Why Standards? Common language Standards mean we can all speak the same language or convert between one another's languages. If we are measuring something, standards mean we are using the same units. The esd-toolkit's list of services (the 'PID List') provides a common measure of services offered by local authorities. Machine readable Standards allow more formal structures to be applied to information so that it can be read in a meaningful way by computers. Most Web searching now is on simple text without meaning attached, but, as more content is created with meaning defined according to standards, automated analysis becomes possible. Avoid duplication of effort Where information is well structured it can be 're-purposed' for different outputs (channels, formats, audiences) with minimal manual intervention. This presentation is created as an XML document so that it can be presented in different ways for different purposes (eg screen presentation and handouts). Projects are working to use a consistent approach, centred on XML technologies, to combine and share outputs. What Standards? Vocabularies Standard vocabularies mean we use the same words to mean the same thing and can convert to those words from alternatives where necessary. Standard vocabularies are achieved by controlled lists. Formats Standard formats mean we structure information in the same way. Metadata standards mean we use the same headings for defining the properties (eg author, date, subject) of a resource. Standards for content types mean we use the same headings as one another for different aspects of information that appear within a resource (eg a service title, description, contact details). Content Management Systems (eg APLAWS+) use standard content types with tightly defined formats for different types of content (eg service, news item, ...). LAWs Starter Kit and Knowledge Management will use standard content types to define the generic content they produce. How are they achieved? Evolution The standard list of services (the 'PID List') has evolved from many years of work through projects from 'Go with the Flow' via 'LEAP' to 'esd-toolkit'. It builds in and maps back to other major lists established within the local government community. Like all good standards, it represents a standard that has evolved rather than been imposed. Co-operation National Projects draw together expertise from across local authorities. Previous workshop events have elicited contributions from many authorities. For example Cambridgeshire County Council has been a major contributor to the Local Government Category List. Through physical meetings and via online working, information is being gathered and published in a consistent way. What is your interest: Web authorship, IT, Content Management, Contact centes / service delivery? What standards are you using: for data, for content types?

LAWs IA&S: Category List and other controlled lists The LAWs Project Information Architecture and Standards strand is improving the Category List that started in the APLAWS project. It will apply a more formal structure and version control to the List. Mechanisms will be put in place to maintain the List after the life of the LAWs project. CRM: Metadata standards and guidance for mediated services and records management The CRM project is developing guidance documents on information management, metadata and thesauri. It is extending metadata standards for CRM purposes. CRM is concerned with mediated service and back-office records management. http://www.crmnp.org.uk http://www.crmnp.org.uk http://www.crmnp.org.uk LAWs Starter Kit - Template/Generic content for self service The LAWs Project Starter Kit strand is developing content that can be used in an 'out of the box' APLAWS+ or alternative Content Management Systems. They are providing one page of content for every service in the 'PID List', with prompts where content needs to be adjusted to make it suitable for local use. http://laws.tameside.gov.uk http://laws.tameside.gov.uk Draft template pages Knowledge Management - Content for mediated services The Knowledge Management project intends to gather information to allow contact centres to conduct transactions with citizens. It will publish structured information for selected processes (ie esd-toolkit service interactions) in a format suitable for use by CMSs and other automated interfaces. That format will be represented by standards, which will extend those introduced by LAWs. LAWs / Knowledge Management: Content type definitions LAWs will publish standard formats for content types (eg 'service, news item) for use in APLAWS+ and other content management systems. Content will be expressed in XML with schemas defining the XML format and XSL stylesheets rendering the content as HTML Web pages. LAWs: Syndication examples and guidance When standards are in place and pilot versions of APLAWS+ running, LAWs will illustrate syndication of content between multiple information providers and provide guidance on how authorities and third parties may do this for themselves. esd-toolkit: Framework for standards hosting, maintaining and guidance esd-toolkit will sit in the middle, publishing both documents and data. That data will be integrated into one core/central model of which local authorities may create their own variants. Unlike other 'toolkits', esd-toolkit will provide genuine tools to work, not just textual descriptions. Standards will be made freely available to all: government, community and private sector users. The existing subscriptions model will be used to fund hosting and support for local authorities. http://www.esd-toolkit.org http://www.esd-toolkit.org http://www.esd-toolkit.org Have you used: ACL, APLAWS, another CMS? Do you know: XML, RDF?

Data about data Metadata is data that describes other data. Used to describe (electronic) resources Typically metadata may be a represented by a set of fields of information that are filled in to describe a resource. The term 'resource' applies to just about anything that conveys information: a piece of text, a photograph, an animation. It is normally only feasible to apply metadata to electronic resources, but not just to Web pages. Defined by: Dublin core http://www.dublincore.org Dublin core home page Originating in Dublin, Idaho, USA, the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has established international standards for applying metadata. eGMS SummaryOfMetadataElements.pdf http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/SummaryOfMetadataElements.pdf Summary of eGMS elements The electronic Government Metadata Standard extends Dublin Core to define 25 metadata elements (some mandatory, some optional) that may be used to describe government resources. Some elements include sub-elements, known as 'refinements', to allow for more precise description of resources. LAWs and CRM LAWs and CRM will be publishing its own guidelines on applying metadata to local government and community resources. New metadata elements identified will be added to eGMS requirements or submitted for inclusion in eGMS via representation from a local government metadata working group. Administrative or descriptive Metadata elements can contain administrative information (such as the creator of a document and its creation/revision date) or descriptive information (such as the subject matter or type of document). A lot of administrative metadata can be input automatically from a correctly configured system for content creation/processing. Most descriptive data must be assigned manually for each item of content, although some data can be derived from mappings to other data (eg LGCL to GCL to PID List, see later). Controlled or free content Metadata elements may contain values from a controlled list (such as a category list or a W3C standard list of languages) or contain uncontrolled values (eg subject keywords or dates). The format of values, particularly dates (as yyyy-mm-dd) is standardised. Why is it useful? To facilitate much more sophisticated searching and automated processing than is possible by processing unstructured text. Metadata is used to support what is known as 'the semantic Web' which sees the World Wide Web as a distributed source of information that can be explored to improve knowledge and solve problems. Disciplined application of metadata vastly increases the usefulness of the Web. Organisations (eg local authorities, community organisations, businesses) who apply metadata and standardise content will reach a larger and better targeted audience. How is it expressed? Through HTML 'meta' tags and RDF. HTML 'meta' tags allow for limited application of metadata that can be read by spiders which explore the Web and by applications with which Web pages are registered. The 'Resource Description Framework' applies a more structured way of expressing metadata. A Web page can have a linked RDF address at which its metadata, expressed in RDF XML format, is defined. RDF elements reference the 'schemes' of values taken from controlled lists so automated tools may reference the original lists to find out more information and cross-reference with other controlled lists. LAWs and esd-toolkit will illustrate the use of RDF and host controled lists, including the Local Government Category List and the PID List in formats which are human readable and suitable for automated referencing. Who is applying metadata? For what: Web content. Content/records management system? Is the metadata interrogated locally? If so how? Is anyone using RDF?

List version 1.00 *** NEW *** The revised Category List, built on the APLAWS Category List was launched on 30 September 2003. It will be called the "Local Government Category List". The List takes account of feedback on the LAWs List. For example it merges "Health" and "Social Care" into one top level heading. Earlier drafts separated out subjects (services and issues) from facilities/locations, administrative procedures, events and other types of information. In the context of a category list these distinctions were felt unnecessary and so have been removed. However, in constructing a Web site, links to pages on 'Local facilities', 'Events diary', 'How are we doing' are still appropriate. The List is primarily a means of defining the subject matter of resources. Its hierarchy may be used as a starting point for a browse navigation structure, but that structure will need to be revised according to the audience of an authority's site(s). The structure of LGCL is very subjective and will need much refinement in the light of feedback. Where the list fits in The Local Government Category List (LGCL) may be viewed as a more detailed categorisation than the Government Category List (GCL) of local government and associated public and community information. It covers any information that might be exposed through a council's Web site, irrespective as to whether the subject matter described is within the remit of the council. LGCL terms will be will be mapped against corresponding GCL terms. Where LGCL terms represent services, they will be mapped against the esd-toolkit's list of services, currently known as the PID (Process area IDentifier) List. This may be renamed from the "PID List" to the "Local Government Services List" (LGSL). The esd-toolkit presents these services in a tree structure, sometimes referred to as the "core tree", which reflects how a typical council might be organised. esd-toolkit lets councils restructure the tree to reflect their own internal organisation. Similarly it is proposed that esd-toolkit publish LGCL in both the national standard structure, but allow esd-toolkit users to restructure its tree to produce their own navigation structure that may be exported in a format that can drive a CMS. Some 'toolkit +' authorities (authorities who have a higher level of subscription to esd-toolkit) are already working with contact centre interfaces driven by tree structures defined in esd-toolkit. Note that, where a service (PID) can be identified for a resource (eg Web page), the LGCL and GCL category/categories can be derived automatically. eGMS currently defines 'process identifier' as a refinement to the 'subject' element. A process is the interaction for a particular service. For example the 'Street lighting' services might have 'Provide information' and 'Report a fault' as two relevant interactions. It is therefore proposed that 'service' and 'interaction' be two separate refinements of the subject element, used separately or together. To be useful, a larger and more precise list of interaction types is needed than is defined by BVPI157, but the larger list can be mapped back to BVPI157. DescriptiveControlledLists.pdf http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/DescriptiveControlledLists.pdf Descriptive controlled lists Assigning List values to metadata eGMS dictates that the subject.category metadata element is used to assign at least one term from GCL. It is proposed that the subject.category element should also be used to record relevant LGCL terms. The 'scheme' attribute will denote the list from which each term is taken. Subject.keyword can use terms from specialist controlled vocabularies and uncontrolled terms, including proper names. As described above, separate subject refinements of 'service' and 'interaction' are needed and together these define a process. List formats Text GCL-v1_4Plain.txt http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/gcl_document.asp?docnum=746 GCL text format Where ever possible, LGCL will be published according to conventions established by GCL. If conventions do not exist or do not go far enough, LGCL will create or extend them. In its simplest format, LGCL will be issued as a plain text file with each term separated by a blank line. Each term will be referenced to its broader (parent) term or, in the case of synonyms, to a preferred term. Word LGCL.doc http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCL/1.00/LGCL.doc LGCL Version 1.0 - Word document LGCL.pdf http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCL/1.00/LGCL.pdf LGCL Version 1.0 - PDF document The List will be issued as a Word document so that it is human readible and can be printed in a concise and legible format. XML LGCLFlat.xml http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCLFlat.xml XML 'flat list' representation LGCLFlat.gif http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCLFlat.gif 'Flat list' schema diagram LGCL.xml http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCL/1.00/LGCL.xml LGCL Version 1.0 list in draft XML format LGCLNested.xml http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCLNested.xml XML 'nested list' representation LGCLNested.gif http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/LGCLNested.gif 'Nested list' schema diagram Each version of the List will be published in XML format. The XML structure will be modelled on the text file structure used for GCL. A draft structure is now live and comments are welcomed. LGCL will be published as a flat list of terms with each term referencing its broader (parent) or preferred term. XSLT can be used to transform the List to alternative structures. Once example is given to transform the List to a nested structure whereby each term has narrower terms and synonyms nested within it. This format is more suitable for display of the list in a tree structure. Most other list formats are derived by processing the XML file. HTML The list will be displayed in interactive HTML pages so it may be explored and searched online. RDF LGCL will be represented as an RDF schema so it is possible to look up its terms and derive associated information. List structure Broader and narrower terms LGCL expresses its tree structure in terms of broader and narrower terms, which may be seen as parent and child branches in a tree structure. Synonyms and preferred terms Synonyms are defined as 'use for' terms for preferred terms. Each synonym has a 'use' term denoting the preferred term for the synonym. Synonyms have been offered by a small number of local authorities and these are being buiult into the list. They are not yet published. Synonyms will be extended and refined via other contributions, including inputs to esd-toolkit. Local Government Services Lists ('PID List') mapping Terms representing service areas will map against corresponding PID List entries. PIDs may be viewed as more detailed breakdowns of some terms in LGCL. Government Category List mapping LGCL will map against GCL terms at appropriate levels of the two structures. Whilst LGCL normally represents a more detailed breakdown of some GCL terms, there are some cases where a 'many to many' relationship between GCL and LGCL terms may exist. Profiles It is proposed that LGCL terms and PID List services be identified as being particularly relevant or not relevant to certain audience types. Profiles will be taken from a controlled 'audience' list, which may extend the list proposed by eGMS. eGMSDraftAudienceList.doc http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/interoperability/metadata_document.asp?docnum=680 eGMS audience terms How are subject.category and subject.keyword used in practice? What descriptive controlled lists are currently used? Will the lists be manipulated locally as data? If so, are they needed in any other formats? Are 'service' and 'interaction' refinements used together or separately useful (as well as or instead of a process identifier)?

Text searches A CMS search engine can search for content relevant to a specified category and content keywords. Where a search term specified by a user represents a synonym for a preferred term, the CMS should convert to the preferred term before performing the search. Filtering content A CMS may filter content shown according to the audience (eg residents, tourists, businesses) using profile information for categories and services. Portals One of the main advantages of standardised categorisation of content is that it allows portals to be configured to bring together links to information from multiple different sources. Within local government portals are often used by counties to show information from their component districts. Portals can also provide windows on information in specialist areas. Other meta-data (eg spatial coverage) allows the information shown in portals to be further refined (by metadata other than subject). Open published metadata standards to which local authorities and community groups confirm allow third parties, eg private businesses, to provide portals on public service information. Syndication Portals provide a window on other electronic resources. Syndication allows for publication of content to those who have expressed an interest in it. Typically syndication is used for news items, via RSS (RDF Site Summary). APLAWS+ can both serve and receive RSS feeds. Content syndicated in standardised formats (defined in XML) can be integrated with other content to provide seamless merger of information form multiple formats in a style determined by the CMS that receives the content. Constructing an 'A to Z' A good local authority Web site will include an 'A to Z' index to its content. Typically that 'A to Z' will comprise some of the preferred terms and synonyms used in LGCL. Hence an 'A to Z' can be constructed by flagging which LGCL terms should appear in the 'A to Z'. Only terms which have some associated content should be shown. Structuring browse navigation Higher level LGCL terms can be seen as providing a navigation structure for a local authority Web site. However, that is not the primary purpose of the List so it should only be seen as a starting point for a navigation structure. It is proposed that esd-toolkit provides a mechanism of restructuring the LGCL tree structure to provide a revised navigation that still maps back to the same content using the standards LGCL terms.

HTML name 'name' gives the metadata element name preceded by a namespace and followed by any refinement (eg "egms.subject.category") content 'content' gives the value (eg "Grants") scheme 'scheme' gives the context of the metadata (eg "lgcl" defines that a term comes from the lgcl controlled list) The Hypertext Markup Language 'META' tag can be used to mark up a Web page with metadata, using the attributes 'name', 'content' and 'scheme'. RDF XML RDF files (in XML format) linked to resources give beeter structured information. They can reference controlled lists associated with values. Hence RDF can be used in the same way as a relational database distributed across the Web.

Publishing standards The toolkit will host controlled lists, including LGCL and the PID List, owned by the local authorities. Each version will be issued in the document formats described above in common structures. Supporting standards ToolkitForums.gif http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/ToolkitForums.gif Toolkit forums Standards will be supported via guidance documents, online interactive pages, integration with the esd-toolkit database, online moderated forums, FAQs and other resources (eg sample XSLT). Modifying standards PIDSubmissions.gif http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/PIDSubmissions.gif Online submissions esd-toolkit implements a PID List submissions procedure with controlled releases of the PID List including submissions that have been reviewed by an administrator and accepted by a panel of experts. This procedure will be extended to cover other controlled lists, including LGCL. Configuring a CMS In common with other areas of the esd-toolkit, subscribing local authorities will be able to manipulate copies of standard data for their own purposes. For example, it is proposed that esd-toolkit allows LGCL to be restructured to provide a different browse hierarchy that may be imported to a CMS. Terms used by an authority in its 'A to Z' may be flagged. Synonyms used locally may be recorded. Changes made by each authority will be monitored so that those which apply nationally may be built into revised standards. Interest groups RegisterInterestForm.pdf http://www.esd.org.uk/Standards/RegisterInterestForm.pdf Form to register interest esd-toolkit is extending its online virtual (and occasionally physical) community to support standards coming from LAWs, CRM and Knowledge Management projects. Through a 'my profile' page in esd-toolkit, registered users will be able to flag their areas of interest to participate in online forums and receive occasional mailings. Those wishing to be involved more actively can participate on working groups which will steer esd-toolkit and standards development and be represented on other national groups. These 'experts' may be asked to help with online forums by fielding occasional questions that are forwarded by a toolkit administrator.