July 2009 Archives

NewsGator reported that Microsoft has named NewsGator a "depth-managed" independent software vendor (ISV) partner. Such status is achieved by fewer than three percent of Microsoft partners. This categorizes NewsGator as a strategic business partner in an important market for Microsoft, and deepens the engagement between the two companies for the benefit of enterprise customers. http://www.newsgator.com

SpringCM Inc. announced the immediate availability of the newest version of its SaaS-based enterprise content management platform. The new release contains 36 new features and enhancements designed to improve management visibility into content processes and the packaging and delivery of SpringCM-based applications by partners. Custom Dashboards adds new graphical reporting capabilities and enables SpringCM users to configure the SpringCM dashboard contents and layout to match the needs of a specific application. Any SpringCM custom report may now be displayed as part of a dashboard and users may choose from several different layout options for how these reports are displayed on the page. Enhanced Document Rules introduced in this release, allow a document rule to notify another system of changes to documents in the SpringCM repository. SpringCM introduced application cloning in 2008, which enables entire configured applications to be duplicated and distributed to new customers or to divisions within a company. With this release, SpringCM adds solution packaging. This new level of granularity allows for existing applications to be updated with new features, for users within an organization or between companies to share best practice "applets" for small processes like document matching, industry specific metadata models, routing or workflows and much more. The newest release of SpringCM also includes: compliance improvement through auditable user access justification; advance workflow enrichment; PDF handling and viewing; upgrades to the user creation process; preview page improvements; user interface enhancements; and increases to the back-end and database performance. http://www.springcm.com

Design Science has announced the release of MathFlow Components and SDK, for editing, display, and accessibility of mathematical notation for websites, applications and services. MathFlow Components and SDK replace the company's WebEQ product and are an addition to its MathFlow product line. The technology at the heart of MathFlow is MathML, the XML standard for representing mathematical notation. MathFlow can be used in publishing, elearning, assessment, aerospace, defense, education, government, science and engineering, as well as enterprise solutions and commercial products. An SDK is available for programmers and systems integrators to develop custom solutions that require advanced equation editing, display, accessibility features and other math functionality. http://www.dessci.com

Progress Software Corporation announced the availability of Progress DataXtend Semantic Integrator (SI) 8.4. This release provides new multi-stream collaboration capabilities and support for new data and messaging formats and industry standards. The DataXtend SI product enables the meaningful exchange of information between applications and services within a messaging and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Using the exchange modeling technology of the DataXtend SI product, enterprises should be able to create a data interoperability layer that provides mediation among the different logical and physical models of their applications and services. This exchange model aims to manage mediations in dynamic environments, allowing enterprises to quickly adapt to and implement change, and minimize the risk of introducing problems into the production arena. DataXtend SI Version 8.4 supports the insurance industry standard ACORD XML models. Other technical standards, including “flat files” with formats like csv (comma separated values), tab delimited and Microsoft Excel, and non-XML formats, like COBOL Copybooks, which provides a pathway for mainframe modernization, are also supported. The multi-stream collaboration makes use of a three-way comparison technique that could provide higher levels of productivity for project teams working on multiple concurrent versions of a project.  Furthermore, Version 8.4  product expands support for creating and maintaining abstract service interfaces based on a common information model. This should allow architects to further leverage their logical data modeling investment in their SOA environment by generating service interface definitions that are aligned to the logical model used for mediation. http://www.progress.com

Alfresco Software Inc announced that Alfresco Community Edition 3.2 is available as a package from the Ubuntu software repositories. Using Ubuntu's Package Manager functionality, users can now more easily select and download new software from Ubuntu's partner repository. As they have been pre-built and tested, each download comes with the necessary drivers and dependencies to let users hit the ground running. Alfresco is an open source ECM system that includes document management, Web content management, collaboration, records management and image management. Alfresco Community Edition 3.2 can be installed by users of Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 by running the command: sudo apt-get install alfresco-community. http://www.alfresco.com, http://www.canonical.com

Web content management vendor Kentico announced that it has entered into a partnership with Intermedia, a software-as -a-service (SaaS) provider specializing in messaging and collaboration solutions, to provide customers with a turnkey hosted solution for its Kentico CMS platform. Kentico customers can install and run the Kentico CMS on any of Intermedia’s Windows Web hosting platforms without any technical expertise required. Kentico’s partnership with Intermedia provides SMBs with a solution that lets them design and build  content-driven web sites. Intermedia’s hosted web platform lets customers run these sites in the cloud. Intermedia’s expert technical support team provides customers with 24 x 7 support to help ensure problems are resolved as quickly as possible. http://www.kentico.com

RightAnswers, Inc. announced the launch of the RightAnswers Enterprise Gateway, an add-on component to the company’s Unified Knowledge Suite. The new tool, available now, was designed to maximize search capabilities across an organization, providing users with more resources to find answers to their support issues. The Enterprise Gateway tool is meant to help drive adoption by exposing more users in an enterprise to the benefits of RightAnswers. This is accomplished by providing a bridge, or gateway, between a company’s enterprise search system, the RightAnswers solution, and their help desk system. As an added feature, answers that are provided within the enterprise search system will now tie into a company’s self-service tracking and analytics. This integration allows organizations to now measure the effectiveness of RightAnswers content even when it is viewed within the enterprise search system. http://www.rightanswers.com

NomaDesk, a document collaboration solutions provider, announced its Mac version of NomaDesk and iPhone mobile extension. Both allow for cross-platform collaboration and overcome compatibility issues. In addition, NomaDesk for Mac provides features to the Mac community for sharing and editing very large files including: TheftGuard: allows users, in case of theft or loss, to remotely shred the data on their computer. This feature will now be accessible through the iPhone mobile extension, bringing increased security and mobility; Delta-sync technology: only parts of a file that have been modified are updated and synchronized in order to make a more efficient use of the network; and FileLink: distributes files without using e-mail attachments or programs by sending an e-mail message with a link to download the file. NomaDesk’s iPhone extension is an online dashboard designed to access NomaDesk files and file sharing services on-line. This mobile solution gives users the freedom to access their data while on the go. NomaDesk’s Email2Folder allows files to be sent directly into a NomaDesk folder. Files are sent as an email attachment, which is separated from the e-mail content, and both are automatically stored in a specified folder. The iPhone extension will also feature NomaDesk’s TheftGuard feature by allowing users to remotely shred the data on their laptops from the palm of their hand. NomaDesk’s extensive software is available all for just $15 per month for teams, and $50 a year for individuals. The product is free for a period of 30 days. NomaDesk for Mac and the iPhone Mobile Extension are currently released as free beta. http://www.nomadesk.com

BizCom Web Services, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, announced the release of version 2.5 of their website Content Management System (CMS). The new system utilizes the Microsoft .NET 3.5 framework and SQL Server 2008 to provide toolset for complete website management. BizCom's Website Content Management System comes standard with every website designed and built by BizCom. Their base CMS includes a single user account, text editing, change audits and a file manager. Additional modules can be added to expand functionality - such as Timed Content Management, Event Registration system and page versioning with roll-back. BizCom Web Services offers custom website design and web application development services. Additionally, they offer web and email hosting services and a full line of hosted Microsoft solutions, including hosted Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communication Server (OCS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Additional services include Email Archiving and various SaaS products. http://www.bizcomweb.com

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (NASDAQ: TSX:) (NASDAQ:OTC) announced that FirstClass Mobile is now available as a free download from the App Store. FirstClass Mobile brings a broad range of  features to the iPhone and iPod touch giving users access to their messaging and collaborative services. Using FirstClass Mobile users can securely login to any FirstClass server from their iPhone or iPod touch to access items on their FirstClass Desktop including email, bookmarks and content from shared collaborative spaces. The FirstClass Mobile App takes advantage of iPhone and iPod touch capabilities for playing and sharing sound and video files, and displaying and sending photos. In addition, customers using FirstClass Unified Communications can play voicemail messages (in MP3 format) from their mailbox on the device. iPhone users can also access their FirstClass calendars and contacts via the ActiveSync support built in to FirstClass Sync Services. The FirstClass Mobile App includes support for multiple languages, including US English, Canadian English, UK English, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese. The FirstClass Mobile App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore/, http://www.opentext.com/communication-solutions

Translations.com introduced GlobalLink Project Director 2.0. The centerpiece of Translations.com’s  GlobalLink Suite of translation software, GlobalLink Project Director 2.0 provides business users with a  platform to coordinate all translation activities for both online and offline requirements across the enterprise. Project Director 2.0 highlights include: Configurable Workflow: Features an object-oriented workflow engine that allows customers to build custom processes by dragging and dropping icons for different process milestones; Multiple Front-End Translation Memory Tools Supported: Supports many of the major end-user Translation Memory tools on the market, including GlobalLink TransStudio, Alchemy CATALYST, Alchemy PUBLISHER, Trados, Wordfast Classic, and Wordfast Pro; Business Process Automation; Customizable Reporting; Vendor Management: Project Director’s integrated vendor management module stores information about vendor rates, capabilities, preferred file types or other relevant data that can be selected on a project level or pre-configured based on user generated criteria; Server-Side Translation Memory: Integrates with GlobalLink TM Server, providing translators with a collaborative environment; and, Advanced Client Review Portal: Offers a sophisticated web based review portal that gives globally distributed client reviewers the ability to review, revise, and comment on translations with an integrated glossary checker and filters designed to streamline the entire review process. http://www.translations.com

Hannon Hill announced the release of the latest version of its content management solution, Cascade Server. Highlights of the Cascade Server 6.2 release include major enhancements to the system's Site content model, added Script Formatting capabilities, and usability improvements to tools such as the system's folder-copy functionality. The release of Cascade Server 6.0 last quarter introduced Sites, a formal administrative component, and Site-specific user roles to the content management system (CMS). A vast majority of Hannon Hill's client base uses the CMS to manage multiple websites. The web content management processes of many of these organizations, especially those in higher education, can be described as highly decentralized. Adding Sites to the Cascade Server system has provided its CMS users with a formal way to segment and manage content relative to a particular website. The first major 6.2 feature addition geared towards expanding the CMS's Site content model is the ability to centrally manage and share templates across an unlimited number of Sites. Templates control the branding of a website's pages by enforcing structure and a consistent look-and-feel. Cascade Server 6.2 features the ability to seamlessly link across Sites in the system. Users are provided with several ways to link to assets across Sites within Cascade, including via the WYSIWYG and using special link formats. The system then uses the Site's URL property to rewrite links between Sites appropriately on publish. Along with Cascade 6.2's new features facilitating effective website management, the release also includes substantial upgrades to the CMS's Script Formats functionality with improvements to the Velocity engine. Additions to Velocity tools and documentation resources released with 6.2 will allow users to accomplish much of what they always have using XSLT Formats, instead using Script Formats and Velocity. Folder copying and creation have been updated to be more intuitive. The links between content within the folder are preserved relatively upon copy and/or creation. Cascade Server 6.2 is available for download from the Hannon Hill company website. http://www.hannonhill.com

Mark Logic Corporation launched MarkLogic Sever 4.1, the newest version of its XML server. Key new features include expanded Representational State Transfer (REST) capabilities, schema validation, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) support, and Japanese search and enrichment. MarkLogic 4.1 includes expanded REST capabilities, such as URL rewriting and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) support. This enables developers to build information services such as metadata catalogs and workflow engines. MarkLogic 4.1 adds new features for validating whole documents or parts of documents against an XML Schema, which defines the structure, content, and typing of XML documents. The new version also adds the HTTPS/SSL capability to secure all network communications to and from MarkLogic Server to web browsers, WebDAV connections, servers in a MarkLogic cluster, and other web services. Customers can also simplify their application architectures by using the built-in application server within MarkLogic Server. MarkLogic 4.1 also includes built-in support for language-specific stemming, tokenization, and entity enrichment of Japanese content. In addition to the release of MarkLogic 4.1, the company also announced the availability of MarkLogic Application Services 1.0. This new product introduces three core services: MarkLogic Application Builder, MarkLogic Search API, and MarkLogic Library Services API, that help developers more quickly and easily prototype information-centric applications. http://www.marklogic.com

Microsoft Corp. announced that Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 have reached the technical preview engineering milestone. Starting today, tens of thousands of people will be invited to test Office and Visio as part of the Technical Preview program. Office 2010 and related products are designed to help people: Work anywhere with Office Web applications - the lightweight Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote - that provide access to documents from virtually anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device; Collaborate better with co-authoring in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft OneNote 2010, and advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Microsoft Outlook 2010, including the option for users to ”ignore” unwanted threads; Bring video and picture editing, broadcast capability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and new Sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010 to visualize data and spot trends more quickly. Microsoft also announced that it is streamlining the number of Office editions from eight to five and enhancing each edition with additional applications and features. The company also announced that Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering. Microsoft also is preparing partners for the release of Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 through a number of new and refreshed readiness tools and training programs. All Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference attendees will receive invitations to participate in the Technical Preview program. Office 2010 and related products will be available in the first half of 2010. More information about Office 2010 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/Office2010

Content Circles, Inc., announced the availability of a free Personal Use license of Content Circles, their  solution to help people collaborate and manage content across companies. Content Circles delivers a  new approach to both the technology and the business model for enabling distributed and mobile teams to collaboratively create, share, track and manage documents. Any user can go to the Content Circles website, register, download, and install the application. Once installed, the user can create one circle, invite as many members as necessary to that circle, and add 100 files of up to 25MB each to that circle. Unlike the current 30-day trial version, this personal use version is completely free and will not expire. Earlier in the year, Content Circles began offering the product at prices starting as low as $99.95 per-user per-year for enterprise users. The new free version of Content Circles is available immediately. http://www.contentcircles.com

Kentico Software announced the compatibility of its application Kentico CMS for ASP.NET with Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms. The possibility of using Kentico CMS on Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms offer customers enhanced security, as well as reliability improvements. Subsequently, users of these platforms can leverage the key features of Kentico .NET CMS such as management of web site content, rapid development, built-in modules that enable rapid creation of web sites, social networks and on-line stores, flexibility and extensibility of the solution, multisite and multilingual support, availability of the source code, SEO support, and many others. http://www.kentico.com

The first open source version of Ontopia has been released, which you can download from Google Code. This is the same product as the old commercial Ontopia Knowledge Suite, but with an open source license, and with the old license key restrictions removed. The new version has been created by not just by the Bouvet employees who have always worked on the product, but also by open source volunteers. In addition to bug fixes and minor changes, the main new features in this version are: Support for TMAPI 2.0; The new tolog optimizer; The new TologSpy tolog query profiler; The net.ontopia.topicmaps.utils. QNameRegistry and QNameLookup classes have been added, providing  lookup of topics using qnames; Ontopia now uses the Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J), which makes it easier to switch logging engines, if desired. http://www.ontopia.net/

Ektron Inc. announced that its Web content management platform, Ektron CMS400.NET, is deployed in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. With the Cloud as a hosting option, Ektron customers can choose to run and manage their production, development and staging environments in the Cloud, locally, with an Ektron partner or use any combination of the three. Ektron’s eSync technology allows customers to bi-directionally synchronize their entire Web site, specific pages or even select pieces of content between their different environments, regardless of where they are hosted. Ektron developers and Partners also now have the ability to develop locally and sync up to the Cloud using eSync. Ektron is delivering a set of free Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) that will enable customers to deploy CMS400.NET with eSync on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a Web service that provides resizable computer capacity in the Cloud, to host their Ektron-driven Web sites. Using these Ektron-provided AMIs, new virtual machines can be provisioned with CMS400.NET and ready to use within minutes. http://www.ektron.com

Open Text announced the availability of Open Text Web Solutions 10, the latest release of Open Text's Web Content Management (WCM) software. The new release features usability upgrades, a new technology foundation, and integration with the Open Text ECM Suite and the SAP NetWeaver Portal component. Optimized integrations in the latest release let content editors combine content from social media, the Open Text ECM Suite and rich media applications and reuse it across many target systems, including the SAP NetWeaver Portal. Within the SAP NetWeaver Portal the new Open Text Portal Manager strengthens the integration and enables business and casual users to better edit content and navigation. User productivity is boosted by the new generation of Open Text SmartEdit now powered by rich Internet application (RIA) technology. This means minimal pop-up windows or browser refreshes along with helpful context menus throughout, zero click content and task editing, individual saved searches for a personal dashboard, plus drag and drop page creation and editing. Web Solutions 10 offers a high-performance editing environment that fully leverages enterprise IT investments Based on the latest Microsoft .Net technology. Web Solutions 10 delivers performance gains in part through optimized memory management, upgraded multi-processor and multi-threading, and support for Microsoft SQL 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Other enhancements in Open Text Web Solutions 10 include a new search integration API, extended tagging support, full control over creation of memorable URLs, extended password validation, and dynamic aggregation of personal content in newsfeeds. http://www.opentext.com/

Author-it Software Corporation, (ASC), announced the availability of its latest release, Author-it 5.3. In this release ASC has extended its capability to deliver structured authoring, including standards based content models such as DITA or S1000D. Any number of structures can be created including standard content models such as DITA, while allowing authors to continue to deliver to existing deadlines. Content can be easily shared between departments even if they are using different structures or content models. Resulting publications can then be published to any of Author-it's 11 out-of-the-box Print, Help, Web, and XML outputs including OASIS compliant DITA. In this, Author-it is routinely used for proposal management, training materials, policy and procedure manuals, corporate reports, as well as technical publications and online help systems.  Also in the Author-it 5.3 release, ASC delivers a new AJAX based Web Help template, extended dictionaries, and a theming engine for their web authoring platform, Author-it Live. http://www.author-it.com

Quark announced its work with EMC to integrate Quark  XML Author with the EMC Documentum enterprise content management solution to bring XML authoring to anyone using Microsoft Word. The integration benefits organizations adopting XML in order to help improve collaboration on content creation, enable content reuse, and comply with regulatory mandates such as the Federal Drug Administration’s Structured Product Labeling (SPL) standard. Now Documentum users can manage, review, and edit XML content created with Quark XML Author directly from Microsoft Word. Documentum users can also take advantage of the XML improvements within the Documentum platform, including enhanced content searching with XML Store, multi-channel publishing with XML Transformation Services, and content delivery with Dynamic Delivery Services. The combined solution: Eases the Adoption of XML- Anyone familiar with Microsoft Word can author XML content, which speeds deployment to enterprise user communities; Removes Complexity- Out of the box integration with Documentum’s native XML features simplifies maintenance and system enhancements; Improves Productivity- The Documentum process portal allows for collaborative authoring and reuse of critical content. http://www.quark.com