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XML and Web Services In The News - 21 March 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML.org Daily Newslink is sponsored by SAP
HEADLINES:
Microsoft Escalates ODF Fight with OpenXML Group
Elizabeth Montalbano, InfoWorld
Setting the stage for a long-term industry battle over document formats,
Microsoft Corp. Tuesday unveiled the formation of a technical community
of developers to promote the OpenXML (Extensible Markup Language) format
as an international standard. In a keynote address at the Microsoft
Office System Developers Conference in Redmond, Washington, on Tuesday,
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates launched
Microsoft's effort, called the OpenXML Formats Developer Group. The
community's Web site can be found here: According to that site, about
40 technology companies -- including big names such as Intel Corp.,
Apple Computer Inc. and many lesser-known companies such as Mathsoft
Engineering and Education Inc. and NextPage Inc. -- have joined in the
effort to learn how to use and support OpenXML on any platform. The
OpenXML developer effort rivals a recently launched group called the
ODF Alliance, aimed at promoting another standard, Open Document
Format for Office Applications (ODF), for office documents. The mission
of the new OpenXML group is to "serve as a technical resource for
OpenXML developers to submit and answer technical questions and to
share tools and ideas around OpenXML Formats-based solutions.
See also: the web site
OpenXmlDeveloper.org: Now It's Microsoft's Turn Again
Andy Updegrove, Consortium Standards Bulletin
Ever since the surprise announcement by the Massachusetts Information
Technology Division last August that it planned to adopt the
OpenDocument Format (ODF) and not the Microsoft XML Reference Schema
(XMLRS), it's been a tennis tournament between those that support ODF
and those that are fans of XMLRS. Today, Microsoft responded with the
announcement at its Office Developers Conference of its own initiative:
the Open XML Formats Developer Group. At launch, the new forum has 39
members, most notably including Apple, Intel and Toshiba. Despite the
long list of founding members, however, it appears that the forum is
purely informational in nature. A review of the site indicates that no
specific initiatives are planned to be undertaken by the forum. Instead,
it will provide information and a place for developers to pose questions,
post content, and engage in discussion. Still, as noted by Bill Gates,
who made the announcement during his keynote address, the name does
include his "three favorite words: -- "open," "XML," and "developer."
See also: previous blogs
Creative Commons License Upheld by Court
Ingrid Marson, CNET News.com
A court in the Netherlands has ruled that a Creative Commons license
is binding, in a case brought against a Dutch gossip magazine by an
ex-MTV star. This is one of the first times that the license -- which
offers more flexibility than traditional copyright licenses -- has
been tested in a court of law, according to legal Web site Groklaw.
The Creative Commons licenses are quite new, so there has been very
little in the way of case law so far, so this is a significant
development. Creative Commons Canada said the ruling is important as
it makes it clear that it is the user's responsibility to find out
about and adhere to the license: "The Dutch Court's decision is
especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a
Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed
under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly
agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license."
See also: the Blog
First Open Media Commons (OMC) Workshop
Sun Microsystems, Announcement
According to a March 21, 2006 announcement, "Sun Microsystems hosted the
first Open Media Commons (OMC) Workshop last week to further the
community's goal of developing open, royalty-free digital rights
management (DRM) and codec standards. In conjunction with the workshop
and building on the announcement last year of Sun Labs' Project DReaM,
Sun released two draft specifications for content protection technologies:
DReaM-CAS (Conditional Access System) and DReaM-MMI (Mother May I). Sun
also released open source code for a prototype implementation of the
DReaM-CAS conditional access system. More than 80 participants from a
range of organizations came together to discuss new technical
specifications and source code, define plans for the completion of those
specifications and determine the next steps required to develop an open,
royalty-free DRM solution. The DReaM-CAS client specification defines a
complete open conditional access system that enables delivery and
consumption of protected content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks,
using the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS) format. The CAS model utilizes open
standard technologies for security such as PKI and SSL, as well as
existing content protection technologies such as AES, ECC and 3DES.
Lawrence Lessig: 'In a world where DRM has become ubiquitous, we need
to ensure that the ecology for creativity is bolstered, not stifled, by
technology; we applaud Sun's efforts to rally the community around the
development of open-source, royalty-free DRM standards that support fair
use and that don't block the development of Creative Commons ideals'."
See also: DRM and XML
On SOA and BPM: Answers from Systinet's Tom Erickson
Doug Henschen, IntelligentEnterprise.com
With the likes of IBM, SAP Oracle and BEA embracing more of the
integration and process management stack, where do standalone service-
oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM)
vendors fit in? Systinet president Tom Erickson offers the seasoned
views of an executive who previously served as executive vice president
at webMethods and in executive positions at Baan and FileNet. Now a
division of Mercury Interactive, Systinet has the industry's leading
services registry. With the January release of Systinet 2, the company
offers what it bills as "a complete SOA governance and lifecycle
management platform. Erickson: "Governance is one part of the lifecycle,
testing is another, monitoring and managing is another important part
of the lifecycle. That combines well with the platforms that the BEAs,
Oracles, SAPs and IBMs are delivering, which are all focused around
building core pieces, from assembling services to the business process
management that oversees those services, to ensuring during the run
time that they're working as planned.
Update: Delivery Context Overview for Device Independence
R. Gimson, R. Lewis, and S. Sathish (eds), W3C Note
W3C's Device Independence Working Group has updated the "Delivery
Context Overview for Device Independence Working Group Note." The
term delivery context refers to a "set of attributes that characterizes
the capabilities of the access mechanism, the preferences of the user
and other aspects of the context into which a web page is to be
delivered. The document provides an overview of the role of delivery
context in achieving a device independent Web. It describes the kind
of information that may be included in the delivery context, and how
it may be used. It surveys current techniques for conveying delivery
context information, and identifies further developments that would
enhance the ability to adapt content for different access mechanisms.
This document is one of a series produced by the W3C Device Independence
Working Group. Other documents in the series address the implementation
of solutions to the requirements raised here. For example, there are
documents in the series reviewing current techniques that can be used
to address these requirements and exploring how future versions of
existing W3C specifications can provide solutions.
See also: Device Independence Activity
Red Hat releases Fedora Core 5
Shelley Solheim, InfoWorld
Red Hat Inc. has released the latest version of its Fedora Core Linux
community distribution with new desktop applications, security
capabilities and virtualization technologies. Among the new desktop
applications in FC 5 are fruits of the open-source Mono project, which
include the Tomboy note-taking application; the F-spot digital
photograph management tool; and the Beagle desktop search tool. FC 5
also enhances support in multimedia applications for Xiph.org codecs;
adds OpenDocument support and improved PDF export capabilities through
OpenOffice.org version 2.0.2; and includes support for AIGLX
(Accelerated Indirect GLS) to enable GL-accelerated effects on a
standard Linux desktop. The latest versions of GNOME 2.14 and KDE 3.5.1
also bring other enhancements.
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