Network Working Group                                         M. Sherman
Request for Comments: 1197                                           CMU
                                                          December 1990


           Using ODA for Translating Multimedia Information

1. Status of this Memo

  The purpose of this RFC is to inform implementors of multimedia
  systems about our experiences using ISO 8613: Office Document
  Architecture (ODA).  Because ODA is being proposed as an encoding
  format for use in multimedia mail and file exchange, implementors
  wishing to use ODA in an open systems environment may profit from our
  experiences.  This memo provides information for the Internet
  community.  It does not specify any standard.  Distribution of this
  memo is unlimited.

2. Overview

  ODA is a recently approved ISO (8613) and CCITT (T.410) standard for
  representing documents containing multifont text, raster images and
  geometric graphics.  This encoding has been specified for use in a
  number of related standards, such as X.400.

  However, ODA is a very abstract standard, defining entities such as
  "composite logical object classes" and not common entities, such as
  "paragraphs".  Therefore, effective use of ODA as an interchange
  medium requires the definition of a document application profile
  (dap) that defines some common entities and a map between ODA
  entities defined in the dap and entities used in the interchanged
  systems.

3. EXPRES Experiences

  The National Science Foundation funded the EXPRES project, which
  consisted of groups at Carnegie Mellon University (Information
  Technology Center) and the University of Michigan (Center for
  Information Technology Integration).  These two groups collaborated
  with groups at McDonnell-Douglas Aerospace Information Systems, NIST,
  and Interleaf.  Together, the five groups investigated the use of ODA
  as an interchange medium for submitting research proposals by
  electronic mail to the National Science Foundation.

  Part of the investigations yielded strategies for using ODA. We based
  our strategies on the NIST dap and the features provided by the
  Andrew, Diamond, and Interleaf systems.  Our experiences been
  documented and published in a book [1].  The discussion may be



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RFC 1197                       Using ODA                   December 1990


  valuable for others who wish to use ODA as an interchange medium.

4. Disclaimer

  The information provided in [1] is the opinion only of the authors
  and does not represent the opinions or policies of Carnegie Mellon
  University, the University of Michigan, McDonnell-Douglas Aerospace
  Information Systems, NIST, Interleaf, or the National Science
  Foundation.

5. References

  [1] Jonathan Rosenberg, Mark Sherman, Ann Marks & Jaap Akkerhuis,
      "Multi-media Document Translation: ODA and the EXPRES Project",
      Springer-Verlag (New York), 1991, ISBN 0-387-97397-4,
      3-540-97397-4.

Security Considerations

  Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Author's Address

  Mark Sherman
  Information Technology Center
  Carnegie Mellon University
  4910 Forbes Avenue
  Pittsburgh, PA 15213

  Phone: (412) 268-6727
  Fax: (412) 268-6787

  EMail: [email protected]


















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