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Cross-Boundary Governance Through Agreements and Standards: Assuring Compliance and Results

Brand L. Niemann, Senior Enterprise Architect, U.S. EPA,and Co-Chair, CIO Council's Semantic Interoperability Community

of Practice (SICoP)Leadership for a Networked World Program

John F. Kennedy School of GovernmentHarvard University, Cambridge, MA

March 21-22, 2007http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/execed/lnw2

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Overview

• 1. “The Big Idea”• 2. Collaboration• 3. Leadership• 4. Semantic Interoperability• 5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-

Government• 6. Building Data Networks• 7. Some New Initiatives

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1. The Big Idea

• The Big Idea Mission Statement:– Power meets power, every night on “the Big

Idea.” Donny Deutsch, the maverick CEO who built a multi-billion dollar advertising and media business goes one-on-one with today’s power players from business, politics, media and sports. Donny breaks down the brands, management strategies and tools for success which have empowered the world’s most influential leaders.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Idea_with_Donny_Deutsch

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1. A Big Idea• Stephen R. Covey is the author of the international best

selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989.

• The Franklin-Covey Company, a global professional services firm (mainly management consulting). Their mission statement reads: "We enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere.“

• Covey's latest book The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (published in 2004) is the sequel to The Seven Habits. Covey claims being effective is not enough in what he calls "The Knowledge Worker Age". He proclaims "The challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude." The 8th habit is essentially "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs...“– Covey cites the example of economist Muhammad Yunus.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey

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1. Successful Application of a Big Idea

• The Associated Press, December 10, 2006:– Economist Muhammad Yunus accepted the Nobel

Peace Prize on Sunday for his breakthrough program to lift the poor through tiny loans, saying he hoped the award would inspire "bold initiatives" to eradicate a problem at the root of terrorism.

– Yunus, a 66-year-old Bangladeshi, shared the award with his Grameen Bank, which for more than two decades has helped impoverished people start businesses by providing small, usually unsecured loans known as microcredit.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LUA2IO0.htm

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2. Collaboration

http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/person/html/Brand/Niemann/

Primary Role: Collaborator

Probably why I got invitedto this conference!

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2. Collaboration

• According to WordNet, the noun"collaborator" has 3 sense(s):– Someone who assists in a plot.– Someone who collaborates with an enemy occupying

force.– An associate who works with others toward a

common goal; "the musician and the librettist were collaborators". (Note: I prefer this one!)

• Source: The Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) and its domain ontologies form the largest formal public ontology in existence today. They are being used for research and applications in search, linguistics and reasoning. SUMO is the only formal ontology that has been mapped to all of the WordNet lexicon.

– http://www.ontologyportal.org/

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2. Collaboration

7.5 Minutes of 42 Minute DVD Online at http://www.himotion.us/2/2006/139.html

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3. Leadership

• Seven Transformations of Leadership by David Rooke and William R. Torbert, Harvard Business Review 2005:– Leaders are made, not born, and how they develop is

critical for organizational change.– Most developmental psychologists agree that what

differentiates leaders is not so much their philosophy of leadership, their personality, or their style of management. Rather, it’s their internal “action logic”—how they interpret their surroundings and react when their power or safety is challenged. Relatively few leaders, however, try to understand their own action logic, and fewer still have explored the possibility of changing it.

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Action Logic Characteristics Strengths Percent*

Opportunist Wins any way possible. Good in emergencies and in sales opportunities.

5

Diplomat Avoids overt conflict. Good as supportive glue within an office; helps bring people together.

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Expert Rules by logic and expertise.

Good as an individual contributor.

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Achiever Meets strategic goals. Well suited to managerial roles; action and goal oriented.

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Individualist Interweaves competing personal and company action logics.

Effective in venture and consulting roles.

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Strategist Generates organizational and personal transformations.

Effective as a transformational leader.

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Alchemist Generates social transformations.

Good at leading society-wide transformations.

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* % of research sample profiling at this action logic.

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3. Leadership

• Unsolicited Critique from Colleague:– You were brilliant at the meeting today.– You provided excellent framing and position from which to be

generous and conduct a learning pilot for the benefit of both perspectives - KM (people who want the technology to serve their needs) and IT (people serving up technology that "presumably meets people's needs" if they would just take the time to appreciate it). A nice parallel process that supports mutual support and autonomy as the individuals and their affiliations "find the right dance steps" to synch up. We will all be well served by a constructive partnership here that improves the quality of the technology development process.

– I really liked the tone and the discussion contributions of everyone especially (name withheld).

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3. Leadership• FCW presents….The 2006

Power Players special report:– Power is all about influence.– Some people are influential

because of their positions: Give them power and they know how to use it.

– For other individuals on this list, power is not a given. They have no direct influence on the business of government, no signet that directs or redirects the energies of government and industry. But their presence is felt nonetheless. Their voices are heard in the most heated debates and their discernment is sought for the most puzzling problems. They were not handed power, but they have earned it.

http://www.fcw.com/specials/powerplayers/

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4. Semantic Interoperability

• An Example:– An Introduction to Track 4: SOA and Metadata

(Semantics), Chuck Mosher, Senior Enterprise Architect, 2nd SOA for E-Government Conference, October, 30-31, 2006:

• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SOACoP/2006_10_3031/Presentations/CMosher10302006.ppt

• Note: Showed this on purpose to illustrate how files are uploaded to COLAB: An Open Collaborative Work Environment to Support Networking Among Communities of Practice (Wiki) and linked to the Wiki pages (see next slide).

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4. Semantic Interoperability

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4. Semantic Interoperability

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

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

ID

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4. Semantic Interoperability

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

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

ID

VANY

MD

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4. Semantic Interoperability

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

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

ID

SUPEREGO

EGO

ANALYSIS

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4. Semantic Interoperability

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

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

ID

LICENSE

CARD

BADGE

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4. Semantic Interoperability

• For This Conference:– Cross-Boundary:

• The line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something.– Governance:

• The persons (or committees or departments etc.) who make up a body for the purpose of administering something.

– Agreements:• Harmony of people's opinions or actions or characters.

– Standards:• A board measure = 1980 board feet. (Railroad industry’s

agreement on five standard time zones.)– Results:

• A statement that solves a problem or explains how to solve the problem

Note: Underline means the word has been used elsewhere.

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4. Semantic Interoperability

• For This Conference (continued):– Compliance:

• Acting according to certain accepted standards.• Happy friendly agreement.• A disposition or tendency to yield to the will of

others.• The act of submitting; usually surrendering power

to another.

Note: Underline means the word has been used elsewhere.

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4. Semantic Interoperability

• For This Conference (continued):– A Possible Conclusion:

• We are going to purposely cross the limits of existing persons (or committees or departments etc.) to harmoniously solve problems by using one or more forms of compliance with standards.

– Our Mantra: “Open Collaboration with Open Standards”:

• Communities of Practice• W3C Standards and Other Voluntary Consensus

Standards

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

• You have probably heard of Wikipedia:– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

• You may have heard of Intellipedia (Reuters, October 31, 2006):– The U.S. intelligence community on Tuesday unveiled its own

secretive version of Wikipedia, saying the popular online encyclopedia format known for its openness is key to the future of American espionage.

– The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the government's classified Intelink Web much like its more famous namesake on the World Wide Web.

– They also said it could lead to more accurate intelligence reports because the system allows a wider range of officials to scrutinize material and keeps a complete, permanent record of individual contributions including dissenting points of view.

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

• But you may not have heard about Wikis and Blogs Changing Agency Culture for Information Sharing at the CIA Unless You Came to Our Collaborative Expedition Workshop, July 18, 2006:– Wikis and blogs allow real-time analysis and reaction to

intelligence information to occur as quickly as users can update information, Calvin Andrus said. “It just happens, just like an ant hill happens.“

• Source: COLAB: An Open Collaborative Work Environment to Support Networking Among Communities of Practice (Wiki) at http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ExpeditionWorkshop/OpenCollaboration_NetworkingWikiInformationTechnology_2006_07_18#nid357Y

• Note: Showed this on purpose to illustrate use of Purple Numbers and how to improve Google Search.

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

First report in Wikipedia.

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

Updates at sub-minute intervals!

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

Now a very comprehensive compendia!

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

• Because they are real-time, self-authored, hyperlinked bodies of knowledge that are open to everyone on the system, they can adapt as fast as a person can enter information.

• With the addition of – knowledgebase, – search, and – feedback tools,

contributors can know--in real time--how the knowledge is received, and thus can make adjustments--in real time.

Source: Dr. Calvin Andrus, Wikis and Blogs, Collaborative Expedition Workshop at NSF, July 18, 2006.

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5. Some Best Practice Examples in E-Government

Source: New IC Emerges Through Links, Calvin Andrus, CIA Mission Innovation, July 18, 2006

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6. Building Data Networks

• Responsibilities:– Enterprise Architecture Team: Data

Architecture:• Leads the architecting of environmental and health

information needed to truly understand the state of the environment, measure environmental performance gains, and enable EPA to be able to respond to emergencies.

– Source: http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?BrandNiemann

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6. Building Data Networks

• Purpose: Build an Environmental Health Data Network Pilot for the EHDAT (Environmental Health Data Action Team) where (1) Each node on the network is DRM 2.0 - compliant; (2) Nodes are "distributed but connectable" through W3C standards; and (3) The network is searchable across any and all of the nodes or even subsets of the nodes. Only nodes of Trusted Reference Knowledge (TRK) are included at this time.

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6. Building Data Networks

http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?EPAEnvironmentHealthDataforDRM2

See next slide

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6. Building Data Networks

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6. Building Data Networks

• Contributions to EH DAT Conference Calls:– June 6, 2006: Description of EPA Data Architecture for DRM 2.0

and CIO Council Community of Practice Activities– August 1, 2006: Integrating Three Activities That Are Coming

Together Well (Bayesian Web for EPA Science Advisory Board, new environmental health assessment framework at the EPA Science Forum, and pilot Environment Health Data for DRM 2.0 Network).

– October 3, 2006: Work with Betty Dabney on Environmental Health Data for Maryland - public domain data organized in a hierarchy. Recently published paper on Integration of Biological Data with Semantic Networks at that shows how scientists are working with geonomic and health data in the Visual Knowledge Semantic Wiki.

Note: See EH DAT minutes for details.

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6. Building Data Networks

• Network Matrix Framework:– Taxonomy (based on EHDAT Environmental Health

Primer):• Organizations:

– O1 The Department of Health and Human Services (12)– O2 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (12)– O3 Other Federal Agencies (3)– O4 National Not-for-Profit Organizations (9)– O5 Collaborative Efforts (2)– O6 EPA Exchange Network and CDC Tracking and Data

Linkage Grants (FY2002-2007)• Topics:

– T1 Alerts– …– T19 Toxicology

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6. Building Data Networks

• Network Matrix Framework Examples:– O1 - T19: Third National Report on Human Exposure

to Environmental Chemicals (2005) (in process) (DRM 2.0 - Compliant and Semantic Wiki Version).

– O1 - T12: Health, United States, 2005 With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans, November 2005 (in process) (DRM 2.0 - Compliant and Semantic Wiki Version).

– O2 - T12: EPA Draft Report on the Environment, June 2004 Update) See Human Health

– O6-T11: Environmental Health Data for Maryland - public domain data organized in a hierarchy.

– Etc. in progress

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6. Building Data Networks

• Network Node Examples:– A. National – Human Exposure to

Environmental Chemicals• Repurposed May 20-29, 2006.

– B. States – Maryland• Web Site Being Renovated

– C. Specific Project – Autism by Autistics• First Group of Graduate Students (Fall 2006 in

process) and Second Group of Graduate Students (Spring 2007)

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A. National – Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

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B. States - Maryland

Note: Maryland Environmental Public Health Tracking: Website is undergoing major changes and will be unavailable for few days.Please visit us at a later date. http://epht.dhmh.md.gov/

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C. Specific Project–Autism by Autistics

http://vkwiki.visualknowledge.com/wiki/autism

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7. Some New Initiatives

• Federal Sitemaps:– http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?FederalSitemaps– Practical Guide to Service Oriented Architecture

(SOA) Implementation:– http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?PracticalGuidetoS

OAImplementation

• SOA CoP Demo 3:– http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SOACoPDemo3

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7. Some New Initiatives

• Ontologies for the Government Domain (a monthly series):– The National Academies Transportation Research Board 86th

Annual Meeting. Workshop 163, Sunday, January 21, 2007, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton Washington. Benchmarking for Data Stewardship in Asset Management:

• http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/2007-01-21/SICoPTRB01212007.ppt

• Building DRM 3.0 and Web 3.0 for Managing Context Across Multiple Documents and Organizations:– Special SICoP Conference, February 6, 2007:

• http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SICoPSpecialConference_2007_02_06