New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
College of Computing Sciences (CCS)
CIS485-451 & CIS 786-851: World Wide Web Standards, Fall 2001
Professor: Michael Bieber

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Specific Standards Presentation Assignment

Version 3 - 10/20

Goal

To learn about the specific standards being used on and proposed for the World Wide Web. Teams will provide information about specific standards, which the class will then use as a basis for discussion.

Due Dates

by Saturday 9/8:

• Choose the first standard you would like to research and present to the class. (See the instructions below).

by the Wednesday of the week specified on schedule:

• Your team will present your standard in its own WebBoard conference and describe its relevance for the case studies.

by Saturday 9/29:

• Choose the rest of the standards you will present for the semester.

Assignment

Everyone will present 2 standards during the semester. You will work in teams of two people in the first half of the semester, and in teams of three in the second half of the semester.

Choosing Teams & Standards

In the "Specific Standard Signup" conference on WebBoard, sign up for one of the standards listed by Saturday 9/8 (first half of the semester) or Thursday 10/25 (second half). Once a team of two (first half) or three (second half) is formed, I will formalize it on the class schedule. You'll then be responsible for posting your presentation to WebBoard by the assigned dates.

Here is the first set of standards:

9/12 - 9/18

• Extended Markup Language (XML)
• Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
• Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)
• JAVA
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

9/19 - 9/25

• XML Namespaces
• XML Schema
• XML Path Language (XPATH)
• Uniform Resource Identifier, Locator, Name (URI/URL/URN)

9/26 - 10/2

• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• The Extensible Stylesheet Language and Transformations (XSL/XSLT)
• Unicode
• Domain Name System (DNS)

10/10 - 10/16

• Document Object Model (DOM)
• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
• XML Linking Language (XLink)
• XML Pointer Language (XPointer)

Here is the second set of standards:

11/1 - 11/8

• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

11/8 - 11/15

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines
• Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
• Portable Network Graphics (PNG)

11/15 - 11/22

• Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• Darpa Agent Markup Language and OIL (DAML+OIL)

11/22 - 12/6

• Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
• Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)
• Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)

11/22 - 12/6

• Dublin Core
• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project
• Open E-Book Specifications

Choosing Teams & Standards

Send me a List of Recommended Lurkers Early

As early as possible, please send me a list of experts in the field whom I could invite to join in the discussion on WebBoard about your standard. Include a short description of how each person is involved or qualifies as an expert, as well as an email address. I will contact at least one of them to "lurk" on WebBoard for the presentation week.

Presentation Format

On WebBoard, you will find a conference for your specific standard. In it, please post the following information, each as a separate posting. (Be careful to post each as a new comment, not as a reply to an existing comment.)

1. non-technical description of the standard (what it is, it's goal, focus, area of applicability, how it is used, etc.)
2. which standards organization controls it
3. technical description (a short technical description - this may be a link to a technical description on the Web, or a cleaner explanation that you have rewritten)
4. short example with a clear explanation
5. the standard's history and status (what it grew out of); status as a standard (official, recommendation, etc.) - this should be more than just a list of its versions...
6. people involved with this standard (describe how they are involved, and include email addresses if possible)
7. problems, issues, caveats and debates concerning the standard
8. references: official Web sites for this standard, other useful Web sites
9. biography: bibliography of interesting articles (newspapers, trade press, academic research-related, etc.); include URLs of the articles and attachments if possible
10. other interesting information about it (anecdotes, interesting uses, etc.)

Thus, in your standard's WebBoard conference, we should see 9 separate postings with the topic headings "Non-Technical Description," "Standards Organization," "Technical Description, " "Example," "History and Status," etc. If you cannot find information on a particular topic, then state in its posting "No information available" for full credit; do not leave a topic out. (Perhaps someone else in the class can help out.)

Currently I do not plan to ask for any written report, though I may change my mind for the second standard later in the semester.

Your Standard & the Case Studies

We have three case studies in this course, concerning e-procurement, virtual communities and Web banking. Each has its own WebBoard conference. For each, describe how your standard could be relevant for that case. Feel free to suggest new features for that case that would involve your standard.

Note that some standards may simply not apply to a particular case, and if so then feel free to state this, explaining why.

Mentor the Discussion

During your week, please monitor the discussion of your standard. After Saturday, when people have posted comments, add some additional replies as necessary.

Private Team Conference

If you would like, I can set up a private conference on WebBoard for your team. Just let me know in an email message (bieber@njit.edu).

Important Note on References

Unfortunately, we must address plagiarism or copying work that other people have written in homework, reports, articles or on the Web. If you are going to use more than a few words from someone or somewhere else you must put it in quotation marks and you must cite it (say where you found it). If you paraphrase information from someone or somewhere else, you do not need to put it in quotation marks, but again you must cite it. Generally there is nothing wrong with incorporating other people's ideas to a limited degree, but you must make it clear when you are using and building upon other people's ideas. Plagiarism can result in failing the course and being put on probation. This unfortunately has happened to several students in the past in my classes.

To summarize:

• rewrite, whenever possible - don't copy (rewrite especially to make things clear to our audience)
• if you need to copy, then use quotation marks
• always provide references to all articles and links to all Web pages you used information from, even if you have rewritten this information