If you’re only reading this XML blog, be sure to check out my recent blog post Focusing on Smart Content, which I published in the main Gilbane blog.
Category: Web technologies & information standards (Page 15 of 58)
Here we include topics related to information exchange standards, markup languages, supporting technologies, and industry applications.
This summer, Dale Waldt, Mary Laplante, and I have been busy wrapping up our multi-vendor report about “Smart Content in the Enterprise: How Next Generation XML Applications Deliver New Value to Multiple Stakeholders.” We’ll be publishing the report in it’s entirely in a few weeks. We are grateful to our sponsors – IBM, JustSystems, MarkLogic, Mindtouch, Ovitas, Quark, and SDL – for supporting our research and enabling us to make headway on this important trend for the future of content technologies on the web. Here’s the link to access some of the case studies that are part of this report.
XML as a tagging standard for content is almost as old as the web itself. XML applications have long proven their significant value—reducing costs, growing revenue, expediting business processes, mitigating risk, improving customer service, and increasing customer satisfaction. But for all the benefits, managers of successful XML implementations have struggled with attempts to bring XML content and applications out of their documentation departments and into their larger enterprises.
So much XML content value remains untapped. What does it take to break out of the XML application silo? What is the magic formula for an enterprise business case that captures and keeps the attention of senior management? These are the issues we set out to address.
We believe that the solution needs to be based on “smart content.” When we tag content with extensive semantic and/or formatting information, we make it “smart” enough for applications and systems to use the content in interesting, innovative, and often unexpected ways. Organizing, searching, processing, discovery, and presentation are greatly improved, which in turn increases the underlying value of the information that customers access and use.
We started this discussion late last year. We now have the solution-oriented case studies and the additional analysis to reinforce our perspective about the drivers for the digital revolution at hand. We look forward to the continuing conversations with all of you who are seeking to transform the content-related capabilities of your business operations by championing XML applications.
SDL, the provider of Global Information Management solutions, announced the availability of an integration between SDL Trisoft and Leximation DITA -FMx, the DITA plugin for Adobe FrameMaker. By providing a bridge between SDL Trisoft and Leximation DITA -FMx, SDL gives the ability to use SDL’s advanced Component Content Management capabilities with Adobe FrameMaker. The new integration combines technologies for authoring and managing structured content. Together SDL and Leximation share several major clients that want a joint solution. www.sdl.com www.leximation.com
Ingeniux Corporation, a provider of web and social content management software, announced the release of Ingeniux CMS Version 7. A new In-Context Editing feature enables both HTML and XML content to be edited in Preview Mode, while reusing content and component-based XML content for efficiency. The overall client experience has also been redesigned with new accordion panes to organize key features and content items, and ribbons to streamline the user experience. A new Application Manager delivers an app store directly within Ingeniux CMS. A range of Ingeniux certified App Modules and third-party solutions enable web managers to enhance their sites with business solutions and site management capabilities. Site management enhancements include integrated analytics for Google and other providers; 301 redirect management and vanity URLs; and enhanced URL system to support extension-less URLS and other formats. Key Features Released in Version 7.0 include: In-Context Editing for structured and unstructured content; built-in Google analytics; Asset Management Enhancements; Redirects Module; Scheduled Content Notifications: set reminders for content updates; accordion pane, new tool bar, ribbons and tertiary menu; Application Manager; and International Client Localization: Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Chinese language packs and localization reporting for site definitions. http://www.ingeniux.com
XMLmind announced the release of XMLmind Document Repository v1.1. XMLmind Document Repository, which is Open Source software. XMLmind Document Repository is a Web-based (WebDAV, REST) document store designed for technical writers, featuring automatic, transparent, versioning. This Open Source Servlet-based Web Application is intended to be the backend component of a future commercial offering. XMLmind Document Repository (XDR) can be installed and run as a desktop application: Self-contained distribution now includes a private Jetty 7 Servlet Container. New graphical application xdrcontrol allows to stop, configure or reconfigure and start or restart both Jetty and the XDR WebApp. Two new applications running in the Web browser allow to manage users and groups. http://www.xmlmind.com/
SDL announced the acquisition of Xopus, a provider of online XML editing. The acquisition by SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division addresses the growing trend to broaden the adoption of structured authoring beyond technical writers. Founded in 2001 in the Netherlands, Xopus has emerged as a friendly and simple-to-use online XML editor. Complementing high-end XML editors that are designed specifically for technical writers, Xopus enables a broader audience to contribute comments and content to increasingly distributed structured authoring processes. Accessed through a Web browser, Xopus provides the flexibility, ease-of-use, and interactivity of a Wiki, while still leveraging the benefits of structured content. The Xopus organization will become part of SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division. A prototype integration already exists between SDL Xopus and SDL Trisoft, the company’s Component Content Management system for DITA. Looking forward, SDL Xopus will be integrated with SDL LiveContent , the company’s publishing solution. Future integrations are envisioned with SDL Contenta for S1000D and related markets, as well as SDL’s suite of Global Information Management technologies. SDL will continue its philosophy of supporting an “open technology” approach to the enterprise ecosystem through integration to 3rd party applications and systems. SDL Xopus will continue to support existing integrations to 3rd party content management systems. http://www.sdl.com/
As we start to delve into some of the interim results of our survey of book publishing professionals, there is a great deal of good data to mull over. While the results are preliminary (and we welcome your participation here), some trends are emerging.
One interesting set of data points surround how publishers are viewing XML, how extensively they work with it, and what technologies they are using to support the management of the XML. Among those using XML, it’s significant that only about half have invested in some kind of storage mechanism specifically for XML, including both relational databases and dedicated XML repositories such as Mark Logic server.
While that overall number might or might not be so striking, I am struck by what some publishers feel is a barrier to adopting an XML repository, namely, the “Challenge of building XML knowledge, skills, or awareness.” This trumped more traditional barriers to technology adoption such as cost and the maturity of the technology and would seem, on balance, to be a solvable problem.
Bowne & Co., Inc., a provider of shareholder and marketing communications services, and Fujitsu jointly announced today that the companies have formed a strategic alliance to integrate Fujitsu Interstage XWand into Bowne’s suite of XBRL solutions. Interstage XWand provides Bowne with a complete XBRL development platform, paired with validation technology that leverages the latest XBRL specifications. Fujitsu’s Interstage XWand software, combined with Bowne’s suite of XBRL solutions, delivers a comprehensive approach to SEC Year 1 and Year 2 tagging requirements for both block and detailed Notes tagging. Additionally, the alliance benefits Bowne’s investment management and international clients who need solutions to support the SEC mutual fund risk/return summary mandate, as well as new XBRL requirements in the United Kingdom, both of which go into effect next year. Fujitsu recently announced Interstage XWand Version 11, which includes a number of key enhancements such as detailed tagging, tagging within Microsoft Word documents, the ability to extend and customize in-house validation of reports before submitting them, and out-of-the box analysis support to allow clients to more easily conduct comparisons of financial data within their companies and across multiple organizations. www.bowne.com www.fujitsu.com
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