Beyond XML--the next really big thing
A few short years ago, the introduction and adoption of standards for exchanging documents known as XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) swept the IT landscape and caught the wave as all the major computing players agreed on a way for computers to read documents without human intervention. The pace of adoption of XML was dizzying, and even the world of justice information systems was included. Based on the basic XML standards, the missing link of data definitions and justice-specific style sheets was captured by the ambitious OJP-funded collaboration of justice professionals and academia (most notably Georgia Tech Research Institute).
So XML is no longer emerging or disruptive technology. It has happened. Many of the leading vendors have at least within the last year jumped into the fray, and XML implementations have been flourishing throughout the country in justice information system implementations.
But a part of this revolution is still to come. While XML brings an exciting potential for standard document exchanges, the tools that were created to handle the distribution of these documents are yet to be fully implemented in most justice information systems environments. When XML took off in the commercial world, the key accompanying concept for handling the documents was web services and the notion of a directory for finding existing web services on the internet called UDDI. While the dream of easy discovery of web services has yet to be realized, many companies have started down the path of a full service-oriented architecture by keeping this risky and emerging technology behind the firewall where the lack of security standards was less of a danger.
This very clear hesitation is not one that should burden managers and architects in criminal justice, because it is very likely that most web services implementations in justice information systems will remain behind the firewall, or at least in secured environments, not allowing just any internet computer to exploit the service. Now that some of the gaps in security and handling of digital certificates have been filled, this technology is ready for deployment in the criminal justice world.
If you are ready, then an understanding of the strengths and limits of this technology is the first step. While there are lots of excellent resources on the internet, one of the best in-depth pieces of writing to explain what web services really are is the paper by Enrique Castro-Leon of Intel on webservices.org. His paper, A Perspective on Web Services, gives a not too threatening detailed explanation of what web services are and how they are used. Worthwhile reading for anyone wishing to better understand this disruptive new technology. An extensive set of white papers and other materials about web services are presented on the web site created for web services by O'Reilly.
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