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    <title>Semantic Web Interest Group Charter</title>
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    <h1>Semantic Web Interest Group Charter</h1>
    <p><strong>Note:</strong> This is the charter for the Semantic Web
      Interest
      Group (formerly the RDF Interest Group). This document supersedes
      the
      Interest Group's <a href="/2003/12/swa/swig-charter">previous
        Charter</a>.</p>
    <blockquote> <em>Per section <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/groups.html#GAGeneral">6
          Working Groups, Interest Groups, and Coordination Groups</a>
        of the W3C Process, this charter, and any changes to it, take
        effect by way of an announcement to the W3C Membership via <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-ac-members/">w3c-ac-members</a>.</em></blockquote>
    <h2>About</h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group is designed as a forum to support
      developers and users of Semantic Web technologies such as RDF,
      SPARQL, SKOS and OWL. The
      group in particular serves to help developers create vocabularies
      and
      applications to support a Web data marketplace combining
      harvesting,
      syndication, metadata and Web Service techniques.</p>
    <h2 class="toc">Table of Contents</h2>
    <ol>
      <li><a href="#Mission">Mission statement</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Scope">Scope of the work</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Deliverables">Deliverables</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Coordination">Coordination with other Activities and
          Groups</a></li>
      <li><a href="#meetings">Meetings and Discussion fora</a></li>
      <li><a href="#membership">Membership</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Communications">Communication and Confidentiality</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Duration">Duration</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Ipr">Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)</a></li>
      <!--  <li><a href="#Home">Home Page</a></li>-->
      <li><a href="#Contact">Contact</a></li>
    </ol>
    <h2><a name="Mission" id="Mission"></a></h2>
    <h2>1. Mission statement</h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/groups.html#GroupsIG">Interest
        Group</a> is a forum for W3C Members and non-Members to discuss
      innovative
      Semantic Web applications. The group will focus primarily on
      applications of
      the W3C Semantic Web technologies (<a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>,
      <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/OWL/">OWL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>,
      etc), on potential
      future work items related to technologies, and the relationship of
      that work
      to other activities of W3C and to the broader social and legal
      context in
      which the Web is situated.</p>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group hosts discussions of both
      architectural/systems issues and application (e.g. <a href="/TandS">T&amp;S</a>)
      interests; it is a forum for developers and users
      of Semantic Web technology. The group is a continuation of the
      earlier RDF
      Interest Group and issues addressed previously by the <a href="/PICS">PICS</a>
      initiative. initiative. Specifically, the Interest
      Group may explore the application of W3C Semantic Web technologies
      in the
      context of the social, legal, and technological issues surrounding
      Internet
      content selection, filtering, labelling, signing, quality
      assurance etc. Work
      items from other fora may be brought to the attention of the
      Interest Group
      for comment.</p>
    <p>An important function of the Interest Group is information
      sharing within
      and between application communities. Conference announcements and
      post-conference reviews to the Interest Group mailing list help
      advise W3C
      staff and W3C Members, as well as the Semantic Web Community at
      large, where
      the W3C might most effectively allocate resources.</p>
    <h2><a name="Scope" id="Scope"></a>2. Scope of the work</h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group is designed as a forum to support
      developers and users of Semantic Web technologies such as RDF,
      SPARQL, and
      OWL. The group in particular serves to help developers create
      vocabularies
      and applications to support a Web data marketplace combining
      harvesting,
      syndication, metadata and Web Service techniques.</p>
    <p>Semantic Web developers are already collaborating on vocabularies
      for
      areas such as Sitemaps, robots.txt, RSS, Dublin Core, FOAF,
      favicon,
      relationships between relational databases and RDF, syntactic
      inclusion and
      association of metadata etc. The Interest Group provides a forum
      to support
      such collaborative vocabulary development, through the use of
      email
      discussion, scheduled topical chats (using IRC), Wiki and Weblog
      tools.</p>
    <h2><a name="Deliverables" id="Deliverables">3. Deliverables</a></h2>
    <p>As an Interest Group, the Semantic Web Interest Group does not
      develop
      specifications or code, and, as a body, it does not have a
      specific set of
      deliverables. The Interest Group may be asked to review Last Call
      Working
      Drafts and Proposed Recommendations. The Interest Group may also
      make
      proposals to other W3C Groups through the W3C Team contact when
      there is
      evidence of sufficient Member interest in a work item.</p>
    <p>The Interest Group may work on (non recommendation-track) <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#Reports">W3C
technical
        reports</a>, for publication as 'Interest Group Notes'.</p>
    <h2><a name="Coordination" id="Coordination">4. Coordination with
        other
        Activities and Groups</a></h2>
    <p>Informal coordination is done via the Interest Group's mailing
      lists. More
      formal coordination is done within the Semantic Web Coordination
      Group. The
      Chair is a member of the <a href="/2001/sw/CG/">W3C Semantic Web
        Coordination
        Group</a> (W3C <a href="/Member/">member</a> only).</p>
    <p>Discussion of Web Service applications and technology is welcome
      within
      the Semantic Web Interest Group, however detailed collaboration
      and design
      discussions on the relationship between Semantic Web and Web
      Service
      technology should be directed to W3C's <a href="http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/swsig/">Semantic
        Web Services Interest
        Group</a>.</p>
    The Semantic Web Interest Group is also a forum where W3C encourages
    the
    presentation of research work-in-progress. By tracking such work W3C
    stays
    informed of potential future standardization opportunities. The MIT
    <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/">Decentralized Information Group</a>
    is one
    example of such a research group who we hope will continue to
    maintain close
    ties with SWIG.
    <h2><a id="meetings" name="meetings"></a>5. Meetings and Discussion
      fora</h2>
    <p>The Interest Group functions primarily through open e-mail
      distribution
      lists hosted by W3C. The main IG list is
      &lt;semantic-web@w3.org&gt;, with a
      publicly accessible <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/">archive</a>.
      Other
      lists sponsored by the Interest Group include <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-logic/"
        checked="true">www-rdf-logic</a>,
      <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-calendar/">www-rdf-calendar</a>,
      <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-sparql-dev/">sparql-dev</a>,
      <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-annotation/">www-annotation</a>,
      and <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-vocabs/">public-vocabs</a>.
      The <a href="/2001/sw/interest/">Interest Group</a> home page
      provides the
      authoritative list of W3C email lists sponsored by the Group.</p>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group exists primarily as an online
      forum; it
      does not typically conduct weekly phone conferences. The Interest
      Group may
      also conduct virtual meetings using email, IRC, wiki and
      teleconference
      facilities, although the large scale, International nature of the
      group
      motivates a focus on low cost, asynchronous mechanisms such as
      email. The
      Interest Group may on occasion meet or sponsor
      "Birds-Of-a-Feather" sessions
      at conferences, W3C Technical Plenaries or alongside other W3C
      meetings, at
      the discretion of the Chair and W3C staff contact.</p>
    <p>The Interest Group communicates primarily in English, yet seeks
      to serve
      an International community. Individuals and groups that can help
      support
      cross-language discussion and collaboration are particularly
      welcome as
      participants in the Interest Group.</p>
    <h2><a id="membership" name="membership"></a>6. Membership</h2>
    <p>Any person interested in the application of or extensions to the
      <a href="/RDF">Resource Description Framework</a> is eligible to
      participate in
      this Interest Group; W3C Membership is not a prerequisite.</p>
    <h2><a id="Communications" name="Communications"></a>7.
      Communications and
      confidentiality</h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group is a public forum. SW IG mailing
      lists and
      their archives (primarily <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/">semantic-web</a>)
      are publicly accessible.</p>
    <h2><a id="Duration" name="Duration"></a>8. Duration</h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group is part of the W3C <a href="/2001/sw/">Semantic
        Web Activity</a> and is chartered until the end of
      the Activity,  28 February 2013.</p>
    <h2><a name="Ipr" id="Ipr">9. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)</a></h2>
    <p>The Semantic Web Interest Group provides an opportunity to share
      perspectives on Semantic Web technology and applications. W3C
      advises that
      information shared in the interest group through mailing list and
      meetings is
      publicly visible. W3C reminds participants to disclose, where
      known, the IPR
      status of information that they share in the Interest Group
      meetings and
      materials, in accordance with <a href="/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20030520.html#sec-Disclosure">Section
        6</a>
      of the W3C Patent Policy.</p>
    <h2><a name="Contact" id="Contact">10. Contact</a></h2>
    <p>The chair of the Interest Group is <a href="mailto:danbri@danbri.org">Dan
Brickley
        &lt;danbri@danbri.org&gt;</a>, the W3C Staff Contact is <a href="mailto:ivan@w3.org">Ivan
        Herman &lt;ivan@w3.org&gt;</a>.</p>
    <hr />
    <address class="contact"> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/">Ivan
        Herman</a> &lt;ivan@w3.org&gt;, (W3C) Semantic Web Activity Lead
    </address>
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