NIEM Newsletter

March 7, 2007

From the Program Executive:

NIEM Operating Principles

It is clear from early adoption and pilot tests that NIEM will facilitate the automated exchange of information among communities of interest in support of their shared missions in law enforcement, justice administration, public safety, emergency and disaster management, and homeland security.

To be successful, NIEM must be widely adopted and used and result in tangible business value, which in turn will drive further adoption and use. In order to achieve this state, the NIEM Executive Team has settled on a number of basic principles that we believe to be the essential criteria for decision-making and policy development as we continue to roll out new and improved versions of NIEM. These principles are forming the building blocks of our work on behalf of the NIEM stakeholder communities:

Accessibility—NIEM is designed to support operational requirements for information sharing among practitioners and among all branches of government, at all levels, and across jurisdictional boundaries. As a consequence, practitioners and industry are encouraged to participate in NIEM in a variety of ways. We cannot achieve broad based participation in the development of NIEM based exchanges without ensuring that all prospective users have full access to the information and the tools that have been developed to make NIEM useful. Further, it is of utmost importance that the governance and operations of the NIEM program are transparent and responsive. The periodic publishing of this newsletter is one of the ways we envision carrying out this program mandate.
Semantic Integrity—The NIEM information exchange standards are:a) reflected in the model in a coherent and consistent manner; b) used by the model and governance constructs in a consistent manner; and, c) documented in a complete and actionable manner. The result is a model that ensures semantic integrity by guaranteeing that data content reflects consistent and correct values. Part of fulfilling this promise is the extensive harmonization effort currently underway. This effort involves multiple communities of interest that have been working together since the release of NIEM 1.0. The results are scheduled for inclusion in the forthcoming release NIEM 2.0.
Low Total Cost of Ownership—Consistent use of NIEM can result, and has resulted in measurable cost savings (both initially and ongoing) as a consequence of: a) utilizing standardized analysis, development and implementation methodologies; b) effective reuse of common data exchange specifications and data components; and, c) leveraging the economies of scale afforded by shared governance, training, technical assistance, engineering and outreach resources. For the sponsoring organizations, the effective sharing of the investment in these resources can result in higher value to stakeholders as NIEM makes mission support more practical and cost-effective.
Scalability—NIEM processes, tools, and information exchange standards are scaleable. They apply to information sharing with equal force, and can do so regardless of the breadth or scope of the information sharing goals being contemplated — irrespective of the level, unit or branch of government involved. The NIEM PMO is committed to ensuring this principle for the long term. It is essential to the further enhancement and growth of the data components required to support the addition of future NIEM domains. Accordingly, NIEM design decisions will take the need for scalability into account in every step forward.

Kshemendra Paul
NIEM Program Executive &
Chief Enterprise Architect
U.S. DOJ

The NIEM PMO welcomes Ms. Donna Roy to the NIEM Executive Team

Ms. Roy serves as the Director of the Enterprise Data Management Office for the Department of Homeland Security. She also serves as the chair of the NIEM National Priority Exchange Panel, which is responsible for facilitating the development of national priority exchanges, such as: terrorist watchlist, people screening and incident reporting. The panel will be responsible for identifying new priority exchanges for consideration by the NIEM Executive Steering Committee, and will engage authoritative representatives of agencies involved in national priority exchanges to ensure the achievement of strategic national priorities.

NIEM Spotlight — SAR

The SAR Project was launched in 2006 to build a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Information Exchange Package Document (IEPD). The SAR Working Group is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of experts, including: Fusion center and law enforcement subject matter experts; industry technologists; and, representatives of Federal exchange partners from the Program Manager of the Information Sharing Environment, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. SAR is defined as: "behavior that may be indicative of intelligence gathering or pre-operational planning related to terrorism, criminal, espionage, or other illicit intention."

Following a methodology developed for the creation of an IEPD, the participants met to develop scenario based business rules and data component requirements. These requirements are being mapped into NIEM conformant exchange specifications by modeling the relationships among the relevant data sets. The draft of an implementation ready set of XML schemas, sample instances and style-sheets with documentation, along with the aforementioned models will be posted and publicly available for consideration by affected stakeholders on 3/30/07.

NIEM Adoption — New York State

When New York State was looking to upgrade their justice portal, they were committed to the use of national standards. After a comprehensive evaluation, New York made the strategic decision to leverage NIEM as the foundation for information exchange. The Integrated Justice Portal (IJP) project will use NIEM to help connect data sources from: the Upstate New York Regional Intelligence Center (New York State's Fusion Center); and, the New York State Police, Corrections, Parole and Criminal Justice Services organizations.

To date, the project has published 18 NIEM IEPDs to the NIEM clearinghouse. "The IEPDs we've created so far are associated with the Wanted Person System, Missing Person System and Unidentified Person Systems, stated Connie Snyder, Director of IT Development, New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Added Dennis McCann of the New York State Police "from the New York State Police side of the project, we have 49 IEPDs nearing completion today, and they revolve around typical NCIC / NLETS transactions". New York is in the development and test phase of the project, with a planned operational date for the fall of 2007. When complete, New York will have created and implemented over 200 NIEM IEPDs, including an integrated Rap Sheet.

NIEM Executive Director Kshemendra Paul selected for Federal Computer Week IT Award

NIEM Executive Director Kshemendra Paul has been selected as one of this year's Federal 100 — the top executives from government, industry and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community in 2006.

Each year, an independent panel of judges decides the winners, and they selected Mr. Paul because of the difference he has made in the way agencies and companies develop, acquire, manage and use information technology.

As the Executive Director of NIEM, he works with the Executive Steering Council (ESC) to set the strategic direction, funding, and policies for NIEM. The ESC consists of key public representatives and stakeholders from all NIEM domains. Mr. Paul is also charged with leading the NIEM Project Management Office (PMO), the operational arm for NIEM.

FCW plans to recognize his accomplishments in the March 26 issue of Federal Computer Week magazine and at a black-tie gala held Monday, March 26. During the event, Federal Computer Week will bestow Eagle awards on two Federal 100 winners — one government official and one industry executive — to recognize their extraordinary contributions to the federal IT community in 2006.

Developers Corner

The National Information Sharing Standards knowledge center and help desk assists users in finding answers to their technical questions regarding the content, principles and best practices for using the GJXDM and NIEM. The NISS knowledge center is the primary source for the practitioner and solution provider communities for GJXDM and NIEM best-practices. The practitioner community includes all justice and public safety community practitioners who reside in local, state, Federal, and tribal government agencies. The solution provider community includes all firms engaged in the definition, design, development, deployment and support for systems using these national standards. Search the knowledge center or ask a question at http://it.ojp.gov/NISS/helpdesk/.

Seeking general awareness and information on the program?
Visit the NIEM web site http://www.niem.gov
Exploring NIEM applicability through Training and Technical Assistance?
Contact NIEM by email at information@niem.gov
Developing NIEM IEPD's and have a question?
Contact the Help Desk at http://it.ojp.gov/NISS/helpdesk/
Ready to develop and deploy NIEM conformant information exchanges?
Share your IEPDs to promote reuse by posting them to the IEPD Clearinghouse at http://it.ojp.gov/iepd/