XML Community of Practice

Meeting Notes

November 15, 2005

This meeting was conducted as a town hall at the XML 2005 conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Approximately 30 people attended but their names and affiliations were not registered. The agenda is available at http://xml.gov/agenda/20051115.htm.

Owen Ambur displayed the new submissions to the ET.gov site at http://et.gov/component_search.aspx and particularly the XML-related components identified on i411's enhanced, faceted search service.

Paul Macias provided an update on the status of the XML Naming and Design Rules and Guidelines (NDRG). Brand Niemann asked whether the NDRG are linked into UN/CEFACT’s parallel effort, mentioned rules engine tools, and noted the need for vendor engagement and support. Sol Safran commented that while NDR are good to have, the fact there are multiple standards is a problem. Betty Harvey noted that UBL and UN/CEFACT are addressing transactions for C2C purposes, but that such rules may not make sense when applied to less structured information. She suggested separating the naming rules from the design rules. She also observed that legacy data does not conform to NDR and cannot be ignored. Brand suggested that a new paradigm is emerging to build an ontology first. Ken Sall suggested the scope of the NDRG should be reviewed.

[Editor’s note: Now that CORE.gov has migrated to a new platform, the URL for the site at which collaboration on the NDRG is being conducted is https://collab.core.gov/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=2234.]

Josh Lubell and Puja Goyal briefed the group on the XML-related tools under development at NIST. http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/xml_related.htm

No one was present to brief the group on Atom. However, in follow up to the meeting, in response to Owen Ambur’s request, Tim Bray provided an XSD for Atom.

Owen and Brand briefly discussed the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Data Reference Model (DRM) and particularly the opportunity for DRM implementation pilot projects.

[Editors note: The DRM Implementation Through Iteration and Testing (ITIT) team site is at http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DRMImplementationThroughIterationandTestingPilotProjects and the DRM version 2.0 itself is now available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/DRM_2_0_Final.pdf.]

Please convey any additions or corrections to Owen_Ambur@ios.doi.gov