The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published a Group Note of The SML XLink Reference Scheme. The Service Modeling Language [SML] specification extends the Extensible Mark-up Language and XML Schema with a mechanism for incorporating into XML documents references to other documents or document fragments. The SML specification does not mandate the use of any specific reference scheme, and provides an extensibility mechanism for defining new reference schemes. This note illustrates how the extensibility mechanism can be used to define an SML reference scheme based on XLink links. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

The Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group published three Interest Group notes produced by the Scientific Discourse Task Force:

• Semantic Web Applications in Neuromedicine (SWAN) Ontology
• SIOC, SIOC Types and Health Care and Life Sciences
• SWAN/SIOC: Alignment Between the SWAN and SIOC Ontologies

These notes describe how one can use the Semantic Web to express and integrate scientific data from different domains and from heterogeneous services. It is hoped that they will inspire further contributions to the ongoing work of the Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group and its Scientific Discourse Task Force, as well as inspire those in other domains to exploit the Semantic Web. On a related topic, the Interest Group holds a Workshop on Scientific Discourse at ISWC 2009 on Monday, 26 October. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the MashSSL Incubator Group, whose mission is to create an open security protocol to solve a fundamental Internet security problem. Specifically, when two web applications communicate through a potentially untrusted user they do not have any standard way of mutually authenticating each other and establishing a trusted channel. The group seeks to create an open, secure standard for solving this problem. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: DigiCert, Venafi and VeriSign. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track.

The SPARQL Working Group published the First Public Working Draft of six SPARQL 1.1 specifications. SPARQL is the query language of the Semantic Web, and SPARQL 1.1 enhances the SPARQL landscape with:

• SPARQL 1.1 Query - Adds support for aggregates, subqueries, projected expressions, and negation to the SPARQL query language.
• SPARQL 1.1 Update - Defines an update language for RDF graphs.
• SPARQL 1.1 Protocol - Defines an abstract interface and HTTP bindings for a protocol to issue SPARQL Query and SPARQL Update statements against a SPARQL endpoint.
• SPARQL 1.1 Service Description - Defines a vocabulary and discovery mechanism for describing the capabilities of a SPARQL endpoint.
• SPARQL 1.1 Uniform HTTP Protocol for Managing RDF Graphs - Describes the use of the HTTP protocol for managing named RDF graphs on an HTTP server.
• SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes - Defines conditions under which SPARQL queries can be used with entailment regimes such as RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, or RIF.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

The XML Security Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts: XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 2.0 and Canonical XML Version 2.0. The former provides integrity, message authentication, and/or signer authentication services for data of any type, whether located within the XML that includes the signature or elsewhere. XML Signature 2.0 includes a new transform model designed to address requirements including performance, simplicity and streamability. This model is significantly different than in XML Signature 1.x (see Section 10: "Differences from 1.x version"). XML Signature 2.0 is designed to be backward compatible, however, enabling the XML Signature 1.x model to be used where necessary. Canonical XML Version 2.0 is a major rewrite of Canonical XML Version 1.1 to address issues around performance, streaming, hardware implementation, robustness, minimizing attack surface, determining what is signed and more. It also incorporates an update to Exclusive Canonicalization, effectively a 2.0 version, as well. Learn more about the W3C Security Activity.

The Media Annotations Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of API for Media Resource 1.0. This specification defines a client-side API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. The overall purpose of the API is to provide developers with a convenient access to metadata information stored in different metadata formats. The API serves as a mediator between a developer and the underlying Ontology for Media Resource 1.0 with the goal to support interoperability between metadata formats. It offers GET and SET operations to retrieve and to store particular metadata informations represented in a certain metadata format related to media ressources on the Web. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Group Note of Extended Guidelines for Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0. This document supplements W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 [MWBP] by providing additional evaluations of conformance to Best Practice statements and by providing additional interpretations of Best Practice statements. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.