WWW 7 Trip Report
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
Email Address
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
UKOLN
University of Bath
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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UKOLN is funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre,
the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding
Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries
Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from
the University of Bath where it is based.
Contents
See
<URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
web-focus/> for trip report,
these slides, etc.
• Introduction
• Tim Berners-Lee's Keynote talk
• W3C Tracks at WWW 7 Conference
• Developer's Day
• Keynote on Java
• Papers
• Search engines
• Characterisation
• Question
2
• Metadata
• Markup
About the Conference
WWW 7 Conference:
• Held in Brisbane, Australia from 14-18
April 1998
• About 1,400 participants
• Exciting new technology - RDF
• See <URL: http://www7.conf.au/>
• Conference papers online for short period
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Evolvability (1)
Tim Berners-Lee's opening keynote talk talked
about "evolvability" of the web:
• Evolution of markup languages and data
• Goal: version 1 software partially understands
version 2 data.
• Based on "we will be smarter in the future"
• Goal: version A software partially understands
version B data.
• Based on "Others will be smarter than us"
• Use web as the registry (decentralised evolution)
4
Evolvability (2)
RDF (Resource Description Framework ):
• See a document as a combination of logical
assertions
• Draw conclusions by combining many documents
Global reasoning engines, based on RDF could
be "devastating"
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"Is there a green car for sale for around $15,000 in
Queensland?"
"Get involved in RDF, XML, Schemas"
"Design for evolvability"
See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/0415-Evolvability/slide1-1.htm>
W3C Tracks
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):
• Gives update on W3C activities in the W3C
Track at WWW Conferences
• Covers:
– User Interface Domain
– Architecture Domain
– Technology and Society Domain
• Talks available at
<URL: http://www.w3.org/
Conferences/WWW7/W3CTrack.html>
6
W3C - HTML Futures
HTML Futures:
• Talk given by Dave Raggett
• HTML 4.0 now complete. Need to look at HTML
futures.
• Workshop in US in May. See details, including
position papers at <URL:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/future/>
• See Dave's slides at <URL:
http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/0416-WWW7-HTML/>
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W3C - HTML Futures (2)
Mobile Computers
• Importance of mobile computers (PDAs, phones,
car computers, etc.) NOTE Dearing report
• Relationship with accessibility issues
• Challenges:
– Small screens
– Long round trip times
– Limited processing power / memory
• Solutions:
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– Abbreviations for headings
– Use of styles (rather than, e.g., tables)
– Expanding and collapsing outlines
– Aural and visual media (headings spoken, read body)
– HTML 4.0 and CSS 2.0
W3C - Maths
MML:
• Math(s) Markup Language
• An XML Application
• W3C Recommendation
agreed on 7 April 1998
• Java and ActiveX renderers
• Dave Raggett has written
an authoring tool
(Windows 95)
• See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Math/>
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W3C - Architecture
Architecture Domain:
• Promote coherent Web architecture
• Automate information management - If a decision
can be made by machine, it should
Working on:
•
•
•
•
HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/NG
Jigsaw server (in Java, freely available)
XML
SMIL
See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/04/WWW7-Arch/>
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W3C - XML
XML:
• Extensible Markup Language
• Addresses HTML's lack of evolvability
• XML 1.0 Recommendation in Feb 1998
• Note well-formedness:
Make end-tags explicit: <LI>...</LI>
Make empty elements explicit: <IMG .../>
Quote attributes <IMG SRC="logo" HEIGHT="20"..
Use consistent upper/lower case
• and valid:
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Need DTD
W3C - XML
• Extensible:
<PART>M-471</PART>
• Multiple names spaces:
<?xml:namespace ns="http://foo.org/
1998-001" prefix="i">
<P>Insert <i:PART>M-471</i:PART></P>
• Sharing document structures:
– It's hard
– It's necessary
– It's worth it
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See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/04/WWW7-XML/>
XML - Further Information
Ariadne issue 14 includes
article on "What Is XML?"
Describes how XML support
can be provided:
• Natively by new browsers
• Back end conversion
of XML - HTML
• Client-side conversion
of XML - HTML
• Java rendering of XML
Examples of intermediaries
See http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue15/what-is/
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W3C - HTTP
HTTP/0.9 and HTTP/1.0:
 Made the Web popular
 Design flaws and implementation problems
caused poor performance
HTTP/1.1:





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Addresses some of these problems
Performance benefits!
Is acting as fire-fighter
Poor usage counting
Not sufficiently flexible or extensible
W3C - HTTP/NG
HTTP/NG:
• Based on convergence of Internet protocols
• Two W3C Working Groups:
Protocol Design:
Redesign Web as distributed object application
Web Characterisations:
Study Web usage and form requirements
New log format for easier collection and
anonymisation
• See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/04/WWW7-HTTP-NG/>
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W3C - WAI
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative):
• Ensures web specs address accessibility issues
Authoring:
• First draft of Page Author Accessibility Checklist
and Guidelines available at
<URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/
1998/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-0203>
Software
• User agent / Authoring tools guidelines being
produced
See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/1998/04/
WWW7-WAI/>
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W3C - Technology and Society
Domain activities cover:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
PICS
Digital Signature Initiative
Privacy (P3P)
Metadata (RDF)
Security Interest Group
Public Policy Interest Group
Electronic Commerce Interest Group
See <URL: http://www.w3.org/Talks/
1998/04/WWW7TandS/>
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W3C - Privacy
P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences):
• Privacy concerns are a current barrier to Web
development (Note Tim Berners-Lee's interview
in Australian press)
• P3P project developing methods for exchanging
Privacy Practices of Web sites and user
• Documents on architecture and vocabulary
available
• P3P1.0 draft spec released on 19 May 1998
• See <URL: http://www.w3.org/P3P/>
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W3C - RDF
RDF (Resource Description Framework):
• Highlight of WWW 7
• Provides a metadata framework ("machine
understandable metadata for the web")
• Based on ideas from content rating (PICS),
resource discovery (Dublin Core) and site
mapping (MCF)
• Applications include:
–
–
–
–
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cataloging resources
electronic commerce
digital signatures
intellectual property rights
– resource discovery
– intelligent agents
– content rating
– privacy
• See <URL: http://www.w3.org/
Talks/1998/0417-WWW7-RDF>
W3C - RDF
RDF Data Model
RDF:
• Based on a formal
data model (direct
label graphs)
• Syntax for
interchange of data
• Schema model
page.html
Cost
Resource
Property
PropName
Cost
20
Value
Property
page.html
£0.05
PropObj
InstanceOf
PropertyType
Value
ValidUntil
11-May-98
Cost
£0.05
ValidUntil
11-May-98
W3C - RDF Example
Example of Dublin Core metadata in RDF
<?xml:namespace ns="http://www.w3.org/TR/
WD-rdf/" prefix="rdf"?>
<?xml:namespace ns="http://purl.org/dublin_core/
schema/" prefix="dc"?>
<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description RDF:HREF="page.html">
<dc:Creator>John Smith</dc:Creator>
<dc:Title>John’s Home Page</dc:Title>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
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Browser Support for RDF
Trusted
Mozilla (Netscape's
3rd
source code release) Party
provides support for Metadata
RDF.
Mozilla supports site
maps in RDF, as well
as bookmarks and
history lists
Embedded
See Netscape's or
Metadata
HotWired home page e.g.
sitemaps
for a link to the RDF
file.
Image from http://purl.oclc.org/net/eric/talks/www7/devday/
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W3C - RDF Conclusion
 RDF is a general-purpose framework
 RDF provides structured, machineunderstandable metadata for the Web
 Metadata vocabularies can be
developed without central coordination
 RDF Schemas describe the meaning of
each property name
 Signed RDF is the basis for trust
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Developer's Day - XML
"So You Want To Be An XML Developer"
Talk by Tim Bray, Textuality
See <URL: http://www.textuality.com/
WWW7/>
Useful resources:
Annotated Spec at <URL:
http://www.xml.com/axmls/axml.html>
XML FAQ at <URL: http://www.ucc.ie/
xml>
Other pages at <URL: http://www.sil.org/
sgml/xml.html>
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Developer's Day - XLink
XLink
• Aims to provide sophisticated hyperlinking
functionality missing in HTML
• Formerly known as XML-LINK and XLL
• See <URL:
http://sil.org/sgml/xll.html>
• XLink working draft is stable, though new
versions due out
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Developer's Day - XLink
England
France
XLink provides:
• Links that lead to multiple destinations
• Bidirectional links
• Links with special behaviors:
– Expand-in-place (similar to <IMG SRC>)
– Replace (similar to <A HREF>)
– Create new window
– Link on load (similar to <IMG SRC> or redirect)
– Link on user action
• Link databases
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<commentary xml:link="extended" inline="false">
<locator href="smith2.1" role="Essay"/>
<locator href="jones1.4" role="Rebuttal"/>
<locator href="robin3.2" role="Comparison"/>
</commentary>
Developer's Day - XPointer
XPointer:
• Based on TEI work
• XPointer specifies location in XML tree structure
• For example:
ID(foo).CHILD(4,SEC).CHILD(1,ABSTRACT)
addresses the first XML ABSTRACT element
within the fourth SEC element within the element
with ID attribute "foo" in a document
• To use:
<A HREF="http://www.xyz.com#ID(foo)
CHILD(4,SEC)CHILD(1,ABSTRACT)">
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• Note the working draft is not stable
• Interesting IPR implications?
Random Thoughts on Software
Development for the Web
Keynote talk by James Gosling:
• Positive about Java futures
• "This is the year the performance problem
disappears." JIT compiler performance is close to
C. Betters JVMs available (e.g. HotSpot).
• Java ports to PDAs, phones, smart cards, …
Q.How serious are browser incompatibility problems?
A. Netscape made serious error at one point. There are
also bugs in IE. Java Plugin (was Activator) may
enable a functioning JVM to be installed (note
supports <OBJECT> tag).
See http://www.javasoft.com/products/plugin/
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Research Papers
218 papers submitted.
54 papers, 43 short papers, 13 posters, 5 doctoral
consortium papers and 6 panel abstracts published
Brief comments on papers of interest to web software
developers and information providers.
General themes:
• Java was widely used to implement ideas
• Several papers on analysis of link structures to
improve searching
• "Intermediaries" seem to be an interesting
concept
See <URL: http://www7.conf.au/
programme/fullprog.html>
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Metadata Systems
Three papers.
Specifying Metadata Standards for Metadata Tool
Configuration by Andrew Waugh, CSIRO, Australia
Excellent paper showing how the expense of producing
metadata requires a generic metadata editor
The Limits of Web Metadata and Beyond by Massimo
Marchiori, MIT, USA
This paper describes how fuzzy techniques can be used to
automatically generate metadata for existing resources
Structure Graph Format: XML Metadata for
Describing Web Site Structure by Liechto et al
Producing site maps based on linking and directory structures
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Markup
An Extensible Rendering Engine for XML and HTML
by Ciancarini et al, Bologna University
Describes how Java can be used to provide browser
support for new HTML / XML tags
<APPLET archive="displets.zip">
<PARAM NAME="def" VALUE = "
<TAG name='reverse'
src='reverse.class'>
</TAG> "> ...
<P>Text is displayed as
<REVERSE>white text on black</REVERSE>
See http://www.cs.unibo
.it/~fabio/displet/
Example of an intermediary
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Search and Indexing Techniques
http://google.stanford.edu/
The Anatomy of a Large
Scale Hypertextual Web
Search Engine Brin & Page,
Stanford Univ
• Describes Google, a largescale search engine
developed for research
purposes
• Uses link information
• Use of service and
feedback is encouraged
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Characterisation
Summary of Web Characterisation by Pitkow
An excellent review of web characterisation studies,
including:
– Client studies
– Proxies and gateways
– Server
– Websites
Some conclusions:
No. of page requests per site Mode of 1!
Site popularity
25% of servers 85%
traffic
Document life span
About 50 days
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Web Management
One paper, in Hypertext and Hypermedia session,
on web management
WSDM: A User Centred Design Method For Web
Sites by De Troyer et al
This paper proposes a design methodology for
web-kiosks.
The paper gives references on methodologies
for website design.
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Observations
The following comments are made:
• There were several papers on how link
information (e.g. "who is pointing to this page?")
can be used to improve searching (e.g. Google)
and user navigation (e.g. SGMapper).
• The possible importance of intermediaries for
deploying new technologies to current browsers:
– In proxies (e.g. WBI)
– In Java (e.g. displets, MML support)
– In JavaScript (e.g. XML -> HTML / CSS)
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Conclusions
•
•
•
•
WWW 8 to be held at Toronto in May 1999
WWW 9 to be held in Amsterdam in 2000
Call for papers for WWW 8 shortly
Closing date December 1998
• For information on WWW protocol
developments see
uk-web-focus-w3c@mailbase.ac.uk list
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