In IBM rolls out grid future InfoWorld outlines the grid future in an interesting way.
"Boston, MA, USA; 6 November 2002 -- The OASIS interoperability consortium today announced that its members have approved the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) v1.0 as an OASIS Open Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. SAML is an XML-based framework for Web services that allows the exchange of authentication and authorization information among business partners. SAML enables Web-based security interoperability functions, such as single sign-on, across sites hosted by multiple companies..."
Analysis:
The standard is highly relevant from a legal standpoint, since it security assertions seem to have high liability impact.
The SAML-standard will raise a set of important legal issues. The following are but a subset:
1) What does it mean to assert security across services, legally?
2) What liabilities are assumed?
3) How can these liabilities be a) expressed in the standard or c) managed in support contract structures?
4) What new issues will arise due to the fact that single signon seems to allow massive collection of personal data across different collecting parties?
5) Will the sum of personal data be assessed from a privacy perspective or only the subsets accessible to each party?
These, and many other questions, must now be sufficiently addressed in the continuing work of the SAML-group.
ZD-Net reports that SOAP is drawn into a patent battle (News: Patent issues could cloud SOAP standard). This is potentially serious for the development of web services, and could prove detrimental to the standards community.
XML Cover Pages: UK e-GIF Publishes XML Schemas For Use in Local Elections.
In this article a new standard for use in local elections is presented and analysed.
XML.org - Standards Guide Main Directory contains no legal entries or standards. Is that becasue they do not exist or because they are not active enough? Anyways, it is a shame.
Announcing XML Europe 2003!
5 - 8 May 2003
London, England
The deadline for paper proposals for XML Europe 2003 is Friday, 13 December, 2002. See the call for participation information at www.xmleurope.com.
XML Europe provides the premier European forum for the XML community,
spanning the worlds of electronic business, publishing, the Internet,
e-government, software and open standards development. This year's
conference takes as its theme "Powering the Information Society," reflecting the crucial place XML is taking in underpinning many of the systems that form a real part of our lives.
XML Europe's remit is traditionally broad: mixing the newest technology with the latest thinking in the business and legal issues of information management.
For guidelines and to submit a proposal, visit the event web site at www.xmleurope.com.
There are many ways to participate in the conference, by presenting a paper, a tutorial, as a vendor-presenter, or by presenting a late-breaking news item.
For regular presentations and tutorials the deadline for proposal submission (not the full paper) is 13 December 2002. Presentation proposals will be appreciated in, but not limited to, the following areas:
* Case Studies * Content Management * Core Technologies * Databases * Electronic Business * Government * Legal * Graphics and Multimedia * Knowledge Technologies * Publishing * Web Services
More information on proposing presentations is available at
Suggested tutorial topics include, but are not limited to:
* Electronic Business * Graphics and Multimedia * Knowledge
Technologies * XML and Databases * XML for IT Managers * XML on ... ..NET/Java/Open Source, etc. * XML Schema Languages * Web Development * Web Services.
More information on proposing tutorials is available at
Regards,
Edd Dumbill
Programme Chair, XML Europe 2003
eLexPortal reports that:
"Dutch consortium for exchange of human resources data in e-Business (05-NOV-02)
The HR-XML Consortium is an independent, non-profit organization whose aim is to enable e-Commerce and inter-company exchange of human resources-related data. HR-XML members are companies from 22 different Countries.
Any data exchange requires an agreement among participants about how the transaction will be carried out. The role of the HR-XML Consortium is to provide employers and vendors the means to transact with other companies without having to establish, engineer, and implement many separate interchange mechanisms, thus avoiding the risk and expenses of having to negotiate and agree upon data interchange.
HR-XML Consortium WebSite: http://www.hr-xml.org
Contact person: Marjolijn Bonthuis-Krijger (marjolijn.bonthuis@ecp.nl)"
"Dallas, TX, USA, 4 November 2002 -- OASIS, the global standards consortium, today announced that it will expand its organization to include the security advocacy group, PKI Forum. As the newest OASIS Member Section, PKI Forum will continue to advance the use of the Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) as a foundation for secure transactions in e-business and Web services applications."
This means that OASIS will be addressing issues that have immediate legal relevance. It also means that the PKI sector will have to suffer another interested party in its already rather standardised world.
LEXML/LISA opens a weblog for documenting the work of the community. This is an open weblog for anyone who wants to contribute. Do you want an account? Mail Nicklas Lundblad.