More Sharing To Come

Perhaps the most far-reaching of upcoming federal data- sharing initiatives is the Information Sharing Environment, spearheaded by John Negroponte, the director of national security. The goal is to attack terrorism by sharing information among the FBI, Department of Justice, and, ultimately, with law enforcement at the state and local levels.

The program office is established, and Congress has voted to fund it with $40 million over the next two years. Overall strategy has been set, and many of the major technology pieces have been identified. Still, the system is "not ready to kick the tires," in the words of Herb Strauss, a Gartner national security analyst.

Another major data-sharing project is under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget's e-government head, Karen Evans. She's pushing a project to align the major lines of business within the government to share, for example, accounting or human resources systems. In this model, several small civilian agencies could share HR software with larger agencies. It's a multiyear process that in reality may take up to a decade to implement.

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