EML
Paul Spencer is an active member of the OASIS Technical Committee, and developed the XML Schemas for EML and the means of customising the schemas for various types of elections. He also developed the customisations for UK public election pilots and for the online electoral registers (CORE) project.
Case Studies
- UK e-GIF
- Danish InfostructureBase
- Trinidad and Tobago e-GIF
- MIAP Common Data Definitions
- HMRC File by Internet
- Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors
- MOD XML Policies
Clients
- Cabinet Office e-Government Unit
- Department for Constitutional Affairs
- Department for Education and Skills
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Learning and Skills Council
- Microsoft
- Ministry of Defence
- National Westminster Bank
- NHS Information Authority
- NHS in Scotland
- Office of Government Commerce
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
- Office of the e-Envoy
- Open University
- SchlumbergerSema
- Scottish Executive
Papers
- From Spreadsheet to Schema
- A Technical Standard for e-Voting
- Combining OASIS Standards to Create a Repository and Assembly Mechanism for XML Schema Components
- The Election Markup Language
- e-Government in the UK
- Developing e-GIF Compliant XML Systems For Government
- e-Government in the UK
- XML: the relevance to e-government
- Using XML in Government
- Delivering New Electronic Services in the Public Sector
- e-Gov and XML Government Advanced Technology
- Delivering New Electronic Services in the Public Sector
Books
- XML for the Web
- Professional XSL
- Beginning XML
- Professional XML Design and Implementation
Case Study - MIAP Common Data Definitions
Project Scope
In the 2001 Post-16 Reforms, the UK Government identified a need to provide better services to learners and organisations involved in education and training, and to reduce bureaucracy across the sector by improving the management of information. In 2002 the MIAP programme was established with the support of 17 organisations involved in education. The MIAP team set out to map the data and management issues across the sector and identify options for improvement.
They identified the need to:
- Introduce common data definitions to be used and shared by all organisations across the sector.
- Create a UK Register of Learning Providers.
- Introduce a Unique Learner Number for everyone in education and training, accessed through a web based Learner Registration Service.
- Establish a mechanism for enabling learners to create their own records of participation and achievement, which they can share with advisers, providers and potential employers.
Project Description
Boynings Consulting's initial role in MIAP was to create the common data definitions (CDD). The specific work undertaken included:
- defining a technical strategy for the implementation of the CDD
- investigating requirements for character sets and languages
- providing a full technical implementation of the data definitions
The technical strategy included developing and agreeing naming and design rules that supplemented those already existing in the UK e-GIF. The work on character sets involved wide consultation to get an agreed compromise between supporting the full Unicode set and allowing older systems to operate within the MIAP framework.
For the technical implementation, we developed a way of storing and maintaining the common data definitions in XML, and ways of rendering them in both an interactive XML format and as a PDF document. We also developed and agreed XML schemas to represent the definitions, and linked these to the definitions themselves. The results of this work are available here.
Since this project, we have been involved in several other projects relating to MIAP. We advised one of the system suppliers on its schemas for the UK Register of Learning Providers, provided the same company with training on the use of XML within the public sector, and developed recommendations on bringing all programmes within the education sector onto a common set of data definitions.
We are an XML Spy training partner.
Please email for more information.