The original Call For Participation for this TC may be found at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200211/msg00006.html
The charter for this TC is as follows.
Translation Web Services
The purpose of the Translation Web Services TC is to define a standard that provides an encapsulation of all the information required to support the following value proposition through the framework of the Web Services initiative: “Any customer with content to be translated should be able to automatically connect to and use the services of any localization vendor, over the internet.
Web services connect customers and suppliers automatically without the need for direct communication. Translation memories can be retrieved automatically from anywhere in the network. Web services allow us to build intelligence into the infrastructure, using standard definitions to communicate openly with any tool and any supplier that comply with the standard.
Translation Web Services defines how a customer can submit localization tasks to a supplier using Web Services. Localization is the process of adapting material from its home market form for any given non-source markets. Localization tasks include but are not limited to translation from one language into other languages, software engineering, testing, desktop publishing, linguistic review, screen shooting, voice overs.
The Translation Web Services TC will define a standard for Web Services for the Localization industry which caters for the industry business processes.
The first phase of the workgroup has been to define how Web Services will work in the Localization industry and start work on the committee specification. This phase has now been completed. During this phase we produced the initial draft of the specification and have identified the messages the specification will use as well as service types.
The second phase is in progress now and involves completing the first version of the specification and putting this forward as a committee specification. The specification will describe the Web Service interface as well as containing the WSDL and schema documents.
During the third phase, the specification and WSDL documents will be proposed as a committee specification. We will then put forward the document for a peer review. The feedback we get from this will be reviewed and the specification modified accordingly. The resulting specification will be put forward as an OASIS standard.
The vision behind this work is to provide a framework by which the translation and localization industry can use Web services for automation and for the integration of different process carried out by different participants.
The audience for this specification is anyone who has an interest in the use of Web service as a means of communication as part of the translation or localization process.
The Translation Web Services TC is working within the same industry as the OASIS XLIFF TC and it is hoped that there will be a close working relationship between the two TCs.