The Library of Congress is sponsoring two legislative data challenges to advance the development of international data exchange standards for legislative data. These challenges are an initiative to encourage broad participation in the development and application of legislative data standards and to engage new communities in the use of legislative data. Goals of this initiative include:
• Enabling wider accessibility and more efficient exchange of the legislative data of the United States Congress and the United Kingdom Parliament,
• Encouraging the development of open standards that facilitate better integration, analysis, and interpretation of legislative data,
• Fostering the use of open source licensing for implementing legislative data standard.
The Legislative XML Data Mapping Challenge invites competitors to produce a data map for US bill XML and the most recent Akoma Ntoso schema and UK bill XML and the most recent Akoma Ntoso schema. Gaps or issues identified through this challenge will help to shape the evolving Akoma Ntoso international standard.
The winning solution will win $10,000 in cash, as well as opportunities for promotion, exposure, and recognition by the Library of Congress. For more information about prizes please see the Official Rules.
Eligibility
You may participate in the Challenge if you are:
- at least 18 years old at the time of entry; you may enter both individually and as part of a team or organization;
- a team of individuals where each team member is at least 18 years old at the time of entry; and
- any for-profit or non-profit organization.
A team or organization must appoint a representative to act on its behalf.
Please see Official Rules for full eligibility information.
Requirements
Submission should include:
- Title of your solution
- Executive summary
- Data mapping -the algorithm or code (ex. XSLT) that maps the US Bill XML or UK Bill XML, respectively, to Akoma Ntoso XML, including necessary data files and supporting documentation.
- Documentation about decisions you made regarding mapping of data elements, processing of data files, data structures not accommodated in mapping, and recommendations to add new metadata elements.
- Open Source Toolkit - if you develop a toolkit for this challenge, it must be included in your documentation and either submitted under an open source license or committed to the public domain. If you use existing tools, we'd like your evaluation of the tools and information about how they were used for the challenge.
- Optional Video demonstrating your solution, or describing how your proposed solution would work.
Please see Official Rules for full submission requirements.
Prizes
$15,000 in prizes
First Place
Second Place
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
How to enter
Interested persons should read these Official Rules before entering the Challenge.
All challenge participants must submit their entries through the Challenge.gov portal. Please note, in order to submit an entry, challenge participants will first need to register and create an account with ChallengePost.
Challenge participants must:
- Create an account at https://secure.challengepost.com. Registration is free.
- From the Challenge webpage on Challenge.gov, use the “Enter a Submission” tab to submit a solution which will:
a. Map each of the following US bill XML to Akoma Ntoso XML schema. (Please note: Some metadata fields which are normally optional are required for this competition. Please see the official rules for complete instructions.)
| Bill Number | Version | URL for Bill XML | PDF (for viewing style/layout characteristics) |
| H.Con.Res.83[112] | Engrossed | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres83eh/xml/BILLS-112hconres83eh.xml | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres83eh/pdf/BILLS-112hconres83eh.pdf |
| H.R. 4310[112] | Enrolled | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4310enr/xml/BILLS-112hr4310enr.xml | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4310enr/pdf/BILLS-112hr4310enr.pdf |
| H.R. 1[112] | Engrossed Amendment Senate | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1eas/xml/BILLS-112hr1eas.xml | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1eas/pdf/BILLS-112hr1eas.pdf |
| H.R. 1120 [113] | Reported House | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr1120rh/xml/BILLS-113hr1120rh.xml | http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr1120rh/pdf/BILLS-113hr1120rh.pdf |
b. Map each of the following UK bill XML to the Akoma Ntoso XML schema. (Please note: Some metadata fields which are normally optional are required for this competition. Please see the official rules for complete instructions.)
Resources:
US Congressional legislation text xml element descriptions and content models: http://xml.house.gov/#dtd
UK’s Crown Legislation Markup Language schema: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/schema/legislation.xsd
Akoma Ntoso documentation: http://www.akomantoso.org/akoma-ntoso-in-detail/document-architecture
c. Identify gaps in the Akoma Ntoso framework or U.S. and UK schema where data cannot be mapped properly, and proposes new schema elements or other solutions as necessary.
d. Document the solution’s methodology, including discussion about decisions you made regarding the tools used, processing of data files, and data structures not accommodated by the standard.
Eligible Submissions will be posted on the Challenge.gov contest webpage after the open submission period has ended.
Please see the Official Rules for complete submission instructions.
Judges
Kirsten Gullickson
Senior Systems Analyst with the Office of the Clerk, United States House of Representatives
Monica Palmirani
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Law at the School of Law, University of Bologna, Italy
Fabio Vitali
Associate Professor in Computer Science, University of Bologna, Italy
John Sheridan
Head of Legislation Services, The National Archives (UK)
Judging Criteria
-
Completeness (40%)
Does the entry include: Mapping of all eight legislative measures? Discussion/recommendations about data not accommodated by the standard? An evaluation of the open source tools used? -
Accuracy (40%)
Did the entry correctly: Identify data structures not accommodated by the standard? Propose new elements to resolve mapping & markup issues that conform with the existing standard? Address presentation or formatting elements critical to the bill meaning? -
Practicality (20%)
How successful is the proposed solution? How easy is it to adapt the solution to other jurisdictions and types of legislation? What has to be changed for the solution to work? Can it function today?
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