The Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) are on a clear path to convergence. Based on a period of intensive study by the Global XML Structure Task Force (XSTF), and as confirmed in policy meetings of the Global Advisory Committee (GAC), the GJXDM and NIEM standards will become a single highly integrated data model for the use of developers in justice and other domains.
The convergence strategy is that the GJXDM will become the justice domain of NIEM and version 4.0 of the GJXDM will be released concurrently with the release of version 1.1 of NIEM early second quarter 2007. At that time, NIEM will contain all of the content and functionality originally planned for GJXDM Version 3.1 that has been constructed for the GJXDM in a separate domain space. The namespace for GJXDM 4.0 will be JXDM.
NIEM 1.0 introduced the notion of multiple domains each having their own name space, with the core data elements residing in universal, common and structures namespaces.
NIEM 1.1 will incorporate the features of NIEM 1.0, GJXDM 3.0.3, and GJXDM 3.1. Additionally it will support a level of version independence of NIEM domains under certain constraints and guidelines necessary to support consistency across the model and independent IEPD development by stakeholders.
There are several significant changes planned for GJXDM 4.0 in order to achieve the high level of integration with NIEM that is envisioned. First and foremost is that GJXDM 4.0 will take full advantage of the re-factoring and new structure introduced in NIEM 1.0. The structure of GJXDM 4.0 will conform with and be compatible with the structure of NIEM 1.0 which will not be substantially modified in the release of NIEM 1.1. Refactoring is most prominent in the new expressions related to PropertyType and ActivityType.
GJXDM 4.0 will conform to the naming and design rules of NIEM. This domain, like others that are being similarly integrated into NIEM, will have versioning independence so that future releases can be made on an independent timeline from the NIEM core itself. Those data elements found to be of universal or common interest across domains will be moved from the GJXDM to the NIEM core namespace.
A common set of developer and discovery tools and documentation will be developed to support the creation of IEPDs using the converged GJXDM 4.0/NIEM 1.1 model. The subset schema generator, NIEM IEPD tool and potentially other tools will be available at the time the final public release is made. The intent is that a single tool will generate a sub-schema based on 2 or more of the participating domains without requiring separate integration toolsets.
The GJXDM justice domain will be independently governed by the existing governance structure including the Global Advisory Committee and the XSTF. Further, the governance structure for NIEM is designed to support representation from Global as well as other domains, so that the justice community is well represented in discussions and decisions affecting multiple domains. It is anticipated that members of the GJXDM XSTF will serve on the NIEM Business Architecture Committee (NBAC) and NIEM Technical Architecture Committee (NTAC) where decisions will be made on NIEM content and technical issues. Organizations desiring to build standards compliant, cross-domain exchanges can use the forthcoming initial release of NIEM (version 1.0) as a basis for analysis and planning for the release of initial operating capabilities, aiming at incorporating NIEM 1.1 as the final basis of production systems. NIEM 1.0 was designed by re-factoring the GJXDM into a structure that better supports cross-domain information sharing. In developing a common vocabulary and data structure for information exchanges across domains, NIEM was expanded to recognize and incorporate the needs of additional domains including emergency management, intelligence, and other related domains. The structure of the model will be sustained in the 1.1 release of NIEM, so that analytical work completed on the basis of the 1.0 release can be carried forward with minimal changes to support the converged release of NIEM 1.1 and GJXDM 4.0.
The GJXDM emerged as a consensual standard developed by a representative group of local and state justice practitioners and industry to serve as a basis for information exchanges in the law enforcement and justice world. The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security recognized and endorsed the work of the justice stakeholders and adopted the GJXDM as a basis for the creation of NIEM in a memorandum of understanding signed in April, 2005. NIEM was developed to facilitate information exchanges across domains, and the NIEM governance structure was designed to incorporate representation from participating domains to establish a process of gaining agreement on data element definitions and relationships that would make it easier to construct cross-domain information sharing,
Much of the work in guiding or contributing to NIEM is based on the experiences of the stakeholders involved in the development of the GJXDM, so that the successes of participatory management will carry over to the NIEM applications. NIEM is designed around the principle that it will be adopted by multiple domains as a choice to foster inter-domain information sharing.
To help ensure interoperability between information systems, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are in the process of updating existing grant special condition language to offer further guidance and promote consistent implementation of the NIEM/GJXDM data models.
