OASIS Topic Maps Vocabulary for XML Standards and Technologies TC

The original Call For Participation for this TC may be found at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200201/msg00007.html

The charter for this TC is as follows.

Name

Vocabulary for XML Standards and Technologies TC, abbreviated as the XMLvoc TC.

Statement of Purpose

This Technical Committee will define a vocabulary for the domain of XML standards and technologies. The vocabulary will provide a reference set of concept and relationship types that will enable common access layers; and thus improved findability; for all types of information relating to XML, related standards, and the XML community. The vocabulary items will be defined as Published Subjects, following the recommendations of the OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee.

The establishment of the vocabulary as a set of Published Subjects will enable providers of information about XML to create topic maps, which will become robustly mergeable and interoperational with other XML-related topic maps. This in turn will open up the possibility of collaboratively developing overarching indexes that improve accessibility to all aspects of XML, its related specifications, the community that uses it, the tools that support it, and those that provide services and expertise around it. The use of the defined Published Subjects is by no means restricted to topic maps: for example, they could be used in RDF to identify appropriate classes and properties of resources.

In addition to the core vocabulary, the committee will also deliver recommendations for creating and registering further Published Subjects for this application domain. Finally, an example topic map will be delivered that covers the core concepts and shows how to use the Published Subjects.

The following list provides an indication of the kinds of subjects that are expected to be included in the vocabulary. The list employs topic map terminology to distinguish between subjects for concepts, relationships, and resources:

  • Topic classes: Specification, Concept, Organization, Tool, Tool category, Vendor, Vendor category, Service, Provider, Service category,
  • Association classes and association member roles: Ownership (Specification/Organization), Part-whole (Specification/Concept), Belonging (Tool/Tool category; etc.), Service providing (Service/Provider),
  • Occurrence classes: Definition, Description, Q-and-A, Article, Press release, Recommendation, Note,

NOTE: Because XML is nowadays used in numerous applications the TC will restrict the scope of its vocabulary to "core information technology standards and technologies". XML applications (standards and technologies) which do not belong to the core set will be considered to be out of scope. One of the first tasks of the TC will be to define this core set and limit the scope to a feasible size.

The work of this technical committee will be closely coordinated with that of the OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee (PubSubj TC). The work of the PubSubj TC will determine the formal characteristics of the Published Subjects to be defined by this proposed TC.

List of Deliverables

  • Draft vocabulary for XML standards and technologies (May 2002)
  • Core vocabulary with Published Subjects for XML standards and technologies (Aug 2002)
  • Example topic map in XTM format (Dec 2002)
  • Recommendations for the definition of further Published Subjects for XML standards and technologies (Dec 2002)

 

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