Scope of the Workshop

• To give an overview about electronic government as it is seen in Estonia
• To define a holistic e-government approach and discuss what role records management plays in it
• To see how standards help to successfully run e-government projects
• To introduce the electronic records exchange project in Estonia
• To discuss how to improve e-government interoperability
• To discuss risks and obstacles in e-government projects and how to avoid them

Background of the project

• Institutions have records management software
• Records management systems are developed acording to the institutions? needs
• Records are created electronically but are exchanged on paper between the institutions
• Software, records and metadata are different
• Records management systems do not understand one another

The priority in records management in the Estonian public sector over the next few years is ensuring the interoperability of the records management systems of institutions. In 2005 the State Chancellery launched an electronic records exchange project designed to end the need for paper-based records exchange. In the course of the project the records management systems will be connected, guaranteeing interoperability and initiating the gradual transfer to paper-free records exchange in the public sector. The result will be records management systems running on different software being able to exchange records in the secure X-road data exchange environment through a specially created records exchange centre.

Aims of the workshop and benefits for participants attending:

To introduce the possibilities to establish automatic and secure exchange of electronic records between records management systems of government agencies:

• Interoperability of records management systems
• XML-based records exchange
• Secure exchange of records over the X-road
• Step by step transition (by groups of institutions and document types)
• Assumptions for long term digital preservation

Workshop contributions, format and schedule

Paper presentations:

Kädi Riismaa - E-government, information society, State IT architecture and X-Road in Estonia
Relika Metsallik-Koppel - Projects of electronic records exchange and implementing of an XML-based legislative drafting process in Estonia

Panel discussion:
Possible actions how to further improve e-government interoperability in other countries:

In terms of

• Organisational interoperability
• Semantic interoperability
• Technical interoperability
And in terms of

• Short term urgency
• Long term importance

What are advantages and chances and what are disadvantages and risks of such an approach?