Data Layer

Data Layer

Purpose

The Data Layer ensures that the TTV Suite is not an impregnable monolith or silo of proprietary data. It is made real by a set of commands, APIs, data formats, validators, converters and other technical components which together permit the open, transparent and flexible exchange of data.

The Data Layer enables what we describe of openness of data. In other words, in addition to having a clear focus on open-source technology, the TTV suite will employ open data. Open data, enabled by the TTV Data Layer, means:

• Non-proprietary formats. Other applications will be able to both read and write TTV data, whether it is to interface existing systems, or to audit the workings of the TTV system, or just to increase confidence and trust.
• Readable text formats: Data that is interchanged between components of the TTV suite will be formatted as XML, readable by people using simple text editor.

Relationship of components

As mentioned above, the TTV Suite is built from a series of relatively separate com- ponents, mostly software. These are all the more or less well known building blocks of election technology, for example:

• Election management System (EMS), to manage the data for each election, of- fices, districts, candidates, ballots, and so on.
• Ballot Design Studio (BDS), which will use data from the EMS to assist in the de- sign, templating, and preparation for printing of sets of ballots.
• Ballot Counter / Scanner (BCS), to actually scan and count paper ballots.

As currently envisioned, the components are build either as data base driven web based applications, running on servers, accessed through web browsers, or as stand- alone devices, running our software on hardware specified as part of the TTV Suite..

The web based applications will sit atop databases and will often pass information between them simply by storing and reading from a shared database. In other scenarios they will exchange information via web based file transfer or email, or so-called Web Services.

The stand-alone devices, because they are not connected to a network, perforce will exchange information via writable media such as secure memory sticks or write-once DVDs.

In all these scenarios, still, the Data Layer defines the formats, protocols, and opera- tions that support these various kinds of information exchange. Importantly, there are no restrictions on additional ways of exchanging information between components, most importantly via shared databases, as long as the mandatory Data Layer formats and processes are also fully supported.

Documents

• Read this document for a more complete overview of the concepts around the Data Layer: Data Layer White Paper

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