Maritime Domain Awareness Data Sharing Community of Interest

This article describes a new partnership called the Maritime Domain Awareness Data Sharing Community of Interest. (MDA DS COI). This partnership was formed to focus on maritime information sharing among federal agencies and their partners. The purpose is to develop information-sharing capabilities among the cadre of MDA stakeholders by implementing a net-centric data strategy. The COI structure consists of a steering committee and three working groups: the data management working group, which is charged with developing the common vocabulary and schema for the data sets selected; the pilot demonstration working group, which is charged with developing a real-world technological demonstration that implements the common schema in a net-centric environment for shared access by members and display on a user-defined operational picture; and the joint implementation and services working group, which is charged with identifying future spirals and establishing relationships with potential partners. The COI is focusing the first spiral of the pilot demonstration on unclassified information available from the automatic identification system.