The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (EOI) to develop the Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP) Program.
Finance, through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), seeks to identify and develop an effective approach to the development and integration of online services and infrastructure as part of the Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP) Program. This Request for Expressions of Interest (EOI) is the first stage of the process. AGIMO envisages the establishment of a business relationship with organisation(s) that can provide, either directly or as a prime contractor, a solution encompassing systems integration, online service delivery expertise, infrastructure components, and technical and related services that address the needs of the AGOSP Program. ...From: Online Service Development, Integration, Infrastructure and Related Services for the AGOSP Program, FIN07AGI001, Department of Finance and Administration - AGIMO, 3-Sep-2007
AGOSP is intended to provide services on the web from multiple government agencies:
The enhancements to australia.gov.au will include a single sign-on service, allowing people to visit multiple government websites without repeatedly signing in at each; an advanced online forms capability; a multi-agency change of address notification service; and a National Government Services Directory, providing a comprehensive list of all government services (both online and offline).From: Australian Government Online Service Point (AGOSP) Program, Department of Finance and Administration - AGIMO, 2007
AGOSP will provide benefits to citizens with a unified way to access government services. However, this creates major challenges for electronic document management (EDM), which must operate across agencies. This course will look at how to address those challenges using EDM standards and web technology.
Australian Government agencies are required to meet accessible document standards to allow access to information by the disabled. These standards also make it possible for documents to be displayed on handheld wireless devices, such as smartphones. The Australian Government Online Service Point is already accessible, to a limited extent, from a mobile phone, as can be demonstrated by using a mobile web browser emulator . This course will look at how to enable public servants and citizens to have access to government via such an interface.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which develops web specifications (to keep the web together), describes the web as "a network of information resources". The web is built on the Internet, which was in turn built from existing technology standards. These standards are now being used to build interconnected computer systems to run non-profit organisations, companies and governments. The information in these systems needs to be managed for social, business and legal purposes. In a very real sense, the aim is to provide the same types of services for locating, accessing and navigating these organisation information sources in the same way as on the web. Also it is possible to use the web to combine the information resources of government, commercial and non-government bodies into one information source.
In 2007 a report on recordkeeping in the Australian Public Service by the Management Advisory Committee 8 (MAC8) emphasised the need for recordkeeping in Australian government agencies. The report detaisl the nature of records,use and disclosure obligations and cites standards and guidelines for recrodkeeping.
The "MAC8 report" provided definitions for a record. Previously different information professions, such as librarians, records managers and computer programmers have offered different definitions of records, documents, databases and the electronic versions of these. However, the developments of the web and its technology and its common use has resulted in a convergence of many of these terms. Essentially records are documents kept for a purpose.
In 2003 the High Court of Australia decided that the definition of documents in the Migration Act included electronic documents.
The High Court decided that providing access to a mass of undifferentiated material in a database does not provide access to "documents". The specific information needs to be identified is some way. Identifiying such documents is the task of electronic document management.
Electronic Document Management allows legally recognised documents to be created, transmitted and stored. Without electronic document management, transactions would be buried under mounds of paper documenting the transactions, or be tied up in litigation over the authenticity of the electronic originals.
In 1995 an Australian government interdepartmental committee, chaired by the author, made recommendations for electronic document management in Australian government agencies.
The recommendations in the Australian report are similar to those in later guidelines from Australia, Europe and the USA. Exercises for this unit explore the details of the EDM requirements. Later units of this course will look at how web technology can be used to satisfy thopse requrrements.