An Integrated Approach to Information Systems through Graphical Interfaces: Case Studies for Local Administrations

• Autore: Enrica Valle, Giorgio Montini
• Pagine: 111-127

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@1. Introduction

This paper describes an approach to Information Systems which relies on the potentiality of graphic interfaces as an integrated mean of accessing information. It is a way of reasoning complying with an hypertextual model of reality.

The case stuthes we describe refer to projects designed in recent years for the local Public Administration by csi-Piemonte, Consortium for the Information System, a pulic company founded in 1977 as a joint venture of the Regional Government of Piedmont, the University and the Polytechnic of Turin, csi takes the role of system integrator for the Public Administration and aims at promoting the development and implementation of computer science among local institutions, organizations and companies.

The following are the projects considered in this paper:

* the Information System of the County Council of Piedmont, particularly the regional law data bank (Arianna) and the connected accessing and drafting functions;

* the Local Pole of the National Environment Information System (Polo sina), which relies upon a standardized software to access a structured data base (bda, Alphanumeric Data Bank), a textual data base (bdtext) and an image data base (bdi);

* the project for the management of administrative procedures (241). In 1990 the Italian Parliament approved a law (Law No 241) aimed at improving the transparency of administrative actions. Workflow software, integrated inside a regional information subsystem, was set up to support both the efficacy and efficiency of offices, as a preliminary step towards the construction of local views which will allow the final user to know, at any moment, where the dossier is, why it is late, who is responsible, and so on; Page 112 the activation interface. A common monitor capable of activating and accessing all the information system resources was built up with two aims: to make the resources visible to any user; to make them available by means of transparent activation paths.

@2. Accessing Information

The above mentioned projects have to deal with the common problem of making large and complex legal information databases available to several kinds of users, most of which are inexperienced.

In this section a common key for understanding the depicted projects is offered, to point out experiences, problems, perspectives starting from the consideration that legal documentation support involves three great branches: texts; images; alphanumeric data; these are to be connected with the world of office automation.

Texts are usually created by word processors and made available via information retrieval software.

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Images are usually acquired via scanner or other instruments, stored and made available via specific software.

Alphanumeric data are usually stored and retrieved inside data base management systems.

The management and accessing systems used in the three worlds are depicted in Fig. 1.

An integrated vision of these worlds generates high added value to information.

Building that vision is not easy. It implies linking environments which usually live together, in isolated sites, inside information systems: the database management system, which offers rigid and deterministic data access; the information retrieval system, where elastic and cooperative access tools are found; office automation, usually very friendly and very far from the system information resources.

The integrated vision must match with a well structured object-oriented database.

Final aims were:

1) To be consistent with different approach philosophies, to have a unique interaction environment;

2) To have integrated queries.

To reach these aims, our steps were:

1. To have a unique information retrieval system for searching both texts and images;

2. To integrate ir and RDMS by establishing permanent links between data stored in different fields;

3. To have a supermonitor;

4. To have an integrated navigttor in display time.

This involves building applicative strata which allow navigation between data, that is using the graphic access modalities as hypertext modalities which integrate the different access approaches.

The above mentioned projects were designed in a client server architecture, with UNIX ser/ers and Windows clients.

Here are their common outlines:

- Using a client server architecture which encourages the co-operation between local, departmental and central processing resources;

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- Using office automation tools integrated in a homogeneous and friendly environment which encourage user's autonomy;

- Emphasys to the phase of data analysis and description;

- Using support tools like help online and tutorials;

- Using data and process catalogues;

- Using supermonitors like common supervisors.

The interface, or Supermonitor, is based on an architecture which relies upon nets and net services according to the scheme in Fig. 2,

The objects managed and the functions offered are illustrated in Fig. 3.

The interface does not just give a completely different appearance to the standard ways of workability, but makes a connection between all the managed objects, giving therefore the user the possibility of effective interaction with a system of distributed objects.

The main screens on which the interface operativity is based are:

Entering window in the Regional Informative System (siRe)

It allows access to SIRe, after having verified the operative opportunities made available to the user. It is the main security tool of the Page 115 system, which allows flexibility in access and standardization in use at the same time.

Start window

From this window it is possible:

- To execute the procedures the user is allowed to;

- To consult the list of the procedures grouped per subsystem. The procedures will appear:

* subdivided in management Processes, techmcal-administrative Processes, internal administrative Procedures and support Procedures...