Brand L. Niemann    (JN)

New: GovCloud Book Launched at the National Press Club at http://kevinljackson.blogspot.com/2011/03/govcloud-book-launched-at-national.html    (2R11)

New: Semanticommunity.info: Community Infrastructure Sandbox for 2012 - http://semanticommunity.info/    (2LLE)

http://semanticommunity.info/Federal_Semantic_Interoperability_Community_of_Practice    (2LLF)

MillsDavis and I are restarting the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice (by popular demand) and are working on a series of meetings/workshops in 2011 in collaboration with a numbers of groups and individuals based on three things:    (2LLG)

1. Mapping Vivek Kundra's 25 point plan to CoPs and individuals,    (2LLH)

2. The new OASIS Technical Committee on Transformational Government, and    (2LLI)

3. Our very successful SICoP meeting in 2009.    (2LLJ)

Please see From E-Government to Transformational Government Wiki Page and Slides - http://semanticommunity.info/From_E-Government_to_Transformational_Government and http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/7133/=BrandNiemann12152010.ppt    (2LLK)

The ideas we would like to explore with you include how best we might:    (2LLL)

Harvest and package content from the sorts of meetings & demonstrations we are planning for dissemination through media channels -- publications, digital, events, etc.    (2LLM)

Collaborate together to develop and conduct a series of educational events that would reach the right audiences as well as benefit all parties involved.    (2LLN)

See Challenge to Put Your Desktop Into the Cloud in Support of the Open Government Directive and Data.gov/semantic @ http://semanticommunity.net    (266Z)

Brand L. Niemann received his Ph.D. in Meteorology and Air Pollution Science from the University of Utah and has been with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 22 years and is currently a Computer Scientist and XML and Web Services Specialist in the Office of Environmental Information. He has received awards and recognitions for his work from the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the US Geological Survey, LOTUS, and ComputerWorld-Smithsonian. He is the recipient of Vice President Gore's Hammer Award to teams of federal employees and their partners whose work resulted in a government that works better and costs less. He lead a team that was recognized by OMB Associate Director for Information Technology and E-Government, Mark Forman, and the Quad Council with a Special Award for Innovation in the 2002 CIO Showcase of Excellence for their use of XML in a distributed content network and use of VoiceXML in providing universal access to emergency response information. During 2002-2003, he was chair of the CIO Council’s (Architecture and Infrastructure Committee) XML Web Services Working Group (http://web-services.gov) which graduated recently to become the Emerging Components Activity (http://componenttechnology.org) of the Emerging Technology Subcommittee of the CIO Council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee. He was recently recognized with the Emerging Technology / Standards Leadership Award at the SecureE-Biz.Net Summit, from Mark Forman, Associate Director, IT and eGovernment, OMB, and David McClure, VP e-Gov, Council for Excellence in Government: “for ushering in new technology to allow us to conduct e-Business securely to further implement the President’s Management Agenda”. He was also recently recognized with the EPA Bronze Medal “for outstanding collaboration on EPA's Geospatial Blueprint on the EPA Geospatial Team which outlines the enterprise approach for acquiring, managing, and deploying geospatial data and tools” by EPA's Chief Information Officer, Kim Nelson. He was recently asked to co-chair the CIO Council’s (Best Practices Committee-Knowledge Management Working Group) Semantic (Web Services) Interoperability Community of Practice (http://km.gov). He is a member of the EPA Enterprise Architecture Team and can be contacted at bniemann@cox.net.    (JO)