Common Web Language Incubator Group Charter

Scope

An attempt to describe texts in the web in a common language is promoted in the Semantic Web Activity. The RDF/OWL is used as a basic description language and can be used to describe texts in web pages. However, RDF/OWL is originally designed to describe meta-data of resources, and at this moment, there is no standard set of properties and vocabulary to cover various web pages. There are some activities to provide common bases for describing information in the web such as the WordNet, NICT-EDR Electronic Dictionary for providing lexical bases, Conceptual Graphs for providing a representation basis. The CWL initiative is an activity quite different from those activities. The CWL will provide not only representation scheme but also a vocabulary with semantic background. It is an initiative to integrate existing and ongoing activities for providing a common description language with unambiguous grammar and enough amount of lexicons based on the CDL (Concept Description Language) scheme aiming at describing every kind of information understandable for computers.

The CWL has the following characteristics.

1. CWL is designed to be independent from any natural languages and shall enables users to develop conversion systems between CWL and each natural language.
2. Different from natural languages, CWL is a formal language playing the same role of natural languages for humans. This allows easy bi-directional conversion between CWL and other formal languages used in the web.
3. Based on CWL, various kinds of controlled language can easily be developed because of unambiguous structure of CWL.
4. Since the CWL is a network structured language, it can easily be implemented in RDF/OWL.

The CWL will be used to describe contents of web pages of wide audience and meta-data of various web pages. The CWL can be one of the biggest applications of RDF/OWL in Semantic Web.

Objectives

[CWL Language Specifications]

The CWL consists of grammar, ontology and lexicons. Grammar and ontology are based on the CDL.nl (CDL for Natural Language) specifications developed under funds from SCOPE of Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Any lexical set, such as NICT-EDR (Japanese and English) and WordNet (English), can be used as lexicons. Since an ontology is necessary to give a semantic basis of lexicons, we will use the ontology of CDL.nl as a basis.

[Pilot Platform]

The CWL will be used in various situations. In each situation, we need conversion systems between each natural language and CWL, since the CWL is a language for computers and people write web pages in their languages. We will use UNL and UNL system as a pilot platform to fill this gap between computers and people. The UNL was developed in the United Nations University and now the UNDL Foundation deploys UNL throughout the world under the license of the United Nations. At present, UNL systems are operational in more than 20 countries. UNL is a common language for computers and is used for international communication. CWL stands on the same ground. The CDL.nl redesigned the UNL specifications in the CDL language, except lexicons. UWs (Universal Words) which are lexicons of UNL will be provided by UNDL Foundation. Conversion module between CWL and UNL will be developed in this XG and specification of RDF/OWL version of UW will be examined in this XG.

Note: The CDL (Concept Description Language) is a language proposed by ISeC for Semantic Computing (SeC) R&D. CDL is fundamental language within SeC (Semantic Computing) framework. CDL describes semantic/conceptual structure of contents (resources). On the other hand, XML annotates syntactic structures of contents, and RDF/OWL describes properties of resources (contents). Structure description and property description are utterly different but complementary as well. Therefore, CDL and RDF/OWL are complementary. Accordingly, in developing of CDL, the environment of RDF/OWL will be utilized and the implementation method in RDF/OWL will be also proposed.