In this blog, we highlight the Policy Linking and Sharing component, focusing on one of its subcomponents, the Policy Sharing.

The Policy Linking and Sharing component serves the purpose of translating and linking policies and dataset definitions from different stakeholders within the AI4PublicPolicy platform. It is linked with the Dataset Management component in order to retrieve policies and datasets that need to be translated through the Virtualized Policy Management Environment (VPME).

This component can also be used independently of the VPME using the web interface of the Policy and Data Management component. The figure below illustrates the AI4PublicPolicy architecture, with the Policy Linking and Sharing component referred to as “Cross Country Interoperability.”

Policy Sharing subcomponent

Users can access the Policy Sharing subcomponent via the web interface or a REST API. The web interface is used by VPME users while the REST APIs are used internally for the integration with other components in the AI4PublicPolicy architecture, for instance with the AI4PublicPolicy Policies and Dataset Catalogue. Users can add policies and dataset schemas translated by the Policy Sharing subcomponent to the AI4PublicPolicy platform through the web interface of the Dataset and Policy Management component or other components like the Policy and Dataset Catalogue. This blog aims to illustrate the accessibility of the Policy Sharing subcomponent through its web interface.

Web Interface

This web interface is used by VPME users who are interested in different policies and datasets that are available but not in their mother language. The web interface offers translation of both the policies and dataset schemas from the initial language. The policy sharing web is integrated with the Policy and Data Management web.

Policies in a language

The policy web interface provides access to the different policies of a given area, as shown in the following figure. Clicking on a given area (Citizens and Business Services Optimisation in the figure) all stored policies with their name, description, and associated datasets are listed.

For instance, when the Management and Optimisation of City Resources Area is selected, two policies are shown: Optimized parking space allocation and Maintenance Incidents Prediction for Planning Purposes, as shown in the following figure. Just before the list of available policies, the language of the policies can be selected. By default, the policies shown are the ones defined in English.

The translation of an individual policy is done by selecting the corresponding policy and selecting the target language. Immediately after the selection of the language, all the associated information of the policy is displayed in that language.

If a user searches for policies defined in a given language, they will select the language of the policies to be listed. The screenshot below shows the result of selecting Spanish language for the Management and Optimization of City Resources area. In this case, only a single policy is available in Spanish, the Optimized parking space allocation policy.

Translation of a policy

The drop-down menu of each policy allows users to translate a policy into another language. Internally, the policy is translated, stored in a database, and displayed to the user. If the policy has been translated before, the translation step is omitted, and the policy in the requested language is retrieved from the internal database. The figure below shows the translation of ‘Optimized Parking Space Allocation’ into Greek.

Finally, when the user clicks on the More Information button, the objective and the Key Policy Indicators are shown in the same language as the police.

Dataset schema translation

Datasets are defined in a given language, if the dataset format is either CSV, JSON or Eexcel file, there are several named columns that may have a description of the information. This definition of the schema of the datasets can also be translated into different languages. The component also provides the interfaces for doing this translation. The screenshot below presents the datasets available for the Management and Optimization of City Resources area.

By selecting the language from the dataset schemas in the dropdown, all the available dataset schemas for the selected area and language are presented.

The translation of a schema is done by selecting the target dataset and language. Then, the dataset definition is shown in the target language. The screenshot below shows the translation of the Wallet transactions dataset schema into Italian.

By clicking on the More Information button, the fields of the dataset schema are shown in the language specified in the dropdown menu. The following figure shows the field description of the Wallet transactions dataset schema in Italian.