Re: Fw: W3C Mobile Web Access Initiative

At 7:55 AM +0000 11/19/04, Will Pearson wrote:
>Hi;
>
>I don't know if this is something ua want to look into?

If you pop up a level in the organization chart it is easy to say yes.

The WAI is very interested in developments in the mobile web, and has 
been working with the
ongoing W3C activities in this area for a while, now.  Not that there 
isn't a lot of work yet ahead
for them and for us.

http://www.w3.org/2004/02/Mobile.html

Note that the W3C did not "announce a new Initiative" but rather 
stated that it is considering
such a new initiative.  This is a traditional role of workshops in 
the life cycle of a W3C project.
The Team gets a notion for a new work item and a workshop is held to 
run the concept up the
flagpole.  For example, the Web Applications Workshop leading to the 
formation of the
Compound Documents Working Group.

Should W3C reconfigure its work in this area we will of course need 
to reconsider how we relate
to it.

Al


>The mobile web is certainly on the rise, about two and a half years 
>ago we got 2.5G or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) here in the 
>UK, which offers transfer rates of around 55KbPS, and one of the big 
>three cell networks started it's Wideband Code Division Multiple 
>Access (WCDMA), reffered to as 3G in most of Europe, this week, and 
>that gives transfer rates of upto 2MbPS.  So, the ability is there 
>to browse the web as if you were at home, and the cell networks are 
>trying to push their 3G services quite hard, as it was expensive to 
>purchase the licences from the government.
>
>On the software side of things, there's Microsoft's offerings such 
>as SmartPhone and WinCE, both of which support the .Net compact 
>framework, and I know WinCE has PocketIE.  There's also Java in the 
>form of J2ME, which I've been told is a bit vendor specific as to 
>it's implementation on cell phones.
>
>Therefore, this could potentially offer great opportunities for the 
>mobile web.  Maybe Matt could advise, as I don't know the specs 
>mentioned in the article, but to me it seems something of a semantic 
>based protocol.  The device is saying "here's the format I need the 
>information in.  Please can you provide it in this form?".  If this 
>is the case, then it offers very easy translation into a veriety of 
>forms required for accessibility, such as text, speech, and so on, 
>especially if it's XML based content.
>
>Will
>----- Original Message ----- >
>>W3C highlights Mobile Web Initiative at workshop
>>Initiative aims to make Web access from mobile devices as easy as desktop
>>Web access
>>
>>By Laura Rohde, IDG News Service
>>November 18, 2004
>>
>>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is considering a new effort called the
>>"W3C Mobile Web Initiative," that will seek to make Web access from mobile
>>devices such as mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants), as
>>simple, easy and convenient as desktop Web access.
>>The W3C made the announcement at a two-day "Mobile Web Initiative" workshop,
>>begun Thursday in Barcelona, Spain, organized to help efforts to improve
>>Web-surfing capabilities of handheld devices.
>>Participants are highlighting the challenges in accessing the Web over
>>handheld devices and discussing possible solutions, the group said.
>>
>>Over 40 position papers were submitted to the W3C for presentation at the
>>workshop from companies like Vodafone (Profile, Products, Articles) Group,
>>Nokia (Profile, Products, Articles), and Hewlett-Packard (Profile, Products,
>>Articles).
>>
>>Ideas include developing "best practices" documents, providing support
>>infrastructures for mobile developers, organizing training programs for Web
>>content providers and creating validation and conformance testing services
>>for Web-access from mobile devices, the W3C said.
>>The workshop is part of the W3C's ongoing work to refine the mobile Web
>>experience. In January, it recommended a new standard, the technical
>>specification called "Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP):
>>Structures and Vocabularies 1.0," as a means for enabling handheld devices
>>to communicate with Web servers and exchange content delivery information.
>>
>>Tim Berners-Lee founded the W3C in October 1994 as a group to sponsor work
>>to develop common Web protocols. The group, which collaborates closely with
>>CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is hosted by the
>>Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts
>>Institute of Technology, by European Research Consortium for Informatics and
>>Mathematics in France and by the Keio Research Institute at Keio University
>>in Japan.
>>
>>All of the position papers submitted to W3C can be accessed online at:
>>http://www.w3.org/2004/10/MWIWS-papers

Received on Friday, 19 November 2004 16:52:44 UTC