seamlessUK

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seamlessUK

• seamlessUK standards in action
• Cathy Day
• Essex County Council

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seamlessUK

• What is it?

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A public (community) information service

• Web-based citizens gateway service
• Single search of multiple sources - 24/365
• Databases, websites etc
• One place to search local and national
  information
• Resources selected for quality, coverage and
  applicability

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Benefits to the public

• Single point of search and retrieval from
  joined-up data sources
• At deeper level than hypertext links
• Information is quality controlled and current 
• Selection of definitive resources
• not everything
• Information is from local, regional and national
  sources 

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Benefits to Information Providers

• E-gov_at_local 7 critical tests
• Joined up
• Accessible
• Delivered/supported electronically
• Delivered jointly
• Delivered seamlessly
• Open and accountable
• Used - promotion of available and accessible new
  technologies

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seamlessUK

• Whats the background?

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The problem
The library
multiple places to look too much
information varying quality
Other...
Search engines/web sites/portals
Local /voluntary agencies
Council sources
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History

• SEAMLESS project in Essex
• BLRD distributed searching of Essex local
  information providers (1998 -)
• First element of the Essex Community Information
  Network, includes development of Essex Online
  portal

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NOF Consortium Approach

• NOF Digitisation bid by Essex to search national
  and local sources together
• SCADS
• CA/SP Community Advice, Seamless Portals
• seamlessUK
• Available from seamlessUK national portal
  (www.seamless-uk.info)
• and Local Authority websites/portals

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seamlessUK

• Who are the partners?

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Core partners

• Essex County Council
• Project Leader
• Fretwell Downing Informatics Ltd
• Technical Developer
• MDR Partners
• Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

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National information providers

• Age Concern
• BBC
• Common Purpose
• HMSO - Inforoute
• learndirect
• LASA
• The Community Legal Service

• NACAB
• NCVO
• NHS Direct Online
• nhs.uk
• RAD
• UKOnline
• (e-Envoys office)
• more in the pipeline...

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Local authority partners

• Essex
• Bexley, Brighton Hove, Bromley, East Sussex,
  Kent, Lewisham, Medway, North Lincolnshire
• Target audience c6m people

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essexonline Partnership

• Educational Establishments
• Anglia Polytechnic University
• Chelmsford College
• Colchester Institute
• University of Essex
• ECC departments
• Learning Services
• Social Services
• Trading Standards etc.

• Business Advice Services
• Essex Investment Office
• Essex Returners Unit
• Learning Skills Council
• Careers Business Partnership
• WayMArk
• Witham CAB
• Childcare
• Early Years Partnership
• Health organisations
• Mid Essex Community Health Council
• Essex HA
• North Essex Mental Health Partnership

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essexonline Partnership (cont)

• Local Government
• Brentwood District Council
• Braintree District Council
• Castle Point Borough Council
• Chelmsford Borough Council
• Colchester Borough Council
• Epping Forest District Council
• Harlow District Council
• Maldon District Council
• Rochford District Council
• Tendring District Council
• Uttlesford District Council
• Southend on sea Unitary Council
• Thurrock Unitary Council
• Others
• Essex Fire Service
• Essex Police

• Regional organisations
• Go East/EEDA
• Co-East
• News Services
• Thisisessex
• Utilities
• Essex Suffolk Water
• Voluntary Organisations
• Essex Association of Community Volunteers
• Essex Community Foundation
• Essex Disabled Peoples Assoc.
• Royal Association in Aid of Deaf People

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seamlessUK

• Whats the timetable?

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Summer 2002

• Phase 1 system
• Search - keyword, place name
• Admin interface - configure local targets
• Reporting - stats
• Thesaurus - add terms
• Portlets
• Accessibility
• Investigation into GIS solutions
• Initial user evaluation

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Phase 2

• Map based stuff
• Implement geocoder module
• Directional maps link
• Thesaurus
• Thesaurus browse
• Query re-writing
• Drop into more specialised thesauri
• Map across multiple thesauri
• Metadata
• Profile refinement
• Metadata creator refinement

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Phase 2 cont.

• Multilingual stuff
• Translated interfaces
• Search foreign material
• Translate thesaurus?
• Data sources
• Content Management Systems
• OAI
• SOAP
• User Evaluation
• Delivery channels?
• Accessibility

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Phase 2 cont.

• seamlessUK Geocoder will search a number of
  geographic data sources to interpret the users
  query
• All Fields Postcode Data
• Address-Point
• Boundary Line
• OS 150,000 Gazetteer

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seamlessUK

• How does it comply with e-government targets?

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Government standards

• e-GIF
• XML as integration technology
• converts existing schemas to XML structures on
  the fly
• leveraging legacy systems
• and e-GMS
• Ver. 1.0 (April 2002) - qualified Dublin Core
  (refinements) some extensions
• seamlessUK application profile

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Metadata

• 2 levels
• Resource level tagging of individual records/web
  pages
• seamlessUK application profile
• Collection level descriptions
• RSLP model and schema (Research Support Libraries
  Programme - www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata.rslp)
• Control of vocabulary

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seamlessUK Metadata Application Profile

• First draft (Jan 2002) Dublin Core plus some
  additional elements
• Compliant with e-government metadata standard
  (v1.0 April 2002)
• Comments from partners and others
• Interim flat HTML version developed and used in
  seamless.dot metadata creator
• Full XML or RDF schema, implemented in metadata
  creator, with associated documentation,
  instructions and training available later in year

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seamlessUK Metadata Application Profile - Elements

• DC.Audience (draft)
• Availability (some draft)
• Address details
• Contact details
• Access restraints - cost, time, service coverage
• DC.Coverage
• Spatial
• Temporal
• DC.Creator
• DC.Date
• Modified
• Issued
• DC.Description
• DC.Format
• Medium

• Function (draft)
• DC.Identifier
• DC.Language
• Learndirect/ MILO tags? (draft)
• DC.Publisher
• DC.Rights
• DC.Subject
• Keywords
• Category
• DC.Title
• Alternative Title
• DC.Type

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seamlessUK.dot metadata tool

• seamlessUK.dot Metadata Creator
• semi-automatic metadata tool configured to
  seamlessUK application profile
• template approach - hides the syntax
• verifies metadata is complete and correct
• output suitable for inclusion in web site
• links directly to seamlessUK thesaurus and other
  standard encoding schemes eg. for GIS as required
  by project.

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seamlessUK metadata creator template
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seamlessUK metadata output
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seamlessUK thesaurus

• Background
• Initially developed from Essex Libraries keyword
  list for Seamless in Essex
• Augmented by terms supplied by partner
  organisations
• Full scale revamp 2001 with input from thesaurus
  expert

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seamlessUK thesaurus (cont)

• Comprehensive UK Community Information Thesaurus
• Government category list
• Controlled vocabulary for indexing and searching
• Consistent search and retrieval across the system
  and for browsing and navigation
• Centrally maintained
• ISO standard for monolingual thesauri

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seamlessUK thesaurus (cont)

• Development work in seamlessUK
• Further work on hierarchy and content
• Ability to identify and display subsets for
  different purposes
• Available for partners to use
• Available for others to use - subscription
• Incorporation of terms from other partners
• Partners input into future maintenance
• Synonyms and homonyms
• Query expansion and refinement
• Mapping across domain specific or richer thesauri

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seamlessUK

• Whats happening now?

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User focus

• Survey of users needs
• libraries, councils, one stop / first stop shops,
  CAB etc.
• Mapping the results to content
• new national information providers
• model for local content
• Designing and testing the interface
• how do people search?
• presented in a user-friendly way

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Rolling out now

• Current members rolling out now
• phased approach
• Open to new members
• local authorities
• libraries
• museums
• archives
• Contact Essex now, go live early 2003
• Open to new national information partners

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seamlessUK basic portal
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seamlessuk branded for essexonline
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Local services page in essexonline
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essexonline search results
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essexonline detailed information
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seamlessUK project web site www.seamlessuk.info
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Contact details

• seamless_at_essexcc.gov.uk
• 01245 436560
• maryr_at_essexcc.gov.uk
• 01245 436524