OASIS Symposium Presentation Proposal

["Drummond Reed" <drummond.reed@cordance.net>]

I had an action item from last week's call to create a first-draft outline
of a proposed presentation from the XDI TC at next April's OASIS Symposium
on the Future of XML Vocabularies (see CFP at the end of this message).
We'll discuss this further on today's call.

=Drummond 

PROPOSED TITLE: 
XDI Dictionaries: A New Approach to Cross-Domain Vocabulary Sharing

ABSTRACT:
The OASIS XDI (XRI Data Interchange) Technical Committee began in February
2004 to pursue a new model for distributed data sharing based on the proven
architecture of the World Wide Web. This "Dataweb" model has special
applicability to the problem of vocabulary sharing in very large or very
dynamic networks, where schema standardization is difficult if not
impossible.

Under the Dataweb model, every element of shared data is uniquely
addressable via at least one XRI (Extensible Resource Identifier), a
URI-compatible abstract identifier syntax developed by the OASIS XRI TC.
XRIs are optimized for distributed data sharing because: a) they provide a
unified syntax for both human-friendly reassignable identifiers and the
persistent identifiers machines need as global foreign keys, and b) they
support "cross-references" - the ability to reuse the same identifier across
multiple contexts to aid in equivalence matching.

Sets of XRI-addressable Dataweb elements can be exchanged as Dataweb pages,
each of which itself is XRI-addressable. A Dataweb page may be a
conventional XML document, annotated with XDI elements directly or "wrapped"
in an XDI envelope, or it may be XML created directly with the XDI schema.
Dataweb pages can reference data by linking it with XRIs in the same manner
as the Web, but they can also create active two-way data sharing
relationships using XDI link contracts -- Dataweb pages used to control the
sharing and synchronization of other Dataweb pages.

An XDI dictionary is a Dataweb site whose pages serve as the
machine-readable analog of a paper dictionary: they define the XRI "words"
that can be shared as cross-references among the members of a data sharing
community. XDI dictionaries hold special promise for large-scale vocabulary
sharing because XDI dictionary spiders can do the hard legwork of mapping
multiple dictionaries and proposing equivalences and transforms between them
that can be validated by humans.

This presentation will be based on an open XDI dictionary sharing
implementation that uses the current XDI draft specifications, and will
propose additional OASIS work on XML vocabulary mapping that build on the
dictionary sharing approach.

************

-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Harnad [mailto:jane.harnad@oasis-open.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 9:01 AM
To: announce@lists.oasis-open.org; members@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [members] OASIS Symposium - Call for Participation Deadline
Approaching

OASIS Symposium: The Future of XML Vocabularies
24-29 April 2005
New Orleans Marriott 
http://www.oasis-open.org/events/symposium_2005/

--CALL FOR PARTICIPATION CLOSES 13 DEC--

Successful business integration effectively relies on agreement between
parties on the vocabularies that define the messages they exchange.
Several OASIS committees are working to define the schema and semantics
of vocabularies exchanged in specific industry-vertical domains. Other
efforts, including the OASIS UBL Technical Committee, OAGIS and the
UN/CEFACT Core Components Working Group, are defining vocabularies
intended for cross-industry use. 

No business community operates in isolation, however, and as more
industries recognize the necessity of standardizing documents amongst
their immediate trading partners, it becomes essential to expand these
networks. Consumers and suppliers in adjacent verticals must be able to
share best practices and methods of encouraging favorable development.

OASIS invites proposals for talks, panel sessions and tutorials on
topics related to the development or use of business vocabularies,
including but not limited to: 

1. The challenges in developing domain-specific vocabularies in an
increasingly cross-industry, cross-language, and cross-border
world: How are domain-specific vocabulary development groups dealing
with investment protection via schema extensibility and/or versioning,
component reuse, schema co-constraints, business validation rules, and
management policies?

2. The challenges in developing cross-industry vocabularies and
component dictionaries such as OASIS UBL, OAGI, UN/CEFACT Core
Components, and RosettaNet: What relevance, if any, do they have to
other domain-specific vocabulary development initiatives?

3. The continued relevance of the various initiatives to develop
industry-specific vocabularies: What connections are or should there be
to other domain-specific vocabulary development initiatives?

4. "Best practices" for the development of domain-specific vocabularies:
How should these evolve in the context of GRID computing, distributed
management, choreography, and business processes?

5. The challenges of developing and using cross-industry syntax and
vocabularies in B2B Web services and the dependencies on common business
vocabularies.

6. The application of business process rules and policies in the
implementation of XML vocabularies in both domain-specific and
cross-industry efforts: How could the OASIS WSBPEL TC and other
committees make use of different domain-specific XML vocabularies?

7. The benefit of mapping semantic reasoning technology, e.g., the W3C
OWL-S (Web Ontology Language) and RDF (Resource Description Framework),
between dissimilar domain-specific XML vocabularies: How can we apply
these technologies to the mapping and interoperability issues?

8. The need for and impact of internationalizing and localizing XML
vocabularies: How could XML vocabularies and multi-lingual technical
dictionaries enable dual language, cross-border electronic trade? How
does the mapping between different industries, governing rules, and
languages drive future work?

The Program Committee is particularly interested in proposals that
identify the need for new activities to create or advance
domain-specific and/or general-use vocabularies. 

Proposals related to current specification work, i.e., efforts underway
within OASIS TCs or other standards bodies, should emphasize the
development, usage, application, deployment, and interoperability
aspects, and future considerations, as opposed to merely summarizing the
specification work.

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

The program committee invites submissions of proposals for a
presentation, panel discussion, or tutorial that addresses the future of
XML vocabularies. The program committee may adapt or restructure
proposals submitted to ensure an interesting and technically compelling
program.

Presentations should be 40 minutes long including question and answer
time. Sessions will consist of related presentations, ending with a
question-and-answer session directed to the presenters.  

Panel sessions should be 60 minutes long. Proposals for panels should
include the topic, three to four potential panelists (name and/or role)
and proposed format (e.g. Q&A, short presentations). 

Tutorials should be half-day sessions. Tutorial proposals should state
intended audience and learning objectives. 

OASIS will publish online proceedings of the Symposium. Authors should
arrange any necessary releases for publication prior to submitting
proposals. 

To submit a proposal, please go to the event Web site at
http://www.oasis-open.org/events/symposium_2005/.  Submission guidelines
and online form are available. 

All submissions will be acknowledged.

IMPORTANT DATES

Proposals Due		13 December 2004
Notification		Starting 21 January 2005
Materials Due		4 April 2005
Symposium			25-26 April 2005

RELATED MEETINGS
The OASIS Annual General Meeting for Members and OASIS Technical
Committee meetings will be held in New Orleans immediately following the
Symposium. All OASIS members are strongly encouraged to attend these
events.

For further information, comments, and questions, send email to
symposium@oasis-open.org.



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