National standards

NIEM Resources Wayfarer


NIEM, the National Information Exchange Model (http://www.niem.gov), is a partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. It is designed to develop, disseminate and support enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes that can enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation.


Wayfarer is an exploration tool for the NIEM and the GJXDM. It provides advanced searching capabilities combined with detailed information about elements and types. Thanks to support from the Department of Justice, Wayfarer is freely available to the NIEM and GJXDM communities.

  • NIEM Wayfarer 2.1 is the newest version, released in conjunction with NIEM 2.1. A significant enhancement is the ability to view implied substitution groups. Take it for a spin! One example is nc:Person: access the element nc:Person in Wayfarer, scroll to the end of the nc:Person can contain section, and see the subheading nc:Person can also be replaced with. You can find NIEM Wayfarer user documentation here.
  • NIEM Wayfarer 2.0 can still be used to search and view NIEM 2.0.
  • GJXDM Wayfarer 2.0 is the Wayfarer version for searching the Global Justice XML Data Model, the NIEM’s predecessor.

Stay tuned for the imminent release of NIEM SAW! “SAW” = Stand-Alone Wayfarer, a downloadable version of Wayfarer that empowers you to access the NIEM even when you lack an internet connection.

JRA Resources GJXDM Resources


The purpose of the Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) focuses upon “(s)olving interoperability challenges (that) continue to be a significant problem and a high priority for the justice and public safety community. There are approximately 100,000 justice agencies that have the critical need to share information across their various information systems, and this variety creates multiple layers of interoperability problems because hardware, software, networks and business rules for data exchange are different. The need for information sharing has lead to this interoperability strategy and the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Justice Reference Architecture (JRA).


The Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) is a comprehensive product that includes a data model, a data dictionary, and an XML schema that together is known as the Global JXDM. The Global JXDM is sponsored by DOJ's OJP, with development supported by the Global XML Structure Task Force (GXSTF).

Niem HelpDesk IEPDs

The National Information Sharing Standards Knowledge Base and Help Desk provides an online knowledge base as well as live support.


Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPDs) define "reference" information exchanges, intended as models for information exchanges that meet specific business needs.

View IEPDs
Related organizations Other Resources


Many organizations are involved with the GJXDM. Along with the NCSC, here are a few of the major players:

CourTools Documents


CourTools
is a set of ten trial court performance measures that offers court managers a balanced perspective on court operations. In designing the CourTools, the National Center integrated the major performance areas defined by the Trial Court Performance Standards with relevant concepts from successful performance measurement systems used in the public and private sectors. The following Global Information Exchange Package Documentation sets represents standards for uploading data from courts to a state authority (Stage 1) and from the state authority to a national authority (Stage 2).

Current Status: Vetted and submitted to JTC standards review process.

The CourTools IEPD