6th European Conference - Academic Conferences

Harm Schotanus et al.
facilitates the publication of descriptions of (multiple) resources. The goal of the POWDER working
group has been to develop a mechanism that allows not only the provision of descriptions but also a
way to apply them to groups of (online) resources and for the authentication of those descriptions in
relation to establishing a trust level of those descriptions.
2.2 Possibilities of meta-information within a single network
2.2.1 Information Lifecycle Management
Information Lifecycle Management is about the different lifecycle phases that information can go
through, from the creation of information, via different manipulations or updates to the deletion of
information or at least archiving the information for future reference. Easy accessible meta-information
can facilitate Information Lifecycle Management and create new possibilities. For example, with more
meta-information available, information objects could also be archived for different reasons. For
example archive every file that was created by ‘Danielle Zeeg’ because she no longer works at the
company or archive every information object that has been tagged as ‘SFOR’ because that mission
has ended.
Similar to the archiving scenario aiding users or administrators in searching for information can also
benefit from having more meta-information available. For instance search all information objects that
carry file extension ‘pdf’ and are created in 2010 and have been authored by ‘Kees de Witte’ and have
been tagged with ‘SFOR’.
2.2.2 Integrity protection
It is also possible to embed integrity protection capabilities in meta-information. For example by
creating a digital signature of the information, the signature can later be used to verify information has
been changed or validate who created it. This kind of meta-information helps to protect information as
any modifications to the information can be detected. If meta-information were to include integrity
protection then users or administrators could for example find all data objects that were modified after
the meta-information was generated. Another possibility would be to establish the trustworthiness of
information by distinguishing between data objects that do or do not have integrity protection
embedded in their meta-information.
Meta-information can also be used for identification purposes. For example meta-information
containing the type, manufacturer, location or capability of a specific hardware sensor deployed in the
field can be used to select certain sensor feeds, i.e. select feeds of all sensors of type audio-sensor,
or select feeds of all sensors that are located within a one-kilometre radius of GPS coordinate with
latitude 50.84064 and longitude 4.35498.
2.3 Possibilities of meta-information in a federated domain
The different types of meta-information discussed in the previous paragraph may also be used in
federated context. Not only to regulate information flows between different domains, but as we shall
see, may have other possibilities too.
Although sharing information may be a main means of NNEC, not all information has to be shared. It
may not be relevant or useful, or it cannot be shared due to limitations other than security. In other
words we must be able to make intelligent decisions on which information is eligible for sharing. For
example one may wish to share a photo but due to bandwidth constraint it is only possible to share it
in a resolution lower than 800x600 pixels. Software may then be used to automatically scale the photo
if it is too large. Another example is to share all recent information objects for which the author is “Jan
de Bruin” because he is one of the planners of an important and complex mission. Many more
examples can be conceived from operational needs, such as: share feeds from sensors from a certain
type like audio only, share images and videos made within a certain range of a GPS location to a
team on a reconnaissance mission or based on keywords selecting which information is sent to such
a mission. Or determine the communication system to use based on an urgency statement in a
document. Depending on the granularity and type of the meta-information the possibilities are virtually
endless.
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