Q:
Why the definition of such schema?
A: The Universal Profiling Schema (UPS) was created
in order to resolve the problem of the content negotiation and adaptation of
multimedia services in heterogeneous systems; i.e. where there is a wide diversity
of clients. In such situation, services and documents providers must be able
to deliver a well adapted document that respects the end-user preferences and
capabilities. To achieve that task properly, an efficient solution needs to
know some information about the set of elements that play a role in services
delivery. UPS is created to be a model that responds to such need. In UPS, elements
concerned by the content negotiation and adaptation are identified and so profiles
can be defined easily.
Q:
Is there any implementations behind UPS?
A: The need of the definition of universal profiling
framework for the content negotiation problem was encountered initially during
the implementation of an architecture (NAC)
that aims to deliver adapted services for heterogeneous devices: i.e. devices
like PDA, phones, laptops, etc. UPS was defined to respond to NAC needs but
also to be an extensible and flexible tool, indispensable for content authors,
application developers, universal services providers, etc. and for those who
aim to enable the universal access to their content.
Q:
Is the definition of UPS is finished?
A: Not yet. Other new elements and structures will
be defined.
Q:
Is it realy necessary to include the element 'document profile' in UPS?
A: Yes, if we aim to provide an advanced content
negotiation and adaptation strategy we must provide the document profile, which
is simply the description of the characteristics and the content of the document
and may also include, in some architectures, its semantic. People who work in
the context of the content adaptation feel better the importance of such descriptions.
In fact, to adapt a content, and to choose the appropriate method to apply according
to the delivery context, we need to know the nature of the content that we will
process. An example of some of the adaptation efforts, the one introduced in
http://www8.org/w8-papers/2b-customizing/user/user.html
where the adaptation focuses on synchronized multimedia presentations, note
that the need of the document profile (or 'content descriptions', see section
4.1 ) was well identified.
Q:
Why a new schema while other schemas exist such as WAG UAProf?
A: UPS is defined in the context of the content
negotiation. This means simply that any content negotiation solution, whatever
its own matching algorithm or strategy, can use UPS as a base that provide utile
information required in the matching and the content deliverance. UPS is not
dependent to any particular service or document kind such as WML. Indeed, services
can be in the form of WML, XHTML, HTML, or other. Furthermore, UPS don't disregard
the "document profile" concept that includes a description of the
document structure and semantic; this concept is very important if we aim to
ensure an advanced content negotiation solution. Finally, the UPS includes other
components such as the network description, the capabilities of servers in term
of adaptation and transformation methods etc.