German Administration Services Directory

Transcription

1 Overview The German Administration Services Directory (DVDV) is a level- and sector-crossing infrastructure component for egovernment in Germany. A service directory stores specific connecting parameters necessary for the use of public online services offered on a machine-tomachine basis. The basis of the DVDV is a directory service which lists agencies and other providers with their respective services. Queries to the DVDV can only be executed by applications (software programs) and not by human users directly. The DVDV furthermore assumes that its users know the correct service and the correct recipient beforehand; it is no search engine and no register of administrative duties. The services are characterized by WSDL-description files. The DVDV was created through an initiative of the federal, state and local IT-departments responsible for E-Government and IT-Infrastructure and has the function of a central registry point for public machine-to-machine services in Germany. It enables highly secure and legally binding communication between agencies through their respective software applications. The first application which uses the DVDV is the implementation of the revised Civil Registration Framework Act of 2002 (Melderechtsrahmengesetz, MRRG) and its special stipulations of statecrossing data-exchange in 17 Para. 1 and 2, which became effective on January 1 st, Since then, notices of changes in civil registers between states have to be communicated by electronic messages only (and not in paper-format as until Dec. 31 st, 2006). The DVDV is part of the necessary infrastructure, together with the secure message exchange protocol OSCI-Transport (Online Services Computer Interface) and the XML-based content scheme OSCI-XMeld. It forms the technical backbone of the solution architecture. The DVDV is built to support arbitrary communication scenarios with and between all public agencies in Germany. Services of the Federal Agency for Taxes and the state of Saxony have already been integrated; others will follow throughout The core-component of the DVDV is the central federal replication master, which is operated by the Federal Office for Information Technology (BIT). The federal master is the only part of the directory service which allows for an editing of the data content via external clients. The managing and the editing itself lies in the responsibilty of decentralized agencies on various administrative levels in Germany, mainly on the level of Federal States. Data stored in the federal master is constantly replicated to the so-called DVDV state-masters (in most cases run by administrative agencies on Federal state level), which share all data requests ( read-only ). The system is built on the OpenLDAP directory service holding all data entries. Services are described using WSDL. The communication is based on XML-request and answerschemes, and is secured by the also XML (SOAP)-based OSCI-Transport-Protocol. Corruption of the database can thus be prevented. The DVDV is a central prerequisite for realising cross-organisational workflows based on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Thus it serves as the basis for all egovernment projects in Germany requiring secure and legally binding communications. Contacts concerning DVDV: - all information (general requests) via dvdv@bva.bund.de - questions regarding the federal master: Ms. Kornelia Utta, kornelia.utta@bva.bund.de - questions regarding the coordination office of the DVDV: Mr. Michael Kalkan, michael.kalkan@bva.bund.de - contact to the management group of DVDV via Mr. Christian Mrugalla, christian.mrugalla@bmi.bund.de or Dr. Martin Hagen, martin.hagen@finanzen.bremen.de Version: /6

2 The DVDV project In the same way as it would be impractical to publish different telephone books for citizens whose last names start with A or M, or yellow pages just for one industry, for examples bakeries or bikeshops, it is not advisable to create technical directories for just one E- Government sector, for example the area of civil registration. Taking this into account, a working group of representatives from the level of federal, state and local administration suggested in 2004 to build a German Administration Services Directory (the DVDV) that should be able to list all future E-Government services. It was also meant to serve the practical need to support the electronic notifications of changing addresses across state borders. This is demanded according to a new law that turned into effect on January 1 st, Since the DVDV has been built as a general infrastructure and is a non-sector-specific application, the costs for E-Government infrastructure in Germany across all administrative levels and sectors can be significantly reduced. The cross-level national IT-co-ordination body Kooperationsausschuss Automatische Datenverarbeitung Bund, Länder, Kommunaler Bereich, KoopA ADV ( therefore asked an initial group to develop a prototype for the DVDV. The project was financed according to the one-for-all -principle by the federal government and the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen (leading partner). Contractors were the public and partly private IT-companies Dataport, Kommunale Datenverarbeitung Oldenburg (KDO) and bremen online services GmbH & Co KG (bos). Quality assuarance was provided by a working group in which the states and/or their respective data centers of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine- Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and the city of Nuremberg participated. After the prototype had been successfully demonstrated to the KoopA at the CeBIT 2005, the KoopA requested the delivery of a fully operational version 1.x by December 31 st, At the same time, collection of all data of the 5246 agencies from the civil registration area began as well as the setting up of the operational infrastructure for the DVDV. History of the project German Administration Services Directory (DVDV) Date Decision/Milestone Representatives of the Federal states of Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony decide to issue a feasibility study for a services directory for OSCI-Transport services Conclusion of the feasibility study The Kooperationsausschuss Automatische Datenverarbeitung Bund, Länder und Kommunaler Bereich (KoopA ADV), Germany s public IT-co-ordination body, agrees to the concept of the feasibility study German Administration Services Directory presented by the working group The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Bremen (lead partner), Schleswig- Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony sign contracts for the prototype of the DVDV DVDV kick-off in Bremen Successful presentation of the DVDV-prototype at CeBIT The KoopA ADV decides to continue and further develop the DVDV: release development starts in June 2005, costs for support and maintenance in 2006 are financed by the KoopA ADV Federal IT Office (BIT) in the Federal Office of Administration is formally being charged with the set-up and operation of the DVDV federal master. Version: /6

3 Date (cont d.) Decision/Milestone Creation of the DVDV-coordination office at the BIT Test of DVDV-system version in cooperation with the states of Baden- Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate (replication and data management) Software version and software development kit (SDK) in version are available Software version and software development kit (SDK) in version are available DVDV federal master with all data from the 5246 civil registration agencies collected by the states and their respective addressing parameters are available for live operation Software version and software development kit (SDK) in version are available Live operation of the complete DVDV-system starts. The system runs with no interruptions and virtually no flaws from day one! (Admittedly, to the surprise of everyone involved). The system handles on average requests per month The management group installed by the KoopA in order to plan and monitor the operation of the DVDV has its kick-off meeting in Wiesbaden (members: Federal Ministry of the Interior, Bremen, Hamburg and Rhineland-Palatinate) The Federal Agency for Taxes (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) publishes two services on the DVDV federal master The state of Saxony publishes two services on the DVDV federal master for internal use in the state of Saxony The BIT will host the first users conference of the DVDV in Cologne. How does the German Administrative Services Directory (DVDV) work? The basis of the DVDV is a directory service which lists administrative agencies and other providers with their respective services. Queries to the DVDV can only be executed by applications (software programs) and not by human users. The area of civil registration, for which the DVDV is first used, illustrates the functions of the DVDV. All 5246 civil registration agencies are entered into the system. These agencies offer services described in the XML-format OSCI-XMeld (for example, to process change of addresses). Also, the respective providers of these services and their OSCI-transport intermediaries and back-end systems are described. The (technical) back-end system of the civil registration authority where a citizen is registered as a new citizen can query the DVDV-data at a decentralized (so-called) state master. This is done by issuing an appropriate search request specifiying the need to find the respective civil registration authority of its former place of residence ( the departure community ). The answer to this query is that the requesting authority will receive the technical address (a so-called URI) of the departure community s civil registration back-end system as well as the corresponding certificates to address and secure the electronic communication. With this information, the authority can then draft and issue the appropriate notification to the departure community. The DVDV is a generic infrastructure which can list any kind of agency, service and provider. It is well-prepared to add services in the sectors of taxation (as of June 2007 already implemented), justice, car-registration or business licences, the latter being an important service with regard to Version: /6

4 implementing the EU-Services Directive of 2006 in Germany. All kind of different technical systems and transport protocols can be supported. The system is made up entirely of well-known and widely used Internet protocol and standards. The basis is the OpenLDAP directory service which holds and serves all data entries. The communication is based on XML-request and answer-schemes, and is also secured by the XML (SOAP)-based OSCI-Transport-Protocol. The security requirements of the DVDV are high because the integrity of the data is a prerequisite for the obstruction-less operation of electronic data interchanges between administrations. In order to provide high performance, especially in availability and speed, but to keep operation costs as low as possible at the same time, the DVDV is laid out in a cooperative architecture (see graph). The core is the federal master (Bundesmaster) which is operated by the BIT. It is the only part of the system where data can be written and edited. To support this, an editing client is provided free of charge to the agencies and providers that are responsible for managing the content of the service directory. Due to the multi-level and multi-sector type of organization in Germany, this part of the system has to be flexible and needs to accommodate local and sector-specific organisation principles as well as chain-of-commands in order to maintain a correct set of services in the directory. Search requests are not directed to the federal master but exclusively to the decentralized state masters. The federal master continuously replicates its database to these state masters. The state Version: /6

5 masters share the request load and replace each other in case one of them temporarily fails. The replication guarantees that the same data content is available at each state master at the same time. All of the 16 states are operating a state master with the exception of Saxony-Anhalt and Saarland which are using the state masters of Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia respectively. The federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg and Bremen are jointly operating one state-master. By doing so the DVDV has created uniqe and efficient forms of co-operation between the states, thus making it also an organization model for cost-saving joint efforts between otherwise distinct administrative organisations. Version: /6

6 Also, it is noteworthy that the technical development had to be matched by an unparalleled organizational effort in which the states collected current and up-to-date data of the more than 5000 civil registration agencies. As there was no comparable overview available (because of the federal nature of Germany), the complete set of civil registration agencies in the DVDV had to be compiled for the first time and now constitutes a very valuable data source. The General Administration Services Directory shares features and complements other technical systems such as public key infrastructures (PKIs), clearing-houses, general service look-up directories and brokers. In order not to confuse the discussion and development of the respective system, a distinction is necessary. A public key infrastructure (PKI) issues certificates for encryption and signing. The DVDV holds the certificates or links to them, but does not issue them. The federal master at the BIT and the state masters use the PKI of the (German) TESTA Certificate Authority (CA). The DVDV verifies the validity of the certificates through Certificate Revocation Lists which are provided by the TESTA CA. Without a valid TESTA-certificate, access to the central database via the editing client is not possible. The issuance and distribution of certificates therefore is a necessary part of the operational system of the DVDV, but it is not run by the DVDV operators. Instead, it is provided by the operators of the German TESTA-network. Several states in Germany have created a clearinghouse where the electronic cross-state exchange of data is translated into local formats. Also, clearinghouses serve to bundle requests and serve various other functions. Clearinghouses act on behalf of for example civil registration authorities and thus act as users of the DVDV as well. In some states, the operators of the clearinghouse are also the agencies mandated to edit and maintain the state s data on the central database at the federal master. Most government web-sites offer a general service look-up directory to their human users. They intend to help users identifying the right services and provide additional information such as opening hours, telephone numbers or forms and additional documentation to submit. While the DVDV is of a similar structure, it is exclusively designed to support machine-to-machinecommunication. In later stages of development general services look-up directories might also make use of the DVDV. Finally, several IT companies in Germany and in Europe have installed or are planning to install broker services. Such services allow, for example, to automatically chain requests if an address search is performed over more than one hub (if a citizen has moved twice or more often). Such a broker service will and in fact must use the services of the DVDV but the additional logic of chaining the requests and handling billing and payment for the requests are exclusively within the domain of the broker and not the DVDV. Version: /6