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A STRATEGY PAPER FROM

and a New Platform for Governing:Building Trust in 21st Century Government

TODAY’S DATAINTEGRATIONIMPERATIVE

TODAY’S DATA INTEGRATION IMPERATIVEAND A NEW PLATFORM FOR GOVERNING:BUILDING TRUST IN 21ST CENTURY GOVERNMENT

Introduction

Hurricane Katrina, the South-East Asia earth-quake and tsunami disaster, the September 11attacks on America, global terrorism and thepotential for emerging pandemics including birdflu and mad cow2 have one thing in common.Each demonstrates that frequently govern-ments are not prepared for events that manyhave foreseen. As evidenced by these events,two things are indisputable — in such momentspeople count on government to protect andpromote the common good. These events alsovividly demonstrate governments’ need to do afar better job at communicating internally andwith the public.

In the shadow of these dark moments, the publicquestions government’s competence and worseyet, its motives. The public also expresses fearabout whether government and its leaders will beany better prepared in the future to face the mod-ern, extraordinary challenges of governing.

Government at its very best inspires individualsto reach shared goals and accomplishmentsthrough the ingenuity of collective action.Government also embodies the worst of ourhuman side: a willingness to fight over power,money and turf while Rome burns.

Public skepticism of government is neither surprising nor something to fear; skepticism ispart of the fabric of a healthy democracy.Nevertheless, in the wake of governmental fail-ures, the erosion of public confidence has bothimmediate and long-term consequences,including the ability of lawmakers to garner pub-

lic support for the resources needed to meetthe basic mission of governing.

Intelligence and basic infrastructure failures illumi-nated by September 11 and Hurricane Katrinaresulted in part from people being unable orunwilling to share data and information effective-ly. Incomplete information thus led to poor deci-sions and in some instances, social calamity.

Kip Holden, mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana,recently spoke about communication break-downs during the aftermath of HurricaneKatrina.3 In this example, citizen-to-governmentcommunication failure abounded. Shortly afterthe hurricane hit New Orleans, several individu-als acting on their own acquired buses and droveinto New Orleans, picked up evacuees anddrove them out of the city. These goodSamaritans did not realize that the shelters werealready full in Baton Rouge. The well-intentionedcitizens did not contact the city of Baton Rougeto find out where to take evacuees. When over-capacity local shelters turned away the buses, thedrivers dropped off their human cargo on thestreets of the city, leaving the evacuees homelessin an overburdened urban environment.

Yet there is little value in dismissing public officialsas insensitive or incompetent or Samaritans asmisguided vigilantes. The culprit was, at least inpart, the communication failure due to a lack ofreliable real-time information. Public sector ITcommunity executives and practitioners need toparticipate in a discussion about and creation of abroader, business-driven view of data and infor-

mation. The immediate situation calls for aresponse to the current data integration impera-tive: how can we make the present secure,complete and in itself redeemable?4

Indeed, Today’s Data Integration Imperative is todesign, deploy and exercise a “New Platformfor Governing” to finally breach the traditionalsilos of government. This imperative will enablegovernment to more effectively tap into thevast stores of enterprise data necessary foreffective governing. This imperative alsoencourages greater civic engagement by pro-viding citizens and communities of interestgreater access to the full public record.

Finally, the imperative recognizes government’spressing and perennial need for financial efficien-cy. Properly implemented, the new platform canhelp government mine significant costs out ofexisting processes but only if organizations arewilling to breach the financial silos of governmentas public employees work to collapse the busi-ness and technology silos they inherited. To beclear, the confluence of new demands on gov-ernment, systemic fiscal constraints and evolvingtechnologies that can fulfill the long-held vision ofgovernment modernization represent a “strate-gic inflection point”5 or a “tipping point.”6

Given that, it begs important questions for thisgeneration of government leaders — what areyou going to do about it? If not now, when? Ifnot you, who? At its core, the intent of thispaper is to help you think through the answersto those questions.

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Today’s Data Integration Imperative

“WE LIVE CONSTANTLY IN THE SHADOW OF THE FUTURE,TRUSTING THAT TOMORROW’SWORLD WILL BE BETTER AND REDEEM THE INCOMPLETENESS OF THE PRESENT.”

— DAVID BROOKS,ATLANTIC MONTHLY1

A Strategy Paper fromTHE CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT

Information is governments’ business, and thelifeblood of any information business is data.Without the fundamental building blocks of data,government has no information and without infor-mation, it has neither intelligence nor knowledge.A government without knowledge is a plane with-out instruments flying blind into a storm.

Strategic planners assist government by helpingleaders get control of the “instruments” andcreate some organizational discipline out of a“fog of information.” One tool at their disposalis the “use case.” When building use cases,planners often conduct a SWOT analysis, whichincludes an assessment of the strengths, weak-nesses, opportunities and threats associatedwith a project or course of action. When ana-lyzing the risks associated with integrating data,governments must also assess the dangers andthreats associated with failures to act and seizeopportunities when they are “ripe.”

Government leaders and technologists havelong advocated data integration, but the casetoday for data integration has never beenstronger. Faced with major communication andcoordination challenges, governments wouldbenefit from becoming more aware of and

using the emerging technical tools designed totackle these complex problems.

Clearly, governments are in desperate need of another new round of modernization.Government is faced with the twin challenges ofincreasing complexity and resource constraints.Increasing complexity exposes governments’ areasof weakness. These weaknesses contribute to fail-ures that erode public opinion. The combinedeffect of eroding public opinion coupled with long-term structural deficits lead to resource constraints.

David Walker, the U.S. comptroller general,recently described what he called “a demograph-ic tsunami” that “will never recede” due to thecombined power of the imminent retirement ofthe baby boomers with Medicare, Social Securitybenefits, and the nation’s debt swamping the fed-eral budget in coming decades.8

At the same time, government’s business and func-tional requirements are increasing at a compoundedrate of 10 percent to15 percent per year accordingto author and consultant Mark P. Angelo.9 As com-plexity increases, so do the unintended consequencesof governmental action or inaction. The decisions ofone section, division, department, branch or jurisdic-

tion has a direct and often unplanned impact on otherparts of government and ultimately, on citizens.

Complexity increases the risk of governmental failure,which leads to negative public perceptions about thecompetency and the motives of government. Overtime this erosion of public confidence, if chronic, canlead to questioning of the basic capability or even thelegitimacy of government itself, which, like structuraldeficits, leads to resource constraints.

As recent history has shown, constituents often per-ceive government as data bound rather than datarich, as focused on the irrelevant rather than imme-diate. The new demands of governing make oldmodels of single, unified databases unworkable andunacceptable. The need for greater cost efficienciescoupled with the problems associated with increas-ing complexity make the need for new data integra-tion strategies no longer a luxury but an imperative.Governments that begin to address communica-tion problems and the lack of data integration in aserious and concerted way have a unique opportu-nity to roll back eroding public opinion as well asbecome far more agile at problem solving particu-larly during crises. Nevertheless, if the challengesare ignored, government also runs the risk of stallingin the face of complexity and resource constraints.

The Case for Data Integration:Managing Complexity and Resource Constraints

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A few words about this new platform for govern-ing are in order. In its simplest form, the architec-ture of the platform is designed around theInternet, which has already triggered data inte-gration on a grand scale. That said, much of thework done to date in the public and private sec-tors has focused on the Internet’s ability toenable incremental improvements to largelyphysical processes. The new imperative buildson those improvements and shifts the focus onthe Internet’s disruptive qualities — modernizingand often replacing physical processes with end-to-end electronic transactions that allow, asNicholas Negroponte once predicted, “digits [to]commingle effortlessly.”7

Given the evolution of networked business modelsand where the platform and its emerging standardsare leading contemporary and globalizing societies,what does a new data integration imperative meanfor government? What can government learn fromthe vanguard in these efforts? What should we bethinking, and how should we be thinking aboutdoing the public’s business differently?

This paper is the first in a series on governmentdata integration. Today’s Data IntegrationImperative and the New Platform for Governingcovers more broadly the promise of Web serv-ices and the case for understanding why govern-ments should seize the opportunity to act nowas part of their overall modernization efforts.

Although the structuring of a service-orientedarchitecture using open standards-based Webservices over the Internet is similar across gov-ernmental communities of practice, the businessprocesses of those communities vary greatly.Since private sector partners must be attentiveto differences in business processes whendesigning product sets to meet differing pro-grammatic needs, a series of specialty compan-ion papers will follow to supplement this guide.These supplemental briefs will highlight first-movers and innovators among state and localgovernments and address several communitiesof practice in the governmental space includinghealth, human services, criminal justice, publicsafety, finance and tax.

The Evolution of a New Platform for Governing

Still, there is a way out of this dilemma.Although often managed and complainedabout as if it were a liability, data actually is gov-ernment's greatest asset. To take advantage ofthis asset, data must be available where andwhen it is needed. To seize new opportunities,government should begin to view data as itsmost valuable resource and know how it isorganized and exchanged.

Fortunately, data architecture is a mature disci-pline. Unfortunately, it has often been givenshort shrift in even the most detailed enter-prise architecture efforts in state and local gov-ernment. Instead these activities are moreoften dominated by infrastructure, platformand network concerns. Still, there is significantlatent value waiting to be harvested by gov-ernments that are willing to adopt emerging

standards and apply models of data architec-ture such as the Data Exchange Point Modeland a service-oriented architecture, both ofwhich are described later in this paper. Policymakers must shift the focus of this conversa-tion, drive the change, and get buy-in onagreements to self-impose discipline whiledeveloping new applications and when con-verting legacy applications.

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Defining Data Integration

To provide a common understanding of this key con-cept, data integration is defined here as a process thatcombines information and data from many differentsources, permits analysis of the data often in newways, and displays the results of the analysis/querythrough a single or common interface.

Another way of looking at data integration is not bywhat it is, but by what it does. Although it residesin two or more databases or systems, systems can

share integrated data electronically, provided thesesystems comply with common standards. Toachieve data sharing, systems can extract datafrom each source and store it centrally, or systemscan retrieve data from each source on demand.Extensible Markup Language, known as “XML,” isone widely pervasive standard for data sharing andinformation exchange.10 Moreover, notable soft-ware industry initiatives establish sets of guidelinesfor how to publish schemas in XML and how to

use XML messages to integrate software pro-grams easily and build rich new solutions.One last example helps define data integration notby what it does but by what it doesn’t do. In a recentinterview, Otto Doll, CIO of South Dakota, relatedone of former South Dakota Gov. Jankow’s favoritepet peeves. Doll explained that when the governorwould ask five agencies a question he would get “sixdifferent answers.”11 What the governor described isa pervasive state of data fragmentation.

Enterprise-Aware Government

As an alternative to data fragmentation, thepower of a standards-based data architecture isincreasing the ease with which data from onegovernment “silo” can be combined with keydata from other systems, organizations or juris-dictions. Without this architecture, decision mak-ers are given an inadequate view of what is goingon and why. For government to function as anenterprise, it literally must become more “self-aware” by perceiving itself as a single entity ratherthan simply a sum of its parts. This shift in percep-tion from “they” to “us” is a first step towardengendering an environment where appropriatedata sharing is encouraged and rewarded.Leaders in the executive and legislative branchesshould offer incentives to support thinking andacting across boundaries instead of within silos.Governments must also do a much better job

of engaging the public by appropriately sharingrather than locking away the public’s data.Furthermore, government leaders should lookto the public as data sources as opposed tosimply data consumers. W. David Stephenson,homeland security consultant, suggests thatgovernments need to do a better job ofempowering citizens particularly during disas-ters to help solve problems as opposed tobeing mere victims of events.12

While homeland security remains a work inprogress, it does bring the issues of dataintegration into bold relief. Maj. Gen. DaleMeyerrose said inter-agency informationsharing is a "blossoming requirement" for thenewly created U.S. Northern Command,headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in

Colorado Springs, Colo. That may requireabandoning the military's traditional systemfor classifying information in favor of an inte-gration model that allows the NorthernCommand to share real-time informationwith civilian agencies from federal, state andlocal governments that classify informationdifferently than the military.

Meyerrose, who serves as the NorthernCommand's chief information officer says,"My mantra is that I need to change from a'need to know' to a 'need to share' founda-tion. That is fundamentally a different level ofinformation-exchanging requirement."13

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If government chooses the right tools and poli-cies, which are aligned and integrated, then bet-ter decisions and performance, which can betracked, measured and improved, will emerge.Also, choosing an efficient data integration modelis a key success factor. One emerging concept indata integration is the Data Exchange PointModel.14 This groundbreaking concept pioneeredin the state of Washington brings a pragmaticalternative to more traditional approaches to data

architecture. Briefly stated, a government usingthe data exchange point model would identifywhat key information their organization needsfrom data sets outside their jurisdiction and con-trol, and then proceed to find out where the datais located. Instead of extracting enormous vol-umes of data and placing it in a data warehouse,the entity identifies a finite number of data pointsneeded and only extracts that data from the orig-inating system or systems.

Besides the approach outlined in the dataexchange point model, several trends in technol-ogy and standards now intersect to make the bar-rier for entry into new data integration projectsmuch lower than in the past. XML, Web servic-es, service-oriented architecture and the emer-gence of a mobile Internet all offer excellentopportunities for forward thinking governmentsto capitalize on these trends.

Enabling Technologies,Architectures and Standards

DATA CONVERGENCE

Districts • RSDU’s • NGO’s • Human Services • Public Safety Justice • State DEO H.E. • Workforce Agency

Data Providers:

Data Base Applications:

Data Users:

• Consolidated collections• Standard definitions• Collect once, use many• Electronic data collection

• Electronic access• Shared data• Support local improvement efforts• Clear, easy to understand

Schools • Media • Government • Researchers • Legislature • Federal • Public

DATA EXCHANGEPoints and Standards

Characteristics:

To better understand the role these technologies play in the new plat-form for governing, we need to first acknowledge that although the plat-form and communications protocols that underlie the Internet are criti-cal to this platform, the platform itself has services that run on it that pro-vide the opportunity for more complete sharing of data on demand.One of these key linchpins is Extensible Markup Language, or “XML.”

Wikipedia accurately describes XML as a “W3C-recommended(World Wide Web Consortium) general-purpose markup language forcreating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing manydifferent kinds of data.” It permits the sharing of data “across differentsystems; particularly systems connected via the Internet…programscan modify and validate documents in these languages without priorknowledge of their form.”

Having defined XML makes it a bit easier to understand the concept ofWeb services. According to the W3C, a Web service is “a software sys-tem designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interac-tion over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically Web Service Definition Language(WSDL)). Other systems interact with the Web service in a mannerprescribed by its description using Simple Object Access Protocol(SOAP) messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serial-ization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.”15 Softwareapplications written in various programming languages and running onvarious platforms can use Web services to exchange data over com-puter networks — particularly the Internet. This interoperability is dueto the use of open standards. W3C16 and OASIS17 are the primarycommittees responsible for the architecture and standards for Webservices and e-business.

Web services are useful because they provide “a very loose couplingbetween an application that uses the Web service and the Web serv-ice itself.” This allows either piece to change without negatively affect-ing the other, “as long as the interface remains unchanged.” This flexi-bility allows software to be built by assembling individual componentsinto a complete application.

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Defining XML


WEB SERVICES ARCHITECTURE

Application Service

Application Service

Application Service

Application Service

Shared utilitiesSecurity, auditingand assessmentof third-partyperformance,billing and payment.

Service management utilities Provisioning, monitoring,ensuring quality of service,syncronization, conflict resolution

Resource knowledge management utilities Directories, brokers, registries, repositories, data transformation

Transport management utilitiesMessage queuing, filtering,metering, monitoring, routing,resource orchestration

Service Grid (Web Services)

Standards and Protocols

Software standards

WSDL (Web services description language)UDDI (universal description, discovery and

integration)XML (extensible markup language)

Communication Protocols

SOAP (simple object access protocols)HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/

Internet protocol)

Source: Harvard Business Review, 2003

Web Services

Application Services (Web Services)


Service-oriented architecture (SOA) “is an archi-tectural style whose goal is to achieve loose cou-pling among interacting software agents. A serviceis a unit of work done by a service provider toachieve desired end results for a service con-sumer. Both provider and consumer are rolesplayed by software agents (computer programs)on behalf of their owners.”18

Although the definition of SOA may apply to manyservices, for the purposes of this paper a service-oriented architecture is a design that allows for thecoordination and use of a collection of Web serv-ices in ways that extend the value of legacy sys-tems and their data streams. In other words,

SOAs provide a “unified service infrastructure,which is composed of several services applica-tions.”19 Information technology architects believethat SOAs help organizations respond more rap-idly and cost-effectively to the changing conditionsthey face by promoting reuse of existing IT assetsacross the enterprise. SOAs also allow govern-ment agencies to provide “plug-and-play” exten-sions to their legacy data systems thus makingthese islands of data accessible via the Web.

Otto Doll, South Dakota’s CIO, explains that ITorganizations also can achieve the added benefitof keeping costs lower by extending the life of ourlegacy systems. Doll explains that legacy systems

will not “go away in computer science, not in mylifetime.” Doll continues, “Even though one daywe may not use a mainframe, I can foresee twen-ty years from now that we’ll be wondering whyanyone used servers.” He concludes that therewill “always be legacy worlds and we will alwayshave to deal with stuff that we wish we didn’tneed to use.”20

See the following figure for an example of aninnovative approach to SOA creating the “VirtualTravel Service” on the Web. This example showshow various components would work together.

Service-Oriented Architecture

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SERVICE-ORIENTED INTEGRATION

In spite of the promise of XML, governmentpractices lag many other sectors in its widespreadadoption. A search of the Internet yields manyexamples of XML standards created to help unifycompanies and their trading partners in specificindustries. Some examples include manufacturingXML21, financial services XML22, and shippingXML. Such standards are driving great efficienciesand integration in supply chains across myriadorganizations and their trading partners.

By contrast, government has had an introductionto XML through the criminal justice and environ-

mental communities, but the growth of real worldexamples has been slow. “First-step” implementa-tions of XML in payment engines and contentmanagement syndication are developing due toincreasing interest in Really Simple Syndication(RSS). Global Justice XML23, the EPA’s CentralData Exchange24 and health privacy and interoper-ability initiatives driven in part by HIPAA25 are somebright spots on the government radar screen.

One specific example of a successful governmentXML implementation is the Florida House ofRepresentatives. The House developed Leagis,

which is used to create legislative drafts, analyzes,calendars and journals. According to LaurenPerlman, applications manager, “users areallowed access to search and report against thelegislative database and export this information toMicrosoft Excel and Word for reporting and track-ing purposes.” The next release of Leagis willallow “content to be authored in an XML formatusing Word and allow downstream processes tomore efficiently utilize this content.”

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XML in Private vs. Public Sector

Service-Oriented Architecture: the Way Forward


As discussed earlier, promising advances in newXML standards for data queries will trigger a vast acceleration of data integration activities.Furthermore, these new specifications are alsocrucial for accelerating adoption of distributedcomputing models, such as Web services andService-Oriented Architectures. In November2005, the W3C ratified two breakthrough XMLspecs — XSLT 2.026 and XML XQuery 1.0.27

The standards were developed to permit trans-forming and querying XML.

Clint Boulton of Developer News describes thevalue of these new protocols: “Connectionsbetween applications, databases, operating sys-tems, Web services and Web servers have tradi-

tionally used middleware to convert data betweenthe formats used by various applications. XSLT 2.0and XML XQuery 1.0 will make those conver-sions, enabling users to focus on more importantbusiness logic.”28 Major Middleware industry play-ers including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and BEASystems worked closely with World Wide Webconsortium to develop and promote these stan-dards. These new standards allow users — partic-ularly and notably machines — to search XMLdocuments and relational database tables from dif-ferent vendors' databases.

Again, the opportunity for data integration nowoffered by these intersecting trends is larger thanthe barriers that have prevented it in the past. The

opportunity for finally realizing integration is uponus because it “lowers the floor” and removes bar-riers. Such a change demands a fresh look at gov-ernment modernization because of this maturingWeb architecture. As the IT industry moves in tan-dem, XML standards are reinforcing the messagethat the Internet is the new platform upon whichnew data architecture is being designed. Withorganizations maintaining vast information stores,government is a prime candidate to capitalize onthese trends and help realize the new data integra-tion imperative that permits rapid easy access to— and use of — such data.

Latest XML Data Standards Will Spawn Data Integration Breakthroughs

Eric Knorr, InfoWorld executive editor at large, inone of the most prosaic descriptions of SOA todate explains: “Service-oriented architecture is anidea, not a technology. Boundless in scope, itpromises both unlimited software reuse and theinterconnection of everything…”29 But he alsocautions that organizations must create “anecosystem of services that may ultimately have anarmy of stakeholders inside and outside the fire-

wall.” Project managers and developers must facethe challenge of trying to carefully determine“where to draw a box around a fixed set ofrequirements and how to build services that willyield tangible ROI while keeping an SOA fullyextensible.”

Although Web services lend themselves more readily to interoperability than previous

approaches such as CORBA,30 careful considera-tion must be given to SOA governance. The keysuccess is achieving a balance between the “globaldemands” of the enterprise including an expandeddefinition of what the enterprise is, and the func-tionality needed by individual agency businessprocesses. Although the enterprise architect mayprovide useful recommendations as to the tech-nical requirements of standardization, the involve-


1) Integrating by design: Disciplineddata sharing must be at the core ofarchitectural initiatives and all newapplications development.Compliance with such design criteriashould be tied to funding approvalbecause integration-aware applicationsadd more value than building tomor-row’s silos today.

2) Extending Value from ExistingInvestments:With legacy applications, government must restructure existinghigh-value data when it converts tonew applications and platforms.

3) Knowing All of What GovernmentKnows:Finally, government must reclaim theterabytes of unstructured data throughenterprise-level search and analytics tomine value from previously indis-cernible “data blobs.”

THREE STEPS TO DATAINTEGRATION:STRUCTURE,RESTRUCTURE ANDRECLAIM

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A Glimpse of the Future

Today’s Data Integration Imperative seizes thepotential that open standards — when com-bined with the Internet platform and its vastand increasingly mobile communications infra-structure — will permit Web services to flour-ish. The platform will also permit governments,if they are prepared, to create a service-orient-ed architecture and thus spark data integration.Improved data integration can ultimatelyimprove effectiveness and efficiency in decisionmaking needed to meet the modern chal-lenges of governing.

That said, what types of “products” are we seeingand will we see arising in this new environment?According to the California Institute of Technology,Internet-connected “sense and respond sys-

tems…detect critical conditions in an extendeddistributed environment and respond proactively.Proactive sense and response is an essential func-tion in financial compliance, supply-chain optimiza-tion, electricity and gas distribution, logistics, healthcare and electronic trading.”32 Although we haveinferred in our Web services discussion that wewere only talking about computer-to-computercommunication, the reach of Web services ismuch broader. For example, since Web servicesare platform independent it is possible to designadvance sensor-based transportation systemswhere cars, streetlights, traffic flows and maps areall interacting simultaneously in a sense andrespond mode. The Department of Defense iscurrently developing “sense and respond” for bat-tlefield supply-chain management.

Earlier, the paper presented a few case exam-ples of governments that are beginning toexperiment with Web services, RSS and XML.One government is experimenting with XML-based “mashups” a term pop music coined todescribe a process where the voice from onesound track is digitally combined with an instru-mental track from another. New componentsof Web services are being made freely availableon the Internet. Forward thinking governmentscan begin using them at little or no cost.Microsoft’s Virtual Earth33 — itself the result ofintegrating seven formerly discrete initiativeson the Redmond, WA campus — and GoogleEarth are two examples in the maps realm.

ment and agreement of agency executives isrequired in an environment where data sharinginvolves negotiations that are political as well astechnical. Clearly defined and formal memorandaof understanding are essential to help realize thepromise of a service-oriented architecture.

Governments that are in the beginning stages ofbuilding a successful SOA might benefit from initiat-ing a variety of projects of various sizes and scopesbeginning with small and medium size projects andworking iteratively toward larger ones. Finally, gov-ernments should carefully consider the use of pri-vate partners and consultants that provide ready-made SOA products and solutions based on XMLand Web services technologies designed to man-age both integration and workflow. Major playersin this marketplace include Microsoft, SAP, Oracle,BEA Systems and IBM.

To be clear, the technology is out of the lab andworking in the field. Take the work of the ColoradoDepartment of Agriculture to bring real-time com-munication and efficiencies of mobile computing tothe labor intensive process of protecting the foodsupply. Some of the department’s 100 inspectorswere on point to safeguard consumers in grocerystores by checking meat and eggs, enforcing label-ing requirements and checking the accuracy of

scales and bar code readers. Others inspectedplants, packaged agricultural products at nurseries,and inspected livestock yards and farms.

The inspectors’ handwritten fieldwork formsoften took three or four days to get back to theoffice where a data entry clerk would transposethe field reports into the inspection system(with the inevitable introduction of errors).Under the paper form process, a known prob-lem remained unknown to departmental man-agers for up to a full week.

Five years ago, the Department replaced thepaper-intensive process by arming inspectors witha tablet/notebook PC and XML-based forms soft-ware that automated the collection and transmis-sion of data from the field to headquarters. Theresults speak for themselves: “We wanted tomaximize our field force in terms of numbers,”says John Picanso, CIO of the ColoradoDepartment of Agriculture. “We’re able to cap-ture 20 more inspections per week.”

The adoption of a service-oriented architecturemindset may finally allow governments to movefrom limited implementation to wide-scale migra-tion from paper-based document and workflowmanagement into the digital era.31

Mashups of data from government databasescombined with virtual mapping lead to creativenew forms of information display. One exam-ple of this innovative thinking comes from theSheriff ’s Office in Larimer County, Colorado,which combines advanced mapping capabilitywith the county's sex offender database. Thissystem, which allows users to view a map thatshows the address locations of Larimer Countysex offenders, is currently available for eight dif-ferent geographic areas in the county34. Sincegovernment has vast amounts of data locked invarious silos and behind firewalls, such“mashups” are a very low cost approach tobuilding the new platform for governing a fewbricks at a time.

Just as Web services and service-oriented archi-tecture are discovering new and more efficientuses for the Web platform, the Internet is also inthe process of morphing. One transformationaldevelopment is the growth of the Mobile Internet,a key component in the new platform. Accordingto Howard Rheingold in his book Smart Mobs,35 itwould be shortsighted to assume the MobileInternet is just the Web on a small screen (in the

book the term “Mobile Internet” is used to meanboth positive and negative collective actions).

As more mobile devices are connected to theInternet they will surpass fixed devices some-time during the first decade of the millennium.36

In the face of these overpowering trends, newuses inevitably will evolve. In this fertile climate,the Mobile Internet is not just about what gov-ernment will do to leverage this opportunity fornew civic engagement, but as Rheingold pointsout, it will involve how other social networkswill use data both positively and negatively. Withaccess to more integrated and also geographi-cally based real-time data and services thebehavior of individuals and groups will change asa result of this new knowledge and capability.

One chilling example of the Mobile Internet isthe recent account from France in which riot-ers used text messaging to coordinate theiractions in battles with police. In terms of posi-tive collective actions, consider the eight-stateAmber Alert Portal that, for the first time, pro-vides unified warnings about child abductionsto devices of all shapes and sizes — from

broadcast alerts on radio, television and high-way reader boards to thousands of lotterypoint-of-sale machines in retail locations acrossthe participating states. A great number of indi-vidual subscribers also receive early warningson cell phones, personal digital assistants andpagers. During the first months of operation,20 children were returned home safely afterword of their abduction was originated, esca-lated and distributed through the portal.

Think of a time in the not too distant “present”when “Smart Mobs” can coordinate theiractions in real space with data suppliers fromvirtual community networks37 in cyberspace.Already, some of these communities haveestablished their own “virtual currencies.” Nowimagine a scenario where these virtual commu-nities are connected in real-time with “SmartMobs” acting in real space. Governments mustlook toward not simply leveraging these tech-nologies anymore but figuring out strategies torespond effectively to the positive and negativechallenges they face in this environment. In thisscenario, is it too extreme to think about a “vir-tual state” declaring its own independence?

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The catastrophic events of September 11,Hurricane Katrina, global terrorism and emergingpandemics, all point to the unfortunate truth thatgovernments are not fully prepared for the pres-ent or the future. This lack of preparedness affectsthe ability of lawmakers to provide resourcesneeded to govern in the face of an erosion ofpublic confidence. This coupled with govern-ments’ inability to come to terms with long-termstructural deficits, makes this challenge daunting.

Today’s Data Integration Imperative — that is,the need for government to do a better job atcommunicating through improving its data andinformation sharing capabilities — has all themakings of a national priority. The public sectorshould adopt a new platform for governing tospark data integration across the traditionalsilos, and also to give it the ability to tap into,

and provide to citizens and communities ofinterest, access to the vast stores of enterprisedata necessary for effective governing and tohalt eroding public confidence and civicengagement. For this approach to be effective,data must be shared and combined with keydata from other organizations or jurisdictions,to give decision makers and the public a morecomplete view of what is going on and why.

Integrated data, although it resides in two ormore databases, can be electronically shared,provided these systems comply with commonstandards for the exchange of data such asXML. Use of these data can be more efficientwhen government information technologyorganizations adopt and request their privatesector partners to build Web services around aservice-oriented architecture.

To do this, government leaders with the supportof CIO’s must more clearly set their sights ondata architecture, a mature discipline given shortshrift in state and local government. Currentlythough, governments have had only limitedintroduction to XML, mainly through their crim-inal justice and environmental communities. As aresult, the growth of a real world critical mass ofeffective data sharing has been slow.

The Internet, including the ever-growing vastarray of connected mobile devices, is the plat-form for this emerging data architecture that hasthe potential to trigger data integration on agrand scale if government is farsighted andaggressive enough to step forward and meetthese new challenges.

Conclusion


1 David Brooks, “What Whitman Knew: Walt Whitman’s ‘Democratic Vistas’ is still the most trench-ant explanation of American policies and ambitions.” The Atlantic Monthly, May 2003.2 Bird flu and mad cow disease are the common names of avian influenza and Bovine spongiformencephalopathy (BSE) respectively.3 Kip Holden, mayor of Baton Rouge. “Re:build: the Gulf States Recovery Project.” Presentation tore:Public IV, Center for Digital Government, November 2005.4 David Brooks, op.cit.5Andy Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge EveryCompany. Currency Books, 1999.6Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Back Bay Books,2002.7 Nicholas Negroponte, “Being Digital.” Vintage, January 3, 1996.8 Richard Wolf, “A ‘Fiscal Hurricane’ on the Horizon.” USA Today, November 14, 2005.9 Mark P. Dangelo, “Information Lifecycle Management: Mastering Complexity.”Computer Technology Review, September 2004.10 NASCIO Research Brief, “Connecting the Silos: Using Governance Models to Achieve DataIntegration.” June 2005.11 Otto Doll Interview with Center for Digital Government, December 2005.12 W. David Stephenson, Blogs on Homeland Security et al.http://www.stephensonstrategies.com/2005/08/26.html#a43313 Molly M. Peterson, “Homeland defense commander stresses ‘need to share’ information.”National Journal’s Technology Daily, December 3, 2002.14 Paul W. Taylor and Tom Wilson with Tom Clarke, “Integration Blueprint 2.0: A priority-driven implementation plan for the Washington State Justice Information Network (JIN).”Washington State Department of Information Services, 2001.15 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-gloss-20040211/#webservice16 Ibid.17 Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)http://www.oasis-open.org/18 Hao He, “What is Service-Oriented Architecture?” September 30, 2003.http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/09/30/soa.htmlhttp://inews.webopedia.com/TERM/S/Service_Oriented_Architecture.html19 Phil Laplante and Thomas Costello, “CIO Wisdom II: More Best Practices.” p. 12120 Nicholas Negroponte, op.cit.21 Planning and Scheduling Language on XML Specification Consortium (PSLX)http://www.pslx.org/en/22 Ayesha Malik, “XML Standards for Financial Services.” O’Reilly XML.com, March 26, 2003. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/03/26/financial.html23 U.S. Department of Justice, “Global Justice XML.” http://www.it.ojp.gov/index.jsp24 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Central Data Exchange (CDX). http://www.epa.gov/cdx/25 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) http://www.cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/26 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XSLT 2.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/CR-xslt20-20051103/ 27 Ibid, XML Query 1.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/ 28 Clint Boulton, “W3C Close In on Key XML Specs.” Developer, November 3, 2005.http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/356139629 Eric Knorr, “SOA Meets the Real World.” May 02, 2005. http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/05/02/18FEsoaintro_1.html?s=feature30 Object Management Group, CORBA FAQ. http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/corbafaq.htm31 Richard Veryard and Philip Boxer, “Metropolis and SOA Governance, Part 1: Towards the AgileMetropolis.” The Architectual Journal, July 2005.32 California Institute of Technology, “Sense and Respond Systems: Research Overview.”March 2004. http://www.infospheres.caltech.edu/crisis_web/overview.htm33 Virtual Earth and Google Earth Web services mapping.http://virtualearth.msn.com/ http://earth.google.com/34 Larimer County, Colorado Sheriff ’s Office, Sex Offenders Database. http://www.larimer.org/sheriff/sexoffenders/index.htm 35 Howard Rheingold, “Smart Mobs.” 2002. http://smartmobs.com/36 Ibid., page xiv.37 Second Life, a 3D “online persistent virtual world.” http://secondlife.com/

References

CONTRIBUTORS:

Cathilea RobinettExecutive Director,Center for Digital Government

Mary NoelSenior Vice President of Research Services

Paul W. Taylor, Ph.D.Chief Strategy Officer, Center for Digital Government,Center for Digital Education

Al SherwoodSenior Fellow, Center for Digital Government & former deputy CIO, state of Utah

SPECIAL THANKS:

Stuart McKee National Technology Officer, U.S. Public Sector, Microsoft Corp. & former CIO, state of Washington

11

Underwritten by:

Microsoft provides technology solutions that help public sector agencies better serve citizens — any time, any place andon any device. Every day, Microsoft helps agencies leverage investments they’ve already made in existing systems, allow-ing them to connect seamlessly to disparate applications while increasing productivity and cost savings. To learn more, visitMicrosoft online at http://www.microsoft.com/publicsector/.

About Center for Digital Government:

The Center for Digital Government, a division of e.Republic, Inc., is a national research and advisory institute on informationtechnology policies and best practices in state and local government. Its advisory services, online resources and special reportsprovide public and private sector leaders with decision support, knowledge and opportunities to help effectively incorporatenew technologies in the 21st century.

The Center's Strategy Papers provide two decades of experience and insight into the most critical IT topics governments arefaced with today. The papers address important policy and management issues and offer strategic approaches for planning andimplementing technology, funding sources and case studies from jurisdictions.

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