Creating Internet Content Networks for Environmental Health and Safety: Panel and Workshop

1
Creating Internet Content Networks for
Environmental Health and Safety Panel and
Workshop

• Information Sharing Intelligence
• for Public Safety, Law Enforcement Military
• Sheraton National Hotel Arlington, Washington,
  DC
• Brand Niemann, Chair, and Participants
• Office of Environmental Information
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• October 25, 2002

2
Schedule

• Panel, 1145 a.m. 1230 p.m.
• Brief introductions and highlights from each
  participant followed by questions and answers.
• Workshop, 130 4 p.m.
• Presentations by each participant with a break
  and questions and answers.

3
Overview

• 1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
  Web Services Initiative, Brand Niemann
• 2. Non-Profit Earth 911, Michael McCabe
• 3. Military Army Corp of Engineers, Richard
  Tynes
• 4. Civilian DISER Program, David Eng,
  Distributed Explorit, Abe Lederman, National
  Environmental Information Exchange Network, Brand
  Niemann, and the National Environmental Public
  Health Tracking Network, Joseph Reid
• 5. Vendor Real-time Directory Listings and
  VoiceXML, Gary Mortensen and Dan Buan
• 6. Vendor Distributed Content Authoring and
  Publishing, Ed Scrivani
• 7. Questions and Answers

4
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• Brand Niemann, Computer Scientist and XML Web
  Services Solutions Architect, US EPA, and
  Affinity Group Lead for the CIO Councils
  Architecture and Infrastructure Committees Web
  Services Initiative.
• Lets make sure the e-Gov projects implement
  enough XML Web Services so they are universally
  accessible and interoperable with one another so
  we dont end up with 24 better portals, but still
  stovepipes. For example the XML Collaborator is
  built on Web Services standards to support the
  development, use, and re-use of Web Services so
  every component has a Web Services interface.

5
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• The Federal CIO Council has reorganized its
  Architecture and Infrastructure Committee (AIC)
  to include the CTOs and provide more input into
  policy planning through three subcommittees
• Architecture ongoing maintenance of the federal
  enterprise architecture.
• Component Architecture update and maintain the
  library of hardware and software components used
  by agencies.
• Emerging technologies evaluate and recommend
  new technologies, such as Web Services.

6
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Education and Outreach
• FedWeb Fall 02 Turning Web Sites into Web
  Services Solutions for Government, October
  28-29, 2002, George Mason University, Arlington,
  VA (http//www.fedweb.org)
• XML 2002 Conference and Exposition, December
  8-13, 2002, Baltimore Convention Center, Opening
  Keynote (Bob Haycock, Manager of OMBs Federal
  Enterprise Architecture Program Management
  Office) and Exhibit (http//www.xmlconference.org)

7
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Participation in Standards Organizations
• Key XML Specifications and Standards (ZapThink
  2002) - Over 450 standards in existence with 135
  key specifications categorized by Core XML,
  Document-oriented, Message-Oriented, and
  Community Vocabularies representing eight
  standards organizations. See http//www.zapthink.c
  om/reports/poster.html
• Attended W3Cs Web Services Architecture (WSA)
  and Description (WSD) Working Groups (September
  9-13, 2002)

8
ZapThink XML Standards Poster!Over 135 XML and
Web Services Standards At-a-Glance
9
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative
XML Web Services for e-Government Participation
in the Solutions Architects Working Group
10
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Pilot Projects
• Extending Digital Dividends Public Goods and
  Services that Work for All, Federal Architecture
  and Infrastructure Committee of the CIO Council
  and GSA Office of Governmentwide Policy, 2002
  (contains Digital Talking Book on CD-ROM - can be
  VoiceXML enabled, 30 discount at GPO on XML
  content for dissemination, training available).
• VoiceXML for e-Gov and Universal Access Pilots.
• LandView 5 and 6 Pilots for the Geospatial
  Information One-Stop e-Gov Initiative.
• Distributed Content Management and Networking.
• XML Collaborator XML Design Collaboration and
  Registration Software for the Multi-government
  XML Data Exchange Network Pilots.

11
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Meetings
• Start regular meetings to select leads for the
  top 20 priorities and other pilot projects and
  have them report progress.
• Support from the Industry Advisory Council for
  vendor involvement in the pilot projects
  (http//www.iaconline.org)
• Regular status reports and demonstrations at the
  CIOCs Universal Access Collaboration Workshops
  (November 12 and December 10, 2002, and January
  14, 2003, scheduled so far).

12
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Report Card - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
  graded his company's .Net progress as follows
• Rallying the industry around XML and Web services
  protocols.
• Grade A
• Visual Studio .Net tools and runtime
  infrastructure that support the building and
  deployment of Web services.
• Grade A
• Progress in "building-block services" that would
  enable a company to "call out" to get storage
  capabilities or access a common schedule.
• Grade C

13
1. Introduction The Federal CIO Councils XML
Web Services Initiative

• XML Web Services for e-Government
• Report Card - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
  graded his company's .Net progress as follows
  (continued)
• Progress in promoting the idea of software as a
  service, "paid for on a yearly basis and being
  automatically updated and improved across all
  your different devices.
• Grade C
• Federationthe idea that disparate systems, such
  as authentication services, can connect in
  trusted fashion between consenting companies or
  groups of organizations.
• Grade I
• Microsoft's work on "transformative user
  experiences" that happen as a result of "rich XML
  coming down to your system.
• Grade I
• Note I stands for Incomplete.

14
Coming Attractions

• Grid Service (peer-to-peer video and data over
  the Internet) for XML Collaboration, GIS, and
  Health Care
• CIO Councils Collaboration Expedition Workshop,
  November 12, 2002, National Science Foundation,
  Ballston, VA.
• Situation Room
• EPA plans data-rich situation room,
  http//www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0729/tec-epa-
  07-29-02.asp (see next slide).
• Improving Business Outcomes Through
  Partnerships, EPA GIS Day Demonstrations and
  Poster, November 19, 2002, 10 a.m. 4 p.m.,
  Polaris Suite, Reagan International Trade Center,
  Washington, D.C.
• Data Mining
• 1st Annual Data Mining for Military and
  Government Applications Forum, Washington, D.C.,
  February 25-26, 2003, Insightful Corporation
  products for text and image mining on EPA and
  other databases.

15
Coming Attractions

• EPA plans data-rich situation room - Room with a
  view
• The Environmental Protection Agency is developing
  an emergency response situation room that will
  rely largely on geographic information systems,
  collaboration and decision-support tools.
• The room will come in three forms
• 1. A dashboard, or desktop computer application,
  that packages readily available information.
• 2. A virtual room that integrates data EPA
  employees consider important to monitoring
  environmental indicators and spotting trends.
• 3. A physical room where experts can gather and
  collaborate during a crisis.

16
Coming Attractions
LandView 5 on Web-connected DVD
http//landview.census.gov
17
CAMEO Computer Aided Management of Emergency
Operations

• A system of software applications from EPA and
  NOAA used widely to plan for and respond to
  chemical emergencies and to assist front-line
  chemical emergency planners and responders to
  access, store, and evaluate information critical
  for developing emergency plans.
• http//www.epa.gov/ceppo/cameo/index.htm
• Training
• http//www.epa.gov/ceppo/cameo/cam-evnt.htm
• Updated Census 2000 Maps Download
• http//www.epa.gov/ceppo/cameo/marmaps/
• Can also be used with LandView to display U.S.
  EPA, U.S. Census, and U.S. Geological Survey data
  and maps.

18
Coming Attractions
Population Estimation XML Web Service
19
Coming Attractions
Universal Access to Geo-referenced Web Content
20
Coming Attractions
Galdos Viewer for US Census Data
21
Standing Offer

• Provide assistance to
• Make legacy databases more accessible and
  interoperable with XML Web Services.
• Build new databases based on open collaboration
  and standards (XML Web Services) that are more
  accessible and interoperable.
• Promote the use of XML Web Services for both
  horizontal and vertical information sharing and
  exchange across multiple levels of government.
• Develop data models that integrate unstructured
  and structured content and relational and
  non-relational (e.g. XML) databases of government
  information that can be used with XML Web
  Services.

22
2. Non-Profit Earth 911

• Michael McCabe, Earth 911 Chairman of the Board,
  and former EPA Deputy Administrator.
• Government should stop looking at the number of
  portals they can put up and rely on a few private
  channels to provide information to the public
  (Stephen Goldsmith, E-Gov advisor to President
  Bush, April 16, 2002).

23
2. Non-Profit Earth 911

• Started in Arizona in 1991.
• Recognized by EPA and others in 1995 with a
  Presidential Environmental Technology Initiative
  grant to expand nationwide dubbing it Earths
  911.
• Recipient of the Stockholm Challenge Award for
  Information Technology in September 2001 (742
  nominations from 90 countries). Referred to as
  the Nobel Prize for the IT society.
• Recently called the future of e-government by
  allowing thousands to upload their community
  information through a password protected user
  interface and be made available to the public in
  real time (Web and 800 phone number).
• Earth 911 model replicated to Pets 911 with the
  goal of ending the needless euthanasia of over 5
  million healthy adoptable pets in the United
  States.
• Uses state-of-the-art hardware and software
  technology (ATT, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft)
  including Visual Studio.Net for XML Web Services
  with information organized by ZIP code and state.
• The Earth 911 Foundation is a 501 (c) 3
  non-profit organization with a staff of about 40
  support by grants and contributions.

24
2. Non-Profit Earth 911
http//earth911.org
25
2. Non-Profit Earth 911
26
3. Military Army Corp of Engineers

• Rick Tynes, U.S. Army Engineer Research and
  Development Center, Topographic Engineering
  Center.
• Extensive research experience in image
  processing, feature classification and pattern
  recognition of aerial imagery. More recent work
  efforts have involved Web-based robots, search
  engines, Web clients, and integrating middleware
  software to the Web. Current efforts include
  geospatial data portals, Web interactive map
  applications, multimodal user interfaces,
  distributed computing and XML standards and
  applications. Interested in pervasive
  dissemination of information.

27
3. Military Army Corp of Engineers

• XML Maps and Collaboration
• Any Web Map information is accessible via
  Telephone
• Weather
• eMail
• EPA Computer-Aided Management of Emergency
  Operations
• EPA sites and site reports
• Telephone messages and text collaboration
  messages
• FAA Notices To Airmen (NOTAM)
• USGS Gazetteer
• NGS Survey Markers
• Census TIGER, road network (intersections)

28
3. Military Army Corp of Engineers

• POTS to Web
• Web ? POTS ? Web
• User initiates call via phone or Web
• Web retrieves phone messages
• Phone updates Web page

Phone
Web
Web
Web
Web
Phone
Phone
email
VoiceXML Web Collaboration
29
3. Military Army Corp of Engineers

• - -
• -   Voice X M L
  Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations
  services, query fluorine, chemical name fluorine.
  NOAA number 764.   -
•  
• query top description (first aid)
  (health hazard) (fire hazard) properties
  reactivity  
• Say Description, Health Hazard,
  Properties, Fire Hazard, First Aid, or Reactivity
  for information about fluorine, or 'query' to get
  another chemical. -
•  
  fluorine general description.  
  fluorine is a pale yellow gas with a
  pungent odor. it is toxic by inhalation and skin
  absorption. contact with skin in lower than
  lethal concentrations causes chemical burns. it
  reacts with water to form hydrofluoric acid and
  oxygen. it is corrosive to most common materials.
  it reacts with most combustible materials to the
  point that ignition occurs. under prolonged
  exposure to fire or intense heat the containers
  may violently rupture and rocket.. Returning to
  top.  
•   -
•  
  poisonous may be fatal if inhaled.

30
4. Civilian DISER Program

• David Eng, Technology Innovation Office (on
  rotational assignment from the Office of
  Emergency and Remedial Response, Office of Solid
  Waster and Emergency Response), US EPA.
• Strategic Plan for Homeland Security, US EPA,
  September 2002, 53 pages, see http//www.epa.gov/e
  pahome/headline_100202.htm
• Goal 4 EPA will advance the state of the
  knowledge in the areas relevant to homeland
  security to provide first responders and decision
  makers with tools and the scientific and
  technical understanding they need to manage
  existing and potential threats to homeland
  security.
• Distributed Integrated Security and Emergency
  Response (DISER) Content Management Framework
  (White Paper, October 2002, 6 pages).

31
4. Civilian DISER Program
32
4. Civilian DISER Program
33
4. Civilian DISER Program
646 files totaling 73.4 MB
34
4. Civilian DISER Program
Secure Web Site
35
4. Civilian Distributed Explorit

• Abe Lederman, President and CTO, Deep Web
  Technologies (see http//www.deepwebtech.com/).
• Founder of Deep Web Technologies and Innovative
  Web Applications and co-founder of Verity.
  Developer of Explorit Deep Web Search software
  for the US Department of Energy and DoD Defense
  Technical Information Center. Developed the
  search capabilities of the new Science.Gov Web
  site, a collaboration of 10 Federal agencies,
  providing integrated access to some of the
  databases of these agencies.

36
4. Civilian Distributed Explorit

• Federal Computer Week got it right when it said
  that distributed searching of heterogeneous
  databases is the holy grail for the creation of
  digital libraries. Walter Warnick, Ph.D.,
  Director, DOE Office of Scientific and Technical
  Information (OSTI).
• Used in OSTI applications
• Preprint Network http//preprints.osti.gov
• Energy Files http//www.osti.gov/EnergyFiles/
• GrayLit Network http//graylit.osti.gov

37
4. Civilian Distributed Explorit
http//esn.osti.gov/
38
4. Civilian Distributed Explorit

• With the proliferation of portals, the Gartner
  Group has coined the term Uber Portal for a
  portal that sits on top of the portals (The
  Gartner Group, Emerging Internet Technologies,
  Local Briefing, June 27, 2001, page 19).
• Enhance the Distributed Explorit software for
  usein building an Uber Portal by including the
  following
• Web Service compliant interface.
• Output of search results in both HTML and XML.
• Support for querying with XQuery when this W3C
  standard is finalized.

39
4. Civilian National Environmental Information
Exchange Network

• Blueprint for a National Environmental Exchange
  Network by the National Blueprint Team released
  in the spring of 2001 which recommended
• the exclusive use of XML as the common basic
  interchange language for data flows and
• simplified versions of the tools (e-commerce
  servers), technologies (XML), and security levels
  be applied to the business of environmental
  agencies.
• An Implementation Plan was approved by the
  State/EPA Information Management Workgroup in
  February 2002.
• A Network Steering Board has been established and
  25 million in grants are about to be awarded to
  start building the network. A large contract has
  been awarded to build EPAs node on the network
  called Central Data Exchange.
• The initial focus is on the submission of about
  1M standardized XML data files from the states
  per year.

40
4. Civilian National Environmental Information
Exchange Network
41
4. Civilian EPA and CDC/ATSDR Grants

• Significant funding is being made available to
  states and tribes that will contribute to an
  exchange of environmental and public health data
  as follows
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  (HHS) are providing 1.1 billion in funding to
  prepare for bioterrorist attacks.
• EPA is providing 25 million in grants funds to
  participate in building the National
  Environmental Information Exchange Network (The
  Exchange Network).
• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  (CDC) distributed 14.2 million in Sept 2002 to
  20 State/Local Health Departments and 3 Schools
  of Public Health to develop a National
  Environmental Public Health Tracking Network.
• The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
  Registry (ATSDR) provided 400,000 to three
  states for asthma pilot projects.
• See http//www.epa.gov/neengprg/2002pressrelease.h
  tml
• http//www.cdc.gov/nceh/tracking
• http//www.sso.org/ecos/Asthma2/health_tracking_gr
  ants.htm
• and http//www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0909/web-
  trw-09-12-02.asp

42
4. Civilian National Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network

• September 30, 2002 - EPA and HHS Partner to
  Improve Environmental and Public Health Data
• EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Department
  of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
  Thompson signed a MOU to share environmental and
  public health data, and to collaborate on the
  development of environmental public health
  indicators to track environmental conditions over
  time and on creating Internet information portals
  (one stop) for viewing information from several
  agencies. HHS, in partnership with EPA, will
  develop a comprehensive Nationwide Health
  Tracking Network to monitor where diseases occur
  and potential links to environmental factors.

43
4. Civilian National Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network

• Joseph Reid, Ph.D., CDC Distinguished Fellow,
  Associate Director For Science, Information
  Resources Management Office, Center for Disease
  Control, Atlanta, GA.
• EPA Office of Environmental Information National
  Meeting, Atlanta, GA, Nov. 5-6, 2002
• HHS/EPA Partnerships in Information
  Exchange-Richard Jackson, Director, National
  Center for Environmental Health, Centers for
  Disease Control and Prevention.

44
4. Civilian National Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network
45
4. Civilian National Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network-Program Goals

• Develop and implement comprehensive programs in
  all 50 states, DC, the U.S. territories, and
  among tribal nations.
• A coordinated, integrated, standards based
  Environmental Public Health Tracking Network
• Improved, sustainable public health resources
• Infrastructure
• Response capacity
• Mechanisms for data dissemination

46
4. Civilian National Environmental Public Health
Tracking Network-Program Priorities

• Chronic diseases and other health effects with
  possible environmental etiology
• Environment chemicals, physical agents,
  biomechanical stressors, biological toxins
• Focus determined by HP 2010, Pew Report, State
  priorities
• Supplement, not supplant existing resources
• Compatible with NEDSS, BT, EPAs National
  Environmental Information Exchange Network.

47
4. Civilian Demonstration Project for Combining
Environmental and Public Health Information
Content
48
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

• Gary Mortensen, Qsent, Inc. (http//www.qsent.com)
  
• Real-time telephone company records to help
  businesses control fraud, ship packages to the
  right location, and power enterprise processes
  with the high level of accuracy necessary to make
  confident economic decisions because obsolete or
  inaccurate contact information is costly for
  business in directory assistance expenditures,
  lost opportunities, and customer satisfaction.
• Dan Buan, RealSoft, Inc. (http//www.realsoftinc.c
  om)
• An enterprise solutions provider focusing on
  providing packaged voice solutions to government
  that provide better service to the citizen at
  lower costs. Head of the Section 508 Alliance, an
  alliance of companies that provides one-stop
  shopping for organizations that need to comply
  with the federal governments accessibility
  regulation under the same name using technologies
  such as voice to aid persons who are blind or are
  visually impaired.

49
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

• Qsent Features
• Over 145 million residential, business and
  government listings (99). Every record verified
  through phone installation and account activation
  with credit history.
• 250,000 to 500,000 updates daily
• Four searches methods
• U.S. Residential search for an individual
• U.S. Business and Government search for
  business or government agencies
• Reverse Lookup search by telephone number
• U.S. All search all directories at once
• Geographic searches
• City Surround expand search incrementally from
  city center (lowest ZIP)
• Neighborhood Search search by neighborhoods
  using ZIP4

50
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

Qsents iQ411 Applications Interactive,
Integrated, Batch
MapPoint

• iQ411 Interactive is a web-based directory
  information service that provides real-time,
  daily updated, definitively accurate data for
  residential, business and government listings for
  the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
• iQ411 Integrated provides real-time system
  integration using the industry-standard XML API
  to send and receive XML messages and data.
• iQ411 Batch provides off-line processing via
  automated FTP services for accurate appending and
  validation of phone numbers and address
  information.

51
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

• Qsent Verification of EPA Regulated Facilities
• Qsent was able to return at least one match in
  1,753 out of 2,533 records in the EPA EnviroFacts
  Data Warehouse in the Portland, OR, area (69).
• A more thorough analysis of the matching results
  between the Qsent and EPA Facility databases
  would yield improvements in the EPA Facility
  database.
• Example (see next slide)
• EPA records show Associated Hose Products at 801
  SE Alders in Portland.
• iQ411 shows Associated Hose Products at 130 SE
  7th Avenue and provides a phone number.

52
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML
53
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML
Perform Emergency Notification and Data
Collection with VoiceXML
Simulated Contamination From Umatilla Army Depot
54
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

• RSIs VXML solution using IBM's Via Voice product
  line
• Voice enables applications so that callers can
  speak their menu selections instead of using the
  telephone keypad.
• Provides the caller the ability to navigate
  throughout the application without following any
  particular sequence.
• Allows an option for "barge-in" which allows the
  caller to interrupt the applications dialog and
  speak their selection.
• Creates synthesized voice using text-to-speech
  converters directly from stored text.
• Eliminates the need to maintain pre-recorded
  voice segments.
• Interfaces with Qsents iQ411 to provide
  real-time directory information.

55
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML
56
5. Real-time Directory Listings and VoiceXML

• Customer dials 411
• Can you give me the address for [phone]?
• VXML Platform intelligently redirects the call to
  Voice Server.
• VXML server plays the operator and gets
  relevant information.
• Information is relayed to iQ411 servers over the
  internet.
• iQ411 servers respond to the request in real-time
  returning all the relevant information.
• Information is presented to the customer via
  voice
• The address is 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
  Washington, DC 20460.

57
6. Distributed Content Authoring and Publishing

• Ed Scrivani, Major Account Executive, NextPage.
• NextPage NXT 3 P2P Platform
• Andy Warzecha, The META Group, 3/12/2002
• If companies want to do cross-enterprise content
  management, NextPage has the solution
• "Content networks provide a way for users to
  simultaneously access Internet sites, databases,
  intranets and other formal or informal content
  resources as if the content existed in a single
  location."
• "The advantage of this approach is that new
  content sources can be added quickly ... This
  puts power in the hands of business users to
  quickly tie in or disconnect the various content
  sources they require access to." (see next slide)
• Peer-to-peer Every device connected to the
  network is both a server and consumer of content.

58
6. Distributed Content Authoring and Publishing

• NextPage Triad
• End-to-end solution for managing and delivering
  content
• NextPage Contenta
• Author, manage and assemble content quickly and
  easily
• NextPage NXT 3
• Integrated Access to Distributed Content
• NextPage Solo
• Content Access for Disconnected Users

59
6. Distributed Content Authoring and Publishing
NextPage Contenta
60
6. Distributed Content Authoring and Publishing
NextPage NXT 3
61
6. Distributed Content Authoring and Publishing
FedGov Content Network Pilot
62
7. Questions and Answers

• Schedule Reminder
• Workshop, 130 4 p.m.
• Presentations by each participants with a break
  and questions and answers.