reaches a peak level and then stagnates and returns to lower values due to maturity. We propose a hybrid model to address the issue of lags in diffusion. The model is divided into two parts. The first part draws from various models in contemporary studies and identifies the lags present in diffusion of e-governance services. The second part provides frame work to addresses the issue of lags in diffusion.

Source : Adapted from Narayanan, V.K. Managing technology and Innovation for competitive advantage. 1st edition, Pearson Education, 2006. Fig. 1

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2.1 Part 1: Lags in Diffusion of E-governance Services Here, we divide the time-lag horizon into two parts viz. horizontal time-lag and vertical time-lag. The time horizon in Figure [2] is because of different phases in the diffusion of e-governance services. Each phase contributes towards the time lag. The horizontal time-lag horizon shows the lags in the spread of the egovernance services regardless of the scope while the vertical time-lag is more concerned about the scope which takes into account implementation at different levels. The horizontal time-lag appears due to various phases in diffusion of e-governance as shown in Figure [2]. ICT Enabling Phase: This is the first step which provides fundamentals for implementation of e-governance project. It involves the ways and techniques to provide ICT in rural areas. It provides carrier for service dissemination to the fullest extent It provides the basic infrastructure like telephone, data cables etc. as a backbone for faster diffusion of the e-Governance service. Awareness Phase: Acceptance among end users is a key success factor for any e-governance service. Acceptance is an inclusive process which makes end user aware about the values of the e-governance service. How is a particular service going to create value for its end user? This question should be solved by those who are providing services as well as those who are availing the services. Forcing it to end user is not the correct way to get acceptability. One of the most important dimensions is that the service should also be seen as providing economical and most importantly the social value and not just the functional value. Diffusion Phase: This is the final phase to bridge the gap between the rural and urban service implementation. In this phase faster adoption of e-Governance services takes place among the end users. Huge transformation is seen in the attitude of the users towards the e-governance services with technology no longer remaining a barrier. All the above three phases consist of various activities which are described in the following table: Attributes which determine the level of diffusion of e-governance are: Table 1: Phases and Activities in Horizontal time-lag

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Reliability: The system should have a decent level of data integrity and reliability. Is the application running every time the rural citizen comes to the community center (or kiosk)? Is the service provided as promised? These are the critical issues which need to be addressed first. Responsiveness: Point of contact for any service is expected to be responsive towards the needs of the end users. Few critical factors are when the service will be available or whether the operating staff is helpful enough. Assurance: Assurance is needed to be seen as empathizing with the problems of the user and to be helpful in finding out collaborative solution. This leads to active participation of the end user in the whole process. Citizens operate on horizontal time horizon while the government works on vertical time horizon for improved scope and capabilities. This time horizon creates vertical time-lag which has been discussed in the following section. Hierarchy based organization may be classified in the following ways: Unit level Department Level Center level In a normal evolutionary model the scope of software increases from lower level hierarchy to upper level. Experimentation (E-Phase) and Diffusion (D-Phase) go parallel at several places. However, the E-phase is a pre-requisite for many e-governance projects D-phase. After a moderate/highly successful D-phase at lower level the process moves to higher echelon of hierarchy making a horizontal movement from left to right (depicted in Figure [3]). It increases the scope of project and time-consideration both significantly. However due to repetition of E-Phase and D-phase the time-to-public increases. In the case of parallel work several times issue of heterogeneity comes in prominence which in turn leads to higher time called horizontal increase in time lag (Multiplicity of effort at different counterparts of hierarchy leads to time lag called horizontal time lag. Hierarchy generated time-lag (Bottom-Up movement) will be referred as vertical time lag.). Except integration and other issue the horizontal time lag is a coagulation of multiple replicas of vertical time lag. This increases overall time-to-public thus reducing available time-in-public. Time-to-Public: E-governance modules evolve over time along the hierarchy of the organization. In the proposed model we are excluding the time taken to conceive the plan and necessary time required to get a go ahead for a pilot level implementation at the unit level. As different departments and organization differ in resources and planning capabilities, the discussion requires major research thrust in particular direction. After necessary formalities, the pilot project starts at the unit level which gets as a project in the unit level and it differs in the scope and capital intensity. However due to lack of centralized repository of software and lack of communication it has been found that different units start their individual pilot project along different positions of the time-line. This leads to the problem of synchronization, lack of standard and architectural discrepancies apart from heterogeneity in communication. The re-engineering process is repeated at several places for the same thing. This increases the time-to-public as the whole process-reengineering gets repeated at almost all places. Time-to-public can be cut-short by removing or reducing the pilot project at department level. The time-to-public can be reduced vertically along with the hierarchy discussed in this paper or it can be reduced horizontally thus enabling wider and simultaneous implementations at several places. Horizontal increase in time-to-public reduces the scope of e-governance system while isolated vertical time lag may not be as significant in their effect on scope as their target user group is limited in a particular geography. Time-in-public: Time-in-public refers to the concept of longevity of the e-governance system in the real life. Due to the limited relevant age of software and changing requirements-regulation, the effective life of software diminishes very rapidly. From development of the software to its expiry/modification/re-engineering the software increases its cost. Any expiry of any module due to regulatory change or other factors reduces 170

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Fig. 2 :Proposed Model with the horizontal, vertical time horizon for bridging rural-urban divide

Fig. 3: Enlarged version of vertical time-horizon of the proposed model

the penetration of system due to non-availability. This reduces the scope. A higher time-in public has several benefits: Increased Scope Better Return on Investment Extra time for adaptability Increased awareness Prospects of service broadening 171

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2.2 Part 2: Addressing Horizontal and Vertical time lags As we discussed above, two different types of time lags the horizontal and the vertical are responsible for increasing time-to-public and decreasing the time-in-public in turn hindering the diffusion of the egovernance service.

Horizontal Time-lag
To ameliorate the problem of horizontal time lag (which has got three phases namely ICT enabling, awareness and diffusion phases) we must address the issue from different perspective. Discussion will be somewhat specific to Indian context. As it is obvious from above discussion, the ICT enabling phases can be reduced to a lower level in quantitative terms by additional means of financing, easy availability of infrastructure equipment and subsidy. Cheaper computers, electronic items, microelectronic items directly help the use of the item example of the same has been witnessed during telecom revolution. Cheaper service charges coupled with lower price of mobile equipments will lead to mass usage of mobile communications. The continuous reduction of prices in basic digital infrastructure goods have proved itself a good impetus for wider service provision in many parts of the developing world. Awareness and diffusion phases are somehow qualitative in nature which is hard to quantify in direct terms. E.g. quantifying empowerment is not easy by simple measures however many measures like women literacy, per capita income, number of positions held be women, female infancy mortality rate etc have been used as empowerment measures in different context which leads to much of subjectivity depending upon the issue in hand. A significant level of literacy rate plays a good role in awareness phase. Also it is almost impossible to quantify the changing perception of the end user towards the digital services. It is interesting to note that with specific reference to e-governance service there is hardly any instance of government sponsored official Citizen to Citizen (C2C) forum. However, traditionally we have several formal and informal number of C2C forums. To provide impetus to diffusion word of mouth publicity by early technology adaptors is very much necessary. Table 2 provides the basic approaches towards the reduction of horizontal time-lag and the metrics that needs to be captured on periodic basis. The further development of this framework can be taken up as a future work in this area.

Vertical Time-lag
One of the main reasons of vertical time lag is individual efforts at unit level, department level or center level. Because of the same we may find multiple different copies of same application running in different location. The need for central repository and a standard is widely felt due to the same problem. However given the existence of several applications of same nature how should a new entrant choose among existing services? In the following section we will discuss a rough framework for assessing the services and zeroing on the service apt for a particular context.

3. Choosing a Model Service in Presence of Multiplicity of E-governance Services


Due to absence of a centralized regulatory authority and a central pool of standard, we can find several models for the same service. It is very much prevalent in the sections which are under state jurisdiction e.g. irrigation, health etc. It must be appreciated that India has a plural culture. Also requirements may vary with from locality to locality but the fundamental aspects are more or less same. So when a new local body goes for the e-governance service, there must be some framework for providing a better understanding of different aspects. It has been observed that a particular e-governance service becomes obsolete or not so useful in a particular area while the same service remains in good standing in another location. Here we are putting a 172

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Table 2: Framework for reducing horizontal time-lag

preliminary framework for assessment of e-governance services in case of presence of multiple models which can be replicated or customized. The service characteristics of e-governance services can be put in different aspects, important among them are: Functional Performance: If deals with number of functionality provided by the service. Does service work as a single functionary. E.g. If a service for driving license facilitates in issuing the license, it is expected that renewal of license will be also the part of system. Lack of this particular function may lead to lesser acceptance for the particular e-governance service. Level of capital investment: Normally e-governance services have been perceived to be tool for efficiency and effectiveness. Profit generation has not been very much a top most issue, though it is expected in many cases that the service will be operationally self-financing. Level of human resource investment: One of the most prominent questions is will the particular department be able to handle the e-governance service with small training to its employees or will it need external help. As we have seen in earlier phases of ICT evolution many employees feared the use of computers as it was perceived that it will take away their jobs. However it must be understood that success of an e-governance project depends on operators or on the people who interact with citizens. Confidence building process with collaborative effort is a must for the good roll out and continuous good performance. Ease of Use: The system should be easy to use. In case of self operating kiosk it is one of the major factors as it is impossible to train all citizens with same efficacy. Further in case of operator manned system the ease of use should be significant so that probabilities of errors can be reduced. It also helps n faster performance. Reduction in training cost is one of the obvious benefits derived out of it. Operating Cost: In many of the cases initial capital allotment for e-governance projects are done by the government itself, however in long term it is expected that the system should cover its operational cost sans man power which is normally part of government pay roll. In few cases of operator manned systems even man power cost comes under consideration for operational cost viability of the project. Reliability: The system should have a decent level of data integrity and reliability. Despite all noises of information technology superpower, in hinterlands of India technology is still unapproachable. In case of financial services the trust quotient on electronic data (without confirming proof in paper format) 173

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Fig. 4: Assessment framework for Services

decreases, hence reliability is a matter of concern for the system. Lower level of breakdown: The system should have lesser degree of breakdowns. Even if there is any breakdown the recoverability should be good. The recovery should be either automatic or in case of manual intervention with the least interference of operator and that too at primitive levels. Providing after installation support service with external staff is a tough job in hinterlands hence self-sufficiency. However degree of self-sufficiency will vary from application to application. To assess a particular service on particular parameter it may be ranked on a 5 point or a 7 point scale depending upon the use. After preparing inventory of all the parameters, they can be provided with a scale. Once this is done, a threshold for particular context may be derived, this threshold will be very much context specific as same service may have different level of expectations at different level of implementations. However, this is not to say that a lower level implementation is bad or good. In Figure [4] we have shown assessment framework with 7 parameters for 3 services and a threshold line which joins different thresholds for different parameters. Though not exhaustive the abovementioned inventory parameters are indicative enough for selection of a particular model e-governance service in the case of multiplicity. 174

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Concluding Remarks
E-governance services face two major time-lags viz. horizontal and vertical. Both of these increases time to public and reduce time in public. The proposed hybrid model captures phases due to which these time lags appear. Though these phases are a necessary part of implementation of e-governance the reduction in time lags is necessary. The hybrid model broadly discusses the framework for addressing the time-lag and proposes metrics to be monitored periodically to understand the progress in the e-governance diffusion. Absence of egovernance standard has also contributed to the problem. To reduce vertical time-lag an Assessment framework has been provided. Quantifications of lags and finer implementation level details for reducing lag may be part of the future work. References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Bhoomi, Computerization of land records. Available at : http://www.revdept-01.kar.nic.in/, Accessed March 27, 2006 Computerization of Land Records, Available at: www.mit.gov.in/plan/ppt/Land%20Records.ppt, Accessed May 27, 2006 Generic e-governance Models, Available at : www.digitalgovernance.org, Accessed May 18, 2006 Ghosh A. and Arora, N.(2005). Role of e-governance frameworks in effective implementation, ICEG, Lahore Pakistan Narayanan V.K.(2006). Managing technology and Innovation for competitive advantage(1st ed.) India: Pearson Education Rogers Everett. (1983), Diffusion of Innovation. (3rd ed). New York: The Free Press Singh Subir Hari (2000), Ways and Means of Bridging the Gap between Developed and Developing Countries, High-Level Panel on IT and Public Administration, United Nations, New York

About Authors
Amrutausnhu N. Nerurkar is a Post Graduate Student in IIT Bombay with experience in IT consultancy and digital administration. Research interest includes digital-governance, IT outreach strategies and statistical methods. Contact: Amrutaunshu@iitb.ac.in Phone : +91-9869334773 Gyanendra Narayan is a Post Graduate Student in IIT Bombay with experience in IT domain and research work in Rural-urban divide. Research interest includes e-governance, digital learning for peripheral strata and psychological perspective of diffusion.

175

Distributed Intrusion Detection System (DIDS): A Mobile Agent and Distributed Sensors Based Approach
Rizwan Ahmed1*, Kamlesh Kelwade1 and M. S. Khatib1

ABSTRACT
Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is now considered as standard requirement in building network security infrastructure. Although many established techniques and commercial products exist, their effectiveness still leaves some scope for improvement. In this paper, we propose a Distributed IDS, which takes advantage of mobile agents, that detects intrusion from outside the network segment as well as from inside. Remote sniffers are controlled by the IDS via mobile agents, which gather intrusion detection data and send them back to the main station for analysis. The system shows a superior performance as compared to central sniffing IDS techniques, and saves network resources compared to other distributed IDSs that activate too many sniffers causing bottlenecks in the network. The proposed model comprises three major components: The Network Intrusion Detection Component, the Mobile Agent Platform, and distributed sensors residing on every device in the network segment.

Keywords: Intrusion Detection, Distributed Systems, Mobile Agents, Network Security.

1. Introduction
With the increasing complexity and geographical distribution of Computer networks, including the Internet, the possibilities and opportunities are limitless; unfortunately, so too are the risks and chances of malicious intrusions. Annual reports from Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) indicate a significant increase in number of computer security incidents each year [19]. Among all security issues, intrusion is the most critical and widespread. Intrusion can be defined as an attempt to compromise, or otherwise cause harm, to a network. IDS is the process of monitoring the events occurring in a computer system, or network, and analyzing them for signs of intrusion [20]. There are three different sources of information for detecting intrusion as recognized by [20] are network, host and application. The paper [21] introduces a fourth source of information, TCP/IP stack. Based on these sources, four different types of IDSs are recognized network based IDS (NIDS); host based IDS (HIDS); application based IDS (AIDS); and stack based IDS (SIDS). Each of these systems have individual advantages and disadvantages that have been previously identified and analyzed in [20, 21]. But, the growing importance of network security is shifting security concerns towards the network itself rather than being host-based. Security systems will soon evolve into network-based and distributed approaches to deal with heterogeneous platform technologies and support scalable solutions. IDS have been further categorized by the way they analyze their data: misuse detection and anomaly
1

Anjuman College of Engg. & Tech., Nagpur-440001, India * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91- 7122582749, Email: rizwanmailbox@gmail.com)

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detection. Misuse detection IDS are based on pattern matching principles. The data collected is constantly matched against the patterns or fingerprints of known attacks and vulnerabilities. These systems are only as good as their pattern (fingerprint) database and cannot detect new attacks. Anomaly detection is based on attempts to identify abnormal or unusual behaviors compared against normal ones. These systems can discover new attacks, but tend to be subject to high volumes of false-positive alerts and to many more privacy issues than the misuse detection based IDS [22, 23, 24]. In addition to identifying attacks, the IDS can be used to identify security vulnerabilities and weaknesses, enforce security policies, and provide further system auditing by exploiting the logs/alerts from the output component of the IDS. Of a particular interest, mobile agents are intelligent program threads that function continuously and are able to learn, communicate and migrate themselves from host to host to gather information and perhaps perform specific tasks on behalf of a user [1]. A number of possible advantages out of using mobile code and mobile agent computing paradigms have been cited. This includes overcoming network latency, reducing network load, performing autonomous and asynchronous execution, and adapting to dynamic environment [3]. Moreover, implementation of mobile agents in languages such as JAVA provided mobile agent with system and platform independence and considerable security features, which are a necessity in intrusion detection systems [2]. The presented system in this paper addresses many issues in current IDSs. First, the approach provides highly distributed IDS that reduce traffic in the network. There are local processing units to analyze relevant data and send summaries of alerts to the main station. Second, current IDSs such as the one described in [18] comprise many sensors distributed over the network and a centralized management station. These systems cause many bottlenecks and consume a lot of network resources. In the proposed system, mobile agents are dispatched to hosts where they activate the sensor there, process collected data, and send it to the main station, which signals the agents to either stop collecting data or continue, with possible changes to the collection frequency and context.

2. Background of IDS
Historically, the intrusion detection systems dates back to 1980 ([4]) and became a well- established research area after the introduction of the model of [5] and the prototypes presented in [6] and [7]. These systems were centralized. A single machine monitors data flow at a strategic point in the network and collects and analyzes data from the log files. Once an attacker destabilizes this host, he or she is able to gain considerable access to the whole network. This limitation, we believe, is the main vulnerability of currently implemented IDSs. Distributed IDSs were introduced to overcome this susceptibility where mobile agents are considered to play a prominent role in the implementation of such technologies. The approach in [8] proposes architecture for a distributed intrusion detection system based on multiple independent entities called Autonomous Agent for Intrusion Detection (AAFID) framework. The proposed system allows data to be collected from multiple sources, thus combining traditional host-based and network-based IDSs. Several problems face this framework including scalability, performance, security, and user interface. Agents can be added or removed dynamically from the system, and whenever a new form of attack is identified, new specialized agents can be deployed into the system [9]. Subsequent work like [11], [12], or [10] present a fully distributed architecture where data collection and information analysis are performed locally without referring to the central management unit. For instance, [10] proposes a system imitating the functioning of natural distributed systems to achieve the efficiency found in natural systems. In this system, the detection of an intrusion triggers an alert pheromone (represented by mobile agents) that diffuses in the network searching for antibody agents. Mobile response agents (the lymphocytes) will migrate to the battlefield to initiate a defensive action.3. Proposed System 177

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3. Proposed System
The proposed system tries to combine and include all the admirable findings and observations made during the study of other systems. We propose the following architecture for our agent based distributed IDS. The proposed system architecture consists of An Network Intrusion Monitor, A Mobile Agent Platform, and Distributed sensors. A high level view of the architecture is given in Figure 1.

Fig. 1: General Architecture for proposed system.

3.1. Network Intrusion Monitor (NIM) NIM is the main component of our distributed IDS framework. It acts as central network traffic analyzer, and also acts as a central intrusion detection and mobile agent data processing unit. This system is strategically located so as to monitor the network traffic from that node. Furthermore, it is setup to send real-time alerts that are generated using rule-sets to check for errant packets entering into the segment. It has three main capabilities: packet sensing, packet logging, and intrusion detection. Every now and then, log files are sent to the central intrusion processing unit (via mobile agents) for packet decoding and processing. The NIM monitors agents movement in the network and guides them towards critical locations in the network if malicious activities were detected. To guarantee proper interaction with mobile agents, the NIM should exchange data and messages with the mobile agent platform. As a network watcher, the NIM provides the following intrusion detection services: Monitor incoming network traffic Integrate correlating data sent by individual mobile agents to implement a multi-point detection, especially 178

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to deal with distributed attacks coming from within the network. Monitor established connections within the network at low level by scanning packets. Gather evidence of the attackers behavior during the time window between the attack detection and the response. Look for the exploitation of known vulnerabilities in the network by checking on local intrusion signatures such as files integrity and user behavior profiles. 3.2. Mobile Agent Platform (MAP) A MAP can create, interpret, execute, transfer, and terminate (kill) agents. The platform is responsible for accepting requests made by network users (in our case the NIM) and generating mobile agents plus sending them into the network to handle the tasks (in our case to start sniffing activities within the local network, stop it when necessary, and send the collected data back to the NIM for further analysis). 3.3. Distributed Sensors or Sniffer A sniffer [15] is a device used to tap into networks to allow an application or hardware device to eavesdrop on network traffic. The traffic can be IP, IPX, or AppleTalk network packets. In general, sniffing is used for: Network analysis and troubleshooting, Performance analysis and benchmarking or, Eavesdropping for clear-text passwords and other interesting tidbits of data. Depending on the NIMs instructions, the agent may run the sniffer for a predetermined period of time, collect the data, and send it in one batch to the NIM. Alternatively, it may run the sniffer and send data as it is captured to the NIM until it receives instructions to stop sniffing. 3.4. System Working Process When the system is initially started, the NIM starts its own sniffer and sends a START request to the MAP. The message specifies the number of agents to be launched and the corresponding IP address sets that each agent is expected to visit. This implies that the NIM has a registry containing all IP addresses in the local network. The MAP, in turn, creates the agents and dispatches them into the network. Now assume that an agent on its trip sends a report to the NIM that triggered an alarm. The NIM will send a LODGE message to the agent causing it to reactivate the sniffer at its current location and stay there, in an effort to gather more evidences on the current attack in order to study the behavior. The NIM will prompt the MAP to create a new agent that will takeover the agents task. In this scenario, the number of active sniffers may increase to form an alert stage for faster reaction.

4. Development of Proposed System


4.1. IDS Implementation The prototype IDS has been implemented on top of Snort [14] and a mobile agent system that was created locally. Snort is a full-fledged open- source network based IDS (NIDS) that has many capabilities such as packet sniffing, packet logging and intrusion detection [15]. Snort is a signature-based IDS that uses rule-sets to check for errant packets crossing a node in the network. A rule is a set of requirements that will trigger an alert. Snort was chosen as the NIDS because of its availability, ease of configuration and customization.

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4.2. Mobile Agent System MORPHEOUS [16] is a prototypical mobile agent system that was developed as a final year project at the American University of Beirut. The system was chosen as the mobile agent platform because of its availability (including C# source code), ease of running, and support for mobile agents. It consists of four entities: the agent factory (AF), the listeners, the officer agents (OA), and the soldier agents (SA). The core of the agent system is the agent factory. It accepts requests made by the network users (in our case the Snort requests), generates the mobile agents and sends them to the network to handle tasks. On the AF host, many officer agents reside to keep track of the dispatched agents (Soldier Agents) over the network and the data gathered by these agents. The last element is the listener, which is a small program that will reside in each host in the network and will be responsible for operating system, and ability to dynamically reconfigure its execution state. 4.3. WinDump Sniffer WinDump [17] is the porting to the Windows platform of TcpDump that runs on all the operating systems supported by WinPcap, i.e. Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP. It was selected in the prototype because of its lig1htweightness, popularity, and support of multiple numbers. When a request is sent, the MAP checks for the type of the message (START, PROCEED, or LODGE). 4.4. Working demo of Proposed System Figure 2 presents the prototype network to establish the working principal of proposed system. The network comprises a Linux server and two Windows hosts. The system is configured as follows: The Linux box is set as the Network Intrusion Monitor where Snort is installed and is running in addition to the mobile agent platform. The other two Windows Host PCs have WinDump installed on each as well as the mobile agent platform. When the system starts up, Snort sends MORPHEOUS an HTTP request to start sniffing and provides it with the IP addresses of PC1 and PC2. MORPHEOUS creates an agent, assigns to it the task of starting and stopping WinDump and then dispatches it into the network. The MAP listens to Snort at as specific IP address and port number. When a request is sent, the MAP checks for the type of the message (START, PROCEED, or LODGE). A summary of possible message exchanges between Snort, MAP, and the agent are detailed in Table 1. Using several experiments, the overall trip of the agent took roughly 4.42 sec (4 sec are for activating the sniffers and 0.42 sec for agent migrations, messaging between the components, and processing activities).

Fig. 2: The Sample Network

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5. Experimental Results
This part of the paper details the experiment conducted on the developed IDS running on a production server operated by Computer Department at the institute. This server is currently used for providing web
Table 1: Messages exchanged in the system Arguments Description Message Exchange between NIMs MAP and Snort IP address, Port Requests an HTTP connection between Snort and CONNECT # MAP. # of agents, IP Snort to MAP to create and dispatch agents when the START lists system starts. MAP tells Snort that the log file is successfully LOGRCVED None received. Snort sends this signal if no alerts were generated out PROCEED None of the log file. Snort sends this signal if malicious activities were LODGE None detected. To terminate the HTTP connection between Snort and CLOSE None MAP. Messages Exchanged between the local MAP and the Agent IP address, Port Starts a connection between the agent and next host NXTCONNECT # for migration. The agent sends this message to its MAP to copy itself SENDFILE None to new host. IP address, Port Requests an HTTP connection to the MAP. CONNECT # Send log file from the host where the agent resides to SENDDATA None the main station. Sends information about host (host name, IP address, SNDINFO None active directory). Tell agent to continuously run sniffer when an PROCEED None intrusion is detected. Close the client socket with the next host. CLOSE None Tell the MAP residing to delete the agents directory. DELETE None MAP Sends this signal if malicious activities were LODGE None detected. Message

services and non-anonymous file transfer protocol (ftp) access. The hardware and software set-up used in the two-month trial is described and details of the experimental study are outlined. Basic statistics on the data collected including the number of alerts (false positive alarms and attacks) are presented. 5.1. Hardware The server is IBM e-server based on an Intel Xeon CPU 3.06 GHZ with 2 GB RAM and 2 x 40 GB SCSI hard drive. The server is currently connected to a 100 Mbit/sec port on a Cisco 2600 series switch that is connected to the institute backbone provided by ISP. The server is located inside the institute network that contains more than 250 registered hosts. During the experiments access to the server from the Internet was initially possible only on TCP/IP port 80 (http protocol) and after 30 days access was also possible on port 443 (https protocol). The server is not located in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) and as a result the computers connected 181

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to the internal institute network have full access to the server. Although this is not an ideal situation because of an associated increase in security risks, it is very typical of institutes departments WWW servers. 5.2. Software The server is using the Red Hat Linux 9 EE operating system. This operating system was completely patched on 31 July 2006 and the study experiments were conducted during the period 1 August to 20 September 2006. To maintain the integrity of the collected data sets, no further OS and application software patching was done during the period of the experiment. The Distributed IDS was deployed on Red Hat Linux server and Windows based clients. 5.3. Summery of Alert Statistics Figure 3 presents the summery of alert statisticsThe following basic statistics were produced over the two-month experimental trial. The first alert was triggered at 00:33:43 on 1 August 2006 and the last alert of the trial was triggered at 20:30:19 on 20 September 2006. There were 2669 alerts triggered during the trial coming from 301 different sources with 41 different signatures. After taking out sources of false positive alarms within the institute network, 1457 alarms remained. Out of these, 540 (more than 33%) were found to come from domains within India. The hosts triggering the alerts were mainly using ADSL connections (as their FQDN suggests) and there is a well-founded suspicion that many of these attacks were launched automatically from infected machines and the owners/users of these computers were not aware of what was happening on their hosts. A further 408 alarms were from hosts with TCP/IP addresses without domain name service (DNS) entries. These hosts TCP/IP addresses did not resolve to host names, hence it can be presumed that these hosts were not properly registered with their Internet Services Provider (ISP), or ISP did not provide correctly DNS services. Rest 509 alarms were of different other types.

Fig. 3 : False Positive versus Positive Alerts

5.4. Analysis and Discussion One of the most significant findings from this two-month experiment was a bug in the reporting/alerting part of the Distributed IDS system. While the system correctly raised alarms on one particular rule set, the report it produced was not correct. From a network administrators or security officers point of view, this bug 182

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is not very significant because they would be able to identify a potential problem and then examine the captured network packets using tcpdump to provide the correct information. The two months of monitoring the server provided large amounts of data. As a matter of the fact, due to storage limitations full tcpdump format log file could not be collected for the whole period. The experiment has illustrated that rule sets and configuration files have to be highly customized and continuously finetuned. Decisions about trusted hosts have to be made often on the basis of partial knowledge. It has further been shown that many hosts that should potentially be granted trusted status due to the service provided cannot be granted such a status due to the nature of other problems, for example with DNS lookups. The data reveals that attempted attacks were made both from inside the Institute Network and the Internet. The server was probed not only on ports that have been made available and known (the server is advertised on Institutes website), but also on ports that were not readily visible to users of the institute network or the Internet. On ports 80 and 443, probes mainly attempted to exploit known vulnerabilities in Microsoft IIS server. The persistence of these repeated attempts suggests that many of these attacks were automated and the scripts not written very well. It is questionable why a would be attacker risks being discovered by repeating these attacks on a system that is not susceptible to such attacks. This is especially the case given that it is possible for them to identify first the server software and then make decisions about whether to attempt an attack. While external attacks from the Internet were only experienced on TCP ports 80 and 443 due to firewall restrictions, internal attempts were much broader. Again, some of the attacks were completely futile for the attacker but provided valuable data for a forensic investigator wishing to identify the location or intention of the attacker. Using the Distributed IDS system can help to protect the web server against malicious attacks. However, the amount of false positive alarms, fine tuning and alert monitoring required definitely proves that properly trained security personnel/system administrator needs to be available to monitor such a system continuously. It has proved useful to collect all the traffic in the tcpdump format. This is particularly the case because it opens up the possibility of the data later being examined by other tools, in our case tcpdump. Clearly, it is very hard, if not impossible, to rule out all of the false positive alarms based only on information obtained from alert file produced by IDS. However, with careful analysis of the whole connection it is possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the traffic is either malicious or false positive alarm. However, even such data would have only limited value in prosecuting potential attackers as the information provided in the tcpdump format file is limited to the TCP/IP packet load. Additional information needs to be obtained from other sources log files, route tracing etc. The complete analysis and findings of this two-month long experiment has provided valuable data for future modification and implementation of the system. Finally, these findings support calls being made by governments and law enforcement agencies for continuous monitoring of network traffic. However, to protect individuals privacy it is necessary to develop techniques for this monitoring that will not interfere with the individuals rights.

6. Concluding Remarks
Current Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Response Systems (IRS) have a limited ability to adapt their detection and response capabilities to increasingly sophisticated modern attacks. We have proposed architecture for Distributed Intrusion Detection System based on mobile agents. An expansion of the distributed IDS seems to be possible using response and immunity components for better adaptability for new variants of attacks. Automating the response mechanisms decreases the time window an attacker gets before being encountered by a network administrator. We also want to study and incorporate some new features to make the IDS, forensic computing ready for better investigation of attacks & better adaptability.

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References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Stefan Fuenfrocken. How to Integrate Mobile Agents into Web Servers. Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, Darmstadt University of Technology, Alexanderstr.10,D 64283 Germany. Stefan Fuenfrocken. Integrating Java-based Mobile Agents into Web Servers under Security Concerns. Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, Darmstadt University of Technology, Alexanderstr. 6, 64283 Germany. Wayne Jansen, Peter Mell, Tom Karygiannis and Don Marks. Applying .Mobile Agents to Intrusion Detection and Response. NIST Interim Report (IR) - 6416. ACM October 1999. Anderson. J. P., Computer Security Threat Monitoring and Surveillance. Technical report, James P Anderson Co., Fort Washington, PA, Arpil 1980. Denning D. E., An intrusion-detection model. In proceeding of the IEEE Symposium on security and Privacy, pages 118-131, April 1986. Bauer D. S. and Koblentz.M. E., NIDX an expert system for real-time network intrusion detection. In Proceeding of the Computer Networking Symposium, pages 98-106, Washington, DC, April 1988. Schoonderwoerd R. and O. Holland and J. Bruten.(1997). Ant-like agents for load balancing in telecommunications networks. In Proceedings of the first International Conference on Autonomous Agents, Balasubramaniyan Jai Sundar and Jose Omar Garcia-Fernandez, Isacoff David, Eugene Spafford, Diego Zamboni. An Infrastructure for Intrusion Detection using Autonomous Agents. COAST technical Report 98/05, June 11, 1998. Feiertag Richard, Rho Sue, Benzinger Lee, Wu Stephen, Redmond Timothy, Zhang Cui, Levitt Karl, Peticolas Dave, Mark Heckman, Stuart Staniford, and Joey McAlerney. Intrusion detection inter-component adaptive negotiation. Computer Networks 34, 605-621.(2000). Serge Fenet and Salima Hassas. ( 2001). A distributed Intrusion Detection and Response System based on mobile autonomous agents using social insects communication paradigm. Published by Elsevier Science B. V., White G. B., Fisch E. A. and Pooch U. W. (1996). Cooperating security managers: A peer-based intrusion detection system. 10(1): 20-23, Barrus J. and Rowe N. (1998). A distributed autonomous-agent network-intrusion detection and response system. In proceeding of the 1998 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Ansari Sabeel, Rajeev S.G. and Chandrashekar H.S. Packet Sniffing: A Brief Introduction. IEEE, JANUARY 2003. Snort website: www.snort.org (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Martin Roesch. Snort - Lightweight Intrusion Detection for Networks. A white paper on the design features of Snort 2.0 from: www.sourcefire.com/technology/whitepapers.html (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Mohamed Mohsen and Khaled Heloue. Mobile Agents System for Data Retrieval. Final Year Project Report, American University of Beirut, August 2003. The main website of WinDump: www.tcpdump.org (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Gopalakrishna Rajeev, Eugene H. Spafford. Framework for Distributed Intrusion Detection using Interest Driven Cooperating Agents. Purdue University, 2001. CERT/CC Statistics 1988-2006. http://www.cert.org/stats/cert_stats.html. (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Bace R. and Mell P. Intrusion Detection Systems from: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-31/ sp800-31.pdf (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Laing B. How To Guide: Impletmenting a Network Based Intrusion Detection System. From: http:// www.snort.org/docs/iss-placement.pdf (Accessed in July 25, 2006). Lundin E. Anomaly-based intrusion detection: privacy concerns and other problems. Computer Networks, 34(4), 623-640. Lundin E. and Jonsson E. Privacy vs Intrusion Detection Analysis. In The 2nd International Workshop on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID99). Lafayette, Indiana, USA. Lundin E. and Jonsson E. Some Practical and Fundamental Problems with Anomaly Detection. The fourth Nordic Workshop on Secure IT systems (NORDSEC99). Kista, Sweden.

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About the Authors


Rizwan Ahmed is the Faculty with Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Anjuman Collage of Engineering and Technology, Nagpur. His specific areas of research interests include Computer Security, Digital forensics and e-governance. He received his M.S. in Software Systems from BITS, Pilani. Kamlesh Kelwade is the Faculty with Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Anjuman Collage of Engineering and Technology, Nagpur. His specific areas of research interests include Database Management Systems, Computer Graphics and Computer Security. He is pursuing his M.E. in Computer Science from Amravati University. M. S. Khatib is the Faculty with Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Anjuman Collage of Engineering and Technology, Nagpur. His specific areas of research interests include Computer Security, Digital Signal Processing and e-governance. He received his M.E. in Computer Science from Amravati University.

185

Role of Evolving Technology on Efficient Implementation of E-government


Dilip Kumar Sharma1*, G.P. Sahu2, and Gopalji Varshneya1

ABSTRACT
The objective of this article is to establish the imperative role of a recent and revolutionary web technology called AJAX, which is already accepted extensively, in effective and successful realization of an efficient e-governance system. It lays stress on the role of AJAX technology in the productive development and successful implementation of e-governance from executive or bureaucratic level to grass root level which comprising of the masses. Primal issues of egovernance like speed, delivery of service, quality, simplicity, security, scalability, cost effectiveness and manageability are thoroughly discussed in reference of AJAX. Main features of AJAX as unique direction processing ability, intractability, bridging, portability and collaboration can be considered as a fantastic choice in designing the whole e-governance system at large.

Keywords: AJAX, E-governance, security, XMLHttpRequest, JavaScript, Security.

1. Introduction
E-Government stands for electronic Government. Electronic Government means the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by the Government to exchange information and services with society, industries and other departments of Government. E-Government functions prominently through internet therefore considering internet as the back bone of the concept, the discussion is centralized inevitably on web based architecture and technologies used to built it in present scenario. The most imperative role of E-Government includes transparent smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the inter-departmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen (Kalam 2006). From a technological standpoint, the implementation of e-Government implies e-enablement, interoperability and semantic web issues. The cultures of Government and IT are different. IT is for speed, transparency and universal access. Bureaucratic Governments thrive on lack of access, secrecy and delay (Singh 2005). AJAX technology in view of development of software system has tremendous role in gratifying all these issues. Government needs a reliable web service that is efficient, speedy and has a transparent framework for disseminating information to the public and to other agencies that perform activities related to Government administration. On software level it is far more complex to display and monitor all of these routines from a single web page level especially when there is a waiting queue of successive modifications due to the early stages of actions. In view of all this, choosing appropriate software techniques such as AJAX invites a liberal attitude and need for initiating further research for meeting out the requirement of efficiency.
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G.L.A.Institute of Technology and Management, Mathura, India Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-9927031755, E-mail: todilipsharma@gmail.com Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India

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The fact that necessity is the mother of invention is clearly depicted by the development of such concepts as AJAX which is not just accepted but actually is sweeping off the market making a huge impact on development of new web technology. In the concept of e-Government there are two major problems on technical level related to client server interaction. First problem is related to the time parameter. In this problem stress is to reduce the time consumed in processing the unique client request and providing the liberty to user for doing something else while the former request is being process. Second parameter is about developing sophisticated framework for data passage. Discrete requests can be processed on an extensive scale at the same time and most of them will need both retrieval and postage. A technology named AJAX which is used prominently in most of todays successful service oriented web companies all over the world is suggested for development of such systems. AJAX name is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript (Goodman 1998) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) (Quin) the name was coined by Jesse James Garrett in February 2005 from the Adaptive Path website (Garrett 2005). It is a combination of existing technologies such as DHTML, CSS, JavaScript (Goodman 1998), DOM (Stenback, 2004), XML (Quin), XSLT and XMLHttpRequest (Paulson 2005). At present most of dynamic web interface are powered by JavaScript and wherever the need is expanding the booster of AJAX has become mandatory. The core component of AJAX is XMLHttpRequest that enables us to update components of a web page by sending and receiving information without page reloads. AJAX can create an asynchronous request to the web server by using XMLHttpRequest object which is initiated by JavaScript and it calls a function to process the information which is fetched when the response is received. AJAX is known as a world of No Page Refresh and exceptionally endowed user interface as it is included in Windows applications (Asleson 2005). Figure one shows comparative performance between classical web application and AJAX web application where server side processing is considerably decreased. Because of this, AJAX technology has been accepted in managing airports, stations, chat portals, search engines, digital maps, different banking and online buying-selling sites and in prominent portals like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and Rediffmail (where services to a large number of users is intended).

2. Current Market of AJAX


Google is investing for developing the AJAX technology. All of its major products like Orkut, Gmail, latest beta version of Google Groups, Google Suggest and Google Maps are AJAX applications. Other products like Flickr, Amazons A9.com search engine, Yahoo Maps, Wufoo, Zimbra, Hotmail, Rediff Mail, Yahoo Mail are depending on AJAX. This is not just another technology that works only in a laboratory but it works on applications of any size from the very simple, single-function Google Suggest to the very complex and sophisticated Google Maps. The facility provided by AJAX to the client can be seen by the following few examples: Google Map:The spectacular facility of welcoming clients is displayed in the Google Map. Facility where users can find the complete map of selected area this feature can be used for e- Government project where people encouraged putting on flags to mark their areas naming them by whatever regional attributes that they feel are significant to mention. This feature is called collaboration and can be used extensively in developing a powerful database containing the salient parameters related to the living standards of citizens of a country. In the e-Government system volunteers literate in Information Technology will be employed by the Government to feed all appropriate data for forming a useful database (Efstathopoulos 2003). EBay:An inquiry is entertained in a multi user interface by the help of AJAX where server generates a small piece of XML data for optimizing speed of transaction and quick update. Orkut: Powered by AJAX provides common interface for massage and data sharing. In reference of eGovernment projects this type of technology can be utilized for sharing public feed back in response to the working of Government to fulfill their needs and to judge the efficient running of projects and schemes in 187

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Fig. 1 (Garrett 2005) Comparison of synchronous and asynchronous request

the view of public at large. The reason why Google and other sites are using this technique is the versatile uses of XML feature for handling any inter operational system with perfect ease and never before speed.

3. Attributes of E-governance in Context of AJAX


The information and communication technology plays a very significant role in delivering products, services and information. It has now redefined the fundamentals and changed the mechanism used before. Empirical evidence suggests that the quality of service generally plays a very important role in online business environments .It is extremely crucial to understand the needs of the customer and tailor the service quality to cater those needs. Canadian Governments e-strategy is based upon user perspective approach which determines the online offering and how information is organized and delivered to citizens (Canada 2004). So for providing the information about Government policies, programs, schemes and products to targeted people with User friendly citizen interface in local languages, multiple channels of communication, security of transactions, participating policy making processes, transparency in Government activity and open styles of functioning (Gupta 2005) AJAX based web technology can be the best way. Designing such application requires consideration of elements such as ease of navigation, aesthetics, content, accessibility, and features such as personalization, customization, customer self-care and data about communities. All these elements in combination will directly influence users experience with the site, and ultimately their satisfaction and adoption. The effectiveness of e-Governments website design from citizens perspective can be measured in terms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (Mylene 2005). Googles Taylor said his company will use AJAX as long as it likes what the technology offers. He explained, We will use whatever technology platform provides the richest user experience possible [Paulson 2005]. It is desirable 188

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that the framework developed is comprehensive, holistic and above all meet the objectives for which it has been designed Considering the above discussion an effective e-Government assignment framework (Rao 2004) can be identified by: Speed of delivery of service Quality of service Simplicity of service Ease of access to the service Mechanism for problem resolution and exception handling Security and confidentiality Scalability Cost effectiveness Manageability Conformance of the architecture to National /International architectures Provisions for Inter-operability Extent of the use of Open Source application

Discussing the above mentioned points with application and user prospective, the existence of AJAX empowers very clearly the process of providing such framework. In AJAX application only the specific portion of web page is updated hence it consumes lesser band width and ultimately increases the speed of information access. This feature is very useful where broad band connections are not available. Quality of service and user satisfaction is assessed by the ease of delivering a web presentation with full information, high speed and low resource utilization .This makes AJAX best suitable for quality measures. It provides clean and simple interface to the users with ease of access so that even a non technical user can use the interface with full effect (Wilbert 2002). An exception handling and error resolving technique can easily be implemented with the help of existing JavaScript library. There is a security problem with AJAX. If it is not implemented appropriately so there is a need for proper understanding of the security constrains. In AJAX the emphasis is only on components of web pages so it provides scalable solution apt for projects catering to large number of clients. In view of cost consideration, application development cost with AJAX is quite high but its operational cost is low. AJAX based application is complex but by following proper rules and framework it can be managed easily. There is no issue of inter-operability because it is based on scripting language and XML. Commercial companies working around AJAX have been in the news recently with announcements that they will contribute to the start an open source community which will contribute to the part of their product offering. ClearNova is releasing ThinkCAP JX under the GPL license (Khatoikar 2003). The E-government framework is huge and complex which compromises every citizen and invites almost whole of the nation to participate and support so the need of information exchange with appropriate classification and monitoring rights is abundant. Sites working on largest databases across the world are using AJAX today to facilitate their further growth and to prevent blockages. They are engaging large teams of experts to do further research on AJAX for what it can and cannot give. This is an ample evidence for AJAX suitability for the growing amount of information need. The prevalent use of AJAX technology and the rate of its acceptance suggest that in few years most web based service will use AJAX technology. The web based infrastructure of e-Government is most suited for large scale distribution of information (Khatoikar 2003) so care must be taken on all the parameters needed before of development. Before investing resources in AJAX based e-Government system, one has to consider the following points: If the application involves heavy server requests, using multiple web forms that submit data very frequently to the server. (Departmental or Zonal intranets with planning and meeting programming pages that use HTML forms in 189

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multiple steps benefit from this feature). If the application display large amounts of data in a sequential manner without refreshing the entire page. (In this category photo gallery, portal websites that aggregate data from a multitude of sources in a variety of formats along with news, blog feeds, directories, image feeds from a variety of sources are included.) If the user interact frequently with forms for just accessing information rather then submitting data. If the application response time is more important. If the loading of page must be shorter.

4. Working of AJAX
In classical web applications, the user actions invoke a HTTP request to the web server. Conventionally the server after executing a process returns an HTML page to the client whereas in AJAX Applications the request can be either for a GUI component, HTML segment or even for data. After fetching data, the processing function can update any specific component of user interface using JavaScript (Andrew 2002) and DOM (Stenback, 2004). As shown in figure 4.1 AJAX is a client-side technology compatible with any server side technology such as ASP.net, JSP, PHP, ColdFusion and others. Figure 2 (a) shows a traditional Web application where user actions trigger an HTTP request to a web server, which processes the request and returns an HTML page to the client. Additional requests lock up the application until the system updates the page. Figure 2 (b) shows AJAX applications which create a JavaScript based engine that runs on the browser. The engine intercepts user inputs, displays requested material and handles many interactions on the client side. If the engine needs more data, it requests material from the server in the background, while letting the user continue to interact with the application climate. A good approach towards implementation of eGovernment is to combine short-term steps (projects) and long-term goals (vision). Projects will have a more structural value for development when embedded in a vision and supported by a strategy. Accenture has defined an approach to implement e-Government projects: Think big, start small and scale fast (Figure 3) (Backus 2001).These three parameters are very well associated with the capability of AJAX ; thinking big through distributed XML resource, starting small by AJAX capacity of being remote and scaling fast by the virtue of being asynchronous and collaborative. Due to the feature of asynchronization user gets the freedom of working on the same page and while various request from other channels are being processed. Although it is a single web page but it is technically equivalent to working on numerous web pages at the same time without any complexity.

5. Advantages of AJAX
The use of AJAX augments interaction and responsiveness of the web page interface as just the requested section or the component is updated at a time. The user gets the feeling that working is instantaneous leveraging the client machines processing power and temporal proximity by making the Web browser responsible for more aspects of the application execution [Smith 2006]. A major interactive feature of AJAX called collaboration is responsible for controlling parameters of rate, review, comment, tag, blog, and feed of a web page (Edwards 2005). This encourages participation and productivity of mass people in Governmental activities. Traffic to and from the server is reduced considerably because the small section of web page are downloaded each time separately so the bandwidth usage is most likely to decrease. This is due to the fact that through this technology there is no need for a post back to the server for rendering a complete HTML page. Exploiting modern Web browsers rich graphics capabilities transparency, shading, 190

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Fig. 2 (Garrett 2005) Working of Ajax Engine

Fig. 3: (Backus 2001) Implementation of E-government project

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animation, Z-ordering, compositing and so on to add more glitz and interactivity to the presentation of information with low band width consumption (Garrett 2005). In a classic web application when the web server sends a web page to the browser it can use multiple connection threads to speed up delivery. However, this happens for content only which is between the <body> tags. All script and other files are transferred using only one connection thread, which diminishes overall performance. While working with AJAX one has to load just the basic scripts, CSS files and then it requests for rest of the content through multiple connections. This increases overall performance. Waiting time is reduced when the user submits a form. One has not to wait for the entire page to be rebuilt and re-transmitted by the server. Instead, only the relevant content changes and in non-critical cases, the visitor can still work while the data is being submitted.

6. Disadvantages and Limitations


AJAX is quite complex for implementation. Developers should have expertise in JavaScript for implementing AJAX functionality because building a web based application that employs AJAX is more difficult than building it the classic way. Because of its complexity AJAX enabled application requires more development time and costs. It is comparatively more difficult because of the mixture of technologies needs special concern for every process going smoothly. Using AJAX to asynchronously load content into an existing page for updating only a small part of page to the browser history and bookmarks will disable restoration of the exact page state. Also, clicking the back button in a browser might not have any effect as the URL (Tim 2005) remains unchanged. To overcome these problems one must implement a way to save the current page state so that it can be restored later on when called from a bookmark or from the browser history.

7. Goals of E-governance in View of AJAX


Transactions: Financial interaction through internet had already been established as fast, convenient and accurate because of various banks supporting this new system. Whether it is the matter of income tax return, payment of salary to Government employees, transaction of money within or outside any Government wing as railways, postal, telecom, electricity etc or even the sensitive matter of dispersal of funds to various segments of Government the dream of efficient e-Government is incomplete without the financial transaction. Citizens and Government departments when interact financially by the means of internet then the system supporting it undoubtedly will need to be efficient, secured and comprehensive. Keeping in mind the united capacity of Java Script, CSS and XML, a secured system for fund transfer and other financial transactions can be thought of for managing abundant confidential data to facilitate the targeted population (Medjahed 2005). Election: At the time of elections the major concern of the Government is about sharing information and establishing lawful proceedings of the voting process. These can be ensured by AJAX technology considering the amount of data transaction to be monitored with specific client request from the server. Here the clients would be paid employees or volunteers of the e-Government hierarchy who will have the power to report and access data. Taxes: Collaboration feature of AJAX facilitates the epidemiological survey of a given huge chunk of population on the basis of survey conducted by net educated volunteers in every field. In the department of taxation volunteers will be appointed to do a door to door survey recording the economic patterns of each citizen as a unit to countrys economy on the whole. With a well maintained complete transparent overview of every individuals financial capacity there will be very less chances of tax theft and AJAX has been time tested for its capacity of being uniquely directional in a multi user environment.

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Defence: Defence system have so many activities from research, planning, management, execution, emergency management, troops distribution and arms management etc. going on at the same time with security of data as a heartbeat of work .In such environment satisfying the need of multi layered and secured database on analysis of the patterns and needs for different region is a task that requires immense feedback that is both organized and timely. These needs can be efficiently monitored by practical and effective real world technology as AJAX. Trade: A countrys trade on all frontiers and sectors is a dynamic aspect with an incredible need of Government to be informed about the economic distribution of resources in corporate world and its assessment with respect to the possibilities of growth in future. The role of technology in e-Government and the management of budget in relation to countrys economy with ways for cost effective implementation itself needs immense research with huge amount of data processing, validation, comparison and synthesis. For this a capable front end technology as AJAX is needed to encourage the mammoth task of recording, organizing processing and making the data accessible related to Governments plans and policies intended for application in the world of trade and commerce. Framing of Policies: Framing of policies needs argumentative background of information which can be possible by means of a broader survey with large participation of citizens so that maximum amount of population is affected without conflicts or doubts regarding the demand of public at large. Whether is be the health sector, education or empowerment of poor by means of employment all of theses need epidemiological survey for building up a large database. This goal can be very well realized by using AJAX technology which provides the speed capable of supporting any level of work both in terms of quality and quantity.

8. E-Government enabling outreach services in rural areas and power of AJAX of working at lower band width regimes
The people of urban areas are educated and more familiar with latest development in information technology but the impact of IT is very nominal in rural areas confirming very less awareness patterns. This is obviously an obstacle in all development process related to IT. Planning to introduce new technologies with relevant infrastructure in rural areas is most essential and the reference of AJAX in bringing about an ease in this project is explained next. PData in the table 1 is based on the findings of survey conducted in the recently in rural India depicting the percentage of people accessing information on various fields in rural parts of India. It shows the increasing thirst of information even in the class of people which was considered ignorant and detached from the main stream of Government functioning from a long time. Not to mention that a countrys economy depends more on the contribution given by these people through agriculture, extraction of natural resources , labour required at dams , power plants , mines , refineries and power projects which are generally set away from urban land needing cooperation and participation of such population. Implementations of e-related plans are generally questioned in the rural areas. As the former president of NASCOM Late Mr. Devang Mehta quoted Roti, Kapda and bandwidth lays stress on the need of better bandwidth for successful running of all e-Government projects. AJAX comes as a rescuer in such situation for being a friend in lesser bandwidth regimes. This technology due to its portability and unique directional nature remains productive at optimum levels. In rural areas other factors have to considered too as questions like percentage of literacy, child mortality rate and even line of poverty are still not resolved. But all of these circle and end up on the Governments inefficiency to implement its projects. A proper communication channel for public interface enabling feedback can be a solution and a system based on a reliable database, java script and AJAX can be the technical building blocks of such a dream.

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9. Financial Sustainability
If a technology other than AJAX is used along with Java script then it will prove to be multiple times more expensive in terms of time consumed and money spent. A major challenge for ICT projects has always been maintaining financial sustainability. Connectivity can be particularly expensive, be it through wireless or fixed lines. In urban areas of India, each fixed line telephone connection costs more than US$650. A phone booth operator needs to earn at least US$190 per year to sustain. Telephones in rural areas are more expensive a line can cost US$1500- 1700 to break even, the annual revenue per Table 1 [Cicchini 2003] Frequency of Access to Information by the Rural Poor Population in India
Information accessed News/Politics Entertainment Health/Education Training Programs Agriculture/Markets Welfare programs Employment Opportunities Very often (%) 57.3 51.4 41.3 17.3 13.3 11.3 10.7 Quite often (%) 28.7 32.7 46.7 42.0 46.0 31.3 25.3 Seldom (%) 10.7 12.7 10.7 28.7 26.0 41.3 38.0 Never (%) 3.3 3.3 1.3 12.0 14.7 16.0 26.0

connection would have to be three or four years, experience on sustainability is limited. These facts highlight all expenses other than those spent on developing software framework which are already too high leaving very less percentage of funds to be spent on development of technological framework (Cicchini 2003). By experience, only technical developments comprising AJAX are recommended for providing maximum productivity at low budget restrictions.

10. An Overview of Various Governmental Departments in Reference to AJAX


Government being responsible to spend a large amount of money for satisfying domestic needs every year but this money disappears in the way. This can be checked only by a technology that welcomes frequent display of information to public and can become a parameter of transparency. The technology will enable different levels of Government on the basis of administrative power in relation to data feeding and access. Major responsibilities of a well organized Government like education, health, agriculture, telecommunication, public transport, and employment for empowering the conditions of economy, security and progress of a country cannot be taken care of without a continuous interaction with the public both of rural and urban setups. The target of setting individual citizen records and establishing a channel by which they can convey their needs to Government requires a very advanced approach when it comes to techniques of information technology. Proper implementation of public policies, transparency in funds, utilization of public benefit plans, law enforcement, rights and duties, foreign relations in view of the present Governments plans and policies has now been looked upon as some thing restricted to a intellectual section of urban population but through AJAX one can think of encouraging the concept of mass involvement in such issues in bringing citizens of a country in charge with a sense of responsible for the country.

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11. Security Issues for E-governance with Reference of AJAX


Defining a security policy can be a complicated task for any Government. Decision must be taken based on aspects of protection which are most important, thereby compromising between security and ease of use. Various security issues involved are (Hazarika 2004) There must be authenticity of the information sent across the web. The use of digital signatures is therefore much more required in case of Government documents for protecting the phishing attacks. Confidentiality of any transaction or information available on the network is a very crucial matter and is therefore of a vital importance to the successful E-Government implementation. Protecting the information and important Governmental documents from unauthorized users is most important factor in E-Government. Cryptography is an important process to protect the information from unauthorized users and is an inseparable part of network security. Tested encryption software need to be installed before initiating the E-Government. Hackers take the path of least resistance and Web applications are the path of least resistance, Hoffman said, by attacking AJAX-based applications, attackers can steal cookies, hijack browser sessions, leak sensitive information, log keystrokes and make malicious server requests. Security in todays e-Government infrastructure is not just about restricting access to critical resources and applications but to manage power distribution among pioneers, who are entitled to meet critical challenges as improving participation, reducing operational risk and allowing ubiquitous access to relevant people. Examples of the threat include JS.Yamanner, a JavaScript worm (Brenner 2006) that spread through a Yahoo Mail flaw in June and exploits that targeted the Windows Meta File (WMF) glitch, Microsoft patched in January 2006. So Government must carefully consider how they are deploying AJAX-based applications. E-Government need to consider what is to be gained from added functionality and whether it is really necessary in the short term. Security issues for AJAX can be pointed out as: The hazards of exposing business logic on the Client, Security through obscurity is no security at all. Reliance on too much business logic in the client can create security vulnerability no matter how obfuscate code, it will still accessible to the client (Andrews 2006) It used to be that if someone compromised site, he might instead modify AJAX application to send malicious JavaScript to the client and grab some private information (Cameron 2005). AJAX has made it difficult for the user to know whether information about their behavior is being transmitted back to the server without clear feedback to the user.

12. Concluding Remarks


In order to realize the dream of e-Government it is very important to focus on development of the entire skeleton encompassing software techniques used as building blocks for e-Government network. Apt caution in choosing software techniques that is futuristic, cost effective, secure, user friendly and has low time consumption for operating on enormous data is a matter of concern and calls for research. In the nutshell if one analyzes the feature of information technology for its acceptance in extensive concepts like Government then that feature will be the power of information technology to involve more individuals with the exactness of information access. Its power to reach more individuals, affect them, give them inspiration for innovation and invoking a sense of responsibility with a sense of united participation. In view of the above, there is no room for hesitation when it comes to accepting newer technologies encourage the same theme of information technology of being wide spread clear and effective to more individuals of a nation at large. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said The average person in Government is not of the age of people who are using 195

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all this stuff,(Schmidt 2006)so this paper is merely an attempt to encourage research in choosing right technologies in project of e-Government which are of tremendous importance and application. Consideration must be taken with the view of citizens to make technology just as an enabler and not the end in itself. The initiatives must be to imbibe trust and a spirit of building a lucid infrastructure of collaboration across Government entities as well as between the Government and the citizen. Some of the challenges that a Government faces today are regarding providing the facilities to use of its online services and its operability. Technologies like AJAX enable clean and interactive presentation of Government service to the people.

References
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About the Authors


Dilip Kumar Sharma is B.Sc., B.E. (Honours) (Computer Science and Engg.), and M.Tech. (Information Technology). Presently he is working as a Lecturer in Department of Computer Science at G.L.A. Institute of Technology and Management, Mathura, India since March 2003. His research interests are in the area of E-Commerce, E-Business, Multimedia Systems etc. He has guided various projects and seminars undertaken by the students of B.Tech. He is also working on industrial projects. G. P. Sahu is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Management Studies, M N National Institute of Technology, Allahabad for last eight years. He is currently pursuing his research work for the award of Ph.D. degree at Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. His research interests are in the areas of MIS and E-Government. He has published research papers in the Journals and Conferences both. He has also coordinated an International Conference on Integrating World Market-Living Excellence through Technology and Beyond.... (January 5-6, 2002) and has edited a book on Integrating World Market in the year 2002. Gopalji Varshenay obtained his B.Tech. (Information Technology) form UP Technical University. He is awarded in National Project Presentation Competition at Bangalore (India) and completed more than five professional projects. Presently he is working as Lecturer in Department of Computer Science, G.L.A. Institute of Technology and Management, Mathura, India. His research interests are in the area of ECommerce, Object Oriented Technologies, J2EE and Software development using these Technologies.

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Fraud Prevention in Allotment of Shares in IPOs Using A New Approximate Name Search
Bhavanishanker Chitoor1 and Venkat Reddy K, Venugopal Gouravelli and Venkateshwar Rao GT

ABSTRACT
In India, a portion of shares in IPO (Initial Public Offering) is reserved for individuals who apply for small number of shares to encourage retail participation in stock market. Though one individual ,by law, can make only one application some people were making multiple applications by slightly changing the names. The shares allotted are sold immediately making quick profit in the process denying the allotment to genuine investors. The stock market regulator in India Security & Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) has unearthed a scam in December 2005 popularly known as IPO scam wherein large number of instances of individuals making multiple applications was found. SEBI has thereafter directed the depositories in India to detect the multiple accounts in their client database to curb this practice. This task of detecting the multiple accounts, which is called de duplication, requires a powerful approximate name search technology. The existing approximate name matching solutions are based on phonetics or on pattern recognition, both of which have limitations. This paper briefly explains the challenges and complexities involved in name matching and present a new and innovative approach of approximate name matching using a combination of phonetics and pattern recognition. This is achieved by performing mathematical calculations on hashed valued of strings generated using prime number theory. One of the depositories had evaluated a number of name matching solutions and found the method proposed here to be very fast, accurate and superior and is currently in the process of implementing.

1. Introduction
Stock markets are used as an effective medium to channelise the individual savings into productive sectors of the economy. The Initial Public Offerings, in particular, give a chance for individuals to get the ownership of companies at the same time giving a chance to the companies to raise least cost funds for their requirements. The IPO allotments takes place completely electronically through dematerialized accounts held by the investors The government is giving incentives for the retail investors (who apply for less than 1000 shares or where the investment is less than 50000 rupees) to encourage their participation by reserving about 30 to 40% of the IPO for this category. Though one individual can make only one application, by law, some people have made multiple applications by slightly changing the names and getting the shares allotted making quick profit in the process and denying the allotment to genuine investors. The Security & Exchange Board Of India which is the regulatory authority for the stock market related matters (SEBI) has unearthed a scam in December 2005 popularly known as IPO scam wherein large number of instances single individuals making multiple applications were found.

Corresponding Author (Phone: +91-4027639761-66639761, Email : shankerch@yahoo.com )

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SEBI has thereafter directed depositories in India , through which the shares are allotted to detect the multiple accounts so that this practice can be curbed. This task of detecting the multiple accounts which is called de duplication requires a powerful approximate name search technology. Name matching is the task of recognizing whether two names written differently denote the same entity and is widely used in de duplication of data bases, data mining, allotment of unique numbers like Social Security Number SSN of USA, Permanent Account Number of India. In the context of law enforcement and counter-terrorism, it is widely for searching name lists, such as passenger manifests, credit card transactions, or passport lists, or restricted entry lists. Revenue Service or Tax departments all over the world use some kind of name matching technique to detect tax evasion, money laundering etc. Financial institutions, all over the world also use some kind of name matching technique for authentication for credit appraisal and risk mitigation while granting loans or credit/debit cards

2. Previous Work on Name Matching


Name matching which is a part of text search and text retrieval has lot of research interest. Most of the early published work on name matching was done by the statisticians addressing it as the record linkage problem, that is, the task of identifying duplicate records in databases. For example, significant research was performed by the United States Census Bureau to identify duplicate census records [6, 11, 12]. De duplication using name matching has been studied by Newcomb and others [ 9] Sunita Sarawagi and others have studied the name matching for de duplication with active learning [5 ]. L. Karl Branting had given an overview of the different name matching solutions for different applications [4]. G.T.Venkateshwar Rao has developed a search engine called MIPPRA Multi Iterative Phonetic Pattern Recognition Algorithm as dissertation work for award of M.Tech. in computer science submitted to the Osmania University Hyderabad, India [1]. G T.Venkateshwar Rao and others [2,3] have studied the concept of name matching in allotment of unique number and querying the tax databases for detecting tax evasion. W. Cohen and J Richman have studied on machine learning to match and cluster entity names as a problem of Information Retrieval , 2001. R . Lutz and S. Greene have applied the concept of measuring phonological similarity of the case of personal names.

3. Why is Name Matching Difficult ?


The difficulty of name matching arises from the wide variety of possible orthographic variations of names. These variations can take a number of different forms. Some of them are as under. One name G. Venu Gopal Rao may vary as under Punctuation Prefix Noise Split name/Concatenation Order of writing Abbreviation Spelling Missing/Extra parts G.Venu Gopal , Rao Mr. G.Venugopal Rao G.Venu g0pal Rao G Venugopal Rao, G Venugopalrao Venu Gopal Rao G, Venu Rao G Gopal G.V.G.Rao G.V.Gopal Rao G Venu Gopala Rao G Veni Gopala Rau G Venu Gopal G venu Rao

4. Existing Technical Approaches to Name Matching


The above orthographic-variation sources punctuation, prefix, noise, split name/concatenation, order of writing, abbreviation, spelling variations, and missing/extra parts have typically been approached with cultureindependent string matching techniques. The first approach is based on phonetic similarity using phonetic codes. This approach depends on measuring the similarity of the letters in the pattern and target and probable pronunciations of the pattern and target. The most common approach to phonetic similarity assessment consists of using a hash function to 199

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map names to phonetic encoding. Phonetic codes are constructed for the searched text, while the database is previously indexed using those codes which act as hash keys. Two names match if their phonetic encoding are identical. Different types of phonetic codes are used like soundex, NYSIS, metaphone, double metaphone, caverphone etc are available and are used. A limitation of all these approaches is use of pronunciation heuristics that are insensitive to many contextual factors that affect pronunciation. They are designed for English language that too for American and British names are not suitable for non-English languages. Typically, these stabilization algorithms either cause too many incorrect records to be found, or miss too many relevant records. Two extensive studies examined the results of the basic Soundex algorithm, using statistical measures to gauge accuracy. Study #1 Results: Only 33% of the matches that would be returned by Soundex would be correct. Even more significant was the finding that fully 25% of correct matches would fail to be discovered by Soundex (Alan Stanier, September 1990, Computers in Genealogy, Vol. 3, No. 7). Study #1 Results: Only 36.37% of Soundex returns were correct, while more than 60% of correct names were never returned by Soundex. (A.J. Lait and B. Randell, 1996) Nevertheless, these algorithms are still in use in many law enforcement and national security applications. The next approach is to use different types of textual similarity metrics like hamming distance, edit distance also known as Levenshtein distance, n-gram indexes, Ratcliff/ Obershelp pattern recognition, Jaro-Winkler distance , Needleman- Wunsch distance , Smith-Waterman. These metrics calculate the similarity of two strings being compared as a number between 0 and 1, value 0 means the strings are completely different and value 1 means perfect match of the strings. Intermediate values correspond to a partial match. While Levenshtein distance is the first and popular others have improved by giving weights to the position of the character within the string.

5. New Approach to Name Matching


Of the two approaches discussed in the previous paragraph the first approach depends on the phonetics and pronunciation and the second approach depends on the pattern similarity. Both are used in actual applications in isolation of each other. A need was felt for more efficient name matching software particularly when dealing with large data volumes. The first author has come out with a new approximate name search engine called MIPPRA Multi Iterative Phonetic Pattern Recognition Algorithm that was conceived and developed as part of the M.Tech. thesis submitted to the Osmania University Hyderabad by the first author. This was further developed by the other authors and another related algorithm called PrimeMatch is also developed. This new approach to approximate name search combines the concepts of both phonetics and pattern recognition and would give better results. 5.1. Underlying Concept Behind the New Approach The search logic of the new approach is based on number theory, phonetics and pattern recognition. It uses complex mathematical calculations and empirical expressions to determine a match. The parts of a name are converted into a set of tokens based on the spacing between each part. If a source name S has three parts it will be converted to three tokens S1,S2,S3. Before proceeding further, the computational complexity has to be analyzed. 5.2. The Possible Comparisons Involved Due to Variations Associated with a Name The computational complexity can be known if we can determine the number of possible comparisons between two names. If S (Source) is a name containing 3 tokens (S1,S2,S3) and T(Target) is the name to compared with and having two tokens (T1,T2) , the following are the possible comparisons. Where the order of components is changed while spelling remains same. In addition to the order, certain 200

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components may be merged, split. This will lead to m!xn! combinations where m, n are the number of tokens in source & target respectively. For example if S1,S2,S3 are tokens on source side and T1,T2 are tokens on the target side, the resulting combinations on the source side are S1S2S3, S1S3S2, ,S3S2S1, S2S1S3, S3S1S2, S2S3S1 (6) which are compared for equality against the resulting combinations on the target side viz., T1T2, T2T1 (2). Thus 6x2=12 comparisons are involved. Where certain components are misspelled and the order of components changed as well but no merger or split takes place i.e., the number of parts is the same on the source & target side. This will lead to nxn! comparisons. Here a 1-1 relationship has to be established between the source & target tokens though in any order of the tokens. For example if S1,S2,S3 & T1,T2,T3 are tokens on source side & target side respectively the collection of mappings checked are { (S1 (S1 (S1 c) Where Split. T1,S2 T2,S3 T3), (S1 T1,S2 T3,S3 T2), T2,S2 T3,S3 T1), (S1 T2,S2 T1,S3 T3), T3,S2 T2,S3 T1), (S1 T3,S2 T1,S3 T2) } there are Spelling Variations, Order Changed Together with Certain Components Merged/

This is the most difficult variation to handle as all possible variations act in conjunction. Any variation a name could be subjected to, is definite to fall in this category even if it does not fall in the above two steps. No of composite tokens generated with primary tokens: n

No of composite tokens generated when 2 are merged within n tokens: nP2 No of composite tokens generated when r are merged within n tokens: nPr Total number of composite tokens is:

r =1

nPr =

r =1

n! (n r )!

Thus if the number of parts in the source and target are m & n respectively, the total number of combinations are

m m! r =1 ( m r )!

n n! . r =1 ( n r )!

For example if S1, S2, S3 & T1,T2 are tokens on source side & target side respectively, the composite tokens on the source side are S1, S2, S3, S1S2, S2S1, S1S3, S3S1, S2S3, S3S2, S1S2S3, S1S3S2, S3S2S1, S2S1S3, S3S1S2, S2S3S1 (15) and the number of tokens on the target side are T1, T2, T1T2, T2T1 (4) and the total combinations tried are thus 60. Thus the total comparisons are sum of the above three. The number of comparisons thus are very large indeed particularly when working on very large databases.

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5.3. Two Step Process Historically the problem of identifying matches in the large database is typically addressed in two distinct stages. In the first step, called retrieval, a computationally inexpensive procedure is used to find an initial set of candidate strings. In the second step, called similarity assessment, a more accurate, but also more computationally expensive, procedure is applied to each element of the candidate set to determine the actual matches. 5.4. Retrieval through Phonems The first step is retrieval. Historically several alternative approaches have been applied to retrieval. The simplest approach is exhaustive matching, i.e., applying the similarity measure to every pattern/target pair. This is tractable only for the smallest pattern and target sets. A second approach indexes patterns using a hash function, like phonetic encoding . The hash value of each target string is then used as a key to retrieve the set of all patterns sharing the same hash value. For example, if Soundex were used as the hash function, the Soundex encoding of the target name Mohammed, M530, would be identical the encoding of the pattern names Muhamet and Mohamed. In general, any hash function that insures matches between some similar strings will fail to match other, equally similar strings. Multiple independent hash function are therefore required to insure high recall . In n-gram indexing, a third approach to retrieval, each pattern string is indexed by every n-element sub string, i.e., every sequence of n contiguous letters occurring in the pattern string. The candidates for each target string are retrieved using the n-grams in the target as keys. The authors have proposed a new efficient hash key called Phonem for efficient retrieval the objective being the data set after retrieval should be as small as possible without missing the right matches. Few representative characters from the given name are identified and a number is generated out of them based on prime number theory. This number is referred to as Phonem. Associated with this Phonem a Phonem set is generated. The elements of the set will represent the Phonems of all possible variations of the given name discussed earlier. These are generated based on the degree of the exhaustiveness the search. The more exhaustive the search the more are the elements in the set. For a name with n parts, if it is intended to match with names having parts varying from (n-l) to (n+m) parts, l & m being the upper and the lower bound, the number of elements in Phonem set would be

k=nl

nP +10m
k

For example for Gouravelli Venugopal Rao the associated Phonem will be 399 and the Phonem set is {21,11571,798,57,1197,9177,133,1995,7581,3,6783,2793,399,7,4389,5187,19} for l=2 and m=1 During the retrieval all the names where all those records having a phonem value equal to any of the element within the set are retrieved from the database. This retrieved data set will be subjected to the similarity assessment. 5.5. Similarity Assessment through Token Matching As explained earlier during retrieval, the possible names from the large set are identified based on the value of Phonems. The next step is similarity assessment. The parts of a name are converted into a set of tokens, each token representing a part of the name. A token is a numeric value generated by a proprietary hash function using prime number theory. These are referred to as primary tokens, which have a 1-1 relation with the parts of a name. Thus the number of primary tokens is equal to number of parts in the name. Various 202

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combinations of primary tokens generate a set of composite tokens. How the tokens are matched: A pair of tokens ( from both primary and composite token collection) choosing one each from source and target is checked for pattern similarity and pronunciation similarity. In the check for pattern similarity, the two tokens are checked for the closeness of their spelling without considering their pronunciation. Essentially it is a measure of the number of characters common between the two tokens along with their position in the strings. In pronunciation similarity the two tokens are checked for the phonetic similarity without considering the way they are spelled. The check for pronunciation similarity will be carried out only on failure of first criteria. Separate empirical expressions are used for pattern and pronunciation similarity. The constants and exponents within these mathematical expressions will influencing the quality of match (liberal or tight) and can be fixed by the user. Once all the tokens of the source name are compared with those of targets, based upon the total number of tokens matched , a match is decided which could be classified into a non matched, narrow or exhaustive match. Typically a narrow match means all the tokens on both source and target are matched. Exhaustive match means all tokens on one side (source or target) are matched and few tokens on the other side are not matched . Fig1 and Fig2 pictorially represent the matching process. Fig1 represents the pattern similarity and Fig2 represents pronunciation similarity. Three parameters Param1, Param2 and Param3 are calculated using proprietary hash functions and checked whether they satisfy the expressions discussed above. These remain constant for given pair of tokens. The location of point within the feasible region corresponding to a set of

Fig. 1 : A pictorial representation of the Pattern Similarity to determine a match

Fig. 2 : A pictorial representation of Pronunciation Similarity to determine a match.

tokens will depend on these values and therefore is also fixed. Param1 and Param2 are considered for Pattern similarity and Param 1 and Param 3 for Pronunciation Similarity. The regions of Pattern and Pronunciation similarity are user defined. The degree of closeness will define the boundaries of these regions. The user can fix the Degree of Closeness (a value between 0 and 1) which defines the matching region. The constants and exponents within the mathematical expressions are calibrated with the value of the Degree of Closeness. Thus while the position of a point is fixed, the user may alter the degree of closeness which alters the matching region and decides a match. 203

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The following illustration depict the matching process with this approach. The match basis reported in the table below is for a degree of closeness of 0.77. Source Name: Gouravelli R Venugopal Source Phonem:399 Source Phonem Set: [133,19,21,3,399,57,7,11571,1197,1995,2793,4389,5187,6783,7581,798,9177] Target Name: Veni Gopal Gorawelli Rao Target Phonem:2793 Here the Target Phonem is an element of the Source Phonem Set and is thus retrieved from the database. Once the record is fetched from the database, matching is performed between the tokens as under. The hash value corresponding to Gouravelli from source and Gorawelli from target are sent for matching which will result in a match. The hash value corresponding to Venugopal from source is compared with composite token generated from Veni & Gopal from target which will result in a match. Since on the source side only R is left and an expanded Rao exists on target side, the system will interpret Rao as an expanded form of R and declare them as matched. PrimeMatch has the flexibility of defining the minimum number of expanded matches for complete name match. Those tokens which are matched are said to be exhausted. In this case, since the tokens on either side are exhausted, the names are treated as match The associated parameters for the tokens are given in Table 1 Table 1 : (Associated Parameters)
Source/Target Token Gouravelli/ Gorawelli Venugopal/ Veni Gopal Param1 .6849 .9020 Param2 .7822 .9160 Param3 Match Basis .8756 Phonetic Similarity .9850 Pattern Similarity

6. Bench marking and Implementation


The depositories were directed to undertake a de duplication of the client database to detect the multiple accounts. One of the depositories has examined the solutions proposed by number of vendors. After a thorough benchmarking of these solutions , the depository has found that the solution using the approach discussed in this paper to be superior in terms of speed, accuracy, and reduced false positives and has implemented the same.

7. Concluding Remarks
The need of name matching arises in a wide variety of contexts, including many law enforcement and counter-terrorism tasks. It has arisen in a specific context of fraud prevention in India where the shares in IPOs were cornered illegally by some individuals by making multiple applications and holding multiple accounts in the depositories. An advanced approximate name matching technology is essential to stop such misuse. Development of powerful approximate string-matching algorithms has improved the accuracy and efficiency of information retrieval and character-based similarity assessment The authors present here an approach to approximate name matching technology that is capable to handle all conceivable variations in the name using combination of both phonetics and pattern recognition in conjunction with prime number 204

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theory. It overcomes many of the shortcomings of the existing algorithms that uses only phonetics or similarity metrics and deliver better accuracy and reduced false positives. It is scalable to meet the most demanding search volume from thousands to millions of records with the high speed and efficiency. The effectiveness of the approach was validated by one of the depository in India which has selected this model after a detailed technical evaluation of a number of solutions.

References
1. 2. Venkateshwar, Rao G.T. (1997) Implementation of two by four scheme using data matching, Hyderabad Osmania University (dissertation for M.Tech. in Computer Science) Venkateshwar Rao, G.T., Chitoor, Bhavanishanker, Reddy, Venkat K, Rao, G Venugopal, (2005). An alternative solution to biometrics Systems to ensure uniqueness in allotment of identity numbers In Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on E Governance ICEG 2005 page 8 Lahore, Pakistan Dec 2005 Venkateshwar Rao, G.T., Chitoor, Bhavanishanker, Reddy, Venkat K, Rao, G Venugopal, (2005). Intelligent Data Mining to build 360 degree transaction profile of citizens for detecting tax evasion through a revolutionary name search engine, Third International Conference on Innovative applications of Information Technology for developing world, AACC 2005 Kathmandu Nepal Dec 2005. Branting Karl, (2003). A Comparative Evaluation of Name-Matching Algorithms International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law ICAIL 224-232 2003. Sunita Sarawagi, Anuradha Bhamidipati, (2002). Interactive de duplication using active learning ,Proceedings of the ACM-SIGKDD, International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Edmonton, Canada 2002. Cohen , W.and Richman, J, (2001). Learning to match and cluster entity names. In ACM SIGIR 01 Workshop on Mathematical / Formal Methods in Information Retrieval 2001. Kondrak, G , (2000) A new algorithm for the alignment of phonetic sequences. In Proceedings of the First meeting of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL2000), pages 288295. ACL, May 2000. Lutz, R and S. Greene, (2003). Measuring phonological similarity: The case of personal names. White paper, Language Analysis Systems, Inc. 2003. Newcombe H.B., Kennedy, J.M., Axford, S.J., and James A.P., (1959). Automatic linkage of vital records. Science, 130:954959, 1959. Alvaro E. Monge and Charles P. Elkan, (1997) An efficient domain-independent algorithm for detecting approximately duplicate database records. In Proceedings of the SIGMOD 1997 Workshop on Research Issues on Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, pages 2329, Tuscon, AZ, May 1997. Wrinkler, W.E., (1995). Matching and Record Linkage. In B.G.C et al, editor, Business Survey Methods, Pages 355-384, New York : J.Wiley, 1995. available from http://www.census.gov. Wrinkler, W.E., (1999). The state of record linkage and current research problems. RR99/04, http:// www.census.gov/srd/papers/pdf/rr99-04.pdf, 1999.

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11. 12.

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Towards a Strategy for Implementing E-governance Applications: A Case Study of Integrated Fertilizers Management Information System
P.K.Suri1 and Sushil2

ABSTRACT
In-depth planning and an effective implementation strategy are essential factors for success of any programme including e-governance. E-Governance initiatives have generally been technology dominated. However, there are several challenges, apart from technology, which need to be overcome for success of any e-governance programme. In the recent past, several Government departments in India have made substantial investments for building Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities as per Governments direction during 1997. Few ambitious departments had initiated such programmes even before that. However, as was observed subsequently by the Planning Commission in the X five year plan document, the efforts largely remained confined to building of technology infrastructure only. There remained big gaps between deliverables conceived by different departments and their actual realization insofar as e-governance applications were concerned. These gaps could well be due to over-emphasis on technology by different departments rather than adopting a holistic approach by involving various stakeholders while formulating their IT plans. In this study, we have attempted to explore deeper in this issue by conducting SAP-LAP analysis of computerization programme of a Central Government department, viz. Department of Fertilizers whose functioning involves dealing with multiple stakeholders. The study has helped in arriving at a suggestive approach for formulating a realistic strategy for implementing e-governance applications.

Keywords: E-governance, SAP-LAP, strategy, stakeholders, Fertilizers Informatics

1. Introduction
The opportunities offered by e-governance are well recognized. Governments around the globe are striving hard to leverage ICT for achieving functional efficiencies and strengthening of interfaces with citizens. In particular, developing countries perceive this as an opportunity in the form of a fast track route to development. The perception has triggered large scale investments towards e-governance by several governments. Realization of true benefits of e-governance, however, demands an enabling environment. This in turn require tackling a complex mix of political, social, economic and technological challenges (Backus,2001). In the past, several of the e-governance initiatives in developing countries have failed to deliver as per expectations (Heeks,2003). The Indian experience is no different. With only few scattered

* 2

Technical Director, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, New Delhi, India Corresponding Author : (Phone: +91-11-24367712, Email: pksuri@nic.in) Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India

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success stories, Planning Commission has pointedly urged for improving efficiencies in government service delivery system (Tenth Five Year Plan Document,2002-07). Even though developments such as Information Technology Act 2000, National e-Governance Plan (2003-07) , Right to Information Act 2005 and setting up of Administrative Reforms Commission 2005 are big steps towards an enabling environment, much remains to be done to address the concerns raised about inherent inefficiencies in the government system and low success rates of e-governance projects. The government system comprise several independent organizations with specific mandates and stakeholders to deal with. For improving efficiencies and service delivery, e-governance needs to be studied from the viewpoint of stakeholders (internal and external actors) at the organizational level and corrective measures need to be taken for refining the conventional planning and strategic framework for better results. Analyzing e-governance from a complex systems standpoint, Pande(2004) recommended for including all stakeholders, linkages and communication loops as part of the initial design for better outcomes of efforts put for e-governance. This, however, should not be interpreted as an argument in favour of setting-up an ambitious project scope. Often a large-scope project involves a very large number of stakeholders who are affected by the e-government application. This increases the risk of failure. It is , therefore, important to define an appropriate scope of project with measurable goals in terms of the specific benefits that would be delivered to citizens, businesses or government employees (stakeholders) depending on the nature of application (Bhatnagar, 2004, Gupta et al, 2004) . Tan et al(2005) have observed that the emergence of organizational e-governance has made obsolete old administrative wisdom about power distribution in public institutions. In its place, there is a rising need to view strategic stakeholder management as an important competitive imperative of e-government. As such, business-IT integration in public administration should evolve along the direction of a strategic convergence of stakeholders interests. Kumar et al (2004) have argued for pre-defining the effectiveness parameters of e-governance programmes and carefully managing the factors of change to give real benefits to different stakeholders involved in such programmes. Scholl(2005), however, cautions that contrary to private-sector organizations, public entities face a far different decision-making environment of distributed control and divided powers. Therefore, efforts to organize and practice effective information sharing in the public sector have to be mindful of deliberately imposed (constitutional or other legal) barriers, organizational impediments, technology obstacles, and the stakeholders concerns regarding the policies, the processes, the procedures and the extent of sharing information between agencies. The low success rates of e-governance programmes could well be due to assuming default involvement of internal and external actors with such programmes. Treating e-governance as a managerial context, we feel that realization of deliverables conceived under any such programme depend on the context specific interplay of situation, actors and processes. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study this aspect by conducting Situation-Actor-Process-Learning-Action-Performance(SAP-LAP) analysis (Sushil,2001) of computerization programme of a central Government Department, viz. Department of Fertilizers(DoF). The learning issues have helped in proposing strategic actions for better outcomes and bringing out a suggestive SAP based strategy to avoid deadlock like situations while implementing egovernance applications.

2. Methodology
The study methodology involves developing an understanding about the functioning of the DoF, its linkages with various stakeholders and the progress of departments computerization programme by reviewing annual reports, project documents, IT plan documents, relevant contents available on the website (www.fert.nic.in) and discussion with officials. Literature review has been carried out to understand egovernance from stakeholders perspective. We have used SAP-LAP framework to conduct the case study. SAP-LAP is an innovative and holistic framework for case analysis. SAP provides a methodical construct to deal with the interplay of three entities - Situation, Actor, Process - contained in any management context. The interplay and synthesis of SAP leads to key learning issues based on which actions are suggested to improve the performance(LAP). The interplay of SAP and LAP makes the complete SAP-LAP framework 207

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as shown in Figure 1. E-governance is also a management context comprising changing situations, a group of actors and a set of processes whose complex interplay can be systematically analyzed using this framework

Fig. 1 : SAP-LAP Framework (Source : Sushil, 2001)

3. Case Description
3.1. Importance of Fertilizers in Indian Agriculture Fertilizers have played an important role in the success of Indias green revolution and consequent selfreliance in food-grain production. Government of India has, therefore, been consistently pursuing policies conducive to increased availability and consumption of fertilizers in the country. The National Agriculture Policy (NAP) announced in the year 2000 aims at agricultural growth in excess of 4 per cent per annum. This seems to be a formidable task when compared with the long run growth rate of 2.55 per cent per annum in the post independence period. The ambitious target set by NAP can be achieved either by bringing more area under cultivation or by improving the crop productivity. Out of the total 306 million hectare, the net sown area in the country seems to have reached its plateau of 141 to 142 million hectare. Of the remaining, about 80 million hectares of wasteland has been proposed to be used for agriculture and afforestation under NAP. This, however, appears to be a daunting task as it requires heavy capital investments to make this land productive. Therefore, in view of the limited scope for expanding the land area under cultivation, further increase in agriculture production can be achieved only by increasing productivity. Since adequate and balanced use of fertilizers can have tremendous impact on improving crop productivity (Chand 2005, Chakrabarty 2003), fertilizers will continue to play a pivotal role in the efforts for sustaining agricultural growth in India. The task force on the balanced use of fertilizers set up by the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation has projected that the requirement of fertilizers in nutrient terms will reach 28.8 million MTs in the final year of Eleventh Plan as compared to the present consumption of 19 million MTs. However, the present level of use of inorganic fertilizers in the country is quite low (96.7 Kg in 2004-05) when compared 208

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with many of the developing countries like China(275 Kg), Korea Republic (410 Kg), Pakistan (138 Kg), Sri Lanka (310 Kg) and Bangladesh (178 Kg). Governments thrust therefore continues to be on increasing the consumption of fertilizers by making them available timely, adequately, at affordable price and in good quality throughout the country. Government is also promoting Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) by encouraging soil test based judicious and balanced use of chemical fertilizers, bio-fertilizers and locally available organic manures to maintain soil health and its productivity for improving agriculture growth. 3.2. Fertilizers Information Linkages of DoF There are 57 large sized fertilizer plants in the country manufacturing a wide range of nitrogenous, phosphatic and complex fertilizers. The country has achieved near self sufficiency for meeting the present domestic requirements of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers. However, the raw materials and intermediates for the same are largely imported. The requirement of potash is also met through imports for lack of reserves in the country. At the Centre Government level, the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation(DAC) makes fertilizers demand assessment through half yearly zonal input conferences in consultation with the State Governments and fertilizer industry. Thereafter, the Department of Fertilizers makes an assessment of the likely production in consultation with manufacturers and arranges for meeting the deficit through import. DoF ensures adequate availability of fertilizers through issuance of Essential Commodities Act (ECA) supply plan and movement control order for indigenous and imported urea respectively. The availability of decontrolled fertilizers viz. Phosphatic(P) and Potassic(K) is left to market forces. The reasonableness of fertilizers prices is maintained through payment of subsidy to manufacturers of urea and concessions on sales of P and K fertilizers by the DoF. Financial support is also extended to State Trading Enterprises (STEs) and Handling Agents for imported urea. The DoF constantly monitors the production/import and movement of urea (the only controlled fertilizer) and keeps the apex authorities [Prime Ministers Office(PMO), Cabinet Secretariat (CS), Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation(MSPI), Department of Public Enterprises(DPE), Fertilizers Association of India(FAI)] informed about the status. The co-ordination by DoF is limited to making fertilizers available at state level only as per their demands. Intra-state movement of fertilizers falls under the purview of respective State Governments. The information linkages of DoF with various agencies are presented in Figure 2. The Department is broadly divided into four divisions to carry out its functions: Fertilizer Projects and Planning Division comprising Projects Planning, Policy Planning and Production Planning wings. Fertilizer Imports, Movement and Distribution Division comprising Imports & Adhoc Concessions, Fertilizer Accounts, Movement and Distribution Wings. Administration and Vigilance Division. Finance and Accounts Division comprising Fertilizer Industry Co-ordination Committee(FICC), Finance wing and Cash wing. 3.3. On-Line System for Fertilizer Management Fertilizer Management On-line is progressively being evolved by the DoF with the technical support of National Informatics Centre(NIC) for improving internal efficiency and strengthening of its linkages with various stakeholders. The system aims at supporting the national objective of ensuring timely and adequate supply of good quality fertilizers to farmers at affordable price. The system contains a set of modules for monitoring fertilizer production and distribution, import handling & payments, equated freight fixation and concessions/ subsidy payments (Good Governance Through ICT, 2005). A brief description of important modules of Fertilizer Management On-line along with few sample snapshots of user interfaces is presented in Appendix 1. The implementation status is brought out in Table 1. 209

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Fig. 2: Information linkages of DoF (Source: Information Technology Plan for the Fertilizer Sector, December 1998)

DoF has been aspiring for an integrated fertilizers MIS since the year 1993. Once fully operational, such a system is expected to facilitate keeping a constant vigil on the demand, supply and availability position to minimize the demand-supply gap in different parts of the country besides timely processing of claims of manufacturers, handling agents etc. It may, however, be observed that although various functional requirements 210

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Table 1: Implementation Status


S.No
1.

Usage Level
Fertilizer Production Monitoring System Extensively being used by about 50 fertilizers companies for submitting fortnightly production data. Some are providing monthly consumption and requirement of raw material data also. Fertilizer Distribution and Movement Information System Extensively being used by fertilizers companies for submitting fortnightly fertilizers dispatch and sales data and their monthly plan for movement of fertilizers to States earmarked by the DoF under the seasonal supply plan.

Remarks
The system provides up-to-date information on fertilizers production has facilitated timely submission of fertilizers availability reports to the apex Ministries by DoF. Companies being monitored for production data only. Interfaces with apex authorities yet to be automated. The system has facilitated formulation of supply plan by DoF and its implementation through the manufacturers. Despite the system having the capability, supply plan is continued to be prepared offline by DoF using inputs from the system. Has facilitated instant access to supply plan by States. Online access to movement plan by companies yet to be permitted by DoF. No provision to monitor district and below district level supply of fertilizers. Users preference for manual processing of bills due to low import volumes. Likely to be used extensively in near future with Governments encouragement on joint venture production in countries having rich reserves of natural gas and rock phosphates. Not linked to Production and Distribution systems and thus not useful in preparing import plan based on demand-supply gaps. No provision to monitor district and below district level supply of fertilizers. Not accessible to external stakeholders. Uncertainty in Fertilizer Pricing Policy acting as a deterrent in developing a fully integrated system. Regulated and de-regulated fertilizers being handled by different divisions who prefer separate applications and databases. Not accessible to external stakeholders.

2.

3.

Handling & Payments System for Fertilizer Imports Tested and Deployed but not being used at present.

4.

Fertilizer Import Management Information System Tested and Deployed but not being used at present.

5.

Integrated Pricing Information System Still evolving. Separate applications implemented for settling monthly claims received under concession scheme for de-regulated fertilizers and release of subsidy for urea. Interface with fertilizer companies with respect to submission of claims and disbursement of payments yet to be automated.

of the DoF have been largely incorporated in the ICT based system, there are noticeable gaps with respect to achieving an integrated MIS on fertilizers. In the next section, we have, therefore, attempted to study the evolution of this system over a period of time and explore the intricacies involved in order to have a better understanding about the factors responsible for these gaps

4. SAP Analysis
An analysis of changes in situation and interplay of actors and processes with regard to computerization programme of DoF is summarized below: 4.1. Situation The progress of computerization in the DoF can be broadly categorised into four phases, viz. Adhoc approach (1986-1995), Attempts for an Integrated Fertilizers Management Information System (1995-1999), IT Plan for the Fertilizer Sector(1998-2002) and IT Plan for the Fertilizer Sector (2002-2007). These phases are analyzed as follows: Adhoc Approach: 1986-1995 Fertilizer Informatics Unit was set-up by NIC in the year 1986 to provide informatics support to the fertilizer sector. The unit extended support to Fertilizers Division of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation(DAC) and the Department of Fertilizers, Government of India. There was no separate allocation of budget by DoF or DAC for the development of IT based solutions in the fertilizer sector. The phase may be 211

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characterized as follows: Routine day to day IT support provided by NIC-DoF Division as in the case of other GoI offices. Fertilizers installed capacity, production, consumption, retention price and subsidy payment details maintained in spreadsheets and FoxPlus based systems; centralised computing environment. Adhoc approach for adopting IT. Disconnected DoF and DAC offices. Low ICT penetration in different divisions of DoF and DAC. Attempts for an Integrated Fertilizer Management Information System: 1995-1999 DoF approved NIC proposal for evolving an Integrated Fertilizer Management Information System (IFMIS) during March 1995. The project, scheduled to be completed in two years at a cost of Rs. 1.70 crore, was based on a study conducted by DoF through Tata Consultancy Services in the year 1993. An analysis of IFMIS proposal and the inputs obtained through interaction with the team members reveal that there was considerable delay in the implementation of the project. The actual periods during which major components planned under IFMIS were delivered can be categorized as 1995-97 (Establishment of ICT infrastructure) and 1998-99 (Application Development). A summary of planned deliverables, actual realization and the reasons for gaps are summarized in Tables 2 and 3. IT Plan for the Fertilizer Sector: 1998-2002 NIC submitted an IT Plan for fertilizer sector for the period 1998-2002 during December, 1998. The first year of the plan overlapped with IFMIS project period which was extended to enable completion of application development component. The plan laid emphasis on further strengthening of ICT infrastructure and enhancing skills of officers and staff of DoF for making use of the facilities provided. Other than routine office automation applications, no domain specific application was proposed in the plan. The total plan outlay was projected as Rs 1.98 crore. Table 4 summarizes the planned and realized deliverables and the reasons for gaps. The hardware procurement and deployment as also training components were taken over from NIC by the IT Division created in the Department during 1999. IT Plan for the Fertilizer Sector: 2002-2007 With the advancement of technology, it was desirable to develop web based applications to facilitate online entry of data expected from fertilizer companies and other stakeholders. The IT Plan for 2002-2007 accordingly projected web enablement of the key applications developed under IFMIS and making effective use of the 100 mbps LAN established in the DoF. At the execution stage, the application development component was entrusted to NIC whereas the enhancement of computing environment and training components continued to be handled by IT Division of DoF as in the case of previous plan. Table 5 summarizes the planned and realized deliverables and the reasons for gaps. Apart from the reasons stated above, it has emerged from the discussion with officials involved in the implementation of the systems that the progress is also hampered by factors like lack of regular review and monitoring, shifts in priorities with changes in leadership, non fixing of responsibilities of different divisions with respect to IT systems and dependence on multiple divisions for updating the database. The situation analysis, as brought out in this section, reflect that although the need for evolving an Integrated Fertilizers Management Information System was realized by the Government way back in 1993, its implementation has only partially been achieved. Even though substantial efforts have been put in establishing state-of-the art ICT infrastructure and migrating the applications to new technology environment from time to time, much remains to be done before the real benefits are accrued as per expectations. It is strongly felt that the situation will continue to persist unless a different approach is adopted for implementing the system. In 212

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Table. 2: Deliverables under IFMIS Stage I (1995-1997)

S.No. 1.

Deliverables Realized Domain Specific Application Systems Manpower i. Fertilizer Planning System during the ii. Budget System progress w absence of iii. Fertilizer Import Management who p System Could not be knowledge. iv. Fertilizer Distribution System taken up Project act v. Fertilizer Handling and Payment taken up in System for Imports Focus rema vi. Fertilizer Project Monitoring System of ICT infra vii.Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System Planned

2. ICT Infrastructure the next section, it is attempted to understand the complex interplay of actors and processes involved in Computer Centre established IFMIS. Based on the learning issues, it is then attempted to work out a SAP based strategyin the offices Infrastructure for implementing located at Shastri Bhavan, Krishi Bhavan, set-up as e-governance projects. Udyog Bhavan, Janpath Bahavan, Super planned but Bazzar Building and Seva Bhavan in New there Delhi. schedule Unix based Server with terminals extended slippage There are several actors involved in the implementation of IFMIS whose active participation is important to sections through serial cables in each of for success of the project. Based on the study, key processes in offices. these fertilizer management and the actors Internet connectivity established through involved have been identified and brought out in Table 6. VSAT/RF Link/Dial-up modem based on Each of the processes mentioned in Table 6 can be further broken into sub-processes. As an illustration, communication traffic. Server access through dumb terminals PCs for senior officers only. 213

Procedural and execu hardware pr

4.2. Processes and Actors Interplay

was

Non readine

3. IT skills to make use of computing facilities Application Usage

Training Series of inhouse training programmes organized. Could not be taken up

Limited par divisions.

Delay in app

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Table 3: Deliverables under IFMIS Stage II (1998-1999)

S.No. Planned 1. As above in Table 3

Deliverables Realized Domain Specific Application Systems All applications except Budget System developed and handed over by NIC for operationalization; Fertilizer Project Monitoring System could not be implemented

interplay of process 8 with actors is sub-divided further in Table 6.1 and a sub-process therein is further split in Table 6.2. The interplay of sub-processes of process 8 with actors is presented in Table 6.3.

The below matrices give an indication about involvement of various internal and external actors in the execution of various processes. This aspect needs to be appropriately addressed while prioritizing the applications to be taken up for development in a large computerization programme. A process becomes inflexible if it is linked with several interdependent actors. Such processes need to be dealt with carefully to make them adaptable to the IT environment. In the above illustration, sub-processes 1,2,5,6,7,9 and 10 are likely to be more adaptive to computerization in contrast to sub-processes 3 and 4 when compared in terms of Integrated system could not be evolved number of actors they are associated with.

At sta the sys mo the NI mo pro and con cha po dis ure

La par coh org

5. Learning Issues

ICT Infrastructure Strengthening of NICNET LAN at all Implemented the DoF offices. Following learning issues have emerged from the SAP analysis:

2.

214
3.

PCs and internet access for key officers and staff IT skills to make use of computing facilities Application Usage

Implemented Training Basic skills upgraded Partially implemented

Pro pla of pro

Di in co tra ina no

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Table 4 : IT Plan for Fertilizer Sector: 1998-2002


S.No. 1. Deliverables Realized Domain Specific Application Systems new requirement No application system planned for A development during the period. emerged for developing Schemes Thrust was on implementation of Concession System. systems developed under IFMIS Information Requirement study was project undertaken during OctDec 2000. The system was implemented at Concession Wing and Fertilizer accounts wing during 2001. Planned ICT Infrastructure Implemented by DoF as per proposed in IT plan Training Different levels of officers could not be trained as per plan. Reluctance to nominate officials for regular training due to other office exigencies. Reasons for Gaps

Concession scheme for de-controlled fertilizers transferred to DoF by DAC on 1st October 2000. The system was required to be implemented on priority to settle large number of claims regularly to be settled by DoF.

2. PCs and internet access for Assistants and Clerks 3. IT skills to make use of computing facilities, office automation etc.

Management of fertilizers is a complex exercise involving multiple stakeholders. Automation of workflows with these stakeholders is a challenging task. The uncertain fertilizer policy environment has added further to the complexities. Even though several applications have been evolved under IFMIS, the envisaged integrated system is yet to be realized due to apparently wrong approach of targeting the existing procedures for computerization without effecting any re-engineering. Fertilizer is one of the important inputs to agriculture. Assessment of current and future fertilizer demand requires integration of IFMIS with agricultural databases. It is, therefore, important to have sound agricultural databases at central and state level for achieving desired efficiencies. The Department has established adequate ICT infrastructure with the technical support of NIC. However, the capabilities built have not yet been fully leveraged for generating the desired business value from the investments made. In practice, only those divisions have actively supported computerization whose outcomes are closely monitored by apex authorities. The situation could be the result of relying exclusively on IT executives for formulating the IT plans as has been explored by Jeane and Peter (2002) by studying several IT projects in the corporate sector. The ICT based systems proposed in the successive IT plans of DoF seem to be highly ambitious keeping in view dependence of the target systems on active participation of various actors beyond the control of DoF. Non involvement of such stakeholders at the planning stage has resulted in gaps with respect to development and implementation of such systems.

6. Proposed Actions and Expected Benefits


Based on learning issues, actions are suggested for enhancing the performance of the Integrated Fertilizers MIS being evolved by NIC-DoF. Table 7 presents the proposed actions and the corresponding expected benefits that are likely to accrue. 215

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Table 5: IT Plan for Fertilizer Sector: 2002-2007 (Status as on 8.7.2006)

S.No. 1.

Deliverables Realized Reaso Domain Specific Application Systems Implemented with DoFs p Fertilizer Production continuat curtailed Information System establishe functionalities reporting Fertilizer Distribution and -doMovement Information System Planned Integrated Pricing Information

Three The SAP analysis of Fertilizer MIS of DoF has revealed that System a detailed analysis of Situation-Actors- independent systems (Concession Process interplay may help in minimizing design-reality gaps and better utilization of resources. In a relatively scheme, equated stable situation, it is expected that the following approach will help in reducing deadlock like conditions at freights, subsidy the implementation stage: payment)

Fear of over deci

Implementation awaited Implementation Prioritize application development and deployment in terms of manageable interplay of processes and awaited Model based Systems actors. For example, a process having linkages with only internal actors is expected to be easier to handle Capacity Build-up Plan than the one having linkages with external actors. Production Plan Could not be taken-up Enhance the system capabilities incrementally based on priorities set in step iv. Movement Plan
Port Nomination Plan so far. 2. ICT Infrastructure The study component comprising learning issues, strategic actions and expected benefits needs to be Implemented by DoF Hardware and software further strengthened by conducting an empirical analysis in addition to SAP analysis of the project. The in IT plan as proposed items for enhancing the computing environment 3. Training 216 Application usage and office productivity tools Partially implemented

Handling and Payment System Develop actor-process interplay matrices. for Fertilizer Imports Rank actors in terms of number of processes they are involvedFertilizer Imports Management with. System Rank processes in terms of number of actors involved in handling a process.

Manual s due to volumes, control divisions

Lack participat stakehold

Reluctanc nominatin for train implemen applicatio the IT pla

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Table 6: Processes and Actors Interplay


S.No
1. 2.

Process
Assessment of Season-wise Demand Assessment of availability of fertilizers and feedstock Preparation of Production Plan Preparation of Import Plan based on assessment of demand-supply Gap Fertilizer import

Actors Involved
State Agriculture Departments, Central Department of Agriculture and Co-operation DoF, Fertilizer Companies, Department of Energy, Department of Coal, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Feedstock suppliers, State Governments DoF, Manufacturers DoF Import and Ocean Freight Sections of DoF, Canalizing Agencies, Department of Shipping, Foreign Suppliers, Vessel Owners, Brokers in case of Foreign Flag Vessel Department of Fertilizers, Manufacturers DoF, State Governments, Ministry of Railways, Department of Road Transport and Highways, Handling Agents, Grassroots organizations like co-operatives and retail outlets of companies DoF, DAC, State Governments, Manufacturers, Importers, Handling Agents DoF, DAC

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

8.

Preparation of Movement Plan Fertilizer Distribution and Administration of Fertilizers Movement Control Order,1960 Management of subsidy for fertilizers

9.

10.

Planning for fertilizer production based on likely growth of agriculture, globalization issues Formulation of Fertilizers policy

11.

Regular progress reporting regulatory/monitoring organizations

to

DoF, Experts from industry, academia and related organizations viz. DAC, Indian Council of Agriculture Research , Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Fertilizer Association of India Prime Minister Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Planning Commission, Department of Expenditure, Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Table 6.1: Management of Subsidy for Fertilizers


Sen.
8(a) (Table 7)

Process

Actors In

Management of subsidy for urea manufactured indigenously :

Fertilizer Industry Co-ordi comprising Secretaries to go in of Expenditure, Department Promotion, Ministry of Pet Chairman Tariff Commissi fertilizer industry and Ex supported by :

8.1

Concession rates for the various urea manufacturing units and revision thereof depending upon the variations in the prices of inputs from time to time Annual exercise for fixation of equated freight for transportation of urea from plant gate to farmers; Allocation of coal to different coal based urea manufacturing units Payment of subsidy and maintenance of accounts [ for both 8(a) and 8(b) ]

Cost Evaluation Division of FIC

8.2

Inputs Division of FICC; Min Railways

8.3 Technical matters such as fixation of consumption norms, production levels, etc. Management of subsidy on imported urea and decontrolled fertilizer: Administration of concession scheme concession on decontrolled fertilizers and

Finance & Accounts Division o

8.4 8.5 8(b)

Technical Division of FICC

Fertilizer Accounts Wing of Section, Ocean Freight Sec Canalizing agents, Handling Ag Concession wing of DoF Manufacturers/Importers

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Table 6.2: Sub-Processes under Administration of concession scheme and concession on Decontrolled fertilizers Sen. Sub-Processes 1. Annual announcement of base rates of concession by DoF 2. Quarterly announcement of final concession rates by DoF 3. Periodical inspection of SSP/DAP/NPK units across the country by Technical Audit and Inspection Cell (TAC) to ensure quality of fertilizers and counter check concessions claimed by manufacturers 4. Co-ordination with States for timely submission of sales certificates 5. Submission of monthly On Account claims by manufacturers/importers for payment of first installment of concession 6. Submission of intermediate claims by manufacturers/importers for payment of second installment of concession when sales certificates from States are delayed 7. Submission of claim by manufacturers/importers for release of balance payment of concession 8. Preparation of internal noting for approval and issuing of sanction orders for the use of Pay and Accounts Officer 9. Settlement of claims of companies at various stages 10. Maintenance of Company-wise details of payments made, liabilities, expenditure control register Table 6.3: Interplay of Actors with Sub-processes

S.No. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Actors Accounts and Concession Divisions Technical Audit and Inspection Cell States Manufacturers/Importers

Sub-Processes 1,2,3,4,8.9,10 3 3,4 4,5,6,7

approach suggested for implementation e-governance applications is based on study of one project. This needs to be validated further by conducting SAP analysis of few more e-governance projects.

7. Concluding Remarks
The recommendation of Planning Commission during 1998 for each department to spend 2 to 3 per cent of the budget on IT, triggered simultaneous preparation of IT plans by several departments. The focus of this attempt was to push ICT in the operations of various departments. However, the usual compulsion of timely utilization of allotted budget in the Government system made the departments to assign priority to the easier route of establishing ICT infrastructure. The relatively difficult route of rationalizing structures and processes and studying the interplay of situation, actors and processes before applying technology was avoided. Based on the SAP-LAP based study of the computerization programme of the Department of Fertilizers, it has emerged that an analysis of Situation-Actors-Process interplay at the planning stage will help organizations in the formulation of realistic e-governance plans and minimization of design-reality gaps at the implementation stage.

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Table 7: Actions and Benefits

S.N
1.

Proposed Action

Expected Ben

E-governance projects like IFMIS involve several internal and external actors. The projects being large and complex, a systematic approach like Program Planning Methodology (Hill and Warfield, 1972) should be followed while formulating the plan. As per the Acknowledgements methodology, a programme plan should adequately address societal sectors, assessment of needs, clearly The authors have immensely benefited from interaction with Y.D.Sharma, Senior Technical measures, and defined objectives, objective Director, expected constraints, alterables, activities, activity measures team members of DoF and Fertilizers Informatics Division, NIC. The views expressed in the paper are personal. and agencies involved. 2. The ICT based system needs to be extended to facilitate References monitoring of movement of fertilizers at district and below district levels also. 1 Annual Reports(2003-04,2004-05,2005-06) Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, 3. Involvement of stakeholders at IT planning, strategy Government of India. formulation and strategy implementation stages and ensuring their association with project vision and mission 2 Annual Report(2005-06) Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government through frequent interactions. of India.

A more realist achieving busine supply of qua affordable prices existing procedu

Assured availab beneficiaries

3 4 5 6 7

Backus M. (2001). E-Governance in Developing Countries, IICD Research Brief-No, available at: http:/ the 4. Prioritizing applications and gradually enhancing www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/briefs/brief1.doc, Last accessed on: Oct 10, 2006. an incremental approach project scope by adopting
Integration of Practical Guide to Implementation, Bhatnagar S.(2004) E-government - From Vision5. Implementation: Afertilizers and agriculture databases to Sage Publications, New Delhi, 61-62. 6. Replacing hybrid computerization with complete Chakrabarty S.(2003). Redefining Strategies in the New Business Environment, Seminar Papers, The automation of information flows with concerned divisions Fertiliser Association of India, December, SIV-2/3 of railways, shipping, road transport departments and all Chand R.(2005). Indias National Agricultural Policy: A Critique, in Ramesh Chand (Ed.) Indias Agricultural other stakeholders. Challenges, Centad, New Delhi , 23-28. 7. Regular programmes Good Governance Through ICT(2005) National Informatics Centre, pp.22. for up-grading the ICT skills of involved actors.

Minimization o actual deliverabl

2198.

Regular review of the project progress by involving concerned stakeholders

Better monitorin fertilizers consum Efficiency gains the preparation a production, supp besides timely s related claims. Enhanced compe effective cont Integrated Fertili Timely correctiv from stakeholder

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8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Gupta M.P., Kumar.P., and Jaijit B (2004). Government Online. Opportunities and Challenges. Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 124-125. Heeks R. (2003). Most eGovernment for-Development Projects Fail: How can Risks be Reduced?, iGovernment Working Paper Series Paper No. 14, available at : http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/ publications/wp/igov/igov_wp14.pdf, Last accessed on: Oct 10, 2006. Hill J.D., and Warfield J.N. (1972). Unified Program Planning, IEEE Transactions : System, Man and Cybernatics, SMC-2(5),610-621. Information Technology Plan for the Fertilizer Sector, December, 1998, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India. Information Technology Plan(2002-2007), Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers Government of India. Integrated Fertilizers Management Information System Project Documents, Fertilizers Informatics Division, National Informatics Centre. Jeanne W.R. and Peter W.(2002). Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldnt Make, Harvard Business Review, November, 84-91. Kumar P., Sushil and Gupta M.P.(2004). Effectiveness and Change Management , in e-governance in MP Gupta (Ed.) Towards E-Government - Management Challenges , Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi , 256264. Pande A.S.(2004). An Emergent Complex Systems Perspective on E-Governance, in MP Gupta (Ed.) Towards E-Government - Management Challenges, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi , 237 . Scholl H.J. (2005). Interoperability in e-Government: More than just Smart Middleware, Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/9518/30166/ 01385487.pdf?tp=&arnumber=1385487&isnumber=30166, Last accessed on: Oct 10, 2006. Sushil (2001). SAP-LAP Framework, Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2(1), 51-55. Tan C.W., Shan L. Pan, S.L. and Lim E.T.K. (2005). Managing Stakeholder Interests in e-Government Implementation: Lessons Learned from a Singapore e-Government Project, Journal of Global Information Management 13(1),1-30. Tenth Five Year Plan Document(2002-07). Chapter on Information Technology, Planning Commission, Government of India, available at : http://www.planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/ volume2/v2_ch7_4.pdf,Last accessed on: Oct 10, 2006.

Technology Platform Microsoft .Net Framework with SQL Server 2000 database over Windows 2000 operating system ; 3 Tier architecture except for equated freight fixation and subsidy payment modules which are based on 2 Tier client-server architecture. About the Authors
P.K.Suri, originally from 1986 batch of Indian Statistical Service, is serving as Technical Director in the National Informatics Centre (NIC) , Department of Information Technology, Government of India. He is the National Co-ordinator of e-governance project AGMARKNET (http://agmarknet.nic.in). Sushil is Professor of Strategic, Flexible Systems and Technology Management at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He has ten books to his credit in the areas of Flexibility, Systems Thinking and Technology Management. He has over 200 publications in various journals and conferences. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management (giftjournal@ ). Sushil has acted as consultant to both government and private industrial organizations, a few representative ones are LG Electronics, Rockwell International, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Infotech Ltd.. CMC Ltd., James Martin & Co., Gas Authority of India Ltd. and Sona Koyo Steering Systems. He is Founder President of the Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management (www.giftsociety.org).

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Appendix 1 Fertilizer Management On-line: Sample Snapshots (Source: Present Case Analysis; Snapshots provided by NIC-DoF Unit)

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Status Information Management System by NIC1: A G2G Application


Moiz Hussain Hussain Ali2* and Yogesh Arvind Khadayate3

ABSTRACT
The government departments are preparing and implementing various schemes for benefit of society. Monitoring of progress of these schemes is mandatory for tracking the scheme implementation and also decision-making. The methodology adopted by government is to prepare various formats and call the periodic status from nodal or executing agency at field. This methodology of calling status on paper or fax or by phone was cumbersome and time consuming. The departments of Government of Maharashtra (India) approached NIC time to time for preparing the application to automate this work of collecting the information. Many monitoring systems were developed for collecting status of projects from districts offices. Experience gained in designing and developing these monitoring systems, a new system Status Information Management system by NIC is conceptualized, designed and developed. This paper describes various features and benefits of using SIMNIC for creating electronic formats and its usefulness to government departments as part of the E-governance initiative.

Keywords: Project status, project progress, formats, E-governance, localisation, multi-lingual, automation, computerisation.

1. Introduction
The domain knowledge of working of Government departments and their various schemes empowered NIC Mumbai to have sufficient experience for preparing quick data collection application. These applications were developed and designed for specific requirement, and are base for concept to design SIMNIC. The need was to use existing hierarchy in some application and build data collection application screen for some scheme. SIMNIC is a dynamic format building and data collection application; it generates the data entry screen on the fly, data collection and compilation is done as per the format design parameters. It addresses the need of status/ progress data collection MIS formats prepared and circulated now and then in the Government for its various projects/ schemes for effective decision-making. SIMNIC also ensures easy and timely submission of data from line departments. The multi-lingual interface feature enables data collection in scripts of most of language as per eighth schedule of Government of India, which are supported by Unicode or C-DAC iPlugin3.

National Informatics Centre,(NIC) Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, India.( NIC is providing network backbone and E-governance support to Central Government, State Governments, UT Administrations, Districts and other Government bodies in India) NIC, Maharashtra India * Corresponding Author: (Phone : +91-2222046934, Fax: +91-22-22853562, Email: hussain@nic.in ) iPlugin is Activex control from C-DAC India for Indian language computing.

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2. Objective
Enable Government departments to build their data collection (MIS) formats on the fly for timely collection, compilation of data from inline departments spread across state/nation. Presenting the format to end user for data entry. Building departmental hierarchy, which can be used across all formats of the department. Maintain and present previous data. Dynamic query for retrieval of very specific data. Support for Indian language scripts. Consolidation of data for various levels in hierarchy. Access to citizens by guest login (if required).

3. Background
NIC Maharashtra is providing computer and communication support to State Government from 1987 by computerisation of State Secretariat and Collector offices. It has developed various applications for offline information collection from district, its compilation at state and if required, information dissemination to Government of India by e-mail or delimited data files. Applications such as Twenty point program, Fortnightly Godown stock information collection system, Community TV sets monitoring system, CM Relief fund accounting system (showing daily receipts of donations district wise at the time of Latur earthquake) are used extensively at state level. In year 2002 Employment Guarantee Scheme department project was taken for collection of Monthly expenditure and weekly laborers attendance at various EGS works of schemes at 33 districts. The nonavailability of always-on connectivity forced EGS application to be designed as client-server at district and web-based at state level. At district once data entry is done, file(s) containing data in XML tags is prepared and sent to state as an e-mail attachment(s). A demon program written in Java was running at state server, to extract data from e-mail and dynamically insert of data in respective table(s) of Database at State NIC server. The data from Database is then presented on department client on LAN at State headquarter by Web application. The MAHANET4 was upgraded by the funding from Government of India in 2003 for high-speed alwayson data connectivity, studio quality Videoconference. The up-gradation of MAHANET was used as opportunity to further enhance the EGS application a web-application for online data collection. Use of CDAC tools made it possible to make the application to adopt for Marathi. The application is further generalized for other languages, other hierarchies and other department as full functional system. The system is the used for collection of data for Freedom fighters. In 2006 SIMNIC is further modified to accept Unicode data.

4. Analysis
The Technical documents of all the application developed for collecting and compiling information offline is studied. The similar tables and their attributes are grouped together changing/ variable entities are gathered. It is observed that in most of the applications location (hierarchy) master, code master(s), and some tables for storing actual data are the main three group of entities. The tables of actual data could be combined if the column sequence/ names are known, which is well addressed by XML.

5. Methodology
The design of SIMNIC is depicted in the Entity-relation ship diagram in Figure 1:
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V-sat based Disaster management network of Government of Maharashtra, providing polled e-mail, Videoconference, Fax and Wireless connectivity.

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Each format to be collected is broken into four major parts, Title, Rows, Column and Hierarchy of data collection. Various attribute data such as frequency of collection, language, column data types, format/ row/ column headings, aggregate/ derived columns.

Fig. 1: Entity Relation Diagram for SIMNIC

Use of Latest technology and open source: Open source technology is used to build the project, which reduced the development and deployment cost. The proven J2EE architecture is used to build the web application. The MySql database is used for database support. Use of XML tags enabled to make the system very flexible to accommodate heterogeneous information. The application is developed and deployed on Jakarta Tomcat application server. Building e-Format: The desired MIS format is scrutinized and all building blocks such as title, reporting hierarchy, rows, columns, headings, computation formula etc are understood. Separate modules are prepared for collecting all this information keeping in mind the similar requirements by other department. Building an e-format is nothing but identifying this information in a format and feeding to SIMNIC. Data entry screen is prepared on the fly when user desires to enter data in particular format. Inline department: The hierarchy of offices is different for different departments of government. Therefore a need arise to add a module for capturing these hierarchies. Many a time same hierarchy has different coding structure in use (election, census, revenue divisions, transport authority etc.). A separate set of entities for 226

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Structure, their hierarchy (levels) and actual inline departments/offices of ministries/departments participating in SIMNIC. XML tags are used to store say name of district in English, Hindi, Gujarati etc. with same location identifier. Time limit: The information is called for variety of time-span e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly. Therefore it is required to fix different time limit for allowing data entry in such formats say 2 day, 5 day and 10 days. A module is added to capture the time limit (in days) for each format. This module allows administrator of format to force end users to submit information in stipulated time and also prevents manipulating previous entered data. Data Entry: One of the main goals is to prepare the Data entry screen based on MIS/ data collection format, allow only authenticated user to enter data for his location in desired format in allowed time limit. Also, data entered should be validated for data type, length etc. User is to be allowed to see his old SIMNIC data, but barred form changing it. Similarly data for future date need not be accepted. Compilation and Queries: This module is the most complicate module. It has to gather all information about a format from different entities and prepare the search screen on the fly. Also report is generated using all these entities and actual entered data. The reports are required for location, region, specific period etc. Query options are needed for providing filter on the actual data for matching data in each column of SIMNIC format. Data linkages: In SIMNIC development cycle, a need was found to get data from some other format by providing links. Links can be defined for pointing to a value in some other format having similar reporting structure e.g. Census data like population, areas etc. are constant (for large amount of time say 10 years) and are required in many formats. A good system should avoid repeated data entry to force consistency. The feature of linkages is foreseen in first version of SIMNIC itself. It also avoids inconsistency. In future these linkages are required for preparation of dynamic analysis/summary reports from MIS data of some other format. This should enable grouping of data by period, locations and rows. Participating Departments: As the SIMNIC is becoming more and more popular amongst MIS users; formats are grouped according to departments/ ministries. Formats are attached to departments for grouping under department name. Department names are again stored in different languages by use of XML tags keeping single department id. Access control: Number of modules increased from 4-5 to 10-12 and therefore well-defined access control is required for remotely administrating/ operating the site using different roles and authorizations. The access to SIMNIC is primarily grouped as SIMNIC internal user, department user, structure user and format user. (see Figure 2) These users need to be provided with different area of access such as: Administrator: Format administrator needs to do set attributes of format, its rows & columns and also set time limit, assign passwords. There fore restricted access to module is needed to do all these tasks without touching other formats data. Operator: Operator is a user who if required makes data entry in SIMNIC format, and also compiles report from data by query on the data. This user requires access to all data of a format and also authority to retrieve data as per the various search criterions. Guest: The Right to Information Act of Government of India requires some information is to be made available to citizens. Hence a concept of the Guest user came forward. The guest user requires access to data restricted to compilation of data (if format administrator desires so). This is done by setting Gust password to blank, so that public can see report based on data entered in SIMNIC format. Also if Guest user is to be restricted, then Administrator give password to Guest and circulated amongst the internal users willing to see SIMNIC reports. 227

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Fig. 2: User approach by category and login towards SIMNIC

End users at Location/Office/Places: These are the inline department users (at various levels of hierarchy), who once logged in SIMNIC are presented the desired SIMNIC formats, and also take limited report for self and in line offices. This is the module used for actual feeding of MIS data. So, all consistency checks are forced such as data type, time limit, etc. SIMNIC internal user: SIMNIC is a web application deployed at remote location from developer, end user and administrator. Therefore any change in access control, addition of departments, structures, formats, passwords are to be done remotely. Internal user does these things. Also SIMNIC internal settings such as scripts, dictionary maintenance is done by this user. Department user: Departments are empowered to create various formats, thereby eliminating the procedure of approaching SIMNIC administrator for each and every format. He also set passwords for his formats and the users of the formats. The password maintenance (creation, informing to concerned etc.) has increased when many departments started participating in the SIMNIC. Structure user: The growing no. of departments had very specific hierarchy, therefore these hierarchy maintenance is also given to various administrators who maintains and keeps the hierarchy updated. This general involves assigning codes to various inline departments as per their level in hierarchy. Passwords: As many user are accessing SIMNIC with variety of roles, it is necessary to build a robust Password module, which appears differently to different users. Administrator gives Passwords to department/format Administrator. Password is also given to Administrator/Operator of Structures. Administrator of a format can set passwords for inline offices/places, operator and guest users. A module is also required for generation of password and sending them over e-mail to various end-users. Languages: Increasing number of Indian languages are supported by SIMNIC, therefore a separate module was required to for SIMNIC Administrator to manage properties for various language scripts 228

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available in SIMNIC. This includes, font names, font size and downloads font file names. Sorting and Ordering: The hierarchy has different levels and data is required to be sorted/ ordered as per levels and within levels as per office/location names. As the levels are not fixed and reports are needed for different levels, a separate sort module is required to sort the location table as per office names at every level. This enabled viewing of report alphabetically irrespective of level at which it is generated. Dictionary: The dictionary is maintained for English labels to Indian language labels. This enables presenting the interface in major Indian languages supported by SIMNIC. As and when a language is added to SIMNIC, dictionary needs to be updated.

6. Analysis
The methodology adopted above after fine tuned during the course of application development, for accommodating minute but required variants such as multi level heading, computed columns, masking of column values etc. The SIMNIC application build was found to be acceptable for simple formats such as EGS weekly data collection and complex formats of Directorate of Municipal Administration. New features are added to de-centralise the role of Administrator to supervisory only. The SIMNIC was easily scaled for Indian language scripts of C-DAC in ver 2.0 and further for Unicode in ver 3. Weekly labor attendance: The first department to use SIMNIC is Employment Guarantee Department (EGS) of Government of Maharashtra. This department is capturing weekly labors attendance on EGS works in 33 districts of state. Every Monday morning districts EGS office enters actual data for completed week and the compilation is available at State Centre by noon. Freedom fighter information: Freedom fighters residing in various districts of Maharashtra state receive monthly pension from state/ central government for their participation in various freedom movements. Data of around 9,000 freedom fighters who are receiving pension is collected in a format put on SIMNIC for quick retrieval of information by General Administration Department. 12 MIS formats of Directorate of Municipal Administration: 248 municipal bodies in state need to submit monthly/quarterly information regarding physical and financial progress of various schemes. This information is grouped in 12 different MIS formats. The information entered by 242 municipal bodies is available to DMA at Mumbai for further analysis and submission to Government of India. (All the above SIMNIC formats are in Marathi language) Training : NIC has its presence in every district of India with offices in each Collectorate, state secretariat and ministries. The awareness training is provided to Under Secretaries/ Desk Officers of all departments in State Government. NIC officials in district train staff at the line department/offices at districts. Directorate of Municipal Administration arranged training at 12 districts for 121 municipal bodies in state from which they are expecting information in MIS formats. Replication: Being web application, SIMNIC has large acceptance in government departments. Request for SIMNIC implementation is received not only from state government departments but from central government departments also for possibility of using it as a quick MIS for collection of information from 550 districts of India. Department of Agriculture and Cooperation has prepared two formats 1) Extension Reforms (ATMA) Scheme Activity Monitoring and 2) Macro Management of Agriculture Scheme, and is looking for monthly/ quarterly collection of data from all districts of India. A lifecycle of any data collection format in SIMNIC is shown in Figure 3.

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Storage Area Network Integrated Network Operations Centre

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Security and Availability: The very rigid access control and authorization and authentication checks at every page enabled SIMNIC to put very heterogeneous things together but still avoiding any unauthorized changes in data. SIMNIC is hosted in secured and high-end server with SAN5 at iNOC6 of NIC HQ, New Delhi (India) for round the clock availability.

Fig. 3: Lifecycle of SIMNIC format

User Interface: The user interface is dynamic and options available are presented as per the role of logged in user and the language selected. The user selects the language from the home page, and the user interface is changed with labels in selected language. A Hindi user Interface is shown in Figure 4.

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Fig. 4: SIMNIC interface in Marathi Language (http://mahasim.nic.in)

7. Concluding Remarks
SIMNIC has large acceptance in government departments and any government department can make use of this application to get their timely reports from fields offices geographically spread across the state or nation. Increasing number of participating departments has tested capabilities of SIMNIC towards its goals. All organisations have a set of hierarchy and therefore SIMNIC suits these of organisation who collects periodic data from line offices.

About the Author


Moiz Hussain Hussain Ali is currently working as State Informatics Officer at NIC Maharashtra, India.

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A Case Study on Malaysias E-perolehan (E-procurement) Initiative


Maniam Kaliannan1*, Murali Raman2, Halimah Awang3 and Magiswary Dorasamy4

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a case study on Malaysias e-Procurement initiative. This initiative is locally known as e-Perolehan. The case reports among others, the vision of the Malaysian government in light of embarking on e-Procurement, the process flow within e-Perolehan, and the issues therein. The general consensus amongst both the buyer and seller communities is that e-Procurement will become an important management tool to enhance the performance of supply chain especially in the public sector. We expect that between the next three to five years, more suppliers will grab the opportunity and benefit fully from the e-Perolehan initiative in Malaysia.

Keywords: electronic procurement, supply chain management, public sectorSuggested track: E-government adoption and diffusion

1. Introduction
Governments all over the world have demonstrated the need to improve the service delivery and being able to handle issues swiftly and satisfactorily. The advent of Internet Technology has made it possible for governments to transform themselves by offering various traditional services online. The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in general, has also changed government service delivery process, business models and peoples expectations of the quality and efficiency of information sharing and service delivery. E-government systems are not confined to automation of government service delivery systems targeted towards citizens at large (G2C). E-government platforms also include the use of ICT to streamline the procurement processes within public sectors (G2G & G2B). E-Procurement refers to the use of electronic methods in every stage of the purchasing process from identification of requirements through payment, and potentially to contract management (Chan & Lee, 2002; de Boer et. al, 2002; Knudsen, 2002; Tonkin, 2003; Davila et. al, 2003; Moon, 2005) There are significant benefits in adopting e-Procurement technologies. These benefits are expected to accelerate the rate of adoption of these technologies once the uncertainties that remain are reduced to levels that encourage significant resource commitments. Organizations that use e-Procurement technologies report savings 42 percent in purchasing transaction costs (Davila et al., 2003). This cost reduction is associated

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Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) * Corresponding Author: ( Phone: +603-55444149 Email: maniam123@salam.uitm.edu.my) Faculty of Management, Multimedia University Malaysia (MMU) Faculty of Economics & Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia Faculty of Accountancy & Management, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malysia

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with less paperwork, which translates into fewer mistakes and a more efficient purchasing process. Can governments within developing nations such as Malaysia benefit from e-Procurement systems? How can governments in such nations embark on E-government initiatives? What are potential pitfalls and challenges of getting involved in e-Procurement systems for the government in Malaysia? These questions motivate the writing of our paper. We present a case study on Malaysias e-Procurement initiative. This initiative is locally known as ePerolehan. The case reports among others, the vision of the Malaysian government in light of embarking on e-Procurement, the process flow within e-Perolehan, and the issues therein. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 provides some preliminary information about e-Procurement. Section 3 presents the e-Perolehan case study in Malaysia. This includes discussion about what is e-Perolehan, the entities involved in this initiative, and the overall procurement process in light of the project. Section 4 highlights the key issues/ challenges faced within the e-Perolehan initiative in Malaysia. We end by providing some general guiding principles pertaining to e-Procurement implementation that can be used by governments in developing countries, based on our findings from the Malaysian case study.

2. E-procurementStylized Facts
Information Technology (IT) has helped solve many administrative problems in the public sector and eProcurement has been introduced as a way to achieve better, more cost effective procurement systems (Moon, 2005). E-Procurement is defined as a comprehensive process in which governments use IT systems to establish agreements for the acquisition of products and services or to purchase products and services in exchange for payment (National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council, 2000). The World Bank (2003) defined Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) as the use of information & communication technology (especially the Internet) by governments in conducting their procurement relationships with suppliers for the acquisition of goods, works and consultancy services required by the public sector. A successful e-Procurement strategy for government is one which accelerates the take-up of online technologies not just within government bureaucracy but throughout the national economy and e-Procurement represents one of the most powerful drivers available to government for any technology activation strategy for their national economy (Schapper, P.R., 2003). The most often cited benefits of e-Procurement can be summarized as follows (Hiller & Belanger, 2001; Layne & Lee, 2001; Neef, 2001; Reddick, 2004; Davila et. al, 2003; Moon, 2003; Gansler et al 2003; Barbieri & Zanoni, 2005; Vaidya, K et. al 2006): Reduces procurement cost Electronic transactions offer improved efficiency for both the supplier and government (procurement office). Provide a more democratic process by holding interactive conversations with suppliers that are geographically disbursed. Empowers the supplies to deal with their government online anytime, anywhere, saving hours of paperwork and the inconvenience of traveling to a government office. Two-way communication, and business transactions with the procurement office are conducted fully online by filling out forms and government responds by providing confirmations, receipts and so forth. Procurement function moves from a passive to active role, for example; suppliers can complete forms interactively online rather than downloading forms and mailing them to the procurement office. Government can lower its administrative costs associated with procurement by reducing the number of people and time associated with the procurement process. E-Procurement can reduce the price of materials and supplies. Buyers i.e. government can more easily identify the best value when they have access to more suppliers. Can create opportunities for small businesses to compete in getting government tenders. Digitized transactions provide a complete, instantaneous and far more accurate audit trail that allows 233

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management to track the status of orders, and identify and fix problems sooner. Although the benefits of adopting e-Procurement systems are immense, literature indicates that the adoption of e-Procurement technologies still at the infant stage for many developing countries including Malaysia (Maniam, 2005a, 2005b, & 2006). Many organization either B2B or G2B are still taking the attitude of wait and see other suppliers and organizations getting involved. In the case of Malaysia, the government has invested great amount of money, time and effort in promoting and adopting e-Perolehan system of procurement (refer to Table 1). E-Perolehan project has attracted major attention in recent years (after 1999) and a number of initiatives are already underway as part of e-Perolehan. However, on the suppliers side, there have been opposite reactions i.e. only 30 % has embraced this technology. Therefore, there is a need to study the level of adoption of e-Perolehan among the suppliers in order to understand the reasons for slow adoption and usage. Table 1: Malaysian Government Budget on Procurement
Year 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 Total Government Budget (RM million) 134 748 117 445 109 990 71 737 66 706 63 757 56 547 46 699 Percentage for Procurement (%) 15.9 16 15.6 19.9 17.8 16.8 13 13 Total Allocation (RM million) 21 425 18 791 17 158 14 253 11 854 10 703 7 360 6 074

Source: www.mof.gov.my

Key issues that prevent many governments and corporations from maximizing the true value potential of e-Procurement systems are (Hiller & Belanger, 2001; Layne & Lee, 2001; Neef, 2001; Moon 2003; Gansler et. al 2003; Reddick, 2004): Lack of awareness about the benefits of using electronic based procurement platforms. Issues pertaining to technical complexityprivacy, security, standardization, within the business (supplier) and government sectors. High cost for capital expenditure to ensure rapid rollout of e-Procurement initiatives. Issues with maintaining relationships with online vendors and application service providers involved in providing electronic-enabled procurement platforms for entities involved in e-Procurement transactions. Digital divide between small and minority owned businesses, and also within certain sectors of the small and medium size enterprises.

3. E-perolehan Case Study of Malaysias E-procurement Initiative


This case study is written based on our analysis of published material on e-Perolehan. In addition, we conducted few in-depth interviews with representatives from the Malaysian government (Ministry of Finance), and also the company appointed by the government to manage the e-Perolehan project implementation, Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. (www.commerdec.com.my). In order to get the suppliers point view as the users of the e-Perolehan system, we have interviewed five suppliers. These suppliers form the basis of our pilot study as part of our ongoing research in the area of e-Perolehan in Malaysia. These suppliers are ePerolehan enabled in that they use the e-Perolehan system for the services/modules provided under the system. These modules are: (i) online registration and renewal, (ii) direct purchase, (iii) central contract, (iv) 234

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quotation, and (v) tender. The interviews were conducted over the last six months. The suppliers were located within the Klang Valley area. They deal with the federal government agencies and ministries, supplying various products and services ranging from office supplies to courier services. The suppliers interviewed belong to the small and medium size (SME) industry grouping as defined by the ministry. In terms ICT utilization, these suppliers are classified as the pioneers of e-Perolehan adopters with good understanding of e-Perolehan adoption issues. The electronic procurement system in Malaysia or known as e-Perolehan streamlines government procurement activities and improves the quality of service it provides. E-Perolehan converts traditional manual procurement processes in the government machinery to electronic procurement on the Internet. The new procurement system allows the Government ministries to electronically select items to be procured from the desktop, initiate an electronic approval process and also create, submit and receive purchase orders, delivery orders and other related documents electronically. E-Perolehan deals with the Government to Business (G2B) relationship. On the suppliers side, e-Perolehan allows them to present their products on the World Wide Web (www), receive, manage and process purchase orders and receive payments from government agencies via the Internet. The suppliers product catalogue, which can be viewed from any desktop with a web browser. The supplier is able to submit quotations, obtain tender document and submit tender bid through e-Perolehan. E-Perolehan allows suppliers to register or renew their registration with the Ministry of Finance (MOF henceforth) through the Internet. Suppliers are able to submit application, check application status and pay registration fees through e-Perolehan. By subscribing to the e-Perolehan system, suppliers will be able to participate in the procurement exercise by the government. E-Perolehan will be the single point of registration for the suppliers. All approvals of the application for registration remain with the Registration Department of Ministry of Finance. Services available in the supplier registration module include the following (www.commercedc.com.my): Supplier registration can be done online via the Internet using the e-Perolehan website E-Perolehan routes all successful supplier applications for online approval by the relevant authority upon full submission of completed documents. E-Perolehan facilitates generation of certificate for registered and successful supplier. The supplier registration module supports online renewal of registration by the suppliers. The supplier registration allows online application for registration of additional category or bidang. E-Perolehan supports online suspension or termination of the supplier registration. Starting from 6 October 2000, all new registrations, renewals and re-application of suppliers of products and services with Ministry of Finance are made online through the e-Perolehan system. In order to transact with government agencies, suppliers are required to be e-Perolehan enabled. Figure 1 summarizes the five step process that must be completed by all government suppliers, prior achieving full status as an e-Perolehan enabled supplier (Commerce Dot Com, 2006): 3.1. E-perolehan Business Model The business model that is used for the implementation of e-Perolehan is an end-to-end model (MAMPU, 1997). Procurement requires a complete integration of services from the buyer to the supplier and viceversa. To ensure the success and consistency of procurement services, the responding organization shall provide an end-to-end solution. In this model, there are three distinct communities, namely the supplier community, the buyer community, and the procurement service provider. Figure 1 illustrates the three core entities involved in Malaysias e-Perolehan initiative. Supplier Community 235

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Fig. 1

The supplier community consists of suppliers who have registered with the MOF to provide supplies and services to the government. There are more than 100 000 registered suppliers (Commerce Dot Com, 2006) supplying goods under four categories i.e. Central Contract, Direct Purchase, Quotation and Tender purchase. These suppliers bear the responsibility to coordinate with the procurement service provider and register onto the new system with the Government Procurement Management Division, within MOF. All suppliers are required to provide and update the necessary information regarding the items that they supply online. Buyer Community
Ministry of Finance registration via e-Perolehan

Smart Card application (MyKad eP enabled or MyeP Smart Card)

Prepare infrastructure (computer equipped with modem, internet account and smart card reader)

Fig. 1: E-perolehan Model


Prepare electronic catalogue

The government is the buyer community. The Malaysian government spent about RM 18 791 million on procurement in the year 2005 and has increased the amount to RM 21 425 million in for the year 2006 (www.mof.gov.my, 2006). The cost of processing and managing thisParticipate in e-Perolehan trainingwith increasing process is extremely high expectation from the supplier side for the government to be more efficient. It is the responsibility of the buyer i.e. government to have the necessary information in place to be able to accept and respond to the supplier electronically in the process of procurement. Procurement Service Provider The procurement service provider (Commerce. Com Sdn. Bhd.), provides the electronic concept solution which enables the full transaction of the procurement process between the buyer and the seller. The end-to236

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end model requires the service provider to provide a total solution to both the supplier and the buyer community. This includes application, hardware and software if necessary and more importantly the capability to exchange business documents between the communities e.g. Purchase Orders, Request for Quotation, and Request for Tender Document etc. The security and confidentiality of this document shall be ensured so as not to comprise the confidence of both communities. The service provider shall also adhere to all necessary government procurement policies and legal requirements. However, Commerce.Com can provide advice and give suggestions to the government if necessary with the aim of improving the current processes in order to enhance the efficiency and to lower the cost of operation for the government. Currently, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd is involved in 2 modules for e-Perolehan: Module 1 Registration of the suppliers on-lie with Ministry of Finance Module 2 Transactions Central Contract, Direct Purchase, Quotation and Tender.

3.2. E-perolehan Benefits The e-Perolehan initiative is expected to provide significant benefits to both the buyer (government) and supplier communities. The findings of our interview with the parties concerned, suggest several benefits of e-Perolehan for the government. The system firstly, offers more effective and efficient procurement process in line with the countrys transformation to the knowledge based economy (K-Economy). E-Perolehan is a vehicle for the government to leapfrog into the new economy and promote the widespread adoption of eBusiness in the country. The system also is stated to lower the operational cost for the government over time. In addition, the government will be able to reduce administration and operational costs through the usage of e-Perolehan as business processes are reduced and streamlined. From the governments perspective, the e-Perolehan system provides latest product information and pricing available on-line. E-Perolehan will always be up to date with the latest information that will help the buyer to make a more accurate procurement decision. A government buyer would have immediate access to a wide variety of products and services available to them via e-Perolehan, which will make them a better informed buyer. Overall, the government will benefit from improved purchasing control, scale economies and greater accuracy in the ordering and billing process. Off-contract and uncontrolled purchases that drive up product cost and reduce negotiation leverage will be minimized. It also prevents corruption by eliminating gate keepers and reduces abuse of discretion and other opportunities for corruption (UNDP 2005 & 2006). Besides that, information such as status of back orders and delivery status will be up-to-date and available electronically. This will help the government agencies in planning and budgeting process. The government ministries will also still maintain the freedom and responsiveness of decentralized purchasing, given the relevant information on the products and specification. For the suppliers, the benefits cited from adoption of the e-Perolahan system include greater accessibility to government buyers, provides an opportunity to transition into e-Business, providing an entry point for eBusiness capability, and also enable adoption of e-Business concept more rapidly, through the usage of ePerolehan system. The system also proffers faster and more cost effective advertising for suppliers, as through the Internet platform, suppliers would virtually have a borderless advertising channel at a very low cost. In terms of process, the system simplifies the overall procurement process for the suppliers by reducing administrative and operational costs. Through e-Perolehan, almost all the business operations will be automated, thus not only leading to lower operational costs, but as will as faster turnaround time to the buyer. Suppliers would also be able to receive payments faster through electronic payment. Supported by a highly secured network infrastructure, suppliers would be able to receive payments for goods and services in a shorter period. Through the e-Perolehan system, the suppliers are able to use a single electronic catalogue for all government ministries while extending a global reach electronically to existing and new customers on the service (www.eperolehan.com). Suppliers shall also benefit from improved information accuracy, increased productivity and reduced operational cost with the electronic retrieval and submission of quotation and tender information. Efficient processing on both supplier and buyer community will also translate to 237

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faster payment turnaround time. According the governments official document (SPP Bil. 7, 2000), the main aim of e-Perolehan is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the purchasing transactions between government and suppliers. Government have appointed a company called Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. for the purpose of developing, managing and maintaining e-Perolehan under the scheme of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) (SPP. Bil 5, 2000). 3.2. E-perolehan Project Update The scope of work and implementation schedule for e-Perolehan will be carried out in four phases (SPP Bil. 5, 2000): Phase 1: The first phase of the e-Perolehan initiative started in October 2000, with the intention of developing an e-Perolehan system for the purchase of goods involving Responsibility Centres (Pusat Tanggungjawab / PTJ) within the government. The first phase of the project involved four central agencies namely, the Administration Department, MOF, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), Head Office, National Accountant Department (JPN), and the Head Office, National Audit Department (JAN). The objective of Phase 1 was to develop an online registration system in order to register suppliers/companies who supplies goods and services with the Department of Government Purchases, MOF. Phase 2: The second phase of the project started in January 2001. The objective of this phase was to expand ePerolehan system to one PTJ at the following Department and Ministries: Prime Ministers Department, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of Energy, Water and Telecommunications, and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. Under Phase 2, the idea was to develop e-Perolehan system for purchases through tender, quotation and direct purchase for all agencies involved. Phase 3: Phase 3 of the e-Perolehan project started in January 2002. The focus of this phase was to roll-out of the systems developed in Phase 1 and Phase 2. Stated differently, while the first and second phases were akin to strategic formulation of the e-Perolehan initiative, the goal of Phase 3 was to get the various entities involved in the initiative into an execution mode. Phase 4: The final (on-going) phase of the project started in January 2004, with the objective of improving ePerolehan system accordingly, based on feedback received from all three parties involved in the procurement process, i.e. the service provider, the buyer community and the various PTJs within the government sector.

4. Issues and Challenges


It has been six years since Phase 1 of the e-Perolehan initiative has been launched. Although there are more than 100,000 government linked suppliers (registered with MOF), only approximately 30,000 suppliers are e-Perolehan enabled. Although 30,000 suppliers have the capability to participate in e-Perolehan, only 3 000 suppliers are active users of the system. The rest are classified as inactive or casual participants of the system. The following points highlight the key issues inherent within Malaysias e-Perolehan initiative that prevents the government and the service provider from maximizing the value potential of the. These facts are 238

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gathered from the suppliers during the interview process: Cost There are costs involved before a supplier becomes e-Perolehan enabled. Specifically, suppliers have to bear the cost of purchasing a smartcard for transaction, pay for training, and also any software renewal cost that occurs. These payments are directed towards Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd. Given that the majority of the suppliers within the traditional category belong to the small-medium size operations scale, it is only natural that they are not keen in becoming players within e-Perolehan, given the costs involved, to become e-Perolehan enabled. Infrastructure and Skills As mentioned the majority of the supplier community fall within the small-medium size industry grouping. Traditionally, this sector has not been well versed with use of state of the art information systems. Issues such as lack of bandwidth support, poor computing and information systems architecture in general, prevents the majority of the suppliers from playing a more active part in e-Perolehan. Business Focus/Change Management The majority of the suppliers are not keen to do business with the federal government, given the ePerolehan requirement. Suppliers prefer to do business with local and state government as they can use traditional methods for selling their products. Furthermore e-Perolehan still has not gone into tender and quotation compared to direct purchase and central contract which is small in volume. This issue is also in line with the need for better change management to convert the mindset of traditional sellers to embrace change and use technology in the procurement process in general. System Constraints The feedback we received from our interviews also suggests that the system in its current incarnation is not robust on several aspects. For examples, a supplier registered with the system, can only upload product information for ten different product areas, for free. Additional charges will; be incurred if more product lines are listed within the system. In short, for a company that has a wide product line, the additional cost involved to market the product via the system, might not be attractive. Government Policy Although the Federal government of Malaysia encourages suppliers to become e-Perolehan enabled, the government can decide if it is willing to transact with a non e-Perolehan company, as long as the company is registered with MOF. Stated differently, although in theory the supplier community must become part of the e-Perolehan system, in practice, this requirement has not been made mandatory as yet. Despite the lackluster response by the majority of the seller community, close to 3,000 suppliers, as mentioned, have fully embraced and are active participants of the system. This situation is predominantly true for suppliers that visualize e-Procurement as an opportunity and given the fact that the government could make it mandatory for large scale suppliers to use the system actively.

5. Discussion and Recommendation


One of the main challenges for an e-Procurement project is the establishment of an appropriate and context tailored strategy. Every project or initiative needs to be rooted in a very careful, analytical and dynamic strategy. This seems to be a very difficult task, requiring a focus on many aspects and processes, a holistic vision, long-term focus and objectives. Many public institutions limit their activities to a simple transfer of their information and services online without taking into consideration the re-engineering process needed to grasp the full benefits. The government must have a clear strategy to overcome the barriers to 239

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change. Part of the strategy is to engage in a rigorous assessment of the current situation, the reality on the ground and the inventory of projects, articulate costs, impacts and benefits of programme as well as continuously monitor and evaluate the project upgrading. Borrowing a lesson from the private sector, eProcurement must be customer-driven and service oriented. This means that a vision of e-Procurement implies providing greater access to information as well as better, more equal services and procedures for public and businesses. The e-Perolehan initiative in Malaysia is pretty much at an infant stage, albeit significant time, money, and efforts already invested into the project. To ensure the true potential and benefits of e-Procurement is realized by all parties involved, emulating success stories from e-Procurement initiative such as in West Australia and in Andra Pradesh, is a must for the Malaysian government. For a start, significant change to the mindset of the traditional suppliers is required. This can be done via active and continuous promotion and education of e-Perolehan and the benefits it brings to the supplier community, and also to the government. In addition, the service providers, namely, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd, should reconsider reducing the cost of training and purchasing of the smart card, particularly for the small scale suppliers. Lastly, the federal government should craft out policies that are favorable and non-conflicting with the policy objectives and implementation plan inherent within the e-Perolehan initiative.

6. Concluding Remarks
The findings from our case study in Malaysia suggest that the government should take a more proactive role in promoting e-Perolehan in Malaysia. This includes among others, making sure that the governments policy on procurement avoids any contradiction with the e-Perolehan implementation plan. In addition, issues such as regulating the cost for training and purchase of the relevant equipment should also be within the control of the government to ensure the small scale suppliers can be enticed to become active participants of the system. In terms of the sellers (suppliers) two kinds of e-Perolehan adopters currently exist. First is the aggressive adopters who are involved fully (3 000 suppliers). These suppliers seem to benefiting from ePerolehan and are trying to achieve competitive advantage by using IT in their procurement process. Nevertheless, there are the conservative adopters (the laggards) are taking wait and see approach, before they are willing to actively become part of the system. On balance, the general consensus amongst both the buyer and seller communities is that e-Procurement will become an important management tool to enhance the performance of supply chain especially in the public sector. In this regard, we expect that between the next three to five years, more suppliers will grab the opportunity and benefit fully from the e-Perolehan initiative in Malaysia.

References
1 2 3 Barbieri P. and Zanoni A. (2005). The E-Procurement Experience in Italian Universities. Journal of Public Procurement. Volume 5, Issue 3, pp. 323-343. Chan J.K.Y. and Lee M.K.O. (2002). SME E-Procurement Adoption in Hong Kong: The Roles of Power, Trust and Value. Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Davila A., Gupta M. and Palmer R. (2003). Moving Procurement Systems to the Internet: The Adoption and Use of E-Procurement Technology Models. European Management Journal, Volume 21, Number 1, pp. 11-23. de Boer L., Harink J. and Heijboer G. (2002). A Conceptual Model for Assessing the Impact of Electronic Procurement. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 25-33. Gansler J., Lucyshyn W. and Ross K. (2003). Digitally Integrating the Government Supply Chain: E-

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Procurement, E-Finance and E-Logistics. Arlington, VA: IBM Endowment for the Business of Government. 6 7 Hiller J. and Belanger F. (2001). Privacy Strategies for Electronic Government. In M.A. Abramson & G.E. Means (Eds.), E-Government 2001 (pp 162-198). Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Knudsen D. (2002). Uncovering the strategic domain of e-Procurement. Paper presented in the 11th Annual International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association Conference, Twente University, Netherlands. Layne K. and Lee J. (2001). Developing Fully Function E-Government: A Four Stage Model. Government Information Quarterly, Volume 18, Number1, pp. 122-136. MAMPU (2003). URL: http://mcsl.mampu.gov.my. Accessed on April 2006. MAMPU (1997). Electronic Government Flagship Application: Electronic Government Information Technology Policy & Standards. Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department, Government of Malaysia, Malaysia. MAMPU (1997). Electronic Government Flagship Application: Electronic Procurement. Concept Request For Proposal, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department, Government of Malaysia, Malaysia. Maniam K. (2005). e-government initiates of Malaysia: Fueling growth on fast track, paper published in the monthly e-gov. magazine, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, New Delhi, India, pp. 27 30. Maniam K. (2005). E-government in Malaysia. Paper presented at the e-gov conference (Conflux 2005) in New Delhi, India, 17-19 October 2005. Maniam K. and Halimah A. and Hazman S.A. (2006). Citizens Expectations for Electronic Government Services: Malaysian Perspectives. Paper presented at the e-gov Asia Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, 26-28 April 2006. Moon M.J. (2002). The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality. Public Administration Review, Volume 62, Number 4, pp. 424-433. Moon M.J. (2005). E-Procurement Management in State Governments: Diffusion of E-Procurement Practices and its Determinants. Journal of Public Procurement. Volume 5, Issue 1, pp. 54-72. National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (2000). Funding E-Procurement System Acquisition. www.ec3.org (Accessed on Jun 2006) Neef D. (2001). e-Procurement: From Strategy to Implementation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Reddick C.G. (2004b). A two stage model of e-government growth: Theories and empirical evidence for US cities. Government Information Quarterly, 21, (1), 51-65. Schapper P.R. (2003). Leadership in E-based Public Procurement. A paper presented at the Kuwait National Conference on E-Government, 13-15 October 2003, Kuwait Sheraton Hotel. Tonkin C. (2003). E-Procurement in the Public Sector: Story, Myth and Legend. A paper presented to the Policy Institute, Trinity College Dublin on 18 November 2003. UNDP. (2005). The Key to Increasing Transparency in e-Government Deployment: Public Feedback Mechanisms. APDIP e-Note 3/2005. UNDP. (2006). Fighting Corruption with e-Government Applications. APDIP e-Note 8/2006. World Bank (2003). http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/egov/ (Accessed on 20 June 2006). Vaidya K., Sajeev A.S.M. and Callender G. (2006). Critical Factors that Influence E-Procurement Implementation Success in the Public Sector. Journal of Public Procurement, Volume 6, Issue , pp.70 100.

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About the Authors


Maniam Kaliannan is a Faculty in Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Mr. Maniam is a Phd Scholar in Faculty of Economics & Public Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has published and presented papers on Electronic Government both in local and overseas conferences. Other areas of research include Quality Management and Human Resource Management. Murali Raman is a Rhodes Scholar, Faculty of Management, Multimedia University Malaysia (MMU). Dr. Murali Raman received his PhD from the Claremont School of Information Systems and Information Technology, as a Fulbright Scholar. In 1996, Dr. Murali was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to pursue two masters programs in the UK. He completed his MSC in Industrial Relations and HRM at the London School of Economics. He then completed his MBA (Imperial College London). Dr. Murali also has an MSc in MIS from Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Murali is currently a faculty member with the Faculty of Management, Multimedia University. He teaches both at the MBA and Undergraduate levels, for subjects such as MIS, E-Commerce, Knowledge Commerce, and E-Business. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the Motorola Knowledge Management Center in MMU, where he teachers a course called Human Perfromance Technology. He has published in more than 15 International Journal and Conference proceedings. Halimah Awang is a Faculty in Economics & Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Dr. Awang is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean in charge of Research and Development at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She obtained her doctorate in Applied Statistics from the Department of Statistics at Macquarie University, Australia. Courses taught include quantitative analysis, research methodology, data analysis and management science to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Apart from a general interest in applied statistics, Dr Halimahs research interests include ICT development and related issues such as digital divide, women and population related studies in developing countries. Magiswary Dorasamy is a Faculty in Accountancy & Management, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Magiswary, having gained a Master of Science in Information Technology now works as a lecturer in University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Malaysia. She teaches subjects such as Information Systems, Management Information Systems, E-commerce and Management Information Systems. Prior to this, she was attached to corporate companies in IT industries for 8 years. She is also a member of Malaysian Economic Association. Her particular area of expertise is information system. Her areas of research interest are e-Government, ICT outsourcing, e-Learning and Knowledge Management System.

242

Construction of E-procurement Site on The Web: The Case Study of www.bdtender.info


Abdus Sattar Syed1* and Q M A Abdullah1

ABSTRACT
This paper explains about an user friendly customised site www.bdtender.info displaying text and images on the Internet in a graphical environment. This is an e-commerce site on eprocurement in Bangladesh.

Keywords: E-procurement, G2B Application

1. Introduction
The global shift towards computerisation has also influenced Bangladesh in many ways. One significant effect is the introduction of personal computer and Internet in many private as well as government organisations, which has opened a vast new potential for fast and effective communication of valuable business information, automation of business transactions, order processing, and electronic commerce or ECommerce. Today, we have the increasing responsibility for designing & implementing information systems that support and stimulate the needs of business. E-procurement (Electronic Procurement) is the business of purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as electronic data interchange(EDI) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). E-procurement is also sometimes referred to by other terms, such as supplier exchange. Typically, complete e-procurement websites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Depending on the approach, buyers or sellers may specify prices or invite bids. Transactions can be initiated and completed. Ongoing purchases may qualify customers for volume discounts or special offers. E-procurement software make it possible to automate buying and selling. Companies participating expect to be able to control parts inventories more effectively, reduce purchasing agent overhead, and improve manufacturing cycles integrated with the trend toward computerised supply chain management. There are 4 main types of E-procurement Web-based ERP(Electronic Resource Planning): Creating and approving purchasing requisitions, placing purchase orders by using a software system based on Internet technology. E-sourcing: Identifying new suppliers for a specific category of purchasing requirements using Internet technology.

Ace Data Products, Karwanbazaar Tejgaon, Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh. Corresponding Author: (Phone: 88-02 8151181, Email: admin@bdtender.info)

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E-tendering: Requesting for information and prices to suppliers and receiving the responses of suppliers using Internet technology. E-informing: Distributing purchasing information to external parties using Internet technology.

2. About Bdtender.com
In Bangladesh, according to existing government statutes, all contracts in the public sector(including local & statutory bodies) costing US$ 200 or above require competitive bidding achieved through responses to tender usually advertised in the press. Annually, contracts for goods, services and works valuing nearly US$ 3 billion are awarded in this manner. The contracts are awarded through response to invitations to tender advertisements distributed selectively among over more than 100 newspapers throughout the country. We have launched the E-Commerce site www.bdtender.info, making available database of summary information on tender business opportunities in Bangladesh by initiating E-procurement through E-informing. The object is to close the Digital Divide and provide a common source of up-to-date information covering nearly all the invitations to tender & sectoral trade published via the Internet with ICT induced speed, precision, & outreach. Towards that end we have developed the user friendly customised site www.bdtender.info displaying text & images on the Internet in a graphical environment using database programming, html editor, Microsoft Internet Information Services and supporting Microsoft Windows Internet Xplorer with having cross-browser compatibility operating with X86 based processor. We obtain the data mainly through the daily press, & operations have been actively under way since 2002/2003. The overall data object diagram is shown in Figure 1 At present we are providing All Tenders Summary and Direct Tenders as outputs in www.bdtender.info as follows through hyperlinks in the Home Page (Figure 2). 2.1. All Tender Summary For the convenience of Users, we have attempted to divide the very wide range of invitations to tender in the daily press according to the different category of activities, such as Construction/ Works, Goods/ Supplies, Enlistment/ Prequali-fication, Consultancy/ Evaluation /Study/ Services/ Survey, Auction/ Sale, Participation in Exhibition/ Fair/ Mela, and Other Business Opportunities. Also, for the convenience of businessmen we have combined all Addenda, Amendments/ Corrigenda, Retenders, Time Extensions & Cancellations notices in one separate category. The User can also choose to browse within each of the above category of activity(named subcategory) according to the source of business, such as Government, Local & Statutory Bodies, Intergovernment & Foreign Organisations, Banks, NGOs, Private, and Others. The User can also navigate through the different category/subcategory of sources, from the Home or Inside Pages, if he/she so chooses, except Other Business Opportunities, which, in order to limit header crowding, is navigable only through the Home Page. Another category, News on Exhibition/Fair/ Meenabazaar/Mela is given navigable through the Home Page. The glossary of abbreviations used in the site is reached also through hyperlink in Home Page. In every category/subcategory the summary information is arranged in tabular form within headers of Tender Subject, Organisation, Eligibility, Tender Document Collection and Submission Deadline, Information Source & Date(Figure 3). The User can go for more details through hyperlink(Figure 4). To get an understanding of the display format of available information, dynamic Demo Pages containing 10 offerings of the current date of certain categories have been provided which are accessible from designated menu at Home Page. 2.2 Direct Tenders This section contains notices of requirements of goods, services & works of organisations directly advertising in the site www.bdtender.info & thereby receiving wide coverage of the same among the business 244

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Fig. 1: Overall data object diagram for bdtender.info

community. The section is equipped with bilingual(English & Bangla) features as needed(Figure 5). 2.3. Search Features The following useful Search features have been included in the navigation menu of Home Page: Search by Organisation, By Tender Subject, Notices Added Today, Submission Deadline within 7 days, Submission Deadline Tomorrow, and Mixed Search. Using Mixed Search, one is able to search singly or in any combination of Category, Subcategory, Organisation, Tender Subject Keyword, Eligibility, Place(s) of Availability or Submission of Tender Document, Submission Date, and Information Source & Date(Figure 6). 2.4. Daily Email Alert Service Very recently, we have introduced a 2 part Daily Email Alert Service for our users. Part 1 consists of:Addendum/Amendment/Corrigendum/Extensionz/Retenders Consultancy/Evaluation/Services/Study/Survey Enlistment/Prequalification Invitation to participate in Exhibition/Fair/Mela 245

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3. Outputs

Fig. 2: Home Page

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Fig. 3 : All Tender Summary typical page

Fig. 4: Detail Tender Information typical page

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Fig. 5: Direct Tender notice(shown with English & Bangla features)

Fig. 6: Mixed Search

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Mela News In Part 2 the User is allowed to select items of his own choice for the Daily Email Alert Service, subject to certain restrictions as follows: (1) Any one Category, in addition those given in Part1 above, which the Use will obtain as default; (2) Upto a total 5 items, among words within Subject, Organisation, or Eligibility in tenders. 2.5. Government to Citizen (G to C) Application Generally the public have to face plenty of harrassment & long ques in order to collect forms for much needed uses. Initially we are providing download links for Passport Application & Income Tax Return related forms at the Home Page of www.bdtender.info

3. Concluding Remarks
All those dealing in trade with the public sector(including local & statutory bodies) had to very painstakingly hunt through the thick jungle of advertisements in many newspapers in order to identify the individual opportunities of business, while the numerous spread of distribution of newspapers made the chances of missed opportunities quite likely. But now, with www.bdtender.info, it is possible for businessmen to access up to date business information at the stroke of a few keys, reducing to nearly zero the chance of missing out to the competitor, as well as greatly help to put the advantage of ICT at the heart of our national economic & social development policies.

Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Mr Smarzit Deb in preparation of the manuscript

About the Authors


Abdus Satar Syed: B Sc(Hons), 1953 & M Sc, 1954 from the University of Dhaka; Ph D, 1964 from the Department of Physics, University of British Columbia. Joined the Physics Division, Central Laboratories, Pakistan Council of Scientific & Inustrial Research in 1955. After obtaining Ph D from joined the Dhaka Laboratories of Pakistan(later Bangladesh) Council of Scientific & Inustrial Research leading a group working on physics applications. In 1981 joined as the Chief, Research & Development Center, Telephone Shilpa Shangstha Ltd, Tongi, Bangladesh. Since 1983 have been engaged in the private sector, working on industrial management, and consultancy in interdiscplinary areas of policy & strategy studies, institutional matters, information & communiction technology, renewable energy, environment, & publishing. Presently, the Proprietor & CEO, Ace Data Products, Dhaka, Bangladesh Q M A Abdullah: B Sc(Electronics & Computer Science), 1997(held 2000). from Jahangirnagar University. Since then worked with Core programming languages, Web server tools, Web programming, Database & designing tools, , Operating systems, Networking, and Graphics & animation. Presently working in the E-Governance Project, Prime Minister Office, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.

249

E-grama: A Roadmap to Bridge the Digital Divide in Orissa


Rama Krushna Dash 1*, Manas Ranjan Patra2 and Susanta Kumar Pand3

ABSTRACT
This paper describes our experience and problems faced after implementation of E-grama in Ganjam and KBK districts of Orissa . It elaborates how E-grama is helping to bridge the Digital Divide of Ganjam district, with the help of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and youth clubs affiliated to it. It explains how E-grama is helping the rural mass in dissemination of Government information. It also describes the problem faced in the implementation of E-grama in the KBK districts of Orissa . In this paper the problems faced is compared with a developed and some backward districts of Orissa. Undoubtedly e-governance is a necessity now and it is a challenge for the Government to implement it evenly through out the country. The awareness of the benefits of ICT should reach every nuke and corner of India before its implementation , to make e-Governance a success.

Keywords: Digital Divide, E-governance, E-literacy, Intranet, E-grama

1. Introduction
E-grama an E-governance effort by National Informatics Centre, Berhampur and District Administration Ganjam , Orissa , started way back on Dec2002 , with the objectives of providing G2C services to common man through different G.P and village level IT KIOSKS using Information and Communication Technology(ICT). In this model (Mishra et.al 2004), the self-financed KIOSKS were opened by the villagers, youth clubs , NGOs etc. from their own resources and they were accessing the intranet portal from the server placed simultaneously at NIC Berhampur and DRDA Ganjam through different Remote Access Severs(RAS). Different static and dynamic information like Telephone No. and e-mail address of all the state ministers , Secretaries , all district level officers , Tahasildars , BDOs etc., different Govt. forms in Oriya and English , detail House hold survey information of all the villages of the district, .details about various developmental programmes and schemes that are undertaken in their village with Financial and Physical parameters, eligibility requirement and some frequently asked questions about, ODP OAP, NOAP and SGSY etc. schemes. It displays the names of the villagers who are receiving the benefits of the different schemes for transparency , it displays all the necessary guidelines of different govt. schemes and action plan of the district. The detail village amenities are provided through Village Index Card System (VICS) database, Details of retail centres, Sub wholesaler of Kerosene oil and its Storage Agents is provided., The village wise resources as well as assets created through different Government schemes are kept on the site for ready reference . All the

* 2 3

National Informatics Centre , Berhampur, Orissa, India Corresponding Author: (Phone : 91-9437064536, E-mail: rk.das@nic.in) Dept. of Computer Science , Berhampur University , Berhampur , Orissa, India National Informatics Centre , Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India 250

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guidelines and book-lets prepared by Govt. for different programs in Oriya like Agriculture, Health , Education , Sanitary Programme, Drinking Water etc are provided. Information regarding use of Indian System of Medicine , using common herbs and roots available in the village are provided. List of youth clubs affiliated to Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan(NYKS) and the schemes for different youth clubs are provided. E-mail facility for sending grievance from the KIOSK to different Govt. offices and readdressed through the KIOSK owners. Initially 125 self financed KIOSKS were opened, which are evenly distributed to cater 4 to 5 gram panchayts, to utilize the intranet portal with the above facilities. A rate chart was given to all KIOSKS for uniform collection of Money for providing different services for self employment and self sustainability of the KIOSK.

2. Problems faced
Though the tele-density has increased many folds in last five years, using internet/intranet from the villages is not the same as in the urban areas. Either the connection works very slow or it is disconnected very frequently. Even in some villages it is not working though telephone facility is available. Due to this problem the telephone cost becomes a very costly component in the expenditure list of the KIOSK . Initially very few people visited the KIOSK for utilizing the information due to lack of awareness of the use of ICT. Only some village touts collected the information for utilizing that with some bad intention or personal interest. E-mail was used for sending grievances to different forum and it is found that 95% of the grievances were bogus and baseless. Only the KIOSKS could generate some funds from selling Govt. forms and doing some computer job typing, which is negligible in comparison to the expenditure for telephone bill , honorarium to the kioskoperator, electricity bill etc. Within a period of six months 70 out of 125 village KIOSKS have stopped functioning due financial problem. Some e-Grama KIOSKS are converted to IT KIOSKS by other agencies as they provided free computers and peripherals and promised to provide more hardware in future. In the regular monthly meetings the KIOSK owners complained regarding the telephone problem for accessing the intranet portal and requested some solution. It was decided to modify the software and to give e-Grama portal off-line in a CD-ROM to utilize it without telephone connection. The total portal was put on a CD-ROM and training was provided on how to configure Internet Information Services (IIS) and use the CD-ROM locally at KIOSKS by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Berhampur. The updated version of the CD-ROM is provided in each month to all the KIOSKS , the cost of which is born by the District Administration . For economic viability of the KIOSKS , course materials for fundamentals of Computer , MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-PowerPoint was included in the CD-ROM. The Regional Coordinator of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Berhampur region was requested to co-ordinate the programme at village level. Different Course fees ( Rs 100/- for each course per month) and syllabus was provided to all the KIOKS. Instructors were selected preferably from the near by areas with the help of NYKS volunteers with a minimum honorarium of Rs 1000/- . The Instructors, who has some computer diploma certificate, were given detailed training by NIC, Berhampur, on the subjects given in the CD-ROM and different methodology to teach and about conducting regular practical classes. As the KIOSKS are located in the GPs and Villages, and the cost is very nominal, the high school and college going student of the village and the near by villages took interest to join the course. Though the KIOSKs do not generate any visible profit every month (as seen from the Appendix ), but the KIOSKs extend a kind of voluntary service to the citizens in general.

3. Bridging the Digital Divide


In [1], the authors have raised the issue of digital divide and have discussed some methodologies to bridge the gap. The figures presented in the table (figure-1) clearly indicates the increasing trend of student enrolments and the number of successful candidates during the year 2003 to June 2006 from different IT KIOSKS of Ganjam district . It is reported by Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Berhampur, that some of the pass outs from the KIOSKS are absorbed as instructors in some other KIOSK , some have opened computer 251

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coaching centres in their respective villages , even some pass outs joined as data entry operators in some business forms . The figure-II below shows an increasing trend in the number of citizens visited the e-Grama IT KIOSK Table 1 : Statement showing year wise pass out of students from IT-KIOSKS. Source: - Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Berhampur.
Sl. No.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Name and address of IT-Kiosks


2003 Palli Vikash, At/Po: Podangi. GUIDE, Beguniapada OSTARD, At/Po: Purushottampur VISAC, At: Santoshpur, Po:-Pitalo, Via:-Hinjilicut. Sri Harsha Mishra Pathagar, At: Chamunda, PO: Jaganathprasad. CEVA IT Centre, At/Po: Jayantipur, Patrapur. BISWAS, Kendupadar, Aska. Bhanu, At:- Bhejiput, Khallikote. Bhanu, Balisira, Aska. Maa Tara Tarini Mahila Samiti, At/Po: Purushottampur. Bibhuti Bhusan Das, At/Po: Patrapur. Pradeep Kumar Padhy, At/Po: Jayantipur. Kabisurya Mahila Samiti, At/Po: Kabisurya Nagar. N. Prasad Jena, At/Po: Ambapua, Via: Kabisurya Nagar. NIRMATA, Tata Colony, At/Po: Sundurapur, Chatrapur. Pandit Shree Nilakantha Pathagar, At/Po: Barida, Kabisurya Nagar. SCOPE, At/Po: Bhismagiri. Banishree Chetana Kendra, Karapalli. Shastri Vikash Pratisthan, At/Po: Housing Board Colony, Ambapua. Sangrami Yuba Parisad, At/Po: Lunijhulla. Dibakar Gouda, At/Po: Kendupadar. Jana Vikash Parisad, Berhampur. Mandodari Swechha Sevi Yuvak Sangha, Dengaustha. Saraswati Mahapatra, At/Po: Ganjam. Netaji Yuvak Sangha, At/Po: Aska. Bhanu, At/Po: Nuagam, Aska. Gupteswar Youth Club, Lembhai. Total Year wise pass out 18 13 11 15 12 11 15 17 12 10 16 15 18 19 16 14 12 17 16 11 15 11 13 14 17 16 15 389

No. of students passed out.


2004 40 45 32 48 51 55 46 38 54 61 60 67 45 49 47 50 47 63 68 44 45 55 68 50 53 54 72 1407 2005 60 61 70 59 64 73 66 58 75 78 71 73 76 78 70 67 65 77 74 73 75 60 72 64 68 69 73 1869 2006 (till June, 2006) 45 44 43 41 23 31 33 35 38 45 47 39 48 46 47 51 50 52 53 54 60 51 53 58 57 59 51 1254

as the student enrolment has increased in each year.

4. Role of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS)


Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan , is an autonomous body , under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India . Their basic job is to promote youths in different activities including IT , There are 846 youth clubs in the villages of Ganjam district of Orissa which are affiliated to NYKS . For promoting e-Grama 252

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they conducted several training programmes on e-Grama for the youth clubs . Under the Rural Information Technology Youth Development Centre programme they provide Certificates to the successful pass outs of

Fig. 1: Trend of Citizens visited the IT-Kiosks in comparison to e-literacy.

e-Grama IT KIOSKS after conducting common examination. They regularly conduct training programme at village level youth clubs for promoting the use of ICT and how to motivate the villagers regarding the benefit of ICT. They have some graduate paid volunteers under National Service Volunteer Scheme, who are placed at village level, co-ordinate the IT KIOSKS .

5. Role of Youth Clubs


The youth clubs in the villages have members with in the age group of 18 to 35 years. Some members are educated and some uneducated. The educated members are trained regarding the benefits of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) and different facilities provided through e-Grama by Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan ,Berhampur. As the basic literacy rate in the villages of Ganjam district Orissa is around 50% and e-literacy rate is around 1% . The members of the youth club act as the bridge between the Digital divide to Digital Unite. They conduct different street plays in the villages to create IT awareness among the villagers. They solve the language barrier problem by translating the required contents to local language, to an uneducated villager, as most of the information provided is in English. Most of literate village women feel shy to go out to the KIOSK ,which is against the village tradition, the members motivate them for breaking the social barrier. They motivate the school and college going students of the village and the villages nearer to them to join the low cost computer course provided at the e-Grama IT KIOSK . Even they motivate the village and G.P level Government functionaries to join the course. As the computer is purchased from the village fund or Youth club fund, the members of the club take more interest to utilize the computer in a proper way.

6. The KBK Districts Scenario


The KBK districts include the old Kalahandi , Bolangir and Koraput districts of Orissa, which presently includes five more districts like Nuapada, Sonepur, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri after division and creation of new districts. Government of India is taking lot of steps for development of these districts from the days of Late Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India . Long Term Action Plans are prepared for infrastructure development and poverty elimination programmes. The literacy rate is around 15% in the rural areas of these districts . The e-literacy rate in the rural areas is almost negligible. Efforts were made to 253

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implement e-Grama in those districts in August 2004 with the help of respective district Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS). The non-availability of computer professionals in the rural areas to act as instructors/ KIOSK operators forced us to hire professional from urban areas with higher cost . Most of the villages are in the hilly region and they dont have all weather road , poor electricity facility. No doubt the tele-density of these areas have increased , the common man are deprived of the use due to lack of money . Though some effort is being continuously made by different organisation to provide most of the information in local Language Oriya, the problem faced is different ethnic tribal groups speak different dialect other than Oriya. It is not possible to prepare software in their dialect as they dont have any script .Though new technology has arrived to overcome the problem of constant electricity supply and to run the systems in adverse conditions, but the rate is very high for the people of KBK districts to own it . The only means is Government supply . With all the above difficulties 14 number of e-Grama IT KIOSKS could be made operational in the KBK districts with community participation . All these centers are run by Youth Clubs affiliated to NYKS. Around 210 people are made e-literates with in two years .

7. Concluding Remarks
To sum up the experiences of the e-Grama project implemented in Orissa , and the comparison made with Ganjam and KBK districts of Orissa to bridge the digital divide to make the un-reached to reach the ICT facilities provided by Government or other agencies. Trail should be made to implement standard eGovernance projects without waiting for 100% e-literacy , increasing PC-density & tele-density , as till date it is not possible in our part to achieve 100% basic literacy. Government should take all measures before implementing any big e-governance projects, to organize ICT awareness programmes at rural areas, try to increase the rural e-literacy through the projects like e-Grama or taking the help of good NGOs working in rural . Help should be taken from different Government agencies like Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Field Publicity Department and good NGOs for creating ICT awareness at rural areas of India . Presently most of the e-Governance trials are made in the urban areas of the country. Similar trials should also be made at rural areas of India. The projects like Community Information Centres (CIC) of National Informatics Centre which is presently implemented in the North Eastern states and Jammu & Kashmir ,should be spread across the country at least to the rural areas of other parts of India for increasing the e-literacy rate and creating the awareness of the benefits of ICT. The different organizations implementing e-Governance initiatives in the rural areas should have a healthy competition among themselves. They should not encourage the running village KIOSKS to work under them , promising them to give free PCs and peripherals, rather they should motivate other near by villagers where there is no KIOSK .

References
1 Lal Ram, Haleem Abid, Khan A. Rahman (2004). Digital Divide and Digital Unity in E-governance: Indian Perspective., In Promise of e-Governance operational challenges, M.P.Gupta (eds.), TMH, pp.107114. Mishra Sanjeeb Kumar, Rajput N.B.S, Mohapatra P.K, Dash R.K E-Grama: The Rural Information Gateway of Ganjam District (Orissa), In Promise of e-Governance operational challenges, M.P.Gupta (eds.), TMH,2004, pp. 540-546. Digital Divide Web site http://www.digitaldivide.org, Accessed July 11,2006. Bagga R.K Issues in Bridging the Digital Divide in India, Accessed July 11,2006. Community Information Centre Web site http://www.cic.nic.in, Accessed July 11, 2006.

3 4 5

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Appendix
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE STATEMENT of VISAC IT KIOSK,Vill- Santoshpur, Pitolo, Ganjam, Orissa. From October, 2005 to December, 2005.
Month Income Expenditure Particulars Amount Particulars Opening Balance 3,875 Honorarium to instructor Monthly fees from 1,800 Electricity & consumables computer Education. Closing Balance Sale of forms and 1,200 information sheets. Total 6,875 Total Net Profit During the month:- (5,350-3,875) = Rs.1,475/Opening Balance 5,350 Honorarium to instructor Monthly fees from 1,800 Electricity & consumables computer Education. Closing Balance Sale of forms, information 2,100 sheets and DTP Works. Total 9,250 Total Net Profit During the month:- (7,600-5,350) = Rs.2,250/Opening Balance 7,600 Honorarium to instructor Monthly fees from 1,800 Electricity & consumables computer Education. Closing Balance Sale of forms, information 2,200 sheets and DTP Works. Total 11,600 Total Net Profit During the month:- (9,700-7,600) = Rs.2,100 Amount 1,000 525 5,350 6,875 1,000 650 7,600 9,250 1,000 900 9,700 11,600

October, 2005

November, 2005

December, 2005

About the Authors


Rama Krushna Dash is a Technical Director(Scientist-E) working with National Informatics Centre(NIC), Government of India for the last 18 years. He holds a Masters degree in Physics and Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science. He is involved in different E-Governance projects of NIC. He has led the group in the implementation of the e-grama project. His research interests include e-governance and software engineering. Manas Ranjan Patra is a Reader in Computer Science having about 20 years of teaching and research experience. He holds a Masters degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He is a recipient of United Nations Fellowship and has worked in the International Institute of Software Technology, Macau. He has about 35 research publications to his credit. His research areas include software engineering, service oriented modeling and multi-agent systems. Susanta Kumar Panda is presently working as Director of NIC, Orissa State Unit. Looking after the entire management of the state centre and its district/sub-centres. With more than 20 years of experience in the field of Information Technology, which primarily includes development of IT Infrastructure for the State Govt, Rolling out of Citizen Centric Services , ITES, G2G, G2C, Project Management, Data Centric Applications, Creation of Large Databases, Wide ranging software development activities adhering to ISO 9002 framework, He holds a Master of Technology in Industrial Management from IIT , Kharagpur with a B Tech in Mechanical Engg. from NIT, Calicut.

255

Human and Computer Interaction for Increasing Effectiveness of Information Based Decision Making: A Case of Health Organisation
Hitesh Gupta1*, Sandeep Sharma2, Jaiveer Singh2 and Priti Agarwal2

ABSTRACT
The interaction of Human Resource and computer is critical for the success of e-health governance. This paper assesses the knowledge and skill of health people in deriving solution with the use of technology. The operations research study undertaken by Vatsalya in Rajasthan reveals the poor handling of computer by uninterested clients within the government. The research aims at increasing the efficiency of government health care organisation with information technology skilled manpower. The paper analyses the challenges posed by people resisting change for increasing effectiveness of organisation. The management decision making depends on poor quality information systems without having access to the correct knowledge of its performance. The lack of desire of learning the technology for using it in organisation effectiveness, poses obstacle in the growth of the organisation. Individuals posted in different vertical layers of the system, do not have understanding of systems approach and limit themselves in their own subsystem due to absence of shared vision and common goal. This paper clearly point out the lacunae in the organisation and the possible solution through implementation of quality information system by enforcing compulsory use of technology and also by seeking cooperation from human so that it does not get corrupted enroute by non-committed individuals and team.

Keywords: Interrelationships, Information, E-Communication, Transmission, Expected Level of Achievement

1. Introduction
A policy maker of Health Services asked to bring report of children below one year immunized against vaccine preventable diseases. It was brought to him within three days incorporating last minutes adjustment. The figures were quite amusing and he, who is sitting on the presentation of policy paper, asked about the estimated number of children below one year, which are less then children immunised. These incidences frequently happen when the figures are obtained at least at the highest level of the system. Some corrections are done at the highest level by reprocessing the data, but errors continue to occur uninterruptedly. Department reports claim 100 per cent and do not conform to independent evaluation which report less than 40 per cent children immunized. Do large investment made on reporting systems have any worth? In the absence of shared vision and lack of knowledge about systems goal among people responsible for providing direct health services, it is difficult to trust the reports generated by these people. All the administrative decisions are made using other tools. Who uses them and how does it influence the governance of the system? In Rajasthan, the health systems consists of technical workforce of 30000 people, positioned
1

* 2

Vatsalya, Jaipur-302015, India Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-9829013718 Email: hitesh@vatsalya.org) Vatsalya, Jaipur-302018, India

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Fig. 1: Achievement of Immunization according to the districts of Rajasthan Source: Directorate of Health Services, Government of Rajasthan 2006.

in at least four significant layers; State, district, PHC/CHC and Subcentres. It is enormous task to manage system having such a large workforce in various cadres. Is this workforce ignorant about use of Information Technology for organisation learning? Can health department turn into learning organization consisting of fully awakened people? This paper is an attempt to analyse the interaction of human and information technology in government health services. From both technical and practical standpoints, Information may be regarded as recorded experience which is, or can be, used in support of decision-making, problem-solving, or similar impact-oriented activities. In the health department, the information is generated from the grassroots institution; subcentre ( form 6) and it is transmitted to sector Primary Health Centre (PHC). The compiled report of Sector PHC (form 7) and Community Health Centre (form 8) both transmits it to District, and District (form 9) transmits it to the State level where Director Health Services control operations(MOHFW,1996). Form 1 to form 5 is used for annual planning and determining Expected Level of Achievement (ELA) to measure the performance of the health care services in various levels. Clearly it is handled by number of health functionaries en-route. Information system is considered to be spinal-cord of the system. In the paper we are making an attempt to travel the journey to look at how strong the spine is and how much it depends on human behaviour and technology interaction. In other word we will try to look into information system where the interrelationships and processes depend on each other. Now if one plans to recognize the causes for identifying gap in immunization services, the information provided through routine reporting systems are rarely used for governance. When it was asked by some of 257

tnemnrevoG ni ygolonhceT

yllacitahpme enon tsomla ,noisiced gnikam rof desu si atad netfo woh sreciffo margorp etats dna tcirtsid eht sekam pets yreve ta noitalupinam ehT .smetsys gnitroper enituor no desab noisiced koot yeht taht demialc ylippah ohw etanidrobus rieht morf troper rof ksa yeht noisiced ekat yeht emit yrevE .esu rof tnadnuder atad roop sti htiw railimaf si eno dna ,syad eerht sekat boj setunim evif ;tluser ten ehT ?yllaunam troper seraperp tnatropmi rehtonA .ytilamrof sa niamer ylerem ti dna noitautis lacitirc ni ti gnisu fo ksir ekat ton seod ,ytilauq ni enoyreve taht gnimussa syad eerht rehtona sekat ti dna ,esu fo ecalp eht ot noitacinummoc si tneidergni roop eht morf detareneg noitamrofni eht nopu tca noitasinagro seod woH .rennam emas ni ti srefni metsys eht ot evah yeht sa ,egnahc larutluc gib a si ecnanrevog-e ,tnemtraped tnemnrevog eht rof suhT ?atad ytilauq .secivres dna smetsys desab retupmoc yllatot ot secivres dna smetsys desab repap yllatot morf gnihctiws nalp dna laicnanif htob ,ksir dna tsoc tneserp taht elggurts a netfo dna ssecorp yranoitulove na si ecnanrevog-E .lacitilop fo esu rof edutitta tnereffidni evah sreganaM htlaeH .htdiwdnab dna retupmoc si TI fo loot tnatropmi ehT dna noitamrofni ,atad taht snaem ylpmis sihT .krow rieht gnineprahs ni noitacinummoc-e dna retupmoc ro egnahc fo ssecorp yna dael ot lacitirc era slliks ecruoseR namuH tuB .ytiroirp tsal eht era noitacinummoc ssenlufepoh fo gnileef lareneg dna tsurt fo kcal si erehT .tnemnorivne evicudnoc derutcurts llew a gnidivorp tneserp eht ,stpecnoc wen esu ot detseretni era ohw esoht roF .edutitta metsys eht ni enod eb nac gnihton dna pu nevig evah wef a etiuq ecneH .ycneiciffe enola tel ,krow egaruocne ton seod ,egral dna yb ,tnemnorivne ylgnisaercni tpecnoc ecnanrevog-e ,dlrow eht revo llA .noitasinagro eht rof ssol gib yrev si hcihw ,neve gniyrt esu tnetepmocni hguorht ro yllaunam enod llits si gnitroper htlaeh tub ;secivres lla fo noitadnuof gnimoceb ,edaced eno tsal ni melborp gnitroper eht gninehtgnerts ni desu ygrene dna emit ,yenoM .ygolonhcet eht fo ,sretrauqdaeh tcirtsid 23 htiw nahtsajaR fo noitasinagro htlaeh ,etats rehto yna ekiL .tluser derised dleiy ot deliaf smetsys gnitroper eligarf hguorht rehtegot tink era )5002 ,SHMD( sCS 21501 dna sCHP 2171 ,sCHC 212 .lortnoc evitartsinimda ni troppus ylerar hcihw gnitroper fo ssenevitceffe ,erac htlaeh ni PDG fo tnec rep 3 fo noitacolla fo etips ni yhw ,si noitseuq ehT gnitroper rof TI eht gnisu ni lacitpecs si ffats lacitsitats rieht dna sreganam htlaeh yhW ?devorpmi ton smetsys .emit suoicerp rieht gnivas rof TI fo esu eht rof tnemnorivne elbaruovaf gnitaerc ni tsiser yeht yhW ?smetsys ?maet dna laudividni fo tes-dnim eht etacidni ti seoD

segnellahC .2
metsys gnitroper enituor emosnedrub tneserp fo dir teg ot woH metsys egral eht ni ecrofkrow gnoma hgih noitavitom peek ot woH esu eht esimixam dna noitcelloc atad fo stroffe esiminim ot woH noitamrofni gnissecorp htlaeh fo tnemtraped tnereffid etalerretni ot woH gninrael noitasinagro rof TI fo esu rof gnitsiser elpoep fo ruoivaheb yfidom ot woH gnikam noisiced desab atad ni maet dna laudividni fo yticapac ecnahne ot woH dilav dna elbailer erom noitcelloc atad ekam ot woH

evitcejbO .3
htlaeh-e fo tpecnoc eht tnemelpmi ot nekatrednu saw yduts eht dnim ni segnellahc evoba gnipeeK ;sessecorp noitcaretni sretupmoc dna ruoivaheb namuh otni gnikool ecnanrevog level tcirtsid dna etats ta sisylana noitautis a od oT metsys htlaeh eht ni ecnanrevog-e fo erutluc hsilbatse tpmetta oT gnitroper-e ni tnemtraped htlaeh eht fo maet dna laudividni fo yticapac eht ecnahne oT gnikam noisiced desab atad fo ecitcarp yb ssenevitceffe noitasinagro esaercni oT etats eht fo metsys htlaeh fo ssenevitceffe eht gnisaercni rof egdelwonk otni atad trevnoc oT muinnellim eht sdrawot stroffe gnitcerid rof erac htlaeh evitneverp rof ledom yrtnuoc poleved oT laog tnempoleved 852 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6

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4. Research Methods
This is exploratory study, planned in three phases. 4.1. First phase: Develop Computer software of reporting format and test it in the selected district The main purpose of this study is to test the functioning of health system using e-reporting. We did situation analysis in 5 districts of Rajasthan. At district level, group discussion was done with 10 district health officials, 20 PHC/CHC doctors and 10 other statistical staff. Based on the discussion with all category of people and experts from inside and outside the health department, a conceptual model was developed by us. Our team was constantly worked for the development and customization of software to best fit in the existing concept of the system. As part of the process we started procuring the forms from state and district health department, after holding meeting with Director Health services and key staff. Unicef facilitated the institutionalisation process of testing the implementation of the pilot in three districts for four months. As part of the effort, we developed solution for the government health care systems present reporting pattern. From practical standpoint, concentrated effort was put into form 7 and form 9; PHC and district. It took us 3 months to develop and test it in three out of five districts. Once the forms were tested, health staff representing PHC and district received training from our team. Human Resource Management skill development was the forefront issue, which is constant struggle, due to conventional way of thinking of people 4.2. Second Phase: Develop extension of Computer software for State and combine it with Distric As we entered into second phase, we shared at state level the learning from its implementation in the district. After convincing about the non-threatening learning for individual, which comes from the implementation, we started working with state team. It took us almost nine months in reaching to the smooth implementation of software at the state level. The second phase ended with the Policy maker showed keenness to have this solution for all districts. 4.3. Third Phase: Train and sensitise the health officials and functionaries to facilitate implementation of it in entire state In the initial phase, our team is facilitating in implementing the software in all 32 districts of Rajasthan. In the later stage the systems people will take over and our team will provide technical support and back up support only. It is expected that concept of e-health governance, which can be perceived to be contextually inclusive of electronic democracy (e-democracy) and electronic government (e-government) start in the health department of government of Rajasthan. The services reach to the client in systematic manner as control of quality and quantity of health services will be made. The computerized output would be given to district officer on the regular basis. The culture of district health department is to avoid experimenting ehealth governance concept, therefore the lack of interest is shown for adopting the digital reporting concepts. We assist in developing skills of individuals inspiring them to exhibit the positive attitude for the application of e-government which is primarily making of the government more efficient. Later on if modification of software is needed to incorporate some other proforma then it would be integrated with the present IT based information systems. This software is giving solution at the state headquarters and we are giving technical support to convert reporting into digital mode by pursuing human resource to upgrade their skill.

5. Discussion
The integral component of e-government is not only the technology but also how human resource perceives the efficiency of implementing concepts of e-health governance. The present attempt is to promote practice of using e-health governance as a tool. Its value arises with the attitude of manpower for applying it to achieve specific goals and objectives. In the first phase of project execution, people from health department were in the confused state as e-health governance demands the cultural change within the organisation and 259

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eht gnisiretupmoc fo esoprup eht tuoba erus ton erew yehT .ecruoser namuh eht ni noitacifidom lanidutitta .metsys eht fo ycneiciffe eht no tcapmi na gnikam suht dna smrof edaced a tsomla )AANC( hcaorppA tnemssessA deeN ytinummoC dehcnual aidnI fo tnemnrevog ehT swohs sihT .ygolonimret siht htiw railimaf ton erew stnednopser fo tnec rep 07 tsomla ylgnitseretni tub oga koot ti ylgnisirpruS .emmargorp eht sdrawot yhtapa eht osla dna sreganam emmargorp eht fo ecnegilgen eht erew snoitairav esehT .stcirtsid fo noitairav lanretni fo esuaceb smrof tcerroc eht tcelloc ot stroffe fo tol desu era slennahc tnereffid stcirtsid eerht nI .level tcirtsid ta detnirper erew smrof eseht esuaceb devresbo erom saw level noisividbus eht ,tcirtsid eno nI .ralimis eht ton saw erutcurts ehT .stroper gnittimsnart rof CHP neewteb ni si noisividbus ehT .laminim saw tcirtsid ta noitamrofni fo noitalipmoc dna esu ylevitceffe rof deksa secnereffid larutcurts sihT .tcirtsid ot troper sdnes CHP ,tcirtsid rehtona ni elihW .level tcirtsid dna .tnaw stneilc tahw noitamrofni eht gnireviled fo snaem yb tneilc eht yfsitas ot erawtfos ngised ot deen eht deilppus eb dluohs ti dna yevrus elpuoc elbigile dna dlohesuoh launna si noitamrofni fo ecruos eht ,yllanigirO revewoh siht ,ecnanrevog htlaeh-e fo gninnigeb htooms eht roF .level yreviled ecivres dna gnikam ycilop ot ni nekat saw tupni tsrif ehT .dlohesuoh ta atad erutpac ot stamrof tupni eht ni dennalp ton yletarebiled saw yllacisab tI .ertnec bus noitutitsni level stoorssarg tsrif eht ta noitamrofni delipmoc gnivah aK m r o f eht rep sA .srotacidni erac htlaeh evitcudorper eht lla ni tnemeveihca fo level detamitse launna ni depleh dedda era sertnec bus ;si taht ecalp sekat ssecorp noitalipmoc level hcae ta ,noitasinagro eht fo erutcurts si smetsys tcirtsid bus fi( tcirtsid semoceb rehtegot dedda sCHP eht lla ;CHP semoceb rotces eno rednu fo tuptuO .stegrat etats semoceb rehtegot dedda tcirtsid eht lla ;)dedda si reyal erom eno neht dewollof ;noitazinummi fo tuopord eht enimreted nac ew erehw woleb nevig si tcirtsid ruplohD nehw tub ,yevrus elpuoc elbigile launna no desab ecalp ekat dluohs noitalipmoc eht lla yllaciteroehT tes eht rednu level tcirtsid ta detareneg si ALE eht taht demrofni yeht ,deksa era slaiciffo etats dna tcirtsid desrodne saw esnopser sihT .ecnaveler detimil sah detcudnoc yevrus taht snaem sihT .etats eht morf ecnadiug eht gnirapmoc yb ti deifirev osla maet hcraeser ehT .detcatnoc slaiciffo dna seiranoitcnuf htlaeh eht lla yb ni dewollof sessecorp ehT .etar htrib no detamitse si ALE taht wonk ot emac dna yevrus htiw ALE fo serugif dna namuh fo noitcaretni eht dna tnerapsnart msinahcem eritne eht ekam dluow ecnanrevog htlaeh-e .secitcarp suoititperrus eht revoc ot epocs elttil evig lliw ygolonhcet tcirtsid dna CHP ta yltcerid ALE stpecca ti taht sgnidnif eseht retfa erawtfos eht ni tliubni saw noitces enO

VPO dna TPD morf nerdlihc fo tuoporD fo smret ni nwohs erawtfoS fo stluser ehT :2 .giF .6002 nahtsajaR fo tnemnrevoG ,secivreS htlaeH fo etarotceriD :ecruoS

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level as well as it may be compiled from sub-centre to PHC and PHC to District. When research team help feeding PHC data into software, impersonally without any enthusiasm, statistical staff just provided form 7 (PHC reports) and showed no interest in learning the process. This is very servios problem as this kind of attitude eats away any organisation from inside like cancer. The district health department just perceived that it is not going to be useful for them and it is external agency which helped initiating the process would be responsible for input of forms. The perceived benefits are the end products that can be used to judge the success of whole system. If the perceived benefits like easier communication, networking and system integration, timely, relevant, complete and useful information is not realised then the system is perceived to have failed. A health delivery services deals with several types of service recipients or clients and one of them is beneficiaries as distinguished by Alford (2002), one of the example is electronic medical record (Szende 2003). Morever, people working in the organisation have low level of commitment and do not intend to contribute for increasing the organisation effectiveness by measuring the systems on true parameters. The method of compulsion and the unilateral coercion of compliance by the government do not work, and only style of cooperation and interaction between subordinate and supervisor of mutual dependence (Sparrow 2000-4) work. When some reports were produced and shown on the computers, district health mangers found is encouraged by the result. Data entry for last one year was done and it discovered many weaknesses of the systems. Initially operator encounters with lot of inconsistency in data as reliability and validity checks are never put. To some extent district officers were mobilised, but since it is not the priority of the high management, they loose interest. They are not willing to take risk of showing correct figures. At each level data is compiled and not appropriately used for the decision making. Determining core competencies and focusing on them, understanding how culture and values maintain processes and practices, and learning to make behaviour throughout the organization coherent and consistent. (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990, Hammer and Champy, 1993). The application of organization learning principles (Senge, 1990) would lead to the timely resolution of issues in the relationship and challenges encountered in the community. In one district due to the resistance of the statistical staff, data entry could not be done and later on when district health officer and officials from Unicef persuaded them to use the software, they pointed out many weakness of it. The research team took advantage of all this feedback and developed versatility into its software for making it more user friendly for the organisation effectiveness. It helped in refinement of software and now even if two different kinds of systems are working, reports can be captured by the single software. We have developed solution to kee data base in each district rather than using the web-based data base. The reason behind it was to use the technology to provide solution at the last level of use first and then for the higher level in hierarchy. The distributed database system gives scope to each district to use it for their purpose depending on local need and time. The centralised database system forbids the use of database if the internet communication gets interrupted. The lessons learnt from the implementation of software at district were as following; The solution provided through e-health governance should be perceived by the client of each level and particularly in the government by the end user. Forms used in different layer of the systems have to be analysed in-depth so that each variable can be captured at different level. When district prints forms at their level, some errors occur and it affects the standardisation process if not rectified. As part of the evolutionary process, this was first rectified by us and e-health governance does take of it. It should be ensured that latest and correct forms are procured and it should be crosschecked with more than two appropriate authorities. This should be done during the development stage at least once a week. All the standards and formulae used in the software should have recorded basis otherwise it affects the standardisation process. If it is not available, the same should be procured with the appropriate authority. Since the survey is not valued by the district authority and compilation of annual number of clients 261

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ytirohtua tcirtsid ,lanif deredisnoc ton si sCHP rotces yb )raey eno woleb nerdlihc dna elpuoc elbigile( otni sekat rehtruf sihT .yttik nwo sti morf tnemeveihca fo level detamitse fo mrof eht ni stegrat etubirtsid .etats yb nevig stegrat eht ecnazingoc erawtfos retupmoc eht yb enod eb dluohs ti sa erawtfos fo stcepsa noitamotua fo melborp desop sihT ,depoleved saw erawtfos erutaef laud ehT .dediova eb nac stegrat eht gniretne fo noitarehtob dna flesti emmargorp fo tesdnim taht snaem tI .ALE fo nmuloc eht ni atad tcerid fo tupni fo noisivorp eht sah hcihw .smetsys noitamrofni desiretupmoc eht tnemelpmi yeht fi emit ekat lliw ti dna emas sniamer reganam ,rotarepo atad eht fo level trofmoc eht dnatsrednu ot si tnemele laicurc tsom eht egats tnempoleved eht nI eht htiw ytilibitapmoc ,egaugnal ysae ,smrof rep sa wolf yrtne atad taht snaem sihT .resu yramirp si ohw atad setatilicaf dleif fo gnitide ysae dna stamrof tupni detpurretninu ,selbairav fo esu dna gnitirwdnah .putes tnemnrevog eht ni yllaicepse ,retsaf hcum yrtne eht dna ,smetsys gnitroper rof elbisnopser ffats eht morf ecnatsiser erom dna troppus ssel si erehT ni slaudividnI .ffats fo ygrene dna yenom ,emit gnivas fo smret ni deulav ton si erawtfos gnisu fo tifeneb eht gnisaercni rof snoitulos desab ygolonhcet wen eht gninrael rof dettimmoc ton era noitasinagro eht .ssenevitceffe noitasinagro etaidemmi koot ffats tcirtsid dna atad fo ytilauq fo trap eht no ycneicifed emos dethgilhgih erawtfoS eht ecneulfni suht dna ytilauq atad eht gnivorpmi ni pleh lliw snoitca llams esehT .ti tcerroc ot spets .srekam ycilop fo noisiced eht htiw dellatsni erew erawtfos dna atad erehw desare dnuof saw ksid drah ,tcirtsid eht fo eno nI eht swohs sihT .smetsys noitamrofni desiretupmoc eht gnitnemelpmi fo stroffe eht gniniur fo noitnetni -kcab fo esuaceb lufsseccus ton saw sihT .egnahc yna tuoba gnignirb rof elpoep eht fo level ecnatsiser peek lliw sihT .ytirohtua etairporppa ot evig dna pukcab gnikat rof deen eht rof sllac ti tub elbaliava pu .detpurroc teg ot elbarenluv ,nepo ni tpek era smetsys retupmoc eht fo tsom sa ,deruces margorp dna atad ruoivaheb eht ,revoeroM .erawtfos fo ytidilav lacinhcet eht tset ot tneiciffusni si doirep shtnom eerht ehT tnemnrevog ni yllaicepse emit trohs a hcus ni elbissop ton si ygolonhcet wen fo ecnatpecca rof egnahc did yeht dna ,seiranoitcnuf htlaeh eht yb tnemirepxe eht liaf ot edam era stpmetta eht llA .noitasinagro .nwo rieht no erawtfos eht nur ot etarepooc ton

,ffats htlaeh level tcirtsid ekiL .sreganam htlaeh etats htiw ecalp koot noissucsid eht ,esahp dnoces eht nI rehtehw ,deksa nehW .smetsys gnitroper desiretupmoc elbaliava eht htiw dnetnoc osla erew slaiciffo etats ffats lacitsitats tcirtsid htnom yreve fo ht91 nO .on dias yeht ,tcirtsid morf troper desiretupmoc eviecer yeht retupmoc otni def neht era smrof esehT .sgniteem etats eht ni dessucsid si siht dna 9 mrof ni stroper sgnirb etairporppa ot nevig dna lecxe morf tuo nekat si ti dednamed era stroper nehw emit yrevE .teehs lecxe ni reciffO lacitsitatS etatS ,erawtfos eht tnemelpmi ot dediced rotcerid etats dna fecinU nehW .ytirohtua etats erew ereht yletanutrof tub ,erawtfos fo esu eht fo stniop evitagen ynam tuo detniop eH .ecnatsiser dewohs erusserp fo tol retfa dna noitatnemelpmi eht deruovaf yehT .gniw lacitsitats eht ni snosrep citsaisuhtne emos rof retupmoc eht ni ti deef ot smrof derucorp maet hcraeser aylastaV dna dellatsni saw ti ,pot eht morf deilppa llit ALE esilanif ton did etats dna troper eht etareneg ot yrotadnam saw ALE ,ylgnitseretnI .60-5002 raey eht gninimreted no dekrow ylkciuq dna evitca emaceb ,ALE fo deen eht gnisilaer retfa ,llec yhpargomeD .rebotcO fo stifeneb ehT .tseretni rieht werg yeht ,tnirp no osla dna neercs no gniraeppa detrats stroper eht ecnO .ALE .noitasinagro eht dnuora gnidliub trats tnemnorivne evitisop eht taht suoivbo os era gnitroper-e fo emoS .liaf ot noitavonni eht rof tiaw yeht taht era elpoep emos fo edutitta lacipyt eht tnemnrevog eht nI hcihw ,edom latigid otni metsys eht gninrut fo tpmetta rehto ynam ekil eno si siht taht thguoht ohw esoht eht evorpmi ot troffe ruo htiw detsisrep eW .ytiunitnoc sti ees ot esirprus desserpxe ,teksabetsaw ni tnew elpoep gnitnemelpmi yb tuo detniop seicneicifed eht lla emit ot emit morF .eerf rorre ti gnikam dna erawtfos etats dna tcirtsid ehT .kcilc eno tsuj ekat won ,ecudorp ot shtnom ekat ot desu hcihw stropeR .devomer erew snossel ehT .elor dael ekat ot evah lliw srekam yciloP taht rof dna desiretupmoc eb ylisae nac atad level ;gniwollof sa era level etats eht ta tnrael 262

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Fig. 3: The software output shown for deliveries conducted in institution in Rajasthan Source: Directorate of Health Services, Government of Rajasthan 2006.

All the past attempt of converting governance into e-health governance are not successful. All these technology driven innovation did not work on the organisation culture and human behaviour of health functionaries. Most of these attempts were made using top-down approach and it failed somewhere in between. One computerised systems through National Informatics Centre introduced e-reporting, but lack of adaptability at lower level could not produced desired result and it failed. State level people know that none of such system is easy to operationalise. Individuals responsible for maintaining family planning data do not know about the need of immunization record. Therefore all the information is maintained in disintegrated manner affecting the integrated reporting systems adversely. This happen because of ineffective use of computer technology. The Director of health services should be convinced about the utility of the software as their statistical officer would be giving the negative feedback about it. The advantage position of the software was that it was tested in three districts and it has output reports to show to the director. Often they understand the utility if they see output especially in the form of graph. The staff is more comfortable in compiling information manually as they dont give much value to wastage of time. They also are not skilled in using computers and they are reluctant users. Lack of sensitivity towards wasting of time and money among the government staff, lead to rigidity of not using modern technology in their day today work. Software should be sensitive enough with the need of data operator who plays crucial role in the government system. He got excited by the red colour use, to catch the inconsistency. Some small logical 263

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noitasinagro eht ni segnahc evitisop tuoba gnirb nac erawtfos ni tliub skcehc .yrrauq deriuqer eht lla ot noitulos edivorp tsum ti dna resu eht rof yldneirf yrev eb dluohs erawtfos ehT rucco dluohs egnahc eht snaem sihT .smetsys eht ni tnemnorivne gninetaerht-non eht etaerc dluohs tI .detceffanu niamer slaudividni taht yaw a ni eht llA .stnaw ydobyna ,gniht tsal eht si siht sa resu tibihorp seod ytilibatnuocca desaercni fo esnes ehT noitamrofni ni rettam ohw slaudividni fo noitarepooc fo kcal ot eud detroba neeb evah stroffe suoiverp .noisivid eht ,smetsys eht nihtiw seldruh ynam ot eud tub ,erawtfos siht devorppa sah rotceriD etats ehT ,ygolonhcet wen fo esu eht tnemirepxe ot dettimmoc ton si maet eht ecniS .wols yrev si noitatnemelpmi .devorpmi tey ton si atad fo ytilauq lliw aylastaV fo maet hcraeser ehT .laitnesse si ffats level tcirtsid eht lla ot gniniart lliks ,esahp txen eht nI maet ,gniniart eht retfa shtnom xis tsrif roF .stcirtsid eht lla ni ti gnillatsni yb noitatnemelpmi eht etatilicaf eht fo htnom xis tneuqesbus eht nI .ffats denrecnoc eht ot pleh lacinhcet edivorp dna tcirtsid hcae tisiv lliw .smetsys pu-kcab hguorht dedivorp eb lliw noitulos eht ,noitatnemelpmi tcejorp

skrameR gnidulcnoC .6
fI .gnitroper desab retupmoc dna ygolonhcet noitamrofni eht ni elor latovip eht syalp ecruoseR namuH ruoivaheb namuh ,tnemtraped htlaeh ni deilppa eb ot deriuqer si ygolonhcet noitacinummoc noitamrofnI eht tnemnrevog eht ni elbativeni si ecnatsiser ehT .dootsrednu ylhguoroht eb ot sah noitazinagro eht fo erutluc dna .ffats sti gnoma wol yrev si ecnellecxe noitazinagro gniriuqca rof tnemtimmoc yllausu esuaceb tnemtraped htlaeh tnemnrevog eht ni dna gnitroper-e fo tnenopmoc largetni eht si noitacinummoc dna noitamrofnI ehT gnidargpu neht dna ecruoser namuh eht gnicnivnoc retfa ylno detnemelpmi yllufsseccus si ti tnemtraped rieht ni degagne era elpoep ,htlaeh sa hcus ,noitazinagro gninrael eht nI .ygolonhcet retupmoc no slliks rieht yehT .seugaelloc maet htiw laog yhtrow a fo noisiv eht gnirahs yb ,laitnetop rieht hcaer ot gnivirts ,krow rof elbissopmi yllausu si hcihw fo yteritne eht ,senituor lanoitazinagro dehsilbatse morf egdelwonk eriuqca ,tneilc eht ni segnahc ot esnopser ni meht htiw tcaretni elpoep sa evlove senituoR .wonk ot nosrep eno yna dnuof si ,revewoh sihT .senituor eht tuo yrrac taht ffats eht fo noitisopmoc eht dna ,noitutitsni ralucitrap eht sedaced wef tsap revO .aidnI ni noitasinagro tsegral eht fo eno si noitasinagro htlaeh tnemnrevoG sa gnissim digir dna smetsys digir sah tI .wols yrev si noitasinagro htlaeh tnemnrevog ni gninrael taht devresbo si ti eht ni gnikrow maet dna slaudividnI .ksat eguh a si noitasinagro gninrael otni ti trevnoc oT .serudecorp tnereffid ta derahs ytilibatnuocca hcum tuohtiw sessecorp gninrael detargetni wollof yldrah noitasinagro fo tsom fo edutitta tub ,pag fo stol ni llif nac ygolonhcet fo esu eht htiw smetsys noitamrofni hguohT .level eb dluohs ecnanrevog htlaeh-e fo yaw yb mrofer smetsys eht dna degnahc eb ot evah lliw ecrofkrow eht fo kcaL .otni dekool eb dluohs tnempoleved noitasinagro eht rof noitacideD .stroffe tnetsisrep yb decrofne gnikniht lanoitnevnoc lacipyt eht dna noitasinagro eht gnigamad si hcaorppa detargetnisid dna noisiv derahs eht eviecrep ton od yeht sa krow launam fo ecitcarp dna ruoivaheb rieht egnahc ot elba ton era elpoep etairporppa fo noitpoda no seil evivrus ot noitasinagro egral a hcus rof noitulos ehT .emit gnivas fo ecnatropmi eht taht setacidni ylraelc repap sihT .ecrofkrow yldneirf ygolonhcet htiw noitulos erawtfos retupmoc detargetni metsys noitamrofni ytilauq fo noitatnemelpmi hguorht elbissop si noitasinagro eht ni tnemevorpmi evah ton od ohw ,maet dna slaudividni yb etuor-ne detpurroc steg sihT .ecrofkrow fo edutitta evitisop htiw .elbaliava sdohtem retteb eht gniwollof ylpmis yb noitasinagro eht fo laog nommoc gniveihca rof tnemtimmoc

secnerefeR
noitartsinimdA cilbuP ,evitcepsreP egnahcxE-laicoS A :rotces cilbup eht ni tneilc eht gninifeD J droflA 643-733 pp )2002 enuJ/yaM( 3 oN 26 loV ,weiveR 5002 ,tropeR ssergorP launnA ,secivreS htlaeH dna lacideM fo etarotceriD hcaorppA tnemssessA deeN ytinummoC ,aidnI fo tnemnrevoG ,erafleW ylimaF dna htlaeH fo yrtsiniM 1 2 3

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1996 4 5 6 7 Prahalad C.K. and Hamel G., The core competence of the corporation Harvard Business Review MayJune 1990 pp. 79-91. Senge P., The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday Currency, New York, 1990 Sparrow M K, The Regulatory Craft, Controlling risks, Solving problems and Managing Compilance, The Brooking Institution, Washington D.C (2000) Szende A., Developing a voluntary emergency health record for children in Ontario- A significant step towards a life time health record Electronic Journal of e-governance vol 1 No 1 (2003) pp 57-64

About the Authors


Hitesh Gupta is CEO in one of the leading NGO Vatsalya, Jaipur, India. He is working in rural health and developing ICT based solutions for government and non government organization. His Ph.D is in Knowledge Management in health Care Organization and Master in Public Health in Health Policy and Administration. The thrust area of his work is on the application of e-health concepts in health organisation serving in rural areas, thus strengthening rural infrastructure through e-governance. Sandeep Sharma, Jaiveer Singh and Priti Agarwal are Software Professionals working in the Sancharan Division of Vatsalya. They are involved in developing health related software for government and Nongovernment organization (NGO). Their interest areas are health software development and IT training to government officials and NGOs.

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E-land Record Information System in North Sikkim


L. P. Sharma1

ABSTRACT
Land is the basis of human development. For agriculture based economy like India, A properly maintained Land Record can assure higher rate of efficiency in the services, quality of business process and the end product of the land resource utilization. Sikkim is a tiny state of India lying in the eastern Himalayas. North district of Sikkim is the most remote and under developed district of Sikkim as the district is still deprived of basic infrastructures of development. Most of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood and large cardamom is the major cash crop in the district. District administrative office is located in Mangan around 75 kilometers from the State capital Gangtok. Under the manual system of land record the true picture of the land and its ownership remained only with the revenue supervisors called amins as the records are kept only with them. As such the system was far from transparency coupled with disparity, mismanagement and consequent delay in the services. To implement a computerized land record system under such ambience, two major challenges were in front. First, the transfer of system from legacy to computerize that involved overcoming skepticism, antagonism and cynicism among the revenue officers on the success of the system and to mobilize them in process. Second, to design a system and implement that would cater to the total business need of land record management ensuring sustainability, ease of implementation, usage, flexibility and above all security of the data. This paper focuses mainly on these two areas of challenges and describes in details how the skepticisms among the officers were dealt with, and how the system development hurdles were faced, to commence the process, that left no room for any quarter to look back from the system.

Keywords: Land records, System flow, Hardware, Software, Mutation, Process, Application

1. Introduction
Land record management has been a challenge for the administrator for long. Though there had been overwhelming call from the government in India to systematize the land reforms and land record management business process, to yield value added services to the citizens and construct a passage for sustainable agricultural planning through out the country, very less could be achieved under the manual system of land record management. Manual system restricted land record information access to less number of revenue managers, revenue administrators at upper hierarchy could never apply creativity in the system, leaving rooms for lapses, and above all, the services rendered was very poor in quality. There was a basic need for computerization of the system. This paper talks about a project implemented in the North Sikkim which is the most under developed and remote district of Sikkim. Out of 7096 sq. km geographical area of Sikkim, 4226 sq. km falls under north Sikkim
1

National Informatics Centre, Ministry of ICT, Government of India, India (Phone: +91 9434179151, E-mail: lp.sharma@nic.in)

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and rest of the area being shared in other three districts. The population as per the 2001census was only 41,000. As such the district remained neglected in terms of basic development activities for long. The data entry work for the 45 revenue blocks of North Sikkim began at district unit of National Informatics Centre in 1994. The Project was funded by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. The NIC had UNIX server with GIST terminals in the district and a software developed in FoxPro came out to be very handy for the data entry work. The challenges at the data entry level were imparting proper training to the data entry operators, providing them the most updated records, which are most of the time in use with the revenue supervisors etc. However the most difficult task was to put revenue supervisors at work for the correction of printed records depending on the basis of which payment to the data entry operators was to be released. For quite some time they refused to take up the work for some excuse or the other, that delayed the payment to be made to the data entry operators. District Collector released instruction to released 70% of operators payment keeping 30% for the correction and up-dating part. The project could not make much progress during the period from 1996 to 2000 except for making corrections on the already captured data and the batch updating of the mutation transaction. However this could later be termed as a good beginning as the fruit of this initiative yielded result at last.

2. Key Components of E-land


Related Process of Land Record Information System Land is one of the main resources for human survival and its management system is related to many other processes. The following context diagram (Figure 1) indicates how LRIS is related to different process, entities and agencies. Online Mutation process Following are the key steps in the online mutation and business process execution of Land Records. Applicant walks in with request for mutation at district/sub-division mutation center Revenue Surveyor collects fee and enters applications details in the system Revenue Inspector checks application and records Revenue Officer checks application and approves notice, in case it is to be issued Revenue Officer issues notice In case of objections, they are recorded in the system by the Revenue Surveyor Upon the receipt of NOCs/required documents, Revenue Surveyor enters the details Objections are cleared following a quasi judicial process Revenue Officer approves and generates mutation order Land records are updated automatically by the system when Revenue officer approves the mutation order ROR (Parcha) is authorized by Revenue Officer and printed by Revenue Inspector Network Architecture with reference to User Characteristics. The placement of various hardware machines is mainly based on the data storage process, workflow process and the sitting arrangement of the officials involved in the land record mutation transaction process. The Figure 2 shows the suitable network architecture that best suites our requirement. Mutation Process Flow The flow of the land mutation process is not always same but differs with respect to the type of mutations. The mutations are generally due to inheritance, old registration, court decree, land accusation and 267

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registration. For the first three types i.e. inheritance, old registration and court decree a formal notice is to be generated and served to all stack holders of the land, before the commencement of normal process of mutation. The following diagram (Figure 3) clearly depicts the difference in the workflow processes.

3. Application Development
On the basis of the system flow diagram, the context diagram and the various requirement specifications evolved on the basis of brain storming session the development team had with the officials of the land record management system, various modules of the application were developed to suite the software requirement. Besides the reengineered process of land mutation the application contain special featurlike reminder list generation for each users, finger print authentication and prompt delivery of services. 3.1 Application Screen Shots Figure 4 below, shows screen shots of the main menu of the application. The sub menu options are displayed when any one of the options from the menu on the right hand side are clicked. Figure 5 shows the screen when any user of the land record systems logs on to the system. It is listing all the pending cases that are due to be cleared from his side. 3.2. System Testing & Final Modification Though every module was tested with dummy data at the time of development, it was very important to test the software with real data. Real databases were copied to a temporary directory and the software was configured accordingly. Some real mutation cases were brought from the revenue section and all the process were carried as if a real mutation is going on. Finger print devices were not enabled at this stage, so real users were not required for the process. However the users were also made to try some mutation cases with the software as part of test. All the errors surfaced at this stage were corrected immediately. The necessary modifications on menus and display characteristics as felt by the team and the users as well, were also

Fig. 1: Context Diagram

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rectified. 3.3. System Deployment Implementation stage was very vital for us, as it required attention in many parameters of the project. Since there wee very less technical personals having over all confidence in the system, load was heavy on this writer, as head of the technical team, to give final result to this project. Technical support with respect to manpower was very less from the state level committee too. Heavy attention was in demand for total reengineering of the business process with respect to infrastructure arrangement, administrative procedures, network system, data storage and preparation for management of emergency crises. At this stage luckily the Department of Information Technology, Government of India, announced to sponsor the project with respect to purchase of additional hardware and other logical support for which consultants from ICICI InfoTech. were also hired. Visit of these consultants happened to be a big boost for the task ahead. The followings steeps were followed consecutively to achieve the final goal. i) Site Preparation as per the Work Flows and Network Architecture With the increase of offices and officers in the district administrative center, there is demand for more number of rooms. Under such situation getting space for creating counter for distribution of ROR and an office in the background for land record management was out of questions. However with much effort and trial, with reorganizing many office setups the space was identified. Shifting the offices and officers was another big issue, as the lower level staffs, unaware of the e-governance initiative, were directly blaming us for disturbing their work and office by proposing for a change. Some of them were adamant to shift their seat to a new location until the last moment. With the fund in place site was soon ready as per the requirement.

Fig. 2: Network Architecture.

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ii) Placement of Hardware The state level committee had already identified the vendor and they issued supply order as per the requirement. Once the site was ready, networking and installation of hardware was done simultaneously be the same vendor.

Fig. 3: Mutation Process Flow showing user roles

iii) Stoppage of Manual Transaction of Land Though the data entry work was completed long back and updating of latest transactions were also incorporated as and when, simultaneously the manual process of land transaction was continuous and at any time the data for a particular block was not up to date. Hence to begin with, a particular circle with around seven revenue blocks was selected and the manual mutation process was stopped for the revenue blocks of this circle. iv) Incorporating the Latest Mutation Transaction in thehe Database for the Selected Circle Having stopped the manual transaction of land for the circle selected to make online first, all the mutation transactions, hitherto accomplished manually, which were not updated in the database so far, were captured in the database to make the data up to date. v) Printing of Final Records for Verification by the all Concern Stake Holders Having done all the updating work, the land records were printed owner wise for final checking by all the stack holders of the land record system. The errors were mainly expected in omission of any plot of land belonging to a particular owner, spelling in name and address, spelling in remarks, area figures etc. while a 270

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Fig. 4: Screen Shot

copy of the hard copy was checked by the revenue supervisor of the concerned circle for omissions and errors, another hardcopy was kept at village level office of the land revenue department for the public and all other stack holders to come and check the records vi) Issuance of Notice At the same time a notice was served by the district collector to all concerned informing them about the shift of land record management system from manual to electronic system. The notice directs them to check the records kept at the village level office and file their claims and objection with reference to any error, to the office of the revenue officer. vii) Receiving Claims and Objections and Settling them In response to the above notice a number of applications were received from the public pertaining to omissions and commissions, which were dealt systematically. The revenue officer maintained a logbook where all the details about the claims, objections, hearing and the decision taken were entered. Subsequently as per the decision updating was done in the database. viii) Final Training of Land Revenue Officials on the Software Operation Everything in place, the land revenue officers were given final training on the software operation. Real database was copied to a temporary directory and the officials were asked to try all the options with either real or imaginary cases. This exercise not only came out to be a training but also final testing of software as some problems in the software surfaced even during this stage for which necessary corrections were made in some of the modules.

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Fig. 5: Screen shot 2

4. Commencement of Online mutations


A date was fixed for the commencement of online mutation. Public, whose mutation cases were stopped in the transition period, were called on that day to collect computerized records of rights in function. Inauguration of the site and the receiving and processing of the application was done in a ceremonious way and records of rights were distributed to the public. shows chief guest distributing Records of Rights to a citizen.

5. Backups and Crises Recovery Process


Proper disaster recovery plan to take care of hard disk failure and data loss due to natural calamity and/or occurrence of an unforeseen event was a must. Broadly disaster recovery system was to have the following features: Disk Mirroring Scheduled Backups Off site back up maintenance To take care of the hard disk failures each server has been provided with two hard disks for the purpose of disk mirroring. This brings in redundancy into the system so that in the event of one hard disk failing the data would be safe and operations can be resumed from the second hard disk. The backup schedule includes taking daily, weekly and monthly backups of the database. Ideally daily backup of the database is being taken on two DATs. One of which is maintained off site. This tape should be recycled every week. Weekly full database backup is also taken, which is again recycled each week. A monthly full backup on CD and DAT is also taken and archived at the District Collectors office.

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6. The Challenges
The real fruit of computerization of land record would result if the business process of land transaction is embedded in the running application and the system of batch processing is over done. We faced major challenges to move towards this goal. The major challenges can be discussed as follows. Cynicism and Antagonism of the Officials: From the time of the commencement of the data entry work for land records the officials involved in the business process were always afraid of its ultimate result. Deep inside they were faced with questions like will our importance be protected in the new computerized system? Will our present level of knowledge be enough to handle the work in the new system? And so on. Under such situation the cooperation received from them, was minimum and we were now and then faced with embarrassing moments because of their attitude. To overcome such problems we first organized PC operation training to the revenue officials in 2-3 batches. The first training was in UNIX environment that could not bring much confidence in them. However with the shifting of platform to windows they seemed to be enjoying the learning process. When they had acquired enough knowledge of text typing, text composition and data entry, a demo of a running application that had a password protection at the data entry level was given to them They were explained that the land record system would also have similar features. They were told though the data will be in computer but even the computer experts will have no access to it except the people involved in the transaction. This solved our problem to a greater extent. Functional and Non-functional Challenges: Functional challenges on our way mainly included our goals, parameters, target audience, user interface, requirements, design issues and definition of user role

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in the new paradigm. Non-functional requirements such as hardware, software, performance, maintenance and security were few other equally important issues. The system that was to evolve, once operational or implemented, was expected to completely digitize the land records across the state carrying following characteristics. Improving the quality of service to the citizens Allowing farmers / citizens easy access to their records through the LR Officials Infuse transparency in providing the services to citizens Ease of administration Facilitating easy maintenance Prompt updating of land records Making land records tamper proof Generating meaningful MIS out of the System relating to Land Records Land record data banking in a most secure mode. The transition from a manually operated haphazard system to such a high end performing system was of course a matter of challenge for the developers and the implementers. Integration with the Property Registration Integration with Certificate of Identification Availability of the Land Records on the Web Downloading Relevant Data to Handheld Devices for Field RS Improvement of Notice Process by Integrating FIs Online Data Update from Sub-division to District HQ and from Sub-div. and Dist. to the State Capital Incorporation of Maps

7. Concluding Remarks
Computerisation of Land Record improves the efficiency of services; decreases time required for service delivery, does away with many malpractices and delivers complete Management Information System of Land Record Information. The MIS so generated will extensively help in various micro and macro level planning for 274

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sustainable agricultural and rural development, paving way for enhancement of performance and productivity in these sectors. However, the system still demands a user to walk up to the district collectors office, submit his application and if all the hardware, software and the power supply is in place he can get a copy of ROR within 20 to 60 minutes depending on the work load. However for a remote district like north Sikkim, the problem of power, maintenance of hardware and software still being there, the result that is obtained is sometimes not up to the satisfaction. A day should come when a citizen is able to check his land record information through government portal and when he acquires a piece of land, verifies its authentication parameters from the same portal and submits an application to the district collector either from his home PC or a common service center and waits for an email to come from the office of the district collector asking him to come and collect his record of rights. A step further government can work out a mechanism to deliver his records of rights to the nearest gram-panchayet or BDO office.

Acknowledgement
I am thankful to my colleague Shri Manoj Dahal for providing me all the necessary inputs in writing this paper. I am also thankful to Shri Raj Kamal for his valuable supports. Lastly I want to thank Mr. Birendra Chettri, Shri Avijit Dutta and Shri Vinay Thakur for their encouragement and support.

References
1 2 3 Land Records Computerization Project -Sikkim State Envisioning and Gap Assessment Report by NIC Sikkim Software Requirement Specification for SLRC Ver 1.1 by E-LRIS team. Bhumi experiences by Shri. M.S. Srikar

About the Author


L.P.Sharma has a Bachelor Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and a post graduate diploma in computer science from National Institute of Computer Technology, Hyderabad. He has been working in National Informatics Centre (NIC), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Department of Information Technology government of India since October 1993. He has rendered exemplary services in the district of Sikkim including development of block level information system, first dynamic website for the district, computerization of election monitoring system, treasury computerization and land Record Management system. Presently he is ScientistD and head of GIS and Remote sensing Division at NIC Sikkim State Unit, Gangtok. His technical paper on E- Land Record was also selected in the International e-Gov. workshop at Bangkok last year.

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Building Institutional E-prashasan Kosh: NIC Initiative


Surinder Kumar1 and Shefali Dash1

ABSTRACT
Institutional repositories (IR) are now being created to take initiatives in managing, preserving and maintaining digital assets generated by different research institutions. An effort has been made at National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi to establish an IR, known as e-Prashasan Kosh, in the field of e-Governance. Open source Institutional Repository software DSpace (http:/ /dspace.org) has been used. Depositors will be researchers of NIC only and will be authorized to submit their publications. Users would be trained regularly on submission procedures.The establishment of e-Prashasan Kosh would revolutionise scholarly communication at Institutional level and would bring out the valuable research materials lying low in different institutes.

Keywords: Institutional Repository, Dspace, e-Prashasan Kosh, NIC

1. Introduction
Research Institutions possess huge amount of valuable data that remains hidden in archives, print formats, personal web sites and a variety of storage devices. These may be in the form of research materials, presentations, technical reports and historical accounts, etc. which are nearly inaccessible to end users. Various Institutional repositories (IR) are now being created to initiate in management, preservation and maintainence of digital assets generated by the Institutions (Madalli 2003) and (Patel et al, 2005). IR can be commonly defined as a web-based archive of scholarly materials produced by the members of a defined institution. Accordingly, the content of the repository, as well as the policy on selection and retention, is also defined by the institution. It is openly accessible and interoperable with other repositories using the Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). IRs can preserve and provide open or minimal access barrier to digital content which include pre-prints and other works-inprogress, peer-reviewed articles, monographs, enduring teaching materials, data sets and other ancillary research materials, conference papers, electronic theses and dissertations, reports, presentations, non-static resources and gray literature Johnson 2002, Lynch 2003.

2. Current Scenario
A large number of IRs have been established worldwide, around 739 repositories have been registered with Registry of Open Access Repositry as maintained by Open Archive Initiatives web site Http:// archives.eprints.org. This is in contrast to the discipline- or subject-based repository, such as Arxiv of physics archive (www.arxiv.org) or the Cogprint archive (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk), whose depositing policies
1

Bibliographic Informatics Division National Informatics Centre, A-Block, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India * Corresponding Author: (Phone: +91-11-24362359, E-mail: suri@nic.in)

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are determined by the research communities. For the benefits and alternative means of scholarly communication, many academic institutions try to build Institutional repositories. DARE (Digital Academic Repositories) [http://www.darenet.nl/en/page/language.view/repositories] is a collective initiative by the Dutch universities to make all their research results digitally accessible. eScholarship, the California Digital Library repository (http://escholarship.cdlib.org/), was announced in April 2002. eScholarship includes a suite of digital services to store and disseminate faculty research in digital formats, based on the Web-based bepress (Berkeley Electronic Press: http://www. bepress.com/ repositories.html) system to manage paper submission, processing and dissemination In the UK, the JISC is funding a series of projects under the FAIR programme (Focus on Access to Institutional Resources:http:// www. jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_fair). The SHERPA project (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access: www.sherpa.ac.uk/) has been set up to encourage change in the scholarly communication process by creating open-access institutional eprint repositories for the dissemination of research findings. CARL (http://www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/institutional_repositories/institutional_repositories-e.html) : The CARL Institutional Repositories Pilot Project is an initiative to implement institutional repositories at several Canadian research libraries. The project, which is spearheaded by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, was launched in September 2002 and has 12 libraries participating. Caltechs CODA (Collection of Open Digital Archives) [http://library. caltech.edu/digital/default.htm] repository was established in 2001. It currently consists of some 11 archives with a further six listed as in development. In India, IRs are gaining a lot of momentum with the establishment of more than 20 IRs established by various organizations in India. The most prominent and first to establish is Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore with the maximum number of papers deposited followed by various other organizations. Apart from IRs, there exists digital repositories that store and provide access to subject specific collections of documents. OpenMed@NIC (http://openmed.nic.in) maintained by National Informatics Centre provides stores and provides access to biomedical literature, Vidyanidhi of University of Mysore relates to thesis and dissertations and Librarians Digital Library(LDL) of Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC) is an example of subject-specific repository for the library and information professionals.(Chan 2005, Ghosh 2006 and Mark Ware 2004) A similar effort has been made to establish an Institutional Repository e-Prashasan Kosh (Figure -1) by collecting, collating and providing access to documents and digital information in the area of e-Governance. This minimizes not only the access barrier but also enhances the visibility and impact of their research. Further, it helps the organization to preserve those valuable materials which may be lost in print formats and other storage formats. DSpace (http://dspace.org) which is open source Institutional Repository software has been used to build e-Prashasan Kosh at NIC.

3. Objectives
e-Prashasan Kosh has been set up and developed with the following objectives : To improve archiving of all NIC publications. To improv access to NIC publications. To archive reporting of technical outcomes of researchers of NIC in Inhouse Newsletter. To preserve numerous technical reports produced annually. To build a platform for providing open access to all NIC research publications.

4. Policy Guidelines
For successful implementation of IR, it is important to describe the roles of e-Prashasan Kosh team and depositors. Some of the roles are defined as given below in addition to administration and system management: 277

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Encouraging members of NIC to deposit their publications. Providing assistance to members regarding copyright laws. Converting material to a suitable format. Depositing materials directly on behalf of members of the NIC who cannot submit on their own. Reviewing the metadata of content.

e-Prashasan Kosh is adopting all these roles to make it a successful venture. Copyright The copyright status of each item will be identified at the input level. All contributors to e-Prashasan Kosh are required to conform to the copyright laws. The objective is to provide barrier free information for teaching and research purposes only.

Fig1: Screen shot of e-Prashasan Kosh

Content It supports a wide range of contents from articles published in Journals, Conferences, In house bulletin, Presentations in National and International Conferences, Technical Reports produced by various groups. Each item has to be described with an associated metadata. 278

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Depositors The researchers from NIC will be encouraged to deposit their publications. Authorization to submit their publications in collections will be provide only after their agreeing to the editorial policies of the collections.They will be regularly trained for submitting their publications. Quality of Metadata e-Prashasan Kosh is a distributed effort and poses a significant challenge to quality of metadata. Users would be trained regularly on submission procedures. The quality structure of metadata is supported in DSpace through its adoption of OAI-PMH and the Dublin Core Metadata Schema for all of its metadata. Selection of Software Another impetus for the recent growth of IRs is the emergence of enabling technology and the availability of open-source software applications for setting up repositories. In response to the need to develop interoperability frameworks for linking the growing number of e-print archives, the Open Archive Initiative (http://www.openarchives.org) has developed Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to harvest metadata and associated resources that are distributed across different OAI-compliant servers, thus connecting all distributed servers into a seamless global digital library. To minimize the technology barrier and encourage institutions to set up OAI-compliant archives, two main open-source software namely Eprints developed by University of Southampton and DSpace are deployed by major Institutions in India. After experimenting with both the softwares, DSpace has been opted for e-Prashasan Kosh because of its growing user base, adequate functionality, persistent handler, and community based structure. Its developers are committed to open source software and actively provide support for implementation and growth (Bass 2002). DSpace DSpace is a digital library system that captures, stores, indexes, preserves and redistributes the intellectual output of an Institutions research faculty in a digital format. Hewlett-Packard and MIT libraries collaborated over two years to create the Dspace digital repository platform and released the software worldwide as open source software and can be downloaded freely. (Bass 2002, Smith 2002) System Architecture The main code of DSpace is implemented in Java, and runs on any UNIX-like system such as Linux or HPUX. It makes use of several third-party open source systems: PostgreSQL, an open source relational database system Jakarta Tomcat Java Servlet container Apache HTTPD server, for optional SSL and X509 certificate support

The main DSpace system is organized into three layers, each of which consists of a number of components. The storage layer is responsible for physical storage of metadata and content. The business logic layer deals with managing the content of the archive, users of the archive, authorization, and workflow. The application layer contains components that communicate with the world outside of the individual DSpace installation, for example the Web user interface and the Open Archives Initiative protocol for metadata harvesting service (Tansley R et al 2003). Functional Overview of e-Prashasan Kosh e-Prashasan Kosh is community based collection of publication [Figure (ii)]. A DSpace community refers to entry point into corpus of materials in the repository. Each community can be divided into sub community 279

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and collections. It has the following collections: Journal Article Conference Article Presentations Newsletter Article Technical Reports

Each collection sets its own submission policy, that is, who can submit to each collection. In case of ePrashasan Kosh, only NIC researchers can submit the documents. Further, it sets workflow to process and approve items into the repository. It can also be set the access to these collections. However, collections are accessible to end users through Internet. Creation of metadata Depositors for each item submitted also provide metadata about that item. Dspace@e-Prashasan Kosh holds three types of metadata about deposited item: Descriptive Metadata: DSpace uses a set of elements and qualifiers from Dublin Core based on Library Application profile set of elements and qualifiers. It consists of title, author, creation date, subject, format etc. It is the responsibility of the authors to supply this information. In case of difficulty, the

Fig 2: Screen shot of various Communities created in e-Prashasan Kosh

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depositors can send an e-mail to e-Prashasan Kosh team so that submission of articles can be carried out on the depositors behalf. It has been done to minimise the barrier of use and with the continuous user training; depositors will be able to submit metadata in the proper format into the repository (Tansley et al 2003 and Bass 2002). Administrative Metadata: This includes preservation metadata, provenance and authorization policy data. Most of this is held within DSpaces relation DBMS schema. Provenance metadata (prose) is stored in Dublin Core records. Additionally, some other administrative metadata (for example, bit stream byte sizes and MIME types) is replicated in Dublin Core records so that it is easily accessible outside of DSpace. Structural Metadata: This includes information about how to present an item, or bit streams within an item, to an end user, and the relationships between constituent parts of the item. In addition to some basic technical metadata, bit streams also have a sequence ID that uniquely identifies it within an item. Additional structural metadata can be stored in serialized bit streams, but DSpace does not currently understand this natively. E-people Many of DSpaces features such as document discovery and retrieval can be used anonymously, but users must be authenticated to perform functions such as submission, email notification (subscriptions) or administration. Users are also grouped for easier administration. DSpace calls users e-people, to reflect that some users may be machines rather than actual people. DSpace holds the following information about each E-people: E-mail address First and last names Authentication information, such as an encrypted password A list of collections for which the e-person wishes to be notified of new items

Authorization DSpace has a flexible authorization system. To perform an action on an object, the user must have permission; DSpace operates a default deny policy. Reviewers and Metadata editors as E-persons have been authorized to perform their roles in submission of publications into the e-Prashasan Kosh. Workflow Steps A collections workflow can have up to three steps as described in Table 1. Each collection may have an associated e-person group for performing each step; if no group is associated with a certain step, that step is skipped. If a collection has no e-person groups associated with any step, submissions to that collection are installed straight into the main archive. In other words, the collection receives a submission. If the collection has a group assigned for workflow step 1, that step is invoked, and the group is notified. The task of performing that workflow step is put in the task pool of the associated group. One member of that group takes the task from the pool, and it is then removed from the task pool, to avoid the situation where several people in the group may be performing the same task without realizing it. The member of the group who has taken the task from the pool may then perform one of three actions, shown in Table 1. Otherwise, workflow step 1 is skipped. Likewise, workflow steps 2 and 3 are performed if and only if the collection has a group assigned to those steps. If a submission is rejected, the reason (entered by the workflow participant) is e-mailed to the submitter, and it is returned to the submitters workspace. The submitter can then make any necessary modifications and resubmit, where upon the process starts again. If a submission is accepted, it is passed to the next step in the workflow. If there are no more workflow steps with associated groups, the submission is installed in the main archive (Tansley R et al 2003). 281

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Handles Researchers require a stable point of reference for their works. To help solve this problem, a core DSpace Table 1: Possible Workflow Steps in DSpace
Workflow Step
1 2

Possible actions
Can accept submission for inclusion, or reject submission Can edit metadata provided by the user with the submission, but cannot change the submitted files. Can accept submission for inclusion, or reject submission. Can edit metadata provided by the user with the submission, but cannot change the submitted files. Can accept submission for inclusion, or reject submission. Must then commit to archive; may not reject submission; may not reject submission.

feature is the creation of persistent identifier for every item, collection and community stored in DSpace. It uses the CNRI Handle System for creating these identifiers DSpace uses Handles primarily as a means of assigning globally unique identifiers to objects. Each site running DSpace needs to obtain a Handle prefix from CNRI. Search and Browse DSpace uses Lucene Search engine which is a part of Apache Jakarta Project. It provides fielded searching, stop words, stemming, and the ability to incrementally add new indexed content without regenerating the entire index. Its API allows indexing new content, regenerating the index, and performing searches on the entire corpus, a community, or collection. Another important mechanism for document discovery in DSpace is the browse. This is the process whereby the user views a particular index, such as the title index, and navigates around it in search of interesting items. Indices that may be browsed are item title, item issue date and authors. Additionally, the browse can be limited to items within a particular collection or community. Subscriptions As noted above, end-users (e-people) may subscribe to collections through the Web user interface in order to be alerted when new items are added to those collections. Each day, end-users who are subscribed to one or more collections will receive an e-mail giving brief details of all new items that appeared in any of those collections the previous day. If no new items appeared in any of the subscribed collections, no e-mail is sent. Users can unsubscribe themselves at any time. Challenges Involved Developing a protocol is itself a challenging task. Populating the repository would be even more challenging. It requires a lot of efforts in making the authors aware of open access and virtues of self archiving. A concerted efforts would be required to address the following challenges Crow 2002 : Confusion, Uncertainty and Fear of Copyright Issues Doubts regarding how the material would be used and whom Doubts on getting proper attribution, impact and scholarly credit Myth of low quality material in Institutional repositories

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5. Concluding Remarks
The development of prototype of Institutional repository is a big crucial steps in managing, preserving and maintaining digital assets generated by institution. Deploying and maintaining of IRs on Internet would build a platform for providing open access to NIC research and this would, in turn, give a lot of visibility to NIC research. Populating the IRs would remain a major task. It could be overcome by conducting regular awareness programme describing benefits of self archiving and also removing various myths related to IRs among NIC researchers. The establishment of e-Prashasan Kosh would bring a change in scholarly communication at Institutional level and would bring out the hidden treasures in the form of research materials lying low in various print and other storage formats. This would usher in long term preservation of digital collections of an Institution with wider accesss which in turn show case the intellectual output of NIC among eGovernance community. Once e-Prashasan Kosh is established, efforts will be made to bring in more communities within this framework to build up larger repository of eGovernance applications.

References
1 Madalli D.P. (2003). A Digital Library of Library and Information Science using DSpace IN DRTC Workshop on Semantic Web, Bangalore, India, 8-10 December, 2003. `http://hdl.handle.net/1849/56. Accessed on 2.6.2006 Y. Patel., Kumar Vijaya., Murthy J.K., T.A.V. (2005). Institutional Digital Repositories/e-Archive: INFLIBNET initiatives in India. IN MG Sreekumar [et al]; ed. Digital Libraries in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 7th MANLIBNET Annual National Convention, Calicut, India, 5-7 May, 2005. Available at: http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005653/01/vijayakumarjk_04.pdf .Accessed on 2.6.2006 Johnson RK. (2002). Institutional Repositories: Partnering with Faculty to Enhance Scholarly Communication. D-Lib Magazine, 8(11) : 2002 http://www/dlib.org/dlib/november02/johnson/11/ jihnson.html, Accessed on :2.6.2006 Lynch CA. (2003). Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age. http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html Accessed on 2.6.2006 Chan L, Kirsop B, S Arunachalam. (2005). Improving access to reseach literature in developing countries: Challenges and opportunities provided by Open Access. IN World Library and Information Congress, 14-18 August, 2005, Oslo Ghosh SB, Das AK. (2006). Open Access and Institutional Repositories a developing country perspective : a case study IN World Library and Information Congress: 72nd IFLA General Conference and Council, 20-24 August, 2006, Seoul, S. Korea. Mark Ware Consulting Ltd. (2004). PALS Pathfinder Research on Web-based Repositories: Final Report. http://www.palsgroup.org.uk/palsweb/palsweb.nsf/0/8c43ce800a9c67cd80256e370051e88a/$FILE/ PALS%20report%20on%20Institutional%20Repositories.pdf Accessed on 2.6.2006 Bass M J. (2002). DSpace: A Sustainable Solution for Institutional Digital Asset Services: Spanning the Information Asset Value Chain :Ingest, Manage, Preserve, Disseminate.Available at http://dspace.org/ technology/architecture.pdf. Accessed on 2.6.2006 Smith M. (2002). DSpace: An Institutional Repository from the MIT Libraries and Hewlett Packard Laboratories. IN Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3652: Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries: 9th European Conference, ECDL 2005, Vienna, Austria, September 18-23, 2005. Proceedings pp. 242-253. Tansley R., Bass M., Stuve D., Branschofsky M., Chudnov D., McClellan G., Smith M. (2003). The DSpace Institutional Digital Repository System: Current Functionality, In Marshall, C., Henry, G. and Delcambre, L., Eds. Proceedings 2003 IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, pages 87-97. Crow R.(2002) The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition. http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/ir.html.

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Website Consulted
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 http://archives.eprints.org. www.arxiv.org http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk http://www.darenet.nl/en/page/language.view/repositories http://escholarship.cdlib.org/ http://www. bepress.com/repositories.html http://www. jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_fair http://www.sherpa.ac.uk http://www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/institutional_repositories/institutional_repositories-e.html http://library. caltech.edu/digital/default.htm http://openmed.nic.in http://dspace.org http://www.openarchives.org

About the Authors


Shefali S Dash is working as Senior Technical Director (STD) at National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. She may be contacted at dash@nic.in Surinder Kumar is working as Technical Director (TD) at National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. He may be contacted at suri@nic.in

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Implementing Data Warehousing Solution in the Electricity Industry


Umakanta Panda1

ABSTRACT
Electricity Governance initiative within the state of Andhra Pradesh is in the conceptual framework. E-governance is more about management than technology. Process reform management, change management, Procurement management and knowledge management are important factors for successful e-Governance implementations. The broad framework is given in the figure 0. Reengineering Government and adoption of IT solutions in an Autonomous Statutory Organization is one of the challenging tasks. A Data Warehousing project namely Regulatory Information management Systems [RIMS] is implemented at Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission hereinafter referred to as [APERC]. This paper discusses the various issues in implementation of the RIMS Data warehouse Project.

Keywords: Datawarehouse, Star Schema, Multidimensional view, QOS, Tariff, PM

1. Overview of Power Sector


Power is an essential component for any economic growth. Government of India took the initiative of reforming the power sector for commercial viability, competition & consumer choice, to establish independent and Transparent Regulatory process, Restructuring the vertical Integrated State Electricity Boards into Generation, Transmission, and Distribution as separate entities. Huge data is being generated in the power sector of AP from generation Company called APGENCO, Transmission Company APTRANSCO and four Distribution company in Central, Eastern, Southern and Northern region namely APCPDCL, APEPDCL, APSPDCL and APNPDCL. The data is broadly classified into Generation, Transmission and Distribution. These data, being generated either to meet the DISCOM day-today functioning or to meet the Regulatory requirement from standalone applications. Till recently Discoms were using Standalone applications for billing metering, collection and other data intensive activities to meet their operation or regulatory requirements. Recently the Management of Discoms have taken a decision to implement SAP in some pilot locations for Material Management [MM] and Financial and Costing [FICO] modules to bring internal efficiency and transparency within the organization, which will be finally rolled out to other locations. Provides multi dimensional summarized information across Months, Discoms with respect to a particular Parameter. Correlation Study between Quality of service and Investments made by Discoms / Transco. Management in a Regulatory Commission asks questions like what is the trend in sales for a Discoms over past four years in a particular Consumer category and so on. Responding to this type of query takes
1 4th Floor, Singareni Bhawan Red Hills Khairatabad Hyderabad, India * Corresponding Address: (Phone: +91-40-23390970/422 9849727381, E-mail ukpanda@yahoo.com)

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considerable amount of time as data is available in different formats like Access / Oracle without merging circle level data. Key challenges faced by government is Interoperability of different standalone applications Lack of adequate skilled resources for Strategic Planning, Program Management and Project Development Lack of Model Architecture and standards Absence of drivers

Fig. 0: The Electricity Governance Initiative

3. A Case Study of APERC


In the process of Power sector reform, after trifurcation of APSEB i.e. Generation, Transmission and Distribution, APERC became regulator in power sector within the state of Andhra Pradesh regulating Transmission Company i.e. APTRANSCO and four Distribution companies i.e. APCPDCL, APNPDCL, APSPDCL, APEPDCL.

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Fig. 1 : Requirements Template for Implementation Perspective

The business process of APERC is as follows: Framing Regulations as per Indian Electricity Act 2003. Preparation of Tariff Orders Approval of Power Purchase Agreement [PPAs] Balancing the interest of all stakeholders (Licensees, 3rd party, Government, End consumers) The broad areas where Transco and Discoms submits data and information to APERC are as follows: Annual Revenue requirements for tariff calculation for Current Year and Audited for Previous Year Failure of distribution Transformers. Backing downtime Sales database including (LT and HT Category.) Release of Services Metering, Billing and Collection Details of Interruptions Quality of power supply Credit Control and Arrears report Metering at Interface points Wait List Clearance and Load Survey Cases on theft of Electricity Directives

The data is presently submitted in the form of CDs / Floppies and email. All the regulatory compliance data is generated from diversified applications in Discoms / Transco. Some of the formats in which they submit data are as follows: MS-Word / Excel Flat files MS-Access 288

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Oracle

Design
Each DISCOM is divided into Circles, Circle into Division, Division into Sub Division and so on. Data in Circle level is entered in MS-Access package along with consolidation. The number of Circles for each Discom is listed below. RIMS-DW Project has three major Modules they are:

Details of ERO, FOC, FDR, Division and Sub Division Hierarchy CPDCL EPDCL NPDCL SPDC Division L Circle 10 5 5 6 ERO 85 27 44 64 FOC 467 318 285 FDR 3509 1400 1901 2458 SBSTTN 922 357 576 684 SECTION 482 261 285 420 DIVISION 32 17 20 23 SUBDIVISION 124 61 66 96
Quality of Service [Brief Description of Input formats is given in Annexure A] Tariff Module [Brief Description of Input formats is given in Annexure B] Performance Monitoring [Brief Description of Input formats is given in Annexure C] The number of Input format for QOS Module is 22. Consolidation of data is done using MS-Access at circle level after getting the data from Division / Subdivision and below level. The design of DW requires Star Schema, QOS module has 18 Fact Tables and 13 Master table. Access through the architecture of the Warehouse is given below. Technology Requirements Server Xeon Processor, 2GB RAM 3x72 SB SCSI Database Server [Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Oracle 10g] Xeon Processor, 1GB RAM 3x72 SB SCSI Application Server Windows 2003 Server Oracle Application Server (Business Intelligence 10g, Discoverer) Network 100 Mbps Layer 2 Switched based Network 256 Kbps Leased Line Multicomm Ethernet III Firewall Clients Windows 98/2000/XP clients Cost of Hardware (Two Server) 5.00 Lacs Cost of Software 13.76 Lacs Windows 2003 Server RHEL 4.0 Oracle 10g Database [Enterprise] Oracle 10g Business Intelligence 289

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Oracle OLAP Oracle Internet Development Suite Total cost of Hardware and Software Time Frame Requirements Consultant 85 Man months APERC

18.76 Lacs 28

Reports Generated from RIMS


A. Reliability of Supply

Reliability Indices 11 KV Interruptions LT Interruptions DTR Failure (Reports not generated due to non availability of data DTR Structure) Feeder Breakdowns 290

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Planned Interruptions

B. Quality of Service Reports DTR Performance Loading DTR Performance Voltage Unbalance DTR Performance Voltage Variation Response to Meter Related Complaints Billing Mistakes Response to Category Change & Title Transfer Requests Voltage Unbalance Bus Voltage profile Voltage Profile

C. Customer Service Response to Normal Fuse of Calls Faulty Meters Analysis Response to New Connection Requests Response to Voltage Complaints Release of New Service [LT/HT Category] New Service Release Status of Progress of Work Bill Payment Facilities Reconnection of Supply Response to Billing Complaints

Concluding Remarks
RIMS is already implemented at APERC and now it is in the process of rolling it out to the other Discoms where they can submit the data online through Web and view their performance with respect to other Discoms. Institutionalizing, Capacity Building alonwith Hands on Training being organized in Discoms. Other Modules like Performance monitoring are under approval process of APERC. About the Author: Sri Umakanta Panda is a Masters in Computer Applications from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela Orissa. Presently serving as Joint Director (Information Technology) in Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, Hyderabad. Prior to Joining at APERC he was associated with various organizations like Theap, Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation, Indian Institute of Management, Indore and Sambalpur University Disclaimer Clause: The views expressed are solely of the Author and should not be treated as views of Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) References: Electricity Sector Governance in India An Analysis of Institutions and Practice.

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MASTER TABLES BS: SL:

FDR_MSTR

ERO_FOC

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Quality of Service Annexure A


Primary Source Substation Substation Substation Fuse-off Call Office Substation Section Office Real-time DTR Substation Section Office Fuse-off Call Office Fuse-off Call Office ERO ERO ERO ERO ERO Section Office Section Office Section Office Circle Office Section Office Section Office

S.No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Form No Reliability of Supply Form 1A Form 1B Form 1C Form 1D Form 2 Form 3 Quality of Supply Form 4 Form 5A Form 5B Customer Service Form 6 Form 7 Form 8A Form 8B Form 9A Form 9B Form 9C Form 10 Form 11A Form 11B Form 11C Form 11D Form 12

Name 11kV Feeders Interruptions Interruptions on Industrial Express Feeders Breakdowns on 11 kV Feeders Interruptions due to Fuse Failures Planned interruptions Details of Section Wise DTR Failures Voltage Unbalance on consumer end Bus Voltage profile Voltage Profile at consumer end Response to Voltage Complaints Response to Normal Fuse off Call Details of ERO Wise Faulty Meters and Replacement Response to Meter Related Complaints Details of ERO Wise Billing Mistakes and Nature of Billing Response to Billing Complaints Bill Payment Facilities Reconnection of Supply Release of New Service (LT Category) Release of New Service (LT Industrial Supply - Category III) Release of New Service (HT Category) New Service Release - Status of Progress of Work Response to Requests for Services of Commercial Nature

Periodicity Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Quarterly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly Monthly

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Author Index
A Abdullah, Q M A 243 Agarwal, Priti 256 Ahmed, Rizwan 176 Ahuja, Ajay 46 Ali, Hussain 224 Awang, Halimah 232 B Bakshi, Jagannath Prasad 130 Bhattacharya, Jaijit 85 Bhavani Shanker Chitoor 121 C Chen, Chun-Der 145 Chitoor, Bhavanishanker 198 D DAubeterre, Fergle 108 Dash, Shefali 276 Dash, Rama Krushna 32,230 Dastidar, M. G. 85 Dorasamy, Magiswary 232 Dutta, Kaushik 67 F Fan, Yi-Wen 145 Farn, Cheng-Kiang 145 G Gouravelli, Venugopal 198 Gulati, Kumar Sunil 136 Gupta, Hitesh 256 Gupta, M P 94 H Hussain, Moiz 224 I Iyer, Lakshmi 108 K Kaliannan, Maniam 232 Karthik, B. 67 Kelwade, Kamlesh 176 Khadayate, Yogesh Arvind 224 Khatib, M.S. 176 Khurana, Swati 75 Krishnaiah, V .S.R 41 Krishnan, T.R. Sree 85 Kumar, Surinder 276 Kumar, Uma 22 Kumar, Vinod 22 L Laddhad, Kamlesh 67 M Menezes, Bernard 67 Moghaddam, Ali Kazemi 10 Mohapatra, Pratap K.J 155 Mohapatra, Susanta Kumar 130 Mukerji, Bhasker 22 N Nagadevara, Vishnuprasad 136 Narayan, Gyanendra 167 Nerurkar, Amrutaunshu N. 167 P Padhi, Sidhartha S. 155 297

Author Index Pand , Susanta Kumar 250 Panda, Susant Kumar 130 Panda, Umakanta 286 Patki, A. B. 75 Patki, Revati 75 Patki, Tapasya 75 Patra , Manas Ranjan 32 Patra, Manas Ranjan 250 Prithviraj, V 75 . Pyarelal, Suchitra 1 R Raman, Murali 232 Rao, G T Venkateshwar 121,198 Rao G.venugopal 121 Reddy K, Venkat 121,198 S Sahu, G P 186 Salam, Al F. 108 Sen, Anuradha 85 Sharma, L.P 266 . Sharma, Dilip Kumar 186 Sharma, Sandeep 256 Shrivastava, Amit 85 Singh, Jaiveer 256 Singh, Rahul 108 Suri, P .K. 206 Sushil 206 Syed, Abdus Sattar 243 T Tanveer, Sadaf 58 Tripathi, Rakhi 94 V Vahid, Maryam 10 Varshneya, Gopalji 186

298

Subject Index
A AAAA 46 AHP 158 AJAX 186-195 Approximate name search 198 Architecture Initiation 15 Architecture Phase 17 Assurance 170 AV 6 B Basal Convention 89 BEA 89 BEE 87 Biometric 60 BOT 238 Bottom-Up movement 170 BPL 138 BRM 6 Browse 282 Buyer Community 236 Buying Green 92 C C and A framework 73 C2C 172 CARL 277 Challenges in use of IT 258 Change Management 239 Choreography 34 CIC 254 CIHMS 138,139 Cluster of poor 140 Cluster of rich 140 CMM 11 CODA 277 Collaborative 2 Compilers 22 Contractor Selection 159 Control flow flattenning 78 Copyright 278 Cream 102 CSS 187,190,192 Customer Support 28 D DARE 277 Data aggregation and partitioning 71 Data Management Problem 69 Data Object Diagram 245 DCT 62 Derived Words 26 Design Obfuscation Methods 77 DHTML 187,190 Digital Inclusion 23 DoDAF 6 D-Phase 170 DRM 6 Dspace 279 Dublin Core 280 Dynamic data Center 49 Dynamic Infrastructure 54 EA life cycle assessment 13 EAEASC 13 EAMMF 12 Ease Of Use 173 Ebay 187 E-Commerce 58 E-governance 75 E-GP 233 E-grama 250,253 Electricity Governance Initiative 287 Electronic data Interchange 243 Electronic Government 167 Electronic reverse auction 156 Electronic Toll Connection 145 Energy Star 88 299

Subject Index Enterprise Architecture 1,3,10 Enterprise Architecture Frameworks 1,3,4 Enterprise Change Management 3 Enterprise Service Bus 7 EPA 89 E-Perolehan 233,237 E-Phase 170 E-Prashasan Kosh 277,283 Eprints 279 E-procurement 33,233 ERP 243 E-waste 88 Existence Stage 24 Extensible Markup Language (XML) 34 F Face Recognition 59 Feasibility 64 Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) 6 Fertilizer management 209,210 Fertilizer management online: snapshots 221-223 Fertilizers informatics 208,209 FFT 62 Fingerprinting 60 Firewalls 22 Flexibility 2 Flink 101 Frames 63 Fraud prevention 198-204 Free Software Foundation (FSF) 24 Fuzzy Logic 79 G G2B 235 G2C 232 G2C application 249 G2Z 114 Gap Analysis 8 generic location coding system 131 Google Map 187 GPR 9 GPS 69 H Horizontal TimE-lag 172 ICER 89 ICT 186,206,250 ICT infrastructure 210-216 IDS Implementation 179 IFMIS 212,213,214 Implementation Phase 18 IncomE-expenditure 143 Information Procurement 167 Information Recognition 167 Information Silos 24 Initial public offerings 198 Institutional Repositories 276 Interaction Stage 24 Interoperability 1,8 Iris and Retina based recognition 59 IT plan - fertilizer sector J JAN 238 JavaScript 187,190 JPN 238 K KBK 253 K-Economy 237 Knowledge Management 97 L Layers of semantic wave 99 LDL 277 Life Cycle of SIMNIC 224 Location Code 130 M MAIT 85 MAMPU 238 M-Commerce 64 Mean time to repair 51 Metadata 280 MFCC 62 Migration Plan 8 Millennium Development Goals 136 MIPPRA 199-200 MIS 210-216 Mobile agent Platform 179 Modeling E-procurement 35 MOF 238 300

Subject Index N Name Matching 122,199 NeGP 41 Network ID 59 Network Intrusion Monitor 178 NIC 251 NSSO 138 NYKS 251,252 O OAI-PMH 276 OEMs 88 Ontology 96 Open Source Definition 25 Open Source Intiative 25 Open Source Software (OSS) 22,23 Operating Cost 173 Orchestration 34 Orkut 187,188 OV 6 P Pattern similarity 203,204 Performance Reference Model (PRM) 6 Phonemes 60,125,202,204 Phonetic codes 200 Planned Behavior 147 Poverty line 136 Prefix 282 Prerequisites of good Architecture 10 Process Co-ordination 114 Procurement Auction 155 Procurement Service Provider 236 Productive IT Architecture 11 Project Management 43 Pronunciation similarity 203,204 PTJ 238 R RAND 2,3 Real Time decision Making 70 Recycling 92 Reference Template 61 Reference Voiceprint 61 Research Methods to enhance IT use 259 Responsiveness 170 RFID 67 S SAN 53 SAP LAP analysis 206,207,208 SAP LAP framework 208 S-Curve 168 Security 195 Semantic E-governance processes 113 Semantic knowledge Management 111 Semantic Web 94 Semantic web tools 101 Sequence Diagram 36 Sequence ID 281 Service Oriented Architecture 33 SIMNIC 224 Sniffer 179 SOA 7 Software Failures 42 Software Obfuscation 79 Software Protection 76 Source Code 24 Standard 1,2 Stock market 198 Supplier Community 235 Sustainability 2 SV 6 T TAM 65 Technology 2 Technology acceptance model 146 TimE-in-public 170 TOGAF 5 Token matching 202,203 Top-Down approach 8 Total Architecture Picture 8 Transformation Stage 24 Transforming technologies 85 Transparency 24 TRM 6 TV 6 U UNEP 89 Unified Process 14 V Vector quantization 63 301

Subject Index Vein Biometric 59 Vendor Lock-in 2 Vertical TimE-Lag 172 VICS 250 Voice Biometric 63 Voice Recognition 59 VOIP 60 W Web application model Web Service 98 WEEE 86 Win Dump Sniffer 180 Z Zachman framework 8

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