THE ITALIAN CIVIL PROTECTION DEPARTMENT USES OPEN SOURCE

The Italian Civil Protection Department is using the open source platform jAPS 2.0 to build its new website. Transparency, personalized content and co-design are the three pillars which the Italian Civil Protection Department is using to create its portal. Elsag Datamat, Telecom and Engineering participated in this project as partners in the “Public Connectivity System” framework stipulated with CNIPA (National Centre for IT in the Public Administration). The new website features some important innovations. For the first time in Italy, users can customize their homepage by selecting and organizing items from a list of contents using all available widgets, just like innovation benchmarks websites, e.g. Google and the BBC. Moreover, they can choose to sort contents by theme making the website information logical and straightforward. Faceted navigation joins the traditional one to facilitate information retrieval. Accessibility for people with disabilities is another novelty. The site holds a record, as it is the only user-modifiable adaptive interface that meets the Italian strict legal requirements. The flexibility of jAPS 2.0 meets the Government’s specific accessibility regulations such as Section 508, Stanca Law and PAS 78 for both front end and back office. Website pages can be shared on some popular social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which should increase the dissemination and understanding of its contents and increment the number of portal users. Accessibility, usability and circulation have been simplified by the possibility of navigating using the English language which is another added bonus. Collaboration of the new website was undertaken by designers and engineers from Elsag Datamat and the Communications Service of the Civil Protection Department during all the stages of the project. The role played by the Department's Communication office as leader of the project during brainstorming sessions was fundamental and offered an important contribution to transparency and an excellent public service. The new portal is the result of a fascinating co-design initiative with multiple skills and points of view, all contributing towards a collective, multi-disciplinary product with a high level of creativity. The following sections deserve a special note: • Risks on the Italian territory; • Multimedia content; • Civil Protection legal measures, of which a summary is available; • An organization chart presenting the administration staff; • the “Transparency, evaluation and merit” section, with data on staff and the Department’s budget. The adopted solutions allow to organize the flow of communication into a series of flexible information streams that can be sorted according to the user’s interests and needs. Always focusing on satisfying the customers’ needs, transparency and adaptability are the key words of this new web project. This final beta version site is available to receive feedback for any future improvements.