A Socio-Technical Investigation of Marital Information Islands: A Qualitative Study

Inter-organizational information sharing is essential for optimizing government operations, yet it faces significant hurdles in decentralized governance contexts. In Malaysia, the management of Muslim marital records by State Islamic Religious Departments (SIRDs) is highly fragmented, resulting in isolated “information islands” driven by legal decentralization and state autonomy. This study investigates the socio-technical challenges and constraints of marital information sharing within this environment. Through semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with key informants from six SIRDs, this study identifies six major issues of challenges: system integration, data availability, process inefficiencies, data quality, system reliability and infrastructure, and operational dependencies, alongside four core constraints: data confidentiality, organizational and leadership barriers, legal/policy issues, and governance/control challenges. To address these issues, this study proposes twelve design criteria for an optimal information-sharing platform, namely decentralization, autonomous access control, data traceability, non-repudiation, tamper-resistance, confidentiality protection, scalability, high availability, interoperability, minimized bureaucracy, selective non-disclosure, and time-limited access. The study proposes a hybrid blockchain-based interoperability framework that allows SIRDs to retain existing systems for daily operations while using a permissioned blockchain as a secure shared record layer. Ultimately, the research emphasizes that successful digital integration requires harmonizing technological solutions with the institutional and operational realities of the participating organizations.