IT/01-0938, 2001 Annual Report for Technical Committee L8

IT/01-0938

NCITS/L8 - Metadata

ANNUAL REPORT

October 2000 through October 2001

1. Executive Summary

· All the standardization activities within the past year for L8 are in the international arena, as US TAG to JTC1/SC32/WG2 and as a member group of CT22, the Combined TAG to JTC1/SC22, for the ISO/IEC 11404 project revision.

· The most significant milestones of the year involve the progression of the revision of ISO/IEC 11179 - Metadata registries - and the development of the technical report series ISO/IEC TR 20943 - Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency. ISO/IEC 11179-3, Part 3 - Registry metamodel, will be submitted for FDIS ballot in the coming year, and ISO/IEC TR 20943-, Part 1 - Data elements, will be submitted for DTR ballot this coming year.

· Eleven additional projects at the international level achieved significant progress during the past year.

· Members of L8 are actively pursuing new members. There are currently 14 active members in L8.

· L8 is maintaining an active liaison relationship with other NCITS TC's, ISO TC's, IEEE, W3C, and OMG.

2. Projects

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 45 - M Standard Designation: A/I 2955:1983 [1999] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 2955:1983

Title: Information processing - Representation of US Customary, SI, and other units in systems with limited character sets

B - Target Dates Withdrawn

C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status L8 voted to withdraw this project in March 2001.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 83 - M Standard Designation: X3.30:1998   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 8601:1988 JTC 1 Project: 14.03.01
Title:       Representation of Calendar Date and Ordinal Date for Information Interchange
B - Target Dates ANSI standard
C - Description This standard provides a means of representing calendar date and ordinal date to facilitate interchange among data 
systems. Calendar date is composed of  year, month of year, and day of month.  Ordinal date is composed of year and day of year.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Current ANSI standard

A- Project Number NCITS Project: 87 - L Standard Designation: :   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6523-1:1998 JTC 1 Project: 32.14.02.01
Title:       Information Technology - Structure for the identification of organizations and organizations parts - Part 1:  Identification of 
organization schemes

Standard Designation: :   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6523-2:1998 JTC 1 Project: 32.14.02.02 Title:       Information Technology - Structure for the 
identification of organizations and organizations parts - Part 2:  Registration of organization identification schemes 
B - Target Dates To be reviewed in 2003
C - Description 
Part 1 - This standard provides a structure for uniquely identifying organizations for the purpose of facilitating data interchange and the 
requirements for the administration of international code designators to designate code systems used to identify organizations.
Part 2 - This standard provides a structure for uniquely identifying organizations for the purpose of facilitating data interchange and the 
requirements for the administration of international code designators to designate code systems used to identify organizations.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Current IS, and the basis for unique identification of data items in ISO/IEC 11179.  This set of standards will 
be retained or revised when their 5 year review comes up in 2002.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 242 - M Standard Designation: A/I 5218:1977   [1999] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 5218:1977 
JTC 1 Project: 32.10.01 Revision Project: 32.10.02
Title:       Information interchange - Representation of Human Sexes (Revision of ISO 5218:1977)
B - Target Dates Working Draft status, FCD to be issued and balloted by May 2002.
C - Description This standard, ISO 5218-1977, Representation of Human Sexes, provides a numeric code that is independent of 
language-derived codes and as such is intended to provide a common basis for the international exchange of information containing 
sex data elements.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status WD, Canada is editor.  The project is small and essentially finished.  Progression to FCD, FDIS, and IS will 
be expedited.  See section B for FCD dates.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 593 - MI Standard Designation: A/I 11404:1996   [1997] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11404:1996 JTC 1 Project: 22.17
Title:       Information technology - Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces - Language-Independent Datatypes 
B - Target Dates CD expected in November 2001
C - Description This international standard specifies the nomenclature and shared semantics for a collection of data types commonly occurring in programming languages and software interfaces.  It specifies both primitive data types and non-primitive data types, in the sense of being wholly or partly defined in terms of other data types.  It also specifies the required elements of mappings of the data types defined herein to the data types of some other programming language or specification.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Current status is WD, and the first CD is expected soon before the end of calendar year 2001.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 689 - D  Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01     
Title:  Generic Conceptual Schema Specification for Data 
B - Target Dates Withdrawn in 2000
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Withdrawn
D

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 695 - M Standard Designation: :   []ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: 14.13
Title:       Information technology - Data Interchange - General Structure for the interchange of coded values 
Standard Designation: A/I 7826-1:1994   [1999] 
Title:       Information technology - Part 1:  Identification of coding schemes ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 7826-1:1994 JTC 1 Project: 14.13.01

Standard Designation: A/I 7826-2:1994 [1999]

Title: Information technology - Part 2: Registration of coding schemes ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 7826-2:1994 JTC 1 Project: 14.13.02

B - Target Dates Withdrawn in March 2001
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Withdrawn
D

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 697 - L Standard Designation: :   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: TR 9789:1994 JTC 1 Project: 32.11.01
Title:       Information technology - Guidelines for the Organization and Representation of Data Element Types for Data Interchange - Coding Methods and Principles (Type 3 technical report) 
B - Target Dates Withdrawn in 2000
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Withdrawn

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 698 - L Standard Designation: :   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 14957:1996 JTC 1 Project: 32.19.01 
Title:       Information Technology - Representation of Data Elements:  Notation of the format 
B - Target Dates To be revised, no target date set
C - Description This standard provides a standard approach for use in different applications for the representation of data elements.  Implementation of this standard representation of data elements is intended to inhibit the growth of widely differing standards for representation in different applications and, thus to facilitate the interchange of information between computer installations in different applications.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Revision in progress.  The first WD for the revision is expected in May 2002.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 699 - L Standard Designation: :   []ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: 32.15
Title:       Information technology - Coordination of Data Elements Standardization (Specification & Standardization of Data Elements)

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-1:1999   [2000] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-1:1999 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.01
Title:       Part 1:  Framework for the Generation and Standardization of Data Elements 
Standard Designation: A/I 11179-2:2000   [2000] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-2:2000 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.02
Title:       Part 2:  Classification for data elements 
Standard Designation: A/I 11179-3:1994   [1999] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-3:1994 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.03
Title:       Part 3:  Basic attributes of data 
Standard Designation: A/I 11179-4:1995   [1999] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-4:1995 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.04
Title:       Part 4:  Rules and Guidelines for Formulation of Data Definitions

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-5:1995   [1999] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-5:1995 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.05
Title:       Part 5:  Naming and Indentification Principles for Data

Standard Designation: : A/I 11179-5:1996 [] ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-6:1997 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.06
Title:       Part 6:  Registration of Data Elements 
B - Target Dates International Standards

C - Description This project is called ISO/IEC 11179 - Specification and standardization of data elements, a 6 part standard begun in SC14 and continued in SC32. The project describes a framework, classification, basic attributes, definition guidelines, naming guidelines, and registration for data elements.

D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status These projects are all international standards.
 

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 699 - L Revision of ISO/IEC 11179 - Metadata registries

Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-1 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.01

Title: Part 1: Framework (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-1:1999)

Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-2 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.02

Title: Part 2: Classification (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-2:2000)

Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 11179-3 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.03

Title: Part 3: Registry metamodel (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-3:1994)

Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-4 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.04
Title:       Part 4:  Rules and guidelines for the formulation of data definitions (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-4:1995) 
Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-5 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.05
Title:       Part 5:  Naming and identification principles (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-5:1995) 
Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-6 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.06
Title:       Part 6:  Registration (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-6:1997) 
B - Target Dates This is a revision of the entire ISO/IEC 11179 standard, including a change in the name of the standard
Part 1 - will go to CD ballot in January 2002
Part 2 - will be WD for May 2002
Part 3 - will go to FDIS ballot in December 2001
Part 4 - will go to CD ballot in January 2002
Part 5 - will go to CD ballot in January 2002
Part 6 - will be WD for May 2002
C - Description The revision of ISO/IEC 11179 specifies a conceptual model, naming and definition principles, classification scheme management, and registration procedures for a metadata registry.  Parts 4, 5, and 6 are analogous to the corresponding parts in the original standard.  Part 3 is completely new as it specifies a conceptual model rather than a list of attributes, Part 1 is rewritten to reflect the new focus of the standard, and Part 2 is a much deeper description of the management of classification schemes.
D - Publications, Last Year None of the new Parts are published yet.  Part 3 passed the CD ballot in April 2001 and the FCD ballot in October 2001.
E - Progress and Status See section B for next ballot dates.  Each part is open and progress is being made.  The US holds the editorship for every part except Part 3 (Australia).  It is the intention to publish all the revised parts within 2 years.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 988 - D Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01
Title:       IRDS Normative Schema 
B - Target Dates Withdrawn in 2000
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status See NCITS Project: 689 - D

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1043 - L  Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01
Title:       Information Technology - Conceptual Schema Model Facility (CSMF)
B - Target Dates Withdrawn in 2000
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status NCITS Project: 689 - D

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1058 - D Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A
Title:       Knowledge Information Format (KIF) 
B - Target Dates To combined with project 1059 - D and submitted as New Work Item to JTC1/SC32

C - Description The standard will be a language designed for use in the interchange of knowledge among disparate computer systems. It will be a logically comprehensive language with a declarative semantics, and it will provide for the representation of knowledge about knowledge. Two semantically equivalent syntaxes will be specified within the standard ? the Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) and Conceptual Graphs (CG).

D - Publications, Last Year Drafts for KIF and CG were circulated on the Web.
E - Progress and Status To be submitted as NWI proposal to JTC1/SC32 and CD ballot issued by Fall 2002

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1059 - D 
Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A
Title:       Conceptual Graphs: A presentation language for knowledge in conceptual models 
B - Target Dates See Project 1058 - D
C - Description See Project 1058 - D
D - Publications, Last Year See Project 1058 - D
E - Progress and Status See Project 1058 - D

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1125 - D 
Standard Designation: X3.285:1998   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A
Title:       Metamodel for Management of Shareable Data 
B - Target Dates ANSI standard
C - Description This standard specifies the structure of a data element registry.  The structure is stated in the form of a conceptual data model.  A data elementregistry is a place to keep characteristics of data elements that are necessary to clearly describe, inventory, analyze, and classify data.  A data element registry supports data sharing with cross-system and cross-organization descriptions of common units of data.  A data registry assists users of shared data to have a common understanding of a unit of data's meaning, representation, and identification.  This standard is the basis for the revision of ISO/IEC 11179.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Currently in maintenance mode.

A -NCITS Project: 1243 - D Standard Designation: NCITS 310:1998   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: JTC 1 Project:
Title:       Representation of Time for Information Interchange 
B - Target Dates ANSI standard
C - Description This standard specifies the structure of time information for data interchange between systems.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Current ANSI standard

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1352 - L Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: TR 15452:2000 JTC 1 Project: 32.21.01 and Revision of TR 15452:2000 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 15452 JTC 1 Project: 32.21.02
Title:       Information Technology - Specification of data value domain 
B - Target Dates Plan is to put this TR into maintenance mode as it is superceded by ISO/IEC 11179-3 (see above) and ISO/IEC 20943-3 (see below).
C - Description This technical report contains a conceptual model and a framework for the management of value domains. The project was developed as an adjunct to X3.285 and ISO/IEC 11179.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status No progress on revising this technical report is anticipated.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1353 - L  Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: NP 17413 JTC 1 Project: 14.08
Title:       Information Technology - Specification of Data Element Concepts 
B - Target Dates This project was withdrawn in 1999.
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Withdrawn

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1354 - L Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: IS TR 9007:1987 JTC 1 Project: 32.02.02
Title:       Information Processing Systems - Concepts and Terminology for the Conceptual Schema and the Information Base 
B - Target Dates This project will be retained when it comes up for review in 2002.

C - Description This project specifies terms and concepts for describing a conceptual schema.

D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status N/A

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1360 - M 
Standard Designation: A/I 6709:1993   [1999]  ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6709:1993 JTC 1 Project: 14.06
Title:       Standard Representation of Latitude, Longitude and Altitude for Geographic Point Locations 
B - Target Dates N/A
C - Description N/A
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status This project was transferred to NCITS/L1 in 1999 and TC 211 in 2000.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1443 - L  Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: FPDTR 20943 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01
Title:       Information technology - Procedure for Achieving Data Registry Content Consistency

Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: PDTR 20943-1 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.01

Title: Part 1: Data elements

Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20943-2 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.02

Title: Part 2: XML

Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20943-3 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.03
Title:       Part 3:  Value Domains 
B - Target Dates Each part has progressed to the following points:
Part 1 will go to DTR ballot in December 2001
Part 2 will be a WD by May 2002
Part 3 will go to CD ballot by January 2002
C - Description This project specifies procedures for developers and implementers of ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries to achieve consistency across those implementations.  The specification in ISO/IEC 11179 is broad and necessarily general.  Different implementers can interpret structures in ISO/IEC 11179 in different (but still compliant) ways.  The project attempts to clarify areas where the inconsistencies may arise.
Part 1 - Describes consistency issues for registering and managing data elements
Part 2 - Describes consistency issues for the maintenance of XML elements with XML-Schemas and Document Type Definitions
Part 3 - Describes consistency issues for registering and managing value domains
D - Publications, Last Year Part 1 passed the PDTR ballot in April 2001 and the FPDTR ballot in October 2001.
E - Progress and Status See part B above.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1444 - L Standard Designation: :   []  ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20944 JTC 1 Project: 32.17.01
Title:       Information technology - Metadata Access Service 
B - Target Dates Project was renamed and is to be split.  All the individual parts are not yet determined.
C - Description This project specifies a query service for ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries.  The revision of Part 3 of ISO/IEC 11179, and ANS X3.285 before it, specified a conceptual model for a metadata registry.  There was no specification for querying, electronically, such a registry.  This specification provides an Application User Interface for a registry.  Now, this project series defines a series interfaces, API's, and bindings to programming languages for accessing an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry.  A precise set of services is required to achieve consistent access to a metadata registry, which is independent of software, user, system, and application.  The metadata access service will provide this level of specificity.  The project was split due to the fact that bindings are required for most popular programming languages.  A binding to ISO/IEC 11404 (Language Independent Data Types) will facilitate the bindings to each programming language.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status The first WD is expected in May 2002

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1445 - L  Standard Designation: :   [] ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 18022 JTC 1 Project: 32.18.01
Title:       Information technology - Identification, Mapping and IT-enablement of Existing Standards for Widely Used Encodable Value Domains 
B - Target Dates A CD ballot is expected to be issued in January 2002.
C - Description This project defines guidelines for writing standards describing value domains so they can be easily implemented in information technology systems, especially stored in ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries. This project specifies procedures specifying a domain as a standard in a way that it can be managed electronically in a consistent way.  There are many standards that specify domains, but the presentation is such that managing them in a database is very difficult.  This standard will overcome this problem.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status Will go to CD ballot in January 2002, editor is Canada.

A - Project Number NCITS Project: 1446 - L Standard Designation: : [] ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 18038 JTC 1 Project: 32.20.01

Title: Information technology - Identification and Mapping of Various Categories of Jurisdictional Domains

B - Target Dates A WD is expected in May 2002
C - Description This project specifies guidelines for writing conceptually consistent standard code sets. This project specifies procedures for managing the categories specified in jurisdictional domains.  Examples of this type of domain are geographic subdivisions.  These domains have many changes over time and they must be tracked.  The domains specify areas with intersecting boundaries across domains.  How these intersections are tracked is very useful.  The project will solve these data management problems.
D - Publications, Last Year N/A
E - Progress and Status A WD is expected by May 2002 by Canada.

3. Committee Activities

A. Meetings

L8 Plenary

8 December 2000 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

2 March 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

15 June 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

19 September 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Task Group for Technical Development

6-7 December 2000 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

17-18 January 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

28 February - 1 March 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

10-11 May 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

13-14 June 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

16-17 July 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

17-18 September 2001 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

B. Future Meetings

L8 Plenary

7 December 2000 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Task Group for Technical Development

5-6 December 2000 - National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

C. Officers

Chair - Daniel Gillman, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Vice-Chair - Bruce Bargmeyer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

International Representative - Frank Farance, Farance Inc.

Task Group for Technical Development

Chair - Judith Newton, National Institute for Standards and Technology

D. Membership (Members are the same for L8 and the Task Group)

Battelle Memorial Institute

Bevilaqua Research Corporation

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Department of Defense, NSA

Environmental Protection Agency

Farance Inc.

Health Care Financing Administration

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Mitretek

National Institute for Standards and Technology

Palladin Integration Engineering

Science Applications International Corp.

US Air Force

E. Liaison Activities (All liaisons are to L8)

NCITS/L1 and ISO TC 211 (GIS) - The spatial data metadata activities under L1 and TC 211 are of interest to L8.

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 (Learning Objects) - Learning Technologies use metadata for resource location.

Intelligent Transportation Systems America and ISO TC 204 (Intelligent Transportation) - The ITS registry is based on principles defined in ISO/IEC 11179.

ISO TC 37 (Terminology) - Terminology deals with concepts, terms, classification, and concept structures. These are important for helping users of ISO/IEC 11179 registries find and understand registered items.

ISO TC 215 (Health Care) - The health care community uses metadata to describe patient records and transfer health data among systems. Health care registries based on ISO/IEC 11179 are under construction.

Object Management Group (OMG) - OMG has a series of standards, such as the Meta-Object Facility that describes metadata from an abstract point of view. How the ISO/IEC 11179 registry specification fits into the MOF framework and how ISO/IEC 11179 can describe the 4 levels of MOF are subjects for continued discussion and learning.

World Wide Web Consortium - XML is fast becoming a preferred method for transferring or structuring data and metadata for a wide variety of applications. How XML elements and schemas are described by ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries requires further work. How XML registries will interoperate with ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries is an important topic of discussion.

Metadata Registries Coalition - The coalition is an informal group of representatives from organizations that are implementing ISO/IEC 11170 metadata registries.

F. Administrative Matters of Note

NCITS projects 1058 - D and 1059 - D (Knowledge Interchange Format and Conceptual Graphs) have languished for several years, first under T2 and then in L8. Work to make progress on these projects has begun in earnest. New drafts for both projects have been written.

G. Procedural Matters of Note

None for L8

None for TGTD

H. Recommendations

None

I. Market Impact

Many organizations are implementing ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries. This is not an easy task for any organization to attempt. Metadata management is expensive, requires a large shift in thinking within the organization, and takes a long time to implement correctly. One large database vendor is beginning to market a business strategy whose core is the implementation of an ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry. This vendor has built a general registry that can be tailored to the needs in each organization. Several organizations are purchasing this service.

ISO/IEC 11179 is gaining acceptance in the international arena, too. Organizations representing statistics, health care, environment, and transportation are involved.

The increased visibility of the work is attracting interest in L8. Several organizations have indicated in the past two or three months that they want to join the work. L8 will continue to push to make that happen.

4. Anticipated Projects

1) The editors of NCITS projects 1058 - D and 1059 - D (Knowledge Interchange Format and Conceptual Graphs) are submitting a New Work Item Proposal to SC32 to combine these projects into an international standardization effort. The new project will be called Logical Foundations for Knowledge Representation, if it is accepted.

5. Future Trends

As the Internet and the World Wide Web are used more widely, metadata is becoming an increasingly important subject. Many standardization or accepted practice efforts are called metadata projects. This fact places L8 at the center of a wide range of projects and developments throughout all industries.

For the foreseeable future, metadata will continue to be an important topic. How objects are described usefully to people who need to find, understand, and use them is an important area of research in industry and academia. The inclusion of knowledge representation projects into the active set of projects for L8, moves the TC to the center of new developments in artificial intelligence, intelligent agents, ontology development, and the semantic web.

As XML, RDF, and other practices become more widespread, the importance of a framework for organizing the semantics of the elements used in these languages becomes increasingly important. A purpose for the Web is to allow people from disparate places and cultures to share information. This is only possible if the semantics of the shared resources are known and translatable.

In XML, the reliance on names and name spaces for encoding meaning is very limited and prone to produce confusion. L8 is uniquely positioned to help determine the best practices that are necessary to avoid the confusions that are sure to result. ISO/IEC 11179 is not a static product, and changes are contemplated to move the standard to address the needs for the semantic web.

Other NCITS subgroups that are involved with metadata (L1, L3, H2, V2, and others) within subject areas or technical domains are important allies for L8. Close cooperation will increase our understanding of metadata and its requirements, extent, and usefulness.

Attachment 1 SD-4

L8/SC32/WG2 Metadata

(Revised 10/05/01 )NCITS Project: 45 - M

Standard Designation: A/I 2955:1983   [1999] Title:       Information processing - Representation of SI and other units in systems with limited character sets 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 2955:1983 JTC 1 Project:

Standard Designation: X3.50:1986   [R1997] Title:       Representation for U.S. Customary, SI and other Units to be used in Systems with Limited Character Sets 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 2955:1983 JTC 1 Project: 14.02

-NCITS Project: 83 - M 
Standard Designation: X3.30:1998   [] Title:       Representation of Calendar Date and Ordinal Date for Information Interchange 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 8601:1988 JTC 1 Project: 14.03.01

NCITS Project: 87 - L 
_
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Structure for the identification of organizations and organizations parts - Part 1:  Identification of organization schemes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6523-1:1998 JTC 1 Project: 32.14.02.01

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Structure for the identification of organizations and organizations parts - Part 2:  Registration of organization identification schemes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6523-2:1998 JTC 1 Project: 32.14.02.02

-NCITS Project: 242 - M 
Standard Designation: A/I 5218:1977   [1999] Title:       Information interchange - Representation of Human Sexes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 5218:1977 JTC 1 Project: 32.10.01

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information interchange - Representation of Human Sexes (Revision of ISO 5218:1977) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 5218 JTC 1 Project: 32.10.02

NCITS Project: 593 - MI 
_
Standard Designation: A/I 11404:1996   [1997] Title:       Information technology - Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces - Language-Independent Datatypes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11404:1996 JTC 1 Project: 22.17

-NCITS Project: 689 - D 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Generic Conceptual Schema Specification for Data Interchange 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01

NCITS Project: 695 - M 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Data Interchange - General Structure for the interchange of coded values 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: 14.13

Standard Designation: A/I 7826-1:1994   [1999] Title:       Information technology - Part 1:  Identification of coding schemes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 7826-1:1994 JTC 1 Project: 14.13.01

_
Standard Designation: A/I 7826-2:1994   [1999] Title:       Information technology - Part 2:  Registration of coding schemes 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 7826-2:1994 JTC 1 Project: 14.13.02

-NCITS Project: 697 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Guidelines for the Organization and Representation of Data Element Types for Data Interchange - Coding Methods and Principles (Type 3 technical report) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: TR 9789:1994 JTC 1 Project: 32.11.01

NCITS Project: 698 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Representation of Data Elements:  Notation of the format 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 14957:1996 JTC 1 Project: 32.19.01

-NCITS Project: 699 - L 
_
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Coordination of Data Elements Standardization (Specification & Standardization of Data Elements) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: 32.15

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-1:1999   [2000] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 1:  Framework for the Generation and Standardization of Data Elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-1:1999 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.01

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-2:2000   [2000] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 2:  Classification for data elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-2:2000 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.02

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-3:1994   [1999] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 3:  Basic attributes of data elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-3:1994 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.03

_
Standard Designation: A/I 11179-4:1995   [1999] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 4:  Rules and Guidelines for Formulation of Data Definitions 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-4:1995 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.04

Standard Designation: A/I 11179-5:1995   [1999] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 5:  Naming and Indentification Principles for Data Elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-5:1995 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.05

Standard Designation: :   [ Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 6:  Registration of Data Elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 11179-6:1997 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.01.06

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Data Management and Interchange - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 1:  Framework for the specification and standardization of administered items (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-1:1999) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-1 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.01

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Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Data management and interchange - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 2:  Classifiction for administered items (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-2:2000) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-2 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.02

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Specification and standardization of data elements - Part 3:  Basic attributes of data elements (Revision of IS 11179-3:1994) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 11179-3 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.03

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Management and Interchange - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 4:  Rules and guidelines for the formulation of data definitions (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-4:1995) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-4 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.04

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Data management and interchange - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 5:  Naming and identification principles for administered items (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-5:1995) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-5 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.05

_
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Management and interchange - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 6:  Registration of administered items (Revision of ISO/IEC 11179-6:1997) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 11179-6 JTC 1 Project: 32.15.02.06

-NCITS Project: 988 - D 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       IRDS Normative Schema 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01

NCITS Project: 1043 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Conceptual Schema Model Facility (CSMF) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: FCD 14481 JTC 1 Project: 32.13.01

-NCITS Project: 1058 - D 
_
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Knowledge Information Format (KIF) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A

-NCITS Project: 1059 - D 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Conceptual Graphs: A presentation language for knowledge in conceptual models 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A

NCITS Project: 1125 - D 
Standard Designation: X3.285:1998   [] Title:       Metamodel for Data Representation 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: N/A JTC 1 Project: N/A

-NCITS Project: 1243 - D 
_
Standard Designation: NCITS 310:1998   [] Title:       Representation of Time for Information Interchange 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: JTC 1 Project:

-NCITS Project: 1352 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Specification of data value domain 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: TR 15452:2000 JTC 1 Project: 32.21.01

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Specification of Data Value Domain (Revision of TR 15452:2000) 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 15452 JTC 1 Project: 32.21.02

NCITS Project: 1353 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Technology - Specification of Data Element Concepts 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: NP 17413 JTC 1 Project: 14.08

_ -NCITS Project: 1354 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information Processing Systems - Concepts and Terminology for the Conceptual Schema and the Information Base 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS TR 9007:1987 JTC 1 Project: 32.02.02

NCITS Project: 1360 - M 
Standard Designation: A/I 6709:1993   [1999] Title:       Standard Representation of Latitude, Longitude and Altitude for Geographic Point Locations 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: IS 6709:1993 JTC 1 Project: 14.06

-NCITS Project: 1443 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Procedure for Achieving Data Registry Content Consistency 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: FPDTR 20943 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01

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Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Data management and interchange - Procedures for achieving metadata registry (MdR) content consistency - Part 1: Data elements 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: PDTR 20943-1 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.01

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Procedure for Achieving Data Registry Content Consistency - Part 2L  XML Structured Data 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20943-2 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.02

Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Procedure for Achieving Data Registry Content Consistency - Part 3:  Value Domains 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20943-3 JTC 1 Project: 32.16.01.03

-NCITS Project: 1444 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Metadata Query Service an Object Technology Extension 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 20944 JTC 1 Project: 32.17.01

NCITS Project: 1445 - L 
_
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Identification, Mapping and IT-enablement of Existing Standards for Widely Used Encodable Value Domains 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 18022 JTC 1 Project: 32.18.01

-NCITS Project: 1446 - L 
Standard Designation: :   [] Title:       Information technology - Identification and Mapping of Various Categories of Jurisdictional Domains 
Related International Development 
 
 ISO/IEC Doc.: WD 18038 JTC 1 Project: 32.20.01

Attachment 2 Internal Procedures

None included

Attachment 3 Financial Statement

L8 does not collect funds.