New Standard Makes the Web More Energy Efficient

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced version 1.0 of the "Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format" (10 March 2011). EXI represents XML data in a more compact binary format, with a claimed 100-fold performance improvement. W3C see this being used for smart phones, sensor networks, cameras, auto-mobiles, real-time trading systems, and high speed aircraft.

Compression of ordinary XML would take care of most of the bandwidth issues for devices such as smart phones. However, if very large amounts of data are being transmitted by sensor devices, then this would be of use. It would also be interesting to see if it would be feasible to apply XML to areas where it has not been used before, such as the surveillance data being transmitted from a UAV (robot aircraft).

Some of the benefits of XML are lost with EXI, such as its human readable format. But than while the text of XML could be read, in most cases the for mat of the data is so complex that without the schema used it will make little sense to anyone. At least with EXI as soon as the reader (human or machine) realises the data is in EXI, they will have a standardised format to interpret.

There is also the potential to use EXI to compress XML data for transmission or storage, without the cooperation of the creating and consuming applications. It might also be used to make XML based document formats, such as OOXML, ODF and epub more efficient. But given these already use compression algorithms, there savings may be too small to be worth the additional complexity.

So far EXI has been incorporated into ZigBee Smart Energy V2.0 for smart electricity meters and appliances. One application is for charging electric vehicles. There is a Go Get modified Prius parked at a charge point in Glebe Point Road, Sydney.

Systems Interoperability Framework for Schools

The Australian Government is funding work on adopting the Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF) for Australian schools. Previously called the Schools Interoperability Framework, this is a set of XML specifications for defining educational data and a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) interface for kindergarten to grade 12 schools (k12). A SIF Implementation Specification (Australia) (Version 1.0, November 20, 2009) has been produced.

The Australian Government is also funding activity on e-Portfolios for vocational (VET E-portfolio Roadmap) and higher education (Australian ePortfolio Project). I realise it is hard enough to get universities and TAFEs to agree on standards, but is there any work on getting the schools and higher education to use the same standards for reporting?

SIF appears to be a standard for real time exchange of data between applications. This appears to be about administrative management of schools and students (that is recording, monitoring and reporting student progress). As an example, one of the SIF certified software products is Blackboard Connect 1.0 . This is used for schools to communicate to parents.

SIF appears to be separate from the actual delivery of education, for which there are separate technical standards for content. An example is the IMS Global Learning Consortium's Common Cartridge (CC) standard and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). There is also the IEEE 1484.12.1 – 2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata (which I managed to get my name in, just by voting for ;-)

While SIF will be useful, particularly if already implemented in software products purchased by Australian schools, it will not in itself significantly improve education. SIF is mostly about better administration, not education. Investment in the use of IT for education and training teachers in its use is likely to have much more effect in producing the Federal Government's desired "Education Revolution".

Previous attempts at fully integrated IT systems for education have proved problematic in Australia. The SIF Newsletter indicates that progress has been made with a SIF Pilot in Western Australia developing an open source "agent development framework" to be reused across Australia. A useful approach might be to apply the technology and development philosophy which Richard Volpato has applied at the Copyright Agency Limited. With this approach a set of open source tools would be used to build a system which allows resource intensive processing to not be done in real time and which allows end users to customise reports. Rather than just producing a set of standards, with Australian schools then need to purchase overseas developed software in order to comply with, the Australian government could fund the development of free open source software which implements the standards and can be used for free by Australian schools. This approach was used successfully by the New Zealand government's Tertiary Education Commission's e-learning Collaborative Development Fund (eCDF), to develop the Mahara ePortfolio software for use by NZ schools (and now used in Australia).

1 Preamble

1.1 Abstract

1.1.1 What is SIF?

1.1.1.1 What is SIF (AU)?

1.1.2 Schools Interoperability Framework Association

1.2 Disclaimer

1.3 Certification and Compliance Claims

2 Introduction

2.1 Specification Organization

2.2 Document Conventions

2.2.1 Definitions

2.2.2 Structure and Values

2.2.3 Examples

2.2.4 References

2.2.5 Terminology

2.2.6 XML Diagrams

2.3 Version Numbers

2.4 Highlighted Additions/Changes Since Version 2.x

2.4.1 Data Model

3 Architecture

3.1 Assumptions

3.1.1 Notes on Related Technologies

3.2 Concepts

3.2.1 Data Model

3.2.2 Zone Architecture

3.2.2.1 Contexts

3.2.3 Infrastructure and Messaging

3.2.4 Data Provision: A Request/Response Model

3.2.5 Event Reporting: A Publish/Subscribe Model

3.2.6 Communication: An Asynchronous Model

3.2.7 Security Model

3.2.7.1 Encryption

3.2.7.2 Authentication and Validation

3.2.7.3 Access Control

3.3 SIF Architecture

3.3.1 Architectural Components

3.3.2 Naming Conventions for Agents and Zone Integration Servers

3.3.3 Object Identifiers

3.3.3.1 Persistence

3.3.4 Agent/Application Requirements

3.3.4.1 Communicate with the ZIS

3.3.4.2 Transmit Application Changes to the ZIS

3.3.4.3 Respond to Requests

3.3.4.4 Changes Required to the Vendor's Application

3.3.4.5 Support Authentication and Digital Signatures

3.3.4.6 Agent Local Queue

3.3.4.7 Wildcard Version Support

3.3.5 Zone Integration Server Requirements

3.3.5.1 Access Control List

3.3.5.2 Zone Status

3.3.5.3 Zone Context Registry

3.3.5.4 Administration

3.3.5.5 Support Selective Message Blocking (SMB) to Resolve Deadlocks

3.3.5.5.1 Description

3.3.5.5.2 Requirements

3.3.5.5.3 Example

3.3.6 Message Processing

3.3.6.1 Message Validation

3.3.6.2 Message Identification

3.3.6.3 Message Security ...

3.3.6.4 Message Robustness

3.3.6.5 Message Cycle

3.3.6.6 Message Delivery ...

3.3.6.6.1 The "Push" Model

3.3.6.6.2 The "Pull" Model

3.3.6.6.3 "Multiple Version" Zones

3.3.7 Infrastructure Transport Layer

3.3.7.1 SIF HTTPS Transport

3.3.7.1.1 HTTPS Request/Response Model

3.3.7.1.2 HTTP Request Headers

3.3.7.1.3 HTTP Response Headers

3.3.7.1.4 100 (Continue)

3.3.7.1.5 3XX, 4XX, 5XX Notices

3.3.7.2 SIF HTTP Transport

3.3.7.3 SIF HTTP(S) Transport Compression

3.3.7.4 SIF_Protocol/SIF_Property Accept-Encoding

3.3.7.5 HTTP Client Requirements

3.3.7.6 HTTP Server Requirements

3.3.7.7 Push-Mode Agent Requirements

3.3.7.8 Zone Integration Server Requirements

4 Messaging

4.1 Agent Protocols

4.1.1 Agent Messaging Protocols

4.1.1.1 SIF_Register

4.1.1.2 SIF_Unregister

4.1.1.3 SIF_Provide

4.1.1.4 SIF_Unprovide

4.1.1.5 SIF_Subscribe

4.1.1.6 SIF_Unsubscribe

4.1.1.7 SIF_Provision

4.1.1.8 SIF_Event

4.1.1.9 SIF_Request

4.1.1.10 SIF_Ping

4.1.1.11 SIF_Sleep

4.1.1.12 SIF_Wakeup

4.1.1.13 SIF_GetZoneStatus

4.1.1.14 SIF_GetAgentACL

4.1.1.15 SIF_CancelRequests

4.1.1.16 SIF_GetMessage (Pull-Mode only)

4.1.1.17 SIF_Ack (Push-Mode)

4.1.1.18 SIF_Ack (Pull-Mode)

4.1.2 Agent Message Handling Protocols

4.1.2.1 SIF_Message

4.1.2.2 SIF_Event

4.1.2.3 SIF_Request

4.1.2.4 SIF_Response

4.1.2.5 SIF_Ping (Push-Mode only)

4.1.2.6 SIF_Sleep (Push-Mode only)

4.1.2.7 SIF_Wakeup (Push-Mode only)

4.1.2.8 SIF_CancelRequests (Push-Mode only) (optional)

4.2 ZIS Protocols

4.2.1 ZIS Messaging Protocols

4.2.1.1 SIF_Message Delivery (SIF_Event, SIF_Request, SIF_Response to a Push-mode Agent)

4.2.1.2 SIF_Ping (to a Push-mode Agent)

4.2.1.3 SIF_Sleep (to a Push-mode Agent)

4.2.1.4 SIF_Wakeup (to a Push-mode Agent)

4.2.1.5 SIF_CancelRequests (to a Push-mode Agent)

4.2.2 ZIS Message Handling Protocols

4.2.2.1 SIF_Message

4.2.2.2 SIF_Register

4.2.2.3 SIF_Unregister

4.2.2.4 SIF_Provide

4.2.2.5 SIF_Unprovide

4.2.2.6 SIF_Subscribe

4.2.2.7 SIF_Unsubscribe

4.2.2.8 SIF_Provision

4.2.2.9 SIF_Event

4.2.2.10 SIF_Request

4.2.2.11 SIF_Response

4.2.2.11.1 Implementation Notes

4.2.2.12 SIF_Ping

4.2.2.13 SIF_Sleep

4.2.2.14 SIF_Wakeup

4.2.2.15 SIF_GetZoneStatus

4.2.2.16 SIF_GetAgentACL

4.2.2.17 SIF_CancelRequests

4.2.2.18 SIF_GetMessage

4.2.2.19 SIF_Ack (from a Push-Mode Agent)

4.2.2.20 SIF_Ack (from a Pull-Mode Agent)

5 Infrastructure

5.1 Common Elements

5.1.1 SIF_Message

5.1.2 SIF_Header

5.1.3 SIF_EncryptionLevel

5.1.4 SIF_AuthenticationLevel

5.1.5 SIF_Contexts

5.1.6 SIF_Context

5.1.7 SIF_Protocol

5.1.8 SIF_Status

5.1.9 SIF_Error

5.1.10 SIF_Query

5.1.10.1 SIF_ConditionGroup

5.1.10.2 SIF_Element Syntax

5.1.11 SIF_ExtendedQuery

5.1.11.1 Mapping SIF_Query to SIF_ExtendedQuery

5.1.12 SIF_ExtendedQueryResults

5.2 Messages

5.2.1 SIF_Ack

5.2.2 SIF_Event

5.2.3 SIF_Provide

5.2.4 SIF_Provision

5.2.5 SIF_Register

5.2.6 SIF_Request

5.2.7 SIF_Response

5.2.8 SIF_Subscribe

5.2.9 SIF_SystemControl

5.2.10 SIF_Ping

5.2.11 SIF_Sleep

5.2.12 SIF_Wakeup

5.2.12.1 SIF_Sleep/SIF_Wakeup versus SIF_Register/SIF_Unregister

5.2.13 SIF_GetMessage

5.2.14 SIF_GetZoneStatus

5.2.15 SIF_GetAgentACL

5.2.16 SIF_CancelRequests

5.2.17 SIF_Unprovide

5.2.18 SIF_Unregister

5.2.19 SIF_Unsubscribe

5.3 Objects

5.3.1 SIF_AgentACL

5.3.2 SIF_LogEntry

5.3.3 SIF_ZoneStatus

6 Data Model

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 Format

6.1.2 Conventions

6.1.2.1 Object Attributes/Primary Keys

6.1.2.2 Object References

6.1.2.3 Lists/Repeatable Elements

6.1.2.3.1 ActionList

6.1.2.3.2 List

6.1.2.4 Supported Optional Elements Without Values

6.1.2.5 Externally-Defined XML

6.2 Common Elements

6.2.1 Address

6.2.2 AddressList

6.2.3 AttendanceCode

6.2.4 BirthDate

6.2.5 ContactInfo

6.2.6 Country

6.2.7 Demographics

6.2.8 EducationalLevel

6.2.9 ElectronicId

6.2.10 ElectronicIdList

6.2.11 Email

6.2.12 EmailList

6.2.13 EnglishProficiency

6.2.14 GraduationDate

6.2.15 GridLocation

6.2.16 HomeroomNumber

6.2.17 LanguageList

6.2.18 LifeCycle

6.2.19 LocalId

6.2.20 Location

6.2.21 Name

6.2.22 OnTimeGraduationYear

6.2.23 OperationalStatus

6.2.24 OtherCodeList

6.2.25 OtherNames

6.2.26 PersonInfo

6.2.27 PhoneNumber

6.2.28 PhoneNumberList

6.2.29 PrincipalInfo

6.2.30 ProjectedGraduationYear

6.2.31 PublishInDirectory

6.2.32 Relationship

6.2.33 SchoolContactList

6.2.34 SchoolURL

6.2.35 SchoolYear

6.2.36 SIF_ExtendedElements

6.2.37 SIF_Metadata

6.2.38 StateProvince

6.2.39 StateProvinceId

6.2.40 SubjectArea

6.2.41 SubjectAreaList

6.2.42 TimeElement

6.2.43 YearLevel

6.2.44 YearLevels

6.3 SIF AU

6.3.1 CalendarDate

6.3.2 CalendarSummary

6.3.3 Identity

6.3.4 LEAInfo

6.3.5 PersonPicture

6.3.6 ReportAuthorityInfo

6.3.7 ReportManifest

6.3.8 RoomInfo

6.3.9 SchoolCourseInfo

6.3.10 SchoolInfo

6.3.11 SchoolPrograms

6.3.12 SessionInfo

6.3.13 SIF_ReportObject

6.3.14 StaffAssignment

6.3.15 StaffPersonal

6.3.16 StudentActivityInfo

6.3.17 StudentActivityParticipation

6.3.18 StudentAttendanceSummary

6.3.19 StudentContactPersonal

6.3.20 StudentContactRelationship

6.3.21 StudentDailyAttendance

6.3.22 StudentParticipation

6.3.23 StudentPeriodAttendance

6.3.24 StudentPersonal

6.3.25 StudentSchoolEnrollment

6.3.26 StudentSDTN

6.3.27 StudentSnapshot

6.3.28 SummaryEnrollmentInfo

6.3.29 TeachingGroup

6.3.30 TermInfo

6.3.31 TimeTable

6.3.32 TimeTableCell

6.3.33 TimeTableSubject

A Common Types

A.1 AbstractContentPackageType

A.2 BaseNameType

A.3 DefinedProtocolsType

A.4 ExtendedContentType

A.5 GUIDType

A.6 IdRefType

A.7 MonetaryAmountType

A.8 MsgIdType

A.9 NameOfRecordType

A.10 ObjectNameType

A.11 OtherNameType

A.12 PartialDateType

A.13 RefIdType

A.14 ReportDataObjectType

A.15 ReportPackageType

A.16 SelectedContentType

A.17 SIF_EventObjectType

A.18 SIF_ExampleObjectType

A.19 SIF_LogEntryExtendedContentType

A.20 SIF_ProvideObjectNamesType

A.21 SIF_RequestObjectNamesType

A.22 SIF_ResponseObjectsType

A.23 SIF_ResponseObjectType

A.24 SIF_SubscribeObjectNamesType

A.25 URIOrBinaryType

A.26 VersionType

A.27 VersionWithWildcardsType

B Code Sets

AU Code Sets

Activity Involvement Code

Activity Type

Address Role

Address Type

Attendance Code

Attendance Status

Australian Citizenship Status

Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups (ASCCEG)

Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL)

Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups (ASCRG)

Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC)

Birthdate Verification

Calendar Event

Day Value Code

Dwelling Arrangement

Education Agency Type

Electronic Id Type

Email Type

Employment Type

English Proficiency

Enrollment Time Frame

Entry Type

Exit/Withdrawal Status

Exit/Withdrawal Type

Federal Electorate

FTPT Status Code

Immunisation Certificate Status

Indigenous Status

Language Type

Name Usage Type

Non-School Education

Operational Status

Permanent Resident Status

Picture Source

Program Funding Source Code

Progress Level

Public School Catchment Status

Relationship To Student

School Co-Ed Status

School Education Level Type

School Enrollment Type

School Focus Code

School Level

School Location

School Sector Code

School System

Session Type

Sex Code

Source Code Type

Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC)

State Territory Code

Student/Family Program Type

Systemic Status

Telephone Number Type

Visa Statistical Code

Visa Sub Class

Year Level Code

Yes Or No Category

Infrastructure

Status Code

Error Category

XML Validation Error

Encryption Error

Authentication Error

Access and Permission Error

Registration Error

Provision Error

Subscription Error

Request and Response Error

Event Reporting and Processing Error

Transport Error

System Error

Generic Message Handling Error

SMB Error

SIF_LogEntry

Agent Error Condition

Data Issues with Failure Result

Data Issues with Success Result

Success Category

ZIS Error Condition

C External Code Sets

International Standards Organization (ISO)

4217 Currency names and code elements

D Notes on Related Technologies

D.1 SIF and HTTP(S)

D.2 SIF and URLs

D.3 SIF and XML

D.4 SIF and Unicode

D.5 SIF and XPath

D.6 SIF and XML Schema

D.6.1 xs:boolean

D.6.2 xs:time

D.6.3 xs:date

D.6.4 xs:dateTime

D.7 SIF and XML Namespaces

D.8 SIF and UUIDs/GUIDs

D.9 SIF and Web Services

E Wildcard Version Support Implementation Notes

E.1 XML Parsing

E.2 XML Validation

E.3 SIF_Message Handling

F Selective Message Blocking (SMB) Example

F.1 Example

G Background/Supplementary Documentation (non-normative)

H Index of Tables

I Index of Examples

J Index of Figures

K Index of Objects

L Index of Common Elements

M Index of Common Types

N Index of Elements

O Index of Attributes

P References

From: SIF Implementation Specification (Australia), Version 1.0, November 20, 2009

XML Business Process Standards

Professor Viswanath Venkatesh, University of Arkansas, will speak on "Are You Ready? Deployment and Success of Business Process Standards", 4pm, 12 November 2010 at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Professor Venkatesh will detail results of a study of organizations using RosettaNet, a non-profit consortium using XML business to business (B2B) e-commerce interfaces. RosettaNet was set up by the the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC). The Australian affiliate is RosettaNet Australia and European equivalent is EDIFICE (which originated working on EDIFACT messages).

NCISR Industry Seminar Series

Are You Ready? Deployment and Success of Business Process Standards

Process standards, which are being increasingly deployed, can provide various benefits to organizations. Not all organizations, however, are successful in their deployment. Given that process standards are growing in importance, the key question is: Is your firm ready? Organizations that aren’t ready will either fail to implement the new processes or fail to garner the benefits following implementation.

Based on an extensive study of over 70 organizations seeking to implement RosettaNet, this talk will make a case for readiness as a key prerequisite for success. Specifically, technology readiness, process readiness and people readiness are presented as three key necessary conditions for success. Details related to what constitutes readiness, how to evaluate readiness and how to get ready will be discussed.

Speaker: Professor Viswanath Venkatesh, Professor and George & Boyce Billingsley Chair in Information Systems, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas; Visiting Professor, Australian National University

Date: 4 – 5.15 pm, Friday, 12 Nov, 2010 (followed by refreshments)
Location: Lecture Theatre 1, CBE, Building 26C, ANU (G3 on the Map)
Parking available off Childers Stree: F2 on the Map).

Cost: No charge (but bookings essential, places are limited)
RSVP: Antoinette Bosman, by Tuesday. 9 November, 2010
(02) 6125 9827 Antoinette.Bosman@anu.edu.au

Professor Viswanath Venkatesh

Viswanath Venkatesh, a visiting professor at ANU, is a professor and the holder of the George and Boyce Billingsley Chair in Information Systems at the Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas. His research focuses on understanding the diffusion of technologies in organizations and society. For over a decade, he has worked with several companies and government agencies in different capacities ranging from a systems engineer to a special consultant to the Vice-President, and has rigorously studied real world phenomena. Most recently, he served on an expert panel at the United Nations that focuses on the advancement of women.

The sponsorship of his research has been about $10M, including funding from government agencies, e.g., National Science Foundation and Department of Transportation. His work has appeared in leading academic and practitioner journals. His articles have been cited over 12,000 times and 4,300 times per Google Scholar and Web of Science respectively. One of his papers has been identified by Science Watch (a Thompson Reuters’ service) as the most influential article in one of the four Research Front Maps identified in business and economics.

Sponsored by

• National Centre for Information Systems Research
  
• School of Accounting & Business Information Systems, College of Business & Economics, ANU
  

Australian XML Based Standard Business Reporting

The Australian Government has started use of XML based Standard Business Reporting program (SBR). This allows companies which need to report information to multiple federal and state government agencies to use on common interface format. Initial use is for tax and financial reporting: Business Activity Statement, financial statements (ASIC), and payroll tax returns.

SBR partner agencies include the Australian Treasury, Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), state and territory revenue offices. There is a standard Taxonomy and a list of forms used.

Companies participating require a new digital identifier: the AusKey. Unfortunately the Australian Government has a poor track record with such identifiers, having introduced several schemes which were intended to provide one identifier for doing business with government, but proved too cumbersome to use. This may be overcome with AUSkey, as technology has progressed making issuing and using such keys easier and by obtaining agreement with state government for the use of the same identifier.

SBR appears to be designed for large businesses which can afford to implement the needed interfaces and have reporting complex enough to warrant automation. However, with increasing use of online systems by small and micro business, its use is likely to spread to smaller businesses. It would be a relatively easy upgrade to an online accounting package to add the interface.

The technical interface uses SSL security as commonly used for web applications, SOAP and XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language). These should be tools familiar to application developers (I have been teaching the use of XML for commerce to ANU students since 2000).

On-demand books for learning

Michael Porteous from Pearson Education Australia sent me a copy of "E-Commerce Enabling Technologies", to see if it would be suitable for an e-commerce course. Apart from the useful content, this slim textbook (143 pages), is interesting for the way it was produced.

The book is by Boualem Benatallah and Fethi Rabhi (both from, University of New South Wales) and Hye Young Paik, (Queensland University of Technology). It appears to have evolved from a set of lecture notes on e-commerce technology, and provides a good detailed guide to using XML and related technology for business and related applications.

The book is an A4 format paperback, from Pearson's SprintPrint service, for on-demand text book production. Judging by the fonts and layout of the book, the content has been produced using LaTex and then printed with a standard cover. This way an author, particularly one familiar with computers, can quickly produce a reasonably professional looking book.

One challenge from this approach is that this came content could be provided in electronic format online as well. The same LaTex file used to generate the printed book can be used to create an e-Book and a set of web pages, suitable for placing on the web, or in a Learning Management System. However, if this is done, difficult questions of intellectual property rights arise. The authors of this book are from universities funded by the Australian Government, so why should students of such institutions have to pay to receive a copy of this work? Why not make the electronic version free online?

E-Commerce Enabling Technologies

Australian produced title
Boualem Benatallah , University of New South Wales Fethi Rabhi , University of New South Wales Hye Young Paik , Queensland University of Technology

ISBN: 9780733970207
ISBN10: 0733970206
RRP inc. GST: $59.95
Published: 12/07/2004
Format: Paperback

Description

E-Commerce Enabling Technologies 4e assumes that students have a basic knowledge in programming and are familiar with general computing concepts. It covers a broad range of e-commerce technologies with a coherent and complete view of state-of-the-art technologies.

This edition presents a balanced view of the e-commerce revolution on existing management and business practices with the technologies that are involved, and is a cross disciplinary text that can be used in both Business and IT courses (BIS & CIS crossover).

It is also suitable for technical IT staff, which requires an update of recent developments and the experienced computer academic who wonders Whats this e-commerce fuss all about?

New to This Edition

· Chapter 2 Development of Applications for the Web has been enhanced to give students a better understanding of this expanding area.
· Chapter 6 Introduction to XML is covered in a more coherent and student friendly way for easier learning.
· Chapter 9 E-Catalogs gives students a simple and comprehensive look at a new area of development in the BIS/CIS area.

Features and Benefits

· More practical programming examples so students can put what they learn into practice.
· End of Chapter pointers to give students more information on particular topics.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: E-commerce Models, Architectures and Systems
2 Development of Applications for the Web
3 Distributed Objects for the Web
4 Java for Enterprises
5 Data Access
6 Introduction to XML
7 Web Services
8 B2B Integration Frameworks
9 E-Catalogs
10 Case Study: Online Securities Trading
Bibliography
Index

About the Authors

Boualem Benatallah, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales has a background in the area of databases and Web applications. His latest interest is in the integration of Web-accessible data sources and services.

Fethi Rabhi, School of Information Systems, University of New South Wales has a background in concurrent and distributed processing with the view that e-commerce applications are complex systems of interacting entities and where issues of communication semantics and languages are paramount.

Helen Paik, School of Information Systems, Queensland University of Technology is part of the new wave of academics who are strongly grounded in novel Internet/Web technologies and experienced in working for industry (IBM Global Services in this case).

From:Description of "E-Commerce Enabling Technologies", Pearson Education Australia, 2008

Australian Open Source Disaster Management Software Released

Renato Iannella from NICTA has announced that they have released open source software for disaster management: Cooperative Alert Information and Resource Notification System (CAIRNS). This is intended to demonstrate interoperability of Crisis Information Management Systems (CIMS). It uses XML standards: Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution Element (EDXL-DE), Emergency Data Exchange Language Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM) and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).

Technical comparison of ODF and OOXML formats

For some lectures on e-document formats, I was looking to do a comparison of the technical features of the ODF and OOXML document formats. I came across an ODF/OOXML technical white paper by Edward Macnaghten. This is a useful comparison with good detailed analysis using the same documents marked up in the two formats.

Macnaghten points out that ODF makes more use of existing XML and other international standards, whereas OOXML tried to maintain compatibility with Microsoft Office features. An example of this is that ODF uses ISO standard format for dates, whereas OOXML uses an quirky Microsoft format. He also points out that ODF is more verbose than OOXML with its markup, but this makes for a more standard logical structure and the size of the file will be taken care of by the compression used by both formats.

However, I don't agree with the introduction which claims ODF was developed as a vendor neutral standard, whereas OOXML was by Microsoft. As explained later, ODF was derived from the format of Sun's StarOffice product. The details of how this was done are more visible than Microsoft's development of OOXML. But both ODF and OOXML were adapted from existing office product formats.

Both ODF and OOXML suffer from a lack of compatibility with the common web format: HTML. You can't simply open a word processing or presentation document in a web browser, it has to be converted in some way first. The obvious way to do this would be to base the word processing and presentation formats on XHTML. That way the documents could be made compatible with web browsers. It would be much more difficult to use XHTML for the spreadsheet format and there isn't a really good reason to do that.

NZ XML Governance Framework for Interoperability

Standards New Zealand have issued three Draft Standards on electronic interoperability of information using XML for government systems: Commenrs close 09/05/2008:

1. XML Governance Framework: Principles
2. XML Governance Framework: Operational guide
3. XML Governance Framwork: Communities guide

It is not clear to me why NZ needs its own standards for XML interoperability, as this would make them non-interoperable with the rest of the world.