[Asdf] initial draft charter text

[Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>]

https://github.com/one-data-model/ietf108/blob/master/charter.md

Charter proposal for an ASDF WG
Name: A Semantic Definition Format for Data and Interactions of Things (ASDF)
Revision: 0.1.0

Background

Data and interaction models of IoT devices today exhibit unneeded diversity
between different industry ecosystem standards development organizations
(SDOs), hindering interoperability across these ecosystems with little
discernible benefit from the diversity. Early 2019, One Data Model (OneDM)
was started to bring several IoT SDOs and IoT device and platform vendors
together under a broad, multi-party liaison agreement, with a goal of
arriving at a common set of data and interaction models that describe IoT
devices. Ideally, for every class of IoT device, there is just a single model
selected/created by the participating organizations, which everyone can
adopt.

As a common language for writing down these models, the Semantic Definition
Format (SDF) was created, which can represent IoT Things, their composition
from reusable Objects, their Interaction Affordances (Properties, Actions,
Events), and the data models relevant to describe these Affordances. SDF is
representing these models in JSON, enabling re-use of specification formats
such as CDDL (RFC8610) and the formats proposed at json-schema.org and their
tooling, for describing both the SDF format itself and the structure of the
data to be modelled in SDF.

Some 200 models in SDF format have been contributed by participating
ecosystems; new models are being submitted continually. Version 1.0 of the
SDF specification was published on the OneDM github repository and as an
Internet-Draft. OneDM is now focusing on consolidating the body of submitted
models and developing processes for arriving at harmonized models that span
different industry ecosystems in a common way; they look towards the IETF for
developing SDF 1.0 further into a high-quality specification.

* ASDF

The objective of the ASDF WG will be to work with OneDM and its contributing
organizations and develop SDF to an IETF-quality specification for Thing
Interaction and Data Modelling. On the way to that specification, further
functionality requirements will be addressed that emerge in the usage of SDF
for model harmonization.

In the process, some smaller pieces may become usable independently from SDF
itself and its applications. JSON Path (similar to, but different in scope
from JSON Pointer documented in RFC6901) might be an example for such a
spin-off specification -- it is currently defined on a website and would
benefit from a more formal definition so it can be used in discovery
processes involving SDF models.

The ASDF WG will work closely with the CBOR WG, home of the CDDL
specification. It will also engage the still active mailing list of the
dormant JSON WG. Recent proposals to form an IRTF formal description
techniques (FDT) Research Group may lead to another collaboration
partner. The Thing-to-Thing Research Group (T2TRG) and its WISHI program can
be instrumental in engaging researchers and other SDOs in this space, for
instance W3C WoT, which is working on Thing Description Templates and related
specifications.



--
Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>, Sandelman Software Works
 -= IPv6 IoT consulting =-