issues addressed in this release:
1. updated proposal included
2. The first paragraph explains it to a layperson
3. OASIS issue addressed
[ ] +1 Accept UIMA as an Incubator podling
[ ] 0 Don't care
[ ] -1 Reject this proposal for the following reason:
----8<-------Proposal------8<------
Hello everyone -
We are submitting this proposal to the community for a
new project in the incubator, and look forward to starting to work with
this community.
This is a slightly modified and extended version of the proposal that
has
already been posted to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The whole mail
thread
can be found [http://www.nabble.com/Proposal-for-a-new-incubation-
project%3A-Unstructured-Information-Management-Architecture---UIMA-
tf2154324.html here].
If you don't feel like reading the whole thread, the main question
that came up was:
this is all very well, but what does it really '''do'''? Attempts to
answer that question
where made [http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Proposal-for-a-new-incubation-
project%3A-Unstructured-Information-Management-Architecture---UIMA-
p5986403.html here] and [http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-Proposal-for-a-
new-incubation-project%3A-Unstructured-Information-Management-
Architecture---UIMA-p5987788.html here]. We have since worked some
of these into the proposal itself.
----
= Proposal for Incubation Project: Unstructured Information
Management Architecture - UIMA =
== Abstract ==
UIMA is a component framework for the analysis of unstructured
content such as text, audio and video. It comprises an SDK and
tooling for composing and running analytic components written in Java
and C++.
== Proposal: Unstructured Information Management Architecture
framework ==
Unstructured Information Management applications are software systems
that analyze large volumes of unstructured information in order to
discover knowledge that is relevant to an end user. We propose UIMA,
a framework and SDK for developing such applications. An example UIM
application might ingest plain text and identify entities, such as
persons, places, organizations; or relations, such as works-for or
located-at. UIMA enables such an application to be decomposed into
components, for example ''"language identification"'' -> ''"language
specific segmentation"'' -> ''"sentence boundary detection"'' ->
''"entity detection (person/place names etc.)"''. Each component
must implement interfaces defined by the framework and must provide
self-describing metadata via XML descriptor files. The framework
manages these components and the data flow between them. Components
are written in Java or C++; the data that flows between components is
designed for efficient mapping between these languages. UIMA
additionally provides capabilities to wrap components as network
services, and can scale to very large volumes by replicating
processing pipelines over a cluster of networked nodes.
This framework has already attracted a following among government,
commercial, and academic institutions who previously developed
analysis algorithms, but were unable to easily build on each other's
works, and who want to be able to evolve their applications by
independently upgrading parts, as better technology becomes
available. Applications built with this framework are being used
with plain text, audio streams, and image/video streams, identifying
entities and relations, converting speech to text, translating into
different languages, and determining properties of images.
The UIMA framework runs components in a flow, passing a common data
object containing unstructured information (free text, audio, video,
etc.) through the components. Each component examines the
unstructured information and data added by other components, and adds
data of its own. The framework mandates a standardized form of the
data being passed, and a standardized form of the interfaces to the
components.
We propose a project to develop, implement, support and enhance this
framework (and, over time, other implementations) that comply with
the UIMA standard (which has been submitted for standardization work
within [http://www.oasis-open.org OASIS]. Members of this community
are encouraged to participate in that effort, as well; OASIS has an
open approach to granting Technical Committee voting rights to
members of OASIS, described here: http://www.oasis-open.org/
committees/process.php#2.4.
The proposal includes both the framework, as well as tools to
develop, describe, compose and deploy UIMA-based components and
applications. The initial work will be based on the UIMA Version 2
framework code developed by IBM; snapshots of each release of this
code are currently made available on [http://sourceforge.net/projects/
uima-framework SourceForge]. The Source``Forge versions would be
stabilized in maintenance mode, if we are successful in moving to
Apache.
The framework is not specific to any IDE or platform, and does not
depend on other middleware.
Background:
Databases are core components of nearly all applications; they store
information in structured tables. But more and more of the available
digital data is unstructured (e.g. email, web documents, images,
audio clips, video streams) with little information (metadata)
attached to explain its content or context. Although many
applications have been built to process unstructured data, they have
either managed it as a BLOB or they have developed isolated
applications for analyzing the content. In the absence of a
standardized means for analytical applications to share insights
extracted from the content, analytical applications cannot build upon
one another. As a result, the industry has barely begun to tap the
value locked in unstructured information.
Standardization is key to achieving component interoperability, with
capabilities to mix components developed in different places and in
Java, C++ and other languages. The Unstructured Information
Management Architecture defines standards for component
interoperability and application composition that will provide this
needed unifying standard, and allow a variety of framework
implementations to exist, while preserving the goal of unstructured
information analytic component reuse.
UIMA was built to help developers create solutions that get more value
from unstructured information more quickly and at lower cost by making
it easy to reuse and combine analytic modules from different sources
into new analytic applications. The architecture and the framework
have been validated through work with USA's DARPA which is using it
as a standard for key projects with several universities involved in
advanced linguistics analysis, such as Carnegie Mellon, Columbia,
Stanford and University of Massachusetts. Other companies, such as
the Mayo Clinic and Sloan Kettering, are also building efforts around
UIMA. In addition, over 15 software vendors, including companies
such as Inxight, Attensity, Clear``Forest, Temis, SPSS, SAS, Cognos,
Endeca, Factiva and others, announced plans to support UIMA.
The UIMA framework (binary and/or source code) has been downloaded
over 8000 times from IBM alphaWorks (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/
tech/uima) or Source``Forge (http://uima-framework.sourceforge.net).
== Rationale ==
We believe that moving the UIMA framework development to the Apache
development community will lead to faster innovation, better
integration with other open source software, and broader adoption of
UIMA, accelerating the industry's ability to get the most value from
text, audio, and video content. The UIMA framework is becoming
attractive to developers who want to build components; we believe
that having UIMA on Apache will encourage the development of a basic
set of open source components that will jumpstart these developers'
efforts. One of the first components we see possible synergy with is
a search component based on Apache Lucene that would enable semantic
search. We like the concept of the Lucene Sandbox as a way to
encourage innovation around UIMA, and would envision something
similar for this project.
== Initial Goals ==
Some initial work we see in the incubator includes the following:
* redoing the parts of the tooling that were done as derivative works
of Eclipse source code, to
enable everything to be licensable under the Apache license
* extending the framework to better support "scale-out"
* extending the framework to better align with the emerging UIMA
Standards work
* extending the framework to support XMI-based SOAP and/or other
service interfaces
* extending the framework to support OSGi-based approaches to
componentization and packaging
* exploring embeddings of the framework within other interested
Apache projects, including synergies with Lucene
* providing aids to the community to migrate from previous versions
of the framework to the Apache version
* setting up community support: hosting a facility similar to the
Lucene Sandbox to encourage innovation and
experimentation; establishing a wiki and some process to allow better
documentation to be developed by the community,
and linking our existing XHTML documentation via an XSL transform to
Apache FOP
== Current Status ==
=== Meritocracy ===
Meritocracy seems to us an ideal way to grow the community of
developers around UIMA, it being a controlled, rational way to give
those who positively contribute, more ability to directly
contribute. This approach also gives contributors one of the best
reasons to join the community of volunteers - to be recognized for
the merit of their contributions.
=== Community ===
Currently, the UIMA Framework development is being done by IBM, with
input from a group of early adopters in industry and government.
Going forward, we see IBM continuing to support several committers
working on it. We have already begun talking with other people
outside of IBM that have expressed interest in contributing towards
the development. This includes members of academic institutions,
people working for some of the software vendors that have announced
plans to support UIMA, and others from companies that have expressed
interest since initial announcements about our open source plans.
Multiple non-IBM people have already expressed desires to become
committers.
=== Core Developers ===
The previous core developers of UIMA are Adam Lally, Thilo Goetz,
Marshall Schor, Edward Epstein, Jaroslaw Cwiklik and Thomas Hampp.
Many others have also contributed. The developers come from both the
Research and Development parts of IBM.
=== Alignment ===
UIMA has significant synergy with search applications, and we expect
to see integration with Lucene in the future. UIMA makes use of the
Apache Portable Runtime (APR) for C++ support. It is designed to be
embeddable into other frameworks, such as web application servers.
Part of UIMA is Eclipse-based tooling. We use ANT for build
scripting. UIMA has support for various language bindings including
C++ and Java; we also have more limited bindings for Perl, Python,
and TCL. UIMA uses Web Services as part of its approach to wiring up
components in its domain. It makes use of XML services such as
Xerces and Xalan.
The development of UIMA has been based on merit with open discussion
among a distributed team of developers, from both Research and
Development organizations.
=== License ===
The current license for the source code is CPL, with a small number
of files licensed under the EPL (Eclipse Public License), because
these were created as "derivative works" of existing Eclipse open
source code. When the code base is moved to Apache, it will be
relicensed under the Apache license, except for the small number of
files licensed under the EPL as derivative works of Eclipse source
files. We plan to work in the incubator to redo these parts, so the
entire offering can be licensed under the Apache license.
The distribution for the C++ enablement layer includes open source
components ICU (a Unicode package) which has its own license. We
plan to work with community to properly make use of this non-Apache
licensed component. Our current vision for the future of UIMA has it
aligning with and incorporating other standards-based open source
components/protocols, some of which may have licensing other than the
Apache license (for example, the Xml Metadata Interchange (XMI), and
the EMF ECore Model from Eclipse); we will work with the community in
figuring out how to move forward on this.
=== Other IP ===
When we requested OASIS to set up a Technical Committee chartered to
develop a platform-independent specification for text and multi-modal
analysis, we specified that it be set up under the "RF on Limited
Terms" mode of the OASIS IP Policy. "RF" means Royalty Free, and the
Limited Terms means companies that are working with us on the
Technical Committee are restricted in adding additional terms.
These are the most liberal terms and make any Essential Claims
available to ALL and ROYALTY FREE.
For the details please refer to:
* http://www.oasis-open.org/who/ipr/ipr_faq.php
* http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.php
Ultimately of course, there is always a risk that someone in the
world holds a patent that can be claimed as Essential. The most any
standards organization can do is govern the behavior of those who
participate in its work and publicly document the licensing
commitment of all participants.
== Known Risks ==
=== Orphaned Software ===
UIMA has been in active development for 5 years. The community of
users has steadily grown, and there are now significant commercial
and research organizations actively using it. UIMA is embedded in
IBM software products and is delivered through IBM services
engagements. IBM has developers assigned to it, and is continuing to
support its development. In addition, several people outside of IBM
have already expressed interest in working on UIMA, and have been
providing IBM with initial feedback. One of the objectives of
starting this Apache project is to provide a meritocratic structure
for those people to begin more actively contributing to UIMA.
=== Inexperience with Open Source ===
The individuals working on this software have background as IBM
software developers. While many of them have experience working with
open source software, none of them has had extensive experience
contributing to other open source software. However, IBM as an
organization has extensive experience contributing to open source
projects and will make available resources to provide guidance to the
developers working on this project.
=== Homogenous Developers (work for same company?) ===
Currently all the developers work for IBM, although they come from
different geographically dispersed organizations within IBM. We will
reach out during the incubation time to get others to contribute; we
have already received interest from several parties.
=== Reliance on salaried developers ===
Currently the developers are paid employees of IBM.
=== Relationships with Other Apache Products ===
We make use of several Apache components (SOAP / Web Services, XML
(Xerces, Xalan), languages (Perl), scripting languages (ANT), Apache
Portable Runtime. In addition, UIMA has been embedded in other
frameworks, such as web application servers, and integrated with
search engines. We are exploring Lucene extensions that could take
advantage of UIMA processed data. We are currently investigating and
prototyping some software packaging concepts based on OSGi; the
Apache Incubator project Felix may have relevance as we go forward.
The documentation is being moved to XHTML and plans to use Apache FOP
for producing PDF reference materials.
=== An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand ===
UIMA is already being adopted by a wide cross section of users, both
commercial and academic, world-wide. Our experience shows that
analytic modules can be reused and combined through UIMA making it
easier and faster for developers to build new analytic applications
for specific industries or domains. Given the diversity of content
and analytics that will be required to address the multitude of
opportunities - from military intelligence to quality assurance to
contact center analytics -- growing this infrastructure so that it
better aligns with other major Open Source communities should help
accelerate industry's ability to get value from content assets.
We believe that the Apache community of developers has the
experience, background, visibility, and synergistic resources to
encourage and foster a vibrant developer community around this project.
== Documentation ==
There is a combination Introduction, Conceptual Overview, Tutorial,
Tools and Framework User's Guides and References, downloadable from
http://dl.alphaworks.ibm.com/technologies/uima/
UIMA_SDK_Users_Guide_Reference_2.0.pdf
== Scope of the project ==
The project will develop implementations of the UIMA architecture
(which is concurrently being submitted to the OASIS standards
process), supporting the breadth of platforms that developers working
in this field are using, including Java, C++, Perl, Python and TCL;
and utilities and tooling to support component and application
developers and assemblers / packagers. It will initially include the
Java UIMA framework for UIMA Version 2 (you can see a snap shot of
the Version 2 release Source``Forge; the delivered code would this
code base plus normal incremental bug fixes and improvements), plus
additional components (mainly documentation and test cases, which are
not currently on Source``Forge). Over time, the project is expected
grow to include supporting various embeddings and integrations with
other Apache components such as search engines and web application
frameworks.
Over time, we envision the project becoming an umbrella for related
open-source around UIMA, including things like open-source pre-
annotated corpora, and hosting a facility similar to the Lucene
Sandbox to encourage innovation and experimentation.
The UIMA framework is primarily a set of libraries (in Java, C++,
Perl, etc.), test cases, and UIMA utilities and tools (scripts,
plugins, executables, etc.) used to build, test and debug UIMA
analytic components. The tooling includes several Eclipse platform
plugins.
== Initial source ==
The source currently is maintained in IBM internal software control
systems, with a copy of each release placed on SourceForge. At the
time of launch, we plan to contribute the latest version of the code
base (with some renaming of package prefixes to reflect apache.org),
test cases, build files, and documentation, under the terms specified
in the ASF Corporate Contributor License. We plan to donate the
existing C++ enablement layer and the support for Perl, Python, and
TCL a few months later than the initial donation; this delay is to
give us time to finish preparing that code base for Open Source.
== ASF resources to be created ==
Mailing lists:
* uima-dev
* uima-commits
* uima-user (we already have a substantial user community and expect
them to turn up at Apache
soon after we've hopefully been accepted into the incubator)
For other resources such as Subversion repository, JIRA etc. we hope
for guidance from our mentors.
== Initial Set of Committers ==
* Michael Baessler ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Edward Epstein ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Thilo Goetz ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Adam Lally ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Marshall Schor ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
=== Sponsor ===
We are requesting the Incubator to sponsor this. Our current vision
is that it will become a top level project (other projects that
develop UIMA components could become subprojects, for instance).
=== Mentors ===
* Sam Ruby ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Ken Coar ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Ian Holsman ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
=== Section 6: Open Issues for Discussion ===
--
Ian Holsman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://garden-gossip.com/ -- what's in your garden?
