universal access

Here is another article with correlations to the WAI.  It's posted on
cnet.com - I've clipped the end of it where non-PC web access techonology is
discussed.


http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-2160685.html
Today's demonstrations represent an important technology shift as Armonk,
N.Y.-based IBM looks beyond the PC. While Hortensius said he expects the
PC's dominance to continue, its role will change.

"The number of non-PC devices will proliferate rapidly," he said. "The
non-PC style of access will become the dominant means of accessing the
Internet."

IBM is working on a number of hardware and software projects to enable
Internet service providers and application service providers to deliver
content suitable for any screen, from PCs to cell phones.

In the case of the airline check-in handheld, IBM used its WebSphere
software to take information from a mainframe, convert it to XML, and then
bring it to the device. Michael Wirth, manager of IBM's Software User
Systems Ergonomics Research (USER) division, called the XML translation
process "the duct tape for the Internet."

IBM isn't the only company looking closely at XML (Extensible Markup
Language), a Web standard for exchanging data, which was the centerpiece of
Microsoft's Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) announcement last week.

"We feel the NGWS announcement is a strong validation of where we have been
going," Hortensius said.

"But the devil is in the details," he added, referring to Microsoft's
timetable and uncertainty about whether the software maker will support open
standards or tie everything back to Windows.

For its part, like the revamped voice-recognition technology launched last
week, IBM is providing software tools it hopes developers will adopt for
writing applications for both big and small devices.

"Using our tools, it took just 5,000 lines of code to write the airline
application," Wirth said.



-Ben

Received on Thursday, 29 June 2000 22:18:01 UTC