EP Topic News: 6th December 2001EP Topic News: 6th December 2001
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CONTENTS
E-journals
compared
eSchola 2002 launch
Email security testing zone
IEP research in action
IBM Systems Journal - Knowledge Management
Flashforward2001 winners
Electronic resources bibliography
Internet marketing association
SVG gains increasing support
Opera 6.0 for Windows beta
Technology supported learning challenges
State of US dotcoms
Web speech standards
The invisible web
Video messaging
Commission modifies FP6 proposal
Winners of IST prizes named
R&D expenditure increases in EU
European Research Advisory Board
XML software developments
NewsML 1.1 beta toolkit
6th Int. Conf. on Electronic Publishing
Semantic image and video analysis
G-VMP Virtual Media Publisher
Software Architecture 2001 proceedings
The latest El.pub Analytic, published online this week, debates the question: "Does the publishing industry still exist?" By considering convergence as a form of market development the central thesis of the piece challenges our preconceptions of the "publishing industry". The analysis concludes with the contention that the term "content management", common to all media, may now provide a better functional description of the role of the media industries.
We'd like to hear your views - on what is surely a contentious issue. Please read the article and respond online or send an email via the link provided.
URL: analytic07.htm
A note to El.pub editorial office, informed us that the current issue of Information Research contains an interesting article on the "Bibliometrics of electronic journals in information science". The article analyses some of the measurable characteristics of e-journals in the field of Information Science, including D-Lib, First Monday, Journal of Digital Information, LIBRES, and the UKOLN magazines Ariadne and Cultivate Interactive.
It contains statistical data about contributing authors, their geographical locations and institutions, subject area coverage within the field, etc. The data covers the period 1995 to the present.
eSchola 2002, officially launched in Paris, is an online festival of eLearning taking place from 8 April to 9 May 2002. It is organised in collaboration between European Schoolnet and the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture. eSchola 2002 includes regional and national events, online training and activities, the eLearning Awards, long-term collaboration projects, cross-border knowledge exchange and many more activities involving innovation and best practice using education technology.
URL: eSchola http://eschola.eun.org/
UK company have launched what they are calling an Email Security Testing Zone to enable organisations to "check whether their email systems are vulnerable to [certain] email viruses and attacks". The zone, currently includes 4 tests:
- a VBS attachment vulnerability test, checks whether a mail server blocks VBS attachments. The LoveLetter (Love Bug), and AnnaKournikova are examples of viruses transmitted using this method.
- CLSID extension vulnerability test which reveals whether a mail server detects and blocks files with CLSID extensions. Attachments having a CLSID extension do not show the actual full extension of the file when saved and viewed with Windows Explorer.
- MIME header vulnerability test which examines whether a corporate system is protected against emails using the MIME exploit. The MIME exploit makes use of a malformed MIME header and an IFRAME tag to trick Outlook Express into running an attached VBS file.
- ActiveX vulnerability test users can discover if their machine is vulnerable to the ActiveX exploit.
Users can sign up for these tests by submitting their name and email address at GFI's Email Security Testing Zone. They will then receive the tests by email (!), through which they can check the vulnerability of their email system.
URL: security testing zone http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/
URL: GFI http://www.gfi.com/
Visual Net Server 4.0 is the latest release of an application server and integrated development environment for XML-applications, which the readers of El.pub might find interesting. Recently released as a version 4.0, the product is a spin-off result from the Information Engineering project Multimedia Broker, IE2093. Information Engineering was a sector of research projects funded under the European Commission's 4th RTD Framework Programme and the initiator of the El.pub web site.
URL: product http://www.cnet.se/visualnetservereng.vns
Volume 40, Issue 4 of the IBM Systems Journal contains 12 papers about knowledge management, focusing on supporting technologies, products, and social aspects.
URL: http://www.ibm.com/software/news-alert/20011119/datwtsjr/
Music for New Media is a monthly email-based news service from Felix Bopp, a Publisher and Consultant specialising in new media, from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The November 2001 issue includes links to the winners (sections in capitals) of Flashforward2001, the leading Flash event held in Amsterdam. If you are interested in how Flash is developing these sites are well worth the visit (reproduced by kind permission of Felix).
- 3D - Ultrashock
URL: http://www.ultrashock.com/ultraintro4- ART - Memoire
URL: http://www.fastspot.com/memoire- CARTOON - Preschool Protocops
URL: http://www.preschoolprotocops.com/- E-COMMERCE - Billabong Store
URL: http://www.billabong-usa.com/store- EXPERIMENTAL - Flight 404
URL: http://www.flight404.com- GAME - Cricket
URL: http://www.bossmonster.com/e4/cricket/cricket.html- MOTION GRAPHICS - Insert Silence
URL: http://www.insertsilence.com- NAVIGATION - MoMA - What is a Print?
URL: http://www.moma.org/whatisaprint- ORIGINAL SOUND - Planet of the Drums
URL: http://www.planetofthedrums.com- STORY - Rashomon Café
URL: http://www.ontherail.com/site/blackbox/RoshCafe.html- TECHNICAL MERIT - Flash-France - XtremFont
URL: http://www.flash-france.com/ff2001.php- TYPOGRAPHY - Deconstruction
URL: http://juxtinteractive.com/deconstructionTo subscribe to the newsletter, or request archive copies use the emails below.
Email: New Subscription mailto:MUSICforNEWMEDIA@aol.com (subject: Subscription Newsletter)
Email: archive mailto:MUSICforNEWMEDIA@aol.com (subject: Archive)
Email: Felix Bopp mailto:felixbopp@aol.com
The Scout Report of November 23, 2001 (Volume 7, Number 44) published by the Internet Scout Project from the University of Wisconsin, Department of Computer Sciences reports that: "Marian Dworaczek's, 'Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information and the accompanying Electronic Sources of Information: A Bibliography' will be a boon to anyone studying issues related to information technology or electronic publishing. Dworaczek has been publishing the index since 1997, and this latest version contains over 1,400 citations as well as an introduction that explains how to use the site. The bibliography and index reference both online and print sources, including books, articles, monographs, and chapters. Librarians in particular will want to bookmark this site".
A free subscription to the The Scout Report comes highly recommended, visit the URL below to sign-up.
URL: Scout Report subscribe http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/misc/lists/
URL: Subject Index http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/SUBJIN_A.HTM
URL: Bibliography http://library.usask.ca/~dworacze/BIBLIO.HTM
The World Association of Internet Marketing (WAIM) has met to formalise its constitution and set membership fees. The Association formed in October 2000 plans to "promote online marketing, set standards and establish ethics as well as facilitating learning amongst its members". Members are hoping that WAIM will represent best practice in electronic marketing and will, in time, become the regulatory body of the Internet marketing industry.
URL: http://www.waim.org/
XML.com reports that although Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a relative new-comer to web standards arena it is gaining an increasing level of tool support. The site includes a feature article, "Get going with SVG tools", in which, SVG expert Antoine Quint surveys the state of SVG software, covering both viewing and authoring tools.
Opera Software has released Opera 6.0 for Windows Beta 1, with "an array of new and improved features, including a completely new default user interface, skins, buttons and panels". The company claim that the last version of Opera (Opera 5.x for Windows), is the the third most popular Internet browser in the world, being: "successfully downloaded and installed over 6 million times". With this release, Opera for the first time displays non-Latin characters, thereby opening up the local markets in the Asia/Pacific and Eastern European regions.
Opera also claims that the browser continues its commitment to the standards as laid out by the W3C. Version 6.0 for Windows supports the following technologies: 128-bit encryption, TLS 1.0, SSL 2 and 3, CSS1 and partial CSS2, XML, HTML 4.01, HTTP 1.1, ECMAScript, JavaScript 1.3, WAP/WML and partial support for DOM. The beta is available for free in an ad-sponsored version. After download, users can register the browser for USD 39 to remove the small banner ad. Registered and paid-up users of Opera 5.x for Windows are entitled to a free upgrade.
URL: Reviewer's Guide http://www.opera.com/press/reviewer/
URL: download http://www.opera.com/download/
URL: Opera http://www.opera.com/
A draft report concerned with the "New research challenges for technology supported learning" is available. Based on the European Commission's open consultation process the draft report discusses the responses from the contributions submitted. In addition there are papers presented at a workshop and fora, called to discuss the findings. Copies can downloaded from the Proacte web site.
The Interactive 500, is descibed by its compilers - Interactive Week - as "more than a list of which companies generated the most hard dollars from their web operations in the past year". It represents Interactive Week's annual checkup on the state of e-commerce in the US. The introduction to this helpful snapshot contends that: "this year, surprisingly, the health of the online economy appears to be a lot better than most people think". The feature provides some good background to electronic commerce trends in the US, with links to some useful further resources.
URL: http://www.interactiveweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D617%2526a%253D17766,00.asp
The first working draft of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition is now available. The draft document defines the "process of Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition and the syntax and semantics of semantic interpretation tags that can be added to speech recognition grammars to compute information to return to an application on the basis of rules and tokens that were matched by the speech recognizer". The document has been produced as part of the W3C Voice Browser Activity.
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-semantic-interpretation-20011116/
URL: W3C Voice Browser Activity http://www.w3.org/Voice/
The Invisible web site is described as a companion to the publication: "The Invisible Web: Finding Hidden Internet Resources Search Engines Can't See" by Chris Sherman and Gary Price. It includes a directory of some of the best resources the Invisible Web has to offer. The directory includes resources that are informative, of high quality, and contain worthy information from reliable information providers that are not visible to general-purpose search engines.
The authors give precedence to resources that are freely available to anyone with web access. However, they do include a few select resources that are either free to search but have resulting fee-based content (such as News Library), or charge a small fee to search and a fee to access full-records.
Serious Magic claim to have developed: "a new type of PC software application that enables businesses, schools and consumers to quickly create visual communications that have the professionalism and visual impact of network television - all without video editing or rendering". The product, Visual Communicator, is based on a real-time special effects engine and works with standard webcams, camcorders and media files, and provides simple step-by-step wizards to guide users.
The product also includes Serious Magic's proprietary V-Screen technology, a real-time software green-screen system for PCs. V-Screen allows users to superimpose themselves over a digital image or video clip without special cameras or lighting. The package also includes a PC teleprompter designed specifically for business and personal use. This helps users communicate their message clearly and confidently using the same method as television newscasters.
After a message is recorded, the final output can be sent via email, placed on a website, burned on a video CD-R, or streamed over the Internet or corporate network. Visual Communicator is expected to be available in January 2002 for US$ 99. A second version, Visual Communicator Plus, will be available for US$ 139.
Cordis Focus reports that the Commission has adopted an amended proposal designed to provide the European Parliament and the research Council with more information on the activities to be carried out under the heading "anticipating the EU's scientific and technological needs" in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).
The proposal: "aims to give a clearer indication of the thematic priority's objective by dividing the programme into two subsections: 'Policy Oriented Research' and 'Research to explore new and emerging scientific problems and opportunities'. each of the sub sections will receive half of the Euro 880 million budget allocated for anticipating the EU's scientific and technological needs". The full proposal is available online, but you need to search for COM (2001) 0594 within the list.
URL: search for COM (2001) 0594 http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/availability/en_availability_2001_12.html
URL: Cordis Focus http://www.cordis.lu/news
The twenty winners of the European IT prizes have been announced. Each of the winners receives Euro 5,000 and will be show-cased at the IST 2001 Event in Dussledorf on December 3-5, 2001, a grand prize winner selected from these will be announced at the event. The winners come from Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, the UK, Israel and Switzerland - further information from the web site.
URL: IST Prize http://www.it-prize.org/
URL: IST Event http://2001.istevent.cec.eu.int/
Research and development (R&D) expenditure has increased in Europe over the past couple of years according to figures published by Eurostat (the EU's statistical office). However when R&D expenditure is expressed as a per centage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - Japan at 2.64% and the USA at 3.04% exceed the European total of 1.90%. Further information from the Eurostat site.
The European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) is described as an independent high-level advisory committee created by the commission to provide advice on the design and implementation of EU research policy. The board is made up of 45 experts and will focus on aiding in the creation of the European Research Areas (ERAs) and the EU RTD Framework Programmes. There is a web site providing information on EURAB, follow the links below.
XQuery GoXML DB 2.0, a native XML database server. claims to be the first native XML database technology to provide "significant support for the current working drafts of XQuery", an XML-based querying standard under development at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The database is being aimed at the market for XML data storage.
The developers of DeltaXML claim that version 2.0: "enables you to identify and represent any change to any XML file in XML, what they call: 'change control for XML in XML'." Enhancements to the latest version include: a Java API for embedding in applications; larger file size handling (10Mb+); easier display of changes in an XML document, using XSL; unordered data handling.
The developers claim that current users range from the largest software companies down to venture capital funded start-ups, and company sectors include e-commerce developers, telecom software developers, the oil industry and XML software development companies. Test it for yourself on the DeltaXML online demo, or download to test on your own system and data. An independent article with some first impressions of DeltaXML, written by XML expert Ben Marchal, entitled: "Views from Abroad: XML Pipelines and DeltaXML" is available on the Gamelan site.
URL: http://www.deltaxml.com/
URL: article on Gamelan site http://softwaredev.earthweb.com/java/article/0,,12082_928511,00.html
Version 1.1 beta of the NewsML Toolkit is now available for download. This version is an extensive rewrite of version 1.0 released in Spring 2001 and it includes full XPath support, high-level support for formal names and basis-for-choice selection, and an extensible conformance test library. Over 300 unit tests are included.
The NewsML Toolkit is Open Source (LGPL), and may be used in free or commercial software products, following the provisions of the license. Work on version 1.1 of the NewsML Toolkit was sponsored by Reuters.
ELPUB2002 - the ICCC/IFIP 6th Int. Conf. on Electronic Publishing is scheduled to take place at Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic on November 6-9, 2002. The objective of ELPUB2002 is to bring together researchers, managers, developers, and users working on the issues related to electronic publishing for public, scientific and commercial applications.
There will be two tracks: a general track, providing an overview of the main issues of the area, such as human, cultural, social, economic and legal issues; a technical track, providing an in-depth view over the state of the art technologies, applications and tools worldwide. A call for papers is open, with abstracts due by the 15 February 2002.
Suggested topics for the general track include:
- new publishing models;
- new services for the web;
- the semantic web;
- multimedia and multimodal web;
- metadata - its usage and interoperability;
- copyright and other rights issues;
- standards and recommendations.
and for the technical track include:
- using XML and its related technologies (XSL, XSLT, DOM, XLink, XPath, ...);
- comparing its use with older technologies (like DBMS, for instance);
- development and use of XML applications (XHTML, MathML, NewsML, RDF...) and tools;
- development and use of metadata vocabularies, application profiles and metadata registries;
- knowledge discovery on the web - content search and retrieval on the web;
- profiling and personalisation;
- interoperability and scalability of web publishing applications;
- electronic publishing for mobile devices;
- technologies for copyright assurance;
- mechanisms for the integration of recommendations, standards and standards proposals.
The EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing is publishing a special issue on Semantic image and video analysis. Recent progress and prospects in cognitive vision, multimedia, human-computer interaction, communications and the web call for and can benefit from applications of advanced image and video analysis technologies. Adaptive robust systems are required for analysis, indexing and summarisation of large amounts of audio-visual data. Advanced image analysis technologies are needed for next-generation description and browsing services characterised by structured, object-based representations and personalised information access. Automatic extraction of semantic information from still or moving images and the analysis of their content is necessary for automatic annotation, indexing and categorisation.
The aim of this special issue is to bring together contributions from the latest developments in the field of object-oriented and semantic image and video analysis applications. Prospective papers should be unpublished and present solid research work offering innovative contributions either from a theoretical or an applications point of view. manuscripts are due by December 20, 2001, details via the links below.
URL: EURASIP JASP http://asp.hindawi.com/
Genias Benelux, an XML software specialist, has released the Standard Edition of its XML-based G-VMP Virtual Media Publisher system for editing and managing magazines and newsletters. G-VMP Standard Edition sells for 250 euro, bringing it in the range of everyone who needs to publish a magazine or newsletter.
The software has been designed to bridge the gap between wordprocesser or html editors on the one hand and high-end XML-based publishing systems on the other. Derived from the professional G-VMP Pro, according to its developers, the standard edition provides "just the functionality people need to manage one magazine or newsletter. But with the separation of content and lay-out, which are not provided by a word-processing programme".
G-VMP Standard has been developed by Genias Benelux partly as result of the company's involvement in a number of R&D projects funded with many partners all over Europe, with support from the European Commission. It contains "state-of-the-art XML-technology and is completely open standards based", and can run on a range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux and MacOSX.
URL: Genias Benelux http://www.genias.nl/vmp
The organiser, Eric Leach, of the Software Architecture 2001 conference held in the UK has suggested that El.pub readers may be interested in viewing the proceedings of the event which have just been published online. Plans for the 2002 event are well advanced and are also available online.
URL 2001 proceedings http://www.ericleach.com/sa2001/sa2slides.html
URL: Software Architecture 2002 http://www.ericleach.com/sa2002
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