The meeting followed on from the Semantic Interoperability
stream of the Architecture Practitioners Conference. This stream
had started with a keynote presentation from Sam Ceccola of BEA Systems,
setting out a vision for development of semantic interoperability in the
context of service-oriented architecture. This had been followed by
presentations from Arnold van Overeem of Capgemini, reviewing
European Semantic Interoperability Projects, and by Ron Schuldt of Lockheed Martin,
on Applying the Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF). The stream
had concluded with a session
of three presentations on different aspects of the use of ontologies in connection
with SOA.
The discussion in the meeting continued and expanded these themes,
with particular emphasis on the use and value of the UDEF.
The Governing Board of The Open Group had just ratified the first
extension to the baseline UDEF, subject to a condition that a convention be
put in place for identifying extensions clearly.
Work will proceed on further development of the UDEF and its supporting
infrastructure. It is crucial that
the value of the UDEF be clearly demonstrated, and an appropriate pilot
project should be identified. This could take the form of a Challenge,
similar to the Secure Messaging Challenge conducted by The Open Group
Messaging Forum in 2002.
The discussion also addressed the organization of semantic interoperability
work within The Open Group. It concluded that the present situation,
with an inactive Semantic Interoperability Working Group and a small but active UDEF
Forum was not optimal. It recommended that the Semantic Interoperability Working Group
should be re-activated, with the UDEF being handled by a project of that group,
rather than by a separate Forum.
