EP Topic News: 22nd and 25th May 2001EP Topic News: 22nd and 25th May 2001
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The latest agenda for the VR World Congress, to be held in Barcelona on June 27-29, 2001, and organised by the EPIFOCAL project, has been published on El.pub. In addition to attending the sessions outlined in the published agenda, there will be ample opportunity for delegates to network with prospective partners in the commercial and public sectors.
The event has been designed to appeal to the widest audience of professionals interested in the development of VR and interactive 3D (I3D) applications. Applications which will be exploited in a wide range of disciplines, including: publishing, healthcare, education, culture and heritage, entertainment, services, manufacturing, engineering. The event will also consider the hardware, software, systems and services which will provide the necessary infrastructure.
Throughout the three days the conference will:
- address a diverse range of issues raised by the Internet, remote collaboration, distributed working;
- consider the application of VR and I3D, ranging from design and prototyping, to operator training, to simulation and through to "visualisation communication".
The event is already proving to be very popular, so potential attendees are encouraged to register with the event administrator as soon as possible (using the details published on the conference agenda page below). Attendance at the event is free of charge. A limited amount of space is available for tabletop demonstrations, please contact the administrator for further information. 25/05/01
URL: vrcongress.htm
Email: Administrator Sophie Lafond mailto:slafond@mva.co.uk
The latest issue of the PROACTe News Service, sponsored by the European Commission and focusing on the Education and Training Technologies community has been published on the web. The newsletter includes news clips on the application of technologies in distributed education and training, along with news on conferences which focus on the sector. 25/05/01
One of the things clearly needed for potential participants in the new e-Content programme is a way of finding project partners in other Member States. This has now at least partly been addressed with a link from the e-Content page to the CORDIS IST partner finding service where e-Content and relevant keywords are duly specified.
This may not meet all the specific needs of the programme but at least there is now a source of information and help. A call for proposals for indirect actions under the e-Content programme has also 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. 25/05/01
URL: Cordis Partner Serach http://www.cordis.lu/econtent/partners.htm
URL: http://www.cordis.lu/econtent/
With 'digital assets' such as images and the Internet playing an increasingly critical role in the modern newspaper picture desk, digital asset management (DAM) provider, Picdar, is launching three new solutions for publishers:
- a business continuity service that allows Picture Editors to access their live feed during emergencies and system down time;
- a number of DAM solutions specifically designed for smaller, independent and regional publishers;
- a web content management suite that allows total control of the content publishing lifecycle, including assembly, publication, and expiry of content.
Picdar is a major supplier of DAM technologies to "large-scale environments" with many of the UK's national newspaper's using its solutions. It is now aiming these at smaller regional and independent groups who require hosted, entry level or workgroup solutions. 25/05/01
A new release of Open Business Objects for EDI (OBOE) has been posted on the American Coders web site. This release includes new classes and methods to improve translation processing time. OBOE translates between several Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) document formats and EDI/XML files. The package is targeted at legacy EDI users who want to integrate their systems with the Internet quickly and easily using standards based technology. 25/05/01
Babel Media, a leading European localisation and testing specialist for the games and interactive entertainment industries, has announced the formation of a localisation network covering all of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The move further complements Babel's existing services, which the company provides to clients such as Konami, Lego, Eidos and Infogrames.
This pan-global service is set to appeal to games publishers who will have a single point of entry into a network of experienced single-language vendors, freelance translators, games journalists, educational experts, voice talent agents and recording studios situated in each territory who specialise in games. 25/05/01
The May 2001 issue of D-Lib Magazine is available and includes three full-length articles, and several smaller features, and news of upcoming conferences and other items of interest. The May 2001 articles include:
- "Representing Value as Digital Objects: A Discussion of Transferability and Anonymity";
- "Digital Library Initiatives at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft";
- "CrossRef Turns One". 25/05/01
URL: http://www.dlib.org/
URL: table of contents http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may01/05contents.html
Macromedia has opened its online store for business in the UK, where users can purchase products in sterling. This rollout is part of Macromedia's global strategy to deliver local versions of its software, web sites, and online stores that take into account the unique requirements of their target audience. The launch of similar online stores has also being announced in France and Germany. 25/05/01
URL: UK store http://www.macromedia.com/uk/store/
Sony and Macromedia plan to work together to add the Macromedia Flash Player into the Sony PlayStation2 games console. The longer term aim is to use the Flash Player to run interactive content from the web via the console. 25/05/01
We have received a Call for Chapter Proposals for a book on: Information Modeling for Internet Applications. The book will consider the range of "objects" found on the Internet, including documents, structured databases, and search engines and will address new challenges for future information systems.
Specific topics mentioned in the call include: web-oriented conceptual modeling techniques, data modeling for web sites, integrity constraints in web sites, modeling the dynamic aspects of web sites, hypertext / hyperdocument - data modeling, personalisation of web sites, models for adaptive hypertext, verification of web site properties, web development CASE tools, formal models of web sites, case studies on web site modeling, web site maintenance, models for the evolution of web sites, web query languages, integration of data modeling and document retrieval, multimedia data modeling in web site development, data distribution and integration via web sites, architectures for web-based information systems.
The request for proposals was received from P. van Bommel, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands - to whom suggestions should be sent, by May 30, 2001. The book will be published by IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA. 25/05/01
Email: proposals P. van Bommel mailto:pvb@cs.kun.nl (Subject: IGP-PROPOSAL)
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has launched its Internet Training Centres Initiative for Developing Countries (ITCI-DC), a multi-million dollar project aimed at closing the gap in Internet and "new economy" skills in developing countries. Under the initiative, ITU plans to establish 50 training centres to provide skills in Internet Protocol (IP) networking and services by July 2003 in existing non-profit institutions in developing countries.
It is expected that the centres will also function as incubators to help small and medium-sized enterprises to develop Internet-related services. Each centre initially involves a partnership between the ITU, industry partners, relevant government agencies, not-for-profit training institutions and local service providers. At the end of the project however, it is expected that each training centre will be sustainable and self-financing. 25/05/01
URL: http://www.itu.int/
As announced a few months ago the Internet Scout Project plans to cut back on its services due to the reduction in its level of funding. Managed by the University of Wisconsin's Department of Computer Sciences, the Scout Project publishes excellently researched appraisals of reliable web resources across a range of disciplines.
The announcement confirms an end to the Subject-specific Scout Reports on: Social Sciences & Humanities; Business & Economics; Science & Engineering. The announcement also confirms that there are "no immediate plans to cease publishing our flagship report, the Scout Report". 25/05/01
URL: Internet Scout Project http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
Some people can't do the same things that other people are able to do - they can't quite see the same way, or move the same way, or hear the same way. However, these people find the web as useful as anyone else! By the way you design your pages, you can either include everyone, or cut out those people who may, in fact, benefit most from the potential of the web.
The HTML Writers Guild run the AWARE (Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education) centre that has resources to help write accessible web pages. Their next online accessibility course starts early June. 22/05/01
ITN, the UK's largest dedicated commercial news service, has completed the purchase of a viz [virtual studio] and viz [live event] system in time for the UK's general election. To create a new look and feel to their programming for this major event, ITN has opted for a real-time virtual studio and 3D graphics system.
Commenting on the purchase, Kevin Morrison, Special Projects, ITN, said "There were a number of key performance criteria that we were looking to fulfil". He explained that, "not only would the system have to be robust and easy to use, but it also needed to be able to support the automation of data feeds and help us build data rich presentations from templates, quickly and easily".
For the General Election ITN has constructed a 225 square meter blue screen studio using four individually tracked 3D cameras. The studio will host a range of real-time graphics including a photo-realistic model of the interior of the British Parliament. Throughout the eight hours of live coverage the graphic scenes will be dynamically updated from an on-line election results database.
"DW3D - a virtual web TV format combining VR, streaming media and games developed in the EU project", is one of the topics at VR World Congress in Barcelona on 27-29 June, 2001. 22/05/01
URL: http://www.vizrt.com/
URL: VR World Congress vrcongress.htm
Caligari has announced iSpaceT1.5, a new version of its 3D web graphics and animation-authoring package, now with new support for Macromedia Flash output, and optimised JPEG compression. The company has also lowered the price for the iSpace stand-alone version, and launched a new iSpace "proTeam" subscription programme - which provides web designers with unlimited access to online tools and support services, on an annual subscription basis.
Caligari has also released trueSpace5.1, a new version of its 3D modeling program featuring support for Macromedia Shockwave3D and other web output capabilities. In addition, trueSpace5.1 offers enhanced modeling tools, interface integration, compatibility with standard design formats, and an updated software developers kit (SDK) for 3rd-party plug in developers. The company also lowered the price for the stand-alone version of trueSpace, and launched a new "proTeam" programme - a comprehensive array of online tools, training programs, libraries, and support services available on an annual subscription basis. 22/05/01
Ebiquity.org is a a portal maintained by the UMBC mobile computing research group that has news and articles relevant to mobile computing, wireless technology and pervasive computing. You can visit this page to see, post, and engage in discussions around news items and articles on all aspects of mobile computing. This news items was reported in the excellent UMBC AgentNews - an email round-up of the latest additions to Agent related technology on the AgentWeb web site. 22/05/01
URL: Ebiquity.org http://ebiquity.org/
URL: AgentWeb http://agents.umbc.edu/
The European Forum for Electronic Business (EEMA) has published "E-mail Best Practice Policy" for members, but the main recommendations "The 16 Steps to Effective E-mail" are on their web site. A summary document: "The 16 Steps to Effective E-mail and The Nine No's of E-mail" can be downloaded in pdf format. 22/05/01
URL: http://www.eema.org/
The European Commission appointed a high-level expert group to investigate the question of the intangible economy and the relevance of intangible assets to a organisation's trading worth. The report, "The Intangible Economy Impact and Policy Issues", collates the evidence that intangible assets are an unavoidable factor in todays commercial environment, develops a taxonomy to describe them and discusses the difficulties in measuring them.
Interestingly examples given of industrial sectors whose "trade" is based largely on intangibles, such as the film and entertainment industries, are those dominated by content creation and the subsequent trading and protection of the resultant intellectual property. The report is available for download. 22/05/01
The Pan European Link for Geographical Information (PANEL-GI) has been developed to provide a Europe-wide geographical information system. This excellent compendium covers the whole scope of geographical information, the many uses to which it can be put, and its future development. Although it claims to be a general introduction, the compendium is full of information, including a glossary and list of relevant web sites. 22/05/01
URL: PANEL-GI http://www.gisig.it/panel-gi/
URL: Compendium http://www.gisig.it/panel-gi/package/pack.htm
The Email Publishing Digest strives to be the leading source of free online information for "email publishing professionals". It is published via email five times per week, and is available in both text and HTML formats. Topics covered include: promotional techniques, revenue generation, text and HTML email formatting, email list management, content production, and more. To subscribe, visit the web site below or email via the link. 22/05/01
URL: http://epdigest.com/
mail: mailto:join-epdigest@epdigest.com
"How to write an investor-winning business plan" is the subject of a TRAIN-IT course on May 27 - June 2, 2001. TRAIN-IT is an Accompanying Measure in the IST Programme of the European Commission. Course attendance is free for IST and ESPRIT project participants. Details concerning the current programme and speakers is available from the project's web site. 22/05/01
The W3C's XML Core WG has announces that the XML Information Set has advanced to Candidate Recommendation status. The purpose of this XML Information Set specification is to provide definitions for use in other specifications; definitions of what structure is represented by the syntax of an XML document was not included in the original XML specification, but a number of technologies layered on XML have needed such definitions, and have specified them:
- The Document Object Model is an API for manipulating the structure represented by an XML document.
- XPath gives a syntax for selecting parts of the structure represented by an XML document; this syntax is defined in terms of a data model; this XPath data model is used in the XSLT and XPointer specifications.
- The XML Canonicalisation specification is also based on the XPath data model.
- The XML Schema specification is defined in terms of the information represented by an XML document, not in terms of the character-sequence syntax.
- The XML Inclusions (XInclude) specification is defined as merging document structures (XInclude Version 1.0 has also been published).
- The XML Query algebra is based on a data model for XML.
Implementation of this XML Information Set specification consists primarily of its use in such layered specifications. Feedback from working groups developing such layered specifications and developers working with XML more generally is being welcomed up to 15 June 2001. Comments should be sent to the mail list below. An archive of comments is also available. 22/05/01
URL: XML Information Set http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-xml-infoset-20010514
Email: comments mailto:www-xml-infoset-comments@w3.org
URL: mail list archive http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-infoset-comments/
URL: XInclude Version 1.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude
For 18 months the participants in the Electronic Business XML project (ebXML) have been attempting to specify a framework for electronic business. The project has held its final meeting and XML.com has published an article which reports on this meeting, discusses the approved specifications, and predicts the likely future for ebXML. 22/05/01
| 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. |
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