User centered IT for the public: A corporate partnership in e-Governance

The high tech and world class IT Corporations in the rapidly growing city of Pune, India and its low-tech Government organizations serving the public form a striking contrast. The gap in work cultures between the two makes joint projects a challenge, even though much needed and apparently feasible. In this paper we present an approach where an intermediary role was adopted to bridge the gap in work cultures and a user centered design methodology was adopted in the interests of the common citizen, to successfully complete two projects, the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) Website and the Pune Garden Department website.