Accessibility Issues in HTML5 A Comparison of HTML5 Websites and Those Coded in Earlier Versions

It is estimated that by 2020 there could be as many as 4 million visually impaired or blind people living in the UK. These visually impaired or blind people will use assistive technologies such as screen readers to access website content on the internet. Currently the governing body of the internet, the World Wide Web Consortium has released and continues to develop a new standard of the HTML markup language which is used to code website content. This new HTML standard, HTML 5 has been heralded as a new semantically correct markup language. HTML 5 should be more accessible to users of assisted technologies and should also facilitate the incorporation into websites of rich internet applications and other media in a more accessible way. However the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) have suggested that the opposite may be proving to be true and that HTML 5 websites may be more inaccessible than websites coded in earlier versions of HTML. This study employs a mixed methods methodology, including screen reader accessibility testing and web developer interviews. This methodology will establish the accessibility of HTML 5 coded websites and prove or disprove the hypothesis of the RNIB while adding granularity and perspective to the results of the testing

Internet of things

This is an introductory course to the IoT (Internet of things). In the early chapters the basics about the IoT are introduced. Then basics of IPv6 internet protocol that is the most used in IoT environment as well as main applications, the current state of the market and the technologies that enable the existence of the IoT are described. Finally the future challenges that are considered most important are discussed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

“Less Is More”: New Property Paradigm in the Information Age?

Before striking down laws increasing copyright’s domain, judges and legislators are asking for evidence that information products will be created even if copyright protection is not provided. The future of Internet technology depends on locating this evidence in time to limit expansive copyright. United States law, however, already protects information products under copyright. Hence, this counterfactual evidence that judges request cannot be generated in the United States. In response to the demand for data, American legal scholars have attempted to mine evidence from open software and other non-commercial endeavors on the Internet. However, these endeavors have been dismissed as exceptions or “cults,” unrelated to mainstream industry needs. This Article, for the first time, provides evidence of growth in the commercial software industry without intellectual property protection. Between 1993 and 2010, the software industry in India emerged as the fastest growing in the world, accounting for $76 billion in revenues by 2010. In the same time period, the software industry in India remained unaffected by changes in intellectual property protection for software. By demonstrating industry growth without strong intellectual property protections, the Indian data fills the critical gap in American literature. Moreover, the comparative data from India enables scholars to separate causality from outcomes in specific empirical and analytical studies emerging out of the United States. In the case study of California’s Silicon Valley, for instance, there is a risk that causality may be extrapolated to alternative California statutes, giving rise to errors of second order. The comparative analysis checks this potential inaccuracy. The industry in India also provides illuminating data from contracting practices—decisive evidence of the legal infrastructure firms need and will create by contract, if not found in a priori law. This study equips policy-makers to go beyond the “historic accident” explanation to understand why the software industry flourishes where it does

Toward an Understanding of "Weak Signals" of Technological Change and Innovation in the Internet Industry

Identifying the emergence and development of new technologies has become an essential ability for firms competing in dynamic environments. Nonetheless, current technology intelligence practices are unstructured and vaguely defined. Moreover, the existing literature in future technology studies lacks strong, systematic explanations of what technologies are, where technologies come from, and how new technologies emerge and evolve. The present study builds on Structuration Theory, and proposes the structurational model of emerging technologies (SMET). The SMET suggests not only an ongoing view of technologies as social objects, but also a process for thinking through scientifically the complex, multidimensional and emergent dynamic of social and technological change. The SMET proposes that the emergence and development of a new technology can be tracked by examining systematically and collectively the extent of development of its technology-related social structure – its degree of structuration. The degree of structuration of a technology is an ongoing process instantiated in social practices, and can be observed through visible patterns or specific social outcomes of systemic activity organized in three analytical dimensions: structures of meaning, power, and legitimacy. The SMET assumes that the conceptual initiation of a new technology triggers new patterns of social activity or a signal of technological change; thus, the variation in the slope or trajectory of the degree of structuration of a technology may indicate an early signal of technological change. The SMET sets a foundation for identifying early signals of technological change when it is used on a systematic basis. Empirically, the study conducted an exploratory case study in the Internet industry. The study employed a sequential transformative mixed method procedure, and relied on 77 Internet experts to create retrospectively a systematic and collective interpretation of the Internet industry in the last ten (10) years. The test of hypotheses was based on only seven (7) Internet technologies due to time and instrumental constraints. The results confirm the fundamental relationships among constructs in the model, and support, thus, the SMET. The degree of structuration of a technology is revealed as a process independent of individuals’ participation in the enactment of a technology. Technological outcomes are explained by the extent of development of structures of meaning, power, and legitimacy (i.e., the degree of structuration of a technology). Moreover, influential technological outcomes shape individuals’ perspectives over time – i.e., the structurational effect. Hence, the study not only provides evidence that supports this novel theoretical framework, but also illustrates methodologically how to identify the emergence and development of new technologies. Likewise, the study discusses the implications of these results for technology management practices (e.g., product and technology development, innovation policies, and technology transfer activities). Lastly, the study recognizes limitations and suggests further research avenues

Future of Internet Technologies

This Paper provides an analytical overview of the IT technologies that are currently available for the development of business internet applications. HTML, AJAX and Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies are compared and the pros and cons of each technology outlined. Incompatibility issues of most RIA platforms with numerous devices and operating systems due to the so-called platform wars are described. A possible solution is proposed: Developing or using a new generation of RIA technologies which would preserve legacy application code and at the same time provide usability over the internet, a rich user interface and cross-platform support