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AKOMA NTOSO Technical documentation

Documentation for "tool makers/programmers" added to the AKOMA NTOSO website. It includes "Technical Documentation" where you will find the technical requirements of each element and also a brief description of the role that each of the AKOMA NTOSO element is supposed to serve.

AKOMA NTOSO Schema Releases

The documentation section of AKOMA NTOSO has been expanded to include several schema releases. The Schema Release section provides also a very interesting comparative view between each release and its predecessor. This is achieved by showing side by side the two releases with a colour coding-scheme that shows what has been removed or added from one release to another.

AKOMA NTOSO Examples

Markup examples of various AKOMA NTOSO document types are now available online. In order to simplify the reading of the examples, we have developed a software that shows in a side by side way the XML marked up documents and the human readable versions of the documents.

AKOMA NTOSO New Releases

We have issued a new major release of AKOMA NTOSO, providing a number of relevant modifications to the previous releases. Many of these modifications are NOT backward-compatible.

AKOMA NTOSO New Releases for May 2009

This release contains no difference from the previous release but a few bug fixes. The main justification of this release is to introduce systematic inline documentation to all structures of the language (groups, attribute groups, simple type, complex types and elements.

Bungeni ODF to AKOMA NTOSO XML converter

An add-on application to OpenOffice.org Writer that provides tools to assist in the marking up of the documents in AKOMA NTOSO schemas. It includes a BungeniEditor extension that is able to translate ODF documents into both AKOMA NTOSO XML documents and valid HTML documents..

Bungeni Portal

The portal uses several technologies and applications to present a parliamentary portal that can be customized to suit a parliaments needs. The Bungeni application has been properly structured and includes a workflow package among other reviews conducted to solve some UI inconsistencies that were identified.

Bungeni Editor Alpha release

A tool to mark up documents based on the AKOMA NTOSO schema. The Editor provides contextual markup tools, where the Editor recommends supported markup based on the position of the cursor within the document. The UI of the Editor has also been internationalized.

Bungeni Editor Upgraded to OpenOffice 3.0

Along with this upgrade, several functional and usability improvements were made to the editor. This includes a new document type that was added to the supported document types for the Editor – the 'judgement' document type.

Evidence-based Law Making (EbLM)

This is a workshop designed to provide the methodologies and tools that a drafter needs to conceptualize, draft and justify a bill’s detailed provisions. Most often than not, when drafters have no clearly laid out guidelines, they result to using methodologies that lead to inadequate legislation.

Lawmaking and Oversight Syllabus for e-learning modules

These modules are developed in conjunction with the International Consortium for Law and Development (ICLAD). This is in the effort of providing adequate information and tools to enable parliaments to perform better and be part of the drafting process.

Information Society Repository

A repository of information regarding legislation and policy documents dealing with Information Society and ICTs issues in Africa.

Regional Workshop: Drafting 'Evidence-based Legislation': the case of the health sector in the EAC

This is a regional workshop dabbed "Evidence Based Legislation" that is being organized by UN/DESA in collaboration with EAC. The main aim of this workshop will be to engage EAC legislative drafters in a learning process of drafting and assessing evidence based legislation..

APKN Legislative Drafting Clinic

A new clinic designed to assist African parliaments to acquire the skills necessary to draft and enact more effective legislation. This clinic has been designed to assist African parliaments to acquire the skills to draft and enact more effective legislation.

Examples added to the Legislative Drafting Guidelines

The Legislative guidelines have been revised to include practical examples that provide clarity. The examples will help in better understanding the purpose of each Guideline.

Acquisition of a "Computer Assisted Translation and Terminology Management Software" for the PAN

There are undergoing plans to acquire a translations software. This is an application that will aim at providing support for the PAP translator services in order to assist African parliaments to acquire the skills to draft and enact more effective legislation.

The Senate of Nigeria become a member of APKN

APKN has so far received endorsement from 13 national and regional Legislatures , the latest member being the Nigerian Senate with the endorsement in March of 2009.

APKN receives an overwhelming endorsement at the PAP Speakers Conference 2009

The Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network received great support and a massive endorsement during the PAP speakers conference that took place. During the conference the, 28 presiding officers unanimously agreed to endorse the APKN charter.

ICT Thematic Group discusses Internet Governance in Cape Town, South Africa

Parliaments have a role to play in ensuring that there is Internet to govern but also that their constituencies are protected from any malicious activities. This is one of the issues that were discussed by the ICT Thematic Group of APKN at a meeting in Cape Town.

An African Parliamentary Assistance Framework (APAF) a need says Development Partners

A meeting was conducted by development partners during which they discussed the need for them to be given an opportunity to discuss the work they are doing, as a means for creating synergies and avoid duplication of efforts.

The Role of Parliaments in the Development of an Equitable Information Society in Africa

The international conference "The Role of Parliaments in the Development of an Equitable Information Society in Africa" was successfully closed in Kigali on 5th of March 2009 with the adoption of the "Kigali Declaration". The conference was hosted by the Parliament of Rwanda and organized in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). It brought together delegations from 36 African parliaments and regional assemblies, 31 of these were MP's4 were Speakers/Presidents and 3 deputy Speakers.

APKN endorsed by the Senate of Nigeria

The President of the Senate of Nigeria's National Assembly, Senator (Dr) David A. B. Mark on the 26 of March 2009 has sent a letter of endorsement of the charter of the African Parliamentary Knowledge Network to the Speaker of the Egyptian's Peoples Assembly.

The APKN site has undergone major restyling and reorganisation

The APKN site has undergone major restyling and reorganisation. The main APKN and the different thematic sub-sites have a uniform look and feel (apart from ANM) to better reflect their being part of APKN. The main banners have been changed and a common colour scheme carries through all the thematic sites.

AKOMA NTOSO New Releases for October 2009

An updated version of AKOMA NTOSO schema has been released. This release contains modifications regarding mainly the handling of judgements, its metadata and few of them affect the document content.

APKN Launches Law Clinics in collaboration with Boston University School of Law

With the start of the new academic year, Boston University School of Law officially launched its new African Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) Law Clinics. The APKN Law Clinics are designed to assist African parliaments draft and enact more effective legislation through an evidence-based methodology.

Bungeni Editor Upcoming Features

One of the upcoming feature additions to the Bungeni Editor is integration with the eXist XML repository. This will allow a unified workflow where documents are marked up transformed to Akoma Ntoso XML and posted to the XML db.

Bungeni Editor Test Releases

The Editor is presently undergoing tests for usability and functionality by external parties. Releases of the Editor have been made publicly available. Additionally an operations manual has been created to enable testers to understand and use the Editor's functionality. Annotated videos and screencasts have been provided as visual guides to using the Editor.

Bungeni Portal demonstrated at the SADC ICT Workshop Cape Town

The Bungeni Portal was demonstrated at the SADC ICT parliamentary workshop in Cape Town on the 14th and 15th of October 2009. A demonstration of the system was also made to the South African Parliament's ICT strategy, training and support departments. Various improvements in the system were also highlighted.

Bungeni Parliamentary Information System presented at the World e-Parliament Conference 2009

Bungeni - Parliamentary Information System was presented at the parallel session "Systems for managing the life cycle of legislative documentation" of the World e-Parliament Conference 2009 in Washington DC. The presentation covered Bungeni bill processing highlighting the amendments, annotations processes and how this can be done by the different stakeholders in the cycle of the bill. The presentation also highlighted the MPs , Clerk and Speaker's work flows in developing and processing the different parliamentary content such as motions, questions, and supporting Committee work.

Akoma Ntoso features as a best practice and main component of a common standard for XML in parliamentary documents at the World e-Parliament Conference 2009

Participants to the parallel session 'Open standards for parliamentary documentation: cooperative approaches' of the World e-Parliament Conference 2009 co-organized by the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament (3-5 Nov 2009) engaged in discussions on converging XML standards for parliamentary and legislative documents.

Akoma Ntoso New Release for December 2009

An updated version of Akoma Ntoso Team has been released. The new release contains just two minor bug fixes:

Improving EAC Health Care Provision through Evidence Based Legislation

The training workshop was attended by 30 participants being Members of Parliament from the EALA General Purposes Committee, Members of Parliament Chairpersons of Committees responsible for Health and Staff of Parliament from the Legal Counsels from the Parliaments of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

APKN Conference on Open and Learning Parliaments

The Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) is pleased to announce the convening of an international conference on open and learning parliaments in Africa.

PAP successfully hosts the APKN Conference on Open and Learning Parliaments

19-20 April 2010 Midrand South Africa African Parliaments have been urged to take advantage of mechanisms that are in place to foster collaboration and inter parliamentary cooperation. Speaking at the official opening of the APKN Conference hosted by the Pan African Parliament the PAP President Hon. Dr. Idriss Ndele Moussa emphasized the need for better collaboration and parliamentary cooperation to ensure that the people of Africa are well represented in their socio political and economic spheres of life. The APKN Conference attracted the participation of over 40 Clerks and Secretary Generals from across Africa and over 100 MPs of the Pan African Parliament.

1st APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary

APKN Secretariat and Pan African Parliament are pleased to announce the convening of the 1st APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary.

APKN Secretariat - 1st APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary

The APKN Secretariat successfully convened its 1st APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary at the Pan African Parliament, in Midrand South Africa from the 19th-20th of October 2010. The Plenary was jointly hosted by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa and the Pan African Parliament with support from the Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan of UNDESA.

Localising Akoma Ntoso - Workshop 25-26th of January 2011

Localising Akoma Ntoso Workshop was held from the 25-26th of January 2011 in Cape Town. It was attended by 45 participants from 16 national, regional and continental assemblies being legal drafters, IT staff and Clerks of Parliament. The workshop was hosted by the Parliament of South Africa, and organised by the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan of the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs in collaboration with Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy of the European Parliament.

Bungeni being tested by Parliaments

Bungeni has been released for testing by 15 parliaments to provide feedback on features and functionalities as well as on the needs to localisation that each parliament may have.

Bungeni demonstrated to Secretary General, Clerks of Parliaments as well as MP attending the XX session of the PAN African Parliament

Bungeni was demonstrated to delegates attending the APKN conference on Open and Learning being Secretary Generals/Clerks of Parliaments and PAP members of Parliament.

Bungeni demonstrated at the APKN Plenary and World e-Parliament 2010, Johannesburg South Africa

Delegates attending the APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary as well as the World e-Parliament Conference in Johannesburg had the opportunity to view and appreciate the latest version of the Bungeni Parliament Information System.

Bungeni Updates - 17th December 2010

Bungeni has evolved during the course of the year and now has the following added features

Akoma Ntoso Updates - 29th April 2010

At a technical XML Workshop, hosted by the European Parliament but organised in collaboration with the Project in Brussels April 27th-28th, delegates tried to find a common understanding on how to harmonise the two de facto standards, CEN/MetaLex and Akoma Ntoso.

Successful Assessment of Akoma Ntoso XML Framework by the European Parliament Engineering, Methods and Solutions Service of the Directorate General Innovation and Technological Support.

The Engineering, Methods and Solutions Service of the European Parliament (EP) began the evaluation of Akoma Ntoso XML Framework for its possible use by the European Parliament late in 2009. The task for them was to give a technical opinion on the Akoma Ntoso schema, whose use was being considered in the context of the e-Parliament programme of the European Parliament.

Akoma Ntoso new release to be finalised by first week of April 2011 - 14th March 2011

Since the last formal version of Akoma Ntoso there has been an intense work of consultation and revision. A first "tentative release" was issued in November 2010. The release dealt with most of the issues raised by the evaluation of the Engineering, Methods and Solutions Service of the European Parliament (EP) prior to July 2010.

Localising Bungeni Parliamentary Information System and Akoma Ntoso Standards to the requirements of the African Assemblies

The Africa i-Parliament Action Plan is planning a series of localisation workshops to be carried during the months of May and June 2011. The workshops will be hosted by different parliaments and convened in different groupings according to language and regions.

Bungeni presented to the UK Parliament - 23 March 2011

Bungeni Parliamentary Information System was presented at the UK Parliament where members of staff from the Parliament ICT, Hansard Section, Information Management and Table Departments had the opportunity to appreciate the key features of the information system.

Localising Bungeni Parliamentary Information System and Akoma Ntoso Standards to the requirements of the African Lusophone Assemblies (4-6th 2011, Nairobi, Kenya)

The Africa i-Parliament Action Plan is pleased to announce the convening of a workshop to localise the Bungeni Parliamentary Information System and Akoma Ntoso Standards to the requirements of the different Portuguese speaking parliaments in Africa.

Localising Bungeni for African Parliaments (Lusophone and East Africa)

The Africa i-Parlaiment Action Plan in the last two weeks hosted parliaments from Portuguese and East African countries in Nairobi to discuss issues around localising the Bungeni Parliamentary information System and the Akoma Ntoso standards to the specific requirements of countries present.

Africa i-Parliament Action Plan has recently released the version 2.0 of Akoma Ntoso standard

 

APKN launches a knowledge gaps survey.

Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) with the support of the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan launched a survey targeted at Members and Staff of African Parliaments, aimed at assessing their information needs. Responses will be used to prioritize the activities of APKN around what are perceived as major information needs that Parliaments are currently facing, in order to better support the role of information in Parliaments’ work.

2nd APKN Council of Secretaries-General to be held in Arusha, Tanzania, 27-28 October 2011

The APKN Secretariat is convening the 2nd APKN Council of Secretaries-General. The Meeting kindly hosted by the East African Legislative Assembly with the support of UN/DESA Africa i-Parliament Action Plan, will take place at the AICC Building in Arusha, Tanzania on the 27-28th of October 2011. The conference will constitute an opportunity for Members of Parliaments, Secretaries-General, Parliamentary staff and officials, as well as external experts and academics working on ICTs in legislatures, to analyze good practices, exchange views on latest trends and institutional developments, learn from each other’s experiences, network with peers, and build partnerships in an international setting.

Akoma Ntoso v2.0 has been released

This a minor release of Akoma Ntoso with some additions and bug fixes drawn from discussions held at the Ravenna Legislative XML Summer School in September 2011.

Akoma Ntoso on the path to becoming a fully recognised international standard

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) www.oasis-open.org, a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society, began the process to establish a LegalDocumentML (LeDML) Technical Committee to set in motion the procedures that will lead to formal acceptance of Akoma Ntoso as OASIS standard for legislative and parliamentary documents as well as judgements.

Akoma Ntoso and Bungeni featured at the International Conference on Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards.

The International Conference on Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards was convened by the US House of Representatives in collaboration with the Global Centre for ICTs in Parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Washington DC from 27 to29 February 2012.

Global Survey of ICT in Parliament

The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament has recently launched the Global Survey of ICT in Parliaments 2012, which will allow to measure progress of e-parliament including the changes due to recent technological developments.

Uganda to host the 126th Assembly of IPU

 

OASIS LegalDocML Technical Committee (Akoma Ntoso) holds its first meeting

The LegalDocumentML (LegalDocML) Technical Committee (TC), set up "to promote a common legal document standard (based on Akoma Ntoso) that promotes world-wide best practices for the use of XML" to deal with parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents, held its first meeting last 30 March.

Akoma Ntoso still on track

Akoma Ntoso has been featured on an article in the Library of Congress website.

Akoma Ntoso featured at International Legislation UnHackathon

LEGAL HACKS is hosting an International Legislation UnHackathon sponsored by the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal. Next 19 May, at the Hastings College of Law of the University of California, attorneys and technologists will gather in groups and “mark up” existing laws into an XML format based on Akoma Ntoso.

Bungeni Editor featured in the ISA LEOS Project Final Analysis Report

Bungeni Editor was featured in the Final Analysis Report of the ISA LEOS Project (Legislative Editing Open Software).

Legal Hacking successfully features Akoma Ntoso at International Legislation UnHackathon

On 19 May, the International Legislation UnHackathon was held at Hastings College of Law of the University of California, in San Francisco.

Applications open for Summer School LEX and Akoma Ntoso Developers Workshop

“Providing knowledge of the most significant ICT standards emerging for legislation, judiciary, parliamentary and administrative documents”; this is the main goal of the 2012 edition of the Legislative XML Summer School LEX12, to be held in Ravenna, Italy, from 10 to 15 September.

ICTs and Legislative Drafting in Africa

The Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) and the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC-Africa Region) are convening representatives from African parliaments and government departments at a workshop on “Building Capacity for Legislative Drafting in Africa”, to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 4-5 July 2012. The workshop will be hosted by the Parliament of South Africa (current Chair of APKN) and supported by the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA).

Bungeni Know-How Transfer workshop

A workshop on “Bungeni Know-How Transfer” is being convened by the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan for software developers from selected African parliaments and will take place in Maputo, Mozambique, on 16-19 July 2012.

Akoma Ntoso and Bungeni featured at International Workshop "Identifying benefits deriving from the adoption of XML-based chains for drafting legislation"

Akoma Ntoso and Bungeni featured at International Workshop "Identifying benefits deriving from the adoption of XML-based chains for drafting legislation". The workshop, hosted by the Office of the Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy of the European Parliament in collaboration with the Global Center of ICT in Parliaments, has been attended by participants from 14 different public organisations.

Law Making and Standardization of Legislative Drafting in Africa

Akoma Ntoso and the “APKN Legislative Drafting Guidelines” were presented on the occasion of the international conference on “Law Reform and the Law Making Process”, held on 16 and 17 July 2012 in Abuja, Nigeria. The event was attended by Speakers and Members representing several African National Parliaments, as well as members of the ECOWAS Parliament and members of the Nigerian ‘Senators Forum’.

OSS and OS to improve delivery of Public Services in Africa

The Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan shared its experience in the use of open standards (OS) and open source software (OSS) within African parliaments at the international workshop “Leadership Capacity-Development for Improved Delivery of Public Services in Africa using Information and Communication Technologies”.

Bungeni deployment in African parliaments: Hands-on Workshop

The “Bungeni Know-How Transfer” workshop, organised by the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan in collaboration with the Centre for Information and Communication of the University Eduardo Mondlane (CUIEM) and hosted by the Mozambique National Assembly, was held in Maputo, Mozambique, from 16 to 20 July 2012.

Building Capacity for Legislative Drafting in Africa

Evidence-based legislative design, common standards and guidelines, free access to online legislation, ICTs as critical tools to enable open access to laws and sharing of experience. These are among the main issues discussed on the occasion of the workshop “Building Capacity for Legislative Drafting in Africa”, organized by the Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) and the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC-Africa Region) in Cape Town, South Africa, on 4-5 July 2012.

Bungeni and Akoma Ntoso at the World e-Parliament Conference 2012

The World e-Parliament Conference 2012 was held at the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, in Rome, on 13 and 14 September. The Conference was co-organized by the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, through the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, and gathered the community of parliaments – with delegations from more than 130 countries – to reflect on the new opportunities offered by ICTs to improve representation, transparency, accountability, openness and effectiveness of parliaments worldwide.

Project Evaluation: Stakeholder Validation Workshop

The Africa i-Parliament Action Plan (Jul 2008-Dec 2012) is coming to an end, hence an External Evaluation was carried out to assess the different activities of the Project. Two evaluation reports (“Bungeni & Akoma Ntoso” and “APKN”) were presented during the “Project Evaluation: Stakeholder Validation Workshop", organized in Nairobi, Kenya, on 20 November 2012.

Akoma Ntoso adopted by the Italian Senate

Akoma Ntoso now used as a document format by the Italian Senate

Akoma Ntoso Version 3.0 released - approved by OASIS LegalDocML Technical Committee Conference

The first version of Akoma Ntoso released by OASIS.

AT4AM for ALL, the web editor for amending legislation of the European Parliament is released in Open Source

AT4AM for All is the Open Source release of AT4AM, the web-based amendment authoring tool used at the European Parliament.