Talk by Ivan Herman in Noordwijk

2007-04-03: Ivan Herman gives a talk entitled "Introduction to the Semantic Web" on Monday, 16 April 2007, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Talk by Steven Pemberton in Amsterdam

2007-04-23: Steven Pemberton gives a keynote entitled "Abstraction and extraction: in praise of" at the "Apachecon 07" on Wednesday, 2 May 2007, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

SOAP Version 1.2 Second Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

2007-04-27:The World Wide Web Consortium today released four SOAP 1.2 Second Editions as W3C Recommendations: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Messaging Framework, Part 2: Adjuncts, and Specification Assertions and Test Collection. SOAP Version 1.2 provides the definition of the XML-based information that can be used for exchanging structured and typed information between peers in a decentralized, distributed environment. The second edition incorporates corrections for the known errata in the first edition. Visit the XML Protocol home page.

SML Group Launched to Standardize Multi-Document Models

2007-04-27: W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Service Modeling Language (SML) Working Group. John Arwe (IBM) and Pratul Dublish (Microsoft) chair the group which is chartered to produce W3C Recommendations for SML, adding extensions to the W3C XML Schema language for inter-document references and user-defined constraints. The first face-to-face meeting will be 11-13 June in Redmond, Washington, USA, hosted by Microsoft. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about XML.

VoiceXML 2.1 Is a Proposed Recommendation

2007-04-25: W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1 to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 25 May. Fully backwards-compatible with VoiceXML 2.0, version 2.1 standardizes eight additional features implemented by VoiceXML platforms: data, disconnect, grammar, foreach, mark, property, script, and transfer. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Published

2007-04-24: The SWEO Interest Group is pleased to announce the first release of the Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). These answers to questions covering Semantic Web standards and their usage are an evolving document that will continue to be updated over time. A Wiki site where the community can contribute to the further evolution of the FAQ and an RSS 1.0 feed to track changes are available. Read about the Semantic Web.

W3C Launches Southern Africa Office

2007-04-24: W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Southern Africa Office. The Office is hosted at the Meraka Institute, a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. Quentin Williams is Office Manager. Daniel Dardailler and Stephane Boyera are among those attending the opening ceremonies on 14 May. Read the press release and about the Southern Africa Office opening and W3C Offices.

W3C Track Announced at WWW 2007 Conference

2007-04-17: The Consortium welcomes the public to meet the W3C Staff and Members, who will present recent achievements and future work plans through the W3C Track at the WWW2007 conference, to be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, from 9 to 11 May 2007. Chaired by Marie-Claire Forgue, the nine sessions cover recent achievements and future work plans of W3C Activities. Read the press release.

Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Is a W3C Recommendation

2007-04-05: The World Wide Web Consortium today released Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Part of a powerful trend towards Web access via interactive voice response, SISR tags are used to extract meaning from speech recognition. SISR defines the syntax and semantics of tag content in the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) for output as serialized XML or ECMAScript variables. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Voice Browser Patent Advisory Group Recommends that CCXML Advance

2007-04-06: A Patent Advisory Group (PAG) for the Voice Browser Working Group has concluded in a public report that the Working Group should continue to advance the CCXML specification along the W3C Recommendation Track. The conclusion follows an assertion from Nortel that the company does not believe that US patent number 6,701,366 includes any essential claims, as defined of the W3C Patent Policy. Nortel excluded the claims of that patent from its Royalty-Free licensing commitment when it joined the Voice Browser Working Group in June 2005. W3C appreciates communications from Nortel that helped the PAG reach their conclusion. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

W3C Sets New Standard for Internationalized Web Content

2007-04-03: The World Wide Web Consortium today released Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Creators of XML content can use the ITS set of elements and attributes to prepare schemas and documents for localization and to internationalize them for a global audience. "Working with document formats internationally becomes much easier, whether you are creating a new schema or working with an established one," said Richard Ishida (W3C). Implementations provided for DTDs, XML Schema and Relax NG, can be used with new or existing vocabularies like XHTML, DocBook, and OpenDocument. Read the press release and visit Internationalization home page.