1. The Need for Interoperability Professor Neil McLean National Technical Standards Adviser Department of Education, Science and Training Email: mclean@caval.edu.aumclean@caval.edu.au November 2004 Accessibility Standards Tutorial

2. Interoperability Dimensions Technical Semantic Political – human Intercommunity Legal International

3. Technical Interoperability Main focus has been on technical interoperability Covers communication, transport, storage and representation Many competing standards and standards making agencies Standards selection a key to success Technical interoperability still a challenge

4. Semantic Interoperability Covers a host of issues relating to the description of a resource Many different concepts and approaches New approaches required for the development of metadata infrastructure

5. Political/Human Interoperability Availability of resources central to interoperability Many issues surrounding ownership and control Slow development of business rules for access management in many communities

6. Intercommunity Interoperability Institutions and communities of interest all have own rules of engagement Few mechanisms to facilitate cross- domain conversations Much repetition of effort in various domains

7. Legal Interoperability Different countries and different service domains require different legal obligations Many privacy, intellectual rights, archiving and accessibility legal requirements

8. International Interoperability International interoperability impeded by all the above and by language barriers

9. The Role of Standards Optimise interoperability between systems Facilitate information exchange across domains Permit sharing of common services Allow scalable solutions Provide orderly base for infrastructure developments Assist migration strategies Maximise return on investment

10. Conclusions Standards making is a process to facilitate interoperability Progress is incremental Engagement in process essential Accessibility standards depend on a range of technical and human factors