Day: November 13, 2000

Antarcti.ca Systems Inc. announced the launch of its public website, , an integrated continent-sized map of the Internet. This site, a showcase for Antarcti.ca’s Visual Net product, enables users to explore the Web in 2D and 3D, representing sites and subject categories visually. Led by XML co-inventor Tim Bray, Antarcti.ca sees Visual Net as the next step in the evolution of how people and companies access and share information on the Internet and their enterprise Intranets and Extranets. The Antarcti.ca showcase at maps the category structure of the entire Web onto one screen. The basic data is sourced from Netscape/AOL’s Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org) and enhanced by Antarcti.ca’s proprietary technology. At the heart of the technology is Antarcti.ca’s Visual Net product, which plots and diagrams hundreds of thousands of subject categories and millions of Web sites on 2D and 3D maps that communicate not only the categories but also the sizes of the sites, their popularity and their quality of service. The 3D experience immerses users in a videogame-like environment, allowing them to ‘walk around’ the Web and look at sites in great detail without having to actually visit them, resulting in more efficient navigation. In addition, each of the 300,000 categories includes chat capability, enabling users to connect with dynamic communities of shared interests. Antarcti.ca is fully internationalized, containing thousands of categories and hundreds of thousands of sites in languages ranging from Afrikaans and Arabic to Thai and Ukrainian. Antarcti.ca’s Visual Net is an ideal application for enterprise networks. Over the last 5 years, enterprises have made immense investments in leveraging their human capital by deploying Intranets and Extranets. Antarcti.ca helps complete this process by making network interaction more efficient and enjoyable and thus help realize the full return on these investments. The showcase Web site is free to the public and available immediately at . Enterprise network mapping projects are delivered on an ASP basis and fees vary depending on the size and complexity of the data. The Antarcti.ca Visual Net product has an open API based on Web standards, chiefly HTTP and XML; the company invites technology partnerships with those who wish to build network-map-based applications. Antarcti.ca client software is Open Source, and the client-server protocol fully documented; anyone wishing to explore alternative visions of network maps will have the company’s support.

Vignette Corp. announced Vignette eWireless, an e-business application that enables companies to conduct B2B transactions and exchange information with business applications using any wireless device, is available and shipping to customers. Based on open Internet standards, including XML and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), and featuring a powerful intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), Vignette eWireless enables a fully interactive Web experience on virtually any wireless device. The new product allows a company’s employees, customers and trading partners to conduct transactions — such as purchasing from product catalogs, approving requisitions or accessing back-end applications — directly from their handheld wireless device. Devices supported include WAP-based phones, PDAs and pagers. For example, an industrial supplier using Vignette eWireless can provide its customers with a wireless device pre-loaded with a custom catalog of products they routinely purchase. When these customers are out in the field or at a job site, they will be able to use a wireless phone or PDA to order or reorder products, approve a price quote and purchase order, and arrange for delivery at a specified time — without tracking down a telephone, fax machine or filling out paperwork. Unlike some wireless solutions, which consist of simple notification systems that do not facilitate B2B transactions or allow access to back office systems, Vignette eWireless allows companies to rapidly wireless-enable their existing applications, data and processes, as well as those of their trading partners. Vignette eWireless is currently available and shipping. www.vignette.com