EP Topic News: 28th February 2002EP Topic News: 28th February 2002
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Contents
MPEG
LA to charge MPEG4 streaming in Europe
SMIL extensions offer 3D listening
Multimedia across mobile networks
Wireless 2D and 3D animation
Spain - mobile multimedia
Securing using pdf
Microsoft's wireless desktop
Domains and branding
WorkKnowledge - information management
Real Broadcast Network
Mobile Payment Forum
Internet payments - IBM and eONE Global
DOM conformance test suite
Internet Writer’s Guide updates
Visual Perl
Cocoon and web services
Internet2 update
D-Lib Magazine February
Guardian Media orders Polymedia
SMIL e-journal examples sought
RLG DigiNews February
"Digital Divide" - ITU conference
SVG essentials
Storage area networks
RealTimeProof Classic 4.0
Eurolinux have been exploring the intentions of the holders of patents related to MPEG4 video standards. They have been informed by Larry Horn, Vice President for Licensing at the MPEG association, that "the patents that will constitute the MPEG-4 Visual Patent Portfolio License support the charging of royalties on the use of MPEG-4 Visual streams in Europe" and
that a license should be available within several months.MPEG LA is a group of large corporations which control the MPEG standards through a large patent portfolio. MPEG LA includes noticeably Canon, Inc., Fujitsu, General Instrument Corp., GE Technology Development, Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., KDDI Corporation, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Scientific Atlanta, Sony, Toshiba, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited. "Patents on Internet standards have absolutely no economic justification since the economic value of a standard is related to the number of its users, not to the R&D spent to develop the standard or its technical quality", says Bernard Lang, Directeur de Recherche at INRIA. More info at the Eurolinux web site.
Scientists at Siemens Corporate Research (SCR) are developing next generation mobile applications that promise to "supercharge hitherto plain vanilla offerings." SCR believes this is the first solution of its kind for enabling a commercial wireless handheld device to offer a 3D listening experience. SCR has created 3D audio extensions to the Synchronized Multimedia Interaction Language (SMIL).
The server-based framework can receive a request, process the SMIL file, create multiple speech and audio objects simultaneously and spatialise them in 3D space. This done, the framework then multiplexes the audio objects into a single stereo audio stream and transmits it wirelessly to a mobile device.
URL: http://www.scr.siemens.com
URL: http://www.ttb.siemens.com
URL: http://www.usa.siemens.com
The Eyematic Synthetic Video software platform has been unveiled. Eyematic's software allows mobile carriers to provide a wide variety of enhanced multimedia services across 2, 2.5 and 3G networks. Eyematic Synthetic Video is an environment for multimedia application development across communications, information and entertainment categories. Application demonstrations at the 3GSM World Congress included animated 3D multimedia messaging, personalized device agents, television-style newscasts and a first-person 3D action game entitled "Spaceluge".
Eyematic's Synthetic Video multimedia and communications platform works across existing 2, 2.5 and 3G wireless networks in addition to wired Internet connections from 56 kbits/second. Eyematic's multimedia software applications were shown running on Texas Instruments Incorporated's OMAP family of application processors. The Eyematic software platform is available on 14 wireless devices with additional devices under development including support for a variety of leading operating systems and programming languages including Java, Linux, Microsoft Windows CE, Palm OS and Symbian OS.
Quanxi Communications, a Philippines software company, is exploring the use of wireless 2D and 3D animation. Having succeeded in providing short message service (SMS) applications such as matchmaking and fortune telling to Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, Quanxi now is experimenting on multimedia content that can be ported to general packet radio service GPRS) and third-generation wireless platforms. For some time, Nokia has been talking about the impending shift from text-based messaging to multimedia messaging. Nokia previewed late last year the Nokia 7650, which, with a built-in camera, is able to handle multimedia messaging.
URL: http://www.i-quanxi.com
URL: http://www.nokia.com
Telefonica Moviles Espana and Openwave plan to deliver rich multimedia content to Spanish e-mocion (wireless Internet service) subscribers. The new service, powered by Openwave Download Fun software, will offer "richer and more advanced content than can currently be delivered via Short Message Service (SMS) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). E-mocion subscribers will be able to download and listen to music, view colour pictures and graphics and play polyphonic ring tones".
URL: Telefonica Moviles Espana http://www.empresa.movistar.com/
URL: Openwave http://www.openwave.com/
MediaSnap's secure plug-in for Adobe Acrobat Reader and Acrobat 5.0 software is being added to its MediaSnap Pipe product to enable corporate customers to control access to information by using Portable Document Format (PDF). As a result, MediaSnap believes that corporate privacy policies can be enforced across applications, including the protection of e-mail, documents, files, and reports. MediaSnap's Pipe (Private Information Protection Environment) provides persistent protection of content while it is being used through authentication and permission controls, watermarking and usage auditing.
URL: MediaSnap http://www.mediasnap.com/
Microsoft's Wireless Desktop includes the company's first wireless keyboard and new wireless wheel mouse. The package is expected to be available during February for US$ 74.95.
The world's top brands hold an average of just over 1000 domain names each, according to research from NetNames, a UK domain management specialist. NetNames analysed the domain name assets of the of a number of the world's most valuable brands (as defined by Interbrand).
According to the research a number of companies including Microsoft and The Walt Disney Company both hold over 3000 top level domains (.com, .net, .org and .uk suffixes). Other companies on the list, such as Nokia, Ford and Coca-Cola each hold between 200 and 1000 domains within their portfolio. The report goes on to explain that many of the domains held are inactive, not pointing to corporate sites, and as such represent a poor corporate asset and a problem to administer. Netnames, perhaps unsurprisingly, have launched a corporate domain name management service.
iManage WorkKnowledge provides the ability to search disparate repositories for content in documents, spreadsheets, presentations and email attachments. WorkKnowledge builds on the document management and collaboration capabilities of iManage WorkSite application suite, an Internet-based enterprise application.
URL: iManage http://www.imanage.com/
Real Broadcast Network (RBN), the content delivery network division of RealNetworks, has released an Internet broadcasting solution for conference producers, corporate event planners and associations. RBN's Conference Webcasting Service is described as a turn-key solution for event producers and was formally launched with the live webcast of the 31st Critical Care Congress from the San Diego Convention Center on January 26-30, 2002, for the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM).
The RBN service also includes: online registration and reporting, live and on-demand event webcast with speaker's slide synchronisation (through incorporation of Sonic Foundry's MediaSite Live technology), event archiving, e-commerce capability (including the ability to setup pay-per-view or subscription access), branded RealOne media player and web pages that match the look and feel of the event.
URL: Real Broadcast Network (RBN) http://www.rbn.com/
URL: RealNetworks http://www.realnetworks.com/
The Mobile Payment Forum is described as "a global, cross-industry group formed to enable secure, user-friendly mobile payment transactions and expand the overall market for mobile (m) commerce". Founded by American Express Company, JCB Ltd., MasterCard International and Visa International, the Mobile Payment Forum aims to standardise the building blocks necessary to deploy global solutions for secure mobile payments.
Focusing on payment card transactions, which currently dominate e-commerce payments, the Mobile Payment Forum plans to address key areas such as interoperability passwords, cardholder authentication, and encryption methods. Led by a Board of Directors comprised of leading mobile, technology and financial companies, the Forum will develop requirement documents, white papers, case studies, and technical specifications. The Forum will also drive collaborative work with other industry consortia and standards bodies.
IBM and eONE Global, an innovator in emerging payment technologies (SurePay and govONE Solutions), and affiliate of payment services company First Data Corp. have announced a global strategic alliance "to deliver comprehensive electronic payments solutions to the business and government marketplaces". The alliance effectively amounts to each company promoting the other's technology and expertise.
URL: IBM http://www.ibm.com/solutions/financialservices
URL: eONE Global http://www.eoneglobal.com/
URL: SurePay http://www.surepay.com/
URL: govONE Solutions http://www.govONEsolutions.com/
URL: First Data Corp. http://www.firstdata.com/
The first version of the DOM Conformance Test Suite for Level 1 Core has been released by the DOM Test Suite Group. The DOM TS aims at helping implementors test their implementations' conformance with the W3C DOM Level 1 specification. This work, launched by W3C and NIST, is a publicly developed and open framework to test the DOM Level 1 Core implementations. Read about the Document Object Model (DOM) Conformance Test Suites via the web site, from where you can also download the DOM TS distribution. Comments on the software are encouraged, send to the email address below.
URL: http://www.w3.org/DOM/Test
Email: comments mailto:www-dom-ts@w3.org
URL: online archive http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-dom-ts
It is two years since "The Internet: A Writer’s Guide" by Jane Dorner was first published. She has updated the site which accompanies the book every month since then, but following the latest update in February plans to release updates less frequently in future, probably quarterly. The latest additions are available online along with excerpts from "The Internet: A Writer’s Guide - 2nd Edition".
The perception may be that most Perl programmers are die-hard command line freaks, but those coming to Perl on Windows may be used to a more graphical way to edit programs. Perl.com, a web site dedicated to the Perl programming language, has published an article by the lead developer of the new Visual Perl plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio to outline the advantages of a graphical IDE. The site publishes a free newsletter update service, a simple registration is required.
URL: Perl.com http://www.perl.com
URL: Visual Perl http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/02/05/visperl.html
Rational Software, a member of the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Integration Program (VSIP), has integrated a number of its software programs with Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET. The company claims this will aid developers in constructing of C# applications.
URL: Rational and .NET http://www.rational.com/microsoft
URL: http://www.rational.com/
On XML.com, Cocoon project founder Stefano Mazzochi describes the Apache XML Project's XML/XSLT server application framework. The author also gives a history of Cocoon, from its humble origins as 100-line Java servlet to the sophisticated development platform recently released as Cocoon 2.0.
This issue also features more commentary on web services, "Web Services Pitfalls", which puts the web services model into the context of business requirements, covering such issues as security, billing and provisioning.
URL: Cocoon http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/13/cocoon2.html
URL: Web Services Pitfalls http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/06/webservices.html
The Internet2 project, proving technologies for the next generation Internet, continues to develop. Reports issued by the project (and available as monthly email bulletins) confirm that:
- Internet2 and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) are co-sponsoring a working group designed to propose standards and best practices for documenting, archiving, and retrieving the recordings of performances such as live theatre, musical compositions, dance etc. One key component of the working group will be addressing dissertations that result in these performances. If you are interested in joining the working group, please contact Ann Doyle.
URL: http://apps.internet2.edu/html/perfarchiveretrievalwg.html
Email: Ann Doyle mailto:adoyle@internet2.edu- a new Internet2 publication that highlights high-performance networking applications in the Biosciences arena is now available (in pdf format). This colour publication features four biosciences applications: Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN), the NPACI Telescience Alpha Project, Scientific Collaboration at Johnson & Johnson using the Access Grid, and Digital Brain Atlases (UCLA). To request copies of Internet2 publications, send an e-mail.
URL: http://www.internet2.edu/resources/infosheetbioscience.pdf
Email: mailto:publications@internet2.edu- the EDIT consortium (Enterprise and Desktop Integration Technologies) consisting of Internet2, EDUCAUSE, and SURA recently launched an informational web site which focuses on middleware and it's application. The site offers resources and information about implementing middleware, including rationales, sample applications, policy information, technical white papers and other information developed by the Consortium.
URL: http://www.nmi-edit.org/Further information on the progress of the Internet2 Project, of which the advanced Pan-European network, GEANT, is a key member is available via the link below.
The February 2002 issue of D-Lib Magazine is now available and includes articles on:
- "Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Progress Report and Workplan for 2002";
- "Video Gaming, Education and Digital Learning Technologies: Relevance and Opportunities";
- "Digital Collections of Real World Objects";
- "The MusArt Music-Retrieval System: An Overview";
- "eML: Taking Mississippi Libraries into the 21st Century";
The issue also includes a book review of "Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology", William Rosenblatt, William Trippe and Stephen Mooney, Hungry Minds, Inc., November 2001.
URL: http://www.dlib.org/
URL: table of contents http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february02/02contents.html
London based TXT e-solutions, a provider of multi-channel online content management software, has won its first major contract for its Polymedia product, with the Guardian Media Group. The content management software is to be installed at the Group's flagship regional publication, the Manchester Evening News and the Group is hoping that by linking its Manchesteronline site to the other portals within the organisation, "an enhanced service can be provided and extra revenue generated".
The Polymedia software will be used to power an on-line interactive newspaper with articles, photos, video clips and images from around the world 24 hours a day, seven days per week. As part of the web extension, new digital channels including SMS, video streaming and other devices all using TXT Polymedia will be introduced.
URL: TXT Polymedia http://www.txtgroup.com/
URL: Manchesteronline http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk
Gerry McKiernan of the Iowa State University is interested in learning of any e-journals that utilise SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) for markup and access of audio, video, animation, and other multimedia components. SMIL, (a World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation), "enables simple authoring of interactive audiovisual presentations. SMIL is typically used for 'rich media' and multimedia presentations which integrate streaming audio and video with images, text or any other media type". Gerry has listed a selection of multimedia e-journals in M-Bed, his registry devoted to "Embedded Multimedia Electronic Journals", but he is unsure as to whether any of these utilise SMIL. Please send contributions, comments, critiques direct to Gerry via the email below.
URL: M-Bed http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/M-Bed.htm
Email: Gerry McKiernan mailto:gerrymck@iastate.edu
URL: SMIL on W3C http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
URL: Introduction to SMIL http://www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/SMIL/Intro/index.html
The February 2002 issue of RLG DigiNews is now available online and includes the feature article: "We don't know the first thing about digitization" - which addresses the need for digitization training in Illinois; a review of the web site devoted to the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS); and a FAQ section which considers, Web Log Analysis.
RLG DigiNews is a free bimonthly web-based newsletter, produced by the Cornell University Libraries Department of Preservation and Conservation, focused on issues of interest to managers of digital initiatives.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organising the 3rd World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) in Istanbul from 18-27 March, 2002. The conference will work towards adopting:
- the Istanbul Declaration, enshrining a shared vision of the future of telecommunications worldwide.
- a Strategic Plan for Bridging the Digital Divide.
- an Action Plan , which will establish the work programmes for implementing the Strategic Plan in the period 2003 to 2006.
The Conference plans to agree on development priorities in view of the high-level recognition of the "Digital Divide" between developing and developed nations created by the rapid but uneven expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
URL: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/conferences/wtdc/2002/brochure/think_globally.html
URL: ITU news http://www.itu.int/newsroom
"SVG Essentials" from O'Reilly has been written to take web developers through the ins and outs of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), beginning with basics needed to create simple line drawings and then moving through more complicated features like filters, transformations, and integration with Java, Perl, and XSLT.
According to the book's publisher, it goes beyond "how to" and explains the concepts underlying SVG. Chapter 3, "Basic Shapes", and an article by the author, "An SVG Histogram" are both available free online.
URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/svgess/
URL: "An SVG Histogram" http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/02/07/svghist.html
URL: Chapter 3 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/svgess/chapter/ch03.html
Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) allow organisations to manage and back up huge file systems quickly. A new book, "Using SANS and NAS" takes you through the ins and outs of building and managing large data centers using SANs and NAS. The book is aimed at both storage administrators and network administrators charged with taking on this role and includes information to enable practioners make informed architecture and data management decisions. Chapter 4, "SAN Backup and Recovery", is available free online.
URL: http://oreilly.com/catalog/sansnas/
URL: Chapter 4 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sansnas/chapter/ch04.html
RealTimeImage have released RealTimeProof Classic 4.0, the latest version of its online proofing technology for the publishing industry. The software is a browser-based on-line proofing and approval system which works using the actual production file. RealTimeProof Classic is part of the RealTimeProof suite of online proofing solutions. This suite includes RealTimeProof.com and a new, customisable solution called RealTimeProof Partner - an API enabling third parties to embed RealTimeImage's imaging and collaborative tools into their own digital production and workflow solutions such as asset management programs, custom databases and digital workflows.
URL: RealTimeImage http://www.RealTimeImage.com
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