Report of Official Foreign Travel to Montreal, Canada

How can DOE, NNSA, and Y-12 best handle the integration of information from diverse sources, and what will best ensure that legacy data will survive changes in computing systems for the future? Although there is no simple answer, it is becoming increasingly clear throughout the information-management industry that a key component of both preservation and integration of information is the adoption of standardized data formats. The most notable standardized format is XML, to which almost all data is now migrating. XML is derived from SGML, as is HTML, the common language of the World Wide Web. XML is becoming increasingly important as part of the Y-12 data infrastructure. Y-12 is implementing a new generation of XML-based publishing systems. Y-12 already has been supporting projects at DOE Headquarters, such as the Guidance Streamlining Initiative (GSI) that will result in the storage of classification guidance in XML. Y-12 collects some test data in XML as the result of Electronic Data Capture (EDC), and XML data is also used in Engineering Releases. I am participating in a series of projects sponsored by the PRIDE initiative that include the capture of dimensional certification and other similar records in XML, the creation of XML formats for Electronic Data Capture, and the creation of Quality Evaluation Reports in XML. In support of DOE's use of SGML, XML, HTML, Topic Maps, and related standards, I served 1985-2007 as chairman of the international committee responsible for SGML and standards derived from it, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 (SC34) and its predecessor organizations; I continue to belong to the committee. During the August 2010 trip, I co-chaired the conference Balisage 2010.