Transcript Information Systems of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (ISSRL):

Information Systems of the
Seimas of the Republic of
Lithuania (ISSRL):
Practical User Remarks
Ramūnas Čepatis,
Senior Adviser of
the Committee of the Development of Information Society
ISSRL Subsystems
• Search system of
legislative acts of the
Republic of
Lithuania;
• Search system of
legal acts of the
European Union and
other countries and
their translations;
• Search system of
plenary sittings of
the Seimas;
• Audio recording and
stenography system
of the meetings and
press conferences of
the Seimas;
• System for storing,
processing and
search of media and
information agency
reports;
• Photo document
archive system.
ISSRL Characteristics
ISSRL authors’ vision:
Publicity;
Transparency;
Efficiency;
Security;
Information reliability;
Information
dissemination;
Interactivity;
Accessibility;
Access;
Continuous storage of
information.
Evaluation of practical
experience:
+ Functional multipurpose
• ISSRL virtually satisfies the
interest of user groups with
diverse practical objectives
- User-friendliness
• The use of the subsystems of
ISSRL operating in the format
of the website of the Seimas
of the Republic of Lithuania
requires certain skills,
• Due to the complexity of the
information structure and the
website tree, information
search may take time.
ISSRL Functional Multipurpose
• Internal users:
• - Drafting, considering, and
adoption of legal acts;
• - Parliamentary scrutiny;
• - Interinstitutional and
interdepartmental
cooperation;
• - Contacts with social
partners, lobbyists and
electorate;
• - Accountability to the
public;
• - Public relations;
• External users:
• - Public scrutiny of the
activity of the Seimas;
• - Participation in the
legislative process;
• - Access to relevant
political and legal
information;
• - Access to political, historic
and legal information
resources (educational
aspect).
Potential ISSRL Users
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Members of the
Seimas;
Electorate of the
Members of the
Seimas;
Media representatives;
Persons interested in
political developments;
Persons interested in
the legislative process
and/or indirectly
participating in it;
6. Persons interested in the
parliamentary history
and/or the history of
Lithuanian party system;
7. Staff of the Office of the
Seimas organizing the
activity of the Seimas,
committees or Members
of the Seimas and/or
working to the Members
of the Seimas;
8. Representatives of public
authorities.
Specific ISSRL User:
Needs Analysis (I)
• There are 15 committees,
15 standing commissions
and a variable number of
ad hoc commissions in the
Seimas,
• The activity of these
bodies is organized de
facto by operating
departments of the Office
– the secretariats of the
committees and the
commission secretariat.
• The secretariat normally
includes a senior adviser,
several advisers and one
or several assistants
and/or a secretary.
• The main functions of the
secretariats of the
committees and the
commission secretariat are:
- To organize the activities of the
committees or commissions, to ensure
timely preparation of documents of the
committees or commissions and response
to the letters and requests by different
organizations and citizens;
- To organize meetings, hearings,
discussions, working group meetings or
other activities of the committees or
commissions;
- To draft laws and legal acts, arrange the
expertise of draft laws and legal acts,
provide proposals, comments and
conclusions to the members of the Seimas
drafting or analyzing legislation;
- To assist in organizing the
implementation of the decisions made by
the committees or commissions and
parliamentary analysis of individual
problems.
Specific ISSRL User:
Needs Analysis (II)
• The diversity of secretariat activities of a specific
committee determines a certain priority of the use of
ISSRL subsystems (in reverse order of importance):
- Search system of legal acts
Legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania
Legal acts of the European Union
Official glossary of EU terms EUROVOC
- Additional services of the website of the Seimas of the
Republic of Lithuania (links, statistics, bibliography,
internal administration services)
- System of the plenary sittings of the Seimas
- Audio recording and stenography system of the
meetings and press conferences of the Seimas
- Other ISSRL subsystems
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (I)
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (II)
• Practical features of documents published in
SSLA:
- Formality: all legal acts (LAs) published in the
Official Gazette “Valstybės žinios” and its
supplementary “Informaciniai pranešimai”;
- Efficiency: “News” column offers miscellaneous
relevant information on
§
§
§
§
§
The newest registered draft LAs,
The newest LAs in force,
The newest published LAs,
The newest decisions by the Board of the Seimas,
The newest committee documents.
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (III)
- Transparency: in addition to official texts of LAs,
work documents of the Seimas are published
reflecting the process of the entire legislative
cycle in the Seimas:
• Draft LAs, amendments, comparative versions,
• Agenda of plenary sittings of the Seimas and major as
well as additional committee meetings,
• Minutes,
• LA explanatory statements,
• Proposals by Members or political groups of the
Seimas for draft LAs,
• Conclusions by the Legal Department of the Office of
the Seimas concerning draft LAs,
• Final (official) version of LAs.
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (IV)
– Relevance: users may choose not only an official
(original) LA format but also the latest version,
reflecting a chronological amendment perspective
of LA.
– Functionality: document search is simplified and
accelerated by a diversity of SSLA selection
instruments:
  10 criteria for document selection,
  4 criteria for categorizing search results,
  subsystems of LA varieties of individual superior power,
  document selection according to the most popular LA
formats provided (Constitution, Statute, Law) as well as
their status (draft law, latest version).
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (V)
• Some objective comments on EU SSLA
- EU SSLA interface and operation mechanism are identical to
SSLA of the Republic of Lithuania,
- On the other hand, it does not guarantee efficient or at least
successful search results of documents, especially those
translated into Lithuanian,
- Why?
 § A relatively small number of EU LAs translated and published in
EU SSLA,
 § Chaotic numeration system of EU legal acts
- Alternative – EU SSLA “Eur-lex”
EUROVOC – a strong and effective “anti-headache
tool” for coordinating official legal terminology and
searching for keywords necessary for effective
document search in SSLAs.
Search System of Legal Acts (SSLA) (VI)
• Summary:
- SSLA authors have basically managed to create a
user-friendly search system of legal information and
documentation,
– Ensuring rapid search of relevant information,
– Allowing a thorough and objective analysis of the legislative
process
- The efforts of SSLA authors have been
appreciated by ISSRL users, e.g. in the period of 2
December 2004 – 5 January 2005 SSLA was
accessed 889.5 thousand times. It made up 19
per cent of all the access cases to the website of
the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
Other ISSRL Subsystems:
the Aspect of Functional Efficiency (I)
• Other ISSRL subsystems mentioned above ensure
efficient presentation of current and archival
-
statistic,
contact,
bibliography,
official (document),
audio,
visual,
information reflecting the process and the outcomes
of the activity performed by Members of the Seimas,
parliamentary political groups, parliamentary
committees, departments of the Office of the
Seimas, social partners of the Seimas, objects of
parliamentary control and Lithuanian public
authorities as well as news on political, economic,
and social life in Lithuania and in the world.
Other ISSRL Subsystems:
the Aspect of Functional Efficiency (II)
• Information provided in other ISSRL subsystems
contributes to
- Establishing proper awareness of current developments of
political life in Lithuania,
- Getting the news on the institution of the Seimas and the
activity of Members of the Seimas,
- The ensuring of optimal arrangement of committee activity:
 § Organizing the meetings of the Seimas
 § Communicating with social partners of a committee and objects
of parliamentary control,
 § Cooperating and coordinating the activity with that of other
committees of the Seimas, public institutions or departments of
the Office,
 § Ensuring timely drafting of LAs, legal expertise, editing,
registration and submission for reading in the main committee or
a plenary sitting of the Seimas,
 § Controlling the implementation of committee assignments and
decisions.
ISSRL Functional Efficiency:
Critical Remarks (I)
• Functional efficiency potential of ISSRL is
reduced by a low (first) maturity level of service
interactivity of the system – both internal and
external ISSRL users basically receive public
services only in the form of information.
As a result, ISSRL user:
- With no rights of administrator cannot individually
(but only through a mediator) influence the content
of system data bases (e.g. supplement it with new
official documents),
- With no user identification software cannot equally
and officially participate in a legislative or
administration process.
ISSRL Functional Efficiency:
Critical Remarks (II)
• Due to objective reasons – the abundance
and diversity of information stored,
processed and managed in ISSRL:
- Its search and presentation structure on the
website of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
is rather complex and requires users to have
additional practical skills,
- Internal ISSRL users, depending on their
competence or specific activity, use only a part of
ISSRL services. The remaining services are
irrelevant.
ISSRL Functional Efficiency:
Practical Suggestions
• ISSRL authors and administrators projecting the
development of the system should consider:
- The increase of the level of maturity (interactivity) of
services provided by ISSRL,
- The division of the website of the Seimas of the Republic of
Lithuania into two or more websites oriented towards
potentially different needs of internal and external users,
- The adjustment of the interface of the website of the Seimas
of the Republic of Lithuania to the needs of internal users for
optimal organization of their work, e.g.
– § On-line news timeline on internal life (what, where, when, and the
result)
 § Document adjustment system providing a possibility to control the
entire history of document adjustment (how long is a document kept
in one or another location? What is the stage of its adjustment?
What are the comments made? etc.).
 § User edited calendar agenda with a deadline alarm system, etc.
Thank you for your
attention
and patience!
Ramūnas Čepaitis
+ 370 5 2396053
[email protected]