Mission and Aims

The mission of the STI Standardization & Reference Architecture Service is to (1) coordinate standardization efforts for semantic technology developments, and (2) provide and maintain reference architectures for research and development of semantic technologies. This shall assure a broad adaptation of new technology developments in research and industry, and therewith strengthen the impact of the STI International research results.

Standardization is a crucial factor for ensuring the durable success and the industrial adaptation of new technology developments. To facilitate the successful standardization of semantic technologies, STI International coordinates the basic research work as well as the activities and participation of its members in the relevant international standardization bodies. For this, a joint standardization strategy shall ensure the successful work and timely admission of important technology standards. Furthermore, the service provides and maintains reference architectures for semantic technologies. These can serve as the basis for software and application development, and they can be used to demonstrate the added value of semantic technologies to industry and other interested parties.

The benefits of the Standardization & Reference Architecture Service for STI members as well as for other stakeholders are:

• More impact of research results by successful standardization
• Measureable contributions to science and society by new technology standards
• Fast development and integration of new software and applications on the basis of the reference architectures
• Improved chances for future project acquisition and fund raising.

What We Offer

The Standardization & Reference Architecture Service is the central point for coordinating and driving the work on standardization efforts for semantic technologies as well as for the development of reference architectures. We manage the research work in STI International, facilitate the cooperation of associated projects, and serve as the central contact point for in- and external research development initiatives and standardization bodies.

(1) Standardization

The aim is to foster the successful standardization of semantic technologies that are developed in STI-associated research efforts. For this, we manage the research work in STI working groups, gather the central results and prepare them into pre-standard specifications, and coordinate the communication between STI research efforts and the relevant international standardization bodies (W3C, OASIS, OMG).

We implement a joint standardization strategy in order to enable the successful and efficient admission of new technology standards on the basis of STI research results. Essentially, this consists of the following steps:

• Identification of standardization aims: technological challenges, target standardization bodies
• Manage research work in STI working groups that work on new semantic technologies
• Gather the central results of the working groups and prepare them into pre-standard specifications
• Coordinate the submission of proposals to the relevant standardization bodies
• Coordinate the participation and work of STI members in the standardization bodies
• Document and disseminate successful standardization results

This strategy ensures that the STI standardization efforts are professionally managed and the submitted proposals are supported by a strong consortium, which allows us to minimize the risk of potential delays, failures, or undesirable results of the work in the actual standardization bodies.

(2) Reference Architectures

The purpose of reference architectures is to provide open and extensible and extensible software environments for semantic technologies. Such architectures usually consist of a technical specification and open-source implementations. Examples are generic ontology engineering environments or execution environments for semantically enabled SOA technologies. These can be used as the basis for software and application development in research projects as well as by external parties.

STI International provides, develops, and maintains reference architectures for semantic technologies and makes them accessible to STI members as well as to other interested parties. In particular, we provide:

• Information on relevant reference architectures for semantic technologies
• Access to technical development environments
• A legal framework for handling IPR issues and usage rights.

Benefits

The following lists the benefits of the Standardization & Reference Architecture Service for the stakeholders of STI International.