Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology

Volume: 01 Issue: 02 December 2012 Page No.28-32

A Study on Enhancing E-Governance Applications

Abstract- The government of every nation has a lot of E-Governance will benefit end users as well as the
data and information related to its own country. This decision makers in the government. The end users would
information is mutually owned by different states, be able to get a transparent view of the system in work
departments, and agencies within the country. These and provide their thoughts on the same. At the same time
owners have their own corresponding websites and they the various government agencies would be able to do
decide which data they want to expose to the common proper data analysis and decide on the future course of
public. However, as the data corresponding to the actions in a more accurate manner.
websites exists in silos, it cannot be connected across
websites. This article looks at the challenges of the II. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE
current website implementations of the Indian
government and highlights the benefits that can be This paper aims to examine the issues in implementation
obtained by implementing Semantic Web Technologies. of Semantic Web Technologies in E-Governance. The
paper details out the current implementations of websites
Keywords- E-Government; Semantic Web; Public and the challenges faced in them. The paper also explains
Service; Portal; Semantic Web Services; Linked Open in brief the recent new venture by the Indian government
Data; RDF. into implementation of Semantic Web Technologies and
the challenges faced by them.This paper will give an
I. INTRODUCTION opening for Semantic Web Technologies to provide
better Governance solutions that can benefit the citizens
The current implementations of the websites of the Indian of the country as well as the governing agencies.
Government are based on Web 1.0 or Web 2.0. In these
implementations, there is a lot of content that is scattered III.CURRENT IMPLEMENTATIONS
and spread across various websites. There is a need to
look at ways to use technology to bring the meta data and The Government of India has laid down usability
content related to them under one umbrella and centralize guidelines for web-based interfaces that need to be
them while at the same time give the end user the adhered to for sites developed for the government [7].
freedom to use data as a de-centralized separate unit. These guidelines make sure that the websites created for
When such a system is implemented in totality, the size the Government of India are universally accessible. Some
of the data managed as a single repository for the entire of the guidelines are mentioned below:
country will be very large. The benefits of having all the
data is dependent on our ability to derive or inference  Easy Accessibility: Making sure that visually
information from it. The benefits derived from these large challenged or specially abled users can easily access
sets of data can be increased if the all the data is stored on the website. This is done by giving the end user the
the websites in a way that the data can be “understood” option to increase or decrease the contrast or font size.
by machines and processed as required to provide  Screen Readers: Making the website accessible to
required information. It would be better if this processing screen readers.
happens without human intervention. Semantic Web [3],  Scope of Content: Specifying the way in which
also known as Web 3.0, is a step in this direction. The documents, forms, circulars, and other information is
Semantic Web is the future of the Internet as envisioned shared on the website.
by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the Internet.  Quality of Content: Specifying items related to the
Although artificial intelligence has been studied a lot, the way content is displayed and the English language is
benefits that a normal user derives from artificial used in the website.
intelligence are very limited. It is envisioned that users of  Design: Specifying the layout and the features
the Internet will benefit from the Semantic Web in the available to the user to modify the content.
future as concepts of artificial intelligence get  Development: Specifying guidelines for development
implemented easily in web-based applications.The use of and testing of the website.
Semantic Web Technologies for web implementations in
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Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology
Volume: 01 Issue: 02 December 2012 Page No.28-32
ISSN: 2278-2389
policies, to name a few. As the information keeps
A quick search and scan through the Government of India increasing, it is becoming clear that a better mechanism
websites reveals that the main website of the Indian for storage and retrieval of data needs to be present as the
Government is http://india.gov.in. Hereafter, the main current mechanism will soon turn outdated and slow.
website of the Indian Government shall be refered to as
C. Available information cannot be processed by
the “parent website”. This website contains a lot of
content and information. Along with all the content and machines
information, the parent website also has links that provide All the information available on the web is in HTML
information about the state and the details related to format that is readable and understandable by humans.
different departments or offices of each state. Each of the But it is not in a format that can be understood by
states and their corresponding departments have separate machines to do any form of processing. Therefore,
websites that detail out complete information specific to although there is information available on the website, it
their area. For Example: The Ministry of Finance has the cannot be used by multiple applications automatically for
site http://finmin.nic.in and the Department of Electronics any processing. There is human intervention required for
and Information Technology has the site extracting the data and then using it in other applications
http://deity.gov.in. These are at a country level. Similarly for use.For all the problems mentioned above, Semantic
the state of Uttarakhand has its own site as Web Technologies looks like one of the most promising
http://www.governoruk.gov.in. All the mentioned answers.
websites have URLs to different subpages and also
V. SEMANTIC WEB – WEB 3.0
various other resources like forms, images, etc., which
can be downloaded by the end user as required.
Web content can be read by humans by going to a
IV. ISSUES IN CURRENT IMPLEMENTATIONS specific URL and reading up the available information.
The content or the data available on the website cannot be
Looking at the current web based implementations, it is processed by machines. This is because a common global
clear that while the base context is the same, there are standard for data and website implementation does not
multiple websites dealing with different aspects of the exist across websites. Semantic Web has laid down the
Indian government. These independent websites have standards to be followed so that structure can be brought
their own databases and data processing logics and all into web content such that developers can develop
these websites exist as silos and are not connected to each semantic web agents that can access these web pages
other. The current implementation of the government automatically and have inference power to conduct
websites have issues that need to be addressed. These automated reasoning [4]. There are multiple terms or
include [6]: technologies that together make the Semantic Web. They
are described below:
A. Data inconsistency across portals
A. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Data related to a particular topic may relate to multiple
agencies/department websites as they may be overlapping The challenge for semantic web is to be able to provide a
in nature. This may lead to confusion in the minds of end language for both the data as well as the rules for
users as to which websites need to be referred to for the reasoning about the data. The meaning is expressed in
information. More importantly, will the data be stored in RDF as triples [3]. Each triple contains a subject,
both the databases that are used by the two different predicate, and an object. If two terms have the same
websites? Or will it be maintained at a single location? meaning, then the ontology provides a third basic
How will they be updated or managed? For example, if component of the Semantic Web that formally defines the
an end user wants to know information related to the relationship among terms. There are multiple RDF
financial budget for Bangalore, the user might be formats likes RDF/XML, Turtle and N3.
confused on whether to go to the Ministry of Finance B. Linked Open Data
website of the Indian Government or to the website of
Karnataka and search for finance information over there To realise the full potential of the web, it is essential to
or to the Bangalore Development Authority site. have all the web data to be available as a single global
system. This is the concept of Linked Open Data (LOD)
B. Inadequate support for the Information explosion where different organisations, government agencies or
The current government websites have created very large individuals upload their data on to the web such that it is
sets of information that are available to the general public interconnected and at the same time accessible by
for viewing and use. The data and resources of these semantic web-enabled applications. Linked data is mainly
websites is increasing daily, as there is a lot of about publishing structured data in RDF using URIs [9].
information that relates to different aspects of society, It refers to a set of best practices to be followed for
including government announcements, employment, and publishing and connecting structured data over the

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Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology
Volume: 01 Issue: 02 December 2012 Page No.28-32
ISSN: 2278-2389
Internet [3]. Semantic Web applications rely on people software, semantic web-related technology also suffers
and organizations publishing their data on to the Linked from a vicious circle of data versus application
Open Data cloud in a structured format. Tim Berners-Lee availability. Organizations are not investing much to
outlined the set of principles known as the Linked Data publish their data into the LOD cloud as there are not a
principles to be followed when publishing data on the large number of applications that use this data and
web. The linked data principles [10] are as follows: provide business benefit. On the other hand, application
developers are not creating new and improved
 Use URIs as names for things. applications as there is not enough data published on the
 Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those LOD that can used by the new applications. This vicious
names. circle of application versus data exists when any new
 When someone looks up in a URI, provide useful path breaking technology starts getting accepted and
information, using the standards (RDF, SPARQL). implemented as a main stream application.
 Include links to other URIs so that they can discover
VI. OPEN GOVERNMENT PLATFORM
more things.

Every Linked Open Data (LOD) dataset can be On March 30th, 2012, the government of India launched
understood as a Semantic Web application that helps the the Open Government Platform (OGPL). It is envisioned
end user in some way [8]. In 2007, Chris Bizer and that the OGPL will lead to participative governance as
Richard Cyganiak submitted the application of Linked the government will share more and more data. The
Open Data (LOD) to W3C SWEO, representing the start OGPL has been jointly developed by India and United
of linked data development. As of September 1 st, 2011, States. This collaborative endeavour was started as part
295 datasets have been published and interlinked by the of a series of initiatives announced by Indian prime
project consisting of over 31 billion RDF triples, which minister, Manmohan Singh and US president Barack
are interlinked by approximately 504 million RDF links Obama in November 2010 in Delhi. The initiative on
[11]. Indian side was led by Mr. Sam Pitroda, adviser to the
Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure, and
C. Semantic Web Services Innovations, and on the US side by Aneesh Chopra, the
Semantic Web Services (SWS) provide features that then Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to the US
allow new services to be added, discovered, and President.The first release of OGPL contains essential
composed dynamically. The processes that might be able features to establish an open data service capability along
to use the web services are updated automatically to with some basic data sets. Future releases will enable
reflect the new forms of cooperation. SWS combine the users to create applications that work on these datasets to
flexibility, reusability, and universal access that typically provide various functions. The developers can:
characterise a web service along with the expressivity of  consume datasets using web services
semantic mark up and reasoning, in order to make the  create mobile or other applications that use these
invocation, composition, mediation and automatic datasets
execution of complex services feasible. [3].  directly access datasets for information
There is also a citizen engagement module where the
government can get feedback from the end users and
D. Semantic Web Applications
actions taken. The data in this module will be visible to
Applications are built to use Ontologies and data everyone on the website.
published in Linked Open Data as RDF to display and
infer different conclusions based on the inference model The users will also be able to publish their different
that has been created in the application. datasets onto the website. These will get submitted as part
E. Ontology Development of a workflow for approval to the government agencies.
Once the government agencies are satisfied, the dataset
Traditionally, to facilitate the building of ontologies for will be available to the public for use. The users that use
Semantic Web, text mining techniques have been used to the datasets can give feedback on them, which will also
perform ontology learning from texts. However, be visible to everyone. Based on the votes received for
traditional systems employ shallow natural language datasets, the agency will be able to understand the benefit
processing techniques and focus only on concept and or disadvantage of a particular dataset and then look into
taxonomic relation extraction. Ontology development is a it further. This way they can control which datasets are
big area for Semantic Web related technologies and a lot removed and which continue. The OGPL platform also
of work is happening in this area for this [14].Although provides a set of information to the owner related to
the semantic web-related technologies look very which users can have access to which dataset and how
promising, the acceptance and implementation of the many have found it useful. This feedback can also be sent
same has some challenges. The main issue is that like any across to social networking websites.OGPL has been
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Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology
Volume: 01 Issue: 02 December 2012 Page No.28-32
ISSN: 2278-2389
completely developed using open source softwares performance will have a reverse effect on the popularity
including the Content Management System - Drupal. being gained by Semantic Web Technologies.
This makes the front-end application highly configurable
based on the tastes of the end users. Also, the entire Improved User Interfaces [4]: One of the key benefits of
application is web-based. All that is needed for this Linked Data from the user perspective is the provision to
application use is a web browser. access interlinked data from a wide range of distributed
and heterogeneous data sources. This may involve
VII. CHALLENGES integrating data from sources not explicitly selected by
the user. For example, if the user wants to know the
There are certain challenges that need to be overcome number of people working with a particular company in a
when websites need to implement semantic web particular city, this will require traversal and display of
technologies in them. They include: information from multiple datasets. In the normal
Management of URIs [9]: Linked data is mainly about scenario, the browser back and forward buttons will take
publishing structured data in RDF using URIs rather than the user to the next and previous pages correspondingly.
focusing on ontological level or inferencing. This However, in this scenario, the user might want to traverse
simplification lowers the entry barrier for data providers from one data set to another that is displayed in the
just as the Internet based on URLs simplified the browser.The Linked Open Data browser should also
established academic approaches of Hypertext systems. provide options to add or remove datasets from the result.
However, all the RDF data on the government sites need This is a very challenging task and needs to be analysed
to be independently accessible using URIs.Creation and to a greater level.Schema mapping [4]: Once the data has
selection of vocabularies: An important aspect in the been retrieved from multiple datasets, it must be
whole process of ontologies creation and selection is integrated in a meaningful way before it is displayed to
deciding the ontologies to be used by the government. It the user or it is further processed. Link Maintenance [4]:
needs to be decided that which of the existing The content of the Linked data is continuously changing
vocabularies are going to be extended or reused. or is continuously getting updated. The RDF links
Experience shows that it is strongly advisable to reuse between data sources are updated sporadically. This leads
existing vocabularies and extend them if required rather to dead links pointing to URIs that are no longer
than create new ones based on the type of application that maintained or even set in as the new data is published.
is being worked on.Handlings provenance and trust [4]: Web architecture is tolerant to dead links but too many
From an interface perspective, the question of how to can lead to unnecessary http requests. This is also an area
represent the provenance and trustworthiness of data of research that is receiving a lot of focus for
drawn from many sources into an integrated view is a improvement. Licensing [4]: Applications that consume
significant research challenge. Tim Berners-Lee proposed data from the web must be able to access explicit
that the browser interface should be enhanced with the information on the terms under which the data can be
“Oh, yeah?” button [2] to support the user in assessing reused and republished. The availability of appropriate
the reliability of the information encountered on the web. frameworks for publishing such specifications is an
Whenever a user encounters a piece of information that essential requirement in encouraging data owners to
they will like to verify, pressing such a button will participate in the LOD. The data owners thus will be
produce an explanation of the trustworthiness of the assured that the data consumers to not infringe on the
displayed information. This goal is yet to be realized. rights of others. The OGPL provides the feature of giving
Addressing quality of service [4]: An overview of explicit licensing agreement details as it allows the data
different content-based, context-based, and rating-based owners to publish licensing related information. OGPL in
techniques can be used to heuristically assess the its future releases will also allow data owners to sell their
relevance and quality of data given. This is being data to consumers as a service for a fee.Privacy [4]: The
addressed to a certain extent by the OGPL as the users of ultimate aim of a LOD is to have a single global database.
the datasets are able to give a rating of the datasets. This However, this also brings with it dangers with it.
can be viewed by other users of the dataset to understand Protecting data in the LOD context is likely to require a
its quality.Performance and scalability issues [4]: Linked combination of technical as well as legal means, together
data can be accessed by different semantic web-enabled with a higher awareness among the user.
applications, using techniques like advanced crawling
and caching. However, the increase in the number of Security is a very important aspect of semantic
datasets over time will deteriorate the performance of the knowledge management. To secure the Semantic Web, all
semantic web-enabled applications. Therefore, this might its layers must be protected including RDF, XML,
necessitate wide spread link traversal and crawling. It is ontologies, and application integration. In the case of
necessary to make sure that increase in the data in the XML, it is important to securely publish XML documents
LOD does not impact the performance of semantic web- or even role-based access [10]. Some research has been
enabled government applications. Any issues in done on the security of RDF models as well. For securing
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Integrated Intelligent Research (IIR) International Journal of Web Technology
Volume: 01 Issue: 02 December 2012 Page No.28-32
ISSN: 2278-2389
the business, the challenge includes identifying and [5] E. Arnold Stephen “Semantic technology: From sentiment to
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the Semantic Web will be realized once developers start
creating Semantic Web enable software agents that
collect web content from diverse source, process the
information, and exchange results with other programs.
Semantic Web will provide a foundation and framework
that makes artificial intelligence more feasible. Semantic
Web can assist in inferencing knowledge to be used by
humans. There is a lot of scope for work in the
government domain as well as other domains in Semantic
Web technologies. The implementation of Semantic Web
technologies is at a very infant stage in the Indian context
and there is a huge scope for implementations which
would make the data related to the government easily
accessible. This would also in the future help in providing
better analysis tools to the government for better decision
making.
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