Citizens:Start Here - A Starter Kit for Making a Difference
WINNER: Honorable Mention
Issues like Poverty, Education, Health, or Crime are common to all our neighbourhoods. They have several characteristics that make them difficult to address:
- These issues are large and complex.
- They are interconnected, and cannot be addressed individually.
- They evolve with circumstances over time. So standardized programs and solutions may not be the best way to address them.
The tasks seems daunting, BUT: Imagine if we could equip everyone with a Starter Kit that helps them understand issues that they care about, and take action to do something about it?
What if they could:
- Easily look up issues and get inspired to take action.
- See the relationships between issues and understand the bigger picture.
- Connect with those currently championing this issue.
Now, Anyone can be a potential change agent, and we'd be addressing issues that mattered to us together!
"Citizens:Start Here" aims to serve as a simplified Wikipedia of interconnected issues in Malaysia, presented in a solution-oriented format, designed to engage people step by step, moving us beyond curiosity into action.
12 comments
Shawn L Manager • over 13 years ago
Hi,
just to update you that because of the change in date for the public voting we will only be adding your video link the day before public voting starts.
Thanks.
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
To help clarify this, I'm adding some further explanation I gave when someone on the forums asked about this project.
Answer to question: What is this project about (in more detail)?
"Before we can help improve our country, the first thing is to *know* and *understand* what the problem is, right? (If we simply hentam one solution without knowing the problem, then what's the point of doing it?)
Right now, let's say this Challenge.my competition and this project didn't exist, and you were interested in helping to make a difference in Malaysia, where would you start? Is there a place that people like you and me can go to to find out things like:
1. What the problems are?
2. How can I help?
When I was trying to find a solid problem to solve for the Challenge.my proposal, I spent several weeks just interviewing different people and reading books just to try to answer the question "What are the problems that our country is facing right now, and how can we help to improve it?"
Would you believe me when I say that there is **no clear answer** to that question right now? There's no place that will give you the answers you are looking for also. I'm not talking about things like "Poverty is a problem, fix that"...... this is waaay too high level, and there is not enough useful information for me to do anything.... that's like going to a doctor and saying "I'm sick, heal me".
So how are we going to work together to improve our country if we are not even clear about WHAT the problems are and HOW we can help?
This project is trying to solve this problem right now, so that people like you and me can immediately find out WHERE and HOW we can help, step by step. :)
How will it work?
-----------------------
Before I start explaining this part, I would like to share 2 concepts:
1. Do you use Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org)? It is a free, online encyclopedia that many people use to find out more about things that they are curious about. If you have not used it before, please try it. It will help you to understand what I am trying to achieve.
2. Another thing that is important to know is that the problems we have in our country are *interconnected*... for example, if you try to address health issues, you will find that a lot of health problems are caused by poverty (because some may be too poor to afford good healthcare), and then when you try to address poverty, you will find that it is also linked to education (because the education level is low, it is not easy to find jobs), and so on....
So when trying to solve problems effectively, we *must* understand how it connects to other issues and the impact that we will have on them.
You can think of this project as a very simple "Wikipedia" of interconnected issues in Malaysia. When I encounter a problem, for example, "Why are there so many homeless people in KL?" or "How come the streets in KL are not as safe as before?", I can just try to look it up on Citizens:Start Here, and find out:
- The details/data of the problem
- What causes this problem, and what other problems does this cause?
- What are other people already doing to fix this?
- How can I start helping?
So what about the information? Where will the information come from?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Wikipedia started, it started with about 100 articles of "seed data", then after that, it had a simple system to allow the people themselves to contribute information to the encyclopedia. So after a while, people with medical knowledge were contributing medical articles, people with physics knowledge were contributing physics articles, and as you can see, today Wikipedia has 4 million+ articles, and recent tests on the accuracy of the information have shown that the quality of the information has improved over the years.
"Reavley et al. (2012) compared the quality of articles on select mental health topics on Wikipedia with corresponding articles in Encyclopaedia Britannica and a psychiatry textbook. They asked experts to rate article content with regard to accuracy, up-to-dateness, breadth of coverage, referencing and readability. Wikipedia scored highest on all criteria except readability, and the authors concluded that Wikipedia is as good as or better than Britannica and a standard textbook"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia)
Citizens: Start Here will follow a similar model, but I foresee the checks and "ease" of editing might be more strict and slower than Wikipedia. (We will need to try different variations to find a method that works well for Malaysians). It will start with an initial set of seed data, and then grow from there through crowdsourcing.
Is this complex? How much will this cost?
---------------------------------------------------------
I am a software developer so I will be volunteering time (so it's free la) to build this on my own, but I would love to work with other developers, designers, and information gatherers who are willing to volunteer time to make this happen. :)
Cost wise, I'll be using open source tech whenever possible, which means that we can keep software costs to a minimum (if any at all)
In terms of hosting this, the initial pilot will probably be hosted on a super cheap hosting plan first (something like RM150 per year), and if there is enough usage and people are really beginning to use it to make a difference, I might upgrade the hosting plan.
There will come a time when this project will graduate from the pilot phase into the larger scale... and when that time comes, we will have enough information to know how we can monetize the site to make it self sustaining. But at the beginning, we need to take small steps and learn to walk first before we run. :)
Hope this answers your questions! I am happy that you are interested in it! I am sorry I could not include all this in the proposal but I had to stick to the 800 words limit so I had to remove a lot of information.
Please let me know if you'd like to know more, and if you believe enough in the usefulness of this idea, please do support this project and vote for me! :)"
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
Hi Sheu Yang,
Hmm.... have you been reading the papers or keeping up with issues in Malaysia? Or have you spoken with people who are out there on the field trying to make a difference? I have. They are NOT afraid. But a lot of them are in the position that I just described. They want to make a difference. They want change. But they just don't know how. Or they feel that as an individual they cannot make any difference (which is not true). Their best bet is to follow groups or organizations that match their concerns.
With Citizens: Start Here, these people can understand the issues that matter to them, and if necessary they can even form small groups within their communities to address it, and link to other small groups in different communities that are facing the same issues.
So, yes. I have actually been out in the field talking to people (not just syok sendiri and coming up with theories on my own). The people are not afraid. They just need useful, unbiased information to show them how to start. :)
Ivan
Derek Chong • about 13 years ago
I really like this idea! Everyone cares about the environment and crime levels and corruption in theory. But I agree, it's quite hard to know what to do for specific issues. It takes a lot of research to get the full details & figure out the best thing to do... Malaysians would be a lot better organised and effective if we could work on the issues together. Good luck!
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
Thanks Derek! :)
Yatra Rêve • about 13 years ago
Finally some semblance of common sense. Thank you for restoring my faith in my fellow countrymen. It has been exasperating reading through the various nonsensical comments in the discussion boards.
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
Thanks Yatra! :)
Have you checked out my project? Here's a link to the higher quality video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdAQLfaVvEk) for you to quickly get an idea of it.
Please do support this project by voting for it, and sharing it with others. Here's a shortened link to make it easier to share with others: http://bit.ly/10yBwA3 . The competition is really keen so every vote and share you can help with will make a difference! :)
Thanks again!
Ivan
Asrul Munir Azizan • about 13 years ago
I thought the video should be 3 minutes only?
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
Yes, my official video is about one minute long only. I have not removed it, or replaced it.
However, to support the campaign, I am also creating multiple videos, long and short, to increase the understanding of the project. These videos don't get the main traffic of challenge.my, but they are still useful in explaining the idea better. :)
Andrew Wong • about 13 years ago
A good idea. It will be a challenge to get people, especially Malaysians, to contribute content as in wikipedia but worth a try.
Ivan Lim • about 13 years ago
Hi Andrew,
Thanks!
For this system to be useful to us all, the information needs to be accurate and reliable.
Given our current state of affairs, and also because of the fact that there's a lot of incomplete/inaccurate information being passed around about issues to date. The general public would not be considered a reliable source of data for detailed, in-depth knowledge on the issues.
Instead, for the first stage, the data will come from people who are already familiar with and are currently championing the issues (i.e. people who are immersed in the issue enough to provide accurate, unbiased information about it).
Because of the generally low level of awareness of our citizens on Malaysian issues, I have come to the conclusion that we cannot fully open the system to the general public to submit issues to the system freely without any check and balance yet.
For one thing, can you imagine what Cybertroopers would do to the data?
Hope this helps to clarify your concerns!
Please do help support this project by voting for it (at the top right hand corner of this page)!
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Ivan
Charlene Ooi • about 13 years ago
Let's make our country a BETTER place by start doing something small. If everyone contributes or gives idea (not just sit down and lament) to help improve our country to grow. I'm sure this is a beautiful land to live!