EP Topic News 2 March and 27 February 2001EP Topic News 2 March and 27 February 2001
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The results from the most recent "El.pub User Survey" have now been published on the web site. As on previous occasions the response to the survey was very good and we would like to thank all readers for taking the time to complete the survey, which has provided us with many useful insights into how to improve the information services we provide. We plan to implement a number of suggested improvements over the coming weeks and would welcome readers' comments concerning the changes. 02/03/01
URL: El.pub Reader Survey results3.htm
Email: comments on site changes webmasters@elpub.org
Following some very useful suggestions made in the El.pub User Survey (see news item above) we have reorganised the topic news pages on El.pub. From the week beginning 26 February, Topic News Pages now feature that weeks news items only. This now means that each issue of El.pub Weekly will link to a unique new page which will also be archived - ensuring that readers can link from the news items on the web site from back-issues of the electronic newsletter.
If you are searching for news items in the archive we have developed and index page to help you (see the link below).
We would very much welcome your comments concerning these changes - particularly as to whether you find them useful and usable. 02/03/01
URL: Topic News Index page base02t.htm
Email: comments on site changes webmasters@elpub.org
In the UK the Joint Information Systems Committee together with the Publishers' Association is currently funding the PELICAN (Pricing Experiment Library Information Cooperative Network) project at Loughborough University, that seeks to develop a pricing mechanism for providing digitised materials to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
The development of a suitable pricing mechanism, for digital materials remains a pressing task and the project is looking for academics and library staff in the UK that would be willing to share their personal views and experience with the project team. The project guarantees that all those experts taking part will remain anonymous, and is asking interested parties to contact them directly. 02/03/01
URL: PELICAN http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dils/disreasearch/pelican/indexpage.html
URL: contact Iris Rubbert mailto:I.M.Rubbert@lboro.ac.uk
RUDI (Resource for Urban Design Information) is looking for enthusiastic and talented people to fill interesting new posts within the organisation. RUDI, formerly an eLib project (a UK sponsored e-library research initiative), is a leading web site for urban design and is expanding its services. 02/03/01
URL: RUDI http://www.rudi.net/
URL: jobs http://www2.rudi.net/jobs/jobs
Electric Rain has unveiled its latest contribution to the world of 3D vector graphics. They have announced the development of a 3D Studio Max Plug-In version of their Swift 3D product, allowing users of this modeling software to export directly to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as other types of vector-based files. 02/03/01
The Web3D Consortium has announced the Rich Media 3D (RM3D) initiative, which is developing a standard to enable rich media content containing 3D graphics, video and audio to be sent over the Internet and used in broadcast applications. RM3D is intended to enable an emerging category of media-capable Internet and broadcast devices and appliances to receive and optimally present advanced content while simplifying the media authoring process. A wide range of OEM, graphics and content companies including 3Dlabs, ATI, Eyematic, iVAST, OpenWorlds, Shout Interactive, Sony and SRI are driving this initiative.
A draft of the standard is expected during March 2001 with final specifications due by December 2001. The Consortium is working closely with the MPEG-4 group, with the aim of bringing 3D functionality to this standard. The broad span of memebers should mean that RM3D will be used on the broadest range of platforms, ranging from mobile devices and internet terminals to game consoles and set top boxes. Sony originally developed much of the technology behind RM3D for the emerging interactive TV market. 02/03/01
Arcus Software, a Finnish high-tech company focused on 3D mapping technology has introduced MobileGuide, a 3D map solution that can be applied both in the third generation mobile phones as well as Java-compatible phones already emerging to market. MobileGuide is based on illustrative and easy to operate 3D mapping technology.
MobileGuide map will be received into the mobile device either as a series of still pictures or - as technology develops - as a streaming video clip. The user sees the landscape and nearby buildings on the wireless device's screen from a pedestrian perspective, along with verbal instructions guiding to the right direction. 02/03/01
URL: http://www.arcussoft.com/
URL: Virtual Cities available in the Internet: URL: http://www.arenanet.fi/
URL: http://www.virtualkainuu.net/
URL: http://www.perille.net/
ASPstreet.com is described as focused on news, events, publications and other information about the application service provider industry. 02/03/01
Through its combined service offer of the Reciprocal Digital Clearinghouse Service and several licensed digital rights management (DRM) tools, Reciprocal will enable HarperCollins (a leading English language publisher) to sell secure copies of its PerfectBound ebooks through online retail partners across the web. Reciprocal will support all PerfectBound e-books in Microsoft Reader and Adobe Acrobat e-Book Reader formats.
The HarperCollins e-book publishing programme will launch with 15 titles, which will be published in February and March of 2001. Each e-book will be published in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all under the PerfectBound imprint. 02/03/01
URL: Harper Collins http://www.harpercollins.com/
URL: Reciprocal http://www.reciprocal.com/
We have received a request for El.pub readers to participate in a survey of both users and non-users of Eprint Archives. The purpose of the survey is to determine who is and is not using such archives at this time, how they use them if they do, why they do not use them if they do not, and what features they would like to have added to them to make them more useful. The web-based survey is anonymous and consists of about 72 questions). 02/03/01
Eidos is planning to develop games for Nokia's WAP enabled mobile phones over the next two years based on new and existing franchises, with the first Eidos game, Gangsters, to be available during the first half of 2001. The games will be offered to consumers via wireless operators and is accompanied with news that Rage Software has also signed a deal to provide game content to Nokia. 02/03/01
URL: http://www.eidos.com/
URL: http://www.nokia.com/
The February, 2001 issue of RLG DigiNews has been published and includes an article entitled: "Archiving and Preserving PDF Files", and an FAQ section which considers "record keeping metadata projects". RLG DigiNews is a bimonthly web-based newsletter intended to:
- Focus on issues of particular interest and value to managers of digital initiatives with a preservation component or rationale;
- Provide filtered guidance and pointers to relevant projects to improve our awareness of evolving practices in image conversion and digital archiving. 27/02/01
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for February 18, 2001 is now online and considers the collection of data when conducting usability trials. He contends that "in addition to being expensive, collecting usability metrics interferes with the goal of gathering qualitative insights to drive design decisions. As a compromise, you can measure users' ability to complete tasks. Success rates are easy to understand and represent usability's bottom line".
The company is also holding a competition to find the "Best Intranet Design of 2001". They are conducting a survey of the best and most usable intranet designs in the world and are requesting developers to submit their work for evaluation. 27/02/01
URL: Alertbox http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010218.html
URL: Intranet Design http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet
The Specification for SIX v.1.0 is now available online, for comment. According to its developers, "SIX is designed to provide a uniform transport and interchange syntax for many types of data or information structures. It is designed to support the transport of representations of both data and information, and any relationships between them in single documents".
The developers, are planning to post "a nice example of SIX at work soon. The use model envisaged is that of SIX plus SAX plus XSLT (plus knowledgebase, database, agent, or whatever)". 27/02/01
Alibre Design provides real-time collaborative design and secure data sharing based on a peer-to-peer architecture. By combining full-featured 3D solid modeling with Internet connectivity, the Alibre Design CPD (collaborative product design) service liberates design, engineering and manufacturing professionals from a standalone workstation to an interactive, connected web environment. 27/02/01
URL: Alibre http://www.alibre.com/
In December 2000, Intel and Excalibur Technologies (a developer multimedia management software) formed Convera with the aim of supplying "complete solutions for managing digital content assets in the Internet economy". Latest software releases from the company include: Convera RetrievalWare 6.8 and RetrievalWare WebExpress 2.1 which feature enhanced support for Java developers, a new search interface for intranet users, added capabilities for indexing secure content, expanded language plug-ins and support for the latest versions of the industry's leading operating systems and databases. 27/02/01
Screen Digest, the international media analyst, has an extensive line-up of media reports due for publication throughout April and May. These reports cover:
- "Interactive Leisure Software";
- "Entertainment and E-Commerce", covering European on-line packaged entertainment software retailers, with specific reference to music, video and games.
- "Global Digital Television Market & Forecasts", covering all the digital TV platforms, business models and future growth rates in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. It will also examine the future growth potential of digital platforms in existence today as well as the impact of new technologies such as xDSL.
- "Trends in European TV Programming" which will provide insights into genre and scheduling trends.
- "Content is King - broadband and the expanding market", a comprehensive description of the changing structure of programme rights and licensing agreements in the world of high speed internet and new digital forms of content ownership.
- "European Pay TV - Market Assessment & Forecasts", focussing on the large number of channels which are still analogue.
Further information, along with publication dates, is available via the Screen Digest web site. 27/02/01
OASIS has formed a new technical committee to develop an XML-based protocol for managing complex, business-to-business (B2B) transactions over the Internet. The OASIS Business Transactions Technical Committee plans to build an "open specification for XML message interfaces that will support the coordination and processing of web services from different organisations". The committee plans to base its work on the Business Transaction Protocol (BTP) specification, submitted to the Consortium by BEA Systems. BTP allows complex XML message exchanges to be tracked and managed as loosely coupled 'conversations' between businesses.
OASIS welcomes the submission of other suitable technologies for consideration in this work. Organisations and individuals interested in business transaction issues are invited to join the Committee and participate in this development. 27/02/01
Bowstreet and Sun Microsystems have announced they are working closely to integrate their technologies and services to help customers build "intelligent web services architectures and business web automation infrastructures". The alliance was announced in conjunction with Sun's launch of its Open Net Environment (Sun ONE). Sun ONE is widely seen as a competitor to the Microsoft .NET initiative. Bowstreet sees itself as a web platform provider for the creation, integration and management the new class of dynamic e-business applications or web services. 27/02/01
URL: Sun ONE http://www.sun.com/software/sunone
URL: Bowstreet http://www.bowstreet.com/
In it's introduction, the Bionomics Institute's web site claims that the move from a "Machine Age" to an "Information Age" will expose "traditional" economic theory claiming it will: "offer insufficient insight into the fundamental nature of the emerging Information Age economy". Bionomics attempts to meet this challenge, by basing its concepts on modern evolutionary biology - characterising the economy as "a self-organizing, 'chaotic' information ecosystem". Find out more from the Institute's web site. 27/02/01
The Outsourcing Center, is a US company specialising in outsourcing. Its web site provides a wide selection of resources related to outsourcing and the underlying technologies. 27/02/01
ValiCert's m-Commerce Express, is described as "a strategic initiative designed to provide legal-grade security for enterprise wireless transactions". In support of the launch ValiCert has also formed a strategic relationship with a WAP gateway provider CMG Wireless Data Solutions. 27/02/01
URL: ValiCert http://www.valicert.com/
NewsEdge, a business content syndicator is promoting the technonology developed for its syndication service to the wider publishing community. According to the company, Electronic Publishing Technology (EPT) will allow publishers to "re-purpose their own original content for the web in a real time XML format". Apparently EPT is the same technology that NewsEdge uses to organise and supply content from over 2,000 sources to intranets, extranets, web sites and portals. Primedia and Business.com are among a number of customers already licensing this technology from NewsEdge. 27/02/01
URL: NewsEdge http://www.newsedge.com/
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