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NIEM Model Version 6.0

Project Specification Draft 01

26 October 2023

 

This stage:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/psd01/niem-model-v6.0-psd01.md (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/psd01/niem-model-v6.0-psd01.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/psd01/niem-model-v6.0-psd01.pdf

Previous stage:

N/A

Latest stage:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/niem-model-v6.0.md (Authoritative)
https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/niem-model-v6.0.html
https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/niem-model-v6.0.pdf

Open Project:

OASIS NIEMOpen OP

Project Chair:

Katherine Escobar (katherine.b.escobar.civ@mail.mil), Joint Staff J6

NBAC Technical Steering Committee Chairs:

Kamran Atri (katri@a4safe.com), A4SAFE
Thomas Krul (thomas.krul@ecn.forces.gc.ca), Public Safety Canada

Editor:

Christina Medlin (christina.medlin@gtri.gatech.edu), Georgia Tech Research Institute

Additional artifacts:

This prose specification is one component of a Work Product that also includes:

This specification replaces or supersedes:

This specification is related to:

Abstract:

NIEM is a data model that enables efficient information exchange across diverse public and private organizations. NIEM can improve interoperability among message exchange partners by providing consistent rules, reusable data components, and repeatable processes.

Status:

This document was last revised or approved by the Project Governing Board of the OASIS NIEMOpen OP on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the "Latest stage" location noted above for possible later revisions of this document. Any other numbered Versions and other technical work produced by the Open Project (OP) are listed at http://www.niemopen.org/.

Comments on this work can be provided by opening issues in the model repository or by sending email to the project's public comment list: niemopen-comment@lists.oasis-open-projects.org. List information is available at https://lists.oasis-open-projects.org/g/niemopen-comment.

Note that any machine-readable content (Computer Language Definitions) declared Normative for this Work Product is provided in separate plain text files. In the event of a discrepancy between any such plain text file and display content in the Work Product's prose narrative document(s), the content in the separate plain text file prevails.

Key words:

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] and [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

Citation format:

When referencing this specification the following citation format should be used:

[NIEM-Model-v6.0]

NIEM Model Version 6.0. Edited by Christina Medlin. 26 October 2023. OASIS Project Specification Draft 01. https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/psd01/niem-model-v6.0-psd01.html. Latest stage: https://docs.oasis-open.org/niemopen/niem-model/v6.0/niem-model-v6.0.html.


Notices

Copyright © OASIS Open 2023. All Rights Reserved.

This specification is published under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Code associated with this specification is provided under Apache License 2.0.

Distributed under the terms of the OASIS IPR Policy.

For complete copyright information please see Appendix D. Notices.


Table of Contents


1 Introduction

The NIEM model is a data model made up of a collection of properties and types defined within a set of namespaces, organized by governance authority. NIEM components can be leveraged as reusable building blocks in information exchanges, providing consistency and well-defined semantics that support interoperability among various exchange partners.

1.1 Changes from earlier versions

Significant changes to the NIEM model in version 6.0 from previous version 5.2 include:

Changes to version 6.0 are described in more detail in README.md.

1.2 Glossary

1.2.1 Definitions of terms

Term Definition
NDR The NIEM Naming and Design Rules is a technical specification managed by the NTAC which governs the architecture of the model.

1.2.2 Acronyms and abbreviations

Term Literal
NBAC NIEM Business Architectures Committee TSC
NDR NIEM Naming and Design Rules Specification
NIEM NIEMOpen, the NIEM Open Project under OASIS
NMO NIEM Management Office TSC
NTAC NIEM Technical Architecture Committee TSC
PGB NIEM Project Governing Board
TSC Technical Steering Committee

2 The NIEM Model

2.1 Content

Properties and types in NIEM are defined in namespaces, which are organized by governance or authoritative source:

2.1.1 NIEM Core

NIEM Core is the collection of general-purpose content that does not belong to any one authoritative source. As such, this content is managed collaboratively by the NBAC, which includes representatives from the NIEM domain subcommittees.

2.1.2 Domains

NIEM domains are namespaces for communities of interest that have stood up their own formal governance bodies as NBAC subcommittees within NIEM.

2.1.3 Codes

While code sets can be defined in NIEM Core, domains, and other namespaces, code namespaces are almost exclusively comprised of code sets. Some NIEM code namespaces are actively managed by domain subcommittees or authoritative sources which work directly with NIEM. Other NIEM code namespaces are managed by the NBAC or domain subcommittees and reflect publicly available code sources, modified to conform to NIEM NDR rules.

2.1.4 Adapters

Adapters are provided by the NDR as the mechanism to support non-conformant external standards in NIEM schemas and instances without triggering conformance violations. Like code sets, while adapters can be defined in other namespaces, adapter namespaces are for namespaces that exclusively define adapters for external standards.

2.1.5 Auxiliary

Auxiliary namespaces define content representing communities of interest or standards. Unlike domains, they do not require formal governance bodies within NIEM.

2.1.6 External

External namespaces in NIEM are non-conformant external standards. These are provided for when the use of other standards defined outside of NIEM would provide greater interoperability than to create NIEM-conformant components representing those standards. Properties from external standards are wrapped by NIEM adapter types, which prevent NDR conformance rules from triggering errors on their use.

2.1.7 Utility

Utility namespaces in NIEM provide architectures support from the NDR and other NIEM technical specifications. They provide mechanisms to support such things as ids and references, linked data, IC-ISM and NTK security markup, dynamic code list support and code list support for codes defined in CSVs, Genericode, and other non-schema enumeration formats.

2.2 The NIEM architecture

The architecture of the NIEM model is governed by the NDR, which provides:

Initially, NIEM has been limited to XML-based exchanges. NIEM is working to provide similar levels of support for JSON-LD, and mechanisms to support other languages as well.

Major versions of the NIEM Model correspond to major versions of the NDR. The architecture of the NIEM Model v6.0 is defined by [NIEM-NDR-v6.0].


3 Conformance

This specification normatively defines NIEM Model Version 6.0 with a set of reference XML schemas.

The NIEM Naming and Design Rules [NIEM-NDR-v6.0] defines conformance targets, Schematron and text rules, and guidance for the conformant use of NIEM in messages and message specifications.

The NIEM Conformance Specification [NIEM-Conformance-v6.0] describes NIEM conformance.


Appendix A. References

A.1 Normative References

[NIEM-Conformance-v6.0]

NIEM Conformance Specification Version 6.0. Work in progress.

[NIEM-NDR-v6.0]

NIEM Naming and Design Rules Specification Version 6.0. Work in progress.

[RFC2119]

Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119.

[RFC8174]

Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, May 2017, http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174.

A.2 Informative References


Appendix B. Acknowledgments

B.1 Special Thanks

Substantial contributions to this document from the following individuals are gratefully acknowledged:

Special thanks are given to the following individuals for their assistance in reviewing and resolving harmonization and other content issues affecting the model:

NBAC Harmonization Subcommittee Members:

First Name Last Name Domain Subcommittee or COI
Kamran Atri Emergency Management; NBAC co-chair
Aubrey Beach NIEMOpen
Chuck Chipman MilOps
Kelly Cullinane OASIS
Chet Ensign OASIS
Katherine Escobar Joint Staff J6; PGB Chair
Vamsi Kondannagari Biometrics
Thomas Krul NBAC co-chair
Shunda Louis NIEMOpen
Christina Medlin NIEMOpen
April Mitchell Justice
Ashok Singal Biometrics
Beth Smalley NIEMOpen
Duncan Sparrell Cyber
Satish Sripada Biometrics
Jennifer Stathakis Biometrics
Stephen Sullivan NIEMOpen
Cynthia Sun International Human Services
Josh Wilson Biometrics

Special thanks are also given to the following individuals for their guidance and expertise on architectural-related changes to the model:

NTAC Members:

First Name Last Name Domain Subcommittee or COI
Aubrey Beach BAH
Jim Cabral InfoTrack US; NTAC Co-Chair
Tom Carlson GTRI
Mike Douklias Joint Staff J6
Katherine Escobar Joint Staff J6; PGB Chair
Mike Hulme Unisys
Eric Jahn Alexandria Consulting
Dave Kemp NSA
Vamsi Kondannagari DHS
Peter Madruga GTRI
Christina Medlin GTRI
Scott Renner MITRE; NTAC Co-Chair
Duncan Sparrell sFractal Consulting
Jennifer Stathakis FBI
Stephen Sullivan BAH; NBAC Secretary

B.2 Participants

The following individuals have participated in the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged:

NBAC Members:

First Name Last Name Company Domain Subcommittee or COI
Meher Alam USDOT Surface Transportation
Kamran Atri A4SAFE Emergency Management; NBAC Co-Chair
Aubrey Beach BAH/Joint Staff J6 NMO
Ernesto Broderson NTAC
Jim Cabral InfoTech NTAC Co-Chair, PGB
Maria Cardiellos IJIS PGB
Tom Carlson GTRI/Joint Staff J6 NTAC
Chuck Chipman GTRI/Joint Staff J6 NTAC
Kelly Cullinane OASIS OASIS
Mark Dotson GTRI/Joint Staff J6 NMO, PGB alternate
Mike Douklias Joint Staff J6 NTAC
Gary Egner Equivant PGB
Chet Ensign OASIS OASIS
Katherine Escobar Joint Staff J6 PGB Chair
Taraneh Etemadi OBIM NBAC, Biometrics
Lavdjola Farrington Joint Staff J6 MilOps Co-Chair
Bob Greeves NCJA Justice, PGB
Dave Hardy BAH/Joint Staff J6 NBAC
Eric Jahn Alexandria Consulting NTAC
Ashwini Jarral IJIS NBAC, PGB alternate
Luke Johnson USDOT/National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Surface Transportation
David Kemp NSA NTAC
Vamsi Kondannagari Integral Consulting/OBIM Biometrics
Thomas Krul Public Safety Canada NBAC Co-Chair
Payton Lamb Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of Data Governance and Analytics (ODGA)
PGB
Shunda Louis BAH/Joint Staff J6 NMO, Harmonization SC Co-Chair
Christina Medlin GTRI/Joint Staff J6 Harmonization SC Co-chair
April Mitchell FBI Justice Co-Chair; PGB
Scott Renner MITRE/Joint Staff J6 NTAC Co-Chair
Beth Smalley Joint Staff J6 MilOps Co-Chair
Duncan Sparrell sFractal NTAC, PGB
Satish Sripada OBIM Biometrics
Jennifer Stathakis FBI CJIS Biometrics
Stephen Sullivan BAH/Joint Staff J6 NBAC Secretary
Ryan Triplett Defense Forensic and Biometrics Agency Biometrics
Josh Wilson FBI CJIS Biometrics
Paul Wormeli Wormeli Consulting NMO Communication and Outreach SC

Appendix C. Revision History

More detailed change descriptions are included in the README file in this package.

Revision tracking is managed by GitHub.

Commit history:

Updates to working drafts are made to the dev branch. The full commit history can be found at https://github.com/niemopen/niem-model/commits/dev.

6.0 pull requests:

The following are links to the GitHub pull requests merged into the model for 6.0:

Milestone GitHub link
6.0 PSD 01 https://github.com/niemopen/niem-model/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A6.0-psd01

Note that file diffs are available from each pull request.

6.0 issues:

The following are links to issues documenting the changes that have been made:

Milestone GitHub link
6.0 PSD 01 model issues niemopen/niem-model repo, issues with milestone:6.0-psd01
https://github.com/niemopen/niem-model/issues?q=is%3Aissue+milestone%3A6.0-psd01
6.0 PSD 01 NDR-related issues niemopen/niem-naming-design-rules repo, issues with milestone:6.0-psd01 and label:model
https://github.com/niemopen/niem-naming-design-rules/issues?q=is%3Aissue+milestone%3A6.0-psd01+label%3Amodel

Appendix D. Notices

Copyright © OASIS Open 2023. All Rights Reserved.

All capitalized terms in the following text have the meanings assigned to them in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights Policy (the "OASIS IPR Policy"). The full Policy may be found at the OASIS website.

This specification is published under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Code associated with this specification is provided under Apache License 2.0.

All contributions made to this project have been made under the OASIS Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the NIEMOpen IPR Statement page.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to OASIS, except as needed for the purpose of developing any document or deliverable produced by an OASIS Open Project (in which case the rules applicable to copyrights, as set forth in the OASIS IPR Policy, must be followed) or as required to translate it into languages other than English.

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