Overview
RiVidium recently teamed up with our Government partners to deliver upon a proof-of-concept
for Biometrics data. As part of this effort, RiVidium performed an assessment of
how NIEM (National Information Exchange
Model, http://www.niem.gov/) aligned to UCore (Universal Core, https://ucore.gov/) specifically for a targeted
subset of Biometrics defined data. In this demonstration, we show some powerful
constructs at work:
- Integration of live Data Services that store and work with notional Biometrics
data. These data services follow the Army Data Services Layer standards
(http://data.army.mil/ADSL.html) and demonstrate a working proof-of-concept in how
Biometrics data can be shipped and received using secured Web services in a standards-based
environment that allows for interoperability.
- Mediation of data. The Biometrics data managed by the proof-of-concept
is stored internally on a backing database and published via Web Service Description
Language (WSDL) specifications. The demonstration you can reference above shows
how we mediate this backing “raw” information storage (plain old XML, or “POX”)
into either the UCore or NIEM formats.
In order for the demonstration to make the most sense, a brief background on NIEM
and UCore may be of use to the reader. The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the Universal Core (UCore) started as separate and
distinct efforts, the former under the direction of DOJ and DHS and the latter as
a DoD program. The two programs were combined under the auspices of the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) as of 16 September, 2008 (http://www.niem.gov/New_Executive_Director_Announcement.pdf)
and work closely to foster common information sharing standards throughout the government.
All involved agreed that a monolithic data dictionary defining the entire domain
of US Government data is infeasible. However, by using XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
to define information, by agreeing to use a set of basic tags for common data elements,
and by allowing different communities of interest (COIs) to extend the standard
with specific tags, significant federation and interoperability can occur.
NIEM
On 28 February, 2005 a partnership agreement between the Department of Justice (DOJ)
and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created NIEM. This agreement leverages
and extends the data exchange standards from the highly successful Global Justice
XML Data Model (GJXDM). NIEM complies with the Homeland Security Presidential Directive
(HSPD-5) naming the Secretary of DHS as the principal federal official for domestic
incident management. It also complies with Section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform
and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004, through which, among other things,
the President established the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) to facilitate
information sharing pertaining to terrorism. Since this implementation, NIEM has
experienced rapid development with over a dozen releases and numerous homeland security
and justice pilot projects conducted at federal, state, and local levels. The release
of NIEM 2.0 in July 2007 marked a significant turning point as NIEM transitioned
from a pilot project to an operational program. This change brought new opportunities
and challenges as federal, state, and local jurisdictions and agencies nationwide
began aggressive programs to adopt and use NIEM. NIEM 2.1 was also a very significant
release in July of 2009.
NIEM information sharing platform is based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
XML is a structured language for describing information being sent electronically
by one entity to another. XML itself can be further constrained to contain only
a known sub-set of tags of values by using a validating document known as an XML
Schema Definition (XSD). An XSD provides a method for ensuring that a given
XML file conforms to a well-defined set of requirements and that only valid data
elements are included in the XML file. By using XSD for validation, the NIEM data
model ensures that XML data files can be exchanged between any two compliant organizations.
Additionally, by using these standards-based languages NIEM helps to ensure that
data maintains backwards- and forwards-compatibility. This in turn leads to improved
reuse and the ability to tie both existing and new systems together.
Individual agencies have used NIEM-based exchanges to leverage existing
investments in information systems by building the bridges to connect them. NIEM
standards enable different information systems to share and exchange information,
irrespective of the particular technologies in use in those information systems.
Moreover, creating and adopting NIEM standards means that local, state, tribal,
and federal organizations can reap significant cost benefits through adoption and
reuse, rather than building proprietary and "stove-pipe" solutions from scratch.
Additionally, NIEM requirements are driven from the user community rather than a
Federal mandate; this ensures that NIEM itself is objective-based and has a basis
in the real business problems faced by customers.
The ten NIEM Domains are shown above (counter-clockwise from upper right):
-
(Youth and) Family Services - support timely, complete, accurate, and efficient
information sharing among the partners that can help improve outcomes for children
whose circumstances make them particularly vulnerable.
- Maritime
- from the Maritime
Domain Awareness: "the effective understanding of anything associated with
the global maritime domain that could impact the United States’ security, safety,
economy, or environment."
- Chemical, Biological,
Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) - supports the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's efforts to detect and interdict radiological and nuclear threats.
-
Infrastructure Protection - foster better and more timely sharing of information
among federal, state, tribal, local, and private-sector partners about infrastructure—and
potential threats to it.
- Immigration
- supports the sharing of information to improve those services and law enforcement
activities and to foster better collaboration with their external partners.
- Intelligence
- represents the full range of operations that deal with the gathering, analysis,
fusion, and dissemination of intelligence--and, most important--the ability to
act upon it.
- Screening
- supports, coordinates, and harmonizes the information needs of a number of homeland
security mission areas that rely on accurate, timely information in support of a
wide range of screening and credentialing activities.
- Justice
- provides the criminal justice system with the data elements and objects and properties
it needs to share critical information between jurisdictions and levels of government.
- Emergency
Management - facilitates and enhances emergency response data communications
by allowing the Department of Homeland Security Office for Interoperability and
Compatibility (OIC) Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to co-own this domain within the NIEM model.
-
International Trade - supports the international trade mission area by
facilitating real-time exchange of information with numerous state, local, international,
and other partners.
These domains actually define Communities of Interest (COIs). COIs share common
terminology on the core NIEM elements of specific persons, places, things, or events.
Consider the emergency management community (FEMA, Red Cross, local, and state emergency
response teams). Each of these communities requires the ability to organize emergency
responses ranging from water delivery to housing for displaced persons to search
and rescue as well as the inevitable medical management that arises from any significant
natural disaster. The emergency management domain provides a common set of terms
and mappings that allow data to be mapped and shared between the entities making
up the community. Additionally, the emergency management community requires its
specific enhancements to the domain specific part of NIEM without having to release
an entire new version of the data model. Individual domains operate differently
and are at different stages in their usage of NIEM but have in common the need to
share with each other and within their respective communities and a belief in an
open standards approach such as NIEM to accomplish it.
The overall NIEM data model defines thousands of individual data components;
a data component refers to a basic business data item describing common
concepts used in general business activities. Additionally, each user community
can and does define specific data components. The process of converting from one
data format (such as FEMA) to another format (such as that used by a local county
emergency response team) is handled by using an Information Exchange. An
information exchange allows two entities to define the rules for translating between
different data formats by using standards-based components; the overall process
is controlled by an Information Exchange Package Documentation or IEPD. Numerous
IEPDs exist; individual entities can create these packages and then use other standards-based
toolsets such as eXtensible Markup Language Style Sheet Translations (XSLTs) to
allow computer-to-computer interaction to occur. The NIEM program also includes
tools and support functions to help agencies at all levels of government take full
advantage of this powerful data model. Tools for creating XML schemas that conform
to NIEM are freely available on the web, as is a help desk, IEPD clearinghouse,
NIEM users guide and other documentation, which can all be viewed at www.niem.gov.
UCore
Universal Core (UCore) is a federal information sharing initiative that supports
the National Information Sharing Strategy and all associated Departmental / Agency
strategies. UCore enables information sharing by defining an implementable specification
(XML Schema) containing agreed upon representations for the most commonly shared
and universally understood concepts of who, what,
when, and where.
UCore is designed to be simple to understand, explain, and implement. It is small,
containing a minimal set of objects with broad applicability across a wide range
of domains. UCore is built on an extensible framework that permits users to build
more detailed exchanges tailored to their mission or business requirements. UCore
is based on and leverages existing commercial and governmental standards. The UCore
validation processes and tools provide a means to consistently achieve definable
levels of interoperability, promoting machine understanding between both anticipated
and unanticipated users.
UCore V1.0 was delivered on 04 October 2007. It provided a small set of universally
understood concepts that were implemented in a lightweight information exchange
schema for Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) stakeholder
evaluation. UCore V2.0b, delivered on 30 September 2008, built upon the lessons
learned from V1.0 and V2.0a and accommodated requirements from DoD, IC, DOJ, and
DHS to support the broader goals of information sharing across the federal government.
The value of UCore is defined in terms of an improved degree of information sharing
between users as well as cost and timesavings due to reuse and modular design.
Technically, UCore is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based information exchange
specification and implementation profile. It provides a framework for sharing the
most commonly used data concepts of who, what, when, and where and serves as a starting
point for interagency information sharing and data level interoperability. It also
provides the framework, metadata, extension rules, security markings, and physical
schema to permit content to be exchanged between heterogeneous IT infrastructures.
UCore serves as a starting point for data level integration and permits the development
of richer domain specific exchanges.
For more information, please see the following: