News For November, 1999

Microsoft submitted to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) a draft specification for version 1.0 of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), a method for accessing objects over the Web that is neutral between object models such as COM and CORBA. SOAP uses XML to let developers write applications that call objects built with Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model, as well as non-Microsoft components. www.microsoft.com

Stack Overflow Launches Authoring Environment for XHTML
11/30/1999

Stack Overflow AG announced the commercial availability of the Mozquito Factory, an XHTML authoring environment. XHTML bridges HTML with the power of XML, bringing richer Web pages and more flexible Web applications for a wide range of platforms and browsers: from desktop PCs to televisions to kiosks to automobiles and mobile devices. Written entirely in Java, the Mozquito Factory is a client-side, stand-alone authoring environment. The Mozquito Factory significantly reduces authoring costs for complex, highly dynamic Web interfaces -- saving hundreds of hours of programming time. Built upon a modular framework, the Mozquito Factory combines three independent applications into a toolkit: Mozquito Engine: to enable current browsers, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and higher, to process the extensibility and display next-generation data formats and standards, including XML and XHTML; XHTML Validator: to automatically validate any XHTML or XML document, optimize markup, and invoke the Mozquito Engine upon successful validation to view the Web page; and Factory Editor: to author and edit highly dynamic XHTML, XML and forms-intensive Web sites without scripting or programming. With the Mozquito Factory, users no longer need to worry about incomplete implementations caused by the browser wars or tiresome cross-browser scripting in JavaScript/JScript/VBScript or Java Applet programming. Developers can now design and create online shops, eCommerce applications, quizzes, polls, questionnaires, games, calendars, order forms, surveys, administration interfaces and complex, dynamic Web pages in minutes. Download the Mozquito Factory for a free 30-day trial at www.mozquito.org, www.stackoverflow.com/

TSI Software Announces New Integration Broker
11/30/1999

TSI International Software Ltd. announced that it has combined its Mercator integration broker software with its Novera Web application integration product to deliver a - B2B integration broker. As the first new offering from the recent acquisition of Novera Software, this product will provide TSI Software's customers with comprehensive capabilities, including XML integration and transformation, for deploying complex B2B integration solutions quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Customers will be able to Internet-enable any application by exposing and transforming existing business process interfaces as XML messages to trading partners over public and private networks and leverage their existing IT infrastructure in new B2B e-commerce initiatives. Using Mercator, customers are able to transform directly between XML schemas and schemas for any new and legacy supported content type, including EDI, CII, S.W.I.F.T., HL7, ACORD, SAP, PeopleSoft and RDBMS. Mercator provides the tools for extending the integration of applications and business processes to trading partners using XML, while protecting IT investment in existing information systems. Mercator's XML support, coupled with Novera for hosting component-based server applications for the Internet, enables eBusinesses to integrate complex business processes with trading partners over public and private networks. Mercator and Novera are available today. TSI Software plans to offer the B2B integration broker in Q1 2000. Pricing and packaging details will be announced at a later date. www.tsisoft.com

Sterling Software Unveils Eureka:Portal 2.0
11/30/1999

Sterling Software, Inc. announced the general availability of EUREKA:Portal 2.0, the latest enhancement to the company's EUREKA:Suite family of integrated business intelligence tools. Sterling Software has advanced their business portal to offer a broader range of personalization options, easier interoperability with existing systems via XML, and enhanced support for business-to-business implementations. EUREKA:Portal 2.0 provides a single point-of-entry for a broad range of business intelligence and enterprise applications. For IT administrators, it offers a centralized and customizable information interface for every user within an organization. For business users, it expedites the location, retrieval and organization of essential business information in an accessible interactive Web environment. In addition to providing a platform for accessing the complete range of analysis and reporting tools in the EUREKA:Suite family, EUREKA:Portal 2.0 also integrates with other existing corporate data sources within an organization. EUREKA:Portal 2.0 provides an expanded level of interoperability through XML and directory service enhancements. Significant upgrades to the product's XML API broaden the Portal's open environment and simplify the publishing of external file formats to the Portal. Customers can combine information from multiple sources and customize their access to the Portal via third-party applications. www.sterling.com/eureka

Chrystal Software Announces Eclipse
11/30/1999

Chrystal Software announced Eclipse, a solution incorporating traditional Web pages and new, interactive content. Eclipse integrates with authoring software, Internet browsers, Web servers, and Web design software, and supports XML standards. With Chrystal Software's Eclipse, businesses that want to add interactive content to their Web sites can do so rapidly and incrementally. Eclipse incorporates traditional Web site content, allowing the Webmaster to continue using familiar HTML editors, file system managers, and other tools. New, interactive content is defined and managed in a complementary fashion. Eclipse uses XML in a myriad of ways. As visitors move through the Web site, Eclipse combines XML user profiles and actions to generate interactive content requests. These requests are fulfilled with XML content, determined by a combination of content and tag searches. The resulting interactive content is styled and delivered to the visitor in rapid fashion. Very often, this interactive content is combined with other Web site content such as HTML and graphics files. The personalization is transparent to the visitor. Version 1.0 will be available in early 2000. www.chrystal.com

webMethods & EDS Team for Global Supply Chain Initiatives
11/30/1999

webMethods, Inc. announced it will team with EDS to better serve clients implementing B2B e-commerce initiatives. Through this new relationship, EDS electronic business expertise and webMethods B2B software capabilities combine to provide comprehensive solutions for business-to-business e-commerce. webMethods B2B provides a business-to-business integration platform that makes it possible for companies to pursue direct integration with trading partners, while also participating in emerging B2B Marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network and Clarus SupplierUniverse. Through this partnership, EDS will incorporate webMethods B2B as part of the solution set it offers to EDS supply chain clients. webMethods B2B utilizes XML and open B2B standards, such as RosettaNet, OAG, OBI and ACORD, to build integrated business communities and enable companies to conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing IT infrastructure. www.eds.com, www.webMethods.com

Microsoft & Neon Form Strategic Relationship
11/30/1999

Microsoft Corp. and New Era of Networks Inc. announced a strategic relationship to jointly enhance and market e-commerce integration solutions based on Microsoft platforms and NEON's e-commerce Integration products. NEON is endorsing the Microsoft BizTalk Framework and BizTalk products and tools. In addition, NEON is joining the BizTalk steering committee as a leading e-commerce integration vendor. Others, including American Petroleum Institute, Ariba Inc., The Baan Co., The Boeing Co., Clarus Corp., Commerce One Inc., Concur Technologies Inc., Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), J.D. Edwards & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Microsoft, Open Applications Group (OAG), PeopleSoft Inc., Pivotal Software Inc., RosettaNet and SAP AG serve as members of the committee. www.neonsoft.com, www.microsoft.com

Interwoven Teams with IBM's WebSphere
11/30/1999

Interwoven, Inc. announced its second major initiative with IBM which integrates the IBM WebSphere product line with Interwoven's product, TeamSite. The integrated solution allows customers to accelerate both time-to-Web and the evolution of eBusiness Web sites. This complements Interwoven's first collaborative effort, the successful integration of TeamSite with IBM Net.Commerce, IBM's leading eCommerce solution. The IBM WebSphere family, including the WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere Studio Web application development environment, is a comprehensive system designed to help customers with high-performance Web sites to ease the transition from simple Web publishing to advanced eBusiness applications. WebSphere products leverage existing enterprise systems and extend them to the Web, while running on multiple IBM and non-IBM platforms. With TeamSite, customers have an enterprise-scale content management solution, including versioning, workflow control and efficient deployment of content for IBM WebSphere applications. TeamSite supports the IBM WebSphere Studio development environment and set of Web development tools for designing and building interactive Web sites for the IBM WebSphere Application Server. TeamSite is also compatible with IBM's DB2 Universal Database. TeamSite allows the integration of IBM WebSphere application code, including JavaServer Pages and Java servlets, with all other Web content such as HTML and multi-media assets. The entire Web application is then quality assured within the TeamSite environment before being deployed to production. www.interwoven.com

OneSoft Launches OneCommerce V 3.0
11/30/1999

OneSoft Corporation launched version 3.0 of its OneCommerce software. OneCommerce Enterprise Edition 3.0 is an XML-based solution, providing businesses with extensibility to optimize revenue. OneCommerce provides a patent-pending architecture that includes distinctive capabilities to attract and retain customers, such as Dynamic Personalization, for targeted and personalized marketing and merchandising to increase customer conversion rate; comprehensive content management to target customers with the right product and information; and remote site administration and control for non-technical business managers to make informed decisions. www.onecommerce.com

ACORD & IFX Forum Announce Cooperative XML Standards Development
11/30/1999

ACORD announced a reciprocal membership agreement with IFX Forum. Both organizations set information technology standards for message transmissions in financial services industries. They will cooperate in the development of XML standards for the electronic exchange of data in the insurance and banking industries. The collaboration is typical of recent announcements of alliances between standards bodies to consolidate development. The arrangement will combine the insurance expertise of ACORD and the banking expertise of IFX Forum. The organizations will focus on the base IFX specification and the proposed ACORD Insurance XML specifications to produce a framework supporting XML-based transaction services. Joint participation is underway. ACORD and IFX Forum have exchanged memberships and committed to participation in each other's working groups. ACORD participants are assessing the base IFX specification and supplying IFX Forum with recommendations. In turn, IFX Forum will route insurance-related issues through the ACORD standards process. The IFX specification defines a messaging standard for secured IP-based banking business messages over the public Internet or private networks. The significance of XML and IP for the insurance industry is the progression from batch store-and-forward EDI transmissions to real-time messaging. Insurance business benefits include fast, reliable rates, quotes, applications, policies, claims and other transactions among a variety of trading partners-carriers, producers, rating bureaus, third-party administrators and service providers. As members increasingly look to supporting electronic commerce across all lines of business, ACORD is pursuing multiple open partnerships and alliances with U.S. and international standards-setting organizations. The goal is worldwide e-commerce connectivity throughout the insurance industry. www.acord.org, www.IFXForum.org

XML.org Appoints Managing Editor
11/29/1999

OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced that Craig Chevrier has joined the consortium as managing editor of XML.org. In this new position, Chevrier will drive editorial strategy and content for XML.org, an industry portal that provides vendor-neutral information about the application of XML in industrial and commercial settings. Chevrier brings extensive experience in web site production and editing to his position at OASIS. Most recently, he served as internet content manager for Trans World Entertainment, the largest music retailer in the United States. At Trans World, Chevrier led several XML implementations on www.TWEC.com, the company's online retail and entertainment site. www.oasis-open.org

Viador & Hynet Technologies Partner
11/29/1999

Hynet Technologies and Viador Inc. announced a joint development effort designed to help companies with time-to-market challenges to easily access and deliver dynamic, personalized information through Viador's enterprise portal. As a result, users will be able to access the Hynet Directive XML repository via Viador's E-Portal Suite, giving Viador customers access to business-critical information such as sales proposals, marketing collateral and globalization of e-Content. Viador's E-Portal Suite is a single, web-based access point that provides an entire business community - employees, customers, and trading partners - with desktop access to the specific information they need to make better business decisions. Hynet Directive is expected to increase the value of Viador's offering by incorporating sources of data that were previously difficult to integrate so that users can utilize all relevant information, regardless of its source. www.hynet.com, www.viador.com

Tower Technology Announces Corporate Portal
11/29/1999

Tower Technology announced the Tower IDM Corporate Document Portal, which provides a single point of access to an organization's unstructured information assets. The zero-footprint design of this solution allows organizations to leverage the Internet, intranets and extranets by offering customers, field personnel and business partners, a secure, single point of access to their information. Tower IDM Corporate Document Portal is the latest addition to Tower Technology's Integrated Document Management solution, Tower IDM. Tower IDM Corporate Document Portal leverages the Web as an e-business infrastructure and eliminates paper at its source by providing document access between companies, and their vendors and customers. It enables organizations, particularly in sectors such as financial services, insurance and government, to improve customer service in effect offering customer "self-service." Tower IDM Corporate Document Portal is shipping immediately. www.towertechnology.com

STEP UK Announces XML XLink Engine
11/24/1999

STEP UK Ltd. announced the beta programme of X2X the XML XLink engine. X2X allows for the creation, management and manipulation of links. X2X allows linking between documents and information resources without needing to change either of the source or target documents that are being linked. X2X removes the requirement to insert link information inside document content. The Links are NOT in the document. X2X has an extensible architecture to allow resources to reside in any data repository. X2X stores links independently of any documents and provides facilities to dynamically insert external link structures into documents on-demand. X2X stores all the link information within an ODBC/JDBC enabled database, e.g. Oracle or SQL Server. X2X is initially developed in Java for cross platform operation. X2X is implemented using fundamental linking concepts and understands links defined using the latest draft of the W3C XLink proposal. This scalable technology delivers the ability to associate different data resources regardless of their location. X2X allows for the retrieval of resources and can dynamically add the external link information without altering the original document/ information. The power of linking has been harnessed to allow structured information objects such as XML to be associated with information lacking structure. The architecture enables organizations to store data in the repository of their choice; while XLink adherence means that link information can be authored using a variety of applications. X2X works independently of the storage, authoring and delivery applications. X2X exposes its powerful functionality allowing it to be integrated into any static or dynamic application or service. With X2X it is possible to deliver richer information streams to users with little or no impact on existing data management procedures. The X2X technology preview is available for download at www.stepuk.com/x2x/x2x_dem.asp

Hummingbird Launches Fulcrum Portal Builder Kit
11/24/1999

Hummingbird Communications launched the Fulcrum Portal Builder Kit, a toolset that provides enterprises with the ability to construct compelling knowledge portals. The Fulcrum Portal Builder Kit is a complete solution designed so that it can also easily plug into Hummingbird's Enterprise Information Portal (EIP), scheduled for beta release next month. Priced as one bundle, the Fulcrum Portal Builder Kit consists of DOCSFulcrum 3.0, Hummingbird's Web-accessible enterprise knowledge management offering; Fulcrum SearchServer 4.0, the latest version of the company's information retrieval software; and the new Knowledge Manager Workstation 1.0 (KMW), which uses neural network technology to automatically create a business taxonomy. KMW adds the power of document mining to the DOCSFulcrum product family, making it easier to offer users a portal into the unstructured information stored in corporate repositories. The Fulcrum Portal Builder Kit will be released on November 26, 1999. www.hummingbird.com

Content Technologies Addresses Content Growth
11/24/1999

Content Technologies revealed its strategic vision to address the future of this rapidly changing market. Content Technologies' vision is to move beyond just protecting network and business content integrity, to managing content within host-based services, in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) environments and in e-commerce transactions. A key part of Content Technologies' vision includes the creation of a global alliance that brings together vendors, integrators, security specialists and applications providers. This alliance will provide a forum for the development and deployment of a range of solutions addressing the breadth and depth of e-content evolution. Additionally, it will offer businesses and channel partners standards-based solutions in the areas of content security, management and routing, and will promote awareness of the full scope of content-related business issues in everything from e-mail, to e-commerce transactions. In a market estimated by IDC to be worth $4 billion by 2003, this strategy will offer a means for a select group of e-content specialists to develop solutions built around MIMEsweeper, deployed by users world-wide. www.mimesweeper.com

Cascade & Pindar Systems Announce Merger Intentions
11/23/1999

Cascade Systems Inc. announced that it has signed a Letter of Agreement to merge with Pindar Systems. The two privately held companies, who expect the transaction to be completed by the end of January, plan to combine their engineering, marketing, and financial resources. E-merchandising represents an explosive market for the new millennium. Pindars's catalog publishing products combined with Cascades's e-merchandising technology will provide a powerful e-commerce solution covering web, print and e-mail. The National Retail Federation and International Data Corporation forecasts sales in e-merchandising to grow from $2 billion in 2000 to more than $8 billion in 2003. Although Internet commerce continues to grow at a rapid pace with anticipated revenues of $84 billion by 2004, print catalogs remain a big business. The Direct Marketing Association estimates print catalog sales will grow from $93 billion in 1999 to more than $125 billion by 2004. Both companies recognize the importance of continuity in shared product information databases as the key to effective print and electronic merchandising in the next century. www.cascadenet.com

e-Content Company Announces New Consulting Partners
11/23/1999

The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, announced two new additions to their growing roster of e-Partners. Tata Infotech, one of the largest information technology organizations in India, and SDI, a provider of knowledge-based services, will team with the e-content company to provide solutions with BladeRunner, the e-content company's XML content management solution for e-business. Tata InfoTech and SDI are the most recent addition to the e-content company's e-Partner Program. In addition to joining as a Consulting Partner, companies may also join as a Technology Provider, Platform Provider, Complementary Software Provider, Reseller, or OEM depending upon their area of expertise. Since it was introduced in January, several companies have joined the e-Partner Program such as Microsoft, NetPerceptions, UWI.Com, and Hewlett-Packard among others. www.xmlecontent.com

Standard for Internet Commerce Voting Opens
11/23/1999

The Council for Internet Commerce today announced the opening of the second and final round of voting on the Standard for Internet Commerce, a codification of e-commerce best practices to increase consumer satisfaction, confidence and trust. Through Dec. 6, the public is encouraged to join the council's founding members in their votes and shaping the content of the commerce standard. Consumers visiting the Commerce Standard site will be able to cast their votes in categories ranging from disclosure practices to customer support, in an easy-to-use multiple choice format. www.commercestandard.com

Eloquent & Gilat Communications Partner on Business Communications & Learning Platform
11/23/1999

Eloquent, Inc., and Gilat Communications Ltd. announced a partnership to offer a joint business communications and distance learning solution. This solution leverages Gilat's live broadcast and interactive capabilities and Eloquent's on-demand rich media capabilities to provide a complete "live to on-demand" business communications and interactive learning platform. Gilat's TrainNet is an IDL system which enables a live, interactive instructor-led classroom experience by providing full-screen, full-motion video broadcast to classrooms and individual PCs over broadband, LAN or Internet connections. TrainNet also features instantaneous application projection, collaboration tools and feedback buttons that enhance the communication and interaction between teacher and student. The TrainNet platform is a robust and fully scalable solution for both corporate as well as educational institutions. Eloquent's rich media format-synchronized video, audio, text and graphics-will capture, organize, and archive live TrainNet sessions. Customers can now make TrainNet content available on demand over the Web at typical Internet bandwidths, extending the value of the original broadcast to students, employees, and partners who are not able to attend the live sessions. In addition, personalized, pre-event presentations from Eloquent enable participants with different backgrounds to prepare appropriately for TrainNet sessions. Eloquent's rich media format and the Eloquent Enterprise Communications Portal Server also enable customers to create a fully searchable and navigable archive of TrainNet materials, extending their useful life and enhancing their value to the organization. www.eloquent.com

webMethods Signs Consulting Firm Partners
11/23/1999

webMethods, Inc. announced strategic alliances with consulting firms Intelligroup, Inc. and Lante Corporation. As part of their expanding e-commerce practices, these consulting firms will incorporate webMethods B2B into their methodology and provide customers with a broad range of consulting and implementation services to execute B2B e-commerce strategies. webMethods B2B provides a business community integration platform that makes it possible for companies to pursue direct integration with trading partners, while also participating in emerging B2B Marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network and Clarus SupplierUniverse. webMethods B2B utilizes XML and open Web standards, such as RosettaNet, OAG, OBI and ACORD, to connect integrated business communities and enable companies to conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing IT infrastructure. www.webMethods.com

Lumeria Announces DTD.com
11/22/1999

Lumeria, an infomediary incubator, announced the launch of DTD.com, a site for web software developers that combines a web repository for XML DTDs with a web-based tool for editing and creating DTDs. DTD.com offers web developers two free benefits. First, DTD.com provides the XML community with a free knowledge repository -- called the DTDwarehouse -- for storing and sharing DTDs and information about each DTD. Secondly, DTD.com gives away a free web-based knowledge management application, called the DTDfactory, which lets XML developers mine the data in the DTDwarehouse, create their own DTDs, validate them against industry standards, and share their knowledge of DTDs with other developers. With the goal of becoming a standard repository for all DTDs, DTD.com enables XML developers to upload their own DTDs -- whether entire DTDs or suggested tags -- to the DTDwarehouse to share with other developers. DTD.com will also aggregate these DTDs or tags and submit them for approval by the appropriate standards committees as a way of accelerating the standardization of XML. The DTDwarehouse is stocked with over 180 DTDs covering a wide range of subjects, from mathematics to science, government, education, and personal profiling. In addition, DTD.com supports Lumeria's proposed new standard for personal profiling, called the Profile Markup Language (PML) -- an extremely rich profile description and exchange platform, which is based on XML. PML is an open source, industry-driven, XML-based collection of standards for defining profile data. At the heart of PML is the PML DTD -- the set of rules by which PML documents are created and interpreted. Lumeria created PML in a drive to initiate an industry-wide movement to enable the flow of profile information across platforms and applications, and thereby save both consumers and businesses time and money. To encourage the widespread use of XML, Lumeria gives away PML for free to all developers and sets up a database of XML DTDs by subject. To encourage the use of PML, Lumeria has made the protocol compatible not only with its own SuperProfile Identity Management system but also with the upcoming Consumer Profile Exchange (CPEX) protocol and data model. Lumeria is a member of the CPEX core working group, which includes Oracle, IBM, Vignette, net.Genesis, Andromedia, and the Sun-Netscape Alliance. www.lumeria.com

Virage & Informix Partner on Media Asset Management
11/22/1999

Virage, Inc. and Informix Corporation announced a partnership agreement that enables Informix to integrate and distribute Virage products to broadcast and other media intensive markets worldwide. The Informix/Virage solution enables producers and other video content decision-makers to share video assets, resulting in decreased time to air, improved news and content quality, and streamlined production and workflow. Media360 provides a complete environment to collect, index, retrieve, distribute and archive video content and media assets. It is tightly integrated with object-relational technology, content creation tools, Web publishing, e-commerce, and analytic solutions. It enables new solutions for video production, stock footage archives, video collections, enterprise portals, and digital media distribution. The integration of Virage products into Media 360 allows Informix to provide its customers with the real time, comprehensive video indexing solution, making video easy to locate, browse, distribute, archive and repurpose. www.informix.com/.media, www.virage.com

WholeWeb.Net Announces OEM Agreement with Excalibur
11/22/1999

WholeWeb.net announced a technology licensing, integration, and distribution agreement with Excalibur Technologies Corporation. Under the agreement, WholeWeb.net obtains the rights to integrate Excalibur RetrievalWare, and the Excalibur Multimedia Spider into its next generation search application. WholeWeb.net brings a very large database (VLDB) technology to the Web to improve coverage, relevancy, and end user expectations at a reduced cost. Excalibur RetrievalWare, an intranet search system typically used in large knowledge-focused enterprise implementations, emphasizes accuracy and scalability and excels in managing multiple data types in geographically-dispersed environments. The combination of the two technologies enables WholeWeb.net to search five billion records per second. By viewing the Web as a large, unstructured information problem, and by applying extremely fast and powerful relational database technology, WholeWeb.net covers the whole Web now, maintains its breadth of coverage as the Web grows, and places powerful interactive, graphical information mining tools in the hands of end users. This underlying core technology has been used commercially for over 10 years in mission-critical applications such as telephone billing and credit card processing. www.wholeweb.net

eGlyphs' Service Allows Email in 28+ Languages
11/22/1999

eGlyphs Inc. announced the launch of Everymail, a free web-based email service that allows users to compose emails in over 28 different languages. Also announced is the simultaneous launch of Everychat, where users can chat with friends in their own language. eGlyphs' proprietary Unicode-compatible ActiveX-based technology allows users to type text in over 28 languages. Users can type both left-to-right (English, Spanish, Thai, etc.) and right-to-left languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) on the same line within an email. The supported languages include Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, Persian, Russian, Greek, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Urdu, Bulgarian, Danish, Czech, Turkish, Swedish, Icelandic, Latvian, Estonian, Finnish, Slovenian, Croatian, Flemish, Polish, Romanian and English. Hindi, Japanese and Chinese are due out shortly. Users register for free and begin composing multilingual emails. Recipients can view the emails sent from an Everymail account on any Windows machine via most email solutions (Outlook, Netscape, etc.) including all web-based email services. www.everymail.com, www.everychat.com

RealNetworks Announces Support for SMIL
11/22/1999

RealNetworks Inc. announced support for the W3C's second working draft to advance the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) standard, known as SMIL Boston. This latest step forward in SMIL Boston builds upon the widespread adoption of SMIL as the integration language for Web-based multimedia. The SMIL Boston second working draft proposes extensions to the W3C approved SMIL 1.0 standard, based on feedback from thousands of SMIL 1.0 developers and tens of millions of consumer users and more than a billion SMIL presentations played on the Web since May 1998. Current members of the W3C Working Group developing SMIL Boston are key international industry players in Web multimedia, interactive television and audio/video streaming. In alphabetical order, they are: Canon, Compaq, CSELT, CWI, France Telecom, Gateway, GLOCOM, INRIA, Intel, Macromedia, Microsoft, Oratrix, NIST, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, RealNetworks and WGBH. SMIL is one of the key enabling technologies of Real.com Take 5, the Web's daily programming service providing consumers with access to entertainment, music and news content on the Internet. Additionally, more than 100 channel partners on the Real.com Network offer SMIL presentations everyday to their consumers providing a more interactive experience on the Web. SMIL Boston modularizes SMIL functionality, providing standards based integration of SMIL functionality with other XML based languages and applications. Content authors and application developers both benefit from this flexibility: application developers can integrate needed functionality while content authors are able to build on their existing knowledge base. www.realnetworks.com

PictureWorks Technology Files for Patent on Internet Media Submission Invention
11/22/1999

PictureWorks Technology, Inc. announced it has applied for an U.S. Patent for its Web based media submission invention that serves as the front-end to the company's Rimfire Internet imaging platform. PictureWorks Rimfire, which was released in April this year, processes tens of millions of images and media items for the company's Web site partners with volume levels expected to double by year-end. Rimfire's Web based media submission technology is a multi-platform, media agnostic technology that makes submitting rich media to Web sites `drag and drop simple'. The submission technology provides several unique and valuable functions for both end users and PictureWorks' Web site partners. First, it lets the user either drag and drop a file from a flash card, CD, floppy or hard disk directly into a Web page, or the user can browse a directory to select a file to submit to the Web page. Secondly, the technology gives the user an opportunity to confirm the submission with a visual representation, for example by generating a thumbnail image of the rich media file that has been selected. Additionally, batch submission is provided to allow a user to drag and drop or select multiple media objects into a Web page. Submission from a Web page to a Web page is also provided for. Critical to meeting the diverse needs of different Web site's, the submission tool is completely configurable. It is able to perform a variety of intelligent preprocessing on media objects prior to upload, for example, sizing, formatting, cropping, rotating, lightening or darkening. Additional information is captured when the media objects are submitted. The submission of information about the user and the media objects facilitates automatic integration of the media objects within existing databases. www.pictureworks.com

NextPage LivePublish Suite 2.0 Shipping
11/22/1999

NextPage announced broad availability of its LivePublish 2.0 suite of professional Internet and intranet publishing software products. LivePublish 2.0 is an XML-enabled enterprise publishing platform that gives corporate enterprises and commercial publishers unprecedented scalability, flexibility and control over their content including simultaneous distribution of content through corporate portals, commercial Web sites and disconnected, browser-based CD-ROM/DVD. NextPage LivePublish Suite 2.0 is available now from NextPage and its business partners worldwide. Corporate LivePublish Server pricing begins at $4,995 for 10 concurrent users. For commercial publishers, the LivePublish Server & Distribution Kit are priced at $9,995 plus additional fees for distribution of commercial publications. www.nextpage.com

Intranet Solutions Announces Xpedio QuickStart Program
11/22/1999

IntraNet Solutions, Inc., announced the availability of a QuickStart program for the recently launched Xpedio Content Management system that provides packaged consulting services to accelerate customer implementations. Xpedio is a single source, end-to-end content management solution that delivers quick deployment and fast return on investment. The QuickStart program for Xpedio includes an onsite dedicated technical services team providing support in key areas such as: database installation, system administration and security setup, meta data configuration, setup for custom templates and project files, Web layout and design, user interface and form design, configuration of business rules to enable personalization and profiling. Pricing for the Xpedio QuickStart program is $15,000 and is available immediately. www.intranetsolutions.com

WAP Forum Selects Open Group
11/22/1999

The Open Group announced an agreement to serve as the certification authority for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum's world standard for wireless information and telephony services. For certification testing, The Open Group developed a test suite specification to ensure wireless vendors' products are compliant with the WAP V1.1 specification. As the certification authority, The Open Group will develop and operate the certification program on behalf of the WAP Forum. The WAP Forum has a large number of specifications describing the functionality and specific coding requirements of wireless phones and other devices for WAP certification. The Open Group's test suite measures conformance to the Wireless Markup Language (WML) application layer specifications, as well as WMLscript and WMLscript libraries. The certification test uses a WML server that delivers tests that run on the devices or phones, and performs a functionality and interoperability test at the application level. WML, an XML application, serves as the markup language for WAP devices, just as HTML is the markup language for web pages. WMLscript and the associated WMLscript Libraries define a programming language, related to the ECMAscript language used for programs to run on web browsers. The Open Group will develop additional tests for the cache model, which defines how WAP compliant phones and gateways store information. The consortium will also develop tests for the use of WAP phones in multiple languages, ensuring the phones will be able to display numerous characters sets, including Japanese, as well as the ASCII character set. www.opengroup.org

Tumbleweed to Acquire Worldtalk
11/18/1999

Tumbleweed Communications Corp. and Worldtalk Corporation jointly announced Tumbleweed has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Worldtalk. With the addition of Worldtalk, Tumbleweed enters the e-mail content filtering space, another rapidly growing sector in messaging. Worldtalk, which introduced its first e-mail content filtering solution in 1997, has grown its 1999 year-to-date revenue for this product family more than 180% over the same period in 1998, from $1.7 million to $4.9 million. Worldtalk's technologies will enhance Tumbleweed's Integrated Messaging Exchange (IME) the infrastructure companies use for both business-to-business and business to consumer online communications. When combined with Worldtalk's WorldSecure e-mail content filtering products, IME enables customers to centrally define and enforce policies that drive new traffic across IME. Upon the completion of the transaction, Worldtalk will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Tumbleweed. Under the terms of the agreement, Worldtalk shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.26 Tumbleweed common shares for each share of Worldtalk common stock. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2000. www.tumbleweed.com, www.worldtalk.com

Infoteria Announces Support for BizTalk
11/18/1999

Infoteria Inc. announced its support for Microsoft's BizTalk Framework. BizTalk Framework will appear in upcoming Infoteria products such as XML Solution Components and XML Schema Design Service such as MML (Medical Markup Language) released by the Japan Association for Medical Informatics (JAMI). Infoteria's announcement of support today is the first by a Japanese company. www.infoteria.com

ImageX.com Joins Commerce One MarketSite
11/18/1999

ImageX.com, Inc. announced a strategic direction that will result in the distribution of ImageX.com's e-procurement services on Commerce One MarketSite, a business-to-business commerce portal. ImageX.com's system enables corporations to modify, proof, order and manage custom printed business materials directly over the Internet. MarketSite is Commerce One's business-to-business commerce portal for electronic procurement. The Commerce One Solution dynamically links buying and supplying organizations into real-time trading communities. This includes Commerce One MarketSite, which automates supplier interactions from order to payment. ImageX.com builds custom e-procurement Web sites, called Online Printing Centers, for mid-to large-sized corporations. The sites feature electronic catalogs containing customers' branded printed materials. ImageX.com provides the ability for online ordering, management, and modification of a variety of materials ranging from office stationery to complex marketing materials. Accessible from any Internet-connected desktop computer, ImageX.com's service provides consistent quality, locks in corporate design standards, allows for quick modification and proofing, and enables distributed ordering for businesses with offices worldwide. ImageX.com gives the customer tremendous control over the procurement process. www.imagex.com, www.commerceone.com

The E-Content Company Introduces XML Dynamic Content Web Server
11/17/1999

The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. announced BladeRunner Web, a highly scalable dynamic XML content server. Designed to host the next generation web site, BladeRunner Web reinforces the e-content company's position by delivering an end-to-end XML content management solution that enables content creators to publish content in virtually any format to a variety of web-enabled devices. With BladeRunner Web, companies can now better leverage their valuable content and the Web to build successful e-businesses through e-relationships. BladeRunner Web is an extension of the e-content company's XML-based content management solution. Designed specifically for the next generation Web, BladeRunner Web is highly scalable so it can handle volumes of information and a large number of Web-based transactions. A primary benefit to BladeRunner Web is that it holds a single copy of HTML or XML content from which virtually any number of presentations can be dynamically generated by simply applying the appropriate XSL style sheet. This eliminates the redundancy of having to manually re-create many versions of the content for each presentation. In addition, BladeRunner Web features a distinct set of tools including Composer/Styler which allows users to edit XML and create customized style sheets; XML Authoring for Microsoft Word, an add-on for enabling XML output from this popular word processing application; and a collection of management tools that allows users to monitor and control content operations. BladeRunner Web is scheduled for general release in the first quarter of calendar year 2000. www.xmlecontent.com

SS&C Technologies Announces Advancements
11/17/1999

SS&C Technologies, Inc unveiled the first phase of its XE (Cross Enterprise) application platform. According to SS&C, the XE development platform utilizes Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) development strategy and Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) messaging services to deliver XML messages across a wide area, virtual private network (VPN) on the Internet. The XML messages contain workflow instructions, as well as content and schema description. MacLaughlin expects the Antares XE/CAMRA XE solution to be in beta by the end of the year. www.ssctech.com

Interwoven & Art Technology Group Expand Partnership
11/17/1999

Interwoven and Art Technology Group announced a significant expansion of their successful partnership based on a series of joint sales, marketing, and development initiatives. Together the companies currently offer an integrated solution of Interwoven TeamSite and ATG's Dynamo product suite to build, maintain, and extend personalized relationships with online customers. ATG and Interwoven will continue to leverage the advantages of open standards-based architecture ensuring further interoperability, greater flexibility and more rapid time to Web. ATG and Interwoven are building on their customer-proven success and extending their collaborative efforts through new initiatives in sales, marketing, and product development. Joint marketing activities include additional physical and online seminars, as well as trade shows and other events. The companies are investing in additional joint training of their sales organizations and are also cooperating to bring the integrated solution to more customers, more efficiently and more effectively. www.interwoven.com, www.atg.com

West Palm Beach Technologies Launches XML Tools
11/17/1999

West Palm Beach Technologies, Inc. announced the availability of extensive XML tools for its 0-0.com (ZERO dash ZERO dot COM) Universal Commerce Portal. These new tools, part of WPBT's Internet Rapid Application Development (iRAD) solution set, enable companies to rapidly and cost-effectively mine legacy data and exchange trading information among customers, suppliers and business partners. www.0-0.com

W3C Issues XSLT and XPath as Recommendations
11/16/1999

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released two specifications, XSL Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath), as W3C Recommendations. These new specifications represent cross-industry and expert community agreement on technologies that will enable the transformation and styled presentation of XML documents. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C membership, who favor its adoption by the industry. As more content publishers and commercial interests deliver rich data in XML, the need for presentation technology increases in both scale and functionality. XSL meets the more complex, structural formatting demands that XML document authors have. XSLT makes it possible for one XML document to be transformed into another according to an XSL Style sheet. As part of the document transformation, XSLT uses XPath to address parts of an XML document that an author wishes to transform. XPath is also used by another XML technology, XPointer, to specify locations in an XML document. Together, XSLT and XPath make it possible for XML documents to be reformatted according to the parameters of XSL style sheets and increase presentation flexibility into the XML architecture. The XSLT Recommendation was written and developed by the XSL Working Group, which includes key industry players such as Adobe Systems, Arbortext, Bell Labs, Bitstream, Datalogics, Enigma, IBM, Interleaf, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, O'Reilly & Associates, RivCom, SoftQuad Inc, Software AG, and Sun Microsystems. Notable contributions also came from the University of Edinburgh and a range of invited experts. The XPath Recommendation pooled together efforts from both the XSL Working Group and the XML Linking Working Group, whose membership includes CommerceOne, CWI, DATAFUSION, Fujitsu, GMD, IBM, Immediate Digital, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Textuality, and the University of Southampton. www.w3.org

Artesia Technologies' Teams 3.0 Shipping on Oracle 8i & Oracle Intermedia
11/16/1999

Artesia Technologies, Inc. announced that it's TEAMS 3.0 Digital Asset Management solution supports a full-scale implementation on the Oracle8i database with Oracle interMedia. This integration of TEAMS 3.0 and Oracle8i provides an enterprise-class and infinitely scalable framework that enables the delivery of multi-media and streaming video content directly from the Oracle Internet Platform.  Native to the Oracle environment, TEAMS 3.0 allows organizations to more efficiently and cost-effectively import, manage and re-express all of their valuable media assets. As a result of this capability, all content - audio, video, graphics, images and text - may be organized, edited, and linked together for use in a wide variety of enterprise applications, including digital brand management, web and multi-channel publishing and other e-business applications. Central to TEAMS' value is its ability to leverage the wealth of customizable metadata associated with each asset to optimize search and retrieval, ensure secure access, and safeguard intellectual property. Other principal new features of TEAMS 3.0 include: new load-balancing and fault-tolerant features helping to ensure seamless, high performance, high availability operations for business-critical applications; a new personalization feature allowing users to create customized views of content; and enhanced ability to create and export multi-media content within the TEAMS framework. By using these new features, users can build a wide variety of multi-media content and export assets with XML and associated style sheets into a number of other formats, including HTML and Quark. www.artesiatech.com

DISA Expands Role to Include XML
11/16/1999

The Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) launched the Collaborative Services initiative that expands the association's reach to XML and Internet technology development. Embracing an innovative dynamic that is continually evolving, DISA is working on developing XML specifications with a wide array of organizations, including OpenTravel Alliance (OTA), Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Forum, and Mortgage Bankers Association of America's (MBA) Mortgage Industry Data Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) initiatives. Other DISA partnerships, such as BizTalk, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, are also crafting XML and Internet-related technologies. DISA offers today's organization a constellation of separate services that together provide a comprehensive package for every e-business initiative, including XML and Internet technologies. Favored for its professionalism and international recognition, DISA covers everything from managing membership administration to providing information technology services. www.disa.org

UWI.Com Announces InternetForms Management Server
11/16/1999

UWI.Com announced the forthcoming release of InternetForms Management Server, a production, distribution, and management center for InternetForms deployments. Management Server reduces lifecycle costs and expands market reach for InternetForms-based e-commerce and e-business applications. It automatically deploys, installs, updates, and maintains InternetForms application components, related data files, documents, and software packages securely throughout the enterprise, across the intranet, extranet, or Internet, and to nomadic users anywhere. An addition to the company's InternetForms Commerce System, Management Server is slated for release in December. Management Server is a key component for robust web applications utilizing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI); applications with remote, nomadic users; and those with large-scale rollouts and an increasing user base that will escalate demands on IT resources. It allows organizations to automate and streamline InternetForms deployments to browsers anywhere on the Internet without requiring intervention from end users. www.uwi.com

ebaseOne to Host Marimba's DocService
11/16/1999

Marimba, Inc. and ebaseOne Corporation announced that ebaseOne will host Marimba's new DocService product for a low, flat monthly fee. DocService is the second in a series of applications to be hosted as an ebaseOne OneServ application. DocService delivers virtually any type of document, including simple text files as well as complex HTML documents that include links and sub-documents aggregated as a single logical document. Current document delivery mechanisms, such as e-mail, Web servers, document management solutions, or hard copy, each have advantages in specific situations, but they typically lack DocService's ability to automate the entire delivery and update process. With DocService, if a document publisher makes a change, that change can immediately be reflected back through the enterprise, ensuring that everyone is always working from the latest document version. DocService is available from ebaseOne, as a stand-alone service delivered over the Internet or as a companion product to other OneServ offerings, for only $15 per month. www.ebaseone.com, www.marimba.com

Ricoh Unveils eCabinet
11/16/1999

Ricoh Silicon Valley, Inc. unveiled the eCabinet, an information management solution targeted to solve the daily document management needs of small businesses and corporate department workgroups. Ricoh's eCabinet is an affordable, centralized product for automatically capturing, filing and retrieving documents from virtually any source -- such as e-mails, faxes, Web-content, photocopies, scans and PC documents. This new product combines the strength of office networks, the Internet and advanced thin-server technology to create an integrated system that allows workgroups to easily manage both electronic and paper documents. www.ricoh.com

Interwoven & Cisco Partner on Content Management
11/15/1999

Interwoven, Inc announced an alliance with Cisco Systems, Inc. Under the agreement, Interwoven will team with Cisco to co-develop Web content management best practices, align market strategies and jointly market solutions to customers. The combination of Interwoven's TeamSite Web content management system and Cisco's Internet Business Solutions provides an infrastructure for customers to optimize and accelerate their transformation to eBusiness. The synergy between Cisco and Interwoven creates a combined domain expertise in helping customers build and maintain Web sites. Interwoven will benefit from Cisco's Internet business technology experience as well as its market share in networking products and services. Both companies will benefit through joint technical development and integration. www.interwoven.com

Andromedia Announces Smart Emarketing for Vignette
11/15/1999

Andromedia, Inc. announced ARIA for Vignette and LikeMinds for Vignette - Andromedia's Web site analysis and personalization solutions optimized for customers using Vignette's StoryServer. ARIA for Vignette is a Web site analysis solution that tracks StoryServer page titles and Profile Marks out-of-the-box. ARIA for Vignette enables e-marketers to know their customers better, analyze dynamic content, and gauge campaign and site effectiveness in realtime. It tracks dynamic content on sites built with Vignette's StoryServer and delivers the power and intelligence to analyze visitor behavior across geographically dispersed, multi-server StoryServer sites. Vignette Lifecycle Personalization approach enables a Web site to provide a dynamic, personalized experience based on demographics and viewing behaviors. Andromedia's LikeMinds collaborative filtering technology complements and extends these capabilities by making use of every interaction with Web visitors-individual clickstream data, purchase history, explicit preferences and product similarities-to engage Web visitors with highly accurate product recommendations. Optimized for StoryServer sites, LikeMinds for Vignette enables the two technologies to work together to deliver accurate realtime personalization capabilities. ARIA for Vignette and LikeMinds for Vignette will be commercially available in Q1 2000. The Andromedia Worldwide Services Group will provide implementation support for the deployment of ARIA for Vignette and LikeMinds for Vignette as part of the product offerings. Different levels of consulting are available to meet unique customer requirements. www.vignette.com

net.Genesis Announces net.Activator
11/15/1999

net.Genesis Corp. unveiled net.Activator, an integration of event-driven technology into an analytical platform. net.Activator is a patent-pending, XML-based extension of the net.Analysis platform that enables e-businesses to leverage e-customer intelligence into marketing action in an automated environment. net.Activator utilizes the e-customer data that has been collected, stored and analyzed by net.Analysis to trigger events--ads, content, mail and e-mail--that enrich one-to-one marketing. net.Activator leverages XML capabilities, building them onto its event-driven engine, triggering events based on the information that net.Analysis has filtered, cleansed and correlated into actionable business views. net.Analysis then tracks the effectiveness of the triggered ad, content or mail, closing the loop in the customer intelligence value cycle. net.Activator extends the existing net.Analysis Scheduling and Publishing system to encompass subscription requests from other applications. net.Activator generates and distributes reports automatically to interested applications. It is implemented with a programmatic, event-driven, publish-and-subscribe mechanism. www.netgen.com

Lernout & Hauspie Licenses Linguistic Technologies to Symbian
11/15/1999

Lernout & Hauspie announced that it has licensed its language technologies to Symbian. Symbian has integrated L&H's linguistic technologies into its platform, whose licensees include Ericsson, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia, Philips and Psion. This agreement helps to expand L&H's technologies to the fast growing worldwide market for Smartphones and other Internet-enabled consumer devices. Symbian licensed both L&H's International CorrectSpell and the Intellifinder Reference Engine technologies. International CorrectSpell uses language-specific text analysis to spell check and correct documents; IntelliFinder uses advanced indexing and retrieval methods coupled with linguistically motivated algorithms to find information in structured reference works. Both technologies are available in a variety of languages. The L&H technologies licensed to Symbian are included in the current generation of the Symbian platform. Providing key commercial and technological advantages for manufacturers of Wireless Information Devices, the Symbian platform provides an operating system, customizable user interfaces, color support, fit-for-purpose application suites, advanced Internet connectivity, and PC connectivity software. www.symbian.com, www.lhs.com

Intraware Adds Object Design`S eXcelon
11/15/1999

Intraware, Inc. announced a strategic relationship with Object Design, Inc. Today's alliance enables Intraware customers to access the Object Design product line through intraware.shop. Intraware customers can now purchase online, perform online demonstrations, and electronically receive eXcelon, Object Design's XML-based application development environment for building and deploying e-business applications. Intraware is also including Object Design's eXcelon Stylus, the industry's first professional XSL editing tool, in its XML Starter Kit. Intraware's XML Starter Kit, which is available on Intraware's Everything-XML Web page www.everything-xml.com , is a specially priced XML product bundle designed specifically for corporate developers. In addition to the eXcelon Stylus XSL style sheet, the XML Starter Kit includes a dynamic XML server, an XML editor and XML schema tool, as well as XML training. eXcelon is immediately available through intraware.shop. Pricing for eXcelon ranges from $199 for the eXcelon Stylus XSL editor to $15,000 per CPU for an eXcelon deployment license. Intraware's XML Starter Kit, which consists of a bundle of products, is priced at $1250, www.intraware.com. 

E-Customer Solution Vendors Form Customer Profile Exchange 'CPEX' Working Group
11/15/1999

Addressing the need for e-businesses to maintain a singular, holistic view of their customers, vendors in the e-business and e-customer applications market today announced the Customer Profile EXchange (CPEX) working group. CPEX offers a vendor-neutral, open standard for facilitating the privacy-enabled interchange of customer information across disparate enterprise applications and systems. Charter working group members currently include: Andromedia/Macromedia, Calico Commerce, Cogit, Compaq, Digital Impact, DoubleClick, Engage Technologies, Fujitsu Software Corporation, Harte-Hanks, IBM, InsWeb, Intuit, Lumeria, Marketsoft, Net Perceptions, net.Genesis, Oracle, Personify, Siebel Systems, Sun/Netscape Alliance and Vignette Corporation. Additional organizations that have formally expressed interest in joining the CPEX effort include Lucent Technologies CRM Solutions, Proxicom, U.S. Interactive and others. The CPEX standard integrates online and offline customer data in an XML-based data model for use within various enterprise applications both on and off the Web. The result is a networked, customer-focused environment that allows e-businesses to leverage a unified view of their customers into more compelling e-relationships. More than simply a DTD or XML tag set, CPEX will include a data model, transport and query definitions, and a framework for enabling privacy safeguards. Few of today's supply and demand chains share a unified image of the customer, leaving customer support, order management, lead sharing and other primary business functions working independently to grasp a customer's identity, behavior and needs. Customer service capability is severely reduced by this lack of shared information, creating significant and redundant short and long-term IT integration costs. Businesses will be able to apply CPEX across a disparate range of back-office applications, front-office applications and Web customer automation applications. While the benefits of a singular customer view are growing increasingly apparent within an enterprise, CPEX solutions will prove vital in tomorrow's world of connected enterprises. The CPEX working group intends to develop an open-source reference implementation and developer guidelines to speed adoption of CPEX among vendors. Open to any vendor that wishes to contribute to the standard, the CPEX working group is chaired by Siebel Systems, the Marketing Committee is co-chaired by net.Genesis and Vignette Corporation, and Andromedia/Macromedia chairs the Technical Committee. The CPEX working group is hosted by IDEAlliance.org, a neutral, non-profit organization that also hosts ICE, PRISM and several other XML working groups. www.cpex.org.

This is something to watch carefully for a number of reasons. There is certainly an important XML application here, but one question is whether a single app makes sense, i.e., what should the scope be? This group will also have to say something the privacy issue, etc.

Oracle Announces XML-Based Integration Server Software
11/15/1999

Oracle Corp. announced Oracle Integration Server, providing XML-enabled infrastructure for enterprises and e-business exchanges. In combination with Oracle's portal strategy, Oracle Integration Server incorporates business process integration on all levels-including user interfaces, applications and back-end data-to easily transfer data internally and business-to-business. Also, the Oracle Integration Server includes message warehousing to enable analysis and optimization of business processes. As e-businesses expand electronic commerce initiatives beyond consumer storefronts to Internet exchanges, business process integration is crucial to success. When dealing with numerous partners or merging with other companies, e-businesses often find a mixture of incompatible IT infrastructures which make information exchange nearly impossible. Rather than a wholesale replacement strategy or point-to-point solutions, Oracle Integration Server provides a standards-based integration layer above these different systems, enabling information to flow easily between different applications and systems. By utilizing XML the Oracle Integration Server facilitates data exchange, reduces integration costs, and increases customer flexibility. Oracle Integration Server is expected to be the first among mainstream vendors to enable message interchange between heterogeneous messaging systems such as IBM MQSeries, TIB/Rendezvous, and Oracle Advanced Queuing. In addition, the software supports different methods of message transmission, including publish, subscribe, point-to-point, and multicast. As part of its e-business integration strategy, Oracle is working with a number of industry-leading vendors such as TSI Software, Vitria Technology, TIBCO Software, Active Software, STC, and Oberon to provide a comprehensive enterprise integration solution. The Oracle Integration Server is scheduled to be available in Q1, CY 2000. www.oracle.com

Xerox DocuShare 2.1 Adds Features
11/15/1999

Xerox Corporation provided the first public look at a new release of its DocuShare software. DocuShare is a secure, web-based software product for managing and sharing knowledge throughout any organization. DocuShare 2.1 is easy to install, use, and maintain, and provides a secure, convenient environment to manage documents and information. Users can access DocuShare through any current web browser on any platform to share, search for and manage information. New features include: Saved Queries – "Query Collections" can be created and saved so frequently used queries are always available and up to date. Notification –email is sent to users notifying them of defined collection changes via DocuShare 2.1’s "Subscribe" feature. And summarization –intelligent document summaries are created on-the-fly without having to actually open the file. DocuShare 2.1 is available for purchase immediately and will ship in December. Suggested retail price for a 50-user license is $4,995, and 500-user license is $19,995. An unlimited user license is $49,995. A 50-seat add-on is $2,495. www.xerox.com

Xerox Shows askOnce Meta-Search Software
11/15/1999

Xerox Corporation provided the first public look at askOnce, information agent software that helps organizations leverage the information in documents and take action on it. askOnce is meta-search software that provides secure access to multiple internal and external knowledge sources (e.g., DocuShare or other corporate repositories, databases, web sites) to simplify and improve search, retrieval and manipulation of information. askOnce passes queries to many search engines, directories, or databases and then summarizes all the results. askOnce can even search "metadata" from each information source that is not normally visible (this might include information about the data’s source, origin, length, author, etc.) askOnce standardizes the user’s interaction with multiple search engines, directories and databases. Results are presented in a consistent format as though from a single source. askOnce accesses information resident in Xerox DocuShare, Documentum, Lotus Notes and Oracle repositories, as well as through the popular AltaVista Internet search engine. Wrappers to other repositories are under development, and a Wrapper Development Kit allows for customized access to additional data sources as well. Suggested retail price for a 50-user license is $4,995; a 500-user license is $19,995. Current customers of DocuShare, Xerox’ popular knowledge sharing software, will enjoy a 30% discount on askOnce through March 31, 2000.Xerox will accept orders for askOnce immediately, with delivery in late 4Q99. www.xerox.com

Sequoia Partners with Architag to Expand XML Training
11/15/1999

Sequoia Software Corporation announced a partnership with Architag University to offer the public training courses in XML at Sequoia's Columbia, Maryland corporate offices. The joint training program addresses the exploding demand for programmers with experience at developing XML-based information systems and reflects Sequoia's long-standing commitment to accelerating the adoption of XML. Schedules and registration information for January, February and March 2000 sessions are posted on both the Sequoia Software and Architag University Web sites. Among the classes scheduled, Architag University will present XML 101, a five-day session covering a wide range of content from XML basics to using XML for developing data-driven Web architectures, from January 10 to 14. For the latest class information visit www.architag.com/university or www.sequoiasoftware.com

IPTC Announces Work Program for XML News Interchange
11/15/1999

At their recent meeting in Amsterdam, members of the IPTC agreed to revamp their operating structure and establish a new work program, IPTC2000, which will deliver an XML-based standard to represent and manage news through its life-cycle, including production, interchange and consumer use. Entitled NewsML, it is intended that the new framework standard will build on the intellectual property invested in existing IPTC standards such as the Information Interchange Model (IIM), News Industry Text Format (NITF) and the IPTC's widely used Subject Classification Standard. Using XML, it is intended that NewsML will draw appropriately on existing and emerging W3C recommendations. Three working groups have been established to develop the key components of the programme. These are News Structure and Management, News Text and News Metadata. Earlier this year, the IPTC announced the publication of its first XML based standard, News Industry Text Format (NITF). This work, together with the Information Interchange Model (IIM), will form the basis of NewsML. All existing IPTC standards are copyright IPTC and are administered by the International Press Telecommunications Council, based in England. Information on NITF, IIM and Subject Matter Coding is available at www.iptc.org

PMSC Claims Management System to Speak XML
11/12/1999

Policy Management Systems Corporation (PMSC) announced through its wholly-owned subsidiary, DORN Technology Group, Inc., that DORN's claims management system and its universal claims data specification are programmed in XML. In this case, XML will streamline the exchange of data between all those processing, managing and analyzing claims via the Internet. As a result, DORN's claims management system, RISKMASTER/World, can reduce significantly the cost of handling claims online. The XML version of RISKMASTER/World will facilitate online communication between claims handlers such as self-insured organizations, third party adjusters, insurance pools, and insurance companies. XML eliminates many problems associated with incompatible data formats. For example, users can more easily exchange data via e-mail, browser, file, and live feeds. This new functionality will help DORN maintain its leadership among providers of online claims management systems. Meanwhile, DORN's universal claims data specification will help claims application developers create custom XML tags that define where specific data elements begin and end. This helps speed the process of establishing a claims data standard for the entire claims industry. www.dorn.com, www.pmsc.com

Icon Announces Version 3.0 of XML Spy
11/11/1999

Icon Information-Systems announced the release of version 3.0 of its XML Spy product. XML Spy is a professional validating XML editor that lets you edit all XML, XSL, Schema, and DTD files and provides four integrated views on the documents: The Enhanced Grid and Database View shows the entire structure of an XML document in a hierarchical presentation that allows in-place editing of all elements. Sequences of repeating elements are automatically transformed into a spreadsheet-like display. The Text View gives you the option to view the XML document in source form with customizable syntax-coloring and allows you to directly edit the source for low-level tasks. The integrated Browser View uses Internet Explorer 5 to render an XML document inside XML Spy. This view fully supports CSS and XSL style-sheets and can be displayed in a separate window. The new Import function enables the user to generate XML documents from a wide range of flat and relational data sources: text files, Word documents, Access files, and ODBC database sources. Complete Unicode and character-set encoding support are integrated for seamless data exchange with foreign languages or writing systems. www.icon-is.com

click2send.com Launches Delivery, Management & Storage Service
11/10/1999

click2send.com, Inc. launched click2send for the Enterprise, a Web-based file delivery, management and storage service to facilitate large-scale business communication via the Internet. The service combines instant global file delivery with in-network format conversion, file synchronization, Web-based storage and the ability to customize the user interface to reflect corporate branding, streamlining corporate communication and collaboration with employees, partners and customers. Using click2send for the Enterprise, users can rapidly and reliably transfer files up to 75MB in size using their Web browser and no additional software. The service notifies recipients about the availability of files for transfer through short email messages that contain URLs pointing to the sender's secure click2send Safe Deposit Box. When recipients click on the URL, their browsers are opened and the users are taken immediately to the file location where files can be downloaded to a local hard disk. Leading business document types, including Microsoft Office, HTML or Windows Media, can be viewed directly in the click2send window without the user having to download the file first and launch it separately. Files can be viewed simultaneously by many recipients in different locations. click2send for the Enterprise is available now to any business with Internet access for a minimal monthly subscription fee. The service is suited for hard-wired connections and Netscape 4.01 or higher and Internet Explorer 4.00 or higher Web browsers. www.click2send.com

ASP solutions for document management will be popping up like wildflowers. There are many cases where such a solution will make perfect sense.

Liquid's Product to Link Alexus Networker with PeopleSoft
11/9/1999

Liquid Software, Inc. and Alexus International, Inc. announced their partnership to deliver Networker LiquidLINK for PeopleSoft. Built on LiquidCENTER, Liquid Software's PeopleSoft-certified integration engine, Networker LiquidLINK will use an XML-based exchange methodology to create efficient end-to-end workflow between PeopleSoft and Networker workforce applications, including: staffing and position management; requisition, job posting and candidate management; recruiting and hiring; and employee deployment, development and retention. Using secure, role-based access, Alexus Networker empowers recruiters, hiring managers, and salaried and hourly employees to participate in workforce processes from a user-friendly desktop browser. With Networker LiquidLINK, PeopleSoft customers will enjoy this best-of-breed functionality while leveraging the power of their ERP backbone. XML will be central to the LiquidLINK integration. Requisitions created in PeopleSoft will translate into XML documents that trigger Networker workflow, and new hire profiles expressed as XML will feed through PeopleSoft's Message Agent API into the HRMS. www.liquidinc.com, www.alexus.com

Collabria to Market PrintCommerce Through Ariba & Support cXML
11/9/1999

Collabria, Inc. announced they will market Collabria PrintCommerce e-business service for printers, print resellers and print buyers through the Ariba Network business-to-business e-commerce platform. Collabria has joined Ariba Supplier Link (ASL) program, the Ariba supplier partner initiative designed to make goods and services readily available via the Internet.  Collabria also announced that it will collaborate with Ariba on the continued development of cXML, an Internet standard for exchanging supplier content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers. Collabria will use cXML to make Collabria PrintCommerce e-business services for printers and print buyers available via the Ariba Network platform. By integrating cXML into Collabria PrintCommerce, Collabria customers (printers and resellers) will be able to leverage their e-commerce investments and maintain differentiation. They can make their services and brand presence directly accessible to print buyers through the Ariba Network service. Buyers benefit through direct access to Collabria's print management solutions from Ariba's cXML Internet Catalog feature. www.collabria.com, www.ariba.com

Oracle Announces Availability of XML Developer's Kit
11/9/1999

Oracle Corp. announced the immediate availability of the beta version of Oracle XML Developer's Kit-bundled components, tools and utilities for building and deploying XML-enabled applications to create and maintain e-business marketplaces. In addition, Oracle is also establishing an XML support program to help ensure consistent, reliable and speedy deployments of XML business-to-business infrastructures. The Oracle XML Developer's Kit (Oracle XDK) is available for developers working in a variety of programming languages. It provides the XML infrastructure and reliability companies need to easily exchange information across systems to create more efficient systems for competing in today's global business landscape. Specifically, Oracle XDK includes the following: XML Parsers: supporting Java, C, C++ and PL/SQL, the components create and parse XML using industry standard DOM and SAX interfaces. XSL Processor: transforms or renders XML into other text-based formats such as HTML. XML Class Generator: automatically generates Java and C++ classes to send XML data from Web forms or applications. And XML Transviewer Java Beans to visually view and transform XML documents and data via Java components. In order to provide support to Internet developers, XML experts in Oracle Support will provide both phone and Web-based support for Oracle XDK. Support will be free of charge to those with a current maintenance agreement for the Oracle database or Oracle Application Server. In addition, stand-alone support for Oracle XDK may be purchased online-via the Oracle Store at http://store.oracle.com The beta version of Oracle XDK is immediately available for free via the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at http://technet.oracle.com . The production version is scheduled to be available by the end of the year. www.oracle.com

Bluestone Updates Visual-XML
11/9/1999

Bluestone Software, Inc. announced the general availability of Bluestone Visual-XML 1.1, the latest release of the company's toolkit for building XML applications. The new version expands XML options for intra- and inter-company integration and simplifies customization of dynamic XML applications. In doing so, Bluestone Visual-XML 1.1 provides easier application and data integration for users of Bluestone XML Suite, the company's integration server framework, and Total-e-Business, Bluestone's comprehensive e-business solution that includes XML Suite as its integration server component. Enhancements to Bluestone Visual-XML focus on expanding the reach of XML to customers, partners, and systems, as well as expediting the customization of XML-driven business systems to let users quickly  respond to changing business requirements. Bluestone Visual-XML's  new transformation engine and dynamic XSL engine combine to support a wide range of XML documents, DTDs, client devices, and user display preferences, while the new Universal Listener Framework (ULF) Console gives users point-and-click control over ULF services. As a Pure Java application, Bluestone Visual-XML runs on all Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) on virtually all platforms.  Bluestone Visual-XML 1.1 is now available through Bluestone, Intraware, and Merisel for a suggested retail price of $99 per seat. www.bluestone.com

Cycle Software Announces New LiveData XML Server
11/9/1999

Cycle Software announced LiveData Server version 5.0 with XML. LiveData Server Version 5.0 with XML offers the innate power and flexibility of XML with the following special features: Fast and friendly schema mapping - Every external protocol and application is mapped into an object framework - a maximally flexible middle ground where it is possible to do the correct mappings from one to another. Bi-directional communication - Specific requests made via XML to server are coordinated into several underlying requests to different systems supported by LiveData Server such as ICCP. They are then intelligently mapped back up to an interactive, state-of-the art Web page or commonly deployed DBMS system. And support for the latest browser side Java Scripting techniques, including Microsoft extensions. LiveData Server Version 5.0 with XML will be available in Q1 2000. www.livedata.com

Corio Signs-Up BroadVision, Cognos & Commerce One
11/9/1999

Corio, Inc. announced that BroadVision, Cognos and Commerce One have joined previously announced partners, PeopleSoft and Siebel to offer their respective solutions through the Corio Intelligent Enterprise. Corio continues to redefine the ASP model with the unveiling of the Corio Intelligent Enterprise, a modular solution offering applications in a pre-integrated package - over a secure network, for a monthly fee. By providing these functional applications on the Corio Intelligent Enterprise, Corio customers will enjoy all the benefits of an environment without the large costs and IT challenges associated with making them all work together. www.corio.com

Watching how Corio deals with this variety of applications might provide some insight into what kinds of applications make sense for an ASP channel and which don't. We are skeptical of many proposed ASP apps in the near term.

South Wind Design Announces xmlFX DTK
11/9/1999

South Wind Design, Inc. announced the release of xmlFX Developer Toolkit for C++(TM) v1.0 (xmlFX DTK) to expedite the development of business-to-business XML applications. Key benefits include Internet-readiness and an intuitive yet powerful XML query language (SXQL) for accessing and manipulating transactional XML documents. Because it leverages existing skill sets, there is little or no learning curve. The xmlFX DTK is targeted at the manipulation of transactional documents as opposed to display documents in a production environment that processes hundreds of thousands of XML transactions every day. Built-in Internet support empowers the user to read and write XML documents over the Web, using HTTP and FTP protocols. The xmlFX DTK is available now, complete with on-line documentation and Web-enabled technical support. The initial release targets Microsoft Visual C++ 6. The xmlFX DTK sells for $495 USD, and source code is available for an additional $795 USD. For a limited time, both packages are bundled at $995 USD, see www.swdi.com/products.htm . An evaluation edition will be available for free download soon. A 30-day satisfaction guarantee is in effect for the object code version. The xmlFX DTK is royalty-free. www.supportability.com

Official Documentation for DocBook DTD Released by O'Reilly
11/9/1999

OASIS, the organization responsible for the continued maintenance of the DocBook DTD, has designated O'Reilly's latest release, "DocBook: the Definitive Guide", as the official documentation of the DocBook DTD. DocBook is a system for writing structured documents using SGML and XML. DocBook, provides all the elements you'll need for technical documents of all kinds. A number of computer companies use DocBook for their documentation, as do several Open Source documentation groups, including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). With the consistent use of DocBook, these groups can readily share and exchange information. With an XML-enabled browser, DocBook documents are as accessible on the Web as in print. "DocBook: The Definitive Guide" will be at your local bookstore, and in its entirety, online at www.oreilly.com/catalog/docbook/chapter/book/docbook.html

Hynet Announces Hynet Directive 3.0
11/9/1999

Hynet Technologies announced the availability of Hynet Directive  3.0, a web content globalization system that enables e-businesses to deliver critical information such as marketing collateral and personalized web pages in multiple languages simultaneously. Hynet Directive 3.0 is designed to rapidly build Dynamic Customer Content (DCC) e-business solutions - information tailored to the specific needs of individual customers - for “publishing on the fly” in multiple formats and languages. Hynet Directive 3.0 is a full-function single source system that manages XML chunks of information that can be translated to multiple languages and “associated” to the single source original in the content vault. When published through HTML templates to multiple sites, a consistent message appears to customers in their native language. Standard browsers can determine the right default language to display for each customer because of the Hynet technology. Hynet Directive 3.0 also includes a transformation engine HyConvert that is scriptable using Javascript, JScript and VBScript. HyConvert can output information to XML, HTML, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe PDF formats and many more. Hynet's use of XML combined with Directive's point-and-click functionality lets users easily generate multiple electronic publications or develop custom content to be delivered over the Web from within one integrated publishing environment. www.hynet.com

Apache Software Foundation Launches xml.apache.org Project
11/9/1999

The Apache Software Foundation, in collaboration with Bowstreet, DataChannel, Exoffice, IBM, Lotus Development Corporation and Sun Microsystems, announced the formation of the xml.apache.org Project in response to the overwhelming demand for Open Source XML and XSL tools triggered by the rapid adoption of XML. xml.apache.org will advance the development and deployment of XML and XSL standards, and demonstrate the power of these technologies on both Web server- and client-side environments. In addition, xml.apache.org will provide a robust set of XML- and XSL-related libraries and applications within an industry-wide, peer-based Open Source development process. The xml.apache.org Project is being bootstrapped with technology donations from several vendors and Open Source XML developers, and will be maintained by the Project team. The donated technologies include: XML4J and XML4C Parsers from IBM, Java Project X and XHTML Parser from Sun Microsystems, LotusXSL, from Lotus Development Corporation, XPages, from DataChannel, FOP, from James Tauber, now with Bowstreet, Cocoon, from Stefano Mazzocchi and the Java-Apache community, OpenXML, from Exoffice and Assaf Arkin, and XSL:P, from Exoffice and Keith Visco. xml.apache. org will name its parser technology Xerces, which will be based on IBM's XML4J and XML4C technologies. The next version will incorporate the best features on Sun's parser and other contributions from the open source community. xml.apache.org

Symix Publishes XML Schema for Collaboration
11/9/1999

Symix Systems, Inc. announced that it has published key XML schemas to the BizTalk.org repository as a part of its digitalmidmarket.com initiative for midsize manufacturers and distributors. As a part of its eBusiness initiative, Symix is supporting the use of XML as a common data exchange framework. Symix has posted two midmarket- and industry-specific XML schemas -- Bill of Materials (BOM) and Order Promise Date Request/Response -- to BizTalk.org to facilitate the collaboration and information exchange between its midmarket customers and their customers and trading partners. Symix plans to post additional schemas to the BizTalk.org repository. www.symix.com

DataChannel Donates XPages to Open Source Tools Library
11/9/1999

DataChannel will donate its XPages, an XML application markup language, to the Apache XML Project Open Source Library. The rapid adoption of XML has triggered an overwhelming demand for Open Source XML and XSL tools. DataChannel's XPages is an XML application markup language for quickly building data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources. XPages offers a dynamic application environment defined by an XML file that aggregates multiple data sources, makes that data URL addressable and defines custom methods to access that data for presentation at the desktop or other devices. The DataChannel submission to the XML.APACHE.ORG Project includes Java code for a servlet based engine. The Project code, along with developer participation guidelines, is available at http://xml.apache.org/, www.datachannel.com

Intraspect Introduces C-Business Solutions
11/8/1999

Intraspect Software, Inc. introduced c-business solutions for implementing collaborative business practices within and beyond the enterprise. With the latest release of its product, Intraspect Knowledge Server 3.0 (IKS 3.0), Intraspect offers a platform for developing and deploying c-business solutions for web-based collaboration. IKS 3.0 includes several new features that make it easier to use, more reliable and more scalable by a factor of four, accommodating thousands of users per server. IKS complements the full suite of Microsoft desktop products, including Microsoft Outlook, Office 2000, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0. The new release is easier to manage, and features enhanced personalization and customization. IKS 3.0 enables users to quickly personalize their environment by providing template engines that make customization even faster. In addition, IKS 3.0 leverages the latest standards - including Active Directory, LDAP, XML, WebDAV, and FTP - to allow integration into the enterprise. IKS 3.0 is expected to be available next month. The product will be available directly from Intraspect or through its channel partners. Pricing depends on the number of users. Enterprise deployments range from approximately $160-300 per user. IKS 3.0 can be purchased directly or licensed through subscription. www.intraspect.com

ObjectSpace Releases Dynamic XML
11/8/1999

ObjectSpace announced the general availability of Dynamic XML (DXML) 1.0 for Java. DXML simplifies XML development by allowing developers to create, write, and read XML documents as if they were standard Java Beans. Without DXML, developers face a much larger learning curve and must master the intricacies of low-level XML technology like parsers, DTDs and the DOM. ObjectSpace has released DXML free-of-charge to Java developers. DXML is also integrated into Voyager 3.1, the latest release of ObjectSpace's product for enterprise distributed computing. DXML is available for immediate download from the ObjectSpace Web site at www.objectspace.com

Quest Releases Vista Plus 4.2
11/8/1999

Quest Software, Inc. announced the availability of Vista Plus 4.2, the latest version of Quest's enterprise output management solution. Report Hyperlinking technology has been added to automatically create hyperlinks between reports based on common data values, allowing instant access and navigation to related information.  Vista Plus also now allows users to view electronic documents created by common PC applications without having the native application installed on their workstation through the new TransVue Client. Vista Plus uses a centralized repository to capture, store, distribute and archive reports and electronic documents over any network, including the Internet. The new Report Hyperlinking feature adds the ability to automatically create hyperlinks throughout a report to connect to other related reports in the repository. Vista Plus 4.2 is now generally available starting at $50,000 per server with an additional per-seat price based on the number of clients. www.quest.com

Bowstreet Releases Web Automation Factory
11/8/1999

Bowstreet Software Inc. announced the commercial release of the Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, which breaks a critical e-commerce bottleneck by enabling companies to quickly deliver affordable, highly customized business-to-business Web sites for multiple customers and business partners. Bowstreet's Web Automation Factory uses Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), an emerging e-commerce standard pioneered by Bowstreet and supported by IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and the Sun/Netscape Alliance. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, based on patent-pending technology, eliminates what many industry observers believe to be the biggest obstacle to the adoption of B2B e-commerce: the challenge of creating, maintaining and linking Web sites that provide many tightly integrated B2B connections, each customized for the unique needs of a different partner or customer. With today's tools and technology, this process is prohibitively time consuming, complex and costly, often creating a large IT backlog for new B2B capabilities and stalling critical e-commerce initiatives. In the first half of 2000, Bowstreet will launch the Bowstreet Web Services Marketplace, a central exchange on the Internet where companies can freely create, publish, capture and trade Web Services they can incorporate into their own custom B2B Web sites. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory 1.0 has been shipping to customers since September 1999. It is currently available through Bowstreet's direct sales force and soon will be available through selected systems integrators. The product is sold on a subscription or perpetual license basis starting at around $250,000. Bowstreet also offers professional services to assist companies in developing, deploying and managing large Web programs. Bowstreet is giving away a version of the product, called the JumpStart Edition, to qualified businesses and software professionals at no cost. The JumpStart Edition will enable these users to create custom Web sites and publish Web services for a small number of partners on the Web. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory runs on the Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows NT server operating systems. It requires one of these directory services: Netscape Directory Server, IBM SecureWay or Novell NDS. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory will also be available for Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Directory Server. www.bowstreet.com

T9 Text Input Licensed by Wireless Phone Manufacturers
11/8/1999

Tegic Communications announced it has now licensed its product, T9 Text Input software to more than 20 wireless phone and consumer electronic device manufacturers. The company has licensed T9 Text Input to wireless phone manufacturers who command more than 90 percent of the world's wireless phone market share and has also demonstrated the adaptability of the software to other platforms such as PDAs and MP3 technology. In addition, the company is extending its embedded software expertise with the introduction of wireless instant messaging or "chat" technology. The application, which will be available in an upcoming version of T9 Text Input software for wireless phones, will enable easy integration by wireless service providers, ISPs and Internet portals. With T9 Text Input software embedded on mobile phones and wireless device keypads, individuals can quickly and easily enter words or entire sentences with just one key press per letter. To ensure customers can communicate in their native language, Tegic Communications has made T9 Text Input available in more than 17 language databases. They include Chinese (Simplified, Traditional, BoPoMoFo and Pinyin), Dutch, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean (Hangul), Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. The company is also developing linguistic databases for Turkish, as well as other Eastern European and Middle Eastern languages. www.tegic.com

Optika Announces Optika eMedia e2e-Business Paks
11/8/1999

Optika Inc. announced the latest release of Optika eMedia and the availability of e2e-Business Paks, that unite existing business processes with new e-business activities. In addition to enhancing functionality of the core product, the latest release of Optika eMedia combines e-business tools and technologies with Optika's high-volume production imaging, enterprise report management and workflow solution. The e2e-Business Paks, which integrate XML InternetForms, EDI, Web EDI and ERP technologies, will enable companies to easily manage disparate transaction information within a single solution. Optika eMedia e2e-Business Paks integrate EDI technology from Harbinger Corporation, ERP technology from J.D. Edwards, and legally binding XML InternetForms technology from UWI.Com. The most recent release of Optika eMedia and all three Optika eMedia e2e-Business Paks will be available on November 19, 1999. The e2e-Business Paks are priced and packaged separately from Optika eMedia. www.optika.com

Ariba & Siebel Form Alliance for E-Commerce
11/8/1999

Ariba, Inc. Siebel Systems, Inc. announced an alliance that will integrate Ariba eCommerce solutions and the Ariba Network platform with Siebel Front Office Applications. As a result of the integration of Siebel Front Office Applications and the Ariba Network platform, organizations can access the Ariba cXML Internet Catalog and link to the supplier's Web site to search for, configure and select products using Siebel eSales. Siebel eSales, a core component of the Siebel Front Office family, allows suppliers to deploy eCommerce sites that include a rich multimedia product catalog, on-line quotations, a product configurator to configure solutions, and the ability to take orders for business to businesses and business to consumer eCommerce over the web. The Siebel eSales application then transfers the selected products and services into the Ariba user's electronic purchase requisition via cXML data feeds, which the Ariba application routes for approval according to the buying organization's business rules. Once a customer places an order with a supplier, all of the specific information associated with that individual customer will be automatically captured in Siebel Front Office Applications and instantly shared across Siebel Systems' sales, marketing and customer service information systems. Both companies plan to make Siebel Front Office Applications and Ariba eCommerce connectivity available to their customers in Q1 2000. www.ariba.com, www.siebel.com

Documentum Adds Executive Staff
11/8/1999

Documentum, Inc. announced the appointments of Dave DeWalt to  executive vice president and general manager, eBusiness Unit, and Nazhin Zarghamee to vice president of marketing. DeWalt and Zarghamee bring a combined total of 27 years of eBusiness and information technology product development, marketing and sales expertise to Documentum. Dave DeWalt, Documentum's new executive vice president and general manager of the eBusiness Unit, comes to Documentum after having spent the last four years as a sales and marketing executive at several emerging Internet companies. Assuming the role of vice president of marketing is Nazhin Zarghamee, who has had extensive experience in top marketing roles in the enterprise and Internet technology arena. www.documentum.com

Meta Data Coalition Announces New Initiatives
11/8/1999

The Meta Data Coalition (MDC), a not-for-profit organization in the process of standardizing metadata, announced today several new key initiatives as part of its technical meeting Nov. 11. In July 1999, the membership of the Meta Data Coalition ratified the MDC-OIM 1.0, which provides the basic meta-model for representing databases and the interrelationships between them. The new initiatives will extend the model into several key areas such as business models and information portals. This will enable the integration of an even larger set of tools and business applications using the MDC-OIM and its XML interchange format. MDC and OMG Aligning Metadata Standards in the Market: As a result of the Metadata Coalition's membership exchange with the Object Management Group (OMG), the data warehousing part of the MDC-OIM has been used as a design reference for the OMG's CWMI (Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange). With the continued co-operation between the technical task forces of both organizations, the metadata standards will be aligned. The MDC is developing a standard for the specification of business rules and the mechanism for exchanging these rules through XML. The MDC has formed an alliance with the Business Rules Group (author of the white paper that defined the first comprehensive business rules classification), who will participate in the MDC technical meetings. The MDC has established a collaboration with the European Commission's ESPRIT Project ATLAS, which is headed by Unisoft, Greece. ATLAS incorporates technologies for real-time business information systems and plans to use the MDC-OIM Business Engineering and Knowledge Management Models to drive the transition from online to real-time business information systems. Standardized Metadata for Component (Object) Design and Reuse: A component model specifies component interfaces and describes the design, assembly and deployment of components into a system, based on some standard component architectural style. The new model provides the necessary metadata types for these descriptions. The work is based on the meta-model of Catalysis, a UML-based methodology for end-to-end component-based development. Integration of Knowledge Management and Data Warehousing: The integration of user collaboration, document management and business intelligence requires the integration of many different data sources and software services. The MDC-OIM allows a knowledge worker to access information services more easily and supports the use of standard business terminology. Microsoft (an MDC member) will hold a workshop in Redmond, Wash., on Nov. 9-10 to show the integration of information portals through shared metadata using the MDC-OIM. www.MDCinfo.com

EFI Launches eBeam to Makes Information from Whiteboard Available Over Internet
11/8/1999

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. announced the company is expanding into Internet appliance products. The first in a new family of products, eBeam, converts any whiteboard into a digital workspace, allowing users to capture meeting-notes and diagrams in real time on their personal computer. Words and images can be viewed, edited, and shared across the world using a web browser. The eBeam system weighs approximately one pound and can easily be carried in a laptop case. Setting up eBeam takes less than three minutes. Any word or image drawn on the whiteboard appears on the desktop in full color. Meeting notes can be exported into a variety of popular formats for easy insertion into documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, and web pages. Meetings can be broadcast over the Internet or corporate intranet in real time with eBeam software. Notes can be printed in full color. This new patented product can be purchased beginning November 15, 1999. Estimated street price is approximately $500.www.efi.com

Now this sounds very cool! A big change for EFI.

ConneXt Announces XML APIs
11/5/1999

ConneXt, Inc., a Seattle-based software company focused on delivering billing and customer care solutions to the utility market, announced that its ConsumerLinX solution is using and supporting XML for all needed application programming interfaces. www.connext.com

Extensibility Releases XML Authority 1.1
11/5/1999

Extensibility Inc., announced XML Authority 1.1. XML Authority is currently used by of organizations to build XML based e-business vocabularies and grammars. The acceleration of e-business depends heavily on the use of XML schema to ensure the integrity of automated transactions and information interchange. XML Authority 1.1 is available for immediate download from Licensing is available for single-users ($99.95) and in multi-user x-Packs (5-user $449.95; 10-user $849.95; 50-user $3,995.00.) www.extensibility.com

TSC Acquires CourseNet
11/4/1999

Technology Solutions Company (TSC) announced it has acquired CourseNet Systems for an undisclosed amount. TSC will integrate CourseNet into the company's Knowledge Management business unit to meet the growing demand for software and services that help companies manage important information. CourseNet's XML-based software allows users to create and reuse "learning objects," which can be integrated into multiple training programs with minimal effort. With this software, TSC's Knowledge Management suite of tools allows companies to author, deliver, and administer online training to identify experts, collaborate in the development of new knowledge, and share knowledge with the entire organization and even the entire supply chain. www.techsol.com

VirtualSellers.Com Completes Acquisition of TAME Software
11/4/1999

VirtualSellers.com Inc. announced that it has completed the acquisition of Tag Activated Markup Enhancer (TAME), a proprietary programming language, as part of its purchase of assets of Clickshop, a Washington state-based software developer. TAME provides similar characteristics to Java, ASP, PERL and Javascript, and represents the core software used to create VirtualSellers.com's shopping cart software. Ownership of the TAME programming language gives VirtualSellers.com incredible flexibility when creating customized e-commerce solutions for its clients. TAME's natural interaction of XML enables VirtualSellers.com to pursue its long-term technology strategy. The company recognizes that XML is the new standard in long-distance data interchange, replacing EDI.One of the main benefits of the TAME programming language is that it is a platform independent, server side application language that will maximize data transfer and data integrity. TAME allows the average Internet user to minimize end-user processing and bandwidth utilization, and accordingly reduces the page load time. All data interaction occurs at the Internet Web site server prior to distribution. www.virtualsellers.com

Open Applications Group Posts XML Schemas
11/4/1999

The Open Applications Group, a publisher of XML-based content announced they have posted 122 XML schemas for business transactions to BizTalk.org. This set of transaction definitions represents a rich set of content that organizations can use to enable faster and more efficient interoperability. The Open Applications Group is rapidly becoming known as an XML content developer. Currently, the OAGI is developing more business transactions schemas, and they hope to collaborate with vertical industry groups to pursue the development of convergent architecture and content. The OAGI is a charter member of the BizTalk steering committee and is an industry contributor to the development and adoption of XML and XML-based content. They have built a body of work called the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS), which defines a set of components, processes and interfaces for use in e-Business, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Financials, and Human Resources applications. www.openapplications.org

122 schemas. Is this a good thing? We're not passing judgment, but the question should be asked about any such large-scale schema development.

DocSpace to be Acquired by Critical Path
11/4/1999

The DocSpace Company Inc. announced that Critical Path, Inc. has signed a definitive acquisition agreement to acquire The DocSpace Company Inc. Through DocSpace, Critical Path's menu of services will now add guaranteed delivery, universal file access, and collaboration services. These services are offered, in an integrated way, with multiple security levels, from industry standard SSL to PKI in conjunction with partners like Verisign and RSA. DocSpace allows users to digitally sign and encrypt each file they send, store and share using only a Web browser. Files can be in any format: documents, multimedia, CAD/CAM, etc. www.DocSpace.com, www.cp.net

Cimtek Commerce Adopts XML Technology for Healthcare
11/4/1999

Cimtek Commerce announced that its Internet trading hubs, HIDAHELP.com and medicalbuyer.com, will now support XML. By leveraging XML technology along with its current EDI capability, Cimtek Commerce is a vertical e-commerce trading hub serving the medical supply industry to enable all buyers and sellers, regardless of size or current technology infrastructure, to participate in web-based business transactions. Commerce will also leverage the capabilities in Microsoft's upcoming new release of SQL 7.5 to directly accept and process XML-based transmissions. www.cimtekcommerce.com

E-Z Data & InSystems Sign Marketing Agreement
11/4/1999

E-Z Data, Inc. and InSystems announced a cooperative marketing agreement. This agreement, which will include both joint marketing and development initiatives, will result in a solution that will enable insurance agencies, agents, and brokers to leverage the Internet to reduce policy issuance time from weeks to days, while improving their ability to service and market to their customers. With E-ZData and InSystems' solutions working together, information will be shared between the two systems to instantly trigger the application process automatically populating all necessary forms with correct customer information. Through this joint solution, agents and brokers will be able to eliminate manual processes, significantly streamline the capture and accuracy of applicant information, and reduce policy issuance time from weeks to days. In addition, agencies, agents and brokers will be able to facilitate their one-to-one relationships by delivering information on additional products and services personalized for their customers. www.ez-data.com, www.insystems.com

Bluestone Software & Interwoven Team for E-Business
11/3/1999

Interwoven, Inc. and Bluestone Software, Inc. announced a strategic alliance in which the two companies will work together to integrate Interwoven TeamSite and Bluestone Total-e-Business. This alliance will allow Bluestone to offer Interwoven TeamSite's advanced Web content management capabilities to Bluestone customers building e-business solutions. Bluestone Total-e-Business is designed to meet the diverse needs of e-business, putting business experts from operations, sales, marketing, and finance in control of key business functions, while allowing IT professionals to focus on technical performance and security demands. Through its alliance with Interwoven, Bluestone will add the functionality of TeamSite, providing a content management system to this comprehensive e-business solution. TeamSite features, such as templating and workflow, will allow Total-e-Business customers to be more productive and efficient, while features, such as versioning and rollbacks, will give customers a higher level of management and security. www.bluestone.com, www.interwoven.com

Interwoven & ScreamingMedia Partner
11/3/1999

Interwoven, Inc. and ScreamingMedia announced a strategic partnership to bring fresh, customized content to portals and corporate intranets. The real-time content from brand-name providers like the New York Times Syndicate, AP, Sports Network and Medical Tribune, will be aggregated, filtered and streamed by ScreamingMedia's Siteware into the Interwoven TeamSite content management software, where it can be seamlessly incorporated into a corporate intranet, extranet or Internet site. Web innovators are already taking advantage of the synergy provided by this partnership. Site editors can review the ScreamingMedia live news feeds and pull relevant articles. These articles are then routed through Interwoven workflow and published side-by-side with custom articles submitted by the company's content contributors. Because news article selection is integrated with in-house content creation, the overall publishing process is streamlined and editorial review time is decreased. www.interwoven.com

Interwoven wins our prize for the most partnerships announced this issue!

Sight & Sound's BookSmart to Use XSL
11/3/1999

Sight & Sound Software, the developers of BookSmart announced support for XSL within BookSmart 2.0. The combination of BookSmart's internal XML data storage format, and support for XSL, offers flexibility in generating a variety of formatted data outputs from within BookSmart. For example, personalized booking confirmation email, formatted HTML for web pages, even other XML formats, such as the emerging Open Travel standard, are all as simple as creating an XSL style sheet. The proprietary BookSmart XSL server handles the translation from the internal XML format to the output format specified by the style sheet. XSL support gives complete control and flexibility to the web site designer to specify exactly how data should look on a page. Different style sheets can be applied for different sets of customers on the same web site, providing a fully personalized look and feel. Since XML also provides the basis for many of the emerging wireless standards, the new XSL support will make creating wireless booking applications with BookSmart much easier. www.book-smart.com

INSCI Corp. to Acquire Internet Broadcasting Company
11/3/1999

INSCI Corp. soon to be renamed insci-statements.com, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Internet Broadcasting Company (IBC) of Pompano Beach, Fla. The acquisition represents an important step in INSCI's strategy to establish itself as a leading worldwide provider of both Internet portal-based applications services and on-site, enterprise software solutions for secure high-volume electronic document management and delivery. IBC will become a key part of the new INSCI business unit for Internet-based statement and bill presentment application services and continue to operate from its facilities in Pompano Beach. Under terms of the agreement, INSCI will acquire all the stock of IBC in exchange for shares of INSCI Common Stock. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the acquisition and final closing is expected within 30 days, pending completion of customary closing conditions. Further terms were not disclosed. INSCI has formed a separate business unit to market and sell statement and document presentment services worldwide through direct and reseller channels. The company's Internet statement services are targeted primarily at business-to-business applications but can also be integrated with portal services geared to consumers. Services will be provided on a per-transaction basis and encompass enrollment/subscription, electronic storage, management and distribution of statements, transaction confirmations, bills and other types of commercial documents. www.insci.com

Hardball Software Launches New Name to Reflect Commitment to XML
11/3/1999

HardBall Software announced it is changing its name to infoShark, inc., to support HardBall's commitment to be a provider of eBusiness solutions. infoShark, inc. is aggressively moving into the exciting new territory of delivering just-in-time data using XML. www.infoshark.com

DataChannel Supports IBM Enterprise Information Portal
11/2/1999

DataChannel announced support for IBM's Enterprise Information Portal to extend access to enterprise data residing on a variety of IBM and other heterogeneous systems residing within the enterprise through the DataChannel Server 4.0, an XML-based portal server. The combination of DataChannel Server 4.0 and the IBM Enterprise Information Portal provide rapid application development tools through the use of open standards. The combined DataChannel and IBM Enterprise Information Portal solutions help deliver on the promise of XML with applications that dynamically access and deliver enterprise data through a secure personalized interface. DataChannel Server 4.0 leverages key components of IBM's Enterprise Information Portal framework to provide bi-directional data access and support for mobile devices. The DataChannel solution combined with IBM's Enterprise Information Portal will create an IT architecture that allows companies to rapidly deploy mission critical applications from this Enterprise Information Portal platform and make those applications available over the Internet with any Internet-ready device. www.datachannel.com

X-Builder Version 2.5 Released; Adds XML & XSL Support
11/2/1999

XBuilder, which addresses slow web content download, has been upgraded to version 2.5.     Developed by Sign Me Up Marketing of Bellingham, WA, XBuilder 2.5 increases download speed by more than 4X. Priced at $799 but free to existing customers, XBuilder 2.5 further increases page download speeds through new code compression techniques. In addition to XML and XSL support, version 2.5 offers usability enhancements, FTP capability and a new Command Line interface option. XBuilder increases download speed by converting dynamic pages (ASP, Cold Fusion or other database-built) into static HTML pages, then compresses the static HTML to add an additional 20% speed improvement. There are no other products like it on the market. With an easy-to-use wizard or COM object interface, XBuilder can compile an entire site or only selected pages, and compiles sites written in any scripting language, including CGI, ASP, or Perl. www.xbuilder.net

XMLSolutions Announces Launch of XEDI.ORG
11/2/1999

XMLSolutions announced the launch of XEDI.ORG.  XEDI (zee-dee) is an approach to the XML representation of EDI documents. The Aerospace Industry Association, which represents every aerospace manufacturer in the United States, has been testing the XEDI solution, and has endorsed this approach as the standard approach to XML EDI. Information on the XEDI approach to XML representation of EDI is available to the general public at www.xedi.org and is an open source, open definition project. www.xmls.com

See their announcement of a free conversion service in December.

Commerce One Announces XML Toolkit for E-Commerce Apps
11/2/1999

Commerce One, Inc. announced the Commerce One XML Development Kit (XDK) 1.0, an XML schema toolkit that enables the creation of XML-based business documents and applications. For end users, these new XML-based applications will result in information-rich, robust e-commerce transactions that are as ubiquitous as web pages. Targeted at developers, XDK 1.0 is immediately available and can be downloaded free of charge at Commerce One's MarketSite www.marketsite.net

EcomXML Introduces B2B Solution
11/1/1999

ecomXML, Inc. introduced a suite of products ranging from ecomTalk Server, offering secure EDI/back office integration, to ecomFrontier, enabling e-commerce transactions with catalog automation. This ecomSuite is for companies needing to expand their B2B global reach. The solutions use XML technology to streamline business operations, providing full integration with current and future trading partners. The ecomCatalog Automation transfers current catalog database into an XML-based, open standard for display on the ecomFrontier. Trading partners and customers view and execute business transactions directly from the storefront. Suppliers can qualify new trading partners and tailor service offerings as required. ecomTalk Server is a gateway integrator that intelligently transforms and routes documents from the client side into the formats that are relayed and understood by current legacy back-end systems. ecomTalk Server is a secure e-commerce gateway for exchange of transaction documents, such as XML/EDI and EDI, with trading partners via the Internet in Email, FTP or HTTP protocol. It is designed to provide full functionality and does not require special IT personnel for maintenance. www.ecomxml.com

Solbright Announces AdSuite XML-Based System for Internet Advertising
11/1/1999

Solbright Inc. announced the release of AdSuite, an automated workflow system that provides a comprehensive and efficient infrastructure for managing the sales and production processes of Internet advertising. AdSuite offers publishers a comprehensive solution, combining newly launched AdSales Manager with AdTraffic Manager. The new AdSales Manager system provides Internet publishers with an XML-based sales automation and contract management system designed to increase efficiency and standardize communication. By providing sales managers with a dynamic and flexible workflow application, AdSales Manager helps online publishers to efficiently generate quotes, access critical contractual data, and close advertising deals. AdTraffic Manager streamlines the traffic and production process by simplifying the complex workflows required to handle rich media and online advertising. AdSales Manager provides quick access to relevant account information for the sales and production teams, establishes consistent price/value propositions, provides detailed quotes, tracks and analyzes client-buying habits, and monitors the approval and production status of specific insertion orders. AdTraffic Manager provides web publishers an automated production solution that reduces the time required to process and approve all types of online advertisements. www.solbright.com

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