XML Web Services Pilot Projects for the US EPA: Some Thoughts on the Report On The Environment RoE

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XML Web Services Pilot Projects for the US EPA
Some Thoughts on the Report On The Environment
(RoE)

• Ralph Hodgson and Irene Polikoff
• TopQuadrant, Inc.
• July 7, 2003

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Some of the EPA Work We Studied

• Metadata Management Using ISO/IEC 11179
• Larry Fitzwater, EPA, Open Forum, Santa Fe,
  January 2003
  
• Information Collection Strategies for the
  Environmental Exchange Network
  
• Michael Pendleton, Data Standards Branch, EPA
  Office of Environmental Information, Open Forum,
  Santa Fe, January 2003
  
• e-Gov and Ecoinformatics Platforms for
  Collaboration
  
• Ramona Trovato, Principal Deputy Assistant
  Administrator, Office of Environmental
  Information, U.S. EPA, Open Forum, Santa Fe,
  January 2003
• Data Standards Development 101- the Story of the
  EDSC Action Teams
  
• Mary Blakeslee, Environmental Council Of the
  States, Open Forum, Santa Fe, January 2003
  
• Managing Data Semantics Through the Information
  Flow - Linking the Registries
  
• Larry Fitzwater, EPA, Kathleen Gundry, SAIC, Open
  Forum, Santa Fe, January 2003
  
• Agent Systems and Ontology-based Queries for
  Access to Heterogeneous Data
  
• Palle Haastrup, European Commission, Joint
  Research Centre Ispra, Open Forum, Santa Fe,
  January 2003
  
• EcoInformatics - The Role of Data Standards and
  Metadata in the Big Picture
  
• Kimberly T. Nelson, Assistant Administrator,
  Office of Environmental Information, U.S. EPA,
  EPAs System of Registries (SoR) Conference,
  March 2003
• Overview of EPAs System of Registries Facility
  Registry System (FRS)
  
• Pat Garvey, Office of Environmental Information,
  U.S. EPA, EPAs System of Registries (SoR)
  Conference, March 2003
  
• Square Pegs in Round Holes? Managing XML Objects
  in an ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registry
  
• Larry Fitzwater, Data Standards Branch, U.S. EPA,
  Wilshire Metadata Conference and DAMA
  International Symposium, April 29, 2003

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Relevant EPA EcoInformatics Initiatives

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• National Biological Information Infrastructure
  (NBII)
  
• National Environmental Information Exchange
  Network
  
• Environment Data Registry (EDR)
• http//www.epa.gov/edr
• Environmental Data Standards Council (EDSC)
• http//www.epa.gov/edsc/
• Data Partnerships for more comprehensive GIS
  Analysis
  
• Scientific visualization supporting catastrophic
  event management
  
• Environmental Indicators
• EPAs Report on the Environment
• ITIS Biology nomenclature
• Chemical nomenclature and identification
• Superfund EPA-state activities (ASTSWMO)
• System of Registries (SoR)
• http//www.epa.gov/sor/
• EDEN an EPA and EEA project for an Intelligent
  query system using Agent and Semantic
  Technologies (FIPA, OWL)
  
• http//www.eden-iw.org/
• http//eea.eionet.eu.int8980/Members/irc/envirowi
  ndows/eden/home

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EPA Futures for Reporting

• What might be done instead of reports?
• Personalized newsletters, web-services, advisors,
  exchanges,
  
• What is the wider context of reporting?
• EcoInformatics, Extended Communities, Value Nets,
  
  
• What is there to learn from other government
  efforts?
  
• European Environment Agency (EEA)
• EIONET - Management of Environmental Information
  in the European Information and Observation
  Network
  
• ReportNet - the EIONETs contribution to a
  European Environmental Information System, Stefan
  Jensen EEA, eEnvironment, CERN, Geneva
  
• Germany
• SNS - Semantic Network Services - semantic
  harmonization of environmental information of
  national and state authorities in Germany
  
• Australia
• NHIK - Australian Institute of Health and
  Welfares Knowledgebase
  
• http//www.aihw.gov.au/knowledgebase/index.html
• What could be done using Semantic Technologies?
• How does this relate to other EPA work?

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Beyond Reports

• For Whom?
• Audiences and Stakeholders
• Why?
• Reports are interpreted, re-purposed and used for
  decision making and as input to other systems
  
• How?
• myROE a personalized report - dynamic reports
• ecoAdvisor - I just want to know X during
  period Y in region R - Web Services-based
  
• ecoExchange bringing audiences and Stakeholders
  together
  

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European Example - ReportNet
http//www.eea.eu.int
Source Reportnet - the EIONETs contribution to a
European Environmental Information System, Stefan
Jensen EEA, eEnvironment, CERN, Geneva, 15.3.2002
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On which issues are countries in Europe obliged
to monitor and report?
(the inner, normative circle)
WebROD
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What to use for the collection?(the outer circle
of data flow and storage)
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The EEA ReportNet Content Registry uses RDF for
harmonization
refer to
Content Registry
harvest metadata
Data
Descriptions
RDF, DCES
Metadata
Repositories
Data

• Some principles
• Connecting services providing metadata in XML/RDF
  harvested into a MySQL database
  
• Dublin Core plus free extension (to be stored in
  service specific namespaces) as meta data model
  
• developed in OpenSource (Java)

Source Reportnet - the EIONETs contribution to a
European Environmental Information System, Stefan
Jensen EEA, eEnvironment, CERN, Geneva, 15.3.2002
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EEA ReportNet Content Registry- Basic Concept
Transfer of metadata from services (repository)
to CR

• Put it into RDF, send to CR when requested
• RDF generated on the fly
• RDF pre-saved
• (Scenario for most of the services)
• Send it as objects via SOAP calls
• requires an API wrapper at the service side
• (Scenario for CIRCA)

Source Reportnet - the EIONETs contribution to a
European Environmental Information System, Stefan
Jensen EEA, eEnvironment, CERN, Geneva, 15.3.2002
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EEA ReportNet Content Registry- Metadata transfer
with RDF

02/22-rdf-syntax-ns" xmlnsdc"http//purl
.org/dc/elements/1.1/" about"http//eea.eu.int/sdrat4"
Jensen
Signals 2002
English
Report rageEU follow u
p of Signals 2001 78890od-id /rdfRDF
Store into CR-DB
. . .
. . .
. . .
Store RDF into file system
Source Reportnet - the EIONETs contribution to a
European Environmental Information System, Stefan
Jensen EEA, eEnvironment, CERN, Geneva, 15.3.2002
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SNS - Semantic Network Servicessemantic
harmonization of environmental information of
national and state authorities in Germany
Sharing an integrated Ontology using Topic Maps
and Web Services
built on SchlumbergerSema XML Topic Map Engine
Remote Applications
Web Services
Import/Export
Java API
Search Navigation
Auto- classification
XTM, OWL
Topic Map
Design Maintenance
Database- interface
corporate IT architecture
corporate Knowledge Experts
HTML GUI
Source Thomas Bandholtz, KM Solution Manager,
SchlumbergerSema, Cologne (DE), Open Forum, Santa
Fe, Jan03
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Some Ideas Semantic Applications for EPA

• myROE
• a way to build a personalized report on the
  environment - tailored to each stakeholder
  group
  
• ecoAdvisor
• a natural language query engine to get advise on
  any topic to do with the environment - guided
  using an ontology
  
• ecoExchange
• an exchange for connecting EPA information
  providers and consumers like EEAs ReportNet

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Motivating Story Semantic Data Integrator at
Coca-Cola - 1
Challenge Coca-Cola, with a presence in nearly 20
0 countries, 300 bottlers world wide, 16 million
clients (of which some 300 are trans-national
getting delivery from several parts of the
enterprise), has extensive client data management
needs. In the past, a simple task like sending o
ne invoice per month to each client (instead of
100's) has proven challenging.
Coca-Cola became interested in a more
cost-effective way to handle hundreds of changes
per year to this client network.
First, it used the latest integration
technologies (field mapping, data warehousing and
syntax translation). The data became integrated,
but all users had the same view of the data.
A "One View" system wasnt working because
different regions wanted the data in different
ways.
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Motivating Story Semantic Data Integrator at
Coca-Cola - 2
Solution Semantic technologies help Coca Cola sol
ve this problem. Instead of forcing everyone to
agree on how to use the data, they create a
dynamic mapping of the data through semantic
integration. Data is available in several data s
ources, and applications provide numerous views
on this data. Using a semantic solution enables
the applications to continue running, while
integrating all the data sources.
Products Used enLeague Semantic Broker, Network
Inference Cerebra Semantic Engine
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Some of our Questions

• Can Semantic Technologies enhance EPA Integration
  Architecture?
  
• Is the EPA Portal the framework for a
  Semantics-Based Environmental Exchange Network?
  
• Is Semantic Technology being considered for EPAs
  SoR?
  
• How to Support Registry Interoperation in the
  presence of different technologies?

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Q) Can Semantic Technologies enhance EPA
Integration Architecture?
Source Michael Pendeltons presentation at Open
Forum 2003 on Metadata Registries
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Q) Is the EPA Portal the framework for a
Semantics-Based Environmental Exchange Network?
Single Model
Multiple viewpoints
Source Michael Pendeltons presentation at Open
Forum 2003 on Metadata Registries
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Q) Is Semantic Technology being considered for
EPAs SoR?

• The pilot projects need an interim solution for
  managing XML schema to support data exchanges.
  
• Initially, XML components, including XML tags and
  information about Network schemas, will be stored
  in the EDR to support search and retrieval for
  reuse.
• Goal all XML data exchanges based on data
  standards published in the EDR.

A set of related Web-based tools that provide
access to information on metadata, XML tags, data
standards, chemicals, biological organisms, and
terminology.
Source Michael Pendeltons presentation at Open
Forum 2003 on Metadata Registries
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EPAs System of Registries
http//www.epa.gov/sor/
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Q) How to Support Registry Interoperation in the
presence of different technologies?
Cooperation/ Interoperation
CASE Tool Repositories
Common Content
Dublin Core Registries
Common Content
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There is no sense in guessing - we need to do
some envisioning together
Scenarios
Capability Cases
Stakeholder Analysis
Where are we now?
What is it possible to be?
How is our world changing?
What do we have to change?
What are the new ways to work?
How do we do it?
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2
3
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Situation Analysis
Solution Concept
Solution Strategy
Organizational Development
Business Dynamics Assess forces explore scenar
ios of the future
Technology Selection
Design By Example Explore Capability Cases
Change Management
Solution Architecture
Conceptual ArchitectureDevelop solution vision
and roadmap
Business Outcomes Agree desired results Measur
es of effectiveness
CommunicationsStrategy
Implementation Planning
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To Arrive at and Validate the Vision of a
Semantic EPA Capabilities Manager
ecoExchange
ecoAdvisor
myROE
FEA Interface
Web
Ontology Engine
UDDI Interface
FEA Ontology
EcoInformatics Ontology
SOAP
User
EPA Ontologies
Business Objects
System
Knowledge Hub
mapper
mapper
mapper
mapper
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What We Would Like To Do

• A Solution Envisioning Project for Semantic
  Applications within EPA
  
• Scenario-Based explorations of possible futures
• Technology Appreciation
• Scan of what is happening elsewhere
• Sense making of what EPA is currently doing
• Road-mapping the future