The traditional approach to semantic interoperability - based on schemata - becomes inadequate to support Electronic Governement needs.
It typically requires the (i) definition of common schemata structuring the vocabulary, and (ii) natural language documents describing the semantics. After these two items are defined, a software application validates exchanged data according the schemata, and the interpretation of the vocabulary is hard-coded by developers following the natural language documents. This approach results in software applications highly dependant on semantics and schemata. In addition, the hard-coded interpretation of the information by the resulting software also depends on how well the implementers understand the natural language documents describing the semantics.
The approach lacks flexibility and since Electronic Government collaborations can span across multiple organization and the semantics of the vocabulary evolve as laws and regulations do, it becomes an inefficient basis for building semantic interoperability solutions.

The project developed a Semantic Interoperability Middleware (SIM) aiming at:

1. Address semantic IOP challenges in Electronic Government – Research and analyze the semantic IOP challenges, identifying the set of operations that SIM needs to offer in order to successfully enable semantically sound collaborations across multiple organizations.
2. Provide a basis for building flexible solutions – Software solutions based on SIM shall not require update as laws and regulations establishing the semantics of the vocabulary used during collaborations evolve,
3. Minimize the effort for integrating SIM with existing solutions – Since IOP is not a new issue and most governments may have already deployed middleware products addressing the problem, SIM design must minimize the integration effort with pre-existing products.

Researching about state-of-the-art solutions and challenges covering: (i) Electronic Government, (ii) Interoperability, (iii) Enterprise Architectures, (iv) and Semantic Web Technologies

Developing models underpinning the analysis, design and, development

Implementing prototypes of SIM using both proprietary technologies (Microsoft platform) and open source technologies (Java platform)

Defining a process for implementing applications on top of SIM

Organizing workshops for encouraging discussions and brainstorming.

1. Survey Report
2. Final Report - Document covering domain models, requirement specifications, architecture, platform independent design, enterprise architecture, process documentation, two sample applications and rationale of implementation decisions
3. Prototypes (.Net and Open Source)
4. Training Courses for IT Managers and Developers
5. Online Demos: Validation , Mediation, Discovery

The results from the project will be applied in the Infrastructure Project.

Project documentation and training courses will help in raising awareness and disseminating the results.

The project is carried out in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation.

Team members:

• Dr. Tomasz Janowski - Lead
• Dr. Adegboyega Ojo - Research
• Mr. Alejandro Sanchez - Research and Development
• Ms. Elsa Estevez - Research
• Ms. Khoi Nguyen - Development
• Ms. Rilwan Basanya - Research

People from Microsoft Corporation who have contributed are:

• Oliver R. Bell
• Joseph Lee
• Martha Nalebuff
• Randy Ramusack
• Tom Robertson
• Roberto Ruggeri
• Nicos L. Tsilas

Semantic IOP challenges in Electronic Government were identified and SIM, a referece solution addressing them, was defined.

The objectives of the project were addressed as follows:

1. Addressing semantic IOP challenges in Electronic Government - SIM was built upon analyzing semantic IOP challenges in an eco-system characterizing the collaborative delivery of public services by public and private organizations.
2. Provide a basis for building flexible solutions – Software solutions based on SIM achieve flexibility in semantics. The approach followed to support semantic IOP relies on ontologies specifying the semantics of a vocabulary. As a result, a change in the semantics can be reflected modifying an ontology and the software does not require any update.
3. Minimize the effort for integrating SIM with existing solutions – The likely situation of organizations requiring a flexible solution to semantic IOP is that they already have middleware products addressing some IOP challenges. SIM was developed minimizing the set of concepts included in order to facilitate its adoption, complementing pre-existing products offering solutions to the technical and organizational areas.

In conclusion, SIM offers a basis for building flexible solutions to semantic IOP challenges in the context of Electronic Government.