Cover Pages: XML Daily Newslink: Friday, 20 April 2007

A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
Provided by OASIS and Sponsor Members
Edited by Robin Cover

This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by:
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Headlines

W3C First Public Working Draft for Progress Events 1.0
Public Review for DCMI Abstract Model and RDF Encoding Specification
OpenOffice Taps Business Smarts
Microsoft, Samsung Cross Bridge Over GPL

Cover Pages

UN/CEFACT Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 3: Second Public Review

W3C First Public Working Draft for Progress Events 1.0
Charles McCathieNevile (ed), W3C Technical Report

Members of the W3C Web API Working Group have released a First Public Working Draft for the "Progress Events 1.0" specification. The document was produced as part of the W3C Rich Web Client Activity. It defines events which can be used to monitor a process and provide feedback to a user, particularly for network-based events. Five events and their interfaces are defined for use in XHR (AJAX) Web applications. When additional data is downloaded on demand, scripts can monitor progress, construct loading bars, and take action once data has been transferred. Although the defined functionality is primarily intended for data transfer operations such as XML HTTPRequest, it should be usable in other relevant contexts.

See also: XHR (AJAX) Web applications

Public Review for DCMI Abstract Model and RDF Encoding Specification
Staff, The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Announcement

Two related documents from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) are open for public comment until 30-April-2007: the "DCMI Abstract Model" and the specification "Expressing Dublin Core Metadata Using the Resource Description Framework" (DC-RDF). The "DCMI Abstract Model" document specifies an abstract model for Dublin Core metadata, showing how components and constructs are used in Dublin Core metadata. It defines the nature of the components used and describes how those components are combined to create information structures. It provides an information model which is independent of any particular encoding syntax. Such an information model allows us to gain a better understanding of the kinds of descriptions that we are encoding and facilitates the development of better mappings and cross-syntax translations. The document is primarily aimed at the developers of software applications that support Dublin Core metadata, people involved in developing new syntax encoding guidelines for Dublin Core metadata and people developing metadata application profiles based on DCMI vocabularies or on other compatible vocabularies. The DCMI Abstract Model builds on work undertaken by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on the Resource Description Framework (RDF). In this latest version, the Abstract Model has been modified to differentiate literal and non-literal values in order to support unambiguous transformations into RDF from any encoding syntax that follows the Abstract Model. The latest DC-RDF specification, a DCMI Proposed Recommendation, updates an earlier draft in line with the latest version of the Abstract Model, as detailed in the document "Notes on DCMI Specifications for Dublin Core Metadata in RDF".

See also: DC-RDF

OpenOffice Taps Business Smarts
Sean Michael Kerner, InternetNews.com

The open source OpenOffice.org (OOo) office suite is about to get an injection of business intelligence thanks to a cooperative effort between Sun Microsystems and open source BI vendor Pentaho. The Pentaho reporting engine is set to be included with the upcoming OOo 2.3 release and will provide users with easy access to advanced business-intelligence reporting capabilities. With the BI integration, OOo -- and Sun's StarOffice on which OOo is based—may well become an even more attractive option to business users, as it ratchets up the competition against Microsoft Office. "The new reporting solution will make OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, Sun's professional distribution of OpenOffice.org, even more attractive to professional users and thus help to grow the market share for both products," Erwin Tenhumberg, community development and marketing manager of the open source group at Sun Microsystems, told internetnews.com. "This will increase the demand for Sun's OpenOffice.org and StarOffice support and services offerings, as well as for related technologies like thin-client technologies and alternatives to Microsoft Exchange (i.e. the Sun Java System Communication Suite)." What the new integration will do is allow a business user to basically create an OpenOffice Writer (word processing) document that embeds reporting/database content into a document. According to Sun's Tenhumberg, the deal with Pentaho came about because OpenOffice.org and StarOffice users asked for better reporting capabilities for the database component. Tenhumberg noted that Pentaho offered the right feature set, open source background, commitment and people to work with.

Microsoft, Samsung Cross Bridge Over GPL
Michael Hickins, InternetNews.com

Microsoft announced that it has entered into a broad cross-licensing agreement with South Korean electronics maker Samsung. The deal, which Microsoft said is patterned after the agreement it struck with Linux vendor Novell last November, may pave the way for greater interoperability between open source and patented software in the future, the company said. Under terms of the agreement, Microsoft will gain access to Samsung's patent portfolio relating to digital media and computer-related inventions; Samsung, for its part, will have the right to use Microsoft's patents in its products—both those that use proprietary software, as well as those using Linux-based products. The last provision is important because it means that Microsoft won't sue Samsung in the event that the electronics maker uses Linux code written under the General Public License (GPL) that unintentionally infringes on Microsoft patents. The Novell deal is not without its detractors, and many observers believe that the most recent draft of GPL 3 was written in such a way as to thwart such deals in the future. While the Samsung agreement helps Microsoft advance its argument for interoperability between open source and proprietary software, it should also help Microsoft accelerate product development in its consumer electronics and device businesses. And because it indemnifies Microsoft for use of GPL, it may help its server business, as well. Kaefer said that because the value of some patents cannot be predicted, the companies have also put in place mechanisms allowing for future monetary payments as compensation for their respective portfolios, pending certain conditions that are not being made public. Microsoft has also announced similar agreements with NEC, Fuji-Xerox, Seiko-Epson and Nortel over the past twelve months.

Selected from the Cover Pages, by Robin Cover

UN/CEFACT Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 3: Second Public Review

The UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Group (TMG) has announced the release of the "UN/CEFACT Core Components Technical Specification (UN/CEFACT CCTS)" Version 3 for a Second Public Review. The Core Components Technical Specification defines meta models and rules necessary for describing the structure and contents of conceptual and physical/logical data models, process models, and information exchange models. The CCTS is dependent on the Unified Modelling Language (UML) in terms of how it is expressed in this specification, but does not require UML in its implementation. According to the TMG announcement, the CCTS "describes and specifies a semantic-based approach to the well-understood problem of the lack of information interoperability within and between applications and data bases in the e-business arena. It focuses especially on a dynamic, flexible and interoperable way of standardizing business semantics of libraries for electronic business data exchange. Therefore, CCTS describes a revolutionary approach for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent the general types of business data in use today. This approach provides for the creation of new business vocabularies as well as restructuring of existing business vocabularies to achieve semantic interoperability of data. It defines meta models, and rules necessary for describing the structure and contents of conceptual and logical, and physical data models that can be used for collaborative business processes and information exchange." This Second Public Review of CCTS Version 3.0 corresponds to Step 5 in the UN/CEFACT Open Development Process (ODP). The comment phase extends through 15-May-2007.


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