Ontology Outreach Advisory

Since it completed the Recommendation Track process last year, little has been said or written about POWDER. However, there have been a number of unrelated events recently that I take as evidence of a long term future. As chair of the WG that created it (and an editor of all but one of the documents and general front-person for the whole thing), this makes me happy!

One of my private measures of success for it has always been that one day, someone I don't know and who doesn't know me stands up at a big conference and says "you know this POWDER thing is really cool." That happened at SemTech last month when Matt Fisher presented it in a session called RDF Friday Part 3: Practical RDF - POWDER & Object Design Patterns. The full version of what he was saying is available in an article on his company website Putting POWDER to Work. Matt and I have exchanged e-mails since then but we hadn't had any contact before.

Secondly my friend and WG member Andrea Perego has been cooking up some code that uses POWDER to generate RDFa in a way that could make it really easy to add all those <link /> elements in documents on the fly under the control of a single, central POWDER file.

Suppose you want to add RDFa to all the pages on your Web site (not a bad thing to do!). One can imagine doing this for Creative Commons licences, DC metadata etc. Something like

These link elements should probably be included on every page of your site. Sounds like a job for POWDER. Andrea's PHP POWDER Processor (3P) can take a POWDER file and URI as inputs and return those RDFa link elements via a RESTful API - one that could easily be called from within an authoring tool. Full documentation, including an example using the Open Graph Protocol, is available.

Another development is still under wraps at the moment but the signs are very positive that a combination of marketing expertise, industry contacts, business dynamism and, not unimportantly, venture capital is coming together in a POWDER-fuelled start-up.

A quick reminder of the key features of POWDER:

• it allows you to associate a bunch of predicates and objects with any number of subjects (as Dan Brickley puts it: it solves the aboutEachPrefix issue);
• it's primary format is XML, a small amount of which can describe a large amount of content;
• it has an associated GRDDL transform that renders the data as semantically-equivalent OWL;
• a POWDER processor returns RDF triples;
• the provenance of the data is always declared.

If you haven't looked at POWDER before, maybe now's a good time to do so.

Today W3C published a new standard for building rule systems on the Web. Declarative rules allow integration and transformation of data from multiple sources in a distributed, transparent and scalable manner. The new standard, called Rule Interchange Format (RIF), was developed with participation from the Business Rules, Logic Programming, and Semantic Web communities to provide interoperability and portability between many different systems using declarative technologies. For more information, see the RIF FAQ.

The six new standards are:

• RIF Core Dialect, which provides a standard, base level of functionality for interchange
• RIF Basic Logic Dialect and RIF Production Rule Dialect provided extended functionality matching two common classes of rule engines
• RIF Framework for Logic Dialects describes how to extend RIF for use with a large class of systems
• RIF Datatypes and Built-Ins 1.0 borrows heavily from XQuery and XPath for a set of basic operations
• and RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility specifies how RIF works with RDF data and OWL ontologies.

Along with these standards, W3C today published five related documents: RIF Overview, RIF Test Cases, OWL 2 RL in RIF, RIF Combination with XML data, and RIF In RDF. The RIF Working Group is also preparing a primer and a revision of its outdated Use Cases and Requirements.

The SPARQL Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Federation Extensions, which defines extensions to the SPARQL Query Language to support distributed SPARQL query execution. The group also published 5 updates, listed below. The group seeks feedback, particularly on open issues identified in each document.

• SPARQL 1.1 Query adds support for aggregates, subqueries, projected expressions, and negation to the SPARQL query language.
• SPARQL 1.1 Update defines an update language for RDF graphs.
• SPARQL 1.1 Service Description defines a vocabulary and discovery mechanism for describing the capabilities of a SPARQL endpoint.
• SPARQL 1.1 Uniform HTTP Protocol for Managing RDF Graphs describes the use of the HTTP protocol for managing named RDF graphs on an HTTP server.
• SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes defines conditions under which SPARQL queries can be used with entailment regimes such as RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, or RIF.

The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published six Proposed Recommendations. Together, they allow systems using a variety of rule languages and rule-based technologies to interoperate with each other and with Semantic Web technologies.

Three of the drafts define XML formats with formal semantics for storing and transmitting rules:

• The RIF Production Rule Dialect (PRD) is designed for the kinds of rules used in modern Business Rule Management systems.
• The RIF Basic Logic Dialect (BLD) is a foundation for Logic Programming, classical logic, and related formalisms.
• The RIF Core Dialect is the common subset of PRD and BLD, useful when having a ubiquitous platform is paramount.

The other drafts:

• RIF Datatypes and Builtins (DTB) specifies the datatypes and standard operations (modeled on XPath Functions) available in all RIF dialects
• RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility specifies how RIF works with RDF, RDFS, OWL 1, and OWL 2.
• RIF Framework for Logic Dialects (FLD) provides a mechanism for specifying extended dialects, beyond BLD, when more expressive power is required.

The group has also published a new version of RIF Test Cases, and three other Working Drafts: RIF Overview, RIF Combination with XML data and OWL 2 RL in RIF.

RIF implementation information is available. Review comments are welcome until 8 June.

The RDFa Working Group has published the First Public Working Drafts of RDFa Core 1.1 and XHTML+RDFa 1.1. RDFa Core is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 is an application of RDFa Core 1.1 for XHTML. Both of these documents are expected to supersede the RDFa in XHTML (RDFa 1.0) specification. Together, these specifications enable the human-readable and machine-readable markup of people, places, events, products, recipes, social networks, and many other concepts that are frequently published on the web. These documents improve upon RDFa 1.0 by adding a number of Web community requested features to ease authoring. Comments are welcome and should be sent to the public-rdfa-wg@w3.org mailing list (see also the archives).

• A proposed set of provenance dimensions to organize major issues for provenance on the web
• More than 30 use cases developed by the group that cover all those dimensions illustrating a broad range of usage of provenance
• More than 250 user and technical requirements for provenance motivated by those use cases

Making Data Standards Work:
A Detailed Look at Pre-hire to Post-hire HR Systems Integration

Join us for an exclusive pre-conference session with ADP’s CTO of Information Architecture, Steffen Fohn and ADP’s Senior Director of Development, Mike Cataldo on Monday, October 13 from 8:00 am to 10:45 am. You will receive valuable insight on how to solve integration challenges with external customers and vendor data trading partners. You will benefit from the advice of Paul Kiel, President, XML Helpline and Brad Harris, CEO, Harris Echternach Solutions Corporation on best practices of using data standards and data governance.

For details on the pre-conference, visit: Summit Pre-conference.

This is a great opportunity to get practical demonstrations on using HR-XML standards to optimize HR processes in the context of real business scenarios.

This pre-conference session is available to you for a small fee along with your Summit registration.

Get the most out of your attendance with the opportunity to network with fellow professionals and gain critical business insight from one of the most prominent leaders in the HR services space.

To register, visit Summit Registration or contact us at summit@hr-xml.org.

Don’t miss this important update on the forthcoming HR-XML 3.0 release.

HR-XML 3.0 Preview: A Next Generation in Standards for HR Services
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT
(10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PDT)

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/pjoin/953322662/105292616

The HR-XML 3.0 candidate release will soon be available. What can you expect?

As many already know, HR-XML 3.0 is the first major re-architecture of the HR-XML library since 2002. The re-architecture brings together the many contributions from the industry over the past 9 years under a consistent and uniform architecture.

HR-XML 3.0 is designed from the ground-upon to maximize interoperability. It is the first vertical industry standard that is designed as a “plug-in” to the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). OAGIS is the world’s most widely implemented horizontal business language, covering such functions as manufacturing to purchasing, order management, billing, shipping, and financials.

Register today for this free webinar to learn how you can benefit from this next generation in HR business language standards.

For those that missed our most recent webinar, you can find a recording embedded below. Some of the video qualityisn’t great, but the sound is quite clear.

As the Webinar explains, HR-XML’s forthcoming Version 3.0 release is informed by almost 10 years of industry contributions and is architecturally more consistent and robust than ever before. However, the breadth of the 3.0 library and the options available therein, pose their own challenges to implementers. What we hope to achieve with a new testing platform is not only to provide a way for implementers to test against the base HR-XML schemas, but to test against implementation profiles. In the Webinar, I mention various implementation patterns using HR-XML screening specifications. You can find those patterns discussed in HR-XML 3.0 draft screening implementation guidelines and a “simple screening order” profile. As the documentation explains, HR-XML’s Screening specifications are designed to support three different implementation patterns: “order by package identifier”; “a la carte”; and “order by package, plus.” There are many implementers that just use the simple order and fulfillment pattern (order by package ID) while others use all three patterns based on the requirements of particular trading partners and customers. As explained in the Webinar, using the PilotFish platform and open technologies, such as XPATH and Schematron, we will be able to set up an easy way for implementers to test against specific implementation profiles and business rules beyond the constraints set by the HR-XML schemas. Testing against such profiles might be as easy as addressing an email with a message attachment or could be accomplished by submitting the XML via a SOAP/http web service or even FTP.

You should expect to see further demonstrations of these profile testing approaches as the HR-XML 3.0 candidate release nears completion.

The Global Partnering and Integration Summit’s early bird registration ends July 31, so Register Today to save up to $150.

The Summit is being held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago on October 13-14, 2008.

The HR Technology® Conference is located in Chicago immediately following HR-XML’s Global Partnering & Integration Summit. The two complementary conferences have partnered to make it easy for you.

1. Register for the Global Partnering & Integration Summit to save almost 30% off the regular rate.
2. Receive e-mail confirmation with promotional code.
3. Register for the HR Technology® conference using the promotional code to receive the $550 discount.
4. Book your room at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. Mention that you are attending the summit to receive the hotel discount.

The agenda covers critical business topics such as the panel “Partnership Essentials: The Principles of Strong Alliances”.

“The majority of strategic alliances end up being a press release, a logo swap, and no contribution to the bottom line. Yet, formal relationships between and among businesses have many benefits, including:

• Yielding a differentiated competitive advantage
• Completing an organization’s offering to fulfill an “end-to-end solution” as defined by buyer community
• Providing sales channel distribution (reseller relationships)
• Gaining intelligence on actions of competitors
• Increasing overall customer satisfaction
• Reducing operating costs

Join us for an industry ‘panel of peers’ where we will have a candid discussion of the underlying principles and activities that make alliances successful. We will explore a variety of topics, including types of alliances, stages of development/maturity, managing channel conflict, the contract negotiation process, and identification of common pitfalls/mistakes.”

For more session topics, visit our online program.

We would also like to thank the support of our 2008 Summit Sponsors:

Executive Industry Event Partner
Arbita provides recruitment technology, job advertising, analytics and training solutions to many of the world’s leading employers. Their unique tools and services empower organizations to customize, launch, and manage effective online talent acquisition programs.

Gold Sponsors
Sovren Group provides global enterprise-class multi-lingual parsing and semantic matching solutions (Resumes/CVs/Job Descriptions).

Talent Technology Corporation - provider of HireDesk® and Resume Mirror™ solutions for recruiting industry and corporate HR departments.

Ultimate Software designs and markets UltiPro - an integrated, strategic HR, payroll, and talent management solution.

Silver Sponsors
Applicant Insight is a leading provider of employment background screening and substance abuse testing programs.

milch & zucker AG specializes in HR marketing consulting and HR software development.

Peopleclick provides software and services that help global companies find, attract and hire quality people - in less time, with less risk.

Keynote Sponsor
Lawson Strategic HCM delivers transformational tools designed to help link together people, strategy, and execution.

To register or for more information on sponsoring, exhibiting, or advertising, visit www.partneringsummit.org.

In our next webinar, we are going to be taking a look at a platform and methodologies for interoperability testing. If you’ve followed HR-XML this past year, you know that our current work more than ever before incorporates best practices of peer standards organizations. For example, readers of this blog know that HR-XML’s 3.0 release is substantially aligned with the Open Applications Group architecture.

The testing platform that is the subject of this webinar is something we learned of through liaison with our colleagues at Acord, the insurance standards organization. Register for the webinar to learn more. However, a good introduction is provided in this video available on the Acord website.

Streamlining Testing, Trading Partner Integration, and Certification: A Look at PilotFish Technology’s XCS eiPlatform and HR-XML

2008 July 23, 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/297314148

A growing number of enterprises are looking to vertical and horizontal standards organizations as sources for the canonical data models and message schemas necessary to support service oriented architectures (SOAs) and to enable agile integration with trading partners. The good news is that there is increasing maturity and even convergence among a variety of XML standards. Nevertheless, challenges remain. While libraries such as HR-XML’s forthcoming Version 3.0 release are informed by almost 10 years of industry contributions and are architecturally more consistent and robust than ever before, the breadth of these libraries and the options available therein pose their own challenges to implementers.

This webinar will examine the value of a flexible validation server to support testing against industry standards — and against profiles of those standards that particular enterprises and their trading partners may implement. The HR-XML Consortium is among several industry standards groups evaluating the Pilotfish XCS eiPlatform as a tool to assist its community with testing and conformance.

This Webinar will give a quick overview of HR-XML forthcoming 3.0 release and discuss new requirements and possible new directions in standards certification.

PilotFish Technology’s XCS eiPlatform will be introduced and near real-time response to messages submitted for validation demonstrated. The webinar will also review how trading-partner profiles and extensions might be accommodated.

Dear Colleague,

Great news. It’s now going to be easy to attend the HR Technology Conference on October 15-16, right after the HR-XML Summit, October 13-14, in Chicago. Easy enough even for me! And with special discounts for attending both.

The two events have finally co-located in time and space so that you can stay in the same room in the Hyatt McCormick all week and attend both, one right after the other. The Summit is in the Hyatt, and HR Technology is across the street in McCormick Place.

You know I’ve been urging you to attend HR Technology for several years because I think it’s the best possible use of *my* precious professional development time — and yours.

Chuck Allen of HR-XML calls it “THE show for those in the HR tech community,” and I agree. After 11 years, it is undisputedly at the top of the heap — worldwide.

I’ve attended every one since 1998 as a charter member of its original Analyst Panel, the only public gathering where leading industry analysts give straight answers to the toughest questions in our field.

And don’t miss “The Industry’s First Talent Management Shootout” this year, your only chance to see leading Talent Management suite vendors competing head-to-head with custom demos against some tough, scripted scenarios.

Please look over the full agenda at www.HRTechnologyConference.com and join me there. I’ll be doing the Analyst Panel again (of course) was well as a special Expert Discussion on Thursday afternoon. I hope I’ll see you there.

Now here’s how you can save the most money on both events:

Start at www.partneringsummit.com and register for the Summit, being careful to choose the 30 percent discounted price just for HR Technology attendees.

After your e-mail confirmation, you’ll get a special discount code for the second event, good only for double attendees. I’m keynoting the Summit, with many thanks to Lawson Software for their sponsorship, and look forward to seeing you there.

Then go to http://www.hrtechnologyconference.com/register.html and type the case sensitive code from your e-mail confirmation into the Promotion Code field on the online registration form. You’ll save $550, a discount the HR-XML Consortium personally negotiated for you, the deepest they offer so you pay only $995.

Then call the Hyatt McCormick at 312-567-1234, tell them you’re with HR-XML, and book for as many days as need to cover both events at the discounted conference rate.

Why can’t all the meetings in our professional lives be this easy, complementary and close together?

Block the dates on your calendar, get purchase orders in process, bring a colleague and plan to join me for a truly valuable learning experience.

I’ll look forward to seeing you at both conferences.

Best regards,

Naomi

David Connelly, CEO, Open Application Group has announced the availability of the OAGIS 9.3 Release Candidate (9.3 RC1). Take a look.

One of the items David mentions below is the “OAGIS Business Integration Platform for
standards developers.” What is that about? It is an platform architecture into which horizontal standards like HR-XML and vertical standards groups like Starstandards.org, AIAG.org, and other groups with OAGIS-based architectures can plug-in. If you are an HR-XML implementer that wants to use a bit of OAGIS, or if you are a STAR or OAGIS implementer that wants to mix in some HR-XML, this will be a great convenience. My personal hope would be that some of the learning and education standards will buy into the platform concept.

David Connelly writes:

I am very pleased to announce that OAGIS 9.3 Release Candidate One is
now available for Public Review. This process is done to ensure the
highest quality possible standards available to our users.

This phase is expected to last 30 days after which time we will take the
Release Candidate off the web site, review all feedback, and make the
changes deemed necessary by our member driven quality assurance team.
We will then prepare the final version of OAGIS 9.2 and post it for
general availability.

This is a very exciting release of OAGIS with some never before features
including:

1) High Tech Order To Cash and Procure to Pay support
2) Mid Market version of OAGIS for Order to Cash
3) The first release of the new OAGIS Business Integration Platform for
standards developers

We encourage people to download and review this Release Candidate and to
give us your feedback.

You can learn more and download the standard here.