Microsoft floats new extensions to RSS

Software giant Microsoft is working on an extension to the popular RSS feed, it has been revealed. The new format, which the company dubs 'Simple Sharing Extensions', is intended to extend the standard to enable the sharing of such things as calendaring and contact lists between individuals. The idea has been floated by Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie in his blog. ...more

Sun and Microsoft slug it out over ODF

Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz has predicted that the Open Document Format will become the default document format of the future. In his blog, Schwartz outlined the importance of an open standards-based document format where its life span is not tied to that of the software used to access it. 'Information always outlives technology,' he wrote. ...more

The rich and poor of 3G

The future world of 3G telephony looks likely to be split into rich and poor, in terms of service quality. Nokia and Sonera have tested 3G in a roaming environment and found it's able to transmit data faultlessly through Sonera's GRX (GPRS Roaming Exchange). The QoS test were conducted on three types of IP data: video streaming, Internet radio and ftp traffic. ...more

Web services raise the security standard

IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign have published a specification for secure transactions between Web services, which they hope to have ratified as a standard. The specification, called WS-Security, is designed to exchange secure, signed messages within a Web services environment independent of platform or language. The protocol is based on a standard set of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) extensions that can be used to ensure integrity and confidentiality in Web service transactions. ...more

Digital signatures to be given legal status

In a bid to push forward British e-commerce, the Cabinet Office has asked industry body E-Centre UK to look into legislation making documents signed digitally legally binding. Currently, the law requires documents to be physically signed or exchanged, but in July a European directive to give digital signatures the same legal status as written ones, gained Royal assent. E-Centre UK has been called in to sort out this conflict and change legislation concerning issues such as house buying, employment contracts and consumer credit. ...more