Representatives of the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee Learning Objects Metadata (LTSC-LOM) Working Group and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the commitment to develop mutual interoperable metadata for technology-supported learning, education and training tools. The MOU signifies that a core set of specifications and accredited standards is emerging to support an interoperable infrastructure for worldwide e-learning technology. Ready access to comprehensive repositories of metadata is increasingly noted by developers of Web-enabled learning technology products as a critical factor in the next generation of learning and knowledge creation. However, to be useful, that metadata must be highly interoperable and reusable worldwide. The agreement signals a path forward for how education and training practitioners engaged in developing metadata can best support e-learning. Representatives from concurring projects sponsored by the following organizations support the joint effort between the IEEE LTSC-LOM and DCMI: ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe), EdNA (Education Network Australia), GEM (Gateway to Educational Materials), and the IMS Global Learning Consortium. http://purl.org/dc/
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Epicentric, Inc. announced that it has entered into an alliance with Documentum, Inc. Epicentric will integrate its E-Business Network platform with the Portal Edition of Documentum’s 4i eBusiness content management platform. The integration will allow joint customers of Epicentric’s E-Business Network platform and Documentum’s 4i Portal Edition to take advantage of Documentum’s content management and collaboration capabilities within the networked business communities that were created through Epicentric. By implementing Epicentric’s E-Business Network platform with Documentum’s content management platform, Global 2000 companies can accelerate the delivery of up-to-date strategic information across networked business communities. Key information, such as sales data or market research, can be instantly accessed and shared with the employees, partners or customers who require the data. Epicentric’s integration framework enables companies to deliver a unique, privately branded interface to each business community and users to tailor the information to meet their personal needs. www.documentum.com, www.epicentric.com
Microsoft Corp. announced the release of the beta specification for XML for Analysis — a new protocol that extends the Microsoft business intelligence strategy to the Microsoft.NET vision of Web services, allowing application developers to provide analytic capabilities to any client on any device or platform using any programming language. Built on HTTP, XML and SOAP with more than 50 industry players instrumental in its development. As an extension to OLE DB for OLAP and OLE DB for Data Mining, XML for Analysis uses the Internet as the platform for building analytical applications from diverse sources of data, thus enabling developers to provide better Web services for analytic data. Corporations can now allow trading partners, customers and suppliers to access data easily and securely over the Web without worrying about client operating system, application language or middleware compatibility issues. XML for Analysis expands access to business intelligence by increasing the flexibility for developers to incorporate analytical data within applications that reside remotely on the Internet, or even those that are hosted by another company. Users can achieve a new level of pervasive data analysis because they have access to data from any client ranging from a PDA to an Internet-enabled phone, interactive TV device, laptop computer or PC. XML for Analysis is a fully compatible advancement to the OLE DB for OLAP and OLE DB for Data Mining protocols. The beta specification of XML for Analysis is now available for download at www.microsoft.com/data. A beta software development kit of XML for Analysis is planned to be available for download in early 2001, and final specification and software for XML for Analysis are scheduled to be available in the first half of 2001. www.microsoft.com
TIBCO Software Inc. announced XML Canon/Developer (XCD). XCD, the first member of the XML Canon family, is a development platform that enables the life cycle management of XML-based business rules in a Web-accessible repository. XCD allows businesses to dynamically create and adapt XML-based standards that facilitate collaboration for e-business internally and with trading partners, customers and industry groups. The XML Canon product line supports the diverse requirements and various stages of XML development organizations are implementing. First to be launched is XCD for organizations developing and deploying XML infrastructure assets (e.g. XML schemas, DTDs, instance documents, stylesheets, or adjuncts.) Key Features include: managing business rules and taxonomies, web-enabled collaboration, life cycle management, extensible architecture, and full integration across TIBCO Extensibility product family: Turbo XML, XML Authority, XML Instance, and XML Console. XML Canon/Developer will run on Windows 2000, NT 4, SP6 with support for SQL 7.0 SP1 or Oracle 8i. Microsoft IE 5.0 or 5.5 is also required. TIBCO’s Extensibility client interface Turbo XML is also required. To sign-up for the limited early access beta program visit: www.extensibility.com/tibco/solutions/xml_canon/, www.tibco.com
Documentum announced the release of the next generation of its 4i eBusiness Platform. The release features significant enhancements, offering complete support of XML for content management and B2B interchange, as well as full internationalization and multilingual support, automated delivery of content to multiple channels, and integration with industry-leading source code management systems. XML content management provides the basis for streamlining the content creation process by enabling content reuse and automating the generation and delivery of assembled content for multiple channels. This is achieved by adding intelligence to content earlier in the process and separating the creation and delivery processes. Content can now be re-purposed rather than re-created and intelligently transformed and customized to suit the characteristics and formats of different devices and channels (e-commerce sites, portals, PDAs, wireless devices, and online exchanges/marketsites). Full lifecycle, workflow, security, and library services enable organizations to automate their business processes, and sophisticated link management services enable the reuse of content globally. Documentum is actively involved with XML e-business standards organizations, such as OASIS, ebXML, UDDI.org, WAP Forum, and XML.org. Documentum and Arbortext also announced an extension of their partnership integrating Arbortext’s Epic. www.documentum.com
Bluebill Advisors, Inc., AIIM International, and the Graphic Communications Association (GCA) announced “Enterprise Content Management 2001” (ECM 2001), a new conference series covering all the technologies and trends related to integrating content and data into enterprise e-business applications, including: content management, (CMS) corporate portals, XML, digital rights management, digital assets, rich content, syndication, content aggregation and categorization, e-catalogs, enterprise meta and metadata integration strategies, and application and information integration. The three organizations will jointly produce the new events. The first three-day conference will be held October 2-5, 2001 at the Westin Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA. Today, businesses have to be able to publish content via multiple channels, including Web, wireless, kiosk, and print, but publishing is only a small part of how enterprises must manage content. Content also has to be shared with suppliers, customers, channel partners, and employees, for a wide variety of enterprise applications. ECM 2001 is the only educational event dedicated to all the application and infrastructure technologies for managing content across and between enterprises. ECM 2001 is an educational, vendor-neutral event designed specifically for e-business and IT managers responsible for developing strategies involving content management, and for project managers in charge of implementing solutions. www.aiim.org, www.bluebilladvisors.com, www.gca.org
Autonomy Corporation plc announced its new Commerce Application Builder. Autonomy Commerce Application Builder provides a flexible, scalable and fully automated infrastructure for managing and personalizing e-commerce content to enable more and higher quality transactions. Built to be integrated with leading E-Commerce transaction systems, Autonomy’s Commerce Application Builder automatically aggregates, organizes, links and personalizes commercial content regardless of its format (XML, HTML), language or storage (RDBMS, Content management systems). Commerce Application Builder analyzes human-friendly information, identifies its main ideas and then automates critical operations on it. Commerce Application Builder enables sites to manage, rapidly update and maintain highly personalized content rich exchanges, e-marketplaces, and Web stores, all at lower costs. Easily integrated with many transaction systems including Cybercash, and Intershop, Commerce Application Builder also supports extended functionality to enable mobile commerce through WAP and i-Mode wireless standards as well as speech, digital TV and auctions in future releases. Commerce Application Builder includes advanced personalization features. It provides automatic user profiling, which can be utilized for automatic targeted advertising and promotions and for user defined personal shopping assistants. Autonomy Commerce Application Builder technology is available for immediate integration with Intershop’s enfinity site transaction systems. Autonomy can plug-in CyberSource as the transaction back-end for Commerce Application Builder for environments that have not standardized on another transaction system. CyberSource has experience and functionality for providing real-time payment processing, fraud protection and digital product delivery. CyberSource provides secure credit card authorization, delivery address verification and Internet fraud screen enhanced by VISA. Commerce Application Builder is available for Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, LINUX, Sun Solaris and most versions of UNIX. www.autonomy.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced the early access availability of two key Java technology APIs for the XML: the Java API for XML Messaging (JAXM) and the Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP). Both APIs are downloadable free of charge through Sun’s Java Developer Connection at . These two APIs, along with the Java API for XML Data Binding (JAXB), form the core of XML support in the Java 2 platform. JAXB, formerly called Project Adelard is nearing completion through the Java Community Process (JCP) program. These Java technologies for XML give developers a powerful, easy-to-use API tool set for developing and deploying Java technology-based applications that harness the synergies of the Java platform’s portable code and XML’s portable data. All three technologies are being developed through the JCP program, the open, community-based organization that stewards the evolution of the Java platform. JAXP, JAXM and JAXB are expected to be included in the next releases of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). The draft specification for JAXM is available through the JCP; the projected final shipping date of JAXM is early 2001, pending JCP and ebXML specification availability. Sun hopes to make the final reference implementation of JAXM available to developers through a credible open source organization, such as the Apache Software Foundation. For more information on the Apache Software Foundation’s XML parser project, please visit www.xml.apache.org. The draft specification for JAXP is available through the JCP, and the projected final shipping date of JAXP is calendar Q1 2001. The draft specification for JAXB is available from JCP website as JSR 31, and pending the approval of the JAXB specification by the JCP, JAXB is expected to be shipped Q1 2001. http://sun.com
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