Tactics on data alignment / standardization

[Thomas Lee <ytlee@cecid.hku.hk>]

Dear John and other eGov experts,

The Government team and my team are very impressed by UK Government's 
achievement on the production of the Data Standards Catalogue.  After 
the production of our XML Guide, our priority will be to gather 
different Government departments to concertedly align Government data 
elements and develop XML schemas for those elements. We forsee there 
will be considerable politics in arriving at commonly agreed data 
representations among different departments.

Do any of you kindly share with us your tips, tactics, experiences, and 
reference materials on handling politics in  Government-wide data 
standardization? Have you created / referenced any standardization 
process for this purpose?

Regards,
Thomas

P.S. Please see the following email messages from my Government partner.

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Dear Thomas

Re the preceeding email, the UK's Government Data Standards Catalogue is 
a useful reference. 
(http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/eservices.asp)

We are looking for things beyond what's stated in volume 1.    We want 
tacit knowledge, including how to deal with politics.

Thanks a lot.

Regards,

Marianne

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Dear Thomas

While we are making preparation to pursue with the progressive alignment 
of common data elements across government  departments, can you share 
with us some tips or tactics on data alignment / data standardization, 
so that we can be more tactful in this exercise.

Thank you in advance for your advice

Regards,

Marianne