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This monthly column discusses hot topics, technologies, and trends in the mobile industry. Emerging Standards for Mobile Web June Issue Roxanne "The Expert" Singleton This month I thought I would dive into a topic that is gaining some momentum and try to give you all a heads up on what's coming. It's the Mobile Web Initiative and here's the scoop. The W3C recently announced a new working group that will focus specifically on issues related to the "mobile web." There are currently two working groups defined underneath this initiative, the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group (BPWG) and the Device Description Working Group (DDWG). There is only some very limited information available today about either of these groups, but their charter claims to be: "Making web access from a mobile device as simple, easy and convenient as web access from a desktop device." So what does this mean for developers? At this point, nothing really. There are still a number of open issues with regard to this initiative. On the surface, the concept of mobile best practices is a good thing for all involved. Openwave publishes these today via our style guides, and other browser vendors (such as Nokia and SonyEricsson) do the same. Some of the operators also publish their own style guides. The W3C is proposing a "mobileOK" trust mark that developers can use to indicate that a website is formatted in such a way that it will render in a legible way on mobile devices. The logo is designed to also be "machine readable" so that a gateway or transcoding service can identify a site that can be passed through without any content transformation. As a developer, it is still not clear what needs to be done to earn this trust mark or if there will be any cost associated with it. The other group, the Device Description Working Group, is a little less clear. The OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) has been working on the issue of device capabilities and descriptions for many years, and has recently been very actively working on cleaning up the processes around UAProf, making the device descriptions more reliable, and more readily available. The charter of the DDWG suggests that it's going to work very closely with the OMA, but exactly how has not yet been defined, and there is almost certainly going to be overlap. So, you wonder, can you find out more? Well, yes and no. You can read the charters and speculate for yourself what's actually going to come out of the initiatives (there are charters up for each of the groups BPWG and the DDWG). If you happen to be a member of the W3C already, you can get slightly more information, but at this point there are no public documents available for review. All I can advise you to do at this point is to sit tight, stay tuned, and keep designing, building and deploying your mobile content in the way that works best for you. If you are struggling with managing device complexities, I'd highly advise that you give WALL a look. The ongoing tutorial that we've been publishing is also continued in this newsletter. If you've got thoughts, questions, concerns opinions about anything regarding the Mobile Web Initiative or anything else mobile for that matter, drop me a line. WAP 2 Push Follow-up After my chat last month with Fergus about WAP Push 2.0, I got the following query from a developer: I would like to get some insight into how device manufacturers are for adapting WAP 2 push and what type of interfaces they are using to receive the WAP 2 pushes on these devices? Motorola is one manufacturer adapting for WAP 2 push. They are implementing the full specification in terms of connectivity. WAP Push-based application interoperability is also becoming a hot topic at OMA and I would expect to see them host a "test fests" on this in the not-too-distant future. Roxanne has been working as an application developer for over 10 years. Her goal is to successfully write this column without having to join the marketing team or sit on the top floor with the execs. Roxy recently sold her vintage Motorola brick phone on eBay for $15. If you have a general question you'd like answered or just want us to know what's on your mind, let her know. Or, for more detailed or specific technical support questions, please visit ODN Developer Support. |