Interoperability
De Belgif.
Interoperability allows the interchange of data and services between distributed human and technical systems. In a broader perspective, interoperability allows the exchange of informations between administrations, between an administration and a citizen or a company without asking any particular effort from their side. Beyond the spatial aspect of interoperability (the exchange between two systems), it is also necessary to take into account the temporal aspect : interoperability targets also long-term storage of data and their accessibility in the future.
We can distinguish three kinds of interoperability :
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Organisational interoperability
It defines actors and their responsabilities against its roll-out between a set of organisations, by providing agreement protocols templates on interoperable informations access, by fixing integrity and confidentiality politics of these informations and by proposing the mecanisms needed for their storage and diffusion. It allows then a real collaboration between the departments of a organisation, that can behave in different ways regarding ther operational mode or their internal structure.
Semantic interoperability
The aim is to add "sense" or "meaning" (a semantic) to the exchanged informations and to insure that this sens could be diffused in all the systems between which exchanges have to be set up. Taking into account this semantic aspect allows those systems to combine externally produced informations whith local informations and to treat them accordingly to this semantic.
Technical interoperability
It tries to solve technical problems implied by the inherent complexity of binding information systems and services they propose, by describing standards of presentation, collection, exchange, treatment, safety and transport of information.
Other definitions
Interoperability can also be defined by its impact on the following layers :
- transport layer : functions that make possible the move of information from one point to another.
- data semantic layer : functions that confer "meaning" to information
- presentation layer : functions providing users with means for consuming information
