Bowstreet Interwoven Inc. announced a co-marketing, co-selling and product integration alliance. This alliance is designed to enable businesses to manage and deploy custom content across XML-based “business webs,” including B2B marketplaces and portals. Interwoven TeamSite content management software allows both technical and non-technical contributors to develop and test web content prior to publishing, and to integrate and web-enable content from disparate sources including database data, word-processing documents and presentations. The Bowstreet Business Web Factory allows non-technical business people to use a graphical point-and-click interface to deploy TeamSite-managed content in customized combinations to an infinite number of customer, partner and supplier sites. This process automates the proliferation of content across business webs of interconnected companies, saving all parties the time and expense of hard-coding customization features into each partner web site. www.interwoven.com, www.bowstreet.com
Year: 2000 (Page 5 of 63)
Arbortext, Inc. announced the launch of its most recent version of e-content software, Epic 4.1, which supports the conversion between Interleaf and Adobe FrameMaker files and XML. This latest release also enhances Epic’s capability to convert between Microsoft Word files and XML. Epic 4.1 significantly expands the reach of authors who can leverage XML within an enterprise. Occasional authors who contribute content and are accustomed to a particular type of software can continue authoring in that environment while downstream processes can leverage that content for multiple purposes by converting it to XML. Epic 4.1 also maintains and further enhances features introduced in the previous Epic version such as rapid applications development, global support and adherence to W3C XML recommendations. Epic 4.1 will ship in December 2000. All Arbortext customers under maintenance are eligible to receive the Epic 4.1 upgrade at no charge and will automatically be shipped the upgrade. The XML conversion capabilities are available as Epic Interchange, an option to Arbortext’s XML editors, Epic Editor and Epic Editor LE, and are included as a standard part of Arbortext’s server, the Epic E-Content Engine (E3). www.arbortext.com
Kinecta Corporation announced Kinecta Interact v3.2 with enhanced features for increased stability and reliability. New features extend the functionality of the Kinecta Interact platform to allow for more flexibility in syndication environments. The Kinecta Interact content distribution infrastructure, based on the ICE (Information and Content Exchange) protocol, automates the distribution and management of information and content between networked partners and affiliates. Key new features include: FTP Content Source Monitor — enables content providers and aggregators to access content directly from an FTP server; Internationalization — supports double-byte and other non-Latin characters for entry and display. In addition, the Kinecta Interact AdaptiveContent transformation capabilities can now handle content encoded in the most popular single- and double-byte character encodings, including Unicode; and Extended database support — Kinecta Interact now supports Sybase databases. www.kinecta.com
Infoteria Corporation announced a strategic alliance with Quark Japan. Quark Japan is part of U.S.-based Quark Inc. Quark has committed to XML to support its strategy of web-based “media- independent publishing.” New Quark offerings for web-based publishing include avenue.quark, which converts Quark XPress content to XML. Under its new alliance with Infoteria, Quark will provide advanced XML capabilities to users of Quark XPress, including schema design capabilities and the ability to convert to new schema languages, which will make it easier for Quark XPress content to be widely exchanged via local area networks, wide area networks, and the Internet. In addition to providing new capabilities to Quark XPress users immediately, the alliance between Quark and Infoteria will result in joint development and marketing of new web publishing solutions and XML training options. www.quark.co.jp, www.infoteria.com
IntraNet Solutions, Inc. announced the release of Outside In Server 3.0, the latest version of its Web server plug-in that automatically makes over 200 different file types viewable in any Web browser. Outside In Server 3.0 enables users to convert business content to wireless mark-up language (WML) for viewing on any wireless application protocol (WAP)-compatible device, ranging from desktops to PDAs and cell phones. This new version of the Outside In Server technology eliminates the need for Webmasters to convert and manage different documents for each different device because Outside In detects the client’s browser type and automatically delivers the content in the appropriate format for that browser. Enterprises are then provided with the flexibility to deliver information “on the fly” to desktops and wireless devices. The Outside In Server 3.0 technology will ship December 1, 2000 and is priced at $10,000 per server (USD). www.outsideinserver.com.
The W3C announced the advancement of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation. Designers use an XSL style sheet to express how source content should be styled, laid out, and paginated onto a presentation medium such as a browser window, a pamphlet or a book. Many people are accustomed to using style sheets in the context of word-processing. W3C’s style sheets offer extensive stylistic control over the presentation of Web pages. The Consortium has developed the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language, and this is now widely implemented on the popular browsers. CSS is playing an increasingly important role in styling many kinds of XML documents. The vision is that CSS3 – still in the making – will be used for styling XHTML, SVG vector graphics, XML, and SMIL multimedia presentations, to name a few. While CSS is used for styling in the traditional sense of the word, XSL is designed to actually transform XML data. XSL applies a “style sheet” to transform one document into another. A large number of XSL formatting objects have also been defined, potentially enabling complex publishing tasks. www.w3c.org
Content Bridge announced the addition of new Technical Advisory Members that will participate in proposing standards to address Internet interoperability issues related to the distribution, delivery and management of content. They include Apogee Networks, Compaq Computer Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Portal Software, Inc., StorageNetworks, Inc., and Vignette Corp. Technical Advisory Members of the Content Bridge alliance are working together to identify and propose technology standards to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) or other standards-setting bodies, enabling member networks that use different technologies to participate in the Content Bridge content peering model. Initial areas of focus for standards development include cross-network implementation of: Injection — Establishes common methods for content providers to communicate content updates to member networks; Distribution — Defines methods to pass content updates between peer networks; and Accounting — Provides a common mechanism for collecting usage data and allocating revenue to member networks. On November 16, 2000, the Content Bridge alliance submitted an Internet Draft to the IETF. Titled “Implementation of Origin/Access Content Peering for HTTP,” the draft describes the implementation of content peering currently enabled by Content Bridge, including injection, distribution, and accounting. The draft is expected to be a topic of discussion at the next meeting of the IETF, which will be in mid-December in San Diego. Formed in August 2000, Content Bridge is an alliance that includes technology and network service providers. Content Bridge alliance provides a platform for cross-network content distribution, streamlining the link between content providers and consumers. Current members include: Adero, Inc., Alteon WebSystems, Apogee Networks, Compaq Computer Corporation, Digital Island, Inc., Exodus Communications Inc., Genuity Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Inktomi Corp., Intel Corporation, Madge.web N.V., NetRail, Inc., Portal Software, Inc., StorageNetworks, Inc., Sun Microsystems and Vignette Corp. www.content-bridge.com
Percussion Software announced the availability of the version 3.0 upgrade of Rhythmyx Content Manager. This upgrade introduces a new dynamic workflow engine that allows changes to workflow states and transitions after deployment, enabling easier Web development. Rhythmyx 3.0 also features an enriched Rhythmyx Publisher, a loader module for uploading content from syndication services and file systems, enhanced templating capabilities, and an improved user interface for rich content authoring. The goal of Rhythmyx Content Manager v3.0 is to decrease time to deployment for businesses establishing and maintaining a presence on the Web. Rhythmyx Content Manager v3.0 offers the following new feature enhancements: Enhanced workflow for defining the key content management processes using states, transitions, and roles with no coding; Enhanced Rhythmyx Publisher, including site versioning, roll-backs and archiving; Open Java API to extend publishing activities including Web application server integration and custom extensions; Automatic uploading of syndicated content or existing document assets from any file system; An enhanced templating capability supporting reusable content components (such as navigation bars and banners) that separates the management of content and format for unlimited ways to aggregate content items into pages; Enhanced developer tool set for reducing development time; and Enhanced user interface for authoring rich content, including calendars and date selectors. Percussion Rhythmyx Version 3.0 is now generally available. The Rhythmyx Server supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Solaris 2.6, 7, and 8 on the SPARC platform. The Rhythmyx Workbench runs on Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. www.percussion.com
