4. Features

Bungeni is designed using a flexible component architecture model which makes use of standard Internet protocols to provide access interfaces between the different components and the users over the web or the local area network. While some users will be able to access the system using a web browser interface, other users will have access to input and revision modules via stand-alone desktop clients, for drafting, revision and amendment of various legislative documents, the production of the Debate Record as well as the creation of Calendar and Journals and some revision processes.

Users within Parliament, including MPs and support staff, may use Bungeni as an application that supports the creation and management of the entire range of Parliamentary documents and activities, and will be required to subscribe to the system to have valid user credentials both for security and accountability reasons. External users, citizens, civil society organisations, institutions and private companies may use the system to access Parliamentary works and also to present contributions, opinions or feedback on specific issues of their concern (e.g. during the bill amendment phase or during some committee hearings).

Bungeni uses a 'document' and 'workflow' centric approach to better reflect parliamentary processes built around a process of documents which change over time. This enables a formalized process for creating, modifying and publishing parliamentary documents that can be easily configured to match the unique processes of different parliaments. The different components of Bungeni are all integrated together via a workflow system which coordinates different tasks in the system and provides a common and uniform user interface. The system is able to trigger processes based on system events or on a scheduled basis and it keeps track of status, history, and notification. The system is designed to allow parliamentary staff to create, view, and edit their data as typical recognizable documents at all stages of processing. It provides parliamentary staff a familiar word-processing and web-based experience to handle the life-cycle (creation and management) of parliamentary documents.

The system will store multiple versions of a document in order to keep a "snapshot" of documents at various points of time with reference to the person who made the changes, a process that is very central to the parliamentary activities. All parliamentary documents produced through Bungeni are eventually converted, validated and stored as XML files compliant with AKOMA NTOSO guidelines. This makes the system highly inter-operable with existing applications, eliminates the risk of lock-in to proprietary technology and puts Parliaments in control of their technology strategy. The system is capable of outputting any of the stored documents in various formats as may be required, e.g. web format for web publishing, print format for downloading and printing, specialized typographical markup or desktop publishing files for mass printing (press), etc.

Bungeni covers the following procedures:

• Bill Process

• drafting and bill amendment process;

• engrossing of amendments.

• Motions and Questions

• submission, revision and scheduling of Motions and Questions;

• incorporation of Motions and Questions into "parliamentary business" and "debates reports".

• Debate Records

• production of verbatim Debate Records (Hansard) of Parliament's sittings as well as Committee proceeding.

• Parliamentary Business

• production of the weekly and daily agenda of Parliamentary sittings and Committee meetings, i.e., "Programme of Parliamentary Business", "Weekly Schedule" and "Order Paper".

• Votes and Proceedings

• production of summary description of all the main issues debated and decisions taken during a specific sitting of Parliament or a Committee

• Virtual Workspace

• provide virtual Workspace for MPs, political groups, committees and staff where to share information, collaborate and debate.

• Citizens' interactivity and participation

• provide opportunity to annotate documents, submit proposal, take part in polls and petitions, etc.

• Publishing of parliamentary documents

• parliamentary and legislative documents are made available in different formats and for different media.

In the following sections you can find a short description of the different functional (end-user) components of the Bungeni.