If yes, then tell us about it. The fight against Corruption may well begin with simple acts of documentation.

For too long we have shied away from disclosing this very personal pain that most of us have to endure. Occasionally people pay a bribe to get something done out of turn or to get things hastened up . The blame in those cases is shared squarely between the one paying bribe and the one receiving it. But in most other cases, one is forced to pay a bribe because there is no other  alternative but to forgo the requested service. All we then do is to pay silently and forget about it. But now there is way to get back – by  creating a ‘virtual record’ of the the acts of bribe. The Bribe Rate Chart is an initiative to use our collective strength[ recall: Why Social Media can fight Corruption - Aggregation] to send a definitive signal to our ruling elite that Corruption is a problem that has to be dealt with expeditiously.

[recall: July 22, 2009, Corruption Unveiled]

“This blog aspires not just to become a forum for discussion to vent pent up anger. It also aims to become a means for gauging the level of corruption in society. One of the primary reasons for corruption to flourish is the utter secrecy associated with it. Everyone knows it is there but no one talks about it. Everything has got a price, they say. What if the price becomes known and the veil of secrecy is lifted? How about a live rate chart for bribes fueled by nationwide personal experience. Let us bring to bear the might of Social Media to unravel the corruption conundrum in India.”

The promise is now live in the form of a Bribe Rate Chart. This is a page to be built by the contributory knowledge of all you. You can directly add to the limited information provided on this page from the wealth your own personal experience or your private sources of information. Your inputs will shape this page. If however you find it difficult to add the information directly you may send us the information in either of the below three ways. We will then include the same in the ‘Bribe Rate Chart‘.

1. Send us via an email at tellus@nobribe.org. Please mention a) Department/ Designation b) Citizen Service c) Location d) Reference (explanation on the help page)

2. Tweet about what you want to add with #NoBribe hash tag.

3. Leave a comment at the bottom of the ‘Bribe Rate Chart’ post.

Its time now that together we force the hands of our democratic masters to deal with this problem. [recall: Obituary to Corruption]

Social Media platforms seem tailor made to fight Corruption. Many of their characteristics are ideally suited for building  a sustainable forum against Corruption.

Some of these favourable characteristics are:

a) Anonymity: A key factor that inhibits many people from exposing Corruption is the fear of retaliation. and how it will affect their day to day life. Social Media provides people with different shades of anonymity to suit individual comfort so that they can voice their opinions freely.  Online anonymity could vary from simply being a name without face  to the much more elaborate open web proxy servers used by the Iranian protesters.

b) Aggregation: This is a powerful tool available on Social Media that can be used to consolidate what is ‘common knowledge’ about Corruption. Consolidation gives information the credibility that it otherwise lacks and makes it difficult to ignore [recall: Obituary to Corruption]. @Gauravonomics refers to it as ‘Collective Intelligence’ in his The 4Cs Social Media Framework. Most common example of aggregation is Wikipedia, written by faceless multitudes, which is now widely used as reference material for a variety of topics.

c)  Interactivity: Public discourse has always been led by the vociferous  few. The silent majority simply endures and is unable to register its dissent. Social media gives voice to the silent majority and allows them to participate in a discussion rather than just be passive observers. ‘Like’,'Dislike’, ‘Share’, ‘Re Tweet’, ‘Bookmark’, ‘Comment’, ‘Poll Vote’ are all instruments  that can drive a new interactive and participative democracy. Those with more followers, fans, readers, subscribers will act as moderators in this interactive discussion.

d) Instantaneity: With growing use of Social Media on mobile, the ‘instantaneous’ factor can also be exploited to fight Corruption. Twitter has already stolen a march in this direction and there is a lot that can be done using such tools. [more on this in a separate post]

e) Viral: The viral nature of the medium makes it easier to spread the message – a task which is other wise beyond the reach of individuals or smaller groups in the physical world.

Despite all these positives, many of the historical negatives of Social Media still remain. Social Media evolved  from Social Networking which came into existence essentially as a ‘virtual  hanging out’ place for the young. So there is still a  preponderance of entertainment, sex, humour,  and the risqué on Social Media. In such an environment it is often difficult to find an audience for anything serious and substantive. [Refer to this Facebook page with 400K+ Fans as compared to our own  Corruption Free India page languishing with just 1.3K Fans] Anonymity too lends itself to spam and fraud where people assume fake identities and resort to spamming.  Many people still consider Social Media to be just a ’storm in the tea cup’ and doubt whether it can ever drive a change in the real life.  However things are bound to change. Even a virtual congregation does consist of real people (leaving aside ‘bots’) and a digital record is still a public record. There may be an impression that no one is listening, yet whenever something significant is said, it finds the audience as if from thin air. With all its imperfections, Social Media is still going to be the medium of choice for fighting Corruption because of the reasons enumerated earlier. With its growing clout evidenced by the rush of celebrities joining Social Media, exit of a Central Minister over charges leveled in Social Media and the growing use of Social Media to check ‘Social Reputation’ before hiring or even marrying, all point to the fact that time is now ripe for a greater use of Social Media in fighting Corruption.