RE: [WebTech] Types of Online Government Services - Vocabulary

Hello again Chris,

 

 >>For the purposes of this discussion however, I'd guess that the
Generic process list
(http://doc.esd.org.uk/genericProcessList/1.00.html) is the kind of
general definition of services we're looking at. 

 

I would say that the External Service Subset [1] may be rather closer to
what you are after. Btw, I feel that the Internal Subset may be quite
similar for non-governmental entities. 

 

Now for defining a service, copying from [2] ...

Service Class Comments:

A dcterms:description of the service class is needed. This might
include:

The provision of goods or services by one organisation or individual to
another.

Services are sub-divided to the level a which there is one process for
each service interaction (eg for the provision of information on a
service or for a service application).

Each service transaction (a "case") will have a set of documents which
collectively have one retention requirement.

Each public sector service is delivered under a legal power or duty.

 

Inevitably, if we want interoperability and data sharing between
different systems/countries we will need a minimum common
definition/model/vocabulary/ontology (you choose!) for describing a
Public Service. This need is explained at [3] and perhaps in what the
esd website slightly differently says here [4] ...

the Service List includes concepts of the type defined by esd as service
a Service class <http://def.esd.org.uk/ServiceClass> . These classes may
have extra properties beyond those that apply to every SKOS concept

 

These "extra properties" may look e.g. like [5] [6] or [7].

 

So concluding I would say we are rather discussing two things: 

a)      ways to categorize/cluster public services in meaningful sets

b)     what a public service is (its ontological representation)

There may be implicit links between the two...

 

Regards,

Vassilios 

 

 

[1] http://doc.esd.org.uk/lgsl/3.07/laexternalservices.html

[2] http://doc.esd.org.uk/ServiceClass.html#/?tab=data-resource-comments

[3]
http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Use_Case_9_-_Common_Service_Model

[4] http://doc.esd.org.uk/#/data-lgbm?tab=data-linkeddata

[5] http://195.251.218.37/govml/?q=node/4

[6]
http://www.egovpt.org/fg/CWA_version_3?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=C
EN-ISSS_eGov-Share_CWA_v3_Part_1a_20081010.pdf

[7] http://doc.esd.org.uk/Default.aspx#/?tab=data-lgbm



 

 

________________________________

From: Mike Thacker [mailto:mike.thacker@esd.org.uk] 
Sent: 22 February 2010 13:49
To: chris-beer@grapevine.net.au
Cc: W3C e-Gov IG; Peristeras, Vassilios
Subject: Re: [WebTech] Types of Online Government Services - Vocabulary

 

Hello Chris

 

>>Will have a crack at a plain english mapping between lgsl:gpl and
aglsterms:agls-service to start to determine possible
commonalities/groupings over the coming week.<<

 

If you do and you have URI for each agls-service do let me have the
mappings so we can publish them from our generic processes.

 

>>Any idea how far off LGSL in SKOS is? However, even without that, the
more of these sorts of public sector lists we can get hold of, the more
obvious common groupings will appear IMO.<<

 

http://id.esd.org.uk/lgsl/3.07/laexternalservices is (most of) LGSL.
This resolves to http://doc.esd.org.uk/lgsl/3.07/laexternalservices.html
or http://doc.esd.org.uk/lgsl/3.07/laexternalservices.rdf, the latter
should be SKOS.

 

Everything is draft and subject to change until 31 March 2010 by when we
hope to have it tidied up and formally published.

 

Best wishes

Mike

 

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 11:34, Chris Beer <chris-beer@grapevine.net.au>
wrote:

Mike, Vassilios

Addendum - The LGSL is certainly an impressive, holistic piece of work
:) It really shows quite clearly the semantic web in practice - one of
the best RL examples I've seen so far in my trollings of all things
metadata. (Maybe its because I understand public sector terms and not
academic examples so much ;) )

For the purposes of this discussion however, I'd guess that the Generic
process list (http://doc.esd.org.uk/genericProcessList/1.00.html) is the
kind of general definition of services we're looking at. We have to keep
it general, or we'll get bogged down.

Will have a crack at a plain english mapping between lgsl:gpl and
aglsterms:agls-service to start to determine possible
commonalities/groupings over the coming week. Any idea how far off LGSL
in SKOS is? However, even without that, the more of these sorts of
public sector lists we can get hold of, the more obvious common
groupings will appear IMO.

Cheers

Chris





On 22/02/2010 9:39 PM, Chris Beer wrote: 

Hi Vassilios, Mike, all

Oh - I'm certainly not looking to draft a new list of services. In fact,
I've done exactly as you have, and used a RDF/SKOS friendly vocab from
my own country, or elsewhere as a starting reference point to spark
discussion. (Thankyou for the links  - I'll check them out! Curious to
see if there is any different to a local gov list and a federal version
of same, countries aside). Mike makes the good point that "that WE would
consider" - definitions will vary from place to place. We in Australia
use a seperate vocab/ont. to specifically describe business functions -
and while some values are the same, they have different meanings between
the vocabs.

Mike raises another good point which is also a concern with me btw - "do
we have a definition of service". It's something we need to define
within the scope of the project, and what better way than to see how
others already have. While I could of simply asked for links to existing
ones, some project or IG members may not have them in their neck of the
woods, so posting a basic list and getting people thinking about this
from a user pov is also useful.

Vassilios - Business reference models are certainly worth looking at,
but do they tend to be concerned less with actual services and more with
service delivery functions? To be honest, I'm not completely up on
business reference models, and generally thought they were more "Our
function is to process information about 'abc' which comes to us via a
form, from a variety of places both on and offine" rather than "You can
apply for 'abc' online here using this smart form". Would like to hear
more about this though if I'm mistaken (and will of course be reading up
on them :) )

My general feeling is rather than looking at business functions per se,
that we should  instead define online services and types of online
services (to be more specific), so we can within our project outputs
say, for instance -  "When providing a transaction service via a form
online, best practice should be 'x'. When providing a communication
service online (eg: discussion forum), best practice for social media
use is 'y'. When providing an e-commerce transaction using the mobile
web, best practice should be 'z'." So to speak.

Keep the thoughts coming! And feel free to educate me. Always :)

Cheers

Chris

On 22/02/2010 8:36 PM, Peristeras, Vassilios wrote: 

Chris,

The UK Local Government Services List and the FEA business reference
model (links here [1]) are indeed two efforts you should definitely
consider before drafting a new list of services. 

Regards,

Vassilios 

 

 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_reference_model

 

________________________________

From: public-egov-ig-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Mike Thacker
Sent: 22 February 2010 11:17
To: chris-beer@grapevine.net.au
Cc: public-egov-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: [WebTech] Types of Online Government Services - Vocabulary

 

Hello Chris

 

I'm afraid I've not followed discussions in depth so apologies in
advance if my comments are naive .

 

Do we have a definition of "service"?

 

In UK local government, we have controlled lists at:
http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/ That includes the Local Government
Services List which can be browsed at:
http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/lgsl/viewer/

 

The model is being upgraded and replaced by a richer set of lists
expressed in SKOS format with relationships between them.  You can see
that from the pages at: http://doc.esd.org.uk/

 

Your list contains a mixture of what we would consider to be
interaction/transaction types and 'functions', ie broad service areas.
That may well be adequate for your purposes.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 00:36, <chris-beer@grapevine.net.au> wrote:

Hello all

In keeping with the "Delivery of Government Services" part of the
project,
the following is a potential list of online (or offline) services
delivered by the Public Sector. I've derived it from the AGLS Service
Vocabulary Scheme developed by the National Archives of Australia - link
below.

I'd like people to pull it apart, discuss it, comment on it and add to
it
based on their own experiences and jurisdictions.

This will also be up for discussion as an agenda item for the Project
initial call on the 4th of March. Hopefully at that point it will be a
simple matter of acceptance by the group about groupings/categories for
services to give us areas to focus on. Some groupings will probably be
obvious (eg: e-commerce/transations) but some might not be.

The list here contains the values only, without scope. You can view the
full scheme here: http://www.agls.gov.au/documents/agls-service/

The NAA is welcoming suggestions and feedback on this vocabulary - there
may be some opportunity for some outreach out of this discussion :)

The basic list is as follows:
--------------------------

* Applications (general applications/requests)
* Benefits and entitlements
* Bills, rates and levies
* Bonds
* Bookings and Reservations
* Business Advisory
* Certificates
* Claims
* Communications forums (eg: chat services, listservs)
* Complaints and appeals
* Data exchange
* Enquiries
* Enrolments
* Financial (general e-commerce)
* Grants
* Infringements and fines
* Legal advisory
* Licences and permits
* Lodgements (formal statements or submissions to court, tribunal,
inquiry
etc)
* Orders and Purchases
* Refunds
* Registrations
* Renewals
* Subscription
* Technical
* Tenders
* Testing
* Training
* Transactions
--------------------------------

I look forward to the responses, comments and thoughts!

Cheers

Chris Beer
Co-ordinator - WebTech Project
http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/WebTech