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OASIS To Advance WebCGM Graphics Standard

After more than five years of successful cooperation with OASIS as an affiliate, CGM Open has transitioned to become a Member Section of the OASIS global standards consortium. With the inaugural meeting of its OASIS CGM Open WebCGM Technical Committee, CGM Open has taken the next step, launching an aggressive agenda built around advanced development and interoperability of the well-established WebCGM standard.

WebCGM version 1.0, a vector graphics standard used in online technical documents such as parts catalogs and electronic manuals, was produced by a collaborative effort of CGM Open and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1999. Requirements from the user community, especially for a Document Object Model (DOM) and an XML companion file architecture, have elevated production of a WebCGM version 2.0 as the first priority for the OASIS CGM Open WebCGM Technical Committee. A WebCGM DOM will allow dynamic access to information stored in the graphics file. An XML companion file architecture will allow objects in the file to be associated with metadata -- from simple hotspot links to complex multi-language screentips or context-sensitive data. These enhancements will improve both the vendor neutrality of WebCGM, and the application neutrality as well -- industry consortia will be able to easily derive their individual standards from the WebCGM base.

"WebCGM 2.0 will incorporate critical new features needed in the marketplace," said Dave Cruikshank of the Boeing Company, chair of the OASIS CGM Open WebCGM Technical Committee. "We expect WebCGM 2.0 to become the core profile for all industry sectors, ensuring vendor-neutral interoperability between CGM-enabled products."

"WebCGM is an exciting example of productive, cross-consortia cooperation at work," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "CGM was first published by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). CGM Open and W3C expanded on that work by developing WebCGM. Now, the OASIS CGM Open Member Section looks forward to continuing that productive collaboration with WebCGM version 2.0."

"WebCGM 2.0 forms a significant portion of our vision of where CGM is going," commented Dieter Weidenbruck of ITEDO Software, chair of the OASIS CGM Open Member Section Steering Committee. "We see our main goal in providing users with a reliable and powerful format that meets their requirements."

Members of the OASIS CGM Open Member Section include representatives of Airbus, Arbortext, Auto-trol Technology, The Boeing Company, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and others. WebCGM 2.0 technical definition, plus several parallel implementations, are expected to be substantially finished in late 2004.