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Information & Content Exchange (ICE), is a protocol designed to significantly reduce the cost of doing business online and increase the value of business relationships by facilitating the controlled exchange and management of electronic assets between networked partners and affiliates. Applications based on ICE will enable companies to easily construct syndicated publishing networks, Web superstores, and online reseller channels by establishing Web-site-to-Web-site information networks. The ICE specification provides businesses with an XML-based common language and architecture that will facilitate the process of automatically exchanging, updating, supplying and controlling assets in a trusted fashion (building on OPS/P3P) without manual packaging or knowledge of remote Web site structures. For consumer Web sites, end users benefit from more complete and easier to use Web destinations that reduce the frustration of having to surf through many inadequate, narrowly-focused Web sites in order to find what they need.
As with most successful standards initiatives, ICE is based not only on the contributions of technology companies but also is a unique combination of sources and destinations of online assets including leading companies like Adobe, CNET, Microsoft Corporation, National Semiconductor, News Internet Services, Sun Microsystems (Javasoft), Tribune Media Services, and Vignette Corporation. ICE Version 1.0 is a W3C Note and can be located at http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-ice.htm.
"What's exciting about this authoring group is the fact that both the builders and the users of this protocol are working together from the start," said Saul Klein, senior vice president of brand and strategy for Firefly. "ICE will address the real business need for creating trusted, high-value affiliate networks."
ICE will facilitate the creation of new classes of commercial Web applications across industries such as financial services, publishing, high technology and travel. For example:
"By creating a standard platform for the controlled exchange of online assets, ICE lays the foundation for a major breakthrough in online business," said Steven Snyder, President and CEO of Net Perceptions. "ICE dramatically simplifies management and lowers costs and will become a major catalyst for the trillion dollar electronic economy."
While networked information and content has increasingly gained favor among major companies that are staking out positions on the Web, redistributing electronic assets and managing business relationships between Web sites has been an expensive, ad hoc effort. Each new business arrangement requires custom development to distribute information and content across Web sites, relying on floppy disks, screen grabs, e-mail and file transfer protocol (FTP) uploads. The purpose of ICE is to replace ad hoc efforts with a standardized, low-cost mechanism for managed exchange of Web site assets. As ICE becomes universal across the Web, it will enable companies of all sizes and industries to take advantage of the huge pool of relevant content across the Web, and establish business-to-business value chains in a low-cost, automated way. Web application developers can leverage ICE as a standard platform to exchange multiple data types, rapidly deploy networked personalization applications while protecting data privacy and incorporating existing standards.
"Until now there has been no standard to create a relationship between businesses on the Web," said Ross Garber, president and CEO of Vignette. "A consistent vocabulary for describing and managing the exchange of electronic assets between Web businesses is key to ensuring the successful growth of real business applications over the Internet. The caliber of the leaders forming the ICE authoring group clearly points to the importance of a development like ICE to the future of Web business."
GCARI's ICE Special Membership Group has two classes of members: (a) Authoring Group sponsors (comprised of individuals representing producers or consumers of exchange systems for digital content who hold the responsibility for authoring the ICE specification and overseeing committee work), and (b) Advisory Council members (comprised of individuals who further ICE development, implementation, and promotion). ICE Advisory Council members participate in committee work and have access to ICE technical documents that are not available to the general public. While membership in the ICE AG is limited, membership in the ICE AC is open to any interested party. Send all requests for membership to ICE@gca.org
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