Kelvin Lawrence – IBM Austin

Using XML to Draw Pictures: A Detailed Introduction to SVG – Parts 1 and 2

Many people are familiar with how XML can be used to define and share structured data — but did you know there is an XML standard for producing pictures, diagrams and other great artwork? This standard is the W3C Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Specification. The SVG specification defines a very rich XML grammar for describing pictures that can be included in web pages or contained in stand alone files. SVG also provides a great way to share drawings with others using an open XML standard. In these sessions, we will cover SVG from top to bottom. We will address many different topics including:

• An detailed SVG overview;
• Getting started with SVG – the basic SHAPEs;
• Using paths to define complex shapes;
• Working with text;
• Working with color, opacity and gradients;
• Other SVG features and capabilities;
• Animation using the built-in animation features and also via the SVG DOM and scripting;
• Including SVG in your own web pages and other documents;
• Using SVG as an interchange format;
• Available support for SVG;
• Writing a program that generates SVG;
• Using professional drawing tools to produce SVG;
• Using XSLT to generate SVG from XML data files.

We will also use lots of live samples and demonstrate some of the many SVG implementations available today.

The overall goal is to give you as intensive an overview of SVG as is possible in three hours (if you attend parts 1 and 2). Part 1 will focus on the basics and part 2 will get into more complex scenarios and examples. It is recommended that you attend part 1 before you attend part 2 if you are new to this topic. A working knowledge of computer graphics techniques and terminology will help you quickly grasp the concepts but is not required to attend these sessions.

Web Services Round Table Discussion

Are you currently implementing, or at least investigating the use of, Web Services technologies like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI? If you are, why not come and join your peers and share your experiences, questions, frustrations and hopefully some successes too. This session will be chaired by Kelvin Lawrence of IBM, but will not include a formal presentation, nor will it focus on any single vendor's specific technologies. This will be more of a moderated free form discussion. We will certainly get into areas such as:

• Securing web services messages and content
• Ensuring interoperability between implementations
• Performance
• Real world experiences
• What's coming next

Please bring your questions and experiences and join us for a fast moving 90 minutes of technical discussion and information sharing.

Based in Austin, Texas, Kelvin Lawrence is IBM's CTO of Dynamic e-business Technologies. Kelvin is also an IBM Distinguished Engineer. He is currently focused on the advancement and deployment of Web Services technologies. Prior to this year Kelvin was IBM's CTO for XML Technology. In that role, Kelvin was focussed on the development and deployment (in IBM products and services offerings) of XML technology (including parsers, style sheet engines and web services components). Previously Kelvin was heavily involved in the prototyping and development of several projects based on Java™ Technology and more recently XML based technologies. Kelvin has also been heavily involved in the definition of Internet standards and was the IBM representative to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 working group, which defined the industry standard XML grammar for transmitting graphical documents over the Internet. In the last three years, Kelvin has worked extensively with XML and Java and other emerging technologies and has spent a lot of time teaching and lecturing on topics such as XML, Java programming computer graphics, user interfaces and e-business. Kelvin has been very active in the XML community and he chaired the XML One conferences in London in 2000 and 2001 Kelvin's background and prior work focus is in the area of computer operating systems with a particular focus on graphical user interfaces and computer graphics subsystems. Kelvin has written numerous articles on a variety of related topics and has presented programming lectures all over the world and is currently coauthoring a book on SVG to be published later this year by Manning Publications. Kelvin has filed in excess of 75 patents in areas such as computer operating systems, mobile devices, and human computer interfaces in the United States and elsewhere. Kelvin is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and has also been recently recognized as an IBM Master Inventor. Kelvin has been with IBM in a variety of differing roles since 1986. He was born, raised and educated in England. He joined IBM UK in 1986 working at the Hursley Laboratory. He transferred full time to the United States in 1990. Kelvin holds an Honours degree in Computer Science from Brighton University in England. Email: klawrenc@us.ibm.com

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