United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

MyHomeTown.SG is the first virtual online public housing community which encourages the building of social capital and strengthen bonds amongst the residents.

With the evolution of the Web to Web 2.0, the Internet has fast become an alternative social space for citizens to stay connected to each other and to obtain information necessary for their daily lives via web-based communities and social-networking sites. On the same note, Gartner also identified Consumer Social Networking and External Communities as one of the transformational technologies for governments to take note of in 2009. (Source: Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Government Transformation 2009, which identifies technologies that have the potential to help public-sector organizations achieve transformation in their operational and service delivery goals)

The transformational effect would become greater with the emergence of Generation-Y (Gen-Y) in the society. Also known as the Net Generation, Gen-Y consists of people born between mid-1970s and 2000. Exposed to technology throughout their lifetime, the Gen-Y spends an average of 3 hours daily on the Internet, surfing for information, making purchases and communicating with one another.

Ministry of National Development recognized the growing importance to develop the capacity to engage Gen-Y citizens online, and conducted a study in mid-2007 to ascertain the public's interest in community portals. The study showed that there was potential for more community portals to be developed, therefore MyHomeTown.SG (http://www.myhometown.sg) social community portal was developed and launched on 15 January 2008.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
MyHomeTown.SG supports the Singapore iGov2010 Infocomm Masterplan’s Strategic Thrust of “Increasing Citizens’ Mindshare in e-Engagement”. It has about 10000 members to-date and achieved a monthly average of 2 million pageviews since July 2009, with a peak of 3 million pageviews in January 2010. MyHomeTown.SG was also featured as the largest digital kampung (“Village” in Singapore’s context) by the Straits Times, Singapore’s mainstream newspaper, on 19 and 25 January 2010: “The largest of the websites, MyHomeTown.SG, covers all the major housing estates”. Within the vibrant portal, residents discuss housing-related issues (e.g. renovation, progress of construction etc.) and anything else related to their living experience in their districts (e.g. places of interest, food, renovation etc.). The portal promotes the sharing of information through a photo gallery, chat room, forums, blogs, videos as well as calendar of events which are all maintained by members of the portal. Effectiveness in Transforming the Dynamics of Housing Communities Traditionally, housing communities are formed after residents moved into the neighbourhood and befriend each other in occasional meet-ups or events. Now MyHomeTown.SG offers residents a new and convenient way to meet their neighbours – online. With MyHomeTown.SG, housing communities get a head-start and close relationships are formed among neighbours even before they move into their homes. These deeper neighbourly relationships are the foundation of rooted and cohesive communities. Effectiveness in Sensing Ground Sentiments One important aspect of achieving citizen e-Engagement is through building strong and vibrant communities amongst Singaporeans. MyHomeTown.SG enabled the fostering of a network of citizens and stakeholders who proactively offer their views and suggestions online via their various virtual communities. The feedback gathered serves as an input to enable the Government to better understand and respond to citizens needs. Effectiveness in Providing Citizens an Alternate Platform to engage Home Renovators As a large number of members in MyHomeTown.SG consist of new homeowners, a feature that facilitates members to ask for renovation quotations from home renovation companies was implemented. This helps MyHomeTown.SG members to gather information on intended renovation plans from renovation companies so that they can have a rough gauge of costs required to renovate their dream homes. It allows them to make comparisons of the quotations before the actual engagement.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Strongly supported by our MND’s senior management, the project is managed by MND CISD (Computer Information System Department) and developed by private sector.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objectives are to promote and enhance community bonding, communication and interaction among citizens, and to allow MND to have a better understanding of citizens by anticipating citizens’ needs. The team did a study on existing online community portals to determine the critical success factors of a community portal. Other than a well-designed and attractive website, it must be easy-to-use. The website must also be vibrant so as to attract more people to join the community. The team also observed that there were no community portals that cover all housing estates in Singapore, therefore MyHomeTown.SG was designed to cover all housing estates. After launch of the portal, publicity activities (e.g. roadshows, contests, link exchanges) were carried out to increase public’s awareness of the portal, which is vital to improve the vibrancy of the portal.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
A study was conducted in mid-2007 to ascertain the public's interest in community portals. After the team got a positive response from the study, procurement, development and implementation were conducted from September 2007 to December 2007. The portal was launched on 15 January 2008.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Manpower is a key factor for the daily maintenance of the portal, which include forum moderation, generation of new topics and engaging with the forum members. To overcome this issue, temporary staff was engaged to perform the tasks. In addition, active and experienced forum members were engaged as volunteer moderators of the forum.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
In addition to the IT system-related costs, costs were incurred to engage temporary staff to maintain the portal. Publicity costs were also incurred.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
As a continual process to improve the forum, members were polled and consulted regularly to gather insights and suggestions on how the forum can better serve their needs. In addition, administrators and moderators contributed actively to befriend the members and add vibrancy to the portal. There is a year-round effort to reach out to the public and to-be new homeowners to increase awareness of MyHomeTown.SG through public roadshows and publicity materials. Existing members of MyHomeTown.SG can also participate in regular contests and stand a chance to win attractive prices. Collaborations with other grassroots and informative portals in the form of link exchanges and syndication of content were also implemented to increase the reach of the portal. More initiatives are in the pipeline, such as leveraging on popular collaborative tools such as Facebook and Twitter to attract more potential members. More member recognition programs are also in the pipeline to improve the emotional bonding of the members with the portal in a bid to retain members. There are also plans to bring MyHomeTown.SG onto the mobile platform, to allow members to access the portal easily even when they are on the go. Following the success of MyHomeTown.SG community portal, Ministry of Transport set up MyTransportTown.SG, mainly for discussion of transport-related issues.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
MyHomeTown.sg has achieved the objective of facilitating the formation of online communities by citizens and improving the social capital of Singapore. Through the portal, we have seen the spontaneous formation of online communities engaging in information sharing, community-related and enterprising activities, hence fostering greater interaction and bonding among residents of various districts. The successful implementation of MyHomeTown.SG is an on-going collaborative effort involving the public, private and people sectors working together to achieve Service Excellence. The process has been both exciting and challenging.


Institution Name:		Ministry of National Development, Singapore
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Charlene Chua
Title:		IT Consultant
Telephone/ Fax:		(65)31067157
Institution's / Project's Website:		(65)63257489
E-mail:		charlene_chua@mnd.gov.sg
Address:		5 Maxwell Road, #19-00, Tower Block, MND Complex
Postal Code:		069110
City:		Singapore
State/Province:		Singapore
Country:		Singapore

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information