Implementing Semantic Web in Government

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Implementing Semantic Web in Government

• An SLA 2006 conference program sponsored by the
• Information Technology Division
• and the
• Government Information Division

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Program Schedule

• Overview of implementing the Semantic Web using
  the Data Reference Model and the Categorization
  Working Group of the Interagency Committee on
  Government Information (ICGI)
• Richard Huffine, U.S. General Services
  Administration/FirstGov
• Semantic Web in use in government - Case studies
  using Federal Enterprise Architecture NASA
  Digital Shuttle Project, FAA, and GSA
• Dean Allemang, Top Quadrant Consulting
• Semantic interoperability and library skills
  (taxonomy, metadata management, etc.)
• Marjorie Hlava, Access Innovations 

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• "The Semantic Web is an extension of the current
  web in which information is given well-defined
  meaning, better enabling computers and people to
  work in cooperation.
• Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, Ora Lassila in
  http//www.scientificamerican.com/2001/0501issue/0
  501berners-lee.html

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• The Semantic Web is a project to make the content
  of the World Wide Web understandable by machines.
  It extends the ability of the World Wide Web
  through the use of standards, markup languages
  and related processing tools.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web

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What Is the Semantic Web?

• The Semantic Web is an extension of the current
  Web that will allow you to find, share, and
  combine information more easily. It relies on
  machine-readable information and metadata
  expressed in RDF.
• www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/essays/metad
  ata_glossary/metadata_glossary.html
• Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general
  framework for how to describe any Internet
  resource such as a Web site and its content.
• www.perfectxml.com/glossary2.asp

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Semantic Web in Government

• Government Agencies are struggling with issues of
  repetition in data collection, barriers to
  sharing information, and increasing expectations
  to do more with less
• The U.S. E-Gov Agenda (and the Partnership for
  Reinventing Government before it) sets
  expectations that Agencies will work together to
  solve common business problems
• After September 11, 2001, the intelligence
  community has stepped up their efforts to make
  their information interoperable with other
  intelligence and law enforcement entities

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Categorization Working Group

• Convened in 2003 to recommend approaches for
  implementing the E-Gov Act
• Comprised of U.S. Federal staff, mostly
  librarians
• Focused on defining a clear scope and approach to
  the categorization of information in order to
  improve access to government information that is
  born digital
• Intended to build on the past (bibliographic
  records) and incorporate new approached for the
  future
• Recommendations were rolled into the
  implementation of the Data Reference Model of the
  Federal Enterprise Architecture
• See a video series on the topic at
  http//www.loc.gov/flicc/video/cmwg/egov/egov05.ht
  ml

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Federal Enterprise Architecture

• A set of common frameworks for describing
  information systems and their interdependencies
• Requires Agencies and Departments to document
  their current and target architectures and then
  justify Information Technology expenditures in
  support of achieving that target architecture
• Encourages organizations to share components and
  reduce the duplication of effort (through
  coordinated E-Gov Initiatives like Grants, Travel
  and Financial Management

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Data Reference Model

• Version 2.0 released in November, 2005
• There are two basic types of metadata recommended
  in the Data Description section of the DRM
  abstract model
• Logical data models to describe Structured Data
  Resources, and
• Digital Data Resource metadata (such as Dublin
  Core elements) to describe Semi-Structured and
  Unstructured Data Resources.
• Recommendation stopped short of recommending
  specific standards but acknowledges that various
  standards can be mapped to one another to create
  a minimal amount of interoperability
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-5-drm.html

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Data Reference Model (continued)

• Agency implementation of the Data Reference Model
  is slow
• Much of the utility of the FEA to date has been
  driven by IT Investment decision-making, not by
  the need to share information with other Agencies
• The primary exception, intelligence, has made
  real progress although much of it is classified
• The Data Reference Model supports semantic
  interoperability but it does not mandate its
  implementation.
• Agencies are still struggling with both the
  business and cultural needs for sharing
  information

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In the News

• New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's
  National Security Agency, which specialises in
  eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding
  research into the mass harvesting of the
  information that people post about themselves on
  social networks. And it could harness advances in
  internet technology - specifically the
  forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web
  standards organisation W3C - to combine data from
  social networking websites with details such as
  banking, retail and property records, allowing
  the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing
  personal profiles of individuals.
• Pentagon sets its sights on social networking
  websites, by Paul Marks, June 9, 2006,
  NewScientist.com news service