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employs workflow management technologies for modeling public
services.
Figure 3. Developing a model for PSP IP using OneStopGov
platform
2.3.2 Rural-Inclusion Platform
Rural-Inclusion (RI) platform has been developed within the
European Union co-funded project Rural Inclusion
(http://www.rural-inclusion.eu). RI uses exactly the same
principles as OneStopGov platform. However, the underlying
technologies are different. More specifically, the Semantic Public
Service Portal (S-PSP) developed to support the informative phase
of the public services is based on ontologies technology [6]. As a
result, the domain expert needs to be supported by IT experts in
order to model the public service as an ontology. Recently, the
project has developed a front-end which enables domain experts
to provide all information needed for the online dialogue through
an easy-to-use interface which automatically creates the ontology
(owl file) consumed by the project website visited by end-users.
Rural Inclusion platform employs semantic technologies for
modeling public services.
Figure 4. Developing a model for PSP IP using Rural
Inclusion platform
2.3.3 Oracle Policy Automation Solution for Social
Services (OPA)
The Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) platform was initially
developed from the Australian firm RuleBurst Holdings in order
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to translate laws and official documents into business rules.
Today, OPA is a tool that serves the modeling and automation of
the business rules’ application (www.oracle.com/technetwork/
apps-tech/policy-automation/). Thus, although it was initially
designed to serve public sector’s needs, it is currently applied in
other sectors as well (e.g. the insurance sector).
OPA consist of two separate applications. The first is Oracle
Policy Modeling, an environment that facilitates authoring of
public services’ rules. The second is Oracle Policy Automation,
which is used to automate public services’ processes. Oracle
Policy Modeling is a windows application that can be employed
by the user (normally a domain expert) in order to author a set of
natural language rules that govern the public service. The tool is
compatible with Microsoft Office automation applications (such
as Word and Excel) hence enables using text properly structured
and annotated in order to describe public services’ rules (fig. 5).
Using these rules, an interview (online dialogue) is automatically
created and deployed. The interested citizens can thereafter visit
the relevant website and initiate this interview in order to be
informed whether they are eligible for the service or not. OPA
platform employs rules management technologies and expert
systems for modeling public services.
Figure 5. Developing a model for PSP IP using OPA
2.3.4 Evaluation of Existing Approaches
Existing solutions for PSP information phase range from simple
websites to sophisticated solutions.
An analysis of advanced solutions suggests they follow an
architecture similar to the one presented in fig. 6.