Accessible and personalised local authority websites

Acronym of the case:

APLAWS +

Web address of the case:

http://www.aplaws.org.uk

Country of the case:

United Kingdom

Posting Date:

21 September 2005

Last Edited Date:

01 September 2006

Author:

Tracy Wang (London Borough of Camden)

municipalities | citizens | communities

Type of initiative

Case Abstract

APLAWS+ (Accessible and Personalised Local Authority Websites) is an enterprise level content management system for local governments and organisations;
- runs with open source license (LGPL) which means free to download and install
- Enables local authorities to import external category trees
- Enables local authorities to produce accessible web content
- Output content to multiple devices
- Highly sophisticated user and content administration system
- Publish content to different websites through subsites
- Build to be interoperable and e-GIF compliant
- Supports RDF/RSS for syndication
- Publishing directly from MS Word using WordML
- Freely available at no cost under an open source license

APLAWS+ is Open Source Software. That means software that is freely available for re-use, further development or enhancements and redistribution. This development model facilitates an active community who contribute to the system?s sustained development. Allows local SMEs from participating in the development effort and providing consultancy services. Thus, further empowering local regeneration.

Around the world:
APLAWS+ has made an impact across the world with local government, universities and organisations in Malaysia, India, China, South Africa, France, Japan and Germany. It is also used by the United Nations Development Programme as the solution for their Intranet.

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

Regional and Local | Open Source

Sector

Local/Regional Community Development

Date operational

November 2001

Target Users

Citizen | Administrative

Target Users Description

Scope

National

Status

Operation

Language(s)

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

Not applicable/not available

Project size

Implementation: Not applicable/not available

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

Main indicators of impact and results are the outreach of service provision and the effects achieved for agencies and other users:

Outreach:
National

Comment:
By end 2005 around 30 local authorities (including international users) have implemented the system for either the public-facing website, Intranet or both. Over 8000 organisations worldwide have downloaded the system.

Effects:
-To agencies:
Money saved per case
Time saved per case
Improved collaboration

-To other users:
Faster delivery of service
Time saved per case
Consideration of user's need and satisfaction

Lessons learnt

The learning points are indicated by the innovative issues of the case:
The provision of a standardised navigation (first three levels) for local authorities' websites could be seen as an innovative part of the project as well as the development of a local authority extension of the Government Category list to create a citizen focused categorisation of all of the local authority services. Also innovative seem to be the expression of the categories and metadata in XML to facilitate interoperability and exchange of data between other systems and the involvement of users in the development process by so-called "user-stories" (gathering their requirements and analyse their discussions).

Transferability limits of the case:
The project was managed according to PRINCE II project management standards. The whole system is available under a LGPL (Lesser General Public License) for open source software with some
proprietary systems options also available for Local Authorities who require integration with existing database or operating system support. The system is available as download complete with standard templates from the APLAWS website. Many downloads all over Europe were already made. However, the system is developed based on specific British services and requirements and hence is designed for transfer primarily within the UK.

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