The Meta Data Coalition (MDC), a not-for-profit organization in the process of standardizing metadata, announced today several new key initiatives as part of its technical meeting Nov. 11. In July 1999, the membership of the Meta Data Coalition ratified the MDC-OIM 1.0, which provides the basic meta-model for representing databases and the interrelationships between them. The new initiatives will extend the model into several key areas such as business models and information portals. This will enable the integration of an even larger set of tools and business applications using the MDC-OIM and its XML interchange format. MDC and OMG Aligning Metadata Standards in the Market: As a result of the Metadata Coalition’s membership exchange with the Object Management Group (OMG), the data warehousing part of the MDC-OIM has been used as a design reference for the OMG’s CWMI (Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange). With the continued co-operation between the technical task forces of both organizations, the metadata standards will be aligned. The MDC is developing a standard for the specification of business rules and the mechanism for exchanging these rules through XML. The MDC has formed an alliance with the Business Rules Group (author of the white paper that defined the first comprehensive business rules classification), who will participate in the MDC technical meetings. The MDC has established a collaboration with the European Commission’s ESPRIT Project ATLAS, which is headed by Unisoft, Greece. ATLAS incorporates technologies for real-time business information systems and plans to use the MDC-OIM Business Engineering and Knowledge Management Models to drive the transition from online to real-time business information systems. Standardized Metadata for Component (Object) Design and Reuse: A component model specifies component interfaces and describes the design, assembly and deployment of components into a system, based on some standard component architectural style. The new model provides the necessary metadata types for these descriptions. The work is based on the meta-model of Catalysis, a UML-based methodology for end-to-end component-based development. Integration of Knowledge Management and Data Warehousing: The integration of user collaboration, document management and business intelligence requires the integration of many different data sources and software services. The MDC-OIM allows a knowledge worker to access information services more easily and supports the use of standard business terminology. Microsoft (an MDC member) will hold a workshop in Redmond, Wash., on Nov. 9-10 to show the integration of information portals through shared metadata using the MDC-OIM. www.MDCinfo.com