XML Community of Practice
Meeting Notes
May 18, 2005
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) hosted this meeting at the Forrestal Building and the Federal Information and Records Managers (FIRM) Council cosponsored it.
Owen Ambur announced that the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data Reference Model (DRM) working group would be meeting the next day to discuss the XML profile for the DRM. [A description of the task is available at http://xml.gov/draft/drmxmltask.htm.] He also indicated that he and perhaps others would be dialing into AIIM’s Integrated Enterprise Content Management (iECM) standards committee meeting in the afternoon. [Information on the iECM committee is available at http://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=29284.]
Owen displayed the ET.gov site – http://et.gov/ – and particularly the search results screen: http://et.gov/component_search.aspx However, time did not allow the group to focus on any of the components identified thus far. David Webber had been scheduled to brief the group on eFolder, but due to unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to attend the meeting.
Bob Glushko of Center for Document Engineering at the University of California - Berkeley briefed the group on document engineering. He noted that among the new “big ideas” is the notion of “services science,” which basically builds on top of the document engineering stack. He said document exchange subpatterns occur within business models, and the question is how to develop good models. He suggested there are four disciplines by which models are developed: document centric analysis, data centric analysis, business process analysis, and user task analysis. Documents fall on a continuum from purely narrative to purely transactional. Document engineering is about crossing the chasm between the bipolar document versus data approaches. Documents can be considered to be a snapshot of a business process. Documents are easier to see than processes are.
Incidentally, Bob indicated that one of his students is going to work for Microsoft to work on XML support for PowerPoint, the only one of the Office Suite applications that is not yet XML-enabled.
Bob’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/cde/docengineering.pdf
Ralph Berwanger briefed the group on Context Inspired Component Architecture (CICA). He said X12 now comprises 315 approved EDI transaction sets, with more than 1700 elements in the data dictionary. In addition, CICA can plug in modules from outside for X12. X12 has a government subgroup and Ralph noted that X12 is part of ANSI, so it needs to support the needs of the U.S. business community. Owen suggested X12's government subgroup should work with the folks developing the eGov Business Gateway’s eForms service to harmonize the data elements on the forms made available in the service. Altova and GEFEG are providing tool support for CICA and the CICA database will be published in XML in July 2005.
Ken Sall asked how CICA relates to UBL and Ralph indicated openness to exploring such coordination opportunities.
Ralph’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/x12/cica.htm
Pat Franks briefed the group on ARMA’s Electronic Messaging Report Task Force. The scope of ARMA’s standard encompasses requirements for managing electronic records and extends to any type of text-based electronic message or communication. The purpose is to provide guidelines for creating standard records management policy for the life cycle management of electronic messages.
Pat’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/arma/emessaging.htm
Owen indicated that one of his primary objectives for this meeting was to begin building bridges between the good work that folks like Bob and Ralph are doing on document engineering and transaction sets to foster interoperability and common understandings in the short run and the work that folks like Pat and organizations like ARMA and AIIM are doing to meet the requirements for managing and maintaining business-quality records over long periods of time. Pat indicated the dialogue had been very useful for her in that regard.
Among those in physical attendance were:
Owen Ambur, xmlCoP
Tom Bascom, LinkSpace
Ralph Berwanger, DISA/X12
John Paul Deley, EIA/DOE
Jim Disbrow, DOE
Pat Franks, ARMA
Bob Glushko, CDE/UC-Berkeley
Puja Goyal, NIST
Amin Hassam, i411
Tom Merkle, NIJ
KC Morris, NIST
Frank Napoli, LMI
Doug Peterson, IRS
Allyson Ugarte, XBRL
Diane Simmons, DOC
Julia O’Brien, DISA
Among those who identified themselves as participating via teleconference were:
Todd Vincent, Legal XML
Ken Sall, SAIC
Please convey any additions or corrections to Owen_Ambur@ios.doi.gov