Can Information Sharing Cure Cancer?

How powerful is the concept of information sharing—can information sharing even cure cancer?

The Wall Street Journal, 18 September 2007 reports that two hedge fund managers have “agreed to put up $1 million of their own money every year to fund the Gotham Prize for Cancer Research…the prize will go to the person who posts the best new cancer-research idea…the winner of the Gotham prize doesn’t have to present a shred of evidence that the premise will work. To attract ideas from people outside the field of cancer research, there is no requirement that the winner be capable of seeing the idea through. And the prize money is earmarked for personal use.”

These “efforts are focused on overcoming the reluctance to share ideas,” since there is “a culture that discouraged the sharing of promising ideas. If you have a great idea, but someone else publishes first, you get no credit, professionally or financially…and ‘ideas are currency.’”

Additionally, “getting grants…forces people to do somewhat mundane experiments that follow up on other experiments rather than thinking creatively.”

The Gotham Prize site for cancer fighting ideas “will serve as a kind of marketplace of ideas,” so we can beat cancer with new ideas either never thought of or shared before.

Wow, this is truly amazing! The notion of people sharing information across the globe to defeat cancer. Think about it. Rather, than hoarding information for financial or professional gain, people share information to overcome one of the biggest scourges of our time.

And cancer is just one disease (although a horrific one), what if this was applied to defeating them all! And to other problems facing humanity. War, terrorism, famine, poverty, pollution, energy resources, and so on. Aren’t we better off pooling information, talent, and the power of numbers rather than hoarding information for self interest?

Yes, I know capitalism and market competition is a great motivator for moving things forward. But what if like with the Gotham Prize, we adopt the power of self interest and apply it to sharing ideas—rather than hoarding ideas—to improve life for everyone.

In User-centric EA is one way to drive information sharing in the enterprise. A core principle of User-centric EA is information sharing and accessibility. EA’s notion of information sharing includes creating a common lexicon, describing the data (metadata), registering the data so that it is discoverable, and enabling the exchange of information when and where people need it.

But it’s tough to get people to share information, since “information is power” and “information is currency”, but let’s turn the standard model on its head and create incentives for people to share and disincentives to hoard—then the world may be a better place for all of us!

Can Information Sharing Cure Cancer?

Information Sharing Best Practices

There are currently two major federal best practices for information sharing: Netcentricity and the Information Sharing Environment.

The Department of Defense (DoD) adopted a Netcentric Strategy in May 2003.

• Netcentricity—Netcentricity seeks to ensure data visibility, availability, and usability to accelerate decision-making. This includes data tagging (metadata), posting data to shared spaces, and enabling the many-to-many exchange of data (i.e. many users and applications can access the same data instead of point-to-point interfaces). Netcentricity is the realization of a networked environment.
• Global Information Grid (GIG)—The GIG is a globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities, associated processes and personnel for collecting, processing, storing, disseminating and managing information on demand to warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel. The GIG includes all owned and leased communications and computing systems and services, software, data, security services and other associated services necessary to achieve information superiority.

Netcentricity is a strategy for sharing information. As the DoD strategy states: The data strategy is to “shift from private data to community or Enterprise data as a result of increased data “sharing” in the netcentric environment. Tagging, posting, and sharing of data are encouraged through the use of incentives and metrics.” (adapted from DoD Net-Centric Strategy from defense.link.mil, public site)

In 2004, the concept of Netcentricity was extended to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)’s Information Sharing Environment with the passing of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA).

• Information Sharing Environment (ISE)—The IRTPA requires the President to establish an ISE “for the sharing of terrorism information in a manner consistent with national security and with applicable legal standards relating to privacy and civil liberties” and the IRTPA defines the ISE to mean “an approach that facilitates the sharing of terrorism information.”

The ISE seeks to “facilitate trusted partnerships among all levels of government, the private sector, and foreign partners…[and to] promote an information sharing culture among partners by facilitating the improved sharing of timely, validated, protected, and actionable terrorism information.” (adapted from Information Sharing Environment Implementation Plan from ISE.gov, public site)

Both Net-centricity and ISE are best practices at increasing information sharing to improve and speed up decision-making and protect our nation and its citizens!

• As the DoD Net-Centric Strategy states: “the core of the net-centric environment is the data that enables effective decisions.”
• And similarly, in the ISE Implementation Plan, we read, “the highest priority in creating the ISE must be on facilitating, coordinating and expediting access to protected terrorism information.”

In User-centric EA, information sharing, as appropriate, is one of the primary goals of the architecture. Information is one of the six perspectives (performance, business, information, services, technology, and security, and a seventh to be added is human capital) of the EA. The primary principal of the Information perspective is information sharing and accessibility. Further, the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data Reference Model (DRM) is driven by the enablement of sharing information across the federal government and to its partners. The methodology is as follows:

• Consistently describe data (via metadata)
• Register the data (to make it discoverable)
• Develop standards for the exchange of data (to enable interoperability and accessibility)
  
• Provide sound governance (including data policy and stewardship).

User-centric EA is driven to fulfill the vision of Net-centricity and ISE.

Information Sharing Best Practices

Data Architecture Done Right

Data architecture done right provides for the discovery and exchange of data assets between producers and consumers of data.

Data discovery is enabled by data that is understandable, trusted, and visible.

Data exchange is facilitated by data that is accessible and interoperable.

Together, data discovery and exchange are the necessary ingredients for information sharing.

Why is it so hard?

Primarily it’s a coordination issue. We need to coordinate not only internally in our own organization (often already large and complex), but also externally, between organizations — horizontally and vertically. It’s quite a challenge to get everyone describing data (metadata) and cataloging data in the same way. Each of us, each office, each division, and so forth has its own standards and way of communicating. What is the saying, “you say poTAYtos, and I say poTAHtos”.

Can we ever get everyone talking the same language? And even if we could, do we really want to limit the diversity and creativity by which we express ourselves? One way to state a social security number is helpful for interoperability, but is there really only one "right" way to say it? How do we create data interoperability without creating only one right way and many wrong ways to express ourselves?

Perhaps, the future will bring artificial intelligence closer to being able to interpret many different ways of communicating and making them interoperable. Sort of like the universal translator on Star Trek.

Data Architecture Done Right

Need to Know or Responsibility to Share

User-Centric EA is all about information sharing.

This vision of information sharing has the support at the United States Coast Guard, of Commandant Thad Allen. He has had a huge impact in the information sharing in the organization with his vision of "information transparency breeds self-correcting behavior". The doctrine of openness and sharing toward an outcome of improved personal and organizational performance is a powerful vision that can even transform a large, multi-mission maritime organization like the Coast Guard.

In public and private sectors, it used to be information on a "need to know" basis. Information is power and those who wield it are king. Only with the advent of the internet, social networking, vertical and horizontal integration in the marketplace, and the unfortunate 9-11 tragedy has need to know been shifting to "responsibility to share".

Undoubtedly, there is still a long way to go in eliminating the stovepipes in our organizations and between our organizations, but user-centric EA will be there to facilitate this change and build the mechanisms, processes, and governance for bona fide information discovery and exchange. More than that, by developing EA information products, governance processes, and plans, user-centric EA is creating a climate of change that will take organizations into the future of information-sharing.

Need to Know or Responsibility to Share