Web Services Calendar (WS-Calendar) TC to Create Common Scheduling Standard. � OASIS announced a new Web Services Calendar (WS-Calendar) TC, chartered to adapt existing calendaring and scheduling specifications to develop a Common Scheduling standard that defines how schedule, event, and interval information is passed between/within services. Beginning with the 'iCalendar XML Representation' standard from CalConnect/IETF, the TC will create a specification for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting calendar events on a schedule.

OASIS Public Review: Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) v1.0. � The OASIS Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) TC approved a Committee Draft of the CMIS Version 1.0 specification for public review through December 22, 2009. CMIS defines a domain model along with Web Services and Restful AtomPub bindings that can be used by applications to work with different content management repositories/systems. CMIS defines generic/universal CMS capabilities, and the interface is layered on top of existing CM systems.

Apache Software Foundation Launches Chemistry Incubation Effort for CMIS. � The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced a new Incubator project to support the OASIS Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification. The Apache Chemistry Incubation development effort will implement the latest draft of the CMIS specification and provide input to the TC on the implementation details. It is also anticipated that the group will produce a CMIS Reference Implementation (RI) and a CMIS Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK).

W3C XML Security Working Group Invites Public Review of New Working Drafts. � The W3C XML Security Working Group has published eight (First Public) Working Drafts for review, including "XML Signature 1.1" and "XML Encryption 1.1". Members of the WG would appreciate feedback on these documents, with special attention to the algorithms and other proposed changes. In parallel with this v1.1 technical work, the XML Security Working Group is developing requirements and designs for a more radically different version 2 of XML Signature.

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Version 1.0 Published as a DMTF Standard. � Distributed Management Task Force has published "Open Virtualization Format Specification v1.0 as a DMTF Standard. OVF describes an open, secure, portable, and extensible format for packaging and distribution of software to be run in virtual machines. OVF uses XML for capturing metadata about virtual appliances. Packaging virtual appliances in OVF independent software allows vendors to create pre-packaged appliances that run on any virtualization platform.

Charter Proposed for OASIS Emergency Management Adoption Technical Committee. � OASIS members have published a Proposed Charter for creation of a new TC to support adoption of emergency management specifications. The OASIS Emergency Management (EM) Adoption Technical Committee draft charter identifies the goal as collaboration to provide expertise and resources to educate the marketplace on the value of the Emergency Management OASIS Standards, including the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL).

OASIS Members Form Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) Committee. � Brocade, EMC/RSA, HP, IBM, LSI, NetApp, Seagate, and Thales submitted a charter proposal for an OASIS Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) TC, based upon draft specifications. The TC will standardize KMIP for interoperability of key management services with key management clients. KMIP addresses requirements for key lifecycle management, key sharing, and long-term availability of cryptographic objects (public/private keys, certs, symmetric keys).

Oracle Beehive Object Model Proposed for Standardization in OASIS ICOM TC. � OASIS published a charter for a proposed TC to define an integrated collaboration object model supporting a complete range of enterprise collaboration activities. The ICOM data model is based upon the Oracle Beehive Object Model. The new standard model, interface, and protocol supports contextual collaboration within business processes for an integrated collaboration environment which includes communication, teamwork, content, and coordination artifacts.

Microsoft Publishes Implementation Notes for File Formats in Office 2007 SP2. � Microsoft announced the publication of an initial set of document-format implementation notes for the company's ODF 1.1 implementation in Office 2007 SP2. The Document Interoperability Initiative (DII) Web site provides hypertext access to the detailed notes, linked from the online ODF specification, covering implementation decisions, additional file data, and implementation variances. Similar implementation notes will be published for Open XML (ECMA 376).

Web Services Test Forum (WSTF) Addresses End User Interoperability Scenarios. � Industry partners have announced the Web Services Test Forum (WSTF), designed as an open community to improve the quality of the Web services standards through interoperability testing. The Forum provides a customer-centric focus driven by end user testing scenarios. WSTF has a lightweight structure: no Board, no centralized authority, no dues, few barriers to participation, and no allowance for IPR encumbrances. Individuals and corporate entities may join.

Office Open XML File Formats Published as ISO/IEC 29500:2008 Final Standard. � ISO announced the publication of the Office Open XML File Formats specification as an ISO/IEC joint standard. ISO/IEC 29500 specifies a family of XML schemas, collectively called Office Open XML, which define the XML vocabularies for word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents, as well as the packaging of documents that conform to these schemas. A new Document Interoperability WG will help align ISO/IEC 29500 with ISO/IEC 26300 (OpenDocument).

W3C Forms New Web Services Resource Access (WS-RA) Working Group. � W3C has launched the Web Services Resource Access (WS-RA) Working Group, chartered to standardize a general mechanism for accessing and updating the XML representation of a resource-oriented Web Service and metadata of a Web Service, as well as a mechanism to subscribe to events from a Web Service. W3C Recommendations will be produced based upon five Member Submissions: WS-Transfer, WS-ResourceTransfer, WS-Enumeration, WS-MetadataExchange, and WS-Eventing.

Microsoft 'Geneva' Framework Supports SAML 2.0, WS-Federation, and WS-Trust. � Microsoft has announced a new identify management strategy under code-name 'Geneva'. This single, simplified, claims-based identity model includes support for several standards in the federated identity space, including SAML 2.0, WS-Federation, and WS-Trust. Components include Geneva Framework for building claims-aware .NET applications, Geneva' Server, and Windows CardSpace 'Geneva'. A Beta release was unveiled at the Microsoft PDC, available for download.

Public Review for OpenID Provider Authentication Policy Extension (PAPE) 1.0. � Members of the OpenID Provider Authentication Policy Extension (PAPE) Working Group have released PAPE Draft 7 for 60-day public review. The PAPE extension to the OpenID Authentication protocol provides a mechanism by which a Relying Party can request that particular authentication policies be applied by the OpenID Provider when authenticating an End User. For example, phishing-resistant, time-related, or multi-factor authentication methods may be requested.

EAS-CAP Industry Group Publishes Profile for the Common Alerting Protocol. � The EAS-CAP Industry Group has released a draft "EAS-CAP Industry Group EAS-CAP Profile Recommendation EAS-CAP-0.1" for public comment. ECIG is providing the profile as a recommendation to U.S. governmental agencies and industry associations on the use of CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) for Emergency Alert System (EAS) purposes, including the FCC, FEMA, National Weather Service, and other organizations. CAP is an OASIS Standard and an ITU-T Recommendation.

OASIS Identity Metasystem Interoperability TC Advances Information Card Use. � OASIS announced the formation of a new Identity Metasystem Interoperability (IMI) Technical Committee, chartered to increase the quality and number of interoperable implementations of Information Cards and associated identity system components to enable the Identity Metasystem. The goal of the IMI TC specification development work to provide the interoperability support that will enable Information Card use to become ubiquitous.

Open Web Foundation Formed to Support Community Specification Development. � Open source community leaders announced a new Open Web Foundation which seeks to apply a hybrid open source model to community-based specification development. OWF will focus on: (1) Incubation: lightweight process for creating open web specifications; (2) Licensing: or really no licensing, through non-assertion covenants; (3)Copyright: Creative Commons model; Community: collaboration of individuals and companies held accountable to support the Open Web.

Vendors Publish Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Standard. � EMC, IBM, and Microsoft have published "Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS)", distributed as four prose documents with supporting XML schemas. The CMIS standard defines a domain model and set of bindings, such as Web Service and REST/Atom, that can be used by applications to work with one or more Content Management repositories/systems. Alfresco, Open Text, Oracle, and SAP collaborated on CMIS, now proposed for submisssion to an OASIS TC.

W3C Member Submission for Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (ccREL). � W3C has published the text of a Member Submission from Creative Commons: "ccREL: The Creative Commons Rights Expression Language." ccREL builds upon the astronomical success of Creative Commons licenses, which are embeddable machine-readable legal instruments allowing authors to express permissions for others to share, remix, and reuse content. ccREL is a new XML/RDF machine-readable language to express copyright licensing terms and related information.

OASIS/ITU-T Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Receives Support from FEMA and WMO. � Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announcements highlight adoption of the XML-based Common Alerting Protocol. CAP defines a format for exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over multiple networks. FEMA announced a CAP Profile for the Integrated Public Alert and Warnings System. WMO issued a CFP for a December 2008 CAP Implementers Workshop in Geneva, co-sponsored by OASIS and ITU-T.

Balisage 2008 Conference in Montreal Continues Extreme Markup Tradition. � "Balisage 2008: The Markup Conference" continues the popular Montreal series (formerly "Extreme Markup Languages") under a new title "Balisage." Organizers have published the complete program for the main conference (August 12-15, 2008) and for the "International Symposium on Versioning XML Vocabularies and Systems" (August 11). Topics: Semantic Web, ontology design, schema mashups, constraint management, topic maps, annotating overlap, digital libraries...

W3C Publishes Approved TAG Finding on Associating Resources with Namespaces. � W3C has published "Associating Resources with Namespaces" as an Approved TAG Finding from the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). The document addresses the question of how ancillary information (schemas, stylesheets, documentation) can be associated with an XML namespace. It offers guidance on how a namespace document can be optimally designed for humans and machines such that information at the namespace URI conforms to web architecture good practice.

Information Card Foundation Formed to Support User-Centric Digital Identity. � Equifax, Google, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and Paypal have announced the formation of the Information Card Foundation (ICF) as an independent, not-for-profit organization designed to advance the adoption and use of Information Cards across the Internet. ICF's mission is to advance the use of the Information Card metaphor as a key component of an open, interoperable, royalty-free, user-centric identity layer spanning both the enterprise and the Internet.

New OASIS Standard: XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) v1.2. � OASIS has announced the approval of the XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) specification v1.2 as an OASIS Standard. It was produced by the OASIS XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF) TC. The purpose of the XLIFF vocabulary is to store localizable data and carry it from one step of the localization process to the other, while allowing interoperability between tools. XLIFF is tool-neutral and supports the entire localization process.

OGC Approves Sensor Web Observations and Measurements Encoding Standard. � The Open Geospatial Consortium announced the approval of the Observations and Measurements Encoding V1.0 specification as a final OpenGIS Implementation Standard. The standard defines an abstract model and an XML schema encoding for observations and measurements as part of a framework required for use by other OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards and for support of OGC compliant systems dealing in technical measurements in science and engineering.

Public Draft for HTML 5: A Vocabulary and Associated APIs for HTML and XHTML. � W3C announced a First Public Working Draft of "HTML 5: A Vocabulary and Associated APIs for HTML and XHTML" as a major revision of the World Wide Web's core language. HTML 5 is intended to replace HTML4, XHTML 1.x, and DOM2 HTML. New features are introduced for Web application authors; new elements are introduced based on prevailing authoring practices; processing models and clear conformance criteria are defined for user agents to improve interoperability.

W3C Publishes SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language Semantic Web Standard. � SPARQL (recursive acronym for "SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language") has been released as a standard by W3C. The three-part specification was produced by the RDF Data Access Working Group as part of the W3C Semantic Web Activity. SPARQL defines a standardized query language for RDF enabling 'joining' of decentralized collections of RDF data. SPARQL queries hide the details of data management to lower costs and increase robustness of Web data integration.

OASIS Members Propose Charter for WS-BPEL Extension for People (BPEL4People) TC. � OASIS member companies have submitted a charter proposal for a WS-BPEL Extension for People (BPEL4People) Technical Committee. Companies sponsoring the proposal include Active Endpoints, Adobe, BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Software AG, and Sun Microsystems. Building upon the June 2007 two-part industry BPEL4People specification, this TC would define extensions to WS-BPEL 2.0 to enable human interactions, along with a model enabling the definition of human tasks.