I have always wondered who makes the government websites.
Now look at this: SAKSHAT – a “Complete Education Portal” inaugurated by our President and involves HRD ministry, Information ministry. The aim is to connect 50 crore Indians in next 5 years. I wonder what is the budget for this ambitious project. A few crores atleast? Though I am sure one can get a much better website done at RentACoder for less than 150 dollars.
The main page of the site is titled “Index”! Click on a link called Digital Literacy and you are taken to a new page titled – “Untitled document”. And lets not talk about the color scheme, usability, focus – this is “Sarkari” after all.
Who are the people who manage these projects? Have they seen the Internet of 2006? Did they even explore open source projects like Moodle? Do they really want this to serve any purpose?
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Rohit,
Thanks for the open source clarification. I think what you say makes sense at a gut level. It may be prudent for those who use open source to make sure they are in compliance.
Sanjay
I think if you make changes to the core software and further sell it, you are expected to provide the source code to EVERYONE. But if the code is exclusive enough, I think you dont need to release the source code. There are vendors providing plugins etc. for Moodle and not all are open source. But there are numerous open source licenses and plenty of loopholes.
And about the project, I agree they are just doing a pilot right now. But the kind of mistakes they have made, raises questions on the seriousness. Can any professional web development company approach its client with a prototype titled Index or Untitled document?
Rohit,
Moodle is very interesting. With these open source projects if you use their platform to develop an application I think you are allowed to charge for use of the application. However, do you have to provide the source code of your application to anyone who asks for it. This may be a stupid question but I am not sure what obligations using open source imposes on a commercial provider.
Rohit,
I agree that this website could be much better but I played around with it a bit and the link to the NIC site takes you to a site which though very busy is better. For instance under ebooks I could find the Class X math book as an ebook.
NIC and IBM are doing this project and they are doing a proof of concept with some students in Delhi. It could be much better but atleast it is a start.
If they can get it to function and be useful then I would be happy. The railway ticketing site is no great shakes but it works.
What is even more disappointing is the fact that the site was created by IGNOU. If anything, they should be heavily invested in open source. To top it all. Iam sure the government is determined to spend a few more crores marketing something that doesnt work.