Context Media, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Context Media Interchange Suite 4.2. The new edition of Interchange Suite provides out-of-the-box integration with a wide array of content repositories, including homegrown systems and those supplied by vendors. The capability, which is made possible through Context Media’s development of the Configurable Content Pipeline (CCP), is part of Context Media’s ongoing strategy to leverage open standards and an SOA (Services Orientated Architecture) to make digital content more accessible to end users and partners within and beyond the enterprise. CCP is provided as a core component of Interchange Suite 4.2. As with previous versions of Context Media Interchange Suite, version 4.2 is built on Web services standards and supports current Java Service Requests (JSR) 168 and 170. The CCP is available for a wide array of systems including: IBM DB2, Content Manager Portfolio and Lotus Workplace Web Content Management, Informix, Oracle, Vignette, Documentum, Quark, Adobe, Artesia, Interwoven, Media Bin, Convera, FatWire, Virage, Microsoft SharePoint, Stellent, Canto, and Google. Multi- and Bi-Directional Content Integration Enables clients to reuse integration “pipelines” to move content for multiple purposes, such as consolidation from several repositories, batched movement of content from one system to another, or delivery of content from multiple repositories into multiple applications. Interchange Suite 4.2 includes enhanced out-of-the-box internationalization capabilities. www.contextmedia.com

ClearStory Systems announced the release of Radiant Enterprise Media Server (EMS), a media services platform that provides core functionality for managing the full range of enterprise content, from rich media to documents. Radiant EMS provides a foundation for developing solutions such as digital asset management, video management, document management, and marketing content management. Built on a J2EE, service-oriented architecture (SOA), EMS offers a modern, flexible platform for integrating enterprise content – business documents, rich media, graphics and other digital content – into business workflows, processes and applications. The first release of the product offers specialized functionality specific to managing rich media content. Radiant EMS is designed to meet the needs of enterprise content management, taking into account both the evolution of digital asset management features as well as operational needs for system integration, collaboration, and business process management. EMS also provides tools and frameworks for rapid user interface assembly and vertical application deployment. ClearStory will be releasing additional applications running on the EMS platform in early 2005. The new solutions will be available either as installed software or as a fully hosted ASP service. The Radiant Enterprise Media Server platform is certified for the BEA WebLogic and JBoss application servers and on the Oracle 9i database. The platform and software development kit is shipping today. EMS can be deployed as a stand-alone product or can be incorporated as part of a comprehensive, enterprise-wide content management strategy. www.clearstorysystems.com

Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, announced the availability of a new suite of solutions for Microsoft Office 2003 and SharePoint Products and Technologies. The new solution pack for Microsoft Office 2003, Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 enables information workers to easily find, organize, read and act on business news and information from inside their most used applications. Factiva has released two new Web Parts for SharePoint Products and Technologies. Track Web Part allows groups to view news about specific interest areas, while iWorks provides an innovative search tool for information workers that utilize Factiva’s XML platform and extensive indexing to tailor results. It can also be used in the Office 2003 Research Task Pane. Factiva has developed a new tool to make it easy for a company’s portal administrator to facilitate news delivery into SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Using embedded Smart Tags, Factiva users can get more information about a company directly from any Office 2003 document. The new Factiva Toolbar makes it easy for Factiva customers to search the rich Factiva archive of 9,000 global sources. www.factiva.com

ObjectWeb, the international not-for-profit consortium dedicated to open-source infrastructure software, announced the extension of its roster of open-source projects with 3 Java middleware components for business integration: Byline content management system; eXo Platform enterprise portal; MOBE business process execution engine. With over 50 active open-source projects, ObjectWeb is federating the development of commercial grade middleware components and tools, including JOnAS – J2EE 1.4 application server; Bonita, Shark, JaWE – workflow utilities; JORAM – message-oriented middleware. The 3 new projects Byline, eXo Platform and MOBE complement ObjectWeb’s open-source middleware offering with software providing high level features for business integration. These projects were initially developed by ObjectWeb member companies in the framework of commercial offers and recently contributed to ObjectWeb code base. eXo Platform is an open-source enterprise portal solution built on the top of the Java Server Faces (JSF) web layer, and implements the portlet API (JSR 168). eXo Platform has been contributed to ObjectWeb by the new consortium member eXo Platform SARL. MOBE (MidOffice BPEL Engine) is a business process execution engine compliant with the OASIS standard BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). www.objectweb.org

SiteScape announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase Imidio. The company also announced Zon, a unified instant collaboration product developed by Imidio, which unifies instant messaging, teleconferencing, web conferencing, chat and presence into a unique instant collaboration solution. Zon provides a platform for real-time collaboration for groups of employees to communicate wherever they are, instantly. It integrates presence – determining who is at their desk, on the phone, or in a meeting – with web conferencing and instant messaging. Zon enables impromptu meetings by knowing virtual participant availability and launching meetings instantly without the lengthy set-up and coordination often associated with on-line collaboration. Zon is available immediately as a stand-alone product, and will be available in early 2005 as an add-on feature of SiteScape Forum. Pricing will be disclosed upon request and announced shortly. www.sitescape.com

Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC) announced the latest release of its Brava! Enterprise content visualization server, which extends content security as part of a unified visualization component to enterprise content management (ECM), portal and project data management (PDM) solutions. Brava Enterprise is designed to augment intranet and extranet deployments where content is to be securely accessed, shared and annotated in a collaborative workflow. It is thin-client software that can view, markup and print a variety of document, image and CAD drawings using Internet Explorer, providing enterprises with a unified visualization framework that minimizes the need to have each corporate application on every desktop. The new Brava Enterprise v5.1 creates and views IGC’s Content Sealed Format (CSF), which incorporates the Visual Rights security framework. Visual Rights gives authors selective and persistent security controls over their content. Markups can be “burned-in” to CSF files, and the Block-out feature (redaction) allows users to hide specific file content from view, text search and print. CSF files are viewable by all Brava products, including a free reader that can be distributed along with CSF files. Brava Enterprise v5.1 introduces a non-Java client, so customers now have a choice to use ActiveX or Java. Also released are the Brava Enterprise v5.1 integrations to content management solutions like Documentum and Open Text and to portal solutions like Microsoft SharePoint. www.infograph.com

Vasont Systems introduced a new integration between the Vasont content management system and Microsoft InfoPath, a forms-based data collection solution. Vasont is a single-source content management system that enables organizations to store their multilingual content for multi-channel delivery. Using the Vasont Universal Integrator extension, this integration enables content from InfoPath to be stored in Vasont’s repository for reuse and repurposing. InfoPath provides organizations with an efficient way to collect information that they can then standardize, validate, and integrate with an organization’s server systems. Vasont’s integration with InfoPath enables that same information to be managed and stored in Vasont’s repository, allowing the content to be single-sourced, reused, and repurposed. This integration also enables authors to move seamlessly from an unstructured writing environment to XML-structured authoring, allowing users with no markup experience to benefit from XML. www.vasont.com

Adobe Systems Incorporated introduced Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software. Now, workgroups can use Acrobat 7.0 and Adobe PDF to manage a range of business activities such as assembling documents from multiple sources, creating intelligent forms, and more securely collaborating on projects inside and outside the firewall. Acrobat 7.0 Professional customers can now include virtually anyone in an electronic review of a PDF document by enabling access to commenting tools in free Adobe Reader 7.0 software. Adobe Reader users can provide feedback on a PDF file that consists of several content types — from scanned paper to spreadsheets, presentations, and now, 3D computer-aided design (CAD) content. The Acrobat 7.0 family now offers enhanced integration with Adobe LiveCycle software. The inclusion of Adobe LiveCycle Designer, the company’s professional form design tool, with Acrobat 7.0 Professional provides users the ability to create sophisticated XML and PDF forms that can be integrated into back-end systems. The combination enables organizations to apply and manage document policies for helping control access, auditing, expiration, and revocation rights to a PDF document. Adobe also announced Adobe Reader 7.0. Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Acrobat 7.0 Standard for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X v10.2.8 and v10.3, are expected to ship in English by the end of the current calendar year, and in French, German and Japanese in early 2005. Acrobat 7.0 Professional is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$449. Registered users can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Professional for an estimated street price of US$159. Acrobat 7.0 Standard is expected to be available for an estimated street price of US$299. Registered users can upgrade to Acrobat 7.0 Standard for an estimated street price of US$99. www.adobe.com