The National Information Exchange Model is poised for greater government adoption, and not just within the homeland security and justice communities.

A March 17 presentation by Justice Department and non-profit IJIS Institute to the National Association of State Chief Information Officers envisions a future for the XML data sharing framework in the health, cyber and financial reporting domains.

NIEM standardized core data components for exchange and allows other communities of interest to create mutually-intelligible data component specific to their communities. It originated as a Justice-led project but now is managed by the Homeland Security Department.

More than 60 percent of major DHS information technology program utilize it, as well as 42 of 50 states. The Health and Human Services Department's Office of National Coordinator for Health IT said earlier this year it will use NIEM for its Nationwide Health Information Network.

"This is an exciting time," said Donna Roy, director of the DHS Enterprise Data Management Office. The office requests $7.6 million for the next fiscal year, in part to support NIEM.

For more:
- check out the NASCIO NIEM presentation site, which includes a presentation and an audio recording
- go directly to the presentation slides (.pdf)
- read this February 2010 article from GovHealthIT
- see an overview of the fiscal 2011 DHS budget request (.pdf)

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