In support of the Rule Languages for the Web workshop

[ Sorry if you get multiple copies.  There have been absurd problems
with this message getting through. ]

At the meeting in San Antonio, I agreed to provide a set of "tick
marks" to help guide people in specific actions toward a rule language
workshop happening and being a success.  

For the purposes of this e-mail, let's assume the workshop will be
held in Europe on April 13-14 and focus on what's necessary to make it
a success.  (Let's also assume the SWS workshop will be held 11-12 in
the same location.  If you see a significant conflict with these
dates, please let me know ASAP.)

The basic goal of the Rule Languages for the Web workshop is to
connect users and developers of rule languages suitable for the web.
We expect users to provide use cases and to continually drive the
process with their own applications.  The developers, both from
academia and rule system vendors, can begin to establish connections
with each other and with the users, as needed for standards work.  If
the workshop is successful, many of the users and developers will
emerge thinking that standards work is both practical and worthwhile.
They will want to participate in a W3C Working Group, or at least
express within the W3C Advisory Committee that this work is important
and should go forward.

I can see a few things the DAML PIs can do to help this process,
beyond merely participating constructively in the workshop:

   1.  Anticipate and isolate any technical challenges in this field.
       If we're not sure the right semantics for slot names (to pick
       one technical rathole from the PI meeting), that's okay, but we
       don't want to trip over it at the workshop.  To the extent
       possible, these items should be known challenges which a
       working group can steer towards or away from, as needed to
       address user requirements, rather than surprise landmines.
  
   2.  Spread the word.   Talk to people you know who are are
       interested in the field and get them (or their co-workers) to
       participate in the workshop.   If there are surprising reasons
       why they are reluctant, let me know.   Hopefully we'll have a 
       program committee organized and a CFP out shortly.

   3.  Build pressure inside organizations to support this work.  This
       builds on step 2, getting support inside your organization as
       well as all the organizations of your colleagues.  A widely
       deployed, accepted standard requires organizational
       committment, not just committed individuals.

       For organizations who are W3C members, the Advisory Committee
       Representative ("AC Rep") is a key point of contact [1].  Make
       sure each AC Rep knows about all the interest in Rules work
       there might be in their organization.  In the bigger
       organizations, it's possible to have a dozen people working
       with rule languages in a web context the AC Rep has never heard
       of a rule language.  Try to get the AC Rep to e-mail me and
       Eric Miller (Semantic Web Activity Lead, em+rl@w3.org), so we
       know what kinds of interest exist.

       For organizations who are not W3C members, it's also important
       to build a network of people who are interested in this work.
       As a group they can seriously consider joining the W3C or
       otherwise participating.  There is general information on the
       web about why one might want to join [2], and if they want to
       talk to a person about the details (especially with respect to
       rules), Eric Miller or I would be happy to talk to them.
       Non-members can still attend the workshop and give feedback on
       a standard as it is developed, but they can not (in general)
       directly participate in a working group.

I'll send along more details as they get worked out, and I'd be happy
to try to answer any questions.  Good seeing you all in Texas.

   -- sandro


[1] If you don't know who your AC Rep is, see
    http://www.w3.org/Member/ACList.  If you don't have access to
    that, ask me or someone else with member access.
[2] http://w3.org/Consortium/Prospectus/

Received on Tuesday, 21 December 2004 19:15:04 UTC