2 Introduction to e-GIF standards

2.1 What is the e-GIF?

The government has set the objective that by June 2007:

"Networks and Internet technologies will be integral to the delivery of government information, services and processes".

The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) provides the cornerstone for this. It defines the way in which integrated electronic services for e-government in New Zealand will be delivered. It includes policies, technical standards and guidelines (and a governance approach) covering technical components, data and ways of linking the components.

All people and organisations that use e-government facilities use the e-GIF.

2.2 What is a standard?

Standards New Zealand defines a standard as:

"A published document that sets out the minimum requirements necessary to ensure that a material, structure, product, method or system will do the job it is intended to do."

Standards:

• can demonstrably be met or not met through observable and testable evidence
• set limits and are more detailed and explicit than policies
• differ from procedures in that a procedure is a way of proceeding, especially a mode of conducting business or a description of how to do something.

2.3 Categorising proposals for e-GIF standards

Proposals for the e-GIF standards are categorised in four ways:

Category 1:

Standards that are used internationally and recognised by international standards bodies (such as W3C, OASIS). These standards may or may not be already in use in New Zealand, and have supporting documentation that includes information about implementation.

Category 2:

Standards that are used overseas by an industry sector or group, which may or may not be ratified by an international standards body. These standards may or may not be already in use in New Zealand, and have supporting documentation and where appropriate, schema, from which the New Zealand government can draw.

Category 3:

Standards without international recognition that a New Zealand government agency uses and would like to propose as a standard for all agencies to follow. These have supporting documentation, and where appropriate, schema.

Category 4:

Standards that are proposed for development where no equivalent standard exists in New Zealand or elsewhere.

2.4 This proposal

2.4.1 Definition as a standard

This proposal recommends RSS V1.0 as the standard for government-wide, web-based news syndication. Applying this standard will result in reduced costs and increased effectiveness; and a single standard for using RSS is critical to the service's operation. The e-GIF is the most appropriate mechanism to publish an agreed web publishing news standard.

2.4.2 Category

This proposal is for a Category 1 e-GIF standard. It is used internationally, recognised by international standards bodies, and has supporting documentation about implementation.

2.4.3 Intended users

It is intended that this standard is used by government agencies that:

• wish to make their news stories available beyond their own website
• wish to avoid the manual and often duplicate entry of news stories onto the government portal.

2.4.4 Scope

This proposal aims to give sufficient background and justification for the e-GIF custodian to seek public consultation and report progress to the e-GIF management committee.

This proposal does not provide:

• an in-depth analysis of the alternatives although they are referenced and compared (refer to the appendices)
• an in-depth analysis of RDF (the parent standard of RSS) and other potential applications of the standard
• the requirements of Controlled Vocabulary Lists needed for the schema elements - these relate to the element names inside the schema tags (current industry best practice uses the Dublin Core for RDF schema elements).

2.4.5 Process

The e-GIF custodian will evaluate the comments received and decide if any further intervention is required before it goes through the standards ratification process. It is considered unlikely that a working group will need to be established as the standard has been piloted for the past year with no major issues. It's expected that a technical audit would satisfy the e-GIF custodian of the validity of the document's findings.