M arek Skokan 1 , Tomáš Sabol 1 , Mari án Mach 1 Karol Furd í k 2

1. Marek Skokan1, Tomáš Sabol 1, Marián Mach 1Karol Furdík 2 Integration of governmental services in semantically described processes in the Access-eGov system • Technical University of Košice, • InterSoft, a.s. eCom eGov '08

2. Fact sheet on Access-eGov project • FP6-2004-27020 „Access to e-Government Services Employing Semantic Technologies“ • Duration: 1 January 2006 – 31 December 2008 • Effort: 410 person-months • Overall budget: 2 279 243 EUR • EC Contribution: 1 983 000 EUR • Coordinator: Technical University Kosice, SK • Consortium: 11 partners, 5 countries(Slovakia,Germany, Greece,Poland, Egypt) • Pilot applications: SK, PL, Germany, Egypt • Home page: www.accessegov.org eCom eGov '08

3. User Partners PROJECT PARTNERS Research Partners University of Regensburg Germany Kosice Self-Governing Region Slovakia Coordinator German University in Cairo Egypt Cities on Internet Association Poland InterSoft, a.s. Slovakia Municipality of Michalovce Slovakia TU Kosice, Slovakia EMAX S.A Poland State Government of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany City Hall of Gliwice Poland e-ISOTIS Greece eCom eGov '08

4. Faced problem (As-is situation) ? eCom eGov '08

5. Access-eGov objective • Main goal:To develop and validate a platform for composition of governmental services into complex process definitions (life events) enabling semantic interoperability of particular eGov services. eCom eGov '08

6. Proposed solution - to be situation • The user accesses Access-eGov site • He obtains information of service(s) relevant for his case • He understands the procedure (services in a structured workflow) and knows which institution to contact, which forms to fill, and which documents to submit • He receives support to follow the procedure (Personal assitant) eCom eGov '08

7. Research challenges • Integration and interoperabilityof existing services • Solution: employment of semantic technologies • Semantic integration - the meaning of information is made machine-readable and processed • Requirement: public administrations need to annotate the semantics of the information they provide • Research goals and challenges: • Improve accessibility and connectivity of government services for users (ease to find the relevant services only) • Simplify the usage of services for users: • Creating an integrated hybrid scenario by combining relevant atomic services • Providing guidance to users while implementing the scenario • Provide platform, tools, and methodology that enables to transform existing services to be semantically interoperable eCom eGov '08

8. Access-eGov outcomes • Access-eGov platform • It enables registration, semantic discovery and composition of PA services • Annotation tool (AT) - system interface for PA users • AT enables easy registration of PA services into the AeG system • Personal Assistent Client(PAC) – system interface for citizens • PAC assists in the process ofdiscovery, composition and execution of relevant PA services into user scenarios • Methodology and ontologies • Methodology and ontologies serve to transform existing services into semantically interoperable • Pilot applications • 3 pilot application and 1 test lab eCom eGov '08

9. Annotation Tool - Principles • Dedicated for public administration employees, no special knowledge on semantic technologies required. • Web application, JSF technology (Browser capable of javascript required). • Interface is based on description of classes in WSML. • Features, functionality provided: • Service templates: Predefined set of the functional properties and workflow, • Annotation: Specification of concrete values for non functional properties of services, • User management, based on roles: Administrators, Annotators, Publishers, Viewers. • Web grabbing: possibility to include and annotate a content from existing web pages. eCom eGov '08

10. Annotation tool Example: Annotation of a new service Example: List of Instances eCom eGov '08

11. Personal Assistant Client - Principles • Dedicated for users - citizens, businesses. • Provides browsing, discovery, and execution of services according to a specified life event or goal. • Web application, JSF technology. • Interface is dynamically created from the WSML descriptions and is customized by the user’s answers during the processing. • Features, functionality provided: • Navigation in the structure of life events, goals, and services, based on the customization data entered by the users. Automatic resolving of sub-goals, according to the user’s answers. • Integration of traditional, electronic, and web services into a single platform. • Direct invocation of web services (via standardized WS interface). • Description: The client provides a textual description of the services that can not be directly invoked (i.e. traditional services). eCom eGov '08

12. Model of Life event in Personal Assistant Client eCom eGov '08

13. Model of Life event as AeG ontology eCom eGov '08

14. Service description in Personal Assistant Client eCom eGov '08

15. Access-eGov project: Pilot applications • Slovakia:Land-use planning and processing a request for a building permit. • Poland:Establishing an enterprise - the process of company registration. • Germany:An upgrade and field test based on the existing good practice “Zustaendigkeitsfinder” ("Responsibility Finder"), by introducing a semantic layer (securing semantic interoperability between national and local governments). Use-case: Getting married. • Egypt (GermanUniversityofCairo):Usabilitytestingfromoutside EU. eCom eGov '08

16. Evaluation of the first trial (1) • Annotation Tool • Instruments used for collecting the feedback • Internal testing by developers • Testing by user partners • Feedback from annotators during the training sessions • Think-aloud session (GUC) • Accessibility and usability evaluation (e-Isotis) • Results in summary • Use of AT was effective • Using the component without training is possible • Usability, efficiency and performance need to be improved • Specifications for revision of AT regarding • Usability • Performance and efficiency • Annotation of existing web contents eCom eGov '08

17. Evaluation of the first trial (2) • Personal Assistant Client • Instruments used for collecting the feedback • Internal tests of developers and user partners using TRAC (iterative tests) • Think-aloud sessions (SHG) • Workshop with PA‘s and IT experts (SHG) • Public testing with test scripts and feedback through email and interviews • Online and/or internal questionnaires • Accessibility and usability evaluation (e-Isotis) • Results in summary • Use of PAC was (mostly) effective • Usability, navigation structure, and information quality need to be improved • Specifications for revision of PAC regarding • Information quality • Navigation and structure of the services (step-by-step guide preferred) • Usability, incl. leading user through the process, labels of buttons, links, and contextual help. eCom eGov '08

18. Expected Benefits of Access-eGov solution • Benefits for service consumers: • Improved identification of services • Support for accessing services • User tailored service composition • Combining electronic and “traditional” services • Guidance through life event scenario • Benefits for service providers: • Easy registration of services eCom eGov '08