In December 2019, the Inter-Parliamentary Open Data Cloud, the first project of the Open Data Hub, published its first Proof of Concept which demonstrated that it was possible to search English translations of legislative documents from five parliaments: Brazil, Canada, Estonia, the European Parliament, and Spain.

The project team will now invite more parliaments that produce open data to join. This will mean more data, more sophisticated tools, and more value for MPs proposing new bills and researchers working on comparative legislation. The Open Data Hub will meet from 16 to 19 March 2020 as part of a Thematic Hubs event to be held at the House of Commons of Canada in Ottawa. The meeting will evaluate progress made so far and plan for the next steps. This will be an opportunity for parliaments that are not yet participating to get more information and consider joining the project. The meeting is particularly suitable for IT directors and technical specialists.

More information about the Inter-Parliamentary Open Data Cloud is provided by this introductory video at bit.ly/opendatahub-ipu.

Image: Proof of Concept website 

The ICT departments of hub parliaments have begun populating an ICT experts database, providing data on available parliamentary experts and relevant technical disciplines. Responding to a request received from the Parliament of Botswana to provide assistance with the review of its ICT Strategic Masterplan, the hub has begun preparations for sending a technical mission, consisting of experts from the Parliaments of Mauritius and Zambia, the UN Economic Commision for Africa, and the IPU. In addition the SADC Parliamentary Forum has requested the hub to provide assistance in the development and implementation of its ICT strategy. At the upcoming IPU Assembly in Belgrade the hub shall convene its steering committee consisting of SGs and Clerks.

The Parliament of New Zealand as host continues to build membership and resources in the hub’s Yammer space. A Citizens Engagement and Public Outreach training for Pacific Parliaments will be held in association with UNDP in Samoa in October. The New Zealand Parliament will provide a resource person and promote the regional hub for education, engagement and ICT officers.

The implementation of the Hispanophone Hub portal is in its final stage. The portal's objective is to have a shared networking space that mainly allows Spanish-speaking Latin American parliaments to access technological solutions and good practices as a reference, or to adopt technological solutions implemented in other parliaments. This stage includes the aggregation and publication of contents, and the creation of user profiles for the member parliaments so that each can publish and share solutions and technological experiences. In addition, this portal will keep a record of "e-Parlament updates" to provide indicators over time about the state of technological modernization across the board. It is expected that by mid-November this portal will be available, which will be a contribution by and for regional parliaments.

The Parliament of Kenya has established its regional office space to coordinate the East African Hub activities. As part of this, it is also trialling voice-over & video IP connection solutions, to allow for cost effective communication between hub members. The hub is preparing to convene the Secretaries-General of parliaments at the upcoming IPU Assembly in Belgrade, to discuss among others the envisaged First East African Hub Regional Meeting. On promoting innovations, the Parliament of Kenya shared with others information and material about its aParlKenya app for paperless proceedings. Finally, the hub provided feedback on the status of social media use to CIP for its preparation of the Social Media Guide.

The Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago as host, has reached out to regional parliaments, specifically at the ICT managers’ level to propose their participation and commencement of knowledge sharing activity on the CIP Yammer platform. The Parliaments of Guyana and Suriname have responded positively. Others are evaluating this request. To strengthen further engagement a joint IPU-Trinidad and Tobago Parliament invitation is being prepared aimed at Clerks and SGs of the Caribbean parliaments.

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies as hub host is continuing with the development of the proof of concept (POC) which aims to provide a search web interface that selected users will be able to access and test how the real world application will work. Some parliaments have made contributions which are being considered in the POC. Through this interface, it will be possible to query the laws from selected countries (Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Israel, and South Africa) and the European Parliament, which will provide a preview of how the interface will benefit parliaments (MPs, advisors, consultants, etc.) and citizens. During the Legislative Research Conference in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (16-17 September), Patricia Almeida presented the Open Data Hub. Its audience was composed by master-degree students, by the Chamber of Deputies, Senate and State legislatures staff.

During the Legislative Research Conference in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (16-17 September), Patricia Almeida presented the Open Data Hub. Its audience was composed by master-degree students, by the Chamber of Deputies, Senate and State legislatures staff.

The IT Governance Hub hosted by the European Parliament is continuing to register new participants on its online platform: 88 individual accesses have been granted for staff belonging to 48 organizations, including recently the Parliaments of Angola and Moldova. Following several requests, the content of the documents included in the platform is now also available in French, Portuguese and Spanishand. Translation was done using the automatic translation engines of the eTranslation service provided by the European Commission. In addition, on top of self-development through the various paths proposed, the platform can be used to support five different types of events: presentations, peer-to-peer support, support to a regional hub, thematic exchange, and train the trainers. A new section has been introduced to list the events that have been performed / planned.

Finally, from 11 to 12 July 2019, the representative of the IT Governance Hub took part in the kick-off of the INTER PARES project in Brussels (hosted by the European Parliament). Following discussions, it was agreed in the context of the project that the IT Governance Hub will be invited where possible to introduce the development of the IT governance capacity during peer-to-peer support with selected parliaments from partner countries.

The host of this hub, the Knesset of Israel, and the IPU signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2019, and are working towards activating the hub with further activities to be announced. The hub envisages developing, supporting, and coordinating an inter-parliamentary dialogue focused on the intersection of innovation and transparency. Specific objectives include sharing best practices and collaboratively addressing challenges faced by parliaments worldwide related to subjects such as: transparency and accountability; public participation, engagement, and involvement in parliament’s work; and, new technologies and innovative practices which enhance transparency in parliaments.

The ICT team of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago has held discussions with the IPU CIP representative concerning the scope of the Caribbean hub, the services it shall be providing to the participating parliaments, and how these can be engaged to contribute to future knowledge exchange. Discussions also covered the requirements of the hub’s online platform, which the Parliament is considering hosting, and the outreach strategy to other parliaments.