Interoperable & Curated Data ()
As a minimum, data collection, storage, and use architecture should ensure interoperability among Allies and within the NATO Enterprise. This requires data assets to cohere with the NATO Digital Interoperability Framework, whereby data will meet requirements at the level of Policy, Organization, Semantics, Syntax and Technical interoperability.
SourceAC/322-D(2024)0166
Remark/ExampleThe principle of Interoperable & Curated emphasizes the necessity for a common architecture for data collection, storage, and use to ensure seamless interoperability among Allies and within the NATO Enterprise. This entails adherence to the NATO Digital Interoperability Framework, ensuring data meets requirements across various interoperability dimensions including Policy, Organization, Semantics, Syntax, and Technical aspects. Metadata availability facilitates search, mediation, or translation of data between interfaces, promoting interoperability across different systems, and functional silos using agreed NATO and open standards. To operationalize interoperability, the NATO Digital Interoperability Framework is utilized to ensure compliance with syntactic and semantic interoperability requirements. Syntactic interoperability is achieved through technology-agnostic solutions and enforced data standards, while semantic interoperability relies on unambiguous definitions of shared information using common vocabularies, ontologies and semantic reference models. Applications include documented data exchange specifications, mandatory interoperable metadata, and standardized models for conveying semantic meaning within and across datasets. Data interoperability fosters data-driven decision-making by enabling linkages across disparate sources, supporting advanced analytics, and providing a strategic advantage to NATO in joint and multi-domain operations. Progress in achieving interoperability is evidenced by harmonized NATO Standards and the implementation of globally unique identifiers, common metadata standards, and rapid mediation of differing data standards without loss of fidelity, precision, or accuracy.