New Paradigms for Community Statistical Systems Session 13, Friday, March 12th, 3:30 5 p'm' Panel Pr

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New Paradigms for Community Statistical Systems
Session 13, Friday, March 12th, 330 5
p.m.Panel Presenter Brand Niemann, US EPA

• The 2004 National Community Indicators
  Conference
• Advances in the Science Practice of Community
  Indicators
• Eldorado Hotel
• Reno, Nevada
• March 10-13, 2004

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Preface

• Express appreciation for the opportunity to
  participate in this conference to
• Andy Reamer, Community Statistical System
  Coordinator
• Joe Ferreira, Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology
• Bob Stroh, University of Florida and
• Joe Sirgy, Conference Co-Chair.

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Abstract

• The use of eXtensible Markup Languages (XML) and
  Semantic Web Services are suggested and
  illustrated as a new paradigm for community
  statistical systems to make them interoperable so
  reuse and integration within and across domains
  of interest and communities of practice are more
  likely to occur.
• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Geography Markup
  Language (GML), and LandView 6, a viewer for
  spatial (administrative) databases, are also
  introduced for the same purpose.

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Overview

• 1. Introduction
• 2. eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
• 3. XML Web Services
• 4. Semantic Web Services
• 5. Scalable Vector Graphics and Geography Markup
  Language
• 6. LandView 6
• 7. Contact Information

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1. Introduction

• Even Broader Perspective Based on Conference
  Presentations and Literature
• Process from Federal and Local Experience
• Collaboration Opportunity define domain broadly
  enough so a win-win for all (see example at
  http//componenttechnology.org in next slide)
• Services to be provided IT architecture and
  technology (selected Service-Oriented
  Architecture with Semantic Web Services) and
• Sources of Assistance Experts in CoPs,
  Knowledge Management, Statistics and Data Mining,
  Emerging Technologies (e.g. Semantic Web), etc.

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1. Introduction
A very successful public-private
collaboration/community of practice to
be featured at FOSE, March 23-25, 2004,
Washington DC Convention Center!
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1. Introduction
Replace labels in previous Venn diagram with
these
Community Indicators
Decision Makers
Collaboration Opportunity
Collaboration Zone
Data Providers
Sponsors
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1. Introduction

• Period of Rapid Change
• eGov Act of 2002
• Interagency Committee on Government Information
• E.g. Standards for large documents on the Web.
• Data and Information Reference Model
  Intergovernmental Data Integration Pilots (5).
• Semantic Web Standards from W3C
• Collaborative Web, Semantic Web, and Web of
  Trust.
• Work on new standards so that data access
  policies can travel with the XML data
  (confidentiality-personal information and
  privacy-aggregation of information).
• CIO Council Committees Highest Priority
  (Pilots)
• Architecture Infrastructure Committee
• FEA Data and Information Reference Model (DRM).
• Best Practices Knowledge Management
• Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice.

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1. Introduction

• Presentation
• Highlights of this presentation and
• Last part of Data and Information Reference Model
  (DRM) Pilot
• Uses the Statistical Abstract of the United
  States, 2003
• Awarded a free copy at the Census Bureau
  Symposium last week.
• Obvious first pilot to begin to demonstrate
  Semantic Web standards and technologies to the
  Community Indicators Conference.

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1. Introduction

• Indicators are usually expressed in graphical
  form based on data tables that should have
  metadata (data about the data) which are usually
  embedded in documents that need to be Semantic
  Web Services that can be searched (find what
  expect to find), discovered (find what you dont
  expect to find), and exploited (reused).

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1. Introduction

• Indicator data needs to be interoperable to
  facilitate
• (1) reuse (e.g. in statistics we should ask
  compared to what?) and
• (2) integration within and across domains of
  interest and communities of practice.
• eXtensible Markup Language (XML), XML Web
  Services, and Semantic Web Services help
  accomplish those needs as will be illustrated in
  this presentation.

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2. eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

• Markup adds structure and metadata to the data
  and separates presentation with HTML from the
  data in XML to facilitate different presentations
  and reuse of the data.
• An EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Indicator
  example
• lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF-8" ?gt lt!--
  File Name tri99table1.xml   --gt
• ltTRI99Table1gt
• ltTable1gt
• ltStategtNevadalt/Stategt
• EXPLANATION ltSTARTTAGgtCONTENTlt/ENDTAGgt
• ltRankgt1lt/Rankgt
• ltFugitiveAirgt1529022lt/FugitiveAirgt
• ltStackAirgt1868475lt/StackAirgt
• ltSurfaceWatergt136431lt/SurfaceWatergt
• ltUndgInjectiongt2797lt/UndgInjectiongt
• ltLandReleasesgt1.1647E09lt/LandReleasesgt
• ltOnSiteReleasesgt1.1682E09lt/OnSiteReleasesgt
• ltOffSiteReleasesgt212998lt/OffSiteReleasesgt
• ltTotalReleasesgt1.1684E09lt/TotalReleasesgt
• lt/Table1gt
• Etc.

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2. eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
Display with HTML Markup
Structure and Metadata with XML Markup
http//web-services.gov/tri99table1.htm
http//web-services.gov/tri99table1.xml
Note The HTML file contains only the mapping of
the table fields to the XML database, not the
actual XML database itself!
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2. eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
Grid View in XML Spy Showing Spreadsheet-like
Structure
Note XML files can be used in spreadsheets,
statistical analysis packages, etc
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3. XML Web Services

• Markup adds structure and metadata to documents
  that contain mixed content (text, tables,
  graphics, references, etc.)
• An EPA Indicator Report example
• Americas Children and the Environment Report,
  2003
• The report consists of 171 pages of text, tables,
  graphics, references, etc. and exists in two
  basic forms
• A 2 MB PDF file and
• A new HTML version on the Web.
• This document was converted to XML by several
  tools but the automated conversion was
  practically worthless from a semantic point of
  view.
• This single document covers so much information
  that it will benefit immensely from semantic
  dissection, linking, and augmentation (explosion
  of single PDF file to multiple XML files stored
  in an XML database for reuse).
• As a result this report consists of the
  following
• Images (2.64 MB) 33 .jpeg and 33 .rdf (metadata
  format to be explained later).
• XML 102 files/1.65 MB for 12 sections.

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3. XML Web Services
Document Structure and Links
Document Search for Cancer
See EPA Report on America's Children and the
Environment, 2003, at http//www.sdi.gov
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4. Semantic Web Services

• We want to move simultaneously from static to
  dynamic Web Services and from interoperable
  syntax (XML) to interoperable semantics (RDF and
  OWL). (See next three slides.)
• We want to virtually centralize the content
  instead of physically centralizing the content
  (e.g. leave it distributed and connect it over
  the Internet).
• We want to build a fully distributed indicator
  management system for the Council on
  Environmental Quality based on the work for the
  Interagency Working Group on Sustainable
  Development Indicators at http//www.sdi.gov.
• A good example is our work with the Annual
  Statistical Abstract, which is an XML content
  collections consisting of the conversion of about
  50 PDF files and 1500 Excel files with their
  metadata, which could be distributed back to the
  200 some statistical programs that contribute to
  it each year to eliminate most of the manual
  aggregation that is done by the Census Bureau
  each year, to make it a living and reusable
  document. Another example is the EPA Report on
  the Environment, 2003. (See next slide.)

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4. Semantic Web Services
Annual Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
EPA Report on the Environment, 2003
See http//www.sdi.gov for many structured
documents on state of the environment,
indicators, etc.
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4. Semantic Web Services
Enterprise Ontology and Web Services Registry
Dynamic Resources
Semantic Web Services
Web Services
Static Resources
WWW
Semantic Web
Source Derived in part from two separate
presentations at the Web Services One Conference
2002 by Dieter Fensel and Dragan Sretenovic.
Interoperable Syntax
Interoperable Semantics
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4. Semantic Web Services

• The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an
  XML-based language to describe resources and is
  designed to create meta data about the resource
  as a standalone entity. The RDF model is often
  called a triple because it has three parts (1)
  a resource (2) a resources properties and (3)
  the property values.
• The knowledge representation community uses the
  grammatical parts of a sentence (1) subject (2)
  predicate and (3) object.
• RDF Schema is language layer on top of RDF in
  what is called the Semantic Web Stack. Above
  RDF Schema is Ontologies and above that is the
  third and final web in Tim Berners-Lees three
  part vision (collaborative web, Semantic Web, web
  of trust).
• XML Topic Maps are popular implementations of
  taxonomies and have complimentary characteristics
  to RDF.
• Three excellent resources are
• Practical RDF Solving Problems with the Resource
  Description Framework, Shelley Powers, OReilly,
  July 2003.
• The Semantic Web A Guide to the Future of XML,
  Web Services, and Knowledge Management, Wiley
  Technology Publishing, June 2003 and
• XML Topic Maps Creating and Using Topic Maps for
  the Web, Addison Wesley, July 2002.

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4. Semantic Web Services
Key Ontology Components
RDF Triple Components
The company sells batteries.
depiction
Image
knows
Person birthdate date Gender char
Object
Predicate
published
Subject
Resource
Predicate
Literal
works for
is-A
leads
Resource Description Framework
Leader
Organization
URI
Literal
Source The Semantic Web A Guide to the Future
of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management,
Wiley Technology Publishing, June 2003.
Property or Association
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5. Scalable Vector Graphics and Geography Markup
Language

• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• An XML vector graphics standard (W3C) that
  enables them to be processed efficiently,
  robustly, and in an automated fashion and enables
  scaling, panning, highlighting, etc.
• Graphical applications that are currently
  realized using bitmap graphics will start using
  SVG. The scope of SVG use will expand and it will
  displace the use of bitmap graphics in many
  areas, prime examples of which include mapping
  and GIS applications.
• Geography Markup Language (GML)
• An XML-based common encoding for spatial
  features.
• Makes it possible to renders legacy and
  third-party data and services interoperable
  minimizing the coupling between components.
• Enables multi-source, multi-sensor fusion.
• Can be converted to SVG on-the-fly.

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5. Scalable Vector Graphics
http//www.sdi.gov/Svg/120MonthLoan_Advanced.htm
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5. Geography Markup Language
Galdos Viewer for U.S. Census Data at
http//web-services.gov/tigerviewer.zip (unzip
and run display.html then load the sample
TIGER/GML for Manhattan)
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6. LandView 6

• A Viewer for the Environmental Protection Agency,
  U.S. Census Bureau, and U.S. Geological Survey
  Data and Maps
• http//landview.census.gov
• The LandView 6 Demo system provides the complete
  LandView software, but with a small extract of
  data and maps, from Prince William County,
  Virginia. The demo can be used to evaluate
  whether this product is suitable for your needs.
  The LandView 6 Tutorial uses this demo system in
  its examples
• http//www.census.gov/geo/landview/lv6/lv6demo.htm
  l

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6. LandView 6

• What is LandView 6?
• LandView has its roots in the CAMEO software
  (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency
  Operations). CAMEO was developed by the EPA and
  the NOAA to facilitate the implementation of the
  Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
  Act. This far-reaching law requires communities
  to develop emergency response plans addressing
  chemical hazards and to make available to the
  public information on chemical hazards in the
  community.
• This product contains both database management
  software and mapping software used in the CAMEO
  system to create a simple computer mapping system
  involving two programs - MARPLOT and LandView.
• The MARPLOT mapping program allows users to map
  Census 2000 legal and statistical areas, EPA
  EnviroFact sites, and USGS Geographic Names
  Information (GNIS) features.

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6. LandView 6

• What is LandView 6? (continued)
• The LandView database system allows users to
  retrieve Census 2000 demographic and housing
  data, EPA EnviroFacts data and USGS GNIS
  information. The GNIS contains over 1.2 million
  records which show the official federally
  recognized geographic names for all known places,
  features, and areas in the United States that are
  identified by a proper name.
• The LandView 6 and MARPLOT software included on
  the DVDs were created by agencies of the U.S.
  Government and are in the public domain. They can
  be copied, used and distributed freely without
  the requirement for royalty payments or further
  permissions. However, the Census Bureau cannot
  provide technical support for products created by
  others using LandView.
• LandView 6 is available on a set of 2 DVDs that
  cover the entire nation. A national version is
  also available for installation on a network
  server or individual computer hard drives.

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7. Contact Information

• Brand Niemann
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of
  Environmental Information (Office of the Chief
  Information Officer)
• Enterprise Architecture Team.
• Computer Scientist and Semantic XML Web Services
  Specialist.
• 202-566-1657, niemann.brand_at_epa.gov.
• Interagency Working Group on Sustainable
  Development Indicators
• http//www.sdi.gov.
• CIO Councils Emerging Technology Subcommittee
• http//web-services.gov.
• http//componenttechnology.org.
• CIO Councils Semantic (Web Services)
  Interoperability Community of Practice
• http//km.gov and http//web-services.gov