Jury And Evaluation 2006

The DATAQUEST e-Gov ChampionAward 2006 would be decided by certain procedures and rules governing the evaluation of the entries. It is pertinent to clarify the process needed to carry out the evaluation and reporting, together with a schedule for the operation.

The call for nominations for the ‘DATAQUEST e-Gov ChampionAward’ will be open till January 20, 2006. Professionals, ministries, departments, civil society are being invited to nominate their most eminent persons for the Award who in their view is spearheading e-Gov efforts in the region.

The Champions would be selected by an eminent Jury of twelve, including representatives from DIT, academics, industry, media and civil society. Two experts each from DIT and academics; three from the industry, five representatives from the NGO and one from media have been selected to become part of the Jury. The Grand Jury has been constituted by the DATAQUEST e-Gov Champion Award office.

Initiatives and projects handled by the nominees would be evaluated by the 12 member Jury in New Delhi and the main task of the Expert Panel will be to select and propose the 12 award winners out of as many nominations that come by as being nominated by various stakeholders.

The selected Champions and their projects / applications will be invited to the ceremony of e-Governance champions at the Regional level wherein the Awards shall be presented in the midst of an august gathering.

The e-Gov Champions Grand Jury will take place in New Delhi. The Jury and evaluation team is being drawn from the representatives from various fields.

The Jury is acting independently from the organizers and conveners and all vested interests, and would be following the laid down rules and guidelines. All selection and award decisions made by the Jury are final and no form of legal recourse is possible.

The Jury is free not to give main awards. It must, however, make selections for the nominations.

Jury Members

Some of the eminent experts, professionals and organizations have been roped in to be part of the Jury to select the e-Gov Champions.

The Expert Panel will select eminent champions of e-Governance from the 35 Indian states and union territories. Twelve Jury members have been assigned the task to select the awardees from the list of nominees.

The main task of the Expert Panel member is to select and propose the 12, in his/her opinion, best champions of e-Governance in the country. The selection shall be made according to the selection guidelines, provided by The DATAQUEST e-Gov Champion Award office.

All nominations shall be evaluated by the Jury, and the selected champions shall be invited and awarded as per the four classified regions—East, West, North and South.

Evaluation Parameters

• User Interface and Aesthetics
• Reliability, Sustainability and Scalability
• Quality and Comprehensiveness of Content
• Technology Infrastructure and Execution
• Strategic Importance in Bridging Digital Divide
• Originality and Innovativeness of Idea
• Intensity of Impact on Citizen/End User

There will be an official instruction of the Jury regarding the call for entries, the award rules and the rules governing the jury evaluation based on the documents approved by the DATAQUEST e-Gov ChampionAward Office and the Jury Evaluation Guide.

An informal meeting will also take place in order to introduce to the evaluators the general idea of e-Gov Champion AWARD project and to encourage the importance of working within a team.

Jury Location

The Jury meetings and all evaluation will take place in New Delhi at a site with a suitable technical infrastructure and high-speed online access for each of the evaluators.

Reasons for Disqualification

Entries can be disqualified for the following reasons:

• Malfunctioning of the product, project or application during the time of the jury evaluation. Nominees are held responsible for the smooth functioning of their products and applications.
• Non-possession of creative rights or infringement of copyrights of others.
• False or vastly incomplete registration information.

Submissions that do not conform to the rules of the contest guidelines will be disqualified without any notice. There is no legal recourse possible against this decision. Special forms will be available.