Data Model for Storage and Retrieval of Legislative Documents in Digital Libraries Using Linked Data

Many countries have provided online access to some types of legislative documents by subject, keywords or date. Nevertheless, the possibility of querying historical versions of the documents is usually an uncommon feature. The dispersion of laws and other legislative documents and their continuous changes make difficult the generation and querying of valid legislative information at a given date. Furthermore, the ripple effect of modifications such as updates, insertions or derogations affecting the entire body of a law or part of it is not always visible for the citizens who are looking for legislative information. Some issues related to change management of legislative documents can be identified: how to apply the history of changes to a version of a legislative document to obtain a new version, and what type of data model might be better to satisfy temporal queries, to store new versions of documents or to obtain them dynamically. The access to all versions of a document and its fragments is important in legislative queries to be sure which law was in force to apply when a case happened. Law documents are produced and stored in information systems with different data models to access and retrieve information about them in a large-scale manner, but most of them do not have law change management functions. Web standards, such as XML, XSLT and RDF, facilitate the separation between content, presentation and metadata, thus contributing to a better annotation and exploitation of information from these documents and their fragments to improve the historical queries and the version generation of legislative documents. This paper presents a proposal of a data model for storage and retrieval of different versions of legislative documents using Linked Data, a method of publishing structured interlinked data, for managing relations between legislative documents and its changes. Document structures, changes to legislation, metadata, requirements of historical queries are analyzed in this work. Furthermore, the proposed model facilitates historical querying of legislative documents and consolidation procedures, allowing update relationships between documents and fragments without changes on the original documents. The model has been tested with Ecuadorian laws, but it could be used for law systems of other countries because the model is independent of the legislative framework.This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government

Supporting public decision making in policy deliberations: An ontological approach

This is the post-print version of the Paper. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 SpringerSupporting public decision making in policy deliberations has been a key objective of eParticipation which is an emerging area of eGovernment. EParticipation aims to enhance citizen involvement in public governance activities through the use of information and communication technologies. An innovative approach towards this objective is exploiting the potentials of semantic web technologies centred on conceptual knowledge models in the form of ontologies. Ontologies are generally defined as explicit human and computer shared views on the world of particular domains. In this paper, the potentials and benefits of using ontologies for policy deliberation processes are discussed. Previous work is then extended and synthesised to develop a deliberation ontology. The ontology aims to define the necessary semantics in order to structure and interrelate the stages and various activities of deliberation processes with legal information, participant stakeholders and their associated arguments. The practical implications of the proposed framework are illustrated.This work is funded by the European Commission under the 2006/1 eParticipation call

Retirement villages: time for a change?

In retirement, many Australians relocate to a less onerous form of home occupation. Some downsize their house, or move to a strata title complex. Others, attracted by lifestyle perceptions, move into a retirement village. However, research shows Retirement Village documentation is complex and more analogous to commercial leasing than home ownership. The most recent government review by New South Wales, confirms the need for change. This paper identifies the current retirement village tenure models generally available in Australia. By comparing the various State/Territory systems the authors draw conclusions regarding the adoption of standardised documentation and uniform Australian Retirement Village legislation

Open Access/Open Research/Open Government: The Full Cycle of Access to Government Information

Stephanie Braunstein, Head Government Documents Librarian at Louisiana State University, and Maggie Kauffman, Senior Librarian and Housing Resource Coordinator at the California Department of Housing and Community Development, will describe the who, what, why, and how of current initiatives that promote the sharing of government-funded research--at both the federal and state levels. Emphasis will be placed on recent legislative efforts (such as the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act [FASTR]) and on the recommendations of various professional library organizations that support academic research (such as the Association of Research Libraries [ARL]). While much of the current discussion surrounding this issue takes place at the federal level, open access to information at the state level is vital in order to insure an educated and informed local population. After the informational portion of the presentation, the presenters will open up the floor for discussion with the intention of sharing a variety of perspectives on the government\u27s funding of research and how best to provide fair and equitable access to it

Setting an integrated soil monitoring system for Malta : strategy, feasibility and recommendations

Chapter 6Since 2010, MEPA has embarked on a project (which attracted co-funded ERDF assistance) (1) to develop a multi-thematic environment strategy that would lead to updating of its data/ information monitoring capabilities for a number of environmental sectors. The monitoring and continuous evaluation of soil properties is one important sector within this project. Essentially, a multi-criterion assessment of existing available information has been carried out with a view to objectively chart the most appropriate process to carry out a pilot field sampling by testing a pre-agreed set of indicators. The latter were established after taking into consideration all degradation pressures threatening the continued sustainability of this resource. Multi-criterion analysis was carried out by means of a limited set of soil-related datasets published in past editions of Malta’s State of the Environment Report in order to support a number of objectives stipulated within the Project’s ambitious Terms of Reference. Information was derived from earlier attempts to establish a soil information system for Malta. All soil degradation threats, officially determined by the European Commission’s Technical Working Groups, have been taken into consideration within the aforementioned project and its research methodology with a view of establishing a shared GIS environment in accordance with state-of-the-art information dissemination standards.peer-reviewe

Understanding smart contracts as a new option in transaction cost economics

Among different concepts associated with the term blockchain, smart contracts have been a prominent one, especially popularized by the Ethereum platform. In this study, we unpack this concept within the framework of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). This institutional economics theory emphasizes the role of distinctive (private and public) contract law regimes in shaping firm boundaries. We propose that widespread adoption of the smart contract concept creates a new option in public contracting, which may give rise to a smart-contract-augmented contract law regime. We discuss tradeoffs involved in the attractiveness of the smart contract concept for firms and the resulting potential for change in firm boundaries. Based on our new conceptualization, we discuss potential roles the three branches of government – judicial, executive, and legislative – in enabling and using this new contract law regime. We conclude the paper by pointing out limitations of the TCE perspective and suggesting future research directions

Bringing self assessment home: repository profiling and key lines of enquiry within DRAMBORA

Digital repositories are a manifestation of complex organizational, financial, legal, technological, procedural, and political interrelationships. Accompanying each of these are innate uncertainties, exacerbated by the relative immaturity of understanding prevalent within the digital preservation domain. Recent efforts have sought to identify core characteristics that must be demonstrable by successful digital repositories, expressed in the form of check-list documents, intended to support the processes of repository accreditation and certification. In isolation though, the available guidelines lack practical applicability; confusion over evidential requirements and difficulties associated with the diversity that exists among repositories (in terms of mandate, available resources, supported content and legal context) are particularly problematic. A gap exists between the available criteria and the ways and extent to which conformity can be demonstrated. The Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) is a methodology for undertaking repository self assessment, developed jointly by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE). DRAMBORA requires repositories to expose their organization, policies and infrastructures to rigorous scrutiny through a series of highly structured exercises, enabling them to build a comprehensive registry of their most pertinent risks, arranged into a structure that facilitates effective management. It draws on experiences accumulated throughout 18 evaluative pilot assessments undertaken in an internationally diverse selection of repositories, digital libraries and data centres (including institutions and services such as the UK National Digital Archive of Datasets, the National Archives of Scotland, Gallica at the National Library of France and the CERN Document Server). Other organizations, such as the British Library, have been using sections of DRAMBORA within their own risk assessment procedures. Despite the attractive benefits of a bottom up approach, there are implicit challenges posed by neglecting a more objective perspective. Following a sustained period of pilot audits undertaken by DPE, DCC and the DELOS Digital Preservation Cluster aimed at evaluating DRAMBORA, it was stated that had respective project members not been present to facilitate each assessment, and contribute their objective, external perspectives, the results may have been less useful. Consequently, DRAMBORA has developed in a number of ways, to enable knowledge transfer from the responses of comparable repositories, and incorporate more opportunities for structured question sets, or key lines of enquiry, that provoke more comprehensive awareness of the applicability of particular threats and opportunities