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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.