The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) SYMM Working Group has published the the Proposed Recommendation of “Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0),” pronounced “smile.” SMIL 3.0 allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL 3.0, an author may describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen. SMIL 3.0 is a modular XML application: its components may be used in other XML formats. SMIL also defines mobile profiles that incorporate features useful within the industry. Comments are welcome through 6 November. http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-SMIL3-20081006/
Day: October 6, 2008
MadCap Software announced the launch of MadCap Capture 3.0. Capture is MadCap’s screen capture and graphics editing software, which is designed specifically to address the needs of documentation professionals. With version 3.0, Capture adds several enhancements to provide image integration, quality, and control, including: Image text single-sourcing – Capture 3.0 expands on the integration with MadCap Flare, MadCap’s authoring software, which enables single-sourcing of content across the two applications. Now authors can enter a text description (screen tip or alternative text) for an image in a centralized location, so every time the image appears in a Flare project, the text automatically appears with it; System clipboard integration – Authors can now automatically save and insert screen captures into any application with direct system clipboard integration. Optimized size configuration for print and online publishing – Capture 3.0 allows authors to establish separate height and width settings for print and online publishing; Delayed capture – Capture 3.0 provides a time delay feature that lets you automatically capture an image after a certain number of seconds. This makes it possible to take screenshots showing elements such as drop-down menus and tool tips; Image blurring and magnification – In addition to being able to blur images around shapes, authors can now blur the area within shapes; Enhanced XPS support – Capture 3.0 provides the ability to save and load images in Microsoft XPS, providing a crisp image that does not become pixilated when someone zooms in. http://www.madcapsoftware.com/
We’ve been especially focused on enterprise search this year. In addition to Lynda’s blog and our normal conference coverage, we have released two extensive reports, one authored by Lynda and one by Stephen Arnold, and Udi Manber VP Engineering, Search, Google, keynoted our San Francisco conference. We are continuing this focus at our upcoming Boston conference where Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Research, will provide the opening keynote.
Prabhakar’s talk is titled “The Future of Search”. The reason I added “enterprise” to the title of the post, is that Prabhakar’s talk will be of special interest to enterprises because of its emphasis on complex data in databases and marked-up content repositories. Prabhakar’s background includes stints CTO at Verity and IBM so enterprise (or, if you prefer “behind-the-firewall”, or “intranet”) search requirements are not new to him.
Here is the description from the conference site:
Web content continues to grow, change, diversify, and fragment. Meanwhile, users are performing increasingly sophisticated and open-ended tasks online, connecting broadly to content and services across the Web. The simple search result page of blue text links needs to evolve to address these complex tasks, and this evolution includes a more formal understanding of user’s intent, and a deeper model of how particular pieces of Web content can help. Structured databases power a significant fraction of Web pages, and microformats and other forms of markup have been proposed as mechanisms to expose this structure. But uptake of these mechanisms remains limited, as content owners await the killer application for this technology. That application is search. If search engines can make deep use of structured information about content, provided through open standards, then search engines and site owners can together bring consumers a far richer experience. We are entering a period of massive change to enable search engines to handle more complex content. Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo! Research, will address the future of search: how search engines are becoming more sophisticated, what the breakthrough point will be for semantics on the Web and what this means for developers and publishers.
Join us on December 3rd at 8:30am at the Boston Westin Copley. Register.
Vignette announced the worldwide availability of QuickSite, a new service offering that simplifies the Vignette Content Management implementation process and enables organizations to launch new Web sites faster. QuickSite delivers a consistent infrastructure, helping marketing departments to launch multiple microsites and branded sites without having to recreate Web pages from scratch. The service deployment includes content management processes, templates and business adoption workshops before the customer is asked to determine additional site requirements. QuickSite also includes support for multilingual Web sites, displays of content information through tag libraries and CSS templates to manage the look and feel of a site with limited help from IT. Site Cloning allows organizations to replicate a site within minutes rather than days by reusing the templates. http://www.vignette.com
EPiServer announced the introduction of multiple new features for its content management system, EPiServer CMS 5 R2, including solutions for mobility and the iPhone. EPiServer has worked with two partners, Mobiletech A/S and Mobizoft AB, to provide a mobile experience to the visitors of their site, including mobile rendering, video conversion and payments. iPhone support is available as open source templates enabling the system to be viewed from an iphone. Images can now be prepared directly in EPiServer CMS so that web editors no longer need to work on them in another application before moving onto the web page. New dynamic content features enable external data which appears in many places on the website, such as financial or legal text, to be updated throughout the site. Page Type Converter makes it easier to merge pages of different types, and change other page types. Five standard reports are now available— Non-published pages, published pages, modified pages, expiring/expired pages and an overview of simple addresses. External data such as an archive of articles at a media company can be integrated and displayed in a website using EPiServer CMS. The data will be appear as a native EPiServer CMS page. This enables structured data stored on another document management system to be converted to a webpage in EPiServer and viewed. EPiServer CMS now supports Oracle, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, as well as XP and Vista, Visual Studio 2008 and 2000 Express, and ASP Net 3.5 SP1 or later. http://www.EPiServer.com/
