This case study will highlight the dramatic improvements underway within the US Defense Intelligence Community that will result in a new intelligence paradigm where information is more reliable, more findable, and more timely.

The US Intelligence Community (IC) recognized the need for information standardization, interoperability, and process automation long before the terrible events of last September. Isolated demonstrations and operational use of XML, among other useful technologies, have been underway for the last five years primarily in publishing. However, in the last year strong IC-wide coordination around metadata, XML, and software tools are helping to make the vision of a better IC come true.

There's no question that XML is an important part of improving the IC. Intelligence analysts work with a multitude of analytical systems and data on a daily basis. Intelligence consumers also have varied needs defined by timeliness, analytical depth, and presentation styles. A majority of the analysis work is presented to consumers in the form of documents and a user's ability to find content is heavily reliant on document level metadata.

XML is being looked at for exchanging content between databases, systems, and users; as a web services protocol for enabling interoperability between systems; and as a delivery format for timely dissemination of content to consumers. This presentation will demonstrate some of the Defense Intelligence Community's unique XML software tool customizations and will highlight the need for more openly integrated data fusion and business intelligence technologies that can be integrated into an XML-based digital production and dissemination environment. The presentation will also introduce some of the problematic technology transition issues that have driven many of the requirements.