Subject: [secdir] [New-work] W3C Workshop: RDF Next Steps (Call for Participation)

From: Ian Jacobs <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:37:01 -0600

Dear Colleagues

I am pleased to announce an upcoming W3C Workshop:

   RDF Next Steps
   Exact dates and location not yet decided, but approximately June 2010
   http://www.w3.org/2009/12/rdf-ws/cfp

Some important dates, though these may change slightly:

   * 09 March 2010: Position papers due
   * 07 May 2010: Acceptance notification sent.
   * 28 May 2010: Deadline for final version for submissions
   * mid June 2010: Workshop

We will inform you of the precise dates and locations as soon as
possible.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF), was published in 2004. Since
then, RDF has become the core architectural block of the  Semantic
Web, with significant deployment in terms of tools and applications.

As a result of R&D activities and the publication of newer standards
like SPARQL[1], OWL[2], POWDER[3], or SKOS[4], but also due to the
large scale deployment and applications, a number of issues regarding
RDF have come to the fore. Some of those are related to features that
are not present in the current version of RDF but which became
necessary in practice (eg, the concept of “Named Graphs”[5]). Others
result from the difficulties caused by the design decisions taken in
the course of defining the 2004 version of RDF (eg, restrictions
whereby literals cannot appear as subjects). Definition of newer
standards have also revealed difficulties when applying the semantics
of RDF. New serializations formats (eg, Turtle[6]) have gained a
significant support by the community. Finally, at present there is no
standard programming API to manage RDF data; the need may arise to
define such a standard either in a general, programming language
independent way or for some of the important languages (ECMAscript,
Java, Python,…) It is therefore time to consider whether a revision of
the 2004 version of RDF is necessary or whether the community can
continue developing with the
current version.

The goal of the Workshop is to gather feedback from the Semantic Web
community on whether and, if yes, in which direction RDF should
evolve. One of the main issues the Workshop should help deciding is
whether it is timely for W3C to start a new RDF Working Group to
define and standardize a next version of RDF.

The main outcome of the Workshop will be the publication of
proceedings and, in case there is a consensus on moving forward, a
draft for a charter for a new RDF Working Group.

The Workshop will be co-chaired by David Wood (Zepheira), Stefan
Decker (DERI), and Ivan Herman (W3C). The Program Committee has key
persons from the Semantic Web community, both from industry and
academia. We
look forward to your participation and contributions to this Workshop.

If you have any questions, please contact Ivan Herman <[email-masked]>,
Semantic Web Activity Lead.

More information is available in the Call for Participation:
   http://www.w3.org/2009/12/rdf-ws/cfp.html

Ian Jacobs, Head of W3C Communications

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-rdf-sparql-query-20080115/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-owl2-overview-20091027/
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-powder-primer-20090901/
[4] http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-skos-reference-20090818
[5]
http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/SWTSGuide/carroll-ISWC2004.pdf
[6] http://www.w3.org/TeamSubmission/2008/SUBM-turtle-20080114/

--
Ian Jacobs ([email-masked])    http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                                      +1 718 260 9447

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