EP Topic News: 20th March 2003EP Topic News: 20th March 2003
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The Virtual Terrain project web site contains probably all you need to access and use virtual terrain software and data. "The goal of VTP is to foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form. This goal will require a synergetic convergence of the fields of CAD, GIS, visual simulation, surveying and remote sensing. VTP gathers information and tracks progress in areas such as procedural scene construction, feature extraction, and rendering algorithms. VTP writes and supports a set of software tools (VTP Toolbox) and an interactive runtime environment (VTP Enviro). The tools and their source code are freely shared to help accelerate the adoption and development of the necessary technologies." The site also has extensive links to other software, data and reference information.
"Syndicating Your Web Site's Content with RSS" is an article on the 4GuysFromRolla web site which examines the RSS format and the RSS feed the author created for ASPMessageboard.com. It also covers various desktop programs that can be used to browse RSS feeds.
CORDIS reports that the European Commission has adopted a communication on innovation policy emphasising the need to focus on entrepreneurial innovation, which "encompasses more than the successful application of research results". The paper outlines three areas for policy action which could enable this to happen including: the creation of coordination mechanisms; the establishment of a sector-specific focus; and interaction with other policies.
A new service, hosted on CORDIS, will be dedicated to research activities in The Netherlands. Developed jointly by CORDIS and Senter/EG-Liaison, a Dutch advisory body, the service offers a window on research and innovation services and programmes in the Netherlands. It offers links to analysis and statistics on national research policies and trends and in depth coverage of news, events and key contacts.
In addition, the service provides information about Dutch involvement in past European research programmes, and aims to foster the further integration of Dutch SMEs into the Sixth Framework Programme. It will also be helpful for users wishing to identify experienced actors and build up partnerships with Dutch companies.
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School has joined with Gartner|G2 to conduct a study to assess how the shift to digital media is affecting the legal and regulatory landscape. Specifically, the project will produce a foundational paper identifying the critical features of technological, economic, and legal change that have resulted in the current situation. From there, it will propose and critically analyse potential legal and business models for the future, with the goal of shedding light on today's conflicts while exploring possible solutions aimed at balancing the interests of consumers, artists and entertainment companies, and technology manufacturers.
URL: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/projects/digitalmedia.html
Internet and Development lectures
The Berkman Center is offering a new Berkman Online Lecture and Discussion (BOLD) series on: "The Internet and Development". Free and open to the general public, the series begins on March 31, 2003 and features modules led by Kirkman, Maclay, former ICANN Vice President, CPO and CFO Andrew McLaughlin, Open Economies Director Dr. James Moore and Berkman Fellow Ethan Zuckerman, the founder of Geekcorps. Visit the link below to learn more or to register for the series.
An article on the Washington Post web site underlines the increasing problem posed by email spam on Internet user productivity. The report claims that currently up to 40 percent of email now falls into the category of spam (unsolicited email) which is over a fourfold increase from the 8 per cent cited for 2001. The article considers the issues that users, system administrators, and governments are having to face due to the proliferation.
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17754-2003Mar12
The papers for the Museums and the Web 2003 Conference (March 19-22, 2003, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA) are being published on the conference web site. The papers are linked to the speaker list with both abstracts and full papers available.
URL: papers http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/speakers/index.html
URL: conference http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/
Peter Walters from the UK IST National Contact Point (UKISHELP), has prepared a newsletter containing up-to-date information from the European Commission on developments in FP6. UKISHELP recommends that UK organisations preparing proposals read the notes prior to submitting their bids. UKISHELP is a DTI-funded service for UK organisations seeking project funding under European Information Society Programmes.
URL: newsletter http://www.ukishelp.co.uk/news/
URL: home http://www.ukishelp.co.uk
Addison Wesley have announced the publication of "XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems" (ISBN 0201844524). The book is a collection of essays (some of which are product specific) gathered under section headings which consider: Information Modeling with XML, Native XML Databases, XML and Relational Databases, Applications of XML, Benchmarks/Performance, Conclusions. Instructor's Examination copies can be requested via the links below.
URL: book http://www.aw.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0201844524,00.html
URL: Examination copy request http://www.aw.com/ec?ISBN=0201844524
Steinberg’s "Cubasis Mobile" enables users to create individual and personal ringtones for Siemens mobile handsets. Various music styles can be composed and saved as a personal ringtone, using the following four different tracks: Drum, Bass, Chord and Melody. Six music styles - Techno, Trance, Rap, Electronic, House and Asian - are also provided. More session styles are under development and will be available for download from both the Steinberg and Siemens web sites.
Wireless technologies - the rewards
Gartner predicts that corporate wireless "is one of the most significant and immediate technology shifts worldwide". Gartner believes that this opinion is backed-up by the fact its assertion that "end-user spending on wireless LAN equipment grew by 38 percent in 2002". The company is predicting that there will be 23 million users of wireless LAN hot spots in Europe by 2007. Other observations on the development of wireless computing include:
• companies developing a wireless strategy will need to support an array of wireless technologies such as wireless LAN (WLAN), GPRS, UMTS and Bluetooth for at least another five years.
• worldwide end-user spending on WLAN equipment grew by 38 percent to reach US$ 2.3 billion in 2002.
• for PC vendors, wireless is an essential catalyst to drive mobile PC growth and to enable higher margins.
• wireless LAN has branched out beyond the corporate premises to public access areas. This stirred interests from the telecom and IT industries and fuelled speculation about the role of WLAN and the impact on GPRS and 3G.
• Gartner predicts that by the end of 2003, 70 percent of European mobile operators will offer WLAN solutions. However, by 2005, there will be more fixed operators than mobile operators offering access to WLAN hotspots. They further predicted that Europe will have in excess of 5000 commercial hot spots in operation by the end of 2003.
• Despite three years of hype, Bluetooth's best opportunity to become a mass-market technology is in mobile phones, rather than as an option for wireless networking. Gartner Dataquest estimates that more than 100 million phones were sold in Western Europe in 2002, of which 9 million were Bluetooth enabled.
• whilst there remain concerns about Wireless LAN security, Gartner believes that WLANs can be secured using Virtual private network (VPN) technology, while the new Wi-Fi Protected Access security solution (WPA) adds robust authentication and encryption to Wi-Fi certified equipment.
Wireless technologies - the risks
Whilst Gartner focused on the positives relating to wireless developments (see news item above), Frost & Sullivan take a slightly different view. "In today’s economic climate, the desire to take risks is diminished and the need to cut costs is vital. Cost pressures are forcing enterprises to review their IT investments to ensure the delivery of immediate business benefits. There has never been a time when return on investment (ROI) has been a more crucial issue to European mobile operators and equipment vendors".
This claim follows Frost & Sullivan’s analysis of attitudes towards the adoption of wireless technology in the enterprise and perceptions of vendors and operators. Conducted amongst over a hundred IT Directors, Operations Managers and Buyers across eight European countries, the survey uncovers a significant degree of awareness of wireless technologies and services (encompassing Bluetooth, WLAN, SMS, HSCSD, GPRS & WAP) within European enterprises. Frost & Sullivan conclude that: "whilst wireless data services and the devices used to access them can have clear business benefits to the enterprise when linked to useful applications and utilised by the right employees; factors such as security concerns and high cost of ownership have meant that subscriber rates for wireless data services continue to suffer".
URL: http://frost.com
Microsoft has announced that it has begun distributing a half-million copies of the beta 2 version of the new Microsoft Office System to organisations worldwide. The beta 2 evaluation kit, includes versions of the Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Access), the two new Office System additions (Office InfoPath and Office OneNote), along with FrontPage, Publisher, Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Portal Server 2.0. Announcing the distribution, Microsoft claims that the products have been developed with four design goals in mind: "information intelligence, process management, effective teaming, and personal impact". The final versions of the products are expected to be released in mid-2003.
Office 2003 - lead to lock-in?
An article on Interenetnews.com by an Open Source advocate suggests that the way Microsoft's Office 2003 productivity suite may lead to user "lock-in". The author contends that the way in which the software handles XML file formats may require users to standardise on an entirely Microsoft stack to see the benefits of the collaborative features the software boasts.
URL: http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/2109101
"Web, Graphics & Perl/Tk" is the second volume of "The Best of the Perl Journal", compiled and re-edited by the original editor and publisher of "The Perl Journal" (TPJ), Jon Orwant. The series attempts to draw together the best (and still relevant) articles published in TPJ over its five years of publication. The latest volume, the second of three, brings together forty articles on the subjects of
graphics, the web, and Perl/Tk.
LEARN is an accompanying measure funded under the European Commision's IST programme (5th Framework Programme). LEARN has developed a web site for young people interested in science and technology and has two main aims:
• to inform people about European research into information technology
• to encourage young people to consider science and technology careers.The web site is available in all eleven official languages of the EU and makes full use of multimedia features such as animation and video. The LEARN site is divided into "themes", or areas of interest, which include: education, environment, e-commerce and wireless communication. Within a theme users will find introductory articles, careers information, links to other sites and details of EU funded research and the
organisations taking part in it.Monitoring carried out by LEARN shows that the projects and organisations pages are amongst the most popular on the web site. The information included on these pages is provided by CORDIS and is not always complete. In particular, the site does not have the URLs for many projects and organisations who participated (or are participating) in IST funded projects.
LEARN is therefore requesting that readers of El.pub who are, or have been active on Commission funded research projects submit information for inclusion on the site.
URL: home http://www.learnist.org
Email: mailto:feedback@learnist.org
URL: directory of projects http://www.learnist.org/scripts/WebObjects.dll/Learn.woa/5/wa/option?option=2
A note circulated by the W3C DOM Working Group has announced that DOM 3 Core and Load&Save working drafts have been published. Whilst the WG notes that the drafts are very much "work in progress", they are soliciting comments particularly where the specs may need further clarification.
URL: DOM 3 Core http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-DOM-Level-3-Core-20030226/
URL: Load&Save http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-DOM-Level-3-LS-20030226/
"Photo phones portend visual revolution" is a column on Editor & Publisher Online by Steve Outing which covers this latest trend in user-generated content. The author believes that photo-enabled mobile phones have the potential to influence news media in major ways.
The proposed ANSI/NISO Standard "The OpenURL Framework (Z39.88)" has been released for Public Comment. This standard builds on the draft OpenURL (version 0.1) already in use, making it extensible for use within communities beyond the "scholarly information" community. OpenURL is primarily used in the digital library world for linking to the "appropriate copy" of a resource.
The standard is titled "The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, Part 1: ContextObject and Transport Mechanisms". This document defines the general framework to bundle specific packages of contextual metadata and transport them over the network.
The second document, titled: "The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, Part 2: Initial Registry Content", details core properties that can be used in actual instantiations of the general framework. This Part can be used by some communities to implement an instantiation of the OpenURL Framework. Other Communities may use this Part as a guideline for the definition and implementation of other instantiations.
The public-comment period starts on March 12 and will last at least until April 15, 2003. The Standard will be released for trial use sometime after April 15th.
URL: http://library.caltech.edu/openurl/Public_Comments.htm
Email: comments mailto:openurl.comment@library.caltech.edu
The 3D Consortium has been founded by Itochu, NTT DATA, Sanyo, Sharp and Sony to encourage the growth and development of a market for 3D applications and products. The consortium's mission is "to enhance the potential market for 3D images through the development and expansion of I/O devices for 3D stereographic displays, development and distribution of 3D content, and by promoting the commercial use of 3D technology in a wide variety of application areas".
The 3D Consortium estimates this market in Japan has the potential to reach 3 trillion yen in annual sales revenue by 2008. In addition to the five steering members, the 3D Consortium is comprised of over 60 standard members, including hardware manufacturers, software vendors, content vendors, content providers, system integrators, video production houses, broadcasters, academic organizations and other interested parties. Subcommittees are being established to discuss specific issues such as devising image formats appropriate to various applications and I/O devices and developing guidelines and authoring tools for creating content. (Source: VREfresh)
URL: Sharp press release http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/030304.html
Immersion has been previewing a beta version TouchWare Gaming that it claims can bring the sense of touch to every PC game. According to The NPD Group, only about 300 of the over 6000 PC-Windows game titles have pre-programmed force feedback effects. At the same time, the market research firm's data confirm that the force feedback market share of PC hardware peripherals continues to grow year over year. Immersion has devised an intelligent way to analyse sound effects, convert them using advanced algorithms, and map them to appropriate haptic effects. Logitech, Microsoft, Saitek, Belkin and others in the video console and computer gaming industries were among the first to license Immersion's haptic technology. Immersion has already licensed its 185 patents to more than 100 haptic-enabled peripherals and more than 500 game titles on the market. (Source: VREfresh)
A report by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young assesses the performance of EU Member States and Norway, Iceland and Switzerland in relation to providing 20 online public services. The objective of the survey was to provide a benchmark for European nations and to develop the concept of "best practice".
The Embedded Linux Consortium has released a specification which it hopes will lead to a single Linux standard for mobile phones, handhelds and PDAs.
A browser based on Opera has been developed for use on the Sony Ericsson P800 mobile phone which it is claimed will enable users to view full web pages on the screen. The browser will be available to download from the Opera site.
| About topic news We publish topic news occasionally with a separate page for each update, ensuring that links to our email alerter service continue to remain current. |
El.pub News A free email alerter of the latest news items and associated URLs |
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