ICT - A driver for improving Democracy

MOLDOVA ICT SUMMIT 2011CHISINAU, MAY 2011

VASKO KRONEVSKI, CEO NEXTSENSE

EMPOWERING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

e-Democracy refers to the use of information technologies and communication technologies and strategies in political and governance processes. The goal of e-democracy is to reverse the cynicism citizens have about their government institutions.

e-Democracy “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember,

involve me and I will understand.”

An old Chinese proverb

e-Democracy IS –• right of access and accountability• right to discuss and debate• constituent’ s voice being heard and valued

e-Democracy IS NOT –• just about technology• an e-government service• a “push-button” democracy• an answer to all problems

Nextsense e-Democracy Solutionsa building block for integrated Legislative Knowledge Management

e-Cabinet• Government Plan and Program• National Action Plan for approximation to the EU

Acquis Communitaire• Process Preparation, approval and submitting of acts• Extended collaboration processes between ministries• Electronic archiving of materials • Sessions of the Government Committees • Sessions of the Council of the ministers• Publishing of conclusions of the Sessions

– Government Internet Portal– Official Journal– Parliament

e-Cabinet - Government Plan and Program • Government strategic planning including

Program items and related measures and activities

• Performance indicators• Budget related to specific activities• Relation to National Action Plan for

approximation to the EU Acquis Communitaire

e-Cabinet - Approximation to EU legislative • Regular updates of the EU Acquis

provided by the new releases of the Progress Editor

• Assign the responsible authority for each individual EU measure which would then decide if the measure is relevant for Albania’s process of harmonisation of the national legislation with the EU Acquis

• Workflow between MEI and line ministries

• Workflow within line ministries• Workflow within MEI

e-Cabinet• Workflow for approval of materials• Digital signatures• Supports information versioning on multiple levels with

automated versioning• Monitoring at any phase with status; number of

received materials; due time for preparation; approval; waiting for an opinion, etc… • KPIs and scorecards• Raises collaboration on the next level – besides

predefined document templates, new platform now offers custom document templates• Dynamic approval allows practically unlimited number

of approval levels• Multilingual by design – with option to work on multiple

languages interfaces and content localization at the same time

Government - Processes

Forming a TeamProject Law

Initiation

GPM

Se-

Cabi

net

Preparation (collab.) on project law

Approval 1..N

Request for opinion to relevant Ministries

Nominate lawyer/teamReceived in Central Gov

Schedule new Gov. meeting

Secretary General ApprovalPrepare Draft Agenda PM Approval

Government Session

Prepare Gov. Decisions Publish Govt. Decisions

Constituents

Official Journal

Parliament

Constituents

Approval 1..N Draft law completeAnalyze draft law & make

necessary changes Constituents

Inter-ministerial cooperationImplement changes based on opinions

Final approval 1..N

e-Cabinet 3.0

• Legislation Impact Assessment tools• Data capturing at source integrate XML standard for legal acts in the

process for drafting new or amending existing legal acts• Point of time compiled versions of legal acts• Integrate public participation tools in process for drafting of legal acts• Enable work on multiple languages interfaces and content localization at

the same time• Improved performance monitoring and evaluation tools

(identify bottle necks and delays)

e-Parliament, a strategic approach for improving democracy

Declaration for establishing the

e-Parliament

Joint strategic leadership at the

highest level

Common goal (Position /

Opposition)

ICT Experience, Vision and Technology Excellence

VisionAchieve more transparent, cost-effective and faster processes in parliament with the usage of ICT.

MissionGive access to rich, contextual information to everyone involved in parliamentary processes: MPs, professionals, experts, media and citizens. Allow faster decision-making and lower bureaucracy through information systems that enable access to information to anyone, anywhere and on any device.

Parliament objectivesKey characteristics of a democratic parliament

• representative: that is, socially and politically representative of the diversity of the people, and ensuring equal opportunities and protections for all its members;

• transparent: that is, being open to the nation through different media, and transparent in the conduct of its business;

• accessible: involving the public, associations and movements of civil society, in the work of parliament;

• accountable: this involves members of parliament being accountable to the electorate for their performance in office and integrity of conduct;

• effective: this means the effective organization of business in accordance with these democratic values, and the performance of parliament’s legislative and oversight functions in a manner that serves the needs of the whole population.

Source: Parliament and democracy in the twenty-first century: A guide to good practice, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2006.

Others about e-Parliament …

e-Parliament can be defined as a legislature that is empowered to be more transparent, accessible and accountable through ICT. It empowers people, in all their diversity, to be more engaged in public life by providing higher quality information and greater access to its parliamentary documents and activities. It is an organization where connected stakeholders use information and communication technologies to support its primary functions of representation, law-making and oversight more effectively.

World e-Parliament Report 2008, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Inter-Parliamentary Union through the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament

E-Parliament gives us an opportunity to break with old ways of thinking and engage in dialogue just as the young people of the world are.When it comes to governance, technology provides opportunities for citizen discussion and public engagement; it strengthens accountability; ultimately, it will help democracies be more democratic.

Welcoming Remarks by Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to the World E-Parliament Conference 2009, Washington D.C., 3 November 2009

e-Parliament - Processes• Legislation process

– Initiating new bill– Process of preparation, approval and submission of bills– Process of collecting signatures for the request for first reading– Process of submission of amendments

• Sessions of committees (agenda, conclusions, minutes, voting results, transcripts, video and audio recordings, ...)

• Plenary Sessions (agenda, conclusions, transcripts, voting reports...)• Parliamentary Questions• Automation of work of President of Assembly, Secretary General, MPs,

Parliamentary groups (specific interfaces for every user role)• Publishing of daily material in procedure, scheduled meetings, agenda,

conclusions, transcripts, voting reports of the Sessions Parliament and working bodies

e-Parliament Information Systems

e-Parliament - core engine - Legislative procedure- Bills- Amendments- Assembly staff

Work of the Table Office

Committees

Plenary sittings

President of Assembly / Secretary General

MPs & MP Questions KPI

Business Intelligence

Web Portal of the

Parliament

Voting systems

Social Networking

Parliament Web TV

e-Parliament - Common functions

• Document repository• Document archiving• Workflow• Remote access• Digital signatures of every critical action• System generated documents and letters in every step in the process based on

templates• Notifications for deadlines, new sessions, new acts in process through solution

interface, email, SMS• Mobile view• Single sign-on• Key Performance Indicators• Multiple versions of acts and document• Parliament web TV with searchable video and audio archive • Subscriptions for notifications

e-Parliament - Common functions

• publishing, sharing and searching (enabling the capturing, sharing and rapid search and retrieval of proceedings in chambers and committees);

• collaboration (enabling the flow of appropriate information between Parliamentary stakeholders);

• tracking and workflow (enabling an understanding of the key issues and where to focus attention, such as the progress of draft legislation);

• interaction with government (ensuring the smooth two-way communication including parliamentary questions raised by the Parliament for answer by the government);

• interactions with other Parliaments (ensuring that various tiers of national and supranational Parliaments – such as between national and supra-national bodies such as the EU Parliament);

• information analysis (enabling the transformation of information into insight);

e-Parliament - Common functions

• multi-lingual support (enabling Parliaments to communicate with each other effectively and within and across states where multi-lingual environments are required, including support for constituents with diverse language requirements);

• accessibility (ensuring that both legal and moral requirements are met in terms of equality of access and participation to those with disabilities);

• mobility of access (ensuring that the services and information are available whilst Members, their staff and Officials are on the move and that they do not physically need to be within the Parliamentary estate to make use of Parliamentary services);

• security (ensuring best practice security procedures and the deployment of systems built to recognised standards of international security accreditation);

• adoption of open-interoperability standards (ensuring interoperability between systems regardless of their platform, technology or vendor)

Initi

ating

Scru

tiny

MP Questions

Preparation (collab.) on billSign the proposed bill

Submit to Parliament procedure Analyze technical compliance

Determining primary working committee

Notify Civic, MPs & Government

Collecting signatures for the request

Schedule and held Committee Meetings and

Decisions

Schedule and held Plenary SessionNotify Committees and MPs

Constituents

Government

Prepare Amendment

Committee Meetings

Plenarysession

Plenarysession

Amend bills

Constituents

Government

Bill InitiationInviting co-proposers

Official Journal

President signs the law

Parliament submits to Official Journal

Constituents

Government

Parliament - Processes

• Social Networking (Facebook / Twitter)– Direct contact between citizens and their representatives– Can empower individuals to gain redress in the event of criticism– Citizen involvement in legislation and other committee work of a parliament– Parliamentary members are more accessible to citizens and social groups, and they can exercise influence in

turn. – with the advent of web 2.0 technologies, such as blogging and social networking Parliaments can support civil

engagement.• Multi-touch

– Interactions are performed using gestures and flicks– With Multi-touch users can literary to “grab bills and decisions with hands” and move information with simple

gestures and touches– The intuitive and approachable interface– Improve communication, shorten the learning curve and enhance efficiency in consuming information

e-Parliament add-ons – improvements

e-Parliament add-ons – improvements i(in progress)• Strategic planning including Program items and related measures and

activities• Integration with National Action Plan for approximation to the EU Acquis

Communitaire• work on multiple languages interfaces and content localization at the

same time• Direct push of information to citizens and media

Legislative Knowledge Managementa building block for integrated Legislative Knowledge management

• Integrated content management system for legislative knowledge management including Preparation, Publishing, Archiving and Search

• Toolset for Discovery, Search, Notification on any legislative document• Establishes interoperability, communication and publishing of Macedonian legal regulation• Improvement of effectiveness of employees • Reduction of errors in preparation process• Enforces standards in legislative documents• Reducing administrative costs and complexities in the legislative process• “de-facto” standard in XML representation of official legislationWork in progress• Point of time compiled versions of legal acts• Enforcement of standards in legislative documents across all participant institutions• Legislative compliance tools for companies

Official Journal - Processes

Parliament

Government

Ministries

Constituents

Government

Parliament

Preparation for hard copy edition

Preparation for on-line edition

Legislative knowledge databaseReceiving acts for

publishing

Valu

e –

adde

d se

rvic

esVa

lue

adde

d se

rvic

es

Apply and verify XML standards to legal acts

• Active participation for every user from anywhere and at anytime

• Improves performance by reducing time needed in legislative process

• More mobile solution for the teleworking

• Simple and flexible communication Parliament-Government and Parliament-Official Journal

• Shortens the learning curve for MPs and Government officials (process driven)

• Reduces process complexity

• Measuring of the efficiency of the work

• Warrants the process execution as to comply with the Rules of Procedures

• Great savings- decrease of the costs for preparation and holding of sessions

• Saves money by eliminating paper in the process of preparation and execution of sessions

• Internet Portals for information share

• Enabling transparent citizen access

• Increased transparency in the operation and accessibility of the decisions to the public

• Enabling transformation of the internal data sources into information available for the citizens

• Contribution to the reform of the public administration enabling accumulation of a “legislative knowledge/ resources”

Quick wins / Benefits

OperationsQuality of services and communication e-Democracy

Nextsense e-Government references e-Parliament

Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia Parliament of the Republic of Albania

(in progress) Assessment - Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo

e-Cabinet Government of the Republic of Albania Government of the Republic of Macedonia

Government Process Management System Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Government of

the Republic of Macedonia General Secretariat of the Government of the

Republic of Macedonia Ministries of the Government of the Republic of

Macedonia Ministries of the Government of the Republic of

Albania

Legislative Knowledge Management Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia

Online Services Portal Uslugi.gov.mk - the Government of the Republic of Macedonia

Apply Online – Civil Servants Agency of the Republic of Macedonia

Automatic Distribution of Licenses Ministry of Transport & Communication of the Republic of

Macedonia Government HRMS

Civil Servants Agency of Macedonia Ministries of the Government of Macedonia Employment Service Agency of Macedonia

Anticorruption asset declaration management information system Anticorruption agency, Macedonia

e-Employment Portal Employment Service Agency of Macedonia

Microsoft Partner Program Awards, Boston 2006

Nextsense was awarded the Customer Experience Award, one of two Microsoft Initiative Award categories, for delivering superior customer service by demonstrating its understanding of its customer’s needs. The award recognizes Nextsense’s ingenuity in developing unique and relevant approaches to customer outreach.www.uslugi.gov.mk

Other

• ePractice.eu, 2008 editors choice ApplyOnline – online employment of civil servants

• MASIT 2005best of public sector award

• Microsoft Services Summit 2006, BarcelonaPublic sector featured solutionwww.uslugi.gov.mk

• MASIT 2009best of public sector award

Awards & Recognitions

World e-Parliament Conference, Washington November 2009The World e-Parliament Conference is the annual forum of the community of parliaments addressing, from both the policy and technical perspectives, how the use of information and communication technology can help improve representation, transparency, accountability, openness, and effectiveness in the complex parliamentary environment.

The event is co-organized by the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and is intended to promote the effective use of modern technologies in legislatures.The Macedonian delegation was headed by Mr. Trajko Veljanoski, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. On the conference, the Macedonian e-Parliament system was presented by the Vice-president of Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Jani Makraduli. Nextsense was also part of the Macedonian delegation as the company that developed the solution.

U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C.

World e-Parliament Conference 2009 November 3rd-5th 2009

Press reviewsPress reviews: International Herald Tribune; infoWorld; Sys-con en Espanol; FinanzNachrichten; Newsratings; Harvard University - JFK School of Government; LePoint.fr; Balkan analysis; PR Newswire; Microsoft in Government Worldwide Edition…

CASE STUDY – Macedoniafully integrated Legislative Knowledge ManagementCustomer: Assembly of Republic of Macedonia

Government of Republic of MacedoniaOfficial Gazette of Republic of Macedonia

Deliverables: Integrated 3 pillars of legislation developmentPaperless process of legislation developmentTruly green IT

CASE STUDY - Assembly of The Republic of Macedonia

The e-Parliament was introduced which introduces a fully automatised legislative process from the moment of submission of the documents by the Government, and until their publishing in the Official gazette.

2009 Progress Report, Commission of The European Communities, Brussels, October 2009

I can only salute Macedonia for achieving such a success. As an MP I'm a little bit jealous, because you have done things we haven't even reached. For instance, I'm not able to follow past debates on video link to see whether I was good or not or to see the performances of colleagues, he said, adding Macedonia as a younger state had surpassed those much older ones in the process.

Lord Richard Best, House of Lords, Skopje, September 2009

Benefits of implementing Paperless Legislation Development and Management Platform: • protect natural resources and ecosystems• greatly reduced environmental impact and costs • improved information access • in addition, the service to politicians is improved since the cases can be

distributed continuously as soon as they are ready• enhanced efficiency and flexibility • the administration saves time and expense by avoiding the need for

printouts, copies, packaging, postage and transport.

Eliminates annual consumption of:• more than 40 million sheets of paper• more than 5.000 trees• over 500 mt of carbon dioxide. • saves 1 M EUR per year in printing costs

Analysis made for Republic of Macedonia for 2009 using IDC Calculator

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."- Shakespeare

Saving by Going Green

CASE STUDY – Albaniafully integrated Legislative Knowledge ManagementCustomer: Assembly of Republic of Macedonia

Government of Republic of Macedonia

Deliverables: 2 pillars of legislation developmentPaperless process of legislation developmentTruly green IT

SE Europe e-Democracy conferenceICT opportunity for good governanceDate:25-27 September, 2011Location: Ohrid, MacedoniaPartners: Nextsense

Center for e-Governance Development for SE EuropeTopics:

□ Parliament and Democracy in the Twenty-first century □ State of ICT development in Parliaments □ ICT in parliaments current practices□ Future and emerging technologies for e-Democracy□ Compliance and standards (EU perspective)□ How can information technology transform the way parliament works□ e-Parliaments-The Use of ICT to Improve Parliamentary Processes□ ICT in legislative knowledge management□ Interoperability in the legislative process

Nextsensecontact@nextsense.com +389 2 3075 111Partizanski Odredi 62 1000 Skopje, Macedonia

Vasko Kronevski, CEO Nextsensevasko@nextsense.com

Thank you for your attention