NewsML, PRISM, RSS, Atom, ICE, XMP, NITF, XHTML... As interest builds for standardizing news dissemination, concern also grows that specifications are being developed in isolation. How do they fit? Where will they converge? How can developers and users collaborate to identify gaps and
overlaps and ensure their systems will be able to interoperate now and in the future?

The IPTC invites you to find the answers in a one-day News Standards Summit to be held
Monday, 8 December 2003,
in conjunction with XML 2003 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Goal:
The News Standards Summit will bring together major players--experts on news metadata standards as well as commercial news providers, users, and aggregators. Together, we will analyze the current state and future expectations for news and publishing XML efforts from both the content and processing model perspectives. Our goal--to increase understanding and drive practical, productive convergence.

Participation:
All interested parties are welcome to participate. Anyone who develops or implements news exchange standards is strongly encouraged to attend, particularly providers and users of:
- Online content
- Mobile communication
- Printed news: Newspapers, magazines
- Picture libraries

Sponsors:
The News Standards Summit is a collaborative effort of organizations committed to open standards development:
IPTC
IDEAlliance
IFRA
NAA
OASIS

Agenda:
The program will feature presentations from the key news standards efforts balanced by a requirements overview from a panel of international users. The day will conclude with an open session where productive ideas for moving forward will be proposed. Networking opportunities will be available.
The full program and information on the venue can be found at the News Standards Summit web pages.

Speakers include:
Chet Ensign of LexisNexis, key note
Laurent Le Meur of AFP / IPTC
Alan Karben of XML Team Solutions / IPTC
Ron Daniel of Taxonomy Strategies
Dianne Kennedy of IDEAlliance
Sam Ruby, IBM
Ben Hammersley, author of "Content Syndication with RSS"

Find the current list on the program web pages.

Registration:
Pre-registration and a nominal meeting fee of 90 USD will be required to
cover the cost of lunch, breaks, and room fees.
Please register online.

Please contact us with any questions you might have on the News Standards Summit (Send an e-mail to: mdirector@iptc.org). We look forward to seeing you in December.

Regards,

John Iobst, Chairman of the IPTC

Stephane Guerillot, Chairman of the IPTC Standards Committee

Michael Steidl, Managing Director