🚀 go-pugleaf

The next meeting of the XML Users Group will be held on Wednesday,
August 15, 2001 at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) at 2000
Florida Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20009-1277. The meeting starts
at 7:00 p.m.  and usually last approximately 2 hours.  If attending
the meeting by Metro, get off the Dupont Circle stop and walk
north to Florida Avenue...turn right.

IMPORTANT:  The doors at AGU are locked afterhours.  Someone
is at the door until 7:30 to let people in.  If you arrive
after 7:30, please wait a few minutes and someone will check
the doors periodically.


AGENDA:

August 15, 2001

John R. Callahan, PhD, Chief Technology Officer,  Sphere Corporation
      XML Intelligent Content Firewalls

	Current web-based application server architectures are too complex,
	inflexible, and monolithic. Many web-based applications that reside
	within enterprise application servers (such as Microsoft's .NET, Sun's
	J2EE and Lutris' Enhydra server) must address a myriad of orthogonal
	concerns including business logic, security, privacy, integration,
	presentation, session management, caching, legacy integration, and
	database access within an overburdened object model.  While
	agent-based approaches within the application server help separate
	some of these concerns, a more traditional model of a firewall can be
	used to filter, cache, and redirect information at a semantic level.
	We introduce the notion of a semantic firewall to filter, cache, and
	redirect information at a semantic level using an XML-based
	transformation engine.  The semantic firewall applies high-level rules
	to generate XML transformations dynamically.  These rules can be
	configured by non-programmers so that information assurance policies
	can be quickly expressed, implemented, and audited outside the core
	business logic of an application server.  A Semantic Firewall can be
	configured on an external hardware, with web caching and redirection
	support, or within the web application server as a SAX reader/writer.
	We also discuss how high-performance can be achieved in Semantic
	Firewalls using SAX-based transformation engines, caching,
	pre-fetching, and pre-generation of dynamic XSLT stylesheets.

	==============================
	John R. Callahan, Ph.D. - Chief Technology Officer

	Dr. Callahan received his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from the
	University of Maryland in Computer Science. As a tenured associate
	professor of Computer Science at West Virginia University, he worked
	for 6 years as the director of the NASA-WVU Software Research
	Laboratory. In addition, he served as director of GlobalCast
	Communications from 1995-1998, a company that developed the reliable
	multicast protocol (RMP). Dr. Callahan also served as a consultant and
	programmer for Xerox Corporation from 1985-1988, a programmer and
	analyst for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1983-1985, a
	civilian programmer and analyst for the United States Air Force in
	1982, and a computer operator for IBM in 1981.

	Besides his extensive work history, Dr. Callahan has authored over 30
	research publications in the field of information technology.
	Additionally, he has been awarded numerous research grants and has
	advised countless students en route to Master and Ph.D. degrees from
	various institutions. As a professor, he taught over 15 different
	courses in the field of Information Technology. Dr. Callahan is the
	recipient of numerous accolades and currently holds membership in many
	groups in the field of advanced technology. He is also the author of
	various significant software programs including the Reliable Multicast
	Protocol (RMP), New Yacc Parser Generator Annotation Tool, and Web
	Integrated Software Environment (WISE).

	Dr. Callahan oversees all software engineering and applications
	development for Sphere Software Corporation. As Chief Technology
	Officer and Chief Software Architect, he is responsible for
	enhancements to Sphere's intelligent XML data management technologies.



September, 2001

Michael Hahn, DMSI
        Advanced DTD Construction
Thomas Passin, Mitretek Systems
        Thomas B. Passin, Principal Systems Engineer at Mitretek
        Systems, i will present a system to create on-line
        questionnaires using XML templates, XSLT stylesheets,
        and Python scripts. This system synchronizes changes so
        that the person designing the questionnaire doen't have to.
        Key features:

           - An xslt stylesheet automatically assigns each form
             element a unique sequential (readable) name so the
             template creator does not have to manage this task.
           - Tabular data in XML files, such as might be
             extracted from a relational database, can be merged
             with the template using an XSLT stylesheet.
           - The system automatically creates SQL table
             definitions to exactly match the template, eliminating
             errors from changing template design.
           - A Python script inserts questionnaire data into the
             database, self-adusting to the form design.
           - Another Python script extracts the data from the
             database, self-adjusting to the table design.

October, 2001

Sam Hunting(XTM)
TBD (RDF),
 Audience Participants
       XML Topic Maps, RDF and the Semantic Web

November, 2001

Fabio Arciniegas
      XML and User Interfaces - SMIL, SVG and XSLT
Consclusive

Currently we need speakers for both the technical and vendor
presentation portion of future meetings.  If you would like
to give a presentation at a future meeting, please send e-mail
or call Betty Harvey (410) 787-9200. Share your knowledge and experience
with others.

Hope to see you there.

Washington Area SGML Users Group Web Site:
http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug
Electronic copies of papers supplied from speakers are
available on-line.

To subscribe to the Washington Area SGML Users Group mailing
list, go to http://ecc05.eccnet.com/mailman/listinfo/xmlusers.

DIRECTIONS:

From Connecticut Avenue north of AGU, make a left onto
T Street (1 block before Florida Avenue). Drive one block,
the entrance to Atlantic Garage North should be on your
right.

>From Connecticut Avenue south of AGU, make your first right
after Florida Avenue onto T Street. Drive one block.  the
entrance to Atlantic Garage North should be on your right.


>From I-66

  - Continue east on I-66 to Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge. This
    places you on Constitution Avenue.
  - Take a left on 18th Street, NW and head north. Continue north to
    Connecticut Avenue.
  - Turn left (North) on Connecticut Avenue to Florida Avenue.
  - Right on Florida Avenue. AGU is 1/2 block on the right at the
    corner of 20th & Florida Avenue.


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Betty Harvey                         | Phone: 410-787-9200 FAX: 9830
Electronic Commerce Connection, Inc. |
harvey@eccnet.com                    | Washington,DC SGML/XML Users Grp
URL:  http://www.eccnet.com          | http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/
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