PRAGUE (Czech Republic) -- 23 October 2007 -- A revolutionary way to share information about events has been given preliminary approval by delegates of the International Press Telecommunications Council at its regular meeting here.

The new standard, called EventsML-G2, allows news agencies and information providers to easily encode highly detailed information about any kind of event, such as a meeting, exhibition, election -- anytime people gather or something newsworthy happens. Aside from such obvious details as dates and places, EventsML-G2 can carry such detailed information as the likelihood of the event occurring as scheduled.

EventsML-G2 information can be shared in any language, using readily available text editing tools. It can be viewed on the World Wide Web, if desired, and EventsML-G2 information can be converted to and from the less-expressive iCalendar format by using such popular schedule management tools as Outlook, iCal or Blackberry devices.

As part of the IPTC's family of G2 standards, EventsML-G2 is based on XML - - recognized worldwide as the simplest and most universal method of encoding text and data for sharing. EventsML-G2 will be used to help newspapers and web sites build databases of such diverse content such as calendars of community events and upcoming elections. The possibilities are virtually limitless; for example, every detail of a child's school calendar can be published in EventsML-G2.

Previously, event information (such as a concert schedule) was collected and stored in a format that was usually invented by a local newspaper or web site, since the widely used iCalendar format is not sufficiently structured. Sharing such information was difficult and expensive; republication required much manual processing and was prone to error. EventsML-G2 establishes a lingua franca to make sharing as easy as e-mailing or transmitting an standardized EventsML-G2 file.

Final approval of EventsML-G2 is expected in the first quarter of 2008, but detailed information is available now at http://www.eventsml.org/ .

More than 50 delegates representing Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East participated in the regular IPTC autumn meeting held in Prague. They represented dozens of the world's leading news agencies and news system vendors, all of which use IPTC standards to share, process and publish news.

In other business, IPTC delegates continued work on the upcoming NewsML-G2 standard, which will be used to bundle news content for easy processing by news outlets such as newspapers, web sites and broadcasters. NewsML-G2 will enter its final stages of development and approval in early 2008.

The next regular gathering of the IPTC is scheduled for Beijing in March 2008, and will include a meeting with the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad to discuss news media issues for the upcoming Olympic summer games.

 

About IPTC: The IPTC, based in Windsor, UK, is a consortium of the world's major news agencies, news publishers and news industry vendors. It develops and maintains technical standards for improved news exchange that are used by virtually every major news organization in the world. Information on all IPTC standards such as the upcoming IPTC G2 Family of Standards, the existing NewsML, NITF, SportsML, IIM standards and the NewsCodes together with a list of existing members and information on how to join is available at http://www.iptc.org