Interconnected Parliaments
Africa i-ParliamentsAction Plan
Flavio Zeni
UN-DESA - Nairobi
Collaborative softwareand content development
Collaboration is ....
... SMART and GOOD
our presentation assumes that!
...after all we are here because in 1889 people saw the benefits of an inter-parliamentary collaboration and founded IPU ...
... UN are about collaboration
... ICTs are about collaboration
Collaboration... SMART and GOOD!
Please note ...
I have said that
collaboration is
SMART and GOOD
I have NOT said or implied that
collaboration is
EASY, CHEAP or
without PROBLEMS
Collaboration about ...
This presentation try to identify
the types of collaborations that
actually do exploit at best
present technological environment
Collaboration/sharing might also lead to cost-saving and synergies
but the core rationale to adopt a collaborative software and content development is
quality and sustainability
for ALL Parliaments
Context: Parliaments have similar...
similar inputs
speeches make by people (MPs, experts, etc.)
written documents (bill, questions, motions, etc.
similar macro-processes (with different procedures)
plenary proceedings
committees proceedings
management of the flow of the above documents
similar output
verbatim/minute/reports/agenda/etc.
Context: Similar needs but ...
Parliaments use
“different” systems that have very similar features and functionality, in the best case.
There are
“affluent” parliaments that are likely (not guaranteed)
to have better system then less affluent parliaments
There is
growing digital divide among do and do-not parliaments
Context: ICTs uniqueness ...
ICTs are
very reusable, very adaptable, very accessible and reproducible at very low marginal costs
even more
ICTs made “possible the impossible”
the more “information services/systems” are used, the more diversified are the users
-
the better they become
but also ...
very dynamic and in constant evolution
Why ICTs collaboration is not ...
We agree that
collaboration is “smart” and “good”
Parliaments share more then what they differentiate them
ICTs tools and services to get better the more they are used/shared
Still not many parliaments seem to appreciate/exploit the opportunity that collaboration and sharing of tools and content could brings in terms of
quality - sustainability - bridging the Digital Divide
Why? ... you tell me!
Collaboration at what level?
ICTs have brought about technical opportunities that are unprecedented in at least two areas:
Access to information
Collaboration
removing
time or geographical location limitations
PREVALENT approach
Access access documents (HTML/PDF) access to ONLY document as the users
were “local” and speaking the very same language
Collaboration Exchange e-mails and documents
no exploitation of creation of quality and sustainability through collaboration and sharing of applications
ICTs opportunities potential
Access: structure/semantics across countries and languages across media
Collaboration: Development and maintenance of
information services Information system
Strategic GAP (needs)
.... between
global/continental needsof economic integration and
harmonisation of legislation
but
locally focused solutionsnational/institution focussed
Strategic GAP (technologies)
.... between
technological opportunitiessemantic web – open/shareable solutions
and
practical approach
e-paper paradigm
no efforts to think “global-continental” in terms of standards, languages, search facilities, etc.
no exploitation of sustainability through collaboration
Technological opportunities
Semantic web: processing information according to its
content (or meaning), and not only as a pure text by embedding computer readable specifications (XML/RDF/OWL) to make computer “understand” documents
Open Source Development Model develop once, together, for better and more
sustainable tools for all parliaments
How did we in Africa fill the GAP ...
AKOMA NTOSOParliamentary Document Open Access Infrastructure (XML/RDF/OWL)
BUNGENIParliamentary and legislative Information System (based on Open Source application and tools)
Strategic choices: WHY?
OPEN and COMMMON standards
because they are the best way to
address the political African agenda
of economic integration of Africa and
harmonisation of African legislation
OPEN SOURCE and COMMON application
because they are the best way to deliver
high and sustainable quality information system and the critical mass to make this happen
for ALL African Parliaments
AKOMA NTOSO
AKOMA NTOSO (Architecture for Knowledge-Oriented Management of African Normative Texts using Open Standards and Ontologies)
is a set of common standards to produce, classify and share digital Parliamentary and Legislative documents
Akoma Ntoso “Linked Hearts” – a symbol used by the Akan people of West Africa to represent understanding and agreement;
Document components
Content What exactly was written in the document (semantics)
Structure How the content is organized
Presentation The typographical choices to present a document on
screen or on paper.
After HTML ... XML
HTML helped make the Web a big success .. but
it is just a publishing medium,
it is constrained by its own simplicity and few rules not even strongly imposed
A different format is required that provides
Clear differentiation between visual aspect and actual meaning and presentation
Strong syntactic rules heavily imposed to guarantee uniformity, homogeneity, sophisticated applications
XML describes structures ..
Support for documents’ generation Drafting activities, record keeping, translation into national
languages, etc.
Support for workflow Management of documents across lifecycle, storage,
security, timely involvement of relevant individuals and offices
Support for citizens’ access Multi-channel publication (on paper and on the web),
search, classification, identification
Further activities Consolidation, version comparison, language
synchronization, etc.
XML-AKOMA NTOSO “understands” ..
HMTL … “presents“ …
XML-Akoma Ntoso … “understands“
“Understand” ... means to make accessible the structures and semantic components of parliamentary and
legislative documents in a “machine readable” format
to deliver
high qualities information service
AKOMA NTOSO: purpose
Define a common FORMAT for recording parliamentary activities
Define a MODEL for data interchange and open access to parliamentary documents
Define a common African parliamentary DATA schema
Define a common African parliamentary METADATA schema and ontology
Define a mechanism for citation and CROSS REFERENCING of documents between parliaments
AKOMA NTOSO: naming convention
http://www.parliament.za/za/act/2003-03-12/3/eng@
http://www.parliament.za/za/act/2003-03-12/3/eng@2005-07-13
http://www.parliament.za/za/act/2003-03-12/3/eng@2007-05-03
http://www.parliament.za/za/act/2003-03-12/3/eng
RSA Act n. 3 of the 12 April 2003
Original version
Amended version (expression) of 13 July 2005
Amended version (expression) of 3 May 2007
Current consolidated version (expression)
URI NOT URL ... IDENTIFICATION vs LOCATION
BUNGENI
Parliamentary and legislative Information System
Bungeniis an integrated suite
of multi-platform architecture software applications,based on
Open Source Softwareand Open Standards
that automates the lifecycle of parliamentary documents
BUNGENI: features
Bill Process
Motions and Questions
Debate Records
Parliamentary Business
Votes and Proceedings
Virtual Workspace
Citizens' interactivity and participation
The rationale for ...
The rationale for developing and distributing Bungeni under a Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) licence is
to optimise its functionalities
as far as possible as well as the
geographical spread
Please note that
Regional, Provincial and also municipal assemblies are ... “parliament-like” organisations
that have very similar information needs/requirements
Development option: optimisation
The optimization strategy consists of
using a commoditised software
(e.g. the Plone/Zope, OpenOffice.org)
as a basis for the developments and make the public sector solution on top of that commoditised software and limit the development to what is absolutely necessary
This approach:
contains investments,
leverages the existing community
creates fruitful synergies between public sector initiatives and “communities” increasing sustainability
EC Study: benefits
Impact and return on investment of a FLOSS development project:
scaling effect (dividing the investment and maintenance between a number of partners)
independence (avoiding long term vendor lock-in and proprietary formats)
better response to specific public sector needs
developing local innovation spirit, employment and knowledge
Study on the effect on the development of the information society of European public bodies making their own software available as Open Source (2007)
Synergies
PloneGov aims to create a common platform ofPlone-based e-Government initiatives
in order to promote information and best practices benchmarking and software sharing”
www.plonegov.org
In summary ...
XML technologies and collaboration are
SMART and GOOD
if you are not using or thinking to use XML family of technologies collaborative modalities (many forms and
ways)
... you SHOULD!
Please note ...
I have NEVER said or implied that
XML-technologies/collaboration are
EASY, CHEAP
or without PROBLEMES
... we are NOT in the business
of the “easy” things but the RIGHT things
advanced information systems and services
for ALL
affluent and so so affluent parliaments
A quote from ...
The Mythical Man-Month of Fred Brooks,
a classic in the software engineering field:
"How does a project get to be a year late?
...one day at a time"