SoftQuad Software, Ltd. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Advanced Data Engineering, Inc. (ADEi) of Petaluma, California. ADEi is a provider of content transformation solutions that enable organizations to convert large volumes of existing data from multiple sources into XML. The ability to convert existing content directly into XML is a fundamental requirement for companies as they migrate their enterprise content infrastructures to XML. With the ability to transform large volumes of existing documents in formats such as Word, Quark, Pagemaker and PDF, ADEi’s systems solve the content transformation challenges that many organizations face. Additionally, ADEi’s XML-it Document Markup System, now part of the SoftQuad content services offering, provides an easy way to transition existing Word content into XML. This gives customers total control over their migration to an XML content infrastructure. ADEi’s management team and engineering staff are all expected to join SoftQuad. SoftQuad plans to maintain ADEi’s facilities in Petaluma as a strategic services, sales, and business development center in close proximity to Silicon Valley. Under the terms of the transaction, SoftQuad will acquire all of the outstanding shares of ADEi for approximately 750,000 shares in newly issued SoftQuad common stock, subject to minor post closing working capital adjustments. Further terms and conditions were not disclosed. The transaction, which is immediately accretive to SoftQuad earnings, has been approved by the Board of Directors of each company and is expected to close in November 2000. www.softquad.com, www.adei.com
Year: 2000 (Page 6 of 63)
Interwoven and DataChannel announced an alliance to integrate DataChannel’s Enterprise Information Portal Server, DataChannel Server (DCS) 4.1 with TeamSite 4.5, Interwoven’s content management platform. The integration will bring together the critical functions of content management and content presentation and interaction. The companies have also agreed upon a jointly developed road map that tightly couples the unique functionality of their respective products. The combined offering will serve two classes of users, content contributors and the targeted users who access the final version of that content. First, TeamSite content authors and editors will now be able to access critical TeamSite software functionality, including TeamSite Templating and metadata tagging, through a consolidated and personalized application interface via DataChannel’s Enterprise Information Portal. Participants in the content management process will also be able to see their workflow action items and timelines in their own personalized “queue.” To enable this, all TeamSite users will be automatically logged-on to TeamSite through an intelligent DataChannel Xpertlinx when they authenticate through DCS. This single sign-on capability will provide direct authentication to personalized TeamSite workspaces. Secondly, the joint solution will impact the targeted users who access content in its final form. The DataChannel Enterprise Information Portal provides access to content that is targeted to specific user needs. It also optimizes a user’s interface to the numerous sources of information found throughout the enterprise and across the Internet. DCS creates the taxonomy, or organized layout, for content that is then appropriately tagged and published directly from TeamSite into the DCS portal. www.datachannel.com, www.interwoven.com
Netegrity, Inc. announced that it is working with a group of companies to define a standard for enabling secure e-commerce transactions using XML called Security Services Markup Language (S2ML), that will create a common language for sharing security information about transactions and end users between companies engaged in online B2B and B2B2C transactions. Authors of the S2ML specification are Bowstreet, Commerce One, Jamcracker, Netegrity, Sun Microsystems, VeriSign, and webMethods. Reviewers of the specification include Art Technology Group, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and TIBCO. Traditionally, security has been implemented within a single enterprise. However, companies are now conducting inter-company business using the Web, which has expanded the scope and range of their e-commerce transactions. For example, in the B2B industry companies now use a number of different e-marketplaces to purchase a broad range of supplies and products. Each of these marketplaces may have different proprietary authentication and authorization solutions, which makes interoperability across marketplaces difficult if not impossible. In B2B2C commerce, users often are involved in business transactions that span several different company Web sites that have joined forces to create an affiliate network of services. In this case, users are forced to log on multiple times and re-start their transactions. The business transactions in both of these markets must span multiple companies, multiple Web sites, and multiple marketplaces that have their own unique and heterogeneous set of platforms and e-commerce infrastructure components. S2ML is intended to solve these problems by helping to unify access control methods through an open, standards-based framework for the next generation of secure e-commerce transactions. The S2ML specification addresses three main areas of security services: authentication, authorization, and entitlement/privilege. S2ML defines standard XML schemas, as well as an XML request/response protocol, for describing authentication and authorization services through XML documents. S2ML also will provide specific bindings for various protocols such as HTTP and SOAP and B2B messaging frameworks such as ebXML. The S2ML effort is an open industry initiative in which any organization can participate and implement the specifications. The vendors behind the S2ML initiative plan to submit the S2ML 0.8 specification to the W3C and OASIS for consideration within the next 30 days. www.S2ML.org, www.netegrity.com
Texterity, Inc. announced the release of TextCafe, an automated document conversion service that accepts PDF, Quark, and Word files and converts them to structured XML, HTML and Open eBook formats. TextCafe also supports automated creation of Microsoft Reader, Rocket eBook, and Adobe PDF formats. The service is initially targeted to publishers who have large amounts of trade books that need to be moved into structured XML format. The service is faster, less expensive, and more accurate than alternative solutions, which involve manual labor and proofing. TextCafe provides the following key features: detection of text blocks, including paragraphs, which can be reflowed automatically; dynamic creation of a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) based on normalized styles used in the document; chapter and sub-chapter recognition and tagging based on document type; recognition and removal of running headers and footers in XML output; recombination of words broken between lines, columns, or pages based on language-specific dictionaries; extraction of embedded images with links created in XML output; and automated generation of XML, HTML, Open eBook (OeB), Microsoft Reader (.LIT), Rocket eBook (.RB), and reflowable PDF. TextCafe works by using artificial intelligence algorithms to deduce the hierarchical structure of documents. This is done based only on the visual cues available in the document and a knowledge of document type, such as novel, white paper, or manual. The result is richly-tagged, pure and valid XML that can be repurposed endlessly. TextCafe is available immediately. Pricing is based on document type and conversion volume. Quotes can be obtained by web-based submission at the Texterity web site www.texterity.com
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
Mediasurface Limited announced Mediasurface 3.5, the next generation of its content management application software. The product includes new functionality to enable open integration of the Mediasurface content management platform into enterprise e-business architectures. Today, more organizations than ever before are basing their e-business offerings around an open application server platform. The challenge for these organizations is rapidly integrating best of breed e-business applications such as content management, personalization and e-commerce without complex, proprietary interfaces. New features in Mediasurface 3.5 directly address this issue. New functionality includes: Java API to enable seamless integration with application server providers such as ATG; Enterprise directory integration, allowing centralized management of users, groups and access rights; Support for Microsoft Windows NT Server and Hewlett Packard HP-UX operating systems; And support for Oracle 8i. Mediasurface 3.5 will be available to customers beginning in November 2000. www.mediasurface.com
Arbortext, Inc. announced the availability of Epic Intermarket, a solution that enables suppliers and net marketplaces to deploy catalog applications that offer more extensive, more personalized and more usable content. Epic Intermarket is built upon Arbortext’s Epic E-Content Engine (E3), a Web-based system for aggregating, storing, assembling and distributing enriched content. Epic Intermarket leverages the power of E3 to gather content from multiple sources including Word, FrameMaker and Interleaf, and convert that content into reusable XML components. E3 also works with Arbortext’s Epic Editor and Epic Editor LE, both of which enable direct creation of XML content. Epic Intermarket integrates with repositories from Oracle, Documentum and others to enable seamless creation and management of reusable and intelligent XML information components. Through E3, Epic Intermarket extracts content from the repository, assembles it according to individual requirements, and automatically transforms it for any purpose – not only for publishing to the Web, but also for traditional catalog formats such as print and CD-ROM as well as newer devices such as PDAs, e-Books and cellular phones. In addition, Intermarket can syndicate catalog content to multiple marketplaces. Epic Intermarket supports the e-commerce schema standards from Open Applications Group, Inc., so Intermarket can exchange catalog content with business-to-business online marketplace providers such as Ariba, CommerceOne and Oracle. Epic Intermarket will ship in January 2001. Epic Editor and the Epic E-Content Engine are included in a minimum Intermarket installation. Epic Intermarket runs on the Microsoft IIS Web server running on NT Server 4.0/SP5 or later or Netscape’s iPlanet Web server running on Sun Solaris 7. Epic Intermarket works with Oracle 8iFS and Java Runtime Engine 1.1.8 or later. www.arbortext.com
