Project Interoperability
IMPORTANT: This is a collaborative draft project. If you have questions or concerns, please create an issue.
Problem this Solves
Government needs to share information better, faster, and smarter. Our mission is to improve the government's ability to share the right information, with the right people, at the right time.
How this Project Solves this Problem
The goal of Project Interoperability is to help government and non-government organizations identify a baseline of terms, tools, and techniques to connect networks and systems. We aim to be architecture-agnostic, and we are trying to normalize the way information sharing technology is developed. We want to achieve a connected government.
This project is based on Project Open Data. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Who Are We?
We are the Office of the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (ISE). We were created in 2004 in response to the 9/11 Commission report. We are the national office charged with advancing responsible information sharing in support of counterterrorism and homeland security. We work with federal, state, local, and tribal government partners, and with the private sector and internationally. You can read more about us here.
The Standards Coordinating Council (SCC) is an advisory group made up of standards organizations and industry associations (such as IJIS and OMG). The SCC is leading the operationalization of Project Interoperability, via two different types of communities:
- Communities of Interest will drive mission-centric information sharing and safeguarding. Examples of communities of interest are “statewide and regional ISEs” or “cyber information sharing.”
- Communities of Practice will collaborate with the communities of interest to achieve mission-focused goals of the ISE. Communities of practice will be oriented around functions and capabilities, such as FICAM or open standards.
Where You Come In
Project Interoperability can be used to access, improve, and use information sharing tools and resources. It uses some of the existing, well known enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF, DoDAF, FEAF, etc.), and the principles of service-oriented architecture (such as reuse and intrinsic interoperability) to suggest standards, tools, and methodologies to link existing systems. It also specifies the development of common documents and products that will enable disparate departments’ and agencies’ architectures to make the full framework operational.
Project Interoperability can be utilized differently depending on the role you have in your organization. Some examples include:
- Program manager or procurement officer: Project Interoperability provides suggestions on what you need to have an interoperable system. It gives a program manager the language they need to describe what they want to aid in more cost-effective and smoother procurement.
- Private industry: Project Interoperability provides a common language to help industry respond to RFIs and hold conversations with federal customers about their needs.
- Architect: When setting up models, schemas, and deciding what standards to apply, Project Interoperability guides decision making around architecture details.
How to Contribute
We are making this content available on GitHub so that you can share feedback and suggestions for improving these tools and resources. If you are new to GitHub, you should check out our guide to contributing. Any other questions? Reach out to us by creating an issue or sending us a message.
This project constitutes a collaborative work ("open source"). Federal employees and members of the public are encouraged to improve the project by contributing.
License
The project is a public domain work and is not subject to domestic or international copyright protection. See the license file for additional information.
Members of the public and US government employees who wish to contribute are encourage to do so, but by contributing, dedicate their work to the public domain and waive all rights to their contribution under the terms of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Privacy
Comments, pull requests, and any other messages received through this repository may be subject to archiving requirements. Learn more about our privacy policies at http://ISE.gov/site-policies.