The RIF Last Call drafts were just published:
http://www.w3.org/News/2009#item123
My micro-summary would be: it's time to look at switching from SWRL,
etc, to RIF Core. Only the RIF XML syntax is being standardized, not
any presentation syntax.
Please review the drafts and send us any comments by the end of July, at
the comments address given in the drafts. We want to get into doing
implementations very soon, and have this thing wrapped up in the fall.
See also:
http://www.w3.org/2005/rules/wiki/RIF_FAQThanks.
-- Sandro Hawke, W3C Staff Contact
Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group