ICRAdiary

Toward a More Secure Web

On behalf of the Quatro project, ICRA submitted a paper, that has now been accepted, for the forthcoming W3C Workshop Toward a More Secure Web. The Workshop aims to identify steps that can be taken to improve Web Security from the user-facing end of the spectrum: Practical security online often fails because users can be induced to make decisions that jeopardize their security and privacy, based on a lack of working authentication of Web sites' identities (phishing). The workshop will look at technologies that can support Web users to better assess the trustworthiness and identity of sites with which they deal.

• The accepted paper: The QUATRO approach to Transparency and Usability of Web Authentication
• Workshop homepage
• Quatro project website

ICRA leads first W3C Incubator Activity

Building on work carried out by ICRA's original Labelling Working Group and the Quatro project, the first of a new kind of activity within the W3C will look at the issue of content labels. Full details are available from the links below.

• The project from ICRA's perspective
• Content Label Incubator Group homepage
• Public mailing list archive
• W3C Press release

European Safer Internet Day

Pira International's Sheena Bassett, Quatro project coordinator, was able to step in to take Phil Archer's place among the panellists at this year's UK event to mark European Safer Internet Day. Organized by the Cyberspace Research Unit of the University of Central Lancashire, the theme of the conference was Children and User Generated Content which is highly relevant to ICRA's work on projects such as QUATRO and PEGI Online.

Similar events took place across Europe and beyond with several Quatro partners speaking in different countries.

• Details of the London conference (PDF format, 720 Kb)
• European Safer Internet Day is coordinated by INSAFE, Europe's Internet Safety Resource
• ICRA's Stephen Balkam joined in the "blogathon" organized by INSAFE as part of the day's events. Read the blogs

Mobile Web Initiative Best Practices Last Call published

The W3C Mobile Web Initiative has published its Best Practices guidelines as a "Last Call" document. This means that the group has reached consensus on the document's contents and is now seeking comments from the community. If you are familiar with creating or using the Web on mobile devices, you are encouraged to make such comments. Details in the document.

• W3C press release coinciding with 3GSM conference
• Mobile Web Best Practices

ICRA Roundtable; Sex Lies and Metadata

ICRA's third roundtable event will be held at Yahoo!'s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, on February 21st and will address the promotion of trust, quality and child protection in our newly flattened, digital content world.

iPod porn. Mobile TV. Video search. Always on. Anytime, anywhere. The digital content world we are living in has blurred every boundary we've come to expect from both the traditional and emerging media platforms. Our quaint advice to parents to place the PC in the living room simply breaks down when kids are walking around with the Internet in their pockets.

This Roundtable brings together more than 30 of the leading industry thinkers and content providers to explore how best to protect ourselves and our children from the worst of the web, while directing users to the best quality digital content available, no matter what device, fixed or mobile, it is delivered on. We will also consider the current legal landscape and how the many self-regulatory efforts, including ICRA's, are impacting on this important issue.

ICRA joins PEGI Online Working Group

ICRA is delighted to be working with leading games software manufacturers and regulators from across Europe to develop the PEGI Online Seal of Approval and to bring the successful PEGI games rating system to the online world.

For more details see the projects page.

Mobile Web Initiative Documents published

The W3C Mobile Web Initiative's Best Practices Working Group has published two documents today that will be of direct interest to companies and individuals creating content for delivery to the growing range and number of mobile devices. The Scope document, co-edited by ICRA's Phil Archer, is now in its final form and sets out the work the best Practices Group is undertaking. The main output of the group's work is the Best Practices document. This latest version reflects near consensus within the working group and will be going to "Last Call" stage early in the new year.

Everyone who has an interest in the development of the Web on mobile devices is strongly urged to review the documents and to comment on them. Details of how to do this are included in the documents.

• Scope of Mobile Web Best Practices
• Mobile Web Best Practices
• Mobile Web Initiative home page

ICRA Roundtable event

Following on from the success of the first-ever ICRA Roundtable in Washington, DC in September, ICRA will be hosting its second Roundtable at the GSM Association in central London on Wednesday, December 14th. The event brings together more than 30 of the leading industry thinkers and content providers to explore how best to protect ourselves from the worst of the web, while directing users to the best quality digital content available, no matter what device, fixed or mobile, it is delivered on. We will also consider the current legal landscape and how the many self-regulatory efforts, including ICRA's, are impacting on this important issue.

Like all W3C Members, ICRA is invited to review Candidate Recommendations, proposals for W3C Activities etc. Following the Rule Languages for Interoperability in which ICRA participated during April 2005, the Consortium has invited the members to review its proposed charter for the Rule Interchange Format Working Group. ICRA has chosen to publish its response to this call in recognition of the importance of the proposed activity and the potential impact of the working group's future work.

• Comments on the proposed charter
• ICRA paper delivered to the workshop April 2005
• W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability public website

Mobile operator O2 has made a public commitment to use the machine-readable trustmark system developed under the Quatro project to carry accessibility trustmarks awarded by Segala

The concept of machine-readable labels has been taken up enthusiastically by Segala who are in the forefront of certifying web resources for accessibility as defined by the W3C WAI Initiative. In turn, O2, a major mobile network operator in Britain, Ireland and Germany has embraced the idea issuing two press releases today.

• O2 Press Release: O2 to become the first company to win web trust mark
• O2 marks its community awards by becoming the first company to win web trust certification
• Segala
• A visualisation of how machine readable trustmarks and ICRA labels will work as a result of Quatro
• QUATRO project website