NIEM Newsletter
E-Learning Update
NIEM Practical Implementer’s Course Being Rolled Out as Online Course
By Eileen Rixmann, Training Manager, IJIS Institute
The NIEM Practical Implementer’s (PI) course is scheduled to be introduced in an online version later this year. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the IJIS Institute, and SEARCH have been working for the past year to make this project a reality. The NCSC has extensive experience in online training and currently offers an array of justice- and court-related classes and certification programs. The IJIS Institute was instrumental in developing the NIEM classroom material. SEARCH, involved in both GJXDM and NIEM from inception, has been a primary team member in classroom and course material development, training, and support.
The online version of the NIEM PI course is a self-paced course powered by WebCT, an online virtual learning environment. Because it is not presented in real time, it allows the flexibility required by many developers, implementers, and business analysts. The material is presented in a split-screen format and allows students to follow along as some of the top classroom instructors present the information in a video. The material used in the online course is the same material presented in the live classroom version, thus supporting the belief that all learners must be taught the same across venues. In the online version, learners are presented with the actual Microsoft PowerPoint slides and can follow along as instructors circle, animate, or emphasize important points throughout the training. Exercises are presented and solutions reviewed, much as they are in the classroom course.
E-trainers will be available while the online NIEM course is active so that students can send questions via a dedicated mailbox and expect a 48-hour response time. Students will be asked to complete a case study exercise at the end of the training that involves building a simple IEPD. Files will be submitted to the online instructor and participants will receive a pass/fail grade. Once the course is successfully completed, students will receive completion certificates just as they do in the classroom version.
Stay posted for additional information on this exciting development, and contact training@ijis.org with any questions.
NIEM Feature Writers Needed!
The IJIS Institute is working to develop a NIEM Writer’s Bureau. As the readership of NIEM News continues to expand, it is important that we be able to offer up-to-date, interesting feature articles. The IJIS Institute needs your help in creating that bureau.
Do you have any ideas for a feature highlighting NIEM in action? Would you like to be added to the bureau in case a topic comes up and we need to take advantage of your writing skills? Do you already have a topic written and ready to be published? If so, we would like to hear from you! The articles need to be between 800 and 1,000 words and must be submitted to Doris Girgis at the IJIS Institute, doris.girgis@ijis.org. Deadline for submission is the first Friday of the month
preceding the issue date. For example, the deadline for submission for the December 2008 issue is November 7, 2008.
We appreciate any help that you can provide in making NIEM News even better!
IJIS Institute Hits Data Model Training Milestone More than 1,000 students trained in GJXDM and NIEM
The IJIS Institute announces that with the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Practical Implementer’s National Training held on September 23–25, 2008, more than 1,000 students have received technical training on key information sharing technologies.
A central mission of the IJIS Institute is to leverage the expertise of the information technology community by providing training to executives and developers from government and industry that is essential to the successful implementation of information sharing projects in the justice, public safety, and homeland security communities.
The IJIS Institute Technology Training Program includes in-depth education on key information sharing technologies such as the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and, prior to NIEM, the U.S. Department of Justice Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM). The courses are taught by practicing information technology professionals from both the public and private sectors. All have years of justice, public safety, and homeland security information technology design and implementation experience.
Paul Wormeli, executive director of the IJIS Institute, stated that, “This training milestone marks a tremendous step in the right direction for the future of information sharing in our nation. As more and more professionals learn about the value of information sharing technologies and data models, the justice, public safety, and homeland security initiatives across local, tribal, state, and federal levels will prosper—ultimately keeping citizens, public safety providers, and first responders safer.”
The IJIS Institute Technology Training Program is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), a component of the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. The valuable and continued support of BJA will allow the IJIS Institute to continue providing critically needed information sharing technology training to government and industry across the nation.
NIEM Case Study Washington State NIEM Pilot Driver’s License Photo Exchange
Synopsis
Every day and every hour, thousands of law enforcement officers across the country encounter violators who cannot produce verifiable identification, such as a driver’s license or a state identification card. The purpose of this case study is to highlight the success of the development of NIEM 2.0-Conformant Information Exchange Package Document (IEPD) for Law Enforcement Access to Driver’s License Photos in Washington State.
Agency Overview
Statewide justice information sharing and integration efforts in Washington State are coordinated and overseen by the Justice Information Network (JIN) board. The JIN board is composed of state and local government representatives and is statutorily authorized to “develop and maintain, in a cost-effective manner, a statewide network of criminal justice information that enables sharing and integrated delivery of justice information maintained in the state’s independent information systems.” One approach to meeting the statutory objectives is to maximize the use of existing infrastructure and adopt national standards. The JIN board facilitated this approach by adopting an Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) policy that requires integration projects to follow a standard implementation process. This NIEM IEPD development project also involved business and technical representatives from justice and nonjustice, state and local government agencies.
Challenge
In order to take appropriate action, law enforcement officers across the country must have the ability to accurately and positively identify individuals. When an individual is unable to produce photo identification, this presents a significant challenge for law enforcement professionals. From writing a check to renting equipment, a driver’s license is a fast, effective, and familiar method to verify a person’s identity. Providing law enforcement officers in the field with access to driver’s license photos will help ensure that honest mistakes are treated as such and that those that are less than honest will be further questioned.
Solution
The funds appropriated to the state of Washington through the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) were used to establish a pilot exchange project to develop the technical specifications for law enforcement to access driver’s license photos. The pilot exchange project leveraged the emerging National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 2.0 data standard and followed the Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) process as described in the NIEM Implementation Guidelines. This ensured that all exchange documentation developed through this approach was aligned with national best practices and available for reuse in other states and jurisdictions.
The IEPD was developed using established processes including Unified Modeling Language (UML); mapping of the data definitions to the NIEM data dictionary; development of schemas, using the NIEM tool; and documentation and publication of IEPD artifacts and schemas to the U.S. Department of Justice IEPD Clearinghouse.
Results
Results of this project include creation of a NIEM 2.0-conformant IEPD for Driver’s License Photo Exchange to provide law enforcement with access to driver’s license photos for positive identification. Washington State has also completed all required IEPD artifacts and will publish the IEPD to the U.S. Department of Justice IEPD Clearinghouse for use by other states. Other benefits from this project include development of standardized message specification for accessing driver photos, experience with NIEM, coordination among multiple stakeholders, and partnerships established with interstate initiatives including SRFERS (State, Regional, and Federal Enterprise Retrieval System) and NLETS (International Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing Network).
Featured FAQ
Does NIEM’s complexity make it too costly for small jurisdictions?
Not necessarily. With NIEM’s broad-based adoption and use, NIEM can potentially reduce the cost of participation in information exchange programs such as the FBI National Data Exchange (N-DEx) initiative. NIEM-conformant information exchange capability is also becoming available "out of the box," as more and more vendors incorporate NIEM capabilities into their products. A small investment in educating key personnel about the NIEM model, architecture, and program can pay big dividends in facilitating business and technical assessments and decisions associated with the adoption of NIEM, purchase of NIEM-conformant products, and participation in NIEM-conformant information exchange programs.
NIEM Training News
Practical Implementer’s Course—Minnesota
A NIEM Practical Implementer’s Course was held on September 16–18, 2008, in St. Paul, Minnesota. This session was hosted by the State of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension—Minnesota Justice Information Services (BCA-MNJIS) and was attended by 21 students representing a variety of agencies, including BCA MNJIS, Hennepin County Sheriff’s office, LETG, LOGIS, and MCAPS, as well as industry representatives from Unisys and L1 Identity Solutions. Representatives from the following jurisdictions were also in attendance: Counties of Kandiyohi, Anoka, Winona, Washington, and Ramsey, and the City of St. Paul. The wide range of agencies and jurisdictions represented provided the setting for a very dynamic and engaging training session. The instructors for this session were Anu Rao from iNovate Solutions and Scott Serich from the IJIS Institute, who both received great reviews on the student evaluations. We thank both Anu and Scott for their continued support of the IJIS Institute Training program.
NIEM Practical Implementer’s Courses are funded through grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For more information about the NIEM Technology Training Program, contact training@ijis.org.
Practical Implementer’s Course—National Training Event
A NIEM Practical Implementer’s Course was held on September 23–25, 2008, in Ashburn, Virginia, at the George Washington University Northern Virginia campus. This session was hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The course was attended by 45 students, representing a variety of agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Department of Justice, as well as industry representation from IJIS member companies. The wide range of agencies and jurisdictions represented provided the setting for a very dynamic and engaging training session. The instructors for this session were Tom Carlson from Tom Carlson Consulting, Anu Rao from iNovate Solutions, Diana Graski from the National Center for State Courts, and Diane Chima-Orji from the IJIS Institute. The training session was extremely successful, with overall course scores and instructor scores coming in at 4.6 and 4.8, respectively. We thank the entire instructor team for an outstanding job. Teaching large classes with students from various organizations can be difficult, but students praised the instructors’ abilities in relating the material to all sectors.
NIEM Practical Implementer’s Courses are funded through grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For more information about the NIEM Technology Training Program, contact training@ijis.org.
Upcoming NIEM Trainings
- November 4–6, 2008: Alabama Department of Criminal Justice
