Archive for March, 2006

Web services on the Thames (and the Cherwell)

Sean McGrath beat me to it, mentioning that he’ll be speaking in the Web Services and Service Architectures track that I chair at CSW’s XML Summer School.

I’m thrilled about the lineup, which in addition to Sean also includes Robin Wilton, Tony Coates, Marc Hadley, John Kemp, and Paul Madsen. Stay tuned for information on a guest lecturer as well. I can’t believe I conned convinced them all to sign on, some for a few years running, though admittedly there’s plenty of fun (pubs, punting, and lots more!) and education (an expanded curriculum, taught by great speakers!) to be had along with the duties at this event.

The plan is to present some cohesive lessons and demos across the two days of the track, showing what’s possible (and what trouble you can get into) when you connect user devices of various sorts into an environment where machines can communicate usefully with each other. We’re also putting an emphasis on securely conveying identity information in these scenarios for creating appropriately personalized, access-controlled user experiences.

John, by the way, has a book out shortly with Frederick Hirsch called Mobile Web Services. I’m looking forward to getting hold of it; Frederick tells me he hasn’t even been sent a hardcopy yet, though I heard a rumor that it was being handed out to some lucky folks at RSA. John’s Summer School lecture on advanced web services will touch on “challenges in handling web service messages in constrained environments, such as on a mobile phone client”, and looking at the book’s table of contents, he oughta know.

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W3C workshop in NY

Back in December I briefly mentioned an upcoming W3C workshop, whose official name is (deep breath) Toward a More Secure Web – W3C Workshop on Usability and Transparency of Web Authentication. I’ll be heading out tomorrow to go to the workshop, and I very much look forward to meeting and talking with other attendees. The program looks really strong.

I’m not presenting, but here’s my position paper. (There’s a sort of Easter egg in there…and no, I don’t mean the appearance of the word “promiscuous”!)

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An evening with Mudcat


Yep, we’re starting to make a habit of it. Mudcat (notice the by-now incredibly stable name; that’s our mascot over to the left) is performing once again at the Montlake Ale House, on Saturday, March 25, starting at 9pm.

Speaking of band names, try the jam band name generator if you think it’s time for us to be changing things up, or if you’ve got your own ensemble in search of a handle. Perpetual Love Express? Hmm, sounds good.

We’ve continued to expand our repertoire. On the whole we tend to play blues and funk “deep tracks”; most tunes that ever saw airplay to the point of Top-40-hood are barred from consideration. But occasionally I’m able to sneak one in, and I’m still crowing about the latest addition. I will admit that I resorted to buying a disc from the “Super Hits of the ’70s: Have a Nice Day” series to get a copy of the original. But I won’t tell you the name of the song; you’ll just have to show up and guess which one it is…

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