Defence is to embark on an information management project so confusing it has turned to Wikipedia to explain it to potential tenderers.
In detailing the project - an “ontology based repository” for the Defence Intelligence and Security Group - Defence referred tenderers to Wikipedia’s reference to Ontology (information science).
According to the entry, an ontology “provides a shared vocabulary, which can be used to model a domain — that is, the type of objects and/or concepts that exist, and their properties and relations".
In case that definition had the clarity of a glass of mud, Defence kindly included a copy of the Mason-ontology from the user-generated web encyclopaedia.
What Computerworld Australia has been able to determine is that the system, capable of supporting 100 concurrent users, will be deployed at the Russell Offices of the Defence Signals Directorate in Canberra.
Along with centralising information, the system will allow users to search, filter and visualise stored data in multiple ways.
Differing levels of security will allow access to specific data stored in the system.
The project will also include a data migration component in two stages, with the first stage involving the development of a migration plan and a proposed ontology.
The second phase will see the data migrated over a period of two months.