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We recently had the opportunity to participate in an executive Q&A with Fred Giordano, the CEO and President of Epok, Inc. Below is a transcript of that Q&A:

TechnologyInnovator: How have information sharing capabilities improved over the years? What evidence can you point to within government agencies such as the DHS and the DoD to support this argument?

Fred Giordano: There has been a great deal of progress in the government's information sharing capabilities over the past four years. An example of this is the Joint Electronic Health Records Interoperability suite, JEHRI. It started as a simple collaborative effort between the DoD and VA in 1998 and has developed into a solid partnership driving the exchange of health data between MHS and VA.

Other programs like The Highway Information Sharing and Analysis Center which is operated by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security among others are excellent examples of successful programs between industry and government.

However, the majority of these efforts are narrow in scope and do not achieve the goal of providing a comprehensive information resource where an analyst or law-enforcement officer can access a complete set of information needed in order to "connect the dots" and avert the next terrorist act, respond to the next natural disaster, or simply provide better and more efficient services to our citizens.

To accomplish this we need a fully distributed system that can be easily maintained by each participating organization and where the sharing relationship is governed by a clearly defined policy. This type of approach will allow each participant to share the cost and administrative burden of managing users and resources.

TechnologyInnovator: What information sharing technologies are needed for the federal government to act on recent recommendations from The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on the implementation of its government-wide Information Sharing Environment (ISE), and the July 2006 report by the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age?

Fred Giordano: Recently, several respected organizations have recommended the development of a government-wide information-sharing program. To achieve this, we must implement technologies that address challenges in both the way we authorize users and the ways we collaborate.

First, we need to change the way users access information: Rather than creating individual or role-based logins and passwords that are application-specific and go out of date as people change jobs or roles, we need a flexible, easily-updated system that will enable management at each agency to quickly authorize individuals, groups or roles within their organization to access resources that have been made available by their partners.

This system must also allow any agency sharing sensitive information to attach various levels of policy and instruction to information resources so that anyone who is given access to the information can understand the rules that govern the usage of these resources. The key is to deliver the right information at the right time to the right people and by the right people.

In addition, we need to address the ways we collaborate. In order to best navigate the federal government's complex information-sharing system, we must use technologies that help users to find the resources they need regardless of where it resides while tracking what information is shared, as well as how, when, why, by whom and on whose authority it is shared so that all of that information can be available for auditing and reporting purposes.

Finally, new systems must allow for the ability for all participants in an information sharing network to contribute their information assets without losing control of those assets. This ability will engender trust between organizations and break down the cultural and political barriers that still exist.

TechnologyInnovator: Will information sharing capabilities that improve security measures become more important as the government becomes more digital? Why or why not?

Fred Giordano: Without a doubt. As we have learned from 9/11, tsunami relief, Katrina, etc., federal, state and local government agencies are not currently able to share information as effectively as they must.

But disasters - natural and man-made - happen regularly, and with exponentially more information available to more people each day, the challenge of sharing information effectively is growing. Until and unless the government adopts, and teams with information sharing software providers to further develop methods and technologies that enable distributed trusted exchanges and deliver valuable information at the right time, we will not live up to the challenge.

The key to the success of these systems will be their ability to not only add a layer of security but also their ability to leverage existing security solutions to ensure that as the sharing networks expand so will the reach of their protections.

TechnologyInnovator: We know that the federal government has been working toward more effectively sharing structured information (such as databases) across agencies and state and local boundaries, but how can it improve its approach to sharing unstructured information?

Fred Giordano: It is generally accepted that we find information in two ways: search and structure. Structure is by far the easier approach - you know where something should be and there it is. But the vast majority of information, particularly information that is vital to national security, is in the form of classified reports, web page manifestos or another unstructured data, which is much harder to organize. So it's no surprise that the federal government has struggled with ways to enable users to discover, organize and authorize access to this kind of information.

One suggestion is to implement a flexible, scalable technology that enables either role- or name-based access. This allows the system to change when personnel or their responsibilities shift. Additionally, this system must be able to create virtual workspaces that allow participants to reflect their information and people into communities of interest without the need to move the actual information or centrally provision users.

This enables members of a sharing community to build simple but effective structures around unstructured information effectively creating an infinite number of workspaces that reflect individual information needs and various levels of access authorization. These virtual structures can then span large enterprises or multiple enterprises that are either directly or indirectly connected.