The UK Government Information Exchange Standard (IES) - request for a copy

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi 

Do we have access to the UK Government Information Exchange Standard (IES) ?

I understand that is it  DSTL document but I can't find it.  It appears on this link.

A Survey of Industry Data Models and Reference Data Libraries - DT Hub Community (digitaltwinhub.co.uk)

Thanks in advance

BR

Neil

 

[Peter El Hajj]

Hi @Neil_Harrison.  It looks from the Industry Data Models Survey Document that the IES will be become publicly available soon:

I haven't seen it yet but copying in @David Leal who might have more information on IES publication.

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi Peter.

Lets hope David has something, the clue below says it was released in sept 2020 but I cant find it.

Thanks for your reply.  I spotted the description of "available soon" in the document below:

A Survey of Industry Data Models and Reference Data Libraries.   To identify requirements for, and provide input to, a Foundation Data Model. Version 1

link here industry_data_models_and_reference_data_libraries_0.pdf (cam.ac.uk)

Do you know when that was published (there is no version history page of the document I seen).

There is also some reference to the IES on this page.

link here A Survey of Industry Data Models and Reference Data Libraries - DT Hub Community (digitaltwinhub.co.uk)

10.1.5    Maintenance and usage
The IES standard is actively maintained.  Version 4.2 was released on 2nd September 2020.  Version 1.0 was released on 3rd June 2015, and there has been a succession of revisions since then.
The IES standard is used by Government departments and agencies within the UK for the exchange of data, and particularly by the legal community and Home Office for data concerning warrants.  The standard is also used for inter-government exchange by Australia, Canada, NZ, UK, and USA.

BR Neil

[AndyS]

Did anything happen about this?

I'd like to send a link to it to a public discussion group - there are active discussions in general RDF relating to data modelling of complex situations involving time and events. It would be good to mention UK work in the area.

Yes, there are PDF copies around. Apparently, it's OK to share it with people by giving them a copy. But I'd really like a link to an official publication.

    Andy

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi Andy

I had to do a lot of digging to get the pdf document below (see screen shot).  Is this the one you have?  I didn't feel at liberty to share it.  Sorry, I do not know of an official publication website.  I'd be pleased to discover if there is one.  Its quite ironic isn't?  Fancy the UK having an information exchange standard, that is hard to exchange?

In the end the document did not contain the information that I expected.  I am currently investigating some other possibilities.  

This one is quite interesting:  ISO 10303-239 “Product Life Cycle Support” Edition 3 project, Application Protocol For Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) .  link here

This is a consultancy committee that can be influenced but the consultation period is closed for this draft.

The snag that I'm trying to resolve is capturing the an architectural view of a project, in an industry recognised format, which that is digestible to non-technical folks.  I currently produce business context views and systems context views that are well received by my stakeholders as they provide a "one page" summary of the "enterprise".  It enables me to identify interactions and hence information exchanges.  These views are very powerful but as I say they are just to my own format.  I would be interested in other reference sources if you know of any that i would be able to adopt.

BR Neil

[AndyS]

Hi Neil - yes, that's the copy I have. 282 pages of it.

And I have the "Introduction to IES" slide set (PDF).

The 4D data modelling in IES is pertinent to current public RDF discussions.

 

I'd be interested in seeing your architectural view of a project work

My interest is a little different - I'm putting data level security (Attribute Based Access Control) for IES data, so finer-grained than API security. This is likely to be an adjunct - not changing IES (schema or data) in any way, but having labels and access rules related to the data stored separately.

    Andy

 

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi Andy

The IES standard that I have is only 185 pages, I see that your copy is 282 pages so I'm not sure what's happened there.

I understand your task and I can see your engagement with this document.  The architectural views I have are not going to be relevant to your work I'd say.   In my context the Data that I'm interested in exchanging between organisations, is to do with the nature of the "product or service" they are providing and not the operational data exchanges. So its one of those things.  It is hard to know what a document will contain all you have to go on is the statement:

"The IES standard is used by Government departments and agencies within the UK for the exchange of data"

 

I was casting a wide next and thinking perhaps that the term "Data" could have meant design architectures, user manuals, information protocols etc. which I suggest are all needed for us to achieve Digital Twin objectives. 

In the end the IES wasn't the backbone document I was hoping it would be.

BR

Neil

[AndyS]

The bottom of the front page has "Page 1 of 282".

Page 3 TOC ends with "Annex B – Shacl Validation .................................................................................................................. 186"

Page 186 is "Annex B – Shacl Validation" and pages to 282 are (unreadable) SHACL.

    Andy

[Neil_Harrison]

HI Andy

The bottom of the front page of the pdf I have is Page 1 of 185.  This is the TOC.  It looks like we have the same one but you have more information.  (I don't need copy)

BR Neil

[Paul C]

Dear all,

I can confirm the Information Exchange Standard (IES) Release 4 has now been published via Dstl's GitHub repo on behalf of the group which own and maintain the standard, of which I am a member. The repo is currently private so if anyone would like access, please contact me to discuss. Our intention is to open the repo up to the public in due course and to this end we are going through the necessary release process. 

I hope this helps. Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss this matter further. 

Kind regards,

Paul.

 

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi Paul. 
Thanks for the information. I’m interested to hear you are part of the group who own and maintain the standard.  Is that called the “entity working group”?  Can you let me know a bit more about the group?  Do you have any workshop consultations? Do you have any conferences? Is there a website with presentations?  How does dstl fit in? Br Neil 

[AndyS]

Hi Paul - good to hear. 

[ChrisBee]

Any chance someone can post the link to the IES or forward a copy? Thanks

[IanBailey]

Hi - we've managed to get a copy of IES for the DT Hub members. The spec (and the intro slides - click on the logo rather than the download button) are here:

 

 

[Stephen Brown]

Comment no longer relevant - but couldn't find a delete option!

Edited November 15, 2022 by Stephen Brown
No longer relevant

[Robin]

@IanBailey For some reason I cannot access that link to IES.  Is the file still available?

[IanBailey]

Hi All - the Dstl IES site has finally gone public...

https://github.com/dstl/IES

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi Ian.

Thanks for keeping an eye on this.  I wasn't able to get that link to work.  Does it still work for you?  

I think IES is a repository in Github that sits in the dstl area

I have registered with Github.  Do I need to request access to the dstl respository areas? 

When I used the link above I got a 404 error.

When i searched the Github site for Information Exchange Standard i got no results.

When i searched the Github site for IES i got no results.

I can get access to other dstl repositories such as 

https://github.com/dstl/Stone-Soup

There are 29 repositories all labelled public bit IES isn't one of them.

Please advise if you can.

BR

Neil

[Paul C]

Hi Neil,

Ian was a bit premature; we now have Permission to Publish (our process for release of information outside of government) and the repo will be fully accessible asap. 

All best,

Paul. 

[AndyS]

Any news?

It would be helpful to be able to mention IES in public discussions because it addresses common complex modelling needs.

 

 

[Robin]

IES is now available on the DSTL GitHub here, I think:

 

https://github.com/DSTL/IES4

Edited June 9 by Robin

[AndyS]

Great!  Thank you.

[Neil_Harrison]

Hi All. Please can anyone who employs the content of this standard please drop a short explanation into this chat.

I’ve taken a look at it and it wasn’t what I was expecting.

BR

neil

 

[AndyS]

Neil - what were you expecting?