Federal Government Directory Initiatives

1
Federal Government Directory Initiatives
Curt Sawyer, Associate ba h Martin Smith IS
Director, U.S. International Trade
Commission Chair, CIO Council Directory Forum
Working Group

• EMA 2000
• Boston
• April 6, 2000

2
Introduction

• Government agencies have more than one hundred
  directories each - these directories contain
  incomplete data reproduced many times in many
  places and maintained by many people.
• With the push to present one agency view, the
  Government is looking closely at directories and
  their consolidation.
• Many agencies are now using and consolidating
  directories to solve actual problems, including
  the one-agency view.

3
Purpose

• To present various Government-wide and agency
  initiatives underway today.
• To provide agencies with fellow Government
  points-of-contact for help in directory planning
  and lessons learned.

4
Agenda

• Background
• The Governments Direction Today
• Directory Consolidation
• Government-wide Initiatives
• Specific Agency Initiatives
• The Governments Direction in the Future
• Closing
• Contact Information

5
Background

• The Nature of Government
• Large, autonomous organizations
• Limited funding
• Public access
• The Nature of Government Directories
• Single-purpose
• Proprietary-based
• Islands of data

6
USGold - An Early Attempt
Background...

• The United States Government On-Line Directories
  was a General Services Administration service to
  provide Government-wide directories, initially
  based on X.500
• Federal Blue Pages
• Federal White Pages
• Government internet services index
• Government web site certification
• Federal Yellow Pages and on-line catalogs
• Federal Green Pages

7
USGold - From Start to Finish
Background...

• Initial operating capability achieved October,
  1997
• Participated in EMAs Challenge 97 by providing
  CUS and OU.S. Government nodes
• Evolved into a combination of X.500, Lightweight
  Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and Oracle
• Federal Blue Pages spun off in 1998
• Federal White Pages spun off in 1999
• Public access shut down in late 1999

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The Governments Direction Today

• Current agency initiatives are towards directory
  consolidation - a one-agency, not organizational,
  view.
• Current Government-wide initiatives include PKI,
  Federal Blue Pages, and Federal White Pages.

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Directory Consolidation
The Governments Direction Today...

• Managing information on organizational resources
  is resource intensive managing data in a
  continually changing environment is complex.
• The advantages of consolidation include
• Data is accurate and relevant because it is
  entered once
• Can enable applications such as single logon
• Data is updated nearly instantly when an employee
  joins or leaves
• Users and applications have a single source for
  all data

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Advantages of Directory Consolidation
Directory Consolidation...

• Data is accurate and relevant because it is
  entered once
• Reduced duplicate directory administration costs.
  
• Data management does not require technology
  specific administrators
• Improved service to the public and to Government
• Can enables applications such as single logon
• Passwords are stored in a single directory

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The Further Advantages of Consolidation
Directory Consolidation...

• Data is updated nearly instantly when an employee
  joins or leaves
• Improved Security
• Users and applications have a single source for
  all data
• Increased user productivity because data is easy
  to locate
• Enables focus on core competencies so an
  organization can achieve its mission

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Government-wide Initiatives
The Governments Direction Today...

• Federal Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
• Federal Blue Pages
• Federal White Pages

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The Federal PKI Initiative
Government-wide initiatives...

• Federal PKI Approach
• Establish Federal PKI Policy Authority
• Develop/deploy Bridge CA using COTS
• Prototype early 2000, production mid 2000
• S/MIME is the main expected early target
  application
• Deal with directory issues in parallel
• Use ACES for public transactions
• Over 50 members from two dozen agencies

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More on the Federal PKI Initiative
Government-wide initiatives...

• Three Working Groups
• Business
• Technical
• Legal and Policy
• Minutes/activities on the web
• http//gits-sec.treas.gov
• POC Rich Guida
• Chair, Federal PKI Steering Committee
• Richard.Guida_at_cio.treas.gov

15
The Federal Blue Pages
Government-wide initiatives...

• GSA Administrator Barram on the Federal Blue
  Pages
• Telephone lists are often the first contact the
  public has with the government. Considering the
  way they looked, they might be the last contact
• Phone books are in tiny print and hard to read
• Include obscure entries like Shed 213
• Organized by Government Departments and Agencies,
  not products or services
• Passport Office under State Department
• Medicare under HCFA, under HHS

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More on the Federal Blue Pages
Government-wide initiatives...

• Standardization and re-categorization of the blue
  pages in all hard-copy phone books across the
  country.
• Data repository is Oracle with Cold Fusion
  providing a Web interface for administrators,
  agencies, and the public.
• Program Manager Bonnie Seybold of GSA-Federal
  Technology Service.
• bonnie.seybold_at_gsa.gov
• http//www.bp.gov

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Federal Blue Pages Accomplishments
Government-wide initiatives...

• Coordination among most public and industry
  partners
• Implemented data/billing automation mechanism
• Providing maintenance/update of listings
• Providing blue pages information on the Web
• Developed and staff a customer feedback 800
  number
• 60 of U.S. households new listings 10/99
• International Partnerships

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US Coverage Progression
Government-wide initiatives...
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The Federal White Pages
Government-wide initiatives...

• A project of the Enterprise Interoperability and
  Emerging Information Technology Committee (EIEIT)
  of the Federal CIO Council.
• EIEIT Goals
• Long term Promote interoperable, standards-based
  IT infrastructure in Federal agencies, as a key
  component of electronic services delivery
• Short term Demonstrate working application based
  on LDAP directory technology
• Provide useful information(!!) current telephone
  number and e-mail addresses of Federal employees
• http//directory.gov

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White Pages Design Goals
Government-wide initiatives...

• Directory of contact info for Federal employees,
  for use by Federal employees, partners and the
  public
• Low cost to agencies for participation
• Data at least as current as printed directories
• Work with just a browser, but also support
  Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
• Provide lookups at Internet speed
• Be extensible to more complex applications like
  PKI or policy management

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White Pages Technical Approach
Government-wide initiatives...

• Non-distributed single server (Innosoft on Sun)
  contains entire directory (performance,
  simplicity)
• Use data from agencies existing, operational,
  authoritative data sources, like e-mail and phone
  directories (low cost, relatively high quality)
• Accept whatever is available (partial schema,
  partial coverage) and build on that
• Agencies FTP full-replacement updates in LDIF
  format directory host analyzes add-change-delete
  and dynamically re-shapes OU tree (low
  cost/effort to agencies)

22
White Pages Status Today
Government-wide initiatives...

• Includes full or partial data from 17 Federal
  agencies, including 9 of 14 Departments
• Includes about 280,000 person entries
• Accessible via http (Web browser) or LDAP (e.g.,
  can be configured as an alternate Addressbook to
  your MSIE or Netscape Communicator browser)
• Searchable by name, name fragment, or name within
  agency limited organizational drill-down
• Search response time typically a few seconds

23
White Pages Lessons-Learned and Challenges
Government-wide initiatives...

• Effort is 90 percent policy/politics/persuasion/
  nagging, and 10 percent technical
• Metadirectory would really help.
  State-of-the-art is long Perl scripts. Just want
  to join telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.
• Bad news agency directory content is very
  fragmented good news now they know it.
• Immediate goal go from 280K entries to 1M

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Specific Agency Initiatives
The Governments Direction Today...

• A sample of some specific agencies efforts with
  directories and directory consolidation
• Department of Commerce
• Department of the Treasury
• Department of Transportation - FAA
• Department of Defense
• Department of the Treasury - BPD

25
Department of Commerce
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Goals (1) directory consolidation for internal
  messaging/locator (2) support for Secretary
  Daleys Digital Department concept
• Schedule CIO-sponsored Department-wide
  directory affinity group now meeting to
  identify technical issues and options tentative
  goal of building Department-wide
  directory/locator based on LDAP by end of
  CY2000.
• Technical Existing X.500 directory in NOAA
  bureau scheduled to be replaced by Netscape. May
  become basis for Departmental infrastructure
• Directory Forum Rep - Ted Slusarczyk in
  http//directory.gov

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Department of the Treasury
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Goals PKI support and consolidated messaging
• Schedule Departmental White Pages by end of
  FY2000.
• Technical Siemens X.500 just installed by CIO
  Office.
• Directory Forum Rep - Serena Eriksen and
  Bernadette Curry in http//directory.gov

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Department of Transportation - Federal Aviation
Administration
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Currently planning the migration of a population
  of 50,000 users from ccMail as the sole
  agency-wide directory
• Current Plan
• Analyze existing directory infrastructure -
  completion scheduled for May 2000
• Develop a directory deployment strategy starting
  in June 2000

28
Department of Transportation - Federal Aviation
Administration
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Key facets
• Promote ONE DOT interoperability initiatives
• Support PKI initiatives
• Solution must be broader than e-mail and support
  a variety of end users
• POCs
• John Rossi - john.rossi_at_faa.dot.gov
• Steve Sill - stephen.sill_at_tasc.dot.gov.

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Department of Defense
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Defense Messaging Service (DMS)
• Organizational messaging with security
• X.500 based
• High Assurance
• Must be signed and encrypted
• DoD PKI
• Individual messaging with security
• Netscape LDAP solution
• Medium Grade Assurance
• Must be signed

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Department of Defense
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• DMS
• LTC Mike McHargue - mchargum_at_ncr.disa.mil
• PKI
• Ms. Becky Harris - harris1b_at_ncr.disa.mil
• LCDR Paul Friedrichs - friedrip_at_ncr.disa.mil

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Department of the Treasury - Bureau of the Public
Debt
Specific Agency Initiatives...

• Designing an enterprise meta-directory
• Survey existing directories
• Create an enterprise directory design
• Select a platform and solution
• Implement the metadirectory
• Key facets
• Information consolidation
• LDAP-standard
• Serve internal and external customer needs
• Rosa Nelson - rnelson_at_bpd.treas.gov

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The Governments Direction in the Future

• Continued directory consolidation efforts
• Public Key Infrastructure
• The world (of messaging) is not enough
  directories will be key element in electronic
  services delivery (e-government)
• Government paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)
  requirement for accepting digitally signed forms
  by FY2003.

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Closing

• Purpose review
• To present various agency initiatives underway
  today.
• To provide agencies with fellow Government
  points-of-contact for help in directory planning
  and lessons learned.
• Questions and Answers

34
Contact Information

• Curt Sawyer, Associate
• ba h
• 703-902-5243
• sawyer_curtis_at_bah.com
• Martin Smith, IS Director and CIO Council
  Directory Forum Working Group Chair
• US International Trade Commission
• 202-205-3258
• msmith_at_usitc.gov
• (or look me up in http//directory.gov !)