Xenos Group, Inc. (TSX: XNS) announced the release of Xenos d2e Vision version 2.2 for transforming documents into electronic formats. Designed for rapid and seamless integration with other e-Business applications, this version includes enhancements in its handling of images, color and support for additional input and output print streams and formats. Written in Java, Xenos d2e Vision provides electronic content management, archiving and dynamic e-business Web document presentment solutions with data extraction, document separation, transformation and repurposing capabilities. New Features in Xenos d2e Vision Version 2.2 Include: PCL Generator – Transforms printed output from traditional high-volume data streams into PCL suitable for desktop or production printers, and supports PCL5; PostScript Generator – This component can be used to selectively output and split document input for the routing and migration from legacy printstreams, and produces PostScript Level 3; AFP Parser / AFP Generator – Enables parsing and generating AFP files that use OpenType fonts and Unicode data; JPEG Parsing and Importing; Inline Resources – Enables inclusion of all resources used in a document as inline resources in the AFPoutput; and AFP Generator ImageOptions – Allows custom definitions for processing image elements to optimize file sizes and printing speeds. Xenos d2e Vision version 2.2 is available for Windows NT/2000/XP, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris and IBM z/OS (running Unix Systems Services).
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PixelMEDIA, Inc. has announced a partnership with Ektron to deliver content management solutions. The partnership offers functional business tools for managing content and web sites “at a price point appealing to all sized organizations”. http://www.ektron.com, http://www.pixelmedia.com
Google has launched Google Page Creator, a simple web page creation tool. Page creation is not the same thing as content management, and creating simple pages is not the same thing as creating sophisticated pages, but this is certainly an interesting development.
Near-Time, Inc. announced the beta launch of its namesake hosted collaboration service. With Near-Time, users can quickly launch workspaces that tap into the power of Weblogs, Wikis and group scheduling, giving groups an easy and secure way to share ideas, information and files over the Web. Near-Time combines the non-linear, ad hoc collaboration of Wikis with the time sensitive, broadcast nature of blogs. It gives small and mid-size businesses a way to collaborate via familiar metaphors that require no IT “care and feeding” or infrastructure investment. Larger enterprises can take advantage of Near-Time’s architecture to integrate with other collaborative tools and build interdepartmental and inter-enterprise collaboration hubs. Near-Time’s support for standard Web organization schemes, including hypertext links, categories, and tags, gives users an easy way to discover, reuse and remix group content. Near-Time also leverages existing technologies such as Weblog APIs, email, RSS and Atom feeds, and XML to provide interoperability with existing applications and systems. During the beta period, all access to Near-Time services will be free. The commercial launch of Near-Time is targeted for late March and will include a free, entry level annual service. Commercial plans include encryption and domain mapping and will enable users to upload and share files. Commercial price plans start at $4.95 per month. All Near-Time users can create as many Near-Time spaces and invite as many members as needed. http://www.near-time.com
EMC Corporation introduced the EMC eDiscovery Solution, an integrated offering of EMC information and content management software, networked storage and professional services designed to help customers of all sizes better manage the legal discovery process. The solution provides an alternative to reactive and time-consuming litigation-response methods, giving customers a proactive model for future litigation events. The EMC eDiscovery Solution is an extension of EMC Technology Solution’s professional services portfolio, which includes consulting, implementation and managed services. The EMC eDiscovery Solution brings together the following EMC products: EMC EmailXtender archiving software to automate e-mail capture, retention and repository search, EMC Documentum Enterprise Content Integration Services software to achieve federated search and data collection across disparate content silos, EMC Documentum Enterprise Content Management platform software to deliver legal hold as well as content records and legal-matter management, and EMC Centera and EMC CLARiiON networked storage platforms to assure content accessibility and integrity. The EMC eDiscovery Solution is immediately available. http://www.emc.com
Snowbound Software announced support for static HTML in its Java imaging solutions, providing companies with a fast method to both view HTML and also convert it to a variety of other formats for archiving and distribution. Support for static HTML in the RasterMaster Imaging SDK and FlexSnap web viewers extends a company’s ability to utilize and repurpose information captured in HTML web-based forms. Companies can now convert the information from HTML to any of the other formats supported in Snowbound’s Java library including Word, PDF, Tiff, and JPEG. With the RasterMaster imaging SDK, developers can incorporate the ability to view and convert static HTML documents directly into their application. Through its FlexSnap universal Web viewers, users can quickly retrieve HTML files stored within a content repository or file server and view the information in the same application they view other documents including PDF and Word. In addition to Java, support for static HTML is also available in its RasterMaster Imaging Toolkit for Windows DLL, ActiveX, and .NET as well as its SnowBatch batch conversion application. http://www.snowbound.com
iUpload announced the integration of its Customer Conversation System with Microsoft’s SharePoint, bringing enterprise blogging and wiki capabilities to SharePoint users. The iUpload SharePoint integration brings all of iUpload’s features for managing large communities of blogs, including editorial control, template and taxonomy management, security and versioning, to the Microsoft SharePoint environment, and allows users to present blog, wiki and other content as Web Parts within SharePoint. With iUpload, SharePoint users can now draw in content from large blog communities that may include contributions from employees, partners and customers, while leveraging the blog, wiki, discussion forum, and podcasting features of iUpload. Since the iUpload Customer Conversation System supports third party blog authoring tools, the SharePoint integration also allows companies to harness, integrate, and manage independent blogs that already exist within most corporate environments regardless of the blogging tool that they are authored and hosted on. iUpload’s SharePoint integration is available immediately.
I wanted to add some additional thoughts to the recent post on actionable content. That post reflected on the general idea of actionable content, differentiated it (maybe, maybe not) from transactional content, and pointed to an example of the amazing depth of content that is now available on some Web sites. The particular example was an industrial marketing Web site, Oriental Motors, but the requirement for actionable content spans many kinds of businesses and many kinds of non-business organizations. Think of a massive retail catalog like Amazon.com or a smaller, specialized one like sheetmusicplus.com. Both need to provide their users with detailed content–and often many kinds of content–that the user can consume, analyze, download, and even manipulate and share in the course of deciding whether to buy and precisely what to buy.
Nor is actionable content limited to eCommerce applications per se. Think of a government Web site that provides necessary forms for businesses and individuals, school systems and colleges that provide Web-based learning applications, and an employee human resources portal that provides benefits information. (And my favorite example of all, a large fantasy sports site such as Yahoo Fantasy Sports that provides a staggering array of content, statistics and analytical tools to keep users busy full-time and around the clock.)
What is common among all of these sites is the content of course, and content that is available when users need it to further the process they are engaged in. As Mary and Bill Z helpfully told us, transactional/actionable content, “is the content that flows through the commerce chain, initiating and automating processes such as procurement, order management, supply chain planning, and product support.” In other words, it is the content that is available when the person needs it, in the forms the person needs it, to further the business process they are involved in.
Sounds easy, but of course, as in so many things, the devil is in the details. It’s one thing to say you want to provide the right content in the right format at the right time, but it is another thing to actually do it. If you start to think about it, providing this kind of actionable content in context requires the content to be available–and it requires the business logic and the technical apparatus to present the correct content at the right point in the workflow or business process.
For now, let’s put aside the issues of business logic and technical apparatus and look at the issues about the content itself. What characteristics must the content have to be actionable? In no particular order, I offer the following.
- The content must be granular. In other words, it can’t exist as one giant blob of content, but must be accessible as usable chunks of content that can be presented in a useful context–so one product image at a time, and not a thousand (that should be easy)–and the right information that should accompany that product image–its caption, its size, its format, and so on.
- The content must be available in the right format. If you think about it for a moment, this likely means that the content is potentially available in many formats, given the different needs, systems, and platforms of different users and systems. When I see a requirement for content to be available in many formats, I immediately think of a media-neutral format that can, in turn, create all the necessary required formats. In the world of text, this often leads organizations to consider using something like the eXtensible Markup Language (XML); in the world of images, this might mean storing the image files in a high-resolution, high-fidelity format that can then be used to create every other format of the drawing that might be required.
- The content must be searchable, either by itself or by virtue of closely associated metadata. If the content is text, the text should be searchable, and the more structured and fielded the text, the more it avails itself of search technology. It if is graphics or other formats, it should be in open readable formats where possible and not in opaque binary formats. If it must be in binary formats, it should always be accompanied by metadata that helps explain what the content is, what format it is in, what subject matter it deals with, and so on.
There are more requirements, to be sure, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. It’s also important to note these are merely technical requirements for the content, and don’t go to the more fundamental questions of precisely what kind of content your users need are requesting.
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