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."

Comments

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.

Re:Bonus advantage

[Lally Singh]

There are some large ethical questions programmers have to ask themselves when taking on jobs these days. After my last DoD gig, I've really started filtering what opportunities I'll consider. Mass surveillance, for example, is something most of my contacts know I won't touch.

As for the 9 namespaces, it's actually pretty reasonable. From TFA:
xmlns:u="http://niem.gov/niem/universal/1.0"
xmlns:s="http://niem.gov/niem/structures/1.0"
xmlns:c="http://niem.gov/niem/common/1.0"
xmlns:j="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/justice/1.0"
xmlns:emer="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/emergency -management/1.0"
xmlns:im="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/immigration /1.0"
xmlns:ip="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/infrastruct ureProtection/1.0"
xmlns:int="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/intelligen ce/1.0"
xmlns:it="http://niem.gov/niem/domains/internation alTrade/1.0"

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.

thank Government for databases

[yagu]

Meanwhile grandma is still taking off her shoes and getting wanded at the airport. Nice to know yet another debacle is launched. Here's hoping they're as successful as they have been with the new Air Traffic Control System.

Re:thank Government for databases

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile grandma is still taking off her shoes and getting wanded at the airport.

The knowledge that she will get the same treatment as the rest of us is the one thing keeping grandma from demanding body cavity searches for the rest of us.

I, for one, am glad that we don't live in a world where grandma gets waved through security with a smug little smile on her face while I get directed to the body cavity search room to take it in the rear to appease grandma's paranoid fears of "all those terrorists".

Obvious bloat.

[SatanicPuppy]

Just glancing at it, I can see problems. XML is too often used for databases when it shouldn't be, but there are similarities, and just looking at it I can see that it violates one of the most basic database design principles: normalization

Just as an example, there are three different namespaces dedicated to the various FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards)...To three different STANDARDS.

I'm no expert on government info, and I just looked at this thing for the first time, so maybe it's brilliant and I'm ust not seeing it, but it sure looks a lot like they've fallen victim to a database noob mistake, and created a monster tree with disproportionate crazy branches everywhere, and that is bound to cause relational problems, redundant data, and warped design challenges.

Re:Obvious bloat.

[punkinabox]

Well, they said data sharing, not data storage.

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.