SiberLogic announced SiberSafe On-Demand, a monthly subscription approach to XML content management for technical documentation teams who are looking for significant efficiency gains in producing long-lived, complex, evolving content. SiberSafe On-Demand delivers full SiberSafe functionality as an ASP service in a secure data center. Each team has full access/administrative rights to their server for system administration and configuration. SiberSafe On-Demand also includes daily content backups and SiberLogic’s technical support service. SiberSafe On-Demand “out of the box” configuration offers your choice of DTD – DITA, DocBook, or MIL-STD 2361 – with sample templates and stylesheets. Also included are SiberSafe Communicator (our XML authoring tool) and our integrated publishing tool. Alternatively, you can continue to use your own editor, such as XMetaL, Epic, or FrameMaker, or your own publishing tools. SiberSafe On-Demand costs only $799 per month for the first pair of users (one author and one reviewer) and as little as $275 per user monthly for 10+ users. There are no additional upfront costs. Anyone who signs up for SiberSafe On-Demand before the end of January 2008 will receive access for one additional author free of charge for the first year. http://www.siberlogic.com/
Month: January 2008 (Page 4 of 5)
NetXposure, Inc. announced the availability of NETXPOSURE 5, a new enterprise digital asset management (DAM) system that combines the flexibility of the Web with the responsiveness of the desktop. Re-architected as a rich Internet application utilizing Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex technologies, NETXPOSURE 5 delivers a user experience that runs identically in all major browsers and operating systems. It also provides real-time, seamless interactivity with digital assets from virtually any application, including built-in integration with Adobe Creative Suite 3. NETXPOSURE 5 helps streamline the creation, management and delivery of marketing assets and brand imagery. New features and capabilities include: Adobe Flex-powered user interface including cascading pull-down menus, slider resizing capabilities, and the ability to visually sort thousands of files; Automatic offline synching capabilities enabled by Adobe AIR, including the ability to drag-and-drop between the DAM repository and desktop applications and bulk upload- and download capabilities; Adobe Creative Suite 3 Connector, an add-on module that transparently links the DAM repository and Creative Suite 3, allowing users to access and interact with NetXposure from within their production applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and others; New support for Digital Negative (DNG) specification; and Enhanced support capabilities for the latest Macintosh, Windows and Linux operating systems. NETXPOSURE 5 is available now. http://www.netx.net
SpringCM announced the availability of SpringCM 4.1, the newest version of the company’s document management and workflow software as a service. This new version includes major updates in search, advanced view and markup, preview mode and electronic signatures. SpringCM’s Electronic Signature feature enables documents to be signed electronically, even by people who are not SpringCM licensees. Documents may be sent for electronic signature with a single click in SpringCM the recipient receives an e-mail containing a link to the document and the steps required to complete the electronic signature. SpringCM now supports CAD, MS Project, Microstation and 85 other drawing, document and imaging formats. Advanced View and Markup expedites the review and comment cycles by extending the annotation capabilities of SpringCM beyond hand-editing printed copies or the “sticky notes” annotation, already available within the system. Areas of concern can be circled, or marked with a variety of “stamps” (like directional arrows and names) and highlight points that need further development. SpringCM’s Document Preview features have been upgraded to better serve collaboration and indexing needs. Lock Zoom enables the user to focus on a fixed area of a document as pages are scrolled. To allow for more horizontal workspace, the left and right panes are now collapsible. The Information Panel buttons are wired with hot keys to further expedite indexing. New collapsible and expandable menu options display only the Advanced Search options that are relevant to specific business needs. SpringCM retains the Advanced Search display options after every modification. Basic, Personal and Account views are provided to introduce a new level of configuration to the Search menu. A selection process is used to include and exclude specific attribute groups in search results. http://www.springcm.com/
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) announced that it will make an offer to acquire Fast Search & Transfer ASA (OSE: “FAST”) through a cash tender offer for 19.00 Norwegian kroner (NOK) per share. This offer represents a 42 percent premium to the closing share price on Jan. 4, 2008 (the last trading day prior to this announcement), and values the fully diluted equity of FAST at 6.6 billion NOK (or approximately $1.2 billion U.S.). FAST’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer. In addition, shareholders representing in aggregate 37 percent of the outstanding shares, including FAST’s two largest institutional shareholders, Orkla ASA and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, have irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of calendar year 2008. In addition to bolstering Microsoft’s enterprise search efforts, this acquisition increases Microsoft’s research and development presence in Europe, complementing existing research teams in Cambridge, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark, with new capabilities in Norway. http://microsoft.com, http://www.fast.no/
I closed 2007 with some final takeaways from the Gilbane Conference and notes about semantic search. Already we are planning for Gilbane San Francisco and you are invited to participate. There is no question that enterprise search, in all its dimensions, will be a central theme of several sessions at the conference, June 17th through 19th. I will lead with a discussion in which a whole range of search topics, technologies and industry themes will be explored in a session featuring guest Steve Arnold, author of Google Version 2.0, The Calculating Predator. To complement the sessions, numerous search technology vendors will be present in the exhibit hall.
A most important conference component will be a highlight for conference goers, shared-experiences about selecting, implementing and engaging with search tools in the enterprise. Everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing, learning and what they know about enterprise search. You may want to present your experiences or those of your organization. If you are interested, considering presenting, know of a good case study, usability or “lessons learned” from implementing search technology, please raise your hand. You can do this by reaching out through this link to submit a proposal and make reference to the “enterprise search blog call for papers.” You can be sure I’ll follow-up soon to explore the options for you or a colleague to participate. This is a great opportunity to be part of a community of practitioners like you and attend a conference that always has substantive value for participants.
Leave it to Microsoft to end the year with a big announcement and open the next one with an even bigger one. We knew that the world of enterprise search was going to contract in terms of the number of established vendors, even though it is expanding in new and innovative offerings. Microsoft had to make a bold play in an industry where Google has been the biggest player on the WWW stage while reaching deeper into the enterprise, tickling at Microsoft’s decades-old hold on content creation and capture. So, with the acquisition of FAST Search & Transfer, whose technology may not be the best in the enterprise search market but is certainly the most widely deployed at the high-end, Microsoft opens with a direct challenge to its largest competitor.
Boy! Have the emails been flying this morning. At least I know there will be plenty of material to ponder in the next few weeks and months. P.S. Don’t miss the action in San Francisco!
In.vision Research and Trisoft have announced a partnership to integrate their products to meet the needs of content management and publishing for a variety of industries including telecom, high-tech, software, mechanical equipment and automotive. The In.vision and Trisoft partnership will use In.vision’s Xpress Author for Microsoft Word add-in to allow non-technical writers to create XML content in Word. When the non-technical writer saves the document into the Trisoft InfoShare Content Management System, technical writers will be able to incorporate the content into their documents with ease, and continue with the various review, translation, and publishing processes that InfoShare provides. http://www.tri-soft.com, http://www.invisionresearch.com
Mediasurface (UK, AIM: MSR) announced a new extension to its Morello web content management solution that adds benefits to allowing enterprise users to work together on content creation using MOSS 2007. The new Morello MOSS 2007 Connector makes it easier and quicker to find, organise and publish MOSS generated content through an enterprise web delivery infrastructure on one or more websites, intranets and extranets. Mediasurface addresses this with the new Morello MOSS Connector which integrates MOSS tools with Mediasurface’s Morello enterprise web content management solution. Automated processes keep information synchronized, ensuring that websites always display the very latest, approved version of a document whilst SharePoint users will always have direct access to information captured on the websites. In addition, the Morello MOSS 2007 Connector plugs into the generally available standard collaboration and communication services of SharePoint (called WSS), so there is no technical setup required. Users can collaborate, create and review documents, images and pages using familiar tools such as MS Word and Outlook. The connection to Morello helps ensure users know which MOSS generated content is approved for use, avoiding duplication and speeding up the publishing cycle. http://www.mediasurface.com
When applying the “one word” phrase to translation or localization processes, the “it” can be either accuracy or complete gaffe. Given the velocity of the Internet, an offensive or comical translation of just one word can proliferate faster than the designers of the age-old Faberge commercial could have imagined.
In fact, just one skewed word changes meaning, invites misinterpretation, and erodes quality. One inaccuracy; many consequences. Terminology Management (TM) should be a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately, we’ve seen TM listed toward the bottom of the priority list — or not at all — when discussing imperatives for the global content lifecycle within the content management community.
When I read SDL’s report on the TM benefits realized by the European Institute of Romania (EIR) during their accession process, I thought it was an impressive story. 158,000 pages of translation; 54,000 terms covering more than 8 languages; 23,000 validated terms submitted to the EU’s terminology database, Inter-Active Terminology for Europe (IATE). Hmmm. A collaborative, jointly-managed, and centralized terminology database with more than 8 million terms? Even more impressive.
Intrigue led me to SDL’s Christie Fidura, Senior Product Marketing Manager, which led me to Karl-Johan Lönnroth, the Director General of The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT). The Faberge commercial in action.
Described as one of the largest translation services in the world, the DGT provides translation services for all 23 of the European Union’s official languages, has a permanent staff of 1,750 linguists and 600 support staff, and currently translates over 1.7 million pages per year. If that’s not impressive enough, my interview with a very cordial Lönnroth provided even more insight in the EU’s commitment to citizen expectations for translated content, the value of TM, and the impact of cross-country collaboration.
Lönnroth began the interview with a simple, but compelling statement: “The support of 23 languages equates to 506 possible language combinations. Managing this is impossible without terminology management.” In managing the DGT as a service provider based on supply and demand, he also noted the continuing rise in expectations for translated content and with it, Web access to that content. Echoing the theme of the Globalization Track at Gilbane Boston 2007, Lönnroth’s message was that EU citizens are less and less tolerant of institutional and legislative information that is not in their native language.
So how does the IATE fit in? Lönnroth sees the multi-year effort as both a government and public service in “reinforcing the EU’s global interest in providing quality translations.” Over the last year, the merger of all European term banks resulted in a remarkable — and free — knowledge repository comprising 50 years of work. The repository is essential for candidate countries seeking accession and faced with the requirement to translate the EU’s Acquis Communautaire into their native language according to mandated deadlines. Such was the case for Romania and Bulgaria, which became Member States on January 1st, 2007.
As the Director-General of the DGT since 2004, Lönnroth is steadfast in promoting the EU principle of “unity in diversity” as well as the fact that multilingualism is essential. His focus on translation management is a critical part of the DGT blueprint for a multilingual European Union.
