Liaison announced the availability of Liaison Content Exchange 2.0. Liaison Content Exchange automatically extracts, aggregates and rationalizes data, providing B2B exchanges with the descriptive content necessary to drive purchasing decisions. Liaison Content Exchange software is used by eMarketplaces and large manufacturers. eMarketplaces (trading exchanges) use Content Exchange to automate the process of building and maintaining substantial electronic catalogs consisting of thousands of suppliers and millions of products. Large manufacturers use Content Exchange software to automatically structure product content for e-procurement applications used by their customers, as well as private and third-party eMarketplaces and commerce portals. Liaison Content Exchange automates the gathering of data and is based on Adaptive Content Recognition technology that extracts content from Web pages and other sources, then transforms the content into structured data, greatly reducing the time and expense associated with gathering this type of information. Liaison Content Exchange 2.0 will be available in September directly from Liaison and solution partners. The software is licensed on an annual licensing basis, starting at $140,000. The software requires a Pentium II 450 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 6 MB of free disk space/250 MB for data capture and audit logs, ISDN 128 K, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later, and Windows NT 4.0 SP 4 or later for operation. www.liaison.com

IntraNet Solutions announced the release of Xpedio 4.0, a new version of the Xpedio Content Management system with enhanced security and business personalization features for B2B and business-to-employee (B2E) customers. Xpedio 4.0 is designed to meet businesses’ growing demand for the ability to contribute, manage, publish and personalize content for business Web sites more efficiently. Xpedio 4.0 includes Xpedio’s two primary components – Xpedio Content Publisher and Xpedio Content Server. This upgrade enhances those components’ ability to simplify and automate the contribution and conversion of any type of content, ranging from desktop applications to forms and reports, to any Web format, such as PDF, HTML, XML or WML, with new security, business personalization and Web site development features. Xpedio 4.0’s business personalization features are based on centralized user authentication and security mapping combined with business rules. Xpedio 4.0 enables security integration with popular existing systems, such as LDAP, NT, Netegrity and NDS, and allows extensible user information for greater business personalization. Additionally, Xpedio 4.0 provides HTML form-based contribution and HTML page preview for converted content. Xpedio 4.0 also includes query-driven publishing, which allows the system to automatically select and publish content based on metadata. Xpedio 4.0 will also include product modules available in Xpedio: Xpedio WAM, a system for managing Web assets, and Xpedio Reporter Parser, which parses reports from enterprise applications and converts them to XML, HTML, PDF or text formats for secure publishing to the Web. Xpedio 4.0 is shipping now and is priced from $40,000-$180,000 USD. www.intranetsolutions.com

arcadiaOne, Inc. and easypress announced a partnership to provide end-to-end publishing and syndication solutions. The integrated offerings will empower publishers to automate the way they acquire content from other publishers, and sell both aggregated and internally created content into virtually any digital media channel, such as Web, broadband, WAP, etc. As part of their agreement, easypress will offer both an ASP-style online service for electronic-syndication as well as resell arcadiaOne’s Enterprise server, along with providing consulting and technology integration services to joint customers. The ASP service – easySyndicate Online – is powered by arcadiaOne, and will enable publishers to rapidly and cost-effectively automate distribution of selective and defined content to multiple media channels. To content creators, this opens up new opportunities to expand their distribution and market reach, while preserving their brand. www.arcadiaOne.com, www.easypress.com

eGrail Inc. released the kernel of its commercial software product to the Open Source development community. The eGrail Source software will be available at www.egrail.org. This site will focus solely on providing technical services to Open Source developers. eGrail also announced its adoption of a hybrid business model that represents a new and improved approach for the building, distribution and support of Internet software. eGrail is committed to developing efficient Open Source software that can be produced at a lower cost than most vendors currently in the market. eGrail is an enterprise-capable content management software that runs completely on Open Source infrastructure. www.egrail.com

OverDrive, Inc. announced the release of its ReaderWorks Standard software which is available as a free download at www.readerworks.com. ReaderWorks Standard is an authoring tool that allows educators, authors, publishers, business professionals and others to convert their documents, text, images, or web content into Microsoft Reader eBooks. Concurrent with the release of the free Standard version, OverDrive also announced the release of its commercial eBook product, ReaderWorks Publisher. Publisher provides all the capabilities of Standard plus the ability to customize cover art and other title data used by resellers and eBookstores to promote, manage and protect digital rights for online sales. Publisher is available at the readerworks.com web portal at an introductory price of $119, a 20% discount off the suggested list price. The announcement also included the release of ReaderWorks Software Developers Kit (SDK), Version 1.0, which provides an ActiveX toolset to automate the production of eBooks in Reader format, and allows developers to add “save as Reader” capacity to their applications or for development of large eBook conversion applications. ReaderWorks software brings point and click technology to the ePublishing industry for conversion of text, HTML, images, and other content to Microsoft Reader and Open eBook format. The Commercial ReaderWorks suite is designed to support marketing and metadata in XML, XrML, OEB, ONIX formats for eBook resellers. www.readerworks.com

Microsoft Corp. announced the public availability of the beta version of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000. A member of the .NET Enterprise Server family of products, BizTalk Server 2000 will unite, in a single product EAI, B2B integration and the BizTalk Orchestration technology to allow developers, IT professionals and business analysts to easily build dynamic business processes that span applications, platforms and businesses over the Internet. BizTalk Orchestration technology builds on the Visio diagramming platform for building dynamic, distributed business processes, and an advanced orchestration engine for executing and managing those processes. BizTalk Server 2000 supports a multitude of transports and protocols in addition to XML, including EDI (X12 and UN EDIFACT), HTTP, HTTPS, Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ), SMTP (e-mail), and flat file transfer. BizTalk Server 2000 also supports industry-standard security technologies such as public key encryption and digital signatures to ensure secure document exchange with trading partners, and XLANG, an XML-based language for describing business processes. The beta version of BizTalk Server 2000 is available immediately for download at www.microsoft.com/biztalkserver

MobileQ, Inc. announced an upgraded version of its software that enables companies to provide easier access to information and a more intuitive user experience for employees and customers using any wireless device. XMLEdge 2.5 is the latest iteration of MobileQ’s enterprise-grade infrastructure software. Based on XML, XMLEdge enables companies to deliver banking, customer relationship management, road-side assistance and other vertical applications to numerous mobile devices. Companies can deliver information to users in a manner that is easy to manipulate, consistent across all devices, and optimized for the features and functionality of each appliance, enabling every user to work in a way that’s most efficient and intuitive for them. XMLEdge is flexible enough to support any business application, from personal information management and messaging to custom line of business applications. The upgraded version allows enterprises to: Deliver data to the newest mobile devices, including Palm III and V through Omnisky, RIM 957 and 850, Compaq Pocket PC’s and newly available WAP phones such as Nokia 7110. Support for Denso, Ericsson, HP, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NeoPoint, Nokia, Palm VII, Phillips, Qualcomm, RIM, Samsung and Sanyo were already included in XMLEdge 2.0; Ensure more powerful security through data encryption; Deliver applications in Far-East and European languages; Create applications from distributed data sources over multiple locations; Send alerts to mobile customers and employees based upon personal settings; and tailor logging components to facilitate application and IT management while integrating with existing billing systems. www.mobileq.com