Category: Content technology news (Page 520 of 627)

Microsoft Corp. and members of the eLearning community announced support for Learning Resource Interchange (LRN), the first commercial implementation of the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) Content and Management Systems Specification developed by the eLearning industry and the IMS Global Learning Consortium. LRN is an XML-based schema that defines course content, allowing organizations and eLearning providers to easily create and manage compatible online learning content. LRN helps customers maximize their investment in eLearning by enabling a wider range of interoperable content and applications than currently exists today. A number of eLearning companies announced support for LRN. These include content developers such as The Forum Corp., NETg and SmartForce, as well as eLearning platform and services companies such as Blackboard.com, Cambridge Technology Partners, Centra Software Inc., Click2learn.com Inc., DigitalThink Inc., eCollege.com, Eduprise.com, Information Management Group (IMG), IntraLearn Software Corp., KnowledgePool, Pinnacle Multimedia, SmartForce, Southrock and WINeducation.com. Microsoft also announced that online learning content from Microsoft Press, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and Microsoft Official Curriculum would support LRN in all forthcoming content. To provide content and technology partners with the information and tools required to create LRN-compatible products and content, Microsoft has released the LRN Toolkit 1.0. With it, organizations can easily create, edit and update content structure using any standard XML editor, including Microsoft Office. The toolkit is available now and includes the LRN Viewer, LRN Validator and LRN Samples, including two LRN-compatible eBooks from Microsoft Press and an MSDN developer course on Windows 2000. The Microsoft LRN Toolkit 1.0 is available for free download at www.microsoft.com/elearn/. Additional information on the IMS Content Package Specification can be found at www.imsproject.org/

WebVision has launched WEBtropolis XDE (XML Data Exchange), a stand-alone application as well as a complement to existing WEBtropolis products such as ORDERnet, AUCTIONnet, and BIDtropolis. It is the first of WebVision’s applications to become XML-enabled. The product, available today, is designed to help large organizations using Internet technology as an infrastructure for optimizing the supply chain among trading partners, and making it possible for companies to replace Legacy EDI-based systems and processes. For current WebVision customers, WEBtropolis XDE provides a new data interchange format for any of their new or existing WebVision applications. WEBtropolis XDE version 1.0 has the ability to map to different XML document formats such as Biztalk from Microsoft and Rosettanet. By integrating with Biztalk from Microsoft and Rosettanet, WEBtropolis XDE provides WebVision customers with the ability to put all of the XML pieces together. WebVision is initially targeting suppliers and manufacturers with Oracle and MS SQL Server based ERP systems, such as SAGE and Oracle Financials. Such companies are committed to replacing older EDI systems with standard XML to improve their purchasing, distribution, product delivery and dynamic decision-making abilities. Because WEBTropolis XDE is based on XML, WEBTropolis XDE features support for Oracle 8i Applications, requiring little or no programming for integration. WEBtropolis XDE is available for Windows NT and Windows 2000. Minimum system requirements are Pentium III, 1GB of available Hard Drive space and 128 MB of RAM. Price for the application is based on number of CPUs. Cost per CPU is $10,000. www.webvision.com

Autonomy, Inc., announced Kenjin, a service that automatically delivers information (regardless of its location) to consumers as they use their personal computer. With Kenjin, consumers no longer have to stop what they are doing to search for information. Instead, as they surf the Web, draft an e-mail or write a letter, Kenjin automatically connects and delivers related information from the Web, the hard drive and Kenjin users with similar interests. Kenjin uses Autonomy’s core technology, which is capable of analyzing a piece of text and identifying its main ideas. This technology gives Kenjin the ability to understand the concepts, not keywords, in browsers, e-mail or desktop applications. After conducting a real-time analysis of the text in a Web page, Word document or e-mail message, Kenjin automatically recommends links to relevant information from the Web, the PC or individuals that have opted to share their interests with others. The links are displayed in a small window or a tool bar. Kenjin represents the first time consumers have access to the technology found in Autonomy’s products. Kenjin is expected to be available in May 2000. Consumers will be able to download this free service from Autonomy’s Web site. www.autonomy.com/kenjin

Webforia announced that it has partnered with Orem, Utah-based NetDocuments. Under the terms of the partnership, Webforia will offer NetDocuments’ services on its Web site, webforia.com. Users can access NetDocuments’ services through webforia.com as well as through Webforia’s Clickbar. NetDocuments, which requires only a browser, is a file/document storage and sharing eService that gives the mass market of consumer and business users access to an all-in-one service, from secure and trusted storage, organization and application integration to document collaboration and virtual delivery. www.webforia.com

Digimarc Corporation announced that it has adopted XML for use in the MediaBridge system, the company’s innovation bridging traditional and online media. The MediaBridge system allows readers to link from interesting content in traditional media publications to relevant Internet destinations merely by showing the page to a Digimarc-enabled PC camera. Digimarc elected to use XML because it provides an independent, open standard supported by major software vendors for the exchange of data from magazine content to Web sites worldwide. Digimarc endorsed the Digital Imaging Group’s (DIG) first public release of the DIG35 image metadata specification, a way to manage images across a wide range of consumer, business and professional applications. The DIG35 Working Draft will be available for public review and comment from March 1-29, 2000. To be included on the notification list for public comment, send an email to dig35comment@digitalimaging.org. The final specification is planned for release in the third quarter of 2000. www.digimarc.com

Stack Overflow will debut its latest XHTML-based technology, codenamed Chameleon, at Seybold Boston on Wednesday, 9 February. Chameleon is the server-side complement to Stack Overflow’s recently-launched Mozquito Factory, an XML authoring environment for XHTML. The Mozquito Factory is a client-side, stand-alone authoring environment for XHTML that offers extensibility and freedom from current browser limitations, as well as a significant reduction in authoring costs. The launch of the Mozquito Factory also introduced users to FML, the Forms Markup Language, a new specification developed by Stack Overflow. Stack Overflow defined FML to bridge current forms markup with the extensibility of XML. Through FML, the Mozquito Factory leverages fourteen new XHTML tags to empower Web developers to create dynamic and interactive Web pages in plain HTML, without client- and server-side scripting. Chameleon employs the same standards-based technology as the Mozquito Factory to reduce the extensive resources currently needed to develop complex Web interfaces. A server-side product, Chameleon leverages this technology to transform XHTML-FML into HTML-plus-JavaScript on demand, whenever a user requests a page. This introduces a range of new opportunities for Web developers: content from a database, common design elements or cookie-derived information can now be integrated into XHTML-FML pages. In turn, new applications can be created in a variety of areas, including community integration, personalization, data maintenance, intranets and more. www.mozquito.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced the release of the “Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0” (ATAG 1.0) specification, providing guidance to developers on how to design accessible authoring tools that produce accessible Web content. As a W3C Recommendation, the specification is stable, contributes to the universality of the Web, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership. W3C encourages developers to promote Web accessibility by implementing this Recommendation. The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 explain how developers of authoring tools, such as HTML editors and site management tools, can encourage and assist in the production of accessible Web content through prompts, alerts, checking, repair functions, and help files in their tools. In addition to their value to accessibility, many of the principles addressed in the specification, such as the importance of producing and preserving valid markup, promote interoperability of the Web in general. The Guidelines address not only the accessibility of content produced by tools, but also the accessibility of the tool itself. The Web is not a read-only medium, and accessible authoring tools will enable all people to publish to the Web, regardless of disability. The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 address a broad range of tools, including WYSIWYG editors, “save-as-HTML” conversion tools, tools that dynamically generate content from databases, formatting tools, image editors, and site management tools. ATAG 1.0 consists of twenty-eight requirements, called “checkpoints,” for developing accessible authoring tools that produce accessible content. The checkpoints are organized according to seven overriding design principles, called “guidelines.” As with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, ATAG 1.0 checkpoints have three priority levels, which correspond to their importance for accessibility. There is a checklist providing a quick overview of the checkpoints by priority. W3C has made icons available for products claiming any one of the three conformance levels. The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is preparing a variety of implementation support materials to assist developers, including the “Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility,” published today as a W3C Note. At the time of this release, every requirement of the Guidelines has been implemented by one or more existing tools, though no tool yet satisfies all checkpoints. www.w3.org/WAI