SWAD-Europe Deliverable 2.2: Project Findings Input

Introduction

This SWAD-Europe deliverable 2.2 (project finding input) summarises SWAD-Europe's input into the planning of the second phase of W3C's Semantic Web Activity. Note that it does not attempt a comprehensive summary of technical issues. Rather, it gives a brief account of the SWAD-Europe team's involvement in the design discussions relating to SW Phase 2.

SW Phase 2 planning

A goal of SWAD-Europe, and specifically of Workpackage 2, is to provide implemention-led input into the standards track work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). As a European project, SWAD-Europe interacts with the W3C planning process in several ways.

The primary means of interaction is through W3C's public Semantic Web Interest Group (SWIG), chaired by Dan Brickley. The SWIG provides an open forum for discussion, debate and information sharing amongst RDF/Semantic Web developers and users. SWAD-Europe work in the area of RDF Query and APIs (workpackage 7) and education and outreach (workpackage 3) has supported ongoing discussion and information sharing in this forum, through the circulation of technical reports, the facilitation of online discussion (email, IRC, WWW2003 Birds of a Feather sessions). The role of workpackage 2 is to channel lessons learned from these discussions into guidance for the W3C team and W3C Semantic Web Coordination Group. This is primarily facilitated by the Semantic Web Interest Group chair (Dan Brickley) participating in the weekly meetings of the W3C SW Coordination Group and of the W3C Semantic Web team. As W3C's work on RDF Core and Web Ontology draws to a close, Semantic Web Coordination Group discussions have increasingly focussed on planning of phase two of the Semantic Web Activity. Consequently, the period October/November 2003 has seen an increased amount of design discussion amongst the Semantic Web Coordination Group regarding priorities and goals for Semantic Web phase 2, culminating in the circulation by W3C Team to the Semantic Web Interest Group of discussion draft charters for possible future work on RDF Query and RDF Rules.

Workpackage 2 (specifically 2.2) has supported some of this discussion, particularly liaison with the wider RDF and Semantic Web developer community. The deliberations of the Semantic Web Coordination Group are W3C member confidential and therefore cannot be incorporated in this report. However the outcome of these discussions and other work within the W3C Team is manifested in two charter proposals as circulated to the www-rdf-rules mailing list of the RDF Interest Group. The timing of these proposals is beyond the direct control of SWAD-Europe, consequently this report can only summarise the state of play at the time of writing.

On November 7th 2003, Semantic Web Interest Group discussion of future query work was initiated, see (lengthy) discussion thread: RDF Query -- possible WG charter draft for discussion, Dan Brickley, Message-ID: <20031107182848.GO26667@w3.org>. A parallel discussion of possible future work on RDF/SW rules was also initiated by Sandro Hawke of W3C's SWAD group at MIT/CSAIL, USA. SWAD-supported discussion is scheduled to continue through November 20th, at which point the W3C Team and Semantic Web Coordination Group are expected to consider this input, refining their proposals in the light of developer feedback.

Future Work

A proposal for a SWAD-Europe supported workshop on Query (and possibly Rules) is currently underway within the Semantic Web Coordination Group. The timing of such a meeting has dependencies on W3C's evolving design for Working Groups in this area, and cannot be accurately predicted at this time.

Remaining effort under deliverable 2.2 will be used to help guide public discussion of the new SW working group proposals, and to summarise and evaluate developer input.

June 2004 Update

The following summarises the project's continued contributions to the wider W3C Semantic Web initiative, beyond those originally reported above.

• Following advisory group discussion, SWAD-Europe elected not to host a Workshop on RDF Query. Instead, W3C launched the DataAccess group directly. The WG has a number of inputs from SWAD-Europe and the commmunity (RDF/SW Interest Group) created through the project. WP7 findings (strawman query implementation, query languages survey, as well as the RDF Query (and Rule) Testcase Repository are now offered to the DA WG. An additional RDF query implementation ('Rascal', in Redland, by Dave Beckett) was also supported by the project, as is Dave's membership of the new Working Group. The Scalability Workshop held by the project also provides useful background materials for the new Working Group, and (perhaps more importantly) was a forum where (potential) WG members could get to know each other in an informal setting.
• The new Semantic Web Best Practices Working Group is also supported through various SWAD-Europe efforts, in particular through its taskforces. Three members of the project participate in the group, including Libby Miller on the Applications and Demos task force, Alistair Miles and Dan Brickley on the Thesaurus Task Force. The Thesaurus Task Force has decided to adopt the SKOS RDF/thesaurus work of SWAD-Europe (WP8), ensuring some continuation for these key deliverables following the closure of the project.
• The Semantic Blogging work in SWAD-Europe contributed to a W3C team discussions about possible W3C standardisation of the Atom syndication format. Atom is, however, now being standardised through the IETF.
• The RDF Interest Group has been recharted and relaunched as the W3C Semantic Web Interest Group, and continues to benefit from SWAD-Europe support, through providing the primary public fora through which SWAD-Europe engages with SW developers. A first SWIG face to face meeting was held in Cannes-Mandelieu, France, with SWAD-Europe support and participation.
• The SWAD-Europe workpackage on Trust, as well as the project's final workshop on Friend of a Friend, Social Networking and the Semantic Web are providing useful input into W3C internal discussions on possible new Activities relating to Semantic Web. While no new W3C Activities or WGs will be launched within the lifespan of the SWAD-Europe project, any future work on trust will be able to draw on the project's public findings and workshop submissions.

In summary, both of the new Working Groups created by W3C in 2004 are beginning their work with the benefit of significant contributions from SWAD-Europe. The relaunched Semantic Web Interest Group, also chaired with SWAD-Europe support, provides an informal forum through which wider developer collaborations can feed into formal Working Group efforts.