E-Government Compliance. e-GIF, e-GMF, GCL and XML - What does it all mean?
There is a target to make all government services available electronically by 2005 - achieving universal, simple and affordable access for the public, businesses and suppliers alike.
“Better public services tailored to the needs of the citizen and business, as envisaged in the UK online strategy, require the seamless flow of information across government.
The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) sets out the government’s technical policies and specifications for achieving interoperability and ICT systems coherence across the public sector. The e-GIF defines the essential pre-requisites for joined-up and web enabled government. It is a cornerstone policy in the overall e-Government strategy.”
Government bodies will need to develop internet gateways for citizens and staff to access information, resources and services Content will have to be organised and published and knowledge bases will need to be shared and maintained.
Content Management Systems are required to drive these gateways - both for local government websites and central government websites, to enable information and services from many sources to be pulled together into one place and present it in an accessible, user-friendly manner. Standards compliance and the use of XML will lie at the core of any solution.
Adherence to the e-GIF specifications and policies is mandatory. They set the underlying infrastructure, freeing up public-sector organisations so that they can concentrate on serving the customer through value added information and services.
E-Government Standards
The e-government information systems coherence and interoperability standards (e-GIF and e-GMF) have been deployed to ensure compliance throughout the public sector.
The main thrust of the e-GIF (e-Government Interoperability Framework) is to adopt the Internet and World Wide Web standards for all government systems.
According to the Office of the e-Envoy, at the highest level complying with the e-GIF means:
- providing a browser interface for access
- using XML as the primary means for data integration
- using Internet and World Wide Web standards
- using metadata for content management.
e-GIF ... e-GMF ... GCL
The adoption of XML and XSL as the core standard for data integration and management of presentational data is at the heart of the framework. The e-Government Metadata Framework (e-GMF) outlines the policy that will lead to the Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) being used across all government information systems.
The e-Government Metadata Standard lays down the schemes to be used by government agencies when creating metadata for their information resources or designing systems to search their information.
The e-GMS is needed to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across public sector organisations. The GCL (Government Category List) is a classified list of headings for use with the subject element of the e-GMS. All electronic documents, web pages and other resources in the public sector should all have the relevant terms in their metadata. It is also possible to use the GCL as the site navigational structure, so visitors can navigate to the subject they want using the standardised terms.
