The IDEAlliance PRISM Working Group has issued a request for comment on the Version 1.2 PRISM: Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata specification for a 45-day review and comment period.

PRISM "defines a set of XML metadata vocabularies that assist in automating repetitive tasks that are used in accessing, managing, tracking and repurposing content. The PRISM Specification and the PRISM Aggregator DTD, which is an application of the PRISM Specification, provide tools for interoperability so that organizations can easily and automatically syndicate, acquire, exchange and find magazine and mainstream journal articles, catalogs, images, and other types of content across multiple repositories."

The PRISM specification "recommends the use of certain existing standards, such as XML, RDF, the Dublin Core, and various ISO specifications for locations, languages, and date/time formats. Additionally, it defines a small number of XML namespaces and controlled vocabularies of values."

The Version 1.2 PRISM specification will replace the PRISM Vesion 1.1 specification published in 2002, featuring updates and additions resulting from the growing number of production implementations.

Supporting specifications include an RSS (RDF Site Summary) 1.0 module for PRISM 1.2 and an RDF schema for PRISM 1.2. These documents were developed by Nature Publishing Group and are said to be applicable to multiple publishing domains, including scientific, educational, or trade.

The PRISM working group is a joint effort of representatives from publishers and vendors organized under IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance, Inc). Participants in the PRISM Working Group include Adobe Systems, Inc., Cadmus Professional Communications, CMP Media, LLC, Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., (HFM), Hearst Magazines, L A Burman Associates Inc., LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier plc., Wolters Kluwer Health a division of Wolters Kluwer North America, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Oracle Corporation, OverDrive, Inc. Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Publishing Connections Inc.(PCI), Sheridan Press, Taxonomy Strategies, Time Inc., and Vodafone Global Products.

Bibliographic Information

PRISM: Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata. Version: Third public draft, RFC. 2004-08-06. 105 pages. Produced by members of the IDEAlliance PRISM Working Group. Copyright (c) International Digital Enterprise Alliance, Inc. (IDEAlliance)

From the Announcement

PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata), an IDEAlliance Working Group, has issued a Request for Comment on the newest version of PRISM. Since the release of the PRISM 1.1 specification in 2002, the PRISM effort has grown as many new publishers, integrators and software vendors have seen the value of the specification as a key aspect of their content and information management strategies. The new version of the specification (PRISM V1.2) contains updates and additions that are a result of the growing number of production implementations of PRISM.

PRISM defines a set of XML metadata vocabularies that assist in automating repetitive tasks that are used in accessing, managing, tracking and repurposing content. The PRISM Specification and the PRISM Aggregator DTD, which is an application of the PRISM Specification, provide tools for interoperability so that organizations can easily and automatically syndicate, acquire, exchange and find magazine and mainstream journal articles, catalogs, images, and other types of content across multiple repositories.

According to David Steinhardt, President and CEO of IDEAlliance, "It is clear that the leading publishers who are an important constituency within our membership are coming to rely more and more on standardized metadata to manage content, reduce production costs, and create new revenue streams. Over the past year, the PRISM standard has gained traction as companies begin to use it in actual production environments. The experience that has been gained through the growing number of PRISM implementations has enabled us to refine the specification and improve its usability."

In addition to posting PRISM 1.2 for comment, the PRISM Working Group is posting two related specifications in the "Contributed Resources" area of the PRISM website. These resources, an RSS (RDF Site Summary) 1.0 module for PRISM 1.2 and an RDF schema for PRISM 1.2 were developed by Nature Publishing Group, a leading science publisher, but they are of general utility and can be used by all publishing domains, scientific, educational, trade, or otherwise. Although these resources were developed outside the PRISM Working Group, they are being posted because they may provide value to the PRISM 1.2 implementation community.

The PRISM 1.2 Specification welcomes open industry participation during the 45-day comment period before PRISM 1.2 is formally released. The PRISM Working Group is seeking comments from individuals and organizations that have interest in putting the proposed PRISM 1.2 Specification to use...

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is the scientific publishing arm of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, combining the excellence of Nature, Nature Research Journals, Nature Reviews Journals, NPG Academic Journals and NPG Reference publications, to provide the world's premier information resource for the basic biological and physical sciences. NPG is a global company, with headquarters in London and offices in Paris, Munich, New Delhi, Tokyo, Melbourne, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, New York and Boston.

PRISM, (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata) is an IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) Working Group. The member companies are involved in content — creation, categorization, management, aggregation and distribution — both commercially and within intranet and extranet frameworks. Their interest in PRISM comes from the need for a common metadata standard as a basic part of the content infrastructure. The PRISM Working Group is open to all IDEAlliance members...

IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices. IDEAlliance has been a leader in information technology since 1966 (founded as Graphic Communications Association) having fostered the development and adoption of standards such as ADIS, DISC, GRACoL, ICE, JIFFI, Mail.dat, papiNet, PRISM, PROSE XML, SPACE XML, SGML, and XML..."