Meeting Report
National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS)
L8, Data Representation, Special Interest Group Meeting on ISO/IEC 11179 Projects
July 15 & 16, 1999 at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD
Attendees:
Bruce Bargmeyer Environmental Protection Agency
Tim Boland National Institute of Standards and Technology
Jim Carpenter Bureau of Labor Statistics
Joe Christensen Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Twyla Courtot Self
Lesa Faris Marasco Newton Group
Larry Fitzwater Environmental Protection Agency
Dan Gillman Bureau of the Census
Cordell Green Marasco Newton Group
Kathleen Gundry Science Applications International Corporation
Henry Heffernan EDPNS
Shawn Jones Science Applications International Corporation
William H Kenworthey, Jr. Self
Theresa Krol Health Care Finance Administration
Judith Newton National Institute of Standards and Technology
Douglas Mann Battelle
Phong Ngo Science Applications International Corporation
Frank Olken Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Burt Parker Paladin Integration Engineering
Anju Rathi Veterans Health Administration/EDS
Andy Schoka MITRETEK Systems
Genevieve Speier Health Care Finance Administration
Glen Sperle Health Care Finance Administration
Judith Newton chaired the meetings.
Prior to the meeting, Judith sent an agenda with links to the major documents to be discussed. She also sent out messages with information necessary for attending the meeting via conference call. A teleconference bridge was available each of the meeting days for national and international dial-in calls. All persons, from any country, who are interested in the projects, are invited to call during the meetings. Anyone from outside the US, who wants to call in, should send a message to Judith Newton (jnewton@nist.gov) or call her at +1 301 975 3256 so that any special arrangements can be made. We can phone out to international parties, who wish to participate in the meeting. For example, we originate the call to Joe Christensen at his home, in the middle of the Australian night, so that he can participate.
We also set-up "NetMeeting" as a means of making documents visible to persons who dial in.
Documents, such as the metamodel, which we project on a screen in the meeting room, can be viewed simultaneously to anyone logged in to NetMeeting. LBNL provided the NetMeeting server site. NetMeeting is free software distributed with Internet Explorer. All are invited to both phone in and use Net Meeting, if you cannot attend in person.
1. Part 3 Revision
Joe Christensen presented a new "issues list" document that combines the individual metamodel issues for the Part 3 revision into a single document. This is to be a standing document for the duration of the project to revise Part 3, although at some point it may be split into two documents, one containing resolved issues and one containing unresolved issues. The document currently contains issues 11 - 20. Per agreement at the last meeting, Joe added the two items "Committee Proposed Resolution" and "Status" for each issue. For each of the issues, Joe incorporated the "Committee Proposed Resolution" as recorded by Ray Gates of Canada at the last meeting (and sent by Ray to the sc32wg2-news email reflector). Joe will next put in issues 1 - 10 and issues 21 - onward. Several new issues were proposed during the meeting and participants will write them up in the current template for Joe to include in the combined issues list. Joe drew our attention to the committee proposed resolution to Issue 11, as recorded by Ray Gates. We agreed with Ray's statement of the proposed resolution (prepare revised WD, circulate in July for review during August, then prepare CD version so that CD ballot comments can be resolved at the January SC 32 meeting). We consulted with Doug Mann to see when we would need to send the CD version to the SC 32 Secretariat for ballot. We determined that we need to get it to Doug by September 30 and that he will issue the ballot very quickly. Joe is editing the Part 3 text to prepare the next version.
Joe's consolidated document is now a standing document for this project. See below for the URL.
Doug Mann produced another document for the issues list. It is set up as a table, similar to one used in WG 3, that summarizes the issues in a brief form, one line per issue. Joe agreed to maintain both documents. This document is also to be a standing document.
The issues lists documents are now standing documents in the Part 3 project web/FTP site under the subdirectory 11179p3r/standing-documents (see below for full URL).
The URL for the HTML version of the issues list table is:
<http://www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/standing-documents/wg2sd11b-issue-list-p3r-table.htm> (Note that if the URL crosses more than one line, you must put it back together in your browser.)
The FTP location for the MS Word version of the issues list table is:
<www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/standing-documents/wg2sd11a-issue-list-p3r-table.wd6.doc> (See bottom of this report for FTP access instructions.)
The URL for the HTML version of the issue list (full text) documents is:
<http://www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/standing-documents/wg2sd12b-issues-list-p3r-documents.htm> (Note that if the URL crosses more than one line, you must put it back together in your browser.)
The FTP location for the MS Word version of the issue list (full text) documents is:
<www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/standing-documents/wg2sd12a-issues-list-p3r-documents.wd6.doc>
2. Web/FTP site for SC 32/WG 2
Arrangements are underway to transfer the web site to a NIST server. A contractor will assist in this effort as soon as procurement action is complete. We will try to build in the improvements requested at Matsue. A directory design structure and site map will be proposed and sent to the SC 32/WG 2 reflector for comment. Then all material will be consolidated in the new site and HTML pages will be set up to facilitate access. The group discussed questions about how we can most easily keep a document register that is available on line, so that participants can immediately get document numbers for their documents. We want to design the document register and other aspects of the web site for "low maintenance". Low cost alternative servers were also suggested and will be explored.
3. L8 Web/FTP Site Revision
The Marasco Newton Group (MNG) is preparing a redesign of the L8 Web Site and home page. They will propose a directory design structure and site map for the site and send it for review by L8. Files in the old structure will not be changed, so that anyone having links to the current structure will not have those links broken. Appropriate documents will be copied into the new structure. MNG will update the design of the home page and work with the current maintenance person at LBNL to update the design.
4. XML, EDI and Metadata registries
Tim Boland reported on a number of XML activities underway that have relevance to EDI and electronic commerce. XML/EDI <www.xmledi.org> is investigating how XML can be used with EDI. The group has developed a white paper and is looking for comments. They are investigating repositories and have an XML repository activity. The work of L8 may be relevant to the XML/EDI effort. There is open participation in this effort and it is possible to join discussion lists.
OASIS www.oasis-open.org is involved in promoting XML business to business. NIST working through OASIS developing an OASIS conformance test document. Metadata registries are also relevant to this work. Terry Allen will make a presentation on this at the next Open Forum.
Tim also mentioned work underway in the W3C. SC32/WG2 and L8 are involved in the XML-Schema work through the involvement of Frank Olken and John McCarthy
5. Conformance for 11179 Part 3
Most of the two days was spent working on the metamodel for the revised Part 3. We focused at this meeting on specifying the minimum set of attributes needed for "conformance" to ISO/IEC 11179 Part 3. We strived to find the smallest number of attributes, with various participants giving up favorite and long cherished attributes. Agony. The logic runs something like this:
The full metamodel is a conceptual-level model of entities, relationships and attributes, in UML, that collectively specify the metadata that the WG 2 participants find useful or potentially useful in managing the semantic content of data, particularly data elements and components of data elements. Few, if any Registration Authorities would want to implement the entire model. For any particular Registration Authority many of the entities and attributes may be too expensive to implement or may be out of scope for the intended purpose of the registry. Therefore, a Registration Authority or organization may wish to draw a profile of ISO/IEC 11179, selecting the attributes that are relevant to their intended purpose. The profile may include extensions needed to fully address the intended purpose. These profiles may be standardized or otherwise published. This is, in effect, what is being done for the Intelligent Transportation System Data Registry and for the NASA Data Entity Dictionary Specification Language.
As we developed the list of attributes required for "conformance", each participant used his or her knowledge of intended "registry objectives" as criteria for selection. The standard suggests several purposes and objectives for metadata registries, but there is no exhaustive or unified statement of objectives. We see that 11179 is utilized, in whole or piecemeal, for a wide variety of purposes. We concluded that there should be specific "levels" of conformance. Implementers could choose the intended level of conformance. Even within a single level, there could be different conformance specifications, depending on the intent of the registry. We agreed upon two conformance specifications for "ISO/IEC 11179 Level 1 Conformance" Level 1A is for a data element registry and Level 1B is for a Data Element Concept registry. We specified a few more than 20 attributes for each of Level 1A and Level 1B. We did not have time to specify any other Level 1 or any Level 2 conformance. Level 2 might combine Level 1 conformance specifications for a broader purpose. E.g., a Level 2 conformance specification might be proposed for a more fully functional data element & data element concept registry. We would eliminate some attributes, which would be redundant and might add a couple attributes to link the data element metadata to the data element concept metadata.
Before the meeting, Doug Mann posted a document to the 11179 project web site. It listed the potential required attributes as contained in the metamodel for the Part 3 revision. It is available on the Part 3 project Web/FTP site as:
http://www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/Proposals/Required-Attributes-11179.htm
An MS Word version is available via FTP at:
www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/Proposals/Required-Attributes-11179.doc
Larry Fitzwater led the discussion about "conformance" attributes. We got a lot accomplished and managed to avoid the dragons and whirlpools that infest these uncharted seas.
We only had time to come to agreement on the attributes required for the ISO/IEC 11179 Level 1A and 1B conformance specifications. Larry Fitzwater will provide the agreed-upon lists for conformance Level 1A and Level 1B to Doug Mann. A document that specifies the conformance attributes will be distributed to the sc32wg2-news reflector.
During the discussion participants proposed that the following statements be included in the conformance section of 11179:
The following summarizes the attributes required for a metadata registry to be considered conformant to ISO/IEC 11179 Level x.x.
The "required" attributes are stated from the standpoint of metadata interchange. For a metadata registry to be considered to be conformant to ISO/IEC 11179 it must be able to provide content for the "required" attributes.
Nothing in the conformance statements is intended to require the redundant storage of metadata. This is stated at the "conceptual" level and it is expected to be implemented efficiently.
Registration authorities are likely to declare additional attributes as "required" for their implementation. This is only a statement of what is "required" for ISO/IEC 11179 Part 3 conformance.
These are offered to the editor for inclusion in the revised document.
6. 11179 metamodel definitions
During the discussions about the attributes required for conformance, we found many definitions that need work. We agreed to meet all day on July 22 and 28, 1999 in NIST North, Room 506 to work on definitions. We will start at 9 AM. All are invited to participate. If anyone wants to participate by phone, please contact Larry Fitzwater at fitzwater.larry@epa.gov tel: +1 202 260 3071 and we will set up a teleconference call.
7. L8 - T2 Merger
Dan Gillman reported that he has communicated with Murray Freeman and Tony Sarris about the merger of T2 and L8. He received an email message from Murray Freeman on this topic and sent the message to the L8 Reflector. The message described T2 projects and suggested two options for incorporating the projects into the L8 program of work. Option 1 would have L8 pick up all of the projects. The participants at this meeting agreed with option 2 of the message, which suggests that L8 pick up the portion of the T2 projects that relate or potentially relate to the work of SC 32/WG 2. In addition, we are only interested in projects for which people indicate an interest in "active" participation. Dan will prepare a message listing projects that could be added to the L8 work program. To assess potential interest, he will circulate the list to the combined L8-T2 email list (L8-News@nist.gov) and use other means that may be available. We will then approve a final list for inclusion in the L8 program of work.
During the above discussion, we discussed the work of the ANSI ad hoc group on Ontologies. We are quite interested in their work and in the potential for working together. Some Ontology work will be highlighted at the next Open Forum on Metadata Registries. Bruce Bargmeyer will contact Ed Hovy at the University of Southern California to explore the potential for working together.
8. Definitions for Dublin Core Version 1.1
Judith Newton noted that an L8 subgroup met for a day to review the definitions for the Dublin Core Data elements. Eliot Christian has sent the results out for review by others. This work will be part of a presentation at the next Open Forum on Metadata Registries.
9. Open Forum on Metadata Registries
The next Open Forum on Metadata registries will be held January 17 - 21, 2000 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Registration is expected to begin in August, 1999.
The draft web site for the Open Forum is:
http://www.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/2000/events/openforum/index.htm
Karen Ilardo, Lesa Faris and Cordell Green from MarascoNewton Group (MNG) are making the arrangements for the Open Forum under contract from EPA. Lesa and Cordell described some of their activities and invited suggestions from the meeting participants.
Bruce Bargmeyer gave a brief update on the Open Forum agenda, which was distributed to the sc32wg2-news reflector as a draft for comment. Several comments were received. All of the organizers are requested to update their portions of the agenda by July 23, 1999. Comments and updates should be sent to bargmeyer.bruce@epa.gov, killardo@marasconewton.com and cgreen@marasconewton.com
The organizers for the "tracks" to be held on the Thursday and Friday of the Open Forum are:
Track 1- Environment, with emphasis on environmental cleanup
Organizers: Bruce Bargmeyer, Linda Spencer
Track 2 - Health Care
Organizers: Robert Mayes, Genevieve Speier
Track 3 - Statistics
Organizers: Dan Gillman, Jim Carpenter
Track 4 - Space, Geography, Information Discovery and
Emerging Technologies
Organizer: Bruce Bargmeyer
Track 5 - Terminology
Organizers: Linda Spencer, Stu Gagnon, Harold Solbrig
In addition, Jake Knoppers and Bill Olle are on the organizing committee.
We discussed the amount and mechanics of collecting a conference fee. It is expected that we will collect a conference fee in the amount of $250 - $300. We need to follow applicable procedures.
All are invited to comment on the draft agenda and other arrangements.
10. Projects
Work is progressing on the other projects, based on input received at the Matsue meeting, email and other sources. The results will be sent out by the editors.
There is a web accessible directory for each of the projects. Documents related to each project are placed in the project directories. You can access all of the directories at
< ww.nist.gov/L8/sc32wg2/projects>.
Some of the projects have home pages that list or describe documents on the project website. See below for project level URLs.
Projects are requested to maintain
the relevant documents on their project website. See each website for the
reports and other project documents. The following lists each project and the
URL for the project.
If you have comments on any of the
documents, please send the comments to the email reflector for the for SC32/WG2
sc32wg2@nist.gov.
The projects and the URLs for
their web sites are listed below:
10.1 Revise ISO/IEC 11179, Part 3 (five-year revision) with amendments to other parts of 11179 to make all parts consistent [Joe Christensen, Australia, editor]
The URL for material relating to this project is:
http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8/sc32wg2/projects/11179p3r/
10.2 Object Specifications for ISO/IEC 11179
The URL for this project is:
http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8/sc32wg2/projects/11179obj/
10.3 XML extensions for ISO/IEC 11179
Documents about this project are
available at:
http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8/sc32wg2/projects/11179xml/
10.4 Technical Report on ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registry Content
Work is proceeding on preparing the next draft. Judith Newton passed out copies of some material describing the fundamental concepts of abstraction for object design. She is using this and other object oriented design material for the levels of abstraction section in the draft document. We hope to have another draft to circulate before the next meeting.
Documents about this:
http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8/sc32wg2/projects/11179content/content-home.htm
10.7 Terminology extensions for ISO/IEC 11179
Documents about this project are
available at:
http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8/sc32wg2/projects/11179term/term-home.htm
11. Future meetings
Note that we invite the broadest possible participation in moving the projects forward. There is always a dial-up line to the meeting room. The numbers are sent out in advance. We can also dial out to national and international numbers. Please send a message to Judith Newton (jnewton@nist.gov), if you want us to call you. We are attempting to use "Net Meeting" as a way of making the model and other material visible to all remote participants. Please let us know if there is any way in which we can facilitate your participation.
The following are the meeting dates and locations for future meetings:
No meeting in
August.
09/14/1999 09/14/1999
01:00 PM 04:30 PM CR-145**
09/15/1999 09/15/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
09/15/1999 09/15/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
09/16/1999 09/16/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
09/16/1999 09/16/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-501**
09/16/1999 09/17/1999
11:30 AM 01:00 PM DR-A
09/17/1999 09/17/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
09/17/1999 09/17/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
10/06/1999 10/06/1999
01:00 PM 04:30 PM CR-145**
10/07/1999 10/07/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
10/07/1999 10/07/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-501**
10/07/1999 10/08/1999
11:30 AM 01:00 PM DR-A
10/08/1999 10/08/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
10/08/1999 10/08/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
11/08/1999 11/08/1999
01:00 PM 04:30 PM CR-145**
11/09/1999 11/09/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
11/09/1999 11/09/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-501**
11/10/1999 11/10/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
11/10/1999 11/10/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-501**
12/07/1999 12/07/1999
01:00 PM 04:30 PM CR-145**
12/08/1999 12/08/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
12/08/1999 12/08/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
12/09/1999 12/09/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-501**
12/09/1999 12/10/1999
11:30 AM 01:00 PM DR-A
12/09/1999 12/09/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
12/10/1999 12/10/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM CR-145**
12/10/1999 12/10/1999
08:30 AM 05:00 PM LR-152**
1/17 - 21/ 2000
Open Forum on Metadata Registries, Santa Fe New Mexico, USA
1/24 - 28/2000 SC32 and WG 2 meetings, Santa Fe New Mexico,
USA
* This room is located in the basement of the
Admin Bldg.
** This room is located in the NIST North Bldg.
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Directions to NIST Administration Building: From Interstate 270, driving north, take Exit 10. The exit takes you under the freeway. Take a left into the NIST campus at the first stoplight. The Administration Building is the largest building on the campus. Visitor parking is in the large parking lot in front of the Admin Building. Other parking lots nearby are reserved for permit holders.
Directions to NIST North: NIST North is Building 820. The address of this building is 820 West Diamond Avenue. Note that the building is located across the street from the main campus of NIST. Instead of turning onto Bureau Drive toward the main Gate of NIST, turn the opposite direction (North) onto Bureau Drive and take the second possible right turn to get to the NIST North building, The building has the name "NIST" on it in large letters. (From Interstate 270, driving north, take Exit 10, which loops under the freeway, and then turn RIGHT at the first stoplight--this is the intersection of West Diamond Avenue and Bureau drive.)
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NCITS L8 documents, including this meeting report, are available via Anonymous FTP from sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov. Login as "anonymous" use your email address as a password. Change directory to L8 (in upper or lowercase letters) and check the "readme" file for details. The FTP site is also available on the web at: http://sdct-sunsrv1.ncsl.nist.gov/~ftp/l8 Many of the documents are also listed on the L8 Home Page. The URL for the L8 home page is http://www.lbl.gov/~olken/X3L8".
If you have questions or comments on this document send
email to bargmeyer.bruce@epamail.epa.gov