**Plan for Derived XML Registry**

**By Rex Brooks**

**For XML Community of Practice Meeting**

**January 19, 2005**

**Plan for Derived XML Registry**

**Introduction:** Humanmarkup.org, Inc. in collaboration with Plumtree
Software Inc. plans to demonstrate to the XML Community of Practice
practical methodologies to assemble or populate an XML-based Registry of
XML-based, or XML-related documents, applications and standards taken
from the Firstgov.gov website. We will show how such a population can be
searched through a WSRP Web Crawler Portlet on a Public Service WSRP
Portal that can facilitate the identification of relevant standards
through a generic web browser interface.

From that population we will generate a number of reports, such as
identifying those documents which are or use XSDs, which are or use
XSD-based or --related structured information data standards. We will
then demonstrate how ontologically-organized searches can identify
useful patterns based on the elements, attributes, attributeGroups,
simpleTypes and complexTypes, etc., as well as identifying terms which
occur in multiple standards schema for comparing and contrasting, and
forming the basis for discussion on the inevitable issue of how best to
recommend methods for harmonizing, reconciling, or separating
definitions and datatypes for these terms by namespace for correct
usage.

No doubt, this audience hardly needs reminding why open XML-based
domain-specific standards are valuable for the Governmental Agency
community, but we want to connect a wider viewpoint in this
demonstration, so this short paper and presentation can service as a
prologue to the demonstration we hope to schedule for March.

**Problem Statement:** The value of open standards has been recognized
widely within the Federal Governmental Agencies Community for the
usually noted reasons of reducing duplicated and/or overlapping IT
efforts, allowing a variety IT systems integration and rendering
application data interoperable across agencies and platforms, all of
which will realize the kind of ROI which in governmental terms means
savings of taxpayer monies. However, due to a sometimes bewildering
proliferation of standards, many of which appear to be overlapping or
duplicated themselves, a similar proliferation of domain or
agency-specific adoptions of, often with modifications to, various
XML-based standards has already taken place even before the notions
inherent in the Federal (FEA) Architecture have taken hold, or the full
government-wide Reference Models completed.

**Usual Suspects Solution:** Like a standard gauge for railroads in the
late 19th Century, standards make the products of businesses within
industries more or less interoperable and that provides efficiency,
usability and lower costs. In the last five years, as IT has come to the
fore, XML has emerged as the only viable path to salvage the vital and
necessary remaining value from the legacy systems whose lifecycles are
nearing their endpoints while allowing for a means to carry the data and
information forward from of dawn of the digital information age into the
future of quantum computing. However, while improvements continue, even
as the follow-on problems are encountered, we see no showstoppers on the
horizon, and consequently, we advise remaining on course though we also
advise remaining vigilant while attending to the problems as they
present themselves.

However, as the recent, compelling example of the FBI's attempt to build
a Virtual Case File System as part of their ambitious Trilogy computer
system upgrade program, painfully illustrates, there are pitfalls in
every choice, whether choosing to build a government-specific single
vendor or service-provider solution or choosing an XML-based, open
standards-optimized solution. The very enticing idea of choosing a
single major vendor or IT integration service or an open standards
approach assuming that lack of royalty dependence confers automatically
appropriate functionality, the choice most likely to result in disaster
can likely be found in direct proportion to how easy it seems to be for
the decision-makers. This makes it extremely important for the
professional community within the overall governmental agency community
to carefully educate the decision makers.

If we may be allowed to draw an analogy from the entertainment domain,
we are very much in the role of the Wile E. Coyote character chasing the
Roadrunner character off a cliff, having failed to notice how the smart
little bird has stopped just short of the edge. Unlike the cartoon, WE
can redraw the sequence, provided we can be nimble and adroit enough.
Yet, like the animation metaphor being used here, the process is not
without its own challenges.

And, like animation, and other special effects in film and video, the
very computer that has made such incredible advancements possible is the
main source of both problem and solution.

Whichever choice is made, initially the cost is great when dealing with
the products of technological development. That is always a fact of
life, even though we want to plan a flexible solution that can grow into
the future. Yet, the cost drops quickly over time, as power increases.

Regardless, cutting edge equipment and solutions remain the costliest
and the most risky, at least in the short term. However, as both our
experience and the technology increase apace, the cost and risk comes
down as our ability to make wiser choices also increases, once the
commitment has been made. So, we are behooved to make the commitment,
accept the challenge to remain on the learning curve in the expectation
that we will achieve our goals sooner rather than later by solving the
inevitable challenges along the road sooner rather than later, as well.
So must we also challenge ourselves to test our assumptions
ruthlesslessly in order to remove or improve inadequate or insufficient
measures

(Note: what this demonstration is intended to provide for this community
is a tool with which to persuade those decision-makers that if we are to
have the interoperability we covet, we must arrange it so that the large
vendors understand that their profits depend less on a monolithic
solution and more on the ease of interoperability of their products with
the products of all other vendors and that their products must
henceforward deliver better performance, not smoother marketing and more
clever assurances.)

**Generalities Aside:** Enough progress and commitment has been made for
this solution through the Federal Enterprise Architecture and the
previous legislative and executive mandates that we need not make the
case for adoption, per se, but for smarter adoption, and an XML Registry
is the wisest path for smarter adoption.

**Nuts and Bolts:** As the full paper and presentation will detail,
there is a laundry list of legislation and executive mandates,
specifically generated out of the Office of Management and Budget which
must be accounted by each agency and department in regard to all IT
investments. This directly impacts which standards will be most used,
and, therefore, which standards will be the likeliest candidates for
widespread reuse throughout the government. Our demonstration is aimed
at revealing this, as well as suggesting that more focused work needs to
be done through the CIO Council and the Chief Architects Forum in order
to make this ongoing process more effective and less confusing.

**Show and Tell:** Because our research has shown that simply
identifying means by which an XML Registry can aid agencies and
departments in fulfilling their budgeting and review tasks in building
IT investment plans, we will take this process a step further. Simply
discovering standards and terms is a start, but connecting it to
practical problems seems like a valuable effort, especially given the
context of making sense out of what can be a confusing welter of
information standards and practices. So we will show some ways in which
the utility of such a Registry can be applied.

We will demonstrate HOW seemingly contradictory requirements for making
a sound Business Case that also follows both the FEA Reference Models
and the Lines of Business (LOB) Analysis that the OMB has identified as
being required for certain recurring activities government-wide,
actually CAN be done while remaining within the single page summary
allotted for it\... or we will show how it can be justified or necessary
to expand that a bit.

**Summary:** This short paper was meant to be brief and touch upon the
highpoints we want to make in the equally short presentation. The intent
is to give an idea of where we will take the broader presentation and
paper. So, in short, we want to make practical sense out of the XML
Standards in use on Firstgov.gov and tie that to using XML Standards
through a Registry to achieve the mandated goals and objectives of
E-Government.