Semantic (XML Web Services) Interoperability Community of Practice (SICoP)

Acknowledgments: Web Server Courtesy of USGS Geology Division CIO's Office)(http://web-services.gov/), GSA ListServ Courtesy of GSA CIO's Office (http://listserv.gsa.gov/archives/cioc-web-services.html), and Collaboration Place Courtesy of GSA's CIO's Office of Government-wide Policy (http://ioa-qpnet-co.gsa.gov/WebServices).

Welcome: A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network.  It has an interface described in a machine-processable format  (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP-messages, typically conveyed with HTTP using an XML serialization in conjunction with other XML-related standards. (Updated August 8th). (Source: W3C Web Services Architecture and Web Services Glossary). The Semantic Web and Challenges (including Web Services) (Web and PowerPoint) by Tim Berners-Lee, January 2003, and Standards, Semantics and Survival (Web and PowerPoint), by Tim-Berners Lee, January 28, 2003. Web Services are defined by the WS-I as the incorporation of standards (XML, XSD, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI) that make vendors more interoperable. Interoperability is the ability to communicate and share data across programming languages and platforms (ISO/IEC 2382 Information Technology Vocabulary).

The purpose of this CoP is to support two CIO Council Committees: (1) the Best Practices Committee's Knowledge Management Working Group and its Semantic Interoperability CoP, and (2) the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee's Emerging Technology Subcommittee in its work with the other two subcommittees (Enterprise Architecture Governance and Components) and the e-Gov Initiatives in their use of Semantic XML Web Services to demonstrate increased accessibility and interoperability. Background: Brainstorming Session and Charter.

Activities Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and Emerging Technology Subcommittee: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and CIO Council Reports 1). New Activities Reports: 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (S1), 9 (S2), 10 (S3), 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 , 16, 17.

Announcements:

October 12, 2004, Wiki Page for SICoP Conference Call on Module 1 Now Available for October 13, 1-3 p.m.

October 10, 2004, Proceedings Web Site for Second Semantic Technologies for E-Government Conference, September 8-9, 2004, Now Available.

October 9, 2004, Town Hall at the XML 2004 Conference "Networking of U.S. Federal Government Communities of Practice Using XML" Planned for Early Evening of November 16th or 17th with Six XML-Based CoPs Participating. More Details to Follow.

October 8, 2004, LandView 6 EnviroQUEST Tutorials (1, 2, and 3) (used at the recent State Data Center/Business and Industry Data Center Annual National Training Conference, September 21-23, 2004) and Terrain Viewer (a set of 3D software and map/image files that let you fly over a representation of real areas in the United States, and in doing so, to view the location of EPA-regulated sites, as well as population statistics for any radius) Now Available.

October 7, 2004, Semantic Web Applications for National Security (SWANS - formerly Semantic Web for Military Users) Two-Day Conference Being Planned with SICoP for January 20th - February 10th, 2005, Time Period. Details to Follow.

October 6, 2004, Training Opportunities: TopQuadrant jointly with Jim Hendler is offering a continuing program of "Briefings and Workshops on Semantic Technologies and the Semantic Web", October 18-21st (Web Site) , and GSA/LMI is offering "Connecting  the Federal Government - Implementing FEA in XML", October 25-28th (Contact: Ms. Shiva Mostafaei).

October 5, 2004, XML 2004 Conference Paper "The Federal CIO Council's Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice (SICoP)" Authored in Microsoft Word Was Converted to the OASIS DocBoc Standard (Conference Schema is a customized subset) Using Template.Doc and the SchemaSoft Web Service (Note: Any modern Web Browser on any platform can be used to upload the input and download the output, since the submission is done using regular HTML forms).

October 4, 2004, SICoP Monthly Meeting to be Held at Conclusion of the Collaborative Expedition Workshop #36 on October 19th At NSF Jointly with the new XML CoP. RSVP required: Please respond to renee.hughes@gsa.gov or 202-501-0291 to register for a badge, if you plan to attend. Special SICoP Meeting on White Paper Modules 1-3 to be Held October 13th. Details to Follow.

September 29, Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Endorses Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) As the Architectural  Framework of Choice and Grantee Guideline Language That Requires Use of the Global Justice Data Model.

September 27, 2004, Upcoming Collaborative Expedition Workshop #36 on October 19th and Componenttechnology.Org Fifth Quarterly Meeting  on October 25th Take the FEA Reference Models (BRM/TRM/SRM mapped to the SOA and an XML Profile for the DRM) and Enterprise Architecture (Innovation and Value-Driven) to the Next Levels. This is Being Piloted for EPA Region 4 Using the OASIS Web Services for Remote Portlets Standard.

September 16, 2004, Federated Repositories Pilot Briefing Updated (Background) and Nobelstar FEA Pilot Site and Logidex Demonstration Site with Nearly 200 High-Quality Components (follows more a "push model" than the "pull model" of Core.Gov). Also Metadata Registries and Repositories: Lessons Learned Provided to the SAIC/DHS Metadata Center of Excellence. Also Presentations on "Data Management and Interoperability (and the FEA DRM)" at the IAC EA SIG Third Quarterly Meeting by Jim Feagans (DOJ), Mike Daconta (DHS), Eliot Christian (USGS & ICGI), and Tim West (IC MWG).

September 10, 2004, Best Paper Award to Brad Bebee, Mike Personick, Bryan Thompson, Bijan Parsia, and Curt Soechtig, and Special Recognitions to Jie-hong Chen Morrison for Outstanding Leadership of the SICoP Module 1 White Paper and to Irene Polikoff for Outstanding Contributions As a Member of the Planning Committee (see slides 15-16) Given at the Close of the Very Successful Second Semantic Technologies for E-Government Conference, September 8-9, 2004. Proceedings Web Site and Efforts to Make MITRE Video Tape on DVD Available (in process). This year's event was twice the size of last year's. Over 300 individuals registered. More than 40 Defense and civilian agencies sent personnel. Also, more than 50 major contractor organizations were represented.

September 8-9, 2004, Second Semantic Technologies for E-Government Conference, at The MITRE Corporation Conference Center. Handout Materials Available: Agenda, Opening Presentation, Abstracts and Short Bios (Document), SICoP Announcement and White Paper Module 1: Introducing Semantic Web Technologies: Harnessing the Power of Information Semantics (“Semantic Primer”), Semantic Technology Briefing, The Business Value of Semantic Technologies, Accelerating Adoption of Semantic Technologies, and MITRE The Edge: Information Interoperability Issue (Summer 2004) (The Semantic Web). IMPORTANT NOTE: This two-day event is free, but advanced registration is mandatory for admittance due to security measures! REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED SINCE WE HAVE REACHED THE CAPACITY OF 285. REMOTE ACCESS IS AVAILABLE. Follow signs to the East and West Parking or Garages and use Conference Center Entrance (not the Main Lobby). September 8th Presentations: Maybury, Hodgson, Hendler, Allemang, Miller (ppt), and Davis. September 9th Presentations: Petroski, Niemann, Morrison, Pollock, Schreiber, Ray, Bebee and Personick, Roberts, Obrst, Sood, Peterson, Morgan, George, and Garimalla, and Hendler.

August 30, 2004, SICoP announces White paper series at Army Knowledge Symposium, September 2nd, 2 p.m. in the Track 8 Conference Room. DOIM/AKM Conference: Securing the Information Enterprise for Battle Command.

August 17, 2004, Agenda Available for the Second Semantic Technologies for eGovernment Conference, September 8-9, at MITRE, McLean, VA, That Includes Tutorials and Executive Briefing (September 8th) and Full Day Conference (September 9th). IdeaAlliance (XML 2004 Conference) Becomes a Partner in the Conference!

August 12, 2004, Suggestions to "Semantify" the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) and Its Interoperability Provided to the FHA Interoperability WG by the SICoP/Ontolog Forum (e.g. SNOWMED in OWL and UML to OWL, etc.). The FHA is One of the Five OMB Lines of Business (LoB)!

August 10, 2004, Demonstrations of Pilot Projects for EPA Managers Scheduled for August 16th. Background Materials: GeoResponse (Broadstrokes: Public Demo and IDSIGIS Assistance to the Maryland Department of the Environment), Semantic Mapping Tools and Situation Awareness Portal (ImageMatters), Federated Repositories (Noblestar and LogicLibrary: Public Demo), and Semantic Information Management (Unicorn).

August 6, 2004, Discussions of the State of the Future 2004 Report Pilot and the State of the Future Index (SOFI) System from the Millennium Project Meeting.

August 4, 2004, Pilot on Interoperability Across and Federation Of Best Practices Repositories (XML.Gov, CORE.Gov, CAFE, etc.) See Methods for Service Taxonomies in Building Communities of Practice, Help Desk Taxonomy from Taxonomy CoP Meeting, Federal Times article, and Session 3-5: Best Practices for Adopting Service-Oriented Architectures: Service Taxonomy, Federated Repository, and Semantic Interoperability (Ontology).

July 29, 2004, Best Practices Repository, Added to Semantic Interoperability CoP Web Site Re-Design, Includes Services Component-Based Architectures (AIC White Paper), Building Communities of Practice: Creating Value Through Knowledge Communities (Practitioners Guide),  FY 2006 OMB 300 Schema Version 2.95 Data Dictionary, etc.

July 26, 2004, Registration Web Site Available for the Second Semantic Technologies for eGovernment Conference, September 8-9, at MITRE, McLean, Virginia. W3C Leadership, Semantic Web Browser Developers, Intelligence Community Metadata Working Group, etc. Expected to Participate!

July 9, 2004, Call for Papers for the Second Semantic Technologies for eGovernment Conference, September 8-9, at MITRE, McLean, Virginia. (Recall that the first conference, September 8, 2003, was held at the White House Conference Center, which was too small for the number requesting attendance and does not provide the remote participation that the MITRE facility does for the September 8-9, 2004, event). See SICoP Meeting Agenda for details (especially slides 18-19).

July 8, Best Practices for Adopting Service-Oriented Architectures: Dynamic Knowledge Repositories (DKR), Best Practices in Categorizing Government Information Forum, Federal Interagency Committee on Government Information, U.S. EPA Headquarters, East Building, Room 1153, 1201 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Also for AIC Meeting, July 15th, Collaboration Expedition Workshop, August 17th, and EA Conference, September 21st.

July 7, Two CT Awards Given at the "Swing for the Fences-Seed Investing for Entrepreneurs" Seminar to Maurice Swinton, former SBA Assistant Administrator, Office of Technology (SBIR/STTR), currently Senator Enzi’s Office Staff for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Dan Loague, Executive Director of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds. See Componenttechnology.Org

June 30, 2004, University - Industry Collaboration, George Mason University, Professor Arun Sood, Professor and Chair, Computer Science Department, The Use of Ontology Filters to Increase the Relevance of Web Searches.

June 19, Componenttechnology.Org Presented to "From Lab to IPO: The Hi-Tech Start-Up, The George Washington University, Virginia Campus. Angel Investor Conference Planned for May 17/18, 2005.

June 9, 2004, Enterprise Architecture Best Practices Repository - Knowledge Management Collaboration Environment Workshop Announced for August 17, 2004, at NSF. Organized by Rick Murphy (Blueprint Technologies and IAC) and Jay Peltz (Km.Gov WG and FederalConnections.Org) (details to follow including Service Taxonomy-Driven Approach to Structuring Both the Repository and the Community of Practice-See Slides 30 and 36).

June 9, 2004, Fifth Emerging Technology Components Conference Scheduled for October 25th at MITRE. Details to follow at Componenttechnology.org.

June 4, 2004, Community Knowledge Network Community of Practice (CKN CoP) (renamed National Infrastructure for Community Statistics CoP) Launched at Brookings Institution Meeting on May 27th with Charter and Vision Paper (Visioning a Nationwide Infrastructure for Community Statistics). July 1st Meeting to Discuss Draft Charter and Proposed Tasks for the Next 12-18 Months (by invitation only). This Relates to the FEA-eGov Act 2002 DRM Pilots and Data and Statistics Line of Business (see SICoP Presentation of April 14, 2004, Slide 64, and The Boston Foundation Presentation of June 4, 2004, Pilot with Semantic XML Web Services).

June 1, 2004, Next SICoP Meeting Dates are June 23rd for SICoP Workshop Using Tomoye Simplify and Groove to Produce White Paper, and Joint SICoP-ONTOLOG Forum Meeting to Discuss Semantic Harmonization for SINE (Sustainable Intergovernmental Network Exchange), etc., July 7th. Both Hosted by Army Corp of Engineers, Washington, DC (details to follow). DRAFT Minutes from May 19th Meeting.

May 20, 2004, Suggested Task Integration and Collaboration Across AIC Subcommittees and the AIC and Best Practices CIO Council Committees.

May 17, 2004, Semantic Information Management as an EPA Portal Component by Unicorn (Background), May 18th, and the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice (SICoP) Meeting, May 19th. New Semantic Interoperability Book (excerpt) to be released soon.

May 13, 2004, Information Technology Counseling (Teaming) Session For Information Technology Solutions-Business Information Strategic Support (ITS-BISS) ($70M-5 years), U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 8:45 am – 2:00 pm, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Jefferson Auditorium, South Building, Wing 7 Entrance, Washington, DC (Nearest Metro Station-Smithsonian). Register and use Small Business Vendor Profile Systems.  IT at EPA: Focused Change, Mark Day, CTO and Deputy CIO.

May 12, 2004, KM.GOV “Swarm and Sprint” Begins at FederalConnections.Org to Apply Best Practices for Knowledge Management in the Government to Enterprise Architecture Knowledge-Base in Support of Integration of AIC Tasks Across Its Three Subcommittees and Preparation for Meeting with the Best Practices Committee in July. KM.GOV SIG Announces Taxonomy & Semantics Contest (contact Denise Bedford).

May 11, 2004, Collaboration Expedition Workshop in Cooperation with Componenttechnology.Org for the Chief Architects Forum and Others Provides Quantification of the ROI (Dr. Jeffrey Poulin) for Enterprise Architecture Software Component Development and Reuse from Collaborative Development and Use of Scripting Languages (e.g. Python) in Applications. Supports the Need for the Business Case for and Examples of Component Reuse. Follow-on Presentation June 13, 2004, at the Federal Architect Council - The Business Value of Enterprise Architecture, Washington D.C. Registration.

May 4, 2004, Universal Business Language (UBL) 1.0 DRM Registry and Repository Pilot Initiated. See UBL standard published, Federal Computer Week, May 15, 2004.

April 28, 2004, Multiple Taxonomies Workshop Features Excellent Presentations, Discussions, and Use of Collaboration Tool.

April 27, 2004, Dr. Ivar Jacobson, One of the Great Thought Leaders in the Software World (father of component architecture, use cases, modern business modeling, UML, and RUP) Speaks on "Four Macro Trends in Software Development" at Northern Virginia Rational User Group Meeting.

April 27, 2004, Proposed Pilot for EPA Children's Health from Unicorn Open for Discussion, Collaboration, and Possible Presentation at the May 19th SICoP Meeting.

April 23, 2004, Data and Information Model (DRM) Pilot Registry and Repository Prepared for Global Justice Information-Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee Meeting, April 21-22, Using Global Justice XML Data Model as Part of the Sustainable Intergovernmental Network Exchange (SINE) Community of Practice to Compliment the XML Data Model and the Service-Oriented Architecture Activities.

April, 20, 2004, Next SICoP Meeting May 19th, 12 noon - 4 p.m, Room 2H390, MITRE  1. Meet in MITRE 1 Lobby for Lunch in Cafeteria Before Meeting at 11 a.m.  DRAFT Agenda and Collaboration Wiki for Presentations. Hosted by The MITRE Corporation, McLean, Virginia. Army Knowledge Symposium, August 30- September 3, 2004, Semantic Web Track.

April 19, 2004, Emerging Technology Innovations in Software Component Development, Reuse, and Management-Applications to Government Enterprise Architecture, Agenda, May 11, 2004, National Science Foundation, Ballston, VA, Collaboration Expedition Workshop #32, 4121 Wilson Blvd. (Stafford II Building), Room 375. Please RSVP for a badge to renee.hughes@gsa.gov. Chief Architects Forum Community of Practice invited.

April 10, 2004, Semantic Interoperability (Web Services) Community of Practice, First Meeting on April 14th. See Past Meetings and Presentations section. A FEA DRM Registry and Repository Pilot.

April 9, 2004, Presentations and Demonstrations to the EPA Business Intelligence and Analytics (BIA) User Group Meeting (LandView 6 Census 2000 Population Estimator, GeoResponse, Data Mining and XML Repository, and Semantic Web Service Portals and Networks), Prepared for April 13, 2004.

April 7, 2004, Input (XML how-to: First of all, never cross your authors, Marking Up the Bureaucracy, Feds proselytize for XML, Special Recognition Presented, Repurposing Documents Into Semantic Web Services and Networks, Data and Information Reference Model Pilot Using the Statistical Abstract of the US) Provided to the IC MWG XML Tool Evaluation Task and DRM Pilot Proposed.

April 6, 2004, Componenttechnology.Org Fact Sheet Presented at CENDI Meeting Following Karen Evans Talk on "What's Ahead for E-Government and Federal Information Policy?"

April 5, 2004, Componenttechnology.Org Fact Sheet Prepared for the First Chief Architect Forum (CAF) Meeting of the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee (AIC), White House Conference Center, That Addresses the New AIC Tasks to Promote Enterprise Architecture Maturity, EA Online Resources, and a Government Enterprise Architecture Framework (GEAF).

April 2, 2004, Fourth Emerging Technology Components Conference (Agenda) Scheduled for June 3rd at The MITRE in McLean, Virginia, and the First “Community Seed Investing As a Team Sport” Seminar Scheduled for July 7, 2004, at the University of Maryland.

March 31, 2004, EPA Strategic Plan: 2003-2008, Converted to a Structured Document and Semantic Web Services in Support of the XML.Gov/AIIM Standards Program Project Proposal: “Specifying an XML Schema for Strategic Plans: The First Step toward the Strategic Management of Documents/Records/Content”.

March 29, 2004, Participation in the Categorization of Government Information (CGI) Working Group of the Interagency Committee on Government Information, Includes Presentations from Third Emerging Technology Components Conference, March 23-25, 2004 (Vivisimo and Its FirstGov Demo and Section 207 of the E-Government Act) and the Data and Information Reference Model Pilot Using the Statistical Abstract of the US.

March 26, 2004, Presentations (31) Posted at Componettechnology.Org for the Third Emerging Components Technology Conference (Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3) Held March 23-25, 2004 at FOSE, Washington DC Convention Center, Room 140: SBA, Vivisimo, Nobelstar, Flashline, Broadstrokes, PosID, Christian, USGN, The Executable FEA, Adobe, Platform Logic, Cyclone, Koolspan, Pensare, Real User, Yim, Schaper, Lewis, Chiusano, DevIS, Loague, Bollinger, Brooks, Image Matters, Maryland TEDCO, Dizon, Data Quality Solutions, Xlipstream, and Arlington County (3).

March 17, 2004, Final Call Press Release for Participation in the Third Emerging Components Technology Conference to be held March 23-25, 2004 at FOSE, Washington DC Convention Center, Room 140. The goal for the conference series is to facilitate collaborative networks that break down the innovation diffusion barriers between E-Government and Small Business Development among 1) small businesses 2) e-gov program managers, 3) early seed investing community, 4) Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) program managers community, 5) state economic development programs 6) Federal labs 7) grid computing community 8) young entrepreneurs at universities and 9) the angel investing networks and VCs. Open collaboration with open standards/protocols is key to the future of broad-based economic prosperity and vibrant, entrepreneurial societies. Greater discernment and attunement to this larger picture emerges when "stove-piped" communities develop shared understanding. Please use the link to register for this no-fee event. See the current agenda for this conference along with background information from the first two conferences.

March 16-17, 2004, 2004 Microsoft Federal Architect Forum, Microsoft Innovation and Technology Center, Reston, Virginia, Features Envisioning the Service-Oriented Enterprise, Tools for Developing Service-Oriented Solutions (Software Factories), and Enterprise Architecture in the Government. See Microsoft Architecture Center. Also Microsoft Federal Architect Council, April 8, 2004, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Microsoft Conference Center, 5335 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 500, Washington DC, 202-895-2000. To Register Contact Amiee Sprung at 202-895-2169 or amiees@microsoft.com. Featured Speaker is David Chappell, "What's Next: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)".

March 15, 2004, Call for Papers and Government Reviewers from the XML 2004 Conference, November 14-19, 2004, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC, USA. Theme: "XML - From Syntax to Solutions", Format: Tutorials on Monday and Friday, and Keynote Speaker: Senior Government Official (to be invited). Contact Brand Niemann if interested in being a government reviewer.

March 13, 2004, Community Indicator Statistical Services Network Pilot begun in support of the Community Indicators Consortium to be demonstrated at the next meeting planned for late May. See Announcements, February 24th and Past Meetings and presentations, March 10-13th.

March 10, 2004, Fourth Emerging Technology Components Conference (one day open to all) and "Seed Investing as a Team Sport Field Seminar" (one day by invitation) being planned for June 3 and July 7th, respectively. See http://componenttechnology.org/ for details.

February 26, 2004, Invitations to Present and Open Call to Participate Issued for the Third Emerging Technology Components Conference During FOSE 2004, March 23-25th. Note: There is no fee to attend this conference (government and non-government), however other programs at FOSE may require a $50 fee for non-government participants. Please use this link to register for this no-fee event. Also Planning Session Held for Fourth Emerging Technology Components Conference (mid-June date and place to be announced soon) with Focus on: "From Lab to IPO From Anywhere in the US", "Young Entrepreneurs at Universities", and "Seed Investing as a Team Sport Field Seminar".

February 24, 2004, DRM Data Management Strategy DRM Registry/Repository Pilot (Semantic Web Service and XML Data Tables) Being Prepared for the March 4-5, 2004, Symposium: America's Scorecard: The Census in an Ever-Changing Nation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC. New Opportunity to Appraise and Appreciate the Data That Provided the Foundation for Public Policy and Private Initiatives. By Invitation Only.

February 23, 2004, Planning Committee for XML 2004 (November 14-19, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC) Includes: Lauren Wood, Chair (Textuality), Sharon Adler (IBM Corporation), Paul Cotton (Microsoft Corporation), Marion Elledge (IDEAlliance), Eve Maler (Sun Microsystems, Inc.), and Brand Niemann (US EPA-Email Suggestions).

February 20, 2004, Third Organizing Meeting of the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice Agrees on Charter to Become a Special Interest Group (SIG) Within the Knowledge Management Working Group (KMWG) Sponsored by the Best Practices Committee of the CIO Council in Partnership with the XML Working Group, Among Others. First Formal Meeting Hosted by the Department of Army to be Announced Soon.

February 13, 2004, Third Organizing Meeting of the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice, February 19, 2004 Hosted at ISX (Peter Haglich-phaglic@isx.com), 1-4 p.m. (Near Ballston Metro Station). Agenda & Charter, Minutes, White Paper Revised Outline, RDF and OWL are W3C Recommendations: Press Release and Testimonials, Ontologies for Semantically Interoperable Systems (Obrst), Semantic Web Foundations of Net-Centric Warfare (Daconta for Review), Draft FEA Data Management Strategy, and TopMIND Semantic Technologies Briefings and Workshops.

February 10, 2004, RDF and OWL are W3C Recommendations: The World Wide Web Consortium today 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. Read the press release for the full list of twelve documents and testimonials to see how organizations are using these technologies today.

February 9, 2004, Emerging Technology Subcommittee Status for the ArchitecturePlus Seminar, 9 a.m.-12:30 noon, American Institute of Architects (AIA), 1735 New York Avenue NW, 2nd Floor Washington, DC. Also Recap of the Second Emerging Technology Components Conference, January 26, 2004, and the Agenda for Third Emerging Technology Components Conference: An Emerging Public-Private Partnership at FOSE 2004, March 23-25, 2004. Also see "Collaborative Networks Break Down Barriers to E-Government and Small Business Development".

February 6, 2004, Comments Provided at the FEA Discussion Forum on the Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) Version 1.0 Draft, White House Conference Center: See the Data Management Strategy with Business Drivers (to be released soon), Emulate the IC MWG, and See the Plan Outlined at the Web-Enabled Government Conference This Week for Creating Volume 2-4 Examples with Semantic Web Technologies.

February 5, 2004, Original Web Services Working Group Pilot Project (CollabNet’s Collaboration and CoSourcing: Designing Intergovernmental Services and Sharable Components: SourceCast Tool) Adopted for GSA/FEA Center for Components, Core.Gov (Component Organization and Registration Environment), and Presented to the AIC Components Subcommittee, Evolves Into the Noblestar/Flashline Team’s FEA FlashPack Pilot and Component-Asset Reuse Workflow Patterns and Life Cycles Standards-Based Component Registry and Repository Demonstrated at the Enterprise Architecture-Web-Enabled eGov Conference.

February 2, 2004, Presentation at the IRM College, National Defense University, Ft. McNair, Washington, DC,  February 5th, 2:30-4 p.m. on the Role in eServices of: (1) XML (XML Data Islands), (2) Web Services (EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee, EPA LEPC XML, EPA LEPC VXML, 1-800-303-9987-application ID is 713589, and Smart Response), (3) Componenttechnology.org, and (4) Semantic Web Technologies (Presentation for Web-Enabled Government Conference, First Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference, and BRM V2 XML and RDF).

January 21 and 7, 2004, Component-Asset Reuse Coordination Meetings, Across All Three AIC Subcommittees and IAC including: (1) Rian Mey, Adaptive (enabling a Common Process View for FEAPMO), (2) Marion Royal, GSA (The FEA Component Life Cycle Process, the Consolidated Component Registry/Repository-CCR, and CORE.Gov-The FEA's Center for Components), (3) David Mayo, Everware and IAC EA Components (IAC Review of the Components Subcommittee Work Products and Components in the DHS EA), (4) Mike Dunham, Department of Treasury and Governance Subcommittee (The "IRS 30" Components), (5) John Dodd, CSC and IAC (Overview of the IAC Committees, the SAIL Partnership-Solution Architecture Integration Lab, and Generic Process Reuse Framework), (6) John Weiler, ICHnet.org and IAC, The Interoperability Clearinghouse and Component Registry and Repository for SAIL, (7) Daud Santosa, US PTMO and Components Subcommittee (First Component and Planned Evolution to Asset Reuse), (8) Owen Ambur, DOI and Emerging Technology Subcommittee (The Emerging Technology Life-Cycle Management Process (Results of the Pilot, Next Steps To Be Taken, and Work Plan), (9) Noblestar/Flashline Pilot Team and IAC (Component Asset Reuse Workflow Pattern and Repository Functions-to be updated in January 26th presentation), and (10) Brand Niemann, US EPA and Member of the AIC Subcommittees (Emerging Technology Components: Break Through Performance Life Cycle in the Government Enterprise Architecture Framework (GEAF)).

January 14, 2004, Semantic Interoperability CoP Second Organizing Meeting (by Invitation) Hosted at EPA: Minutes, Agenda, Draft Charter, White Paper Outline, Semantic Interoperability Work for the FEA DRM (also Session at Web-Enabled Government Conference, February 4th), Designing the Smart Data Enterprise, New Taxonomy Work (NCES, OASIS, etc.), Geospatial Semantic Interoperability Proposal, eGov_SmartServices Discussion Group (Yahoo), TopMIND Tutorials, Planning for Second Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference (September 8, 2004) (Proceedings of the First Conference at TopQuadrant and Web-Services), and W3C RDF and OWL Status.

January 12, 2004, Mapping of EPA Data Standards (XML "Data Island") and Core Reference Model to XML Schemas (NEI Point Source) to be Demonstrated to the Network Technical Resources Group on January 13th. In process. EPA's Central Data Exchange: Then, Now, and In the Future (Michael Daconta, McDonald Bradley).

January 9, 2004, Broadstrokes, in partnership with IDSi, Commercializes the Original VoiceXML Pilot, That Won EPA the Mark Forman-Quad Council 2002 FOSE CIO Showcase of Excellence Special Award for Innovation, to Deliver a Full GIS Plus Voice Emergency Notification Product Called Smart Response, Which is of Interest to the New EPA Emergency Operations Center and Other Homeland Security Operations. This "Collaborative Vertical Network" (Citizens-Counties-States-Federal) with Its Own Built-in Registry and Repository to be Demoed at the January 26th Second Quarterly Emerging Technology Components Conference.

January 9, 2004, New Section Added on Documentation of Pilot Projects In Response to Many Requests. More in Pilot Documentation Process.

January 7, 2004, "Solutions Architecture for the Business Gateway (Review Draft 1.6)" Relies on the "E-Forms for E-Gov Pilot" and Its List of Components! See Second Quarterly Emerging Components Conference, January 26th, and register.

December 29, 2003, Presentation for Web-Enabled Government Conference on "Understanding Semantic Web Technology", February 4, 2004, provides applications to the FEA Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) and Highlights of the Recent TopMIND Semantic Technologies Tutorials. Information on Next Tutorials, February 9-12, and April 26-29, 2004. Semantic Web Service of First Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference, September 8, 2003, Now Available.

December 29, 2003, EPA Enterprise Architecture Status Report 2003 Suggests Major Role for Web Services in Enterprise Integration and the Core Reference Model for the Environmental Information Exchange Network Version 1.0 Provides a Basis for Constructing an Enterprise Data Model.

December 26, 2003, Emerging Technology Components: Break Through Performance Life Cycle in the Government Enterprise Architecture presentation for Joint AIC Emerging Technology and Components Subcommittee Meeting, January 6, 2004, and for the Second Quarterly Emerging Components Conference, January 26th, for which registration is now open. Advanced Preview of Afternoon Session Presentations: Executable FEA, A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for the Federal Enterprise, Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative: Infrastructure and Standards Working Group, the Federal Enterprise Architecture and Asset Management (FEA Registry FlashPack), The Emerging Technology Life-Cycle Management Process (Results of the Pilot, Next Steps To Be Taken, and Work Plan), E-Forms for E-Gov Pilot Final Report (PowerPoint) and The "Intelligent Document Platform": A Federal Enterprise Architecture, Service Component. Morning Session Presentations: (1) Arizona: Overview, Cyclone, ePlanroom, Goal Centrix, Kutta, and Novahead (Word); (2) Delaware: CAI and Solstice; (3) Maryland: Fritz, Koolspan, Platform Logic, Plethora, POS ID, Tenable, and Xlipstream; (4) Dan Loague; and (5) Susan Turnbull.

December 22, 2003, Sustainable Intergovernmental Network Exchange (SINE) Workshop Planned for February 24-25, 2004, at the US EPA. Collaborative work on (1) harmonization of data dictionaries, (2) componentization of XML Schemas, and (3) mappings and transformations across communities of practice will be featured. This relates closely to work on the FEA DRM Volumes 2-4 (DRM business context, DRM information exchange, and DRM data elements). See December 10th Announcement for Background.

December 22, 2003, "Butting heads over B2B" in NetworkWorldFusion. Synopsis: "Sun is the only large vendor with a certified interoperable ebXML offering, while IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle favor Web Services." Some quotes: "ebXML uses a component-based approach toward building documents that is technically sophisticated but difficult to work with." "The good news is this dual support (users might need to support some elements of both) might not be terribly onerous given that ebXML and Web services share some components."

December 15, 2003, Five Government Enterprise Architecture Framework Components Registries and Repositories Demonstrated to the Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office (FEAPMO-APCG, Inc.): (1) Emerging Components Collaboration  Registry/Repository (ECCRR) ("esir"), (2) Government Enterprise Architecture Framework Components Registry and Repository (GEAFRR), (3) Topic Maps of eGov and EA Conferences, (4) Federal Asset Management Solutions (to be publicly available soon on the Web), and (5) Federal Enterprise Architecture Capability Manager with Semantic Technologies (see slides 82-93).

December 10, 2003, December 15th Workshop and Planning Meeting Toward Sustainable  Intergovernmental Network Exchange (SINE) (by invitation) at the White House Conference Center to Include Demonstration of Component Reuse in a Collaborative Work Environment with Tools (XML Spy 2004 and MapForce 2004). Also can join the ONTOLOG Collaborative Work Environment: Open International Forum on Business Ontology.

December 9, 2003, Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition, W3C Working Draft. See Government XML Working Group Meeting, January 21st Agenda.

December 3-4, 2003, Tutorials - Beyond XML Part I: XSL, Topic Maps, and RDF, and Part II: RDF/S and OWL, by Top Quadrant, Inc. and the University of Maryland's MINDLab, Produce Collaboration on Government Semantic Technology/Web Data Examples and Plans for Second Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference, September 8, 2004 (tentative)! Semantic Web Service of First Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference, September 8, 2003, Now Available.

December 2, 2003, EA Terminology Compiled (See OMB seeks consensus on enterprise architecture terms) and Added to the Government Enterprise Architecture Framework Components Registry and Repository (GEAFRR) in Support of the FEAPMO Communication Initiative. Also See Enterprise Architect Summit Conference Presentation on Software Reuse: Patterns and Anti-Patterns (relates to "Noblestar-Flashline Pilot") and Papers on SOA for the Federal Enterprise and Designing the Smart Data Enterprise. Also Topics Maps (XML) for EA/eGov Conferences Now Available to the Public.

December 1, 2003, Federal Computer Week, R&D experts pitch e-gov funding plan, "SBA-run research program could make up for budget shortfalls, officials say". Learn how the "SBIR for eGov Initiative" provided business-case based IT development to be discussed at the Emerging Components Second Quarterly Conference at the White House Conference Center, January 26, 2004. Registration now open.

November 26, 2003, Draft Agenda for the Second Emerging Components Quarterly Conference now available at the Emerging Components Collaboration  Registry/Repository (ECCRR) ("esir") Web site and includes an update on the Federal Enterprise Asset Management Solution ("Noblestar-Flashline" Registry Pilot) Using IRS, RecOneStop, and Other Components.

November 26, 2003, The Emerging Technology Life-Cycle Management Process (PowerPoint), Town Hall Meeting at the XML 2003 Conference, December 9, Philadelphia, PA.

November 19-20, 2003, FEA Presentation by Eliot Christian for GIS Day. To enhance re-use and interoperability, the geospatial community has been moving  for some years towards a component-based, service-oriented architecture and is now poised to make this approach real by turning the abstract concepts into actual procurement language to create a set of indefinite quantity/ indefinite delivery contracts for Interoperable Geospatial Portal Components.

November 22, 2003, The Role of User-Centered Design in e-Gov and the Federal Enterprise Architecture, Presentations at the Universal Access Expedition Collaboration Workshop, October 28th, 2003, that  provided a forum for case studies and guidelines related to usability, are now available.

November 17, 2003, Join the eGov_SmartServices Discussion Group moderated by Yaser Bishr. The goal of eGov is to become the catalyst for enabling government enterprises and citizens to do business on the Web. Semantic technologies will enable the realization of Smart Services which have been identified as one of the most important factors in the Federal Enterprise Architecture's (FEA) Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) for both civilian and military government systems (e.g., Army Future Combat Systems). We are currently witnessing a plethora of research and development on the Semantic web and related technologies. The eGov_SmartServices Discussion Group is being created to foster discussion on issues that pertain to Semantics and Smart Web Services for the Federal Enterprise Architecture's DRM. Topics for discussion will range from the strategic to the very technical... To join the group send an email to eGov_SmartServices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com with empty Subject and Body. You will then receive an email with a web link where you can select the subscription option.

November 17, 2003, Federal Data Management Strategy for the Data and Information Reference Model (DRM), Business Driver 4: Resolve Data Semantic Issues That Impede Community of Practice Work, Draft Updated November 25th and Summary Version for December 3rd. Also "eGov SmartServices" Yahoo-hosted Discussion Group started. See details for enrollment above.

November 14, 2003, National Capital Chapter of the Business Forms Management Association Meeting on November 18th to feature Rick Rogers, CEO of Fenestra Technologies, "The Role of e-Forms for e-Gov - What the Federal CIO Council's Pilot Project Learned". See Upcoming Meetings and Presentations below for complete details.

November 10, 2003, Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, Service-Oriented Architecture Subcommittee Meeting, Williamsburg, Virginia. Background Information, Resources and Methods and Tools for EA and eGov.

November 4, 2003, EPA Web Services Day Contributions: Workshop Survey, Agenda, and Descriptions, for Web Services Best Practices Workshop, September 24th, at the White House Conference Center, and Presentation of Emerging Components (Image Matters: userSmarts and Ontology Manipulation Toolkit) and EPA Geospatial Pilot Projects at the Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day 2003, November 19-20th,  9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Mellon Auditorium, 14th and Constitution Avenue, Washington, DC (adjacent to the Federal Triangle Metro Station).

October 31, 2003, Government Enterprise Architecture Framework (GEAF) Meeting, October 28th Coordination with Other Governance Subcommittee Goal 3 Tasks, and October 30th OASIS eGOV Technical Committee Meeting: Workshop on Registries and Repositories. See the Emerging Components Collaboration  Registry/Repository (ECCRR) ("esir"). Also "Flashline Registry: Federal Enterprise Asset Management Solution" Pilot updated from October 20th Presentation at the Emerging Components Conference.

October 31, Special Recognition Presented at the October 30, 2003, Save Money by Publishing to XML: An ITAA Breakfast Seminar, J. W. Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC, to Corel (John Turnbull, Jay Di Silvestri, Scott Edwards, Jim Buttinger, Mary Romeo, and Shawn Henderson) for Exceptional Performance on the XML Web Services Content Authoring Pilot Project. See Government Computer News, Feds proselytize for XML, October 31, 2003.

October 28, 2003, EPA Bronze Medal Awarded for "Collaboration on EPA's Geospatial Blueprint: For outstanding collaboration on EPA's Geospatial Blueprint which outlines the enterprise approach for acquiring, managing, and deploying geospatial data and tools" to the EPA Geospatial Team (that includes Brand Niemann) at the Office of Environmental Information Annual Awards Ceremony Hosted by EPA's Chief Information Officer, Kim Nelson.

October 27, 2003, Presentation of Emerging Components (Image Matters: userSmarts and Ontology Manipulation Toolkit) and EPA Geospatial Pilot Projects at the Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day 2003, November 19-20th, Mellon Auditorium and EPA East Building, Washington, DC, 14th and Constitution Avenue (adjacent to the Federal Triangle Metro Station), 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Also see Proposed Contract for Interoperable Geospatial Portal Components.

October 24, 2003, Registration Closed Temporarily (TO BE RESCHEDULED) and Presentation now available for Programming .NET Components Seminar ("A component is a .NET class.") at the White House Conference Center, November 10, 2003, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. See Announcement and O'Reilly Book: Programming .Net Components - Design and Build Maintainable Systems Using Component-Oriented Programming, Chapter 1 (free download). Part of the Emerging Technology Subcommittees' Emerging Components and Semantic XML Web Services Community of Practice Activities.

October 24, 2003, Dates for next Emerging Components Meeting with Venture Capital Community (December 15, 2003) and Quarterly Conference (January 26, 2004) scheduled.

October 21, 2003, Two Special Recognitions presented at the October 20th Emerging Components Quarterly Conference at the White House Conference Center as follows: Antoinette Purdon, Instant Index, For Exceptional Contributions During 2002-2003, and Joe Chiusano, Booz Allen Hamilton, For Exceptional Contributions During 2003 (previously announced on September 30th), presented by Brand Niemann and Susan Turnbull.

October 18, 2003, Updated Announcement and Agenda for October 20th Emerging Components Conference at the White House Conference Center to include: SBIR Update and CIO Perspective, GSA's Open Source eGov Reference Architecture (OSERA) , SBIR and non-SBIR Agencies and Their eGov Pilots, Standards Organizations and Their eGov Pilots, the Component Registry Pilot, and How to Participate in the "SBIR for eGov Pilots". Registration is closed now since we have reached the space limit of 100, but please register your interest in "SBIR for eGov" Participation at Componenttechnology.org and see the Master Schedule of SBIR Release Dates to apply. Address: 726 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20503 - near 16th and H - exit at McPherson Square Metro Station - 17th and I Street. Presentations to be posted here and at Componenttechnology.org soon.

October 16, 2003, Founding Meeting of the Semantics SIG to Establish a Community of Purpose, Decides to Develop a Charter, Mission Statement, White Paper, and Foster "Best Practices". More information to follow.

October 7, 2003, Registration now available for Programming .NET Components Seminar ("A component is a .NET class.") at the White House Conference Center, November 10, 2003, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. See Announcement and O'Reilly Book: Programming .Net Components - Design and Build Maintainable Systems Using Component-Oriented Programming, Chapter 1 (free download). Part of the Emerging Technology Subcommittees' Emerging Components and Semantic XML Web Services Community of Practice Activities.

October 1, 2003, Four Special Recognitions presented at the final XML Web Services Working Group Meeting as follows: Susan Turnbull, GSA, and Tony Stanco, GWU, For Exceptional Contributions During 2002-2003; Joe Chiusano, Booz Allen Hamilton, For Exceptional Contributions During 2003, and Rick Rogers, For Exceptional Leadership of the "E-Forms for E-Gov" Pilot Team, presented by Brand Niemann, Chair. All the pilot projects and the Working Group itself graduate to the "SBIR for E-Gov" Pilot Program and Componenttechnology.org and The Semantic XML Web Services Community of Practice (SWS-CoP).

September 23, 2003, Introductory Remarks and Workshop Survey, Agenda, and Descriptions, for Web Services Best Practices Workshop, September 24th, at the White House Conference Center, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (The first in a series of special one-day vendor technical workshops on Web Services as part of Phase 2 of the XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots). Address: 726 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20503 - near 16th and H - exit at McPherson Square Metro Station - 17th and I Street. Presentations now available. Mark Secrist's Bio and publications. Also see Web Services Orchestration and Choreograhy, Chris Peltz (HP).

September 22, 2003, Introductory Remarks (and Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference Highlights) for the Department of Homeland Security's XML/Metadata Expert Panel Discussion, hosted at FEMA, 500 C Street, SW, Washington, DC, Room 273, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Also referred to at the September 23rd Intergovernmental Partnership Forum, National Governors Association, Hall of States, Washington, DC.

September 16, 2003, Community of Practice Activities, Update for the Emerging Technology Subcommittee (Three major activities last week - Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference at the White House Conference Center, Launch of "SBIR for eGov Pilots" and Componenttechnology.org at the SBIR Program Managers' Quarterly Meeting, and Presentation of the Government Enterprise Architecture Components Registry and Repository at the Enterprise Architecture 2003 Conference) and for the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee and its Governance and Components Subcommittees.

September 15, 2003, Presentations for the September 8th “Semantic Technologies for eGov”Conference posted (Eric Miller, Michael Daconta, Irene Polikoff, Ralph Hodgson, Jim Hendler, and Brand Niemann). Conference Proceedings. Semantic Web Service and DVD recording of complete content  in process.

September 12, 2003, Chair to participate in the XML/Metadata Experts Panel Discussion, September 22nd, and on the Program Advisory Board for the Web-Enabled Government 2004 Conference (February 3-5) to organize a session on the "SBIR for eGov Pilots" Program and Componenttechnology.org. See Announcement.

September 9, 2003, Special Recognition to Ralph Hodgson, Irene Polikoff, Robert Coyne, and Dean Allemang, TopQuadrant, For exceptional performance on the “Semantic Technologies for eGov” Pilot Project, presented at the White House Conference Center, September 8, 2003, by Brand Niemann, Chair.

September 6, 2003, Programming .Net Components - Design and Build Maintainable Systems Using Component-Oriented Programming, Chapter 1 (free) - Introducing Component-Oriented Programming, Juval Lowy, O'Reilly Books. Future Phase 2 of the XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots Meeting Topic. ("A component is a .NET class.")

September 6, 2003, Final Welcome, Logistics, and Introduction (Updated with Closing Remarks, Awards, and Some Next Steps-September 10th) and Agenda Handouts for Semantic Technologies for eGov Conference at the White House Conference Center, Monday September 8th. Presentations to be posted soon.

September 3, 2003, Registration Web Site now available for Web Services Best Practices Workshop (Outline), September 24th, at the White House Conference Center, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (The first in a series of special one-day vendor technical workshops on Web Services as part of Phase 2 of the XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots). Address: 726 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20503 - near 16th and H - exit at McPherson Square Metro Station - 17th and I Street.

September 2, 2003, Registration for September 8th Conference tops 180 for the White House Conference Center that only accommodates 110 and EPA CIO, Kim Nelson, to speak. Please confirm attendance if government ASAP. Confirmations for attendance sent out September 3rd. Those that could not be confirmed due to space limitations should register for the September 24th Workshop.

September 2, 2003, Componenttechnology.org Web site upgraded as part of September 11th launch of eGov Pilot projects under the SBIR/STTC and the SBIR Program Managers Meeting hosted by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

August 28, 2003, Working Group Chair participates in day-long panel for the Information Discovery and Data Exploitation Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) of the Intelligence Community Metadata Working Group (IC MWG).

August 25, 2003, Working Group Chair "finds more enjoyment in creating an environment in which people with energy can thrive" in Federal Computer Week Profile.

August 15, 2003, XML Web Services Working Group graduates all pilots and itself on September 30th - come join the celebration! Work continues in the Emerging Technology Subcommittee to foster (1) pilots with the agencies under the SBA's SBIR/STTR (announcement) and (2) selected emerging technologies like the Semantic Web (see September 8th Conference) and External Web Services (see September 24th Workshop).

August 15, 2003, Implementing Component-Based Government Enterprise Architecture with Semantic Web Services (pilot demonstration link) for September 10-12, 2003, Enterprise Architecture eGov Conference, September 11, Session 3-2: Using Web Services to Support Your Enterprise Architecture, 1:15-2:30 p.m.

August 11, 2003, Proposed Semantic Web Technologies for EPA Pilot: Building a Knowledge-Centric Organization, Briefing for EPA Enterprise Architecture Team and Portfolio Managers, August 28, 2003, 2:30 - 4 p.m. Also August 6, 2003, Repurposing EPA Documents Into Semantic Web Services (see EPA Report on America's Children and the Environment, 2003).

August 7, 2003, Report to the Governance and Components Subcommittee from the Emerging Technology Subcommittee Representative. See Matrix of Components (page 3).

August 5, 2003, Two events planned for White House Conference Center in September - Semantic Technologies for E-Gov (Overview and Template), September 8th, (Registration) and Web Services Best Practices Workshop (Outline), September 24th (Registration) (first in a series of special one-day vendor technical workshops on Web Services as part of Phase 2 of the XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots). (Address: 726 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20503 - near 16th and H - exit at McPherson Square Metro Station - 17th and I Street.)

July 28, 2003, Proposed Semantic Web Technologies for EPA Pilot: Building a Knowledge-Centric Organization, consisting of five pilots lead by TopQuadrant, that could be generic to practically any agency, like the four pilot proposed for the Business Compliance One-Stop E-Gov Initiative (now called the Business Gateway).

July 23, 2003, New Pilot:  "Web Services and Registries" (Joe Chiusano, Work Plan) approved in cooperation with Existing Pilot: A Government Enterprise Component Registry and Repository Using Native XML Database Technology (XML Data Exchange Across Multiple Levels of Government Using Native XML Databases) (Brand Niemann) and Demonstration of Test Suite Requirements (Joel Patterson).

July 22, 2003, Connecting Interagency Workgroups Through Bridging Activities proposed by Karl Hebenstreit, Co-Chair, KM.Gov Public Policy & Outreach SIG, and SWIM (Semantic Web Integration Machinery or "See What I Mean!") proposed by Michele Biezunski, Coolheads Consulting.

July 22, 2003, First Pilot Project (Adam Hocek, Broadstrokes, VoiceXML Applications) Submits SBIR Funding Proposal and HP Federal Services Proposes Web Services Workshop (scheduled now for September 24th at the White House Conference Center) on Best Practices for Web Services Development, Web Services Case Studies, and Web Services Emerging Standards.

July 17, 2003, Report at AIC Task Leaders Meeting on Governance Subcommittee Goal 3 Task Pilots: A Government Enterprise Component Registry and Repository Using Native XML Database Technology (for presentation on July 22 and 23) and Joint Government Data and Information Reference Model (IAC White Paper) for review which includes MetaMatrix-XML Collaborator Pilot Project (see pages 26-27).

July 11, 2003, Invitation to present at the 8th Annual Government Business Technologies Managers Conference, August 13-14, Washington, DC, August 14th, 9-10:15 a.m. E-Gov Enabling Technologies: "Smart Buy"; E-Forms; E-Authentication - A Common Policy Framework for Identity Credentialing; Associated Business Cases. The "E-Forms for E-Gov" Business Case Story.

July 9, 2003, Coolheads Consulting (Michele Biezunski) completes integration of two separate Topic Maps (April 2003 SecurE-Biz.Net and March 2003 E-Gov Conference Presentations) for review (login required during review)  that demonstrates (1) the use of XML Topic Maps for distributed content management as called for in the E-Gov Act of 2002 and (2) the concept of "Centralized Information Architecture and Decentralized Publishing" presented at the June 18th Content Management Seminar of the GSA's USA Shared Services Technologies (Dana Hallman, Lead).

July 7, OMB refocuses Business Compliance One-Stop project, Government Computer News, July 2, 2003. Also see related story, July 3, 2003. White House praises potential of e-gov project, Government Executive, July 7, 2003.

July 3, 2003, Invitation to the Federal Computer Week Breakfast Panel Discussion on: "What's Next in XML: Modernization, Sharing Information Across Government", July 15th, 8-10 a.m. Tower Club, Vienna, VA (by invitation only-report will be provided at July 22nd meeting).

July 2, 2003, EPA's Draft Report on the Environment, Structured Document Version with XML Web Services, Demonstration for the "Semantic Technology for E-Gov Pilot" Presentations (XML Web Services Pilot Projects for the US EPA and Thoughts on the Report on the Environment, July 7th, and White House Conference Center Workshop, September 8th -more details to follow). Also see USGS Digital Library and Interagency Digital Library of the State of the Environment.

June 26, 2003, Michael Daconta, Chief Architect on the DOD's Virtual Knowledge Base Project (Semantic Web Development) and senior author of The Semantic Web: A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management (June 2003), invited to keynote the September 8th White House Conference Center Workshop. Philosophical Split Hurts Web Services Adoption, July 11, 2003.

June 25, 2003, Invitation to present "Web Services: The State of the Art in the Federal Government" to the Intelligence Community Metadata Working Group (IC MWG) (CIA, DIA, NSA, FBI, State Department, etc.), July 30th, SAIC, Tyson's Corner Area, 10 a.m. - 12 noon.

June 24, 2003, Invitation to Present at LogOn Web Days Europe 2003 on Web Services, Java, and XML, End User Case Studies of Use of Web Services in the Enterprise and E-Government (taking place in 11 European countries in September/October). Hosted by OT Land and invited by Roberto Zicari, Professor for Databases and Information Systems, Internationally Recognized Expert in Object Technology, and Co-Editor of XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems, who has been invited to present to the WG.

June 23, 2003, Phase 2 of the XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots (Phase 1 occurred on June 2nd) begins in support of new OMB and GSA requirements, focusing on New XML Schemas, E-Forms Servers, Consolidated Registries (ebXML Registry and Web Services, UDDI Business Registry, Topic Maps, Semantic Web-RDF, etc.), Quality-of-Service, Cross-Vendor Interoperability, etc., to be scheduled at the White House Conference Center September 8th and beyond (e.g., Solution Envisioning for Semantic Applications, Ralph Hodgson, TopQuadrant). More details to follow.

June 20, 2003, Emerging Components Conference Series, Perspectives and Planning Workshop, June 26th, Emerging Technology Subcommittee in cooperation with the Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW (Federal Center SW Metro Station), Washington, D.C., 8:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. SBIR/STTR Short Overview. Also see Components Technology Web Site for Registration and Agenda. Three vendors (AmberPoint, Conclusive, and PureEdge) have submitted Component Registry and Repository Templates. UDDI XML Schema. Also see XML, Web Services, and Semantic Technologies as Components (Update July 11, 2003).

June 18, 2003, New E-Grants XML Schema for "core" data available for the "E-Forms and XML Web Services for E-Gov Pilots" (E-Grants Core Schema June 12, 2003 V010 and E-Grants Header & Footer Schema June 12, 2003 V010).

June 9, 2003, OASIS E-Gov Technical Committee members (Joe Chiusano, et. al.) plan to propose an "ebXML Registry and Web services" pilot project to the XML Web Services Working Group. (Also suggested by Farrukh Najmi, SUN Microsystems, at March 17th E-Gov Conference, see An Open Source ebXML Registry For eGov.) See "UDDI and ebXML Registry: A Co-Existence
Paradigm".

June 9, 2003, E-Forms for E-Gov: Status and Evolution to a Line of Business, Briefing for Robert Haycock, by the Emerging Technology Subcommittee and the XML Web Services Working Group. Includes Draft Assessment Results of the June 2nd Workshop (see slide 10).

June 5-6, 2003, Emerging Technology Summit II - Spatial Web Services, The Role of Web Services for Spatial Data Delivery, Tim Berners-Lee, The Semantic Web.

June 4, 2003, Reviews of TV Raman's "XForms: XML Powered Web Forms", forthcoming book in late September 2003, and Micah Dubinko's XForms Essentials (see Yahoo Groups and O'Reilly Books),  forthcoming book in summer 2003, in preparation for presentations to the Working Group.

June 2, 2003, XML Web Services for E-Gov Workshop (Pilots to Assess Readiness of XML Web Services for E-Gov Initiatives), Minutes, Templates (UDDI Registry format) and Presentations: Open GIS Consortium, Adobe, Conclusive Technology, Digital Evolution, MetaMatrix, Microsoft, ObjectBuilders, and Sand Hill Systems.

May 30, 2003, Extending Digital Dividends VoiceXML Application (using Microsoft's InfoPath to create a form that generated the XML file), by Broadstrokes (Adam Hocek).

May 30, 2003, Standard Transactions and Broker, Integrated Acquisition Environment E-Gov Initiative, Discussions about XML Web Services with GSA.

May 30, 2003, Report on Pilot Projects for the CIO Council Meeting, May 30th.

May 29, 2003, Meeting of the Industry Advisory Council's Enterprise Architecture SIG with the Emerging Technology Subcommittee (ETS) to discuss cooperation on the ETS's FY03 Work Plan.

May 29, 2003, Meeting with U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, Office of Information Technology, on E-Forms for E-Gov.

May 27, 2003, EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee VoiceXML Web Service, EPA Facility Data XML and VoiceXML Web Services, and the The MetaMatrix System for Model-driven Integration with Enterprise Metadata Pilots all "graduate" to the Disaster Management E-Gov Initiative and the CIO's Office of the Department of Homeland Security.

May 23, Working with the US Small Business Administration on E-Government and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), June 12th. The Small Business Resource Guide (Topic Map).

May 21-22, Government Strategic Architect Forum, Microsoft Innovation & Technology Conference Center, Reston, VA. Summary to be posted for June 17th meeting.

May 21, 2003, Registration open for the Emerging Components Conference Series, June 26th. Please complete and submit the Components Registry and Repository Template for presentations by June 19th.

May 20, 2003, Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Web Services Initiatives: Overview, OWS-1 Specifications, and Implementation Specifications. Projects: Geospatial One-Stop Portal Initiative (GOS-PI), Web Services Initiative (OWS), and Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative (CIPI). Ionic Enterprise Pilot on Geospatial Interoperability begins.

May 16, 2003, Extending the FEA DRM to Support the Joint Government Data & Information Reference Model (GDIRM), the Business Compliance One Stop E-Gov Initiative, ITIPS-II, & Component Technology Activities, input for the DRM Offsite May 19, 2003. Also Geospatial Interoperability Reference Model (GIRM).

May 15, 2003, Solution Envisioning for Semantic Applications, Special Fall Event organized by Ralph Hodgson, TopQuadrant. More details to follow.

May 14, 2003, Special Recognition to Kevin Williams and Anne Yastremski, Blue Oxide Technologies, For exceptional creativity and performance on the “XML Collaborator” Pilot Project, presented at the XML Web Services Working Group Meeting, May 14, 2003, by Brand Niemann, Chair.

May 13, 2003, Piloting the Use of XML Web Services in E-Gov Initiatives, June 2nd Workshop Agenda (by invitation only). Components Registry and Repository Template for XML Web Services Pilot Projects, June 2nd Workshop, and June 26th Components Technology Conference. SF424 XML Schema (Joe Chiusano, BAH). E-Grants October "Apply" Expectations. OASIS UDDI (XSD).

May 7, 2003, ITIPS-II (Information Technology Investment Portfolio System), XML and Web Services Strategy. Semantic FEA Pilot (Word and PowerPoint). Registries and Repositories (1, 2, 3, etc. in process). Topic Maps (in process-name and password required).

May 7th, E-Gov 2003 Conference and Exposition, T-4: Web Services -The Path to Business Value, June 9th,  Tutorial, 9 a.m. - noon.

May 5, 2003, Piloting the Use of XML Web Services in E-Gov Initiatives, scheduled for June 2nd, 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m., Truman Room, White House Conference Center. Attendance by invitation to the SAWG (Federal), E-Gov Initiative Portfolio and Program Managers, etc. More information to follow. (See April 10th and 23rd Announcements.)

May 3, 2003, Two VoiceXML Pilots now available from Broadstrokes (Adam Hocek): EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee (1-800-303-9987, application ID is 713589) and Digital Talking Book (1-800-303-9987, application ID is 7135815 and the navigation voice commands are up, previous, next, down, enter, help, more, restart, and exit).

May 1, 2003, XML Topic Map Web Service for E-Gov Conference Proceedings has been produced. Topic Maps (in process-name and password required).

April 29, 2003, Emerging Components Conference Series, Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW, Washington, DC (Federal Center SW Metro Station), in cooperation with The Cyberspace Security Policy and Research Institute (Tony Stanco, Associate Director), George Washington University. Participation in planning and production invited. Components Registry and Repository Template due June 19th.

April 28, 2003, XML Data Exchange Across Multiple Levels of Government Using Native XML Databases, Pilot Overview for the EPA Central Data Exchange Project and the AIC Governance and Components Subcommittees. Pilot Project scheduled to report at June 17th meeting.

April 23, 2003, Second "Eforms for E-Gov" Pilot Team Meeting, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., CIO's Office Room 6029, Department of Commerce Main Building, 14th and Constitution Avenue. (Directions: Across the street from the EPA West Building where the first meeting was held and main entrance in the middle of the 14th street block. Those without a Federal ID will need to call 202-482-4797 to be escorted. You can exit the Federal Triangle Metro and use the underground tunnel from the Reagan Building to the Department of Commerce.) Agenda at new Web Site. Meeting with Vendors afterwards on Piloting the Use of XML Web Services in E-Gov Initiatives (see April 10th Announcement).

April 21, 2003, Strengthening the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) for the DRM Offsite May 19, 2003.

April 17, 2003, Components Activities of the Emerging Technology Subcommittee, presentation to the Components and Governance Subcommittees and the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee, and Funding Options for the Pilots. Components Technology Conferences (possibly quarterly starting in June being planned) in cooperation with the The Cyberspace Security Policy and Research Institute, George Washington University, Tony Stanco, Founding Director.

April 10, 2003, Working Group Announces Opportunity for Vendors Participating in the "E-Forms for E-Gov" Pilot to Pilot the Use of XML Web Services in E-Gov Initiatives (e.g. e-Grants, One Stop Business Compliance, etc.) to Support an "Assessment of Readiness" by the Working Group for OMB's Solutions Architects Working Group (SAWG) and the "QuickWin" Task of the AIC's Components Subcommittee. All Vendors invited to participate (10 have confirmed their participation as of May 2nd). Also Opportunity to Present/Demonstrate How the New Web Services Security Standards (WS-Security) Could Help the E-Gov Initiatives as Suggested Recently by Joe Chiusano on March 17th.

April 7, 2003, Industry Advisory Council Releases Four Enterprise Architecture Papers (Press Release).

April 4, 2003, Working Group provides Multiple Registries and Repositories to be federated with the XML Working Group's GSA-NIST XML Registry Pilot to support the CIO Council's Architecture and Infrastructure Committee (AIC) and the Data and Information Reference Model (DRM). XML Collaborator to be made public on May 5, 2003, as part of FedWeb Spring 03 Conference Tutorial. Draft Fact Sheet.  Registry and Repository Team Meeting, report on the XML Collaborator work with (1) the "Eforms for E-Gov Pilot, (2) the Electronic Standards Work Group (ESWG) in support of the eGrants Portal Phase II, (3) the DOJ/Global Justice Information Network - Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Object Oriented Data Model Project, (4) the MetaMatrix System in support of the FEA Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) Pilot Project, (5) the Proposed "Military Pilots" from the MITRE XML/Web Services Conference, and (6) a Web Services Design Collaboration Platform for Agencies and E-Gov Initiatives to Federate with the "GSA-NIST XML Registry".

April 1, 2003, Working Group Chair Recognized with Emerging Technology/Standards Leadership Award at the SecureE-Biz.Net Summit, April 1st, from Mark Forman, Associate Director, IT and eGovernment, OMB, and David McClure, VP e-Gov, Council for Excellence in Government: “for ushering in new technology to allow us to conduct e-Business securely to further implement the President’s Management Agenda.” Thank you – Your participation and support for this Working Group made this award possible and you all share in it!

March 28, 2003, CIO's Office of the Department of Homeland Security starts program to encourage effective use of XML Web Services and related distributed-computing technology in the Department coordinated by Martin Smith (202-786-0193 and new 202-401-1109). See ListServ for DHS Web Services Community/Activity request for information.

March 21, 2003, Corel's XMetal and Smart Graphics Studio, 2003 FOSE Best New Technology Award Finalists in the Electronic Government Software Category. Winner for Smart Graphics Studio! See March 13th presentation of this Pilot under Past Meetings and Presentations. (Note: Other vendors are participating and are invited to participate in the XML Web Services Content Authoring Pilot.)

March 19, 2003, Strengthening the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data and Information Reference Model (DRM) and Military Pilot Project (Federated Registries: Concepts and CONOPS) discussed at the XML Registry Pilot Team Meeting.

March 17-18, 2003, New Pilots Projects launched and presented at the Open Standards/Open Source for Federal and State eGovernment Programs Conference, March 17-19, Washington, MetaMatrix: The MetaMatrix System for Model-driven Integration with Enterprise Metadata (Rap Sheet Example), CollabNet, Collaboration and CoSourcing: Designing Intergovernmental Services and Sharable Components (Migrate GIDS to Open Source), and TopQuadrant, The Potential of Semantic Technologies for E-Gov (Semantic FEA Capabilities Advisor) (See presentations under Past Meetings and Presentations).

March 14, Topic Map for Conference Proceedings to be produced. Instructions and Example for presenters at the Open Standards/Open Source for Federal and State eGovernment Programs Conference, March 17-19, Washington. Prototype (name and password required).

March 6, 2003, XML Web Services Working Group Information Items for the Components and Governance Subcommittees on the "Eforms for E-Gov" Pilot Meeting, March 19th, and the Open Standards/Open Source for Federal and State eGovernment Programs Conference, March 17-19th, Washington, DC.

March 4 and 12, 2003, First Meeting of the "Eforms for E-Gov" Pilot Team (Draft Charter, E-Forms Standards), March 19th, 10 a.m.-12 noon, EPA West (see Upcoming Meetings and Presentations) and Fenestra produces  SVG version of the multi-page SF-424 from PDF (first download and install the free SVG Viewer for Windows for IE, Netscape, and Opera browsers). Use the navigation buttons in the upper-left corner. Also see February 26th under Past Meetings and Presentations for XML Schema, etc.

March 4, 2003, Open Standards/Open Source for Federal and State eGovernment Programs Conference, March 17-19, Washington, Press Release and Flyer. See Past Meetings and Presentations.

March 3, 2003, New egov: The Official Web Site of the President's E-Government Initiatives launched. E-Gov Initiatives at a Glance.

February 27, 2003, Topic Map Repositories for FEA Governance and Components: Prototype. FEA Topic Map Web Service Prototype.

January 31, 2003, Topic Map Web Services for the FEA-PMO and FEA-DRM - Cognitive Topic Map Web Sites (CTW): Aggregating Information Across Individual Agencies and E-Gov Initiatives, Michel Biezunski, Coolheads Consulting, Proposed Pilot to be discussed at February 18th meeting.

January 17, 2003, Industry Advisory Council (IAC) Enterprise Architecture SIG White Papers (review requested) and IAC Web Services Special Interest Group ("Web Services to EA with Action"), John Weiler and Phil Karechi, co-chairs.

January 17, 2003, "Eforms for E-gov" Pilot Project: Rick Rogers, CEO of Fenestra, has been asked to lead this pilot project and he will be providing more information (Charter, Web site URL, etc.). Please see the updated E-Forms for E-Gov: The Use of XML-based Standards Applications and ListServ for more details until then.