Mandelbaum on How XML Can Improve Transparency and Workflows for Legislatures
From Legal Informatics Blog a post reporting on the use of XML in legislatures.
You need to read Mandelbaum’s post (lots of good pointers), where Mandelbaum concedes that open formats != transparency but offers the following advantages to get legislatures around to XML:
- Preservation.
- Efficiency.
- Cost-Effectiveness.
- Flexibility.
- Ease of Use.
Personally I would get a group of former legislators to invest in XML based solutions and have them lobby their former colleagues for the new technology. That would take less time than waiting for current vendors to get up to speed on XML.
The various benefits to XML while true, would be how the change to XML is explained to members of the public.
Topic maps could be used by others to track such relationships and changes. That might result in free advertising for the former members of the legislature. A sort of external validation of their effectiveness.