Nara document management (01)
http://www.archives.gov/era/rms (02)
has long been something that I have had an interest in, since my design of a
declassification engine (compliant to US EO 12958) in 1996. I understand
that the current declassification engine is still based on this 1996 work,
at least in part. (03)
A set of issues arises based on the questions related to; (04)
why a document is to be moved
from one place to another. (05)
The most obvious set of services is the set of informational resources that
helps a human (or automatic process) decide if specific information is to be
classified (kept classified) or not. Policy about this issue comes from the
Executive Branch of government and is conditioned by laws passed by the
Congress and judgments made by the Judiciary. This policy is mostly not
classified (according to the principles established by Constitutional law in
the US). (06)
Here is the issue that perhaps the group would like to consider (in the
context of Cory's suggestion that the SOA demo be designed to reflect the
concerns of this document - now circulated). (07)
Let us take an example. THE meaning of "Agency_Offical_Name_Current" is to
be defined within various lines of business models (such as using BPEL
business process execution language). In fact a set of terms will have
similar definition. (08)
My group makes a distinction between the following (09)
Services, web-services, service webs (010)
Where "services" are defined outside of IT orientation, and service webs are
naturally occurring social networks. (011)
The core SOA methodology issue is about the reconciliation of meaning
applied to terms (managed vocabulary) within the relevant naturally
occurring service webs (social networks). (012)
Is there a need for reconciliation of "semantics" within a SOA deployment at
Nara? Or can "semantics" be defined (by IT community) and imposed on Nara? (013)
Services based on the Nara document management activities has both an
internal and external set of interfaces (over which "services" might be
defined and responded to). The internal interfaces (some have suggested) are
"more complex" because there is less conformative pressure at the individual
level. (Conflicts at the cultural level often have root causes because of
reconciliation failures between individuals). (014)
"Meaning" thus has several simultaneous viewpoints. Often these viewpoints
express opposing purposes. (015)
I have long made the argument, often poorly, in the CIO Council meetings;
that if "meaning" is too narrowly defined one builds "service systems" that
have to be understood for how they are designed. So software designers may
create dysfunctionality if a service we wish to ask for, and are legally
entitled to receive, is effectively not provided because of a burdensome
hindrance. (016)
If this hindrance is foreseeable, then the software designers may place
themselves in legal bind. (017)
Often this means an exclusion of not only "meaning" express-able from other
viewpoints but also a violation of actual federal laws (reflecting the
primary Constitutional requirements for access to government services. (018)
US Citizen access to US federal government services cannot be, by federal
laws, unnecessarily or unreasonably hindered by the means through which
actual services are rendered. In many cases, restrictions of access are
mandated by law. In many other case, access is mandated by federal law.
Service architecture for Nara must be sensitive to at least this
distinction, other wise violation of law will occur (by the computer
"system".) Hummm... (019)
Web-services (expressed with a SOA) must have the following dimensions (020)
1) re-use that is measured against community transparent utility functions
2) agility measured as the ability to respond in novel circumstances, and to
novel requests
3) governance that is open to inspection from stakeholders
4) commonality within a community or community of communities
5) competency that is measured at several levels including competency
expressed by individual capability and community capability (021)
If the NARA demo of SOA becomes narrowly defined without considering these
dimensions, then the IT effort might cause additional hindrance in how
citizens and government collaborate. (022)
Conformance to existing federal law may break down. (023)
The avenue towards a multi-level description of meaning may be through a
synthesis of some aspects of knowledge management (KM) practices and SOA
more broadly perceived. (024)
These are just some suggestions for the group to consider. (025)
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