Chief Information Officer
IC Technical Specifications
CDR: Describe
Overview
The Describe specifications define requirements and provide guidelines for the realization of the CDR Describe Component as a RESTful and SOAP web service and SOAP protocol. The content of these specifications specifies the Describe Service’s behavior, interface and other aspects in detail, providing enough information for Describe Service providers and consumers to create and use CDR-conformant Describe Services.
The Describe Service exposes one required Describe Function for exposing information that describes a content collection. The exposed information, referred to as a Description, is a collection of metadata that refers to the entire content collection rather than individual content resources in the content collection. The Description can be used by Describe consumers to make smart decisions regarding the applicability of a content collection, for example, this type of information can be used by Brokered Search providers to perform type, coverage and/or content-based search query routing.
This specification supports Intelligence Community Directive 501 (ICD 501), Discovery, Dissemination or Retrieval of Information within the Intelligence Community, which establishes policies for (1) discovery, and (2) dissemination or retrieval of intelligence and intelligence-related information collected, or analysis produced by the Intelligence Community.
Compliance with this specification is measured against all aspects of the technical and documentary artifacts contained within the specification release package. This specification is maintained by the IC Chief Information Officer via the Data Standards Coordination Activity (DSCA) and Common Metadata Standards Tiger Team (CMSTT).
Value Proposition
These specifications are designed to fulfill a number of requirements in support of the transformational efforts of the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense Enterprise (IC/DoD). Features of this specification are:
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To provide common service interfaces and a behavioral model to enable Describe consumers, such as Brokered Search providers, to discover relevant content collections from disparate collections across the IC/DoD enterprise.
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To support the implementation of both the IC/DoD Content Discovery & Retrieval SOAP and REST Interface Specifications for CDR Brokered Search 1.1.]
Latest Approved Version
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IC/DoD REST Interface Encoding Specification for CDR Describe, Version 1 (14 Jan 13), [13-1 Baseline]
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IC/DoD SOAP Interface Encoding Specification for CDR Describe, Version 1 (14 Jan 13), [13-1 Baseline])
Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency
Fact Sheets
The following fact sheet describes this IC Governance Framework in detail, outlining the sources of imposed requirements and detailing how all three branches of government are involved. This is the first in a series – please check back soon for additional fact sheets on Section 702, FISA, the USA Freedom Act, and CLPT.
The ODNI Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency (CLPT) works to ensure that the Intelligence Community carries out its national security mission in a manner that protects privacy and civil liberties, while providing appropriate transparency to the public. This is part of the broader, multi-layered framework of U.S. rules and oversight, designed to ensure that we exercise our authorities and use our capabilities properly. This “IC Governance Framework” establishes a set of rules that the IC follows as it conducts its activities, ensuring that we uphold our duties to the Constitution.
IC Governance Fact Sheet