NIEM Newsletter
NIEM 2.1: The Road Ahead
The much-anticipated National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Version 2.1 is in the works. A release candidate is expected to be released for public review and comment late this summer. The final production release is planned to take place prior to the National NIEM Training Event being held from September 30 to October 2, 2009, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Two very important points need to be emphasized about this release:
- It is driven by its rapid adoption and use—and the improvements, expansions, and best practices that those implementations have revealed.
- It will not "break" your existing exchanges. All previous exchanges, including GJXDM, NIEM 1.0, and NIEM 2.0 continue to remain available to support existing exchanges. Implementers may migrate to the new version in their own timelines.
From the onset, the NIEM Program has been committed to the continued improvement of standardized information exchanges for cross-jurisdictional government to enable and increase information sharing. In fact, NIEM 2.1 incorporates many improvements in the current model, including new domains and minor edits to existing domains. The release of NIEM 2.1 does not affect the shared core of common data elements.
New Domains and Updates
- NIEM 2.1 will feature three new domains:
- The Maritime domain will be sponsored by the U.S. Navy as the executive agent for the Maritime Domain Awareness and will include the harmonized content from the Maritime Information Exchange Model 1.0 (MIEM).
- The Family Services domain will be a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration on Children and Families, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
- The Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) domain will be sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Domestic Nuclear Detection.
- Updates will be made to existing domains, including:
- Improvement on the structure for an offense in the Justice domain.
- The Infrastructure Protection domain will provide a complete taxonomy of infrastructure categories. This should prove widely reusable by developers in many lines of business.
- The Emergency Management domain will tighten its linkage to the EDXL messaging standards. It also incorporates the results of a successful pilot at the Richmond, Virginia, emergency dispatch center, enabling the reuse of exchanges with private alarm companies.
- General improvements have been made to all domains in the model:
- Harmonization that has reduced many overlapping or duplicate data elements between domains.
- No more missing definitions! All elements in the 2.1 release have a clear, plain-English definition, making it easier to find and reuse individual elements in the model.
The Release Timeline
The timeline for the release of NIEM 2.1 has been designed to emphasize the quality of the release versus being driven by a specific date or dates. Therefore, the timeline for finalizing NIEM 2.1 is structured as a series of iterations over three-week intervals. Each cycle or iteration will incorporate incremental feedback, taking another step toward production. The timeline includes four major milestones:
- Alpha Version—This phase is expected to be very iterative and may have many significant changes.
- Beta Version—This phase will begin stabilizing, and only small fixes and adjustments are expected.
- Release Candidate—This phase will be very stable with only very minor refinements allowed. While major issues are unlikely, any that arise would force a return to a Beta version.
- Production Release—This will be the final product—published and ready for prime time!
What Can You Do?
The entire NIEM community of developers, implementers, practitioners, and supporting executives will have an opportunity to help review and provide feedback at the Release-Candidate stage to ensure that it meets the needs of the entire community. Interested parties should plan for the deployment of resources in late summer to help ensure the quality and reusability of the release candidate. If you have any questions, please contact the National Information Sharing Standards (NISS) Help Desk at nisshelp@ijis.org.
Featured FAQ
Does the Upgrade to NIEM 2.1 Mean I Have to Upgrade All My Existing Exchanges?
No. NIEM’s Version Architecture always allows for backward compatibility, so new updates will never “break” the existing exchanges that have been successfully deployed in any previous version, including GJXDM, NIEM 1.0, and NIEM 2.0.
NIEM National Training Event 2009
| Register Today for the NIEM National Training Event Registration for the 2009 NIEM National Training Event is available online, via fax, and by mail. Please visit the event site for access to all available information on this event, including online registration, track descriptions, and hotel information. If you have any questions about the 2009 NIEM National Training Event, please send an e-mail to information@niem.gov. |
The Tools to Make IT More Agile and Cost-Efficient!
The NIEM National Training Event, the definitive conference on the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and information sharing, is expected to draw more than 600 IT professionals from around the United States. The event will be held at the Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland, from September 30 to October 2, 2009. Vinton G. Cerf, widely known as one of the "fathers of the Internet," will be opening the event. Vint has been known to call NIEM "the IP protocol for data." The speakers represent a variety of domains including Justice, Public Safety, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Maritime, Courts, and Corrections. The agenda offers plenary and workshop sessions that will examine programs and strategies being implemented by federal, state, tribal, and local governments to address some of the most urgent information sharing issues confronting communities around the country. This training event—designed for program managers, enterprise architects, and implementers—includes sessions on how organizations have shown cost avoidance using NIEM and on tools you can use to show value and determine the ROI for your organization. We will have stories from projects that report more than $1 million of IT savings using NIEM.
Learn firsthand from other IT professionals how they have developed and implemented Information Exchange Data Packages (IEPDs) and NIEM. For the first time, the offering includes an entire track on NIEM implementation using LEXS, ULEXS, or UCORE. There will be public sessions with the three NIEM governance groups—the NIEM Technical Architecture Committee, the NIEM Business Architecture Committee, and the NIEM Communications and Outreach Committee. And based on popular demand, we have added sessions such as “Ask the Expert: LEXS, ULEXS, and UCORE” with Jeremy Warren, Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. DOJ, and Boris Shur, Chief Data Architect of the U.S. DOJ.
Registration for the 2009 NIEM National Training Event is available online, via fax, and by mail. Please visit the event Web site for access to all available information on this event, including online registration, track descriptions, and hotel information. If you have any questions on the 2009 NIEM National Training Event, please send an e-mail to information@niem.gov.
We encourage you to forward this NIEM Newsletter to a friend or colleague with a vested interest in federal, state, or local government information sharing. We look forward to seeing you on September 30.
Best of NIEM Awards 2009
The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Program is now accepting nominations to recognize NIEM implementation projects demonstrating how intergovernmental collaboration and innovative technology deliver results that increase government transparency, improve performance, and enable civic engagement. Projects must have been operational since 2008 and report specific measurable results. Successful nominees will be those that leverage best practices and deliver innovative solutions effectively to get results. These awards will be presented at the NIEM 2009 National Training Event, which will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, from September 30 through October 2, 2009. Get more information about the award and download the nomination form.
NIEM Awarded 2009 Intergovernmental Solutions Award
The American Council for Technology (ACT) presented a 2009 Intergovernmental Solutions Award on June 1, 2009, to the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) in recognition of the program’s trail-blazing and innovative practices.
“This recognition is proof of great work accomplished by the coalition of the willing—by practitioners at all levels of government, especially our state and local partners, and by our industry partners who work tirelessly to promote NIEM,” said Donna Roy, Executive Director of the NIEM Program Management Office (PMO) and Director of the Enterprise Data Management Office of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The ACT award is presented to government agency programs that demonstrate that they are intergovernmental and collaborative, demonstrate trail-blazing and innovation in technology and environmental IT, demonstrate creating a transparent and connected democracy, have measurable impact and results, and demonstrate best practices.
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NIEM Training News and Events
Upcoming Events and Training
| August 25–27, 2009 | NIEM Practical Implementers Training Course, Oklahoma Supreme Court, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | |
| NIEM National Training Event, Baltimore, Maryland Register today! |
