INCITS/L8 - Metadata
http://INCITS-L8.org/ANNUAL REPORT
October 2002 through September 2003
1. Executive Summary
· All the standardization activities within the past year for L8 are in the international arena, as US TAG to JTC1/SC32/WG2 and as a member group of CT22, the Combined TAG to JTC1/SC22, for the ISO/IEC 11404 project revision.
· The most significant milestones of the year involve the progression of the following international projects:
- ISO/IEC 11179 - Metadata registries
* ISO/IEC 11179-3, Part 3 - Registry metamodel and basic attributes - published
* All parts of the standard and related projects are freely available on the JTC1 web site
- ISO/IEC TR 20943 - Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency
* ISO/IEC TR 20943, Part 1 - Data elements, published
* ISO/IEC TR 20943, Part 3 - Value domains, passed DTR ballot, to be published
· Over 20 additional projects at the international level achieved significant progress during the past year.
· Members of L8 are actively pursuing new members. There are currently 14 active members in L8.
· L8 is maintaining an active liaison relationship with other INCITS TC's, ISO TC's and SC's, IEEE, W3C, and OMG.
· The number of organizations implementing ISO/IEC 11179 increased. A Federal Data Registries User Group was started for federal agencies building data registries based on ISO/IEC 11179. There are 20 agencies particpating.
2. Significant Accomplishments
The following major accomplishments were achieved by L8:
Members of L8 are editors of the following projects, and the projects were progressed as follows:
- ISO/IEC 11179-1 ((Metadata registries - Part 1: Framework) went to FCD ballot - comment resolution is underway
- ISO/IEC 11179-2 ((Metadata registries - Part 2: Classification) established first Working Draft to be progressed to CD by end of year
- ISO/IEC 11179-3 (Metadata registries - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes) was published
- ISO/IEC 11179-4 (Metadata registries - Part 4: Formulation of data definitions) passed FCD ballot
- ISO/IEC 11179-5 (Metadata registries - Part 5: Naming and identification) failed a second CD ballot
- ISO/IEC TR 20943-1 (Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency - Part 1: Data elements) was published
- ISO/IEC TR 20943-3 (Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency - Part 3: Value domains) passed DTR ballot and will be published
- ISO/IEC TR 20944 (Metadata registry interoperability and bindings - All Parts) established first Working Drafts and 9 of the 29 Parts were submitted for CD
3. Significant Challenges
a) L8 continues to try to recruit new members. This work is slightly successful. The new Federal Data Registries User Group should be a good source for new members.
b) L8 needs to coordinate its work with the multitude of other metadata efforts in W3C, OMG, Dublin Core, and others. Establishing active liaison relationships with these communities is essential.
c) L8 has many projects under its control with limited resources -
i) For ISO/IEC 11179, Part 1 (Framework), Part 2 (Classification), ISO/IEC 11179-5 (Naming and identification), and Part 6 (Registration) require significant updating to bring those documents in line with the new version of Part 3.
ii) Work to incorporate requirements for XML in an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry is an urgent need. Three projects are underway to help solve these problems:
ISO/IEC 11179, Part 5 - Naming and identification
ISO/IEC TR 20943, Part 2 - XML structured data
ISO/IEC 20944, Part 21 - XML coding binding
iii) A requirement to address the quality of metadata has been identified. A new project or an extension of an existing one is required to address to needs.
iv) Several new projects were started this year with editorship in L8 -
ISO/IEC 19773 - Metadata module
Part 1 - Name and location information
Part 2 - Relations information
Part 3 - Security information
ISO/IEC 24706 - Metadata for technical standards and specifications documents
ISO/IEC 24707 - Common logic - A framework for a family of logic based standards
d) L8 previously touted its ability to conduct business with a conference telephone for remote members. We are encountering problems with this technology. Members on the phone are unable to read non-verbal signals from members in the room (and vice-versa), and we thought we reached consensus several times when in fact we did not.
4. Expected Challenges
The increased workload creates the need for more members. We will continue to recruit.
Special care must be taken to conduct business when some members are participating by telephone. This means extra work for everyone participating in the meetings.
Other INCITS subgroups that are involved with metadata (L1, L3, H2, V2, V36, and others) within subject areas or technical domains are important allies for L8. Close cooperation will increase our understanding of metadata and its requirements, extent, and usefulness.
A. Previous Year's Meetings
SC32 and SC32/WG2
January 2003 - Santa Fe, NM, USA
L8 Plenary
6 December 2002 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
14 March 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
18 July 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Meeting minutes (Each minutes contains a link to previous meeting minutes)
Task Group for Technical Development
31 October - 1 November 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
4-5 December 2002 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
12-13 March 2002 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
24-25 April 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
8 May 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
19-20 June 2002 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
16-17 July 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
B. Next Year's Planned Meetings
SC32 and SC32/WG2
27-31 October 2003, Melbourne, Australia (SC32/WG2)
17-28 May 2004, Xian, China (SC32 and SC32/WG2)
L8 Plenary
3 October 2003, Information Technology Industries Council, Washington, DC
19 December 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Other meetings to be determined
Task Group for Technical Development
1-2 October 2003, Information Technology Industries Council, Washington, DC
17-18 December 2003 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
15-16 January 2004 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Other meetings to be determined
6. Liaison Activities (All liaisons are to L8)
INCITS/L1 and ISO TC 211 (GIS) - The spatial data metadata activities under L1 and TC 211 are of interest to L8.
INCITS/V36 and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 (Learning Objects) - Learning Technologies use metadata for resource location.
IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee - This is the original committee in which the work of SC36 and V36 began.
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC25/WG1 (Home Electronics Systems) - Metadata is required to link controls to many household appliances through a single interface.
Intelligent Transportation Systems America and ISO TC 204 (Intelligent Transportation) - The ITS registry is based on principles defined in ISO/IEC 11179.
ISO TC 37 (Terminology) - Terminology deals with concepts, terms, classification, and concept structures. These are important for helping users of ISO/IEC 11179 registries find and understand registered items.
ISO TC 215 (Health Care) - The health care community uses metadata to describe patient records and transfer health data among systems. Health care registries based on ISO/IEC 11179 are under construction.
Object Management Group (OMG) - OMG has a series of standards, such as the Meta-Object Facility that describes metadata from an abstract point of view. How the ISO/IEC 11179 registry specification fits into the MOF framework and how ISO/IEC 11179 can describe the 4 levels of MOF are subjects for continued discussion and learning.
World Wide Web Consortium - XML is fast becoming a preferred method for transferring or structuring data and metadata for a wide variety of applications. How XML elements and schemas are described by ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries is still under development. How XML registries will interoperate with ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries is being developed.
Metadata Registries Coalition - The coalition is an informal group of representatives from organizations that are implementing ISO/IEC 11170 metadata registries.
Federal Data Registries User Group - The FDRUG is an informal group of representatives from US federal agencies that are implementing ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries.
7. Membership and Officers
Membership (Members are the same for L8 and the Task Group)
Battelle Memorial Institute
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly Health Care Financing Administration)
Department of Defense, National Security Agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Environmental Protection Agency
Farance Inc.
Knowledge Solutions, LLC
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Mitretek
National Institute for Standards and Technology
Oracle Corporation
Palladin Integration Engineering
University of Alabama, Huntsville
L8 Officers
Chair - Daniel Gillman, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Vice-Chair - Bruce Bargmeyer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
International Representative - Frank Farance, Farance Inc.
Task Group for Technical Development Officers
Chair - Judith Newton, National Institute for Standards and Technology
8. Future Trends
Many organizations are implementing ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries. This is not an easy task for an organization to attempt. Metadata management is expensive, requires a large shift in thinking within the organization, and takes a long time to implement correctly. One large database vendor is marketing a business strategy whose core is the implementation of an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry. One small software consulting firm is doing the same. These vendors built general registries that can be tailored to the needs for each customer. Several organizations are purchasing these services.
ISO/IEC 11179 is gaining acceptance in the international arena, too. Organizations representing statistics and social sciences, health care, environment, space and aviation, transportation, and standards are involved.
The work of L8 continues to attract attention across the country and around the world. Many organizations are following the work and are in the process of implementing the standards.
As the Internet and the World Wide Web are used more widely, metadata is becoming an increasingly important subject. Many standardization or accepted practice efforts are called metadata projects. This fact places L8 at the center of a wide range of projects and developments throughout all industries.
For the foreseeable future, metadata will continue to be an important topic. How objects are described usefully to people who need to find, understand, and use them is an important area of research in industry and academia. The inclusion of knowledge representation projects into the active set of projects for L8, moves the TC to the center of new developments in artificial intelligence, intelligent agents, ontology development, and the semantic web.
As XML, RDF, and other practices become more widespread, the importance of a framework for organizing the semantics of the elements used in these languages becomes increasingly important. A purpose for the Web is to allow people from disparate places and cultures to share information. This is only possible if the semantics of the shared resources are known and translatable.
The Semantic Web and the needs for Homeland Security are both areas where the work of L8 can have a strong impact. Sharing and using data from many different sources requires thorough descriptions of that data. ISO/IEC 11179 is designed for that purpose.
9. Other Administrative Information
L8 does not collect funds. A financial statement is not applicable.
As noted above, membership is an issue. L8 tries to conduct meetings electronically, especially using teleconference, occasional video conference, and Net-Meeting. This enables people outside Washington to attend without travel. The time difference between the coasts has an impact on the usefulness of these techniques. No-verbal communication, available to all the people in one room, is not available across a telephone. This is a problem for L8.