The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML Working Group has published a Working Draft of “HTML 5.” HTML 5 adds to the language of the Web features to help Web application authors, new elements based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. This particular draft specifies how authors can embed SVG in non-XML text/html content, and how browsers and other UAs should handle such embedded SVG content. See also the news about moving some parts of HTML 5 to individual drafts. The ” full list of changes” since the previous draft are listed in the updated companion document “HTML 5 differences from HTML 4.” http://www.w3.org/html/wg/
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More on this later, but the title of the keynote by Microsoft’s Tricia Bush, “The Web Platform of The Future”, should suggest Microsoft’s presence will be interesting.
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I came across an interesting scene the other day on Larry King. Ashton Kutcher was basking in his success to be the first person to have 1,000,000 followers on Twitter, beating CNN by just minutes. My first thought was “Why Ashton Kutcher?” My second was “Why not?” As an aside, should we now call Ashton King Twit?
Anyway, it got me thinking about Twitter and how I communicate electronically. I have been a rabid user of text messaging for several years. It has become the primary mode of communication with my college age sons (except when we are in the room together), who have all but abandoned email, even IM. Phone based text messaging even allows my wife and I to constantly keep in touch while I travel without requiring both of us to be talking synchronously (another way of saying being tied up at the same time). Asynchronous communication in the form of emails, text messages, tweets, IM, etc. have freed people up from maintaining a real-time state with their conversation partners. Maybe asynchronous messaging has helped me stay married for so long. Also, messaging has become invaluable for work, allowing me to multitask and keep things moving with coworkers asynchronously.
Now I am using Twitter, ramping up, getting to know it better. One thing I really like about Twitter is that it is device and software independent unlike cell phone messaging which I must do from my phone. I can twitter from my computer, phone, or IPod Touch. If you haven’t added your phone to your Twitter account, do it now (more info at http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/14014).
By the way, I looked up Twitter and Twit on a couple online dictionaries. The noun Twit means “an insignificant person” or “an excited state”. The verb means to “taunt”. The verb Twitter means “to talk lightly and rapidly” just like a small bird twitters. I don’t think Mr. Kutcher is an insignificant person, or his accomplishment unworthy of attention, but he does tend to talk excitedly and to taunt (“You’ve been Punked!”). Why not Ashton Kutcher indeed! </>
The W3C OWL Working Group has published new Working Drafts for OWL 2, a language for building Semantic Web ontologies. An ontology is a set of terms that a particular community finds useful for organizing data (e.g., for data about a book, useful terms include “title” and “author”). OWL 2 (a compatible extension of “OWL 1″ ) consists of 13 documents (7 technical, 4 instructional, and 2 group Notes). For descriptions and links to all the documents, see the ” OWL 2 Documentation Roadmap.” This is a “Last Call” for the technical materials and is an opportunity for the community to confirm that these documents satisfy requirements for an ontology language. This is a second Last Call for six of the documents, but because the changes since the first Last Call are limited in scope, the review period lasts only 21 days. For an introduction to OWL 2, see the four instructional documents: an “overview,” “primer,” “list of new features,” and “quick reference.” http://www.w3.org/2007/OWL, http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-owl2-new-features-20090421/
Three business intelligence and information management companies, Attensity Corporation, Empolis GmbH, and Living-e AG, announced they have united to form the Attensity Group to deliver business user applications that generate value from unstructured data. The company offers a comprehensive family of applications built upon deep expertise in semantic language technologies. Empolis GmbH provides information management applications, while Living-e AG offers intelligent multi-channel communication and information management solutions. Attensity Corporation is known for its deep text analytics software for First Person Intelligence. The new Attensity Group will unify these complementary technologies that analyze, interpret and manage an enterprise’s mass of unstructured data to generate value and deliver easy-to-use business applications. These applications enable knowledge management professionals, business leaders, customer support personnel and customers to get relevant and actionable answers. Attensity Group’s go-to-market entities will be named (1) Attensity Americas, and (2) Empolis in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In the markets in EMEA, the Living-e and Empolis teams will join forces. The companies have united their sales efforts to offer combined solutions, support and implementation services to the market. Attensity Group will employ approximately 300 people worldwide and expects to generate revenues in 2009 of approximately $50M (USD). With global headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Attensity Corporation, Empolis GmbH and Living-e AG have all supported the global open source initiative, SMILA (SeMantic Information Logistics Architecture), as semantic technology partners. Attensity Group will continue to partner with SMILA. http://www.attensitygroup.com
Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) announced the general availability of Lawson Enterprise Search. Lawson Enterprise Search is a new product to search both structured and unstructured data across the Lawson S3 enterprise system, Lawson Business Intelligence, the user’s desktop, and even their personal history such as comments entered in Microsoft Office applications. For example, if a company needed to recall a specific product within its inventory, it could use Lawson Enterprise Search to help quickly find and deactivate all items, purchase orders and requisitions associated with the recalled product. Companies no longer need to comb through their enterprise software system line by line to discover and take action on specific changes or make a decision. Lawson Enterprise Search capabilities include: ,The ability to search keys, comments, descriptions and dates, Use of wildcards and and / or operators, Search from any transaction field to find related information, Save commonly used search queries for fast future searches, Execute freeform searches, Perform directed searches via an interest center, and achieve fast performance by searching indexed data rather than the live transaction database. http://www.lawson.com
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt. The Board of Directors of Sun Microsystems has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close this summer, subject to Sun stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. “We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle’s earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle’s non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined,” said Oracle President Safra Catz. The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle’s largest business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the features of Solaris. http://www.oracle.com, http://www.sun.com
Atlassian announced today the Atlassian Stimulus Package, a discounted offer on two of it’s most popular products, Confluence and JIRA. This offer is intended to benefit three different parties: Atlassian, small workgroups using these products, and children in developing countries.
Here are the details of Atlassian’s package, which features the number 5. For the next five days only, teams of up to five users may purchase an annual license to either Confluence or JIRA for $5. Atlassian says that these are fully functional versions of the software, not “light” versions. In addition, the license is renewable annually for the same amount and includes support from Atlassian.
Atlassian stands to gain from this promotion, of course. The company should gain many new subscribers to its products as a result of this offer. Their hope is that the small teams using Atlassian software will influence others within their organization, leading to additional purchases at full price.
Small workgroups of up to five people also benefit from this deal, because they can purchase proven collaboration tools at a huge discount and can continue to use the software at an extremely low annual cost.
The real winner from the Atlassian Stimulus Package is impoverished children around the world. Atlassian will donate 100% of the proceeds from this promotion to Room to Read, a charity that builds libraries for children in developing countries. Atlassian’s goal is to donate $25,000 to Room to Read, as a result of selling $5,000 in discounted Confluence and JIRA licenses on each of the next five days. More kids will have books to read — or learn to read in the first place — as a result of Atlassian’s and Room to Read’s joint effort.
Hats off to Atlassian for crafting a marketing promotion that not only sells software, but also benefits less fortunate children around the world!
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