Australian W3C Office

Welcome to the May 2004 newsletter from the Australian W3C Office. In this edition we include information on regional events, W3C Markup Validator, CSS, QA, DOM, SVG and Internationalization.

1. Regional events
2. W3C Markup Validator Upgraded
3. Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios
4. CSS3 Basic User Interface Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation
5. Working Drafts: Authoring Techniques for XHTML and HTML Internationalization
6. Working Draft: The QA Handbook
7. Working Group Note: DOM Assessment for Multimodal Interaction
8. Working Draft: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2
9. About this newsletter

1. Regional Events

The Australian W3C Office will be running a number of free events around the country during June, information and registration for these events can be located at: http://w3c.dstc.edu.au/eventsOz.html

Both seminars will be held in Brisbane during June but dates are not yet confirmed. Please visit the event website later this month for updated information on the Brisbane events.

# Semantic Web Services, Presenter: Dr Jane Hunter

Web services are transforming the Internet from a collection of information into a distributed computational device. They enable software applications to be distributed, accessed and executed via the Web. But current web service technologies (UDDI, WSDL, and SOAP) provide limited support for automating service discovery, service configuration and service composition (i.e., realising complex workflows with Web services). In order to fully employ the potential of web services, they need to be appropriately described. Semantic Web Services combines Semantic Web technology with Web Service technology to enable automated and dynamic Web service discovery, execution and composition through new technologies such as OWL-S (Ontology Web Language for Services). This presentation will provide an overview of the Semantic Web Services vision, describe recent technological developments (such as OWL-S), and demonstrate potential applications of Semantic Web services through a number of case studies.

This project is funded under the Commonwealth Government's Innovation Access Program. An initiative of Backing Australia's Ability, the Commonwealth Government's commitment to Innovation.

# New Generation of Web Forms: experience with XForms trials, Presenters: Drs Zoran Milosevic or Hoylen Sue (depending upon city)

Electronic forms on the Web provide user interface to data and services offered on the Web. By using Web forms users can interact with the enterprise applications and back-end systems linked to these forms. Web applications, e-government and e-commerce solutions have sparked the demand for better Web forms – supporting richer and more dynamic interactions than what is possible with existing HTML forms. XForms is a new W3C specification that provides more intelligent support for Web forms to meet this demand. This is achieved by separating the data model of the form from their presentation format. Both the data and presentation models are described using XML. This design enables more efficient integration with backend systems and facilitates efficient exchange of XML data. The separation also makes it possible to have multiple presentation formats for the same data model, which enables repurposing, reuse and accessibility across different types of devices. This presentation provides an introduction to the XForms recommendation, and compares XForms to other approaches. It also describes DSTC’s XForms pilot project and highlights DSTC’s initial experience of using XForms in various business environments as part of a pilot project.

This project is funded by the Department of Communication Information Technology and the Arts, Information Technology OnLine Program and DSTC, SpeedLegal, Vision Australia Foundation, and Victorian Society for Computers and the Law Inc.

These events are supported by: DSTC, Charles Darwin University; Department of Economic Development, Tasmania; Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania; Information Industries Bureau, Queensland Government; Monash University; Multi-Media Victoria; National Library of Australia; Office of E-Government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Western Australian Government; Department of Urban Services, ACT Government; The Distillery; The Government of South Australia; The Training Consortium, Tasmania; University of South Australia; University of Tasmania; and The University of Technology, Sydney.

URIs:

Event Registration: http://w3c.dstc.edu.au/eventsOz.html
Semanatic Web Services Interest Group: http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/swsig/
XForms: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/
AusIndustry: http://www.ausindustry.gov.au/
DCITA: http://www.dcita.gov.au/

# Web Essentials '04

University of Technology, Sydney, September 30 - October 1

W3C Team member, Dean Jackson will join international experts in web development and accessibility - Joe Clark, Dave Shea and Doug Bowman - on the program for this conference. This event aims to break new ground in inspiring web developers, designers and decision-makers to embrace web standards. The two-day conference also features Australian pioneers in web accessibility, design and coding Russ Weakley, John Allsopp, Bruce Macguire (the man who sued SOCOG over website accessibility), Roger Hudson, David Woodbridge and more. Over 300 delegates are expected from Australia and around the world.

URI:

Conference: http://we04.com/banner.cfm

# AusWeb04 Conference - 3rd - 7th July

The AusWeb04 Conference consists of keynote addresses by national and international speakers, referred paper tracks, a poster session and pre and post conference tutorial and workshop sessions on a wide range of topics. Join delegates from all over and Australia and overseas for a special 10th anniversary conference. ** Early Bird Registration EXTENDED Until May 28th**

URIs:

Conference Home Page: http://ausweb.scu.edu.au
Online Registration and Payment: https://www.scupayments.com/conf/ausweb04/

2. W3C Markup Validator Upgraded

W3C is pleased to announce an upgrade to the W3C Markup Validation Service. The new release is easier to use and install. It features new documentation and navigation, and offers helpful explanations and recovery mechanisms instead of fatal errors. Managed by a team of volunteers and the W3C Quality Assurance Activity, and supported by a large community, this validator is the single most popular resource on the W3C Web site.

URIs:

Markup Validation Service: http://validator.w3.org/
Volunteers: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/qa-dev/
Quality Assurance Activity: http://www.w3.org/QA/
Community: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/
Announcement: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2004May/0014

3. Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios

The Web Services Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios with additional guidance for implementers of Web service technologies. The document examines how language, culture and related issues interact with Web services architecture and technology. Comments are welcome on this draft.

URIs:

Web Services Taskforce: http://www.w3.org/International/ws/
Usage Scenarios: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-ws-i18n-scenarios-20040512/
Internationalisation Homepage: http://www.w3.org/International/

4. CSS3 Basic User Interface Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the CSS3 Basic User Interface Module to Candidate Recommendation. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper, and in speech. This module addresses user interface states and features, element fragments, forms, stylistic attributes in HTML, focus navigation, and styling elements as icons for accessibility. Comments are invited through 11 November.

URIs:

Browser User Interface Module:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/CR-css3-ui-20040511/
CSS Homepage: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

5. Working Drafts: Authoring Techniques for XHTML and HTML Internationalization

The GEO (Guidelines, Education and Outreach) Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts. The drafts cover Specifying the Language of Content, Characters and Encodings and Handling Bidirectional Text. Designed for content authors, the documents are aids to ensuring that HTML and XHTML are written for an international audience.

URIs:

Lanaguage Content: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-i18n-html-tech-lang-20040509/
Characters and Encodings: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-i18n-html-tech-char-20040509/
Handling Bidirectional Text: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-i18n-html-tech-bidi-20040509/
Internationalization Homepage: http://www.w3.org/International/

6. Working Draft: The QA Handbook

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of The QA Handbook. Written for W3C Working Group Chairs and Team Contacts, the document replaces and incorporates the best features of the former QA Framework's Introduction and Operational Guidelines. It provides techniques, tools, and templates for test suites and specifications, and is designed to facilitate and accelerate the work of W3C Working Groups.

URIs:

QA Handbook: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qa-handbook-20040510/
QA Homepage: http://www.w3.org/QA/

7. Working Group Note: DOM Assessment for Multimodal Interaction

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released the Requirements and Capabilities Assessment for the Document Object Model (DOM) as a Working Group Note. Based on their framework. the Multimodal Interaction Activity is extending the Web user interface to allow multiple modes of interaction: aural, visual and tactile. The document examines interfaces between modality components and their host environment.

URIs:

Requirements and Capabilities Assessment:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-modality-interface-20040510/
Framework: http://www.w3.org/TR/mmi-framework/
Multimodal Interaction Homepage: http://www.w3.org/2002/mmi/

8. Working Draft: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2

The SVG Working Group has released the seventh public Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2. The SVG language delivers accessible, dynamic, and reusable vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The Working Group invites comments on this draft.

URIs:

SVG 1.2: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20040510/
SVG Homepage: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/

9. About this newsletter

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