1. The Business of IT
By Paul Wohlleben
Focus on Management
Information
Pedigree
A move to a more proactive style of government oversight
will require agencies to address data provenance.
in government as a means to increase
collaboration and participation, and it’s
clear that IT will play a significant role
in this initiative. Although increasing
access to government information is not
a huge change in government practice, it
could be a foundation for more dramatic
changes to come.
Some of the critical public-policy
challenges of the day, such as the mort-
gage industry failure and the BP oil spill,
are rallying calls for more government
regulation. A number of discussions
around societal problems point toward
a new reliance on technology in the
regulatory process.
The most forward-looking notion
from a technology perspective is the use
of IT to move from a reactive regulatory
posture (identifying a regulatory viola-
tion after the fact and seeking redress)
to a proactive one (using technology to
monitor activities in real time to prevent
regulatory violations).
Let’s examine an area that’s vital to
the success of the current transparency
initiative and the use of IT for proac-
tive oversight: the quality and pedigree
of information. In contemporary lingo,
A
that means discussing data or informa-
s IT has evolved through Today, a new era of government has tion provenance.
the years, affecting our positioned IT as a core component of
lives and livelihoods in public policy and governing. This is not A Definition
increasingly significant about making government more efficient Data provenance focuses on the origi-
ways, so too have the challenges and through technology use — although IT nal authorship and subsequent treat-
complexities of using technology. does play an important role in managing ment of computational objects such as
Most feds are all too familiar with the government costs — but rather about programs and data, including changes
difficult process and personnel concerns using technology to change the way we from one medium to another. It empha-
that relate not to whether a technology govern. sizes information integrity and chain
works but to whether it will work effec- The Obama administration has of custody and aggregation rather than
tively where it’s needed. introduced the notion of transparency content. It’s a tool for establishing trust
20 FedTechmagazine.com | August 2010

2. in information, ensuring accountability, “What if technology could be
discovering error sources and correct- positioned to prevent actions that
ing propagated errors. Data provenance
is synonymous with data pedigree. would damage the interests of our
While researching this topic, I found country and its citizens?”
a number of papers addressing the issue — Paul Wohlleben
and discovered that a number of spe-
cialized pedigree management systems quality — a critical need when using IT of government and protect the citizens,
have been developed (and some even proactively for government oversight. property and interests of the United States.
deployed). Most on point is a paper titled To greatly simplify the PMAF con- But technology could allow the means of
“Pedigree Management and Assessment cept, separate repositories store infor- governing to change drastically.
in a Net-Centric Environment.” It details mation about pedigree and are queried For instance, what if technology
a Pedigree Management and Assessment in real time to create a quality assess- could be positioned to prevent actions
Framework (PMAF) that implements a ment of information content. If mul- that would damage the interests of our
general-purpose, extensible system suit- tiple sources are accessed, each will have country and its citizens? For example,
able for use in a net-centric environ- its own pedigree information, and the might the BP spill have been prevented
ment of disparate systems — just the PMAF will assemble this data into an had the operational status of the blow
environment the federal government overall quality assessment. Implemented out apparatus been actively monitored?
envisions for its data resources. as software, the framework can provide A more proactive government is a dou-
The PMAF enables the publisher quick, accurate and pointed analyses of ble-edged sword, offering the promise of
of information to record standard quality based on pedigree using five dis- time-sensitive government action while
provenance metadata about the source, crete metrics (see “What’s the Value?”). at the same time significantly increasing
manner of collection and chain of modi- the intrusion of government into the
fication as information passes through Why It Matters affairs of citizens and other interests.
processing and assessment. What’s most Reflect for a moment on the volume The military practices a form of pro-
important is that the framework enables and scope of information and data active government today when it uses
users to quickly estimate information available online. Some of it is formal, unmanned aircraft to select and pros-
with traditional citations of author- ecute targets in real time. The pedigree
ship; users tend to assign such publica- of intelligence sources used to select
WhAT’s tions the same credibility that’s given targets is critical to success.
The VAlue? to printed material published by repu- There are many significant govern-
The Pedigree Management and table sources. But much of what’s found ment issues that could take advantage
Assessment Framework uses these online is published by individuals or of proactive techniques and processes.
metrics to gauge the provenance or groups whose authority is unknown; These methods might be deployed to
credibility of information: users must draw their own conclusions protect the environment, regulate finan-
• Impact: evaluation of actions about the veracity of the information cial markets and transactions, or man-
taken as a result of the information and react accordingly. age nuclear power sources — to name
• Timeliness: currency of the Although data pedigree is important just a few.
information for a reactive government, reacting itself But any move toward using tech-
OppOsite page: steve COle/getty images; abOve: elizabeth hinshaw
• Conflict: degree to which
allows a more relaxed approach to deter- nology to more proactively govern
the source is in conflict with
mining data quality. In fact, the judicial also must consider ways to minimize
other data
• User Feedback: user evaluations system carries out much reactive over- intrusion into private interests. Data
of information quality sight, by which the government seeks to provenance is a critical element; the
• Corroboration Analysis: degree enjoin future actions from taking place government needs to be fully aware
to which information can be or seeks redress for damages caused by of the quality of information it uses,
corroborated by other sources previous actions. Such judicial proceed- and those affected must have confi-
ings deal with “facts” presented by both dence that proactive government
SOURce: “pedigree management
and assessment in a net-Centric
sides, and judgments typically favor the decisions are based on high-quality
environment,” by marisa m. gioioso, party that provides the most credible information.
s. Daryl mcCullough, Jennifer p. Cormier, information.
Carla marceau, and Robert a. Joyce
(65780h, spie Digital library) Fast forward to a proactive govern- Paul Wohlleben, a government consultant,
ment approach. The basic tenets are the is a former federal CIO. E-mail him at
same: Carry out constitutional powers paul.wohlleben@gmail.com.
August 2010 | FedTechmagazine.com 21