Context for Sarbines -Oxley Sarbines-Oxley makes executives and officers of all public corporations listed on any American stock exchange take personal responsibility for the maintenance of a company’s records. This assignment of responsibility has led to a substantial increase in the amount of due diligence done during a transaction and has affected public companies’ choices of advisors on transactions. During the due diligence process public company acquirers are demanding unrestricted access to financial and operational information and the buyers’ senior managers are taking a more active role in the evaluation of an acquisition to identify potential risks. The selection of an advisor who can advise on a particular due diligence issue, such as the adequacy of the MIS system, has become more selective, since the acquirers’ auditors can no longer fill the role. Sarbines-Oxley has made both the divestiture and acquisition process more complex and highlights the benefit that an experienced financial advisor can bring to a transaction. From: Ontology Tutorial 3, copyright, Paul S Prueitt 2005

Observation: Sarbines-Oxley anticipate a radical advance in reporting mechanisms. To elaborate on this observation: Standard IT development processes do not adequately support the development of clear, consistent, and complete reports. However, the semantic architecture that Stephenson and Prueitt are soon to demonstrate will provide a tool that when used will produce far greater transparency in reporting, not only about cyber risks but about risks as a general proposition Due diligence seeks to identify potential risks. In many cases, long term risks are difficult to identify because information is not clear, complete and consistent. The diagram on the left is one shown at a recent DHS conference on the technology problems related to proper government inter-departmental reporting. Easy Difficult Short termLong term

Semantic Web mismatch issues have kept a revolution in-waiting Because the SW issues are not well known, business decisions focuses on short term simple minded problems, where perceived risk are minimal. Mismatch between low risk decisions and true problems create process that can not be rationalized. The dysfunction can be ignored in an business environment where marketing and public relations often disguises the absence of progress and the presence of risks. However, if a semantic technology breakthrough occurs; this disguise may be lifted. Short termLong term Easy Difficult

The identification of by-pass Many problems that are critical are in fact mis-classified as long term and difficult when a simplification is being fielded by the markets. Short termLong term Easy Difficult

Many problems that are critical are in fact classified as long term and difficult Using semantic technology, a by-pass around a number of long term difficult problems can be seen. The by-pass moves the problem Report in a clear, complete and consistent fashion to the easy and short term category. Today, business practices often re-enforce what is perceived to be minimization of professional risk, and thus these practices closes off an open discussion that might mediate these risks. With a semantic technology capability, these discussions will more easily surface; leading to a clearer accountability to legal authority since as Sarbines-Oxley, where the government lawmakers are attempting to enforce protections against unethical business practices. Short termLong term Easy Difficult

Many problems that are critical are in fact mis-classified as being long term and difficult Example of by-pass Problem: Write 1/3 into a computer. This problem is considered to be unsolvable since in base 10 we have 1/3 = Where the three dots means repeat to infinity. But 1/3 in base ten is also the same as 1/3 in base 6. In base 6, 1/3 = 0.2 So where did the intractable problem go?

Total Information Awareness with Informational Transparency in Secure Channels March 16, 2005 Core Ontology safeguarding national security