Cover Pages: XML Daily Newslink: Thursday, 31 July 2008

A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
Provided by OASIS and Sponsor Members
Edited by Robin Cover

This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by:
Oracle Corporation http://www.oracle.com

Headlines

W3C Workshop on Semantic Web in Energy Industries (Part I): Oil and Gas
Implementation and Interoperability Experiences with the Job Submission Description Language (JSDL) 1.0
New Release of Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers
Create Classification Taxonomies: A Simple XML Interface and the JMX API
Sony Reader Opens to EPUB Format for Digital Books
New Release of ISO Schematron Validator Code
Apache UIMA-AS (Asynchronous Scaleout) Add-On for UIMA, Version 2.2.2

Cover Pages

OASIS/ITU-T Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Receives Support from FEMA and World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

W3C Workshop on Semantic Web in Energy Industries (Part I): Oil and Gas
Staff, W3C Announcement

W3C has published an invitation for participation in a "Workshop on Semantic Web in Energy Industries; Part I: Oil & Gas," to be hosted by Chevron in Houston, Texas, USA on 9-10 December 2008. W3C membership is not required in order to participate in the Workshop. There is no participation fee, but registration is required; registration instructions will be sent to submitters of position papers. Workshop participants will explore how Semantic Web technologies can play a role in the management and analysis of the huge amounts of data gathered from highly diverse sources in this sector of the energy industry. Position papers are due 19-September-2008... The Oil & Gas (O&G) industry produces a staggering amount of new data every day from a variety of activities such as drilling, exploration and production, reservoir management, major capital projects, facility and downstream operations. The problem of information explosion and overload presents an ever increasing challenge in finding and analyzing information quickly and precisely in order to get the most value for the business. This problem is not unique to the O&G industry; much the same can be said, for example, about the Health Care and Life Science (HCLS) industry, which has embraced Semantic Web technology in order to unite many forms of biological and medical information across diverse industries and institutions through the encoding of meaning into the data and their interpretations. The fundamental question is how Semantic Web technologies might play a similar role in the further development of energy resources. To explore this, W3C hosts workshops with specific focus on industry areas to discuss what directions and methodologies each industry should take and how to achieve maximum benefit. The first of these workshops focusses on the Oil and Gas industry. From these workshops, the creation of one or more W3C Interest or Working groups will be explored as a possible way to move forward.

See also: W3C Workshops

Implementation and Interoperability Experiences with the Job Submission Description Language (JSDL) 1.0
A. Stephen McGough and Andreas Savva, Experimental OGF Document

This document describes the implementation and interoperability experiences of independent implementations of the Job Submission Description Language (JSDL) 1.0. The document was produced by members of the OGF Job Submission Description Language WG (JSDL-WG). The results of a survey carried out by the JSDL-WG are presented. The survey collected the implementation experiences from eleven projects and was used to identify issues with the specification, common usage, as well as areas where extensions to the specification should be carried out in the future... JSDL provides an XML-based language specifically for describing single job submission requirements. Since many different job management systems exist in distributed, heterogeneous computing systems, such as grids, a primary goal of JSDL is to provide a common language for describing job submission requirements. Hence, the JSDL vocabulary is informed by a number of existing job management systems such as Condor, Globus, Load Sharing Facility, Portable Batch System, Sun Grid Engine, and Unicore. JSDL focuses on single job submission description and it must be combined with other specifications, from OGF or other standards bodies, to address broader requirements in job or workflow management. For example, JSDL is used with the OGSA Basic Execution Service, an OGF specification that provides a job submission and management interface. JSDL can also be used with BPEL as part of workflows. JSDL can also be combined with other scheduling, service agreement (WS-Agreement), or job policy languages. ... A normative XML Schema corresponding to the JSDL specification has been included in the JSDL specification document. The JSDL-WG is working on improving and extending this language to address a wider class of jobs, including Web service invocations, and issues raised by the Grid community. Further, the JSDL-WG plans to work with Grid projects and DRM vendors to produce a document of translation tables to and from the scheduling languages of a set of popular batch systems for both the job requirements and resource description attributes of those languages, which are relevant to the JSDL.

New Release of Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers
Dominique Hazael-Massieux, W3C Announcement

The W3C Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group has released a new and stable version of its Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers, featuring more technologies and several improvements over the previous version. "The Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers combines in a single page a number of Web technologies that we believe are the foundation for a better Web experience, especially on mobile devices. Using a very visual scheme of a set of squares whose color depend on the proper implementation of a given technology, it helps assess at a glance where a given browser might be lacking to support this improved Web experience... The mission of the MWI Test Suites Working Group is to help create a strong foundation for the mobile Web through the development of a set of test suites targeted at browsers. These test suites can help assess which technologies and which features of a given technologies are supported in existing browsers on mobile devices.

Create Classification Taxonomies: A Simple XML Interface and the JMX API
Subhash Kumar, IBM developerWorks

Classification taxonomies give you a way to organize services and service metadata in WebSphere Service Registry and Repository. The ability to classify various services and the associated metadata elements into appropriate categories is one of the key enabling features of effective governance and management. Classification systems are typically comprised of a hierarchy of classes that define the entities in the taxonomy. WebSphere Service Registry and Repository supports the use of classification taxonomies through the definition of an OWL ontology definition file that lays out the classification system in terms of classes and subclasses. While an OWL ontology can define entities and relationships in a rich semantic manner, ontology definitions as applicable for defining classification systems in WebSphere Service Registry and Repository exploit a limited set of these capabilities, in particular, classes and subclasses. This article illustrates a mechanism for uploading classification taxonomies into the WebSphere Service Registry and Repository using an XML-based interface, which can also be extended as an integration mechanism for synchronizing classification taxonomies to WebSphere Service Registry and Repository from other external systems... The utility (and the approach) described in this article, also referred to as 'WSRRClassificationLoader', use a canonical XML format to lay out the classification taxonomy, convert it into an OWL file using an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) transformation, and upload the classification taxonomy into WebSphere Service Registry and Repository using the JMX APIs. You can leverage and extend this approach as a synchronization mechanism for maintaining the classification taxonomy in multiple systems, including WebSphere Service Registry and Repository...

Sony Reader Opens to EPUB Format for Digital Books
William Pollard, OhMyNews Science and Technology

A new version of the Sony Reader for digital books will support the EPUB format and the Digital Editions software from Adobe. The PRS-505 will be available with new software in the United States during August 2008. Current owners can update through a download. The EPUB format is based on XML and is available as an open specification from the International Digital Publishing Forum... The idea of a digital book has been around almost as long as the paperless office and is often resisted by those who associate print with civilization. Claims that most promotion can be dismissed as "hype" have been usually backed up by the slow progress of previous attempts to promote the e-book... Adobe are still working on the MARS project to rewrite PDF as XML friendly but the plug-in for Acrobat 9 was not part of the original release. XML workflows may become better established with EPUB as a route to the Sony Reader and other devices. Adobe supports the creation of EPUB files from InDesign and there is current work on open source alternatives. As O'Reilly TOC reported in June, "Publishers with content in DocBook XML format can now easily create EPUB files using the open source DocBook XSL package (which already supports output to HTML and to XSL-FO—a format that can be turned into PDF—along with several other formats). Here at O'Reilly we've long used DocBook as the format for Safari Books Online, and more recently been using it more for standard book production (rather than converting to XML from a format like FrameMaker)." Version 1.74 is still regarded as experimental and there is still no easy way to create EPUB files from an Open Document in Open Office. Discussion on the DocBook Wiki suggests that not all DocBook features are currently supported and the installation for Open Office may not be easy enough for most people to follow. However, the Sony Reader will probably be widely available and the Adobe Digital Editions software will make it possible to read EPUB publications on other devices. So there are strong reasons to look out for further developments in XML workflow...

New Release of ISO Schematron Validator Code
Rick Jelliffe, O'Reilly Blog

"I have put a new version of the ISO Schematron validator up at the Schematron.com web site. It is marked as beta but I always do that. Barring unforeseens, this version will become a final release. It includes full support for ISO Schematron including abstract patterns, as well as support for community-requested features on trial for the updated standard, in particular XSLT2 support. There is a slightly change to the architecture: there are a series of preprocessors (macro processors) which handle includes and abstract patterns—and several more are in the pipeline.In a future version for XSLT2, these will be merged into a single file... This is slightly more complicated with the extra steps, however the benefit is clearer, more modular code, and compatability with XSLT1 and XSLT2. One of the reasons for adopting this pipeline model is that I have extra stages under development: in particular to support a new attribute on assertions to use XSLT datatypes (see the blog entries on converting from XSD to Schematron) and to support the ISO DSDL Character Repertiore Definition Language standard..."

See also: the Schematron web site

Apache UIMA-AS (Asynchronous Scaleout) Add-On for UIMA, Version 2.2.2
Marshall Schor, Apache News Online

The Apache UIMA [Unstructured Information Management Architecture] team is pleased to announce the first release of the UIMA-AS add-on for UIMA. The release number is 2.2.2-incubating to correspond with the base UIMA level. UIMA-AS adds a highly flexible, robust, and easy to use scaleout capability to the core UIMA framework; it can be considered to be a next-generation replacement for the original CPM (Collection Processing Management) scaleout that is part of the core UIMA framework. Now you can selectively scale up (to take advantage of multiple cores) or scale out (over local and/or wide area networks) just those analytics that need the scaling, thus allowing optimization of computing resources. UIMA-AS has been successfully used on multiple projects, and scaled out to 100's of cores, with no limit in sight. It makes use of JMS (Java Messaging Services) and uses Apache ActiveMQ to support messaging between components. Already written UIMA Components can take advantage of UIMA-AS scaleout with no code or component descriptor changes. UIMA is a component framework supporting integration and deployment of components for the analysis of unstructured content such as text, audio, and video.. UIMA AS introduces a new XML descriptor, the Deployment Descriptor. Unlike the CPM descriptor which specifies component aggregation, error handling and scalability, the UIMA AS Deployment Descriptor only specifies error handling and scalability options; component aggregation is done using the standard aggregate descriptor. The UIMA Component Descriptor Editor (CDE) has been enhanced to support the UIMA AS Deployment Descriptor. The UIMA AS binary package includes everything in the standard v2.2.2 SDK package except for core UIMA documentation (links to this documentation on the Apache UIMA website are included). UIMA AS will not work with earlier versions of Apache UIMA. In addition, the UIMA AS package includes the Apache ActiveMQ implementation of JMS which is used to provide connectivity between UIMA AS clients and services... Note: The OASIS Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) Technical Committee has released several working drafts for Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) Version 1.0.

See also: the commentary

Selected from the Cover Pages, by Robin Cover

OASIS/ITU-T Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Receives Support from FEMA and World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Recent announcements from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlight growing interest in the XML-based Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) within U.S. jurisdictions and worldwide. On July 30, 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced its intention to adopt "an alerting protocol in line with Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) 1.1 as the standard for the Integrated Public Alert and Warnings System (IPAWS)." IPAWS is a network of alert systems through which FEMA is upgrading the existing Emergency Alert System (EAS). Participants in the EAS, including broadcasters and state and local emergency managers, will be required to be in compliance with CAP 1.1 standard within 180 days of its formal adoption by FEMA. A separate announcement from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva issues a call for participation in a planned CAP Implementers Workshop, to be held December 9-10, 2008 at the WMO Geneva headquarters, in cooperation with OASIS and ITU... The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Version 1.1 was adopted as an OASIS Standard by a vote of the OASIS general membership on September 30, 2005. A CAP Version 1.1 Approved Errata document was approved by the Emergency Management Technical Committee on October 02, 2007. Principal changes introduced by this Errata document include Normative References to ITU-T standards for equivalent ASN.1 representation of the CAP message corresponding to W3C Schema (XSD), incorporating new subsections to support "Use of ASN.1 to Specify and Encode the CAP Alert Message," together with the (verbatim) ASN.1 Schema. In 2007, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) adopted ITU-T X.1303: Common Alerting Protocol (CAP 1.1) as a Recommendation in Series X: Data Networks, Open System Communications and Security, Telecommunication Security.


SEARCH \| ABOUT \| INDEX \| NEWS \| CORE STANDARDS \| TECHNOLOGY REPORTS \| EVENTS \| LIBRARY

Headlines

Cover Pages

Sponsors