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1 History of the e-GIF

1.1 The UK e-GIF

The original version of the NZ e-GIF was based on work done by the Office of the UK e-Envoy in producing the UK e-GIF, which was first published in 2000. The UK e-GIF was reviewed by working groups comprising agency and vendor representatives, during the latter part of 2001.

1.2 NZ e-GIF v1

Version 1 of the NZ e-GIF was published in May 2002, incorporating feedback from some 25 agencies. The following month, Cabinet agreed the NZ e-GIF would govern how public sector organisations achieved electronic interoperability of their information, technology and business.

1.3 Current NZ e-GIF

The current version of the e-GIF is available at http://www.e-gif.govt.nz. All major revisions to the e-GIF supersede earlier versions.

1.4 Change Log

1.4.1 Version 3.0 - 3 June 2005

This version is a substantial rewrite of the e-GIF to make it clearer and broader. In particular it has:

  • restructured the document, separating Standards, Policy, and Appendixes (Resources)
  • added general information about e-government, interoperability, and the e-GIF
  • clarified how to comply and included the requirement for data share agreements
  • added agency and time limitations to exemption requirements
  • revised the layer model to:
    • add Best Practice
    • separate out Web Services
    • change "Architecture" to "Data Integration"
    • change "E-government Component Architecture" to "E-government Services" and put it in a separate section

  • changed "categories" to "compliant status levels", added new status classifications (F, U, R, A, D), diagram, and explanations
  • added links to standards, procedures for submitting standards and applying for exemptions, the Roadmap for the e-GIF, and other resources on the Internet
  • restructured list of standards and added comments
  • added, moved, removed, or revised the following standards:
    • Network protocols (TCP/IP), UDP
    • File transfer protocols, WebDAV, SCP
    • Registry services (renamed, was "Registers"), DNS
    • Time, NTP, UTC (MSL)
    • Messaging transport, HTTP 1.1
    • Messaging formats, MIME
    • Primary character set, ASCII
    • Document type definition, DTD
    • Batch/bulk data, CSV
    • File compression, GZIP
    • File archiving, TAR
    • Namespace, URN, OIDS
    • Customer relationship, xCRL
    • E-learning, ADL, SCORM, and IMS
    • Business reporting, xBRL
    • Directory services, DSML
    • Statistical data and metadata, SDMX
    • Geospatial, NZGMS
    • XML 1.1
    • Web services, all components, all standards
    • Instant messaging, XMPP
    • Vice Over Internet Protocol, SIP, RTP, H.323, G.711, G.729
    • Website presentation, NZ Govt Web Guidelines Version 2.1
    • Forms, xForms
    • Additional customer information, xCIL, Data formats for identity records standard
    • Security (re-sorted components by layer model) - Network, HTTPS, S-HTTP, TLS, Ipsec, ESP
    • Data integration, XML - Enc
    • XML - Dsig or OASIS DSS
    • Web services, SAML v2.0, Shared Logon assertion messaging standard
    • Shared Workspace
    • Government Intranet
    • SecureMail
    • Best Practice, all components, all standards, added section

  • moved the following standards:
    • UDDI, moved to Web Services / Discovery
    • ebXML, moved to Web Services / Messaging
    • Structured data description, RDF, moved to Business services
    • Metadata (Discovery), NZGLS 2.0, NZGLS Thesauri, moved to Business services
    • Unicode, moved; Comment: an extension of ASCII
    • Graphics File, GIF89a, JPG, PNG, SVG, moved to Access and Presentation / Website presentation
    • Mail Attachment, MIME, moved to Network / Messaging formats
    • S/MIME, moved to Security / Business services
    • XSLT, moved to Best Practice / XML data transformation
    • UML, XMI, moved to Best Practice
    • Business services, Metadata (Discovery), RDF, moved from Network / Structured data description
    • Business services (continued), Presentation, GIF89a, JPG, PNG, SVG, PDF, moved to Access and Presentation / Website presentation
    • Structured data description, RDF, moved to Metadata (Discovery) component
    • UML, XMI, moved to Best Practice
    • SOAP 1.2, moved to Web Services / Access
    • General Text and Graphics, HTML v4.01, GIF89a, JPG, PNG, SVG, PDF, moved to Website presentation (comment)
    • UDDI, moved to Web Services / Discovery
    • WSDL 1.1, moved to Web Services / Description
    • Processing (Structured data), SAX, DOM, renamed, was "Modelling (Structured Data)", moved to Best Practice

  • removed the following standard:
    • Autonomy

  • revised the following standards:
    • Data integration, renamed, was "Architecture"
    • Structured web document language, HTML v4.01, renamed component, was "Hypertext"
    • Name and address, xNAL v2, specified version
    • Registry services, renamed, was "Registers", ebXML RIM
      and RS v2.1 and v3.0, specified versions
    • E-government Services, renamed, was "E-government Component Architecture"
    • Content syndication and channel feeds, RSS, renamed component, was "News Syndication"
    • Authentication standards, Evidence of identity, Username / passwords, "Key type 2", Authentication key strengths, Trust levels for online transactions, spelled as out separate standards
    • Business services, S/MIME v3 , specified version.

1.4.2 Version 2.1 - 14 May 2004

  • NZ xNAL schema added to Recommended to clarify the standard.

1.4.3 Version 2.0 - 1 December 2003

  • This was a substantial rewrite of the e-GIF to clarify its intent and make it more accessible. In particular it:
  • introduced a new layer model and removed the old one
  • removed the old divisions of Interconnection, Information Sharing and Exchange, Access, and Service Delivery and reclassified standards into Network, Architecture, Business Services, and Access and Presentation
  • added a list of e-Government components
  • replaced the terms Standards and Guidelines with Mandatory and Recommended to clarify intent
  • reclassified all standards in the move to version 2; in addition, the status of the following standards was changed:
  • promoted PNG (portable network graphics) to an option in the Mandatory class (others were GIF and JPG) due to maturity of the standard.
  • corrected XSL to XSLT under data transformation services.
  • added version number on ZIP compression standard - now ZIP 2.3.
  • added xNAL as Mandatory standard for Name and Address data transfers.
  • made SAX a Mandatory standard (was a guideline, now called Recommended) for modelling structured data.
  • added New Zealand Government RSS as a future standard for news syndication.
  • added a placeholder for authentication standards with a note to seek EGU advice.
  • updated reference to New Zealand Government Web Guidelines to current version (v2.1).
  • added note about SecureMail as potential future government-to-citizen hardened email standard.
  • added lists of EGU components - available and under development.

1.4.4 Version 1.1 - 3 July 2003

  • Added ESA as a Recommended standard.

1.4.5 Version 1.0 - 13 June 2002

  • Initial release of e-GIF.


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