Published Subjects for Geography and Languages

Charter of proposed OASIS TC

Name of the TC

The name of the technical committee is OASIS TC "Published Subjects for Geography and Languages", usually abbreviated to the GeoLang TC.

Statement of purpose

This Technical Committee will define sets of published subjects for language, country, and region subjects, in accordance with the guidelines for published subjects to be laid down by the Published Subjects TC.

Languages, countries, and regions are subjects that occur frequently across a wide range of topic maps. In order to promote maximum reusability, interchangeability and mergeability, standardised sets of published subjects are required to cover these domains.

Two such PSI sets (for country and language) were published as part of the XML Topic Map 1.0 Specification. The task of this TC will be to update and extend those PSI sets using existing code sets defined by recognised standards bodies such as the ISO and the UN.

The TC will not produce mappings between these PSI sets, except to the extent that such mappings are already defined in the code sources. In general, any assertions made about the subjects published by this TC, including names and mappings, will be restricted to those made in the code sources.

Proposed list of deliverables and projected dates

• Published subjects for languages (based on ISO 639)
• Published subjects for countries (based on ISO 3166)
• Published subjects for countries, regions, and geographic areas (based on USMARC)
• Published subjects for regions (based on ISO 3166)
• Published subjects for languages (based on USMARC)
• Published subjects for regions (based on the UNSD Standard Country or Area Codes)

These deliverables depend on work to be done by the PubSubj TC, and their completion may be affected by delays (if any) in the work of this TC.

The TC will not produce mappings between these PSI sets, but leave this for third parties to do. The assertions made about these subjects will be restricted to those made in the code sources.

Language in which the TC will conduct business

English. Speakers of other languages are encouraged to participate.

Date, time, and place of first meeting

Thursday March 14 - 1800-2000, Seattle, The Westin Seattle Hotel.

Proposed meeting schedule for the first year

Thursday, Mar. 14, 2002, Seattle (in conjunction with the IDEAlliance conference "Knowledge Technologies 2002", Mar. 11-13 2002, The Westin Seattle hotel).

Thursday, Apr. 18, 2002, conference call.

Friday, May 24, 2002, Barcelona (in conjunction with the IDEAlliance conference "XML Europe 2002", May 19-24 2002, Princess Sofia Intercontinental hotel).

Further dates for 2002 to be announced

Names and email addresses of proposing members

• Murray Altheim, Sun Microsystems, <murray.altheim@sun.com>
• Lars Marius Garshol, OASIS individual member, <larsga@ontopia.net>
• Mary Nishikawa, OASIS individual member, <nisikawa@fuchinobe.oilfield.slb.com>
• Steve Pepper, OASIS individual member, <pepper@ontopia.net>
• Bernard Vatant, Mondeca, <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>

Name of chair

Lars Marius Garshol, OASIS individual member, <larsga@ontopia.net>