About Diffuse

The Aims of the Diffuse Project 
The Diffuse Services, and how to use them
The Diffuse Consortium

The Diffuse Project Officer

The Aims of the Diffuse Project

The objective of the Diffuse project is to provide a single, value-added, entry point to up-to-date reference and guidance information on available and emerging standards and specifications that facilitate the electronic exchange of information.

The Diffuse project has been set up to provide neutral reporting on developments relating to standards and specifications in support of Key Action II (New Methods of Work and Electronic Commerce) and Key Action III (Multimedia Content and Tools) of the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) programme. The project outputs are primarily targeted at potential and actual IST participants. Whilst the emphasis of the project is focused on the needs of the Research and Technologies Development (RTD) communities,  it also has a broader perspective of serving the information requirements of industry and public sector in general. 

The Diffuse project builds on the accomplishments of the European Commission’s Open Information Interchange (OII) initiative, which concluded in December 1999.

The Diffuse service is being used to demonstrate many of the latest techniques in web site management. For example, it conforms to the guidelines issued by the Web Accessibility Initiative, it records Dublin Core metadata in all its files, it includes P3P-compliant privacy statements and it demonstrates the role of ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps in data navigation.

Note: Our Diffuse Privacy Policy summary explains when and why we collect information on use of the site, and what will happen to any personal information submitted to the service.

An Interim Report summaries the achievements of the project in its first 18 months of service.

The Diffuse Services, and how to use them

The Diffuse services are organized into the following categories of publications and activities:

• Business Guides
• Standards and Specifications Reference Data
• Standards and Specifications List
• Standards Fora List
• RTD Project List
• Standards and Specifications News
• Electronic Commerce
• Information Management
• RTD Projects
• Conferences
• User Support
• Alphabetical Index to Standards and Specifications
• Search Engine
• Help Desk
• Dissemination Events.

If you are interested in finding out how standards and specifications are applied in key technology areas, the Diffuse Business Guides will be a good starting point. The guides are written from a business perspective and provide an overview of the underlying concepts and current development status for individual key technology areas (including current "hot topics") with respect to the application of standards and specifications.

If you wish to find out which standards and specifications are used in specific application areas, or which standards and specifications are required for the electronic interchange of data at a general level, the categories provided in the table of contents of the Standards and Specifications List will show you where to find the information you need.

If you need to find information about a particular standard or specification, the fully cross-referenced Alphabetic Index, which lists the acronyms of standards and specifications as well as their full title, will provide a useful starting point. Alternatively, you can make use of the Diffuse Search Engine, which enables you to search for all references to a standard, specification, standardization fora, or search term that are available on the web site (including references within the OII files from 1995-1999). For really complex subjects we also provide Topic Maps that show where the standards have been applied.

If you wish to find out more about the activities of a particular standards body, then the Standards Fora List is the place to start. The Standards Fora List provides references to organizations responsible for producing standards and specifications, including formal standardization bodies, industry consortia, and other bodies which collate user requirements for inputting to the standardization process.

If you require information on the implementation of standards and specifications by RTD projects, in particular those supported under the present IST Programme and the previous EU Fourth Framework Programme, then the RTD Project List will provide you with a concise reference point.

The latest information on standards and specifications developments within the scope of Diffuse is provided in the monthly Report on Electronic Commerce Interoperability and Report on Information Management Standardization Activity . News on the implementation of standards and specifications by RTD projects is given in the quarterly Report on RTD Projects. Diffuse also provides occasional Standardization Activity Conference Reports.

In addition, the Diffuse project organizes an annual Conference on specific themes within its scope.

The Diffuse information services are updated every month. If you would like to receive information on which reports have been published during the month, together with details of which sections of the Diffuse site have been updated since the last report, please complete our mailing list application form. (To remove your name from the list click here.)

The Diffuse Consortium aims to provide a timely, neutral and quality information service to its targeted users. Your feedback and suggestions on any aspect of the service are of the utmost importance to us. You are requested to e-mail us any comments that you may have on the service and to complete our Customer Satisfaction Survey.

The Diffuse Help Desk provides access to all the search and help features provided by Diffuse. It includes facilities that allow you to pose questions to the Diffuse experts should you not be able to find the information you need on our web site.

The Diffuse Consortium

Coordinator: TIEKE (Finnish Information Society Development Centre)

Partners: IC Focus and The SGML Centre

TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre's primary mission is to serve its members and associates by performing as a neutral and non-profit forum in the development of the Finnish Information Society. TIEKE provides a central point for information relating to information technology to Finnish companies. As such it is closely involved with user communities and their RTD activities in one of the most technologically advanced countries in Europe. Staff at TIEKE have considerable inputs to the standardization process at national, European and international levels and are responsible for Finnish IT standardization through delegation from the Finnish Standards Association, SFS.

The main functions of TIEKE include:

• Initiation and coordination of selected development projects within the ICT industry
• Generation of an IT cluster together with domestic and international partners, thus promoting networking at all levels of IT industry
• Development of trade procedures in both domestic and international cooperation, as a major Finnish player in that arena
• Participation in the development of electronic data interchange and UN/EDIFACT
• Participation in the standardization of information and communications technologies at national, European and international levels
• Production of interactive information services for business companies, public administration and private citizens alike, and delivery of IT news and publication services as a member of a European consortium.

TIEKE Finnish Information Society Development Centre, Salomonkatu 17 A, 10th floor, FIN-00100 Helsinki, Finland.

Contact person: Marja-Leena Vepsäläinen

Phone: +358 9 4763 0400
Fax: +358 9 4763 0399
E-mail: mlv@tieke.fi

Homepage: http://www.tieke.fi

IC Focus Limited is an independent consultancy specializing in the strategic planning and implementation of electronic commerce. It undertakes assignments for a range of private and public sector organizations. Areas of recent activity include open systems migration strategy for European railways, electronic procurement, electronic banking, electronic commerce awareness and training, information markets, and ICT competitive analysis. IC Focus provides active voluntary input to the electronic commerce standardization process. The company resources its own research into electronic commerce next generation issues and has built up a European network of contacts with researchers, standardizers and practitioners in electronic commerce.

Its director, Man-Sze Li, has been involved in electronic commerce and EDI standardization for the past 12 years. She has been a member of the relevant national committees, various groups of the former Western European EDIFACT Board, Chair of the EWOS Expert Group on EDI, and Chair of the EBES Electronic Commerce Technical Steering Group. She is currently the elected Chair of the CEN/ISSS Electronic Commerce Workshop. Ms Li is also involved in the establishment of an Internet company offering global electronic commerce services.

Ms Li was a contributor to the European Commission’s Open Information Interchange (OII) initiative.

IC Focus Limited, 42 Clifton Road, London N8 8JA, UK

Contact person: Man-Sze Li

Phone: +44 20 8347 7355
Fax: +44 7967 359 461
E-mail: msli@icfocus.co.uk

The SGML Centre specializes in the use of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and associated standards, including the SGML-subset that is used in W3C's Extensible Markup Language (XML). 

The proprietor of The SGML Centre, Martin Bryan, has represented the UK on ISO committees related to Document Description and Processing Languages for over a decade. This work has included acting as co-editor for the ISO/IEC Topic Map standard and review of the MPEG7 multimedia data navigation standard.. He is also chair of the CEN/ISSS Electronic Commerce Workshop Project Group on Defining and Managing Semantics and Datatypes for European Electronic Commerce.

Martin Bryan was a contributor to the European Commission's Open Information Interchange (OII) initiative.

The SGML Centre, 29 Oldbury Orchard, Churchdown, Glos GL3 2PU, UK

Contact person: Martin Bryan

Phone/Fax: +44 1452 714029
E-mail: mtbryan@sgml.u-net.com

Homepage: http://www.sgml.u-net.com

Project Officer

The European Commission's Project Officer for the Diffuse project is:

Brian Macklin                          
EUFO 0179                            
European Commission             
L-2920 Luxembourg                
Tel.: +352 4301 38208           
Fax: +352 4301 38099
E-mail: brian.macklin@cec.eu.int