ICE Heats Up!

ICE is the Information and Content Exchange specification.  It has been one year since the ICE Authoring Group accepted IDEAlliance as their host organization.  What has been going on with ICE?  It used to be in the "news."  Now we rarely hear about it.  Does this group still exist?  What are they up to?

I am here to report that the ICE Authoring Group does indeed exist, it's just that they have been quite busy (like many of you).  You are about to hear  major announcements from the ICE-AG throughout the summer.  I have the scoop on some of them!

First and probably most important is the long awaited ICE V1.1 Specification.  The specification is in its final ballot and should be posted on the IDEAlliance site very soon. The update has been made in response to new requirements that became apparent as a result of the implementations during the past year.  ICE 1.1 is fully upwards compatible with ICE 1.0 in that an ICE 1.0 implementation can inter-operate with an ICE 1.1 implementation using any function of ICE 1.0.  ICE 1.1 implementations add capabilities ( most notably extensibility ) that are only accessible to other ICE 1.1 implementations. 

ICE Extensions

ICE addresses the core problem of the syndication of digital assets.  But, during the past year it became apparent that there will be many uses of the ICE protocol that were unexpected and some of these fall beyond the scope of the standard.  It is now clear that ICE should contain a structured extension mechanism such that as yet unanticipated operating scenarios may be addressed within the protocol's framework.  

Extensibilty in ICE has been provided in 4 different ways in ICE V1.1:

• Parameter negotiation extensions 
• Content-model extensions 
• Subscription-level extensions
• Protocol-level extensions

ICE uses parameter entities extensively to provide the extension mechanisms. As a result, implementations MUST include the ICE Document Type Definition by reference if they use these mechanisms. This is required because XML only permits parameter entities within a markup declaration in the external subset.

The ICE Authoring Group expects this scheme to change with version 2.0 of the specification, by which time XML schemas and name spaces are expected to have fully emerged, thus impacting the current extension model.

ICE Authoring Group

Members of the authoring group put in long hours to provide new functionality and great examples to make the spec as "user friendly" as possible. ICE Authoring Group members who contributed to the new specification include:

• Paula Angerstein, Vignette Corporation

• Jay Brodsky, Tribune Media Services 

• Phil Gibson, National Semiconductor Corporation 

• Martin Hardee, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

• Bruce Hunt, Adobe Systems, Inc. 

• Brad Husick, (Invited Expert)Vignette Corporation 

• Kimberly Jones, CNET: The Computer Network 

• Dianne Kennedy, (Invited Expert), XMLXperts & GCA 

• Sami Khoury, Microsoft Corporation, What U Want, Inc. 

• Daniel Koger, Best Consulting 

• Rick Levine, Formerly with Sun Microsystems, Inc. 

• Richard Martin, Active Data Exchange, Inc.

• Laird Popkin, Chairman ICE-AG, Sothebys.com 

• Nathan Pride, Wavo, Inc. 

• Adam Souzis, Kinetica (formerly ShiftKey, Inc. )

• Andy Werth, Formerly with CNET

ICE Network

If you are interested in the idea of automated content syndication, then you can learn more about how ICE can help you by joining the ICE Network of IDEAlliance.  Joining the Network gives you first access to ICE specifications and technical papers.  It enables you to provide input into the ongoing development of the specification. And it provides you with expert assistance in learning how you can implement ICE for your own business model.  You can learn more about the ICE Network by going to the  IDEAlliance web site, or to the new ICE Web Site, (see below).

New ICE Web Site

A new ICE web site has been launched.  You can like to that site from the IDEAlliance site or by going directly to  www.icestandard.org.  Here you will find the latest specifications, reference materials, and upcoming ICE events.  The official ICE Web site is hosted by RCNi.

You can learn more about the new ICE specification at XML Europe!  Join us in the IDEAlliance booth.

Dianne Kennedy

Editor, XML Files