Service Tasmania

Tasmania Online Contact • Disclaimer

 

Service Tasmania Online
Resource Discovery Service: Innovation in customer driven technology.
A technical paper

Service Tasmania makes it easier for Tasmanians to access a broad range of government services over the counter through Service Tasmania shops, over the phone and over the Internet.

Service Tasmania's recently launched web site, Service Tasmania Online can be found at www.service.tas.gov.au. This site uses innovative, locally developed technology, in the form of the 'Resource Discovery Service' (RDS), to provide online access to the State, Federal and local governments from the one entry point. This means that in terms of online services, Tasmanians no longer need to know how government is structured to find what they want. They can look for and access a vast range of web resources in many different ways.

Service Tasmania Online also offers a range of online bill payment services for the State Government and some local governments, application forms, and enquiry, help and feedback facilities.

The key objectives

The aim of Service Tasmania Online is to provide flexible access to the widest range of resources on the web primarily for the State Government, but also for the Federal and local governments. This requires accurate and current descriptions - otherwise known as metadata - of those government resources. In order for the system to access the full range of resources, the metadata also needs to be independent of the resources described - that is, independent of the extent or quality of original descriptions of web content by the creators.

1. Service Tasmania Online is therefore based on a central metadata repository, together with simple methods to allow data input and maintenance, plus tools to ensure quality is maintained. Librarians from the State Library of Tasmania carry out the professional task of indexing of resources to ensure metadata is consistent and accurate thus making the resources easily accessible through the site.

2. Service Tasmania Online uses the metadata to provide all navigation and content on the web site. This reduces the workload associated with site maintenance and management. Information about what and how users search, as well as data about unsuccessful searches, can be collected and used to continuously improve the customer focus of the web site. This ensures Service Tasmania Online's continual evolution as a user friendly and highly adaptable web interface.

3. In line with Service Tasmania's objective to develop customer driven services, Service Tasmania Online is designed to allow users to search for information and services in a variety of ways. Importantly, the site does not require an understanding of how the three tiers of Government are structured, and is based on the needs and strategies of the clients themselves. This is made possible by a navigation structure which allows customers to search for information and services in a variety of ways, with cross-linkages at various points to other views of the data, and with contextual free text searching available throughout.

4. The development of Service Tasmania Online was also predicated upon a number of additional requirements of a technical nature, including the:

These four key objectives were bundled into a specific application model called the Resource Discovery Service (RDS).

Software development

The RDS builds on the Discover software package previously developed for the Tasmanian State Government's Department of Education. The package incorporates a central data repository based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and a powerful search engine able to retrieve information from those XML files. It also allows central metadata management, adherence to national standards, and devolved data entry and maintenance.

Initially the package lacked the capacity to dynamically create and provide web site navigation from the metadata itself, but it was both feasible and cost effective to extend Discover's software functionality to meet Service Tasmania Online needs.

Technical components and standards

A summary of the RDS' technical components and standards are outlined below.

Data storage

Data input

Data quality management

Search Engine

Web site presentation

Web site navigation

Access by other services and government jurisdictions

Hardware

Development stages

The RDS has being developed in a number of stages, based on resource availability and the need to provide early outcomes whilst retaining long term flexibility. To this end, the basic system became operational in April 2000, with enhancements and extensions then following on a regular basis. A range of additional developments have been provided, including synonym substitution in free-text searching, enhanced sorting and display options, sophisticate site usage analysis, and additional data views for retrieval.

Content development

The provision of the Service Tasmania Online web site requires the existence of a pool of high quality metadata. An assessment of potential resources indicates that the STO site is likely to house over 3000 metadata descriptions when fully operational. Using the AGLS metadata standard, cataloguing staff in the State Library successfully reached the initial target of creating a core set of 1000 metadata resources by April 2000. By January 2001, Service Tasmania Online contained ca 3000 resources from all three tiers of government.

A significant enabling component of RDS has been the development of a natural language, browsable hierarchy that guides navigation through the Web site. Reflecting both government services and customer needs, the hierarchy allows users to quickly choose the information they are seeking. This hierarchy can be combined with other metadata fields describing target audience, life event, task etc to produce a highly flexible, varied and configurable navigation system that can be tailored to suit the needs of the user.

Site usage

An analysis of the first nine months of operation has proven the value to users of providing a range of access points.

Future development plans

The RDS software package is well placed to meet the needs of any information service that attempts to provide structured access to online information resources via the World Wide Web. In addition to allowing either central or distributed data creation, it has the great advantage of using the XML data itself to dynamically provide access and navigation. This significantly reduces maintenance costs, and increases the accuracy and currency of the web site. It also allows a highly flexible and configurable approach to the way information is provided.

For more information about Service Tasmania Online's Resource Discovery Service contact Lloyd Sokvitne on 6233 7632 or via email at lloyd.sokvitne@central.tased.edu.au