Heterogeneous information integration and management models in Thai justice Information systems

Abstract

The Thai justice has been using Information systems in their routine works for nearly 20 years. Around 1993, Thailand attempted to integrate information systems (IS) of all agencies in justice system. Unfortunately, the result was unsuccessful and the project was terminated. The critical but common problems are data duplication and data inconsistency. Because most of Thai government agencies have been using their own information systems designed based on the agencies' requirements, which normally developed by outsourcers or contractors. As a result, any attempt of information integration cause data duplication and data inconsistency problems. However, these problems can be theoretically solved by using global unique identifier such as citizen identifier number or common attributes that are available in local sources. In practical, only using global unique identifier may not be sufficient. Mapping model and data cleansing are still in need. This work presents suitable integration information model, aiming to resolve these problems. However the non-technical problems such as legal issue and right protection cannot be achieved by using only data integration model. The suitable information management model is, therefore, critical and described in this work. By combining these two models, the research shows that it is able to overcome cultural organizations and legal issue as well as all technical problems. The techniques and methodologies including data integration concept, resource oriented architecture (ROA), and the management model proposed here help to promote transparency, accountability and auditability of all information systems in the Thai justice.