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OASIS Announces Search Web Services TC

Tony Hammond – 2007 June 15

In Search

OASIS has just announced a technical committee for standardising search services. This from the Call for Participation:

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b. Purpose

To define Search and Retrieval Web Services, combining various current and

ongoing web service activities.

Within recent years there has been a growth in activity in the development of

web service definitions for search and retrieval applications. These include

SRU, a web service based in part on the NISO/ISO Search and Retrieval standards;

the Amazon OpenSearch, which defines a means of describing and automating search

web forms; as well as many proprietary definitions (e.g. the Google and MSN

Search APIs). There are also a number of activities for defining abstract search

APIs that can be mapped onto multiple implementations either within native code

or onto remote procedural calls and web services, such as ZOOM (Z39.50 Object

Oriented Model); SQI (Simple Query Interface), an IEEE standard developed for

searching and retrieval in the IMS (Instructional Management Systems) space; and

OSIDs (Open Service Interface Definitions from the Open Knowledge Initiative.

While abstract APIs would be out of scope, these would inform the work to

increase interoperability and compatibility.

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