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Dock Allen is the project lead for MITRE-Sponsored Research project, DiMeS: Distributed Metadata Services.

The Internet has a problem. And as MITRE's Dock Allen sees it, we all have a problem because of it.

Say you've refined your Web search as much as is humanly possible and still Google returns to you 3,000-plus URLs for your reading pleasure. The problem is that the Web's cataloging format—called metadata—is missing an information structure. For example, if a card catalog is the difference between a library and a pile of books on the floor, then the Web's current metadata structure more closely resembles the pile of books. Dock Allen, a principal software systems engineer, is on the front lines of making sense of metadata—and has made considerable progress.

"The Department of Defense is experiencing the same kind of exponential information growth as is the Internet," says Allen, explaining the impetus driving her MITRE Sponsored Research project, DiMeS (pronounced dimes, for Distributed Metadata Services). "We're now using XML to put structure to content and also to access other services." XML is a mark-up language, as is the current Web standard HTML, but differs from HTML in that it focuses on the data structure and content. HTML, on the other hand, focuses solely on how a Web page looks.

The benefits of XML are obvious, as seen in this HTML/XML comparison:

(A) HTML keywords as metadata:

(B) XML brings order to the same keywords:

With XML, the pile of books begins to look more like a library.

Of course, once the catalog of cards—the XML metadata—is ready for the library, it needs to be put where it can be easily found and used. Allen, and her team of Paul Silvey and Laurie Hurwitz, created a metadata-based "information broker," what to XML developers is popularly known as Universal Description. This is an information directory that is an easy-to-use mechanism that helps clients dynamically find information and services.

Think Yellow Pages, as in a single source to fill all of the needs for goods, services, and information—the information broker lists it all. You make a request, and unlike Google's replies by the thousands, your query returns a tightly combed list of exact or near-exact responses. Or you can subscribe: instead of making a query each time you need something, the information broker, based on your pre-selected interests, routinely and automatically sends you updates.

The Distributed Metadata Services team further expanded the concept to distribute the metadata residing in these brokers by Communities of Interest (COIs), which are groups of like individuals who share similar products or services. "The Air Force Materiel Command is a COI," explains Allen, "with its own special needs as well as special language and terminology. It could have its own customized and scalable information broker able to access other information brokers across the entire network." Such a distributed service simplifies the query and retrieval process, keeps COIs up to date, and saves time, and avoids duplication of effort.

As the group's three-year project draws to a close, Allen is proud of its accomplishments. "We've done all and more than we set out to do. We've delivered the custom information brokers, a profiling language with which to advertise broker services, and a software development kit. In fact, all of this is out the door and in the hands of industry, hopefully for final development and implementation somewhere."

Allen will now migrate her expertise to other MITRE projects. One in the offing, which she feels would be a great match, is a Web Services project that directly bears on her XML metadata and other software engineering expertise.

Allen came to MITRE about two years ago, after almost 30 years as a software engineer. "I just love software," she says with obvious joy, "and I just love the opportunity to do it here at MITRE where I can do the right thing without the profit push from industry always at my back. It is refreshing here."