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ICE 2.0 Specification to be Released as a Document Set

– IDEAlliance, a leading trade association dedicated to fostering information technology standards for the publishing industry, is planning to release its new ICE 2.0 Specification. The ICE specification, originally developed in 1998 by a community of 80 content providers and software venders, provides businesses with an XML-based common language and architecture to facilitate automated delivery, update and management of content assets in a trusted fashion without manual packaging or knowledge of remote Web-site structures. With the development of this major revision to the ICE Specification, robust content syndication is supported in a Web Services environment for the first time.

Unlike lightweight syndication protocols, we have designed ICE 2.0 to support industrial-strength content syndication. ICE 2.0 is the only XML-based Web syndication protocol that provides for subscription management, verification of delivery, and scheduled delivery in both push and pull modes.

Lightweight syndication protocols, such as RSS, have proven quite useful for the distribution of links-free content, but remain limited in their ability to enforce business rules. ICE is the protocol for syndicators who distribute 'valued content' intended to generate a revenue stream or who require guaranteed delivery in a secure environment.

Development of the ICE2 specification was an open industry activity. ICE 2.0 was released for comment during the News Standards Summit, co-sponsored by IDEAlliance, IFRA (INCA-FIEJ Research Association), IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council), NAA (Newspaper Association of America), and OASIS. Here, ICE 2.0 was introduced to more than 75 major players in the news industry and comments were solicited. During the Request-for-Comment period, the ICE Authoring Group conducted a number of specification “walk-throughs” using Web conferencing to gain even wider industry input.

While ICE 1.0 was contained in a single specification document, ICE 2.0 has been modularized and is presented as a six-document set that includes ICE 2.0: Primer, ICE 2.0: Cookbook, ICE 2.0: Basic ICE Specification, ICE 2.0: Full ICE Specification, ICE 2.0: Schemas and Scripts, and ICE 2.0: Guidelines to Extending the Protocol. The six-document specification, set as well as the .XSD and .WSDL sample files, can be downloaded from http://www.icestandard.org/specification/.

About ICE and the ICE Authoring Group

ICE (Information and Content Exchange) is a key industry initiative hosted by IDEAlliance and sponsored by a group of companies who have a common interest in solving the problem of automating and managing the delivery of every type of content. The group consists of software developers and companies who distribute or consume content, whether commercially or within intranet and extranet frameworks. The ICE Authoring Group is open to all companies and includes companies such as Adobe Systems, Active Data Exchange, Oracle, Tribune Media Services and Warner Music Group. Learn more about ICE at www.icestandard.org.

About IDEAlliance

IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices. IDEAlliance has been a leader in information technology since 1966 (founded as Graphic Communications Association) having fostered the development and adoption of standards such as ADIS, GRACoL, ICE, JIFFI, Mail.dat, papiNet, PRISM, PROSE XML, SPACE XML, SGML, and XML. The goal of IDEAlliance is to enable publishers and other information-driven enterprises to strategize, innovate, standardize and implement information technology solutions in an open and cooperative cross-industry environment. Learn more about IDEAlliance at www.idealliance.org.