XML, Extensible Markup Language, is the basis for specific-use XML tag sets, or "Vocabularies". This page contains a brief description of leading vocabularies and a link to that vocabulary. News updates about vocabularies can be found in IDEAlliance's XML newsletter, The XML Files.

Channel Definition Format (CDF)

Channel Definition Format is an XML vocabulary designed to specify metadata about Web pages which will enable filtering to create "Web Push Channels". With CDF, we can describe content ratings, scheduling, logos, and abstract information. Today, the channels we see in the IE4.0 browser are powered by XML and the CDF vocabulary.

You can find out more about CDF by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-CDFsubmit

Information & Content Exchange (ICE)

ICE is an XML vocabulary that provides an exchange protocol for content on the Web. ICE defines the roles and responsibilities of syndicators (data providers) and subscribers (data consumers). While ICE was initially developed to support commercial publishing applications on the Web, it is expected to prove useful in automating content exchange and reuse in both traditional publishing environments and in business-to-business relationships.

You can find out more about ICE by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-ice

Math Markup Language (MathML)

Mathematical Markup Language, or MathML, is a W3C Recommendation. It is an XML vocabulary for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. MathML is designed to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the Web. MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and mathematical content. Twenty-eight of the MathML tags describe abstract notational structures, while another seventy-five provide a way of unambiguously specifying the intended meaning of an expression.

You can find out more about MathML by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML

Privacy Preference Project (P3P)

The W3C Platform for Privacy Preference Project Vocabulary Working Group presents a basic model for the P3P privacy conversation between a user agent and a service. P3P provides a grammatical model for expressing P3P service practices and user preferences over data in the semantic framework of RDF and a data design model for expressing and referencing data elements, classes, and categories.

You can learn more about P3P grammar by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-P3P-grammar

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 1.0, pronounced "smile") is a W3C Recommendation. SMIL is an XML vocabulary that allows integrating a set of independent multimedia objects into a synchronized multimedia presentation. With SMIL you can describe the temporal behavior of the presentation, describe the layout of the presentation on a screen, and associate hyperlinks with media objects.

You can find out more about SMIL by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil

Universal Commerce Language and Protocol (UCLP)

The Universal Commerce Language and Protocol (UCLP) is an XML vocabulary for tagging metadata that can be used in identifying and retrieving commerce data residing across the Internet. UCLP presents a tagging schema which captures the relevant parameters describing an object, but is not bound to a prescriptive DTD. UCLP is designed to evolve to capture changes in the marketplace in the same time frame in which these are occurring. The system using these tags would have to be flexible in incorporating changes, would have to provide the industry domain with means to monitor and regulate changes according to their own policies, and must be sufficiently general so that advances made in one domain can be transferred to others. UCLP is intended to introduce a new paradigm for dynamic data tagging for which data typing is only a required tool.

You can learn more about UCLP by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-uclp

Web Interface Definition Language (WIDL)

Web Interface Definition Language (WIDL), is an XML vocabulary that that implements a service-based architecture over the document-based resources of the World Wide Web. WIDL allows interactions with Web servers to be defined as functional interfaces that can be accessed by remote systems over standard Web protocols, and provides the structure necessary for generating client code in languages such as Java, C/C++, COBOL, and Visual Basic. WIDL enables a practical and cost-effective means for diverse systems to be rapidly integrated across corporate intranets, extranets, and the Internet.

You can learn more about WIDL by linking to http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-widl