Compliance Repository (C-GRID) Preview, Interoperability Standards Highlight OMG Meeting in Boston, MA, USA, June 26-30, 2006; Cross-Enterprise Interoperability Enabled by New OMG Standards for Ontologies, Web Services.

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Members of the Object Management Group(TM) (OMG(TM)) met in Boston, Massachusetts, USA during the week of June 26-30, 2006, sponsored by the Boeing Corporation (www.boeing.com). At this meeting, three new standards completed member evaluation and started the series of votes leading to official adoption. E[acute accent]Additional meeting highlights included the official adoption of the OMG Systems Engineering Modeling Language (OMG SysML(TM)) and Knowledge Definition Metamodel (KDM) as official OMG specifications, and a preview presentation of the Compliance Global Regulatory Information Database (C-GRID(TM)). Also, members initiated new standards work in software modeling and interoperability, viewed demonstrations of products implementing OMG specifications, and attended information days, tutorials, and a co-located meeting of IEEE P1900.2.

E[acute accent]Ontology Specification Lets Businesses Share Semantics

E[acute accent]As enterprises rely more on web services for both data processing and fully automated business-to-business e-commerce, the problem of inconsistent semantics becomes increasingly important. Businesses can ensure consistent semantics by sharing an ontology - the definitions of terms and concepts in a domain - but ontologies can only be shared if they are expressed and stored in a standard way. OMG's Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) standardizes this necessary foundation for sharing ontologies. In Boston, the draft ODM specification completed member evaluation and started the series of votes leading to final adoption.

E[acute accent]New Software Infrastructure Interoperability Specifications

E[acute accent]Two new infrastructure specifications also completed member evaluation and started the series of votes leading to adoption. One adds an interoperability protocol to OMG's popular Data Distribution Service (DDS). DDS supports real-time data distribution with publish/subscribe semantics and is widely used in both military and industrial systems. The new protocol will let compliant DDS implementations from different vendors interoperate on the network. The second infrastructure specification, a mapping from Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) to C++, will enable vendors to replace proprietary mappings with the standard, increasing productivity of developers whose skills and code will port from one environment to another.

E[acute accent]SysML, KDM Adoptions Become Final

E[acute accent]Once members complete their evaluation and register approval in a series of votes, a poll by OMG's Board of Directors (BoD) makes the adoption official. Following actions at the Boston meeting, votes by OMG's BoD declared the Systems Engineering Modeling Language (SysML), and the Knowledge Definition Metamodel (KDM) for architecture-based software modernization, to be OMG specifications.

E[acute accent]Compliance Global Regulatory Information Database (C-GRID) Preview

E[acute accent]OMG previewed C-GRID, a database of rules, regulations, standards, and government guidance documents that require IT action, to invited executives in a dedicated half-day session. For information on C-GRID, a project of the OMG Regulatory Compliance Alliance (ORCA), go to http://orca.omg.org/.

E[acute accent]Five New Specifications Initiated

E[acute accent]OMG members initiate a new standards effort by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP). Any company, organization, or government agency is welcome to join OMG and submit a draft proposal in response to an RFP.

E[acute accent]New Modeling Specifications Work Initiated

E[acute accent]Two new RFPs from OMG's Analysis and Design (AD) Platform Task Force (PTF) will enrich the Model Driven Architecture(R) (MDA(R)) and the modeling environment that supports it. To maximize the productivity of developers using the MDA, an enterprise may select and combine best-of-breed tools from multiple vendors, binding them with customized code. The customization artifacts are referred to as an MDA Tool Component, and the first RFP seeks to standardize the definition and packaging aspects of these MDA Tool Components. E[acute accent]The second RFP will enhance the MDA environment by allowing modeling languages built on OMG's MetaObject Facility (MOF(TM)) to more faithfully represent a wide variety of subjects and domains. Referred to as MOF Support for Semantic Structures, this standardization effort will define a new MOF compliance level designated SMOF - Semantic MOF - that lifts some of the restrictions that the MOF specification currently places on modeling languages built with it and which must represent every object in the final model.

E[acute accent]New MDA-Based Domain Specifications Work

E[acute accent]OMG's Domain Task Forces (DTFs) adopt MDA-based software standards in their business areas. The United States Working Group of the Government DTF has issued an RFP for MDA Models for Electronic Records Management Services to standardize support for management of electronic records from receipt, identification, and capture to eventual disposition. With input from OMG-member government agencies, the RFP references work by the National Archives and Records Administration, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA. OMG's Space DTF issued an RFP for an MDA-based Ground Equipment Management Service (GEMS). Aimed at creating a true plug-and-play environment not supported by existing software and standards suites, GEMS will increase re-use and decrease integration costs in the complex collections of ground equipment that service today's satellite fleets.

E[acute accent]New Lightweight Fault-Tolerance Specification Work

E[acute accent]An extensive suite of OMG specifications, ranging from dedicated UML(R) profiles to Real-time CORBA(R) versions for both static and dynamic scheduling, supports distributed real-time and embedded-systems computing. To bolster support for high-assurance computing, OMG's Real-Time, Embedded, and Specialized Systems (RTESS) Platform Task Force (PTF) will standardize an MDA PIM for lightweight fault-tolerance for distributed real-time systems, and a mapping to Real-time CORBA. The model will define and standardize middleware extensions supporting fault-tolerant real-time systems.

E[acute accent]Adoption Processes Open for Participation

E[acute accent]OMG is an open-membership organization and welcomes any company, government agency, or university to join and contribute to our specifications. Each adoption is open to new participants until its Letter-of-Intent deadline. The five RFPs just described are currently open to participation. In addition these five processes are also currently open to new participants:

E[acute accent]--In Finance, the XMI Profile for ISO 20022 RFP

E[acute accent]--Also in Finance, the Model-based Electronic Payment Message Conversion RFP

E[acute accent]--In Business Modeling and Integration, the Organization Structure Metamodel RFP

E[acute accent]--In the Analysis and Design PTF, standardizing Data Modeling, the Information Management Metamodel RFP

E[acute accent]--In Life Science Research, the DNA Variation and Phenotype RFP

E[acute accent]Non-members may download any RFP from http://www.omg.org/public_schedule. For some processes, member votes have extended the LOI dates beyond the deadline stated in the RFP. For more information on any RFP, send an email to [e-mail].

E[acute accent]Tutorials, Information Days, and Software Demonstrations

E[acute accent]During the meeting week, OMG members and staff presented three half-day tutorials on the group's various specifications. The Software-Based Communication DTF hosted an Information Day on "Commercial Software-Defined Radio in 2006", and the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Special Interest Group hosted an Information Day on "1994 to Today and Tomorrow - the SOA Roadmap". Four member companies demonstrated software products implementing OMG specifications.

E[acute accent]Next Meeting; Links to Additional Information

E[acute accent]OMG members will meet next in Anaheim, California, USA, during the week of September 25-29, 2006, co-sponsored by Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Inc. Interested non-members may attend as observers; for an invitation see http://www.omg.org/tcguest. Members may register for the meeting at http://www.omg.org/registration. All OMG specifications may be downloaded free of charge from http://www.omg.org/specifications.

E[acute accent]About The OMG

E[acute accent]With well-established standards covering systems and software from design and development, through deployment and maintenance, and extending to evolution to future platforms, the Object Management Group (OMG) supports a full-lifecycle approach to enterprise integration which maximizes ROI, the key to successful IT and system development. OMG's Modeling standards, the basis for the MDA(R), include the Unified Modeling Language(TM) (UML(R)), the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM(TM)) and other enterprise modeling standards. CORBA(R), the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is OMG's standard open platform with hundreds of millions of deployments running today. Headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, the Object Management Group is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry specifications consortium. More information about OMG can be found at www.omg.org.

E[acute accent]Note to editors: MDA, Model Driven Architecture, OMG Logo, UML, UML logo and CORBA are registered trademarks, and OMG, Object Management Group, MOF, MDA Logos, OMG SysML and Unified Modeling Language are trademarks, of Object Management Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.