EP Topic News: 1st November 2001EP Topic News: 1st November 2001
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CONTENTS
Virtual World Congress
XML and the human user
Analysing online advertising
Media Commerce Language (XMCL)
XML application framework
XML Spy 4.1 Suite
IBM developerWorks Newsletter
EVA 2002 Florence
EC report on European broadband
EU/US IT use - gap widens
.museum domain news
Best European e-Practices
Civil liberties radio on air
Agent News highlights
Web rating concerns
Scholarly EP Bibliography
ARTISTE "Algorithm Special"
US corporate R&D grows
Web Services Component Model Committee
IST 2001 event web site open
Google goes wireless
VoicexML 2.0
Bi-directional conversion Word/XML
Unified web data model
Speech Application Language Tags
A Virtual World Congress aimed at entrepreneurs and SMEs has been launched running from 15 October to March 2002. Organised by the Association of Young Entrepreneurs (AIJEZ) in Zaragoza, Spain in collaboration with the EU and Spanish Government, the Congress plans to provide interactive seminars, exhibitions and workshops. The events, accessible online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year are designed to provide information on the new global economy, business best practice, and promote digital technologies and the applications that use them.
Mozquito Technologies believes that it has come up with "the missing link between XML and the user - XML WebAccess". This new user interface for native XML data is aimed at developers wishing to share XML data "fluidly" across the web. The company has published a number of white papers online in support of its claims.
With advertising revenue expected to be the main method of funding for commercial online broadcasters, understanding and effectively communicating the size and makeup of a service's audience becomes critical for generating a sustainable revenue stream. Advertisers will increasingly need research tools that enable them to effectively evaluate and place advertisements.
The two most popular methods for tracking streaming audiences are server log-file analysis and panel survey analysis. A new method, developed by a US company, MeasureCast is called Active Event Monitoring. In order to promote the concept MeasureCast has published a white paper (in pdf format) which examines each methodology, and addresses benefits and limitations of all three methods.
URL: white paper http://www.measurecast.com/docs/Audience_Measurement_Methods1.pdf
URL: MeasureCast http://www.measurecast.com/
The eXtensible Media Commerce Language (XMCL) initiative, with the support of a number of high-profile companies, is planning to develop "an open XML-based language designed to establish industry-wide standards for Internet media commerce". The industry consortium, led by RealNetworks, believes that by "standardising the language for business rules, XMCL will enable content to be played in a way that is independent of codecs, digital rights management systems, and e-commerce systems". A selection of companies supporting the initiative include: Accenture, Adobe, Bertelsmann, EMI Recorded Music, IBM, InterTrust, MGM, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Sun Microsystems.
URL: http://www.xmcl.org/
Xybrix is an XML application framework written in Java. It includes a Swing-based implementation of xforms (variation of the W3C xforms), XML-definable applications with file and window management, unlimited undo/redo of XML mutations, a graphical form designer component, and more. Additionally there is a speech plugin that optionally allows Xybrix applications to be controlled by voice through JSAPI of you have a compliant speech recognition engine. Further details via the project web site.
The developers of the XML Spy 4.1 Suite claim that it is a "complete out-of-the-box solution for all phases of advanced XML application development, supporting the entire corporate XML workflow, beginning with visual data-modeling, through to XML authoring and editing, storing to XML Repository, and content delivery through XML transformation".
The suite consists of three products: XML Spy 4.1 Document Editor, XML Spy 4.1 XSLT Designer, and XML Spy 4.1 Integrated Development Environment. A free evaluation copy is available for download.
URL: evaluation copy http://www.xmlspy.com/download
URL: home page http://www.xmlspy.com/
For developers, particularly those working with XML and related technologies the free email-based "IBM developerWorks Newsletter" provides a succinct review of the latest product offerings and resources from IBM. The newsletter links to a site which is divided into a number of zones: Tutorials (which cover such things as XSLT, Python XML, Tcl/Tk), Java, Linux, Open Source Projects, XML, Web Services, Wireless Computing, Security. It also provides links to other web sites and newsletters.
To view previous issues of the newsletter or to read the newsletter weekly without having to subscribe, or alternatively subscribe to the weekly emails, use the links below.
In addition the IBM alphaWorks site has been revamped, and claims improved site navigation, more online demos, groups of new and updated technologies, and new information categories, including: Java, XML, collaboration, security, wireless, and Web services.
URL: view newsletter http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/newsletter/
URL: alphaWorks http://www.ibm.com/alphaworks/
EVA 2002 Florence - "Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts", which includes a conference, training and workshops is scheduled to take place on March 25-29, 2002. Supported by the European Commission's EVAN Project the main topics covered include:
- Case studies of leading edge applications - galleries, libraries, education, archaeological sites, museums and historical tours;
- Mediterranean initiatives in technology for cultural heritage including synergy with European & international programmes;
- New technology in conservation and education to global access;
- Integrated digital archives for cultural heritage and modern art;
- management of museums by using ITC technology - access, guides, documentation and other services;
- the impact of new mobile communications (UMTS) on the cultural heritage and modern arts areas;
- Copyright protection (watermarking and electronic commerce) - cultural tourism and travel applications.
Offers of papers (5 pages draft or 1 page summary), Workshops & Demonstrations to the conference Co-Chairmen, Vito Cappellini, by the 15 November, or visit the web site for further information.
Email: Vito Cappellini mailto:cappellini@det.unifi.it
URL: http://www.vasari.co.uk/eva/florence
URL: http://lci.det.unifi.it/
An independent European Commission report has been published entitled: "The Development of Broadband Platforms in Europe". The study predicts the rate of growth of broadband access to the Internet in Europe and compares this broadband penetration in the US and Japan. It is suggested that by 2005 broadband access to the Internet from homes and SMEs in Europe (via cable modems or ADSL) could account for over half the connections made. Further information via the link to the Europa site.
URL: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/news_library/new_documents/broadband/index_en.htm
The Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma) has signed a Sponsorship Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the creation of the top-level Internet domain, .museum. The full text of this agreement is available online. The current status of MuseDoma's initiation of .museum operation is available on the MuseDoma site. The site also links to a discussion list on the subject.
URL: agreement http://www.icann.org/tlds/
URL: MuseDoma http://musedoma.org/
The BeEP (Best European e-Practices) project is addressing best practices in the context of e-Europe (the use of IT and the Internet to enhance work and skills, digital SMEs, regional cohesion and social inclusion,). This European Commission funded project, plans to develop public databases of best practices in the above domains.
The US Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched Radio EFF on Live 365. Radio EFF plans to use audio programming to "help people better understand how technologies and laws interact, impacting everyone's freedoms and civil liberties". Radio EFF's programming includes interviews and panel discussions which consider ongoing litigation and legislation that will determine the future freedoms of the individual in the digital age.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a leading civil liberties organisation working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF describes itself as: "actively encouraging and challenging industry and government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information society". Live 365 is the claims to be one of the world's largest broadcasters of streaming MP3 content on the Internet. The EFF also publishes a weekly email newsletter, EFFector, which provides commentary and news on campaigns being supported by the organisation.
URL: EFF http://www.eff.org/
URL: Live 365 http://www.Live365.com/
URL: EFFector subscribe http://www.eff.org/signup/mailserv.html
URL: EFFector current issue http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/current.html
UMBC AgentNews, an electronic newsletter published at the UMBC Lab for Advanced Information Technology, includes the following items which may be of particular interest to readers of El.pub:
- ABC Interactive has released a catalogue of known web spiders so that companies can correct audits of web impressions.
URL: http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=2391&width=1024- "The Death Knell of Noisy Searches", an article on IT-Director.com which considers how topic maps will lead to better web searches.
URL: http://www.it-director.com/article.php?id=2273- The Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) is now available as a Protege KB. SUMO is an approved "starter document" in the IEEE Standard Upper Ontology effort. It contains roughly 750 terms and definitions for very general ontological concepts such as temporal relations, spatial relations, activities and roles. Protege is an ontology development tool developed by the Stanford Medical Informatics group.
URL: SUMO http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/sumoOntology/sumo_ontology.html
URL: Protege http://protege.stanford.edu/To subscribe to AgentNews send any message to the email below.
Email: subscribe mailto:agentnews-subscribe@agents.umbc.edu
URL: AgentWeb http://agents.umbc.edu/
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) based in Washington, DC has expressed concerns following the announcement that three of the largest online companies, America Online, MSN and Yahooplan to use "a controversial rating system to label content on their web sites". The system, developed by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), encourages content providers to rate their online material using a set of uniform labels "to allow or disallow access to websites based on the information declared in the label".
EPIC's concerns centre on the fact that browsers configured to display only sites bearing labels could provide a mechanism to facilitate official censorship. According to ICRA, the "ICRAfilter" will be released in spring 2002 and will work on all versions of Windows from '95 upward and will operate independently of any browser.
URL: EPIC commentary http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_8.21.html
URL: ICRA's press release http://www.itstrategies.com/icra/release.htm
Version 39 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing (EP) Bibliography is now available. This selective bibliography presents over 1,450 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. The bibliography has the following sections: Economic Issues; Electronic Books and Texts; Electronic Serials; General Works; Legal Issues (including IPR and licensing); Library Issues (including cataloging, identifiers, linking, metadata, digital libraries); New Publishing Models; Publisher Issues (including electronic commerce / copyright systems).
The scholarly electronic publishing resources covers most of the above subjects along with SGML and related standards. The bibliography is available to view online and can be downloaded in either PDF or Word formats (each file is around 0.5 MB), for easier printing.
URL: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html
URL: pdf download http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.pdf
URL: Word 97 download http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.doc
The ARTISTE project has published an "Algorithm Special" of its periodic User Group newsletter. Available as a .pdf file, the newsletter provides some interesting background to the algorithms being developed at Southampton University for this project which is investigating a range of image processing techniques to be applied to the preservation of works of art. For example they are developing:
- a "plank detector" which locates wooden planks, particularly at the back of paintings, and analyses how they affect cracks on the painting surface;
- "query by fax" which searches for images in the database that have similar content to the faxed query image;
- "crack detector" with the aim of identifying the presence of cracks on a painting;
- "texture similarity retrieval which uses texture as the main feature for content-based retrieval.
You can join the ARTISTE User Group (AIUG) and receive the the newsletter by e-mail and participate in the group's activities by contacting Margaret Cecil-Wright AIUG Co-ordinator and Editor, Artiste Newsletter.
Email: AIUG mailto:mcw@it-innovation.soton.ac.uk
URL: ARTISTE project http://www.artisteweb.org
Public corporations headquartered in the United States almost doubled the growth rate of their investment in R&D in 2000, according to a new report, "Advance Estimate of Annual U.S. Corporate R&D", released by the US Commerce Department's Office of Technology Policy (OTP). According to OTP, R&D investment in 2000 rose by 9.3% in inflation-adjusted terms. Adraft report is available in .pdf format, the final report should be published in the spring of 2002.
OTP press release http://www.ta.doc.gov/PRel/pr011015.htm
Report http://www.ta.doc.gov/reports/TechPolicy/US_Corp_Est_011015.pdf
URL: http://www.cra.org/cra-bulletin/2001/10.18.01.html#gro
A new OASIS Technical Committee has been proposed to focus its efforts on a Web Services Component Model. Specifically the aims of the WSCM TC are:
- create an XML and web services centric component (WSCM) model for interactive web applications.
- harmonise WSCM as far as practical with existing web application programming models (eg. Portals, Macromedia Flash), with the work of the W3C (eg.XForms, DOM, XML Events, XPath, XLink, XML Component API task force), emerging web services standards (eg. SOAP, WSDL, WSFL), and with the work of other appropriate business information bodies.
- ensure that WSCM applications can be deployed on any tier on the network and remain target device and output markup neutral.
- promote WSCM to the status of an international standard for the conduct of XML and Web Services based web application development, deployment and management.
The primary deliverable of the WSCM TC will be a coordinated set of XML vocabularies and Web Services interfaces.
URL: press release http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis_news_10_22_01.shtml
URL: OASIS home page http://www.oasis-open.org/
We have received confirmation that the web site covering the Information Society Technologies (IST) Event which is due to take place in Congress Centre, Düsseldorf, Germany on 3-5 December 2001 is now live. IST 2001 will focus on the work of Europe's major research programme on information and communication technologies. El.pub is funded by a project which is run under Key Action Line III (Multimedia Content & Tools) of the IST programme.
Google is working with AT&T Wireless, to provide its mobile subscribers with a direct connection to Google's search engine via Internet-ready mobile phones. AT&T join a growing list of partners offering mobile access to Google via WAP-enabled phones and PDAs.
URL: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/att.html
If you are a regular Google user you may be interested in downloading and installing the the free Google Toolbar. Available for the Internet Explorer browser, the toolbar adds Google search functionality to your desktop.
The Public Working Draft of VoicexML 2.0 has been released by the W3C.
URL: press release http://www.w3.org/2001/10/voicexml-pressrelease
URL: draft http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-voicexml20-20011023/
UK company, Pembroke International, a developer of document technologies for Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes users has announced the first release of its bi-directional Microsoft Word and XML conversion modules with Document Conversion Manager v3.0.3. Word documents can be filtered, and XML documents created, using the software. The resultant XML is based on Pembroke's own DTD (Document Type Definition).
A paper written by Harold Boley from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH proposes a unified web data model that generalises the data models of both XML and RDF. the author believes that such a unification can benefit applications requiring aspects of both data models, as developed for the Semantic Web.
The SALT (Speech Application Language Tags) Forum is committed to "developing a royalty-free, platform-independent standard that will make possible multimodal and telephony-enabled access to information, applications, and Web services from PCs, telephones, tablet PCs, and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs)".
It proposes to develop standard Speech Applications Language Tags (SALT) to extend existing mark-up languages such as HTML, XHTML, and XML to enable multimodal access. The SALT Forum will promote the standard and will share intellectual property to develop it. A broad range of companies is expected to join the initiative. The SALT founders expect to make the standard specification publicly available in the first quarter of 2002 and to "submit it to a standards body by mid-year". Microsoft, Intel, and Philips Speech Processing are among the founder companies.
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