RIM as a Data Dictionary

Looking for the TC's thoughts here 
please:

 

Recently, one of my US federal contacts who has 
seen multiple demos of ebXML Registry asked me the following question: Can RIM 
be used as a Data Dictionary?

 

Here is the original inquiry:

 

<Inquiry>

Someone suggested using 
the ebXML registry (meaning the RIM) as a 'data dictionary'. While it does 
support some 11179 constructs, I don't think this is a good application of the 
RIM (in addition to the bunch of custom code that would be needed). 

 

I would 
prefer that the registry provide metadata input to a dictionary, each 
of which is a component of a federated metadata system. 

</Inquiry>

 

I then asked for a clarification of their use of the term "data 
dictionary", since it is broad:

 

<Clarification>

For our 
purpose, lets assume that our data dictionary contains typical 'stuff': 
metadata for classes, attributes, relationships, and domain codelists for 
the attributes -- all from our enterprise logical data model. Might even contain 
metadata for our operational databases --- tables and columns, and 
their mapping to the logical data model. It also contains metadata for our data stewards, along with business definitions and names for the classes and attributes. This is 
all good stuff that where we can apply 11179.

</Clarification>

 

In closing, they said:

 

<Closing>

My own opinion is that, while the registry rim 
does not directly support this level of data dictionary, we could use the 
rim, but we would need to write a lot of code to provide the functionality. 
But that's not the purpose the XML registry rim, so my response is no, we 
don't use the XML registry for our data dictionary. 

</Closing> 

 

My thought is that since our RIM is 
abstract and extensible, there are at least 2 
possibilities:

 

(1) One could implement ebXML Registry per 
our specs and configure it such that the RegistryObjects were the items listed 
within <Clarification> above;

(2) A vendor could create an 
application that offers such functionality, with ebXML Registry as its 
engine - and if this existed, it could be used by this 
person;

 

Other 
thoughts?

 

Kind Regards,

Joseph Chiusano

Booz Allen Hamilton

Strategy and Technology Consultants to 
the World