LEGAL XML STANDARD FOR MANAGING OFFICIAL GAZETTE RESOURCES

The new challenge of the Internet Era is to foster all the potentialities of the Web 2.0, to improve interchanging between different bodies and in the same time to preserve in the long-period the digital document collections. For the legal resources those issues are dramatically true, and they represent really critical points into the digitalization process for passing to a paperless era. This approach, adopted in the long term perspective, supports eGov, eDemocracy and eParticipation development and it creates the essential pre-requirements for the competing and growth economy. The OpenGov initiative lunched by president Obama in the January 2009 is based on the assertion to create “an unprecedented level of openness in government” for ensuring “the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.”. The Australian Government declares the July 2009 its endorsement to promote greater participation in Australia’s democracy. It is committed “to open government based on a culture of engagement, built on better access to and use of government held information, and sustained by the innovative use of technology.”. In this scenario the Official Gazettes organizations can play a key role adopting a Legal XML standards for preserving the legality, authenticity and authority over the time of those fundamental document collections such as law corpora. The Official Gazette body is entitled to safeguard some pillar principles: permit to all the citizen equal accessibility, guarantee transparency and independency from proprietary applications, support open access to the legal resources as a fundamental legal value in a modern democracy, favor the private sector in the usage of the public information (Directive 2003/98/EC) and in this way support interoperability.