C W3C Government Linked Data Working Group Cory Casanave 06/30/2011 Cory Casanave Cory-c at modeldriven dot com CEO, Model Driven Solutions Founder, ModelDriven.org (Open Source) OMG, Board of Directors Architecture Ecosystem SIG, Co-chair W3C eGov Interest Group, Member

Proposition Federation (information sharing, interoperability, shared services, etc.) is the problem of this decade – it is costing productivity, lives and billions of dollars annually. It is the pre-requisite to solving our problems in the large. It is a problem faced by most CIOs in government and industry. We are calling this the “data problem” Yet None of the standards we have directly target this problem. Not RDF, UML, OWL, E/R, SOA, DoDAF, XML Schema, Common Logic or SBVR, etc. They are all built for other purposes and repurposed to solve the data problem. And, with all these solutions – we still have a pervasive problem Why? And can we fix it? Why do we still have a data problem?

Clearly Define the Problem and Opportunity Clearly defining the data problem as the inability to effectively: Share data Collaborate Share resources and processes Interoperate between systems Analyze data from disparate sources Use data from unanticipated sources for unanticipated purposes Clearly define solving the data problem as a 50% reduction in the time, cost and risk of sharing, federating and integrating data Lets Fix the Data Problem! (Or at least make a big dent in it)

LOD provides part of the solution A platform for internet accessible data A way to connect and merge disparate data sets What LOD alone doesn’t provide is A complete data platform A clean and easy way to use independently conceived data sets together Even the simplistic “sameAs” is not fully supported A way to understand and federate information semantics Controversial opinion: OWL is not that well suited to the federation semantics problem The Linked Open Data Solution

Parts of Solving the Data Problem Data Sharing Platform Linked Open Data Provenance Versioning Security Others… Data Sharing Platform Linked Open Data Provenance Versioning Security Others… Domain Specific Vocabularies DAS-Open Government Vocabulary Working Group NIEM DoD: UCORE Others… Domain Specific Vocabularies DAS-Open Government Vocabulary Working Group NIEM DoD: UCORE Others… Federation Capabilities OMG: Semantic Information Modeling for Federation W3C: OWL/SWIRL W3C:SKOS Federation Capabilities OMG: Semantic Information Modeling for Federation W3C: OWL/SWIRL W3C:SKOS

Provide a roadmap for building and maintaining a catalog of vocabularies created by or recognized by the U.S. government. Recommend enabling standards, best practices, processes and technologies. Make recommendations on how to express and harmonize vocabularies. Foster a community of interest focused on horizontal federation of vocabularies across domains. Recommend a vocabulary for describing vocabularies and how vocabulary concepts are related. Provide information on how vocabularies can provide value to government and address initiatives such as the open government initiative and the 25 point implementation plan to reform federal information technology management. Describe how vocabularies facilitate shared data, interoperability, collaboration and shared services. Leverage open standards and the work of standard-setting bodies, such as NIEM, W3C, OMG, OASIS, ISO and others, as practical. Federal Data Architecture Subcommittee – Open Government Vocabularies Working Group (OGV) White Paper to be released very soon!

OMG: Semantic Information Modeling for Federation Conceptual Domain Models Logical Information Models Physical Data Schema Kernel Subject focused conceptual models define the concepts, predicates, integrity rules and terms of a domain that can be related to each other SIMF Scope Solution focused logical information elements represent information structures and integrity rules that can use and extend other information Technology focused physical data schema are grounded in logical data models which define their context and semantics Model Bridging Relations

Currently a successful XML schema based information sharing program and set of standards Just last week – OMG issues an OMG-RFP for a “UML Profile for NIEM” This will raise the level of abstraction of NIEM Support for LoD is an optional requirement National Information Exchange Model NIEM, the National Information Exchange Model, is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is designed to develop, disseminate and support enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes that can enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation

The following are OMG standard models – an OMG model is essentially the same as an RDF vocabulary, in a different syntax. Any OMG model can be provisioned as an RDF vocabulary using MDA. Consider the following government sponsored standards for use as RDF vocabularies: Model for Performance Driven Government (MPG) – sponsored and endorsed (required?) by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Records Management Services – sponsored and endorsed by U.S. National Archives (NARA) Leveraging Existing Standards

All of these efforts – NIEM, OGV & SIMF are ingredients in solving the data problem All of them reference LoD as a required or optional platform for data sharing More community engagement is needed to bring the pieces together To solve the data problem! Bring it together – get involved OGV – Contact for access, Draft White Paper Available NIEM Home - NEIM RFP - SIMF Wiki - Transforming Government I.T. With Architecture - Achieving Agility & Modularity Model Driven Solutions: ModelDriven.org: (open source)