Thursday, March 27, 2003

Louisiana Legislative Report Ernie the Attorney pointed out the Louisiana Legislative Report (which looks an awful lot like a weblog).  The same author also supports the Louisiana Supreme Court Report.  Both sites use Bloglet for subscription services.  I can't think of an easier, more cost effective, or more powerful way to get this type of news service up and operating. 5:46:33 PM    comment []

Public Health Problems in California The Los Angeles Times reports that a soon-to-be-released report by California's Little Hoover Commission will reveal major problems with the State's public health system that create serious threats for citizens.  The report indicates that "state authorities learn of only roughly 20% of the diseases and conditions that doctors and nurses must legally report, in part because the reporting system is slow, cumbersome and paper-based."  Obviously this seems like a good candidate for an online, XML-based reporting solution. 5:12:46 PM    comment []

National Environmental Information Exchange Network The National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN) is one of the more ambitious national XML projects.  The project is funded by a $25 million grant through EPA and involves 44 states.  States are already making progress towards achieving some of the benefits described in the NEIEN blueprint: A common approach to environmental information exchange that is manageable by an agency as an agency, and not a collection of stovepiped systems, loyalties and approaches. A transition from traditional information exchange approaches, which are rife with management and data quality problems, to a data-centric approach focused on data and data quality. Enhanced potential for data integration. Lower cost to exchange data. More agency control over its own data, especially in light of public and legislative trends driving all public data onto the Internet. Each NEIEN member is defined by their "network node."  The node is a single point for delivery and receipt of information and contains a catalog of information and metadata available from that particular member (usually defined as a state).  The node may contain data relevant to things such as air quality, water quality, leaking underground storage tanks, or hazardous waste.  The data flows through EPA's Central Data Exchange (CDX).  NEIEN activities are also coordinated through the Environmental Council of the States. The typical architecture for a network node includes a SOAP listener, SOAP processor, Object Handler, Data Mapper, XML processor, and data connectivity components.  According to the state of Maine, the State’s best “bang for the buck” from the benefits of electronic commerce technologies such as XML, Web services, and Enterprise Application Integration depends on the technologies being implemented once centrally and thereafter used by all agencies. Maine is interested in leveraging the NEIEN architecture and experience to develop and enterprise XML solution. NEIEN Glossary 9:01:58 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.