Cover Pages: XML Daily Newslink: Wednesday, 03 June 2009

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:
Primeton http://www.primeton.com

Headlines

Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Object 1.0
OASIS Members Propose SOAP-over-UDP Version 1.1 as an OASIS Standard
Using Imprecise Location for Emergency Context Resolution
W3C Last Call for WebCGM Version 2.1
IEEE ICAP Takes On Standards Conformance
Sun Launches Third Release of OpenSolaris
Alfresco and EnterpriseDB Forge Technology and Business Alliance

Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Object 1.0
WonSuk Lee, Tobias Buerger (et al., eds), W3C Technical Report

Members of the W3C Media Annotations Working Group have published a Working Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Object 1.0. The specification presents use cases and requirements as an input for the development of the "Ontology for Media Object 1.0" and the "API for Media Object 1.0" specifications. The ontology will be a simple ontology to support cross-community data integration of information related to media objects on the Web. The API will provide read access and potentially write access to media objects, relying on the definitions from the ontology. The main scope of this document are videos. Metadata for other media objects like audio or images will be taken into account if it is applicable for videos as well. A list of changes and a colored diff-marked version against the previous version of this document are available.

From the 'Introduction': Anticipating the increase in online video and audio in the upcoming years, we can foresee that it will become progressively more difficult for viewers to find the content using current search tools. In addition, video services on the web that allow for upload of video, need to display selected information about the media documents which could be facilitated by a uniform access to selected metadata across a variety of file formats. Unlike hypertext documents, it is more complex and sometimes impossible to deduce meta information about a medium, such as its title, author, or creation date from its content. There has been a proliferation of media metadata formats for the document's authors to express this metadata information. For example, an image could potentially contain EXIF, IPTC and XMP information. There are also several metadata solutions for media related content, including MPEG-7, Yahoo! MEDIA RSS, Google Videositemaps, VODCSV, TVAnytime and EBU P-Meta. Many of these formats have been extensively discussed in the deliverables XGR Vocabularies and XGR Image Annotation of the W3C Multimedia Semantics Incubator Group , which provide a major input to this Working Group.

The "Ontology for Media Object 1.0" will address the intercompatiblity problem by providing a common set of properties to define the basic metadata needed for media objects and the semantic links between their values in different existing vocabularies. It will help circumventing the current proliferation of video metadata formats by providing full or partial translation and mapping between the existing formats. The ontology will be accompanied by an API that provides uniform access to all elements defined by the ontology, which are selected elements from different formats.

OASIS Members Propose SOAP-over-UDP Version 1.1 as an OASIS Standard
Ram Jeyaraman (Microsoft Corporation), OASIS Committee Specification

The OASIS Web Services Discovery and Web Services Devices Profile (WS-DD) Technical Committee has presented an approved draft of "SOAP-over-UDP Version 1.1" for consideration as an OASIS Standard. Certification has been provided by the following OASIS member organizations that they are successfully using the specification: Microsoft, University of Rostock, Schneider Electric, and Canon.

"Many application protocol patterns match the semantics of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), as defined in IETF RFC 768. Some do not require the delivery guarantees of TCP while others make use of multicast transmission. In order to allow Web services to support these patterns, we need a way to map SOAP envelopes to user datagrams. This support is essential for services using WS-Discovery, where the use of multicast and need for low connection overhead makes UDP a natural choice. It is anticipated that other protocols will have similar requirements. This specification defines a binding of SOAP to user datagrams, including message patterns, addressing requirements, and security considerations.

The "SOAP-over-UDP Version 1.1" specification intends to meet the following requirements: (1) A one-way message-exchange pattern (MEP) where a SOAP envelope is carried in a user datagram; (2) A request- response message-exchange pattern (MEP) where SOAP envelopes are carried in user datagrams; (3) Multicast transmission of SOAP envelopes carried in user datagrams; (4) Support for both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 Envelopes... The specification uses the constructs [action], [destination], [message id], [reply endpoint], [address] in the W3C WS-Addressing specification. SOAP messages transmitted over UDP must have a [message id] property.

See also: the OASIS announcement

Using Imprecise Location for Emergency Context Resolution
Richard Barnes and Matt Lepinski, IETF Internet Draft

IETF announced the publication of a revised Internet Draft for the specification "Using Imprecise Location for Emergency Context Resolution." The document was produced by members of the IETF Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies (ECRIT) Working Group.

Abstract: "Emergency calling works best when precise location is available for emergency call routing. However, there are situations in which a location provider is unable or unwilling to provide precise location, yet still wishes to enable subscribers to make emergency calls. This document describes the level of location accuracy that providers must provide to enable emergency call routing. In addition, we descibe how emergency services and non-emergency services can be invoked by an endpoint that does not have access to its precise location."

From the 'Introduction': Information about the location of an emergency caller is a critical input to the process of emergency call establshment. Endpoint location is used to determine which Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) should be the destination of the call. The entire emergency calling process is described in detail... This process is most likely to work properly when the endpoint is provided with the most accurate precise information available about its location. Using location information with maximal precision and accuracy minimizes the chance that a call will be mis-routed. And when that location is provided to the endpoint, the endpoint is able to verify that the location is correct (to the extent of the endpoint's knowledge of its own location) prior to an emergency call, and is able to perform emergency call routing functions on its own, providing redundancy for network-provided functions.

This document is concerned imprecise location only in the context of routing emergency calls, i.e., for determining the correct PSAP to receive a given call (e.g., via a LoST query). More generally, the provided location information will be needed to route the call to an entity that is authorized to request precise location, e.g., an Emergency Services Routing Proxy. Location information may also be used in the emergency calling framework to direct the dispatch of emergency responders. This usage is treated separately from call routing for purposes of this document, and this document does not place requirements on the location provided for dispatch (although it should obviously be as precise as possible). The only provision for dispatch in this document is a recommendation that the location provider supply endpoints with a URI that can be used by a PSAP or other emergency authority to obtain a different location for use in dispatch, hopefully more precise than the one used for routing.

W3C Last Call for WebCGM Version 2.1
Benoit Bezaire and Lofton Henderson (eds), W3C Technical Report

W3C announced that members of the WebCGM Working Group have published a Last Call Working Draft for the "WebCGM 2.1" specification, under development jointly with OASIS.

Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an ISO standard, defined by ISO/IEC 8632:1999, for the interchange of 2D vector and mixed vector/raster graphics. WebCGM is a profile of CGM, which adds Web linking and is optimized for Web applications in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, and similar fields. First published (1.0) in 1999, WebCGM unifies potentially diverse approaches to CGM utilization in Web document applications. It therefore represents a significant interoperability agreement amongst major users and implementers of the ISO CGM standard. The design criteria for WebCGM aim to balance graphical expressive power on the one hand, versus simplicity and implementability on the other. A small but powerful set of standardized metadata elements supports the functionalities of hyperlinking and document navigation, picture structuring and layering, and enabling search and query of WebCGM picture content.

The present version, WebCGM 2.1, refines and completes the features of the major WebCGM 2.0 release. WebCGM 2.0 added a DOM (API) specification for programmatic access to WebCGM objects, a specification of an XML Companion File (XCF) architecture, and extended the graphical and intelligent content of WebCGM 1.0. The WebCGM Version 2.1 specification is related to the previous W3C work on WebCGM 1.0 and 2.0. WebCGM 2.0 was simultaneously published by W3C as a Recommendation and by OASIS as an OASIS Standard. The two versions are identical in technical content, differing only in the formatting and presentation conventions of the two organizations.

See also: the W3C news item

IEEE ICAP Takes On Standards Conformance
Mike Fratto, Informationweek

The IEEE-ISTO (International Standards and Technology Organization) held its first conference on product certification and conformance at their IEEE headquarters in New Jersey. The goal of the IEEE Conformity Assessment Program (ICAP) is to provide support to other IEEE standards groups, test labs, and industry groups in developing conformance tests. It's a first step on a long road for the ICAP. The IEEE isn't getting into the certification business, rather ICAP wants to facilitate the development of conformance certification using existing groups and labs and this workshop got that conversation going. ICAP is a marked change for the IEEE where their involvement with standards, in the words of Rudi Shcubert Director of ICAP, ended after the standards were developed and published. It sounds good in theory, but after a half day of presentations, from NIST, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the Ethernet Alliance, and OmniAir, it's clear that developing a conformance program is an ambitious effort that will take time to grow. I hope they are successful.

Gordon Gillerman from NIST offered up a definition of conformance quoting ISO/IEC 17000 as the "demonstration that specified requirements relating to a product, process, system, person, or body are fulfilled." The definition much sums up what we, as consumers of products, want. But in the case of IT standards, we need to specify that products which implement a standard are also interoperable. It became clear on the first day of the conference that conformance and interoperation have very different goals. The assumption that conformance to a standard means that products will interoperate is a bad one. Interoperation according to standards is what we really want and we can only ensure that through interoperation testing and validation...

Gillerman noted three types of certification: (1) Suppliers declaration is when a vendor claims to adhere to a standard. This method is used when the risk of noncompliance is low, ie not life threatening, and there are penalties and methods to remove non-compliant products from the market. For example, if you bought ISO 400 speed film, but found it was ISO1600, you'd probably not buy that film any longer. (2) Inspection is when the critical characteristics can be measured or examined. For example, an electrical inspector has to examine and approve electrical work done in your home after the wiring is complete but before power is applied. (3) Certification is when the risks of non-conformity are high and includes evaluation, attestation by a third party, and surveillance or follow-up testing. For example, if you put 10w30 motor oil in your car, but it was really some other weight, you could damage your car. The American Petroleum Institute manages the certification for motor oil...

Sun Launches Third Release of OpenSolaris
John K. Waters, Application Development Trends

"On the eve of its annual JavaOne Conference, Sun Microsystems unveiled a new version of the OpenSolaris operating system. Version 2009.06 is the third release of the open source implementation of the company's Unix-based operating system. The new release sports virtualization support, storage enhancements and performance upgrades, all of which should appeal to enterprise customers...

The biggest change in this release is the addition of network virtualization technologies developed in Project Crossbow. The four-year-old project combines "the building blocks" of network virtualization and resource management by virtualizing the stack and Networked Information Center (NIC) around any networking service protocol or virtual machine. Network virtualization presents virtual NICs inside the stack to any application or virtual machine, and connects them via virtual switches and network services. In OpenSolaris, this arrangement is called a "virtual wire" or vWire.

What may interest developers most in this release is a Web-based tool set called SourceJuicer. SourceJuicer automates the OpenSolaris Image Packaging System (IPS) package build process. Developers submit code and a build manifest, and the tool validates that code, builds the app, packages it for both Sparc and x86 machines, and then publishes it into the OpenSolaris repository. Anyone running the OS will see the application in their search list. OpenSolaris 2009.06 also provides support in Sun's ZFS file system for flash storage. ZFS now understands the type of flash running on a system, and then optimizes the storage configuration automatically based on the workload and flash elements... The new release adds native support for CIFS (Microsoft's Common Windows File System) as a full peer to Network File System (NFS). Sun said that will provide support for Windows security, naming and access control for file sharing across Windows, Linux and Solaris platforms.

From the announcement: "OpenSolaris 2009.06 provides dozens of enhancements to the breakthrough technology of ZFS and encompasses it with a complete architecture of connectivity and protocol support. New, fully integrated flash storage support in ZFS helps to optimize large scale pools of very high performance storage by designating flash devices as write accelerators and read accelerators. These pools are automatically managed by ZFS to achieve extreme levels of performance across many workloads, making the need for small caches on RAID controllers obsolete..."

See also: the Sun announcement

Alfresco and EnterpriseDB Forge Technology and Business Alliance
Staff, Alfresco Software Announcement

Alfresco Software, Inc., leader in open source enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, and EnterpriseDB Corporation, a leading enterprise open source database company, today announced a partnership under which Alfresco will support Alfresco Enterprise for use with EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus and EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Advanced Server. The companies will provide joint customers with coordinated, high quality support and professional services.

According to the announcement, "Alfresco is the leading open source alternative for enterprise content management and the choice of the global 5000 with customers such as FedEx, Fox Broadcasting and Virgin Mobile. Alfresco was the first product to fully integrate the Microsoft SharePoint protocol support and the first to release an implementation of the proposed Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification giving users greater choice of operating system, database, application server and desktop environment. Postgres Plus Advanced Server is the leading open source relational database for transactional and mixed-load applications. Based on PostgreSQL, the world's most advanced open source database, Postgres Plus includes the performance, scalability and reliability found in leading commercial database products. Postgres Plus also delivers breakthrough compatibility features, allowing applications written for Oracle to run with few or no changes... Under the partnership, joint customers can now run EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Advanced Server 8.3 with Alfresco Enterprise 3.1. Further, Alfresco and EnterpriseDB will offer seamless support for shared customers who have active support subscriptions for both products.

See also: CMIS references


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