The Future of Object Technology in the WWW

Submitted by Mark Madsen, Information Services Framework, APM Ltd

Direction and Purpose

In his overview of object oriented technology, Tim Berners-Lee outlines the main reasons for wanting object technology be used in the WWW. Taking that document as a starting point, I would like the panel to discuss the following issues, taking a generally medium-to-long term view:

  1. The specific ways in which the WWW will benefit from the application of object technology. For example, what new kinds of applications and facilities can be expected to become available? How will these enhance our present ways of working, and what new uses will object technology enable?
  2. The infrastructure enhancements that full support for objects will require, and the best order in which to apply those enhancements. Does the WWW need to be rebuilt using object technologies, or do those object technologies need to become adapted to the new environment which the WWW comprises?
  3. How to guarantee long-term interoperability between different (and competing) object technologies, given the fact that not all commercially available object development systems are interoperable. What kinds of standards processes will be acceptable and suitable, and can they move rapidly enough to cope with the development of the WWW?

These and related issues are particularly timely, with work being done by a variety of groups and a number of commercial object technologies becoming available for the WWW.

The Panellists

The panel consists of a number of the people who are working on bringing object technology to the WWW. They are listed here in alphabetical order.

The panel will be chaired by Mark Madsen. 

________________________________________________________________________
Mark Madsen: <msm@ansa.co.uk> <URL:http://www.ansa.co.uk/Staff/msm.html>
Information Services Framework, The ANSA Project, APM Ltd., Castle Park,
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