Pro Bono Net & NTAP Present The Power of XML for Poverty Law

1. Pro Bono Net & NTAP PresentThe Power of XML for Poverty Law September 28, 2007 www.lsntap.org

2. Presenters • Gabrielle Hammond, NTAP • Matthew Burnett, Pro Bono Net • Gwen Daniels, Illinois Legal Aid Online • Kelly Shuptrine, Virginia Legal Aid Society With thanks to: • Rona Roberts & Brenda Combs, Legal Aid Network of Kentucky • Mike Monahan, Georgia Legal Services • Hugh Calkins, Pine Tree Legal Assistance

3. Overview of Session - 1 • The Power of XML in Poverty Law?What is It and Why do We Care? • XML in Action • Statewide Website & Case Management System (Kentucky & Georgia) • Case Management Systems with Another (Michigan) • Statewide Website and Hotline / Intake (Maine & Virginia) • Statewide Website Document Sharing with Another

4. Overview of Session - 2 • The National Subject Matter Index(What it is and Why it is Important) • National Subject Matter Index UPDATER TOOL

5. Power of XML Gabrielle Hammond, NTAP

6. (You don’t need to understand electricity to use it. XML is similar.) Power of XML? XML is a cross-platform, software and hardware independent tool for transmitting information. Do You Know How Electricity Works?

7. Legal aid programs have many systemsto capture data -- intake systems, case management systems, document libraries on websites, GIS mapping data, and other components of statewide websites. XML is the unifying language that allows these multiple systems to integrate and communicate. Why XML for Poverty Law?

8. Now, what is XML? • Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a tool that describes data in a document. Example: a page of addresses on a website that used XML might have tags that identify each piece of an address: <resident>John Smith</resident> <streetnumber>555</streetnumber><street>Appian Way</street><aptnumber>Apt 1</aptnumber> <city>Centreville</city><state>VA</state><zip>20120</zip> • XML documents can be read by many types of applications, including web sites and databases. Another application will know that streetnumber means streetnumber not just a piece of text.

9. XML in Action Examples in Poverty Law

10. Kentucky & Georgia Statewide Website + Case Management Systems

11. Statewide Website + Case Management System Open Source Advocate Website has a document library by legal type Kemps Case Management System has all the information about a client in one system Advocate working on housing client case creates counterclaim that belongs in the website library. She has to manually exit the Kemps system, open the website, log in, and upload the file in the appropriate housing section. Kentucky -- Then

12. The Kentucky Problem Over-worked advocates report they do not use the state’s online document libraries. • Vicious cycle: Infrequent use means it’s hard to remember the process/user name/password -- which then leads to infrequent use. • Result of not searching: Advocates practice without the benefit of peers’ on-point experience. • Result of not adding docs: Advocates miss out on the opportunity to advance other’s work and leave a legacy of practice improvement.

13. The Kentucky Solution Make it both easy and worthwhile to use the online advocate library • “Bridge” directly from Kemps Prime CMS into the advocate library -- no need to open a browser or remember a password. This required modifications to both Kemps Prime and the OST template - but not big changes. (We built on others’ work, particularly Illinois.) • Streamline both search and submit functions, • As an adjunct, add substantially to the library so advocates find useful info when they search.

14. Statewide Website + Case Management System Advocate working on housing client creates a housing counterclaim that belongs in the document library. From Kemps, she clicks a button to load that document in the appropriate section of the website library. Advocate working on a housing client needs to review documents created in the website library. From Kemps, she clicks a button to view the housing section of the document library. Kentucky -- Now

15. Kentucky’s CMS Screenshot Add a document via Document Tracking. View the library via KY Website Docs.

16. Kentucky’s CMS Screenshot Add Document to the Statewide Website Through Doc Tracking

17. Georgia Legal Services • Pro Bono Net Statewide Website • Legal Server is their Case Management System • Need: Integrate the documents between both for advocates -- and do it automatically

18. Advocate posts housing document to Advocate Library. The next day, another advocate searches the Legal Server Case Management System and finds that document. How? Pro Bono Net/Legal Server Integration Georgia

19. A script runs nightly that fetches GeorgiaAdvocates.org’s library resources using Pro Bono Net’s API. As the script runs, the problem codes that are associated with resources are displayed within an administration tool in Legal Server. Automatic Scripts in Georgia

20. Admins can then map the resource problem code to the Legal Server problem codes (LSC code). Once the associations are made, resources will show up in a case's Document section based on the case’s problem code association. Clicking on the "Documents" link for a case in Legal Server will take the user to a list of GeorgiaAdvocates.org’s library resources for that topic. Pro Bono Net/Legal Server Case Management Integration Project (GA)

21. Legal Server Shows the Documents from the Website

22. XML Helps Georgia • Increase exposure and access to quality legal information • Improve information sharing between programs and among advocates • Immediate substantive support for pro bono attorneys • Resources can be posted and updated in one place, but distributed and kept up-to-date in multiple locations

23. Michigan Case Management + Case Management

24. Michigan: Case Management • The problem: One legal aid organization refers to another partner organization. Both use Pika Case Management System, but the data needs to still be re-entered manually. • The solution: Allows different Pika CMS's in the state to transfer cases electronically between themselves. • The technical how: Use the Legal Services XML Case Management Schema and standard Web services so that it will be able to communicate with other case management systems that also use the schema.

25. Michigan Case Transfer

26. Michigan's CaseQ

27. Michigan CaseQ

28. Maine Online Intake + Case Management

29. Pine Tree:Online Intake to CMS • Problem: Volunteers at the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project do telephone intake using paper forms because the CMS is too complex for them to use. Staff attorneys re-type data from the paper forms into the CMS • Solution: A web-based intake form that is simpler to use. When the form is submitted, it creates a file that can be imported into the CMS with no retyping, freeing up staff attorneys’ time.

30. The Intake Form Seen By Volunteer Lawyers

33. Document SharingBetween Websites Coming Soon…

34. Statewide Website + Statewide Website • Problem: Advocates have briefs or documents that may be useful to others across the country -- beyond their state. • Solution: Pro Bono Net, NTAP, ILAO, and Kaivo are developing solutions that will enable Pro Bono Net websites to easily exchange documents with Kaivo’s Open Source Zope Websites. And, Kaivo is building functionality to allow all OST Sites to share docs with each other. In Development…Coming Soon

35. OST Advocate Site:Add to National Library

36. Advocate Site:Search National Library

39. National Subject Matter Index Tool Gwen Daniels, ILAO

40. National Subject Matter Index • A taxonomy of legal aid substantive topics, based in part on LSC’s problem codes • Widely used on statewide websites to categorize legal content

41. Why Use the NSMI? • Makes it possible to share documents across web sites because each site uses the same vocabulary • Makes it possible to link between case management systems and statewide web sites based on a topic

42. NSMI Index Tool • The Problem: Each content coordinator may add codes for their content areas -- beyond the National Subject Matter Index. When this happens, the Index no longer has the same fields, from which to share content with other websites. • Content coordinators couldn’t get new codes when they needed them and often their changes weren’t included in scheduled updates to the index

43. NSMI Index Tool The Solution: A web application that allows content coordinators to request a code and have a new code assigned within a week.

44. http://www.lsntap.org/index_updater_tool

46. Virginia Legal Aid Society Kelly Shuptrine, VLAS Hotline + Case Management Using the NSMI

47. Virginia: Kemps Integration • Goal: incorporate intake questions and FAQ’s into the Kemps Prime case management system. • 800 Intake Questions in over 67 areas • Of the 67 legal areas, 42 are assigned to National Index Codes and 25 to LSC Problem Codes • Over 800 FAQ’s with answers also assigned to these codes • Easy for programs to edit for their own state’s laws • Available to all programs in the country using Kemps Prime version C and higher

48. Choose the Problem Type. A list of Questions appear to answer for intake.