[OWLED] OWLED Last, Next, and the Next-after-that

Hi Folks,

Just a bit of follow up to OWLED 2007.

(Note: A version of this message will go directly to participants  
too, so apologies if you get more than one.)

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First, it was a success. We had 92 registered participants and 46 or  
so papers and posters which meant a very busy couple of days! This is  
up from around 60 participants and 30-some papers in prior years.

The websites for OWLEDs 2005-2007 are now archived at:
	http://webont.org/owled/

This is the first place to check for future OWLEDs and all OWLED  
related information.

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Second, one of the prime goals of the OWLED workshop series has been  
(nearly) completed. W3C Team Member Sandro Hawke announced that the  
W3C had started work on a charter for a possible new OWL working  
group. That charter:

	http://www.w3.org/2007/06/OWLCharter

is now under review by the W3C Advisory Committee. If it passes  
muster, the new working group should have its first telecons this fall.

If you are connected to a W3C member organization, it is really  
important to have your AC representative comment favorably on this  
proposal. If your organization is considering joining in order to  
participate in the WG, it would be very helpful to communicate this  
fact to the W3C. Finally, if you are planning to use OWL 1.1 in a  
product (or build a product supporting OWL 1.1), this is useful  
information as well.

I'm (personally) happy to have informal, informational discussions  
with anyone who's curious about participation, W3C terminology or  
procedures, etc. on list or off.  A critical point: You do not have  
to be a member of the working group in order to contribute to or  
significantly influence the work of the WG. All the current  
discussions of OWL 1.1 get logged in the issues list on the OWL 1.1  
google code project and will be transfered to whatever mechanism the  
WG uses to track things. I feel certain that WG face to face meetings  
will try to coordinate with OWLED meetings.

The proposed chairs are Ian Horrocks and Alan Ruttenberg and the  
proposed principle team contact is Sandro Hawke. Sandro deserves big  
kudos for stepping up to be the team contact and doing an outstanding  
job so far (esp. with the charter). Sandro is also the RIF team contact.

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Third, OWLED 2008 will again align with ISWC (2008). The general  
chair of OWLED 2008 is Alan Ruttenberg. However, re-aligning with  
ISWC means a rather long gap between OWLEDs, so at the business  
meeting we decided to hold an "interim" OWLED sometime in the March/ 
April time frame in the Washington DC, USA area. This one will be a  
little experimental and will be organized by Kendall Clark and Peter  
Patel-Schneider.

I look forward to both meetings!

----------------------------
Fourth, we added a bit of formal organization to the steering  
committee in the form of a community driven membership policy:
	http://webont.org/owled/steering.html

I'm pleased to say that John Goodwin, of the UK Ordnance Survey, was  
elected (in a rather competitive election, I might add!) to the  
steering committee.

----------------------------
Fifth, now that OWL 1.1 --- which was the center of OWLED "work"  
sessions --- is out of our hands, the "What next?" question is  
critical. The OWLED 2007 participants have "chartered" a number of  
task forces to address different issues facing the community. TFs are  
intended to provide a bit of structure, focus, and impetus to the so  
called "standardization" sessions. A general description of the  
mechanism and currently "charter" TFs is at:
	http://webont.org/owled/taskforces/

And the working coordination wiki page is at:
	http://code.google.com/p/owl1-1/wiki/TaskForces

TFs are definitely experimental and evolving and I welcome feedback  
and discussion about them on or off list.

-----------------------------
Finally, at the request of some OWLED 2007 participants, there is now  
a low traffic OWLED/WebOnt.org blog + RSS feed:
	http://webont.org/news/

All critical announcements (call for spec and report reviews, CFPs,  
etc.) will be posted there.

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia,
OWLED 2007 General Chair.

Received on Friday, 10 August 2007 17:34:52 UTC