The VoiceXML Forum announced it has completed the VoiceXML 1.0 specification, which is expected to expand the reach of the Internet by providing voice access to content and services. The Forum membership, which now numbers 79 companies, is reviewing the specification before it is submitted to the appropriate body for formal standardization. VoiceXML specification provides a high-level programming interface to speech and telephony resources for application developers, service providers and equipment manufacturers. Standardization of VoiceXML will: simplify creation and delivery of Web-based, personalized interactive voice-response services; enable phone and voice access to integrated call center databases, information and services on Web sites, and company intranets; and help enable new voice-capable devices and appliances. On the basis of the 0.9 version of the specification, released last year, many companies have already begun implementing VoiceXML in their products and services, and a market for third-party VoiceXML application development has begun to emerge. The VoiceXML 1.0 specification is based on research and development at AT&T, IBM, Lucent Technologies and Motorola, as well as comments from Forum members. 18 companies have joined the VoiceXML Forum as supporters since the 0.9 specification was issued, including Brooktrout Software; Cisco Systems; ConApps; Gold Systems; Indicast Corporation; Intraco Systems; IP Unity; ITT Industries; Net Technologies, Inc.; Nokia Corporation; Oki Electric Company, Ltd.; Onebox.com; PipeBeach AB; S-Link Corporation; Spyglass, Inc.; SS8 Networks, Inc.; Vail Systems, Inc.; and Voyant Technologies, Inc. The 1.0 version of the specification, currently being reviewed by Forum members, is now available to the public on the Forum’s Web site at www.voicexml.org
Year: 2000 (Page 48 of 63)
TEOCO Corporation announced the availability of direct wireless support in Release 2.0 of its PageNgine family of products. PageNgine Web Site Publisher will now support concurrent delivery of HTML, XML and WML content. PageNgine Portal Infrastructure will dynamically generate web content optimally formatted for a range of wireless devices including cell phones and PDAs and WebTV. Written in Java/EJB, PageNgine’s portable architecture allows it to be fielded on a variety of run-time platforms including Windows NT and 2000 and most UNIX operating systems, while operating against all major relational databases (Oracle, Sybase and SQL Server). PageNgine is designed to support high-volume and mission-critical applications and its runtime, document and data processes are easily configurable to satisfy individual organizations’ business needs. PageNgine includes a migration feature that facilitates the re-presentation of existing Web sites through the PageNgine. PageNgine Web Site Publisher uses template-based construction to allow both dynamic and static presentation of the corporate Web presence. The product centralizes control of the site’s “look and feel” and appropriate technical standards while allowing for distributed content management and dynamically generated content such as navigation and section branding. PageNgine reduces time consuming, expensive and error prone manual processes while significantly improving publishing time. PageNgine Portal Infrastructure provides content delivery functionality packaged for the needs and revenue models of Web Portals and virtual businesses including private label branding of site content for multiple end displays and portal partners. Upcoming enhancements include user-profiling, which enables organizations to capture user and site usage information and automatically modify their presentation based on usage patterns and preferences. PageNgine Release 2.0 will be available on March 31, 2000. www.teoco.com
Extensibility, Inc. announces the upgrade of XMLschema.com an on-line service that streamlines the exchange of valid e-business grammars. The newly introduced SchemaStream allows any application utilizing XML schemas to take advantage of this Internet based service. This interface for automated processing supports the XML-Schema (Dec. 17 draft) and is being offered for a limited time free-of-charge for remote application access. XMLschema.com now offers: Conversion – automated across all major and emerging schema dialects, including DTD, XML-Schema (Dec. 17 draft), XDR, BizTalk and SOX v2; Validation – automated service that ensures schemas are accurate; Instance documents can be converted into schemas or an XML exemplar document can be generated from an existing schema; SchemaDOC – schema documentation allowing for output in browser viewable graphics or style sheets in any of the major or emerging dialects; and SchemaSource – a resource for posting and searching for schemas on the Internet. The first customer applying technology from XMLschema.com is Microsoft’s BizTalk Framework. For a limited introductory period, SchemaStream is being offered free-of- charge. All other services are available to the public for free at www.xmlschema.com, www.extensibility.com
FileNET Corporation and Interwoven, Inc. announced a strategic partnership to develop an integrated solution aimed at the insurance, financial services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, utilities and telecommunications sectors. As a result of this agreement, the companies have begun joint product development efforts. Both sales and marketing organizations will begin efforts to work together with customers and in the US, Europe, and Asia. The companies will address managing a rich variety of content from diverse sources whether destined for the Internet or Intranet. The partnership addresses this content lifecycle challenge with a solution to manage existing corporate documents along with information specifically developed for the Web. Although the information may derive from a variety of sources and providers, the joint solution will manage and deploy this content as appropriate. www.filenet.com, www.interwoven.com
Arbortext, Inc. announced the mid-March availability of an upgrade to Adept 9.0 that supports additional major operating systems so that customers have more options to deliver richer, more convenient and more personalized content to the Web. In addition to Adept 9.0.1, the products upgraded in this release include Epic version 3.0.1 and Adept Editor LE version 9.0.1. Also included in this upgrade are localized user interfaces for additional languages and product enhancements. Arbortext’s Adept Editor and Adept Publisher are now available on Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP UX, and Compaq Tru64 Unix. Future support for Windows 2000 is planned. Turbo Styler. Turbo Styler, previously unavailable in Adept Editor LE, is a feature now available in every Arbortext product that helps users quickly and easily develop online stylesheets and prototypes for print stylesheets. Automatic DTD compile function. For customers who load an XML or SGML instance where Adept or Epic can’t immediately locate the DTD, this enhancement allows the user to browse for the associated DTD on the local hard drive, on the network or on the Web, then automatically compile it, and launch Turbo Styler to create a stylesheet. Language support. Included with this product upgrade is a localized user interface in French, German and Spanish. Available mid-March, this product upgrade will be available as a patch. Arbortext customers on maintenance are eligible to receive this upgrade at no charge. Customers can download the patch directly or request a CD-ROM installation kit. www.arbortext.com
Liaison Technology and POET Software announced they have formed an alliance to serve the catalog content needs of B2B Net Market Makers and ASPs. Liaison’s Dexter DE product with Adaptive Content Recognition (ACR) technology complements POET’s eCatalog Suite, (eCS). Together these products create a complete eCatalog solution. They enable Net Market Makers and ASPs to build a critical mass of highly customized content from a diverse population of suppliers, in order to attract and retain buyers. POET’s supplier-driven model and Liaison’s dynamic-commerce model address unique needs of E-business. Together, they create a complete solution for the catalog needs of today’s Net Marketplaces and ASPs. Liaison’s Dexter enables Net Market Makers to quickly build content for their site by identifying and extracting catalog data such as product information, merchandising specifications, and pricing information from the Internet. Dexter also provides transformation and rationalization of the data to conform to numerous data formats, including XML requirements. This enables Net Market Makers to jump-start their content aggregation efforts. The POET eCatalog Suite complements the Dexter approach with a model that enables the supplier to assemble, cleanse and manage eCatalog content, which is then highly customized for specific buyers and Net Market Makers. POET eCS provides suppliers with a self-service solution for all their eCatalog needs, including transformation into any XML dialect or legacy data format. Liaison’s Dexter is deployed at the Net Market Maker’s location to extract catalog data from suppliers’ public Web sites, and rationalize it. This enables Net Market Makers to quickly build catalog content. POET eCS is deployed at the supplier’s location and enables the supplier to provide custom catalogs to all Net Market Makers as well as eProcurement solutions from companies like Ariba, Commerce One and others. These solutions complement each other because Liaison’s Dexter provides Net Market Makers with quick access to catalog content, while POET eCS provides suppliers with a mechanism for sending rich and highly customized data to multiple Net Market Makers. www.liaison.com, www.poet.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced the immediate availability of the Java API for XML Parsing Optional Package (JAXP). JAXP is now available free-of-charge at . JAXP’s availability is the first phase of Sun’s vision to make it easy for developers to build cross-platform business-to-business applications based on XML and Java technologies. The JAXP Optional Package provides core XML functionality for reading, manipulating, and generating XML documents through pure Java APIs. It provides a standard way to integrate any XML-compliant parser with a Java technology-based application. Depending on the needs of the application, developers have the flexibility to swap between XML parsers — such as high performance or memory conservative parsers without changing application code. Java Project X is used as the default XML parser in JAXP; however, the software’s pluggable architecture allows any XML-conformant parser to be used, including the xml.apache.org XML parser, code named Xerces. Through the JCP, JAXP is being considered for inclusion in the next releases of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). Also in development is Project Adelard, a facility for generating Java classes from XML DTDs. Other XML initiatives include improved XML support in JavaServer Pages technology using XSLT and extensive XML support in J2EE, such as XML data transcoding to multiple devices, XML data exchange framework and XML support in Enterprise JavaBeans components. www.sun.com
The Unicode Consortium announced the release of the Unicode Standard Version 3.0, the software specification that assures a single, universal way to represent text worldwide. Version 3.0 now supports 49,194 characters, including 31% more ideographs for Japanese, Chinese and Korean markets. Implementation support is greatly expanded, with double the character property data, and four times as many technical specifications for supporting implementations. The Unicode Standard is a major component in the globalization of e-business, as the marketplace continues to demand technologies that enhance seamless data interchange throughout companies’ extended — and often international — network of suppliers, customers and partners. This new version reaffirms the broad, cross-industry commitment to the standard among leading IT vendors, enabling reliable transmission and storage of text data anywhere in the world. Unicode is the default text representation in XML, an important open standard being rapidly adopted throughout e-business technology. The Unicode Standard assigns every character a unique number, ensuring the same representation for text regardless of country, language, or operating system. As a result, computer programs written to its specifications can be used around the world without modification. Unicode-enabled programs — client, server, operating system, or middleware — can share textual data worldwide. Text can be transmitted freely, without suffering the data loss that occurs with older systems. The Unicode Standard has been adopted and promoted by global industry. Corporate members of the Unicode Consortium are: Apple Computer, Basis Technology, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Hyperion Solutions, IBM, Justsystem, Microsoft, NCR, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Progress Software, The Research Libraries Group, Reuters, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Unisys and Xerox (many other companies are associate members). Unicode is enabled in all modern Web browsers, almost all operating systems, and Internet standards such as HTML, Java, ECMAScript, XML, and LDAP. The Unicode Standard, published by Addison-Wesley Longman, is widely available in bookstores or may be obtained directly from the Unicode Consortium. www.unicode.org
