XML Working Group
Meeting Notes
August 18, 2004
The meeting was hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton at its office at 700 - 13th Street, NW, in Washington, D.C.
Owen Ambur thanked Joe Chiusano and Josiah Cushing for hosting and announced that the next meeting, scheduled for September 22, will focus on the Department of the Navy’s XML naming and design rules (NDR) and will be hosted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at its office near the New Carrollton Metro station. (The draft agenda is available at http://xml.gov/agenda/20040922.htm.) Extension and amendment of the working group’s charter, which expires on September 30, will also be addressed. The working group may be redesignated as the XML Community of Practice. (The draft charter extension is available at http://xml.gov/draft/charter.htm.)
Owen also announced that the second in what may become an annual series of XML authoring/editing tool forums has been scheduled for September 21 at the Key Bridge Marriott. The focus of this year’s event will be on legislative and regulatory documents. In addition to XML authoring/editing tools, a second track will address to XML content management systems. (The vendor and attendee registration sites, respectively, are at http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/XML-forum/XML-Forum-2004.html & http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/XML-forum/)
Introducing the topic of the agenda, Owen noted that the business case for the XML registry estimated a return on investment (ROI) in the range of 1,300 - 1,400 percent for a centralized registry, and he questioned how many other IT investments made by government agencies offer such a high return. (The summary table containing the estimated ROI is available at http://xml.gov/documents/completed/bah/registryBusinessCase.htm#_Toc19694635.)
Jay Chin briefed the group on the status and plans for the DoD metadata registry. The registry supports taxonomies using a subset of the Web Ontology Language (OWL), in a new taxonomy gallery that was made available on August 17. The registry project was initiated in 1998 and is in spiral development, using a bottom-up approach, with about two releases per year. Owen asked about support for the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) when it is released, and Joe asked about support for ISO 11179. Jay indicated that both would be supported but, with reference to ISO 11179, some concepts may still have multiple names.
Frank Napoli asked if DoD is still pursuing the role of namespace managers. Jay responded affirmatively but Paul Macias said the process has been very informal thus far. Jay added that an enterprise namespace has been designated but has not been widely used yet. Mike Lubash noted, “You can’t manage what you can’t see” so agreements to use the registry are key. Jay said DoD policy is to register everything regardless of its quality or status in terms of review by namespace managers, but that registered objects can be marked as developmental. Version control is enforced and nothing is deleted, so a complete history is provided. Barriers have been kept low to encourage registration, since the registry must contain information in order to be useful. Jay observed that it is easier to reuse individual data elements than entire schema and said that more than 80,000 components have been registered thus far.
The registry was originally developed in Cold Fusion but is moving to BEA WebLogic Server with Cold Fusion, since BEA is better suited to run-time services. The registry runs on Oracle and Apache Web Server. Objects can be registered with sponsorship by .mil or .gov individuals. Version 5 provides HTTP access, with REST and Web Services interfaces. Real-time validation and 24X7 service are provided. A portal front end will be provided to replace Cold Fusion, using JSR 168 or Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP). The registry will also support the ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) and DoD is looking at ebXML for federation capabilities. They are focusing on WS-I but will look at other Web Services standards too.
Carl Mattocks notes that freebXML is in beta, and Jay said they are looking at it but lamented that it does not run in BEA. Jay also noted that ISO 11179 support has been requested but is a little lower on his list of priorities unless someone who really wants it can provide the necessary funding. Paul asked about direct editing capabilities and Jay said they will be provided in version 5.1.
Jay’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/fgm/dodregistry.htm or http://xml.gov/presentations/fgm/dodregistry.ppt
Bruce Altner reported briefly on NASA’s use of the DoD Registry. He noted that small, simple projects are easy to register but larger, more complex projects present challenges. Autogeneration of registration package manifest files works, albeit not perfectly. Perhaps putting an entire project in at once may not be the best approach. It might be better to put the most important components in first. Jay noted that the manifest generator can only take you so far; manual intervention will be required. Bruce suggested that comments are a very useful part of a submission package, and that they are searchable. NASA is doing its toughest one first. It should be easier in the future. The concept of XML model schema groups is not supported in the DoD Registry, but the work-around solution is to surround the submissions with comments. Jay added that the full original schema is registered too and the manifest generator is for searching. Paul mentioned the DON registry requirements document and the Concept of Operations.
Bruce’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/nasa/index.htm or http://xml.gov/presentations/nasa/dodregistry.ppt
Kevin Williams updated the group on his XML Collaborator application. It is both a registry as well as a design tool. He said it complies with the ISO 11179 and ebXML standards. Data points are a key concept of the Collaborator. Schemas are built from them and they provide a more granular structure for searching. Kevin suggested that UDDI and ebXML may converge, but Joe expressed the opinion that they are likely to stay separate and complementary.
Kevin noted that harmonization of data elements is tough, and when a schema has been registered in an ebXML registry, the window for harmonization may have already closed. The aim of Collaborator is to make standards like UBL and SVG available at the micro level as well as the macro level and to reduce the technical barriers to entry for users. Every function of Collaborator is Web Service-enabled and it supports metadata assertions, providing for stronger metadata, using models such as the Basic Semantics Registry (BSR), FEA Business Reference Model (BRM), etc. Mike Lubash noted that the OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) allows users to “have it your way” with regard to the association of elements. Kevin noted that “data points” in Collaborator are equivalent to nouns in CAM, and that the two are highly complementary of each other.
Kevin’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/blueoxide2/collaborator.htm and http://xml.gov/presentations/blueoxide2/collaborator.ppt.
Carl Mattocks briefed the group on the OASIS e-Gov Technical Committee’s XML registry pilot, which uses the freebXML registry software and is sponsored by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). He mentioned the eGMS content management system, which is being shepherded by Maewyn Cummings of the UK and incorporates the Dublin Core metadata elements. [Information on the UK’s eGovernment Metadata Standard (eGMS) is available at http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/metadata.asp.] The Z39.50 standard is also being accommodated and Carl expressed the opinion that ebXML is evolving into content management with a single interface for HTTP, SWA, and ebMS. [Information on SWA and ebMS is available, respectively, at http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP-attachments and http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ebxml-msg/documents/ebMS_v2_0.pdf.]
Owen commented that Carl’s observation reminded him of Joe’s intent to write an article for AIIM’s eDoc magazine on the relationship between ebXML and content management systems.
Carl said the Business-Centric Methodology (BCM) enables precise communication between business and technical experts, and he displayed the Lubash Pyramid as a graphical summary of BCM. He noted that UDDI is a registry but not a repository and suggested that the Registry Information Model (RIM) is the true power of ebXML. Joe asked about registration of fine-grained elements, rather than just schemas, and Carl suggested that the RIM is far more intuitive than the UDDI model. He also referenced the MOD and e-Envoy’s data dictionary, and his reference to MOD prompted Owen to ask about interoperation between the OASIS pilot and the DoD Registry. Carl indicated he would look into it and he noted that collaboration is essential. With reference to the concept of service-oriented, component-based architecture, Owen also encouraged Carl and Kevin to consider the potential for mutually supportive and nonredundant components in Kevin’s Collaborator and the OASIS pilot registry.
David Webber noted that ebContext provides for assertions of similarity and equivalence. [Some information on ebContext is available at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ebxml-bp/200405/msg00095.html.]
Carl’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/oasis4/eGovRegistry.htm and http://xml.gov/presentations/oasis4/eGovRegistry.ppt.
More than 30 individuals attended part or all of the meeting. Among those in physical attendance who registered their presence on the xmlWG meeting roster were:
Bruce Altner, NASA/SAIC
Owen Ambur, Co-Chair
Paul Alagna, CheckMi
Tim Bornholtz, ED
Ed Chase, Adobe
Joe Chiusano, BAH
Jay Chin, FGM
Josiah Cushing, BAH
Jim Disbrow, DOE
Angela Duin, BAH/CIOC/AIC
Azad Faruque, Dept. of State
Amin Hassam, i411
Holly Hyland, ED/FSA
Joab Jackson, GCN
Henry Lenworth, DOL
Mike Lubash, DoD/DFAS
Paul Macias, LMI
Carl Mattocks, CheckMi
Kathleen Morgan, CSC/IRS
Roy Morgan, NIST
Frank Napoli, LMI
Vicky Niblett, SAIC/NASA
Brand Niemann, Jr., Tax Analysts
Sol Safran, IRS
Paul Smith, Software AG
Mark Steinberg, MarkLogic
Bruce Troutman, 8020 Data
David Webber
Walt Williams, SRA
Allyson Ugarte, XBRL Spain
Among those participating by teleconference were:
Rex Brooks, Human Markup Technical Committee
John Dodd, Computer Sciences Corporation & Industry Advisory Council
Alice Marshall, Presto Vivace
John Weiler, Interoperability Clearinghouse
Please convey any additions or corrections to Owen_Ambur@ios.doi.gov