Partnership with the BDA and media attention took centerstage this month.

Government Partnerships: Progress with BDA. Stamps & Registrations on Hold 

The Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority has warmly welcomed Zen Citizen to collaborate with the BDA, beginning with efforts to make their website more citizen-friendly. We are deeply grateful for the Commissioner’s encouragement and excited about the possibilities this partnership opens up. 

Progress on our partnership with the Department of Stamps & Registrations has slowed, as the Deputy Secretary assigned as our point of contact by the Inspector General of Registration has been transferred. We are now awaiting a new contact.

Zen Citizen in the Media 

Now that we have solidified our approach to making government services accessible through guides, tools, and partnerships, we are prioritizing media outreach. Interest from the media has been growing.

• The Hindu republished its online article about us in the print edition.

• Zen Citizen was featured on RJ Anjali Muralidhar’s segment on Mirchi 95 FM on October 11, 2024. 

• The Times of India appears eager to write an article about our work – fingers crossed! We dropped by their office and asked to speak with a reporter, just as we did with The Hindu, and it worked this time too! Interestingly, the reporter was trying to get a marriage certificate and immediately recognized the pain points we are addressing. Aside: Meeting someone else who understood the quirks of the Kaveri portal felt like running into a school or college alum – we instantly connected and found plenty to commiserate and laugh about 🙂

• Oh, and Red FM has also reached out to cover us. 

Simplifying Digital e-Stamping & Property Registration (and Legal Support challenges) 

Guides on Digital e-Stamping and Property Registration are in draft, pending review by legal professionals.

We have also prototyped a tool to simplify selecting the correct document, article, and sub-article in the Document Registration UI. Currently, the UI is a dropdown with around 130 options, which can be overwhelming and confusing for users. Our tool provides a search interface where users can enter their own terms to find the documents they need. This requires understanding the words citizens commonly use, as legal terminology often differs from everyday language. For instance, rental agreements are labeled “lease” rather than “rent.” We need help from a legal expert to simplify this terminology and make the process more accessible for citizens. 

We reached out to several lawyers, but help has not been forthcoming, as they understandably have little incentive to simplify this process. We are now approaching law professors and are also considering hiring deed writers or lawyers, paying for their services.

Civic Compass v3 and Website Rehaul Updates

Priti Pandurangan and Abhik are partnering to make Civic Compass v3 a reality, creating a tool that will be easily extensible for volunteers to configure for other cities. This has been one of our most challenging projects, with its share of struggles around volunteer churn. Priti Pandurangan has stepped in to take ownership of the front-end development. We are grateful to have Priti in our corner.

The website re-haul work is currently being iterated, with Priti and Gaius expecting it to be ready by mid-next month.

Scaling Zen Citizen: Funding and Volunteer Management

Dr. Malpani has generously offered to fund a hire for a “volunteer anchor” – someone to manage volunteers. This marks a shift not only in how we run Zen Citizen, moving from fully volunteer-based to partially staffed, but also in our focus. Until now, volunteer coordination has taken up a significant portion of our time; this change will allow us to prioritize other key areas such as government partnerships, media outreach, and impact tracking.

Though this is a significant development, we’re sharing it last since the shift has only just begun.

Onward & Upward!