01-19-21

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Object Management Group Chairs Update Technology Standards
Focus on AI, blockchain, cloud, finance, and retail standards

BOSTON, MA – JANUARY 19, 2021 – International technology standards consortium Object Management Group® (OMG®) announced important updates from its quarterly membership meeting, which took place online, December 2020. The chairs of OMG Task Forces (TFs) and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) presented updates about their standards work that will influence the future direction of technology, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud, finance, retail, modeling, and other areas.

Here is a summary of the accomplishments and work in process of OMG groups:

The Agent Platform Special Interest Group (Agent PSIG) discussed a new approach of the Agent and Event Metamodel for the revised submission. The new approach is based on KerML and SysML v2 that offer sought after features for modeling agents, such as dynamic classification and event ordering. The plan for the next Agent PSIG session is to complete the initial set of the Model Library that extends KerML for the Agent and Event Metamodel," said Zack Hashemi who works for Multi Agency Collaboration Environment (MACE), and is Co-chair, Agent Platform SIG.

"The Artificial Intelligence Platform Task Force (AI PTF) set up a working group and mailing list to develop a taxonomy or ontology of AI. The analysis of the responses to the NIST RFI from mid-2019 is continuing to increase our awareness of what standards are needed by users as well as tool vendors," said Claude Baudoin, Co-chair, Artificial Intelligence Platform Task Force and Owner and Principal Consultant at cébé IT and Knowledge Management.

"At the Blockchain Platform Special Interest Group (Blockchain PSIG), working alongside the Middleware and Related Services (MARS) PTF, we formally issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for standards for Linked Encrypted Transaction Streams (LETS) in the cryptographic space. A public presentation on the new Linked Encrypted Transaction Streams (LETS) RFP will be held on January 27, 2021 at 11:00 AM ET. We also issued a Request for Information (RFI) for disposable, or context-specific self-sovereign identity solutions. A public presentation on the Disposable Self-sovereign Identity RFI will be held on February 3, 2021 at 11:00 AM ET. In addition, we discussed plans for the IOTA Protocol Request for Comments (RFC) submission, expected in mid-2021," said Mike Bennett who works for IOTA Foundation, and is Co-chair, Blockchain PSIG.

"The Business Modeling & Integration Domain Task Force (BMI DTF) finalized the RFP for a Provenance and Pedigree Model & Notation (PPMN), which was issued by the Domain Technical Committee. Two more RFPs are being finalized based on feedback from the OMG Architecture Board: BPM+ Knowledge Package Model & Notation, and Situational Data Model & Notation. In all, the BMI DTF will soon have five RFPs in progress," said Claude Baudoin, Co-chair, Business Modeling & Integration Domain Task Force and Owner and Principal Consultant at cébé IT and Knowledge Management.

"The C4I Domain Task Force (C4I DTF) discussed updates to the RFP for an Open Architecture Radar Interface Standard (OARIS) 3.0 based on feedback from the Architecture Board review resulting in the C4I DTF voting to formally release the RFP.  Simon Mettrick (BAE) presented BAE's initial submission against the Tactical Decision Aids.  There was a discussion with the DDS Foundation about standards that we have been working on related to Radar Data Models.  In the coming meetings, in addition to its usual business, The C4I DTF plans to develop a description or diagram of the various standards that have come through the DTF and how they relate to one another and specific OMG standards," said Matt Wilson, who works at SimVentions and is Co-chair of the C4I Domain Task Force.

"The Cloud Working Group completed a new discussion paper on Cyber Insurance, with special attention to the assessment of risk and protection of virtual assets in the context of cloud services. A curated bibliography of all the references used in the group's 30+ deliverables is being finalized. Work is starting on a paper on data governance. The CWG is collaborating with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) as well as with ANSI Accredited Standards Committee X9 on Financial Services on their X.125 draft standard," said Claude Baudoin, Co-chair of the Cloud Working Group and Owner and Principal Consultant at cébé IT and Knowledge Management.  The Cloud Working Group will present this paper on a webinar: Cyber Insurance on February 10, 2021 at 11AM ET.

"The Finance Domain Task Force (Finance DTF) agreed on the formal process for appointing a Certified Provider (CP) for the allocation of unique financial instrument identifiers under the Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) standard, and voted to appoint Kaiko, of France, as the CP for FIGI identifiers for cryptographic assets. We also discussed plans for the upcoming new version of the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO), due later in 2021," said Mike Bennett who works for EDM Council, Inc., and is Co-Chair, FDTF.

"The Manufacturing Technology and Industrial Systems Domain Task Force (ManTIS DTF) hosted a joint meeting with the German Chapter of INCOSE, the International Council on Systems Engineering (GfSE) PLM4MBSE working group. This collaboration focuses on the integration of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) IT-Systems and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches to product development in the manufacturing domain. Our current objectives in this area are to improve model-based engineering collaboration and develop standards to support the exchange and integration of PLM- and MBSE-related models in such a collaboration. At this meeting, the group discussed requirements for a Model Integration and Transformation Facility (MoTIF) RFP in more detail and agreed to elaborate a draft RFP for the March OMG TC Meeting," said Uwe Kaufmann, GfSE, Head of Project Group SysML Industrialization, and Member of Board of Directors at OMG and OMG Co-chair of Manufacturing Technology and Industrial Systems DTF (ManTIS).

"The Middleware and Related Services Platform Task Force (MARS PTF) recommended two new specifications for adoption -- REST for CORBA and Space Telecommunications Interface (STI) for Software Defined Radios (SDRs). The Representational State Transfer (REST) for CORBA defines a standard and interoperable mechanism to enable CORBA objects to be exposed as REST services and to enable pure REST clients to transparently use CORBA services through the exposed REST façade. This new specification will extend the reach and use of CORBA, including access to CORBA services, by REST client applications that run on smartphones or web browsers. The STI for SDRs specification enables SDR technology to be used in a broad range of environments, such as space, where the ability to handle temperature and radiation extremes while accommodating small size, light weight, and power limitations is critical. STI for SDR accommodates evolving requirements and advances in technology, such as new hardware or cognitive radio concepts, while allowing multiple vendors to update different parts of the radio at the same time," said Charlotte Wales, Co-chair of the Middleware and Related MARS PTF and Systems Engineer, Process Specialist, Jack Rabbit Consulting.

"The Safety and Reliability Working Group/submission team submitted the Risk Analysis and Assessment Modeling Language (RAAML) revised submission as a response to the Safety and Reliability for UML RFP. The submission was endorsed by the Analysis & Design Platform Task Force, OMG's Architecture Board and subsequently scheduled for a PTC adoption vote which will be finalized in February 2021. A beta version of the RAAML is available now and the submission is planned for adoption by OMG's Board of Directors at their March 2021 meeting," said OMG member Andrius Armonas, who works at Dassault Systems.

"The Charter for Space Telecommunications Interface 1.0 Finalization Task Force (STI FTF) is evolving a standard for software-defined radios (SDRs). It covers a broad range of environments, including those with temperature and radiation extremes while accommodating small size, light weight, and power limitations. STI encourages reuse and portability of software, reducing risk, decreasing the development time and cost of deployed capabilities. It also allows multiple vendors to work on different parts of the radio at once where updates to one part do not affect the other parts of the radio. At the December OMG Technical Committee meeting, the group provided answers to numerous OMG Architecture Board comments to prepare for the adoption of the standard next quarter," said Dr. Janette C. Briones, who works at NASA, and is Co-chair of the STI FTF.

"The Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest Group (SE DSIG) held a half-day session that began with a presentation by Professor Martin Törngren from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm on the challenges and opportunities in the era of cyber-physical system-of-systems. This was followed by an update and demonstration of the SysML v2 language and API which highlighted the changes since the initial submission during the last OMG meeting in September. The final two presentations included a broad overview of formal methods used to specify modeling languages by Elisa Kendall, and a presentation on the semantics of SysML v2 by Ed Seidewitz and Conrad Bock, both of where were intended to demystify the topic of semantics for the user community," said Sanford Friedenthal, Chair of the SE DSIG."

"The Unified POS 1.16 Retail Communication Service Device Finalization Task Force (UPOS RCSD FTF) added Retail Communication Service Devices, i.e., devices that are components of robot devices used in the retail stores, to UPOS 1.15. Then retailers can use the single- to multiple-functional robot devices in retail stores. UPOS 1.16 RCSD enhancements include nine new devices and two existing devices added to UPOS 1.15, enabling UPOS to handle IoT devices such as service robots, digital signage, and voice input devices in the retail field. UPOS is expected to be useful for building next-generation store systems that will enhance the affinity between store systems and IoT devices. The report and updated specification are currently under OMG's Domain Technology Committee adoption vote and will be adopted by OMG's Board of Directors at the March 2021 meeting," said Tad Furuhata, Chair of UPOS 1.16 RCSD FTF at OMG's Retail Domain Task Force and Software standardization specialist at MS-Japan OPOS Group.

For more information, view the webinar: Results and Next Steps from OMG Q4 2020 Technical Meeting. The next OMG Technical Meeting runs from March 22-26, 2021. Guests are welcome to register and attend OMG Technical Meetings with OMG management approval.

For a full list of OMG works in progress, visit https://www.omg.org/public_schedule/. To participate in OMG specifications, visit https://www.omg.org/memberservices/index.htm. Sponsors of the OMG December 2020 Technical meeting included: CATIA No Magic, RTI, SPARX, and Micro Focus.

 


About OMG
The Object Management Group® (OMG®) is an international, open membership, not-for-profit technology standards consortium with representation from government, industry and academia. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies and an even wider range of industries. OMG's modeling standards enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes. Visit www.omg.org for more information.

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