First Public Working Draft for Delivery Context Ontology Specification

Members of the W3C Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group (UWA) have
published a First Public Working Draft for "Delivery Context Ontology"
and a Candidate Recommendation for "Delivery Context: Client Interfaces
(DCCI) 1.0 -- Accessing Static and Dynamic Delivery Context Properties."
The UWA Working Group focuses on extending the Web to enable distributed
applications of many kinds of devices including sensors and effectors.
Application areas include home monitoring and control, home entertainment,
office equipment, mobile and automotive. (1) The new "Delivery Context
Ontology" document provides a formal model of the characteristics of the
environment in which devices interact with the Web. The delivery context
includes the characteristics of the device, the software used to access
the Web and the network providing the connection among others. The
delivery context is an important source of information that can be used
to adapt materials from the Web to make them useable on a wide range of
different devices with different capabilities. The ontology is formally
specified in the Web Ontology Language [OWL]. This document describes the
ontology and gives details of each property that it contains. The core,
normative sections of this document are generated automatically from the
ontology itself. (2) Implementations are now invited in connection with
the "Delivery Context: Client Interfaces (DCCI) 1.0" Candidate
Recommendation specification. This document defines platform and language
neutral programming interfaces that provide Web applications access to
a hierarchy of dynamic properties representing device capabilities,
configurations, user preferences and environmental conditions. The key
uses for DCCI are related to adaptation. One major use is in supporting
devices that are capable of interaction with users in a variety of
modalities. For example, a device may be able to interact visually, or
using voice, depending on the user's current context. Another major use
for DCCI relates to content adaptation for device independence. Materials
to be used on a particular device may need to be tailored to take account
of that device's particular capabilities.