Data Sharing, Government Style

rowama writes "The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department have been collaborating to develop an XML-based model for data sharing. After less than a year since the initial release, in October 2005, the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 1.0 Beta is out. It's big, really big. There are no less than 9 namespaces and plans for future expansion. Contact your local government contractor, with resume in hand, and you may be one of the lucky developers to implement NIEM-capable software."

Bonus advantage

[nizo]

Contact your local government contractor, with resume in hand, and you may be one of the lucky developers to implement NIEM-capable software.

As an added bonus you can add a wee bit of code to make sure your name never ends up in these databases.

Aliens?

[SatanicPuppy]

Okay...I can see the need for u:SuperType->u:ActivityType->c:ActivityType->im:Al ienEncounterType...I mean, we're bound to encounter aliens at some point, right?

But im:AlienStudentDisciplinaryActionType? Planning for Alien encounters is one thing, but planning for dealing with them in our school systems seems like bureaucratic bloat to me. I don't think the Red Staters will be down with their taxes going to teach godless little green people.

(end humor tags)

Use XML.

[Anonymous Coward]

The solution to every problem begging for more markup and extra layers of abstraction.

Re:Aliens?

[__aaclcg7560]

You got to account for AlienIllegal, AlienET and AlienOfTheWeirdAndPissedOffVariety to cover all your bases. Assuming that some AlienET doesn't already own all your bases.

Re:Bonus advantage

[tb3]

Hey, don't laugh. This could be bigger than Ada.

Wait! There's more

[overshoot]

The Senate is going to convene hearings on why Microsoft's new Office Open XML format shouldn't be used instead.

Of was that a different Senate?

Re:Bonus advantage

[Kesch]

They need more terrorist references. I also see a distinct lack of Thinking of the Children(TM). Also, the namepsace count just isn't bloated enough. I don't believe this spec is up to government work yet.

Re:How big?

[Tackhead]

> > The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 1.0 Beta is out. It's big, really big.
>
> But that's peanuts to space.

I mean you think there's a long list of entities in the markup for your CSS/AJAX/Web2.0 project's folksonomy, but that's just peanuts to the NIEM," and so on.

After a while, the spec settles down a bit and tells you things you really want to know, like the fact that the fabulously corrupt city of Washington D.C. is now so enamored of the cumulative fiscal erosion by ten billion visiting lobbyists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you donate and the amount you receive in federal contracts whilst on the take is surgically removed from your bank account when you leave: so every time you go to K Street, it is vitally important to get a receipt... and falsify it.

Re:Obvious bloat.

[kfg]

that is bound to cause relational problems, redundant data, and warped design challenges.

Do me a favor, don't tell them.

KFG

Re:Bonus advantage

[Quiet_Desperation]

After my last DoD gig, I've really started filtering what opportunities I'll consider.

I also go looking for the projects that have the potential to kill the most people, but then again I'm an utter misanthrope. :D

Although I have to admit that cybernetic, remote controlled stealth shark thing DARPA announced a while back had my interest. No killing the enemy, but it's fricken stealth sharks, man! You know I'd fight for comm lasers to burst the data back to base.

Don't worry, I'll take those mass surveillance jobs. I'll do them really well, too. Sleep tight. :)

Re:bah

[deathy_epl+ccs]

On some level, information has always been exchanged between these powers. Now they're using XML. Cool.

Yes, but see... with the advent of XML, that information exchange is now more than just "Uh-uh, not gonna tell ya!"

Now, they have a name-space that includes the ability to tack a "NYAH NYAH" on to the end of the statement.

Re:Bonus advantage

[Anonymous Coward]

They missed some of the classified ones:

xmlns:wc="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/warCrimes/1 .0"
xmlns:t="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/torture/1.0"
xmlns:uca="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/unConstitu tionalActivities/1.0"

or do they just fall into the 'common' namespace?