Information Sharing Glossary

The purpose of this glossary is to provide a single repository where users can find definitions for abbreviations, acronyms, and terms associated with information sharing and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). These definitions have been collected from various reports, Web sites, and other publicly available industry and government resources.

Click each letter to jump to that section of the alphabet.

AAG: Assistant Attorney General.
AAMVA: American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
ABA: American Bar Association.
ACA: American Correctional Association. For more than 125 years, the ACA has championed the cause of corrections and correctional effectiveness. Founded in 1870 as the National Prison Association, the ACA is the oldest association developed specifically for practitioners in the correctional profession.
ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act.
ADAM: Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program.
Adam Walsh Act: Signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. The legislation organizes sex offenders into three tiers, and mandates that Tier 3 offenders update their whereabouts every three months. Failure to register and update information is made a felony under the law. It also creates a national sex offender registry and instructs each state and territory to apply identical criteria for posting offender data on the Internet (i.e., offender's name, address, date of birth, place of employment, photograph, etc.).
AFIS: Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
AGILE: Advanced Generation of Interoperability for Law Enforcement program (now CommTech).
AJA

ALI

Automatic Location Identification.
American Law Institute, publishers of various secondary sources of legal authority.

ANI: Automatic Number Identification.
ANSI: American National Standards Institute.
APB: Advisory Policy Board (of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services [CJIS] division). Also CJIS APB.
APCO: The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.
API: Application Program Interface.
APPA: American Probation and Parole Association. The APPA is a membership-driven organization consisting of practicing and retired probation, parole, and community corrections professionals, as well as academicians, researchers, members of the legistlative, executive, and judicial branches of government, community volunteers, and corporations with an interest in criminal justice and community-based corrections.
ARJIS: Automated Regional Justice Information System.
Artifact: Any tangible and potentially reusable document or output pertaining to an existing or potential information exchange.
ASCIA: Association of State Criminal Investigation Agencies.
ASCLD: American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.
ASPMP: Alliance of States with Prescription Monitoring Programs.
Association: A method developed to enable the semantic linking of non-related data elements within the model under specific contexts. This allows the preservation of the object-oriented deisgn principles of the data model while allowing granular specificity of meaning when two or more data elements are used in conjunction.
ASUCRP: Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs.
ATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Attribute: A characteristic of an object whose value may be used to help distinguish one instance of an object from others.
Augmentation: A method developed to enable the reuse of type extensions that occur within particular domains for use elsewhere. This augmentation process seeks to avoid the duplicative defining of extensions that could not have been easily shared for mutual benefit before now.
Authoritative Source: The organization or entity (in NIEM, often a domain or community of interest) that has taken ownership of an update responsibility for a particular IEPD or other exchange artifact including schemas, code lists, etc.
AVL: Automated Vehicle Location system.

BAM: Business Activity Monitoring.
BCL: Business Component Library.
Biosurveillance: Biosurveillance is an American Health Information Community breakthrough area defined as implementation of real-time, nationwide public health event monitoring to support early detection, situational awareness, and rapid response management across public health and care delivery communities and other authorized government agenices.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has decided to investigate the creation of the National Biosurveillance Integration System at the Department of Homeland Security.
The operation was mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10. Its mission is “to provide early detection and situational awareness of biological events of potential national consequence by acquiring, integrating, analyzing, and disseminating existing human, animal, plant, and environmental biosurveillance system data into a common operating picture.”
Bioterrorism: A bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. These agents are typically found in nature, but it is possible that they could be changed to increase their ability to cause disease, make them resistant to current medicines, or to increase their ability to be spread into the environment. Biological agents can be spread through the air, through water, or in food. Terrorists may use biological agents because they can be extremely difficult to detect and do not cause illness for several hours to several days. Some bioterrorism agents, like the smallpox virus, can be spread from person to person and some, like anthrax, cannot.
BJA: Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice.
BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
BOP: Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice.
BPEL: Business Process Execution Language.
BPR: Business Process Re-engineering.
Business Areas: See Lines of Business.
Business Component Library: The concept of facilitating the creation and storage of reusable components for NIEM IEPD creation. Business components typically consist of an aggregation of data components into a construct that serves a specific business need, such as assembling name and address elements to create a Home Address component. These components can then be reused, saving development time and costs and avoiding duplication of effort across NIEM implementations. Also BCL.
Business Context: A common frame of reference across business areas or domains allowing organizations to share information with specific goals or scenarios in mind.
Business Functions: The operations and procedures carried out to fulfill one or more business needs.
Business Model: A view of the business at any given point in time. The view can be from a process, data, event, or resource perspective, and can be the past, present, or future state of the business. Creating a business model is often one of the initial steps when exploring information sharing needs and potentials.
Business Need: Often used as a justification for decisions or actions in a business setting, the business need addresses those outcomes that would most assuredly achieve business success.
Business Requirements: The requirements implicit in a transaction or information exchange in order to satisfy the business need of the parties involved. Business requirements and rules are often documented within an IEPD.
Business Rules: Policies and other restrictions, guidelines, and procedures that constrain the use of information exchanges. These rules are often not able to be documented directly within the XML schema artifacts within the IEPD and thus must be documented separately and agreed upon by parties engaging in the exchange.
Business Scenarios: Real-world scenarios that are used to describe or justify a use case for a certain business model.
BVP: Bulletproof Vest Partnership.
BWA: Broadband Wireless Access.

CAD: Computer-aided Dispatch. Also computer-assisted dispatch.
Cardinality: A constraint that indicates the number of instances of an entity in relation to another entity, e.g., one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many.
CBP: U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
CCH: Computerized Criminal Histories.
CCIPS: Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, U.S. Department of Justice.
CCJ: Conference of Chief Justices.
CDC: Center for Disease Control.
Certification: A process documenting that a verified and validated exchange package conforms to NIEM information exchange standards.
CFR: Code of Federal Regulations.
Change Management: The process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization. In NIEM, often refers to managing change impacts of new releases and modifications to the data model or domain structure.
CHRI: Criminal History Record Information (as in CHRI system).
CIO: Chief Information Officer.
CITA: Crime Identification Technology Act.
CJIS: Criminal Justice Information System.
CJIS Division: FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
CJIT: Criminal Justice Information Technology, Office for Criminal Justice Reform, UK.
CJRI: Criminal Justice Records Information.
Class: Description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, methods, relationships, and semantics.
CLEMIS: County Law Enforcement Management Information System.
CLIP: Crime Laboratory Improvement Program.
Code: A symbolism or abbreviation of a term or concept meant to shorten the communication time and eliminate potential ambiguity of meaning.
Code Table: A set of related codes and their definitions. In NIEM, code tables have their own namespaces and can be internal or external.
CODIS: Combined DNA Information System.
COI: See Community of Interest.
Common: A NIEM concept referring to the common semantic understanding of data components across more than one business domain. Common also refers to the namespace where these components are found within the NIEM data model, and is the less restrictive namespace within the NIEM core.
CommTech: Communications Technology Program, National Institute of Justice.
Common Component: A data component that meets the criteria to be promoted to the Common namespace. Components are used in exchanges between two or more domains, but not universally shared (NIEM).
Common Vocabulary: Consistency of definition of terms across domains or communities of interest. This is the primary goal of the NIEM data dictionary.
Community of Interest: Collectives of people comprised of practitioners and technical representatives (government and private sector) who, by virtue of their organizational affiliation, day-to-day operational responsibilities, or their provision of services and programs collectively,have a stake in NIEM information exchanges and who authoritatively represent their respective domains. Also COI.
Community of Practice: Lines of business within the government and external organizations that are dedicated to the support of common business functions. Communities of Practice are often less formalized in function and decision-making than Communities of Interest, and serve as a forum to share best practices and work products. Also COP.
Component: An object, meant to interact with other objects, that encapsulates certain inherent functionality. These may be organizational components, data components, etc. In NIEM, component is often used to describe data elements that are either Universal, Common, or domain-specific in the NIEM framework.
Component Mapping Table: The tool of choice for mapping components that are used by organizations or domains that are being compared to those that currently exist in NIEM to identify overlap or gaps between the two. Also CMT.
Configuration Management: The control and adaptation of the evolution of complex systems, and the evaluation and approval of changes that impact interrelationships between components of those systems. Configuration management is closely related to change management.
Conformance: The requirement that those who participate in NIEM by contributing data components or creating and sharing IEPD artifacts are following the agreed-upon procedures for doing so, and that all documentation meets minimum criteria and the NIEM Naming and Design Rules (NDR), where applicable.
Conformant Schema: A schema that maintains the XML Schema syntax requirements of NIEM as specified by the NIEM Naming and Design Rules (NDR).
Constraint Schema: A schema with the purpose of restricting or constraining content that appears in instances of the Subset Schema.
ConOps: Concept of Operations.
Controlled Vocabulary: A list of terms that have been enumerated explicitly with unambiguous, non-redundant definitions and are governed by a COI.
COP: Community of Practice.
COPS MORE: Community Oriented Policing Services Making Officer Redeployment Effective.
COPS Office: Community Oriented Policing Services Office, U.S. DOJ.
Core: In the NIEM data model, comprised of the Universal and Common namespaces, containing all components that are determined to be relevant and semantically agreed upon by some or all participating domains. NIEM Core could be said to contain all reusable components that are not domain-specific, and are governed by NIEM processes and policies regarding promotion and maintenance of those components.
Core Component: A data component that meets criteria to be promoted to the Common or Universal namespaces.
Core.gov: Component Organization and Registration Environment. Online collaboration tool used by NIEM governance groups to facilitate internal communications.
CORI: Criminal Offender Record Information Act.
COSCA: Conference of State Court Administrators.
COTS: Commercial off-the-shelf.
CSAP: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
CSAT: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.
CSG: Council of State Governments.
CSOM: Center for Sex Offender Management.
CTA: Corrections Technology Association.
CTG: Center for Technology in Government.
CTISS: Common Terrorism Information Sharing Standards.

DARE: Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
Data: Facts represented in a readable language (such as numbers, characters, images, or other methods of recording) on a durable medium. Data on its own carries no meaning, but when given context, data becomes information.
Data Artifact: A collective term for electronic artifacts related to presentation, description, representation, or storage of data. Examples are documents and XML schemas.
Data Component: A basic business data item that represents a real-world object and/or concept. Information that is exchanged between agencies can be broken down into individual data components - for example, information about people, places, material things, and events. (see also Component).
Data Dictionary: A set of data elements and their definitions, including any metadata and representations associated with them.
Data Element: A basic unit of data having definition, identification, representation, and values; the lowest level of physical representation of data. (see also Element)
Data Exchange: A transaction between parties, either periodic or unique, where data is moved from a sender to a receiver.
Data Harmonization: The process of comparing two or more data component definitions and identifying commonalities among them that warrant their being combined, or harmonized, into a single data component.
Data Model: A graphical and/or lexical representation of data, specifying their properties, structure, and interrelationships.
Data Object: An aggregation of information from data component(s) that represents discrete information about a subject area. Data objects with a clear business context become business components.
Data Promotion: The identification of data components in the NIEM that are semantically agreed upon between more than one domain or with all domains, and are reclassified in a higher-level namespace to reflect that fact (typically to Common or Universal).
Data Registry: A registry that is centered on the discovery of data elements and components. (see also Registry)
Data Repository: A repository that is centered on the storage and cataloging of data elements and components. (see also Repository)
Data Standard: Agreed-upon structure for representing data in machine-readable format, often used to facilitate information exchange through common understanding and recognition of the data elements used.
Data Steward: Someone who has the role of surrogate owner of a data element or entity for an enterprise. A data steward provides the definition and parameters of a data element or entity for the enterprise.
Data Type: A constraint on the type of data that an element or attribute may hold (e.g., date, string, float, or integer).
DEA: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
DEA Number: A unique identifying number assigned to controlled substance prescribers and dispensers by the DEA. See also “National Provider ID.”
DHS: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Discovery: The act of locating a machine-readable description of a Web service-related resource that may have been previously unknown and that meets certain functional criteria. Discovery involves matching a set of functional and other criteria with a set of resource descriptions. For NIEM, discovery normally refers to the search of IEPDs within a repository to identify data components that can be reused in IEPD development.
DNS: Domain Name Service.
Document: A file containing unstructured and/or semi-structured data resources. A discrete and unique electronic aggregation of data produced with the intent of conveying information.
Document Schema: A schema with the purpose of defining the actual content model of the information exchange within an IEPD.
DoD: U.S. Department of Defense.
DOJ: U.S. Department of Justice.
Domain: A set of people, organizations, and processes having comparable business functions designed to achieve similar goals irrespective of organizational boundaries. Domains often have the business requirement and the capability to harmonize data for exchange. In NIEM, domains are Lines of Business.; A business enterprise broadly reflecting the COIs, agencies, units of government, operational functions, services, and information systems which are organized or affiliated to meet common objectives.
Domain Model: A conceptual view of a system or an information exchange that identifies the entities involved and their relationships. (see also Exchange Model)
Domain-specific Component: A component that meets technical standards, complies with NIEM requirements, and is of interest to a specific domain, which is managed and harmonized by the appropriate COI.
DVS: Digital Video Surveillance.

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange.
EEOO: Equal Employment Opportunity Office.
EFTS: Electronic Fingerprint Transmission Standard.
EIC: Emergency Interoperability Consortium.
Element: The fundamental building block of an XML document. XML elements can contain other elements and/or text data. XML elements are composed of a start tag, content, and an end tag.
Enterprise: A business association consisting of a recognized set of interacting business functions, able to operate as an independent, standalone entity. Enterprise-wide information sharing is meant to refer to the breadth and diversity of informational needs of such an association.
EOUSA: Executive Office for United States Attorneys.
EOWS: Executive Office for Weed and Seed.
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
ESC: Executive Steering Council.
EUROJUST: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit.
EUROPOL: European Law Enforcement Organisation.
Exchange Mapping: The process of comparing desired exchange content to the exchange specifications in order to ensure semantic comparability prior to information exchange.
Exchange Model: A reference to the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) as a provider of exchange modeling standards and best practices.
Exchange Package: A description of specific data exchanged between a sender and a receiver. The exchange package is usually coupled with additional documentation, sample XML instances, business rules, etc., to compose an IEPD. (see also IEPD)
Exchange Schema: The XML Schema that describes the data to be exchanged.
Exchange Specification: Any details that describe the exchange, including schemas, business rules, etc. This term often describes the contents of an Information Exchange Package.
eXtensible Markup Language: (also XML) A structured language for describing information being sent electronically by one entity to another. XML Schema defines the rules and constraints for the characteristics of the data, such as structure, relationships, allowable values, and data types. NIEM does not use document type definition (DTD); it uses only XML Schemas.
Extension Schema: An XML Schema that defines data elements that are to be used in an exchange but do not exist in the NIEM model, which therefore must be extended.
External Standard: A standard with a governing body outside the scope of NIEM, whose products must be used in conjunction with NIEM in exchanges.

FACA: Federal Advisory Committee Act.
FACT: Forum on the Advancement of Court Technology. FACT is a consortium of private sector companies and senior court representatives dedicated to strengthening the courts and their providers of technology.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI CJIS: FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division. (see also CJIS Division)
FCC: Federal Communications Commission. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.
FEA: Federal Enterprise Architecture.
FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FIFS: Felon Identification for Firearms Sales.
FinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standards.
FJSRC: Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center.
FLEAT: Federal Law Enforcement Analytic Training.
FLETC: Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act.
Framework: A specific implementation of a component architecture.
Functional Standard: A standard describing the functionality and business processes that are required when performing business tasks or functions. Functional standards do not specify the actual data involved in the process.

GAC: Global Advisory Committee.
GAO: Government Accountability Office.
Gap Analysis: An analysis performed to identify overlaps and gaps between one or more information sets, systems, or exchange methods. This is often one of the first steps taken by two organizations looking to engage in information exchange.
GHz: Gigahertz.
GIS: Geographic Information System.
GISWG: Global Infrastructure/Standards Working Group.
GJXDD: Global Justice XML Data Dictionary.
GJXDM: Global Justice XML Data Model.
Global: Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative.
Global JRA: Global Justice Reference Architecture. The Global JRA Specification is intended to be a technical implementation architecture that addresses the full range of information sharing use cases, and provides a comprehensive blueprint for implementing interoperable data sharing services and capabilities. Global believes that this dynamic interoperability strategy will help to prevent incompatibilities, guide vendors and organizations on how to fit components together, and facilitate communication and interoperability between disparate communities.
Global Justice XML Data Model: (also GJXDM) A data model and dictionary sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and governed by the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global). The GJXDM and its related processes are the basis on which NIEM was built, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Governance: The system and manner of providing authority and control.
GPS: Global Positioning System.
GREAT: Gang Resistance Education and Training.
GSA: General Services Administration.
GTRI: Georgia Tech Research Institute. Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Their goal is to create solutions through innovation, on time and on budget. They assist clients in federal, state, local and international government agencies, industrial firms, academic institutions and private organizations.
GTTAC: GJXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee.
GUI: Graphical User Interface.
GXSTF: Global XML Structure Task Force.

HHS: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HIDTA: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.
HSGP: Homeland Security Grant Program.
HSIN: Homeland Security Information Network.
HSPD: Homeland Security Presidential Directive.
HTCIA: High Technology Crime Investigation Association.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language.

IACA: International Association of Crime Analysts.
IACP: International Association of Chiefs of Police. The IACP is the world's oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization of police executives, with over 20,000 members in over 89 different countries. The IACP's leadership consists of the operating chief executives of international, federal, state, and local agencies of all sizes.
IAFC: International Association of Fire Chiefs. The mission of the IAFC is to provide leadership to career and volunteer chiefs, chief fire officers and managers of emergency service organizations throughout the international community through vision, information, education, services and representation to enhance their professionalism and capabilities.
IAFIS: The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. (see also NGI)
IALEP: International Association of Law Enforcement Planners. The IALEP consists of people working in the area of planning and research for criminal justice agencies.
IBR: Incident-based Reporting.
ICAC: Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, U.S. Department of Justice.
ICE: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICI: Institute of Criminal Investigation.
ICJIS: Integrated Criminal Justice Information System.
ICM: Institute for Court Management.
ICMA: International City/County Management Association. ICMA is the professional and educational organization for chief-appointed managers, administrators, and assistants in cities, towns, counties, and regional entities throughout the world.
IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission.
IEPD: Information Exchange Package Documentation.
IEPD Template: Information Exchange Package Documentation Template.
III: (also Triple I) Interstate Identification Index.
III CC: III Compact Council.
IIR: Institute for Intergovernmental Research.
IJIS: Integrated Justice Information Systems.
IJIS Institute: The Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute.
ILP: Intelligence-led Policing.
Information: Contextual meaning associated with, or derived from, data.
Information Exchange: The transfer of information from one organization to another, specifically in concert with NIEM IEPD exchange processes and recommended procedures.
Information Exchange Package: (also IEP) A description of specific information exchanged between a sender and a receiver. The information exchange package is usually coupled with additional documentation, sample XML instances, business rules, etc., to compose an IEPD. IEP may be referred to simply as Exchange Package. A set of data elements used to support the sharing of data within a particular business context. An actual set of data that is requested or produced from one unit of work to another.
Information Exchange Package Documentation: (also IEPD) The aggregation of IEP information to form a complete set of documentation that completely describes an information exchange. This may include additional documentation, business rules, sample instance data, etc. A collection of artifacts that define and describe the structure and content of an IEP.
Information Exchange Package Documentation Template: (also IEPD Template) The template created by NIEM to define the required and optional components that may be included in a NIEM-conformant IEPD.
Information Sharing: The broad concept of sharing information between agencies or organizations who do not inherently have access to such information. The need for robust, nationwide information sharing is the guiding principle of the NIEM program.
Instance: A specific occurrence of an entity. (see also XML Instance)
Interoperability: The ultimate goal of any information sharing exercise, refers to the seamless interconnection between disparate systems for the purposes of sharing information relevant to either party. Interoperability is both a prerequisite and a result of efficient information sharing.
Interpol: The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL.
IP: Internet Protocol.
IPSTSC: IJIS Public Safety Technology Standards Committee.
IRTPA: Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.
ISE: Information Sharing Environment.
ISO: International Organization for Standardization.
ISS: Identification Services Subcommittee of the CJIS APB.
IT: Information Technology.
ITAA: Information Technology Association of America. ITAA offers a wide assortment of public policy, business development and peer-to-peer networking programs.
ITS: Institute for Telecommunication Sciences.

JABA: Joint Automated Booking Station.
JAG: Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.
JAIBG: Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant.
JIC: Justice Information Center.
JIEM: Justice Information Exchange Model Project.
JIPA: Justice Information Policy Assistance.
JIS: Justice Information Sharing.
JISP: Justice Information Sharing Professionals.
JJC: Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.
JMD: Justice Management Division.
JMS: Jail Management System.
JRSA: Justice Research and Statistics Association.
JSC: Justice Standards Clearinghouse.
JTC: Joint Technology Committee. JTC is a joint committee of ISO and IEC. The scope of JTC is information technology standardization.
JTF: Joint Task Force on Rap Sheet Standardization.
JTRC: Justice Technology Resource Center.
JUSTNET: Justice Technology Information Network.
JXDD: Global Justice XML Data Dictionary.
JXDM: Global Justice XML Data Model.

LAN: Local Area Network.
LEAA: Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice (disbanded in early 1980s).
LEIM: Law Enforcement Information Management.
LEIN: Law Enforcement Information Network.
LEIS: Law Enforcement Information Sharing.
LEISP: Law Enforcement Information Sharing Program, U.S. Department of Justice.
LEITSC: Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council. LEITSC is a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs funded program whose mission is to foster the growth of strategic planning and implementation of integrated justice systems. LEITSC is comprised of four of the nation's leading law enforcement organizations, specifically: The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); The National Sheriffs' Association (NSA); Police Executive Research Forum (PERF); and The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Together, participants from these organizations represent the law enforcement community as a whole on information technology standards related issues.
LEIU: Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit.
LEO: Law Enforcement Online.
LEXS: Logical Entity eXchange Specification.
Lifecycle, IEPD: The IEPD development lifecycle contains a set of steps that should be followed circularly until the final conditions are met. This lifecycle in detail can be found in the NIEM Introduction documentation.
Line of Business: (also LoB) A business purpose or function that crosses organizational boundaries. This concept was made popular in particular at the Federal Government level as part of the Federal Enterprise Architecture effort to reorganize government resource allocation in a more efficient manner.
LInX: Law Enforcement Information Exchange.
LLEBG: Local Law Enforcement Block Grant.
LOA: Letter of Agreement.

Machine-Readable Format: Information or data that is in a format that can be easily processed by a computer without human intervention, while ensuring no semantic meaning is lost.
MDC/MDT: Mobile Data Computer / Mobile Data Terminal.
Mesh Network: A local area network (LAN) that employs one of two connection arrangements, full mesh topology or partial mesh topology. In the full mesh topology, each node (workstation or other device) is connected directly to each of the others. In the partial mesh topology, some nodes are connected to all the others, but some of the nodes are connected only to those other nodes with which they exchange the most data.
Message: The basic unit of communication between a requester and a provider of information. A message typically encompasses an IEPD and includes additional transport-specific metadata relating to routing, security, etc.
Metadata

Structured data about data. Metadata includes data associated with either an information system or an information object for purposes of description, administration, legal requirements, technical functionality, use and usage, and preservation.
Information that describes data itself to add meaning or context, such as the creator, expiration dates, sensitivity levels, etc.

MHz: Megahertz.
MNI: Master Name Index.
MOU: Memorandum of Understanding.
MS: Message Switch.

NACJD: National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.
NACM: National Association for Court Management.
NACo: National Association of Counties. NACo maintains a comprehensive database of information on counties, including a listing of county officials, and links to Capitolimpact.com, which provides nationwide county statistics such as economic and demographic data. In addition, NACo offers a database of county policies, codes, ordinances, and model programs that can be used as examples for other counties.
NADCP: National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
NAJIS: National Association for Justice Information Systems.
NARA: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Namespace: The solution to naming conflicts in XML. Using XML namespaces can help allieviate issues that arise where XML elements and attributes use identical names. A namespace typically aligns with a domain that has responsibility over maintaining the components within that namespace.
Naming and Design Rules: (also NDR) The NDR specifies rules and requirements of schemas developed under the NIEM program and guarantees conformance to those that follow them. The NDR is intended to ensure interoperability even when different developers are building IEPDs independently.; The NDR specifies an information sharing framework. These rules and principles are intended to establish and, more importantly, enforce a degree of standardization at the national level.
NAMSDL: National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.
NASCIO: National Association of State Chief Information Officers. NASCIO has produced a report about integrated justice information systems architecture and data sharing that sets forth a national agenda for achieving integrated justice information systems. The report very usefully defines the requirements and suggests the kind of architecture that is going to be required. The report can be downloaded from www.nascio.org. Recently, NASCIO also produced several deliverables as part of their Enterprise Architecture Program.
NASCSA: National Association of Controlled Substance Authorities.
NASJE: National Association of State Judicial Educators.
National Alliance on Model State Drug Laws: The National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws (also the Alliance) is a resource for governors, state legislators, attorneys general, drug and alcohol professionals, community leaders, the recovering community, and others striving for comprehensive and effective state drug and alcohol laws, policies, and programs.
National Information Exchange Model: See NIEM.
NAWJ: National Association of Women Judges.
NBAC: NIEM Business Architecture Committee.
NC&OC: NIEM Communications & Outreach Committee.
NCACC: National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks.
NCHIP: National Criminal History Improvement Program, U.S. Department of Justice.
NCIC: National Crime Information Center.
NCISP: National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan.
NCJA: National Criminal Justice Association. NCJA represents state, tribal and local governments on crime prevention and crime control issues. Its members represent all facets of the criminal and juvenile justice community, from law enforcement, corrections, prosecution, defense, courts, victim-witness services and educational institutions to federal, state and local elected officials.
NCJJ: National Center for Juvenile Justice.
NCJRS: National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
NCMEC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
NCPA: National Child Protection Act of 1993.
NCPC: National Crime Prevention Council. NCPC's mission is to enable people to create safer and more caring communities by addressing the causes of crime and violence and reducing the opportunities for crime to occur.
NCPJ: National College of Probate Judges.
NCRLE: National Center for Rural Law Enforcement.
NSC: National Communications System. Part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber Security and Communications. Provides priority telecommunications services that ensure ongoing communications under all circumstances, including national emergencies, terrorist attacks, or other crisis events. Formed in 1963 under President John F. Kennedy in response to communications deficiencies realized during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
NCSC: National Center for State Courts. The mission of NCSC is to improve the administration of justice through leadership and service to state courts, and courts around the world. Through original research, consulting services, publications, and national educational programs, NCSC offers solutions that enhance court operations with the latest technology; collects and interprets the latest data on court operations nationwide; and provides information on proven "best practices" for improving court operations.
NCSL: National Conference of State Legislatures. NCSL helps state policymakers advance their ideas, provides a forum for the exchange of ideas from other states and takes the best ideas from America's state legislatures to Capitol Hill.
NDAA: National District Attorneys Association. NDAA's mission is "to be the voice of America's prosecutors and to support their efforts to protect the rights and safety of the people."
N-DEx: FBI's Law Enforcement National Data Exchange initiative.
NDIC: National Drug Intelligence Center.
NDR: Naming and Design Rules.
NECCC: National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council. NECCC was formed in 1998 in an effort to build on the success of the Conference on Electronic Commerce held in 1997. The group’s initial goal was to facilitate cooperation between states and the private sector as the industry moved toward electronic commerce.
NEMA: National Emergency Management Association. NEMA is the professional association of and for state emergency management directors.
NENA: National Emergency Number Association.
NFF: National Fingerprint File.
NGA: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
NGA: National Governors' Association. NGA provides governors and their senior staff members with services that range from representing states on Capitol Hill and before the Administration on key federal issues to developing policy reports on innovative state programs and hosting networking seminars for state government executive branch officials.
NGI: Next Generation IAFIS (FBI).
NIBRS: National Incident-Based Reporting System.
NIC: National Institute of Corrections.
NICS: National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
NIDA: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
NIEM: National Information Exchange Model.
NIEM Configuration and Control Tool: (also NCCT) The primary tool used for inserting and tracking technical and business issues with the NIEM data model and to help the Program Management Office in prioritizing input from the stakeholder community.
NIEM Domain: A business domain that is assigned a NIEM namespace, has responsibility to act as an authoritative source and steward for domain-specific data, and is able to propose promotions of data to Universal or Common namespaces.
NIEM ESC: NIEM Executive Steering Committee.
NIEM PMO: NIEM Program Management Office.
NIEM.gov: The public Web site meant to serve as the primary entry point for all information and resources related to the NIEM program.
NIJ: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.
NIJC: National Indian Justice Center.
NIMH: National Institute of Mental Health.
NIMS: National Incident Management System.
NIST: National Institute for Standards and Technology.
NLC: National League of Cities. NLC is the oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments throughout the United States. Its mission is to strengthen and promote cities as centers of opportunity, leadership, and governance.
NLECTC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center.
NLETS: National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, now renamed "NLETS, The International Justice & Public Safety Information Sharing Network."
Nlets is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and is owned and governed by the states. Nlets provides two basic capabilities to its users. First, it is an international, computer-based message switching system that links together state, local and federal law enforcement and justice agencies for the purpose of information exchange. Second, it provides information services support for a growing number of justice related applications.
NOBLE: National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. The mission of NOBLE is to ensure equity in the administration of justice in the provision of public service to all communities, and to serve as the conscience of law enforcement by being committed to justice by action.
Normalization: A process that eliminates redundancy, organizes data efficiently, and reduces the potential for anomalies during data operations and improves data consistency.
NPEP: National Priority Exchange Panel.
NPSTC: National Public Safety Telecommunications Council.
NRP: National Response Plan.
NSA: National Sheriffs' Association. NSA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the level of professionalism among sheriffs, their deputies, and others in the field of criminal justice and public safety so that they may perform their jobs in the best possible manner, in service to the people of their communities.
NSOPR: National Sex Offender Public Registry. This BJA program provides one-stop access to all states' sex offender registry information.
NSOR: National Sex Offender Registry.
NSOR-AP: National Sex Offender Registry Assistance Program.
NTAC: NIEM Technical Architecture Committee.
NTFCI: National Task Force on Court Integration. Report of the NTFCI includes case studies, information flow, strategies. Appendix F presents the results of an in-depth survey of state by state approaches to court and IJIS.
NTIA: National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
NW3C: National White Collar Crime Center.

OASIS: Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.
OCA: Office of Court Administration.
ODNI: Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
ODP: Office for Domestic Preparedness, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
OEC: Office of Emergency Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
OIC: Office of Interoperability and Compatibility, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
OJJDP: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.
OJP: Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The OJP oversees BJA, BJS, OJJDP, etc.
OJP IT: OJP Information Technology Initiatives Web site.
OLA: Operational Level Agreement.
OLAP: On-Line Analytical Processing.
OMB: Office of Management and Budget.
ONDCP: Office of National Drug Control Policy.
OOAG: Office of the Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
OOP: Object-Oriented Programming.
OPM: Office of Personnel Management.
ORI: Originating Agency Identifier (used by FBI to route NCIC and III messages).
OVC: Office for Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice.
OVW: Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice.

PAC: Program Advisory Committee (SEARCH), including Law and Policy PAC, Research and Statistics PAC, and Systems and Technology PAC.
PAVNET: Partnerships Against Violence Network.
PCII: Protected Critical Infrastructure Information Program, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
PERF: Police Executive Research Forum. PERF is a national membership organization of progressive police executives from the largest city, county, and state law enforcement agencies. PERF is dedicated to improving policing and advancing professionalism through research and involvement in public policy debate. Incorporated in 1977, PERF's primary sources of operating revenues are government grants and contracts, and partnerships with private foundations and other organizations.
Pilot Project: A project established to evaluate new technology, or to develop and implement exchange standards for information that is common among NIEM participating agencies and exchanged as part of their current or intended business practices.
PKI: Public Key Infrastructure.
PM-ISE: Program Manager Information Sharing Environment.
PMIX: PMP information exchange, typically referring to the interstate exchange of data regarding monitored, dispensed prescriptions.
PMO: Program Management Office.
PMP: (1) Prescription Monitoring Program;(2) Project Management Professional (www.pmi.org);(3) Project Management Plan
POST: Peace Officer Standards and Training (e.g., California Commission on POST).
Practitioner: Practitioners act as the “users” of information exchange standards, which are implemented in real systems. They can act as data providers and consumers in an information exchange, and often act as participants with subject-matter expertise to help define the business needs of information exchanges as they are developed.
PSAP: Public Safety Answering Point. An agency in the United States, typically county or city controlled, responsible for answering 9-1-1 calls for emergency assistance from police, fire, and ambulance services.
PTI: Public Technology Inc.

Quality Assurance: A process by which the quality of design and performance of a system or data is tested and verified prior to implementation. Also QA.

R-DEx: FBI Regional Data Exchange.
Reconciliation: The process of bringing two different data sets or processes together to be synchronized in order to promote interoperability between them.
Reference IEPD: An IEPD that has been endorsed by an authoritative source as a shining example or base exchange template that should be reused as-is or modified to perform a similar business function.
Registry: Authoritative, centrally controlled store of information that facilitates discovery and reuse. A NIEM registry of IEPDs would act as a store or pointer to all known IEPDs in existence or currently under development to allow implementers to take advantage of parallel efforts.
Repository: An information system used to store and access information, schemas, stylesheets, controlled vocabularies, dictionaries, and other work products.
RFI / RFP: Request for Information / Request for Proposal.
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification.
RISS: Regional Information Sharing Systems.
RMS: Records Management System.
ROI: Return on Investment.
Role: A technique specifically adopted to enhance the desired contextual meaning of components in a data exchange. By allowing a data component to take a context-specific role, the data model becomes infinitely flexible to model a variety of exchange needs. For example, a person could take on the role of a law enforcement official, a witness, or a plaintiff. By utilizing a Role methodology, the object-oriented nature of the model can be preserved while allowing explicit customization that does not depend on object inheritance.

SAA: State Administering Agencies. Many OJP formula grants are awarded directly to state governments, which then set priorities and allocate funds within that state.
SAC: Statistical Analysis Center.
SAFECOMM: A communications program within the Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) that provides research, development, testing and evaluation, guidance, tools, and templates on communications-related issues to local, tribal, state, and Federal emergency response agencies working to improve emergency response through more effective and efficient interoperable wireless communications.
SAR: Suspicious Activity Reporting.
SAVIN: Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification.
Scalability: A term that describes how well a system can be adapted and expanded to meet increased demands, and is a key motivating factor to a program such as NIEM, with national implications.
Scenario-Based Planning: The process of planning and identifying data exchanges by analyzing a business process and describing information exchanges using use case scenarios to justify the need for those exchanges.
Schema: See XML Schema.
Schema Subset Generation Tool: (also SSGT) The preferred tool used to generate schema subsets from the NIEM data model without needing to edit the model schema itself. Subsets are saved and shared via the Wantlist mechanism.
SCIA: Security Clearance Information Act.
SCIPs: Statewide Communications Interoperability Plans.
SEARCH: The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. SEARCH is a non-profit organization formed in 1969 to assist law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies in the areas of technology, procedures, technical assistance and research. SEARCH has published numerous useful documents on information sharing.
Semantic Consistency: A driving force behind the need for data standards, consistency of terminology, and data definitions is essential for information exchanges to be effective, understood by all parties involved, and machine-readable.
Semantic Web: The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. (Definition courtesy of W3C)
SID: State Identification Number.
SIP: Session Initiation Protocol. An application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants.
Situational Awareness: The ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening to the team with regards to the mission. More simply, it’s knowing what is going on around you.
SLATT: State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training.
SME: Subject-matter Expert.
SOA: Service-oriented Architecture.
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol.
Sponsor: An organizational entity that supports a specific IEPD or set of data components for inclusion into NIEM.
SSGT: Schema Subset Generation Tool.
Stakeholder: A person or organization that has a vested interest in a project or entity and the direction that entity takes.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Policy, practices, and procedures for Command and Control.
Subset Schema: A subset of the primary NIEM schema; a schema whose components are taken entirely from the parent schema while excluding those components that are unnecessary for a given exchange.

TA: Technology Assistance.
TSA: Transportation Security Administration.
TWPDES: Terrorist Watchlist Person Data Exchange Standard.
Type: A description of a class of objects that share the same operations, abstract attributes and relationships, and semantics.
Type Extension: The extension of a type to include additional concepts or components that are necessary for an exchange or to specialize a concept in the data model.
Type Hierarchy: The high-level (abstract) to low-level (specific) arrangement of derived types within a data model.

UASI: Urban Area Security Initiative, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
UCR: Uniform Crime Reporting.
UML: Unified Modeling Language.
UNICOR: Federal Prison Industries, Inc.
Universal: A NIEM concept referring to the common semantic understanding of data components across all business domains. Universal also refers to the namespace where these components are found within the NIEM data model, and is the most restrictive namespace within the NIEM Core.
Universal Component: A data component that meets criteria to be promoted to the Universal namespace.; A component that meets technical standards, complies with NIEM requirements, is defined in universally acceptable terms across all participating domains, and is reusable.
URI / URN: Uniform Resource Identifier / Uniform Resource Name. Identifiers meant to explicitly and uniquely identify a namespace or schema location, usually based on a naming convention according to the sponsoring organization.
URL: Universal Resource Locator (Web address).
USC: United States Code.
Use Case: A business process example of an information flow, most commonly used as a basis for exchange modeling around the business needs of an organization. (see also Scenario-Based Planning)

Validation: The documented process of showing that a system is stable and capable of producing predetermined outcomes. Validation answers the question of whether or not the system does what the user really requires.
VCA: Volunteers for Children Act.
VIJ: Vera Institute of Justice. VIJ works closely with leaders in government and civil society to improve the services people rely on for safety and justice. VIJ develops innovative, affordable programs that often grow into self-sustaining organizations, studies social problems and current responses, and provides practical advice and assistance to government officials in New York and around the world.

W3C: World Wide Web Consortium.
WAN: Wide Area Network.
Wantlist: A portable construct used in the SSGT to save and reuse schema subsets of the overall NIEM data model. A wantlist can be saved or loaded directly from the SSGT tool.
Web Service: A software system designed to support interoperable machine to machine interaction over a network.
WIN: Western Identification Network.
WJIN.NET: World Justice Information Network.

XML: eXtensible Markup Language. A structured, extensible language for describing information being sent electronically by one entity to another. XML Schema is the preferred standard to define the rules and constraints for the characteristics of the data, such as structure, relationships, allowable values, and data types.
XML Instance: An instance of XML which contains actual data whose format and inclusion is controlled by the associated XML schema.
XML Schema: Defines the vocabulary (elements and attributes), the content model (structure, element nesting, and text content), and data types (value constraints) of a class of XML documents.
NOTE: When written with a capital "S," the term refers specifically to the XML Schema Definition (XSD or WXS) language developed by the W3C. However, when written with a lowercase "s," the meaning is more generic, referring to any of several schema languages for use with XML, such as DTDs, RELAX NG, Schematron, etc. In both cases, an XML schema is used to validate XML instances, to verify that the instances conform to the model that the schema describes.
XSTF: Global Justice XML Structure Task Force.

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