1. Getting to SOA & Semantic Interoperability for Data Sharing in a Net-Centric DoD & Beyond
Brand Niemann
Senior Enterprise Architect, US EPA, and Federal SICoP Co-Chair
Presentation for the
Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium
December Plenary & Working Group Sessions
December 3-7, 2007
St Petersburg Bayfront Hilton, St. Petersburg, FL

2. Background
September 17-21, 2007, NCOIC Plenary Conference, Crystal City, VA. NCOIC Semantic Interoperability WG Semantic Wiki and Semantic Interoperability: The What, Why, Who, and How and Semantic Interoperability: My NCOIC Roadmap. Also see Semantic Social Computing and Participation by SICoP. Information Sharing Environment Knowledgebase

3. SICoP Participation*
December 4, 2007, Semantic Interoperability Framework (SIF),
Improving Rapid Emergency Response Systems (Rex Brooks and the Emergency Response Systems Consortium)
December 5, 2007, Specialized Frameworks (SF), , and SCOPE Working Group,
December 6, 2007, Stakeholder Outreach WG,
Federal SOA CoP Support for a New NCOIC Distributed Virtualization Community of Practice.
December 6, 2007, SCOPE – SIF WG Joint Meeting, and
* Depends on remote access being available.

4. Preface
1. I attended the AFFIRM Luncheon on “Data Sharing in a Net-Centric DoD & Beyond” – see slides 5-6.
2. I raised some issues during the panel – see slides 7-10.
For example: What does a Google search find in the DoD Metadata Registry that produces data integration? Need to do with RDF Linked data and SPARQL queries.
Mike Krieger agreed to move forward in the same direction together!
3. After the panel, I discussed a briefing with Dr. Margaret E. Myers and answered questions from the attendees and press – see background slides
4. I am providing highlights in these slides for the NCIOC Conference, December 3-7, 2007, and a Webcam Videocast by KZO Networks.
5. This is also preparation for a keynote at the March 17-19, 2008, IDGA’s 6th Annual Conference on DoD Architectures, Blueprints of Today, Architectures of Tomorrow.
Getting to SOA and Semantic Interoperability for DoD Architectures.

5. Data Sharing in a Net-Centric DoD & Beyond
Association for Federal Information Resource Management (AFFIRM) Luncheon, November 29, 2007:
Moderator: Dr. Margaret E. Myers
Principal Director for the Department of Defense (DoD), Deputy Chief Information Officer. Introduction.
Panelists:
Michael Krieger, Information Management Directorate, OASD(NII)/DoD(CIO). Overview.
Trey Rhiddlehoover, Solers PM for the technical and engineering support for the, Information Policy and Integration Directorate OASD(NII)/DoD(CIO). CoIs.
CDR David Serber, Information Policy and Integration Directorate, OASD(NII)/DoD(CIO). Martime Domain Awareness Application.
See for slides and
for news story.

6. Data Sharing in a Net-Centric DoD & Beyond
As the Department continues to develop the key operational capabilities to conduct network-centric operations, interoperability will be less about building hard-wired interfaces between systems and more about enabling unanticipated users to get the information they need when, where, and how they need it. The Net-Centric Data Strategy (codified December 2004 in DoD Directive ) provides the foundations for managing the Department's data in a net-centric environment, to include organizing around communities of Interest (COIs). The panel members will discuss their experiences in jump-starting this key enabler of the Department's transformation and recent COI partnerships with the rest of the Federal government.

7. Comparisons Steps/ Organization DoD CoI (1) SICoP (2) Examples Step 1
Visible (3)
Locate (6)
Google (9)
Step 2
Accessible (4)
Collaborate (7)
Wikis (10)
Step 3
Under-standable (5)
Integrate (8)
Google 2.0 (11)/
Semantic Wikis (12)

8. Explanations
(1) DoD Communities of Interest: An approach for developing the agreements necessary for meaningful information exchange, and doing so on a community-basis.
(2) Federal Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice: Established by a group of individuals for the purpose of achieving "semantic interoperability" and "semantic data integration" focused on the government sector.
(3) Visible: We can see your data and information directly or with metadata (data about data).
(4) Accessible: Not by technology, but by changing human behavior to release data.
(5) Understandable: Communities of Interest have a shared vocabulary.
(6) Locate: Find information by a Google Search.
(7) Collaborate: Communities of Practice working together support by Wikis.
(8) Integrate: Communities of Practice semantically connect distributed data and information.
(9) Google: The most widely used Internet Search Engine.
(10) Wikis: A type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages.
(11) Google 2.0 Embraces the Semantic Web, Government Computer News, May 18, 2007.
(12) Semantic Wikis: Wikis that support Semantic Web markup languages (RDF and OWL) and model-driven architectures with ontology development.

9. Comparisons Category/ Organization DoD CoI (1) SICoP (2) Differences
Communities
Interest (3)
Practice (6)
Number (9)
Demon-strations
Spirals (4)
Pilots (7)
SOA (10)
Partners
AFEI (5)
NCOIC (8)
Approach (11)

10. Explanations (1) Same as slide 8. (2) Same as slide 8.
(3) Communities of Interest: A community of people who share a common interest or passion.
(4) Spirals: Successive iterations of the piloting process.
(5) AFEI: Association for Enterprise Integration
(6) Communities of Practice: The process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations. See for example the SICoP Vocabulary Management WG using a Semantic Wiki
(7) Pilots: Short-term, unfunded, demonstrations of new concepts.
(8) NCIOC: Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium
(9) See Slide 11.
(10) “SOA doesn’t solve your data problems, it exposes them.” Gartner. See SOA CoP/IONA Open Source Federal SOA Jump Start Kit with Maritime Domain Awareness Use Case.
(11) NCIOC is using the “Model-driven Architectures with Ontology Development” approach. The AFEI approach for the DoD CoI is being developed.

11. Current Focus DoD Business Transformation Agency (BTA):
Enterprise Architecture Federation Effort, Government Computer News, March 20, 2006.
Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) SOA Committee, Research Program Announcement: The Semantic SOA & Enterprise Mashups, William Sweet, SAIC, Chair.

12. Current Focus
Special Recognitions at the 3rd and 4th SOA for E-Government Conferences:
“SOA in a Semantic Wiki (Knoodl)”, Michael Lang, Revelytx.
“The Essential Role of Data Architecture in Business Architecture & SOA”, William Mancuso, President, Information Management Solutions Consultants and SOA Lead for Business Transformation Agency (also uses Knoodl).
5th SOA for E-Government Conference, late April-early May 2008 at MITRE:
Proposed Theme: Our Space: Connecting Web 2.0, SOA, and the Semantic Web for Government 2.0 (Making It Easier to Do!)
Pilots Focus on Semantic Business Process Management:
Semantics for Business Processes Management - SUPER Tutorial

13. Background
May 8, 2007, Technology seen limiting data interoperability, Government Computer News, and DOD struggles with incompatible data, Federal Computer Week, based on White Paper from SICoP’s Cross-Domain Semantic Interoperability WG,
July 16, 2007, COIs: Too much of a good thing?: Some say the proliferation of communities of interest could stymie information sharing, Federal Computer Week:
Mentions SICoP Cross-Domain Semantic Interoperability Working Group Draft Report and DoD CoIs.
August 9, 2007, SICoP Special Briefing for Michael Krieger and Staff (DoD and MITRE):
See next slide and followup discussions and recommendations.

14. Background

15. Main Points
Locate: Example - do a Google search for SICoP Special Briefing August 9, 2007:
Find a collaborative Wiki page
For the Intelligence Community, you get their Wiki called Intellipedia (Web audio-slide presentation).
Collaborate: A wiki is a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.
Integrate: The collaborators create knowledgebases that contain models (ontologies) and semantic linking from those models to specific examples (instances) and are searchable on the Web. Semantic Wikis and Semantic Desktops are being developed for this purpose.

16. Main Points
When the NCIOC Lexicon, SCOPE, SIF, etc. are ready, we can create the “Locate, Collaborate, and Integrate” with models (ontologies) and semantic linking to examples (instances) that supports search and mapping to specific applications.
This will provide critical feedback to incrementally improve the NCIOC artifacts and the real-world applications.
SICoP is working to support this in 2008 with the new Semantic Web Browsers and Desktops and ongoing pilots like that of the Emergency Response Systems Consortium and others.