xml drafting discussion - pcc it conference 2013

XML Drafting DiscussionPCC IT Conference 2013

© global publishing solutions2

about us

Lawrie Stevens Gareth OakesPresident and CEO Chief Architect


about us: GPSL

Specialists in automated solutions for structured contentTailored solutions to complex problemsFocus on publishing technology: authoring, content

management, and delivery to print, web, mobile, tablet

Extensive legislative experience:Parliament of Canada (HoC and Senate)State of Florida (Senate and House of Representatives)Texas LegislatureIllinois General AssemblyEU Commission and EU Parliament.. and more ..


premise

Technology = Easy

Discuss!


discussion points

What does a Parliamentary Counsel Office do?

What are the current and future demands?

How to meet those demands?

What tools and technologies?

What does aParliamentary Counsel Office do?


what is an OPC/PCO?

The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is a groupof government lawyers who specialise in drafting legislation. They

work closely with departments to translate policy into clear, effectiveand readable law.

The role will normally begin when legislation is first being considered and the PCO will remain involved throughout the Parliamentary

process and beyond.

(From UK website)


role of Parliamentary Counsel?

Generally:•Draft legislation (Bills, Amendments)

•Publish legislation (Acts, Reprints)

•Work with departments

•Legal consultation

What are thecurrent and future demands?


characteristics & challenges

Characteristics

Requires precision in wording and structure of documents

Accuracy is paramount

Challenges

Close cooperation, often across departments

Lengthy review processes

Drafters require a high level of skill and experience



Characteristics

Lengthy documents (100s or even 1000s of pages)

Cooperation between disparate stakeholders

Challenges

Drafting, collaboration, review overheads



Characteristic

Complex relationships and references between various pieces of primary and subsidiary legislation (and with common law)

Challenges

Difficult to create and maintain a corpus of legislation

Expensive too!



Characteristics

Open data initiatives and technology innovations

Budgetary constraints

Challenges

Evolving to new delivery methods

Doing more with less


summary

Costly and slow to create – quality cannot be compromised

Strong tradition in processes

New delivery requirements

• Technology innovations

• Open Data initiatives

Constrained budgets

How tomeet these demands?


lead to gold

How to turn the words into information?

• Humans can interpret legislative documents

• Machines cannot readily do the same

Make the documents “machine friendly”

• Tagging (markup) allows machines to interpret the content

• Tagging includes semantics as well as metadata

Structured documents

• Markup according to an agreed schema

• XML is the best technology choice


example

© 2006 PTC

17

Service Bulletin

Date: April 22, 2006

Issued by: Engineering

Model: 2005 Cavalier

Service Area: Tires

Check the rear tires for weak lug nuts. Replace part number 013597 (if present) with part number

042097.

CAUTION: Before servicing engage emergency break

Tools Required: 5/16 socket

Flat head screw Driver

Procedure: Step 1. Insure that emergency break is engaged

Step 2. Use screw driver to remove hub cap Step 3. Inspect rear tire lug nuts for part #

013597 Step 4. Use 5/16 socket to unscrew lug nuts

Unstructured

title

date

author

model

tool list

tool

service area

procedure

procedural step

description

cautionpart number

automatictext

align center, bold embedded –

25pt

bold embeddedLeft justified -22pt

Paragraph – 12pt

ordered list

bold embedded

unordered list - indent

Structured


xml

Words with tagging (markup):

<book publisher=“GPSL”>

<publish-date>2012-08-01</publish-date>

<author>

<fname>Gareth</fname>

<lname>Oakes</lname>

</author>

<title>Learning XML</title>

<body>

<p>My first paragraph.</p>

<p>Some <emph>bold text</emph>.</p>

</body>

</book>


benefits of XML?

XML has seen extensive uptake because of:

• Re-use (write once, use anywhere)

• Reduced operating costs

• Faster production

• Workflow improvements

• Content “intelligence” (eg. semantic tagging)

• Content supply chain – sharing of information (not just data)

• Future proofing


how does that apply?

Going “structured” benefits OPC/PCO businesses:

• Drafting and production costs

• Turnaround times

• Inter-departmental collaboration

• Open data and public access initiatives


what’s the bad news?

Cut the propaganda, what does this really mean at the coalface?

• Headaches?

• Unfathomable authoring systems?

• More compliance issues and obstacles?

• .. probably all this and more ..

Going XML:

• Won’t solve all your problems, but

• Brings significant benefits now

• Sets up flexibility for the future


observation

Writing words is the same effort no matter what, but, if you make the effort to apply tagging while authoring then your words become information and the rest of the workflow becomes so much easier and smarter …


standardisation

Great! XML is a standard then, isn’t it .. ?

• Each legislative body has its own nuances

• There is no single format that suits all

• Some jurisdictions already have their own XML flavours


legislative tagging

Regardless of its presentation, legislation has intrinsic structure:

• Chapters, Parts, Divisions, Subdivisions

• Titles and Headings at various levels

• Provisions, Subprovisions, Interpretation, Definitions, etc.

• Citations, references, quotations, etc.

• Lifecycle: first/second readings, committee, third reading …

• Timeliness: dates of readings, amendments, assent, enactment, commencement, expiry, revocation, repealed, etc.


common legislative standard?

In an ideal world:

• common interchange format

• flexibility to extend/tweak suit individual needs

• simple set of freely available tools

• central archive/repository

Nothing like that exists, but it is possible eg. PubMed Central


XML: should we/shouldn't we?

Pros

Open standard format

Open Data

Multiple outputs

Validation

References/linking

Granularity

Cons

Changes

Training

Thinking

Tools and technologies


what?

Considerations when picking tools/technologies:•Set objectives•Ambitions and expectations?

•Authoring and collaboration

•Speed/quality improvements

•Multiple outputs (print, web, mobile, tablet, etc.)

•Open data (PDF? XML?

•point-in-time views (eg. “smart” amendments)

•Manage•End-to-end process

•Delivery


what?

Considerations when picking tools/technologies:•Meeting the Objectives

•Clear Plan / Architecture

•Phases ?

•Resources•In-house / External / Combination

•Key to success•It is a `solution'

•not about the software!


planning

Create

• Drafting

• Collaboration

• Quality Control

Manage

• Workflow

• Content: sharing, versioning, accessibility, reliability

Deliver

• Creation of outputs

• Distribution to consumers


create

Nothing “out of the box” for legislative drafting

• MS Word

• FrameMaker

• Arbortext, XMetaL, oXygen, etc.

• SDL Xopus

Collaboration tools are also at a limited stage of maturity

• Email, Dropbox

• Custom built


manage

Again, nothing quite “out of the box”

• File shares and Excel

• Documentum, ACM, etc.

• Alfresco, MarkLogic

• TeraText


deliver

XML enables ready delivery to multiple output formats

Print:

• Arbortext, APP/3B2, XPP, TopLeaf, etc.

• XSL-FO, TeX

Web:

• XSLT

Mobile/tablet:

• Dedicated web site

• Develop an app

Open Data:

• XML!

Conclusion


in conclusion

XML will work for you•benefits and challenges

Goals / Objectives•develop a vision•clear implementation plan

•Who will do what?•be wary of independence

Beware 95% trap

As a solution •Done well = success and flexibility•Done poorly = frustration

Thank you!

Lawrie [email protected]

Gareth [email protected]