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Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Semantics:The Washington Semantic Web Meetup

Brand Niemann

US EPA

December 15, 2009

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Overview• Federal CIO Council’s Cloud Computing Executive Steering

Committee– December 4th – see next two slides– January 8th – invited to brief

• Data.gov CONOPs V 0.7 Excerpts• Data.gov Dialogue• Data.gov Evolution to the Semantic Web Discussion• Open Government Directive• Cloud Computing Shoot Out• Cloud Computing Conference & Expo• Roadmap/Framework/Patterns: Semantic Cloud Computing

Desktop / Mobile Apps with Linked Open Data• Announcing the Year of Semantic Web Training and Pilots for

Data.gov/semantic• My Ad-Hoc Roadmap

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Operate as a Service ProviderOperate as a Service Provider

Enable Sustainable & Cost-Effective ComputingEnable Sustainable & Cost-Effective Computing

Enable Adoption and Implementation of CCEnable Adoption and Implementation of CC

Conduct Outreach ActivitiesConduct Outreach Activities

Federal Cloud Computing Working Groups Responsibilities

Provide Procurement LeadershipProvide Procurement Leadership

Encourage Cloud Technology InnovationEncourage Cloud Technology Innovation

Establish and Manage GovernanceEstablish and Manage Governance

Security Working Group

Standards Working Group

• Governance• Govt-wide

Security Authorization of CC services

• Issues & Solutions

• Best Practices• Sec. Standards• Review RFQs

• Common Svcs• CC Architecture• Port. Standards• Review RFQ • Acquisition

Vehicles• Cloud

Storefront• Pilot Activities• Business Case

Templates• Performance

Metrics• Guide Agencies• Government

Wide Services• Common

Interfaces

Operational Excellence

Working Group

GSA Confidential and Proprietary – Not for Distribution 3

• Communication Plan

• Central Portal• On-line Content• Training Cont.

Communications Working

Group

Goal Area

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Federal Cloud Computing Draft Services Framework

User Tools

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Software as a Service (SaaS) / Applications User/ Admin Portal

Reporting & Analytics

Service Mgmt & Provisioning

Analytic Tools

Analytic Tools

Data MgmtData Mgmt

ReportingReporting

Knowledge Mgmt

Knowledge Mgmt

Citizen Engagement

Application Integration

API’sAPI’s

Workflow Engine

Workflow Engine

EAIEAI

Mobile Device

Integration

Mobile Device

Integration

Data Migration

Tools

Data Migration

Tools

ETLETL

Wikis / BlogsWikis / Blogs

Social NetworkingSocial Networking

Agency Website Hosting

Agency Website Hosting

Email / IM Email / IM

Virtual DesktopVirtual Desktop

Office AutomationOffice Automation

Business Svcs Apps

Business Svcs Apps

Core Mission Apps

Core Mission Apps

Legacy Apps (Mainframes)

Legacy Apps (Mainframes)

Gov Productivity Gov Enterprise Apps

DatabaseDatabase Testing Tools

Testing Tools

Developer Tools

Developer Tools

DBMSDBMS Directory Services

Directory Services

Security & Data Privacy Data/Network

Security

Data/Network Security Data PrivacyData Privacy Certification &

Compliance

Certification & Compliance

Authentication & Authorization

Authentication & Authorization

Auditing & Accounting

Auditing & Accounting

Service Provisioning

Service Provisioning SLA MgmtSLA Mgmt Inventory

Mgmt

Inventory Mgmt

CoS/QoSMgmt

CoS/QoSMgmt

Utilization Monitoring

Utilization Monitoring

App Perf Monitoring

App Perf Monitoring

DR / Backup

DR / Backup

Operations Mgmt

Operations Mgmt

StorageStorage Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines

Web ServersWeb Servers Server HostingServer HostingCDNCDN

Data Center Facilities

Routers / Firewalls

Routers / Firewalls LAN/WANLAN/WAN Internet

Access

Internet Access

Hosting Centers

Hosting Centers

User Profile Mgmt

User Profile Mgmt

Trouble Mgmt

Trouble Mgmt

Product Catalog

Product Catalog

Order MgmtOrder Mgmt

Billing / Invoice

Tracking

Billing / Invoice

Tracking

Customer / Account

Mgmt

Customer / Account

Mgmt

Co

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ou

nd

atio

nal

C

apab

iliti

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lou

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GSA Confidential and Proprietary – Not for Distribution 4

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Data.gov CONOPs V 0.7 Excerpts

• The Semantic Web Roadmap– Semantic web techniques are not yet widespread in

the Federal government. Given our principle of program control, Data.gov takes an evolutionary approach to implementing these techniques. Such an evolution involves pilots, a piece-meal transition and a lot of education. The result will be to demonstrate the value proposition, establish end user demand, and empower data stewards to adopt semantic web techniques. In order to accelerate evolution, an experimental semantic-web-driven site will be established as depicted in Figure 22 (next slide).

http://federaldata.wik.is/Data.gov_Concept_of_Operations_v0.7

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Data.gov CONOPs V 0.7 Excerpts

Figure 22: Semantic Evolution of Data.gov

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Data.gov CONOPs V 0.7 Excerpts

• In addition to agency pilots, the semantic.Data.gov site will leverage lessons learned from the United Kingdom’s version of Data.gov (soon to be released) which will be built entirely on semantic web technologies. An ancillary benefit of piloting techniques like unique identification and explicit relationships is that the lessons learned will assist the more traditional implementations of these techniques on Data.gov. It is envisioned that as the benefits and applications based on semantic Data.gov datasets increase, a migration and transition plan will be developed to merge the efforts.

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Data.gov Dialogue

http://datagov.ideascale.com/

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Data.gov Evolution to the Semantic Web Discussion

• Participants:– Professor James Hendler, Tetherless World Chair,

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (co-inventor of the Semantic Web).

• See http://data-gov.tw.rpi.edu/wiki/The_Data-gov_Wiki

– Marion Royal, GSA, Data.gov Program Manager.– George Thomas, Senior Enterprise Architect, HHS.– Brand Niemann, Senior Enterprise Architect, US EPA

(EPA’s acting CIO, Linda Travers, co-chairs the Data.gov with Sonny Bhagowalia, DoI, CIO).

• See http://semanticommunity.net

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Data.gov Evolution to the Semantic Web Discussion

• My action items list:– 1. Marion Royal will establish a listserv for further discussions by a small group

initially.– 2. Start with data.gov/semantic (instead of semantic.data.gov - a separate web

site) with links to partners doing Semantic Web applications with government data (e.g. Jim Hendler, the W3C egov Interest group, our Semantic Community.Net, etc.).

– 3. Get government data stewards and subject matter experts to work with the partners to create more applications (e.g. Jim Hendler's graduate students need help from government people who know their data and what they want to do with it).

– 4. Work with CIO's like Chris Kemp (NASA Ames CIO) that are helping scientists put large datasets in the Nebula Cloud this coming year as part of the "Year of Cloud Computing Pilots" (Peter Mell's prediction) to make these part of data.gov/semantic.

– 5. Evolve NIEM to the Web and especially the Semantic Web (Donna Roy said she would welcome this help).

– 6. Invite Tim Berners-Lee to look at data.gov/semantic in the future and hopefully he will engage his followers (e.g. 15, 000 on Twitter) to support it as well.

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Open Government Directive

• December 8, 2009, by OMB Director Peter Orszag:– Specific actions to implement the principles of transparency,

participation, and collaboration.– Establishes deadlines for action.

• 1. Publish Government Information Online.• 2. Improve the Quality of Government Information.• 3. Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open Government.• 4. Create an Enabling Policy Framework for Open Government.

– Within 60 days, each agency shall create an Open Government Webpage at http://www.agency.gov/open

– Within 60 days, the Federal CIO and CTO shall create an Open Government Dashboard at http://www.whitehouse.gov/open

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Cloud Computing Shoot Out

• December 8, 2009, Panel discussion:– Moderated by Dave McClure, Associate Administrator, Citizen

Services and Communications, GSA (Vivek Kundra was announcing the Open Government Directive).

– Panelists include:• Jeff Bergeron, CTO, U.S. Public Sector, HP (Michael Donovan)• Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Enterprise • Michael G. Hill, Vice President, Enterprise Initiatives IBM • Yousef A. Khalidi, Distinguished Engineer, Cloud Computing,

Microsoft Corporation• Prasad L. Rampalli, Vice President, Intel Architecture Group, Intel

Corporation • Kaveh Vessali, Vice President of Public Sector Solutions,

SalesForce.com• Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com

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Cloud Computing Shoot Out

• Federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s “five pillars” of key priorities:– 1. Lowering the cost of government.– 2. Engaging citizens.– 3. Innovation.– 4. Transparency.– 5. Cybersecurity.

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Cloud Computing Shoot Out

• My Notes of Highlights:– Yousef Khalidi: Microsoft is building the world’s largest data

center near Chicago.– Eran Feigenbaum: Google suggests you ask vendors if your

data is portable from their cloud to someone else’s cloud.– Kaveh Vessali: Salesforce.com has 5 apps running in an office

at EPA (news to me!). See next slide.– Werner Vogels: Amazon cloud can be partitioned off to meet

government security requirements. (Never underestimate the bandwidth of a FedEx box! Lots of people send us their data storage devises in a FedEx box to upload to the Amazon cloud.)

– Dave McClure: We should have a community sandbox as Brand suggests where government employees can try these things.

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Cloud Computing Shoot Out• Salesforce has worked on and supported a number of EPA projects over the last 4

years:– There are currently over 125 users across multiple EPA programs leveraging our Cloud

Computing Software as a Service and Platform as a Service solutions. EPA is using our Cloud solutions to support a number of partnership programs with thousands of partner organizations, primarily focused on driving environmental improvements/results.

– Our Cloud Computing model has worked very well for these programs, considering many of them have users spread out across multiple geographic locations.  For example, the Green Power Partnership program uses real-time reports and Dashboards in Salesforce to track purchased kilowatt hours of Green Power across the partners in the program.  The program also uses our application to track correspondences, outreach, partner intake from the web, and more.  Furthermore, the EPA’s Salesforce applications are available to the users via their Blackberry devices, providing real-time mobile access. 

– Some of the programs that we are supporting have replaced Oracle/Upshot with Salesforce.com for improved functionality and cost savings.

– Examples of EPA Offices/Programs Using SFDC include:• Pesticide Partnership Program• State & Local Clean Energy Program• Climate Leaders Program• Combined Heat & Power Partnership• Green Power Partnership• Water Efficiency Program• National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Program  (ramped down last year)

Source: Mark Cerniglia, Sr. Account Executive, Saleforce.com, December 10, 2009.

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Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

• December 9, 2009, Cloud Computing 2010: Focus on Operational Efficiency and Security

• 8:30 Keynote: Government Cloud Computing for 2010: Moving Towards Efficient Operations

– Chris Kemp, Chief Information Officer, Ames Research Center, NASA• 9:15 How to Take Advantage of Cloud Computing Today

– Christopher Dorobek, Co-Anchor, The Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris, Federal News Radio (Moderator)

– Russ Fromkin, Director, Intel Federal – David Hunter, Chief Technology Officer, Public Sector, VMware, Inc. – Dan Kent, Director of Engineering, Cisco – Dale Wickizer, Chief Technology Officer, NetApp US Public Sector

• 10:15 Coffee Break / Networking• 10:45 Understanding Security and Standards in the Cloud

– Peter Mell, Senior Computer Scientist, Computer Security Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Co-Chair of the Federal Cloud Computing Advisory Council

• 11:30 Key Elements of Cloud Computing: From Private to Hosted Solutions – Henry Sienkiewicz, Technical Program Director, Computing Services, Defense Information

Systems Agency• 12:15 Wrap Up, Announcements

– Mike Smoyer, President, Digital Government Institute

http://federalcloudcomputing.wik.is/December_8%2c_2009

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Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

• Chris C. Kemp is an entrepreneurial executive with a passion for igniting innovation in high-tech organizations. Chris has experience starting, funding, building, and selling technology businesses. As Chairman of NASA's Web Council and Chief Information Officer at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Chris helped forge partnerships with Google and Microsoft and is responsible for NASA's Nebula Cloud Computing Platform. Prior to joining NASA, Chris helped create the third largest online community Classmates.com, the leading web-based vacation rental platform Escapia, and the first online grocery shopping platform for Kroger, the world's largest grocery store chain.

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Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

• Nebula is a Cloud Computing pilot under development at NASA Ames Research Center. It integrates a set of open-source components into a seamless, self-service platform, providing high-capacity computing, storage and network connectivity using a virtualized, scalable approach to achieve cost and energy efficiencies. Nebula is currently being used for education and public outreach, for collaboration and public input, and also for mission support.

• Nebula enhances NASA’s ability to collaborate with external scientists and researchers by providing high-speed data connections and consistent tool sets and open data APIs used by commercial Cloud providers. Built from the ground up around principles of transparency and public collaboration, Nebula is also an open-source project.

• The primary Nebula container is at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. The Ames Internet Exchange (AIX) which hosts the cloud, was formerly "Mae West," one of the original nodes of the Internet, and is still a major peering location for Tier 1 ISPs, as well as being the home of the "E" root name servers.

• Aside from these peering relationships, we also connect to CENIC and Internet2, at 10GigE connections.

http://nebula.nasa.gov/about/

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Cloud Computing Conference & Expo

• My Notes of Highlights:– Chris Kemp: Cloud Computing allows you to replace CapEx with OpEx

(see Wikipedia Cloud Computing Economics).– Christopher Dorobek: Brand doing “cloud computing” before it was

called cloud computing.– Peter Mell: NIST Cloud Computing Definition is now stable, 2009 was

the Year of Discovery, 2010 will be the Year of Pilots:• Three now: NASA Nebula, DoI’s National Business Center, and DISA’s

RACE.• Biggest concern is making DHS’s TIC (Trusted Internet Connections) work

with Cloud Computing. Thinks it will be like making “holes in firewalls” secure.

– Henry Sienkiewicz: Reduced time to delivery from 12-18 months to hours-days.

– Slides posted at:• http://www.digitalgovernment.com/Downloads/Cloud-Computing-

Conference.shtml and at http://federalcloudcomputing.wik.is/December_8%2c_2009

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Roadmap/Framework/Patterns: Semantic Cloud Computing Desktop / Mobile Apps with Linked Open Data

• What do I want to do as a Federal Employee?– Telework– Collaboration– Information Sharing– Semantic Web– Cloud Computing– Mobile Apps

• Why?– Concern for access to EPA desktop based on EPA flood

experience several years ago (out of our EPA offices for about 6 weeks) – see 2006 FCW article.

• How can my EPA Desktop look and function like my iPhone interface with the App Store and allow me to do those things above?

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Roadmap/Framework/Patterns: Semantic Cloud Computing Desktop / Mobile Apps with Linked Open Data

• Now it can because there is now an Internet Operating System Desktop with an App Store that runs on the Amazon Cloud called MindTouch 2009 On Demand.

• I have collaborated with others to produce about 30 apps with this now. Each of these 30 apps can be further developed.– See for example http://federaldata.wik.is for evolving

Data.gov at http://semanticommunity.net.

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Roadmap/Framework/Patterns: Semantic Cloud Computing Desktop / Mobile Apps with Linked Open Data

• These apps support EPA’s Office of Environmental Information FY2010 Priorities:– 1. Improve Enterprise Data Management.

• The Semantic Web with Linked Open Data does this.– 2. Enhance the Toxic Release Inventory.

• This is one of the apps now and pilots for data.gov/semantic.– 3. Use of Web 2.0 for Collaboration.

• This is Web 2.0 for collaboration!– 4. Refocus Enterprise Content Management.

• Organize with URIs and RDF metadata.– 5. Improve Enterprise Desktop Support.

• Put the desktop in the cloud!– 6. Support the Mobile Workforce.

• Mobile apps do that.– 7. Strengthen WAN Infrastructure.

• Improves cloud computing bandwidth.

See http://epa.gov/oei/

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Roadmap/Framework/Patterns: Semantic Cloud Computing Desktop / Mobile Apps with Linked Open Data

http://federaldata.wik.is

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Announcing the Year of Semantic Web Training and Pilots for Data.gov/semantic

• Creating a good set of URLs for the content (e.g., vocabulary, taxonomy, ontology).

• Implementing that in a tool that supports Web standards (e.g., REST, PHP, DREAM).

• Publishing it to the Web in Semantic Web formats (e.g., RDF, OWL, RIF).

Note: Now that Google and other search engines are reorienting rankings to favorInclusion of semantics and RDFa, this becomes a very strong argument for LinkedOpen Data for the government. This protects and enhances your investment in databy putting it in the cloud of Linked Open Data so it can be re-used.

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Announcing the Year of Semantic Web Training and Pilots for Data.gov/semantic

• Suggest doing this as part of each of the Semantic Web Meetups this coming year:– High-quality government data tables.– Peer-reviewed scientific and statistical

databases and models.– National Information Exchange Model.– A “Government Data Facts for the Citizen

Newspaper”• See Data.gov.uk Newspaper

– And more!

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My Ad-hoc RoadmapScale Organization OMB

Needs*Comments

Global NCOIC and OMG (1)

Framework Semantic Cloud Computing with Linked Open Data (2)

Interagency IWGDD (3) Pilots ADS/Chandra to NASA Nebula (4)

Agency U.S. EPA Develop Data.gov

Piloted Using Wiki That Became An Internet Operating System Desktop (5) and (6)

Note: See next slide for footnotes.

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My Ad-hoc Roadmap• Footnotes:

– (1) NCOIC: Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium – http://www.ncoic.org and OMG: Object Management Group – http://www.omg.org

– (2) http://networkcentricity.wik.is/@api/deki/files/33/=BrandNiemann10222009.doc

– (3) IWGDD: Interagency Working Group on Digital Data – http://federaldata.wik.is/Interagency_Working_Group_on_Digitial_Data

– (4) http://adswww.harvard.edu/ Note: Ranked 6th in the World for Repositories - http://repositories.webometrics.info/top400_rep.asp

– (5) http://federaldata.wik.is/Statistical_Abstract_of_the_United_States%3a_2009 (improve data quality, metadata, and analysis tools, use desktop cloud computing, support the Semantic Web’s Linked Open Data, etc.)

– (6) http://cloud.mindtouch.com/?x_lf_kt=2&_x_lf_kvid=303c62e0-3d50-5e2e-ca43-ad0112f89b62

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My Ad-hoc Roadmap

• This gives:– OMB an Architectural Framework and EPA a

Target Architecture 3.0.– OMB some cloud computing pilots and EPA a

way to save money on infrastructure costs.• $25,000 versus $120 per year/per desktop (200

fold savings).

– OMB support for and EPA some examples for data.gov/semantic.