Fig. 2.

Vector representation of interoperability dimensions for neuroinformatic resources. For each dimension, increasing interoperability is represented by distance from the origin. User interoperability is enhanced by open access to data, findings, or tools, and zero or minimal cost and licensing requirements. Technical interoperability measures openness of architecture and utility of standards for data format specification and for data and data model exchange. Domain interoperability includes the scope of a resource and the ease with which it interfaces with resources representing different subfields or domains of neuroscience. The data dimension measures relatedness of data and intersection of data models; the domain and data dimensions are thus non-orthogonal. Temporal interoperability reflects ease of migration and of incorporation of both future and legacy data (figure and legend modified from Gardner et al. 2001, © 2001 AMIA)