XML Web Services: How is EPA Using It

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XML Web Services How is EPA Using It?

• Presentation to the
• EPA Web Working Group Meeting
• July 23-25, 2002, Atlanta, GA
• by Brand Niemann
• Office of Environmental Information, U.S. EPA

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Preface

• Previous presentations
• What is XML? A practical introduction for EPA
  Webmasters, July 24-26, 2001, Denver, Colorado.
• Evaluation Summary
• XML presentation was highly rated. Top
  suggestion for next meeting was XML.
• What would be a killer application for EPA?
• Won Special Award for Innovation from the Quad
  Council at FOSE 2002 with VoiceXML!
• XML Web Services Training, December 11, 2001,
  Washington, DC.
• Headquarters CDX, Surf Shop, OSWER, and Section
  508 Exposition.
• Regions 3, 5, and 7.
• Interagency FedWeb 2002, SBA, and HUD.

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Some Ways EPA is Using XML

• 1. CIO XML Working Group
• 2. EPA XML Technical Advisory Group (TAG)
• 3. XML Environmental Measurement Group (XEMG)
• 4. National Environmental Information Exchange
  Network (NEIEN)
• 5. Central Data Exchange (CDX)
• 6. Enterprise Architecture (EA)
• 7. EPAState Content Network
• 8. XML Registry and Repository
• 9. Accessibility and Usability
• 10. Content Authoring, Repurposing, and
  Management
• 11. E-Gov and FirstGov Initiatives
• 12. Contact Information

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1. CIO XML Working Group

• Extensible Markup Language (XML) embodies the
  potential to alleviate many of the
  interoperability problems associated with the
  sharing of documents and data. Realizing the
  potential requires cooperation not only within
  but also across organizations. Our purpose is to
  facilitate the efficient and effective use of XML
  through cooperative efforts among government
  agencies, including partnerships with commercial
  and industrial organizations. Contributions are
  welcome and encouraged!
• Current Activities
• Registry and Repository Project and Web Services.
• E-Records and XForms.
• Re-chartering of the WG in September 2002.

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1. CIO XML Working Grouphttp//xml.gov
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2. EPA XML Technical Advisory Group (TAG)

• Chartered by OEI in July 2000 to provide
• Policy development
• Policy Manual (ongoing).
• TAG naming conventions (December 2001 and
  ongoing).
• XML Design Rules and Conventions (March 2002).
• Registry and Repository
• Requirements analysis (March 2001).
• Pilot at NIST (ongoing).
• Education and Outreach
• XML Web Services (ongoing).
• XML Boot Camp (June 10-11, 2002).
• Directed to work with the Technical Resources
  Group (TRG) in February 2002
• Regular conference calls (XML Schema
  Harmonization, etc.).
• TRG and Node meetings (June 12-13, 2002).

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3. XML Environmental Measurement Group (XEMG)

• Formed as Subgroup of the EPA XML TAG (July
  2001), then made a separate WG to
• Encourage and build on the data harmonization
  efforts (OW and OSWER) that produce data element
  dictionaries that are needed for EPA-wide XML
  vocabularies.
• Establish EPA XML vocabularies, schemas, and
  implementation guidelines.
• Populate the registries and repositories with the
  XMl products of this activity.
• Promote and demonstrate the use of XML
  technologies within EPA business needs through a
  Web site and seminar and training materials.

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4. National Environmental Information Exchange
Network (NEIEN)

• Blueprint Team Report (June 2001)
• Recommended the exclusive use of XML as the
  common basic interchange language for data
  flows.
• Concluded that simplified versions of the tools
  (e-commerce servers), technologies (XML), and
  security levels being developed and rapidly
  embraced by the private sector can be applied to
  the business of environmental agencies.
• The Network Implementation Report (February
  2002)
• Created the Network Steering Board (NSB) and the
  XML Technical Resources Group (TRG) to build the
  network.
• The TRG and Node 1.0 meet recently (June 2002)
• XML Boot Camp training.
• Discussions of network and node implementation
  issues.

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4. National Environmental Information Exchange
Network (NEIEN)

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  announced (April 2002) that the National
  Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant
  Program is now soliciting applications for the
  Program. The goal of the National Environmental
  Information Exchange Grant Program is to advance
  the National Environmental Information Exchange
  Network by encouraging State and other partner's
  data integration efforts. Funding will be
  provided through grants to States, the District
  of Columbia, Trust Territories, and Federally
  Recognized Indian Tribes for capacity building
  capabilities for Network participation. Tribes
  will receive funds from a designated set-aside
  pool of resources. Grant awards expected in July
  2002.

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4. National Environmental Information Exchange
Network (NEIEN)
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5. Central Data Exchange (CDX)

• The Environmental Protection Agency has
  established a single portal on the Web for
  environmental data entering EPA. The Central Data
  Exchange (CDX) offers companies, States, Tribes
  and other entities a faster, easier, more secure
  reporting option. CDX provides built-in data
  quality checks, web forms, standard file formats,
  and a common, user friendly approach to reporting
  data across vastly different environmental
  programs. A cornerstone of EPA's e-government
  initiative, CDX currently accepts data for
  certain air, water, waste and toxics programs and
  will gradually expand to support all Agency
  environmental reporting by 2004. Although its
  current focus is electronic, CDX will eventually
  incorporate a facility that centralizes paper
  data collections as well. CDX is part of a
  broader effort by States and EPA working together
  to build a National Environmental Information
  Exchange Network to integrate State and Federal
  environmental data, reduce the burden of
  reporting, and improve data quality.

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5. Central Data Exchange (CDX)

• Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used to
  create files for exchanging and displaying data.
  XML uses markup symbols to describe and define
  data in a readable format. XML allows users to
  define metadata which, through the use of tags,
  identifies data elements contained within a
  document. This helps facilitate information
  exchange between systems by ensuring that all
  parties exchanging data share a common
  understanding of what is being exchanged.
• Employing XML technology in CDX would establish a
  standard for exchanging data between EPA, its
  State partners, and the regulated community. XML
  helps simplify the transfer of data through the
  CDX portal by enabling both the sending and
  receiving parties to understand exactly what each
  piece of data means.

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5. Central Data Exchange (CDX)
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6. Enterprise Architecture (EA)

• Enterprise architecture a description, in
  useful models, diagrams, and narrative, of the
  mode of operation for an enterprise (agency)
• Logical terms interrelated business processes
  and business rules, information needs and flows,
  and work locations and users.
• Technical terms hardware, software, data,
  communications, and security attributes and
  standards.

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6. Enterprise Architecture (EA)

• Enterprise architecture both for the current
  environment and for the target environment, as
  well as the transition plan for sequencing from
  the current to the target environment.
• Enterprise architecture clarify and help
  optimize the dependencies and relationships among
  the agencys business operations and the
  underlying IT infrastructure and applications
  that support these operations.
• Source GAO Report on Challenges in Managing and
  Preserving Electronic Records, June 2002, page 28.

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6. Enterprise Architecture (EA)

• EPA
• Dedicated staff Chief Architect and eight Team
  Members.
• EPAs architecture effort was rated a stage 3 out
  of 5 in a recent GAO report, placing EPA in the
  top 20 of all federal agencies who reported.
• Completion of a draft baseline architecture
  assessment for the Environmental Information
  Architecture business domain.
• Incorporated a large number of modeling and
  analysis tools in the baseline applications
  inventory.
• Suggested that it include XML Web Services.
• Source EPA Enterprise Architecture, Quarter 2,
  Fiscal Year 2002(Jan-Mar 2002).

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6. Enterprise Architecture (EA)

• E-Government Initiatives Portfolios
• Government to Citizen (G2C) (5)
• E.g., Recreation One-Stop
• Government to Business (G2B) (5)
• E.g., Business Compliance One-Stop
• Government to Government (G2G) (5)
• E.g., Geospatial Information One-Stop
• Internal Effectiveness and Efficiency (IEE) (8)
• E.g., E-Records Management
• Cross-cutting
• e-Authentication
• Infrastructure
• Federal Enterprise Architecture (Bold added to
  highlight)
• Source http//egov.gov/egovreport-3.htm

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7. EPAState Content Network

• Requests from multiple EPA offices for help with
  XML training and pilots (OCFO, OCEMR, OEI, OSWER,
  ORD, and OW).
• Select the very best content for each office to
  be XML-ized and to be integrated into a content
  network using the best technology.
• Registered the best content with its metadata in
  the content network that is both centralized and
  distributed.
• The content network supports the new OEI
  initiatives like Environmental Indicators
  Initiative and State of the Environment Report,
  Environmental Health Tracking Network (EHTN), and
  the Situation Room.
• The content network supports the OIC goals of (1)
  creating the building blocks of an exchange
  network (2) enable integration of environmental
  data and (3) provide vital services to EPA and
  the public.

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7. EPAState Content Network A Content Node for
Every EPA Office, Program, Region, State, and
Partner
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7. EPAState Content Network NXT 3 Platform
Architecture and Services (SCOTS)
Standards-based Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software
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8. XML Registry and Repository
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9. Accessibility and Usability

• Some solutions
• eXtensible Indexing Language (XIL) for Large PDF
  Collections.
• Repurposing PDF files into XML Documents.
• XML Data Island Tables.
• Content Management for Accessibility and
  Usability.
• Digital Talking Books with SMIL.
• Natural Language Interface to EPA Web Content.

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9. Accessibility and Usability

• National Coastal Condition Report
• The Problem
• Large PDF files (14) totaling 114.6 MB!
• Files range in size from 0.1 17.2 MB.
• Pages slow to render and print (200 pages)
  because of multi-colored backgrounds, graphics,
  and photographs.
• Lots of data graphics, but few data tables.
• Neither a structured table of contents PDF file
  nor in Tagged format for export to XML.
• The Solution
• NXT 3 makes search and display across the entire
  collection of files very efficient and fast
  because of XML.
• http//www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr/index.html

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9. Accessibility and Usability
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9. Accessibility and Usability
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10. Content Authoring, Repurposing, and Management

• One of the simplest and most powerful
  applications of XML is that of data binding to
  HTML which also illustrates how XML separates
  content from presentation
• Data binding is linking an XML document to an
  HTML page and then binding the standard HTML
  elements to individual XML elements.
• This saves time and money on delivering small Web
  databases, allows the data to have other uses
  (e.g. Section 508 accessibility, roundtrip to
  Excel, etc.), and future proofs your data
  against periodic technology changes.

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10. Content Authoring, Repurposing, and Management
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10. Content Authoring, Repurposing, and Management
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11. E-Gov and FirstGov Initiatives

• Portfolios
• Government to Citizen (G2C) (5)
• E.g., Recreation One-Stop
• Government to Business (G2B) (5)
• E.g., Business Compliance One-Stop
• Government to Government (G2G) (5)
• E.g., Geospatial Information One-Stop
• Internal Effectiveness and Efficiency (IEE) (8)
• E.g., E-Records Management
• Cross-cutting
• e-Authentication
• Infrastructure
• Federal Enterprise Architecture
• Source http//egov.gov/egovreport-3.htm
• Contributing to these efforts.

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11. E-Gov and FirstGov Initiatives

• FirstGov Content Management Survey
• General Questions (XML 1 of 12)
• 9. Intended use of XML How important is it for
  you to employ XML in the acquisition, management,
  and/or delivery of content?
• Author Questions (XML 0 of 20)
• Advanced Questions (XML 4 of 22)
• 1. Need for XML tools How important is it for
  you for the system to have native XML processing
  tools and functions built in?

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11. E-Gov and FirstGov Initiatives

• FirstGov Content Management Survey
• Advanced Questions (XML 4 of 22)
• 2. Need for XML Standards Support How important
  is it for you to support XML-based standards such
  as RSS, ICE, ebXML, and the Web Services family
  (e.g. SOAP).
• 3. Existing XML Usage Have you already
  developed DTDs or Schemas to validate your XML
  content?
• 4. Current Usage of XML Stylesheets Have you
  already developed XSL Stylesheets to transforms
  your XML documents?

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12. Contact Information

• Brand Niemann, Ph.D.
• USEPA Headquarters, EPA West, Room 6143D
• Office of Environmental Information, MC 2822T
• 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
  20460
• 202-566-1657
• niemann.brand_at_epa.gov
• EPA http//161.80.70.167
• Outside EPA http//130.11.44.140