Windsor (United Kingdom),
10 January 2006 -- Sharing and accurately describing
news will take a giant leap forward this month when testing
begins on NewsML 2 Architecture, a proposed standard
from the International Press Telecommunications Council
for a next generation of news exchange formats.
Developed by a consortium of more than 40 of the world's
major news agencies and news system vendors, NewsML 2
Architecture is based on the wildly popular XML markup
language.
The basic goal of the NewsML 2 Architecture is to provide
a single generic model for exchanging all kinds of newsworthy
information. Not only will this give news agencies and
software developers a unified method for handling news,
but it will also provide an XML framework for a future
family of IPTC news exchange standards covering such
diverse specialties as sports, entertainment and financial
news.
Under the IPTC model, text, photo, graphics, video --
in fact, any combination of media types -- can be bundled
into packages that neatly wrap the news content, information
about the content and a management layer. Senders can
make the XML wrapper as simple or complex as desired,
tailoring the final package to the exact needs of their
customers.
As with all IPTC standards, when work is completed NewsML
2 standards will be released for use without payment
or royalties. In addition, it is compatible with the
World Wide Web Consortium's "Semantic Web" framework,
building a robust universal data exchange using XML and
other standard tools.
During the testing period, IPTC members and other parties
can:
- Test “real life” use cases against the
News Architecture model and syntax.
- Report on practical issues.
- Help finalise the NewsML 2 Architecture specifications.
NewsML 2 Architecture Version 1.0, Experimental Phase
1, will end on 15 February 2006. Although testing is
generally intended for IPTC members, non- members may
be invited to join. All documents and specification files
for the current draft of the NewsML 2 Architecture are
available at www.iptc.org/dev.
To discuss participation
or possible IPTC membership, non-members can write to
mdirector@iptc.org.
Test results will be discussed at the next regular meeting
of the IPTC, to be held in Vancouver, Canada, in March
2006; results will also be published on the IPTC's web
site, http://www.iptc.org/
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