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Semantic Interoperability:The What, Why, Who, and How

Brand NiemannSenior Enterprise Architect, US EPA

Presentation for theNCOIC Plenary Conference, Crystal City, VA

September 17-21, 2007

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Overview

• 1. What

• 2. Why

• 3. Who

• 4. How

Note: These are four of the six Journalism 101 questions. My SICoP Co-chair Mills Davis, will cover the other two: Where and When!

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1. What

• I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.– Robert McCloskey, State Department

spokesman (attributed).• http://

www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Robert_McCloskey/

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1. What

• Semantics = Meaning = Relationships– Humans (and therefore our machines) only ever

understand anything in so far as it is related to other things

ID

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1. What

• Semantics = Meaning = Relationships– Humans (and therefore our machines) only ever

understand anything in so far as it is related to other things

ID

VANY

MD

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1. What

• Semantics = Meaning = Relationships– Humans (and therefore our machines) only ever

understand anything in so far as it is related to other things

ID

SUPEREGO

EGO

ANALYSIS

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1. What

• Semantics = Meaning = Relationships– Humans (and therefore our machines) only ever

understand anything in so far as it is related to other things

ID

LICENSE

CARD

BADGE

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1. What

• Interoperability:– 1. (NATO and DOD) The ability of systems, units, or forces to

provide services to and accept services from other systems, units, or forces and to use the services so exchanged to enable them to operate effectively together.

– 2. (DOD only) The condition achieved among communications-electronics systems or items of communications-electronics equipment when information or services can be exchanged directly and satisfactorily between them and/or their users. The degree of interoperability and its purpose(s) should be defined when referring to interoperability among specific sets of systems, presumably interconnected with each other through a network. See also the LISI model.

• https://www.ncoic.org/wiki/Interoperability

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1. What

• The Levels of Information Systems Interoperability (LISI) model and associated process were developed by MITRE in the late 1990's as a means of assessing the interoperability readiness of a system or set of capabilities. The LISI model is organized into four dimensions: Procedures, Applications, Infrastructure, and Data (PAID), and is no longer used.

• The Systems, Capabilities, Operations, Programs and Enterprises (SCOPE) Model for Interoperability Assessment is currently in the final stages of NCOIC of approval among the members of the Technical Council of the organization. Once the consensus on the document has been ratified, the document will be published at this link.

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1. What

• Interoperability (addition by John Yanosy, August 30, 2007):– 3. There are many different focus areas of

interoperability with their own concerns and approaches for enabling compatible interactions with minimal adjustment, e.g., semantic interoperability, service interoperability, protocol interoperability, physical interoperability, etc. and various combinations such as services with different access protocols that can inhibit compatible interactions comprising successful interoperability.

• https://www.ncoic.org/wiki/Interoperability

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1. What

• Semantic interoperability (Recommendation for version 2.0):– The mutually consistent interpretation of shared knowledge

between networked entities consistent with a semantic model in a defined context.

• https://www.ncoic.org/wiki/SemanticInteroperability

• Common Lexicon and Acronym Dictionary, Version 1.8.0, April 2005:– The NCOIC Lexicon defines terms and expressions that are

relevant to texts published by the NCOIC. This material is offered for dynamic debate, discussion and additional submissions in this online wiki. NCOIC Lexicon Custodian Working Group periodically reviews the wiki, and publishes updates of the condensed catalog, including comments for entries that have been deleted.

• https://www.ncoic.org/wiki/Lexicon

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1. What

Source: Expanding E-Government, Improved Service Delivery for the American People Using Information Technology, December 2005, pp. 2-3.http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budintegration/expanding_egov_2005.pdfWith annotations by the author.

DRM 1.0 SICoP

Ontologies

All Three

DRM 3.0 Unify

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1. What

DRM Version Sound Bite Examples

1.0 Build to Exchange

NEIN (CDX)

NIEM

2.0 Build to Share LandView 6 (7)

SICoP Pilots

3.0 Build to Reuse SICoP White Paper 3

EPA Service System

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1. What

Source: Mills Davis, SICoP Co-Chair:http://www.semantic-conference.com/2007/handouts/6-UpBW/T8_Davis_Mills_SingleColor.pdf

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2. Why• “Today, humanity – or rather the computer

industry – dissatisfied with the mere 6,000-odd human languages, has created some 8,000 computer languages. The number of human languages is on the decline, by the way, while the number of computer languages persists in climbing. In a world where everybody claims to want to be able to talk to everybody else, such a multiplicity of languages indicates that there’s definitely a fly in the IT ointment.” Page 75.– Source: Chapter 6: Xplicating XML in “Service

Oriented Architecture for Dummies”, Judith Hurwitz, et al., Wiley, 2007, 359 pp.

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2. Why• “Oh, and of course, there’s one fact that makes

the whole of this set of protocols, languages, and technical gobbledygook (XML) very important. They solve the Babel Problem. This scheme works anywhere for any software written in any program language running on any computer. Insofar as anything can be, it is technology independent.” Page 86.– Source: Chapter 6: Xplicating XML in “Service

Oriented Architecture for Dummies”, Judith Hurwitz, et al., Wiley, 2007, 359 pp.

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2. Why

• Need much more than XML – need RDF and OWL – why created by the W3C – but also need the rich semantics:– The purpose of SICoP White Paper 3 which suggests use of

three key tools as trusted reference knowledge sources:• WordNet• Language Computer Corporation• Open Cyc

• Also need best-of breed tools like TopBraid Composer to create and reuse (refactor) Ontologies.

• Also need an Examples which we are providing:– See section 4.

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3. Who

• 3.1 World-Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web Activity

• 3.2 Open Group Semantic Interoperability WG:– Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF)

• 3.3 Data Architecture Subcommittee (DAS)• 3.4 Intelligence Community Data Management

Committee• 3.5 NCOIC Semantic Interoperability Framework

WG• 3.6 DoD Community of Interest• 3.7 SICoP

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3.1 World-Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web Activity

• The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF).– http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

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3.1 World-Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web Activity

• In February 2004, The World Wide Web Consortium released the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) as W3C Recommendations. RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge in the Web. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. You may want to look at the collection of SW Case Studies and Use Cases to see how organizations are using these technologies today.– http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

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3.1 World-Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web Activity

http://www.w3.org/2007/03/layerCake.png

Note that RDF has moved into theXML space and been expandedwith query and rules!

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3.1 World-Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web Activity

• April 7-8, 2005, Semantic Web Applications for National Security (SWANS) Conference:– DARPA DAML Program and SICoP. Proceedings Available at

https://www.schafertmd.com/swans/. (Also counted as Third Semantic Technology for E-Government Conference).

• June 18-19, 2007, Toward More Transparent Government: Workshop on eGovernment and the Web, United States National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, USA. Jointly sponsored by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI). SICoP Position Paper and Session Chair:– http://www.w3.org/2007/06/eGov-dc/agenda.html

• October 25-26, 2007, W3C Workshop on RDF Access to Relational Databases, Boston, MA, USA. SICoP Position Paper on Integration of Data Tables:– http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/cfp

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3.2 Open Group Semantic Interoperability WG

• Background and Meetings:– http://www.opengroup.org/projects/si/

• Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF):– http://www.opengroup.org/udefinfo/

• Collaborations:– Disaster Response Pilot Demonstrates Web Services

and Semantic Naming Technology, Page 32 GSA Newsletter on Disaster Management, March 31, 2006

– Convergence of Semantic Naming and Identification Technologies?, Joint Conference, April 27-28, 2006.

– SOA Ontology, Collaborative Expedition Workshop, January 23, 2007.

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3.2 Open Group Semantic Interoperability WG

• February 15, 2006, SICoP Provides Keynotes and Presentations at the Lockheed Martin 11th Annual Information Technology Trends Conference and Gives Special Recognition to Ron Schuldt, Lockheed Martin and Chair of The Open Group UDEF Forum, for the "Disaster Response Pilot Demonstrating Semantic Naming Technology for Web Services". Lockheed Announces New Semantic Technologies Integrated Program Environment (IPE).

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3.3 Data Architecture Subcommittee (DAS)

Data Architecture Subcommittee Action Plan

SICoP Activities Comments

Data Quality Profile

Data Modeling and OWL: Two Ways to Structure Data

See next two slides

DRM 2.0 Implementation Guide

White Paper 3: DRM 3.0 and Web 3.0

Knowledgebases

Person Harmonization, Etc.

Vocabulary Management in Semantic Wikis

See SICoP Special Conferences 1-3

http://cio.gov/index.cfm?function=eastatement

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3.3 Data Architecture Subcommittee (DAS)

• Data Modeling and OWL: Two Ways to Structure Data, David Hay, Essential Strategies, Inc.:– Objectives of a Data Model:

• Capture the semantics of an organization.• Communicate these to the business without requiring

technical skills.• Provide an architecture to use as the basis for database

design and system design.– Now: Provides the basis for designing Service Oriented

Architectures.

– http://www.semantic-conference.com/2007/handouts/2-UpBW/Hay_David_2_2UpBW.pdf

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3.3 Data Architecture Subcommittee (DAS)

• Data Modeling and OWL: Two Ways to Structure Data, David Hay, Essential Strategies, Inc. (continued):– Synopsis:

• Both data modeling and ontology languages represent the structure of business data (ontologies).

• Data modeling represent data being collected, and filters according to the rules.

• Ontology languages represent data being used, with ability to have computer make inferences.

– Comment from Lucian Russell (SICoP White Paper 3 Author):

• So ontology can improve data quality in legacy systems! David Hay agreed.

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3.4 Intelligence Community Data Management Committee

• Background and Meetings:– https://www.dnidata.org

• Collaborations:– First: June 25, 2003, Invitation to present

"Web Services: The State of the Art in the Federal Government“.

– Most Recent: March 7, 2007, SICoP Suggestions to the Intelligence Community Data Management Committee Meeting.

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3.5 NCOIC Semantic Interoperability Framework WG

• Background and Meetings:– https://www.ncoic.org/technology/deliverables/scope– http://www.visualknowledge.com/wiki/NCOIC_SIF

• Collaborations:– Incremental knowledgebase from each conference

call and meeting:• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-07-05/

SICoPNCOICSIF.ppt

– NCOIC Systems, Capabilities, Operations, Programs, and Enterprises (SCOPE) Model for Interoperability Assessment Knowledgebase Pilot:

• Added Semantic Arts “Semantics: A Guide to the Jargon”.

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3.5 NCOIC Semantic Interoperability Framework WG

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest

• Background and Quarterly Meetings:– http://www.defenselink.mil/cio-nii/coi– See next slide.

• SICoP Special Briefing, August 9, 2007:– SICoP Overview: Brand Niemann, Co-Chair– SICoP White Paper 1 and GSA Activities: Rick Murphy, GSA– SICoP White Paper 2: Mills Davis, Co-Chair– SICoP White Paper 3: Lucian Russell, Consultant– Framework for Achieving and Managing Interoperability: Denise

Bedford, World Bank– Semantic Wiki and New OS/NII Project: Michael Lang– NCIOC Semantic Interoperability WG: Todd Schneider,

Raytheon

http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-08-09/SICoP08092007.ppt

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest

http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SICoPSpecialBriefing_2007_08_09

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest

• SICoP provided a set of briefing slides for the August 9th meeting (Sections 1-4).

• SICoP addressed the issues raised in the August 9th briefing by supplementing the slides on August 13th with notes (Section 5).

• SICoP had an extensive email discussion which the SICoP Co-chairs compiled and distilled in the Summary Points on August 23rd (see next three slides).

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest

• The leadership of the DoD CoI (Mike Todd) and SICoP (Brand Niemann) worked together on the FEA/OMB DRM 2.0 - The DoD CoI was featured as a best practice for information sharing in a CoI and SICoP led the DRM 2.0 Implementation Through Testing and Iteration Work Group.

• The DoD CoI and SICoP continue to interact in the DoD CoI Quarterly Meetings and through those with joint membership like Jim Schoening who leads the SICoP Cross-Domain Semantic Interoperability WG (CDSI WG) that produced a white paper that was discussed in the press and gave rise to the August 9th briefing for Mr. Krieger and his MITRE staff.

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest• DoD is using semantic technologies and standards, and

the recent DoD CoI Quarterly Meeting on July 31st featured two presentations of that (David Hanz, SRI, and Mary Parmelle, MITRE).

• The SICoP members participating in the August 9th briefing came away with a range of impressions of the DoD CoI leadership from (1) DoD and the IC are about 3 - 5 years behind where we are and we're pulling away fast, to (2) we need to take the time to understand their use case for semantic technology and focus our discussion on how semantic technology can be used to support their mission. All the SICoP participants came away with the desire to work on how to "get DoD leadership moving in the right direction" at the upcoming NCOIC Plenary and WG Meetings September 17-21st, and the Metatopia Conference, November 5-7th.

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3.6 DoD Community of Interest

• The SICoP and NCIOC SIF WG activities are about adding value to and reusing the DoD and DoD CoI net-centric information sharing work, not about critcizing, disrupting, or replacing it - we are two communities trying to better understand each other and help one another to achieve a common purpose - semantic interoperability in information sharing.

• SICoP would like to see the DoD CoI Leadership and MITRE staff review and comment on the individual SICoP member presentations on August 9th, and especially the white papers from GSA, and give SICoP members the opportunity to present our work in the DoD CoI Quarterly meetings and/or invite the DoD CoI members to the SICoP and SOA CoP meetings.

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3.7 SICoP

• SICoP was charted under the Best Practices Committee of the Federal CIO Council in March 2003 and has delivered three white papers and produced eleven conferences.

• SICoP led the OMB/FEA DRM 2.0 Implementation Team.

• SICoP has given Special Recognitions (35) that document the progress along the Spectrum of Reasoning and Applications.

• SICoP actively participates in DoD CoI, W3C, Semantic Technology, NCOIC, etc. work groups and conferences.

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3.7 SICoP

• SICoP Has Three White Papers:– Introducing Semantic Technologies and the Vision of the

Semantic Web:• W3C Semantic Web and DARPA DAML Program/SICoP Semantic

Web Applications for National Security (SWANS) Conference April 2005 (40 exhibits)

– Semantic Wave 2006 - Executive Guide to the Business Value of Semantic Technologies:

• 2006 Semantic Technology Conference. Updated at 2007 Conference.

– Operationalizing the Semantic Web/Semantic Technologies: A roadmap for agencies on how they can take advantage of semantic technologies and begin to develop Semantic Web implementations (recently released for public review):

• Advanced Intelligence Community R&D Meets the Semantic Web (ARDA AQUAINT Program).

– See IKRIS http://nrrc.mitre.org/NRRC/ikris.htm

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4. How

• 4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• 4.2 Knowledgebases for the Government Domain

• 4.3 Building DRM 3.0 and Web 3.0 Knowledgebases: Where Do the Semantics Come From?

• 4.4 EPA Data Architecture for DRM 3.0 / Web 3.0 Wiki Page and Knowledgebases

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4.1Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• Dragan Gasevic, Dragan Djuric, and Vladan Devedzic, Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development, Springer, 2006:– I. Basics: Existing technologies, tools, and standards

including the Semantic Web.– II. The Model Driven Architecture and Ontologies:

OMG's new ODM (Ontology Definition Metamodel) Initiative.

– III. Applications: Practical aspects of developing ontologies using MDA-based languages.

– Web Site: Many ontologies, UML and other MDA-based models, and the transformations between them.

• http://www.modelingspaces.org/

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4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• Abstract: Defining a formal domain ontology is generally considered a useful, not to say necessary step in almost every software project. This is because software deals with ideas rather than with self-evident physical artifacts. However, this development step is hardly ever done, as ontologies rely on well-defined and semantically powerful AI concepts such as description logics or rule-based systems, and most software engineers are largely unfamiliar with these.

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4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• Defining a formal domain ontology is a useful and often necessary step in almost any software project. But certain commonly used words have multiple meanings – all equally valid – but which, if not differentiated adequately, leads to much confusion (e.g. use Princeton WordNet).

• So describe the high-level structure of your software in the most expressive manner possible, but realize that different minds will still see the same thing (concepts) differently.

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4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• The book describes a practical strategy for realizing key elements of the Semantic Web and clearly demonstrates that the core technologies required for constructing the Semantic Web are available and are moving forward inexorably.

• Development of ontologies is still hard work. Ontologies have a price that must be paid for the benefits.

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4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• An initiative from the software engineering community called Model Driven Development (MDD) is being developed in parallel with the Semantic Web:– First develop a model of the system under study and then

transform it into the real thing (e.g. an executable software entity).

• For example, start from an ontology, transfer it to a UML platform-neutral domain model, and then generate a Java implementation.

• There are lots of similarities in Artificial Intelligence (in this case Knowledge engineering) and Software Engineering (in this case the MDA) approaches and their lifecycle could be parallel.

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4.1 Model Driven Architecture and Ontology Development

• Knowledge is the understanding of a subject area:– Concepts and facts;– Relations among them; and– How to combine them to solve problems.

• Organizing knowledge in a structured way (usually with XML) and using those knowledgebases to solve problems efficiently requires:– Acquisition;– Storage; and– Retrieval.

• Ontological knowledge is the categories in the domain and the terms that people use to talk about them.

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4.2 Knowledgebases for the Government Domain

Month 2007 Organization Presentation

January National Academies Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting

Ontology Tutorial

February NIST Sensor Standards Harmonization WG

Harmonization in a Semantic Wiki

March NIST Sensor Standards Harmonization WG

CBRN Data Model in a Semantic Wiki

April TWPDES Person and NIEM SICoP Special Conference 2

May 2007 Semantic Technology Conference

Proceedings

See http://web-services.gov

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4.2 Knowledgebases for the Government Domain

Month 2007 Organization Presentation

June NSF Nanoinformatics Workshop

Pilot and Semantic Wiki

July NCOIC SIF WG SCOPE and Guide to Jargon

August U.S. EPA Metatopia 2007

September W3C Workshop on RDF Access to Relational Databases

Proposed Position Paper

October SOA CoP Semantics for SOA Panel

See http://web-services.gov

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4.3 Building DRM 3.0 and Web 3.0 Knowledgebases: Where Do the Semantics Come From?

• 1. Preface• 2. SICoP White Paper 3• 3. WordNet• 4. Language Computer Corporation• 5. Open Cyc• 6. TopBraid Composer• 7. Example: An Information Sharing

Environment for the US EPA: The Semantics and Line of Sight of the Organization

http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-07-11/SICoP07112007.ppt

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4.4 EPA Data Architecture for DRM 3.0 / Web 3.0 Wiki Page and Knowledgebases

http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?EPADataArchitectureforDRM3Web3

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Summary

• 1. What: Human-to-Human, Electronic Messages, and Knowledge Reasoning.– Work at on all three levels!

• 2. Why: Tower of Babel Problem.• 3. Who: Collaboration with Those Working On

The Problem.• 4. How: Ontology Development for Model-Driven

Architecture on Use Cases.– Do for the Documents, Models, and Behaviors (Mills

Davis) in Your Own Organization (Brand Niemann).

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Postscripts

• September 14, 2007:– Demo of the Knoodl Semantic Wiki this past

week:• See “The Essential Role of Data Architecture in

Business Architecture & SOA”, William Mancuso, President, Information Management Solutions Consultants and SOA Lead for Business Transformation Agency, at the BrainStorm DC Conference, September 10-13, 2007. Uses the Knoodl Semantic Wiki!

– http://knoodl.com

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Postscripts

• The BrainStorm DC Conference, September 10-13, 2007:– Sponsored by the BMPInstitute.Org and the

SOAInstutute.Org and includes five conferences in one event:

• Business Process Management Conference• Business Architecture Conference• Service-Oriented Architecture Conference• Business Rules Symposium• Organizational Performance Symposium

– http://www.soainstitute.org/presentations/washington-dc-2007.html

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Postscripts

• NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency, Semantic Interoperability Executive Summary, Version 1.4, August 2007:– Focus on Mediation, Discovery, and Ontology Services.– Very similar to the SICoP HITOP (Health Information

Technology Ontology Project) that is using semantic mediation between medical information systems (immediate solution) and ontology building (longer-term solution).

• The NCOIC Problem (John Yanosy):– Semantically harmonize the context across the multiple

documents of multiple NCOIC WGs that we have been hoping the Semantic Wikis would address and that I tried to address in my recent SCOPE document pilot.

– Moresophy addresses this problem:• See http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?

SICoPSpecialConference2_2007_04_25#nid3L5A

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Postscripts

• Enterprise Architecture Framework Version 1.0, August 2007, Prepared by the Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment:– Section 5.4.3 Observations and Issues: A long-term strategy

should consider formal semantic representations for the CTISS data and metadata elements to provide a stable foundation supporting precise common meanings, accurate translations, semantic search, semantics-based information extraction and integration, and effective analysis of shared information. Evaluation studies and prototypes are needed to pave the way for a semantic technology implementation roadmap that will provide the ISE and its stakeholders the benefits of semantic capabilities. For example, the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Resource Description Framework Schema are beginning to be adopted as standards as the World Wide Web evolves into the Semantic Web. Creation of a prototype that evaluates the use of OWL for data exchange in the ISE should be considered.

• CTISS: Common Terrorism Information Sharing Standards• http://www.ise.gov/docs/ISE-EAF_v1.0_20070830.pdf