The document outlines discussions from an IPTC meeting regarding the News Industry Text Format (NITF) and its evolution towards version 4.0, focusing on integration with the Semantic Web and other standards like G2. Key points include the proposal of a news-specific vocabulary, enhancements for geographic information representation, and the potential for NITF to adopt inline semantics. The meeting also covered updates to NITF documentation and the introduction of competing text markup efforts such as HTML5 and HNews.

1. NITF Maintenancewww.NITF.orgStuart MylesAssociated PressParis, France / March 8th, 2010

2. © IPTC – www.iptc.org2AgendaApproval of minutes from previous meetingMatters ArisingChairman’s ReportNITF 4.0

3. Other text markup

4. Documentation© IPTC – www.iptc.org3NITF MinutesApproval of Minutes from previous meeting:Held on 9th October 2009

5. © IPTC – www.iptc.org4NITF MattersMatters arising?

6. © IPTC – www.iptc.org5Chairman’s ReportNITF = “News Industry Text Format”Defines the content and structure of articlesIPTC’s most widely-used XML standard421 members on the Y! listdown from 435 in October4 emails since OctoberNITF 3.5 released in December 2009http://www.nitf.orghttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/nitf/

7. NITF 4.0 Road MapIn October 2010 we proposed a road map:Kick off NITF 4.0 in Spring 2010DiscussG2izationRDFizationNamespacesTarget NITF 4.0 for end of 2010© IPTC – www.iptc.org6

8. NITF 4.0NITF 4.0:Unlocking the power of NITF© IPTC – www.iptc.org7

9. NITF 4.0 – Semantic WebDear IPTC Standards Committee,Please set up a Working Group to considerRDF, Semantic Web and Linked Data.How might they relate to IPTC standards?Regards,NITF Working GroupOctober 2009© IPTC – www.iptc.org8

10. NITF and the Semantic WebFor a Dow Jones project, I created a representation of key article informationI used semantic web vocabularies – chiefly FOAF and Dublin Core TermsBut there was no match for “byline”I considered using G2’s <by> elementBut NITF’s <byline> was actually what I needed© IPTC – www.iptc.org9

11. Semantic Web:News VocabularyIPTC could create a news-specific vocabulary of terms.I saw a need, as have New York Times and others© IPTC – www.iptc.org10

12. Semantic Web VocabulariesBest known RDF vocabularies areFOAF = Friend of a Friendhttp://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/DCMI Terms = Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Termshttp://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/Other examples at http://vocab.org/© IPTC – www.iptc.org11

13. Semantic Web VocabularyAn example from Dublin Core Terms:© IPTC – www.iptc.org12

14. Semantic Web VocabulariesAn example from Dublin Core Terms:There are some news-specific terms that aren’t defined in other vocabularies, such as “byline”. We could define a news vocabulary (a relatively simple data model) or a full ontology (richer but more work).© IPTC – www.iptc.org13

15. NITF 4.0 and Semantic WebShould IPTC take a lead role?Other organizations are starting to create news vocabulariesAre there meaningful differences between NITF and the G2 family?Maybe a way to bring the two closer togetherNote that NITF has always been “semantic”http://www.iptc.org/std/NITF/documentation/stx9804-NITFmarkupGuidelines.pdf© IPTC – www.iptc.org14

16. Geographic InformationGerd Kamp from DPA Infocom discusses using NITF to represent locations:http://r.ka2.de/?p=595He found everything he neededExcept for a way to represent a centroidCentroid is the central point of a placeExpressed a latitude and longitude© IPTC – www.iptc.org15

17. A georss:point in NITFAdding a centroid using georss© IPTC – www.iptc.org16

18. Adding Latitude and LongitudeWe could add latitude and longitude to NITF’s location-related elementsMaps as user interfaces to news are growing in popularityBut geographic information can be quite complexCentroid, Bounding Box, Bounding Polygon…So can we consider a different approach?© IPTC – www.iptc.org17

19. The GeoRSS NamespaceGeoRSS is widely used in RSS and ATOMDesigned to be embedded in XMLhttp://www.georss.orgSo why recreate those structures in NITF?© IPTC – www.iptc.org18

20. Foreign NamespaceIn NITF 3.5, we completed the support for “foreign namespaces” introduced into the schema in v3.4Specifically, the “enriched text” has a choice of <any namespace="##other"/>This allows other namespaces to be used within such NITF elements as caption, tagline, etc.© IPTC – www.iptc.org19

21. Foreign Namespaces Elsewhere?So far, we have only allowed non NITF namespaces within enriched textThis means that NITF is a “closed” schemaAll innovation in the use of NITF needs to be centralized within the IPTCDo we want to allow other namespaces to be mixed in with NITF documents?Allow proprietary extensions to be “legal”© IPTC – www.iptc.org20

22. NITF 4.0 and G2IPTC’s G2 standard is a unified frameworkPackaging and exchanging news contentStandard model for news metadata regardless of the content or media typeHowever, NITF predates and stands outside the G2 frameworkCan NITF join the G2 family of standards?© IPTC – www.iptc.org21

23. NITF and G2We studied how SportsML became part of the G2 familyIt seems a similar path is possible for NITFThe biggest change will be the inline adoption of QCodes in NITFColon separated scheme:code syntax for controlled vocabularies© IPTC – www.iptc.org22

24. NITF and G2With work, NITF can be brought within the G2 frameworkNITF would bring inline semantics (entities) into G2Should NITF Classic live on?© IPTC – www.iptc.org23

25. NITF 4.0Unlocking the power of NITFJoining the Semantic WebOpening up to other namespacesJoining the G2 family of standards© IPTC – www.iptc.org24

26. Other Text MarkupNITF isn’t the only text markup effortOr even the most activeHTML5hNewsIPTC 7901© IPTC – www.iptc.org25

27. HTML5 New ElementsHTML5 is introducing several new structural elements, including<section> <article><aside> <header> <footer>HTML5 is moving confidently beyond presentation into news-like structurehttp://dev.w3.org/html5/html4-differences/#new-elements© IPTC – www.iptc.org26

28. hNewsA microformat for adding some news-specific semantics into display-ready HTMLAdopted by Associated Press for recent Winter Games and forthcoming World Cup websitesWe know of around 200 other websites using hNewsStarting to see some tools being built© IPTC – www.iptc.org27

29. IPTC 7901An idea to add markup to pre-XML text markupCan we use Markdown?The idea will be discussed later during the Standards Meeting© IPTC – www.iptc.org28

30. NITF DocumentationUpgrading the NITF website. Some ideas:Simplify getting to the NITF specsPerhaps adopt Subversion for previous versions?Supply NITF <-> XHTML XSLT transformsCopy NITF DTD documentation into the XSDModernize the documentationDiscuss NITF and G2?Volunteers to take on any of the work?© IPTC – www.iptc.org29

31. NITFAny other business?© IPTC – www.iptc.org30

32. © IPTC – www.iptc.org31NITFDate and place of next meeting:San Francisco, USA - Summer 2010Merci!