Teknovis

I received this during the week:

Standards Meetings (Copyright Scott Adams)

Enjoy :)

Apparently today was World Standards Day! I did not know such a thing existed, until a colleague told me about it this morning!

So happy World Standards Day!

I had a discussion with a friend recently regarding the benefits of standards. I was subsequently sent the following image:

How Standards Proliferate

In fairness, it is very true!

I have been made aware (thanks) of some interesting web client-server developments recently, so I will group them all together in this post!

• Do you find HTTP too slow? Then you might want to try SPDY! I am actually really impressed that it is already in use in Chrome! For more details see Life beyond HTTP 1.1: Google’s SPDY.
• Are you developing a web site with sensitive information? Then perhaps you should consider HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)! See Strict Transport Security and Public Key Pinning for more interesting details! Actually, after reading DPI Doubts Deepen recently I am more convinced than ever of the need for using security!
• Finally, do you need to classify all of the APIs that you use? Yes – then look at Classification of HTTP-based APIs.

There are a lot of exciting developments there!

Tags: Chrome, HSTS, HTTP, SPDY

I read today that the W3C will stop developing XHTML 2 later this year, and it will focus on HTML 5.

I have not had direct experience with either of these standards. However, I have been using XHTML 1.0 and XHTML 1.1 for a long time for my personal web pages (including these web pages).

The full article is An epitaph for the Web standard, XHTML 2, and the official W3C announcement is XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5.

Tags: HTML, W3C, XHTML

I read an article during the week describing how several of the major mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to develop a standard mobile phone charger for use throughout the EU! I think that this would be very useful, and I am surprised that I never thought about this before now! The original article that I read is All change for mobile chargers.

I wonder what other aspects of consumer electronics could be standardised. The most obvious one that I can think of is laptop chargers.

Tags: Mobile Phone

I just read that Skype is considering the use of SIP in Skype Opens Up To SIP, Finally Eyes Enterprise Customers The Way It Should. (For an explanation of SIP see Session Initiation Protocol.) The main motivation of this would be to bring Skype to the business community. (Although in my experience Skype is already used extensively by both small and large businesses.)

Skype currently uses a propitiatory protocol to exchange VoIP data, and this protocol masquerades as HTTPS. SIP is a mature open standard for VoIP, and therefore there are already many compliant hardware and software solutions.

In general, I am a big fan of open standards. However, in this case I think that the biggest advantage of SIP is also its biggest disadvantage. In particular, because SIP is an open standard is is very easy to identify it on the network, and treat it differently. The advantage of this is that VoIP traffic can be given higher priority. The disadvantage is that VoIP traffic can easily be blocked :( I have experienced Internet connections in many hotels that block all outgoing traffic except HTTP and HTTPS. In these situations Skype still works perfectly :)

If Skype can successfully incorporate SIP functionality without compromising on the existing propitiatory protocol over HTTPS then I think that would be a great solution!

Tags: HTTP, SIP, Skype

Today I am going to focus on the Irish involvement in another international standards body called the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance). Information about the history and goals of the OMA can be found in About OMA. There are 4 different levels of membership of the OMA, and these are described in OMA Membership. However, I am not going to distinguish between these membership types. I am basing my lists on the memberships lists in Current OMA Members.

The Irish companies that are currently members are:

• AdaptiveMobile
• Ammeon
• S3
• Xiam

The non-Irish companies that have technical operations in Ireland that are currently members are:

• Acotel (Due to the Irish company Jinny)
• Adobe
• Aepona
• Alcatel-Lucent
• Avaya
• BT
• Ericsson
• HP
• IBM
• Intel
• Microsoft
• Motorola
• Nortel
• Oracle
• RedKnee
• Siemens (Due to Nokia Siemens Networks)
• Sun
• Verizon (Due to its purchase of Cybertrust)
• Vodafone

As always, it is difficult to determine if some of these multi-nations have a technical presence in Ireland.

Tags: Acotel, AdaptiveMobile, Adobe, Aepona, Alcatel-Lucent, Ammeon, Avaya, BT, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Intel, Ireland, Jinny, Microsoft, Motorola, Nortel, OMA, Oracle, RedKnee, S3, Siemens, Sun, Verizon, Vodafone, Xiam

I am going to continue my series on Irish companies (and organisations) that are involved in standards organisations, and today I am going to focus on the GSM Association. This is appropriate timing for doing this, because the GSMA Mobile World Congress is happening soon in Barcelona. I have never attended this, but I would like to ;)

The GSM Association has several types of membership, and these are described in Types of Membership. I am going to focus on the Associate Membership type, and the members with this type of membership are listed in Associate Members.

The Irish companies that are currently members are:

• Accuris Networks
• AdaptiveMobile
• Altobridge
• Anam
• Arantech
• ezetop
• Jinny
• NewBay
• Openmind Networks

The non-Irish companies that have technical operations in Ireland that are currently members are:

• Alcatel-Lucent
• BT
• Cisco
• Critical Path
• Ericsson
• Flextronics
• Intel
• Intervoice
• Lycatel
• Martin Dawes Systems
• Microsoft
• Motorola
• Nortel
• Option
• RadioFrame Networks
• RedKnee
• Siemens (Also known as Nokia Siemens Networks)
• WeDo Technologies (Due to its purchase of Cape Technologies)

As always, it is sometimes difficult to tell what sort of a presence some of these companies have in Ireland.

There are also a number of Irish companies that are working in the same area as the GSM Association, but these companies are not listed as members. Enterprise Ireland supports these companies, and it rents a large stand at the GSMA Mobile World Congress which these companies can use. More details about this can be read on the 3GSM Ireland web site. The Irish companies that Enterprise Ireland is, or was, supporting that are not listed as members are:

• Alatto
• Ammeon
• Asavie
• AskMoby
• Cellusys
• ChangingWorlds (but see Amdocs to Acquire ChangingWorlds)
• Cibenix
• Cicero Networks
• Cinnara
• Idiro
• Macalla
• Nubiq
• Prime Carrier
• Rococo
• Sentry Wireless
• S3
• Tango Telecom
• WestGlobal
• Valista
• Vimio
• Xiam
• YQ

I am really surprised, and impressed, with the number of companies in these lists!

Tags: Accuris Networks, AdaptiveMobile, Alatto, Alcatel-Lucent, Altobridge, Ammeon, Anam, Arantech, Asavie, AskMoby, BT, Cellusys, ChangingWorlds, Cibenix, Cicero Networks, Cinnara, Cisco, Critical Path, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, ezetop, Flextronics, GSM Association, Idiro, Intel, Intervoice, Ireland, Jinny, Lycatel, Macalla, Martin Dawes Systems, Microsoft, Motorola, NewBay, Nortel, Nubiq, Openmind Networks, Option, Prime Carrier, RadioFrame Networks, RedKnee, Rococo, S3, Sentry Wireless, Siemens, Spain, Tango Telecom, Valista, Vimio, WeDo Technologies, WestGlobal, Xiam, YQ

I previously wrote about the Irish Companies involved in W3C, so today I am going to list the Irish companies (and organisations) that are involved in the TM Forum. Again, I am basing these lists on the online membership list.

The Irish companies that are currently members are:

• Amartus
• Arantech
• CommProve
• Dataduct
• DCU (There is nothing on DCU’s website about this!)
• Eircom
• Nomos Software
• Openet
• RedZinc
• Selatra (One of its founders is the President of the TM Forum)
• TCD
• TSSG

The non-Irish companies that have technical operations in Ireland that are currently members are:

• Accenture
• Agilent
• Alcatel-Lucent
• Amdocs
• Analysys Mason
• Arris
• Asidua
• BOC Group
• BT
• Cable and Wireless
• Cisco
• Deloitte and Touche
• EDS
• EMC Corporation
• Ericsson
• HERMES SoftLab
• HP
• IBM
• Martin Dawes Systems
• Microsoft
• Motorola
• Nortel
• O2
• Oracle
• Perot Systems
• RedKnee
• SAP
• Satyam
• Siemens (Also known as Nokia Siemens Networks)
• Sun
• Verizon (Due to its purchase of Cybertrust)
• Vodafone

At least I think that all of those companies have technical operations in Ireland. It can be very difficult to tell from their web pages.

Tags: Accenture, Agilent, Alcatel-Lucent, Amartus, Amdocs, Analysys Mason, Arantech, Arris, Asidua, BOC Group, BT, Cable and Wireless, Cisco, CommProve, Dataduct, DCU, Deloitte and Touche, EDS, Eircom, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, HERMES SoftLab, HP, IBM, Ireland, Martin Dawes Systems, Microsoft, Motorola, Nomos Software, Nortel, O2, Openet, Oracle, Perot Systems, RedKnee, RedZinc, SAP, Satyam, Selatra, Siemens, Sun, TCD, TM Forum, TSSG, Verizon, Vodafone