Iowa LINC System

1. Iowa LINC System Legislative XMLStandardizationCase Study

2. Introduction Jared Saxton, Managing Partner, BlueLid Technologies BlueLid Technologies • Services company • Designs & develops custom XML-based content management & publishing systems • Experience with Legislative, Legal, Tax, and Accounting content systems • Five years partnering with Iowa Legislative Services Agency (LSA) developing LINC system

3. Overview • What is XML? • Why XML? • LINC Initiative • XML Standardization Results • Closer Look at LINC System (time permitting)

4. What is XML? • Extensible Markup Language (XML) • Provides standardized way to structure content • Human and machine readable • Uses descriptive, meaningful tagging (not just formatting instructions) • Nested tree structure (parent/child) • Schemas can be used to define valid tags and tag contexts

5. XMLinAction

6. Why XML? Can Help Improve Content… • Accuracy – documents can be validated & structure enforced throughout document lifecycle, outputs are predictable and consistent • Accessibility – content can be queried and reported on easily and granularly • Production Efficiency – structured XML tagging can make content easier to authorand process • Reuse – content can be leveraged and referenced more easily from multiple contexts without creating redundancy • Publishing Flexibility – easier to publish to multiple formats (e.g. print PDF, web HTML, XML web services)

7. What is LINC? Iowa LSA Initiative • Legislative Services Agency (LSA) provides IT support and services to more than 450 users, including Legislators, Legislative staff, and personnel in a variety of Agencies • LSA facilitates introduction of emerging information technologies LINC Objectives • Consolidate systems used for creation and delivery of legislative content • Manage all document types on single platform with a single toolset

8. Legacy System Issues • Long production cycles — would like to publish content to the public as soon as possible • Difficult to determine content accuracy — how do we know we have resolved all content issues prior to publication? • Difficult to train new staff — arcane, outdated production tools and techniques (e.g. Silhouette, MS-Word macros, MAPPER) create steep learning curve for new personnel • Tables and Indexes difficult to generate — manual processes used to maintain reference tables and indexes for Code and Acts publications • Difficult to implement new content projects — content inflexible and disparate, housed in disparate outdated systems; solutions tend to be brittle and inflexible when changes are needed

9. Where to Start? Like eating an elephant…possible if done one bite at a time. Start with Content! • Defined custom XML schemas foreach document type: • Iowa Code • Iowa Acts • Bills, Resolutions, Amendments, Conference Committee Reports • Administrative Code • Court Rules, other document types • Converted existing “flat” content to structured XML

10. Back-End Development Develop Essential Services • Content management services(check-in/out, versioning, rollback) • Engrossment Engines • Workflow management services (bill requests, content routing, task assignment) • Publishing Engine services (style sheets, customizations for page/line) • Comparison Engine services • Indexing Engine services

11. Tool Development Develop Essential Tools • Drafter tools • Tools for researching and reusing frompriorbills and bill drafts • Tools for managing bill requests • Text Processor tools • Tools for building up bills in XML from Code • Tools for validating XML and fixing errors • Tools for Engrossment (e.g. Acts->Code) • Chamber Staff tools • Engrossment tools (e.g. amendment->bill, amendment->amendment) • Indexing tools

12. Tool Development Develop Essential Tools (cont.) • Table & Indexing Unit tools • Internal Reference management tools • Table generation tools • Machine-aided Indexing tools • Index generation tools • Publishing tools • Print Volume management tools • Publishing workflow tools • Editor tools • Lists (“Tickler”, “2B.13” harmonizations) • Renumbering tools • Footnoting tools

13. Application Development Develop Main Applications • LINC Dashboard — user interfacefor managing bill requests, bill andamendment drafting, tasks, printvolume production, muchmore… • NOBA Dashboard — manages financial notes for appropriation bills • Web Applications — SOLR Search, Bill Management System (BMS), Bill Tracking, etc. • Mobile Apps — iPhone, iPad, Android applications in planning stage

14. XML StandardizationResults • Shortened production cycles — content now gets to public faster • Improved content accuracy — more content issues caught and resolved upstream, before publishing • Reduced learning curve for new staff — arcane, legacy console-based systems and production techniques replaced with familiar modern graphical interfaces • Revealed new ways of exposing content — flexibility of XML content providing catalyst for new ways of publishing content (e.g. web services, mobile apps)

15. Detailed Look atLINC System The LINC System is comprised of tools for authoring, managing, publishing, and researching: • Codified Statutes (Iowa Code) • Acts (session laws) • Bills • Bill Drafts • Amendments • Administrative Code • Court Rules

16. Bills and Amendments The LINC System tracks bills andamendments from initial request todraft, and from draft to file. Key features include: • Request Management • Drafting • Versioning • Workflow • Page/Line Amendment Engrossment • Publishing

17. Bills and Amendments:Request Management • Bill Management System (BMS)provides interfaces for submittinglegislation requests to the IowaLegislative Services Agency (LSA) • BMS manages workflow of requestsas they are passed between LSA staff(e.g. Drafters, Editors, TextProcessors, Proofers) • Amendment requests submitted viaBMS routing form

18. BMS helps Drafters track Worddrafts Text Processors build upWord drafts in XMLformat XML Repository used for trackingversions of the draft built up byText Processors Bills and Amendments:Request Management

19. Bills and Amendments:Drafting • Text Processors use LINC Dashboardto check out XML bill for editing • Bill XML is edited throughArbortext Editor • Custom editor tools used to pullCode XML into bills and amendments • Strike and Add markup used • “Protected Text” (gray background)preventsunintentionalchangesto Code

20. Bills and Amendments:Versioning • Versioning tracksXMLdocument changes(who changedwhat & when) • Versioning facilitates: • Check-in/check-out • Comparison • Rollback • Version notes

21. Bills and Amendments:Workflow • Bills and Amendments are routedbetween content libraries as theyprogress through the system • Libraries are secure repositories,restricting access to specific rolesand users • Routing to library cantriggeractions (e.g. routing toIntroduced library triggers publishto web)

22. Bills and Amendments:Page/Line Amendment Engrossing • LINC contains a robust amendmentengrossmentsystem • Amendment operations target billcontent by page and line number • Amendment Engrossment Engineparsesoperation language, appliesaction to target document • User interactively processesamendmentoperations, in bulk orindividually

23. Bills and Amendments:Indexing and Publishing • Introduced, Reprinted, and Enrolled bills are published to the public • Indexing allows topics to be associated to the legislation • Indexing Tasks are created and assigned when content routed to central libraries (Introduced, Reprinted, Enrolled) • Machine Aided Indexing used to interactively or automatically assign topics to the bill from a controlled thesaurus • Drafts are published to SOLR for internal research • Introduced, Reprinted, and Enrolled published to Bill Book and SOLR

24. Acts The LINC System manages the process ofpreparingand compiling enrolled bills and joint resolutions into a final Acts volume. Key features include: • Workflow • Task Tracking • Editor Tools • Table Generation • Volume Publishing

25. Acts:Workflow • Governors Action • Acts Processing Library • Task Spawning • Acts Chapter Tracking

26. Acts:Task Tracking • Task Workspace • Task Assignment • Task State andDependencies • Task Comments • Task Reporting

27. Acts:Editor Tools for Enhancing Content • Numbering • Titling • Reference Markup • Item Veto Markup • Footnoting

28. Acts:Table Generation • Tables can be generatedper-chapter or across all Acts • Tables generated fromreference markup • Tables: • Conversion Tables • New, Amended, and RepealedCode Tables • Amended Session Law Tables • “Referred To” Tables • Vetoes Tables • State Mandate Table

29. Acts:Volume Publishing • Volume Manager • Compose Acts Volume • Compose Summary ofLegislation booklet

30. Code The LINC System manages the process ofengrossing Acts into Code and preparingthe Code for print and online publishing. Key features include: • Engrossment from Acts • Task Tracking • Chapter Tracking • Editing • Indexing • Volume Publishing

31. Code:Engrossmentfrom Acts • Amendment Types • New • Amend • Strike and Replace • Repeal • Etc. • Trial Engross • Engrossment Highlighting • Section History • Temporary Footnotes

32. Code chaptersand sectionsare indexedusing MachineAidedIndexing Indexingfacilitatesprint indexesandwebsearchnavigators Code:Indexing

33. Code:Volume Publishing • Volume Manager

34. Research • Folio – local search • SOLR –online search

35. Research:Folio Folioinfobases used forresearch when draftinglegislation • Code • Administrative Code • Court Rules

36. SOLR Search Engineused for nextgeneration web search Features aUnified Taxonomy Field indexing onmetadata tiestogetherdisparatecontentsets Indexing metadataapplied bymachine aidedindexing Research:SOLR Search

37. Hierarchical subjectmatter navigation allowsuser to discover disparatecontent sets that relateto a topic Research:SOLR Search

38. Search results returnedfrom multiple contentsets Research:SOLR Search

39. Search Facets canbe used to furthernarrow results Research:SOLR Search

40. SelectedSearch Facetscombine to furtherrefine results Research:SOLR Search

41. Reporting