The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) has announced the release of a beta draft for comments of the ResourceSync Framework Specification for the web detailing various capabilities that a server can implement to allow third-party systems to remain synchronized with its evolving resources. Feedback to this version of the specification is solicited and can be shared by March 15, 2013 on the ResourceSync Google Group. The ResourceSync joint project, funded with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and JISC, was initiated to develop a new open standard on the real-time synchronization of Web resources.
This ResourceSync draft specification introduces a range of easy to implement capabilities that a server may support in order to enable remote systems to remain more tightly in step with its evolving resources. It also describes how a server can advertise the capabilities it supports. Remote systems can inspect this information to determine how best to remain aligned with the evolving data. All capabilities are implemented on the basis of the document formats introduced by the Sitemap protocol. Capabilities can be combined to achieve varying levels of functionality and hence meet different local or community requirements.
The draft specification is available on the OAI website at: www.openarchives.org/rs/. Comments on the draft can be posted on the public discussion forum at: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/resourcesync. Group discussions are openly accessible; posting requires group membership.
