beTech :: Evolve Already

Please join us for a presentation on XUL on Wednesday,October 15th from 10:00 - 11:30 am in Clemons Library, Room 407.
What: Introduction to XUL Development
When: Wed. 10/15, 10:00 - 11:30 am
Where: Clemons Library, Room 407 (to the left of the reference desk)
Who: RJ Bruneel
Introduction to XUL Development
An introduction to XUL development and discussion about what worked while RJ worked on a XUL project for Opensource Connections. XUL (XML User Interface Language) is Mozilla’s XML-based language that lets you build feature-rich cross platform applications that can run connected or disconnected from the Internet. These applications are easily customized with alternative text, graphics and layout so they can be readily branded or localized for various markets. Web developers already familiar with Dynamic HTML (DHTML) will learn XUL quickly and can start building applications right away.  

RJ Bruneel is a seasoned Software Developer since 1997 currently working for Opensource Connections. 

For more information about the location, check out http://www.lib.virginia.edu/map.html

What could be more surprising than an intelligent, Web 2.0 standard proposed by Microsoft? How about that it’s released under a Creative Commons license? Microsoft’s new Chief Technology Officer (and creator of Lotus Notes) Ray Ozzie explains the latest data format on the block: Simple Sharing Extensions.

Please join us on Friday, November 18 from 2-4pm in Clemons 407 for a presentation by Brian Sletten on Semantic Web technologies. Brian is a SemWeb expert and provided the following abstract for his presentation:

Just as the world is feeling comfortable with the Web, Tim Berners-Lee et al inform us that what we have seen so far is just the beginning. His original plans at CERN were larger and grander. The Semantic Web is the new vision of machine-processable documents and metadata to improve software development, search, knowledge discovery and data integration and management.

We will discuss the notorious Semantic Web “layer cake” which builds on the successes of the past and attempts to plan a road for this future. RDF allows us to say things about things. RDFS allows us to classify things. OWL extends RDF allowing us increasingly expressive (and consequently computationally intensive) modeling tools to capture shared understandings of specific domains. We will also discuss the Kowari project, an open source triplestore designed to facilitate the storage, management and basic inference of RDF and OWL documents and some of the other tools and technologies available today.

While there are many “layer haters” chiding such grand visions and complex technologies, there are also pragmatic and useful approaches emerging that can be applied to today’s data and systems.