PROPOSED Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities Interest Group Charter
+ +The mission of the Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities Interest Group is
+-
+
- to identify and document use cases and requirements that W3C specifications + need to meet to support various services within Smart Cities, +
- to obtain feedback from all stakeholders on the usage of Web technologies for those services, +
- to gather expert input on important features for those services based on the Web technology, and +
- to provide a forum for technical and business discussions related to those services. +
This proposed charter is available + on GitHub. + + Feel free to raise issues. +
+ +| + Charter Status + | ++ See the group status page and detailed change history. + | +
|---|---|
| + Start date + | ++ [dd monthname yyyy] (date of the "Call for Participation", when the charter is approved) + | +
| + End date + | ++ [dd monthname yyyy] (Start date + 2 years) + | +
| + Chairs + | ++ [chair name] (affiliation) + | +
| + Team Contacts + | ++ Kazuyuki Ashimura (0.2 FTE) + | +
| + Meeting Schedule + | +
+ Teleconferences: Regular weekly calls will be held.
+ + Face-to-face: we will meet during the W3C's annual Technical Plenary week; + additional face-to-face meetings may be scheduled by consent of the participants, usually no more than 3 per year. + + Workshop: A workshop with an open CFP and invited speakers may be organized + to provide further feedback and input and the guide the group's agenda. + |
+
Note: The W3C Process Document requires “The level of confidentiality of the group's proceedings and deliverables”; however, it does not mandate where this appears. Since all W3C Working Groups should be chartered as public, this notice has been moved from the essentials table to the communication section.
+Motivation and Background
+ +Initial discussion during the Smart Citeis Worshop in 2021
+"Smart Cities" refers to a range of technologies and processes for intelligent management of our built and inhabited environment. As interest rises, we see prospects for smarter and easier integration of various technologies from multiple vendors related to IoT devices and Web services.
+ +Several preliminary use cases on Smart Cities have been discussed within the Web of Thing (WoT) IG as part of the WoT standardization based on the proposal during the Second WoT Workshop in Munich.
+ +However, Smart Cities include various technologies, of which WoT is just one. So W3C organized a virtual online workshop on Smart Cities in June 2021 to finalize this Charter for the Smart Cities Interest Group to collect input from the Smart Cities stakeholders.
+ +During the workshop discussion, we did the following:
+-
+
- Identified Smart Cities standardization stakeholders to drive the development of Web standards aligned with the real needs of Smart Cities +
- Clarified reasonable applications for Smart Cities technologies +
- Saw how to improve the draft Charter for the potential Smart Cities Interest Group for further discussions within that IG +
- We also confirmed that it would be very important to consider inclusive design including accessibility, privacy, security, and internationalization. Smart City applications are tightly related to the people who live in cities. We want Smart City technology to have a positive impact on their lives and want to avoid unintended negative consequences. +
Follow-up discussion during the TPAC 2022 breakout
+During TPAC 2022 in Vancouver, a breakout session on Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities was organized, and representatives from the following standardization organizations had collaborative discussion about the current situation and problems of their standardization work on Smart Cities.
+ +-
+
- ECHONET +
- IEC SC3D +
- IPA DADC +
- ISO/IEC JTC1 WG11 +
- ITU-T SG20 +
- OGC (Open Geospaital Consortium) +
- W3C +
As a consequence of the follow-up discussion, the participatns identified that "Digital Twins" would be the key cocept to handle Smart Cities services in a standardizedmanner, and got consensusto continue further discussion on a possible framework of Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities within the W3C to cope with remaining issues of Smart Cities.
+ +What has been done so far
+W3C Web of Things
+IoT developers face the big problem of “IoT Silos” when creating an + application including multiple services from different IoT platforms.
+ +
+
+ The W3C Web of Things (WoT) Working Group has been working on standards to counter the fragmentation of the IoT and enable easy integration of IoT devices and services across IoT platforms and application domains by providing a common description across different ecosystems (=WoT Thing Description), standards.
+ +
+
+ WoT standards are now being used for various industry areas including the following:/p> +
-
+
- Smart home (collaboratively with ECHONET) +
- Improve the usability of home appliances for device users by allowing device users to configure the operation modes of all devices at home without configuring those devices one by one when they leave and come home. + +
- Smart building (collaboratively with IPA DADC) +
- Integrate various sensor networks and various devices by WoT within a smart building which use different data models and protocols. + +
- Smart factory (collaboratively with OPC UA) +
- A bottling line consists of a filling module, a capping module, a labeling module, and a transport system. The production line is provided via an OPC UA endpoint for control and monitoring purposes. + + +
- IEC SC3D's Common Data Dictionary (CDD) +
- Defining common methodology and product ontology for various IoT purposes. + +
- ISO/IEC JTC1 WG11 +
- Various standards on smart cities and digital twins, e.g., ISO/IEC 30146:2019 + +
- ITU-T SG20 +
- Standardization on IoT and Smart Cities from the ICT viewpoint, e.g., Data Processing and Management (FG-DPM) + +
- Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) +
- Geospatial standards and tools around smart cities and digital twins +
- Guidelines for real-world engineering, e.g., for Device discovery +
- Inter-system binding including ID authentication and management +
- Data transfer and distribution including Governance of data distribution, Security and Privacy +
- Semantic interoperability, Standardized vocabulary, and Catalog to start with the data search +
- Accessibility, Geolocation, etc. +
Related SDO's work
+-
+
What is still missing?
+During the discussions so far, there are strong needs for the followings:
+-
+
“Digital Twins” as the Key Concept
+During the discussions at the TPAC 2022 breakout, it was identified “Digital Twins” would be the key concept for Smart Cities services, and we should start with clarifying the use cases and requirements for “Digital Twins” first.
+ +Note that there are various definitions for "Digital Twins" like the following, so we’ll work on the common definition for “Digital Twins” as well.
+ +Scope
+Scope Summary
+-
+
- Identification of stakeholders from the industries, countries/cities and communities to involve in the group's discussion +
- Survey on the existing technologies and standards for Smart Cities (Technology Landscape) +
- Best Practices on what technologies, e.g., WoT, Automotive, Geospatial, VR/AR, Speech and Semantic Web, to be applied for what kind of Smart Cities applications, e.g., improved accessibility, visitor guidance and energy management. +
- Use cases and requirements for Smart Cities +
Standards are essential for Smart City technology and business development. + Standards benefit vendors, cities, and users. + For vendors, standards unify markets and mean that a larger market can be addressed + with a single product design, allowing products to more efficiently make returns on + the investments needed to develop them. + For cities, standards allow the deployment of technologies that can be sourced + from multiple vendors, + more and higher quality products, + and increases the probability that systems will remain usable over a longer timescale. + Standards also encourage the development of open systems that can interoperate + with other standardized systems, + multiplying the number of use cases that can be addressed. + For users, standardized technologies mean that services available in one city will + also be available in others, facilitating mobility. +
+However, we need to know what standards should be developed to achieve these + objectives. What gaps exist? What opportunities can be exposed by standards + that enable new use cases? What are the business drivers that encourage adoption + of standards, and how can standard development be aligned with these drivers? + Given a set of standards that could be developed, what are the priorities? + How can the needs and goals of all stakeholders be aligned? +
+The purpose of this Interest Group is collect and connect + Smart City stakeholders to answer these kinds of questions + and drive the development of Web technology standards aligned with the real needs + of Smart Cities.
+ +The topics that the Interest Group will address include but are not limited to:
+-
+
- Transportation, + both public and private; +
- Logistics, + including last-mile delivery of goods and services; +
- Infrastructure, + including IoT-based sensing and actuation; +
- Energy management and sustainability; +
- Connection between crimate crisis and smart cities; +
- Relationship with Smart Buildings as part of the geolocation things like location of pipes; +
- Signage, + addressing the problem of timely delivery of information to a diverse population; +
- Open data portals, + including network APIs to data services and the development of app ecosystems; +
- Data management, + facilitating the rapid ingestion, storage, and dissemination of data + +
- Edge and cloud computing, + allowing computation to be efficiently applied when and where needed; + +
- Payments, + to allow services to be monetized, encouraging new business development and + cost recovery; +
- Privacy, + to preserve the rights of citizens and other stakeholders; +
- Security, + to preserve the integrity and safety of systems and protect users; +
- Accessibility, + to incorporate design-for-all thinking throughout all + aspects of smart city infrastructure, and ensure + accessibility for people with disabilities in every + activity and at every stage of life; +
- Internationalization, + to support diverse populations and tourism. +
We can speculate about many topics, so need to identfy what the group's key topics are and see what would fit with W3C through the discussion with the existing smart cities.
+ +The main tasks that the Interest Group will undertake include:
+-
+
- Identification of stakeholders from the industries, countries/cities and communities to involve in the group's discussion +
- Survey on the existing technologies and standards for Smart Cities (Technology Landscape) +
- Best Practices on what technologies, e.g., WoT, Automotive, Geospatial, VR/AR, Speech and Semantic Web, to be applied for what kind of Smart Cities applications, e.g., improved accessibility, visitor guidance and energy management. +
- Smart Cities use cases to which Web technologies are applicable and requirements to provide better support for high priority use cases +
The group should also consider the following when work on the above tasks:
+-
+
- Identification and prioritization of gaps in Web standards for Smart City use cases; +
- Incubation of technical solutions for the identified requirements by + supporting the creation of Community Groups or Business Groups focusing on + particular topics; + +
- Suggesting existing Working Groups to include particular topics in + their scope as appropriate; +
- Suggesting the creation of new Working Groups to address particular topics if no + existing Working Group is appropriate; +
- Tracking and review of Smart City-related deliverables developed by + other W3C groups, and reporting of issues as appropriate; +
- Coordination with other organizations to + gather knowledge, coordinate input into W3C efforts, and promote + development and use of W3C standards within Smart City applications; +
- Ensuring issues of accessibility, device independence, + internationalization, performance, privacy, and security are given + equal consideration in all discussions and outcomes. +
Accessibility is very important for smart cities because + cities include many people potentially with disabilities. So + we need to look for "missing data" within smart cities, + i.e., data of those who might not be well-represented among + the data-sets, to ensure that they are surely recognized and + well-served by the smart cities. + For that purpose, we need to consider people with multiple disabilities (intersectional considerations) and + people with cognitive and learning disabilities too. +
+ +Note that there are many topics to discuss around Smart Cities and + the scope of the group may become too broad. + + So we'd like to start with discussion about (1) possible Web-based future framework for Digital Twins for Smart Cities and (2) standardized vocabulary for Smart Cities with the related SDOs collaboratively based on the feedback during the TPAC 2022 breakout. + + A possible candidate framework for that purpose, which was agreed on during the TPAC 2022 breakout, is based on the following W3C standards:
+-
+
- Decentralized Identifiers (DID): define IDs to to identify devices and users +
- Web of Things (WoT): define device capability +
- Verifiable Credentials (VC): standardized description for user credentials +
+
+ To continue further discussion on the common Web-based platform and standardized vocabulary, we'd like to launch a dedicated group:
+-
+
- to identify and document use cases and requirements that W3C specifications need to meet to support Smart City services, +
- to obtain feedback from all stakeholders on the usage of Web technologies for Smart Cities, +
- to gather expert input on important features for Smart Cities based on the Web technology, and to provide a forum for technical and business discussions related to Smart Cities. +
The goal of the group is not to generate standard itself, but to gather pain points, requirements and priorities for Web-based smart cities in the near future. So we need to figure out the focus that W3C can make the most impact. We don't want to duplicate work already done by the other SDOs.
+ +Out of Scope
+The technical development of standards is not in scope for the Interest Group. + Technical discussions are expected to take place within a + new or existing W3C Working Groups, + or within a Community Group or Business Group when incubation is needed. +
++ Deliverables +
+ +The primary deliverables of the Smart Cities Interest Group will + be IG Notes that identify requirements for existing and/or new + technical specifications and gaps in the Web Platform.
+ ++ Normative Specifications +
++ The Interest Group will not deliver any normative + specifications. +
++ Other Deliverables +
++ Other non-normative documents may be created such as: +
+-
+
- Survey on the existing technologies and standards for Smart Cities (Technology Landscape) +
- Best Practices on what technologies, e.g., WoT, Automotive, Geospatial, VR/AR, Speech and Semantic Web, to be applied for what kind of Smart Cities applications, e.g., improved accessibility, visitor guidance and energy management. +
- Use cases and requirements for Smart Cities +
Timeline
+The IG will, during its lifetime, undertake different activities that may proceed in parallel. No specific timeline has been identified at this point, but the various activities are intended to be running for short periods of time (2-12 months), with the possibility of running a few iterations of them.
+Success Criteria
+Smart Cities vary widely and diversely. So we can wander into all sorts of areas if we don't get the right regulators to hear where they care. Terefore we need to make sure the group enrolls the support of implementers, the authorities and cities to get them involved to help set prioritization.
+ +For that purpose, we need to identify important stakeholders and would start with a smaller team, e.g., Asian stakeholders like Singapore, Japan, China and Korea, and involve more countries/cities like Sweden, Brazil and NYC via the collaboration with the W3C Chapters and the attendees of the Smart Cities Workshop in June 2021 and the TPAC breakout sessions in October 2021 (Day 1, Day 2).
+ +The Interest Group will have succeeded if it can achieve the following:
+-
+
- Identification of stakeholders from the industries, countries/cities and communities to involve in the group's discussion +
- Survey on the existing technologies and standards for Smart Cities (Technology Landscape) +
- Best Practices on what technologies, e.g., WoT, Automotive, Geospatial, VR/AR, Speech and Semantic Web, to be applied for what kind of Smart Cities applications, e.g., improved accessibility, visitor guidance and energy management. +
- Use cases and requirements for Smart Cities +
Coordination
+For all deliverables, this Interest> Group will seek horizontal review for + accessibility, internationalization, privacy, and security with the relevant Working and + Interest Groups, and with the TAG. + Invitation for review must be issued during each major standards-track document transition, including + IG Note. The Interest Group is encouraged to engage collaboratively with the horizontal review groups throughout development of + each deliverable. The Interest Group is advised to seek a review at least 3 months before first entering + IG Note and is encouraged + to proactively notify the horizontal review groups when major changes occur in a specification following a review.
+ +Additional technical coordination with the following Groups will be made, per the W3C Process Document:
+ +In addition to the above catch-all reference to horizontal review which includes accessibility review, please check with chairs and staff contacts of the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group to determine if an additional liaison statement with more specific information about concrete review issues is needed in the list below.
+ +W3C Groups
+-
+
- Primary: +
-
+
- Web of Things (WoT) IG/WG/CG +
- internet of things, discovery, edge computing) +
- Media and Entertainment IG +
- signage, video links +
- Web and Networks IG +
- edge computing, network metadata +
- Publishing BG / Publishing CG / EPUB 3 WG / Publishing WG +
- documentation, public communications, multimedia +
- Automotive WG +
- v2v comms, geolocation +
- Spatial Data on the Web IG +
- geolocation +
- Decentralized Identifiers (DID)WG / Verifiable Credentials (VC) WG / Credentials CG +
- identifiers, signing, credentials, authentications +
- Dataset Exchange WG +
- (geolocation, semantics, data modelling) +
- Immersive Web WG +
- VR, AR +
- GPU for the Web WG +
- ML, DL, edge computing +
- Big Data CG +
- data management, data modelling +
- Voice Interaction CG +
- Voice agents for smart user interface +
- Solid CG +
- Mechanisms to share private data in a controlled way +
- Agriculture CG +
- definition of agriculture use cases +
- Linked Building Data CG +
- Relationship with smart buildings as part of the geolocation use cacses +
+ - Secondary: +
-
+
- Web Authentication WG +
- security, credentials +
- Service Workers WG +
- edge computing +
- Devices and Sensors (DAS) WG +
- geolocation +
- JSON-LD WG / JSON for Linking Data CG +
- data modelling, semantics +
- Web Payments WG/Web Payment Security IG +
- payments +
- Web Real-Time Communications WG +
- video and data streams +
- Web Assembly WG +
- edge computing +
- Accessible Infographics CG +
- data visualization +
+
External Organizations
+-
+
- SDOs working on Smart Cities: +
-
+
- IETF: +
- Coordination on communication protocols, data modelling, + discovery, and security standards. + +
- ITU-T: +
- Coordination on standards for telecommunication technologies + and the use cases they enable. + +
- Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC): +
- Coordinated standards for geolocation and geographic information systems. +
- ISO
- tbd +
- IEC
- tbd +
- ISO/IEC JTC1
- tbd +
- BSI
- tbd +
- ETSI
- tbd +
- ECLASS
- tbd +
+
+ - Countries, Cities, Economic Unions and Communities (not limited to but incluiding the following): +
-
+
- ASEAN: +
- Discussion of smart city use cases and deployments in South-East Asia. +
- The World Economic Forum
- tbd +
- The Smart City Consortium
- tbd +
- The Smart Cities Council
- tbd +
- TM Forum
- tbd +
- Viable Citeis
- tbd +
- Other countries, cities and communities to be added including developing countries and rural areas +
+
+ Participation +
++ To be successful, this Interest Group is expected to have 6 or more active participants for its duration, including representatives from the key implementors of this specification, and active Editors and Test Leads for each specification. The Chairs, specification Editors, and Test Leads are expected to contribute half of a working day per week towards the Interest Group. There is no minimum requirement for other Participants. +
++ The group encourages questions, comments and issues on its public mailing lists and document repositories, as described in Communication. +
++ The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration upon their agreement to the terms of the W3C Patent Policy. +
+Participants in the group are required (by the W3C Process) to follow the + W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
++ Communication +
++ Technical discussions for this Interest Group are conducted in public: the meeting minutes from teleconference and face-to-face meetings will be archived for public review, and technical discussions and issue tracking will be conducted in a manner that can be both read and written to by the general public. Working Drafts and Editor's Drafts of specifications will be developed in public repositories and may permit direct public contribution requests. + The meetings themselves are not open to public participation, however. +
++ Information about the group (including details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants, and meetings) will be available from the Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities Interest Group home page. +
++ Most Web-based Digital Twins for Smart Cities Interest Group teleconferences will focus on discussion of particular specifications, and will be conducted on an as-needed basis. +
++ This group primarily conducts its technical work + on GitHub issues@@@. + The public is invited to review, discuss and contribute to this work. +
++ The group may use a Member-confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and members of the group, for member-only discussions in special cases when a participant requests such a discussion. +
++ Decision Policy +
++ This group will seek to make decisions through consensus and due process, per the W3C Process Document (section 5.2.1, Consensus). Typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required.
++ However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress and consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs may call for a group vote and record a decision along with any objections. +
++ To afford asynchronous decisions and organizational deliberation, any resolution (including publication decisions) taken in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference will be considered provisional. + + A call for consensus (CfC) will be issued for all resolutions (for example, via email, GitHub issue or web-based survey), with a response period from one week to 10 working days, depending on the chair's evaluation of the group consensus on the issue. + + If no objections are raised by the end of the response period, the resolution will be considered to have consensus as a resolution of the Interest Group. +
++ All decisions made by the group should be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available or unless reopened at the discretion of the Chairs or the Director. +
++ This charter is written in accordance with the W3C Process Document (Section 5.2.3, Deciding by Vote) and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires. +
+Patent Disclosures
+The Interest Group provides an opportunity to + share perspectives on the topic addressed by this charter. W3C reminds + Interest Group participants of their obligation to comply with patent + disclosure obligations as set out in Section + 6 of the W3C Patent Policy. While the Interest Group does not + produce Recommendation-track documents, when Interest Group + participants review Recommendation-track specifications from Working + Groups, the patent disclosure obligations do apply. For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, + please see the licensing information.
+Licensing
+This Interest Group will use the W3C Software and Document license for all its deliverables.
++ About this Charter +
++ This charter has been created according to section 3.4 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence. +
+ ++ Charter History +
+The following table lists details of all changes from the initial charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 4.3, Advisory Committee Review of a Charter):
+ +| + Charter Period + | ++ Start Date + | ++ End Date + | ++ Changes + | +
|---|---|---|---|
| + Initial Charter + | ++ [dd monthname yyyy] + | ++ [dd monthname yyyy] + | ++ none + | +
Change log
+ + +Changes to this document are documented in this section.
+ +
+ 
+