Iowa LINC SystemLegislative XML Standardization

Case Study

IntroductionJared Saxton, Managing Partner, BlueLid Technologies

BlueLid Technologies Services company Designs & develops custom XML-based content management & publishing

systems Experience with Legislative, Legal, Tax, and Accounting content systems Five years partnering with Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA) developing LINC

system

Overview What is XML?

Why XML?

LINC Initiative

XML Standardization Results

Closer Look at LINC System (time permitting)

What is XML? Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Provides standardized way to structure content

Human and machine readable

Uses descriptive, meaningful tagging (not just formatting instructions)

Nested tree structure (parent/child)

Schemas can be used to define valid tags and tag contexts

XML inAction

Why XML?Can Help Improve Content…

Accuracy – documents can be validated & structure enforced throughout document lifecycle, outputs are predictable and consistent

Accessibility – content can be queried and reported on easily and granularly

Production Efficiency – structured XML tagging can make content easier to author and process

Reuse – content can be leveraged and referenced more easily from multiple contexts without creating redundancy

Publishing Flexibility – easier to publish to multiple formats (e.g. print PDF, web HTML, XML web services)

What is LINC?Iowa LSA Initiative

Legislative Services Agency (LSA) provides IT support and services to more than 450 users, including Legislators, Legislative staff, and personnel in a variety of Agencies

LSA facilitates introduction of emerging information technologies

LINC Objectives Consolidate systems used for creation and delivery of legislative content Manage all document types on single platform with a single toolset

Legacy System Issues Long production cycles — would like to publish content to the public as soon as possible

Difficult to determine content accuracy — how do we know we have resolved all content issues prior to publication?

Difficult to train new staff — arcane, outdated production tools and techniques (e.g. Silhouette, MS-Word macros, MAPPER) create steep learning curve for new personnel

Tables and Indexes difficult to generate — manual processes used to maintain reference tables and indexes for Code and Acts publications

Difficult to implement new content projects — content inflexible and disparate, housed in disparate outdated systems; solutions tend to be brittle and inflexible when changes are needed

Where to Start?Like eating an elephant…possible if done one bite at a time.

Start with Content!

Defined custom XML schemas foreach document type: Iowa Code Iowa Acts Bills, Resolutions, Amendments, Conference Committee Reports Administrative Code Court Rules, other document types

Converted existing “flat” content to structured XML

Back-End DevelopmentDevelop Essential Services

Content management services(check-in/out, versioning, rollback)

Engrossment Engines

Workflow management services (bill requests, content routing, task assignment)

Publishing Engine services (style sheets, customizations for page/line)

Comparison Engine services

Indexing Engine services

Tool DevelopmentDevelop Essential Tools Drafter tools

Tools for researching and reusing from priorbills and bill drafts

Tools for managing bill requests

Text Processor tools Tools for building up bills in XML from Code Tools for validating XML and fixing errors Tools for Engrossment (e.g. Acts->Code)

Chamber Staff tools Engrossment tools (e.g. amendment->bill, amendment->amendment) Indexing tools

Tool DevelopmentDevelop Essential Tools (cont.) Table & Indexing Unit tools

Internal Reference management tools Table generation tools Machine-aided Indexing tools Index generation tools

Publishing tools Print Volume management tools Publishing workflow tools

Editor tools Lists (“Tickler”, “2B.13” harmonizations) Renumbering tools Footnoting tools

Application DevelopmentDevelop Main Applications

LINC Dashboard — user interfacefor managing bill requests, bill andamendment drafting, tasks, printvolume production, muchmore…

NOBA Dashboard — manages financial notes for appropriation bills

Web Applications — SOLR Search, Bill Management System (BMS), Bill Tracking, etc.

Mobile Apps — iPhone, iPad, Android applications in planning stage

XML StandardizationResults Shortened production cycles — content now gets to public faster

Improved content accuracy — more content issues caught and resolved upstream, before publishing

Reduced learning curve for new staff — arcane, legacy console-based systems and production techniques replaced with familiar modern graphical interfaces

Revealed new ways of exposing content — flexibility of XML content providing catalyst for new ways of publishing content (e.g. web services, mobile apps)

Detailed Look atLINC SystemThe LINC System is comprised of tools for authoring, managing, publishing, and researching:

Codified Statutes (Iowa Code)

Acts (session laws)

Bills

Bill Drafts

Amendments

Administrative Code

Court Rules

Bills and AmendmentsThe LINC System tracks bills andamendments from initial request todraft, and from draft to file.

Key features include: Request Management Drafting Versioning Workflow Page/Line Amendment Engrossment Publishing

Bills and Amendments:Request Management Bill Management System (BMS)

provides interfaces for submittinglegislation requests to the IowaLegislative Services Agency (LSA)

BMS manages workflow of requestsas they are passed between LSA staff(e.g. Drafters, Editors, TextProcessors, Proofers)

Amendment requests submitted viaBMS routing form

Bills and Amendments:Request Management

BMS helps Drafters track Worddrafts

Text Processors build upWord drafts in XML format

XML Repository used for trackingversions of the draft built up byText Processors

Bills and Amendments:Drafting Text Processors use LINC Dashboard

to check out XML bill for editing

Bill XML is edited throughArbortext Editor

Custom editor tools used to pullCode XML into bills and amendments

Strike and Add markup used

“Protected Text” (gray background)prevents unintentional changesto Code

Bills and Amendments:Versioning Versioning tracks

XML document changes(who changedwhat & when)

Versioning facilitates: Check-in/check-out Comparison Rollback Version notes

Bills and Amendments:Workflow Bills and Amendments are routed

between content libraries as theyprogress through the system

Libraries are secure repositories,restricting access to specific rolesand users

Routing to library can triggeractions (e.g. routing toIntroduced library triggers publishto web)

Bills and Amendments:Page/Line Amendment Engrossing LINC contains a robust amendment

engrossment system

Amendment operations target billcontent by page and line number

Amendment Engrossment Engineparses operation language, appliesaction to target document

User interactively processesamendment operations, in bulk orindividually

Bills and Amendments:Indexing and Publishing Introduced, Reprinted, and Enrolled bills are published to the public

Indexing allows topics to be associated to the legislation

Indexing Tasks are created and assigned when content routed to central libraries (Introduced, Reprinted, Enrolled)

Machine Aided Indexing used to interactively or automatically assign topics to the bill from a controlled thesaurus

Drafts are published to SOLR for internal research

Introduced, Reprinted, and Enrolled published to Bill Book and SOLR

ActsThe LINC System manages the process ofpreparing and compiling enrolled bills and joint resolutions into a final Acts volume.

Key features include:

Workflow

Task Tracking

Editor Tools

Table Generation

Volume Publishing

Acts:Workflow Governors Action

Acts Processing Library

Task Spawning

Acts Chapter Tracking

Acts:Task Tracking Task Workspace

Task Assignment

Task State andDependencies

Task Comments

Task Reporting

Acts:Editor Tools for Enhancing Content Numbering

Titling

Reference Markup

Item Veto Markup

Footnoting

Acts:Table Generation Tables can be generated

per-chapter or across all Acts

Tables generated fromreference markup

Tables: Conversion Tables New, Amended, and Repealed

Code Tables Amended Session Law Tables “Referred To” Tables Vetoes Tables State Mandate Table

Acts:Volume Publishing Volume Manager

Compose Acts Volume

Compose Summary ofLegislation booklet

CodeThe LINC System manages the process ofengrossing Acts into Code and preparingthe Code for print and online publishing.

Key features include: Engrossment from Acts Task Tracking Chapter Tracking Editing Indexing Volume Publishing

Code:Engrossmentfrom Acts

Amendment Types New Amend Strike and Replace Repeal Etc.

Trial Engross

Engrossment Highlighting

Section History

Temporary Footnotes

Code:Indexing Code chapters

and sectionsare indexedusing MachineAidedIndexing

Indexingfacilitatesprint indexesand web searchnavigators

Code:Volume Publishing Volume Manager

ResearchFolio – local search

SOLR – online search

Research:FolioFolio infobases used forresearch when draftinglegislation

Code

Administrative Code

Court Rules

Research:SOLR SearchSOLR Search Engineused for nextgeneration web search

Features aUnified Taxonomy

Field indexing onmetadata tiestogether disparatecontent sets

Indexing metadataapplied bymachine aidedindexing

Research:SOLR SearchHierarchical subjectmatter navigation allowsuser to discover disparatecontent sets that relateto a topic

Research:SOLR SearchSearch results returnedfrom multiple contentsets

Research:SOLR SearchSearch Facets canbe used to furthernarrow results

Research:SOLR SearchSelectedSearch Facetscombine to furtherrefine results

Reporting