Deliverables

Deliverables

 * 1) Schema Catalogue site
 * 2) Web catalogue of schemas that exist or have been translated into HOWL, RDFa or XDI with MetaData
 * 3) Tools for self-service translation and check-in of contributed schemas
 * 4) Wiki and mailing list. For ad hoc content development by the community
 * 5) "How To" Guides. Folks may need some guidance on how to use this site, how to apply this site's contents, etc.
 * 6) Schema web service. A service to provide programatic access to the schema database, as well as provide back-end schema translation services.
 * 7) Base Ontology. Typically a schema defines its own kinds of Identity Attributes (e.g. "surname", "eyeColor", etc.) as well kinds values for these Identity Attributes. Some of these values may be simple literals (e.g. "Trevithick", "green", etc.) of various kinds (e.g. strings, dates, etc.). Some of these values may be complex objects (e.g. a postalAddress). Some schemas may also define different kinds of Digital Subjects (e.g a "person", "organization", etc.). Lastly, some schemas may describe various kinds of metadata about an Identity Attribute. A common base ontology can be used to capture the concepts of Identity Attribute, Digital Subject, etc., so that contributed schemas can reference it, if they choose to do so [MarkWahl]. The Higgins project has spent most of 2006 developing an initial version of such a base ontology (higgins.owl and this description of higgins.owl). We anticipate that higgins.owl will have to continute to evolve in response to the expectation of new requirements and feedback from the broader Identity Schemas community.
 * 8) Mid-Level Ontologies. It is often true that sets of related schemas share a common structure or vocabulary. For example, there are a several of efforts underway that are looking at common vocabulary and/or structure across certain sets of LDAP schemas. We may find it convenient to capture these commonalities in an abstract ontology (that in turn uses the base ontology) that specific concrete schemas will can use.
 * 9) Cross-references. Arguably the most ambitious aspect of the Identity Schemas effort is the intent that the catalogue have the ability to cross-reference Identity Attributes. For example, if there were an exact semantic match between the attribute "surname" used in one schema and "last" used in another, a cross reference could be added linking the two. Note: Cross-reference data is distinct from the schema data to which it refers.