Keywords: Local Government, Public Administration, Interoperability, Methodology, Best Practice
Biography
Anna Harvey is Technical Director of the Local e-Government Standards Body for England, which is an ODPM-funded Local e-Government National project. Anna has many years experience of XML and standards in e-government and e-business, as well as publishing.
Biography
Ann Wrightson has specialized in SGML and XML since 1985. In recent years she has worked mainly as a consultant in e-Government, helping to shape interoperability standards for messaging, metadata and records management.
Ann is currently employed by CSW Group Ltd., who supply open standards based systems for integrating and managing information such as case records in health and social care; citizen accounts in e-government; reference publishing and knowledge management.
The UK Local e-Government Standards Body was established late in 2003, and tasked with compiling an XML based data standards catalogue for use by UK Local Authorities. This is to be achieved by mapping existing standards, identifying gaps to be filled, advising and supporting local Councils, their partners and suppliers on the interpretation and adoption of standards, and establishing processes for developing new standards as required. However, UK Local Authorities have been developing e-services for several years already, so this new effort has to take place in a context where many projects are already under way, using a variety of business models, and with diverse approaches to XML interoperability design. An additional factor is the traditional tension between central and local government, which has led to patchy and inconsistent adoption of the national UK e-Government Interoperability framework.
This paper is an account of the methodology developed by CSW Group Ltd and the LeGSB to tackle this situation, together with discussion of the work to date, and lessons learned. (We had hoped to include discussion of some experience with the ebXML registry/repository model, however at the time of writing the e-Government Unit's registry pilot is not yet in place.)
1. Introduction
2. Developing Schemas for Local Government
2.1 Adoption of interoperability standards
2.2 Dissemination of schemas and supporting documentation
2.2.1 Availability for reference and evaluation
2.2.2 Availability for e-service development and maintenance
2.3 Development and approval processes for schemas
2.3.1 Two-track concept
2.3.2 LeGSB working relationship with eGU
2.3.3 LeGSB schema development and approval processes
3. Conclusions
The Local e-Government Standards Body (LeGSB) has been set up to promote best practice in adoption of standards based approaches to local e-government, and has been tasked with putting in place a sustainable ongoing standards process and organisation. In fulfilling these aims, the LeGSB plans to provide a range of standards outputs, including a collection of e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) compliant interoperability standards for use by Local Government. This paper presents a methodology for achieving these aims. Whereas time only will tell whether it is successful, this approach combines best practice and hard experience as learned over the last few years in the UK.
Over several years, the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit (eGU, formerly the Office of the e-Envoy) has encouraged the development of a common library of XML schemas for use across the public sector, published and managed via the UK GovTalk website http://www.govtalk.gov.uk. Local Government related experience of this library has been mixed. Specialist UK e-Government developers have learned to use it routinely, whilst other potential users have found it difficult. The initial vision of a lively Web community of e- Government champions developing schemas collaboratively has foundered on the hard realities of project timescales and scarce resources. In addition, it has become clear how much of a challenge it is to introduce interoperability standards, especially where old IT habits need to change significantly, and business and IT understanding of interoperability standards tends to be thinly spread.
To overcome these problems for Local Government, the LeGSB will provide support including advice, process facilitation and dissemination of good practice, in addition to providing a usable and fit-for-purpose library of XML schemas.
This paper focuses on how the LeGSB will facilitate the development of a usable and useful library of interoperability standards – schemas and associated documentation - for Local Government. The full range of advisory and support services that will need to be provided by the LeGSB to support standards adoption is beyond the scope of this paper. Further information about the remit of the LeGSB and its plan of work can be found at http://www.legsb.gov.uk
The prime goal for LeGSB is to improve services to the public and to businesses from Local Government, and in this context that implies improving the availability, utility and consistency of interoperability standards for Local Government services. Utility and consistency of these standards are achieved through development and approval processes; availability is achieved through effective dissemination of schemas and associated documentation to Local Government practitioners.
Availability of interoperability standards for effective adoption depends on a number of factors. The eGU/GovTalk experience has demonstrated that just collecting ad-hoc contributions and listing them on a website is not enough. What is needed to improve Local Government services are interoperability standards that:
The practical consequences of these points are, respectively:
It is envisaged that the LeGSB standards library will also include standards relating to e- Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) metadata usage in Local Government. Specific considerations regarding metadata standards are outside the scope of this paper, however the general points regarding the development and management of schemas and documentation apply equally to those developed for metadata interoperability.
It is very important for the schema library to support evaluating and learning about standards in the very early stages of projects - this is often when key decisions are made about standards adoption. Experience suggests that subscription and other restricted information services deter both suppliers and user organizations from evaluating existing standards for potential use.
Schemas and supporting documentation will therefore be publicly available, via a Web location with an easily memorable URL, for reference and evaluation. Expert advice will be sought on IPR issues, and appropriate rights declarations made, to ensure fair use is encouraged on the part of suppliers and Local Government organizations.
The schema library should be easily navigable; at least the following kinds of access should be supported:
All of these are currently supported by e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) schema metadata except for LGSL; it is expected that LeGSB will require LGSL classification within schema metadata for Local Government related schemas.
Each interoperability standard should have a homepage that has a persistent, stable URL, preferably a URL that is relatively short and human-readable so it can be cited in reference documentation for direct linking.
These homepages should have a standard format, containing enough information for readers to make a sound initial judgement of whether the content is relevant to their needs. Closely related groups of schemas that are likely to be adopted together should be presented on one homepage.
XML schema documents and related documentation should be directly accessible from the schema homepage, via list that provides brief descriptions (eg the “Description” field from the e-GMS metadata) for each one. If a zip file is provided for quick download, it should be in addition to such an annotated list. URL locations of schemas and related documentation should be persistent and suitable for citation as direct links in reports and project documentation.
Regarding schema documentation, open standard alternatives should be provided alongside documents supplied in proprietary formats; in addition, due consideration will be given to the sustainability of the LeGSB schema library as a public record.
The LeGSB schema library should be available to developers as an easy to use, well- indexed collection, with built-in support for change control. Easy access via a Web browser is essential, and it is also desirable that the schema library should have an e-service interface so that it can be integrated straightforwardly into local development libraries.
The emerging industry standard for this kind of library is the ebXML registry/repository. A key feature of this kind of schema repository is that it provides an e-service interface that would allow Local Authorities and service providers to integrate the LeGSB schema library automatically into their source control systems for e-service projects. This will enable schemas to become a more routine part of system development, by providing closer integration of schemas into conventional software project management.
At the time of writing, a pilot project is in progress on behalf of the eGU and the OASIS egov Technical Commitee, however as yet there is no experience to report regarding its utility for the LeGSB.
One of the measures being taken by the eGU in response to the difficulties discussed above in realizing its initial vision, is that data integration standards will in future be managed within two different processes for consultation and approval, familiarly known as “fast-track” and “slow-track”. The motivation for this is to focus scarce eGU resources on facilitating more effective QA and consultation for specifications that will be used widely across the public sector, whilst not preventing specifications with narrower scope from being published quickly for the benefit of the wider public sector audience.
The LeGSB has a policy of working closely with the eGU and not duplicating its processes. The emergence of the “fast-track” vs “slow-track” concept provides a good opportunity for the LeGSB to develop a working relationship with the eGU in which:
Effective facilitation and management of schema development by the LeGSB depends on the LeGSB making good use of the resources available within funded partnerships and collaborative projects, and gaining broad understanding and co-operation across Local Government.
If the LeGSB had a large resource base, then it would make sense to define a detailed LeGSB process for schema development, allocate LeGSB resources to management and QA (business and technical) of all Local Government schema developments, and so on. This is not realistic, and the LeGSB will need to work by leveraging scarce resources and taking care that each phase of its work can be completed within foreseeable funding allocations.
To facilitate schema development, the LeGSB faces a complex and delicate task that works mainly through influence. The key components are:
Approval (and taking into custodianship) by the LeGSB would happen when the LeGSB is satisfied with the process by which the standard was developed.
Where standards are being developed across the public sector that have strong strategic importance for Local Government, it is to be hoped that the LeGSB will be able to allocate resources to participate in its own right in the consultation process, and thereby exercise a greater level of oversight.
The LeGSB, in common with other public sector bodies entrusted with oversight of particular aspects of organizations’ activities , has to carry out a delicate task with few resources, and in a climate of strong and ever-changing political and technological influences. This will be difficult, however there are well-respected precedents such the National Archives’ oversight of records management.
Clarity of vision and simple, robust procedures will be required for success.
Issues that remain a concern include:
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