6 Information Sharing and Exchange

6.1 Technical Policy Statements

6.1.1 Data Integration

• NZ government policy is to use:

• NZGLS for the creation of discovery level metadata

• XML (standard),

-ML, WMS and WFS schemas for data integration [ Business systems (current or legacy applications) that are tightly integrated or internal to agencies may use other processing environments. The introduction of current or legacy business systems into new inter-agency initiatives requires the capability to map the outputs of these systems to the agreed XML schemas.]

• UML and XMI for data modelling

• RDF for description

• XSL for data transformation

6.1.2 Metadata

Agencies will use the New Zealand Government Locator Service (NZGLS) metadata standard for the definition and discovery of government services and resources.

6.1.3 XML

The NZ government will base the use of XML on the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to avoid the use of any product specific XML products / extensions that are not being considered for open standardisation within the W3C [ Agencies currently using product specific XML should be planning to migrate to open standards XML by 2003.] .

6.1.4 Agreed Schemas

Agencies will use Agreed Schemas as noted in the e-GIF. The purpose of using such schemas is to minimise divergence of descriptions and taxonomies across government. Registers for the storing of agreed schemas will either be ebXML or UDDI.

6.1.5 Presentation

Agencies have the choice of presenting text and images in either "open" or "locked" forms. Agencies choosing to exchange:

• text in an open format will use XML or HTML 4.01

• text in a locked format will use PDF

• images in an open format will use GIF 89a or JPEG

• images in a locked format will use PDF

6.1.6 Data Modelling

Agencies will use a standard notation for the modelling of inter-agency business processes, systems and applications.

6.1.7 Messaging

MIME and S/MIME are the recommended messaging formats for communications between agencies.

6.1.8 Services

Standards for transporting and exchanging web-based services are SOAP and WSDL.

6.2 Standards and Guidelines