Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group Charter

The Semantic Web Education and Outreach (SWEO) Interest Group has been established to develop strategies and materials to increase awareness among the Web community of the need and benefit for the Semantic Web, and educate the Web community regarding related solutions and technologies.

Scope

The scope of SWEO group includes:

The development and maintenance of a variety of online and hard-copy education and outreach resources, such as tutorial, business cases, Semantic Web flyers, curricula, fact sheets, reference link pages, demonstration materials, introductory pages, etc.;
To development and facilitate community outreach strategies, training and educational resources and expanded course offerings in Semantic Web technologies.
The consultation with other Semantic Web groups to identify outreach needs; to develop strategies and resources to address those needs, and to advise on ease-of-use of other Semantic Web groups' deliverables, including presentation of information (structure, style, semantics) across all areas of the W3C's Semantic Web Activity

Deliverables

SWEO group deliverables will include organization of symposiums, workshops and summits that help educate the market, as well as documents reflecting the Outreach needs identified by the Interest Group. One specific outreach objective would be the organization of a CIO/CTO Symposium focused on bringing together leaders in organizations using and / or interested in applying Semantic Web technologies to the enterprise. The specific foci of other events will be centered around the themes of the Interest Group task forces. These task forces will typically operate in the following way:

The time frame of a task force is short-term, e.g. 4 (2-6) months
The editors/coordinators of a task force are selected from the Interest Group participants
A task force may recommend non-Member individuals with relevant skills to participate in the task force as invited experts. The normal invited expert process will be followed. Final decision on any task force issue rests with member of the Interest Group.
The task force will use the regular Interest Group communication channels.
The result of this work is proposed to the full Interest Group for consideration and discussion on next steps.

SWEO deliverables the task forces might address include but are not limited to the following types of materials and events:

Reaching out to industry through documented proof-of-concept business cases, demonstration prototypes, etc, based on successful implementations of Semantic Web technologies
A collection of Semantic Web presentations designed to communicate the features and benefits of the Semantic Web within their own organization.
A resources page including comprehensive collections of Semantic Web tools, technologies, examples and projects.
Presentation of business cases, materials and information targeted at various business levels regarding Semantic Web technologies
Introductory references focused to help individuals and organizations start using Semantic Web technologies, making a Semantic Web Site and planning Semantic Web training
Resource networks including outreach, training and education exchanges.

SWEO document deliverables become W3C Notes. The focus of this work is informational in nature, rather than technical specifications. SWEO deliverables must be consensus-based, technically sound, and reflect the most current W3C specifications.

Schedule

The schedule for these deliverables represent an initial plan. As more information becomes available, milestones may be renegotiated with the Semantic Web Coordination Group. Schedule changes that impact resource allocations are charter changes that require Advisory Committee review.

July 2006 - Group Formation. W3C Members with relevant interest and expertise join the interest group. The chair may elect to invite non-W3C experts.
August 2006 - Face to Face meeting to prioritize objectives and establish a strategy for delivering.
Oct 2006 - First Interest Group deliverables expected to be published.
Jan 2007 - Face to Face meeting to re-prioritize objectives and establish a strategy for delivering.
March 2007 - CIO / CTO Symposium
April 2007 - Face to Face meeting to re-prioritize objectives and establish a strategy for delivering.
July 2007 - Interest Group deliverables expected to be published.
Sept 2007 - Face to Face meeting to re-prioritize objectives and establish a strategy for delivering.
Jan 2008 - Interest Group deliverables expected to be published.
Febr 2008 - The SWEO Interest group ends.

Relationship with Other Activities

In order to be most successful, the SWEO Interest Group will coordinate with various W3C and non-W3C related groups working in similar areas. These groups include:

Interest Group Membership

W3C has created the SWEO IG to be an an open, sustainable forum. To help ensure that the deliverables identified in this charter are produced in a timely fashion and represent the needs of a variety of communities, we therefore seek dedicated participation. We anticipate that dedicated individuals will enable the group to make timely progress, and that the diverse communities interested in the goals outlined by this charter -- companies, universities, and organizations of various types -- will be represented in the group.

The SWEO IG therefore welcomes participation from representatives of W3C Member organizations. To enable a broad spectrum of input, the SWEO IG also anticipates the active participation of individuals as W3C Invited Experts from universities and organizations. Participation from W3C Members and non-Members alike will help ensure the goals of this charter are effectively addressed.

Participation is expected to consume at up to a day a week of each participant's time.

Meetings and Communication

The SWEO Interest Group is expected to hold weekly conference calls, and two or three face-to-face meetings. In addition, much of the work of this Interest Group will be done in task forces, which may hold additional conference calls or face-to-face meetings.

Communications of the SWEOG will be public. This includes a public home page that records the history of the group and provides access to public-sweo-ig @w3.org mailing list, ( discussion archives, meeting minutes, updated schedule of deliverables, membership list, and relevant documents and resources).

For W3C Invited Experts, access to W3C Member-only information will not be required for participation in this Interest Group.

Resources and W3C Team Involvement

To be successful, we expect the Interest Group to have approximately 10 to 15 participating Member organizations and invited experts for its duration. We also expect a large public review group that will participate in the mailing list discussions.

The W3C Team expects to dedicate the services of one W3C team member at 20% for the duration of the Interest Group.

Patent Disclosures

W3C reminds Interest Group participants of their obligation to comply with patent disclosure obligations as set out in Section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy. While the Interest Group does not produce Recommendation-track documents, when Interest Group participants review Recommendation-track specifications from Working Groups, the patent disclosure obligations do apply.

Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group

Contents