Transcript DGRC Overview slides - Columbia University

Co-Directors:
Yigal Arens
USC / Information Sciences Institute
Judith Klavans
Columbia University
Digital Government is Here!
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An increasing quantity and variety of
information is available in digital form
Government agencies already collect much
digital information
Government is a holder and provider of often
unique data and services
Access to information/services by industry
and citizen-users must be facilitated, while
limiting cost and risk
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Well – Not Quite...
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Expectations are very high due to the
pervasiveness of Web/Internet information
technology
Government IT/IS is behind best practices
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Legacy, stovepipe systems designed for trusted
staff
Failed very large modernization efforts
A disconnect exists between the research
community and government IS
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DGRC’s Purpose
Make Digital Government Happen!
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Advance information systems research
Bring the benefits of cutting edge IS
research to government systems
Help educate government and the
community
Work with the NSF’s DG Program
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Why a Center?
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Direction
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Coordination
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Visibility
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Sustainability
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DGRC Technical Goals
Conduct and support research in key
areas of information systems
 Develop standards/interfaces
 Develop infrastructure
Build pilot systems
Collaborate closely with government
information providers and users
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DGRC Educational Efforts
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NSF-sponsored DG workshop and
conferences (2000, 2001, 2002)
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Collaboration workspace
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Expanded PI workshop, now conferences
In the process of being expanded
Newsletter:
The Magazine of Digital Government Research
http://www.dgrc.org/dg-online
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DGRC Development Plans
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Today
Time
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Seeding by CU and ISI
~$1M/yr initially from DG Program
~$3M/yr funding with incorporation of
additional or separately funded efforts
~$5M/yr total will provide for significant
impact on government systems
Expand government applications as
funding develops
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DGRC Composition
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So far, primarily computer scientists
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User interfaces, information integration,
databases, natural language processing,
information security, data mining, …
Recently also: Human factors
Our plans: Social sciences
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Our Approach to IS Developm’t
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Managed technology transfer:
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Solving the legacy information system
problem:
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Solving the Legacy IS Problem
Move from
“Hardwired”
Legacy Systems
Wrapped Access to
External Systems
Info System
Info System
Legacy
To
Models
& Spec’s
Legacy
Wrapper
Wrapper
Wrapper
New
Legacy
Legacy
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Legacy System Integration
into New Information Systems
User Interface
Journaling
Audit
Search/
Discovery
Electronic
Commerce
Translation
Ontologies
DB Modeling
Visualization
Indexing
Access Control
Operating
System
Independent
Middleware
Authentication
Crisis
Mgmt
Citizen
Collect’ns Statistical
Life Event Participa- Electronic
and
Digital
Planning tion in
Benefits
Processing Libraries
Gov’t
Information Source Management
Object Brokers
Networking
Mediators
Wrappers
Legacy System Support
Existing
System
Existing
System
Existing
DB
New
System
New
System
New
DB
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Major Research Thrusts
Terminology/ontology
 Information integration
 Human-computer interaction
 In-memory data analysis
Soon:
 Collaboration
 Multi-lingual access
 Usability
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Current DGRC Research
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Support specific applications
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Access to/interpretation of statistical data
Web site integration
Central problems attacked:
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Proliferation of terminology
Difficulty requesting and interpreting data
Need to integrate data from autonomous
sources
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Our Experience So Far
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Problem nicely defined in proposal, based on
discussions with agencies
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But access directly to data turned out to be
impossible!
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Access multiple sources from 4 agencies
Support querying over the Web
Only already public data could be used
The queryable space is very sparse
When dealing with Government, politics are
cannot be ignored
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Consequences for Research
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Significant shifting of emphasis, to:
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Extraction of information from public sources: Web
sites, PDF files, text
Special subproblems: Ontology browsing,
ontology merging, understanding PDF, …
Support for existing “reports”
In-memory data manipulation and analysis
We were lucky to have had broad experience
and a wide array of talent to draw on
We’ve been set back by political missteps
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For More Information
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Visit http://www.dgrc.org
Read newsletter
Ask for report of last year’s dg.o2000
digital government workshop
Request report of this year’s dg.o2001
when it comes out
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