Page 33 - GAO-02-327 Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language
P. 33
Chapter 1: Background: Features and Current
Federal Use of XML
9
nationwide. The need for effective data sharing among law enforcement
agencies has been highlighted by the department’s recent heightened
efforts to combat the threat of terrorism. According to its October 2001
report, the department’s experience to date shows that defining and
implementing XML data standards across more than one organization is a
complex process that requires a concerted effort.
Until recently, elements within the department had been working on three
separate XML-related data standardization efforts: (1) a standard format
for criminal histories, (2) a standard for law enforcement agencies to share
criminal intelligence information, and (3) a data standard for electronic
court filings. In June 2001, the department’s working group on
infrastructure and standards undertook an effort to reconcile the separate
data tags and definitions that the three initiatives had developed.
According to the department’s lessons learned report, the reconciliation
effort was an intense process that required the close cooperation of all
participants. For example, in the beginning, the working group found that
the three existing standards diverged in important ways for many basic
data structures, such as how to represent individuals’ names. Initially,
representatives from the three different communities were reluctant to
make changes in the existing definitions to accommodate a broader
standard. However, ultimately the group was able to develop a draft “XML
Justice Data Dictionary” containing 128 data elements.
Justice faces additional challenges in ensuring that its newly standardized
data elements are broadly adopted. The department plans to establish an
XML registry for these data elements but has not done so yet. Nor has a
decision been made about working to integrate these elements into a
developing commercial standard vocabulary, such as Legal XML. Both
actions may be needed to promote the use of the department’s data
elements in law enforcement systems.
Environmental Protection Like Justice, EPA has attempted to work within its community of
Agency interest—state environmental protection agencies—to build an
infrastructure for common access, both locally and nationally, to
environmental information, according to EPA officials. EPA is required by
law to collect a large volume of information from the states in order to
9
Lessons learned report of the XML subgroup of the Global Advisory Committee
Infrastructure/Standards Working Group, Department of Justice, October 2001.
Page 29 GAO-02-327 Electronic Government
