Information Technology News

Google announced they are rolling out offline access to Google Docs over the next few weeks, starting with a small percentage of users. According to a post on the Official Google Docs Blog: "With Google Docs offline (powered by Google Gears), I can take my little piece of the cloud with me wherever I go. Once enabled, I have a local version of my document list and editors, along with my documents. As long as I have an Internet connection, every change I make is saved to the cloud. When I lose my connection, I sacrifice some features, but I can still access my documents (for this initial release, you can view and edit word processing documents; right now we don't support offline access to presentations or spreadsheets...). Everything I need is saved locally. And I do everything through my web browser, even when I'm offline ... When my connection comes back, my documents sync up again with the server. It's all pretty seamless: I don't have to remember to save my documents locally before packing my laptop for a trip. I don't have to remember to save my changes as soon as I get back online. And I don't have to switch applications based on network connectivity." Offline access is only available in English for now. They're working on offline access in other languages. It will also be available to Google Apps users soon, and domain administrators that want it now can opt-in via their control panel. http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2008/03/bringing-cloud-with-you.html

Posted by NewsShark at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Google, office software, SaaS
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The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, announced that Adobe Systems Incorporated is joining the Foundation. Adobe is joining the LF to collaborate on the advancement of Linux as a platform for rich Internet applications (RIA) and Web 2.0 technologies. http://www.linux-foundation.org/

Posted by NewsShark at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Adobe, Linux, open source
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Trampoline Systems announces SONAR Flightdeck, an organisational intelligence and diagnostics tool for managers. SONAR Flightdeck provides strategic intelligence about the informal networks that power organisations so managers can make better, more informed decisions. It brings network analysis techniques to business managers to expose the social networks and information flows contained within everyday electronic communications. Management teams are often unable to understand resident social networks because the only information available about them has been anecdotal or the result of specialised consultancy projects. SONAR Flightdeck brings the academic techniques of organisational network analysis to managers. SONAR Flightdeck automatically displays the crucial social factors at play within organisations including key opinion formers, poorly-integrated business units, emerging communities of interest, single points of failure and third-party relationships. SONAR Flightdeck is the newest addition to SONAR Suite, Trampoline's Enterprise Social Computing platform for employees and managers. SONAR Dashboard provides social computing for employees to locate experts, connect and collaborate. SONAR Flightdeck and Dashboard are powered by SONAR Server, which identifies the social networks, information flows and topics within electronic information such as email, documents and IM. SONAR Suite provides security, privacy and integration. http://www.trampolinesystems.com

Posted by NewsShark at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: social computing, Trampoline Systems
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C2C announced the availability of its Archive Search Services which allows customers a range of open access points to massive amounts of archived email data to improve productivity. Archive Search Services features include: A Federated Search Provider, which allows enterprise search solutions, including Microsoft Search Server 2008, Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and Internet Explorer's 'custom search providers,' to pass search queries directly to Archive One and accept and display results returned from there; A Search Connector, which allows search servers such as Microsoft Search Server and Windows Search access to the archive index in order for them to build index data within their own servers; A Google Search plug-in for search access to the email archive from Google Desktop and Enterprise; and Support for the OpenSearch v1.1 standard which allows any application supporting this standard to gain access to the archive data. http://www.c2c.com

Posted by NewsShark at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: C2C, document management, OpenSearch, records management, search
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HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Tower Software announced that they have signed a pre-bid agreement for HP to acquire Tower, a document and records management software company based in Canberra, Australia. The acquisition of Tower will add electronic records management to HP Software's existing e-discovery and compliance capabilities in information collection and retention. This includes both records management and identification. Under an existing alliance between the companies, Tower TRIM Context has been integrated with the HP Integrated Archive Platform to provide customers with a combined records management and compliance archiving solution. Combining HP's and Tower's overall software capabilities will enable customers to identify electronic business records from general business communication, collect those business records in a scalable and high-performance archive platform and preserve them for long-term future use in legal discovery or compliance activities. The addition of Tower also is expected to enable HP Software to address the Microsoft SharePoint compliance and e-discovery opportunities. The board of directors of Tower has unanimously approved the transaction and recommends that Tower shareholders accept HP's offer in the absence of a higher third-party offer. The acquisition will be conducted by means of an off-market takeover bid for all of the outstanding shares of Tower. The takeover is expected to close in the second quarter of calendar year 2008. More information is available at http://www.hp.com/go/tower

Posted by NewsShark at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: acquisition, document management, HP, records management, Tower Software
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Inventive Designers introduced interactive eForms as part of their XML-based document solution Scriptura. These eForms are incorporated in the latest version of Scriptura, Inventive Designers' WYSIWYG solution that enables any kind of document or business output to be generated from any kind of data, and subsequently to be transmitted to any output channel. "The 'intelligent' forms see to it that end users are only required to provide the information that is relevant to them. The online application adapts to the profile of the person filling in the form as it were." The eForms are generated in the same environment as the environment where other documents are developed, published or processed. Which means the solution helps guarantee consistent paper and digital communications. With Scriptura being platform-independent, it runs on all existing operating systems (Windows, Linux, ...). In addition, the data gathered via the electronic forms can be entered into any database and CRM system, running on any system, and vice versa. http://www.inventivedesigners.be/scriptura/intelligent_forms.html

Posted by NewsShark at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: e-forms, Inventive Designers, XML
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DocsCorp announced it has significantly expanded its integration capability to include NetDocuments, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider. NetDocuments, a vendor of SaaS document, email and collaborative document services, provides legal, real estate, financial and health service professionals with instant access to their "work" (documents, emails, projects etc) no matter where they are. Documents are stored in a repository that users access through their browser. Integration with pdfDocs Desktop means that NetDocuments users will be able to "pull down" documents to their local system, convert them to PDF and "push" them back as new or related documents. Alternatively, users can save documents into NetDocuments as PDFs direct from MS Word. DocsCorp plans to extend its integration within the next couple of months to help NetDocuments provide a feature-rich, efficient and secure document service to its clients. Some of the features earmarked to be included in the next release will be the ability to save a document back into NetDocuments as the current or new version of an existing document. http://www.netdocuments.com, http://www.docscorp.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: DocsCorp, document management, NetDocuments, PDF
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The World WIde Web Consortium XML Query Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts: "XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0" and "XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0 Use Cases." The former defines an extension to XQuery 1.0 and XQuery Update facility. Expressions can be evaluated in a specific order, with later expressions seeing the effects of the expressions that came before them. This specification introduces the concept of a block with local variable declarations, as well as several new kinds of expressions, including assignment, while, continue, break, and exit expressions. The latter specification includes the usage scenarios that motivate the changes in the former. http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-xquery-sx-10-20080328/. Also see http://gilbane.com/xml/2008/03/first-public-working-draft-of.html

Posted by NewsShark at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: W3C, XML, XQuery
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Exalead announced a new agreement with ECI (Enterprise Content Integration) specialist EntropySoft. Under the terms of the partnership, Exalead will integrate a wide selection of bidirectional connectors from EntropySoft into its enterprise search software platform, exalead one:search, to complement its current portfolio. As a result, Exalead's customers will benefit from expanded, out-of-the-box connectivity for its full line of exalead one:search enterprise search products to speed and ease integration. While Exalead already offers connectors for popular enterprise content databases, the new agreement with EntropySoft will allow it to expand its portfolio to include connectors for Alfresco, FileNet P8, Hummingbird DM, Interwoven TeamSite, Microsoft Sharepoint 2003, and IBM Lotus Quickplace. http://corporate.exalead.com/, http://www.entropysoft.net

Posted by NewsShark at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: EII, EntropySoft, exalead, search
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Jalios announced JCMS version 6, a new optimized version of JCMS that brings usability enhancements and introduces Web 2.0 functions. One major advantage of JCMS is its resident storage system, JStore, a simple, robust and very rapid object database. In JCMS 6, JStore, a simple and very rapid object database, is coupled with a relational database to handle voluminous content (forums, comments, form submissions, votes, comments and reader tracking). JCMS 6 enables creation of personalizable pages using a library of pre-defined business portlets (directory, team agenda, documents to validate, access to applications, task management, and many more). Sites built using JCMS 6 comply with recognized accessibility standards: AccessiWeb (silver) and WGAC (AA). JCMS has been enriched with more than 40 plugins covering: Web 2.0 (Wiki, blogs, comments), Statistics (XiTi, GoogleAnalytics, TopPublication), Searching (indexing, Metadata, DublinCore) and, Administration (security, authentication, SSO). The JCMS Open API module enables access to all its functionalities via an open API that is simple (REST model) and secure. JCMS 6 will be distributed from June 2008. http://www.jalios.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, Jalios, WCM, Web 2.0
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Autonomy Corporation plc announced the availability of new advanced features for its Pan-Enterprise Search platform, IDOL (Intelligent Data Operating Layer). New features include: Drag and Drop Personalization - enables users to personalize their information delivery by dragging content of interest into a custom box; IDOL Deep Video Indexing (DVI) Advanced Features; Geo-Cluster Maps - IDOL has enhanced its support for geo-efficiency by providing visualization tools to represent document density per location, thus allowing the administrator to quickly assess usage patterns and make informed decisions about load balancing; Intent-Based Ranking - determines a user's intent when querying, thereby delivering highly targeted results based on the individual's profile and contextual factors; Multi-Dimensional Index & Query Throttling - By using a multi-dimensional index to provide information to the distribution components, IDOL helps preclude bottlenecks and unbalanced peak loads during the indexing and query process; and Quantum Clustering - Using quantum mathematics to calculate states/concepts within data, conceptual information is more easily and accurately identified. http://www.autonomy.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Autonomy, search
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Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) announced that it has expanded its alliance with EMC (NYSE:EMC) to jointly market EMC Documentum. The global cross-industry agreement enables Unisys to expand its team of Documentum-certified consultants who implement and deploy EMC enterprise content management solutions. Unisys has developed an interface between its 3D Blueprinting modelling methodology and EMC's Documentum. This interface enables Unisys to deploy Documentum solutions designed with 3D Blueprinting modelling tools more rapidly and securely. Unisys 3D Blueprinting allows clients to model and better understand the interconnections of their various enterprise content management activities (e.g., data administration; records, contract and case management; regulatory compliance; and other information-intensive tasks). http://www.unisys.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, ECM, EMC, Unisys
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Vignette (NASDAQ: VIGN) announced its new High-Performance Delivery (HPD) software will be publicly available on March 28, 2008. HPD delivers a caching technology that automatically tracks dependencies on publishing events or site changes and immediately updates the Web site cache when those changes occur. This enables organizations to deliver faster and richer user experiences while accelerating site performance. Vignette HPD automatically invalidates and updates the Web site cache as changes occur. HPD's approach helps ensure content changes across multiple Web pages are uniformly updated and available to site visitors in real time, reducing maintenance costs and helping to eliminate the risk of errors or missing content. Benchmark test results performed by Vignette in its performance lab showed Vignette HPD provides performance improvements under a variety of conditions. Test results also showed significant performance improvements for sites running dynamic portlets using AJAX and SSI (Server Side Include) technologies. http://www.vignette.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, Vignette, WCM
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Open Text Corporation (NASDAQ:OTEX) (NASDAQ:TSX:) (NASDAQ:OTC) announced that RedDot, the Open Text Web Solutions Group, has released its Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Document Management Integration. RedDot's integration solution features include: Cache a document from SharePoint Server 2007 - When sharing a document online is important but permissions limit user access, RedDot can publish and retain a resident copy of the document presented to any online target, while maintaining the security and integrity of the SharePoint Server 2007 Library; Link a document from SharePoint Server 2007 - Web content editors can address latency and stale Web content by dynamically accessing a document resident in SharePoint Server 2007; Users can link documents via the publishing system to any online target with secure and controlled access from any location; Access different document versions - Administrators can select a specific version of a document to publish with granularity to access previous or minor versions as well; amd, Publish document attributes and metadata from SharePoint Server 2007 - Web content editors can publish document metadata to any online target for classification or search. http://www.reddot.com/, http://www.opentext.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, document management, ECM, Open Text, RedDot, SharePoint, WCM
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ThinkFree announced a new version of their online office suite to be available April 7th, 2008. They will now open their new ThinkFree Manager service (previously known as ThinkFree Premium) to everyone for free. Customers will now be able to use the ThinkFree Office suite online/offline when creating or editing documents. Previously only a select number of people were allowed to use the ThinkFree Premium service. Other major new features include: Hierarchical Documents Planning - a way of organizing many documents through subfolders and tree hierarchy features; a 'Workspace' to collaborate with other users - to be able to collaborate with people, share documents, and manage on-going projects through the 'Workspace'; and 'Quick Edit' mode has been replaced with a new 'Web Editor' based on WYSIWYG-XHTML technology (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get). This will allow you to edit documents without installing any other applications onto your machine. http://www.thinkfree.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Office 2.0, SaaS, ThinkFree
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IBM announced that the Lotus Expeditor software platform is extending desktop computing and Web 2.0 capabilities to mobile phones. Mobile phone users will be able to run several desktop-style applications like social networking, mashups and other consumer or business applications simultaneously on a variety of mobile phones. The new version of IBM Lotus Expeditor 6.1.2 software enables mobile application developers to create new applications and services that combine information from different sources. Key to Lotus Expeditor technology is the use of the Eclipse embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP) application model, which allows applications to be created to span desktop and mobile devices. Lotus Expeditor software also allows people to receive software updates to their mobile phones without disruption. For example, they can receive an update to a business application while continuing to do instant messaging. Lotus Expeditor software is the underlying platform for IBM's collaboration products including IBM Lotus Notes e-mail, Lotus Sametime instant messaging and Lotus Symphony, a no-charge suite of open standards based office productivity software programs. http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus

Posted by NewsShark at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: collaboration, IBM, mobile, social computing, Web 2.0
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Day Software (SWX: DAYN) (OTC:DYIHY) announced it has entered into an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Exstream Software, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard. Under the terms of the agreement, Exstream will bundle Day's technology - CRX Repository, Communiqué (CQ) Workflow, and CQ User Interface - with its Dialogue and Dialogue Live products, helping customers to build content-centric interactive applications regardless of location, format, or language. Day has also launched a corporate blog and portal designed to encourage communication among those who share ideas and interests around content-related topics. Geared toward software developers, the new resource features news and commentary surrounding JSR 170, the Java Content Repository (JCR) application programming interface (API) for stored content; representational state transfer (REST), open source and other related topics and technologies. http://www.exstream.com, http://www.day.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: content management, Day Software, document management, Exstream Software, OEM
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Intalio, Inc. announced support for the Business Process Modeling Notation version 1.1 (BPMN 1.1), which was recently ratified by the Object Management Group (OMG). BPMN 1.1 provides several benefits over the previous version, clearing up ambiguities between throwing and catching events, and adding new notation specifications, such as the Signal event. Signal increases efficiency and loose coupling by broadcasting the event to any event listener, either within the process or in another process. Previously, the process designer had to send a separate message or error event for each specific target. Now, that can be taken care of with a single call. Ambiguities with previous versions of BPMN are also cleaned up, thereby reducing the number of errors that could be coded into the process. The latest version of Intalio|Designer can be downloaded from the Intalio Community Website at http://bpms.intalio.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BPM, Intalio, open source, standards
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Oracle announced they have contributed the XQilla XQuery engine code, an embeddable XQuery engine for developers building XML-based applications, under the open source Apache 2.0 license. By making XQilla XQuery engine available to developers under the Apache license, Oracle is furthering the adoption of XQuery and XML for application areas including Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Enterprise Content Management. The XQilla XQuery engine, an implementation of the XQuery 1.0 standard published by the W3C, enables developers to query XML data, similar to SQL for relational data. Developers can use the XQilla XQuery engine in commercial and open source applications at no cost, modify and improve it, as well as distribute it in binary and source code form. The XQilla project is hosted on SourceForge, where an active community collaborates to further the technology. For applications requiring XQuery and an XML document repository, Oracle has also integrated XQilla XQuery engine within Oracle Berkeley DB XML, an embeddable, open source XML database. http://www.w3.org/XML/Query/, http://xqilla.sourceforge.net/, http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/xml/index.html

Posted by NewsShark at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: open source, Oracle, XML, XQuery
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Adlib Software announced the release of AdlibExpress Server 4.0, setting the stage for the concurrent release of four (4) new packages, replacing the existing menu of add-on modules. Until now, Adlib Software was offered as a fully configurable menu of options consisting of a core transformation engine, known as Express Server, a web services component called Exponent and a series of add-on modules designed to provide extended functionality. Collectively, these elements gave Adlib Software customers a array of options to build and customize their own solution. With the introduction of Express Sever 4.0, Adlib Software is introducing Adlib Express Conversion Server; an application suite that handles document conversion from over 300 different file types to file standards like PDF, PDF/A, XPS, HTML, Word, and many more. Adlib ExpressRecognition Server is an OCR engine that turns large volumes of images including scanned images, faxes and image only PDFs into searchable PDF documents. Adlib ExpressPublishing Server adds publishing functionality to document workflows that aims to eliminate costly manual processes. It adds stamps such as HTML overlays, headers, footers, page numbers and watermarks. It builds intelligent Tables of Contents with hyperlink and bookmark management and performs document assembly. Adlib will be grandfathering all Pre-Express 4.0 customers with valid maintenance contracts to the newest version without any increase in price. http://www.adlibsoftware.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Adlib Software, conversion, document management, imaging, publishing
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