Integrated Electronic Democracy Information & Support Service

1. Integrated Electronic Democracy Information & Support Service The LGOL Pathfinder for NE London

2. “NE London” • Barking & Dagenham • Hackney • Havering • Newham * • Redbridge • Tower Hamlets • Waltham Forest * Lead Authority

3. “The NE London Regional Partnership proposes to develop an integrated electronic democracy information and support service which provides a comprehensive and accessible infrastructure with consistent navigation for the whole region. “ Project “IEDISS”?

4. Seven sub-projects (+ “quick win”) 1. Metadata Framework & Standards • Information category list • Data maintenance tool to ensure consistent use of categories & referencing 2. Thesaurus • Cross-referencing “Rubbish”, “Refuse”, “Garbage” etc 3. “XML Schema” • Enable the integration of different database systems and common search facilities across all seven boroughs

5. Sub-projects (cont.) 4. Member Profiles, Diary Management & Calendar System • Politicians, Officers and the Public alike will be able to reference democratic content by using a range of retrieval strategies, including: • Searching (by date of committee, name of representative, title of report etc.); • Browsing hierarchical menus – e.g. of Councillors, External bodies; • Browsing a directory of top level categories; • Browsing an A-Z of the total content of the site; • Browsing a Calendar of Events, meetings etc; • Using a Site Map.

6. Sub-projects (cont.) 5. Consultation & Feedback Framework • Book appointments with their political representatives. • Feedback on the published agenda and reports to public meetings (subject to defined procedures); • Register their interest in particular topics and receive automatic e-mail alerts and links to relevant content when they feature in the democratic process; • Receive guidance and access tools to support the presentation of petitions or addresses at public meetings; • Take part in formal consultations on issues such as development planning; • Receive regular information about the Forward Plan and key decisions, enabling structured feedback.

7. Sub-projects (cont.) 6. Scrutiny Management Process Enable the tracking of political scrutiny though its various stages, by associating related Call-ins, queries and responses, Scrutiny Reports and Executive responses together by means of a project management system. 7. Archiving & Traceability When searching the IEDISS system, it will “know” how government was structured to support a particular topic, over time, although it may have been reorganised within that timeframe.

8. A Quick Win • A system to enable the online publication of all the boroughs’ Forward Plans will be developed as a matter of priority. • This work will exploit the product of a previous Pathfinder projects - APLAWS (Accessible, Personalised Local Authority Web-sites). • Target for completion - end of March 2003.

9. Proposed Project Management • Officer Level Steering Group • Seven Members representing Member Services & ICT • Meets on the first Thursday of each month • Project Manager to be appointed. (Consultant, reporting to Newham as Lead partner.) • Members’ Focus Group • Meet quarterly with Project Manager • Two Members from each borough?

10. Outline Project Plan • 8th August to end of October - Local consultation with Members • 3rd October - agree quick win project specification • August to October - research existing products and developments from which we may be able to benefit

11. Outline Plan (continued) • November to March - detailed specifications • January to March (2003) Agreement of priorities • Borough leads for each sub-project? • April 2003 to March 2004 - phased development and implementation

12. Benefits • Significant contribution to e-Government targets • Consistent approach to e-Democracy in NE London (& likelihood of much wider exploitation) • Effective management of information • “Personal productivity” tools for Members • Enables wider consultation • Builds on best practice

13. Questions?