Result of the Industry Consultation on the Interoperability Framework for E-government

1. Result of the Industry Consultation on the Interoperability Framework for E-government H C Pang Chief Systems Manager Information Technology Services Department Plenary Meeting of the IIAC 9 April 2002

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Principles for Choosing the Specifications for an Area • 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 • 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

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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Suggestions: Addition of New Areas (cont.) • 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. Suggestions: Issues in Specifying the IF (cont.) • 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 XSIG SOAP WSDL

15. 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

16. 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

17. Our Way Forward • 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

18. Thank you