Copras FP6 Call1 Kick-Off Meeting Report

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Kick-off meeting targets
3. Kick-off meeting organization
   1. Methodology and process steps
      1. Clustering of selected projects
      2. Pre-meetings with selected projects
      3. Initial contacts with relevant standards bodies
   2. Pre-meeting results
      1. Broadband access
      2. Security issues
      3. Semantic-based systems & languages
      4. Smart houses & home networking
      5. eLearning
4. Kick-off meeting
   1. Invited projects
   2. Invited representatives from relevant standards bodies
   3. Plenary session
   4. Break-out sessions
      1. Broadband access
      2. Security issues
      3. Semantic-based systems & languages
      4. Smart houses & home networking
      5. eLearning
   5. Summary & overall kick-off meeting results
5. Conclusions & recommendations

1. Annex A: Agenda of the kick-off meeting
2. Annex B: List of plenary & break-out session presentations
3. Annex C: Participants of the Meeting

1. Introduction

The Cooperation Platform for Research and Standards (COPRAS) is an FP6 Specific Support Action (SSA) project addressing projects in calls 1, 2 and 3. It addresses Thematic Priority Area number 2: «Information Society Technologies» and aims to serve as a platform for IST research projects seeking to upgrade their results through interfacing with standards bodies.

The project started 1 st February 2004 and will run until 31 st January 2007. It will bring together the research and standardization aspects of the eEurope activity and optimise the interface between FP6 IST projects and standardization. In doing so, it will speed up adoption of research results and generate feedback on their acceptance and usage.

For the purpose of identifying and selecting those projects that may benefit from cooperating through the COPRAS platform and from developing «Standardization Action Plans», several methodological steps have been defined and bundled together in Work Packages (WPs). The first set of these methodological steps established WP2 and encompassed the information gathering process, or the surveying of projects for standards related output. The second set establishes WP3 and covers the analysis of the information gathering report, the definition and application of project selection criteria and the organization of the kick off meeting.

The focal point for the WP3 activities was the kick off meeting, planned to finalize the work in WP3 and to jump-start the work in WP4. Thorough preparation of these meetings, involving standardization working groups as well as research projects, was considered essential to generate the best possible results and to maximize participation and feedback from both selected research projects and relevant standardization working groups.

This report encompasses the FP6 IST Call 1 kick-off meeting targeted objectives and methodology that has been followed, as well as the subsequent steps that have been taken in order to organize the meeting. Finally, it lists the results achieved and conclusions drawn from the kick-off meeting, both at a generic as well as on a more detailed («break-out cluster») level.

The report, together with the actual information gathered and analyzed during the process, aims to serve as a basis for further activity in COPRAS and establishes the starting point for the development of appropriate standardization paths for projects in call 1, starting end of October 2004.

2. Kick-off meeting targets

The main objective of the kick off meeting was to jump-start cooperation between (groups of) research projects and standardization working groups. The kick off meeting therefore focused on the following issues:

1. defining communalities between standardization issues addressed by projects;
2. defining projects actual » timing and resources;
3. defining the actual nature of planned contributions (i.e. formal specifications, guidelines, other contributions, etc.);
4. defining relevant standardization working groups are actually planning to do in the areas identified;
5. defining some high-level steps jump-starting the WP4 work (who is going to draft certain contributions, etc.);
6. identifying the right people within the research project consortia actually working on specific standards issues (e.g. to include them in mailing lists).

3. Kick-off meeting organization

The kick off meeting for call 1 that was held 14 th October in Brussels was organized as a combination of a general session, break-up sessions and again a plenary session. The agenda of the kick-off meeting is provided in Annex A of this report. Presentations given by COPRAS, projects and standards bodies at the plenary and break-out sessions are listed in Annex B and can be found on the COPRAS web-site (www.copras.org).

The methodology followed when preparing and organizing the kick-off meeting as well as the steps that have been taken during this process are provided in the following sections.

3.1 Methodology and process steps

During its first meeting on 24 th June 2004, the project team decided to organize the kick off meeting for call 1 as a combination of a general session, break-up sessions (into several different clusters) and again a plenary session at the end of the day to summarize the results and agree the next steps. After some discussions the project team agreed it would be preferable -especially in view of the kick off meeting- to aim for 4 to 5 large clusters rather than aiming for a multitude of smaller ones as has been done in several of the initial proposals for clustering of projects.

In view of timing, it was decided to organize the kick-off meeting mid October, leaving the project team enough time to approach the projects after the COPRAS Steering Group‘s approval of the List of selected projects (Deliverable D07) planned for 7 th September 2004 as well as leaving enough time for producing and approving the kick-off meeting‘s proceedings. It was therefore decided to organize the kick-off meeting on Thursday, 14 th October 2004 at the CEN/CENELEC Meeting Centre, 35 rue de Stassart, 1050 Brussels. Targeted groups for participating in the meeting, next to the COPRAS consortium partners, were representatives from the European Commission, relevant tier 1 projects (and eventually tier 2 projects, if the WP3 process indicated there to be sufficient reasons for this), and representatives from relevant standardization working groups dealing with the issues and areas the selected projects were addressing.

3.1.1 Clustering of selected projects

The objective of this process was to define clusters of projects that have a similar focus with respect to standardization and to group them into parallel kick-off meeting break-out sessions. This clustering process focused on the standardization issues addressed and therefore combined projects that were working in different Strategic Objectives. The following clusters and projects were identified for the kick-off meeting:

1. Broadband access: B-BONE, BREAD, CAPANINA, GANDALF, SIMPLICITY, 4 MORE;
2. Security issues: Biosec, eMayor, Digital Passport, SECOQC, TrustCom;
3. Semantic-based systems & languages: SIMILAR, SATINE & ARTEMIS, DBE, UNI-VERSE;
4. Smart houses & home networking: ENTHRONE, ePerSpace, MediaNet, OPERA, TEAHA;
5. eLearning: E-LEGI, ICLASS, UNFOLD.

3.1.2 Pre-meetings with selected projects

For the purpose of preparing the kick-off meeting, as well as to obtain a better and more in-depth understanding of the standardization issues projects touch upon (and hence the standardization working groups they may benefit from interfacing with), «kick-off pre-meetings» were organized between COPRAS project team members and individual projects. Depending on several circumstances, these pre-meetings, that were organized during the second half of September 2004, either were actual physical meetings, conference calls or exchanges of e-mail.

An additional aim of the pre-meetings was to provide the projects, by means of a generic presentation, with more detailed information on the aspects of a Standards Action Plan and with more information on the benefits of cooperating with (or through) COPRAS. This was done to ensure the required level of similarity in project team members approaching the projects and in project's perception of the COPRAS process and the way in which it could help them achieve their standardization goals .

3.1.3 Initial contacts with relevant standards bodies

The initial contacts with relevant standards bodies have shown that additional communication efforts are necessary convincing standardization working groups of the benefits from participate in (and supporting) the COPRAS processes. This is specifically the case for standards bodies outside the consortium partners, although DVB and DLNA representatives participated in the kick-off meeting. It has however not been possible to include organizations outside the ICTSB in the part of the COPRAS activities addressing call 1, other than 3GPP and European Schoolnet.

Nevertheless, as far as ETSI is concerned, several technical bodies were approached leading to confirmed participation of representatives of several representatives (e.g. from ETSI SES and ETSI TB AT-N WG). CENELEC secured contributions from the SmartHouse initiative, managed by its TC 205 Ad-Hoc WG16, as well as from its PLC group, while CEN informed the different focus groups (e.g. on eBusiness, eLearning and eHealth) quite some time ago already of the upcoming kick-off meeting. Interests from W3C and the Open Group were covered by their respective representatives in the COPRAS project.

3.2 Pre-meeting organization & results

The following sections provide the information of pre-meeting organization & results from the respective five break-out sessions.

3.2.1 Broadband access

For the Broadband access cluster, the following «tier 1» and «tier 2» projects as identified in the project selection report, were selected in Strategic Objective 2.3.1.3 (Broadband for all) and 2.3.1.4 (Mobile and wireless systems beyond 3G):

• CAPANINA («tier 1»)
• GANDALF («tier 1»)
• B-BONE («tier 1»)
• MAESTRO («tier 1»)
• 4 MORE («tier 1»)
• SIMPLICITY («tier 2»)

In order to get a better understanding of the standards issues addressed by the projects as well as to prepare the break-out sessions of the kick-off meeting and improve their effectiveness, prior contacts were established with representatives (e.g. coordinators) of the projects as described in the table below.

A short overview of the outcome of these initial discussions with the individual projects can be found in the sections hereafter.

The first contact with the CAPANINA project had been done by e-mail. The response from Dr. David Grace was very positive, he confirmed the interest to be involved in the COPRAS Programme. On the standards front they have just produced an initial document identifying possible standards to modify in conjunction with the project. At the top of the list is €œbroadband access via wireless and terrestrial infrastructures, more precisely, IEEE 802.16a, probably uprated to the mm-wave bands and with mobility. The personal meeting was done by the COPRAS Project Team Leader during the concertation meeting in Brussels, on 21 st September, 2004. Dr. David Grace from the CAPANINA project confirmed his participation in the kick-off meeting. His intention was to come also with the WP leader who is in the charge of the standards-related work in the project. Based on the discussions, ETSI BRAN and ETSI SES were invited for the kick-off meeting.

The first contact with the GANDALF project was done by e-mail. The response was received from Valentin Polo, project technical manager, he confirmed the standards-related issues identified in the information analysis, its main interest is in simultaneous wireless and wireline transmission, testing different access techniques/modulation formats (e.g. DOCSIS for cable). He confirmed the interest of the project to be involved in the COPRAS Programme. Based on the common agreement, ETSI AT has been invited for the kick-off meeting.

The first contact with the B-BONE project was done by e-mail. Mr. M. Dinis, project leader, asked for more information on the COPRAS objectives. This was discussed by AC call. The project leader confirmed the project intentions to contribute to multicast and broadcast aspects for 3GPP and IETF. The conference call was done by the COPRAS Project Team Leader on 28th September, 2004. Mr. Dinis agreed to attend the kick-off meeting although he personally will not be available at that day. The project will send the project representative. 3GPP was invited for the kick-off meeting.

The first contact with the MAESTRO project had been done by e-mail. Mr. N. Chuberre, project leader confirmed the MAESTRO's interest is in standards: Concerning ETSI, several WI have been opened in ETSI TC SES S-UMTS WG on the initiative of MAESTRO partners. Contributions will be presented at the next S-UMTS meeting and discussed. Concerning 3GPP, a contribution has been introduced in 3GPP RAN4 by a delegate from MAESTRO and discussion will carry on at next RAN4 meeting. He did not suspect the COPRAS Programme could have any special added value for MAESTRO. Mr. Chuberre asked for some additional information on the purpose of the kick-off meeting. He attended the concertation meeting in Brussels on 21 st September. Other contact was made by AC call in order to discuss the possibility to co-operate between the two projects. Mr. Chuberre confirmed MAESTRO has already made its arrangements with respect to standardization and the project does not see the necessity to be involved in the COPRAS Programme.

The first contact with the 4 MORE project had been done by e-mail. Dr. Kaiser, one of the project members, responded very positively, he confirmed the interest to be involved in the COPRAS Programme. He confirmed the project is targeted new air interfaces for B3G (4G) mobile radio systems and broadband wireless communication systems requiring high spectral efficiency. The personal meeting was done by the COPRAS Project Manager during the concertation meeting in Brussels, on 21 st September, 2004. Mr. Kaiser agreed to attend the kick-off meeting. Based on the common agreement, 3GPP was invited for the kick-off meeting.

The first contact with the SIMPLICITY project had been done by e-mail relatively late, since the project has been identified as €œtier 2 € project. Prof. Blefari-Melazzi responded very positively, he confirmed the interest to be involved in the COPRAS Programme and he agreed to send two project members to participate in the kick-off meeting. 3GPP was invited for the kick-off meeting.

3.2.3 Security issues

The following table indicates the project within the cluster, their strategic objective, person contact and type of contact meeting. It also lists those present for the Projects at the COPRAS Kick-Off meeting

Information on the following standards projects was also presented:

• CEN/ISSS Focus Group Biometrics

• CEN/ISSS Workshop eAuthentication

• CEN/ISSS Workshop Data Protection and Privacy

• CEN/Technical Committee 224/WG15 - European Citizen Card

• ICTSB Network and Information Security Steering Group (NISSG)

3.2.3 Semantic-based systems and languages

For the Semantic-based systems and languages cluster, the following projects «tier 1» and «tier 2» projects as identified in the project selection report, were selected in Strategic Objective 2.3.1.6 (Multimodal interfaces), 2.3.1.7 (Semantic-based knowledge systems), 2.3.1.8 (Networked audio-visual systems and home platforms), 2.3.1.9 (Networked business and governments) and 2.3.1.11 (eHealth) and contacted to attend the kick-off in this area:

1. UNI-VERSE (A distributed interactive audio-visual virtual reality system);
2. SATINE (Semantic-based Interoperability Infrastructure for Integrating Web Service Platforms to Peer-to-Peer Networks);
3. ARTEMIS (A Semantic Web Service-based P2P Infrastructure for the Interoperability of Medical Information systems);
4. ALVIS (Superpeer Semantic Search Engine);
5. SIMILAR (The European research taskforce creating human-machine interfaces SIMILAR to human-human communication);
6. DBE (Digital Business Ecosystem);
7. REWERSE (Reasoning on the Web with Rules and Semantics);
8. TALK (Tools for Ambient Linguistic Knowledge);
9. aceMedia (Integrating knowledge, semantics and content for user-centred intelligent media services).

All of the projects responded positively (even though the ALVIS project originally didn»t respond to the questionnaire) except for TALK and aceMedia. Moreover, since REWERSE has W3C staff already involved in it, it was decided they didn»t need to come to learn more about standardization with W3C).

For details on each project, such as contact names, web pages, descriptions, please see: http://www.w3.org/2004/copras/work/feedback/project-lists-table.html#table5).

3.2.4 Smart houses and home networking

For the Smart houses and home networking cluster, the following «tier 1» projects as identified in the project selection report, were selected in Strategic Objective 2.3.1.3 (Broadband for all), 2.3.1.8 (Networked audio-visual systems and home platforms) and 2.3.1.10 (eSafety of road and air transport):

1. i) OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance for new Generations PLC Integrated Network);
2. ii) TEAHA (The European Application Home Alliance);
3. iii) ePerSpace (Towards the era of personal services at home and everywhere);
4. iv) MediaNet (Multimedia networking);
5. SAFETEL (Safe Electromagnetic Environment on Vehicle).

In order to get a better understanding of the standards issues addressed by the projects as well as to prepare the break-out sessions of the kick-off meeting and improve their effectiveness, prior contacts were established with representatives (e.g. coordinators) of the projects as described in the table below.

A short overview of the outcome of these initial discussions with the individual projects can be found in the sections hereafter.

The OPERA project has the providers of the two currently non-compatible Power Line Communications (PLC) technologies among its consortium partners and aims at establishing a de-facto standard for PLC access network technology. The project strongly concentrates on delivering specifications and consequently intends to work closely with standards bodies. Although the project has allocated a considerable amount of resources to standardization activities, it envisages benefiting from close cooperation with COPRAS as well. This is due to: i) the current complexity of the PLC standardization processes, caused by the availability of non compatible technologies; ii) by the fact that the consortium partners have less stronger relationships with European standards bodies than they have with non-European ones and; due to the fact that - as emerged during the pre-meeting - the project may actually be capable of delivering considerably more output to standardization bodies as originally expected. More detailed advice from relevant standardization working groups with respect to the project's list of deliverables (and their suitability for passing through standardization processes) will be necessary. For these reasons it was decided to invite the project to the kick-off meeting and to approach the relevant technical bodies in CENELEC (SC205A on PLC and TC210 on EMC) and ETSI (TC PLT) to participate.

The TEAHA project focuses on defining a suitable middleware platform enabling inter-working between all devices in a home and as a consequence also aims to define a taxonomy for (clusters of) devices in a home. This also addresses concepts such as home networking architectures and gateways. The TEAHA project consortium partners have their roots mainly in the white goods sector and plan to interface with standards bodies such as OSGi, CECED, the ZigBee Alliance and the Konnex Association, the latter also being a member of the project consortium. Although concrete contributions to some of these standards bodies are planned - or in one case have already been delivered - the project anticipates it may benefit considerably from cooperating through COPRAS as this may strengthen its link to the audio-visual standards bodies that play a significant role in home networking architecture and gateway standardization. For these reasons it was decided to invite the project to the kick-off meeting and to approach relevant working groups of the DVB Project and the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) to participate, as well as the ICTSB Smart House Standards Steering Group.

The ePerSpace project's main focus is to increase user acceptance of networked audiovisual systems and applications inside as well as outside the home environment by developing innovative interoperable value-added networked services. Open Access, both for the service provider and the end user is an important aspect in this respect. However, the project aims at using existing specification standards and concepts as a basis for new types of services and applications rather than at developing new possible standards. Consequently ePerSpace does not (yet) have a concrete plan for interfacing with standards bodies and resources allocated to this activity are very limited; also benefits from cooperating with COPRAS are not (yet) sufficiently obvious for ePerSpace. Nevertheless contributions to organizations such as OSGi are not unlikely and the project's work on networked services and applications may deliver additional input («use cases») for home networking standardization activities in DVB or the DLNA, as well as technical requirements for other -or associated- standardization processes, or additions to existing standards. Despite the fact that benefiting from cooperation with COPRAS may not be as evident as with the previously mentioned projects, ePerSpace was invited to the kick-off meeting as were the relevant working groups of the DVB Project and the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) with whom it may eventually want to interface.

MediaNet 's objective is to create a common open and shared delivery platform enabling the easy exchange of digital audio-video content between creators, service providers and end users. In this respect MediaNet aims at the service and system level using the DSL Forum reference architecture. Although it does not set out to develop new technologies per se, it does expect to be able contributing to existing video coding and digital content protection specifications and standards. In this respect the project uses a matrix-type working approach where some work packages focus on developing individual components in the content delivery chain, while others focus on end-to-end aspects (e.g. service provisioning). MediaNet does not yet have a concrete perspective on deliverables that could contribute to existing standardization processes and does not have resources allocated to standardization itself (i.e. it envisages this being done through its consortium partners, although it recognizes the approach to standardization may differ considerably between consortium members). For this reason, and because its work may deliver relevant input, e.g. to ongoing standardization processes in DVB (in the DVB-CM IP TV, the DVB-CM AVC or the DVB-CM HN groups) interfacing with COPRAS may be beneficial for MediaNet. Therefore it was decided to invite the project to the kick-off meeting, as well as the relevant working groups of the DVB Project.

Finally, the SAFETEL project, aiming to improve the robustness of motor vehicles against electromagnetic disturbances by providing advanced tools for prediction, design and testing, was approached by e-mail. According to the project coordinator, the proposition of standards is one important task within the SAFETEL project, however, this activity is not scheduled to start until December 2005, when most of the results of the project's research activities will be consolidated. Although the project for this reason has not yet been able to allocate resources to standardization related activities, it does consider the cooperation with COPRAS as a possible starting point. The SAFETEL project was therefore invited to the kick-off meeting and CENELEC TC210 on EMC was approached for additional guidance with respect to standards issues.

3.2.5 eLearning

Four «tier 1» projects were identified for participating in the eLearning cluster based on the selected process undertaken for projects in Strategic Objective 2.3.1.12 (Technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage),:

1. E-LEGI (European Learning GRID infrastructure);
2. ICLASS (Intelligent Distributed Cognitive-based Open Learning Systems for Schools);
3. TELCERT (Technology Enhanced Learning Certification - European Requirements & Testing);
4. UNFOLD (Understanding Networks of Learning Design);

The basis for COPRAS attempting to establish a cluster involving these projects was the identification during the selection process of common interests in research that potentially would impact standards related to eLearning content and delivery.

In order to get a better understanding of the specific standards issues addressed by the projects as well as to prepare the break-out sessions of the kick-off meeting and improve their effectiveness, prior contacts were established with representatives (e.g. coordinators) of the projects as described in the table below.

A brief overview of the results of these initial discussions with the individual projects is summarised below.

The E-LEGI project is a large IP addressing several areas of standardisation. In particular the project is establishing a new platform for eLearning systems based on a GRID architecture. The standardisation topics that will be addressed by the project fall into three main categories. The first being those that are at the platform level addressing the performance of GRID based systems in the context of eLearning systems, where services need to be delivered to a dynamic set of users that are often comprised as a virtual organisation. Specifications related to authentication, authorisation and security as well as OSGA will be tested and validated. A second area will be eLearning specifications where the project anticipates that some specifications will need to include extensions to support GRID based systems for eLearning and highly dynamic virtual organisations. The third area was in knowledge models and ontologies where the project expects to define new specifications for how existing models would be utilised when the underlying system platform is GRID based. The number of standards specifications being addressed by the project were substantial, however, the meeting identified that a key specification that will be utilised and is expected to be updated is the new specification for Learning Design published by the IMS consortium.

The ICLASS Integrated Project is focused on eLearning systems for schools and will address a broad range of standards. These fall into the main categories of learning content management systems & interoperability (e.g. SCORM, LOM and DRI), learning design (e.g. LD, and EML), and taxonomies and ontologies (e.g. ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps, OWL, DAML), and rich content (e.g. MPEG-4 and MPEG-7). In each of these areas the project expects to utilise existing standards and to identify potential new extensions to support new eLearning system architectures applicable to European schools based on Internet technologies and highly customised learning paths for students. The project has already undertaken a state-of-the-art analysis to identify areas where gaps exist in functionality available from existing specifications. Work is also underway to link different standards for example, standards for learning styles with standards for learning events. As a large IP, many different areas of standardisation will be addressed, however, as tailored learning path capabilities are a core part of the results, it was agreed that standards related to learning design would be important for the project. An opportunity for clustering in the area of learning design with other projects in the eLearning area would seem possible with the support of COPRAS.

The TELCERT project is a STREP that intends to accelerate the take-up of eLearning standards and improve interoperability of eLearning systems and content by providing both industry standard authoring tools and testing and certification technology to verify conformance to eLearning standards. The project is developing a general test harness capable of addressing any eLearning standard represented in XML. The TELCERT technology will allow specific application profiles to be created based on eLearning standard specifications that would address eLearning for a specific context such as schools, business training, cultural, etc.. The project will develop a tool for defining application profiles, and once defined, will then provide automated test generation that can be used to certify conformance of eLearning systems and content to the application profile. First specifications that will be addressed will be SCORM and several national specifications for eLearning content. Further work in the project will address certification testing for the QTI and possibly Learning Design specifications. While the project will not specifically address modification of eLearning standards, they could be an important part of an eLearning cluster addressing standards in that being able to certify conformance to a new or standard dramatically accelerates the take-up of the standard by vendors, and the demand for standard conformant products by purchasers. TELCERT could be an important part of a cluster addressing standardisation in that combining their certification capability with the technical specification work of other projects could lead to more substantial results and broader acceptance of new standards.

The UNFOLD project is a Coordination Action that includes partners that are active in the formation of a new specification for eLearning called Learning Design, under the umbrella of the IMS consortia. This specification is expected to be the basis for several new products, both commercial and open source, that are known to be in development though not yet available. UNFOLD seeks to establish the Learning Design specification as an accepted standard for future eLearning systems, and recognizes that the first release of the specification will undoubtedly have areas that, through product development and further research, will need to be revised and extended. The project sees one of it's role as bringing together the community of organizations that are utilizing the new Learning Design specification, to resolve issues and provide guidance on the use of the specification. As a Coordination Project, UNFOLD does not undertake research and development work. This creates an opportunity for clustering in that their positioning and contacts within the IMS organization, and their knowledge of the new specification coupled with the technical resources from other IPs and STREPs would allow a joint effort to address revisions to the new standard in a collaborative manner.

The meetings with all four projects indicated that there was a wide diversity of specifications and standards being addressed. However, through the discussions one specification common to all four projects was the use of a new Learning Design specification from IMS. In particular, the projects expected that revisions to the Learning Design specification were required, and further it was important that the specification become an accepted industry standard as it would greatly improve the opportunities for exploitation of the RTD from each project. A collaborative approach addressing revisions and standardisation of the Learning Design was identified as a clustering opportunity where the COPRAS project could add value to all four projects leading to greater and more widely accepted standards from the RTD projects.

4. Kick-off meeting

The first COPRAS kick-off meeting marking the end of COPRAS WP3 activities and addressing projects in call 1 was held 14 th October at the CEN/CENELEC Meeting Centre in Brussels. Purpose of the meeting was to identify common views, possible communalities in specifications addressed and possible clustering of resources and work, as well as to determine which support could be given to the projects by - or through - COPRAS, or to identify the right constituency for giving this support. Finally, the objective of the kick-off meeting was to define the proper follow up actions between projects, COPRAS and standardization groups in order to get the definition of Standardization Action Plans underway.

4.1 Invited projects

Based on feedback from initial contacts established with individual projects, it was decided to invite all selected «tier 1» projects to the kick off meeting. In addition, and also as a result of the overall positive response received from call 1 projects it was also decided to invite selected «tier 2» projects with the exception of projects in strategic objectives 2.3.1.10 (eSafety in road and air transport) and 2.3.1.12 (technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage) as resources among the COPRAS consortium partners to address these projects during the kick-off meeting appeared to be insufficient. Finally, it was decided to invite the ALVIS and TrustCom projects that initially were not taken into account in the Information analysis process, but showed a clear interest in participating in the kick-off meeting. As a result, a total of 39 IST projects in call 1 were invited to the kick-off meeting.

Of these 39 invited projects, 28, or 72% actually attended the kick-off meeting, however, the percentage of participating selected «tier 1» projects (76%) was considerably higher than that of participating selected «tier 2» projects (42%). A list of participating projects, their representatives and the break-out session they attended is shown in the table below.

4.2. Invited representatives from relevant standards bodies

Although many of the standardization issues raised by projects could be addressed by one - or in some cases several - of the COPRAS consortium partners, a number of additional standards bodies and standardization working groups (DVB, DLNA, European Schoolnet and 3GPP) were approached to participate in the kick-off meeting as specifically in the Broadband access and Smart-houses and home networking areas, projects specifically indicated planning contributions to - or requiring input from - these organizations.

In total, 16 representatives from 14 different standards bodies or working groups participated in the kick-off meeting, as indicated in the table below.

Next to those representing FP6 projects and standards bodies, the European Commission was also represented by Mr. Peter Wintlev-Jensen. As there were some participants representing more than a single project - or representing a project and a standards body at the same time - in total 47 people attended the kick off meeting.

4.3 Plenary sessions

The kick-off meeting was split up in a plenary part, focusing on the more generic aspects of interfacing between IST research and standardization, and several parallel break-out sessions focusing on the actual contents of standardization work in pre-identified thematic areas. In order to maximize the efficiency and output of the presentations and discussions in the break-out sessions, the plenary part of the kick-off meeting was kept relatively short and focused on issues that were considered to be supportive to the goals of the kick-off meeting that were envisaged to be mainly achieved in the break-out sessions. The plenary part therefore focused on the following issues:

1. Overview of the objectives and results of the COPRAS project
2. Different paths projects can take towards standardization
3. The importance of standardization for IST research projects
4. The agenda and targeted outcome of the break-out sessions

For more information on the way these issues were addressed during the plenary part, the agenda of the kick-off meeting can be found in Annex A, while the respective 4 presentations are listed in Annex B, together with their hyperlinks.

4.4 Break out sessions

Based on the actual areas of standardization projects were addressing, it was decided to cluster projects into 5 different break-out sessions covering the following areas/themes:

1. Broadband access (also partly including PLC)
2. Security issues
3. Semantic-based systems and languages
4. Smart houses and home networking (also partly including PLC)
5. eLearning

The aim of the break-out sessions was to enable projects addressing similar standardization areas to give a more detailed overview of the actual issues they were addressing to other projects as well as to standardization working groups present at the kick-off meeting. Therefore, representatives from relevant standardization groups were also invited to give, together with the COPRAS consortium partners, an overview of the status of their organizations» activities in order to identify overlap, matches and also possible conflicts with projects' (planned) standardization activities. In this respect, they were invited to focus on the actual contents of ongoing work as well as on the processes adopted for this work. The results of the 5 break-out sessions are summarized in the following sections; presentations given are listed in Annex B, together with their hyperlinks.

4.4.1 Broadband access break-out session

The Broadband access break-out session was chaired by ETSI. Nine FP6 IST Call 1 projects participated in the break-out session. The Strategic Objective 2.3.1.3 «Broadband for all » was represented by four projects: BROADWAN, OPERA, CAPANINA, GANDALF. Three projects represented the Strategic Objective 2.3.1.4 «Mobile & wireless beyond 3G »: B-BONE, SIMPLICITY, 4 MORE. Moreover, two representatives from SSA & CA projects, BREAD and AVISTA, participated in this break-out session.

With respect to identifying common views, technical issue or existing shortcoming projects agree should be addressed through revised or new standards the following issues were identified:

Following the projects' presentation of standards related issues, an review of the current situation in standards bodies or industry grouping generated the following main areas of attention

Many of the projects have already sorted out which standards bodies they intend to make contributions to, mainly through their consortium partners' membership of SDOs, although some projects expect COPRAS to assist them in finding the right standards body to interface with. Issues presented during the break-out session were fairly broad but some can be clustered (e.g. 3 projects dealing with mobile & wireless standardization issues most likely all have to interface with 3GPP). As part of the follow-up process projects as well as standardization working groups agreed attending some of each others working session and visit relevant events such as a 3GPP workshop in Toronto, a broadband conference in Bruges and the upcoming ETSI colloquium at Sophia Antipolis. In general follow-up processes are clear as far as interfacing with 3GPP and ETSI AT are concerned while interfacing with ETSI BRAN and ETSI's or CENELEC's PLC committees still needs to be looked into.

As part of the follow-up process projects as well as standardization working groups agreed attending some of each others working session and visit relevant events such as a 3GPP workshop in Toronto, a broadband conference in Bruge and the upcoming ETSI colloquium at Sophia Antipolis. In general follow-up processes are clear as far as interfacing with 3GPP and ETSI AT are concerned while interfacing with ETSI BRAN and ETSI's or CENELEC's PLC committees still needs to be looked into.

4.4.2 Security issues

With respect to identifying common views, technical issue or existing shortcoming projects agree should be addressed through revised or new standards the following issues were identified:

Following the projects' presentation of standards related issues, an review of the current situation in standards bodies or industry grouping generated the following main areas of attention

The projects were generally enthusiastic about both a cluster activity, which would need to be further defined in detail and about COPRAS support for their individual project standards-related deliverables.

It was agreed that such support could be both in the form of Standards Action Plans for deliverables being introduced into the standards processes operated by the COPRAS partners and also dissemination actions and support.

As far as next steps were concerned, it was agreed that the projects at cluster meeting should review each other's presentations by 15 November and provide ideas on:

• Potential for Cluster activity (what are the synergies between the projects; what joint activities could be brought forward for standardization/dissemination support through COPRAS);

• Potential for individual or clustered Standards Action Plans (what for what standards related material at either the project or the cluster level should COPRAS help by preparing Standards Action Plans)

It was also proposed that there could be a joint cluster meeting co-located with the eMayor meeting on security issues and eGovernment. The meeting will be held on 4 th March 2005 and COPRAS partners will present the security standards issues at stake in the EU-projects from a standardization point of view.

4.4.3 Semantic-based systems and languages

During this session, while making a «tour de table», each project described its activities and for each of these, tried to identify:

• Overall technical approaches used in the project

• Links to standard specification that will be revised or newly developed

• Schedules of each project provides opportunity for collaboration

• Dissemination actions or external events already planned by each project

• Schedule for next steps

The following summarizes the discussions, project by project.

The UNI-VERSE project was presented by Gert Svensson. This project is a bit special as it was really interested in the 3D standardization, and not in the Web or Semantic languages, but they nevertheless wanted to participate in the kick-off. They are not at present time using Web technologies for communication (they use a UDP/IP protocol, with low latency, performance driven binary format) and an ad-hoc format for exchanging 3D rendering information. So there haven't been any standard plans related to W3C at this point. The suggestion for follow-up discussion was to put them in touch with the Web3D Consortium, which is a member of W3C and specialized in this domain.

Both the SATINE and ARTEMIS projects were presented by Asuman Dogac. SATINE is concerned with replacing the centralized airline/travel industry system of the present, involving GDS, with a distributed Web Services & Semantic Web architecture. It uses P2P for discovery and OWL for describing the logic of exchanges and communication. The issue of converting/mapping from different but similar ontology is something that they could bring to W3C. ARTEMIS presented by the same person, and using a similar architecture with a different domain altogether: the health record (HL7) industry. The topic of ontology mapping (using MAFRA) also came on the table a potential W3C relevant standard work item. This project is scheduled to continue working on the same area of technologies: Web Services and Semantic Web, and contact will be established between both SATINE/ARTEMIS and the SWAD-E and WS2 projects of W3C.

The ALVIS project was presented by Mike Taylor. This project is also using P2P technology for discovery, with the intent to define a P2P XML format to describe the capacity of a network node. It is also interested in enriched metadata format. The project is still early in its work and we will stay in touch and evaluate the interest of W3C work in that area as the format becomes more stable.

SIMILAR : Two persons were present to talk about SIMILAR: Jean Vanderdonckt and Adrian Stancieulescu. SIMILAR was not present for the Semantic Web side of the session but for the Multimodal and interaction work W3C is doing. The UsiXml language was identified as the relevant technology for W3C standardization track. Follow-up in the forms of additional contact with the W3C team in charge of Interaction and Multimodality were scheduled and also potential partnership in a further FP6 call.

The presenter of the DBE project was Peter Stanbridge from IBM, a member of W3C. Although DBE was not classified in the Semantic strategic objectives, it appears closely linked to the W3C set of technologies. This is a distributed business model oriented project where several W3C technologies (e.g Web Services, RDF). It also plans on using P2P network. The project is still in its first year and it is expected that they will find needs for extension of existing W3C standards as they move forward. At this point, since some partners are already W3C members, it is probably that we will receive input from DBE.

The following conclusions have been made from this break-out session:

• Since only 3 projects out of 14 addressed responded to the initial COPRAS questionnaire, making this the Strategic Objective with the lowest response rate at that time, the return after the kick-off is considered as OK;
• The relevant projects all fit in the category: users of W3C technologies and likely to see the need for updates/extensions sooner than the others;
• The plan is therefore to stay in touch and wait for more development of their standard needs.
• One interesting thing is that most of them will be using Peer-to-peer IP protocols (P2P) and that the «designers» of this form of protocol are not really represented in COPRAS;
• One follow-up action on the COPRAS side is to identify such a partner on the standard side, if it exists, or try to see who among the existing partners (in COPRAS or ICTSB) would be the best positioned to look at standardization matters in the P2P area.

4.4.4 Smart houses and home networking break-out session

Representatives from 5 projects participated in this break-out session and two main clusters were addressed, i.e. Power Line Communications (PLC) and Home networking platforms, architectures & systems. However, as the PLC standardization issues the OPERA project touches upon were already described in section 4.4.1, the following tables present standardization aspects in the smart houses and home networking areas:

Following the projects' presentation of standards related issues, 4 representatives from standardization working groups gave an overview of the current situation in several of the relevant standards bodies or industry groupings.

As the session had to address a large number of presentations both from projects and from standardization working groups, relatively little time was left for discussion. Nevertheless, a number of aspects raised show considerable overlap, both between projects and between projects and standards bodies. Therefore clustering possibilities may exist with respect to the following aspects:

• Reference architectures & middleware for the broader concept of home networking (i.e. including bridging between for example security, audio-visual and white goods clusters);
• Definition of home gateways and interfacing between home gateways on one side and access or home networks/devices on the other side;
• Quality of service management of multimedia content distribution over home networks
• Commercial requirements, benchmark applications & services, and use cases for home networking;
• Guidelines for usage & inter-working of home networking standards & specifications.

Despite these possibilities standards bodies stressed projects' need to interface with them at an early point in time in order to proceed through the specific processes successfully and being able to bring their contributions to the market in time. On the other hand projects indicated this could only be done if standards bodies indicate more precisely what the nature of the contributions would be that they are looking for. For this reason, to most projects and standards bodies cooperation possibilities were not yet sufficiently obvious and COPRAS will have to do additional work on both sides making this clearer.

Nevertheless, the above mentioned requirements both from the standards world and the projects obviously identified a gap where COPRAS may be very helpful; moreover, sufficient clustering possibilities seem to be available. It was therefore decided COPRAS would prepare a follow up meeting to look into (and decide upon) these clustering and cooperation possibilities in a more detailed way.

4.4.5 eLearning break-out session

The focus of the eLearning break-out session was to determine if a cluster of IST projects having a shared goal of putting in place a new standard for eLearning was feasible, and if so, what actions should be taken. The following projects participated in the break-out session:

• E-LEGI (European Learning GRID infrastructure);
• ICLASS (Intelligent Distributed Cognitive-based Open Learning Systems for Schools);
• TELCERT (Technology Enhanced Learning Certification - European Requirements & Testing);
• UNFOLD (Understanding Networks of Learning Design);

In addition to partners from each of the projects, a representative from the CEN/ISSS Learning Technologies Workshop also participated.

Each of the projects presented a summary of the relevant standards area where their projects will utilise existing standards and potentially develop extensions in support of the new RTD being undertaken within their projects. The following summarises the key points:

The ICLASS project will address for learning content management systems & interoperability, learning design, taxonomies and ontologies, and rich content. The project had already undertaken work to identify areas where existing specifications are not yet sufficient to support the new RTD results ICLASS will deliver. ICLASS agreed that standards related to learning design would be important for the project as this is a core element of the new schools eLearning systems envisioned by the project.

The E-LEGI project is addressing areas of standardisation in three main categories: platform level addressing the performance of GRID based systems for eLearning, specifications for eLearning where the project anticipates that some specifications will need to include extensions to support GRID based systems and knowledge models and ontologies where the project expects to define new specifications for existing models when systems are GRID based. E-LEGI confirmed that a key specification that will be utilised and is expected to be updated is the new specification for Learning Design published by the IMS consortium. They noted their current project plans did not call for addressing the Learning Design specification until early 2006, but were willing to explore accelerating this schedule in order to participate in the eLearning cluster with COPRAS.

The TELCERT project noted that their role is to accelerate the take-up of eLearning standards and improve interoperability of eLearning systems and content. They noted that their technology could be utilised for providing tools for testing and certification to verify conformance to a revised Learning Design specification. They could provide application specific testing that would allow the new Learning Design standard to be more widely utilised for specific domains where integration costs are an issue such as schools, and cultural organisations that don't have substantial IT personnel.

The UNFOLD project noted that their main role is to establish the Learning Design specification as an accepted standard for future eLearning systems. They noted that the current release of the specification will need to be revised and extended and welcomed the opportunity to do that in a collaborative manner with COPRAS and other IST projects. UNFOLD noted they don't undertake research and development work in their project, but it was clear their knowledge of the new Learning Design specification would be a valuable component of a new cluster addressing a revised Learning Design specification.

The CEN/ISSS LT Workshop representative presented the various activities that have been undertaken within the grouping including European Model for Learner Competencies, Accessibility Properties for Learning Resources, Harmonization of Vocabularies, Interoperability of Repositories for Learning. It was clear from the presentation that the CEN/ISSS grouping is addressing areas of interest to the IST projects, and that the grouping should be involved in providing inputs to the Learning Design specification that will be addressed within the COPRAS eLearning cluster.

Based on the presentations and discussions, the projects agreed in principle to proceed further as a cluster and to work together to establish a revision of the Learning Design specification from the IMS consortia as an industry standard. Further investigation within the projects and their technical steering committees would be undertaken so that the timing of the proposed revisions to Learning Design could be agreed within the cluster. A timeline indicating the key contributions to the Learning Design specification revisions was drafted. The first revisions to the Learning Design specification would be available in 2Q05 from the ICLASS project. Further revisions from E-LEGI would follow on into early 2006. Based on the timeline, it was clear the cluster would need to be supported throughout the life of the COPRAS project.

The partners discussed the identification of the role each project would play within the newly formed eLearning cluster that would coordinate and standardise revisions to the Learning Design specification. The following summarises the discussion concerning how the cluster will be structured:

The discussions concluded with an agreement in principle to establish the COPRAS eLearning cluster and identified the following actions for the newly formed cluster, with completion dates indicated in parentheses:

• COPRAS to prepare a draft Standardisation Action Plan as collaborative effort amongst E-LEGI, ICLASS, TELCERT, and UNFOLD, addressing a major revision of the Learning Design specification. (Jan 05);
• COPRAS to discuss and establish coordinated dissemination actions with UNFOLD to create broader recognition of the Learning Design specification and accelerate take-up and new product developments. (Dec 04);
• E-LEGI to review its project planning and resource schedules to determine if timing of the definitions of required changes to Learning Design can be synchronised with Learning Design work from ICLASS and UNFOLD. (Dec 04);
• COPRAS to interact with ICLASS concerning additional support for standards being addressed outside of the eLearning cluster. (Nov 04);
• Each project reviews and provide comments on the Standardisation Action Plan. (Feb 05).

The draft Standardisation Action Plan once approved by each of the projects will form a type of Memorandum of Understanding concerning the shared actions to be taken within the cluster towards establishing the revised Learning Design specification as an industry standard.

4.5 Summary & overall kick-off meeting results

The kick-off meeting was very well attended with 48 participants, representing 27 different projects (18 tier 1 projects, 6 tier 2 projects, 2 SSA/CA projects and 1 project that was not included in the information analysis & project selection process) and 9 standardization working groups represented in addition to the 5 COPRAS consortium partners.

Overall, the kick-off meeting achieved good and detailed results in the break-out sessions although there is some fear COPRAS may not be able to support all projects that attended the meeting due to lack of resources. In addition to conclusions, arrangements and next steps agreed on a break-out cluster level, the general conclusions and observations can be summarized as follows:

• several of the larger IP projects, that usually run between 18 and 24 months do not always have a complete view on what's going on inside their projects (e.g. in terms of what could be relevant for standardization), because representatives only have the overview of the particular segment they're responsible for.

• COPRAS cannot support all projects that presented standards related issues at the kick-off meeting because it does not have sufficient resources to do this; therefore, those that cannot be addressed either by the COPRAS consortium partners or by other members of the ICTSB, cannot be included in the COPRAS Programme.

• Many projects believe the European Commission should facilitate their cooperation with Standards Delivering Organizations (SDOs) prior to as well as after the actual launch of their activities; projects have great difficulties contributing to standards bodies at the end of their lifetime as they don't have the resources for this anymore; some feel COPRAS should play a role in conveying this message to the Commission.

• There is a genuine requirement for guidelines how to build in standardization efforts into project proposals, i.e. for the (interim) generic material that establishes one of the important COPRAS deliverables.

• It should be underlined standardization processes cannot be initiated facilitating the goals of a single company or university. Support for technology has to be sufficiently broad in order to start these processes.

• Specific processes followed by a standards body a project intends to interface with, to a large extend determines how and when interfacing should be arranged. This however can differ considerably across standards bodies and in some cases interfacing at a very early point in time is absolutely necessary to achieve results.

5. Conclusions & recommendations

The kick-off meeting established the first step towards the development of Standardization Action Plans. The second step will be the definition of these standardization action plans either on a cluster or on an individual project level; elements of such a plan may be COPRAS» support in helping projects draft specifications, organize meetings with relevant standards bodies and arrange input on mutual sides i(t should be underlined in this respect that merely staying in contact with the projects is not enough). The third step finally will be the monitoring of the rolling action plan, containing all Standardization Action Plans.

Several clusters however are not yet far enough to start the work on a Standardization Action Plan. Considering the actions that have already been put in place, more clarity should be available during the first half of December 2004. Early January 2005 the first drafts of the Standardization Action Plans should be available.

Annex A: Kick-off meeting agenda

Annex B: List of break-out session presentations

The following lists the presentations given at the kick-off meeting break out sessions by projects as well as representatives from standards bodies and industry groups.

• B.1 Plenary sessions
  • B. Brusse (COPRAS)
  • P. Wintlev-Jensen (EU)
  • S. Hansen (the Open Group)
  • T. Kovacikova (ETSI)
• B.2 Broadband access
  • 4 MORE
  • CAPANINA
  • GANDALF
  • OPERA
  • SIMPLICITY
• B.3 Security issues
  • CEN
  • Digital Passport
  • E-MAYOR
  • TrustCom
  • Biosec
  • SECOQC
• B.4 Semantic-based systems and languages
• UNI-VERSE
• ALVIS
• UNI-VERSE
• SATINE
• ARTEMIS
• SIMILAR
• DBE
• B.5 Smart houses and home networking
  • OPERA
  • TEAHA
  • ENTHRONE
  • ePerSpace
  • MediaNet
  • DVB-TM AVC
  • DVB-CM HN / DLNA
  • CENELEC SC205A
  • ETSI_NGN@Home
  • ICTSB SHSSG
• B.6 eLearning
  • European Schoolnet
  • TELCERT
  • ICLASS
  • UNFOLD