I propose a change to the way things are discussed on the call. To prevent build-up of actions, the first thing discussed on the call are the current set of actions, followed by other agenda items. The mailed agenda will contain the current actions in pdf form. Agenda: 1. Go through actions - see pdf 2. OGF 26 in Chapel Hill, NC 3. OMG non-XML/XML Information Transformation Standardization (RFI) - see below. 4. Short and long form properties require all dfdl properties to be defined at least twice in the schema for DFDL --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OMG non-XML/XML Information Transformation Standardization (RFI) The Object Management Group (OMG)[1] is pursuing the standardization of non-XML/XML information transformation. The Middleware and Related Services (MARS) Platform Task Force (PTF)[2] Information Exchange Framework (IEF) Working Group[3] has released an Information Transformation Request for Information (RFI)[4] to collect concepts, participation and scope for creating and publishing the respective Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to the RFI should consist of one electronic copy in machine-readable format (typically ASCII, MS Word, or WordPerfect format) sent to omg-documents@omg.org, and one paper copy sent to the OMG postal address below: Object Management Group, Inc. 140 Kendrick Street Building A Suite 300 Needham, MA 02494 USA Attn: Information Transformation Services RFI At the last meeting the RFI was extended to May 25th 2009, 4 weeks before the San Jose, Costa Rica meeting. However companies can request an extension to provide time to response. Progress of responses can be found at http://www.omg.org/techprocess/meetings/schedule/Information_Transformation_... . The benefits in responding to this RFI include improving the systems-of-systems integration community life-cycle-costs and provide an opportunity to scope the standardization process around your specific solution such as the WebSphere ESB Mediation and Transformation Technologies. The Information Transformation RFI is attached with a summary below. Your input and participation is greatly appreciated to establish a standard in the long needed non-XML/XML information transformation methodology. There are many existing implementations within the industry that provide great potential to be standardized in whole or by parts. In today?s world, many information transformation solutions exist. Within the XML information technology domain, solutions have been standardized by the W3C and other standards bodies such as Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). Even though XML is only ten years old, there has been much success in developing and standardizing XML information transformation technologies, but on the other hand, non-XML transformation methodologies for the most part have been ignored. This may be a side effect of an assumption that all information exchange instances across all vertical markets can use XML. Though this has proven to be wrong, application server, ESB and database providers have recognized the need to ease non-XML information transformation development by providing GUI and declarative methods. The problem is that these methods are proprietary, and often use closed architecture techniques. This presents a risk of vendor lock-in, which application developers and system integrators seek to avoid. This risk is even greater within standardized frameworks such as ESB. While ESB relevant wire, definition, and protocol standards include J2CA, JMS, SOAP, HTTP, WSDL, JDBC, XML1XSD, XSLT, XPATH, and several WS-* protocols, including WS-Addressing, WS-Security and WS-Reliable Messaging, vendors are including proprietary, non-standard extensions to handle required functions that are not standardized, like non-XML transformation. The elevated risk is the consequence of ESB developers unknowingly using everything within the ESB product assuming everything is standards and open architecture based. It is well known that ESB's can no longer exclusively focus on Web Services or message driven (JMS) use cases. They must also provide the ability to "service enable" non-XML based endpoints such as mainframes, flat files, Extract Transform Load (ETL) procedures and enterprise applications. To this end, the IEF WG is pursuing a non-XML transformation standardization effort that will give these middleware vendors an option to implement hence avoiding vendor lock-in. Even better, perhaps the same technology can be used across middleware capabilities such as application servers, ESB and databases. The goal is also to establish a standard approach for resolving semantics across interfaces. While much work has been accomplished using ontologies and the semantic Web with respect to information discovery, how these technologies can be used to automate system interoperability is a new field. Today, it is very typical to expend a knowledge engineering effort to resolve mappings between two interfaces. Once resolved, an XSLT is generated and the knowledge that provided basis for the rule is lost. The question is what can be done to retain this knowledge so it can be applied to future integration efforts . The intent of this RFI is to gather information about non-XML information transformation methodologies and standards; how they can coexist with XML standards, application server, ESB and database products; and how should the knowledge that defined the transformations be modeled. It is expected to get responses from middleware vendors providing their candidate solutions, as well as application developers and integrators providing their insight to the problems with regard to what issues need to be addressed. The information sought by this RFI will be used to move towards the goal of interoperable non-XML and XML that uses a standard data model format and standard service interfaces within an Information Exchange Framework. The approach is completely open in that the standards may simply point to an existing standard, or aggregation of standards; use standards by reference; or reuse standards, or any combination of these approaches. Very respectfully, Gary Sikora Progeny Systems Corporation gsikora@progeny.net 703-795-4684 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regards Steve Hanson Programming Model Architect WebSphere Message Brokers Hursley, UK Internet: smh@uk.ibm.com Phone (+44)/(0) 1962-815848