Community of Practice Activities

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Community of Practice Activities

• Update for the
• Emerging Technology Subcommittee
• Brand Niemann and Susan Turnbull
• September 16, 2003

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Overview

• 1. Communities of Practice.
• 2. Semantic Technologies for eGov.
• 3. Implementing Component-Based Government
  Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web
  Services.
• 4. Web Services Best Practices.
• 5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org.

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1. Communities of Practice

• Communities of Practice are emerging as
  cross-boundary, organizational structures to
  address service themes - health, justice, etc.
• They are networked improvement communities,
  crossing multiple sectors and government
  boundaries.
• They are comprised of early adopters and frontier
  outpost groups most interested to understand how
  to use social organizing and technology
  leveraging tools.
• Our workshops bring in "scouts" from these
  groups, but so far, are not an entire Community
  of Practice. People appreciate that at the
  workshops and we are learning how to organize
  toward the needed collaborations that require
  "actionable" forms for sound outcomes. We know we
  need to learn how to build stronger relationships
  and a means to create jointly-held business
  processes, so that future technology solutions
  can augment sound processes, and in turn, deliver
  needed results. As someone said at a recent
  workshop, "Technology will go nowhere unless
  people work together, and keep working together
  throughout the process."

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1. Communities of Practice

• To advance the shared understanding needed to
  advance cross-organization business processes, in
  light of FEA, Communities of Practice (CoP) are
  forming that draw together expertise from
  multiple domains. The Emerging Technology
  Subcommittee will continue to learn how to
  establish, deploy and interact with relevant
  Communities of Practice by building upon the
  expertise of early CoP leaders that include
• CIO Councils Knowledge Management Working Group
• http//www.km.gov
• Department of Navy Knowledge Management Community
  of Practice, CIO Office
• http//www.don-imit.navy.mil/quickplace
• Department of Energy, Nuclear Engineering
  Institute and
• The World Bank.

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1. Communities of Practice

• We will use FEA models, "proof of concept"
  pilots, and workshops to advance
• (1) Authoritative Communities of Practice (CoP)
  around Common Business Lines
• (2) Agile Frameworks for building
  intergovernmental services through knowledge
  repositories, and
• (3) Emergence of open standards, semantic web
  services technologies to "distill" context-aware
  data and services needed by people and machines
  to solve problems within complex, adaptive
  systems.

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1. Communities of Practice

• The Emerging Technology Subcommittee has three
  Working Groups that are graduating or evolving to
  become Communities of Practice or
  Collaboration
• XML Owen Ambur (DOI/FWS) and Lee Ellis (GSA).
• XML Web Services Brand Niemann (EPA).
• Collaboration Expedition Susan Turnbull (GSA).
• What we have been doing recently relates closely
  to our new Charter and Leadership Direction!

A open collaboration with open standards
community that focuses on doing things that
actually can and should be put into fairly
common practice.
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2. Semantic Technologies for eGov
Note Our purpose is to try flatten the curve for
the Semantic Web.
Visibility
Five to 10 years Less than two years
Semantic Web
Web-Services-Enabled Business Models
External Web Services Deployments
Extensible Business Reporting Language
Internal Web Services
Note Non-Web Services omitted.
Maturity
Technology Trigger
Peak of Inflated Expectations
Trough of Disillusionment
Slope of Enlightenment
Plateau of Productivity
Source Gartner as of July 2003.
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2. Semantic Technologies for eGov

• Hype Cycle for Government Technologies, 2003
  (Gartner Strategic Analysis report, June 13,
  2003)
• Semantic Web
• Definition Extends the World Wide Web through
  semantic markup languages such as Resource
  Description Framework (RDF), Web Ontology
  Language (OWL), and Topic Maps that describes
  entities and their relationships in the
  underlying document (see Innovative Approaches
  for Improving Information Supply, M-14-3517).
• Time to Plateau/Adoption Speed Five to 10 Years.
• Justification for Hype Cycle Position/Adoption
  Speed So far, there has been little deployment
  of the Semantic Web and there is a significant
  skill shortage.
• Business Impact Areas Can affect the management
  of public sector information. Can provide
  breakthroughs to make the most of government
  metadata modeling.
• Analysis By Alex Linden.

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2. Semantic Technologies for eGov

• September 8th Conference at the White House
  Conference Center
• Part 1 in the Morning
• The W3Cs Semantic Web Activity.
• CIOs Perspective (Kim Nelson, EPA)
• Data Independence and Semantic Web Roadmap.
• The Emerging Vendor Landscape.
• The Gallery and the Vendors.
• Audience Participation.
• Gallery Lunch.
• Part 2 in the Afternoon
• Pilots.
• Interactive Panels of Problem Owners and Solution
  Providers.
• Closing Keynote.
• Closing Remarks, Awards, and Some Next Steps.

Wants help with Community of Practice (CoP) of
those supporting states with XML Schema
development and exchange of XML data!
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2. Semantic Technologies for eGov

• The Federal Government has a Chief Information
  Officer (CIO) Council
• The former Chair was Mark Forman, the eGov Chief,
  and the Vice Chair is Karen Evans who is now the
  new eGov Chief!
• Karen Evans supports Semantic XML Web Services
  in her December 17, 2002, CIO Council Vision
  Statement
• We see the Councils mission as. developing
  taxonomy and XML data definitions that apply
  across government so the information we create
  can be shared and easily accessed regardless of
  its origins.

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3. Implementing Component-Based Government
Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services

• Enterprise Architecture 2003 Conference,
  September 10-12th Presentation Outline
• 1. The CIO Councils Architecture and
  Infrastructure Committee.
• 2. Semantic Technologies for eGov.
• 3. Repurposing Government Enterprise Architecture
  Documents Into Semantic Web Services.
• 4. Components Registry and Repository
• 4.1 Basic Working Implementation of the
  Standards.
• 4.2 Taxonomies with FEA Reference Models.
• 4.3 Example of Components.
• 4.4 XML Schema Components.
• 4.5 Component-Oriented Programming with .NET.

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3. Implementing Component-Based Government
Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services

• The CIO Councils Architecture and Infrastructure
  Committee Leadership wants more collaboration
  across all three Subcommittees so from
• Emerging Technology select Semantic Web
  Services.
• Components select Registry and Repository (Task
  2).
• Governance select Government Enterprise
  Architecture Framework and Data and Information
  Reference Model (Goal 3).
• This brings about a union, an index, a tool, a
  repository, a super-set, a hierarchy, etc. of
  component-based architectures and components
  themselves (A Proposal for Reducing Redundancy in
  and Improving the Quality of Federal, State,
  Local, and Tribal Information, OMB, FEA PMO,
  August 27, 2003).
• Note The FEAC Institute wants to explore
  supplementing its Virtual University
  collaboration, instruction, and exams with
  something like this (Felix Rausch, Executive
  Director, FEAC Certificate Program, August 4,
  2003).
• See Session 3-6 - Technologies for EA Future
  Vision (XML, Topic Maps, repositories,
  Ontologies, etc.).

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3. Implementing Component-Based Government
Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services
Semantic Web Services
Agency 1
Agency 2
Government Data and Information Reference Model
(GDIRM)
State 1
Local 1
State 2
Local 2
Component Registry Repository
Adapted from Reeves and Bernard, How FEA
Reference Models Impact Agency-Wide Strategies,
Enterprise Architecture 2003, September 10-12.
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3. Implementing Component-Based Government
Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services

• Integrate content from FEAPMO, NASCIO, IAC,
  Agencies (Federal and State), etc. and across the
  three CIOC AIC Subcommittees.
• Add structure, interoperability (XML),
  interlinking and search.
• Standardize terminology (on way to Government
  Core Ontology and smart data) for machine EA
  tool processing.
• Include XML Schemas and structured data (forms).
• Show best practices of standards-based, reusable,
  interoperable components.

See http//web-services.gov
Governance, Components, and Emerging Technology
Subcommittees.
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3. Implementing Component-Based Government
Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services

• NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Development
  Tool-Kit v2.0
• The sunset component will have a date of
  discontinuance identified, indicating the date
  that the component will no longer be acceptable
  for use within the architecture.
• Twilight components are those that are in use but
  do not conform to the stated Business/Technology
  Drivers or Technology Architecture Blueprints.
  The components have no date of discontinuance
  identified. These Components should not be used
  to develop new applications. Extensive
  modifications to these systems should be reviewed
  to determine if the system should be redeployed
  completely using newer technology.
• Current components are defined as those having
  met the requirements of the enterprise
  architecture. These represent the recommended
  Components that should be used in deployment of
  technology solutions.
• Emerging products are those that have potential
  to become current architecture blueprint
  components. While identified as Emerging, these
  Components should be used only in pilot or test
  environments and under highly controlled
  regulations. After sufficient testing, these
  Components may become current or may be
  identified non-compliant or non-functional in the
  organizations environment. Use of these
  components requires a variance that must be
  documented and approved through the compliance
  process.

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4. Web Services Best Practices

• September 24th,Web Services Best Practices
  Workshop, White House Conference Center, Agenda
  Highlights
• Web Services Case Studies (930 a.m.)
• Client-business portal and major application
  integration.
• Best Practices for Web Services Development
  (1045 a.m.)
• Interoperability issues with WSDL and XML
  Schemas, design patterns architectures, and
  development and testing practices.
• Web Services Emerging Standards (115 p.m.)
• Web Services Security and Web Services
  Orchestration.
• Comparison of BPEL4WS and WSCI.
• Web Services Management (3 p.m.)
• Monitoring and metering SOAP messages, etc.

Registration Web Site http//www.hp.com/large/eve
nts/2003/xml/
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4. Web Services Best Practices

• Component-Oriented Programming
• Component-oriented programming is the predominant
  software development methodology.
• Attain much greater reusability, extensibility,
  and maintainability than giant, monolithic,
  hard-to-maintain code bases.
• Lead to faster time-to-market, more robust and
  highly scalable applications, and lower
  development and long-term maintenance costs.
• Current component technologies have their
  drawbacks (DCOM is too difficult to master, Java
  doesnt support interoperation with other
  languages, etc.).
• .NET, the newest entrant, is unique and vastly
  easier to use, because .NET architects learned
  from the mistakes of previous technologies.
• Component-oriented programming is different from
  object-oriented programming although the two
  methodologies have things in common.
• A component is a .NET class and every .NET class
  is a binary component.

Source Programming .Net Components - Design and
Build Maintainable Systems Using Component-Oriente
d Programming, Chapter 1 (free) - Introducing
Component-Oriented Programming, Juval Lowy,
O'Reilly Books, 2003. Note Future Phase 2 of the
XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots Meeting Topic.
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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org

• Fostering a Component Technology Marketplace for
  eGovernment with the SBIR/STTR.
• The SBIR for eGov Pilots Team
• Maurice Swinton, Assistant Administrator, Office
  of Technology (SBIR/STTR), US SBA, 202-205-6450,
  maurice.swinton_at_sba.gov
• Brand Niemann, 202-566-1657, niemann.brand_at_epa.gov
  
• Susan Turnbull, 202-501-6214, susan.turnbull_at_gsa.g
  ov
• Tony Stanco, 202-994-5513, stanco_at_gwu.edu
• More to be added.

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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org

• Forms
• Company/Entrepreneur Proposing eGovernment
  Solutions
• Government Agency Looking for eGovernment
  Solutions
• Venture Capital/Angel Investor Willing to Fund a
  Company/Entrepreneur Proposing eGovernment
  Solutions
• Government Agency with a SBIR Program Willing to
  fund a Company/Entrepreneur and Hand-off the SBIR
  Project to the Venture Community in Phase III
• Other Interested Party Seeking to Help

http//www.componenttechnology.org/
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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org

• The Emerging Technology Subcommittees Emerging
  Components Conference Series, June 26th Workshop,
  Draft Recommendations
• 1. The SBA's SBIR and CIO Council's AIC
  communities of interest should collaborate to
  foster small business innovation and development
  of eGovernment information technology components.
  (The work of the CIO Council's AIC to incubate
  E-Forms for E-Gov IT component pilots in support
  of SBA's Business Compliance One-Stop eGov
  Initiative is a good example of how this can
  work.)
• 2. The CIO Council's AIC should provide both
  government-wide and agency-specific topics for
  eGov IT component pilots to the SBA's SBIR
  Program and participate in the SBA's periodic
  meetings with SBIR participating agencies and
  peer review panels.
• 3. A viable and sustainable three -stage process
  should be built by a partnership between the
  SBA's SBIR Program, the CIO Council's AIC, and
  the venture capital community to foster an eGov
  IT components marketplace and government-industry
  registry and repository of reusable IT
  components.
• 4. The collaborative communities of interest
  should promote this activity at events like the
  National Entrepreneurial Conference and Expo,
  September 17-19, 2003, and subsequent regional
  town hall meetings, CIO Council Meetings and
  Workshops, and other jointly agreed upon venues.

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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org
Current
Government
SBIR/ STTC
Small Businesses
Venture Capitalists
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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org
Proposed Relationship to SBIR
Componenttechnology.org - A public-private
partnership

• This opens two doors for
• small businesses
• GSA Schedule, and
• Venture Capitalists.

Government (eGov/FEA)
SBIR/ STTC
Venture Capitalists (eGov/FEA)
Small Businesses (eGov/FEA)
Meets Competition and Contractual Requirements
in SBIR Phase I and II allowing for sole-source
contracts and pre-vetted Venture Capital Support
in Phase III.
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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org

• (1) Inform, encourage, and assist agencies with
  eGovernment Component Technology topics that
  would be useful to their agencies and others
  starting at the SBIR Agency Meeting on September
  11th.
• (2) Set as a goal for FY 2004 the funding of
  about 1 of the SBIR/STTR projects in support of
  eGovernment Component Technology.
• (3) Conduct the regular Emerging Components
  Conference Series starting at the National
  Entrepreneurial Conference and Expo, September
  17-19, 2003, and subsequent regional town hall
  meetings, etc. (http//www.sba.gov/50/index.html).
  
• 2003 NASVF Conference, Presentation, November
  2-5, 2003 (http//www.nasvf.org/conference)
• Web-Enabled Government 2004 Conference, February
  3-5, 2004, Proposed Session (http//www.e-gov.com/
  speaking.asp)
• FOSE 2004, Regular Emerging Component Conference,
  March 23-25, 2004 (http//www.fose.com)

Will include vendor interoperability
demonstrations (c.f. http//www.xmethods.net/wsid/
).
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5. SBIR for eGov and Componenttechnology.org

• Top 10 Reasons to Seek SBIR / STTR Funding
  Opportunities
• 10. Over 1.6 Billion available.
• 9. NOT A LOAN - no repayment.
• 8. Provides recognition, verification and
  visibility.
• 7. Potential leveraging tool to attract venture
  capital/other sources of .
• 6. Fosters partnerships (e.g., large
  corporations, academia).
• 5. Creates jobs and stimulates local, state and
  national economies.
• 4. Provides seed money to fund high risk
  projects.
• 3. Intellectual property rights are normally
  retained by the small business.
• 2. Small business concerns are recognized as a
  unique national resource of technological
  innovation.
• 1. To make economic and societal contributions to
  America.