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Difficult to train new staff — arcane, outdated production tools and techniques (e.g. Silhouette, MS-Word macros, MAPPER) create steep learning curve for new personnel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Difficult to implement new content projects — content inflexible and disparate, housed in disparate outdated systems; solutions tend to be brittle and inflexible when changes are needed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 Development
Develop 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 Standardization
Results 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