SSN Ontology Working Group Charter
The mission of the SSN Ontology Working Group is to:
- maintain and update the SSN Ontology and SOSA vocabulary;
- identify artefacts (e.g. controlled vocabularies, profiles, validation tools) needed to support adoption of the SSN Ontology.
| Start date | 5 April 2024 |
|---|---|
| End date | 4 April 2026 |
| Charter extension | This working group is a successor activity to the Spatial Data on the Web working group |
| Chairs | Kathi Schleidt, Datacove Glenn Laughlin, Pelagis |
| Team Contacts | Bert Bos (0.1 FTE) |
| Meeting Schedule |
Teleconferences: weekly.
Face-to-face: the WG will meet in conjunction with the OMS SWG during OGC's Member Meetings. |
Scope
The SSN Ontology WG will:
- Maintain and update the SSN Ontology, including the SOSA vocabulary, as documented in a W3C recommendation document, and implemented in RDF representations available from w3.org and ogc.org web locations and namespaces
- Support the development of resources required to support the adoption of the SSN ontology
Out of Scope
The SSN Ontology Working Group will only produce deliverables where it is in the interests of both OGC and W3C to collaborate.
Deliverables
More detailed milestones and updated publication schedules are available on the group home page.
Draft state indicates the state of the deliverable at the time of the charter approval. Expected completion indicates when the deliverable is projected to become a Recommendation, or otherwise reach a stable state.
Normative Specifications
The SSN Ontology Working Group is overseeing long term maintenance for the SSN Ontology specification, including new edition(s) when needed.
- Semantic Sensor Network Ontology - new edition
- The Semantic Sensor Network (SSN) ontology is an RDFS/OWL ontology for describing observations made by
sensors implementing specified procedures, the studied features of interest and the observed properties,
along with samples used in the observations and the sampling activities that created them, as well as
actuations which follow a similar semantics and data structure.
The SOSA vocabulary (Sensors, Observations, Samples and Actuations) contains the core terms and definitions from SSN, packaged for use in general applications.
Some extension modules are included in the recommendation.
Alignments with some related ontologies and data models are included in the recommendation.Draft state:Editor's draft
Expected completion:2024-12-31
Other Deliverables
Other non-normative documents may be created such as:
- RDF artefacts including testing and validation tools (e.g. JSON-Schema, SHACL Shapes);
- Test suite and implementation report for the specifications;
- Primer or Best Practice documents to support web developers when designing applications;
- OGC Discussion Papers;
- OGC Technical Papers;
- W3C Notes.
Success Criteria
In order to advance to Proposed Recommendation, each specification is expected to have at least two independent implementations of each of feature defined in the specification.
Each specification should contain separate sections detailing all known security and privacy implications for implementers, Web authors, and end users.
There should be testing plans for each specification, starting from the earliest drafts.
Each specification should contain a section on accessibility that describes the benefits and impacts, including ways specification features can be used to address them, and recommendations for maximising accessibility in implementations.
To promote interoperability, all changes made to specifications should have tests.
Coordination
For all specifications, this SSN Ontology Working Group will seek horizontal review for accessibility, internationalization, performance, privacy, and security with the relevant Working and Interest Groups, and with the TAG and the OAB. Invitation for review must be issued during each major standards-track document transition, including FPWD. The SSN Ontology Working Group is encouraged to engage collaboratively with the horizontal review groups throughout development of each specification. The SSN Ontology Working Group is advised to seek a review at least 3 months before first entering CR and is encouraged to proactively notify the horizontal review groups when major changes occur in a specification following a review.
Additional technical coordination with the following Groups will be made, per the W3C Process Document:
Background
The SSN Ontology Working Group is a W3C entity matched by a Standards Working Group of OGC's Technical Committee. Collectively, the two comprise the Joint W3C/OGC Organizing Committee, the JWOC. This effort exists to facilitate direct cooperation between the spatial information and Web communities, allowing each to benefit from the other's data, technologies and methods.
The SSN Ontology WG will coordinate between OGC and W3C on shared interests and raise awareness of their complementary strengths (e.g. Web scale architecture, accessibility, privacy, internationalisation, geospatial expertise, sensors), and will monitor and liaise between groups from OGC and W3C.
W3C Groups
- Dataset Exchange Working Group
- Sensor Data has specific needs for data description, such as coordinate reference system, granularity. These must be taken into account by the DXWG.
- Devices and Sensors Working Group
- Sensor and system descriptions.
OGC Groups
Alongside the OMS SWG, other working groups operating at OGC have a scope that may intersect with topics of interest discussed in the SSN Ontology Working Group. The OGC Architecture Board (OAB), comparable to the W3C Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will provide high level guidance to the SSN Ontology Working Group. The Working Group expects to liaise with OGC groups as needed, specifically with:
- GeosemanticsDWG
- Umbrella group in OGC for geospatial semantics applications
- Connected Systems SWG
- Linking work on SSN in W3C with the open interfaces for sensor web applications developed at OGC.
- SensorThings SWG
- Linking work on SSN in W3C with the OGC SensorThings API.
- GeoDCAT SWG
- Linking the W3C and OGC work on dataset description and profiles.
- GeoPose SWG
- Direction alongside location for sensors, systems and platforms
Participation
To be successful, this SSN Ontology Working Group is expected to have 6 or more active participants for its duration, including representatives from the key implementors, and active Editors and Test Leads. The specification Editors, and Test Leads are expected to contribute on average half of a working day per week towards the Working Group. There is no minimum requirement for other Participants.
The group encourages questions, comments and issues on its public mailing lists and document repositories, as described in Communication.
The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration upon their agreement to the terms of the W3C Patent Policy.
Participants in the group are required (by the W3C Process) to follow the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
Communication
Technical discussions for this SSN Ontology Working Group are conducted in public: the meeting minutes from teleconference and face-to-face meetings will be archived for public review, and technical discussions and issue tracking will be conducted in a manner that can be both read and written to by the general public. Working Drafts and Editor's Drafts of specifications will be developed on a public repository and may permit direct public contribution requests. The meetings themselves are not open to public participation, however.
Information about the group (including details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants, and meetings) will be available from the SSN Ontology Working Group home page.
Most SSN Ontology Working Group teleconferences will focus on discussion of particular specifications, and will be conducted on an as-needed basis.
This group primarily conducts its technical work on the public mailing list public-sdw-wg@w3.org (archive) and on GitHub issues. The public is invited to review, discuss and contribute to this work.
The group may use a Member-confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and members of the group, for member-only discussions in special cases when a participant requests such a discussion.
Decision Policy
This group will seek to make decisions through consensus and due process, per the W3C Process Document (section 3.3). Typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required.
However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress and consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs may call for a group vote and record a decision along with any objections.
To afford asynchronous decisions and organizational deliberation, any resolution (including publication decisions) taken in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference will be considered provisional. A call for consensus (CfC) will be issued for all resolutions (for example, via email and/or web-based survey), with a response period from one week to 10 working days, depending on the chair's evaluation of the group consensus on the issue. If no objections are raised on the mailing list by the end of the response period, the resolution will be considered to have consensus as a resolution of the SSN Ontology Working Group.
All decisions made by the group should be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available or unless reopened at the discretion of the Chairs or the Director.
This charter is written in accordance with the W3C Process Document (Section 3.4, Votes) and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.
Patent Policy
This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (Version of 15 September 2020). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis. For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.
Licensing
The SSN Ontology Working Group will use the W3C Software and Document license, with copyright held by OGC and W3C. Published documents will be clearly marked as joint deliverables.
About this Charter
This charter has been created according to section 5.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.
Charter History
The following table lists details of all changes from the initial charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 5.2.3):
| Charter Period | Start Date | End Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial charter | 05 April 2024 | 04 April 2026 |