Realising theDigital Parliament

Gherardo Casini, Head, UN/DESA Office

Global Centre for ICT in Parliament

World e-Parliament Conferences 2007, Geneva 2008, Brussels 2009, Washington 2010, Johannesburg 2012, Rome120 delegations, almost 500 participants, 50% MPs and 50% staff

World e-Parliament Reports

Parliaments that participated in one or more activities of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament

Parliaments that participated in the activities of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament

(as of mid 2012)

267 National chambers in the world

244 Participated in one or more activities 24 Never participated123 Participated more than 6 times 73 Participated more than 8 times 24 Participated more than 12 times

EP, PAP, EALA, ECOWAS, SADC PF, Council of Europe have also participated in several activities

105 Parliaments participated in 2008 in the Global Survey on ICT in Parliament

135 Parliaments participated in 2010 in the Global Survey on ICT in Parliament

156 Parliaments participated in 2012 in the Global Survey on ICT in Parliament

Description of the Global Survey 2012

Sent to 269 chambers 149 questions 156 responses received – representing

177 chambers 16% increase over 2009 49% increase over 2007

The state of e-Parliament by income level

The state of e-Parliament by regional groups

The State of e-Parliament2009:2012 comparison group

With exception of infrastructure, services, applications and training the individual categories went up, suggesting that there was general improvement across the board. The average increases for each of these categories over their 2009 scores were:• Communication between citizens and parliaments: +10.6 %• Oversight and management of ICT: + 8.6 %• Libraries and research services: + 7.1 %• Parliamentary websites: + 6.4 %• System and standards for documents and information + 5.9 %

More evidence of progress

Parliaments at the lower income levels are closing the technology gap.

Still have a long way to go But the speed and direction are very

encouraging

Digital Parliament or e-Parliament ?

“An e-parliament is a legislature that is empowered to be more open, transparent and accountable through ICT. It also empowers people, in all their diversity, to be more engaged in public life by providing higher quality information and greater access to documents and

activities of the legislative body. An e-parliament is an efficient organization where stakeholders use information and communication

technologies to perform their primary functions of lawmaking, representation, and oversight more effectively. Through the

application of modern technology and standards and the adoption of supportive policies, an e-parliament fosters the development of an

equitable and inclusive information society.”

Source: World e-Parliament Reports 2008, 2010, 2012

Maturity levels..

AGAIN ?

e-Parliament maturity levelsMaturity level 1: Parliament´s main daily activities are carried out almost exclusively by hand; documents are available only in hardcopy; there are no document processing systems in place and there are no other ICT systems; there may be a few non-networked PCs installed. ICT does not contribute to parliament’s functions and values.

Maturity level 2: There is a limited ICT infrastructure consisting of a few computers and a partial network; there are no systems in place that can support document management or a website. ICT is not relied upon to support most of parliament’s daily activities. Computers are used primarily as typewriting machines; there is limited access to the Internet.

e-Parliament maturity levelsMaturity level 3: Most staff and many members have PCs and access to a network and the Internet; there are a few IT policies and applications, but these do not contribute significantly to the primary work of the parliament. The focus is on the automation of the administrative processes of the organization.

Maturity level 4: All staff and most members have PCs, access to a network and a high speed Internet connection; there are ICT systems that contribute to some of the parliament’s daily activities; documents generated by the parliament are in digital formats; the parliament’s website has achieved 60% of the relevant IPU recommendations.

e-Parliament maturity levelsMaturity level 5: ICT greatly contribute to the Parliament’s mission, including legislation, oversight, and representation. Parliament’s main daily activities are computerized and all members and staff have PCs, access to the network and a high speed Internet connection; the parliament’s website has achieved 80% of the relevant IPU recommendations; all documents generated by the parliament are in digital formats and nearly all documents received by the parliament from those outside the institution (e.g., the government) are in digital formats..

e-Parliament maturity levelsMaturity level 6: ICT infrastructure, systems and services are coherently and strategically planned to support the parliament’s vision. Parliament’s daily activities are fully automated and all members are provided with PCs, mobile devices, cloud services and a high speed Internet connections; the parliament’s website offers open data to the public and social media is used effectively as an additional channel of communication; legislative documents generated by the parliament use open document standards and are available in different formats. ICT contributes significantly to parliamentary openness and transparency.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6 Only 20% of parliaments scored 66% or above

88% was the highest e-

Parliament score

27% had a score of 33% or below

53% scored between 33% and 66%

Persistent Gaps: Strategic Planning

– Almost two thirds of Parliaments do NOT have a written vision statement for technology

– 40% of parliaments do NOT have a strategic plan that is regularly updated

Why planning ?A common understanding throughout the institution of the parliament’s vision for the use of technology and the methods for reaching it. A strategic plan is in fact a means for communicating the strategic goals to all key stakeholders.

An effective allocation of resources to directly support the strategic goals and core values of the institution. Strategic planning ensures that the priorities for technology are aligned with the priorities of the organization.

Clearer organizational procedures for managing and monitoring the strategic plan’s implementation progress. This includes regular assessments of the status of projects, based on the agreed metrics, and adjustments to schedules, resources, and responsibilities to ensure that the goals of the plan are achieved.

Assess to plan

Describe the present

Envisage the future

Evaluate the situation

Develop the strategic plan

Assess what ?

The VisionTo be comprehensive an inclusive vision should evolve out of the collaborative efforts of the leadership of the Parliament, its membership, senior officials, and staff. It should provide guidance for elaborating the technology strategic goals of the institution and lead to objectives that address more specific issues such as when and how to engage the public in the policy making process, what channels of communication to support, and how parliament should overcome the many challenges posed by the digital divide.

Never forget.. (1)

Never forget.. (2)

Checklist: Organizing for ICT strategic planning

1. Political leaders and senior management initiate the strategic planning process for ICT and approve the following actions:

a. Designate a Coordinator for the strategic planning process;

b. Appoint an advisory group to advise the Coordinator;

c. Approve the methodology for including stakeholders (members, staff, external users, civil society representatives, etc.) to interact with the strategic planning team during the process.

2. Political leaders and senior management review and approve the resulting ICT Assessment and ICT Strategic Plan and periodically review its implementation.

3. The strategic planning team (the coordinator and the advisory group) is accountable to the political leadership, through the senior management, while undertaking the strategic planning process and may be required to report at any time on the progress made.

Parliaments that received/provided advisory services

In total, 80 technical advisory missions were received by 40 parliaments with the assistance of parliamentary experts from 20 chambers, some of them multiple times

Open data

Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share-alike.

Is data non-textual or textual ? Or both ? If documents are data, are there legal

implications ? Are Parliaments working on opening their

data?

Persistent Gaps: Documents

The good:– The number of parliaments with systems for

plenary and committee documents has increased every year since 2007

The gap:– The use of XML for these documents has

NOT increased

Persistent Gaps: Documents

The good:– The use of XML for bills has increased and is

now in use in 43% of parliaments that have a system for managing bills

The gap:– The number of parliaments using XML for any

document has remained constant since 2007

Good news

Political attention to open doc standards is growing – USA and EU

Akoma Ntoso, developed by experts through the Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan – is becoming an international standard for parliamentary and legislative documents (OASIS technical review)

Adoption of Akoma Ntoso is growing European Parliament released AT4AM in

open source

Why Parliaments use XML ?

Why Parliaments

do not use XML ?

Open Data portals in Parliaments• Chamber of Deputies of Italy: dati.camera.it• Senate of Italy: dati.senato.it• Senate of Brazil: http://dadosabertos.senado.gov.br/• Parliament of Sweden: http://data.riksdagen.se/• Parliament of Norway: http://data.stortinget.no/

In progress (according to rumours):• Parliament of Denmark• Parliament of Finland• Senate of France

Congress of Deputies of Spain• Senate of Spain

Parliament of the United Kingdom

What can we do collectively ?

Establish some definitions for parliaments Create a catalogue of «objects» provided in

open data and open linked data by different parliaments for reference and guidance

Share visualizations of open parliamentary data by newspapers, civil society organizations, etc. (UK, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden)

Think globally...

Final considerations1. Do not confuse the institutional role of

parliamentary communication and engagement with the representative function of members.

2. Do not create new digital divides in the mobile world (people not connected, persons with disabilities, users of open source softwares, … and users of tablets or smart phones you think are not fashionable !)

3. If Parliament offers open data, make it simple for everyone to use and understand.

Openness, transparency, accountability

46% of parliaments are following the IPU recommendations for

designing and maintaining the

website

Persistent Gaps: Openness and Transparency

The gaps– Over 60% do NOT provide explanatory

information– Over 60% do NOT have website standards for

persons with disabilities– Almost 60% do NOT have a plan for archiving

video records– Over 59% do NOT offer bulk download of

parliamentary documents

THANK YOU