Draft Copy Page 1 of 2 [DRAFT] NIGERIA : INTEGRATED - DATA STRUCTURING TIPS (GUIDE) TOWARDS NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A DWINDLING ECONOMY BY OSAHON GODWIN ODUWARE The following are things to consider during structuring: [BACKGROUND] - There is a unique data for every individual e.g. phone number, NIN, etc. - Each agency knows the kind of information they pass around to perform their daily functions. e.g. NIMC relates directly with information relating to biometric (biodata), while M inistry of Health & the Security Agencies relate directly with health & security information respectively. - There is often need for information interchange within an agency or externally. e.g. In addition to Biodata & medical history, a Health - related or ganization may need some security information before treating a patient, say a patient with gunshot wound. Through data - integration (via webservices), the biodata could be obtained from NIMC via phone number or NIN. Also, the medical history (summary) cou ld be obtained internally, while the security information could be obtained via web service from the security database. [STRUCTURING PROCESS] - Data storage : The management should agree with technical staff on the information that should be stored for e ach individual. This should form the basis on which the technical staff (or contracted firm) would implement the database. - Data interchange : This is usually via a REQUEST & RESPONSE medium: The management should agree on the items needed in a REQUEST an d the information to be provided in a RESPONSE. This forms the basis of REQUEST & RESPONSE information to/from the web service. e.g. a simple REQUEST information to a Telecom Operator could be phone number and/or NIN, while the RESPONSE could be TRUE or FA LSE for biometric data availability, link status, etc. The biometric data availability could be a RESPONSE information from NIMC for an NIN REQUEST information, while the link status is obtained internally from the Telecoms database (e.g. a TRUE/FALSE fie ld to ascertain if the individual's phone number is linked to the NIN). Draft Copy Page 2 of 2 NB : Optimization strategies for better performance would be implemented by the technical staff (or contracted firm) e.g. caching mechanism, versioning, etc to enable storing some ext ernal information locally and only obtain such information remotely when there is a change in the version on the source database. For instance, a street map data for an L.G.A. / State would be obtained remotely from the hierarchy (national/federal/state le vel) when there is a change in the version, otherwise the local copy is utilized. - WEB - SERVICE URLs are created to handle various REQUESTS for the agency/organization. During the processing of REQUEST, further REQUEST may be made to an external agency as explained in the Telecom example earlier. - Data Security: The management agrees with the implementation team on the sensitivity of certain information and the approach towards securing data generally. [IMPLEMENTATION & SUGGESTIONS] ****************** ***************************** ***************** The national (federal) level focuses majorly on structuring the GENERAL FUNCTIONS of EACH agency: (1) the database information to be stored (2) the various REQUEST and RESPONSE formats via WEB - SERVICES. The lower - levels (state, LGA, organization, etc) focuses on utilizing the WEB - SERVICES at the national level, providing related WEB - SERVICES for functions specific to that level (state, LGA, o rganization, etc), INTERFACES to utilize the web - services (web, mobile, desktop clients), complementing DATABASE STORAGE (for further optimization & caching mechanisms), etc. ****************** ********************************************** - At the natio nal level, the expertise of firms who specialize in data storage/processing & have been engaged at a national level globally would be required. For instance, a firm like ORACLE specializes in database - related activities and has been involved in handling v arious projects at a national level for several nations, hence, it is suggested they are involved at a national level. - At lower levels (state, L.G.A., organizations, etc), OPEN - SOURCE technologies could be used to implement INTERFACES, WEB - SERVICES, com plementing DATABASE STORAGE (for caching, versioning, etc explained earlier).