19 November 2002

Event: Convergence of Web Services DIFFUSE org -- The European Commission hosts "Convergence of Web Services, Grid Services and the Semantic Web for delivering e-Services" at Centre Borschette, Brussels, on 12th December 2002. The Opening Keynote Address will be provided by Erkki Liikanen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, European Commission. The conference will review, explore and discuss the strategic issues concerning and surrounding the three interrelated technologies of Web Services, Grid Services and the Semantic Web from a broad perspective, with the following specific aims: Provide a strategic overview of the current status of the three technologies Explore the relationships between these technologies regarding the innovation aspects, knowledge aspects, enterprise aspects, and economic aspects Examine current initiatives in harmonization and spotlight the issues surrounding interoperability in the widest context, including the role of open source software, harmonization work needed, value propositions of interoperability, convergence in practice, and control & management issues Identify and discuss the critical points to facilitate further development especially in Europe, realistic targets and milestones, and what strategic measures and actions are needed from the stakeholders The conference programme includes coruscating talks from Carl Kesselman (a Founder of the Grid), Bruce Perens (Primary Author of the Open Source Definition), Guus Schreiber (Co-Chair, W3C Web Ontology WG) and the European Commission. The programme also includes senior speakers from ABN AMRO Trust, BEA, Berkom, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, TIEKE and Universities of Heidelberg & Toronto. The conference results will be widely disseminated through www.diffuse.org and other channels, and specifically made available to the relevant organizations. [Patrick O'Beirne]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Webcrawler Emerges WEBCRAWLER -- "No buttons, no banners, no pop-ups.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Standardising on New Blog Types DASHES com -- I have started seeing a lot of discussion about standardising on new blog types. The thought started with the Microcontent Client. With the right kind of microcontent attributes running inside a new blog architecture, you could easily see your dynamic blog posts inside the same category as someone else in a similar micro-content structure. This would leverage Mozilla's reusable components. [Marc's Voice]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

A Dog in the Cockpit SUN-SENTINEL -- Ken Kaye, aviation writer for The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reported on the following report on a joke making the rounds in the aircraft industry. It addresses new in-flight technology and its importance to the growth of air traffic capacity. In the airline cockpit of the future, only two crew members will be needed: a pilot and a dog. The pilot's job will be to assure passengers everything is under control. The dog's job will be to bite the pilot if he touches anything.   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Edenfaster is Go Ben Hammersley -- Edenfaster, the community wireless group, got their funding!   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Stanford Web Credibility WEB CREDIBILITY org -- The Stanford group seeks to "understand what leads people to believe what they find on the Web. We hope this knowledge will enhance Web site design and promote future research on Web credibility." This project stems from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, who offer ten guidelines for a web site's credibility. [MetaFilter]   [Comment on Shoptalk]

Connecting the WiFi Dots SEISS conference -- The most-attended display at the 2002 regional IIA event in Kilkenny was the OmniServ WiFi stand. It shows people are interested in both local wireless connectivity and in connecting their communities together over distances. It suggests the traditional power balance is shifting from consumers and businesses depending on the dominant telcos providing Internet access to smaller entrepreneurs in the digital wireless world offering less expensive connectivity options. Three years ago, eircom would have featured at this kind of conference. You cannot believe that company will meekly accept these kinds of challenges to the status quo. The established players, like the national television station RTE and long-established infrastructure providers like Motorola did not attend this event, where some participants were mulling over strategies sure to result in potential interference. The Irish regulator must be getting pressure by various forces that are quite concerned about Wi-Fi. As Reed E. Hundt, a former chairman of the FCC tells the New York Times, "They're worried that it is really a trenching machine that will uproot the entrenched forces."   [Comment on Shoptalk]