Page 2 - GAO-02-327 Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language
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Contents
Letter 1
Executive Summary 2
Purpose 2
Background 2
Results in Brief 4
Principal Findings 6
Recommendations for Executive Action 9
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 10
Chapter 1 Background: Features and Current Federal Use
of XML 11
Standardized Data Tagging Facilitates Information Exchange
among Disparate Systems 13
XML Supports Internet-Based Data Exchange 16
XML’s Technical Standards Provide the Tools to Describe and
Exchange Data over the Internet 18
XML Was Designed to Accommodate Numerous Extensions 19
XML Can Enhance Information Search, Retrieval, and Analysis 20
XML Usage Complements Traditional Electronic Data Interchange
Applications 22
Federal XML Projects Vary in Size and Scope 26
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 31
Chapter 2 A Comprehensive Set of Standards for
Implementing XML Is Only Partially in Place 33
XML Technical Standards Have Largely Been Defined 33
Additional Standards Have Been Proposed for Using XML to
Conduct Electronic Business 35
Business Process Standards Are Less Well-Developed than
Technical Standards 36
Potentially Useful XML Vocabularies Are Not Ready for
Governmentwide Adoption 41
Chapter 3 The Federal Government Faces Challenges in
Realizing XML’s Full Potential 44
Implementing XML Presents Pitfalls 44
Governmentwide Actions to Promote XML Adoption Have
Focused on Education and Outreach 47
Page i GAO-02-327 Electronic Government
