ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 19778-1
Second edition
2015-10-15
Information technology —
Learning, education and training
— Collaborative technology —
Collaborative workplace —
Part 1:
Collaborative workplace data model
Technologies de l’information — Apprentissage, éducation et
formation — Technologies collaboratives — Lieu de travail
collaboratif —
Partie 1: Modèle de données du lieu de travail collaboratif
Reference number
ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)
©
ISO/IEC 2015

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ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)

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ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
1.1 Statement of scope . 1
1.1.1 ISO/IEC 19778 . 1
1.1.2 This part of ISO/IEC 19778 . 1
1.2 Subjects and aspects not currently addressed in ISO/IEC 19778 . 2
1.3 Excluded subjects and aspects in ISO/IEC 19778 . 2
1.4 Subjects and aspects addressed in related standards . 2
2 Normative references . 2
3 Terms and definitions . 3
3.1 Terms and definitions used to specify a representation of a Data Model . 3
3.2 Terms and definitions for the Data Model Elements of this and related standards . 6
4 Abbreviated terms and acronyms . 7
5 Collaborative workplace Data Model . 8
5.1 Data Model representation . 8
5.2 Collaborative workplace Data Model diagram .12
5.3 Collaborative workplace Data Model specification .12
5.4 Supplementing information for DMEs of the CW DM .15
5.4.1 AE CW_General .15
5.4.2 DE CW_Name .15
5.4.3 DE CW_Description .15
5.4.4 AE CW_ID .15
5.4.5 DE CW_ID_source .15
5.4.6 DE CW_ID_value .16
5.4.7 DE CW_Life-span .16
5.4.8 AE CW_Components . .16
5.4.9 AE CE_ID-Ref . .16
5.4.10 DE CE_ID-Ref_source .16
5.4.11 DE CE_ID-Ref_value.16
5.4.12 AE CG_ID-Ref .16
5.4.13 DE CG_ID-Ref_source .16
5.4.14 DE CG_ID-Ref_value .17
6 Conformance .17
Annex A (informative) Alphabetical list of terms .19
Annex B (informative) Minimalistic use case .20
Annex C (informative) Rich use case .28
Bibliography .35
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ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical
activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the
work. In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee,
ISO/IEC JTC 1.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for
the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the
Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical
Barriers to Trade (TBT), see the following URL: Foreword — Supplementary information.
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee
SC 36, Information technology for learning, education and training.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 19978–1:2008), of which it
constitutes a minor revision.
ISO/IEC 19778 consists of the following parts, under the general title Information technology — Learning,
education and training — Collaborative technology — Collaborative workplace:
— Part 1: Collaborative workplace data model
— Part 2: Collaborative environment data model
— Part 3: Collaborative group data model
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ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)

Introduction
Many activities in the field of learning, education and training are collaborative in nature, involving
turn-taking, statement-and-response or multi-thread discussions which, in turn, take place among
participants over periods of time ranging from seconds to entire human generations. For example, a
question posed via text messaging or email might receive a response in a matter of seconds, minutes or
hours; commentary on a historically-significant text might take place months, years or even generations
after it has been written. A typical collaborative event is initiated by one participant, is usually received
by several other participants, refers to a previous collaborative event, and provides a response to it.
Collaborative activities can be established in the widest imaginable range of circumstances, involving
many different communicative forms and contents.
The International Standards on collaborative technology for learning, education and training
focus on a particular subset of these collaborative activities. All terms specifically defined in these
International Standards are italicized throughout all parts of ISO/IEC 19778. This subset of activities
is characterized by:
— information exchange in small or medium-sized collaborative groups of participants (typically above
two and below a few dozen) who collaborate over relatively short periods of time (typically several
days to several months);
— information exchange taking place through the use of communication technology, using either a
single, well-defined collaborative tool supporting collaborative functions, or a set of collaborative
tools, organized in a collaborative environment;
— short intervals in establishing feedback on messages or expressions (generally seconds to hours);
— the exchange of relatively small information chunks (ranging between a single word and a small
number of paragraphs);
— a relatively high level of responsiveness among active collaborative group members;
— information exchanged among participants (due to a number of the factors listed above) tends to be
highly context-dependent or -sensitive;
— important contextual information presented by the relationship between these collaborative group
members and the collaborative environment (and its subcomponents), which all together form a
collaborative workplace.
ISO/IEC 19778 consists of three parts:
— Part 1: Collaborative workplace data model provides a representation format for Data Model
specification, and specifies the Data Model structure and the Data Model Elements for the collaborative
workplace in general.
— Part 2: Collaborative environment data model specifies the Data Model structure and the Data Model
Elements for the technical infrastructure of a collaborative workplace.
— Part 3: Collaborative group data model specifies the Data Model structure and the Data Model
Elements specifying and providing information for the membership of a collaborative workplace.
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Figure 1 — Entities defined in ISO/IEC 19778
Figure 1 illustrates the relationships among the three physical entities involved. Any collaborative
workplace represents the combination of a particular collaborative environment and a particular
collaborative group. While the physical entity collaborative workplace contains its collaborative
environment and its collaborative group, the Data Model instantiations for these physical entities (and
the Data Models from which these instantiations are derived) are separate data entities.
The Data Models specified by ISO/IEC 19778 provide the structure and the concepts for information which
— supports the understanding of the application intentions of collaborative workplaces and their
components,
— is qualified for supporting the set-up and managing of collaborative workplaces,
— enables the specification of relationships among Data Model instantiations derived from
ISO/IEC 19778 or among their Data Model Element instantiations, and
— enables the specification of relationships among anticipated, further Data Models or their Data Model
Elements (or their instantiations), and the Data Models or their Data Model Elements of ISO/IEC 19778
(or their instantiations).
The interrelationship among a collaborative workplace and its collaborative environment and
collaborative group, their associated Data Model instantiations, and the corresponding Data Models
specified in ISO/IEC 19778 is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2 — The interrelationship among a collaborative workplace and its collaborative
environment and collaborative group, their associated Data Model instantiations, and the Data
Models specified in ISO/IEC 19778
This part of ISO/IEC 19778 specifies a Data Model that provides general information on a collaborative
workplace (in Figure 2, the outer frame to the left). A collaborative workplace comprises a technical
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infrastructure (ISO/IEC 19778–2, Collaborative environment) and means of defining its membership
(ISO/IEC 19778–3, Collaborative group).
As illustrated in Figure 2, it is important to distinguish among (from left to right)
— the physical entities of a collaborative workplace, comprising its technical infrastructure and its
members;
— the Data Model instantiations that are associated with these physical entities, and that are derived
from their respective Data Models using any conforming binding;
— the Data Models provided by ISO/IEC 19778 and specifying the (binding-independent) rules for
creating Data Model instantiations.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 19778-1:2015(E)
Information technology — Learning, education and training
— Collaborative technology — Collaborative workplace —
Part 1:
Collaborative workplace data model
1 Scope
1.1 Statement of scope
1.1.1 ISO/IEC 19778
ISO/IEC 19778 is applicable to collaborative technologies used to support communication among
learners, instructors and other participants. The implementation and communicative use of these
technologies entails the creation of information related to participant groups, and to the collaborative
environments, functions and tools that are set up for, and used by, these groups. This part of
ISO/IEC 19778:—, together with its subsequent parts, defines Data Models that enable the portability
and reuse of this data in integrated form, and allow Data Model instantiations to be interchanged, stored,
retrieved, reused or analysed by a variety of systems.
NOTE 1 A typical case of reusing a particular collaborative workplace Data Model instantiation (and its
interlinked collaborative environment and collaborative group Data Model instantiations) is the automated set-up
of new collaborative workplaces by using the specifications in the Data Model instantiations as templates.
NOTE 2 The reason for providing the specification for a collaborative workplace using several Data Models and
their instantiations is to provide flexibility in the further development of these standards in future editions. By
providing optional references to potential further specifications or standards, this approach goes far beyond the
parts of ISO/IEC 19778 and the limited number of information elements provided by them.
1.1.2 This part of ISO/IEC 19778
This part of ISO/IEC 19778 specifies a table-based approach for defining Data Models. This Data Model
specification is used for specifying the collaborative workplace Data Model. The same Data Model
specification is also used in ISO/IEC 19778-2 and ISO/IEC 19778-3 to define the related components
of the collaborative environment (ISO/IEC 19778-2) and the collaborative group (ISO/IEC 19778-3) in
separate Data Models.
NOTE 1 This Data Model specification is also used in ISO/IEC 19780.
The collaborative workplace Data Model specifies the Data Model Elements and their interrelationships
that enable the creation of collaborative workplace Data Model instantiations.
Any conforming collaborative workplace Data Model instantiation describes or specifies a particular
collaborative workplace with which it is associated.
NOTE 2 How the association of a particular collaborative workplace Data Model instantiation and a particular
collaborative workplace is implemented is outside the scope of this part of ISO/IEC 19778 (i.e. is dependent on the
implementation of the used collaboration system).
Any conforming collaborative workplace Data Model instantiation
— references Data Model instantiations for both a particular collaborative environment and a particular
collaborative group;
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— provides its particular identifier that allows this Data Model instantiation to be referenced from
other Data Model instantiations;
NOTE 3 The ISO/IEC 19778 Data Models and Data Model or Data Model Element instantiations are referenced
by ISO/IEC 19780, which provides storage formats for captured communicative contributions, along with
contextual data (relationship to other contributions, time sent, authorship, etc.).
— provides the life-span dates-and-times for the associated collaborative workplace;
— may provide a name and a textual description for its associated collaborative workplace, particularly
for the purpose of full-text search for collaborative workplace Data Model instantiations.
1.2 Subjects and aspects not currently addressed in ISO/IEC 19778
Further parts or future new editions of the existing parts of ISO/IEC 19778 are anticipated. They
include the following.
— Internationalization (e.g. national alternatives for the values of textual, descriptive Data Elements).
— Bindings for the Data Models of ISO/IEC 19778–1, –2, and –3 will be provided by additional parts.
— Best practice guides for the use of Parts 1, 2, and 3 will be provided by additional parts.
— Enabling the concurrent use of several international languages in ISO/IEC 19778–1, –2, and –3 will
be reflected by future editions.
— Any lessons learnt from practicing ISO/IEC 19778–1, –2, and –3 will be reflected by future editions
of these parts.
1.3 Excluded subjects and aspects in ISO/IEC 19778
Beyond the scope of ISO/IEC 19778, communities of practice or standardization bodies may provide
further specifications or standards which are not yet identified. These anticipated specifications
or standards may either make use of ISO/IEC 19778, or may — where this is prepared for — specify
value domains for Data Elements of the Data Models of ISO/IEC 19778, or may represent extensions of
ISO/IEC 19778 by providing and referencing Data Models with supplementing information.
Subjects and aspects not provided by ISO/IEC 19778, but anticipated to be provided by further
specifications or standards, include:
— the specification of roles that collaborative group members may play, including the obligations and
permissions associated with these roles;
— the specification of collaborative tools and their collaborative functions, including their technical
capabilities and constraints;
— the specification of models for collaborative applications, including the modelling of tasks, activities
and objectives of such activities.
1.4 Subjects and aspects addressed in related standards
ISO/IEC 19778 is closely related to ISO/IEC 19780-1. This related International Standard enables the
recording, portability and reuse of the communicative contents, the messages or expressions generated
in the course of collaborative activity. The way this communicative data are recorded and captured makes
use of collaborative workplace, collaborative group and collaborative environment Data Model Elements.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references cited in this document.
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3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
NOTE 1 The terms defined here are closely interrelated. Terms defined in this Clause are italicized elsewhere
in this part of ISO/IEC 19778 when used as defined. Where these terms are not italicized in this International
Standard, they are used with their self-explanatory or common meanings. One exception to this rule is presented
by the use of these defined terms in clause and subclause titles, headings, or term listings, where italicization is
dropped for purposes of formatting consistency.
NOTE 2 An alphabetical list of all of the terms defined in 3.1 and 3.2 is provided in Annex A.
3.1 Terms and definitions used to specify a representation of a Data Model
NOTE This subclause defines terms used to specify the way the Data Model (3.1.7) is represented in
ISO/IEC 19778.
3.1.1
Aggregating Element
AE
DME (3.1.8) which is neither a Root Element (3.1.19) nor a leaf element in a Data Model (3.1.7) tree
structure, represented as a unit of data for which an identifier (3.1.12), designation (3.1.11), definition
(3.1.10), obligation status (3.1.15), and a multiplicity value (3.1.14) are all specified as DME attributes (3.1.9)
Note 1 to entry: AEs provide an important means of structuring the Data Model, and also provide important
semantic information.
3.1.2
Collaborative Technology standards
CT standards
International Standards family in the domain of “Information technology — Learning, education and
training — Collaborative technology”
Note 1 to entry: Many of the standards in this domain are closely interrelated, implying the need for particular
cross-standard harmonization.
3.1.3
conditionally mandatory
required under certain specified conditions
Note 1 to entry: This is one of four permissible DME obligation status (3.1.15) values. See also conditionally
optional (3.1.4), mandatory (3.1.17) and optional (3.1.18).
Note 2 to entry: Where this DME obligation status value is assigned, the specification of the “conditions” under
which the DME’s provision is mandatory is required.
3.1.4
conditionally optional
permitted under certain specified conditions only, but not required
Note 1 to entry: This is one of four permissible DME obligation status (3.1.15) values. See also conditionally
mandatory (3.1.3), mandatory (3.1.17) and optional (3.1.18).
Note 2 to entry: Where this DME obligation status value is assigned, the specification of the “conditions” under
which the DME’s provision is optional is required.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, 3.2.9, modified]
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3.1.5
Data Element
DE
DME (3.1.8) which is a leaf element in a Data Model (3.1.7) tree structure, represented as a unit of
data for which an identifier (3.1.12), designation (3.1.11), definition (3.1.10), obligation status (3.1.15),
a DME multiplicity (3.1.14), the representation and permissible values of the Data Element (3.1.5), and
optionally value examples for the Data Element are all specified as DME attributes (3.1.9)
Note 1 to entry: In Data Model instantiations (3.1.16) in any appropriate binding, the representation of a Data
Element instantiation requires (at least) the provision of its DME identifier and its value. The format used to
achieve this is binding-specific.
Note 2 to entry: In CT standards (3.1.2), both the representation and permissible values of a Data Element are
indicated through the DE datatype (3.1.6). Additional constraints for the set of permissible values may be
imposed by a referenced external specification or standard.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, 3.3.36, modified]
3.1.6
Data Element datatype
DE datatype
specification of a set of distinct values for a DE (3.1.5), characterized by properties of those values and
by possible operations on those values
Note 1 to entry: The set of distinct values specified by the value of a DME datatype may be restricted to a subset,
based on a specification or standard which is external to the Data Model (3.1.7). The reference to this external
specification or standard is provided as the value of an appropriate Data Element in the Data Model. Which Data
Element provides the reference to this external specification or standard is indicated at the same place where the
respective DE datatype is specified.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11404:2007, 3.12, modified]
3.1.7
Data Model
DM
graphical and/or lexical representation of data, specifying their properties, structures and
interrelationships
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, 3.2.11, modified]
3.1.8
Data Model Element
DME
Aggregating Element (3.1.1) or Data Element (3.1.5)
3.1.9
Data Model Element attribute
DME attribute
particular characteristic of a DME (3.1.8)
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, 3.1.3, modified]
3.1.10
Data Model Element definition
DME definition
representation of the concept of a DME (3.1.8) through a descriptive statement which serves to
differentiate it from related concepts
[SOURCE: ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.3.1, modified]
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3.1.11
Data Model Element designation
DME designation
label for a DME (3.1.8), designating it in a manner which is unambiguous in the context of the Data
Model (3.1.7)
Note 1 to entry: DME designations (3.1.11) are used in the wording of CT standards (3.1.2) in order to refer to
particular DMEs, as opposed to the linguistically neutral DME identifiers (3.1.12), which serve a mnemonic function.
[SOURCE: ISO 1087-1:2000, 3.4.1, modified]
3.1.12
Data Model Element identifier
DME identifier
sequence of numerical branch indices, which specify the path from the general Root Element (3.1.19)
of the Data Model (3.1.7) to the specific DME (3.1.8), and thus identify it uniquely within the context of
the Data Model
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003, 3.1.8, modified]
3.1.13
Data Model Element instantiation
DME instantiation
data object in a Data Model instantiation (3.1.16), representing a Data Model Element (3.1.8)
3.1.14
Data Model Element multiplicity
DME multiplicity
specification of the interval between the required minimum and the permitted maximum of DME
instantiation (3.1.13) occurrences in a conforming Data Model instantiation (3.1.16)
Note 1 to entry: Where a DME (3.1.8) is not provided at all in a Data Model instantiation [as permitted by the value
of the DME obligation status (3.1.15)], its DME multiplicity (3.1.14) value does not apply.
Note 2 to entry: In cases where the two values (required minimum and permitted maximum occurrence)
coincide, only a single value is specified.
3.1.15
Data Model Element
...