Standards Watch Notes

This page is for tidbits of information that might be useful, items of interest and activity in the standards world. Or, as in the words of the old J. C. Whitney Auto Parts Catalogs, "Too New and Hot to Index!"

• This first major revision of the Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM) specification has been released. PRISM 2.0 addresses online and multimedia content and includes the provision of a PRISM XMP profile that enables application of PRISM metadata to PDF archives.
• EDItEUR has released an updated version of its Serials  Release Notification (SRN 0.92) as well as ONIX for Serials Coverage Statement (version 0.9).
  
• Identifiers are getting some attention this year, from the Book Industry Study Group's discussion document The Identification of Digital Book Content to NISO's recently formed Institutional Identifier Working Group to develop a standard for unique  institutional identifiers that describe relationships between different organizational entities.
  
• The ISSN is undergoing a 5 year review. Under consideration are such items as maintaining 8 digits, ISSNs for electronic editions and who may apply for an ISSN. Good resources for more ISSN info are The ISSN Register, NISO, and Crossref.org. NISO has posted a link to a PDF of the present standard.
• The use of rules will be one of the underpinnings of the Internet of the future. Rules are used for e-commerce, XML-based document generation, and for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Worth exploring is the Rule Markup Initiative, which is working on a RuleML. 
• Here's one for the multi-media audience. Take a look at Xiph.org, the home of "Open Multimedia." An absolute wealth of information and downloads supporting "free open protocols and software." The best thing since Slashdot, and easy to navigate too. 
• Another interesting site is the XML Tester, an "open source platform for testing XML applications." Checks for compliance with 5 different standards. An online demo is available.