Unicorn is proud to be a member of Semantic World, Data, Information & Process Integration with Semantic Web Services (DIP), the Corporate Ontology Grid (COG), and the Information Society Technologies Programme (IST), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and OntoWeb.

	Semantic World is a web community dedicated to the use of semantic information management methods in industry. Semantic World includes relevant news and analysis, a comprehensive resource center, and interactive forums for practitioners of semantic methodologies to share experiences, problems, and initiatives. Semantic World aims to support and influence developing standards for ontology modeling, semantic mapping, and the use of semantic information management methods in IT.
	With the networked economy coming ever closer, integration efforts between organizations must increase significantly. Integrations costs are the major bottleneck for realizing the full potential of electronic cooperation and business. Studies estimate that up to 30% of future IT budgets will be spent on integration activities within companies. This can become a major bottleneck and will likely strongly limit the cost-effectiveness of external cooperation, i.e. eCommerce, where the requirements of mature technology and scalability of integration solutions are even higher. DIP (Data, Information & Process Integration with Semantic Web Services) will therefore strive to develop Semantic Web Services as a scaleable and cost effective solution to the integration problem, dealing with one of the key bottlenecks of the modern networked society based on electronic communications. DIP is an Integrated Project under the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme with a budget of approximately 18M Euros being launched in January 2004 and running for 3 years.
	The Corporate Ontology Grid (COG) consortium is an innovative European Union-funded project consisting of four partners: the Unicorn Solutions R&D Center (Technical Coordinator), the FIAT Research Centre, LogicDIS Group S.A. (Technical Coordinator), and the University of Innsbruck's Institute of Computer Science. The COG project addresses the problem of accessing and relating corporate data stored in heterogeneous formats scattered across disparate systems. While prior work on Grids has concentrated on pooling hardware resources, COG will demonstrate the viability of an information Grid in which data resources are pooled. COG’s approach is based on data semantics and will show that corporations can achieve a common understanding by mapping physical data schemas to a shared ontology which captures agreed business vocabulary. COG has received €1.8 million in funding as part of the European Union’s FP6 Information Society Technologies Programme. COG was officially launched on 1 September 2002.
	The Information Society Technologies Programme (IST) is a single, integrated research program building on the convergence of information processing, communications, and media technologies. IST has an indicative budget of €3.6 billion and is managed by the Information Society DG of the European Commission. The EU’s Research Framework Programme (FP) is the EU’s main instrument for research funding in Europe. The FP is proposed by the European Commission and adopted by Council and the European Parliament. Framework Programmes have been implemented since 1984. The main objectives of FP6 are to contribute to the creation of a true “European Research Area” (ERA), which is the EU vision for the future of research in Europe, as an internal market for science and technology.
	The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols promoting the Web's evolution and by ensuring full interoperability. The W3C develops specifications, guidelines, software, and tools aimed towards achieving these goals and acts as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. Services provided by the Consortium include a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, as well as various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate the use of new technology. Since becoming members, Unicorn has actively contributed to the W3C's vision by developing architectures and specifications for deploying the Semantic Web vision within the enterprise. Unicorn is an active member of the W3C's Web Ontology Working Group, a part of the W3C's Semantic Web Activity.
	OntoWeb is an ontology-based information exchange for knowledge management and electronic commerce. The goal of the OntoWeb Network is to bring together researchers and industrialists to promote interdisciplinary work and to strengthen the European influence on the development of Semantic Web standardization efforts such as those based on RDF (Resource Description Framework) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Unicorn joins DaimlerChrysler, PricewaterhouseCoopers and British Telecom as OntoWeb members. This membership expresses Unicorn's commitment to bringing efficiencies to enterprise IT through a better understanding of underlying disparate data systems.