Using connectivity to build e-Government

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-121).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Developed countries are increasingly using information technology to access and deliver information across all the organizations that comprise the government. Argentina is in the first stages of adopting Internet technology for the government. This thesis proposes that Argentina's e-government construction can be optimized if a good foundation for systems connectivity is put in place first. The author argues that the current time lag in the construction of Argentina's e-Government can be used in a positive way if experience from more developed countries is used. Chapter 1 provides a strategy for building e-Government in Argentina using standardization and connectivity. In Chapter 2, a theoretical analysis about the economics of systems integration is presented. In Chapter 3 the importance of standardization and specially the use of XML are outlined. Chapter 4 develops the basis of IT infrastructure and its importance to enable e- Government. Chapter 5 evaluates the current state of e-Government in three developed countries. Chapter 6 and 7 provide a potential framework for building the e-Government in Argentina based in the ideas of the previous chapters. The author has found that developed countries are defining standard connectivity based on XML and that they are in the process of becoming a full e-government by 2005. At the same time Argentina is lacking a coherent plan to enable the creation of the e-Government in the near future. Finally, the thesis proposes the standardization of systems interfaces using XML and the definition of standard XML data schemes to facilitate connectivity. At the same time the thesis encourages building an IT infrastructure and the use of standard applications to gain efficiency and lower the cost of e-Government.by Emilio José Pellet-Lastra.S.M.M.O.T

Open Government Architecture: The evolution of De Jure Standards, Consortium Standards, and Open Source Software

Conducted for the Treasury Board of Québec, this study seeks to present recent contributions to the evolution, within an enterprise architecture context, of de jure and de facto standards by various actors in the milieu, industrial consortia, and international standardization committees active in open source software. In order to be able to achieve its goals of delivering services to citizens and society, the Government of Québec must integrate its computer systems to create a service oriented open architecture. Following in the footsteps of various other governments and the European Community, such an integration will require elaboration of an interoperability framework, i.e. a structured set of de jure standards, de facto standards, specifications, and policies allowing computer systems to interoperate. Thus, we recommend that the Government of Québec: Pursue its endeavours to elaborate an interoperability framework for its computer systems that is based on open de jure and de facto standards. This framework should not only reflect the criteria enumerated in this study and apply to internal computer systems, but it should also extend to Web services supplied to organizations outside of the government. This framework should explicitly prioritize open source de jure and de facto standards and include a policy covering free software. The interoperability framework should initially draw on that of the state of Massachusetts. In the medium term, is should be as comprehensive as that of the British government. Integrate this interoperability framework into its enterprise architecture. Publish this interoperability framework with its enterprise architecture. Specify this interoperability framework in its calls for tenders. Elaborate a policy of compliance with this framework for all new applications.

Integration via Meaning: Using the Semantic Web to deliver Web Services

Presented at the CRIS2002 Conference in Kassel.-- 9 pages.-- Contains: Conference paper (PDF) + PPT presentation.The major developments of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the last two years have been Web Services and the Semantic Web. The former allows the construction of distributed systems across the WWW by providing a lightweight middleware architecture. The latter provides an infrastructure for accessing resources on the WWW via their relationships with respect to conceptual descriptions. In this paper, I shall review the progress undertaken in each of these two areas. Further, I shall argue that in order for the aims of both the Semantic Web and the Web Services activities to be successful, then the Web Service architecture needs to be augmented by concepts and tools of the Semantic Web. This infrastructure will allow resource discovery, brokering and access to be enabled in a standardised, integrated and interoperable manner. Finally, I survey the CLRC Information Technology R&D programme to show how it is contributing to the development of this future infrastructure

Mapping Large Scale Research Metadata to Linked Data: A Performance Comparison of HBase, CSV and XML

OpenAIRE, the Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe, comprises a database of all EC FP7 and H2020 funded research projects, including metadata of their results (publications and datasets). These data are stored in an HBase NoSQL database, post-processed, and exposed as HTML for human consumption, and as XML through a web service interface. As an intermediate format to facilitate statistical computations, CSV is generated internally. To interlink the OpenAIRE data with related data on the Web, we aim at exporting them as Linked Open Data (LOD). The LOD export is required to integrate into the overall data processing workflow, where derived data are regenerated from the base data every day. We thus faced the challenge of identifying the best-performing conversion approach.We evaluated the performances of creating LOD by a MapReduce job on top of HBase, by mapping the intermediate CSV files, and by mapping the XML output.Comment: Accepted in 0th Metadata and Semantics Research Conferenc

Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Describes the components of a complete statistical metadata system and suggests ways to create and structure metadata for better access and understanding of data sets by diverse users

A characteristics framework for Semantic Information Systems Standards

Semantic Information Systems (IS) Standards play a critical role in the development of the networked economy. While their importance is undoubted by all stakeholders—such as businesses, policy makers, researchers, developers—the current state of research leaves a number of questions unaddressed. Terminological confusion exists around the notions of “business semantics”, “business-to-business interoperability”, and “interoperability standards” amongst others. And, moreover, a comprehensive understanding about the characteristics of Semantic IS Standards is missing. The paper addresses this gap in literature by developing a characteristics framework for Semantic IS Standards. Two case studies are used to check the applicability of the framework in a “real-life” context. The framework lays the foundation for future research in an important field of the IS discipline and supports practitioners in their efforts to analyze, compare, and evaluate Semantic IS Standard