Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 09:06:46 -0400 From: Dan Jacobs Subject: WebTech Tues 6/19 7pm Waltham - Human-XML Services Interface Hi everyone, The WebTech group will be meeting on Tuesday, June 19, 7pm at the IBM SPC in Waltham. Details and directions are available at the website: http://www.acm.org/chapters/webtech. The meeting this month will feature a presentation by David Levett, founder of Altio, Inc., on "The Human - XML Services Interface." This is sure to be an inciteful presentation about the shortcomings of current trends in web-based interfaces, and about Altio's approach to addressing those problems. Time permitting, we will also spend some time discussing some of the key features of the recent Java One conference. I hope to see you there! -- Dan Jacobs, Chairman Abstract: Just-In-Time Integration: The Human - XML Services Interface With the onset of the XML Services explosion, how do we find a way to combine these services in a way that works for people. To date there have been numerous approaches to get machines to collaborate through management, translation and distribution of XML documents. To the extent that this works, it is because machines follow strictly defined rules and roles. People however work in a more flexible and dynamic way. If you look at any organization, the business needs and information required from an Application will vary across departments. One example of this would be: A Human Resources person works with employee information in a different way than an Accountant, yet an XML service typically serves up 'Employee Records'. How do we find a way to let HR and Accounts work with the same service, but in the context of their role? This raises a number of questions: How do we build collaborative applications that are tailor-made for the end-users rather than one-(XtraLarge)-size-fits-all? How do we do it in a scalable and cost-effective manner? Is this the future for software applications? About the speaker: David Levett is the founder of Altio, Inc. Dave joins Altio from Talus, a Silicon Valley based startup funded by General Atlantic Partners. As Director of Innovation, Dave led initiatives to deliver dynamic pricing and revenue management solutions to leading e-commerce companies. Prior to Talus, Dave spent four years as managing director of Image and Signal Sciences (ISS), a company that provides software architecture and operational research consultancy.