The new Rule Interchange Format group plans to create a Web standard that allows interoperable data exchange regardless of format.The World Wide Web Consortium has created a group aimed at standardizing the rules that deliver data across the Web.
The RIF (Rule Interchange Format) working group is tasked with producing a standard means for exchanging rules on the Web, regardless of data format. This, in turn, could boost integration of data from multiple sources or areas of the Internet.
Rules are a key element of the Semantic Web, a project geared toward creating a universal medium for information exchange among machines, currently under the direction of Web creator Tim Berners-Lee.
The Semantic Web is comprised of several standards and tools, including XML, RDF, and OWL.
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A standardized RIF will provide a way to blend established and new rule languages, so rules written for one application can be published, shared, merged and used by in other applications.
This could affect how banks process loan applications, or how hospitals verify prescriptions and other medical data, for example.
The formation of the working group is a key step in joining together those in industry and in research, according to the W3C.
"I'm pleased to see W3C members working to develop a Web-based rules standard," Berners-Lee said in a release.
"The bringing together of business rules vendors, user companies, rule language designers and Semantic Web developers to create a rules standard is an important step in achieving the full power of the Semantic Web," he added.
Chaired by Christian de Sainte Marie and Sandro Hawke, the RIF group is chartered through November 2007 to produce a language for the exchange of rules.
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The idea for the consortium was sparked during the April 2005 W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability, attended by companies like Fair Isaac Corp., IBM, Oracle Corp., General Motors Corp. and Agfa-Gevaert Goup.
The working group is likely to be one of many new initiatives from the W3C for the Semantic Web. Berners-Lee and others in the industry have been eager to explore the potential of the Semantic Web to significantly increase integration and interoperability of data.
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