The purpose of the clearinghouse is to provide a single source of information on IEPD's that have been developed or are being developed so that others can find models to follow or collaborate on the development of documentation packages for specific exchanges. The IEPD is a well-defined set of artifacts about an information exchange, including XML schema that conforms to the Global Justice XML Data Model (GMXDM). The concept behind the definition of the IEPD and the process which has been developed for creating them is to promote component reuse in the development of information sharing activities in the law enforcement and justice world.
SEARCH, the National Consortium of Justice Information Systems and Statistics, has identified over 600 individual exchanges that occur with some regularity in the justice world, and IEPD's are being developed for the more critical exchanges that are in greatest daily use.
Various members of the GJXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC) have contributed to the development of model IEPD's such as for a criminal incident, sentencing order, and other exchanges of information that must move from agency to agency. In addition, many state and local organizations have created or are creating IEPD's which can be used by other agencies to construct their own exchanges. Developers from across the country can collaborate on a particular exchange such as a traffic citation, and post the resulting IEPD to the clearinghouse for others to use as a starting point in implementing an exchange,
The web site was constructed by technical assistance grant funds made available by BJA to the IJIS Institute under the guidance of the IJIS Institute XML Advisory Committee and GTTAC members. It is based on a tailored version of the RightNow software used to run the GJXDM Knowledge Management System and Help Desk.
The the IJIS Institute said individual companies that develop IEPD's for the law enforcement and justice field or individual government agencies are invited to post their active or completed work in the clearinghouse. In the initial implementation, IEPD's are stored on various web sites and the Clearinghouse provides metadata about the individual IEPD's and links to the site where the IEPD is housed. BJA is exploring the development of a repository for information exchanges but until one has been established, the Clearinghouse provides a single source of information on current knowledge for this work.
