| CARVIEW |
The W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents
1st and 2nd June 2004
San Jose, California, USA
Future Work
The W3C has started developing a new Activity in this area called Web Applications. The intention is to have a Working Group doing Combined Documents with a focus on Mobile Computing, and a Working Group to begin examining requirements for Web Applications. The public are encouraged to give feedback on the mailing list.
Summary and Minutes Available
Thanks to everyone that participated in the workshop. There is a summary of the Workshop which includes the outcomes and potential next steps. The minutes (Tuesday, Wednesday) are also available, as are the IRC logs (Tuesday, Wednesday). Thanks to Leigh Klotz for taking minutes, and to the IRC monkeys also. Slides are linked from the agenda. Pleas send your presentation slides to Dean if you haven't done so.
Agenda and Papers Available
Workshop agenda and logistics available. The position papers submitted to the Workshop are now available to the public. A temporary list of registrants is also provided.
Contents
- Workshop Scope
- Expected Audience
- Registration
- Important Dates
- Workshop Details and Agenda
- Organizing Committee
- Venue
- Discussion
Workshop Scope
This workshop covers two topics: Web Applications and Compound Documents.
Web Applications
With the ubiquity of Web browsers and Web document formats across a range of platforms and devices, many developers are using the Web as a platform-independent application environment. Examples of Web applications include reservation systems, online shopping or auction sites, games, multimedia applications, calendars, maps, chat applications, clocks, interactive design applications, stock tickers, currency converters and data entry/display systems.
Over the past several years a number of different technologies have targeted application development on the Web. However, much of the work in this area has been proprietary and platform specific.
Web applications typically have some form of programmatic control, either on the client, on the server or a combination of both. This workshop addresses client-side Web applications only. They may run within the browser, or within another host application. A Web application is typically downloaded on demand each time it is "executed", allowing a developer to update the application for all users when needed. Web applications are usually smaller than regular desktop applications, and can have rich graphical interactive interfaces.
Position papers submitted for this workshop topic should address at least some of the following questions:
- What functionality is needed for Web applications? What should a hosting environment provide?
- How much of a Web application should be declarative? How much in script?
- How are they related to Web documents, which are normally static?
- Is there a need for a standard set of user interface controls? Should these controls use the native platform look and feel?
- What APIs are needed for Web applications (eg. retrieving and sending data over the network, parsing XML, client-side storage)?
- How should a Web application and its related resources (e.g. images, sounds) be packaged?
- What security issues need to be addressed?
- To what extent can application behavior be usefully abstracted from platform specific details of UI controls? How can the application integrate different modality interfaces (eg. voice, pen, keystrokes)? How to address richer models of interaction management that go beyond simple event handlers?
Compound Documents
XML allows content and application developers to mix and match markup languages, creating a compound document. In many cases the developer would use existing languages, but they are also free to invent their own language to address their specific situation.
Many of the W3C specifications were designed to either act as a host language for a document or to be integrated into a document hosted by another language. However, until recently this technique was not often used or implemented. With a new breed of document formats being created, such as XHTML plus SMIL plus SVG, or XForms embedded in SVG, it is expected that compound documents will become more popular. Also, there are a number of compound document formats in use in today's Web environment that were developed outside W3C.
Examples of usage scenarios for compound documents include multimedia applications such as DVD menu systems, rich-media formats for messaging such as MMS, document archiving, declarative user interfaces and Web Applications.
Position papers submitted for this workshop topic should address at least some of the following questions:
- Should there be a set of predefined compound document profiles (eg. XHTML Basic + SMIL Basic + SVG Tiny)?
- What features are needed from authoring tools designed to generate mixed content?
- What happens with event processing and style cascading across the boundaries of mixed content?
- What MIME type should a compound document use?
- What is needed from schema languages?
- How can application semantics from different markup languages be mixed in an interoperable way (e.g. using XBL)?
- Is there a need for a generic extension architecture? What is needed to allow extensions, such as plugins, to handle content that is not supported directly by the browser/host environment?
Public discussion of both topics is encouraged.
Expected Audience
We expect several groups to contribute to the workshop:
- Members of W3C Working Groups
- Software developers, in particular those working on browsers and authoring tools that intend to support hypertext documents with mixed content or web applications
- Web and application developers from the general community
- Representatives of organizations interested in seeing that such technologies can work together
Attendance is not restricted to W3C Members.
Registration
Although the Workshop is public, it is restricted to approximately 100 places. Each organization can provide at most three attendees.
Position papers are required in order to participate in this workshop. Each organization or individual wishing to participate should have submitted a position paper explaining their interest in the workshop. The intent is to make sure that participants have an active interest in the area, and that the workshop will benefit from their presence.
Papers may address one or both of the Workshop topics: Web applications and compound documents. Position papers can be anywhere from one page to four pages. In addition to the questions that were listed above, position papers may address:
- The work your organization has done in these areas
- The goals your organization believes are most important in these areas (e.g. interoperability, functionality, time to market)
- What would you like to see W3C do in these areas (e.g. create a Working Group to develop standards)
Beyond these questions, submissions can be as general or specific as the author(s) wish.
Send papers (in valid XHTML/HTML or PDF) to the archived mailing list: team-webapps-cdf-submissions@w3.org.
All position papers are available from the workshop Web site. The workshop Web site is public, so position papers and slides must be suitable for public dissemination. Speaker slides will also be available at the Web site after the workshop. There will not be printed proceedings.
To attend, you must register by filling out the registration form. The URI for the registration form has been sent to all submitters. If you did not receive a form, please email dean@w3.org.
There is no participation fee.
Important Dates
- 30 April 2004: Position papers due. (Late Submissions are still being accepted)
- 27 May 2004: Agenda available.
- 28 May 2004: Registration closes.
Workshop Details and Agenda
The agenda for the workshop is available, as is the meeting logistics. Attendess are strongly encouraged to read both documents.
The Workshop will start at 9am sharp on Tuesday. In order to enter the Adobe office you will be required to pass through reception. With the number of participants, this may take a while so please arrive with time to spare.
The Workshop will produce the following:
- A Summary of the Workshop, including outcomes and future next steps.
- Minutes (Tuesday, Wednesday)
- IRC logs (Tuesday, Wednesday)
- Position Papers
These will be published on the W3C Web site by the end of June 2004.
Organizing Committee
- Program Chairs
-
- Jon Ferraiolo <jon.ferraiolo@adobe.com> Adobe Systems, Inc
- Dean Jackson <dean@w3.org> W3C
- Program Committee
-
- Glenn Adams, Extensible Formatting Systems
- Robin Berjon, Expway
- Mark Birbeck, x-port
- Tolga Capin, Nokia
- Tim Chambers, Sony Digital Entertainment
- Vincent Hardy, Sun Microsystems
- Sean Hayes, Microsoft
- Guido Grassel, Nokia
- Markus Lauff, SAP
- Hakon Lie, Opera
- Chris Lilley, W3C
- Scott McGlashan, HP
If you have any questions, feel free to contact the workshop chairs by email.
Venue
The Workshop will be hosted in San Jose, by Adobe Systems. You will be required to enter through the main reception. Parking is available on request (tell the reception staff you are attending the workshop). The address is:
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, California 95110-2704
USA
Tel: 408-536-6000
Fax: 408-537-6000
Adobe's website has directions (in PDF) to the office, as well as a list of nearby hotels.
Adobe will provide refreshments, but attendees will have to supply their own lunches. The Adobe cafeteria will be available.
Discussion
Public discussion of this workshop can take place on the mailing list public-webapps-cdf-discuss@w3.org. This list has a public archive.
Dean Jackson <dean@w3.org>
$Date: 2005/01/13 13:52:56 $ by $Author: dean $