What is NIEM?

An end-user driven, federally supported, government-wide initiative, NIEM connects communities of people who share a common need to exchange information in order to advance their missions.

The NIEM Vision

The NIEM vision is to be the best practice, by choice, for intergovernmental information exchange. Practitioners at all levels of government and industry will share accurate, complete, timely, and appropriately secured information to enable informed decision making for the greater good. NIEM will provide a common vocabulary to ensure consistency and understanding among domains that may not collaborate traditionally to simplify the process of information sharing between them.

NIEM:

Is a foundation for information exchange.
Offers a common vocabulary so that when two or more people talk to each other they can exchange information based on common words that they both understand.
Is community-driven.
Provides a data model, governance, methodologies, training, technical assistance, and an active community to assist users in adopting a standards-based approach to exchanging information.
Provides technical tools to support development, discovery, dissemination, and reuse of information exchanges.
Provides a forum for accelerating collaboration as well as identifying common approaches and challenges to exchanging information.

NIEM is Not:

The actual exchange of information. NIEM describes the data that is in motion in the exchange.
A database or system. NIEM does not store information.
Intrusive to existing systems. NIEM allows organizations to move information quickly and effectively without rebuilding systems.
Software.
A technology stack. NIEM is technology agnostic and addresses the data layer, which means you can use NIEM irrespective of the particular technologies used within an organization.
Just for law enforcement and justice. Fourteen domains participate in NIEM with additional domains forming.
Strictly for federal government. NIEM is used in all 50 states, as well as local and tribal governments and private industry.
Limited by national borders. NIEM is used internationally.

Questions about NIEM?

Learn more on our FAQs page or contact us.

Be sure to read the Top Ten Reasons to Adopt NIEM and Ten Frequent NIEM Myths Debunked.

"The Magic of NIEM" Video

Donna Roy, NIEM Executive Director, draws an analogy between NIEM and a bank card transaction, both of which use the power of a common language to enable the cross-jurisdictional exchange of information, while protecting the information’s integrity.

The Magic of NIEM Transcript

"What is NIEM" Video

Donna Roy, NIEM Executive Director, and Kshemendra Paul, Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment (ISE), define NIEM and talk about its benefits and increased adoption.

What is NIEM Transcript