One-stop website launched with data on all Thai govt services

[webfact]

SPECIAL REPORT
One-stop website launched with data on all govt services
Wasamon Audjarint
The Nation

Accessing government information has been made much easier with the launch of the website www.GovChannel.go.th.

BANGKOK: -- GovChannel was introduced as a channel for people to access information from all governmental sectors, in the hope of achieving an advanced national digital strategy and keeping pace with the fast-changing world.

Operated by the Information and Communication Technology Ministry and its underling, the Electronic Government Agency (EGA), GovChannel links information from four other government websites.

info.go.th contains databases and services for individuals who need to do business with government agencies as addressed in the Licensing Facilitation Act, such as tax collection services. It also contains content of handbooks that allows people to contact government agencies with ease. info.go.th has almost 687,000 databases.

data.go.th contains government databases. The government allows the databases to be freely distributed and used as sources for quotes, with the conditions of their use provided by the agencies that publish the material. The website has 436 databases.

apps.go.th was designed as a platform for the Governmental Application Centre. It provides mobile applications designed to give people access to government services. For example, Egat Water, an application developed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, shows water levels of the country's dams.

The Rubber Thai application, developed by Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry's Department of Agriculture, provides daily updates on rubber prices in markets and a daily analysis on prices. The website contains 108 databases.

egov.go.th acts as a portal to governmental electronic services. The website contains 2,574 databases.

Perhaps to tone down government formality, the pastel-coloured GovChannel webpage has a rather minimalist design. Unlike most other government websites, its simplicity equals user-friendliness.

To test the website, The Nation typed "national identity card" in Thai in the search box. After around 20 seconds, the result showed there are six databases related to the term and all are at egov.go.th.

The databases content includes information on EGA's campaign to get people's opinion on what information should be on the Thai ID card and a brief law related to the card that Thai citizens should know.

They also contained details of the improved issuance of the card at Bangkok's Bang Phlat district office and EGA's campaign to encourage people to submit opinions on how the cards should look.

But when "alien" was added in the search box in the hope of accessing information about how aliens should manage their identification while in Thailand, nothing appeared. This suggests that the website may currently work efficiently under only one search term.

Along with this more integrated online database channel, EGA has delivered a non-Internet information portal in the hope to connecting with people in remote areas. Government Kiosk has been developed much like an automated teller machine, allowing people to check their government-based personal information such as their right to medical care and to social security and details of their credit bureau accounts.

To access the information, a person need only slide their ID card into a machine and the information appears on the screen.

But currently a password is not used with the card, meaning if someone else had access to the card they could view the cardholder's personal information.

Government Kiosk machines are currently located in only five points and all are in Bangkok, including two at EGA offices.

The EGA has also produced an EGA Smart Box, a digital television box set providing governmental information via a TV. Working much like the government's mobile application centre, the box provides users with access to long-distance lectures facilitated via an education cloud-computing system. It has been done in collaboration with the Telephone Organisation of Thailand.

Also designed to help people with limited access to the Internet, the EGA Smart Box is currently only located at major educational centres and local administrative offices.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/One-stop-website-launched-with-data-on-all-govt-se-30273972.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-30

[webfact]

GovChannel bridges the service gap
Wasamon Audjarint
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- GovChannel is a response to the public's need for convenience when contacting governmental agencies given the website's simplistic and user-friendly design, said Irada Luangwilai, deputy director of the Electronic Government Agency.

"Our task was solving how to create a central portal, allowing people to access all the services from the governmental sectors through only one channel," Irada said.

Irada added that the idea was to link Asean more efficiently through technology in light of the full integration of the Asean community next month.

She said it was not only the government's job to bridge communication and service gaps between public and people sectors - people also needed to advance their knowledge and awareness of technology to keep up with the fact-changing Internet trends.

"It's true that governmental sectors need to strengthen themselves in terms of Internet technology, but we can't be the only ones who handle things," she said. "That's why we also focus on how to make people aware of today's technology and processes to deal with possible Internet threats."

One of main concerns involving the government's role as an Internet platform provider is how it could be hacked given the rising number of global hacks. Irada however said the main issues was how to restore hacked webpages as fast as possible.

"Even webpages of world-class companies, or official websites of some advanced countries, were still hacked," she said. "So, we would not dare say how to prevent such hackers, but instead we focus on how to make our database system prepared if such a scenario ever happens."

To shift paper-based services online usually shortened the time required to complete a procedure, she added. But it was up to each governmental agency to decide which services and information they wanted online, as it could be hacked.

Irada said it needed to be understood that Thai society had its own contexts that may sometimes result in Internet services being developed differently to other countries. She cited how Thais tend to stick to traditional ways of communicating with governmental agencies. Irada accepted that the Kingdom's unique political context was one of challenges facing that development. However, the EGA had worked independently, free from political influence, since its establishment in 2011, she added.

"Our duties are mainly operative and technology-based, so we basically receive orders from any government in power at the time," she said, adding that the current Cabinet approved GovChannel.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/GovChannel-bridges-the-service-gap-30273971.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-30

[Srikcir]

Looks like a one-stop shop for a cyber attack.

I trust the government has adequate safeguards in place.

[Langsuan Man]

Looks like a one-stop shop for a cyber attack.

I trust the government has adequate safeguards in place.

I am afraid that your trust is misplaced, once Anonymous, puts Thailand on it's radar (especially after just turning over two Chinese dissidents) these muppets are going to be chasing their tails plugging the holes in their firewalls

[maderaroja]

No English at the website. So, it is not AEC compliant. It is also useless to anyone not able to read Thai.

[thelonius]

To test the website, The Nation typed "national identity card" in Thai in the search box. After around 20 seconds, the result showed there are six databases related to the term and all are at egov.go.th.

I decided to try it out as well. I typed in "transparency" and "National Elections" but all I got was "No matches"

[Misterwhisper]

To test the website, The Nation typed "national identity card" in Thai in the search box. After around 20 seconds, the result showed there are six databases related to the term and all are at egov.go.th.

I decided to try it out as well. I typed in "transparency" and "National Elections" but all I got was "No matches"

Your move inspired me and gave it a go, too. I typed in the search terms "corruption convictions", "military graft rajabhakti" and "censorship free speech". In all three instances I received the "no matches" notice - together with a pop-up window saying, "Your IP address has been logged. Please expect to be invited for attitude adjustment."

[Dogbreath]

This is a windup. Right ? I carefully copied the address in the article onto my browser and got the following message:

Bad Request - Invalid Hostname

HTTP Error 400. The request hostname is invalid.

I don't know what I was expecting. This is, after all, Thailand.

[jacky54]

Did they ever get 90 day reporting on line to work?, I asked at my immigration office and they laughed

[Pib]

No English at the website. So, it is not AEC compliant. It is also useless to anyone not able to read Thai.

Meant for use within the little Thai universe. Farangs no need information; go to ThaiVisa.

[Krataiboy]

Bad Request - Invalid Hostname

Three tries and no luck so far.

[jaywalker]

Bad Request - Invalid Hostname

Three tries and no luck so far.

It was probably set up on a server with 1 megabyte of bandwidth = more than 10 people trying to use it at once makes it not work.

Same thing happened to the Obamacare website......Actually not sure what happened to it, as I refuse to participate as much as possible in the shams & scams of my government.

Anyhow, after a much vaunted launch, it took them quite a while to fix it........That's the USA. I can imagine this Thai website working about as well as a lead zeppelin.

Edited November 30, 2015 by jaywalker

[diehard60]

Looks like a one-stop shop for a cyber attack.

I trust the government has adequate safeguards in place.

It does have I went there and got this "

"Bad Request - Invalid Hostname"

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Two different articles from The Nation, an English language newspaper. And neither of them even mentions whether this new web portal has any English language capacity/content. (Though subsequent posters here in this thread have already answered that question).

Dunno who is dumber. The journalists who write these articles that miss what would obviously be a key issue for their reading audience. Or the Thai government minions who think creating these kinds of websites does anything to support Thailand's role in Asean -- whatever that may be.

[Don Mega]

This is a windup. Right ? I carefully copied the address in the article onto my browser and got the following message:

Bad Request - Invalid Hostname

HTTP Error 400. The request hostname is invalid.

I don't know what I was expecting. This is, after all, Thailand.

Yep I too copy and pasted the web address and got the same.

Then I removed the dot after the TH and it works.

[johng]

Looks like a one-stop shop for a cyber attack.

I trust the government has adequate safeguards in place.

I am afraid that your trust is misplaced, once Anonymous, puts Thailand on it's radar (especially after just turning over two Chinese dissidents) these muppets are going to be chasing their tails plugging the holes in their firewalls

Anonymous are already onto them.

https://anoninsiders.net/asias-opsinglegateway-pr-3129/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[ianc66]

Looking at the site it is secured by muppets, It is not secure i.e. HTTP rather than HTTPS so transmitted data can be read by intermediates. Also no certificate so easy to set up a lookalike site with nearly similar name.

Also using a www. suffix is so 20th century.

In reply to the post asking about 90 day reporting there are good discussions elsewhere on the forum - and yes it worked for me.

[kannot]

probably be as badly done as the new online 90 day reporting site

[torpedo1970]

info.go.th has almost 687,000 databases.

made my day this.....

Anybody with some knowledge of Databases know that they are meant to make life easy by having a lot of info in as few databases as possible....

TIT

So here it seems like it is important to make as many databases as possible...

Hmmm maybe make one for each person......

[taony]

Looks like a one-stop shop for a cyber attack.

I trust the government has adequate safeguards in place.

I am afraid that your trust is misplaced, once Anonymous, puts Thailand on it's radar (especially after just turning over two Chinese dissidents) these muppets are going to be chasing their tails plugging the holes in their firewalls

Anonymous are already onto them.

https://anoninsiders.net/asias-opsinglegateway-pr-3129/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Good for them. I'd retweet it but i don't tweet only <deleted>.

[ace]

info.go.th has almost 687,000 databases.

made my day this.....

Anybody with some knowledge of Databases know that they are meant to make life easy by having a lot of info in as few databases as possible....

TIT

So here it seems like it is important to make as many databases as possible...

Hmmm maybe make one for each person......

Well I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, I quote:

"Irada said it needed to be understood that Thai society had its own contexts that may sometimes result in Internet services being developed differently to other countries."

It is special, Thai style. What happens is that each http request is propagated to all 687k d/bs to ensure complete thainess is achieved. The response is then forwarded by post, around 2-3 years later. Foolish farang.

[Pib]

Maybe what the "one-stop" really means is you'll visit the site once, be sorely disappointed in the little info offered, and never stop by the website again.