Navy sets parameters for single portal project

The Navy's new guide for establishing a Navy-Marine Corps Portal says the new portal must be capable of integrating and viewing data using commercial standards for Web services as specified by the service's chief information officer.

The portal will replace or integrate thousands of Web sites throughout the service.

"Our end objective will be a single NMCP which will provide shared information to the entire [service] and other potential users, yet contain sufficient flexibility to be customized by commands, functional communities and individual users," said acting Navy secretary Hansford T. Johnson said in a Feb. 28 memorandum laying out details for NMCP.

Johnson also said the portal project is one component of a broader Navy information management infrastructure effort.

Other components of the effort include the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, Information Technology for the 21st Century and Base-Level Information Infrastructure initiatives. The service also will incorporate its enterprise IT architecture, data management, systems interoperability and business processes modifications into its infrastructure strategy, Johnson said.

The Navy's Information Leadership Council will name a program manager and portal manager before October and will set a time line for the portal's development and launch.

The portal memo outlined a series of principles for NMCP: