Semantic interoperability assessment. Ishare framework

Resumen

Interagency information sharing is widely acknowledged for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of several domains with high societal impact such as security, cybersecurity and health. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the development of interoperability among public services is a political priority in many countries around the world, and that, presently, several initiatives are ongoing with this purpose. The proper management of such initiatives demands adequate instruments to support the definition of the existing (as-is) and desired (to-be) situations, as well as the identification, prioritization, monitoring and control of the actions that are necessary to achieve the objectives defined for developing interoperability. Moreover, appropriate instruments are also required to support the justification and comparison of initiatives, for example in situations where they compete for funds. However, the existing practical solutions are scarce and do not fit well these requirements. Therefore, this research proposes a framework (iShare) for assessing the semantic interoperability - one of the facets of interoperability - of governmental agencies that use a common information model for exchanging information with each other. This assessment is made in two parts. The first part assesses how organizations are performing, in terms of semantic interoperability, and the second part assesses the relevance of that performance, considering a series of pre-defined factors. To develop the iShare framework we followed the Design Science Research Method. The framework itself is based on Process Performance Indicators, on the Delphi Method and on the Weighted Sums Model. Its validation was performed during the development of the Portuguese maritime surveillance information exchange system (NIPIMAR), which is based on the information model of the European Maritime Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE). The result of the validation was the assessment of the semantic interoperability of six public organizations participating in the project. In addition, some of the main ideas of the framework were immediately used within the project to assess the semantic interoperability of all organizations that were participating in it and to develop an action plan to improve their interoperability and information exchange. The iShare framework has thus proven to be an innovative, useful, relevant and more objective way of assessing semantic interoperability among various organizations, which tells us how much and how relevant that interoperability is. Hence, the iShare framework contributes to the body of knowledge in the field and opens new possibilities for assessing interoperability and information exchange, and thus to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental agencies.