Australian W3C Office

W3C Workshop - Canberra

The W3C develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.

You are invited to a free W3C workshop on Friday, 7th May 2004 at the Main Theatre, National Library of Australia (map). The presentations will cover Voice Browsers, Multimodal Interaction, the Semantic Web and Web Clients.

Program - Friday 7th May 2004

10:00am to 10:40am - Giving Voice to the Web
Presenter: Dr Max Froumentin, W3C
W3C Voice Browser Activity homepage: http://www.w3.org/Voice/
W3C Multimodal Activity homepage: http://www.w3.org/2002/mmi/

Abstract: W3C recently published five new recommendations enabling speech recognition and synthesis for the Web. Users will be able to navigate, request information and even fill in Web forms using speech and other forms of input. The Speech Interface Framework includes VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language), SRGS (Speech Recognition Grammar Specification), Speech Synthesis, Call Control and Semantic Interpretation.

A key goal of the Framework is to increase interoperability between the Web and voice applications, making it possible to expand access to the Web to allow people to interact via key pads, spoken commands, as well as listening to prerecorded and synthetic speech. This will allow any telephone to be used to access appropriately designed Web-based services, and will be a boon to people with visual impairments or needing Web access while keeping their hands and eyes free.

This talk will introduce the Framework and its Components, with a focus on the practical benefits it provides for the Web application developer. Related work at W3C, such as Multimodal Interaction, will also be described, as well as the ongoing work of the Working Group to define the next generation of voiceinteraction languages.

Bio: Dr Max Froumentin joined the W3C in 2001. Since 2003, he is the contact for two Working Groups:

- The Voice Browser Working Group, which designs the VoiceXML family of standards for vocal interaction, synthesis and recognition
- The Multimodal Interaction Working Group, which deals with universal access to the Web through any modality: screen, voice, keypad, stylus, etc.

Max’s interests are 2D and 3D graphics, styling and typography. Max completed a PhD in computer graphics in 1996 at University of Lille, France.

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10:40am to 11.20am - The Semantic Web
Presenter: Dr Jane Hunter, Australian W3C Office (Seminar Slides)
W3C Semantic Web Activity homepage: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Abstract: This talk presents an overview of the W3C Semantic Web activities. Jane will describe the current state of ontologies, languages, tools, significant research projects, applications and anticipated future developments in the area.

Bio: Dr Jane Hunter is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Distributed Systems Technology (DSTC) Cooperative Research Centre, at the University of Queensland. She is also Project Leader of DSTC's MAENAD (Multimedia Access for Enterprises across Networks And Domains) project which is developing indexing, archival, discovery, analysis, integration, management and preservation tools and services to enable knowledge management, mining and capture within the educational, cultural and scientific domains. She is currently the liaison between MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), a member of the Dublin Core Advisory Board and the W3C Web Ontology Language Working group and on the Editorial board of Elsevier's Journal of Web Semantics.

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11:20am to 12noon - Web Clients (Browsers, Formats, Fun)
Presenter: Dr Dean Jackson, W3C (Seminar Slides)
SVG Homepage: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/

Abstract: The rumours of the death of the browser are greatly exaggerated. While it may appear that some things have stagnated, the truth is that a new breed of browsers are emerging. The functionality and deployment of browsers on Mobile devices will soon outstrip desktop systems. Many existing and new client-side technologies are being developed and are seeing widespread adoption, such as XHTML, SVG, CSS, SMIL and XForms. Also, there are formats developed outside the W3C that have having a large impact on today's Web, such as RSS, Atom and FOAF. Web applications and mixed markup technologies are on the rise. This presentation will describe the current state of the Web Client what the near future holds, and why this is important.

Bio: Dr Dean Jackson is part of the W3C Graphics Activity within theInteraction Domain. He is the editor of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) specification and the W3C staff member assigned to SVG. Dean is also the chair of the W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents to be held in June 2004.

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This project is funded under the Commonwealth Government's Innovation Access Program. An initiative of Backing Australia's Ability, the Commonwealth Government's commitment to Innovation and supported by the National Library of Australia, Australian Computer Society (ACS), Canberra Branch, The Distillery, Urban Services, ACT, Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association (AIMIA), and DSTC.