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Subject: followup on DDC conf call


I've guessed at Eric's email; I won't try guessing at Angela's
(Bob, please forward).

Here are my summary notes of our very pleasant and informative
conference call of earlier today; I've appended our current
scenarios document.

Dewey Conf Call
10 Nov 1999

attending:

Terry Allen, Commerce One (OASIS Regrep TC Chairman)
Angela Chen,  IBM
Ron Daniel, DATAFUSION (Invited Expert, OASIS Regrep TC)
Eric Miller,  OCLC Office of Research
Joan Mitchell, OCLC Forest Press
Bob Sutor, IBM (XML.org)
Diane Vizine-Goertz, OCLC Office of Research


Introductions. 
 
Terry describes Regrep TC goals, need for a subject taxonomy.  

Bob describes XML.org goals, and elaborates on what 
XML.org is doing and has planned. 

Angela describes her role (senior at MIT, prototyping a Registry 
and Repository for XML.org).

Ron describes what DATAFUSION is doing.

Joan is Editor-in-Chief of DDC, also Executive Director of OCLC
Forest Press (in which role she is interested in licensing DDC).
It has been licensed for use in several Web apps.

Diane has been involved in using the electronic version of Dewey
and its use, including a future Web-based version of DDC.

Eric is a scientist, working on RDF, Dublin Core, wants to understand
more of what the Regrep TC is up to; there may be some overlap with

Further discussion of Regrep functionality and business model, both
the OASIS TC spec and XML.org.  A serious issue is how to avoid
exposing all of DDC for scraping, thus risking compromising OCLC's 
present business model.  Additional discussion on how to use parts
of DDC without exposing it all.

Terry to forward Regrep scenarios to this group; send Eric the
classification scheme DTD.

Business issues: 

Has OASIS done this before?  No.

If OASIS were to license DDC, what rights would XML.org sponsors
have?  None.  

OCLC's price list is for libraries, for specific uses; pricing based on
either usage or uses.  OCLC has been thinking about Web licensing
issues for over a year, and has some proposals for other projects.

Eric says OCLC has been working on taxonomy services that apps
can bind to; a possible means of avoiding illicit use.  Discussion of
mechanics of this method, and what in particular it's good for;
Eric will send examples.




regards, Terry
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">

<html>
<head>
<title>OASIS Registry and Repository Use Scenarios</title>

<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V0.17">
</head>
<body>


<h1 >
<a name="N236">OASIS Registry and Repository Use Scenarios</a>
</h1>
<p><a href="index.html">Back to OASIS Member's-Only Registry
and Repository Technical Committee Home Page</a></p>
<h3>Revision History</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Revision 0.2
,  16 August 1999
,  TA
</dt>
<dd>Broken out from draft tech spec.
</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt>Revision 0.3
,  19 October 1999
,  TA
</dt>
<dd>reorganized; amplified scenario for submission
with deposit.
</dd>
</dl>
<hr>


<p>
<b>Table of Contents</b>
</p>
<dl>
<dt>
<a href="#obdtd">1. Obtaining a DTD Automatically</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#depentity">2. Depositing an 
XML-Related Entity</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#regentity">3. Registering an 
XML-Related Entity without Deposit</a>
</dt>
<dt>
<a href="#browse">4. Browsing or 
Searching for a DTD</a>
</dt>
</dl>

<p>
These scenarios involve both users retrieving something
from the repository and contributors registering something
in the registry, which may involve depositing something in
the repository.  
</p>

<h2  >
<a name="obdtd"><b>1. Obtaining a DTD Automatically</b></a>
</h2>
<p>
A user or user agent retrieves an XML-related entity 
such as a DTD automatically over the Web, as a result of some
use of it in an XML context.  
</p>
<p>
<b>Motivation.</b>
Unless everything needed for parsing
and displaying a document under all circumstances 
is packaged with the
document itself, the document must refer to something (DTD, style sheet,
public text) by identifier.  It is necessary to be able to
retrieve the referred-to entity, and in the Web context,
it is preferrable to be able to do this automatically.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example A.</b>
A user is sent a document the DOCTYPE 
declaration of which refers to a DTD by unique identifier 
(URN, PI, or FPI).  His parser tells him it can't find the 
DTD, so he goes out and retrieves it manually from a repository
(he doesn't need the registry interface because he has a
unique ID but he does need to know where to find the repository).
</p>
<p>
<b>Example B.</b>
A user clicks on a link to the stockmarket
news and his browser receives an XML document the DOCTYPE
declaration of which refers to a DTD by unique identifier;
his browser, which has no copy locally, 
retrieves it automatically from the repository.
</p>


<h2  >
<a name="depentity"><b>2. Depositing an 
XML-Related Entity</b></a>
</h2>
<p>
A creator of an XML-related entity deposits it, possibly
along with related data, for service
to the public, at some range of accessibility from archival
(retrieval rate could be slow) to utility (retrieval rate
must be fast, large number of connections should be supported,
round-the-clock uptime with failover, etc.).   
</p>
<p>
<b>Motivation.</b>
Many creators of XML entities lack the facilities
to serve them reliably; even those that can do so may not wish
to deal with the burden.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example A.</b>
An IETF working group decides that a DTD that is
part of their specification, but which the IETF has no facilities
to serve, should be available from a public Web server with high 
bandwidth, and doesn't want to have to maintain the server.  It
sends the DTD to a repository and the repository serves it, 
as in the first scenario.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example B.</b>
A consortium or consultancy wishes its DTDs to 
be available for inspection and display.  It deposits the DTDs,
along with their documentation and sample instances, 
in a repository and provides appropriate metadata for the
repository's registry interface.  The owner of the repository 
undertakes to make them available (but not with a 
high guaranteed quality of service).
</p>
<p>
<b>Example C.</b>
Rosetta Net, a (real life) consortium of hardware 
vendors and suppliers, develops UML models,
DTDs, and sets of text values used in 
their content, all expected to be in heavy demand, the text values
to change frequently.  It deposits the UML models (as XMI),
DTDs, and the initial set of 
text values in a repository, contracts for a regular update schedule
and the highest available quality of service, and the repository 
undertakes to serve
them, update them as agreed, push updates to subscribers, and maintain 
high quality of service for retrieval requests.  Rosetta Net 
doesn't need a registry 
interface for this purpose because everything is to happen automatically, 
but it provides appropriate registry metadata so that the DTDs can be
browsed and searched.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example D.</b>
The Air Transport Association, which maintains important
DTDs but make them available only to its members, wishes to 
offload the work of supplying those DTDs.
It deposits the DTDs in a repository, contracts for service
as in Example C, and in addition arranges that the DTDs are
listed in the registry interface but are available only
when an appropriate credential is presented in connection 
with a request for them.  (This is an application of
access control.)
</p>


<h2  >
<a name="regentity"><b>3. Registering an 
XML-Related Entity without Deposit</b></a>
</h2>
<p>The owner of an XML-related entity, or another repository,
registers the entity in the OASIS-sponsored registry, but does
not deposit the entity itself.
</p>
<p>
<b>Motivation.</b>
Registries can interoperate to increase useability, but the
actual storage location of an entity alone should not restrict
the content of a registry.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example A.</b>
A company wishes to makes its DTDs visible
in the OASIS-sponsored registry, but prefers to serve them itself.
It submits appropriate registry documents to the OASIS-sponsored registry,
including a pointer to the address from which it serves
the DTDs, and agrees with the OASIS-sponsored registry that it will
supply timely update information and that the  OASIS-sponsored registry
will update its records and interface in a timely manner.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example B.</b>
A special-purpose registry wishes to makes its content visible
in the OASIS-sponsored registry, while maintaining that content
in its own repository.
It submits appropriate registry documents to the OASIS-sponsored registry,
including a pointer to its repository,
and agrees with the OASIS-sponsored registry that it will
supply timely update information and that the  OASIS-sponsored registry
will update its records and interface in a timely manner.
</p>


<h2  >
<a name="browse"><b>4. Browsing or 
Searching for a DTD</b></a>
</h2>
<p>
A user ready to compose an XML document searches for a
DTD that covers the subject of the document.  
</p>
<p>
<b>Motivation.</b>
Every day in newsgroups and e-mail discussion lists
such as <tt>comp.text.sgml</tt>,
<tt>comp.text.xml</tt>, and
<tt>xml-dev</tt>
people ask whether there is a DTD for some subject area
or functional purpose.  The number of such queries will grow if
XML is widely adopted.  Somehow they have to be answered if wheel
reinvention is to be minimized.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example A.</b>
A user is about to write his resume, and wants
to use XML.  He goes to a registry and looks
in a subject hierarchy (or taxonomy) to find a resume DTD
(this is browsing, not searching).  
The subject hierarchy interface displays three 
appropriate listings, 
he chooses among them on the 
basis of their descriptions, downloads the DTD he chose from the
repository, manually adds it to his SO catalog, and sets to work 
with vi and SP.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example B.</b>
A user is about to write his resume, and wants
to use XML.  He goes to a registry and uses
its search engine to find a resume DTD (this is searching,
not browsing).  The search interface returns
three hits, he chooses among them on the basis of their descriptions,
downloads from the repository the DTD he chose, and loads it into 
his XML writing tool.  The interface also provides a 
time-to-live value, showing him how long he can expect
his resume DTD to be served by the repository.
</p>
<p>
<b>Example C.</b>
A homeowner is about to advertise his house
for sale, and opens his verboprocessor.  He says "take a memo:
real estate for sale" and the verboprocessor automatically contacts
a registry to find an appropriate XML DTD (there
is one already for real estate listings).  He dictates the text of
his ad without knowing anything about XML, and the verboprocessor
sends it to all real estate listing services it can locate.
(In this scenario the verboprocessor uses a registry to find
something in a repository.)
</p>
<p>
<b>Example D.</b>
An XML application designer
needs a component to represent
the list of names of French provinces, so he
consults a registry.  The registry interface
indicates that the list is available as a tab-delimited list
in ASCII, as an XML schema
datatype declaration, and as a parameter entity declaration in
DTD syntax.  He chooses the parameter entity declaration format
by clicking something in the interface, and the 
repository returns it.  
</p>
<p>
<b>NOTE:</b>  while it does not seem too
useful at this stage, attention should be paid to SC32 WG2's 1999-04-20
draft &#147;Metadata Query Service:  An Object Technology
Extension to the ISO/IEC 11179 Specification and Standardization
of Data Elements, Part 3, Basic Attributes&#148;, which has
both use cases and IDL for &#147;behavioral aspects of
a data registry&#148; (p. v).
</p>
<p>
<b>NOTE:</b>  There are additional
scenarios in ISO/IEC 11179.
</p>
<p> </p>


<p><a href="index.html">Back to OASIS Member's-Only Registry
and Repository Technical Committee Home Page</a></p>
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