Interoperability is the ability of the systems, procedures and culture of an organisation to be managed in such a way as to maximise opportunities for exchange and re-use of information, whether internally or externally. When organizations use the same set of rules for a certain activity, they can inter-operate or work together more efficiently (e.g. for creating mutual information systems such as online catalogues).
Paul Miller further divides interoperability into 6 types:
1: Technical interoperability – Facilitated by using common technical standards (e.g. file types, metadata, etc.).
2: Semantic interoperability – Facilitated by using common vocabularies for the terminologies used in data (e.g. thesauri).
3: Political/Human interoperability – Facilitated by understanding and overcoming the barrierscaused by the different experiences and agendas of users and information providers
4: Inter-community interoperability – Facilitated by recognising differences between discipline communities and overcoming them by working together (e.g. Museums, archives and libraries)
5: Legal interoperability – Facilitated by following the legal restraints imposed on informationproviders (e.g. Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation)
6: International Interoperability – Facilitated by recognising and overcoming the barriers caused by cultural and linguistic differences.