Result of the Industry Consultation on the Interoperability Framework

for E-government

H C PangChief Systems Manager

Information Technology Services Department

Plenary Meeting of the IIAC9 April 2002

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Agenda

Objectives of the Interoperability Framework (I/F)

Principles for determining the scope and specifications of the IF

Result of the industry consultation

Our way forward

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Objectives of the IF

Serves as guidance for developing joined-up E-government systems with specific aim to achieve interoperability

Applies to G2G, G2C and G2B interactions (no binding effect on electronic interactions among members of the public themselves)

Documents the collaboration mechanisms for joined-up services

Captures the key infrastructure/architecture for E-government

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Principles for Defining the Areas of Interoperability

What to Include:

areas where there is a business need to do so

areas where we have a choice on what specifications to adopt

industry-specific areas where Government is one of the stakeholders (respective bureaux/departments (B/Ds) should take the lead to liaise with the industry on industry specific standards)

Focus on the interactions between computer systems, e.g.

data interchange between two discrete application systems

interactions between central infrastructure services and business-specific applications using the infrastructure

document exchange formats

security specifications for stated purposes under a security policy

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In general, we propose to adopt:

Open standards where they are mature and widely used

Specifications that are vendor and product neutral as far as possible

Specifications that are well aligned with Internet standards. The Internet is going to be a major channel for delivering E-government services

Specifications that will allow Government to build scalable systems

Principles for Choosing the Specifications for an Area

The industry should be involved when determining the specifications or schema to be adopted for a particular industry

Local, regional and international developments should be taken into consideration

While only mature standards will be adopted, prominent emerging standards should be closely monitored for potential adoption in future

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In relation to implementation, we consider that:

For any particular purpose, the allowable specifications should be limited as far as practicable in order to minimize the cost for B/Ds to support those specifications

Limiting the choice of allowable specifications should not cause undue inconvenience to members of the public

On top of the specifications promulgated to the members of the public, B/Ds may adopt additional specifications among themselves as necessary to facilitate collaboration among B/Ds

Principles for Choosing the Specifications for an Area (cont.)

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The Consultation Key Dates

Issued industry consultation paper 3 Dec 2001

Briefed IIAC Members on the IF 20 Dec 2001

Industry consultation ended 14 Jan 2002

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Responses

Industry generally welcomes the initiative to specify the IF

26 written responses from:

IIAC Members

Associations (HKASPIC, HKGISA , HKIE , ISIA, WTIA)

Consultancy / Research Firms (Accenture , Deloitte, Gartner, Ovum)

Vendors (3Com, CA, Compaq, Ecquaria , ecVision, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell , Oracle, Progress Software)

Others (Hospital Authority, HKPC)

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Results of The Consultation

Comments/suggestions received in 5 key areas:

Addition of new areas, e.g. spatial / geo-referenced data

Structure of the interoperability standards, e.g. mapping on the E-government architecture

Issues in specifying the IF, e.g. stating up-front the principles for selecting specific specifications among competing ones

Detailed standards, e.g. defining the format and structure of commonly used data sets for use across B/Ds

Implementation approach, e.g. defining meta-data for documents to facilitate retrieval of information

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Suggestions: Addition of New Areas

Spatial / geo-referenced data

Hardware standards for networking equipment (we will review these along with the Government Network Architecture)

Security for Web Services

Wireless technology (Bluetooth)

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Application development environment such as J2EE or database access standards (our view : the IF needs to assure interoperability of applications developed in different application environments)

3G (our view : the IF will ride on various kinds of mobile services, the variety of mobile services will be transparent to the IF)

Payment gateway standards like SET (our view : the IF will allow various types of popular e-payment methods offered by financial institutions)

Suggestions: Addition of New Areas (cont.)

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Suggestions: Structure of the Interoperability Standards

Map the specifications on the E-government architecture

Show which specifications are relevant to members of the public

Link the security and PKI standards to stated purposes under a security policy

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Suggestions: Issues in Specifying the IF

Specify up-front the principles for defining the interoperability-related areas and for selecting the standards

Articulate the areas according to open protocols, open interfaces and open file formats and disallow proprietary standards

Scrutinise the specifications carefully if they are to be tied with procurement rules

Take note of existing environment, business / information needs, and technology advancement

Consider the practical use of solutions, e.g. Enterprise Application Integration or Message Oriented Middleware

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Monitor developments in the wider Chinese community

Adopt open standards and have fewer alternatives for interoperability to work

Consider an ‘architectural roadmap’

Use native XML formats as standards allow

Adopt the Web Services model

Consider digital identity management

Include digital divide considerations

Suggestions: Issues in Specifying the IF (cont.)

SOAP

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Suggestions: Detailed Standards

State the versions of the specifications, where relevant

Specify the encryption level of Wireless LAN standards

Define the format and structure for commonly used data sets

Suggestions on specific specifications for consideration

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Suggestions: Implementation Approach

Adopt open source software because open source has proven to be an effective way of establishing open standards

Set out an implementation and promotion plan to facilitate adoption of the IF

Use an agent to disseminate changes and to promote awareness within the industry

Define meta-data for documents as far as possible

Involve the industry when defining industry-specific data exchange formats

Adopt the UK's GovTalk for schema management

Put in place a change management process for managing XML schema

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Specify the technical specifications and annotations

Promulgate the first version of the IF specifications in the 3rd quarter of 2002

Set up an IF Coordination Committee in ITSD to manage the IF on an on-going basis and take into account the operational experience of the B/Ds and feedback from the IT industry as well as members of the public

Our Way Forward

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Thank you