Welcome to the October 2006 Newsletter from the Australian W3C Office. Your link to the latest Consortium news and events... 1. Events 2. Last Call: Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0 3. W3C Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary in Asia 4. Third Workshop on Internationalizing SSML: Advance Notice 5. GRDDL Links Microformats and Semantic Web: Working Draft 6. W3C Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary in Asia 7. Delivery Context Interfaces (DCI) Is a Candidate Recommendation 8. Web of Services for Enterprise Computing: Call for Participation 9. Last Call: Ink Markup Language (InkML) 10. Web Services Policy Primer: Working Draft 11. File Upload: Working Draft 12. Markup Validator, Link Checker Updated 13. Mobile Web Seminar in Paris 14. Third Workshop on Internationalizing SSML: Advance Notice 15. XSL 1.1 Is a Proposed Recommendation: Call for Review 16. Mauro Nunez Named North American Business Manager 17. XInclude 1.0 Second Edition: Call for Review 18. Last Call: Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0 19. Last Call: CSS3 Paged Media 20. Last Call: Semantic Annotations for WSDL 21. Serializing SPARQL Query Results in JSON 22. GRDDL Primer and Use Cases: Working Drafts 23. Device Independent Authoring Language Primer: Working Draft 24. SPARQL Query Language for RDF: Working Draft 25. Health Care and Life Sciences Public Workshop on Semantic Web, Athens, GA, USA 26. WAI-ARIA to Address Access to Dynamic Web Content 27. XHTML-Print Is a W3C Recommendation 28. Time Ontology in OWL: Working Draft 29. XProc: An XML Pipeline Language 30. Versioning XML Languages Using XML Schema 1.1 31. Web Services Policy 1.5: Working Drafts 32. XMLHttpRequest Object for AJAX: Working Draft 33. Selectors API: Working Draft 34. EARL 1.0 Schema: Working Draft 35. Mobile Web in Developing Countries: Call for Participation 36. Ralph Swick Named Acting Technology and Society Domain Leader 37. Paged Media, Values and Units: CSS3 Working Drafts 1. Events Web Accessibility Workshops: Sydney, 2 November; Canberra, 14 November; Adelaide, 23 November 2006 These full-day workshops run by Vision Australia are targeted at web-development team leaders, corporate communications professionals and business managers, along with content authors, web programmers and designers and web contract managers. These workshops provide a thorough overview of accessibility issues and how to address them. It covers the W3C's Content Accessibility Guidelines and their implementation and a consideration of assessment tools and techniques. Details and registration: http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/webworkshops/ Writing for the Web Workshops: Melbourne, 2 November 2006 These practical workshops run by Vision Australia focus on enhancing the usability and accessibility of your web content and will teach you how to communicate effectively with your readers. Details and registration: http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=685 The Australian Ontology Workshop 2006: Hobart, 5 December 2006 Held in conjunction with the 19th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI'06) Workshop website: http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/conferences/aow/ AI'06 Conference website: http://www.comp.utas.edu.au/ai06/ W3C Talks Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. http://www.w3.org/Talks/ 2. Last Call: Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0 The Voice Browser Working Group has released the second Last Call Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0. Comments are welcome through 26 November. Designed for ease of use by developers and internationally, PLS allows pronunciation information to be specified for both speech recognition and speech synthesis engines in voice browsing applications. Pronunciations grouped together in a PLS document may be referenced from other markup languages such as SRGS and SSML. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-pronunciation-lexicon-20061026/ http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/ http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/ http://www.w3.org/Voice/ 3. W3C Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary in Asia The World Wide Web Consortium marks the ten year anniversary of its Asian presence with a public celebration on 28 November in Tokyo, Japan. The program includes "Role of W3C at Keio - From Foundations to the Future," "How Japanese Industry Works with Web Standards," "How Asia Will Influence the Future Web," discussion, and an exhibition, press briefing and reception. Advance registration is required. http://www.w3.org/2006/11/W3C10/Register http://www.w3.org/2006/10/w3c10-Asia_media_advisory http://www.w3.org/2006/11/W3C10/ 4. Third Workshop on Internationalizing SSML: Advance Notice W3C plans a third Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) on 13-14 January 2007, hosted by Bhrigus Software in Hyderabad, India. Attendees will discuss improvements for using SSML to render under-represented languages including Arabic, Hebrew and Hindi. A Call for Participation is expected in November. http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/ http://www.w3.org/2003/08/Workshops/ http://www.w3.org/Voice/ 5. GRDDL Links Microformats and Semantic Web: Working Draft The GRDDL Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "GRDDL." With important applications such as connecting microformats to the Semantic Web, GRDDL is a mechanism to extract RDF statements from suitable XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT transformations. GRDDL is ready to deploy, allowing powerful mash-ups at very low cost. http://www.w3.org/2006/10/grddl-pressrelease http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-grddl-20061024/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 6. W3C Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary in Asia The World Wide Web Consortium marks the ten year anniversary of its Asian presence with a public celebration on 28 November in Tokyo, Japan. The program includes "Role of W3C at Keio - From Foundations to the Future," "How Japanese Industry Works with Web Standards," "How Asia Will Influence the Future Web," discussion, and an exhibition, press briefing and reception. Advance registration is required. http://www.w3.org/2006/11/W3C10/ http://www.w3.org/2006/11/W3C10/Register http://www.w3.org/2006/10/w3c10-Asia_media_advisory 7. Delivery Context Interfaces (DCI) Is a Candidate Recommendation W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of "Delivery Context: Interfaces (DCI) Accessing Static and Dynamic Properties" to Candidate Recommendation. DCI provides access to device properties including capabilities, configuration, user preferences and environmental conditions such as remaining battery life, signal strength, ambient brightness, location, and display orientation. Comments are welcome through 31 March 2007. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/CR-DPF-20061019/ http://www.w3.org/2001/di/ 8. Web of Services for Enterprise Computing: Call for Participation Position papers are due 15 December for the Workshop on Web of Services for Enterprise Computing to be held 27-28 February 2007 in Bedford, MA, USA, hosted by MITRE. Participants will discuss how to facilitate the processing of business transactions and interactions with systems that pre-date the Web, and to address the need to interconnect intranet and/or extranet services using Web technologies. http://www.w3.org/2006/10/wos-ec-cfp.html http://www.w3.org/2003/08/Workshops/ http://www.w3.org/Consortium/activities 9. Last Call: Ink Markup Language (InkML) The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of "Ink Markup Language (InkML)." Comments are welcome through 18 December. The InkML data format is used to represent ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. Ink-aware Web applications can process and exchange handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-InkML-20061023/ http://www.w3.org/2002/mmi/ 10. Web Services Policy Primer: Working Draft The Web Services Policy Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "Web Services Policy 1.5 - Primer." This introduction to the Web Services Policy language is designed for authors of policy expressions and assertions and for implementers whose software modules read and write policy expressions. Basic and advanced concepts are presented through examples. The primer can be read alongside the normative Policy "Framework" and "Attachment" specifications. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-ws-policy-primer-20061018/ http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/ 11. File Upload: Working Draft The Web API Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "File Upload." Applications will be able to use this API to trigger a file selection dialog with which the user can select one or more files in their local file system. It allows client-side manipulation of the content, for instance to display an image or parse an XML document from disk. The group invites comments from Web content and browser developers. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-file-upload-20061018/ http://www.w3.org/2006/rwc/ 12. Markup Validator, Link Checker Updated W3C has updated its W3C Markup Validation Service and Link Checker with bug fixes, documentation and usability improvements, and a new Validator API for developers. Along with W3C's other Web Quality Tools, the Markup Validator and Link Checker are developed as open source software with the participation of volunteers and support of a large community, and are among W3C's most popular and useful resources. http://validator.w3.org/ http://validator.w3.org/checklink http://www.w3.org/Status 13. Mobile Web Seminar in Paris W3C invites the public to a Mobile Web seminar that will focus on current results produced by W3C's Mobile Web Initiative on 16 November in Paris, France. Speakers include representatives of MWI sponsors such as France Telecom, Jataayu Software, MobileAware, Opera Software, and Vodafone. Entrance is free but registration is required. The 3GWeb project is a European IST Programme. http://www.w3.org/2006/11/mwi-seminar.html http://www.w3.org/2006/10/mwi-seminar_media_advisory http://www.w3.org/Mobile/ 14. Third Workshop on Internationalizing SSML: Advance Notice W3C plans a third Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) on 13-14 January 2007, hosted by Bhrigus Software in Hyderabad, India. Attendees will discuss improvements for using SSML to render under-represented languages including Arabic, Hebrew and Hindi. A Call for Participation is expected in November. http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/ http://www.w3.org/2003/08/Workshops/ http://www.w3.org/Voice/ 15. XSL 1.1 Is a Proposed Recommendation: Call for Review W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of "Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1" to Proposed Recommendation. Version 1.1 updates and enhances the XSL 1.0 Recommendation for change marks, indexes, multiple flows, and bookmarks, and extends support for graphics scaling, markers, and page numbers. The change list since Candidate Recommendation is available. Comments are welcome through 3 November. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/PR-xsl11-20061006/ http://www.w3.org/XML/ 16. Mauro Nunez Named North American Business Manager W3C has named Mauro Nunez to North American Business Manager. Mauro coordinates financial matters at MIT and across the Consortium and contributes to Membership, legal, policy and other operational areas. A Fulbright Scholar, Mauro founded and ran a business in Boston, MA, USA, and served as Director of Finance at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Valparaíso, Chile. http://www.w3.org/People/all#mauro http://www.w3.org/Consortium/ http://www.w3.org/People/domain?domain=Management 17. XInclude 1.0 Second Edition: Call for Review The XML Core Working Group has released a Proposed Edited Recommendation of "XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 Second Edition." Produced as a convenience to readers, the second edition is intended to correct all known errata in the 2004 XInclude 1.0 Recommendation. XInclude introduces a generic mechanism for merging XML documents (information sets) using existing XML constructs-elements, attributes and URI references. Comments are welcome through 3 November. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/PER-xinclude-20061003/ http://www.w3.org/XML/ 18. Last Call: Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0 The Device Independence Working Group released the DISelect specification in three parts. "Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0" and "Delivery Context: XPath Access Functions 1.0" are Last Call Working Drafts. Comments are welcome through 7 November. "Content Selection Primer 1.0" is a First Public Working Draft. DISelect supports the creation of Web sites that can be used from diverse devices. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-cselection-20061010/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-cselection-xaf-20061010/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-cselection-primer-20061010/ http://www.w3.org/2001/di/ 19. Last Call: CSS3 Paged Media The CSS Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of "CSS3 Module: Paged Media," a part of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3. Built on the box model, the page module adds functionality for pagination, margins, size and orientation, headers and footers, widows and orphans, image orientation and page numbering. Comments are welcome through 3 November. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-css3-page-20061010/ http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ 20. Last Call: Semantic Annotations for WSDL The Semantic Annotations for Web Services Description Language (SAWSDL) Working Group released a Last Call Working Draft of "Semantic Annotations for WSDL." With these attributes, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing, and invoking Web services. Comments are welcome through 1 November. The group also released the First Public Working Draft of the companion "Usage Guide." http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-sawsdl-20060928/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-sawsdl-guide-20060928/ http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/ 21. Serializing SPARQL Query Results in JSON The RDF Data Access Working Group has released "Serializing SPARQL Query Results in JSON" as a Working Group Note. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a lightweight data- interchange format, is used as an alternative to XML vocabulary to serialize the results of SPARQL query forms. SPARQL offers developers and end users a way to write and consume search results across a wide range of information and provides a means of integration over disparate sources. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/NOTE-rdf-sparql-json-res-20061004/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 22. GRDDL Primer and Use Cases: Working Drafts The GRDDL Working Group has released First Public Working Drafts of "GRDDL Primer" and "GRDDL Use Cases." With important applications such as connecting microformats to the Semantic Web, Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) is a mechanism to extract RDF statements from suitable XHTML and XML content using programs such XSLT transformations. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-grddl-primer-20061002/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-grddl-scenarios-20061002/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 23. Device Independent Authoring Language Primer: Working Draft The Device Independence Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "DIAL Primer." The Device Independent Authoring Language (DIAL) describes data, styling, layout, and interaction independently, making Web content adaptable for a wide variety of platforms including the thousands of mobile devices in use and devices to come. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-dial-primer-20061010/ http://www.w3.org/2001/di/ 24. SPARQL Query Language for RDF: Working Draft The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Working Draft of the "SPARQL Query Language for RDF." SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. W3C has published the document as a Working Draft while the group evaluates the language design and the trade-offs between simplicity and user requirements. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-rdf-sparql-query-20061004/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 25. Health Care and Life Sciences Public Workshop on Semantic Web, Athens, GA, USA The Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG) holds a public ISWC workshop on Semantic Web Health Care & Life Sciences on 6 November in Athens, Georgia, USA at the 5th International Semantic Web Conference. The agenda (PDF) has been announced. Aiding decision-making in clinical research and drug discovery, Semantic Web technologies will bridge many forms of biological and medical information across institutions. If your organization wishes to participate, use the conference registration. http://esw.w3.org/topic/HCLS/ISWC/Workshop http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/workshop_tutorial/workshops.htm http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/hcls http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 26. WAI-ARIA to Address Access to Dynamic Web Content The Protocols and Formats Working Group has released First Public Working Drafts of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). The "Roadmap" describes accessibility of dynamic Web content built with technologies such as AJAX and DHTML. "Roles" provides mappings for user interface controls and navigation APIs. "States and Properties" associates behaviors with document-level markup. http://www.w3.org/2006/09/aria-pressrelease http://www.w3.org/WAI/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-aria-roadmap-20060926/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-aria-role-20060926/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-aria-state-20060926/ 27. XHTML-Print Is a W3C Recommendation The World Web Consortium released "XHTML-Print" as a W3C Recommendation. Designed for printing from mobile and low-cost devices, the XHTML-Print page description format satisfies print and display needs in the absence of a printer-specific driver and where variability in the formatting of the output is expected and is acceptable. The work is based on XHTML-Print written by the Printer Working Group (PWG), a program of the IEEE-ISTO. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xhtml-print-20060920/ http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ 28. Time Ontology in OWL: Working Draft The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "Time Ontology in OWL." The OWL-Time work follows from the DARPA Agent Markup Language DAML-Time work and brings together a number of classifications related to time. Developed for describing the temporal content of Web pages and the temporal properties of Web services, the vocabulary can express datetime, relationships between intervals and between instants, and durations of intervals. A "Time Zone Resource in OWL" is provided for the US and the entire world. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-owl-time-20060927/ http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ 29. XProc: An XML Pipeline Language The XML Processing Model Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "XProc: An XML Pipeline Language." Used to control and organize the flow of documents, the XProc language standardizes interactions, inputs and outputs for transformations for the large group of specifications such as XSLT, XML Schema, XInclude and Canonical XML that operate on and produce XML documents. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xproc-20060928/ http://www.w3.org/XML/ 30. Versioning XML Languages Using XML Schema 1.1 The XML Schema Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of "Guide to Versioning XML Languages using XML Schema 1.1." XML Schema 1.1 introduces new features that make it easier to define XML languages which are flexible enough to tolerate later revision in a forward-compatible way. Written for application and schema developers, the guide shows the new mechanisms and illustrates several techniques. The group invites comments on this draft which is expected to become a Working Group Note. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xmlschema-guide2versioning-20060928/ http://www.w3.org/XML/ 31. Web Services Policy 1.5: Working Drafts The Web Services Policy Working Group has released updated Working Drafts of Web Services Policy 1.5. The Policy "Framework" defines a model for expressing the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. "Attachment" defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-ws-policy-20060927/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-ws-policy-attach-20060927/ http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/ 32. XMLHttpRequest Object for AJAX: Working Draft The Web API Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of "The XMLHttpRequest Object." The draft documents features of the XMLHttpRequest object, the core component of AJAX. The interface allows scripts to perform HTTP client functions, such as submitting form data or loading data from a remote Web site. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20060927/ http://www.w3.org/2006/rwc/ 33. Selectors API: Working Draft The Web APIs Working Group released an updated Working Draft of "Selectors API." Methods are defined for identifying elements in a document for the purpose of performing script or Document Object Model (DOM) operations on them. Selectors defined in the CSS3 Selectors specification are used to identify the elements. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-selectors-api-20060926/ http://www.w3.org/2006/webapi/ 34. EARL 1.0 Schema: Working Draft The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the "Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema." EARL is a flexible format used to exchange, combine and compare test results including bug reports, test suite evaluations and conformance claims. The test subjects might be Web sites, authoring tools, user agents or other entities. See the EARL Overview. The group welcomes feedback from Web developers and researchers. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-EARL10-Schema-20060927/ http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/earl.php http://www.w3.org/WAI/ 35. Mobile Web in Developing Countries: Call for Participation Position papers are due 1 November for the Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries to be held 5-6 December in Bangalore, India. Jataayu Software hosts. Participants will discuss mobile Web access within developing countries in terms of needs, blocking factors and potential uses. "We must ensure that the Web is designed to meet the needs of sparser populations and of those whose only access to the Web may be on their phone," said Tim Berners-Lee (W3C). Sponsorships are available to enable participation by those who might not otherwise be able to attend due to travel or other costs. http://www.w3.org/2006/09/mwiec-pressrelease http://www.w3.org/2006/07/MWI-EC/cfp.html http://www.w3.org/2006/07/MWI-EC/sponsors.html http://www.w3.org/2003/08/Workshops/ http://www.w3.org/Mobile/ 36. Ralph Swick Named Acting Technology and Society Domain Leader W3C has named Ralph Swick Acting Technology and Society Domain Leader directing the privacy, security and Semantic Web Activities. Ralph has served as T&S Technical Director since 1997 and will continue those responsibilities as well. Ralph came to W3C from technical direction and architecture for the X Window System, and from Digital and MIT Project Athena where he engineered information filtering and computer-supported collaboration software. Ralph is standing in as Domain Leader for Daniel J. Weitzner, who will turn most of his attention for nine months to Web privacy research at MIT/CSAIL. http://www.w3.org/People/all#swick http://www.w3.org/TandS/ http://www.w3.org/Consortium/ 37. Paged Media, Values and Units: CSS3 Working Drafts The CSS Working Group has released two updated Working Drafts for Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). "Generated Content for Paged Media" describes features such as cross-references, footnotes, headers and footers often used in printed publications. "Values and Units" explains specified, computed, and actual values and defines common values and units in one specification which can be referred to by other CSS3 modules. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-css3-gcpm-20060919/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-css3-values-20060919/ http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ ____________________________________________________________________ For previous newsletters from the Australian W3C Office please visit http://w3c.org.au/newsletters/ If you are a W3C Member and would like to contribute relevant news please email us at w3c-australia@w3.org If you know of others who would like to receive this newsletter please direct them to http://w3.org.au