UCore
Encyclopedia
Universal Core is a U.S. government project to facilitate sharing of intelligence and related digital content across U.S. government systems.
Universal Core is an XML-based information exchange specification and implementation profile which provides a framework for sharing the most commonly used data concepts of Who, What, When, and Where. The purpose of UCore is to improve information sharing by defining and exchanging a small number of important, universally understandable concepts between data-sharing communities, without requiring complex mediations. The specification is modeled with an extensible XML schema
, a taxonomy
of high-level entities and events to categorize the concept of What, and supporting documentation and extension strategies. The current version is v2.0.0.
A key objective in creating UCore was to keep it simple, easy to explain, and easy to implement. UCore supports the National Information Sharing Strategy, a post-9/11 initiative. UCore is designed to permit "definable levels of interoperability" across user communities.
To facilitate adoption, UCore looks to Communities of Interest, or knowledge domains, to encourage adoption of common vocabularies. UCore is not expected to replace complex data sharing within highly developed domains.
UCore Version 2.0 was approved by ESC on 30 March 2009. This version added additional requirements from DoD, the Intelligence Community, Department of Justice
, and the Department of Homeland Security
. It incorporated concepts from Cursor on Target, and included cooperative agreements from participating agencies and communities of interest.
The first annual conference on UCore was held on the MITRE Virginia campus in September 2009.
The Defense Information Systems Agency
is currently the Technical Agent for UCore, working on behalf of the DoD Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO).
UCore Technical Governance Policy is not yet in place, but will address prioritization of UCore internal resources and process workflow within the organization. The UCore Executive Steering Council consists of representatives from partner agencies. The Steering Council has oversight authority and will foster adoption of UCore and collateral products and initiatives that are in keeping with the UCore Strategic Plan.
For validation, UCore relies upon a validation tool derived from ConTesA, developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. A UCore Conformance Test and Evaluation is also available from the Defense Information Systems Agency
Joint Interoperability Test Command .
Within the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps has explicitly mandated UCore for certain applications according to U.S. Marine Corps Order 5231.3.
While no OPNAV Instruction
related to UCore appears to have been issued, the Navy has accepted a role as DoD lead and served as overall co-lead for the federal effort. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command is providing engineering leadership for Navy UCore initiatives.
The March 2009 acceptance of UCore by the Air Force ESC suggests a level of commitment from that service.
A letter from U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) to the UCore Executive Steering Committee cited USSTRATCOM's sponsorship of UCore from UCore 1.0 through a UCore pilot completed in 2006.
The Universal Core Working Group chartered in April 2007 included DoD lead representative Daniel Green. Green discussed the goals and challenges of the Group in a 2008 Masters thesis for the Naval Postgraduate School. While Green remained with the project through the release of UCore 2.0 in April 2009, the thesis offers additional insight into UCore tradeoffs, challenges to technical adoption, and strategies adopted to cultivate involvement of various intelligence agencies.
Universal Core Semantic Layer (UCore-SL)
Universal Core is an XML-based information exchange specification and implementation profile which provides a framework for sharing the most commonly used data concepts of Who, What, When, and Where. The purpose of UCore is to improve information sharing by defining and exchanging a small number of important, universally understandable concepts between data-sharing communities, without requiring complex mediations. The specification is modeled with an extensible XML schema
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself...
, a taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
of high-level entities and events to categorize the concept of What, and supporting documentation and extension strategies. The current version is v2.0.0.
A key objective in creating UCore was to keep it simple, easy to explain, and easy to implement. UCore supports the National Information Sharing Strategy, a post-9/11 initiative. UCore is designed to permit "definable levels of interoperability" across user communities.
To facilitate adoption, UCore looks to Communities of Interest, or knowledge domains, to encourage adoption of common vocabularies. UCore is not expected to replace complex data sharing within highly developed domains.
History
UCore traces its roots to several precedecessor initiatives:- Department of Defense Directive 8320.1, which proposed a very large data model for all DoD systems.
- Department of Defense Directive 8320.02 proposed to implement interoperability around communities of interest, and found success within those communities.
- UCore Version 1.0 was issued in October 2007 with an emphasis on sharing terrorism information and a different name. This release focused on exchanging data between Department of DefenseUnited States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD) and the United States Intelligence CommunityUnited States Intelligence CommunityThe United States Intelligence Community is a cooperative federation of 16 separate United States government agencies that work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities considered necessary for the conduct of foreign relations and the protection of the national security of the...
. On 17 April 2008, a memo titled "Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Initial Release of Universal Core (UCore)" was distributed, cosigned by their respective CIOs. - Cursor on Target was a simple exchange standard that was used to share information about targets. Its loosely coupled design led to multiple implementations and was used to demonstrate interoperability of several systems with already fielded military software. Cursor on Target was originally developed by MITRE in 2002 in support of the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Center (ESC). Mitre first demonstrated Cursor on Target during a combined joint task force exercise in 2003, during which a Predator unmanned aircraft was able to operate coordinate with manned aircraft.
UCore Version 2.0 was approved by ESC on 30 March 2009. This version added additional requirements from DoD, the Intelligence Community, Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, and the Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
. It incorporated concepts from Cursor on Target, and included cooperative agreements from participating agencies and communities of interest.
The first annual conference on UCore was held on the MITRE Virginia campus in September 2009.
The Defense Information Systems Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
The Defense Information Systems Agency is a United States Department of Defense agency that provides information technology and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military Services, and the Combatant Commands.As part of the Base Realignment and...
is currently the Technical Agent for UCore, working on behalf of the DoD Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO).
Governance
UCore is managed by the United States Department of Defense, with input from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security.UCore Technical Governance Policy is not yet in place, but will address prioritization of UCore internal resources and process workflow within the organization. The UCore Executive Steering Council consists of representatives from partner agencies. The Steering Council has oversight authority and will foster adoption of UCore and collateral products and initiatives that are in keeping with the UCore Strategic Plan.
Interoperability Assurance
Conformance to UCore implementations can follow one of two paths or "profiles," based upon early community testing. The two paths lead to different levels of interoperability. The first involves adoption of the full framework, which is most useful for information exchange between new and legacy systems. A second profile, "Vocabulary Reuse," acknowledges that full UCore framework adoption is not always possible, but that UCore types could be used for data modeling and other purposes.For validation, UCore relies upon a validation tool derived from ConTesA, developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. A UCore Conformance Test and Evaluation is also available from the Defense Information Systems Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
The Defense Information Systems Agency is a United States Department of Defense agency that provides information technology and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military Services, and the Combatant Commands.As part of the Base Realignment and...
Joint Interoperability Test Command .
Standards Used
In addition to XML, UCore incorporates the following specifications and standards:- Department of Defense Discovery Metadata Specification (DDMS). Existing DDMS global components are used to model some concepts in UCore.
- Intelligence Community Information Security Markings (IC ISM). These are used to identify the security level for data elements in documents and web services.
- Geographical Markup Language (GML)Geography Markup LanguageThe Geography Markup Language is the XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium to express geographical features. GML serves as a modeling language for geographic systems as well as an open interchange format for geographic transactions on the Internet...
is an Open Geospatial ConsortiumOpen Geospatial ConsortiumThe Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...
XML grammar used to represent geospatial information. GML was adopted as ISO standard 19136:2007. - Universal Lexical Exchange (ULEX) ULEX is a message framework originated by the Department of Justice which defines the message structure of a UCore message, including such concepts as a Digest, StructuredPayload, and RenderingInstructions.
- W3C Web Ontology Language (OWL) Web ontology languageWeb Ontology LanguageThe Web Ontology Language is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies.The languages are characterised by formal semantics and RDF/XML-based serializations for the Semantic Web...
is a widely used ontology standard endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is used to model the What taxonomy. - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Recommendation 20. Recommendation 20 is a standard for describing units of measure.
Mandates and Recommendations
A joint 2008 DoD / ODNI Memorandum cites the availability of UCore's initial release. The Memorandum reinforces the connection between UCore and DoD 8320.2 "Data Sharing in a Net-Centric Department of Defense," and DoD 8320.2-G "Guidance for Implementing Net-Centric Data Sharing."Within the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps has explicitly mandated UCore for certain applications according to U.S. Marine Corps Order 5231.3.
While no OPNAV Instruction
OPNAV Instruction
An OPNAVINST or OPNAV Instruction is a formally documented lawful order that is issued by the Chief of Naval Operations. These instructions are typically used to establish United States Navy policy, procedures, and requirements. The instructions are issued in the form of a memorandum on official...
related to UCore appears to have been issued, the Navy has accepted a role as DoD lead and served as overall co-lead for the federal effort. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command is providing engineering leadership for Navy UCore initiatives.
The March 2009 acceptance of UCore by the Air Force ESC suggests a level of commitment from that service.
A letter from U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) to the UCore Executive Steering Committee cited USSTRATCOM's sponsorship of UCore from UCore 1.0 through a UCore pilot completed in 2006.
The Universal Core Working Group chartered in April 2007 included DoD lead representative Daniel Green. Green discussed the goals and challenges of the Group in a 2008 Masters thesis for the Naval Postgraduate School. While Green remained with the project through the release of UCore 2.0 in April 2009, the thesis offers additional insight into UCore tradeoffs, challenges to technical adoption, and strategies adopted to cultivate involvement of various intelligence agencies.
See also
National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)Universal Core Semantic Layer (UCore-SL)
External references
- Universal Core Community Website
- Jeremy Warren. "NIEM, LEXS and ULEX", U.S. Department of Justice, EA Conference, 9 September 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- National Strategy for Information Sharing U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
- U.S. Intelligence Community Information Sharing Strategy, UCore.gov, 22 February 2008. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- Daconta, Michael. "UCore: The Twitter of Information Sharing", Government Computer News, 10 June 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- "Guidance for Implementing Net-Centric Data Sharing", Department of Defense Guide, Information Management Directorate Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, DoD CIO, 12 April 2006. Retrieved 28 September 2009.