In the year 2000, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (the IPU) published a very important document - Guidelines for the Content and Structure of Parliamentary Websites - to foster good practices in the creation of a communication tool that was becoming increasingly important to legislatures. The IPU Guidelines have served parliaments well for a number of years, but the authors themselves recognized that they would eventually need to be updated. As the introduction to the Guidelines states: “Internet technology is constantly evolving. It will be necessary to review and update the Guidelines in the light of future developments.” That time has now come. With the advances in technology during the past 10 years, it is important to update the guidelines to reflect the best current and emerging practices in today’s websites.

The 2009 edition of the World e-Parliament Conference  took place from 3 to 5 November 2009 at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.
The Conference is the annual forum of the community of parliaments addressing, from both the policy and technical perspectives, how the use of information and communication technology can help improve representation, transparency, accountability, openness, and effectiveness in the complex parliamentary environment.

The Report of the World e-Parliament Conference 2009 is now available.

The World e-Parliament Conference 2008 took place at the European Parliament in Brussels on 25 and 26 November 2008. The World e-Parliament Conference 2008 represented a unique opportunity for leaders and members of parliaments, parliamentary officials and experts to exchange views at a global level on new technologies and innovation as tools to strengthen the representative, legislative and oversight functions of regional and national assemblies.

The course on Managing Legal Resources in the Semantic Web, provided and integrated approach to the management of legal documentation, as a core aspect of legislative and administrative innovation.

On 18 August, the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, the Italian joint Parliamentary Library and the IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section, held a one-day training titled "Leveraging Technology for Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services".