EP Topic News: 27 and 24 April 2001EP Topic News: 27 and 24 April 2001
| About topic news We now publish topic news twice a week with a separate page for each week, ensuring that links (particularly from El.pub Weekly) continue to remain current. To view news from other weeks, please use the navigation buttons below. |
El.pub Weekly Email alerter of the week's news items and associated URLs |
 |
Forward to next week
|
Back to previous week
|
 |
The latest version of El.pub Analytic - the analysis service provided by El.pub - discusses the prominent concerns being expressed by the digital publishing industry as a whole, ranging as it does from entertainment (MILIA) to business information (EBIC). Among the themes covered:
- the trend by suppliers to become "the solutions company";
- commercial consolidation and convergence in the digital information publishing and delivery markets;
- the potential for the market in pervasive and network-based games;
- a review on the current thinking on intangible assets (with particular reference to accounting for human/corporate knowledge).
Previous issues of Analytic, (all recently published), have considered:
- Will WAP survive?;
- Moves towards digital cinemas;
- XML, .NET and distributed applications;
- the impact that availability of bandwidth will have on the development of interactive electronic publishing.
If you haven't read Analytic in the past, why not take the time to browse the archive today, and send us your comments on the issues raised. 27/04/01
URL: latest issue of Analytic analytic05.htm
URL: El.pub Analytic Archive analytic.htm
Cordis is hosting a series of online consultations being organised by the Information Societies Technologies (IST) Programme. The online consultations are designed to help in elaborating the orientation of the IST in the 6th Framework Programme (FP6). Industrial and academic research organisations are being encouraged to participate, to help in:
- identifying and defining the main features of the thematic programme;
- and at the same time establishing and contributing to the development of research partnerships.
Users will be encouraged to post their contributions via the web site. 27/04/01
This month's IP-Wire (Issue 26), the electronic newsletter of the IPR-Helpdesk highlights the landmark adoption, by the European Union's Council of Ministers, of the Directive establishing pan-EU rules on copyright and related rights in the information society. This legislation brings the EU into the digital age regarding copyright protection for books, music and films on the Internet.
The newsletter also considers the unauthorised copying of software that is costing the global software industry billions of dollars per year. In another headline item, the question as to whether existing IP laws are able to cope with the complex issues the technology of the 21st century is raising, is debated.
The IPR-Helpdesk is an intellectual property rights assistance service created by the European Commission DGXIII-D. Subscribe to the email version of the newsletter or read it online - both are free of charge. 27/04/01
"A Drilldown on the Internet User/Usage Ecosystem Framework" is the latest drilldown detail of the 24 (annual and quarterly) metrics from the 32 companies represented in the MSDW recently launched Internet User/Usage Ecosystem Framework. It also highlights other basic growth stats related to Internet trends. MSDW believe they have created the best one-stop shop for determining Internet user/usage growth rates. This report will be updated quarterly as new data become available.
MDSW have also released an update to their Technology & Internet IPO Yearbook. Looking at the "IT crash" they say, "IT spending growth is tied to the economy (and visa versa) and while we believe that IT spending growth could be below GDP growth in 2001, we believe it should go back to a more normal trend of growing faster than GDP growth in 2002 or 2003. Over the past forty years, when IT spending growth has fallen below GDP growth it has taken, on average one-to-two years for it to again exceed GDP growth". 27/04/01
URL: reports http://www.morganstanley.com/techresearch/index.html
URL: home page http://www.msdw.com/
eWorld 2001, the most comprehensive study of Internet and ebusiness ever undertaken, provides actionable insights upon which vendor and financial organisations can build business plans, develop investment strategies, and allocate resources. Companies around the world will spend more on web-site infrastructure this year alone than they did in five years preparing for Y2K.
Although Internet stocks have crashed, dragging most of high tech with them, this decline is simply part of a cyclical market trend. In reality, bricks-and-mortar companies worldwide are still investing in e-business with fervor. Over the next four years, the number of web sites will double, ecommerce will increase by a factor of 10, and technology spending on web applications will escalate to four times what it was the previous four years.
By 2004, Europe will have twice as many mobile Internet users as the United States. While most of the world is swiftly migrating to mobile use of the Internet, the United States, which is already behind both Europe and Japan in mobile phone penetration and mobile Internet access, will fall behind even further. 27/04/01
URL: http://www.idc.com:8080/ITOver/eworld.htm
URL: press release http://www.idc.com/itover/press/IT042401pr.stm
Sun is pushing the use of the Java platform by games developers. Citing a number of developers already using Java as the platform of choice, Sun is planning to launch a developers site, JavaGaming.org, "to assist in the development and deployment of Java technology-based electronic gaming". 27/04/01
A consortium comprising Astra, Convergence, Deutsche Telekom, Nokia, Open TV, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Sun Microsystems, TechniData, the German broadcaster ZDF, Germany's Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) and the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) organisation used CeBIT to confirm their agreement to provide Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) services, applications and products during the course of 2001.
MHP is being promoted to act as a "standard" for the development of digital TV and interactive services by "facilitating convergence between broadcasting, telecommunication and computing technologies". MHP was released in February 2000 and has been created by the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) consortium and published by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). 27/04/01
URL: http://www.dvb.org/
Hyperion and Time Warner Trade Publishing plan to launch Hyperion AudioBooks in the Autumn 2001. Initial indications suggest the publisher will release around 12 titles annually from the Hyperion list, allowing Hyperion to "coordinate the marketing and packaging of the audiobook versions of its bestselling authors with that of print book editions".
Time Warner Trade Publishing, which already distributes Hyperion's books to the trade, will provide production, sales, and distribution services to the new imprint. The ebooks will be distributed through iPublish.com, Time Warner's ebook division. 27/04/01
URL: Hyperion http://www.hyperionbooks.com/
"Successful Proposals - A guide to preparing proposals for European Commission funded RTD projects" is aimed at organisations considering whether to apply for funding, or have started developing a proposal. In 30 pages and for a cost of £30.00, it explains:
- how to assess whether your project idea is a good candidate for support;
- what to look for when choosing partners;
- how proposals are evaluated;
- how to address the Framework 5 evaluation criteria in your proposal.
Published by Singleimage Limited the booklet attempts to: "help you to understand and interpret the Commission's Workprogramme and Guides for Proposers". Additional information and an order form from Sue Greig at Singleimage Limited. 27/04/01
Music for New Media is a handy monthly electronic information service focusing on developments in audio, from independent consultant, Felix Bopp. In the April 2001 issue there are pointers to:
- Streaming Media Land, an industry portal with resources for engineers, researchers and marketing people in the streaming media field.
URL: http://www.streamingmedialand.com/- Streaming Magazine which covers the expansion of broadband, DSL, and audio and video content providers.
URL: http://www.streamingmagazine.com/- Mobile Music Forum, an industry group dedicated to enabling secure delivery of music content across digital networks to mobile devices. It has drafted a global specification for the secure delivery of compressed digital music content to broadband wireless networks and is looking to develop this specification to present to relevant standards bodies such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
URL: http://www.mobilemusicforum.com/To subscribe to "Music For Newmedia" send an email to the address below with "Subscription Newsletter" in the subject field. 27/04/01
URL: subscription: MUSICforNEWMEDIA@aol.com
For those who find unwanted email intrusive, Geoffrey Stephenson of the EPIFOCAL team recommends "this concise but very helpful four-part guide from CNet can help users cut down the never-ending flow of spam to their email in-boxes. Topics covered include prevention, evasion, spam blocking services and programs, and how to report offenders. A quick must-read for anyone sick of receiving 'exciting news' about weight-loss plans, debt reduction services, or 'hot stock tips'." 27/04/01
SoftQuad has announced that XMetaL 2.1 for Unicode, the latest version of its XML authoring product includes support for Unicode 3.0, which will allow organisations with multi-lingual content requirements to create and share XML documents internationally. According to the news release XMetaL 2.1 for Unicode supports "all left-to-right languages". 27/04/01
MIT President Charles M. Vest has announced that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will make the materials for nearly all its courses freely available on the Internet over the next ten years. The idea behind MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is to make MIT course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world.
MIT OCW will radically alter technology-enhanced education at MIT, and will serve as a model for university dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age. Such a venture will continue the tradition at MIT and in American higher education of open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, and will help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities engage the web as a vehicle for education. 24/04/01
The Washington Post web site, washingtonpost.com, is extending the scope of photojournalism into video and large scale photostories. The output is so good that Travis Fox, one of the team, won awards form the White House News Photographers' Association this year, the first time a web site has won such honours. Fox recently produced a series on post-Milosevic Yugoslavia using a digital camera and a laptop computer. News certainly seems to be an area where convergence between press and TV is happening via web sites of newspapers on the one hand and TV stations on the other. The Camera.Works section of the Post is the showplace for photojournalism and also has technical articles on the subject. 24/04/01
URL: http://whnpa.org/
URL: camera.works http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/index.html
URL: Yugoslavia http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/onassignment/yugoslavia/
The Internet Security Alliance (ISA) aims to enhance the information security of member companies and, ultimately, the greater Internet community, and to offer high-value information networks that bring usable business ideas and thinking to member companies. The ISA is a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI)1 and its CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) and the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), a federation of trade associations.
With the formation of the ISA, members will have a single portal for up-to-the-minute threat reports, best security practices, risk management strategies, and more, which will give them the edge in the competitive and volatile environment of the Internet. The Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the US Department of Defense and managed by Carnegie Mellon University. The FAQ says that "Members receive otherwise unobtainable early warnings of information security threats...".
One might be surprised to see that a US government funded organisation will apparently withhold information from the public and public organisations about Internet security threats whilst selling it to the private sector. Perhaps they will be offering membership to organisations like public hospitals or schools at special rates. 24/04/01
Durlacher have issued a new free report "UMTS - and investment perspective". The 146-page report paints a rosier picture for WAP and UMTS services in the medium term while confirming the present problems. They forecast the European market for mobile Internet services at €76 billion by 2005, if UMTS networks and services are available by early 2003.
However, they say that mobile multimedia will be at least another 4-5 years away, because of lack of bandwidth with rates of only 40kbs available in early 2003. Large bandwidth touted by sellers will only be available with 4G after 2008/2010. Better batteries and colour displays are seen as necessary for advanced applications and a critical component in expansion. Download the detailed report from the web site. 24/04/01
A call for proposals for indirect actions under the e-Content programme has been announced. The programme is aiming to stimulate the development and use of European digital content on global networks at the same time stimulating linguistic diversity in the Information Society. Further information from the sector's web site on Cordis. 24/04/01
Cordis (the European Commission's Research and Development Information Service) provides an excellent resource for all those involved in R&D, particularly those interested in the latest news on European Union research and innovation programmes. However as with other very large information-based sites finding your way around can at times be a very daunting task.
A new guidance page on the site is intended to give users easier access to basic information on the services available from the site. According to Cordis, further developments are planned to aid in navigating the site in the very near future. 24/04/01
Schemantix has released XMLForms 1.0 which according to its developers, "generates web forms and reports from XML schemas, facilitating the development and maintenance of web interfaces that need to work with XML-based B2B infrastructure". Details from the site below, which also features two new whitepapers on: "XML Schemas and the Future of E-Business" and "Plugging People into B2B Infrastructure" (registration is required). 24/04/01
"Managing e-zines with JavaMail and XSLT", is part one of two-part series, published by IBM's developerWorks site which demonstrates how to automate e-mail publishing chores with Java and XML. This concrete application of XML and XSLT describes an e-mail newsletter (e-zine) publishing application that outputs both HTML and plain text e-mail messages.
Six reusable code samples include a sample newsletter marked up in DocBook, an XSL style sheet to convert the DocBook sample to a custom text out put, a Java text formatter (in the form of a SAX ContentHandler), two SAX filters, and the Java code that puts it all together in a multistepped transformation. (The next part of this article will cover the JavaMail API). 24/04/01
URL: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-xmlist1/index.html?open&l=136,t=gr,p=JavaMail1
"Transforming XML into SVG" is a tutorial on IBM's developerWorks site which demonstrates how to use the World Wide Web Consortium's emerging Scalable Vector Graphics format (SVG) to convert original documents into graphics. 24/04/01
LithTech Development System V3.0 is the latest release of this game development platform, announced at the Game Developers Conference held in the US on March 22-24, 2001. The company also announced that plans to launch a new version of the software in conjunction with RealNetworks known as the RealArcade Development System. The intention is to build an authoring module to enable game developers to "easily produce 3D games titles for distribution through RealArcade - RealNetworks' end-to-end platform for the digital distribution of PC games". RealArcade is scheduled for release later this year. 24/04/01
GameSpy Industries, a supplier of services and technologies to the retail and online games industry, is to license the GameSpy.net multiplayer technology for use in RealArcade (see news item above). "Working together, GameSpy and RealNetworks are focused on establishing one of the largest multiplayer networks for digitally distributed games", claim the company. 24/04/01
Sun Microsystems has released the Java Media Framework (JMF) API software which the company claims "enables developers to incorporate audio, video, and other time-based media content into Java applications and applets". This multimedia toolkit can apparently run on any release of the Java Platform (version 1.1.x and higher). 24/04/01
| About topic news We now publish topic news twice a week with a separate page for each week, ensuring that links (particularly from El.pub Weekly) continue to remain current. To view news from other weeks, please use the navigation buttons below. |
El.pub Weekly Email alerter of the week's news items and associated URLs |
|
|
Forward to next week
|
Back to previous week
|
|
|
File
Downloads - Please note
|
| File downloads from the El.pub site are currently suspended - the links however have not been updated to reflect this. If you would like access to a particular download file - please email webmasters@elpub.org with a suitable request confirming a description of the file you wish to download. |
El.pub - Interactive
Electronic Publishing R & D News and Resources
We welcome feedback
and contributions to the information service, and proposals for subjects for
the news service (mail to: webmasters@elpub.org)
Edited by: Logical Events Limited - electronic marketing, search engine marketing, pay per click advertising, search engine optimisation, website optimisation consultants in London, UK. Visit our website at: www.logicalevents.org
Last up-dated: 16 February 2024
© 2024 Copyright and disclaimer El.pub and www.elpub.org are brand names owned by Logical Events Limited - no unauthorised use of them or the contents of this website is permitted without prior permission.