[announce] Town Hall at XML 2001 to focus on Patent and Web Standards--

["Elledge, Marion" <MElledge@idealliance.org>]

The XML Conference and Exposition 2001 scheduled for December 9-14 in
Orlando, Florida has just announced the updated Town Hall Meetings. Among
the several evening sessions:

Patent and Web Standards Town Hall
Moderated by Michael Champion, Software AG
 
In recent months, the W3C has released a working draft of new framework
governing the potential use of patented technology in W3C Recommendations.
As the working draft of 16 August states, "the root of the challenge posed
by patents in any standards arena is that participants in a standards body
will be unwilling and unable to work collaboratively if, at the end of the
process, the jointly-developed standard can only be implemented by meeting
licensing terms that are unduly burdensome, unknown at the beginning or even
the end of the design process, or considered unreasonable." There has been
an unprecedented response to the proposed policy, indicating that there is
widespread disagreement in the Web community on the desirability of
incorporating patented technology and on what terms are "reasonable."
 
This Town Hall forum will be open to the public as well as XML 2001
attendees and will provide an opportunity to listen to speakers describe the
issues at stake in this controversy and to participate in the debate over
the best way for the Web community to respond. The forum will concentrate on
the W3C patent policy and how it can be defined to be practical and workable
in the current legal environment.    

For the full list of Town Hall Meetings, full conference session line-up,
and to register for the XML Conference and Exposition 2001, check out the
event web site:
http://www.xmlconference.org

Marion L. Elledge
Executive Vice President
IDEAlliance
(founded in 1966 as the Graphic Communications Association)
100 Daingerfield Road
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 703/837-1093
Fax: 703/548-2867
Cell: 202/413-4729
email: melledge@idealliance.org


Check out IDEAlliance's upcoming events!

XML Asia Pacific
5-8 November 2001
Sydney, Australia
http://www.xmlasiapacific.com/

XML Conference and Exposition 2001
9-14 December 2001
Orlando, Florida USA
http://www.xmlconference.net/xmlusa/

Knowledge Technologies 2002
11-14 March 2002
Seattle, Washington USA
http://www.knowledgetechnologies.net/