EnviroData Search Portal

Project Number: 08-SP-35

The JG-PP is partnering with the Department of Defense (DoD) services, NASA and DLA to help support the development, demonstration and implementation of an operational deep web search portal. DoD decision-makers require current, accurate, and focused information on commercial and emerging Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health (ESOH) technologies-sometimes on short notice-to ensure the best performance and economic returns for their technology investments.

Although large amounts of information are widely available and rapidly increasing, timely access to the best sources is difficult, time-consuming, and unreliable. Important data are scattered across many sources, such as technical reports, press releases, trade journals, conference proceedings, and Government Web sites, and are stored in different formats. Commonly used search engines, such as Google, only access about 16% of available Web content. More efficient and targeted online search tools are urgently needed for effective support to DoD installation and environmental program staff to search and monitor high-priority hidden Web sources beyond Google.

Phase I of the project, planned to begin by mid-year 2008, will involve procurement of the Exalead Software license, server installation, software set-up and pilot testing of the web portal. This project is a follow-on to the work conducted under Joint Service (JSI) Task 0429 N2 (Strategic Data Search , Analysis and Modeling Tool) to design, develop, and test an advanced online data search and analysis Web portal prototype based on commerical off-the-shelf (COTS) search engine tools. The objective of that task was to:

• Develop and test an advanced, strategic data search and analysis system prototype based on COTS tools for on-line searching.
• Identify a DoD-wide group of potential system users and other stakeholders to test the prototype design and support operational implementation.
• Develop the business model for operational system deployment and the roadmap to full implementation for DoD users.

This site last updated September 15, 2008.