Access to Tasmanian Government Services via ServiceTasmania Online

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Access to Tasmanian Government Services via
ServiceTasmania Online

• Lloyd Sokvitne
• Manager, Service Tasmania Online

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Presentation contents

• an overview of Service Tasmania
• a description of the Service Tasmania Online web
  site
• an explanation of the underlying Resource
  Discovery Service (RDS) architecture
• the importance of flexibility and good data in
  delivering access to government resources
• the importance of good content and the role of
  government publishing standards

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ServiceTasmania

• Initiated by the Tasmanian Government in 1997 and
  fully endorsed by the Bacon Government in 1998
• To provide easy, customer focused access to
  government services for the Tasmanian community.

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Service Tasmania provides services

• over the counter
• 24 shops have been provided across Tasmania
  offering over 300 services
• over the phone
• One phone number for government
• Over 30 payments available over the telephone
• over the Internet
• over 20 payments possible over the Internet
• online applications, forms, contacts, feedback,
  and help

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Service Tasmania over the Internet

• Provides a single web location with fast and easy
  access to State, Federal and local government
  services.
• Providing access to Government resources on the
  Web means providing what people are looking for,
  in the way they are looking for it
• We do not mimic the norm for searching the Web
  ie. 50 results pages with 10,000 possible
  resources in no certain order

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Good Content Drives Traffic

• High quality content 75
• Ease of use 66
• Quick to download 58
• Frequent updates 54
• Cutting edge technology 14
• (Forrester Research 1999)

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ServiceTasmania Online Web site
Service Tasmania Online
Customer
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Behind the scenes
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Multiple navigation pathways
Seniors
Seniors Card
Social Services
Applications
The application for a Seniors Card can be found
using all these approaches
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The Resource Discovery System (RDS)

• The presentation layer is independent of the data
  layer and is designed to be informal and personal
• Access via topic, task, and audience-defined
  navigation pathways (over 3000 pathways currently
  available)
• Access via a special-purpose subject thesaurus,
  designed specially for government resources and
  content with a shallow hierarchy that is
  dynamically presented as pages are chosen
• Special options including Service Packs, Life
  Events, A-Z government listings, A-Z subject
  listing, Whats New, etc.

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Resource Discovery System (RDS) contd

• Provides free text searching to both the
  descriptive metadata and the free text of the
  resources described
• Synonym-matching for special search terms
• Free text searching across the documents related
  to a described resource (eg the contents page of
  an annual report)
• Free text searching across all government content
  located on Government web servers (separate
  harvester)

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Metadata is the driver

• Web site options are produced automatically from
  the metadata, making the actual web site easy to
  maintain
• Automatic site management, eg checks for URL
  existence
• Uses metadata to provide access to major
  government content across all tiers
• the service is independent of local metadata,
  file format, or presentation system

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Metadata and XML

• Follows national and international metadata
  standards
• eg. Dublin Core, Australian Government Locator
  Service (AGLS)
• Innovative XML-based technology developed in
  Tasmania with local firm Dytech
• we can change the application but retain our
  value-added data
• RDS uses in-memory relationship tables to enable
  high performance whilst delivering thousands of
  possible navigation pathways

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Providing access to government content

• An effective government portal requires good
  metadata
• the description of an online resource is the key
  to finding it
• there seems little point in creating a resource
  if no-one can find it
• Requires the skills of information management
  specialists
• ServiceTasmania Online uses professional
  librarians from the State Library to create
  metadata
• The cost of a properly managed Government portal
  is small compared to the overall cost of Web
  content production

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Access pre-supposes content

• An effective government web site requires good
  content
• Government departments and agencies must produce
  the content people want
• in ways that relate to their needs,
• using language that makes sense to them
• Coordinating content across three tiers of
  government is the next challenge

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Tasmanian Government Internet Publishing
Standards (TasGips)

• Whole of Government web publishing standards have
  been endorsed by Heads of Agency,
• to promote customer focused access to online
  government services,
• to facilitate and simplify the production of
  government content
• Http//www.go.tas.gov.au/infoman/gips/homepage.htm
  
• Principles, Requirements and Recommendations
• Planning, Building, Maintaining your website,
  Toolkit

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Thank you Lloyd Sokvitne Manager (Information
Systems Development) State Library of Tasmania 91
Murray Street Hobart TAS 7000 Australia Phone
[phone] Fax [phone] Email
lloyd.sokvitne_at_central.tased.edu.au