Strykowski and Wojciechowski on Composable Modeling and Execution of Administrative Procedures

Dr. Sergiusz Strykowski and Dr. Rafał Wojciechowski, both of Poznań University of Economics Department of Information Technology, presented a paper entitled Composable Modeling and Execution of Administrative Procedures, at EGOVIS and EDEM 2012, held 3-6 September 2012 in Vienna.

Here is the abstract:

One of the important objectives of e-government is to improve the quality and efficiency of the administrative procedure execution. The most often, this objective is supported by means of workflow systems which work according to monolithic models. During monolithic modeling and execution of administrative procedures, a number of problems arise; for example, susceptibility to errors, difficulties in adjusting procedure models to legislation changes, inconsistency in representing the same act in different procedure models. Courses of administrative procedures are regulated by legislation, and thus the course of a single administrative procedure can be influenced by multiple acts, while a single act can be applied to a number of different procedures. In this work, we propose a novel approach to modeling and execution of administrative procedures based on composition of elementary processes. The elementary processes correspond to unit legal aspects. During realization of administrative procedures, elementary processes are being composed and executed according to legal circumstances relevant to specific cases.

Muñoz et al.: Modeling Administrative Procedures to Improve Information to the Public

Dr. José Félix Muñoz, Carlos Bobed, and Professor Dr. Francisco Serón, all of University of Zaragoza, presented a paper entitled Modeling Administrative Procedures to Improve Information to the Public, at EGOVIS and EDEM 2012, held 3-6 September 2012 in Vienna.

Here is the abstract:

This paper deals with the theoretical foundations, standards used and experience gained in the design, development and deployment of a human-shaped intermediary agent on the website of a public administration, whose purpose is to inform citizens about files that are being processed there. This agent exploits different knowledge sources under a unified model, which allows it to integrate factual knowledge about what has already been done, provided by the workflow tool, and theoretical knowledge about the procedural steps that still need to be taken before finalizing it.

The knowledge model the agent uses is implemented by using XPDL. The benefits of using this model language along with the defined equivalences are explained. Finally, we indicate the main problems encountered in the deployment of the agent on the websites of two Spanish councils, emphasizing the lack of availability of knowledge in the system that would be important in order to give information to the public, especially regarding access permissions.

The text of the article explains that the model includes delegated legislation.

Open Version of California Code of Regulations Released in HTML and RTF

An open version of the California Code of Regulations — in HTML and RTF formats, and current as of March 2012 — has been posted at Public.Resource.Org, according to the readme file accompanying the data.

According to the readme, this is “an ALPHA RELEASE meant for developers.”

For more information, please see the readme and the data.

HT @carlmalamud.

Request for Proposals, July 6, 2012 Deadline: Social Media in Rulemaking: ACUS

A request for proposals (RFP) — with submission deadline of 6 July 2012 — has been posted by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) for “a consultant to undertake a research project that will consider legal and policy issues raised by agency use of social media to support rulemaking activities.”

According to the RFP here is the project description:

The Conference seeks to study various policy and legal issues agencies face when using social media in rulemaking. The goal of the project is to identify relevant issues, define applicable legal and policy constraints on agency action, resolve legal uncertainty to the greatest extent possible, and encourage agencies to find innovative ways to use social media to facilitate broader, more meaningful public participation in rulemaking activities. [...]

For more information, please see the complete RFP.

HT @garvinfo.

Farina, Vallbé, Newhart, and Heidt on Regulation Room: Field-testing an Online Public Participation Platform During U.S. Federal Agency Rulemakings

Professor Cynthia R. Farina, Dr. Joan-Josep Vallbé, Mary J. Newhart, MS, and Josiah Heidt, JD, all of Cornell University, will present a paper entitled Regulation Room: Field-testing an online public participation platform during U.S. Federal Agency rulemakings, at ECEG 2012: The 12th European Conference on e-Government, being held 14-15 June 2012 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Here is the abstract:

Rulemaking is one of the U.S. government’s most important policymaking methods. Although broad transparency and participation rights are part of its legal structure, significant barriers have prevented effective engagement by many groups of stakeholders and interested citizens. Regulation Room, an experimental open-government partnership between academic researchers and government agencies, is a socio-technical participation system that uses multiple methods to alert and effective engage new voices in rulemaking. Initial results give cause for optimism but also caution that successfully using new technologies to increase participation in complex government policy decisions is more difficult and resource-intensive than many proponents expect.

For the full text of the paper, please contact the authors.

Thanks to Dr. Vallbé for allowing me to post the abstract.

Heidt and Solivan: Regulation Room: Moving Towards Civic Participation 2.0

Josiah Heidt, JD, and Jackeline Solivan, JD, both of the Cornell University eRulemaking Initiative, presented a poster entitled Regulation Room: Moving Towards Civic Participation 2.0, at dg.o 2012: 13th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, held 4-7 June 2012 at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Here is the abstract:

Rulemaking is one of the U.S. government’s most important policymaking methods. Although broad transparency and participation rights are part of its legal structure, significant barriers prevent effective engagement by many groups of interested citizens. Regulation Room, an experimental open government partnership between academic researchers and government agencies, is a socio-technical participation system that uses multiple methods to alert and effectively engage new voices in rulemaking.

For the full text of the poster, please contact the authors.

Thanks to Mr. Heidt for allowing me to post the abstract.

Interview with Núria Casellas: Legally Linked: Linked Open Data Principles Applied To Code Of Federal Regulations

An interview with Dr. Núria Casellas of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School (LII), entitled Legally Linked: Linked Open Data Principles Applied To Code Of Federal Regulations, has been published at semanticweb.com.

In this interview, Dr. Casellas discusses the application of Linked Data in Title 21 of LII’s new version of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. In that title, users can search for “brand names for drugs (such as Tylenol), and receiv[e] the generic name for the drug (acetaminophen) as a suggested term.” LII plans to incorporate “definitions, obligations and vocabularies, and product information to enhance search and retrieval, and also visualization of the information.”

Dr. Casellas also describes a plan to “link[] materials from the Drug Bank open data drug and drug target database, which has been transformed into RDF and made available as a SPARQL endpoint, to Title 21 in the CFR, and vice vers[a].” The article notes that LII “is developing a SKOS-based thesaur[us] derived from the terms used in the CFR, and extracting definitions and obligations.” LII also plans to include in its CFR metadata “product codes from sources such as the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).”

For more information, please see the complete article.

FederalRegister.gov Now Integrated with Regulations.gov

Michael White of the Office of the Federal Register has posted In Synch With Regulations.gov, on the OFR Blog.

Here is a summary of the post:

FederalRegister.gov (FR2) is now tightly integrated with the electronic dockets on Regulations.gov. Comments submitted to Regulations.gov and processed for public display are now accessible from FR2. We also added connections to “Supporting/Related Materials” maintained in the dockets.

For more information, please see the complete post.

HT @dan_munz.

New Version of Code of Federal Regulations Launched by Cornell LII

A new, free, online version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the U.S. federal administrative code, has been launched by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School, according to an announcement on the LII Announce blog.

According to the announcement, this new version of the CFR has several new features:

• “the same search and navigation features .. of [LII's version of] the United States Code“
• “cross-references both within the CFR and to relevant parts of the United States Code“
• “links to relevant statutory authority and to rulemaking dockets for pending regulations that may affect the section the user is viewing”
• “updated concurrently with updates to the GPO’s Federal Digital System data on which it is based, with links from each page to the Office of the Federal Register’s e-CFR edition for more recent updates”
• “new features based on the capabilities of the Semantic Web”:
• “users can now search Title 21 using brand names for drugs (such as Tylenol), and receive the generic name for the drug (acetaminophen) as a suggested term”
• In the near future, the LII CFR will include: “searches by United Nations product code, the identification and linking of relevant agency guidance information for each Part and Section, and a wide variety of Linked Data offerings”

For more information, please see the complete announcement.

For more information on Linked Data technology in connection with the LII CFR, please see:

• Casellas, Vallbé, and Bruce: From Legal Information to Open Legal Data: A Case Study in U.S. Federal Legal Information
• Casellas et al. on Linked Legal Data: Improving Access to Regulatory Information

HT @LIICornell.

Indian Kanoon Adds Daily Updates from Administrative Tribunals

Dr. Sushant Sinha of Indian Kanoon has posted Daily updates from tribunals, in the Indian Kanoon forum.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

Daily updates from tribunals are integrated with Indian Kanoon. The source code for all of this work is released under GPLv3 license here http://code.google.com/p/judis-re/source/detail?r=11

Look at the tribunals section of http://indiankanoon.org/feeds/
[...]
The integration of tribunal judgments on Indian Kanoon was made possible by a grant from Public.Resource.Org

For more information, please see the complete post.

In a tweet today, Dr. Sinha adds:

After integration of tribunals with Indian Kanoon, the next thing is to support the website on mobile devices.

HT @IndianKanoon.