For anyone's brain food - the app is opensource and the sourcecode is available at <a href="https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/</a><p>[EDIT:] It looks like it was developed on Drupal - (<a href="https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/master/ogpl/webapp/core/INSTALL.txt" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/mast...</a>)<p>According to info, this is a Govt of US-India collaboration.<p>[EDIT-2:] I hope their data dump is not from the production servers (<a href="https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/668b73f4e8d7835cc4b9f79a057e4483dc5dd6e3/ogpl/db/dbdump.zip" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/668b...</a>) Because I found this on grepping - <a href="https://gist.github.com/3608089" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/3608089</a>
One of the core values of any government should be to make available all of it's data freely to all citizens available via API.<p>Everything being publicly auctioned and the free data available publicly will stop many of the scams of the nature India is going through right now.<p>I am not sure if any one would, but if someone comes up with a bill that holds the powers-that-be responsible under the "Duty to Report" bill, I would support them.
Notice the use of the phrase "allopathic hospitals" in a database of number of beds available!
It always cracks me up how modern medicine is referred to as just another form of medicine, like Ayurvedic or homeopathic. The Indian government is clearly of the opinion that forms of quackery that are homeopathy and Ayurveda actually work and are worthy of tax payer money.
It is a very encouraging step from GoI, looking at the recent slur about rampant corruption in India [<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4447605" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4447605</a>]. That said, I do feel that the task of opening the Government doesn't end at launching a portal (yet another CMS) or giving out yet another data-set.<p>Looking at how much impact these platforms have induced even in developed nations there seems little incentive [some advantage definitely] to pursue such an initiative in a country like India. Millions die of basic malnutrition there, and perhaps their focus should be to make food available to consume, rather than data.<p>Of course the data will help but aren't we missing the big picture?<p>It is relevant to note that incentive for active development on Gov data-sets like these (believed to improve the existing establishment) is probably not as attractive an idea as it is to disrupt the legacy itself. That's how the relationship has been between the establishment and disruptive thinkers for centuries.<p>I mean all this seems like a complicated play of a ton of variables - democracy, education, impact, profit, consumption, need etc. Yet no doubt the launch is certainly a positive one from the largest democracy in the world.
Brave move to open source the project - and handy, as it seems they could use some friendly advice on Drupal security and best practices, e.g. <a href="https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/master/ogpl/webapp/core/superadmin.php" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/opengovplatform/opengovplatform/blob/mast...</a> vs. <a href="http://ogpl.gov.in/superadmin.php" rel="nofollow">http://ogpl.gov.in/superadmin.php</a> ;)
Why is it that contires such as india seems to be behind in the way of website design, the design is just too busy for me and the styles/colours remind me of early 2000 sites.
From: <a href="http://ogpl.gov.in/about_us" rel="nofollow">http://ogpl.gov.in/about_us</a><p>Open Government Platform (OGPL) is being developed by nodal agencies from both the countries (National Informatics Centre, Department of Electronics & IT, Government of India and Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies, General Services Administration, U.S. Government).
To know more about the participating organizations visit following links<p>National Informatics Centre (<a href="http://www.nic.in" rel="nofollow">http://www.nic.in</a>)<p>General Services Administration (<a href="http://data.gov" rel="nofollow">http://data.gov</a>)
This site is absolute trash, pretty much like anything else the NIC creates. I've tried to register using a dozen possible methods and there are all sorts of errors. Seriously, how hard is it to allow someone to create an account, beta or no beta? They have this ridiculous list of ways to sign up including Foursquare and PayPal and almost none of them work. Yes Paypal, really.
For those who are interested, there are a bunch of us discussing open Govt. datasets (for India) at the DataMeet Google Group - <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/datameet" rel="nofollow">https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/datameet</a>
For some reason the link to 'Dataset' doesn't work for me. However, this link works: <a href="http://data.gov.in/search/apachesolr_search/?filters=type%3Adataset" rel="nofollow">http://data.gov.in/search/apachesolr_search/?filters=type%3A...</a>
Has anyone tried to actually download a data set? It seems you have to register first. Is there any good reason why an open government initiative would need to require registration to access the actual data?
Am I the only one who finds it strange there are no buttons to change to languages other than English (or if there are, they weren't obvious enough for me to find)?