The Intelcities eCity Platform: a framework for a new generation of local egovernment services

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The Intelcities e-City Platform a framework for
a new generation of local e-government services

• Alain ZARLI
• CSTB
• France
• Rémi Vankeisbelck - CSTB
• François Giraud-Carrier - DERBi
• Jérôme Duchon - CS

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Presentation agenda

• The IST Intelcities Integrated Project
• The concept of enhanced city service
• The Intelcities e-City Platform what why
• Development framework the Entreprise
  Architecture
• Conceptual and System Architecture
• Intelcities / a first prototype - dedicated to
  eAdministration 1
• Conclusion
• 1 other fields targeted by Intelcities are
  e-Inclusion and e-Participation, e-Mobility and
  e-Transport, e-Land-Use, and e-Regeneration and
  urban planning

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The Intelcities Integrated Project

• An IP in the 6th framework Information Society
  Technologies research programme
• launched in January 2004 18 Months
• Area networked businesses and governments
• Main objective to create a new and innovative
  set of interoperable e-government services to
  meet the needs of both citizens and businesses,
  providing interactive citywide on-line
  applications services for users that will make
  all aspects of what is going-on in the city
  available to all
• Web site http//www.intelcitiesproject.com/
• 3 groups of interrelated activities
• ICT research and innovation with a focus on
  integration and interoperability issues
• Prototype studies, including development and
  demonstration activities within cities
• Change management, including knowledge
  management, capacity building and e-governance
  development and innovation

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The Intelcities concept ofenhanced city service

• A new generation of local online public services,
  that are
• one-stop, end-up or joined-up services
• genuine and complete procedures
• Main features of enhanced city services
• Accessibility dimension
• Delivered on different types of devices, in
  particular "democratic" devices such as mobile
  phones, televisions, kiosks and PCs
• Interaction dimension
• Providing a transactional service
  (bi-directional exchange of data)
• Integration dimension
• Requiring several providers to collaborate and
  integrate their services contents to deliver a
  global, comprehensive answer to a particular
  query (the one-stop city shop)

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The Intelcities e-City Platform

• An integrated information system for cities based
  on OSS1 principles 1 Open Source Software
• relying on a strategy for managing
• the different e-Governance services available to
  the end-users from the participating cities
• the issues of integration and interoperability of
  legacy systems communicating through the e-CP
• Important concerns
• Integration of legacy and new city services
• to allow these systems to be more focused on the
  business issues by relying on offered facilities
  for infrastructure management
• Interoperability between city services
• to allow them to share their functional
  capabilities and datasets in order to define new
  services with more added value

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Why an e-City Platform?

• For integration
• To provide transversal low-level services
  (Security, Transaction)
• City service developers can concentrate on the
  business logic
• To provide a Multi-Service access (one
  authentication for all services)
• To attach external services (legacy, third-party)
• For interoperability
• To provide a common and open framework
• Ensuring compatibility between services
• Perspectives of new innovative services to fulfil
  more complex needs

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Without the e-City Platform (1/2)
Network
Domain-specific Facilities
?
Virtual Reality
?
G.I.S.
Citizens
...
Internal Services
?
e-Administration
Government and Others governments
?
e-Inclusion
?
e-Regeneration
...
Non-Governmental Organisations
External Services
?
Legacy
?
Third-party
...
Business
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With the e-City Platform (1/2)
e-City Platform core
Citizens
?
Government and Others governments
Non-Governmental Organisations
Middleware
Business
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Without the e-City Platform (2/2)
Network
Citizens
Government and Others governments
Non-Governmental Organisations
Business
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With the e-City Platform (2/2)
Citizens
Government and Others governments
Non-Governmental Organisations
Business
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e-City Platform Development framework

• Adoption of the Entreprise Architecture framework
  
• The Conceptual architecture analyses the
  e-Governance domain to identify the business
  reference models in terms of processes,
  interactions and business objects, etc.
• The Technical layer analyses the e-Services
  proposed to identify the technical needs in terms
  of interoperability. It defines the structure of
  the platform, independently of the technology
  chosen.
• The System architecture applies technology to the
  technical needs to define the overall
  architecture. This way, technological limitations
  can be identified, as well as their consequences
  on the entire architecture.

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e-City Platform conceptual architecture
Front-end
Presentation logic
Core
e-City Platform
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e-City Platform conceptual architecture

• alpha release
• Core 12/04
• Services 02/05

HTTP
HTTP
HTTP
WAP
WAP
UTMC
HTTP
Technology used
Not integrated in current release
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The service proxy concept

• Clients dont communicate directly with Back-end
  Services but through the e-CP Core
• Clients communicate with a Service proxy, which
  represents the Back-end Service inside the e-CP
  Core
• The Service proxy has the same interface as the
  Back-end Service, which is crucial for legacy
  systems
• The Service proxy allows injecting transversal
  low-level features before invoking the real
  Back-end service (e.g. authentication, data
  encryption or transaction management)

e-CP Core
Service Proxy
A P I
Service
A P I
Client
Low-level Features
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Intelcities Prototype Demonstration
(eAdministration)

• Background
• Cities Marseille Nice
• eAdministration the one-stop shop - the Cities
  platform in Marseille
• interactions with citizens on day-to-day issues
  (short term)
• In the context of Intelcities employment
  professional training services
• Nice Cyber Emploi PIAP
• Marseille Cité des Métiers
• Main outcomes
• Online services on aids in the area of employment
  professional training
• Implement the enhanced service concept - Users
  access information that is relevant to them, and
  just that
• Full integration with Intelcities e-City Platform
• Development plan
• ?-version
• Prototype modules development
• Integration with e-CP
• Partnerships with third party content providers
• GUI for PC and Set-Top Box

• ?-version
• Security (user authentication)
• Mobility (GUI for mobile phones)
• More content providers (employment area)
• Integration with other WPs (e.g. GIS service,
  benchmarking)

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Prototype conceptual architecture (1/2)
Web browser Web server
Presentation logic
Tomcat 5.019 / Struts 1.2 / JSP
Before
WP1 business logic
JDK 1.4.1_01
Data
MySQL 4.1.7
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Prototype conceptual architecture (2/2)
Web browser Web server
Presentation logic
Tomcat 5.019 / Struts 1.2 / JSP
WP1 server
After
WP1 business logic
JacORB / Java
Data
MySQL 4.1.7
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Lessons learned Conclusion

• eAdministration prototype
• Integration with e-CP has been achieved it
  works !
• 3 services already available through the e-CP
• Need to work with a Corba-compliant environment
  and learn IDL
• Second service is much, much quicker to integrate
• Data exchanges between web applications
  business logic require translation mechanisms at
  both ends
• But benefits are real.
• Through the e-CP, a city can easily build a new
  service offered by combining individual services
  together for a particular purpose.
• For eAdministration applications, this technology
  has the potential to reach the integration
  objectives of Intelcities
• Intelcities RD emphasis
• Delivery of public local services by providing
  cities with a framework platform that supports
  the integration of legacy systems as well as the
  adoption of reusable components and services.
• Vertically integrated set of public services
  (national, regional and local government
  services) with a decentralised approach to
  e-government that emphasizes the local dimension
  (citizens, city planning activities).