Building Digital Government by XML

Continuing innovations in information and communication technologies offer powerful tools for building digital government but, at the same time, in many environments they have lead into a number of heterogeneous, expensive, and inconsistent solutions. XML offers a common metalanguage and terminology to develop means for system and data integration, and for gradual transfer to more consistent formats in information assets. The paper describes ways for the use of XML in public administration and gives examples of the use, particularly, in Finland. The paper introduces XML standardization levels and types in public administration. Experiences of the long-term standardization of the Finnish parliamentary documents will be described. The work for building Finnish digital government continues in finding ways for the data and system integration by means of metadata standardization.