Mike Doconta Leaves DHS

After reading the following article about Mike Doconta leaving the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS): http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/21_02/cover-stories/27858-1.html I have been wondering about the future of the NIEM. Mike Doconta was a great leader and without him I have many concerns about federal metadata leadership. I have studied many federal metadata standards and thing that the NIEM is the best positioned to be a standard upper ontology. But what are the alternatives? I don't see viable standards for upper ontologies coming from CYC or SUMO. They are too large to be practical for creating simple exchange documents between agencies. I also wonder if the w3c or OASYS has the leadership and jurisdiction to create national metadata standards. Let me know what you think! Dr. Data Dictionary