International Meeting on “Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards” was arranged at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on 27-29 February

The meeting was organized by UN DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) and its Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the U.S. House of Representatives.

It convened Secretaries-General and staff of Parliaments, currently using Extensible Markup Language (XML) for parliamentary records with a view to: a) determine how XML has been implemented by parliaments around the world and how it is being used by them and by civil society organizations to enhance citizens’ participation; b) exchange experiences about the policy and organizational challenges faced by Parliaments’ senior management to increase transparency; c) identify current best practices and state of the art applications; d) outline projects anticipated by legislatures over the next five years and explore venues of possible collaborations and synergies to reduce costs; and e) elaborate policy and technical recommendations for the use of open document standards in parliaments.

Other invitees included legislative and legal informatics experts from a selected number of international organizations, universities, foundations and civil society organizations. Approximately 100 participants took part in the policy and technical debates during the three-day agenda.

For more information:
Event website highlighting “Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards”