OASIS Emergency Steering Committee

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  • 1.  FW: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008

    Posted 03-27-2008 13:50
    In case you missed, this--Robin leads with the DHS/EIC MoA.
    Best,
    Dee
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Robin Cover [mailto:robin@oasis-open.org] 
    Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:28 AM
    To: XML Daily Newslink
    Subject: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    
    XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
    Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
    Edited by Robin Cover
    
    ====================================================
    This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by
    Sun Microsystems, Inc.   http://sun.com
    ====================================================
    
    HEADLINES:
    
    * US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    * Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    * Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    * OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    * Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    * Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    Staff, Emergency Interoperability Consortium Announcement
    
    The Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) announced that an
    historic agreement between EIC and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
    has been signed to help further the continued development of data sharing
    standards for the emergency response community. With the endorsement of
    Department of Homeland Security Under-Secretary Admiral Jay Cohen, this
    unique relationship, thought to be the first of its kind between DHS and
    a non-government entity, strengthens an established alliance between the
    organizations to jointly promote the design, development, release, and
    use of standards to help solve data sharing problems commonly encountered
    during life-saving emergency operations. By working together, both DHS
    and the EIC believe that government and industry can more quickly and
    cost-effectively bridge the data sharing gap between organizations that
    must be able to interoperate in response to the natural and man-made
    hazards that form the core of the DHS mission. Numerous federal, state
    and local organizations as well as private industry benefit from the
    collaborative efforts of the DHS/EIC relationship. Utilization of the
    Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the Emergency Data Exchange Language
    (EDXL) OASIS standards, and several other supporting standards form an
    interoperable data sharing communications bridge linking organizations,
    government entities and the general public. Los Angeles Fire Department
    Battalion Chief Robert Cramer: "By integrating these data technology
    capabilities on a platform, we're making it viable to provide data
    interoperability among fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services,
    Hazmat, and supporting agencies such as county health and transportation.
    Creating a common operating picture across multiple agencies and
    jurisdictions can reduce response times and save more lives." Specific
    objectives of the alliance, as specified in the Memorandum of Agreement,
    are to: (1) Improve information sharing capabilities to protect the
    nation and its citizens from the consequences of disasters and other
    emergencies, regardless of cause; (2) Encourage broad-based participation
    in the design, development, acceptance, and use of XML standards to
    enable emergency organizations to receive and share data in real time;
    (3) Educate federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the media,
    citizens, and industry on the meaning and importance of data sharing
    within the emergency response communities; (4) Promote innovation in
    these communities around open architectures and standards; (5) Foster a
    collaborative working environment among federal, state, local, and tribal
    jurisdictions on these matters. EIC recommends and assists with the
    implementation of technical interoperability standards for emergency
    and incident management. The Consortium consists of both public and
    private entities to ensure the practical use of open standards. The
    EIC has cooperated with DHS, worked with and in its practitioner working
    groups to develop detailed requirements for standards, organized
    interoperability demonstrations using draft and final standards, and
    submitted requirements to OASIS to initiate formal standards development.
    
    http://xml.coverpages.org/EIC-DHS-Agreement-200803.html
    See also Emergency Management and XML:
    http://xml.coverpages.org/emergencyManagement.html
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    Stefan Tilkov, InfoQueue
    
    The latest interoperability event (a "plugfest") at Microsoft's Redmond
    campus showed impressive results for interoperability between future
    releases of Sun's Metro Web Services and Windows Communication Foundation
    in .NET 3.5.  Metro 1.1 FCS is a Web Services framework that provides
    tools and infrastructure to develop Web Services solutions for the end
    users and middleware developers. With Metro, clients and web services
    have a big advantage: the platform independence of the Java programming
    language. InfoQ had a chance to talk to Harold Carr, the engineering lead
    for enterprise web services interoperability at Sun, about the interop
    results. When asked what the relevance of this for Java and .NET developers
    would be, Carr highlighted the role of interoperability in general: "Web
    services are about wire interoperability, not about the platform they are
    implemented in. Therefore, developers, whether using .NET or Java, expect
    their services to interoperate. It is relatively straightforward for
    platform developers to ensure interoperability for WS-I basic profiles.
    But when you add in WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation,
    WS-ReliableMessaging, etc., the bar for platform implementors gets way
    higher. The interop results give transparency into our current development
    stage to give people that are planning to use Metro with .NET 3.5
    confidence that we will provide an interoperable platform -- rather than
    a platform that has only been tested against itself. Reminder: Metro 1.0
    already works with .NET 3.0... There are two aspects to consider: the
    interop scenarios we test and the deployment of services based on these
    specifications. The interop scenarios are very useful, but certainly not
    complete -- particularly in reliable messaging. Real deployments will come
    up with combinations never tested (either by the interop scenarios tested
    at the plugfest or our more extensive in-house testing). Also, .NET 3.0
    and Metro 1.0 (both released products) are based on the submission versions
    of the WS-* specifications (except for WS-Security, which is standard).
    .NET 3.5 (which is released) is based on the standard versions. Metro 1.x,
    which will ship later in 2008, will be based on the standard versions
    also. All this is a long-winded way to say the standard specs haven't been
    used in many deployments based on shipping platforms from different
    vendors."
    
    http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/wcf-metro-interop
    See also Harold Carr's Blog:
    http://weblogs.java.net/blog/haroldcarr/archive/2008/03/metro_web_servi_2.ht
    ml
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    Andrea Perego, Phil Archer, Kevin Smith (eds), W3C Technical Report
    
    Members of the W3C Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER)
    Working Group have published a new Working Draft for Protocol for
    "Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources."
    POWDER facilitates the publication of descriptions of multiple resources
    such as all those available from a Web site. These descriptions are
    attributable to a named individual, organization or entity that may or
    may not be the creator of the described resources. This contrasts with
    more usual metadata that typically applies to a single resource, such as
    a specific document's title, which is usually provided by its author.
    The current document sets out how Description Resources (DRs) can be
    created and published, whether individually or as bulk data, how to link
    to DRs from other online resources, and, crucially, how DRs may be
    authenticated and trusted. The aim is to provide a platform through which
    opinions, claims and assertions about online resources can be expressed
    by people and exchanged by machines. The draft describes how sets of
    IRIs can be defined such that descriptions or other data can be applied
    to the resources obtained by dereferencing IRIs that are elements of the
    set. IRI sets are defined as XML elements with relatively loose
    operational semantics. This is underpinned by the formal semantics of
    POWDER which include a semantic extension defined in this document. A
    GRDDL transform is associated with the POWDER namespace that maps the
    operational to the formal semantics. Changes since the 31-October-2007
    working draft are documented in the Change Log.
    
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-powder-grouping-20080324/
    See also the W3C POWDER Working Group Charter:
    http://www.w3.org/2007/02/powder_charter
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    Staff, OASIS Announcement
    
    OASIS announced that "Composability within SOA" will be the focus of
    Open Standards 2008, the fifth annual symposium hosted by OASIS.  This
    event, which will be held in Santa Clara, California, 28-April-2008
    through 1-May-2008, will examine the critical issues faced when
    architecting service-oriented applications and the benefits being
    reaped by real-world implementations that take advantage of Web services
    transactions. Presentations on the Business Process Execution Language
    (BPEL), Service Component Architecture (SCA), Service Data Objects (SDO),
    WS-Transaction, and related standards will be featured. In an Open
    Standards 2008 keynote address, Peter Carbone, Vice President, SOA,
    Office of the CTO at Nortel, will share insights on the new realities
    presented by communications-enabled applications and the opportunities
    they create for standards development, software vendors, and service
    providers. OASIS has announced the launch of a new Telecommunications
    Services Member Section  which will work to bring the full advantages
    of SOA to the telecommunications industry. At Open Standards 2008, the
    OASIS Open CSA Member Section will host a table-top exhibition showcasing
    SCA and SDO supporters, BEA, IBM, Primeton, Rogue Wave, SAP, Software AG,
    and Sun Microsystems. Executives from these companies will participate
    in a press briefing on the current state of SCA on Tuesday, 29-April-2008.
    
    http://xml.coverpages.org/OASIS-OpenStandards2008.html
    See also the event web site:
    http://events.oasis-open.org/home/symposium/2008
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    Staff, Microsoft Announcement
    
    Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Sourcesense, a leading
    European open source systems integration consultancy. The two companies
    will collaborate on the strategy, development and deployment of open
    source solutions for the Microsoft Office product suite. One of the
    initial goals of the partnership is contributing to the development of
    a new version of Apache POI, a top-level project of the Apache Software
    Foundation (ASF). Widely used in financial services and critical
    enterprise applications across related sectors, Apache POI is a leading
    open source file format reader and writer to create, edit and read
    Microsoft Office formats used in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Visio.
    Apache POI is a Java application programming interface (API) used to
    access and manage Microsoft Office binary formats, and can be easily
    applied to today's billions of binary format documents by alleviating
    the need for complex programming and/or reverse engineering. Because
    Apache POI libraries are used in numerous open source projects, developing
    future libraries to support the Ecma Office Open XML File Formats (the
    default file format in the 2007 Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
    products) will play an important role in new interoperability scenarios
    where XML-based standard formats will be key for Office documents. Apache
    POI support for Open XML is currently in development within the Apache
    Software Foundation; its first release is anticipated during the second
    quarter of 2008. Code contributions are made by ASF members and committers
    (developers authorized to 'commit' or 'write' code, patches or
    documentation to the ASF repository), and overseen by the Apache POI
    Project Management Committee (PMC). Details are published in the
    Microsoft press release "Microsoft and Sourcesense Partner to Contribute
    to Open Source, Apache POI to Support Ecma Office Open XML File Formats."
    
    http://poi.apache.org/
    See also the announcement:
    http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/mar08/03-25SourcesensePR.mspx
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    Uche Ogbuji, IBM developerWorks
    
    This article introduces Jacquard, a software development methodology
    specialized for Web projects, and especially for Web development among
    diverse teams. Jacquard seeks to align the work and goals of business
    interest personnel, Web designers, programmers, project managers,
    database analysts, and more. The author discusses the core principles
    of Jacquard, and provides an example of its use in communication between
    a user experience team and a programmer team.  He uses the W3C's Simple
    Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), which is a very useful technology
    for the expression of ideas in a way natural to humans, but in a very
    Web-ready format (RDF) -- together with the Turtle syntax for RDF, which
    is easier to read than RDF/XML. The Jacquard methodology requires formal
    expression of the core concepts in a way that can be a shared reference
    across the various teams...  Jacquard (pronounced like "jack-card" with
    more emphasis on the second syllable) is a software development methodology
    specialized for Web projects, and especially suited for such development
    among diverse teams. The Web is in many ways different from any
    information platform before it, and this suggests a fresh approach to
    development and teamwork. In general it makes sense to look outward to
    the Web, and not inward and backward to traditional methodologies, to
    find what works. Lightweight, agile process mirrors the basic nature of
    the Web, and so does focusing on the data, and how data is organized for
    sharing. The specific application or database implementation is not as
    important, nor are the tools you choose to use. This mirrors the Web,
    which builds on sharing data, and does not require uniformity of
    implementations. As such, implementation independence is one of the core
    principles of Jacquard. Another principle is support for decentralized
    communication. The Web works well across geographical boundaries, and
    with the increase of off-shore outsourcing and flexible work arrangements,
    it's useful to learn lessons on decentralization and rich communication.
    The Web is such a rich information space that some philosophically
    consider it a realm of its own which parallels, and sometimes intersects,
    our own real world -- the idea of "cyberspace." Paying attention to where
    idioms on the Web draw from real-world concepts and phenomena is important
    to usability, and so Jacquard's principle of conceptual alignment
    encourages you to take care to express the concepts behind your Web
    project, and to make that clear expression the foundation for
    communication on the project.
    
    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-jacquard/
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
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    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
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  • 2.  Re: [emergency-sc] FW: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008

    Posted 03-27-2008 20:08
    Thank you, Dee for pointing this out...
    
    (And Thanks to Robin for ensuring the good work of the EM TC (et al) was 
    front and center!!!)
    
    Best regards,
    
    Tracy
    
    Dee Schur wrote:
    > In case you missed, this--Robin leads with the DHS/EIC MoA.
    > Best,
    > Dee
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Robin Cover [mailto:robin@oasis-open.org] 
    > Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:28 AM
    > To: XML Daily Newslink
    > Subject: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    >
    > XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    > A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
    > Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
    > Edited by Robin Cover
    >
    > ====================================================
    > This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by
    > Sun Microsystems, Inc.   http://sun.com
    > ====================================================
    >
    > HEADLINES:
    >
    > * US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    > * Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    > * Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    > * OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    > * Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    > * Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    > Staff, Emergency Interoperability Consortium Announcement
    >
    > The Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) announced that an
    > historic agreement between EIC and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
    > has been signed to help further the continued development of data sharing
    > standards for the emergency response community. With the endorsement of
    > Department of Homeland Security Under-Secretary Admiral Jay Cohen, this
    > unique relationship, thought to be the first of its kind between DHS and
    > a non-government entity, strengthens an established alliance between the
    > organizations to jointly promote the design, development, release, and
    > use of standards to help solve data sharing problems commonly encountered
    > during life-saving emergency operations. By working together, both DHS
    > and the EIC believe that government and industry can more quickly and
    > cost-effectively bridge the data sharing gap between organizations that
    > must be able to interoperate in response to the natural and man-made
    > hazards that form the core of the DHS mission. Numerous federal, state
    > and local organizations as well as private industry benefit from the
    > collaborative efforts of the DHS/EIC relationship. Utilization of the
    > Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the Emergency Data Exchange Language
    > (EDXL) OASIS standards, and several other supporting standards form an
    > interoperable data sharing communications bridge linking organizations,
    > government entities and the general public. Los Angeles Fire Department
    > Battalion Chief Robert Cramer: "By integrating these data technology
    > capabilities on a platform, we're making it viable to provide data
    > interoperability among fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services,
    > Hazmat, and supporting agencies such as county health and transportation.
    > Creating a common operating picture across multiple agencies and
    > jurisdictions can reduce response times and save more lives." Specific
    > objectives of the alliance, as specified in the Memorandum of Agreement,
    > are to: (1) Improve information sharing capabilities to protect the
    > nation and its citizens from the consequences of disasters and other
    > emergencies, regardless of cause; (2) Encourage broad-based participation
    > in the design, development, acceptance, and use of XML standards to
    > enable emergency organizations to receive and share data in real time;
    > (3) Educate federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the media,
    > citizens, and industry on the meaning and importance of data sharing
    > within the emergency response communities; (4) Promote innovation in
    > these communities around open architectures and standards; (5) Foster a
    > collaborative working environment among federal, state, local, and tribal
    > jurisdictions on these matters. EIC recommends and assists with the
    > implementation of technical interoperability standards for emergency
    > and incident management. The Consortium consists of both public and
    > private entities to ensure the practical use of open standards. The
    > EIC has cooperated with DHS, worked with and in its practitioner working
    > groups to develop detailed requirements for standards, organized
    > interoperability demonstrations using draft and final standards, and
    > submitted requirements to OASIS to initiate formal standards development.
    >
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/EIC-DHS-Agreement-200803.html
    > See also Emergency Management and XML:
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/emergencyManagement.html
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    > Stefan Tilkov, InfoQueue
    >
    > The latest interoperability event (a "plugfest") at Microsoft's Redmond
    > campus showed impressive results for interoperability between future
    > releases of Sun's Metro Web Services and Windows Communication Foundation
    > in .NET 3.5.  Metro 1.1 FCS is a Web Services framework that provides
    > tools and infrastructure to develop Web Services solutions for the end
    > users and middleware developers. With Metro, clients and web services
    > have a big advantage: the platform independence of the Java programming
    > language. InfoQ had a chance to talk to Harold Carr, the engineering lead
    > for enterprise web services interoperability at Sun, about the interop
    > results. When asked what the relevance of this for Java and .NET developers
    > would be, Carr highlighted the role of interoperability in general: "Web
    > services are about wire interoperability, not about the platform they are
    > implemented in. Therefore, developers, whether using .NET or Java, expect
    > their services to interoperate. It is relatively straightforward for
    > platform developers to ensure interoperability for WS-I basic profiles.
    > But when you add in WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-SecureConversation,
    > WS-ReliableMessaging, etc., the bar for platform implementors gets way
    > higher. The interop results give transparency into our current development
    > stage to give people that are planning to use Metro with .NET 3.5
    > confidence that we will provide an interoperable platform -- rather than
    > a platform that has only been tested against itself. Reminder: Metro 1.0
    > already works with .NET 3.0... There are two aspects to consider: the
    > interop scenarios we test and the deployment of services based on these
    > specifications. The interop scenarios are very useful, but certainly not
    > complete -- particularly in reliable messaging. Real deployments will come
    > up with combinations never tested (either by the interop scenarios tested
    > at the plugfest or our more extensive in-house testing). Also, .NET 3.0
    > and Metro 1.0 (both released products) are based on the submission versions
    > of the WS-* specifications (except for WS-Security, which is standard).
    > .NET 3.5 (which is released) is based on the standard versions. Metro 1.x,
    > which will ship later in 2008, will be based on the standard versions
    > also. All this is a long-winded way to say the standard specs haven't been
    > used in many deployments based on shipping platforms from different
    > vendors."
    >
    > http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/wcf-metro-interop
    > See also Harold Carr's Blog:
    > http://weblogs.java.net/blog/haroldcarr/archive/2008/03/metro_web_servi_2.ht
    > ml
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    > Andrea Perego, Phil Archer, Kevin Smith (eds), W3C Technical Report
    >
    > Members of the W3C Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER)
    > Working Group have published a new Working Draft for Protocol for
    > "Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources."
    > POWDER facilitates the publication of descriptions of multiple resources
    > such as all those available from a Web site. These descriptions are
    > attributable to a named individual, organization or entity that may or
    > may not be the creator of the described resources. This contrasts with
    > more usual metadata that typically applies to a single resource, such as
    > a specific document's title, which is usually provided by its author.
    > The current document sets out how Description Resources (DRs) can be
    > created and published, whether individually or as bulk data, how to link
    > to DRs from other online resources, and, crucially, how DRs may be
    > authenticated and trusted. The aim is to provide a platform through which
    > opinions, claims and assertions about online resources can be expressed
    > by people and exchanged by machines. The draft describes how sets of
    > IRIs can be defined such that descriptions or other data can be applied
    > to the resources obtained by dereferencing IRIs that are elements of the
    > set. IRI sets are defined as XML elements with relatively loose
    > operational semantics. This is underpinned by the formal semantics of
    > POWDER which include a semantic extension defined in this document. A
    > GRDDL transform is associated with the POWDER namespace that maps the
    > operational to the formal semantics. Changes since the 31-October-2007
    > working draft are documented in the Change Log.
    >
    > http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-powder-grouping-20080324/
    > See also the W3C POWDER Working Group Charter:
    > http://www.w3.org/2007/02/powder_charter
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    > Staff, OASIS Announcement
    >
    > OASIS announced that "Composability within SOA" will be the focus of
    > Open Standards 2008, the fifth annual symposium hosted by OASIS.  This
    > event, which will be held in Santa Clara, California, 28-April-2008
    > through 1-May-2008, will examine the critical issues faced when
    > architecting service-oriented applications and the benefits being
    > reaped by real-world implementations that take advantage of Web services
    > transactions. Presentations on the Business Process Execution Language
    > (BPEL), Service Component Architecture (SCA), Service Data Objects (SDO),
    > WS-Transaction, and related standards will be featured. In an Open
    > Standards 2008 keynote address, Peter Carbone, Vice President, SOA,
    > Office of the CTO at Nortel, will share insights on the new realities
    > presented by communications-enabled applications and the opportunities
    > they create for standards development, software vendors, and service
    > providers. OASIS has announced the launch of a new Telecommunications
    > Services Member Section  which will work to bring the full advantages
    > of SOA to the telecommunications industry. At Open Standards 2008, the
    > OASIS Open CSA Member Section will host a table-top exhibition showcasing
    > SCA and SDO supporters, BEA, IBM, Primeton, Rogue Wave, SAP, Software AG,
    > and Sun Microsystems. Executives from these companies will participate
    > in a press briefing on the current state of SCA on Tuesday, 29-April-2008.
    >
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/OASIS-OpenStandards2008.html
    > See also the event web site:
    > http://events.oasis-open.org/home/symposium/2008
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    > Staff, Microsoft Announcement
    >
    > Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Sourcesense, a leading
    > European open source systems integration consultancy. The two companies
    > will collaborate on the strategy, development and deployment of open
    > source solutions for the Microsoft Office product suite. One of the
    > initial goals of the partnership is contributing to the development of
    > a new version of Apache POI, a top-level project of the Apache Software
    > Foundation (ASF). Widely used in financial services and critical
    > enterprise applications across related sectors, Apache POI is a leading
    > open source file format reader and writer to create, edit and read
    > Microsoft Office formats used in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Visio.
    > Apache POI is a Java application programming interface (API) used to
    > access and manage Microsoft Office binary formats, and can be easily
    > applied to today's billions of binary format documents by alleviating
    > the need for complex programming and/or reverse engineering. Because
    > Apache POI libraries are used in numerous open source projects, developing
    > future libraries to support the Ecma Office Open XML File Formats (the
    > default file format in the 2007 Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
    > products) will play an important role in new interoperability scenarios
    > where XML-based standard formats will be key for Office documents. Apache
    > POI support for Open XML is currently in development within the Apache
    > Software Foundation; its first release is anticipated during the second
    > quarter of 2008. Code contributions are made by ASF members and committers
    > (developers authorized to 'commit' or 'write' code, patches or
    > documentation to the ASF repository), and overseen by the Apache POI
    > Project Management Committee (PMC). Details are published in the
    > Microsoft press release "Microsoft and Sourcesense Partner to Contribute
    > to Open Source, Apache POI to Support Ecma Office Open XML File Formats."
    >
    > http://poi.apache.org/
    > See also the announcement:
    > http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/mar08/03-25SourcesensePR.mspx
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    > Uche Ogbuji, IBM developerWorks
    >
    > This article introduces Jacquard, a software development methodology
    > specialized for Web projects, and especially for Web development among
    > diverse teams. Jacquard seeks to align the work and goals of business
    > interest personnel, Web designers, programmers, project managers,
    > database analysts, and more. The author discusses the core principles
    > of Jacquard, and provides an example of its use in communication between
    > a user experience team and a programmer team.  He uses the W3C's Simple
    > Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), which is a very useful technology
    > for the expression of ideas in a way natural to humans, but in a very
    > Web-ready format (RDF) -- together with the Turtle syntax for RDF, which
    > is easier to read than RDF/XML. The Jacquard methodology requires formal
    > expression of the core concepts in a way that can be a shared reference
    > across the various teams...  Jacquard (pronounced like "jack-card" with
    > more emphasis on the second syllable) is a software development methodology
    > specialized for Web projects, and especially suited for such development
    > among diverse teams. The Web is in many ways different from any
    > information platform before it, and this suggests a fresh approach to
    > development and teamwork. In general it makes sense to look outward to
    > the Web, and not inward and backward to traditional methodologies, to
    > find what works. Lightweight, agile process mirrors the basic nature of
    > the Web, and so does focusing on the data, and how data is organized for
    > sharing. The specific application or database implementation is not as
    > important, nor are the tools you choose to use. This mirrors the Web,
    > which builds on sharing data, and does not require uniformity of
    > implementations. As such, implementation independence is one of the core
    > principles of Jacquard. Another principle is support for decentralized
    > communication. The Web works well across geographical boundaries, and
    > with the increase of off-shore outsourcing and flexible work arrangements,
    > it's useful to learn lessons on decentralization and rich communication.
    > The Web is such a rich information space that some philosophically
    > consider it a realm of its own which parallels, and sometimes intersects,
    > our own real world -- the idea of "cyberspace." Paying attention to where
    > idioms on the Web draw from real-world concepts and phenomena is important
    > to usability, and so Jacquard's principle of conceptual alignment
    > encourages you to take care to express the concepts behind your Web
    > project, and to make that clear expression the foundation for
    > communication on the project.
    >
    > http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-jacquard/
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > XML Daily Newslink and Cover Pages are sponsored by:
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  • 3.  RE: [emergency-sc] FW: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008

    Posted 03-27-2008 20:11
    Thanks Tracy,
    
    Not to make Robin blush, but you are right and IMHO--this is one of the best
    endorsement you can get.
    
    Dee
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Tracy Ryan [mailto:tracy.ryan@eic.org] 
    Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 4:08 PM
    To: Dee Schur
    Cc: emergency-sc@lists.oasis-open.org
    Subject: Re: [emergency-sc] FW: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    
    Thank you, Dee for pointing this out...
    
    (And Thanks to Robin for ensuring the good work of the EM TC (et al) was 
    front and center!!!)
    
    Best regards,
    
    Tracy
    
    Dee Schur wrote:
    > In case you missed, this--Robin leads with the DHS/EIC MoA.
    > Best,
    > Dee
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Robin Cover [mailto:robin@oasis-open.org] 
    > Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:28 AM
    > To: XML Daily Newslink
    > Subject: XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    >
    > XML Daily Newslink. Wednesday, 26 March 2008
    > A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
    > Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
    > Edited by Robin Cover
    >
    > ====================================================
    > This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by
    > Sun Microsystems, Inc.   http://sun.com
    > ====================================================
    >
    > HEADLINES:
    >
    > * US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    > * Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    > * Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    > * OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    > * Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    > * Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > US Department of Homeland Security Signs Historic Agreement with EIC
    > Staff, Emergency Interoperability Consortium Announcement
    >
    > The Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) announced that an
    > historic agreement between EIC and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
    > has been signed to help further the continued development of data sharing
    > standards for the emergency response community. With the endorsement of
    > Department of Homeland Security Under-Secretary Admiral Jay Cohen, this
    > unique relationship, thought to be the first of its kind between DHS and
    > a non-government entity, strengthens an established alliance between the
    > organizations to jointly promote the design, development, release, and
    > use of standards to help solve data sharing problems commonly encountered
    > during life-saving emergency operations. By working together, both DHS
    > and the EIC believe that government and industry can more quickly and
    > cost-effectively bridge the data sharing gap between organizations that
    > must be able to interoperate in response to the natural and man-made
    > hazards that form the core of the DHS mission. Numerous federal, state
    > and local organizations as well as private industry benefit from the
    > collaborative efforts of the DHS/EIC relationship. Utilization of the
    > Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the Emergency Data Exchange Language
    > (EDXL) OASIS standards, and several other supporting standards form an
    > interoperable data sharing communications bridge linking organizations,
    > government entities and the general public. Los Angeles Fire Department
    > Battalion Chief Robert Cramer: "By integrating these data technology
    > capabilities on a platform, we're making it viable to provide data
    > interoperability among fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services,
    > Hazmat, and supporting agencies such as county health and transportation.
    > Creating a common operating picture across multiple agencies and
    > jurisdictions can reduce response times and save more lives." Specific
    > objectives of the alliance, as specified in the Memorandum of Agreement,
    > are to: (1) Improve information sharing capabilities to protect the
    > nation and its citizens from the consequences of disasters and other
    > emergencies, regardless of cause; (2) Encourage broad-based participation
    > in the design, development, acceptance, and use of XML standards to
    > enable emergency organizations to receive and share data in real time;
    > (3) Educate federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the media,
    > citizens, and industry on the meaning and importance of data sharing
    > within the emergency response communities; (4) Promote innovation in
    > these communities around open architectures and standards; (5) Foster a
    > collaborative working environment among federal, state, local, and tribal
    > jurisdictions on these matters. EIC recommends and assists with the
    > implementation of technical interoperability standards for emergency
    > and incident management. The Consortium consists of both public and
    > private entities to ensure the practical use of open standards. The
    > EIC has cooperated with DHS, worked with and in its practitioner working
    > groups to develop detailed requirements for standards, organized
    > interoperability demonstrations using draft and final standards, and
    > submitted requirements to OASIS to initiate formal standards development.
    >
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/EIC-DHS-Agreement-200803.html
    > See also Emergency Management and XML:
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/emergencyManagement.html
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Sun Metro and .NET WCF Interoperability
    > Stefan Tilkov, InfoQueue
    >
    > The latest interoperability event (a "plugfest") at Microsoft's Redmond
    > campus showed impressive results for interoperability between future
    > releases of Sun's Metro Web Services and Windows Communication Foundation
    > in .NET 3.5.  Metro 1.1 FCS is a Web Services framework that provides
    > tools and infrastructure to develop Web Services solutions for the end
    > users and middleware developers. With Metro, clients and web services
    > have a big advantage: the platform independence of the Java programming
    > language. InfoQ had a chance to talk to Harold Carr, the engineering lead
    > for enterprise web services interoperability at Sun, about the interop
    > results. When asked what the relevance of this for Java and .NET
    developers
    > would be, Carr highlighted the role of interoperability in general: "Web
    > services are about wire interoperability, not about the platform they are
    > implemented in. Therefore, developers, whether using .NET or Java, expect
    > their services to interoperate. It is relatively straightforward for
    > platform developers to ensure interoperability for WS-I basic profiles.
    > But when you add in WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Trust,
    WS-SecureConversation,
    > WS-ReliableMessaging, etc., the bar for platform implementors gets way
    > higher. The interop results give transparency into our current development
    > stage to give people that are planning to use Metro with .NET 3.5
    > confidence that we will provide an interoperable platform -- rather than
    > a platform that has only been tested against itself. Reminder: Metro 1.0
    > already works with .NET 3.0... There are two aspects to consider: the
    > interop scenarios we test and the deployment of services based on these
    > specifications. The interop scenarios are very useful, but certainly not
    > complete -- particularly in reliable messaging. Real deployments will come
    > up with combinations never tested (either by the interop scenarios tested
    > at the plugfest or our more extensive in-house testing). Also, .NET 3.0
    > and Metro 1.0 (both released products) are based on the submission
    versions
    > of the WS-* specifications (except for WS-Security, which is standard).
    > .NET 3.5 (which is released) is based on the standard versions. Metro 1.x,
    > which will ship later in 2008, will be based on the standard versions
    > also. All this is a long-winded way to say the standard specs haven't been
    > used in many deployments based on shipping platforms from different
    > vendors."
    >
    > http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/wcf-metro-interop
    > See also Harold Carr's Blog:
    >
    http://weblogs.java.net/blog/haroldcarr/archive/2008/03/metro_web_servi_2.ht
    > ml
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources
    > Andrea Perego, Phil Archer, Kevin Smith (eds), W3C Technical Report
    >
    > Members of the W3C Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER)
    > Working Group have published a new Working Draft for Protocol for
    > "Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources."
    > POWDER facilitates the publication of descriptions of multiple resources
    > such as all those available from a Web site. These descriptions are
    > attributable to a named individual, organization or entity that may or
    > may not be the creator of the described resources. This contrasts with
    > more usual metadata that typically applies to a single resource, such as
    > a specific document's title, which is usually provided by its author.
    > The current document sets out how Description Resources (DRs) can be
    > created and published, whether individually or as bulk data, how to link
    > to DRs from other online resources, and, crucially, how DRs may be
    > authenticated and trusted. The aim is to provide a platform through which
    > opinions, claims and assertions about online resources can be expressed
    > by people and exchanged by machines. The draft describes how sets of
    > IRIs can be defined such that descriptions or other data can be applied
    > to the resources obtained by dereferencing IRIs that are elements of the
    > set. IRI sets are defined as XML elements with relatively loose
    > operational semantics. This is underpinned by the formal semantics of
    > POWDER which include a semantic extension defined in this document. A
    > GRDDL transform is associated with the POWDER namespace that maps the
    > operational to the formal semantics. Changes since the 31-October-2007
    > working draft are documented in the Change Log.
    >
    > http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-powder-grouping-20080324/
    > See also the W3C POWDER Working Group Charter:
    > http://www.w3.org/2007/02/powder_charter
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > OASIS Open Standards Symposium 2008
    > Staff, OASIS Announcement
    >
    > OASIS announced that "Composability within SOA" will be the focus of
    > Open Standards 2008, the fifth annual symposium hosted by OASIS.  This
    > event, which will be held in Santa Clara, California, 28-April-2008
    > through 1-May-2008, will examine the critical issues faced when
    > architecting service-oriented applications and the benefits being
    > reaped by real-world implementations that take advantage of Web services
    > transactions. Presentations on the Business Process Execution Language
    > (BPEL), Service Component Architecture (SCA), Service Data Objects (SDO),
    > WS-Transaction, and related standards will be featured. In an Open
    > Standards 2008 keynote address, Peter Carbone, Vice President, SOA,
    > Office of the CTO at Nortel, will share insights on the new realities
    > presented by communications-enabled applications and the opportunities
    > they create for standards development, software vendors, and service
    > providers. OASIS has announced the launch of a new Telecommunications
    > Services Member Section  which will work to bring the full advantages
    > of SOA to the telecommunications industry. At Open Standards 2008, the
    > OASIS Open CSA Member Section will host a table-top exhibition showcasing
    > SCA and SDO supporters, BEA, IBM, Primeton, Rogue Wave, SAP, Software AG,
    > and Sun Microsystems. Executives from these companies will participate
    > in a press briefing on the current state of SCA on Tuesday, 29-April-2008.
    >
    > http://xml.coverpages.org/OASIS-OpenStandards2008.html
    > See also the event web site:
    > http://events.oasis-open.org/home/symposium/2008
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Apache POI: Java API To Access Microsoft Format Files
    > Staff, Microsoft Announcement
    >
    > Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Sourcesense, a leading
    > European open source systems integration consultancy. The two companies
    > will collaborate on the strategy, development and deployment of open
    > source solutions for the Microsoft Office product suite. One of the
    > initial goals of the partnership is contributing to the development of
    > a new version of Apache POI, a top-level project of the Apache Software
    > Foundation (ASF). Widely used in financial services and critical
    > enterprise applications across related sectors, Apache POI is a leading
    > open source file format reader and writer to create, edit and read
    > Microsoft Office formats used in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Visio.
    > Apache POI is a Java application programming interface (API) used to
    > access and manage Microsoft Office binary formats, and can be easily
    > applied to today's billions of binary format documents by alleviating
    > the need for complex programming and/or reverse engineering. Because
    > Apache POI libraries are used in numerous open source projects, developing
    > future libraries to support the Ecma Office Open XML File Formats (the
    > default file format in the 2007 Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
    > products) will play an important role in new interoperability scenarios
    > where XML-based standard formats will be key for Office documents. Apache
    > POI support for Open XML is currently in development within the Apache
    > Software Foundation; its first release is anticipated during the second
    > quarter of 2008. Code contributions are made by ASF members and committers
    > (developers authorized to 'commit' or 'write' code, patches or
    > documentation to the ASF repository), and overseen by the Apache POI
    > Project Management Committee (PMC). Details are published in the
    > Microsoft press release "Microsoft and Sourcesense Partner to Contribute
    > to Open Source, Apache POI to Support Ecma Office Open XML File Formats."
    >
    > http://poi.apache.org/
    > See also the announcement:
    >
    http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/mar08/03-25SourcesensePR.mspx
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > Jacquard: a Methodology for Web Publishing
    > Uche Ogbuji, IBM developerWorks
    >
    > This article introduces Jacquard, a software development methodology
    > specialized for Web projects, and especially for Web development among
    > diverse teams. Jacquard seeks to align the work and goals of business
    > interest personnel, Web designers, programmers, project managers,
    > database analysts, and more. The author discusses the core principles
    > of Jacquard, and provides an example of its use in communication between
    > a user experience team and a programmer team.  He uses the W3C's Simple
    > Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), which is a very useful technology
    > for the expression of ideas in a way natural to humans, but in a very
    > Web-ready format (RDF) -- together with the Turtle syntax for RDF, which
    > is easier to read than RDF/XML. The Jacquard methodology requires formal
    > expression of the core concepts in a way that can be a shared reference
    > across the various teams...  Jacquard (pronounced like "jack-card" with
    > more emphasis on the second syllable) is a software development
    methodology
    > specialized for Web projects, and especially suited for such development
    > among diverse teams. The Web is in many ways different from any
    > information platform before it, and this suggests a fresh approach to
    > development and teamwork. In general it makes sense to look outward to
    > the Web, and not inward and backward to traditional methodologies, to
    > find what works. Lightweight, agile process mirrors the basic nature of
    > the Web, and so does focusing on the data, and how data is organized for
    > sharing. The specific application or database implementation is not as
    > important, nor are the tools you choose to use. This mirrors the Web,
    > which builds on sharing data, and does not require uniformity of
    > implementations. As such, implementation independence is one of the core
    > principles of Jacquard. Another principle is support for decentralized
    > communication. The Web works well across geographical boundaries, and
    > with the increase of off-shore outsourcing and flexible work arrangements,
    > it's useful to learn lessons on decentralization and rich communication.
    > The Web is such a rich information space that some philosophically
    > consider it a realm of its own which parallels, and sometimes intersects,
    > our own real world -- the idea of "cyberspace." Paying attention to where
    > idioms on the Web draw from real-world concepts and phenomena is important
    > to usability, and so Jacquard's principle of conceptual alignment
    > encourages you to take care to express the concepts behind your Web
    > project, and to make that clear expression the foundation for
    > communication on the project.
    >
    > http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-jacquard/
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > XML Daily Newslink and Cover Pages are sponsored by:
    >
    > BEA Systems, Inc.         http://www.bea.com
    > EDS                       http://www.eds.com
    > IBM Corporation           http://www.ibm.com
    > Primeton                  http://www.primeton.com
    > SAP AG                    http://www.sap.com
    > Sun Microsystems, Inc.    http://sun.com
    >
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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