DrupalGov Summit at DrupalCon Asia

In August 2014, the government of India announced the bold and far-reaching Digital India policy. This ambitious initiative aims to bring about profound digital transformation in all aspects of governance and prepare India and its citizens for a knowledge-driven future.​

The three goals of Digital India are:

1. Build a scalable digital infrastructure and make it easily accessible
2. Make services available to citizens digitally and integrate services across government departments
3. Empower citizens through digital literacy, universal accessibility, and collaboration

The government of India has allocated a budget of about US$70 billion (₹4.5 lakh crore) until 2018 for this program. A massive number of proposals, ideas, existing programs were pulled together into a unified vision by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and the program was officially launched on July 1, 2015.

One of the clear mandates of the policy is to adopt open standards and promote open source and open technologies in the implementation of various facets of the program. The various ministries of the government of India “shall endeavor to adopt Open Source Software [OSS] in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to Closed Source Software (CSS)." While this is a very important mandate for all open source advocates and practitioners, it is fraught with serious challenges.

At DrupalCamp Mumbai in February 2015, we invited stakeholders from the National Informatics Centre, IIT Bombay, private enterprise, both SIs and SMEs, and open source advocates, to begin understanding the challenges in adopting and applying open source models and practices in government. In March 2015 I attended DrupalSouth in Melbourne and learned how the Australian government had built a national govCMS platform on Drupal. The Digital India policy, launched on the heels of these events, is serendipitous. When it was announced that DrupalCon Asia would be held in Mumbai in 2016, it became the best opportunity to take those initial conversations to the next level.

The DrupalGov Summit aims to bring together key stakeholders from the Indian government, consulting organisations, and experts from India, UK, Australia, and the EU, to discuss how Drupal can be a powerful enabling technology for the success of the Digital India initiative. The summit will focus on presenting case studies, discussing challenges of fostering open source projects in the public sector and how the lessons learned in the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere, can be applied to help meet the ambitious goals of Digital India programs.

Speakers

The day will feature expert presentations, panel discussions, and opportunities for participants to network in a uniquely interactive space.

Jeffrey A. “jam” McGuire is a well-known evangelist and prolific podcaster in the Drupal world. He has recently presented on open source in government at various European events and will share the latest on Drupal adoption in the EU and also provide a backgrounder on Drupal.

Natalie Taylor has played a pivotal role in successful digital transformation of UK government departments. She began her career in digital ten years ago with the conception and delivery of nhs.uk (National Health Service). Afterwards, she led the digital transformation of three central government services at the Government Digital Service. Most recently she led the delivery of the new london.gov.uk site for the Mayor of London, which is built on Drupal.

Christopher Skene is the co-architect of aGov, a Drupal distribution that is the basis of the govCMS open source content management and infrastructure platform for the Australian government. He is also the co-convener of the DrupalGov conference in Australia.​

Panelists

Representatives from DeitY, NIC, IT departments of the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Kerala will participate in interactive panel discussions on diverse topics. Participants from Red Hat India, Techpartner, Zyxware, TCS, OSCI and other organisations will share their perspectives. Academics from IIT Bombay will offer their valuable insights and showcase projects. Of course, there will be passionate Drupal and open source evangelists and activists, adding their depth to the discussions.

Why Should You Attend

Digital India is not just a governmental initiative; it is a citizen initiative. Communities of passionate collaborators fuel open source projects like Drupal. You should attend DrupalGov, If you are

• interested in working on helping with evangelising Drupal and open source software solutions in large-scale digital projects
• interested in learning how large-scale government projects are built and delivered
• passionate about promoting and fostering open source practices in the public sector
• keen to be part of a constructive and actionable dialogue between private enterprise, open source communities and public sector institutions to help with the aims of Digital India
• want to make a difference and an active contribution to help India become a knowledge-driven nation

We aim to conclude the summit with actionable next steps, and follow up events, towards making Drupal and the open source community a vital part of Digital India’s ongoing implementation.​

The summit is being organised with the active participation and support of the Open Source Consortium of India (OSCI), IIT Bombay and the Drupal Association.

Beyond the summit

OSCI and its partners are planning to organise more sessions and roundtables with stakeholders across sectors, based on the takeaways of this summit. This summit is also part of an expanding DrupalGov initiative, traveling from Australia to India, onwards to Europe and North America. We intend to make this a recurring event with more topical regional events planned along the way. Being part of a global initiative allows us to harness unparalleled community knowledge and resources, and collaborate in a true, open source way.

If you find this exciting, then come and join us and become a part of something amazing.

Register Now

Program Schedule​

Feb 18, 2016

8:30 am
Registration, tea & networking

9:45 am
Kick-off and welcome message​

10:00 am
Drupal in broader context: Intro to Drupal 8 with focus on benefits to government stakeholders, end-users, and constituents. Jeffrey A. “jam” McGuire. + Q&A

10:30 am
Digital Transformation in the UK. Natalie Taylor. + Q&A​

11:00 am
Designing a platform for the government in Australia. Christopher Skene. + Q&A

11:30 am
Tea and networking break

12:00 pm
Digital India overview + Q&A

12:30 pm
Panel Discussions

1. Digital Transformation Challenges in India
   a. Coordination of effort
   b. How are projects decided and tenders put out
   c. OSS Vendor Selection process - tendering, budgeting, RFPs
   i. especially when dealing with SMEs
   d. How do we build an accessible expert resource pool for the govt?
   e. Implementation and maintaining large-scale digital govt projects

1:30 pm
Lunch Break

3:00 pm
Panel Discussions cont’d …

1. Tactics for addressing digital transformation challenges
   a. Provide common standards
   b. Hit pain points (price, time, hard-to-meet common requirements)
   c. Seed with innovative tooling
   d. Provide Social proof
   e. Build capability
   f. Show leadership and communication
2. How and where can Drupal and its community be best deployed, using these tactics, to solve the challenges in 1.

5:00 pm

• Concluding notes and takeaways.
• Thank you message and next steps.

5:30 pm
Tea & Networking