The Access Facebook Award 2012 will go to the best actionable idea of how to use the Facebook platform to deliver a human rights, human development or social good outcome. So, this was my submission:
What
is your idea?
Elections in India are subject to extreme scrutiny
as election frauds, cash for vote scams and counting errors are on an all-time
high. Traditionally, India has been playing a pivotal role in International
economy as it is the fastest growing economy after China. Elections play the
most important role in deciding the fate of this intellectually sound country.
Although, voting systems in India are digitalized
now, there is still plenty of possibility of election fraud. This makes a
politically powerful authority to lead the world’s biggest democracy, instead
of the people’s choice. Election Commission of India and the Government of
India would love to see a fair and square election. This is where Facebook can
help.
Facebook Polls are an efficient way to know people’s
views. Communities, businesses and even non-profits have benefitted immensely
with Facebook Polls. This idea can be molded into a secured web-based voting
application.
Facebook which is the most visited website in a
country of over a billion people can help conduct fair and square elections.
Through Facebook we can create an application by which the Election Commission
of India can conduct elections. Each eligible voter gets his Unique
Identification Number (UIN), issued by the Indian government, registered under
this highly-secured Facebook application. Through this UIN one can log in on
the day of election and cast their vote. At the end of the election period, the
application will count the votes and display the results in the Parliament of
India.
All the results of the application can be stored in
a domestic Facebook database with Government access. This way both parties have
definite set of rules laid regarding privacy, accessibility and usability to
the results.
This would revolutionize the basic definition of
elections and would be immensely beneficial to, both Facebook and India. This
would not only make a billion people use Facebook but would also increase the
credibility, accountability and the impact Facebook can have on about 17% of
the world population. This can later be used in other countries.
Why
is your idea needed?
India is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Suffering with the population crisis, India tries to accommodate each and every
citizen with the basic needs of food, clothing, education and shelter. Politics
in India play a major role in deciding different educational, governmental,
business and health policies. Having a fair election would help choose a
democratic power of the people’s choice. This would enhance people’s faith in
the government and moreover, this would allow better policies to be made.
India also constitutes to major part of the International
Science and Technology man power. With engineering being an Indian family’s
first choice of career path, it produces a set of fine Engineers every year.
But these Engineers, don’t have sufficient resources to get higher education,
as the present Indian Government has a closed opinion on Foreign Educational
institutions in India and also funding Indians to go abroad for education.
Similarly, many such issues are pulling India down,
and stopping it from becoming a technological superpower of the world in spite
of its immense talent pool and low cost of labor and business.
Election processes in India have been the epicenter
of debates all along. With the ruling party indulging in inappropriate methods
to dilute the process, the status quo is as such. It’s astonishing to see such
practices and yet not being able to do anything because of the lack of a
platform to integrate the population and know their opinions. Social media is
the new big thing. With Facebook dominating the social media, the idea of
indulgence of the common man in business, politics and public affairs through
Facebook seems legit.
To summarize, this idea would increase Facebook’s
range in the world, benefit India’s socioeconomic, business, health, public and
legal policies and in future would pave way to making Facebook help provide a
platform to conduct elections.
How
are you making it happen?
A team of people from Technology, Business and
Political fields would be needed to make this happen. As of now, the idea is in
its pre-mature stages but efficient marketing from the social media can make it
possible.
How
will you keep it going?
Facebook-Government alliance centers can be set up
in every state of India, which monitor the application. These centers would
help people to register, log in and cast their vote. Each center will be
equipped with the state-of –the-art facilities to maintain security, assure
proper functioning of all systems and to keep a check on illegal procedures
people may use.
Election Commission of India along with Facebook can
help raise sufficient funds for this project and such a project would be
socially acceptable in a modern “techie” culture of the growing population of
India.
The raised money can be channeled through publicly
elected members from the team to the project. Although the scale of this
project may seem daunting, efficient planning and resources can make it happen.
What
are the risks?
With great power comes great responsibility.
Similarly, with such a big project come bigger risks.
The risks may include:
- Security: Security of the application would be the first and foremost concern. With the growing number of hackers around the world, nothing seems impossible. Maintaining the security of the application by preventing breach of the procedure, excluding fake UINs and preventing misuse of the application.
- Political Acceptance: A project of such stature needs to be accepted politically in India. The procedure is to present a bill in the Parliament suggesting the pros and cons of this project. After carefully scrutiny of the project and immense intellectual debate, the government will take a decision.
- Creditability: For the project to be considered, people would question the credibility of Facebook and the team working on the project. For this purpose, both the team and Facebook would have to come up with substantial evidence that proves their credibility. For this, the team may contain eminent leaders of the Indian society who are working on the same lines.
- International Balance: For a project of such stature, the government would also consider how this project will affect its ties with allies, companies, and governments.
Overall, the risks are way too many. But one step at
a time can solve the issues and make this happen. The end result would
overshadow the difficulties of the process.
What
is your Track record?
I am a senior in Electrical Engineering at Florida
Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida.I’m a lover of Technology, Politics and Community
Service. I run Munificence, a non-profit that concentrates on socially relevant
needs of the society. Munificence serves as a mediator between
the financial institutions and the ones in need. Its aim is to eradicate
poverty in India and to keep a check on the various social issues of the
society. My idea is to integrate technology, politics and
community service to help bring forward a societal change in the way things
work in developing countries, that now stand as the back bone to the world
economy. Given a chance, I
would love to elaborate this idea more with specific details on the technical,
political and business aspects.
