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COPLINK Developer
Certifies Vendors
03/24/03 ---
Federal Computer Week
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BY Dibya Sarkar
A Tucson, Ariz.-based
company that has deployed a law enforcement information-sharing and
analysis tool in more than 100 communities across the United States
announced creation of an interoperability certification program to
accelerate future deployments.
So far, Knowledge Computing Corp., which developed and markets the tool
called CopLink, has certified two providers of records management systems
-- Intergraph Public Safety and Geo911 Inc.
Coplink was created in 1998 at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the
University of Arizona. It can analyze large volumes of structured and
unstructured information from disparate law enforcement databases to
detect trends and produce leads for investigators.
The new certification process entails the exchange of information-sharing
schemas and data architectures to create a tighter integration.
Certification is free, but it doesn't constitute an endorsement of a
vendor, provider or technology.
Although CopLink works with any type of data, integrating schemas will
speed installations in communities with CopLink-certified vendors,
reducing implementation time from weeks to days, said Robert Griffin,
president of Knowledge Computing.
"Where the certification really gets tight is around the refresh
mechanism," he said. "What CopLink does is we read the initial data
sources the first time and create an integrated warehouse, and from that
we hook up these automated triggers to give us the latest adds, deletes
and changes and so forth. Some of those triggers we can make very tightly
integrated by sharing information with architecture designs and so forth."
Being certified also means that Knowledge Computing will be notified of
upcoming vendor upgrades. "So if they're coming out with a new release,
say, three months or four months or a year down the line that may change
an underlying schema, we'll have a heads-up on that and be proactive prior
to the event," Griffin said.
Vendors can also become CopLink-compliant, meaning the company understands
the vendor's schemas but hasn't completed an integration. Griffin said
he's seeing more and more cities issue requests for proposals that require
vendors to be CopLink-certified or CopLink-compliant.
Griffin said there are about 600 records management system vendors in the
United States alone, and his company is projecting major growth in the
sector this year.
CopLink is being deployed in seven cities in the state of Alaska, covering
half the population there.
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