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(U) What's Happening with Metadata
FROM:
Implementation Lead, SID COMINT Metadata Strategy
Run Date: 12/13/2004
(S//SI) "Metadata" refers to information about a communication, rather than the actual content
of the communication. For example, this includes data used to route the communication, details
needed for billing, tracking or authentication, formatting, etc. All of the SIGINT System's wideranging activities to collect, analyze, present, and use COMINT metadata are summed up in the
SID Metadata Strategy .
(S//SI) For SID's Deputy Directorate for Data Acquisition (DA, S3), the Metadata Strategy goes
beyond the obvious requirements for DA to develop and access metadata: DA is recognized as
playing an important analytic role and as such is a critical customer of the Strategy, as well as a
provider. It is also important to recognize that no element of the Strategy belongs to an
individual line organization within SID -- implementation of all of its components must be
orchestrated across the many stakeholder organizations.
(S//SI) The end-to-end vision of the Metadata Strategy includes:
A Global Metadata Service that delivers all the metadata necessary for SID's analytic
needs;
Automated analysis that both frees the analyst from repetitive tasks and discovers
potentially lucrative information;
Tools, tailored to an analyst's needs, for presenting metadata information; and
Making metadata associated with targets and technologies immediately accessible to the
collection systems, for constant improvement of the quality of COMINT.
(S//SI) During the first six months of the Strategy implementation, the lead team has focused
on areas related to Digital Network Intelligence (DNI), specifically target-related metadata. For
example, we are:
Developing a new DNI "rich" metadata architecture and a strategy for achieving the
Global Metadata Service;
Merging tasking interfaces;
Creating DNI contact chaining through MAINWAY ;
Incorporating DNI communication event data into FASCIA ; and
Pursuing new storage paradigms (e.g. CONDENSER) that meet wide-ranging needs.
(S//SI) More broadly, work continues across SID on everything from link and network
characterization, to advanced analytic techniques in research. There are four full-time members
of the Strategy team, a larger "core" team working on a wide variety of implementation aspects
and guiding the strategy, and others working the development and advancement of analytic
methods. Details of the Strategy can be found at " go metadata " on NSAnet. The team can be
contacted via email at "DL METADATA".
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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