AHDIT: Ad Hoc Data Interoperability Tool - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: AHDIT: Ad Hoc Data Interoperability Tool


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AHDIT Ad Hoc Data Interoperability Tool

• Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau
• Dept. of Computing Science
• University of Aberdeen
• scharlau_at_csd.abdn.ac.uk

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The Problem
Sept 11 2001 Exchange data on Suspects Victims Po
tential Victims
Philippines
France
NYPD Washington DC
UK
50 Other States
How can so many different organisations exchange
information?
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Current Practice
Word Doc
Word Doc
Exchange MS Word documents 1. Enter data into
own system 2. Export report to other party 3.
Recipient then enters data into own system -
Potential for error as data re-entered - Requires
more clerical staff - Creates a bottleneck at the
start of investigations
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A Common Problem

• This problem arises when there are large scale
• Terrorist incidents
• Transport disasters
• Natural disasters, ie earthquakes, hurricanes
• International war, ie refugees and victims
• The problem occurs when common data procedures
  and agreements are not already present between
  the parties involved.

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Current State of Affairs

• Organisations have problems communicating
  internally as evidenced by knowledge management
  applications
• problems finding experts in organisations
• problems sharing information in organisations
• Organisations communicate externally even less
  well
• Governments implementing interoperability
  progammes
• Some governments setting standards for XML use
  with XML Schema.
• UK US working towards standard XML policies

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Semantic Web

• Give meaning to and extending the WWW
• Machine processable, not human readable
• Built upon structured collections of data and
  inference rules
• Use of XML and related languages

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AHDIT Semantic Web

• AHDIT builds upon the Semantic Web
• use structured data of the XML and XML Schema to
  create RDF models that can be compared
• work with standard practices of organisations
• no new procedures need to be introduced

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Semantic Web Layers

• AHDIT works with XML, XML Schema and RDF, RDF
  Schema layers
• XML XMLS are being deployed by governments
  today
• AHDIT lifts this to next level of RDF RDFS

Source Tim Berners Lee http//www.w3.org/2000/Ta
lks/1206-xml2k-tbl/slide10-0.html
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XML- Extensible Markup Language

• W3C Standard of human readable text
• Provides structured content - still need to know
  what author means

ltBookgt ltTitlegtMy Life and
Timeslt/Titlegt ltAuthorgtPaul
McCartneylt/Authorgt
ltDategt1998lt/Dategt
ltISBNgt1-56592-235-2lt/ISBNgt
ltPublishergtMcMillin Publishinglt/Publishergt
lt/Bookgt
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XML Schema

• The XML Schema file (xsd) defines whether an XML
  document is valid or not.
• The XML file could also be labelled as an
  instance of an XSD file.

ltxsdelement name"Book"gtltxsdcomplexTypegtltxsdse
quencegt ltxsdelement ref"Title"
minOccurs"1" maxOccurs"1"/gt ltxsdelement
ref"Author" minOccurs"1" maxOccurs"1"/gt
ltxsdelement ref"Date" minOccurs"1"
maxOccurs"1"/gt ltxsdelement ref"ISBN"
minOccurs"1" maxOccurs"1"/gt ltxsdelement
ref"Publisher" minOccurs"1" maxOccurs"1"/gt
lt/xsdsequencegtlt/xsdcomplexTypegtlt/xsdelementgt
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RDF- Resource Definition Framework

• Aimed at providing information about meta-data
  for WWW resources.
• AHDIT builds this up from the XML Schema

ltrdfDescription rdfabout'BookStore'gt
ltNS0Author rdfresource'Author'/gt
ltNS0Book rdfresource'Book'/gt
ltNS0BookStoregthttp//www.books.orglt/NS0BookStore
gt ltNS0Date rdfresource'Date'/gt
ltNS0ISBN rdfresource'ISBN'/gt ltNS0Title
rdfresource'Title'/gt ltNS0BookStore
rdfresource'BookStore'/gt ltNS0Publisher
rdfresource'Publisher'/gt lt/rdfDescriptiongt
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The Goal
Direct application to application communication
State A
State B
Application
Application
Export report
Import or type report
Email or post report
We want to move from the email route to the
direct route
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Phase 1 Solution

• Mixed Method
• export report
• send to second party
• convert to XML
• run through AHDIT
• import modified report

App 1
App 2
DB 1
DB 2
Export report
Import report
State A
State B
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AHDIT Phase 1 Solution

• Application takes in two XSD files, and the new
  XML file to be integrated

State B RDF
State B XSD
AHDIT
Modified State A XML
State A XSD
RDF not B
State A XML
State A RDF
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Phase 1 Solution Notes

• User determines what is changed in RDF not B to
  create Modified State A XML file.
• User needs to know the domain to make correct
  changes.
• Original document left untouched.

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AHDIT Solution Phases

• Phase 1 - parse and compare the documents
• Phase 2 - establish community methods
• local server with knowledge of partner
  organisations
• maps to convert to their data structures stored
• Phase 3 - develop agent facilities to automate
  methods
• Aim towards less human intervention

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Possible Phase 3 Solution
App 3
AHDIT
AHDIT
XML
DB 3
XML
A 2
App 1
App 2
DB 1
DB 2
Negotiate
A 1
AHDIT
- create app to integrate data into current
systems - would need search, find and bind
procedures
State A
State B
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Further Solution Notes

• Security needs to be incorporated
• Ontology tools to manage knowledge and the data
• Language tools to manage diverse users and
  contente
• German vs, French, vs English issues, etc
• Communication method between parties
• Possibly RPC or SOAP for the first two phases
• Probably need agent communication languages for
  phase 3

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Summary

• Organisations need to exchange information
• Current methods are laborious, repetitious, and
  error prone
• Movement towards XML XML Schema
• Today methods and concepts are available to allow
  for ad hoc interoperability between applications
  and organisations