PROVIDENCE – E-publishing software firm Tizra Inc. has found an inventive new way to demonstrate its signature product: the company has published an interactive version of the entire text of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill President Barack Obama signed into law earlier this year.
The company says its version of the bill – officially titled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) – is the first that combines full-text searching of the document with links to individual pages and the preservation of the original formatting. The document is available online at demo.tizra. com/view/dltaj/default.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Tizra’s software enables organizations to publish dynamic versions of portable document format (PDF) files. Using that software, the company says, it took less than 30 minutes to create the Web version of the 407-page stimulus bill.
“There is no single piece of information or legislation that has gained so much attention in recent times [as the stimulus bill], yet there was clearly a lack of easy and useful access to this historic bill,” Tizra’s chief operating officer, Abe Dane, said in a news release.
He noted that downloading a 400-page PDF document would take a considerable amount of time for most computers, while HTML versions of the file must sacrifice the original document’s formatting and page numbering.
“Clearly, the versions available on the Web lacked the kind of accessibility, transparency and ease of discussion everyone is hoping for,” Dane added. “This is exactly why we started Tizra.”
In Tizra’s version, each page of the stimulus bill has its own Web address, or URL, making it possible for individuals to link directly to specific sections of the legislation. People can also leave comments on the site.
“The fact we could Web-publish a more useful and powerful version of the stimulus bill in 30 minutes – using our standard tool set – is a great demonstration of how we can help organizations truly harness the power of information while lowering costs,” Dane declared.
“From legal documents and reports to manuals and plans, there is a tremendous amount of information that is not Web-accessible due to the time, cost and complexity of traditional Web-publishing approaches,” he added. “In today’s economic conditions, success is based on access to information needed to make informed decisions and the speed, flexibility and lower cost to Web-publish it. This demonstration project is a prime example of how Tizra can help.”
Tizra Inc., founded in March 2006, is a software-development startup whose investors include the quasi-public Slater Technology Fund. Its first product is Tizra Publisher (formerly AgilePublisher), an online publishing and delivery service that makes it easier to sell and distribute data from PDFs. More information is available at www.tizra.com.
Information about the federal government’s economic recovery and financial stabilization efforts is available at www.Recovery.gov, while information from the new R.I. Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment (OERR) is available at www.recovery.ri.gov.
