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ICRA projectsContent Label Incubator Group Started February 2006 ICRA is proud to be leading the W3C Content Label Incubator Group, the first activity of its kind within the Web's leading standards body. Known by the acronym WCL-XG, the group is considering a variety of use cases that call for a common set of metadata to be applied to one or more online resources. In simpler terms, it's charged with looking at different methods for labelling Web content. ICRA itself presents a significant use case but there are others, including trustmarks (as developed in the Quatro project), conformance with standards and guidelines (such as web accessibility and mobileOK) and digital rights management. Flexibility, applicability across multiple media types, relevance to search and methods for increasing the trust that can be placed in labels are all key objectives. Sponsors
From ICRA's perspective the XG is the latest step in the development of its labelling platform, the history of which goes back to the original Labelling Working Group that ran between June and December 2004. The work was then transferred to the Quatro project and produced the RDF-based system used by ICRA today (RDF-CL). Several of the sponsors of the new Incubator Group have been involved throughout the development of RDF-CL and this is obviously a key input to the activity. Even so, the group will begin by making a dispassionate assessment of the use cases before deciding whether RDF-CL is or is not the correct way forward. If it is, what improvements can be made? If not, what is the better solution?
PEGI Online
November 2005 - October 2006 As part of the European Union's Safer Internet Programme, in late 2005 a working group was set up to create a new PEGI Online Seal of Approval. The work builds upon that done by PEGI itself (Pan European Game Information) to label all computer games sold in Europe to indicate their appropriateness for certain age groups. PEGI operates in all major European countries except Germany and is the counterpart to ESRB in the USA. Where displayed, the PEGI Online Seal of Approval will indicate to users that the website follows an agreed code of conduct and that all games offered are rated using the PEGI system. ICRA was pleased to be invited to join the working group to offer advice and expertise on making the Seal of Approval and the individual game ratings machine-readable. This project fits in perfectly with the QUATRO project and ICRA's wider work in improving online safety.
Mobile Web InitiativeJune 2005 - May 2007 
ICRA is participating in the World Wide Web Consortium's Mobile Web Initiative. The aim is to make web-based resources as accessible on mobile devices (phones, PDAs etc.) as on desktop computers. The activity is divided into two closely-related working groups: The Device Description Working Group is seeking to devise a reliable method through which things like screen and memory size, operating system and software can be identified by content providers. The Best Practices Group is seeking to define an agreed set of best practice guidelines for content providers. Resources that meet those guidelines will be eligible for a newly created "Mobile OK" trustmark. ICRA is taking part in this group as trustmark provision is very much in line with its work on moving to RDF-based labels and into the semantic web.
Quatro
Autumn 2004 - 2006 The Quality Assurance and Content Description project (Quatro) is a major project being led by ICRA and UK publishing consultants, Pira International. The project will build on the established ideas about website labelling, whether for content descriptions using ICRA's system, for quality assurance or any other reason. The aim is to help internet users find what they want, to trust what they find, and to avoid material that, for whatever reason, they choose not to see. The project has already attracted the attention of major search engines and quality labelling schemes across the world. For full details, see the main QUATRO project pages. SIFT ProjectJanuary 2002 - June 2003
5 year strategic planFebruary 2003 ICRA has launched a five year strategic plan to truly fulfil its mission on an international scale. A summary, which includes ICRA's planned strategic initiatives, benefits and funding requirements can be seen here (PDF format, 81Kb). Customization and Personalization through RDFFebruary 2003 This project has now been superseded by Quatro. Protecting Kids with Digimarc™October 2001 ICRA is delighted to be working closely with Digimarc, the leader in digital watermark technology and applications, to bring a new kind of labelling to the internet. Using features already available in the some of thew world's leading image software, it is now possible to add a persistent "Adult content" flag to images. Known as Protecting Kids with Digimarc™ (or PKD for short), the system is complementary to the ICRA system and shares our "empowering parents through self-regulation" ethos. Although Digimarc's technology is well established throughout the world, PKD is a new venture with plans for future development already in place. For full details, please click here. ICRAsafeApril 2000 - April 2002
Project details available from the Safer Internet Action Plan website here.
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A project under the European Union's Internet Action Plan. Led by Spanish family software developers Optenet with the Greek National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos," the project built on ICRAfilter to create a very powerful and flexible system now known as ICRAplus.
