A News Standards Summit sponsored by IDEAlliance, IFRA, IPTC, NAA, and OASIS will be held December 8, 2003, in conjunction with the Philadelphia XML 2003 Conference. The organizers are concerned that key specifications for news content representation and dissemination (NewsML, NITF, PRISM, RSS, Atom, ICE, XMP, XHTML, etc.) are being developed in isolation.

The News Standards Summit "will bring together major players -- experts on news metadata standards as well as commercial news providers, users, and aggregators. News Summit attendees will analyze the current state and future expectations for news and publishing XML efforts from both the content and processing model perspectives. The goal is to increase understanding and drive practical, productive convergence. All interested parties are welcome to participate. Anyone who develops or implements news exchange standards is strongly encouraged to attend, particularly providers and users of news, online content, mobile communications, newspapers and magazines, and picture libraries.

The program will feature presentations from several key news standards efforts, balanced by a requirements overview from a panel of international users." Confirmed speakers include Chet Ensign (LexisNexis), Laurent Le Meur (AFP), Alan Karben (XML Team Solutions), Ron Daniel (Taxonomy Strategies), Dianne Kennedy (IDEAlliance), Sam Ruby (IBM), Ben Hammersley (author of Content Syndication with RSS), John Cowan (Reuters), Peter Meirs (Time Inc), and Patricia Harris (NISO). They will be joined by speakers from Adobe, Associated Press, Dow Jones and Nokia; other well-known participants include Tim Bray, David Megginson, and Mark Walters.

News Standards Summit Agenda Overview

The provisional agenda includes three segments:

• News Standards Overview (chaired by Stephane Guerillot, AFP)

  • Intro (Stephane Guerillot, AFP)
  • Keynote (Chet Ensign, LexisNexis)
  • NewsML (Laurent Le Meur, AFP)
  • NITF (Alan Karben, XML Team)
  • Other Payload MLs for News (Alan Karben, XML Team)
  • Prism (Ron Daniel, Taxonomy Strategies)
  • RSS (Ben Hammersley, author of "Content Syndication with RSS")
  • Atom (Sam Ruby, IBM)
  • ICE (Dianne Kennedy, IDEAlliance)
  • XMP (Adobe)

• User Requirements (chaired by Linda Burman, PRISM), to include 10-minute presentations by representatives of users/implementers of news standards about their requirements for news exchange standards. Confirmed speakers include:

  • David Schlesinger, Global Managing Editor and Head of Editorial Operations, Reuters
  • Ken Ficara, Director of Content and Information, Dow Jones
  • Geoff Haynes, Manager of Product Development, Associated Press Digital
  • Patricia Harris, Executive Director/Secretary, NISO
  • Peter Meirs, Time Inc

• Open Discussion (chaired by Misha Wolf, Reuters), to discuss the steps that have to be taken to to get "hassle free news exchange."

From the OASIS Announcement

The News Standards Summit announcement and invitation has been issued by several of the sponsors.

NewsML, NITF, PRISM, RSS, Atom, ICE, XMP, XHTML... As interest builds for standardizing news dissemination, concern also grows that specifications are being developed in isolation. How do they fit? Where will they converge? How can developers and users collaborate to identify gaps and overlaps and ensure their systems will be able to interoperate now and in the future?

OASIS invites you to find the answers in a one-day News Standards Summit to be held Monday, 8 December 2003, in conjunction with XML 2003 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

The News Standards Summit will bring together major players -- experts on news metadata standards as well as commercial news providers, users, and aggregators. Together, we will analyze the current state and future expectations for news and publishing XML efforts from both the content and processing model perspectives. Our goal -- to increase understanding and drive practical, productive convergence.

Pre-registration and a nominal meeting fee of 90 USD will be required to cover the cost of lunch, breaks, and room fees. Register online at www.idealliance.org/news-summit.

Please contact me [Carol Geyer] with any questions you might have on the News Standards Summit. The event is open to all, so feel free to forward this invitation to any colleagues or customers who may be interested. I look forward to seeing you in December.

Related Event: XMLUK.org (XML UK) Conference

On October 7, 2003, an XMLUK.org (XML UK) conference organized by RivCom addressed "XML in the News: How XML is Being Implemented in Newspapers and Related Media." The event featured presentations by David Allen (IPTC/NewsML), Alison Clark (XPRL.org), David Cole (The Cole Papers), Ian Davies (Archant Group), David Jones (Vio Worldwide/AdsML), Allan Marshall (Associated Mediabase), and Tony Stewart (RivCom).

Background: "XML and related internet technologies present the news and media industries with more challenges and opportunities than virtually any other business sector. Not only are these technologies transforming the editorial and production processes within newspapers, they also enable news and advertising content to be repurposed across publications and media in ways that ignore geographical boundaries and existing business models. Different players within the industry are responding to the challenges in different ways... XML is now accepted as a core technology that will underpin significant changes in processes within and between newspaper, advertising and PR and related media organisations. But how can we make sense of the plethora of XML standards that are coming into existence and harness them to generate business benefit? What framework [is needed] to define the relationship between key processes involved in the sector and the enabling XML technologies?..." [adapted from the website]