Sealing the PSCMS agreement: (From left) Mr Mark Tan, General Manager, Central Singapore CDC; Mr Leong Mun Yuen, Chief Technology Officer and Director (Technology and Planning Group), IDA; Mr Chan Yew Meng, Senior Director, School of Engineering (Electronics), NYP.

The Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) has launched a Web 2.0 web site and mobile application that will enable the organisation to reach out to its 900,000 constituents with details of community events and activities, social assistance schemes, CDC programmes and other resources, while providing a return channel for residents to give feedback.

Powering the web site and mobile application is the People Sector Content Management System (PSCMS), which was developed under a three-party collaboration between the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Central Singapore CDC and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP).

The PSCMS is part of IDA’s People Sector Infocomm Adoption Initiative to support people sector organisations in their adoption of infocomm. Development of the system was carried out by NYP, which leveraged on an open source platform and included plugins and widgets to support social media integration.

For example, Facebook Connect is used to authenticate users, so that they can log in to the system using their existing Facebook ID and password. The PSCMS also allows organisations to embed their Facebook fan page, Twitter channel and YouTube channel onto their web site. “This enables the organisation to provide aggregated content at one stop and to reach out to increasingly tech-savvy users, especially those from the younger age group,” said Mr See Toh Kok Hwee, Manager, Infocomm Solutions Group, NYP.

The PSCMS powers the Central Singapore CDC web site.

As the lead user, Central Singapore CDC set the objectives for the project and identified the target market. It formed an internal task force to evaluate how information was to be presented and played an active role in deciding on the design, look and feel of the web site.

“PSCMS enabled the (Central Singapore CDC) task force to visualise how the site would look, as there were website templates available. Hence it was easier to decide on the design,” said Mr Mohamad Jusri of Central Singapore CDC, who was the manager in charge of the development of the web site. “The readily-available templates also meant that Central Singapore CDC had a few design options to choose from and could revert to another template easily if it considered a design unsuitable.”

PSCMS also enabled Central CDC to consolidate information across its web site and iPhone application “Your Guide to Central Singapore”. The application, which was developed with support from Nanyang Polytechnic, allows residents to get the latest news updates via multimedia content such as photos and videos, check details of community events and activities, provide feedback, and connect via Facebook.

To make use of PSCMS, people sector organisations such as volunteer welfare organisations, grassroots organisations, unions and non-profit organisations can tap on the IDA’s People Sector Infocomm Adoption Grant which covers up to 50 per cent of the costs involved, subject to a maximum cap.

Bishan-Toa Payoh Members of Parliament at the launch of the Town Council's i-Service: (From left) Mr Zainudin Nordin, Mr Wong Kan Seng, Minister of State for Finance and Transport Ms Josephine Teo, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen and Mr Hri Kumar Nair.

The People Sector Infocomm Adoption Grant is aimed at encouraging people sector organisations to adopt interactive infocomm technologies in their engagement with members. An early recipient was the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council, which tapped on the funding to develop an iPhone app to engage the residents of the estate. Called “i-Service”, the iPhone application provides relevant information and services to residents, ranging from highlights of the Town Council’s events which are presented through photo and video galleries, to services such as the online request for bulky item removal and a feedback channel. To further engage the more Internet-savvy residents, the application also provides a link to the Town Council’s Facebook fan page where the Town Council can interact with residents on the social network.

“Through the PSCMS and People Sector Infocomm Adoption Grant, we hope to encourage people sector organisations to adopt sophisticated infocomm technologies such as web 2.0-enabled web sites and mobile applications, to enable them to better reach out to the public,” said Mr Mark Lim, Assistant Director, People Sector Transformation, IDA.