W3C

The Model-Based User Interfaces Working Group has published two Group Notes today:

• MBUI – Abstract User Interface Models. Model-Based User Interface Design facilitates interchange of designs through a layered approach that separates out different levels of abstraction in user interface design. This document covers the specification of Abstract User Interface Models, by defining its semantics through a meta-model, and an interchange syntax (expressed as XML Schema) for exchanging Abstract User Interface Models between different user interface development environments.
• MBUI – Task Models. Task models are useful when designing and developing interactive systems. They describe the logical activities that have to be carried out in order to reach the user’s goals. This document covers the specification of Task Models, with a meta-model expressed in UML, and an XML Schema that can be used as the basis for interchange of Task Models between different user interface development tools.

Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published two Working Drafts today:

• CSS Line Grid Module Level 1. This module contains CSS features for aligning content to a baseline grid.
• CSS Scoping Module Level 1. This specification defines various scoping/encapsulation mechanisms for CSS, including scoped styles and the @scope rule, Shadow DOM selectors, and page/region-based styling.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. Learn more about the Style Activity.

The Web and Mobile Interest Group has published a Group Note of Review of apps that use network information. The web platform currently lacks a means of exposing network-related information to web applications. Network information includes, but is not limited to, the type of network connection currently in use by a device (e.g., cellular, Wi-Fi, etc.). It can also include information such as the system notifying the application when the type of connection changes from one type to another (e.g., from cellular to Wi-Fi). Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Group Note of Vocabularies for EmotionML. This document provides a list of emotion vocabularies that can be used with EmotionML to represent emotions and related states. EmotionML provides mechanisms to represent emotions in terms of scientifically valid descriptors: categories, dimensions, appraisals, and action tendencies. Given the lack of agreement in the community, EmotionML does not provide a single vocabulary of emotion terms, but gives users a choice to select the most suitable emotion vocabulary in their annotations. In order to promote interoperability, publicly defined vocabularies should be used where possible and reasonable from the point of view of the target application. The present document provides a number of emotion vocabularies that can be used for this purpose. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

The CSV on the Web Working Group published two First Public Working Drafts today:

• The CSV on the Web: Use Cases and Requirements collects use cases that are at the basis of the work of the Working Group. A large percentage of the data published on the Web is tabular data, commonly published as comma separated values (CSV) files. The Working Group aim to specify technologies that provide greater interoperability for data dependent applications on the Web when working with tabular datasets comprising single or multiple files using CSV, or similar, format. This document lists a first set of use cases compiled by the Working Group that are considered representative of how tabular data is commonly used within data dependent applications. The use cases observe existing common practice undertaken when working with tabular data, often illustrating shortcomings or limitations of existing formats or technologies. This document also provides a first set of requirements derived from these use cases that have been used to guide the specification design.
• The Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web outlines a basic data model, or infoset, for tabular data and metadata about that tabular data. The document contains first drafts for various methods of locating metadata: one of the output the Working Group is chartered for is to produce a metadata vocabulary and standard method(s) to find such metadata. It also contains some non-normative information about a best practice syntax for tabular data, for mapping into that data model, to contribute to the standardisation of CSV syntax by IETF (as a possible update of RFC4180).

Learn more about the Data Activity.