The Digital National Framework came into existence in 2004 and is
largely composed of the Expert Group who meet about four times a year and their
sub-groups covering the Technical, Communications and other aspects of the
organisation. Eric Malcomson, one of the Directors of AAL Systems, has
represented the commercial sector in both the Technical and Expert Groups.
DNF and INSPIRE go together in that INSPIRE is the "what is" and
DNF is the "how to" of geographical referencing.
The DNF model for data association is simple and therefore
somewhat restrictive in structure. It talks about the relationship of one item
with item(s) in one other 'layer'.
DNF also talks about the base reference objects being contained in a known
database and merely acknowledges that there will be a need for user-defined
geometries to be included in any reference layer.
... and further that there can be intermediate reference objects where there are
administrative advantages to this:
AAL Systems have a much more "open" interpretation of Data Association than the constrained DNF model.
Our products follow a rule which is capable of relating any object to one or more
objects from one or more existing objects. The objects referred to can be in any
"layer" and the relationship will depend upon the circumstances aligned to the
business process.
e-volutionGIS components, in making up a comprehensive application, use this
principle for creating maximum efficiency data usage.
Our experience in handling inter-layer referencing also show us that user-defined
geometries contribute a significant and necessary part of a reference layer's
objects,
so we have specific procedures in place to facilitate these.
It may be that Client's internal practices need to restrain object associations
according to the capability of their databases. However, when you need to break
out of the cage, our systems are future proofed and ready to cope.
If you have not already read about CGD, we recommend this
a follow-up to DNF and INSPIRE