The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released XHTML Basic as a W3C Recommendation. The specification reflects cross-industry agreement on a set of markup language features that allows authors to create rich Web content deliverable to a wide range of devices, including mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, and television-based Web browsers. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by the industry. In January 2000, W3C published the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation, which combined the well-known features of HTML with the power of XML. In another W3C specification entitled “Modularization of XHTML”, W3C’s HTML Working Group describes a mechanism that allows authors to mix and match content from well-defined subsets of XHTML 1.0 elements and attributes. The XHTML Basic Recommendation combines some of these XHTML modules in a manner well-suited to mobile Web applications. XHTML Basic is designed so that it may be implemented by all user agents, including mobile devices, television-based devices, and other small Web devices. The XHTML Basic specification is the result of significant collaborative efforts of the W3C HTML Working Group, including participants from AOL/Netscape; CWI; Ericsson; IBM; Intel; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.; Microsoft; Mozquito Technologies; Openwave Systems Inc.; Philips Electronics; Quark Inc.; and Sun Microsystems. In addition, the Working Group integrated feedback from the W3C Mobile Access Interest Group and the WAP Forum in an effort to ensure demonstrable functionality in wireless devices. Many industry players support, or have plans to support, XHTML Basic, including the WAP Forum. Today, content developers interested in making XHTML Basic documents can create them with W3C’s own browser/editor, Amaya. www.w3.org/
Day: December 18, 2000
RightWorks Corporation and Cardonet, Inc. announced a strategic partnership that will allow RightWorks to resell the Cardonet Content Factory as an addition to the RightWorks eBusiness Application Suite. This arrangement expands the current partnership between RightWorks and Cardonet under which the Cardonet Content Factory, an e-catalog content management solution, is integrated with the RightWorks Open Commerce Network, an open horizontal exchange and virtual content aggregation portal that provides centralized access to products and value-added services. Under the new arrangement RightWorks and Cardonet will deliver e-business applications to suppliers, corporations and net market makers in need of an automated application for capturing, preparing and maintaining catalog content. The combination of Cardonet Content Factory with RightWorks Universal Content Manager, RightWorks’ high performance catalog server, will offer customers an integrated solution that is cost-effective and eliminates the complexity of managing catalog content. www.rightworks.com, www.cardonet.com
FpML.org, the non-profit consortium developing Financial products Markup Language as an e-commerce standard for OTC derivatives trading, is seeking suggestions for additional asset classes and functionality that should be addressed in future versions of the standard. The consortium is comprised of leading banks, information and software vendors and systems integrators. The initiative stems from comments made by the nearly 300 delegates from 122 firms that attended FpML symposiums held recently in New York and London. Asset classes being considered include FX options, and equity, credit and commodity derivatives, with other suggestions welcomed. FpML is a freely licensed XML-based standard. FpML.org is dedicated to the development and use of FpML as the communications standard for streamlining the processes supporting e-commerce activities in the financial derivatives domain. To participate in extending its product coverage, complete the Call for Interest form at ww.fpml.org/wg/index.html. Responses are requested by COB January 4, 2001. Organizations actively participating in the FpML standard include: Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Fuji Capital Markets Corporation, Goldman Sachs, International Business Machines, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Reuters, SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, SwapsWire, S.W.I.F.T., and UBS Warburg. www.fpml.org.
