The Government of India is proposing a platform to digitize various kinds of physical records through crowd sourcing. The need for this platform cannot be over-emphasized. We cannot talk of Digital India and transforming India into a knowledge society if most of the transactions continue to be physical. To increasing move towards digital transactions, there is huge need to digitize all legacy data and physical data which continues to be generated through our physical transactions.

Converting physical records into digital in a machine-readable form, so that necessary compute operations can be carried on is therefore an essential part of all programmes under Digital India, whether it is a the Digital Locker, or sector specific applications under eKranti. Unleashing the captive data through digitization from physical records will enable research, predictive, quantitative and qualitative analysis for informed decision making and proactive governance. This will help in transforming our e-Government applications from Systems of Records to Systems of Engagement.

Digitization of physical records is a non-trivial task. Indian IT industry has garnered billions of dollars worth of industry by digitizing medical transcriptions and insurance records in the past. That model has matured and offers a solution for large scale digitization. But the problem is that the cost of such digitization is very large and existing budgetary constraints of Government and many other organizations do not allow such lavish digitization effort. Consequently, we have not seen much effort for digitization of physical records in the country. Privacy and security issues of sharing records in public domain also need to be taken into serious consideration.

Government itself has large number of physical records digitization of which can enable analytics over data, improve quality of record and decision-making. Some of the public records which can benefit from digitization effort include: land records, municipal records, birth and death registration records, service records of Government employees etc.

Several non-Government organizations can also hugely benefit from such digitization efforts. For example, Insurance companies can manage their insurance records, telecom companies can save millions of dollars by digitizing the documents relating to identity of their subscribers.

The proposed platform will be build using an innovative enterprise content management framework and tools, the solution supports a unique operations model which uses crowd sourcing for digitizing physical records. It rewards subscribers for every word that they transcribe, at the same time ensures secrecy and privacy of the document. It uses an innovative and complex algorithm to ensure accuracy of digitization without having to have supervisors to compare digitized document with the original. The proposed platform will create earning and income generation opportunities for our literate rural and urban citizens, develop digital literacy and IT skills and include them in making of digital India

The cloud enabled platform accessible through multiple devices will have the following features

i. It will be applicable for transcription for all kinds of documents, irrespective of media, format and language. The documents will need to be converted into a human readable image format.

ii. Any user can become a member and start accumulating points by transcribing words/characters. These words/characters would translate into redeemable cash rewards.

iii. Any organization/Government Department can submit its documents for transcription.

iv. A document to be transcribed is scanned and a template of the document created. Based on the template, the content of the document are apportioned to small portions say words or phrases. Such portions are so made that no portion gives any clue regarding the overall context/content of the document.

v. Each portion is thereafter sent to two randomly selected members of the platform for digitizing.

vi. Each member gets a word/phrase which he or she transcribes. The same word, phrase is also shared with another member (selected randomly). The two digitized version of the word/phrase are compared by the machine. If they match, the digitization is successful. If not, the same if sent to third person and based on his digitization, an assessment is made.

vii. Members get rewarded for successful digitization and not for unsuccessful digitization.

viii. OCR will be used to reduce the extent of digitization required through this crowd sourcing mode.

ix. Mobile based application would be available so that members can transcribe words on the move.

This portal will be deployed on the cloud for supporting multiple government agencies with full security features as per the government standards. It has been developed using open standard technologies. The entire initiative is well architected to safeguard the identity of the documents in the process and to ensure accuracy through proper validations. To ensure that everyone can participate, the portal will be made accessible across multiple devices, in multiple formats, and is multi-lingual.

We not only seek your active participation in contributing to the digitization drive, but also in addressing a few key issues around the initiative. We call you to participate in making the platform richer and more useful.

Contribute for a better future. Your opinion matters.

You are invited to share your views on:

1. What would such a platform be called? What would you name it? Suggest a logo.

2. What are the different kind of documents do you think that require immediate digitization and when digitized will generate maximum value? Please suggest documents from both from public sector and the private sector?

3. What are your suggestions for different kinds of commercial models that may be established for crowd sourcing related to this initiative (Paper based model, subscription based model)?

4. Besides the digitization of records, what other services do you think, can be crowd sourced?

5. What are privacy and security concerns?

6. What are the potential weaknesses of this platform which can be improved?

7. What are the potential risks you envision in this type of engagements?

8. How do you think this platform can be popularized for mass engagement?

9. What type of support do you think will help members in becoming more productive and engaged?

10. What other features like Mobility, Gamification, Analytics, etc. can be enabled on the platform to deliver value in the areas of skill development, language learning, entertainment etc.?

The last date to share your views is 26th May, 2015.