Tumbleweed Communications Corp. announced Tumbleweed Integrated Messaging Exchange 4.0. IME 4.0 includes significant improvements for both senders and recipients of secure communication. For example, IME 4.0 includes Tumbleweed Secure Inbox, a feature that enables e-businesses to create a protected repository for each customer to whom they send documents. A user with a Secure Inbox has a safe place to receive, store and manage confidential data, the means to securely reply to or forward documents they receive, and the ability to create and send their own secure documents via IME. Users can access their private Secure Inboxes via their existing e-mail clients or web browsers. Tumbleweed IME 4.0 also includes new features for senders of secure messages. With auto-enrollment, advanced policy controls and deeper message tracking capabilities, IME 4.0 provides the infrastructure to support the preparation and delivery of any type of business document online. IME 4.0 leverages a company’s existing infrastructure and is easily integrated with back-end systems. It features a range of security options, including digital certificate integration, encryption, SSL and web-based implementation of S/MIME, which shipped as part of IME 3.0. www.tumbleweed.com
Day: April 4, 2000
The news industry’s technical standards body has approved two major working papers for its latest XML initiative, NewsML, and authorized retention of a consultant to produce a working draft by this summer. At its spring meeting in Nice, the International Press Telecommunications Council also ratified improvements to the News Industry Text Format, the XML-based text markup standard, and expansions to its subject code list to provide for better coverage of the Summer Olympic Games. The two NewsML papers are part of the IPTC 2000 initiative launched last fall to develop an XML-based framework for structuring and managing news objects in a multimedia environment. They are: Requirements Specification (www.iptc.org/xn-2.htm.), and Encoding Decisions, a guideline on how XML is to be used to construct NewsML (www.iptc.org/xn-8.htm). The goal is to have a draft ready for review for the IPTC Annual General Meeting in early July in Geneva. …. Two NewsML working parties have scheduled meetings in London next month to continue their work. The News Structure and Management group will meet May 15-17, followed by the News Text group May 17-19. In other action at the spring meeting the NITF Maintenance Working Party won approval to streamline the text standard in two ways: (1) structural changes, to refine the organization of NITF documents, and improve definitions of container elements so their use is consistent; and (2) tag clarification, to eliminate redundant and unnecessary tags. The NITF Maintenance group was formed in January to manage changes to the standard and prepared these proposals at a meeting in February. Additional changes are pending and another meeting is expected before the July AGM. (The updated DTD is available at www.iptc.org or www.nitf.org). The IPTC also agreed to pursue contacts with groups developing other media standards as it develops NewsML and maintains the NITF. These include MPEG-7, a metadata standard for audio and video objects; PRISM, an XML initiative for magazine publishing; and SMPTE/EBU, an advanced authoring format for the broadcasting industry. www.nitf.org
Vality Technology introduced INTEGRITY eSearch, a product indexing and high-speed matching engine that makes it easy for consumers and businesses to find the products they are looking for in Web catalogs. The initial component of Vality’s e-Quality Content Management (“eQCM”) solution, eSearch guarantees rapid time-to-market for deploying Web catalogs. The software also improves matches between Web search requests and available catalog items, improving customer experience and driving more transactions. INTEGRITY eSearch optimizes the indexing and matching process for content with complex formatting or structure, such as product catalog information, materials, and parts databases. The software allows companies to leverage existing product data to quickly develop Web catalog indexes that deliver accurate, reliable search results. INTEGRITY eSearch’s matching technology allows customers to employ their own terminology to successfully search an online catalog without knowing the product categories. The software’s built-in tolerance for search term ambiguity simplifies searching while ensuring dependable results, making it easier for customers to find the products they want. INTEGRITY eSearch is based on probabilistic matching technologies. The software ranks search results based on a statistical score that provides a meaningful measure of how closely the result matches the query. This approach enables INTEGRITY eSearch to return the best set of matching candidates for any query – regardless of spelling errors, incomplete query information or quality of the indexed data. www.vality.com
Ektron, Inc. announced the newest version of its eWebEditPro with new functionality including well formed HTML and Office 2000 compatibility. eWebEditPro now provides HTML that conforms to the rules of XML, and it easily allows users to cut and paste from Office 2000 without losing formatting. eWebEditPro is a business-user-friendly content editor designed for dynamic Web sites. This browser-based tool puts content authoring in the hands of business users, while allowing Webmasters to maintain control over the look and feel of their sites. eWebEditPro offers a familiar Word-like toolbar that is used directly within a site or browser-based application. It allows anyone to author and publish content (text, tables, images, links, etc.) – without requiring HTML proficiency. The new release of eWebEditPro opens up the tool for new XML enabled international language support that allows users to import text in their native language, e.g.: German, French. This feature allows the editor to be naturalized for any international language. It also offers secure ASP image upload capabilities for securely passing images over authenticated networks. Additionally, eWebEditPro now offers a custom tag for the content management portion of Allaire’s Spectra. www.ektron.com
