Access trap: In remote and rural communities, access to the Internet is low, because of the lack of connectivity infrastructure. This ‘low demand’ is in turn cited by network operators as a reason for not investing in infrastructural development in these areas, thereby exacerbating the problem. This negative spiral of low demand and limited supply may be referred to as the Internet access trap. Many of the world’s low-income and rural women, find themselves in such an access trap. See http://a4ai.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Affordability-Report-2013-FINAL.pdf

Algorithmic decision-making: This refers to the use of machine learning algorithms for predictive analysis based on big data sets in public decision-making exercises.

Black Box: A black box refers to a technical system where only inputs and outputs can be accounted for, and whose internal workings cannot be viewed. Therefore, in technical circles, ‘black box’ is popularly used to refer to opaque design practices.

Connectivity architecture: This Online Toolkit uses the term to refer to the arrangements for the development and governance of broadband infrastructure backbones and Internet services.

Convergent service delivery: This refers to a situation where a citizen is able to access public information and government services at a single point – whether a physical kiosk or a virtual portal.

Datafication: As the Internet increasingly intertwines with social, economic and political life, personal and behavioural data relating to most aspects of our lives are captured by Internet platforms. Increasingly, sophisticated data mining and pattern analysis techniques, popularly referred to as ‘Big Data analysis’, enable this data to be leveraged for commercial and public interest decisionmaking. For example, behavioural data from search engines can be leveraged by companies seeking to expand their marketing base, and social media analysis can help governments map citizen behaviour. As the collection, aggregation and analysis of data proliferates, so does its use in economic and public policy decision-making. This trend is known as datafication.

De-identification: This refers to the process of preventing a person’s identity from being connected to her personal information, in digitalised data sets. This includes not just anonymisation or removing the name of the person from data sets, but also the removal of other personal identifiers such as citizen ID number, zip code or date of birth, comprising any data point that allows tracing the identity of the person.

Digital capabilities: In this Online Toolkit, this term has been used to refer to the digital literacy, media literacy, and information and data literacy skills that are required for meaningfully using the Internet and other digital technologies for expanding one’s strategic life choices.

Digitally-mediated citizen engagement: This refers to the use of the Internet and information and communication technologies by governments for public information outreach, citizen dialogue and policy consultation, participatory monitoring of service delivery, grievance redress, and co-design/co-production of governance solutions.

Experience good: This term was coined by the economist Philip Nelson in 1970. He used it to refer to a product/ service whose features could be ascertained only upon consumption. See https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/259630  In the context of connectivity, this refers to the idea that the extent to which the Internet’s benefits unfold for users depends upon the specific cultures of use they adopt. While users may expand their repertoire of use over time, it is has been found that users from lower socio-economic background introduced to the Internet through Face Book presume that Face Book is the sum total of the entire Internet. Functionalities in information, communication and knowledge on the Internet is a function of how users make meaning through their experience as user-consumers.

Gender inclusive taxonomies: This refers to the adoption of schemas of classification in data collection/ tabulation/ analysis that enable the differences in men’s and women’s everyday realities to be adequately captured. For example, labour force surveys may record only the main activity an individual is engaged in as his/her occupation, and restrict the recall period of such activity to 7 days. This will fail to adequately capture women’s working lives. For example, consider situations where paid work is a secondary occupation (home-making being the primary activity) for women, or where women are engaged in seasonal employment or working on one’s own land. Making the taxonomy of a labour force survey gender-inclusive would entail recording the main as well as secondary activities. See http://www.data2x.org/

Gender neutral perspective: This refers to an analytical standpoint that does not account for gender-based differences in economic, social and political life. In the Online Toolkit, gender-neutral policymaking refers policies that do not account for the fact that women and men are differentially situated with respect to accessing public policies and services, and benefiting from them.

Gender sensitive perspective: A gender-sensitive perspective is an analytical perspective that recognises the operations of gender based ideologies and social norms that prescribe differential roles for women and men in society. It therefore acknowledges that as a result of different life experiences, the needs and priorities of men and women are different. Gender based ideologies lead to women’s exclusion from social, economic and political life. In the Online Toolkit, gender sensitive policymaking refers to the acknowledgment of women’s exclusion from public-political life and the need for policies and programmes to be contextually tailored to account for such marginalisation.

High bandwidth, low latency fixed broadband connection: A high speed wired broadband connection with minimal delay in data transmission.

Higher-order digital capabilities: Basic digital capabilities refer to basic skills of using the computer, the mobile phone and the Internet. Higher-order capabilities refer to sophisticated skills of meaningfully seeking information online, protecting one’s privacy and personal data while surfing; and complex media and data literacy skills.

Hybrid public good: Public goods refer to goods which can be consumed by more than one person at the same time, and from whose consumption individuals cannot be excluded. Goods that meet only one of these properties are known as hybrid public goods. For example, consider a tolled highway system -- though the road can be utilised by multiple vehicle owners at the same time, individuals who do not pay the toll can be excluded from it. However, governments may choose to waive tolls under certain circumstances. In this Toolkit, it is recommended that governments treat connectivity as a hybrid public good, by investing in public policies and infrastructure to provide some minimum connectivity to all.

Infomediaries: This refers to frontline workers of government agencies or volunteers who are engaged in addressing public information queries and supporting entitlement processing requests of community members, at service delivery kiosks or telecentres run by state agencies.

Interoperability: This is the technical precondition for interdepartmental coordination in e-service delivery. It involves working on alignments of three different kinds: (a) alignments between business processes and information architectures of different departments/agencies for better collaboration and inter-agency coordination in service delivery (organisational interoperability) (b) alignments between data taxonomies of different departments and agencies to enable meaningful public information processing that supports decision-making. (c) alignments between interconnection, content management, metadata and security standards of different departments and agencies to enable networked sharing of information within government.

Intersecting structures of social stratification: This concept is used to describe the phenomenon of how individuals simultaneously experience the effects of different hierarchies that operate in society, such as gender, class, caste, race, and ethnicity. These hierarchies are also termed structures of social stratification, and their compound effects shape a person’s social status.

Legacy Laws: This is a technical term used in the e-government literature to describe legislative and policy frameworks that pre-date the digital era.

Life-cycle approach: The acknowledgment that women’s needs and priorities vary from one life stage to another, and that public service design and implementation have to account for this.

New Public Service model: This refers to a public administration line of thinking that emerged in the 1990s as a departure from the New Public Management model with its overemphasis on top-down administration in the New Public Management model. The New Public Service model emphasises that efficiency in public administration is not sufficient; it is equally important to promote public participation and bottom-up decision-making. See http://vle.du.ac.in/file.php/688/New_Public_Service_Approach/New_Public_Service_Approach.pdf

Open Design: This term has been used to refer to transparent and participatory design approaches in e-service delivery and e-participation systems.

Proprietary technologies: Proprietary technologies refer to software, tools, standards or protocols that are privately owned by the individual/company who created it, and whose source code is secret. The use and adaptation of such technologies are subject to licensing restrictions. Non-proprietary technologies, as the term signifies, refer to technologies which are not subject to these licensing restrictions and are free to use, share, and modify.

Proximity government: The idea that government should be closer to citizens. In other words, a government that is involved in bottom-up, inclusive and participatory service delivery and public decision-making.

Public interest intermediation: A system where facilitating access to e-information and service delivery systems for members of marginalised groups is considered a public service obligation, and not a private commercial activity for earning brokerage/commission.

Technical Protocols: Protocols for interoperability and data governance that form the bedrock of a robust, effective and inclusive e-service delivery system.

Techno-architecture: The technical architecture (connectivity infrastructure, software, protocols and standards) that underpins digitalised governance systems.

Virtuous cycle: A complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a positive feedback loop and has positive outcomes for social transformation. Whole government Application Programming Interface (API): A software system that enables the smooth flow of data from the citizen to all government agencies, and across different agencies. See https://www.techinasia.com/singapore-government-api for example.