W3C has published the September 2013 edition of Standards for Web Applications on Mobile, an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the power of Web applications, particularly in the mobile context.

A deliverable of the webinos project, this edition of the document includes changes and additions since March 2013, such as the newly chartered Web and Mobile IG (which will own the next iteration of the document), performance improvements through better scrolling integration and network request priorities, new early proposed approaches for responsive images and filesystem management. The report also shows graphically recent editorial activity for all the specs that it tracks

Learn more about the Web and Mobile Devices.

October is Relationship Violence Awareness Month

For this year's Relationship Violence Awareness Month at UMBC, we're honoring the the experiences and stories of survivors of interpersonal violence through signature events like the Clothesline Project but also focusing on how to create healthy relationships. After all, how can we work to reduce abusive relationships if we're not having conversations about what healthy relationships are?

This October, the Women's Center and University Health Services invite you to join one or more of our many events in recognition of Relationship Violence Awareness Month. Click on the link below to download the calendar of events, workshops and a new video contest. 

Over the summer, Natnael worked in the Transcription Regulation Section of a cancer research lab at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda. He plans to complete his B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2015 and apply for an MD/PhD program or medical school.

What research have you been doing this summer?
I have been working in a lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. I specifically work in a Transcription Regulation Section of a cancer research lab at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

How did you find out about this opportunity? Was there a formal application process?
I found about the internship through a friend who interned at NIH a while back and he recommended I apply.

Who did you work with on this project?
I directly work with the PI, Staff Scientist, a Postdoc (my daily supervisor) and a Postbac who actually graduated from UMBC last year.

Was this your first independent research project?
This is my second time in this same lab. I started last summer and they offered me a chance to come back and continue the work this summer.

Do you get course credit for this work or get paid?
Yes, I did get paid for the internship. I don’t know if Prac 98 counts as a credit but I did get that for last summer internship and I will also be getting it for this summer internship as well. I also got a notation on my Official School Transcript.

How much time do you put into it?
On average I put in about 6-8 hours a day for about 6 weeks.

What academic background did you have before you started?
My background is in Biology, Chemistry and Statistics.

How did you learn what you needed to know to be successful in this summer project?
The first and most important thing I learned is to ask questions about anything I don’t understand or am confused about. I learned I had to put in a good effort and hard work to succeed and get what I wanted from the internship. I also learned to talk to other summer interns and learn and exchange information.

What has been the hardest part about your work this summer?
Some of the scientific experiments I performed are really complex and far from the theories I learned in class. Also, I am not good at networking with different people so I had a bit of a hard time initiating a conversation with people I knew would be helpful.

What was the most unexpected thing?
How helpful and easy to approach people are in research; they are always eager to help as long as you ask for it. Also, the manner in which theories from class apply in a real scenario, it was simply amazing to witness.

How does this research experience relate to your course work?
I am currently in the Bio track of Chemical Engineering at UMBC, so I take Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry classes and this research has helped me understand the things I have learned during my years at UMBC . It has helped cement the concepts I have learned in class.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?
Start early, prepare a good application. This means getting to know your Professor early at class so you can develop a good relationship and you can get a good recommendation because often times your competition has either as good a GPA as you do or even better, so you need something that can set you apart and recommendation letters are one of those things. Go to the Shriver Center. Find students who have done internships before and ask questions.

What are your career goals?
I plan to complete my B.S in Chemical Engineering and either apply for an MD/PhD program or Medical school.

What else are you involved in on campus?
I am involved in AICHE, NSBE, Pre-Med Society and I am also involved in a new organization called “Unite Africa”.

Read his abstract here...

W3C published today the final report of the August Social Standards: The Future of Business Workshop, organized jointly with the OpenSocial Foundation. W3C thanks AppFusions for hosting the event, and IBM and the Open Mobile Alliance for their sponsorship.

This Workshop provided a way for the social business and technical community to create a roadmap for standardizing the currently fragmented social landscape in order to make social a first-class part of the Open Web Platform. Participants discussed how social can revolutionize the enterprise and next steps for technologies such as OpenSocial and ActivityStreams, both of which are in early stages of revision. This workshop was the culmination of the activity of the Social Business Community Group.

Participants of the Workshop agreed that W3C should create a Working Group defining standards around social, ranging from APIs to profile federation, as well as a community group around property graphs. Collaboration with the OpenSocial Foundation, Open Mobile Alliance, ActivityStreams community, and many other groups in order will be one of the keys to creating the next generation of standards for the social web. We anticipate one or more draft charters will be available in the coming weeks.

Yesterday Google released the beta version of its newest project: Web Designer.

Announced earlier this year, Web Designer is a visual tool for building HTML5 adverts; although one suspects Google’s ambitions for the application are much wider, given that it’s not named ‘Google Ad Builder’.

Web Designer is, at first glance, a promising piece of software, but I question whether we really need yet another tool for building HTML5 content.

All HTML5 applications — and there are already some great apps for coding HTML5, Hype for example — create an environment in which we, as designers, are separated from the source code that we’re working with; there is always an extra layer between us. It’s true that most tools — including Google Web Designer — allow you to edit code with a built-in editor of some kind, but in my experience good coding practices are usually sidelined when a deadline is looming and it’s simply faster to drag and drop.

If we want a truly open, standards-compliant web, don’t we need to learn the underlying technologies for ourselves? Is HTML5 really so complex that we can’t learn it? Is CSS3 so difficult to master we’d rather tweak a properties panel?

The creation of these tools, from Apple’s iAd to Google’s Web Designer has been enabled by the collapse of the Flash industry. According to Google there are already more HTML5-capable devices than Flash-capable devices (which makes sense given the iPhone’s nonplussed reaction to SWF files) and the market is expected to grow by over 40% by the end of the year. In fact the only surprising thing is that the market isn’t growing faster and that any Flash content is still produced at all.

However whilst Adobe have apparently sought to distance themselves from Flash (Adobe Edge Animate does not feel like a Flash interface), Google have no such compunction, and Web Designer has a distinctly Flash MX 2004 feel about it.

How much of Web Designer is new and how much is, as suggested by certain sources, simply a fork of the Motorola Mobility project Ninja (which Google now own) is difficult to say without looking under the hood. What we can be sure of is that whatever its origins, Web Designer is a natural step for Google, it makes absolute sense that having cornered the market in advertising, Google should produce a tool for building those adverts. Already tied into DoubleClick and AdMob, the option to publish for other networks is included, but is unlikely to be widely used.

Déjà vu for Actionscript programmers.

Probably the biggest blow to Adobe, and to all rival applications is that Google Web Designer is free, at least for now. It’s very hard to justify a Flash CC subscription when there’s a free alternative — albeit one that is a little more basic. Google has beaten Microsoft office into submission by delivering basic rivals free of charge, why not Adobe CC too?

In many ways Google Web Designer is inventing a role for itself. But whilst it’s free, is there any chance it won’t be successful? And if it is extended over the next year or two to include full site builds, will it reach the stage of replacing an in-depth knowledge of HTML5? It will be bad news for the Web if it does.

Have you downloaded Google Web Designer yet? Do you think Google will expand its remit in the near future? Let us know in the comments.

500+ Scary Halloween Vectors & Brushes – only $17!

• Leadership, organization and budgetary skills
• Excitement about recruiting participants for the trip
• Attend leader training workshops and meetings with the ASB Team
• Willing to volunteer during entire Spring Break: Sunday, March 16 to Friday, March 21