Start at W3's Activities home page. Open the various activities boxes, and explore.

Who are you? Which of these cultures do you feel most at home in? Do you think the way they do? That's a canonical way to figure out if you would like not just a job but a career.

Explore, read, and report back on this page. If someone else is already exploring the same stuff, turn it into a discussion.-- HilaryHolz - 25 Sep 2008

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After skimming through all the different activities, the Math Working Group caught my eye the most. The Math Working Group was created to standardize how we use Math over the web. How mathematical expressions are displayed and how machines can extract the meaning of these expressions. Also how to evaluate such expressions, edit them in word processors and print them.I am not entirely sure why this activity interested me more than the others, but it could be that it was the most tangible out of them all. Meaning, I did not really know what some of the other activities were talking about or could not relate to them such as the activities on mobile internet or disabilities. While I think those are important in expanding the reach of the web for people, I just can not relate to them(I do not have a mobile phone with internet or other such device and I do not have a disability). -- Scott Bieser

PART TWO

To expand on my previous submission, as it looks like no one else shares similar views on the math activity =(, I would like to include some interest in the Style activity as well. I think style is very important when developing a website, it is all in the presentation of what you want to display to the viewer. If it is all disarrayed and not organized, it could turn a lot of people off. But when done properly could hook you in. And I guess this activity is very important to achieve that. Style can also add a lot of versatility to a website as it allows the developer to be creative in their own way. And the Style Activity homepage definitely shows that as it is the only activity homepage that is vastly different than the others. It makes me want to visit it more than the other dull and boring home pages. Although in actuality it is not entirely different, but choice of colors, fonts, layout and graphics make it more appealing.

(I’ll write as I compare and contrast at the same time) There are many differences and similarities between the math and style activities. From their activity statement pages there is not much difference. Both pages use minimal links and even have the same layout of topics covered in the statement. Not much else to say here except for the obvious differences of the subjects they discuss but that comes with them being two completely different activities.

When going to their individual home pages we can see more differences than similarities. Right from the beginning, the homepage of the Math activity is chalk full of information and text that it becomes overwhelming. However, the Style homepage presents little to no information at all. And here we can also see text and links that say [member-only link] and “You can subscribe yourself(see more info)” kind of makes me feel this website is more secretive and only for select members. While the Math homepage is more welcoming and I don’t feel like I have to sign up anywhere to see the information. However, its large wall of text makes me go into a “tl;dr” (too long;didn’t read) kind of mood. But after reading what is on the front page of the Style activity, you can see that non members do have access to information such as the specifications and such, you just have to go find them. I guess this is another notable difference between Math and Style. Math appears to show too much information and text, while the Style activity shows too little information and text. [Edit: I realized the page that W3c sent to for Style was actually page concerning the members of the website (or non members), not the actual homepage, but all the same, it’s the first thing you see when W3C? ? redirects you so..]

On the actual home pages now, we can see both Math and Styles provide the similar type of information. Style has its table of contents in a frame on the right side of the window that never moves. While the Math homepage has content tables on both sides, that move along with the page and just overall feels more crowded with its still huge wall of text. But looking again, Style has a lot of text too, but seriously, the dullness of the Math homepage makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Now onto the specifications of MathML? ? version 2.0 and CSS Level 1. First notable difference between the two is how Style makes its entire contents available on the specifications page. Where MathML? ? is located on different htmls. Both contain table of contents with links. And also, the “Status of this Document” section appears after the Abstract in MathML? ? whereas it is before in the CSS specifications. The contents of the specifications seem to be pretty standard stuff. Comparing the rest of this document would be useless as they are specific to their own activity.

In conclusion, I think the goal of these two activities is identical. Style is a means to control the presentation of web pages and make sure they can be adapted and view on different media forms. In a way, the Math activity is trying to achieve this goal as well. They set out to control the presentation of mathematical expressions on web pages and allow them to be viewed, edited and printed on different media and devices.

I would like to compare and contrast with Isma's reply. Like Isma, I too think of myself as an artistic person, but I have never really though of designing and developing websites as an outlet for artistic expression. I guess in the way you manage your layout and the way you present your web page is an art form. And like Isma's comment on wanting to combine symbols/images to create a visual representation of ideas, is very much the attitude of the Math activity and their goal. One in which they want to be able to create a standard in which mathematical expressions can be represented through various forms of images and symbols that can also be interpreted. You can find that all the activities, if not all, interconnect and compliment each other. --Scott Bieser

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****************************************************Phone Oo******************************************************

Since mobile web is getting popular and becoming a main stream medium for information interchange, I am really interested in Mobile Web Initiative. This is a very necessary activity since most mobile devices will have some kind of internet(web) access in the near future, and we should have standard guidelines to improve interoperability. Mobile Web Initiative is also a good start to address mobile web security, privacy, accessibility and social issues. --Phone Oo

When I look deeper into Mobile Web Initiative Activity, I find out that there are 4 groups working on different sub-fields. Mobile Web Best Practices Working group is the most active of all in public making best practices and other related materials to create best possible experience for Mobile Web users. Mobile Web Device Description Working Group is the only group in Web Initiative Activity that is considered no longer needed for extensive work since the group successfully implemented how device knowledge is to be made available to adaptation technologies. Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group is creating Web test suites to test Mobile Web browsers and their compatibility with Web technologies. Last group is the Mobile Web for Social Development Group, and their goal to use Mobile web to provide services to rural communities and people of the third world countries. In my opinion, Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group is the main group that is responsible for Mobile Web development even though other groups have their unique roles in further enhancing Mobile Web development. I think the Mobile Web for Social Development group is still in its infancy but it has a lot of future works to do after the mobile web surfing become a big part of people daily activities. -- PhoneOo - 07 Oct 2008

Another activity group that I am interested in is Security. It is obvious that security has been a big concern since the very beginning of computer and internet. Now, with Mobile web, security has to face even more challenges since it is really difficult to control data traffic that is in the air. For wired internet and computers, at least it is a little easier to know who is accessing the data. W3C? security activity group is to specify a standard baseline set of secure presentation of information to make users better understanding of security issues on the Web. My first thought when I see Security group is that they are researching new technologies to secure data over wireless web. However, this is not the case. Security Group at W3C focuses on educating people about how the security system works, how to avoid malicious web sites and how to know whether their data is secure or not. In my opinion, it is even better than trying to introduce new technologies since every technology has a weak point.

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Looking into the activity statements of various groups, i can say that my area of interest would be internet Security.Its a challenging field with ever changing needs of improvisation.Security features in a network have to be often replaced using new technologies as attackers like hackers are always at war trying to break through the security features.And they often succeed. i dint understand what most of the activities are about. May be i need to still learn a lot about them.This particular activity caught my attention as the security aspect is ever present problem in the internet and we have heard a lot about this issue. The second activity of my interest is the mobile web. Almost all of us have mobile phones and we do have access to the net but we often find the webpages badly displayed. And often we wont be able to access few websites like the 'orkut' for example ,a welknown website for finding old friends, as i myself experienced that.So going into improvisations in the webpage display and access in mobiles( WAP) sounds intersting.-- Sowjanya Bandaru.

I would like to compare the SECURITY group with the GRAPHICS group. When i looked into the homepages of these groups. The first impression that i got is that the security group is well organised . They have presented their content in following strict pattern. The information included in the page as such is vast i.e they provided information in paras.The page was not appealing but when i started reading the content which dealt with security, was intesting. When it comes to graphics, even they had a definite way of presenting data on the page. But the appearance of the page is appealing. The data provided is compact with usually various links provided. So when we look into the cultural difference of thr two gropus its clear that both have a unique style of presenting ideas and is formal too. But the graphics groups gives importance to the display of data, how it is presented whereas the Security group emphasises on giving information to the user on what it actually does in a detailed manner. And the areas dealt by it and the current problems of security.-- .SowjanyaBandaru ************************************************************************************************************************************************

Sybelle : The first sector that interested me was Style because I tend to look at the presentation of a web page before I read the actual contents. I also enjoy colors and their various combinations... can u tell my favorite class in school was painting? Though I'm not good at it, I still enjoy doing it. I like the challenge of figuring out how to customize a webpage for different devices. Now I have a better idea of CSS and I’m glad we will cover this aspect in class. The other sector I found fascinating was Multimodal Interaction Activity. I think it is related to style but the idea that it can dynamically adapt to the user makes me very curious to understand how it works. Here is the second part of the assignment Detailed Activity Comparison

Jin : I am very interested in XForms because this could potentially revolutionize how we submit data to the web. As an administrator of a couple message boards on the net, it is not uncommon to encounter phenomenons such as spambots attack on a daily basis. These programmed software signs up on message board automatically and usually proceed to create new topics to post whatever they are build to advertise. It is extremely troublesome to remove these spambots. With XForms, this problem could hopefully be addressed as it is more sophisticated in the data submitting process. - Jin Liu

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I am interested in designing a web page that should be user friendly and mostly concentrate on web usability( how much content is useful to the users).Luckily found some of my classmates who are also interested in same field. We would like to analyze some of the websites and learn how better we can design and develop web pages instead of covering the whole web page with advertisements. If a web page has many advertisements, the user who has less bandwidth will never get the contents of the web page in time. Using Efficient XML Interchange, we can design a website.--Lavanya,SrilakshmiTerli. After going through all the Activities http://www.w3.org/Consortium/activities, I realized that Security and Efficient XML Interchange are the two main areas I want to explore. In my previous classes I learned a little about different methods like encryption, Digital Signatures, and other security methods in use. I want to go more into details of security as it has been a key area of concern. Efficient XML Interchange really motivates me to get to know more about it as its a new area for me.Divya.

SRILAKSHMI TERLI

FIRST ACTIVITY: Using Efficient XML Interchange, we can design and develop webpages instead of covering the whole web page with advertisements. If a web page has many advertisements, the user who has less bandwidth will never get the contents of the web page in time. In order to prevent that I would like to create a webpage without advertisements.-- Srilakshmi Terli

SECOND ACTIVITY: I would like to implement a student information website that will maintain all the interested students education details around the country , so that job recruiting companies will not have to go to each and every college to collect the eligible students information for the available jobs in the company. This website 'll maintain the list of all the schools in the country, and their student's information. Each school will be given access to post it's students information and also recruiting companies will be given access to the school database upon request.-- Srilakshmi Terli

COMPARE/CONTRAST: The first activity will help the web user, who has less bandwidth, to get the website information without delay. So that user will gain lot of time by using the website which is faster without advertisements. The second activity will enable students to post their information in single website that is accessible to so many companies, this will also help the companies to get all the required talented students information from a single website instead sesrching thousands of individual school's websites.-- Srilakshmi Terli

There are a number of applications that use Web as there platform. Irrespective of the content and the purpose of a website, Usability is one common factor across all websites that needs to be taken into cosndieration at design time. Rich Web clients is one such technology which would enable the development of web applications with the capability of competing with the standard desktop applications. I am interested in exploring the possibilities of using Rich Web Client applciations with the point of view of Usability. - Lavanya

*******************************-- KavithaAshwin - 30 Sep 2008****************************

I am interested in two topics i.e:-

1> Graphics

2> Video on Web

I have always been interested in multimedia like audio, video, gaming, presentations etc....

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I like creating new things, artistic things, creating things /for/ people and their enjoyment. So what interested me the most in the activities were things that reflected this. I worked with mobile devices this summer, creating widgets for phones and working on getting Rich Media Content onto different platforms. While interesting, I enjoyed creating my own widget for a mobile phone over fixing other's widgets, or any of the other jobs I did. I've also worked with CSS before, and HTML. So the style and HTML sections caught my attention. The graphics section also was interesting, but I don't know that I'm interested in working /only/ with graphics. Overall, I think working with CSS or styles would be most interesting, because it is more versatile and works with both graphics and HTML. -- Samantha Leach

Part 2:

It's interesting how we falsely believe we understand something just because of how often we see it. When I thought of graphics, I did not think immediately of just pictures. Perhaps it is the influence of video games and how they represent graphics, but I thought the graphics sections would be more on how to /improve/ graphics rather than simply pictures and how you use them. I feel quite silly now, but there you have it. Anyway, the graphics activity page is at first glance very organized and easy to navigate. It immediately gives a brief exposition which explains the purpose of the W3C? activity. As you read further into the specific formats, it explains each one's uses and how it ties in with the purpose of the activity. The design of the page itself appears to be basic html (or similar), in that there are no colored fonts, pictures, or effects on the page, only sections divided by text size and weight (bold, italics, etc). It isn't completely bare (the formats sections isn't merely plain text, for example), and it is tastefully done in it's simplicity, making it readable and organized.

The styles page is quite different at first glance. Unlike the graphics page, which is very basic in it's format, the styles page obviously uses graphics and effects for eye catching, organization, and aesthetics. On the right (which struck me as an unusual place for it, as I normally see these on the left) was an immovable links bar. Throughout the page were different colors of text and background to catch the eye, flashing text, effects when rolling over links, and other neat things. While at first glance the page appears much prettier than the graphics page, as you look further you find all these neat effects were added in at the expense of usability and sensibility. For example, the links fixed at the right appear to take you to different parts of the page (The 'What's New' link taking you slightly down the page to the 'What's New' sections, etc.). However, not all the links work that way. The CSS and XSL links take you to another webpage, and there is no way to tell the difference between the kinds of links. The flashing text which whoever put it in probably thought was cool and eye catching is really really annoying and distracting when you are trying to read anything on the page. The rollover effects on the links appears gaudy to me, and could have been more tastefully implemented.

It's ironic to see that the styles page, which focuses on "decorating" a webpage, implements it's own tools poorly, while the graphics page remains simple and readable.

**********************************GopikrishnaNagaraja*************************************

I have always been intrigued by security methods employed in the web arena. I will be dwelling more and more deeper into this field. Lets agree to the fact that without security today many of the application on the internet will not be safe . I would like to learn more about the filed which makes our daily transactions possible and safe.

**************************************************************** Mital Patel * ************************************************************

I am really interested in PHP, SwethaJavaScript,XML and TCL. These are the base to todays advanced web technologies.so i want to do in depth in any of these topics and i am willing to made a project which consist of usage of all these technologies. we are doing small small modules now a days. Out goal is to convert small modules into the large integrated project. Now a days a security is the main concert for the web. people made software and run successfully but most of them are affected by the attacks. Attackers crack the sites and what not is possible now a days.

This is indeed a good approach for doing various activities and discussing the topics among all. This increases the knowledge and the ability to think about it.

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Niraj Soni

I am very much interested in Testing and web programming. I like to do Junit testing for the web technologies.I want to go in depth in the web technologies like XML,PHP,Python,Javascript and all.This activities are really useful for increasing knowledge in grup. we can share our idea and we can clear our douts. Testing is very much important because without testing completely the program we can not deliver the software at all. so according to me testing is very much imp.

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Mandip: I like to watch video’s online and have always been fascinated by it. And I really wanted to make my own web site about sharing videos on the web just like YouTube? . After doing Activity Prep, I have found class mates who are interested in the same topic as I am. The topic that I am interested in is:

* Video on Web

we would like to learn more about how to make web pages. i am excited to learn more about this.

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I have always been interested in security area - specially related to "Web Security". I have some information on website development stuff but not clear on how to integrate various component together to create a good and secure website. Website security is one aspect which i haven't looked upon yet so i would hope to work with someone who likes to explore security aspect of websites. Others areas which interest me are style, HTML and Graphics.-- SoniaJeswani - 30 Sep 2008 I have always been interested in security area - specially related to "Web Security". I have some information on website development stuff but not clear on how to integrate various component together to create a good and secure website. Website security is one aspect which I haven't looked upon yet so I would hope to work with someone who likes to explore security aspect of websites. Others areas which interest me are style, HTML and Graphics.-- SoniaJeswani - 30 Sep 2008 Contrast Activity: Other activity which I considered to contrast with is Style. Style talks about the presentation of the web site whereas security talks about making the website secure not much emphasis on the presentation layer. Style takes care of what a normal user would see when he/she sees the website while security talkes care of the whats going in the background.

Compare Activity:

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Harshith Malli: the W3C? activity that I am currently intrested in is Rich Web Client development and design.It deals with a lot of everything on the list I believe such as web services,syncronized multimedia, ubiquuitous web applications, web services and the mobile web intiative. I like this because it deals with with a level of thinking about design, that determines how adept and how useful the end user will find these web applications. I also have a fond intrest in css style's, as a way of effectively presenting these user created web applications.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************** After going through the activities page I found few areas that really excite and intrigue me like Graphics, Rich web applications and security.I have always been fascinated with the layouts and presentation of web pages as I feel it is a huge part of the user experience.Rich web applications are fast becoming the order of the day as they are accessible to users from any computer and provide a host of solutions in an instant.I would like to learn more about the tools used to create visually appealing interfaces and more about creating Rich web applications. Internet security is another area that interests me as it is becoming a challenge today to create a website that completely protects the privacy of the users.-----Prasanthi Akella

Second part

Graphics activity is all about the user interface and the end user experience. The study and focus of graphics is really all about enhancing the visual appeal of a web page. I felt a little disappointed that for a graphics activity page it doesn’t please the eye immediately. But, the layout is pretty easy to navigate around and has links to the subsets of graphics like PNG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, web CGM profile. Each of the pages gives an overview of what the format is doing. This can guide people into what they are interested in. The individual pages have links to the home pages of the formats for more comprehensive information.

The most widely used and progressive area of Graphics seems to be the SVG segment as it is used in a wide and growing number of contexts . The areas of application include logos, GUIs, maps, MMS in smart phones, Nintendo, wii. The most important advantage of SVG is the small file sizes without the loss of data and is easy to combine with most of the technologies like HTML, CSS, SwethaJavaScript, XML, Flash and PDF.

I would like to do a comparison between graphics and style. The Style activity homepage is easy to read and comprehend. It gives the user enough information to understand the activity without being too content oriented like the math activity page or Internationalization page. But, I agree with Samantha that it is poorly laid out. The activity itself is very similar to graphics dealing with the enhancing the visual appeal of the web page. It is more about the use of CSS, which is important in styling HTML, XML and SVG.In my opinion, it is safe to say the style activity and graphics are like siblings and are mutually necessary to achieve their goals.

The activity that really contrasts with graphics in my view is the rich web applications activity. The activity page, like the activity itself provides a lot of information about the rich web applications. It is a full page of text with virtually no relevant links and sections. The page does not focus at all on elegant presentation. This activity is all about providing the end users with an easy and accessible solution to their problem. I feel the area is very functional in nature, that is to say it serves a purpose unlike the graphics activity.

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Sandeep Kaur: I found that Rich Web Client activity is very interesting.It is about Web Application and Compound Document Formats.Compound Document Format Group combine multiple formats like XHTML, SVG, and SMIL. After reading about this activity, i learn that when you combine separate markup languages, the main problem is that no language will be addressed by their individual language specification.

Part2(10/07/08): I am interested in Video Web because these days, as mention above by Mandip, we all watch video online. I am really interested to know how it really works. Also, it will give me a chance to learn about Web architecture. I think it is a great thing to learn about. Another activity ,which i am interested, is Rich Web Client. I am interested in this activity because I want to learn more about Web Application and Compound Document Formats. I think it will be helpful in my future if I learn more about it. These both activity are used very much these days. They both are example of advance technology. Sandeep Kaur ***************************************************************************************************************************************************** Arun :- i have 2 areas of interest frm W3 activities ,first one is Video in the web and the second one is Style..According to me both of these activities are required to make any website interactive and interesting ..without these activities website becomes dull.so to make our website look attractive we need these 2 activities. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* I have always been interested in graphic design because I’m artistic person, So it is my passion. Graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. So, I have some information to put graphic on webpage, but I want to learn more various methods which used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. I hope to work with someone who like graphic design. IsmaTufail Part 2 I’m going to contrast Graphic to Web service. Graphic refers to any computer device or program that makes a computer capable of displaying and manipulating pictures. The term also refers to the images themselves. For example, laser printers and plotters are graphics devices because they permit the computer to output pictures. A graphics monitor is a display monitor that can display pictures. A graphics board (or graphics card) is a printed circuit board that, when installed in a computer, permits the computer to display pictures. In contrast with Graphic, Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding, and because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. For example, Java can talk with Perl, Windows applications can talk with UNIX applications. Web services do not require the use of browsers or HTML.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************** Sunny Chung: When going to open my email, I can use Voice Browser to communicate with others online instead of talk to them by calling their cell numbers and it is really reliable. A voice browser is a Web Browser that presents an interactive voice user interface to the user. Also, a voice browser is a device that interprets voice markup languages to generate voice output and accepts voice input. It is a very natural and immediate communication channel that can be used either on its own, or joined with mouse, keyboard or other devices. **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Latha:

we(,Falguni,Sandhya) discussed together in the class and found out that we were all interested in designing a web page.I would like to play with color,designing and create more styles...Design of a page is more important..mainly with home page..In todays world there are lots lots of web site..it's up to the user to choose the site..What attracts the user?..what should be the criteria?..which part of the site should be concentrated more..is it like graphics,colors,formats or appearance..so after going through the list of activities we found that Style,graphics area would be more appropriate for exploring..Moreover,when doing a live project in open social networks(orkut,facebook)..they will all play a very important role..where the user must be attracted to make use of the applications..Pros:-

If you design a unique and useful web application, with the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, traffic to your site will increase exponentially.

Easy navigation in websites helps the user have a good experience and increases the chance of the user returning to the web site.

Cons:-

If the looks and style does not cater to the target audience then the web application might not be a hit.

Looks alone do not make a website a big hit, in the long run, content combined with looks is more important. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Sandhya Rao: My interested areas in web development are style, appearance, user friendly and user attractive designing of screens. Iam looking forward to learn designing web pages using latest design techniques. I think style & appearance is an important aspect of any web application.

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Akshat mishra:After going through the activities page I m interested in style, Cascading Style Sheets or CSS allow you to control the layout and look of your page easily. CSS tags or properties are easy to use and affect the look and feel or style of your pages. I think working with CSS or styles would be most interesting. *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Sunny Chung: There are advantages and disadvantages of using Voice Browser to support combination of HTML and graphics: The results will display, with some problems, in any browser since all browsers support the combination of HTML and graphics that is produced. This solution is inexpensive for readers. The readers program is freely available on the web, and the readers do not need anything in addition to their current browsers. However, disadvantages the conversion of mathematics to graphics causes several problems to users such as the file sizes grow quickly when a document contains much mathematics in the document. Large documents slow the browsing of their web. If their web consists of more than 30 or 40 pages, readers will save time in the long run by downloading Scientific Viewer. The graphics files are compressed bitmaps. They will look acceptable on the screen, but when they are printed they will look "dotty" and grainy. The mathematics graphics files will match only one size of text. Web browsers allow readers to select the magnification of the text. However, because the graphics files will match only a single text size, they may look small compared to the text size chosen by one user and large compared to the text size chosen by another user. It is very visually impaired users will be unable to magnify the mathematics graphics files. With baselines of text lines and mathematics in the graphics files will not always line up. ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Sandhya Rao: Even though style & appearance are important aspects of web application development, there are several other aspects which are vital like different types of browsers, displaying images, videos on web pages and lot more.

Sandhya Rao: Even though style & appearance are important aspects of web application development, there are several other aspects which are vital like different types of browsers, displaying images, videos on web pages and lot more.Sandhya Rao: Even though style & appearance are important aspects of web application development, there are several other aspects which are vital like different types of browsers, displaying images, videos on web pages and lot more.

Sandhya Rao: Even though style & appearance are important aspects of web application development, there are several other aspects which are vital like different types of browsers, displaying images, videos on web pages and lot more. ******************************************************************************************************************************************** Kiran Patel :

Who are you? Which of these cultures do you feel most at home in? Do you think the way they do? That's a canonical way to figure out if you would like not just a job but a career.

Explore, read, and report back on this page. If someone else is already exploring the same stuff, turn it into a discussion.-- HilaryHolz - 25 Sep 2008

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After skimming through all the different activities, the Math Working Group caught my eye the most. The Math Working Group was created to standardize how we use Math over the web. How mathematical expressions are displayed and how machines can extract the meaning of these expressions. Also how to evaluate such expressions, edit them in word processors and print them.I am not entirely sure why this activity interested me more than the others, but it could be that it was the most tangible out of them all. Meaning, I did not really know what some of the other activities were talking about or could not relate to them such as the activities on mobile internet or disabilities. While I think those are important in expanding the reach of the web for people, I just can not relate to them(I do not have a mobile phone with internet or other such device and I do not have a disability). -- Scott Bieser

PART TWO

To expand on my previous submission, as it looks like no one else shares similar views on the math activity =(, I would like to include some interest in the Style activity as well. I think style is very important when developing a website, it is all in the presentation of what you want to display to the viewer. If it is all disarrayed and not organized, it could turn a lot of people off. But when done properly could hook you in. And I guess this activity is very important to achieve that. Style can also add a lot of versatility to a website as it allows the developer to be creative in their own way. And the Style Activity homepage definitely shows that as it is the only activity homepage that is vastly different than the others. It makes me want to visit it more than the other dull and boring home pages. Although in actuality it is not entirely different, but choice of colors, fonts, layout and graphics make it more appealing.

(I’ll write as I compare and contrast at the same time) There are many differences and similarities between the math and style activities. From their activity statement pages there is not much difference. Both pages use minimal links and even have the same layout of topics covered in the statement. Not much else to say here except for the obvious differences of the subjects they discuss but that comes with them being two completely different activities.

When going to their individual home pages we can see more differences than similarities. Right from the beginning, the homepage of the Math activity is chalk full of information and text that it becomes overwhelming. However, the Style homepage presents little to no information at all. And here we can also see text and links that say [member-only link] and “You can subscribe yourself(see more info)” kind of makes me feel this website is more secretive and only for select members. While the Math homepage is more welcoming and I don’t feel like I have to sign up anywhere to see the information. However, its large wall of text makes me go into a “tl;dr” (too long;didn’t read) kind of mood. But after reading what is on the front page of the Style activity, you can see that non members do have access to information such as the specifications and such, you just have to go find them. I guess this is another notable difference between Math and Style. Math appears to show too much information and text, while the Style activity shows too little information and text. [Edit: I realized the page that W3c sent to for Style was actually page concerning the members of the website (or non members), not the actual homepage, but all the same, it’s the first thing you see when W3C? ? redirects you so..]

On the actual home pages now, we can see both Math and Styles provide the similar type of information. Style has its table of contents in a frame on the right side of the window that never moves. While the Math homepage has content tables on both sides, that move along with the page and just overall feels more crowded with its still huge wall of text. But looking again, Style has a lot of text too, but seriously, the dullness of the Math homepage makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Now onto the specifications of MathML? ? version 2.0 and CSS Level 1. First notable difference between the two is how Style makes its entire contents available on the specifications page. Where MathML? ? is located on different htmls. Both contain table of contents with links. And also, the “Status of this Document” section appears after the Abstract in MathML? ? whereas it is before in the CSS specifications. The contents of the specifications seem to be pretty standard stuff. Comparing the rest of this document would be useless as they are specific to their own activity.

In conclusion, I think the goal of these two activities is identical. Style is a means to control the presentation of web pages and make sure they can be adapted and view on different media forms. In a way, the Math activity is trying to achieve this goal as well. They set out to control the presentation of mathematical expressions on web pages and allow them to be viewed, edited and printed on different media and devices.

I would like to compare and contrast with Isma's reply. Like Isma, I too think of myself as an artistic person, but I have never really though of designing and developing websites as an outlet for artistic expression. I guess in the way you manage your layout and the way you present your web page is an art form. And like Isma's comment on wanting to combine symbols/images to create a visual representation of ideas, is very much the attitude of the Math activity and their goal. One in which they want to be able to create a standard in which mathematical expressions can be represented through various forms of images and symbols that can also be interpreted. You can find that all the activities, if not all, interconnect and compliment each other. --Scott Bieser

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****************************************************Phone Oo******************************************************

I am really interested in Mobile Web Initiative. This is a very necessary activity since most mobile devices will have some kind of internet(web) access in the near future, and we should have standard guidelines to improve interoperability. Mobile Web Initiative is also a good start to address mobile web security, privacy, accessibility and social issues. --Phone Oo When I look deeper into Mobile Web Initiative Activity, I find out that there are 4 groups working on different sub-fields. Mobile Web Best Practices Working group is the most active of all in public making best practices and other related materials to create best possible experience for Mobile Web users. Mobile Web Device Description Working Group is the only group in Web Initiative Activity that is considered no longer needed for extensive work since the group successfully implemented how device knowledge is to be made available to adaptation technologies. Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group is creating Web test suites to test Mobile Web browsers and their compatibility with Web technologies. Last group is the Mobile Web for Social Development Group, and their goal to use Mobile web to provide services to rural communities and people of the third world countries. In my opinion, Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group is the main group that is responsible for Mobile Web development even though other groups have their unique roles in further enhancing Mobile Web development. -- PhoneOo - 07 Oct 2008

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Looking into the activity statements of various groups, i can say that my area of interest would be internet Security.Its a challenging field with ever changing needs of improvisation.Security features in a network have to be often replaced using new technologies as attackers like hackers are always at war trying to break through the security features.And they often succeed. i dint understand what most of the activities are about. May be i need to still learn a lot about them.This particular activity caught my attention as the security aspect is ever present problem in the internet and we have heard a lot about this issue. The second activity of my interest is the mobile web. Almost all of us have mobile phones and we do have access to the net but we often find the webpages badly displayed. And often we wont be able to access few websites like the 'orkut' for example ,a welknown website for finding old friends, as i myself experienced that.So going into improvisations in the webpage display and access in mobiles( WAP) sounds intersting.-- Sowjanya Bandaru.

Sybelle : The first sector that interested me was Style because I tend to look at the presentation of a web page before I read the actual contents. I also enjoy colors and their various combinations... can u tell my favorite class in school was painting? Though I'm not good at it, I still enjoy doing it. I like the challenge of figuring out how to customize a webpage for different devices. Now I have a better idea of CSS and I’m glad we will cover this aspect in class. The other sector I found fascinating was Multimodal Interaction Activity. I think it is related to style but the idea that it can dynamically adapt to the user makes me very curious to understand how it works. Here is the second part of the assignment Detailed Activity Comparison

Jin : I am very interested in XForms because this could potentially revolutionize how we submit data to the web. As an administrator of a couple message boards on the net, it is not uncommon to encounter phenomenons such as spambots attack on a daily basis. These programmed software signs up on message board automatically and usually proceed to create new topics to post whatever they are build to advertise. It is extremely troublesome to remove these spambots. With XForms, this problem could hopefully be addressed as it is more sophisticated in the data submitting process. - Jin Liu

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I am interested in designing a web page that should be user friendly and mostly concentrate on web usability( how much content is useful to the users).Luckily found some of my classmates who are also interested in same field. We would like to analyze some of the websites and learn how better we can design and develop web pages instead of covering the whole web page with advertisements. If a web page has many advertisements, the user who has less bandwidth will never get the contents of the web page in time. Using Efficient XML Interchange, we can design a website.--Lavanya,SrilakshmiTerli. After going through all the Activities http://www.w3.org/Consortium/activities, I realized that Security and Efficient XML Interchange are the two main areas I want to explore. In my previous classes I learned a little about different methods like encryption, Digital Signatures, and other security methods in use. I want to go more into details of security as it has been a key area of concern. Efficient XML Interchange really motivates me to get to know more about it as its a new area for me.Divya.

There are a number of applications that use Web as there platform. Irrespective of the content and the purpose of a website, Usability is one common factor across all websites that needs to be taken into cosndieration at design time. Rich Web clients is one such technology which would enable the development of web applications with the capability of competing with the standard desktop applications. I am interested in exploring the possibilities of using Rich Web Client applciations with the point of view of Usability. - Lavanya

********************************-- Kiran Patel :

I am interested in two topics

1> Video on Web 2> Style I am always fascinated by Video online . I love to watch movie online , online discussion on topics and news etc. Its great way to learn , teach , enjoy . Style is very important to present wesite nicely . Both are very important to make website more interactive .

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Falguni Patel:

Activity of Interest: Security

The focus of application of security technology to web based applications, especially for mobile devices, which are becoming very widely used, the security will have to keep up with the rapid developments. "XML Security Working Group" combines the two essential parts of security: XML Signature and XML Encryption There are many types of threats when it comes of web user interactions. I would like to learn what they are and how to incorporate the various security measures in the web technologies. ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Sethsiri Jayawardena

Among the W3C? activities I attracted to XML activity which I have widely used to design web pages and anything that related to online publication. XML is flexible text format language, which has started from SGML(Simplified Generalized Markup Language). This has a facility user can develop their own elements. Once I had chance to work in a company which is translated newly published books, magazines into online form. At that time I can remember I had to use XML tags that helped to translate scanned hard copies into online form. It is sound very helpful, because, it has capability to apply all the areas that user need.

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Charles Activity Prep

CharlesActivityPrep

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Rahul S Pendyal

i saw a lot of topics out there at W3C? activities , i kind of had the affinity for Web Services , on a regular basis i keep coming across this terminology but i did not know much about it .

The hunger to learn about it, made me explore it ( http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/Activity.html) . The GUI or the front end of it was very cluttered i felt this because it had to many link .

But the initial description was good to read. The topic here are in a very spaghetti fashion , each on has multiple links within and is not something which can be read in one sitting. , all in all i felt i have more affinity to web services as i also felt the personal need to learn about it . The future lies in web services as it is a form of SOA .

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Anubhav Jolly

By seeing the activity statements of various groups, i can say that my area of interest would be internet Security.Its a challenging field with ever changing needs of improvisation.Security features in a network have to be often replaced using new technologies as attackers like hackers are always at war trying to break through the security features.And they often succeed. i dint understand what most of the activities are about. May be i need to still learn a lot about them.This particular activity caught my attention as the security aspect is ever present problem in the internet and we have heard a lot about this issue. The second activity of my interest is the mobile web. Almost all of us have mobile phones and we do have access to the net but we often find the webpages badly displayed. And often we wont be able to access few websites like the 'orkut' for example ,a welknown website for finding old friends, as i myself experienced that.So going into improvisations in the webpage display and access in mobiles( WAP) sounds interesting.

I would like to compare the SECURITY group with the GRAPHICS group. When i looked into the homepages of these groups. The first impression that i got is that the security group is well organised . They have presented their content in following strict pattern. The information included in the page as such is vast i.e they provided information in paras.The page was not appealing but when i started reading the content which dealt with security, was intesting. When it comes to graphics, even they had a definite way of presenting data on the page. But the appearance of the page is appealing. The data provided is compact with usually various links provided. So when we look into the cultural difference of thr two gropus its clear that both have a unique style of presenting ideas and is formal too. But the graphics groups gives importance to the display of data, how it is presented whereas the Security group emphasises on giving information to the user on what it actually does in a detailed manner. And the areas dealt by it and the current problems of security.

Ahmed Siddiqui

As the mobile web is getting popular and becoming a main stream medium for information interchange, I am really interested in Mobile Web Initiative. This is a very necessary activity since most mobile devices will have some kind of internet(web) access in the near future, and we should have standard guidelines to improve interoperability. Mobile Web Initiative is also a good start to address mobile web security, privacy, accessibility and social issues.

When I look deeper into Mobile Web Initiative Activity, I find out that there are 4 groups working on different sub-fields. Mobile Web Best Practices Working group is the most active of all in public making best practices and other related materials to create best possible experience for Mobile Web users. Mobile Web Device Description Working Group is the only group in Web Initiative Activity that is considered no longer needed for extensive work since the group successfully implemented how device knowledge is to be made available to adaptation technologies. Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group is creating Web test suites to test Mobile Web browsers and their compatibility with Web technologies. Last group is the Mobile Web for Social Development Group, and their goal to use Mobile web to provide services to rural communities and people of the third world countries. In my opinion, Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group is the main group that is responsible for Mobile Web development even though other groups have their unique roles in further enhancing Mobile Web development. I think the Mobile Web for Social Development group is still in its infancy but it has a lot of future works to do after the mobile web surfing become a big part of people daily activities.

Another activity group that I am interested in is Security. It is obvious that security has been a big concern since the very beginning of computer and internet. Now, with Mobile web, security has to face even more challenges since it is really difficult to control data traffic that is in the air. For wired internet and computers, at least it is a little easier to know who is accessing the data. W3C? security activity group is to specify a standard baseline set of secure presentation of information to make users better understanding of security issues on the Web. My first thought when I see Security group is that they are researching new technologies to secure data over wireless web. However, this is not the case. Security Group at W3C focuses on educating people about how the security system works, how to avoid malicious web sites and how to know whether their data is secure or not. In my opinion, it is even better than trying to introduce new technologies since every technology has a weak point.