Who will ensure that the NGIs inter-agency collaboration really works?
It’s always difficult to manage collaborations that span disciplines and organizations. It’s particularly hard when the parties are competing against each other for funding (as I know firsthand from leading industry-wide consortia and standards efforts). The situation calls for what might be termed “benevolent oversight,” to ensure that parties don’t duplicate or undermine each other’s efforts. The NGI plan, however, identifies all participating agencies as partners and does not establish any clear line of authority. While the initiative would still contribute important advances if each agency were to simply carry out its own piece of the work, the real potential can only be realized if those pieces fit together well. That requires oversight and authority, as well as coordination.
