The news industry’s technical standards body has launched v1.0 (beta) of NewsML and has called for trial implementations. At its Annual General Meeting in Geneva, over 50 participating members of the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC, approved the public release of the first version of NewsML, an XML-based standard for the management of multimedia news. The news industry is now encouraged to start development implementations while final support documentation is prepared ahead of a planned ratification of the DTD at the IPTC’s October meeting in Amsterdam. NewsML is the result of an IPTC initiative which started in October 1999, when the membership established a new work program designated IPTC2000. The goal of IPTC2000 was to deliver an XML-based standard to represent and manage news through its life cycle, including production, interchange and consumer use. Basing their discussions on original working papers from both Reuters and Agence France Presse, and earlier research studies from dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur, the details of NewsML have been developed over the last nine months at a series of intense working group meetings held in Europe and America. NewsML is an XML-based standard for all aspects of multimedia news creation, storage and delivery. At the heart of NewsML is the concept of the NewsItem which can contain various media – text, photos, graphics, video, – together with all the meta-information that enables the recipient to understand the relationship between components and understand the roles of each component. Everything the recipient might need to know about the content of the news provided can be included in NewsML’s structure. For example, NewsML enables publishers to provide the same text in different languages; a video clip in different formats; or different resolutions of the same photograph. NewsML’s rich metadata concept can help with things like revision levels that make it easy to track the evolution of a NewsItem over time, status details (publishable, embargoed, etc.) and administrative details, such as acknowledgements or copyright details. NewsML has default metadata vocabularies to ease implementations but it does not dictate which metadata vocabulary is used (IPTC subject codes, ISO country codes etc.) – providers just have to indicate which vocabulary they are using. Multiple vocabularies can be utilized within the same NewsItem. For text objects in a NewsItem, the IPTC’s News Industry Text Format (NITF) can be utilized. The DTD for NewsML v1.0 (beta), together with a functional specification, supporting documents and background papers can be found at www.iptc.org/NewsML. The DTD is available as a rights-free standard but it remains the intellectual property of the IPTC. www.iptc.org
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SilverStream Software, Inc. announced the general availability of xCommerce, a family of B2B integration server products that leverages XML, enabling companies to quickly build, integrate and deploy powerful eCommerce applications. xCommerce is a unified, complete product line that allows business analysts and developers to use XML to combine online business applications with legacy systems and data – and extend these applications across organizations and their external trading communities. xCommerce solutions help companies streamline B2B processes by managing enterprise applications and transactions across extended supply chains. xCommerce provides a number of advanced capabilities that make it easier for organizations to develop and rapidly implement e-commerce applications. Its visual integration features allow non-programming users to quickly and effectively manage highly customized trading partner relationships. xCommerce offers application connectivity so organizations can easily integrate e-commerce solutions with any XML-enabled application, as well as proprietary, host-based systems. xCommerce deploys B2B solutions into J2EE application servers, delivering enterprise-level security, scalability and reliability. xCommerce consists of: xCommerce Designer, a highly visual XML development and integration environment; xCommerce Server, a Java framework for XML integration deployment and management; and xCommerce Enterprise Enablers, a suite of adapters that provide XML-based enablement of business systems running on a variety of platforms, including IBM mainframes, AS/400 systems, relational databases, and Java-based business logic. xCommerce Server is can be deployed with J2EE application servers running on Windows NT and Unix. In addition to supporting the SilverStream Application Server, xCommerce will also support IBM’s WebSphere and other commercial application servers. These deployments exploit all native server capabilities, including thread management, connection pooling, transactions, load balancing and failover. Additionally, xCommerce supports all emerging XML vocabulary standards such as RosettaNet, OAG, ebXML and cXML. xCommerce is priced at $35,000 per server CPU. Each server CPU includes a 5-user license of xCommerce Designer, a runtime license to the SilverStream Application Server and the xCommerce Enterprise Enabler for JDBC. xCommerce is available immediately. Other Enterprise Enablers will be released during the remainder of 2000 and will be priced separately. www.silverstream.com
FileNET Corporation announced a joint sales and marketing relationship with Art Technology Group, Inc. (ATG). By working together, FileNET and ATG will be able to help joint eBusiness customers leverage real-time Web content for sophisticated online e-business solutions. This partnership brings together FileNET’s Web Content Management and eProcess technologies to organize and access massive amounts of enterprise content and data, and integrate this information into eBusiness strategies using ATG Dynamo. By combining FileNET’s Web Content Management with ATG’s e-commerce and personalization applications, eBusiness customers will be able to leverage the vast amount of data that is continually being updated by FileNET-managed applications, and incorporate that data into dynamic Web sites powered by ATG Dynamo. In addition, using ATG’s sophisticated business rules-based personalization-engine, eBusiness customers will be able to design targeted Web-based marketing applications that match profile and preference information with FileNET-managed information for advanced content targeting. www.FileNET.com
IBM announced the availability of software for the Linux operating system that helps people create and publish professional-quality Web sites. The announcement is IBM’s latest initiative to support Linux throughout its portfolio of e-business software, servers and services. WebSphere Homepage Builder includes the necessary templates, tools and multimedia tutorials for creating and publishing Internet and intranet Web sites and pages in minutes. The software’s easy-to-use features are designed to appeal to the ever-growing community using Linux as both a development platform and a Web server environment. WebSphere Homepage Builder for Linux will be available in North America and supports major commercial distributions of Linux. In addition, IBM announced the availability of WebSphere Homepage Builder for Windows, which was previously only available in parts of Asia. WebSphere Homepage Builder is the newest addition to IBM’s WebSphere software platform — Web infrastructure software that helps companies at each stage of e-business development, from startup to handling high volume Web transactions typical of B2B e-marketplaces. Key features of WebSphere Homepage Builder for Linux and Windows include: A complete package for creating and publishing Web pages and sites; Over 100 pre-built, drag-and-drop templates; Over 2,000 ready-to-use images and sounds; Multimedia tutorial; WebArt Designer, a graphic design tool; and Web Animator, a graphic animation tool. WebSphere Homepage Builder Version 4 will be available in North America on July 31 for distributions of Linux including Caldera OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux, TurboLinux and SuSE Linux. IBM list price will be $69.95, or $59.95 without hardcopy documentation. WebSphere Homepage Builder Version 5, which includes new site design capabilities, will be available in North America on July 31 for Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000. IBM list price will be $69.95, or $59.95 without hardcopy documentation. IBM list upgrade price for competitive offerings like Microsoft’s Frontpage, will be $29.95, or $19.95 without hardcopy documentation. www.ibm.com/websphere
Interwoven, Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Neonyoyo, a developer of wireless technology which delivers targeted XML content rendered appropriately, regardless of device type. This acquisition supports Interwoven’s strategy to accelerate time to wireless Web for its blue-chip customer base. Under the terms of the agreement, an aggregate value of approximately $70 million in Interwoven common stock and cash will be exchanged for the assets, liabilities and capital stock of Neonyoyo. This transaction will be accounted for as a purchase and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of Interwoven’s fiscal year 2000. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to various closing conditions. Neonyoyo’s technology strengthens Interwoven’s product set by both enhancing and accelerating its wireless content management offering. Interwoven expects to make available products incorporating Neonyoyo technology in Q4, 2000. Neonyoyo was founded in 1999 by Vikram Nagrani, Arjun Khanna and Arun Chatterjee. The 20 employees, primarily engineers, will be integrated into the Interwoven organization as a separate wireless division, located in Austin, Texas. Vikram Nagrani, Neonyoyo founder and CEO, will become vice president and general manager of this newly formed division. Arjun Khanna and Arun Chatterjee will continue to spearhead the division’s technology development effort. www.interwoven.com
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), an organization leading the development of international standards to improve electronic resource management and information discovery, announced the formal recommendation of the Dublin Core (DC) Qualifiers. The addition of the DC Qualifiers enhances the semantic precision of the existing DC Metadata Element Set. The DC Qualifiers build upon the DC Metadata Element Set, which provides 15 categories to describe resources on the Web – a catalog card with new dimensions. Known as the Dublin Core, the metadata model has become the de facto standard for description of information on the Internet. For the past year, working groups of the Dublin Core developed these newly agreed upon refinements to the catalog card to give better access to information we seek. In essence, the new recommendations for Dublin Core Qualifiers increase the effectiveness of metadata by giving it finer granularity. For example, a publication’s date, which would be the Dublin Core Metadata Element, may be further detailed as a particular type of date by using a Dublin Core Qualifier such as date last modified, date created, or date issued. The DC Qualifiers improve interpretation of metadata values and can be easily recorded or transferred into HTML, XML, RDF or relational databases. The evolution of DC Qualifiers draws from the input of many individuals across a broad array of disciplines. Users include museum informatics specialists, archivists, digital library researchers, libraries, and government information providers and a variety of content providers. Their efforts have led standards organizations, such as NISO (National Information Standards Organization) in the U.S. and CEN in Europe (European Committee for Standardization) to view the DC Metadata Element Set as a benchmark candidate for simple resource description on the Internet. More recently, new sectors, such as education and industry, have been attracted to Dublin Core’s simplicity, multilingual scope, consensus philosophy and widespread adoption. http://purl.org/dc/documents/dcmes-qualifiers, http://purl.org/dc/
POET Software announced the release of the POET eCatalog Suite-Service Provider Edition (eCS-SP). The new application, which began shipping at the end of June, is a multi-supplier solution designed specifically for ASPs and eMarketmakers. POET eCS-SP enables eMarketmakers and ASPs to provide suppliers with a user-friendly application for aggregating, cleansing and customizing their eCatalog content, using no more than a browser. The resulting eCatalogs, which are customized for each buyer or eMarketplace, are then distributed in any format, XML or legacy. This enables eMarketmakers to immediately connect thousands of suppliers and build instant liquidity for their eMarketplace. Until now, supplier access to eMarketplaces has required a significant investment creating a barrier to adoption for small- and medium-sized suppliers. POET eCS Service-Provider Edition lowers these barriers to entry, enabling small suppliers to compete fairly with the very largest suppliers. POET eCS-SP is an application that suppliers utilize through a Web browser. Each supplier logs into the system and is presented with a secure work environment where they manage their catalog data, pricing and buyer information. This information is then combined to create custom catalogs that are tailored to the needs of each buyer or eMarketplace. This supplier self-service model is analogous to the ATMs employed by banks. The consensus among industry analysts is that the growth and ROI projected for eProcurement solutions and eMarketplaces is being constrained by a dearth of eCatalog content. POET eCS-SP solves this problem by providing “instant enablement” by any supplier with a Web browser. POET eCS-SP enables the supplier and eMarketplace to share responsibilities based on their needs and their level of sophistication. For example, some suppliers may simply upload a catalog. While others may choose to create cleansing rules, map to various commodity codes, build sophisticated pricing schemes and more. Similarly, eMarketplaces can use POET eCS-SP to create and schedule cleansing rules across their suppliers to normalize data, cleanse individual supplier eCatalogs and more. POET eCS-SP provides the power, flexibility and ease-of-use necessary to support this sharing of responsibilities between eMarketplaces and suppliers. For ASPs, POET eCS-SP provides an attractive lure for new customers, and a supplemental revenue stream from existing clients. With the Fortune 1000 eProcurement implementations taking root, and B2B eMarketplaces gaining acceptance, the pressure on lower and middle tier suppliers to become eCatalog-enabled will continue to rise.
POET Software announced the release of the POET eCatalog Suite-Service Provider Edition (eCS-SP). The new application, which began shipping at the end of June, is a multi-supplier solution designed specifically for ASPs and eMarketmakers. POET eCS-SP enables eMarketmakers and ASPs to provide suppliers with a user-friendly application for aggregating, cleansing and customizing their eCatalog content, using no more than a browser. The resulting eCatalogs, which are customized for each buyer or eMarketplace, are then distributed in any format, XML or legacy. This enables eMarketmakers to immediately connect thousands of suppliers and build instant liquidity for their eMarketplace. Until now, supplier access to eMarketplaces has required a significant investment creating a barrier to adoption for small- and medium-sized suppliers. POET eCS Service-Provider Edition lowers these barriers to entry, enabling small suppliers to compete fairly with the very largest suppliers. POET eCS-SP is an application that suppliers utilize through a Web browser. Each supplier logs into the system and is presented with a secure work environment where they manage their catalog data, pricing and buyer information. This information is then combined to create custom catalogs that are tailored to the needs of each buyer or eMarketplace. This supplier self-service model is analogous to the ATMs employed by banks. The consensus among industry analysts is that the growth and ROI projected for eProcurement solutions and eMarketplaces is being constrained by a dearth of eCatalog content. POET eCS-SP solves this problem by providing “instant enablement” by any supplier with a Web browser. POET eCS-SP enables the supplier and eMarketplace to share responsibilities based on their needs and their level of sophistication. For example, some suppliers may simply upload a catalog. While others may choose to create cleansing rules, map to various commodity codes, build sophisticated pricing schemes and more. Similarly, eMarketplaces can use POET eCS-SP to create and schedule cleansing rules across their suppliers to normalize data, cleanse individual supplier eCatalogs and more. POET eCS-SP provides the power, flexibility and ease-of-use necessary to support this sharing of responsibilities between eMarketplaces and suppliers. For ASPs, POET eCS-SP provides an attractive lure for new customers, and a supplemental revenue stream from existing clients. With the Fortune 1000 eProcurement implementations taking root, and B2B eMarketplaces gaining acceptance, the pressure on lower and middle tier suppliers to become eCatalog-enabled will continue to rise.
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