XML Community of Practice

Meeting Notes

February 15, 2006

This meeting was hosted by Microsoft at its Friendship Heights office in Washington, DC.

Owen Ambur announced that FirstGov’s new site-specific search capability is now available on the xml.gov site and that it is much better than the previous service. With reference to GCN’s interview with Vinton Cerf, he indicated he’d like to explore prospects for having Google host an xmlCoP meeting for the purpose of exploring how .gov agencies might use XML metatags to enable far more precise searching. Owen noted that LMI has scheduled teleconferences for February 21 and March 8, respectively, to try to come to closure on sections 1 - 3 and 4 - 8 of the XML Naming and Design Rules and Guidelines (NDRG). He also mentioned the xmlCoP’s April 20 meeting, which will be conducted as a town hall at the KM conference at the Reagan Building. Owen noted that he had been in contact with Jonny Chambers of Microsoft with respect to opportunities for coordination and data sharing between the ET.gov site and Microsoft’s Solutions Sharing Network (SSN), and he encouraged Philo Janus to render the XML schema for the first stage of the ET.gov process in an InfoPath form.

Since Web connectivity was not available at the start of the meeting, Owen turned to Paul Woods on the teleconference line to give a brief overview of the ongoing enhancements that i411 and Business Technology Source (BTS) are making to i411's enhanced, multifaceted search-and-discovery service prototype for the ET.gov process. Paul explained that counts of the records are now provided dynamically as the user conducts his/her search for ET components that have been identified in two facets of FEA – the SRM and the TRM. i411 and BTS have also added in a facet for the FEA Data Reference Model (DRM), but for now, the categories under that facet are inactive pending categorization of the ET records under the DRM “standardization areas”. He also noted that RSS feeds are now available on any component as well as any query available on the site. See, for example, the additions to the TRM that have been proposed thus far.

Sylvia Webb introduced those accompanying her from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and Chris Hassler briefed the group on DCMA’s initiative to specify a data model and XML schema for project scheduling and cost data, otherwise known as earned value management (EVM).

Chris explained that DCMA cannot support every vendor’s EVM solution and thus needs a standard that everyone can use. He said they are using security tokens now but want to move to PKI. DCMA has specified a Web Services compatibility profile that encompasses UDDI and WSDL. Owen suggested they share it with NIST so that NIST can incorporate it into their suite of XML tools, and Chris indicated it is all based upon open source components. DCMA is demonstrating the use of GEFEG’s data model editing tool and has modified TBG17's components for “contract” and “project”. With respect to the elements of a project, Owen suggested they take a look at Edd Dumbill’s Description of a Project (DOAP).

Sol Safran asked about scalability and Chris observed that the standards process takes time and the TBG17 committee has a backlog. He also stressed that business representatives as well as technical experts need to be involved, since business entities can be quite complex. KC Morris asked how DCMA found elements to reuse, and Chris acknowledged that the TBG17 library is not very large yet so it was fairly easy to determine which of its elements were candidates for reuse in their initiative. Michael Dill indicated that search and discovery capabilities will be important as the library grows and he noted that Mark Palmer of NIST is participating in TBG17. Bruce Cox asked about coordination with other agencies and Kim Koran asked how others can discover XML-related initiatives like DCMA’s EVM specification. Sylvia indicated she will E-mail information about the initiative to those who request it, and Owen added that the purpose of the ET.gov site/process is to facilitate the discovery of and formation of communities of practice around emerging technologies like this.

Chris’ presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/dcma/evm.htm

Michael Dill briefed the group on UNeDocs. Among the points he made is that presentation, including such things as color, is important. He noted that paper documents are aligned with the UN Layout Key (UNLK) and that Microsoft and Adobe support those specification. Owen concurred that separating content from its presentation makes records unreliable for business purposes, and he cited Adobe’s PDF, Microsoft’s XML Paper Specification (XPS), and IBM/PureEdge’s Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL) as examples of efforts to address the underlying business requirement.

Michael referenced a project of the European Union to address layout metadata, including administrative information mapped to the relevant data models. He indicated the eUNLK project is translating the paper formats for trade forms into electronic specifications and he highlighted a number of the relevant standards, both existing and as yet to be developed. Owen expressed pleasure at learning about this initiative and indicated he had encouraged OASIS’s e-Government Technical Committee to undertake such an effort, focusing on a few forms with international application. Sylvia indicates she knows Harm-Jan van Burg, who chairs the e-Gov TC, and would explore prospects for engaging the TC.

Finally, Michael noted that XForms does not go far enough to meet the business requirements. Owen indicated he has been trying to get IBM/PureEdge to register XFDL at ET.gov as a propose specification for inclusion in the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Technical Reference Model (TRM), and he suggested that Microsoft should consider registering XPS as well.

Michael’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/cefact/UNeDocs.htm

Sylvia Webb briefed the group on GEFEG’s CICA Editor. She said it implements a process consistent with the FEA Data Reference Model (DRM) and that it produces syntax-neutral data models, from which XML schemas can automatically be generated. She indicated it is similar to UBL or CCTS but includes three additional layers enabling more specific support for business processes. X12 is using the CICA Editor to create a library similar to TBG17's library of core components.

The editor allows notes to be included as comments in schemas. Rex Brooks asked if such notes could be used to create a data dictionary/glossary, and Sylvia indicated that they could be used for such purposes. Frank Napoli commented on the need for manual interaction with the X12 library, and Sylvia responded that the problem has to do with getting DISA to do the necessary work on the database side. She indicated GEFEG’s tool already includes the necessary functionality to interact with the library as soon as the library itself supports such interaction. She concluded by expressing the hope the CICA Editor will help to accelerate work on the X12 and TBG17 core component libraries.

Sylvia’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/gefeg/cicaeditor.htm

Philo Janus briefed the group on InfoPath, which is part of the Microsoft Office Professional Suite. He noted that Office is becoming an application platform. InfoPath can save data to SOA-enabled Web Services via a SOAP interface. It can also E-mail forms to designated individuals for review and processing. In the next revision, in conjunction with SharePoint, it will be possible to deploy InfoPath forms on the Web without the need for the client software. Spell-check comes with InfoPath out of the box, just as with the other applications in the Suite. It is Ink aware, so users can insert sketches and other handwriting into InfoPath forms as necessary. It supports digital signatures for authentication and nonrepudiation, including counter-signatures and co-signatures. InfoPath forms can be designed against databases and Web Services, as well as XML schemas.

Mike Norton asked if InfoPath creates “clean” or Microsoft-specific XML instance documents and Philo said they are free of any Microsoft dependencies, with the exception of a single processing instruction that can be ignored by applications conforming to the W3C’s XML Schema specification.

Using the ET.gov schema, Philo quickly demonstrated the ease with which forms can be created against XML schemas. Owen indicated he will post the form on the ET.gov site and test it to see if the instances it creates validate against the ET.gov schema. He also noted that NIST provides a schema and content validation service, which will be part of the focus of the xmlCoP’s March 15 meeting, which NIST will be hosting.

Finally, Philo noted that the XML schema for Exhibit 300 has been implemented in InfoPath. Owen asked if the latest version of the schema for Exhibit 300 has been incorporated and Philo indicated he would provide the updated form. Owen also noted the potential to include OMB’s guidance on Exhibit 300 as in-context help within the form itself, and Philo said he would do so next year.

Philo’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/ms1/InfoPath.htm

Since Philo’s laptop had access to the Web, Owen asked if anyone was interested in staying past the noon adjournment time to see a demonstration of some of the new features of i411's faceted search service for ET.gov that Paul Woods was unable to demonstrate earlier in the meeting. Several indicated interest in seeing those new features. So Owen pointed out the numbers indicating how many components and specifications have been registered in each of the facets of the SRM and the top-level facets of the TRM, at http://etgov.i411.com/etgov/WebSearchServlet? He also pointed out that RSS feed capabilities are now available on every query and each component identified on the site. See, for example, http://etgov.i411.com/etgov/WebSearchServlet?ov1=&ov2=&ov3=&ov4=303&ov5=&ov6=&ov7=&oav=1&ops=10&opn=1&osf=&oso=A&osc=&iv7=646&

Those who registered their presence at this meeting were:

Owen Ambur, Co-Chair, xmlCoP

Peter Amstutz, DCMA

[Deleted per attendee's request], BearingPoint & Business Transformation Agency (BTA)

Bruce Cox, USPTO

Michael Dill, GEFEG

Joab Jackson, GCN

Kim Koran, CSC

KC Morris, NIST

Robby Moss, Mitretek Systems

Frank Napoli, LMI

Sol Safran, IRS

Andrew Schoka

Ed Sottile-Jackson, NSA

John Triplett, IRS

John Van Dinther, DCMA

Sylvia Webb, GEFEG US

Mike Williams, DCMA

Those who identified themselves on the teleconference line included:

Rex Brooks, Starbourne Communications

Kathy Flitter, Navy

Brand Niemann, EPA

Mike Norton

Joan Ugljesa

Paul Woods, BTS

Please convey any additions or corrections to Owen_Ambur@ios.doi.gov