Cover Pages: XML Industry News: 2002 Q3

XML News

This XML Industry News section consists mainly of links to company press releases announcing support for XML/XSL/XLink/XQuery etc. Other documents with reference collections:

Major articles on XML in the trade magazines, as well as the more substantive refereed articles on XML in technical publications, are listed in the dedicated database sections: Current XML Surveys and Overview Articles

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[September 30, 2002] "Web Services Technologies Reach New Heights. Multiplatform Computing Benefits From Standard, Interoperable, Portable Java Web Services. New Programs and Services for Developers Available from Sun." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. [recently] previewed the latest version of Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) at JavaOne Japan Developer Conference. J2EE v 1.4 boosts multiplatform computing with the integration of web services support making Java the only architecture capable of giving developers the ability to deploy production ready web services across heterogeneous environments. J2EE v 1.4 provides support for key web services functionality such as UDDI and ebXML registries and repositories, SOAP, XML processing and schemas and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL)... With deep support for web services standards along with a more seamless integration of its functionalities, J2EE v 1.4 will provide better data center cost efficiencies for system administrators, quicker development and faster delivery to market for developers as well as expanded business opportunities for companies. These compelling benefits make it increasingly important for the leading tools providers to have products available to support development to the latest version of the platform. Sun expects to have a release of their Sun ONE Studio product which will support the J2EE v1.4 platform by May 2003. Highlights of the features include rich web services support integrated with Servlets and EJBs, an enhanced version of the connector architecture, standard J2EE management and deployment functionalities. For the full spectrum of the new features, functionality and updates please visit the J2EE v 1.4 specification page. Currently the J2EE v 1.4 is in proposed final draft under the Java Community Process (JCP) with a target first customer shipment date of Q1 2003. The beta version is expected to be available in November 2002. In conjunction with the release of the J2EE v 1.4 Sun will provide guidelines, tools and services to help developers implement the architecture in conformance with specified functionality, test for application server compatibility and for application portability..."
[September 30, 2002] "XSL Formatter V2.3 Release Information." - "Antenna House, Inc is pleased to inform you that it has upgraded its XSL-FO processor [XSL Formatter] to V2.3. V2.3 provides you with the significant enhancement of layout function capability, multilingual formatting function capability. XSL Formatter V2.3 becomes the most advanced XSL tool for multilingual formatting in the world. Version 2.3: (1) Implements the float in XSL Spec and enhances the layout function. This function provides capabilities of produce the layout of putting images, illustrations and text side-by-side or putting text around the image. (2) Enhances the function of multilingual format. XSL Formatter implements the function of bidirectionality by Unicode BIDI, the text running from left to right as English, Japanese and the text running from right to left as Arabic, Hebrew can be mixed in a single block with mixed directionality. In addition, Arabic justification becomes capable by inserting the glyph 'Kashida'. (3) Provides new support for Arabic and Hebrew: By using XSL Formatter V2.3 and PDF Option, it's possible to do layout the multilingual publications with the flexible mixture of Latin, Cyrillic, Greek alphabet, CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), HAT (Hebrew, Arabic, Thai) and output to PDF. (4) Offers enhanced PDF output options: In case of creating PDF using Adobe Acrobat Distiller from XSL Formatter formatted result, a high quality PDF will be created. From V2.3, links and bookmarks are automatically created in PDF using Distiller. In addition, both EPS with preview image and EPS without preview image can be embedded in PDF via Distiller. (5) Provides graphics support enhancements: By using Plug-in (MathPlayerV1.0) downloadable, the formula written by MathML can be embedded. XSL Formatter supports almost every image formats for Windows..." See the 'Stylesheet Tutorial, Sample Files of Formatting Objects and Sample Stylesheets.' General references: "XSL/XSLT Software Support."
[September 30, 2002] "Data Interchange Standards Association Develops New Software Tool to Ease XML Schema Documentation." - "The Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) released a report on the Componetizer, a new software tool built by DISA that automatically identifies and documents data items in the electronic rules for XML documents, called XML Schemas. The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a high-powered standard format, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C, for exchanging business messages and other structured data over the Internet. The Componetizer dramatically reduces the time and effort needed to document XML Schemas, an often-laborious process in the development of standard business messages written in XML. While XML Schemas can be powerful, they are written in XML syntax, which is machine-readable but sometimes difficult to understand by humans. The Componetizer scans XML Schemas, identifies the individual data items in those schemas, and then arrays the Schema components in easy-to-read tables viewable with any Web browser... The Componetizer works with XML Schemas meeting the requirements of the W3C's XML Schema 1.0 Recommendation of May 2, 2001. DISA has used the Componetizer to generate documentation for some of its current industry affiliates, and plans to expand the outputs to other visual display and database formats..." See "Componetizer: A Tool for Extracting and Documenting XML Schema Components," by Marcel Jemio and Alan Kotok. For schema description and references, see "XML Schemas."
[September 30, 2002] "eXcelon Announces Stylus Studio 4.5. Latest Release of Industry's Most Comprehensive XML/XSLT Development Tools Enable Teams to Rapidly Build and Debug Applications Bridging J2EE and .NET Environments." - "eXcelon Corporation today announced the latest release of its Stylus Studio XSLT Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Stylus Studio 4.5 enables development teams to deliver higher quality applications based on XML and XSLT faster by enabling developers to generate XSLT stylesheets automatically from HTML pages, providing advanced debugging support including XSLT debugging for SAXON and .NET processors. Stylus Studio 4.5 also includes an XQuery editor, XQuery debugger and XQuery processor to allow developers to easily build and debug applications with intelligent XML search capabilities. Stylus Studio 4.5 is the industry's only XML/XSL IDE to include integrated debugging with traceability for both J2EE and .NET environments... Stylus 4.5 allows developers to debug XSLT transformations using the native .NET and SAXON processors. Developers in these environments can now access the full debugging and back mapping capabilities of Stylus Studio while ensuring predictable behavior of XSLT across development and deployment environments. With the addition of native .NET support Stylus Studio 4.5 allows developers to write, edit and debug XML and XSLT across both J2EE and .NET environments, which is critical to successfully delivering web services applications... Stylus Studio 4.5 includes an XQuery editor, debugger and processor to give developers a head start in learning XQuery, the latest W3C standard for XML search and retrieval. XQuery is an intelligent facility for rapidly retrieving information contained in XML business documents to support end user auditing of business processes. Stylus Studio reduces the XQuery learning curve with step-by-step debugging and display of variable values. Developers can leverage Stylus Studio's full debugging capabilities to build XQuery searches with speed and accuracy... Stylus Studio 4.5 automates the development of XSLT stylesheets by generating XSLT automatically from static HTML pages. Users can create XSL stylesheets without writing any code by dragging and dropping XML elements directly onto an HTML page. [The] Automatic Schema Documentation Generation Editor Reduces Overhead Associated with Documenting Complex XML Schema: This new feature works like "javadoc" to produce full documentation for XML schema documents, making complex XML schema documents more comprehensible to all members of the development team..." See also the datasheet.
[September 30, 2002] "eXcelon Announces Latest Release of eXtensible Information Server (XIS). New Version of Native XML Database Enables Application Interoperability across .NET and J2EE Environments, Adds XQuery and Verity Text Searching Support." - "eXcelon Corporation today announced the availability of eXtensible Information Server (XIS) 3.12. XIS is a native XML database that provides extensible, reliable and recoverable management of in flight XML business documents that enable long-running business transactions connecting multiple systems and people. XIS 3.12 facilitates XML-based interoperability across .NET and J2EE environments while delivering faster, standards-based access to data in XML business documents with full XQuery support and Verity full-text search. XIS is the industry's only XML database that allows XML business documents to be dynamically extended while providing granular access to elements of information contained in the documents. This functionality lets customers create, audit and continuously change transaction gateway and web service applications in response to changing business conditions... With this release, XIS now manages XML business documents in the .NET environment, to complement existing support for J2EE environments. XIS promotes heterogeneous interoperability between the industry's two leading software platforms; companies can now use XML business documents as the foundation of composite business applications that integrate systems based on both J2EE and .NET architectures... XIS 3.12 provides improved access to critical data and business process metadata contained in XML business documents by embracing all of the XQuery use cases as specified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in April 2002 and adding support for full text searching using the Verity search engine. XQuery is a standards-based XML query language that provides developers with an intelligent facility for rapidly accessing, querying and auditing XML documents managed in an XML data store.. The Verity add-on allows users to quickly access the abundance of valuable corporate data residing in XML documents by providing full-text indexing and high performance querying of XML documents stored in XIS using the industry's leading full-text search engine...eXcelon Corporation is a leading provider of data management software designed to accelerate the performance of distributed applications built using XML and Java and deployed on market leading software platforms. eXcelon's core products, XIS, Javlin and ObjectStore, deliver enhanced levels of speed, flexibility, scalability and run-time availability to Web Services and distributed applications, which can result in substantial cost savings and significant competitive advantage for large and mid-sized enterprises. For corporate developers and software engineers who need to manage XML in a distributed environment, eXcelon Corporation's eXtensible Information Server (XIS) is a native XML database management system that provides development organizations with the speed and throughput necessary to manage the extreme flexibility of XML..." See: "XML and Databases."
[September 30, 2002] "ActiveState Unveils Industry's First Professional Workspace For Open Source Languages. Komodo 2.0 With Web Services Support and GUI Builder." - "ActiveState Corp., leader in applied open source, today announced a new IDE that provides a powerful workspace for cross-plat form, open source language programming. Komodo 2.0 affords greater power, flexibility and automation, including the ActiveState GUI Builder, Visual Package Manager, Source Code Control, Project Manager, Macros, Web services generation, and more. The only unified open source programming language IDE, Komodo enables editing, debugging, and testing in a single workspace. Komodo is optimized for Perl, Python, PHP, Tcl, XML, XSLT, and supports numerous other languages, including Ruby and JavaScript. It is one of the most sophisticated applications built on the Mozilla framework and runs on the Linux and Windows platforms. 'As an XML developer, I do a lot of text processing of XML and SGML files through various Perl scripts and use Komodo for all kin ds of tasks when developing with Perl and XSLT,' said Ari Nordström, AerotechTelub Information & Media AB, a Saab Group Company. 'The new editing and toolbox features have really been a big timesaver. Unlike some editors that make a mess when you least need it , Komodo handles Unicode well, which is especially important when working with XML documents.' Komodo 2.0 introduces new key benefits: (1) Enable team development and security: Source Code Control integration and Project Manager ensure a secure, yet flexible devel opment environment; (2) Enhance applications with GUI dialogs: simple Tk-based dialog builder with seamless roundtrip integration for Perl, Python, and Tcl; (3) Produce higher quality code faster: enhanced editor is fully customizable with code commenting, block selection, and Code Snippets for storing and reusing code; (4) Implement Web services easily: manage and use Web services with automatic generation of Web services proxies..."
[September 30, 2002] "Choreograph Web Services with BindStudio." - "Bind Systems Ltd, the Business Process Driven Web services company, has announced the general availability of the BindStudio v1.4 release. BindStudio is a business process modeling environment for the development of Web services choreographies. Advances in Web services technologies enable better integration of disparate applications. But as more applications are integrated, management of the overall business processes involved needs to take place. BindStudio provides the key link between Web services integration and business process management. In the current uncertain economic conditions 'getting more from less' is a goal that all businesses are striving for. Business process management helps companies to improve operating efficiencies through process re-engineering and thus provides for key competitive advantages... The Collaborative Process Models created within the BindStudio environment can be easily exported as WSDL or ebXML descriptions to be deployed and executed on leading industry Web Services platforms... The new features added to this release of BindStudio include: (1) Importing of WSDL descriptions and the incorporation of those Web services into choreographed business process models. With this feature existing integration developments can be reverse engineered into business process descriptions. (2) Modeling of multi-party Collaborations. Complex business processes can be developed by bringing together many different sub-processes within multi-party collaborations. (3) HTML Model Report generation. The generated reports provide a useful communication medium for your business processes. The report generation can be fully customized for your particular requirements..."
[September 30, 2002] "Info-One And Blue Frog Partner To Streamline Annuity Product Management. Partnership to Bring New Efficiencies for Annuity Product Providers and Distributors Using VARDS Trading Order Entry Platform." - "Info-One, a leading provider of insurance and annuity sales information products and services, and Blue Frog Solutions, an innovative technology solutions provider for business, today announced a partnership to help insurance carriers streamline annuity product management. Through this agreement, Info-One will incorporate Blue Frog's ADMServer XML data exchange technology to greatly enhance insurance carrier's ability to integrate their annuity product information into Info-One's VARDS. Trading annuity order entry platform. VARDS Trading, the first comprehensive, Web-based annuity order-entry platform, is designed to enable insurance carriers and broker-dealers to increase annuity sales by dramatically streamlining the order entry process. Blue Frog's ADMServer System, which includes the Product Profile for Annuity (PPfA) Administration Module, enables insurance carriers to easily and efficiently load critical annuity product information, including riders and investment options, into VARDS Trading. In addition, the ADMServer System provides a browser-based tool enabling carriers to easily manage critical annuity product components from a central location, ensuring that sales representatives and underwriters have the correct information at their fingertips to help facilitate annuity sales... Developed by ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), with key participation by NAVA (National Association for Variable Annuities), PPfA reduces errors in the annuity sales process by defining a basic set of annuity product attributes and business rules. The standard may also include product-related information in support of the marketing and product selection processes..." See "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."
[September 25, 2002] "New Standards for Legal Information Exchange Underway at OASIS LegalXML. Consortium Forms Technical Committees to Address Standards for Integrated Justice, eNotarization, eContracts, Electronic Court Filing, Legislative Documents, and Transcripts." - "Legal and technical communities unite as OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, forms six new LegalXML committees to create standards for the electronic exchange of legal data. Backed by government agencies, lawyers, and vendors, the new working groups include: (1) OASIS LegalXML Integrated Justice Technical Committee, which will design XML specifications for exchanging data among justice system branches and agencies; (2) OASIS LegalXML eNotarization Technical Committee, which will develop an agreed set of technical requirements to govern self-proving electronic legal information; (3) OASIS LegalXML eContracts Technical Committee, which will advance XML standards to enable the efficient creation, maintenance, management, exchange and publication of contract documents and terms; (4) OASIS LegalXML Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee, which will develop specifications for the use of XML to create legal documents and to transmit legal documents between attorneys, litigants, courts, and other users of legal documents; and (5) OASIS LegalXML Legislative Documents, Citations, and Messaging Technical Committee, which will further develop open XML standards for the markup of legislative documents to allow the public to more easily participate in the democratic process by creating open, accessible legislative documents. (6) OASIS LegalXML Transcripts Technical Committee, which will design an XML-compliant syntax for representing legal transcript documents..."
[September 24, 2002] "Liberty Alliance Project Announces New Management Board President and New Members. Michael Barrett, American Express to Help Guide Progress of Growing Consortium - Now More than 120 Companies Strong." - "The Liberty Alliance Project, a business and technology consortium formed to develop open specifications for federated network identity, today announced that Michael Barrett, vice president for Internet strategy at American Express, has been elected the new president of the Liberty Alliance Management Board. Barrett previously served as vice president on the Liberty Management Board... Barrett will serve as president until the end of his term in December 2003. Other representatives on the Management Board leadership team include Ian Johnson, senior director of strategic technologies at Vodafone, who has taken over the role of Liberty Alliance vice president; Jim Hughes, director of software standards in Hewlett-Packard's Software Global Business Unit, Enterprise Systems Group and treasurer of the Liberty Alliance; and Bill Smith, director of Liberty Alliance technology for Sun Microsystems Inc. and secretary of the Liberty Alliance. The Liberty Alliance also announced today that membership and interest in the Alliance continues to grow, with 26 new companies joining the Alliance. The Liberty Alliance now consists of more than 120 for-profit, not-for-profit and government organizations... The Liberty Alliance Project is an alliance of more than 120 technology and consumer organizations formed to develop and deploy open, federated network identification specifications that support all current and emerging network devices in the digital economy. Federated identity will help drive the next generation of the Internet, offering businesses and consumers convenience and choice. Membership is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations..." See: (1) LA complete list of members; (2) "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."
[September 23, 2002] "Netegrity Ships SiteMinder 5.5 with SAML, Passport, and Kerberos Support. Enables Enterprises to Extend their Security Infrastructure with Federated Identity Services." - Netegrity, Inc., leading provider of application infrastructure for access, identity and portal management, today announced that Netegrity SiteMinder 5.5 is now shipping. SiteMinder 5.5 enables federated identity and security with support for SAML, Microsoft .Net Passport, and Kerberos. Federated security enables companies to standardize the sharing of identity information across applications within the enterprise as well as to partner companies outside of the enterprise. Federated security is key to enabling businesses to more easily and cost effectively leverage their partnerships in order to provide customers with seamless and personalized access across a network of connected services... Netegrity's federated security model enables companies to leverage a single unified authentication, single sign-on, authorization, and auditing model to provide shared security services, regardless of whether the application is hosted locally within the organization or remotely by a partner. This enables users to log in just once, using a broad range of authentication services. Netegrity is providing support for SAML, Passport and Kerberos in SiteMinder 5.5 to provide customers with a standards based approach to allowing authentication and identity information to be shared among multiple organizations and servers. SiteMinder 5.5 provides support for: (1) SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language): SiteMinder 5.5 enables a SiteMinder identity to be mapped to a SAML based identity. SiteMinder creates a SAML assertion for a user and makes it available to a partner site. Now, companies can securely exchange information about authenticated users without having to change their existing security infrastructures, reducing costs, creating more efficiencies, and providing a better user experience. (2) Microsoft .Net Passport: SiteMinder integration with Microsoft .NET Passport enables users to log-in just one time using their .NET Passport user name and password, and access all .NET Passport enabled Web sites as well as enterprise applications protected by SiteMinder and configured to trust Passport authentication. In addition, for more sensitive applications, companies can implement a policy that challenges users for additional credentials beyond their Passport identities. (3) Kerberos: With support for Kerberos, users are able to log into their Microsoft desktop using Windows credentials and are then provided with single sign-on to the SiteMinder protected environment, without having to sign on again. Now, an employee can log onto their desktop in the morning and gain access to the company's SiteMinder protected portal, without having to log on multiple times..." See: "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)."
[September 19, 2002] "Systinet Extends Web Services Support for Borland JBuilder and Eclipse. Systinet Wasp Developer Provides Point-and-click Web Services Creation for Java Developers. Is Among the First to Support the Latest Soap 1.2 Specification." - "Systinet, a leading independent provider of Web services infrastructure software, today announced the general availability of WASP (Web Applications and Services Platform) Developer for Borland JBuilder, 4.0 and WASP Developer for Eclipse, 4.0. WASP Developer 4.0 seamlessly extends these popular Java IDEs to enable the fast, easy creation, debugging and deployment of sophisticated SOAP Web services, and fully supports the latest SOAP 1.2 specification. The 4.0 release extends support to include the latest 7.0 release of Borland JBuilder and 2.0.1 release of Eclipse. Systinet is further encouraging adoption among developers by making WASP Developer 4.0 free for commercial use... WASP Developer is part of Systinet's WASP suite of products, which provides everything businesses need to build, deploy, secure and manage Web services. In addition to WASP Developer, the suite includes WASP Server for Java, WASP Server for C++, and WASP UDDI. WASP Server for Java was the recipient of an Analyst's Choice Award from eWEEK and was described as "the best and most sophisticated Web services offering for Java, and the one we recommend to Java developers" in the June 24 edition. WASP Developer provides a simple point-and-click code generation experience that can turn any existing Java application into a Web service. WASP Developer can automatically generate client-side code for an existing Web service, regardless of where it is running, the programming language in which it was developed, or the SOAP stack it uses. Developers can easily browse UDDI registries, select a Web service, import its WSDL file and generate client code. WASP Developer also includes SOAP Spy, an interactive message-tracking console that traces SOAP messages and allows arbitrary modification of any SOAP request. WASP Developer also supports instant deployment of Web services from within the IDE, and includes a runtime monitor that allows the developer to start and stop Web Services for testing purposes. Close integration with the UDDI registry ensures the synchronization of developed components within large development teams... Corporation Systinet provides Web services infrastructure software. Systinet's products make it easy for enterprises to build, deploy, secure and manage Web services. The Systinet WASP suite of products is based on industry-standards such as XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI. WASP products are available for Java and C++, interoperate seamlessly with other Web services implementations such as Microsoft .NET, and are portable across a wide variety of platforms and servers..."
[September 19, 2002] "Sun Announces the Sun Interoperability Prototype - Industry's First Identity Prototype for Developers. Offers 'Hands On' Experience to Accelerate Network Identity Application Development and Interoperability. Based on the Liberty Alliance v1.0 Specification." From SunNetwork 2002 Conference and Pavilion. "Continuing to deliver on its leadership in the network identity space and the momentum of Sun ONE, Sun Microsystems Inc., a founding member of the Liberty Alliance, today announced the availability of the Sun Interoperability Prototype based on the Liberty Alliance Specification (IPL). This prototype offering is designed for developers -- both enterprise customers and ISVs -- that want to build or test Liberty-enabled applications to manage and maintain their own identity management systems. Sun IPL is the first open community, Java technology-based implementation of the Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 specification. This prototype and the Liberty specification are based on open standards such as SAML 1.0, XML and SOAP. Sun IPL is available immediately for download. Today's announcement supports Sun's July unveiling of the first shipping, end-to-end network identity solution that addresses customers' needs for heightened security, privacy and federated identity management and that new products, services and support available are fully compliant with the Liberty Alliance version 1.0 specification. The availability of Sun IPL will help customers migrate to Liberty-compliant Sun ONE products such as the Sun ONE Identity Server 6.0. Interoperability and open, non-proprietary standards enable businesses and consumers to better manage their data and offer network identity-enabled services on their own business terms. Because a federated model removes the constraints of a single, centralized architecture, cross-platform information can be stored, managed and distributed easily... The Sun ONE Identity Server 6.0 provides a comprehensive identity management system that includes policy driven access management, identity administration, and directory services. the Sun ONE Identity Server 6 leverages industry standards such as SAML 1.0 (Security Assertions Markup Language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) as well as providing out-of-the-box support for the new Liberty Alliance Version 1.0 Specification. Other products in the Sun ONE portfolio will be Liberty-enabled over time, beginning with the award- winning Sun ONE Portal Server..." See: (1) Interoperability Prototype for Liberty; (2) "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."
[September 19, 2002] "Microsoft and AT&T Wireless to Demonstrate New Location-Based Services Product at DEMOmobile 2002. New Microsoft Enterprise Location Server Highlights Powerful Fusion of .NET Compact Framework, XML Web Services and the AT&T Wireless Next-Generation Wireless Network." - "Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Wireless demonstrated new location-based software, provisionally named Microsoft Enterprise Location Server, that brings together XML Web services, core Microsoft .NET technology and AT&T Wireless' Network to enable rich location-based services. The Microsoft Enterprise Location Server was developed as a part of the strategic alliance formed by the two companies in July. The two companies will demonstrate an application of the software at DEMOmobile 2002 being held at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines in La Jolla, September 19-20, 2002. The application is built on the .NET Compact Framework on a Windows Powered Pocket PC-based phone and uses XML Web services to integrate with the Microsoft Enterprise Location Server and AT&T Wireless' unique location capabilities to bring together MapPoint .NET information and real-time location data from AT&T Wireless. It combines the ability to locate colleagues with other functionality, such as the ability to obtain maps and driving directions, conduct proximity searches, and find destinations or points of interest, such as store or customer locations near one's own or a colleague's position, boosting mobile worker connectivity and efficiency and enabling a range of powerful new scenarios in areas such as field sales and service. 'The Microsoft Enterprise Location Server is a significant example of the powerful possibilities that emerge when great software and great carriers come together,' said Tom Button, vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft. 'Mobile workers, their companies and application developers are quickly discovering that XML Web services, smart devices, high-speed wireless networks and Microsoft .NET technologies such as the .NET Compact Framework and MapPoint .NET are powerful building blocks on which to deliver valuable mobile solutions and increased return on investment.' The .NET Compact Framework is Microsoft's developer platform for building smart mobile applications that consume XML Web services. The .NET Compact Framework is tightly integrated with Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft's flagship programming tool, meaning that developers have a consistent platform and interface for developing applications that range from the largest servers to the smallest devices. MapPoint .NET is the Microsoft platform for mobile location-based services that enables developers to integrate location intelligence and mapping capabilities into consumer and enterprise mobile applications..."
[September 18, 2002] "The WfMC Heralds BPEL4WS Standards for Business Process Management Industry." - "The Workflow ManagementCoalition (WfMC) is pleased to note the activity of major vendors such as IBM and Microsoft in the development of process definition languages and tools that are critical to workflow and other system technologies. Both IBM and Microsoft are funding members of the WfMC and were early contributors to the workflow standards including those involving process definition. The recently announced Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) is a platform for executing business processes so that they can be more easily reused and integrated with other processes. The specification enables simple execution of such processes in a web services environment. The first review of BPEL4WS suggests that the proposal is compatible with IBM and Microsoft products and therefore the proposed standard may receive de-facto support through adoption of these vendors' products. It is also apparent that almost all the features of BPEL4WS are already represented in the WfMC XPDL specification. However, there are numerous additional capabilities in the WfMC standards, such as Wf-XML, which is the process execution standard, that were not found in the specification announced by Microsoft and IBM... The WfMC has identified five functional interfaces to a workflow service as part of its standardization program. The XPDL (XML Process Definition Language) specification forms part of the documentation relating to 'Interface one' -- supporting Process Definition Import and Export. This interface includes a common meta-model for describing the process definition (this specification) and also an XML schema for the interchange of process definitions. The WfMC is committed to support the users of workflow technology for all purposes. Workflow has evolved to move work between organizations including those in separate enterprises, beyond its initial role of managing the distribution of work between people. The Coalition focuses on both the function and content of those communications as well as the tools and languages (such as XML). Work will continue on the Coalition standards as well as liaison with organizations working in related technology areas such as BPMI (collaboration announced in June 2002). The WfMC will continue to be sensitive to the wider needs of the industry and if the new BPEL4WS facilities become a significant industry direction, the Coalition will extend its focus to include that approach..." See: (1) "Workflow Management Coalition Publishes XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) Beta"; (2) "XML-Based Workflow and Process Management Standards: XPDL, Wf-XML"; (3) "Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS)."
[September 18, 2002] "IBM Unveils Industry's First Software for Secure Web Services. Websphere and Tivoli Software Enable Businesses to Securely Extend Web Services Applications to Business Partners, Customers, Suppliers." - "IBM today announced the industry's first software that will help organizations more rapidly build secure business relationships with other organizations using Web Services applications. The new software... will support key industry standards for Web Services security, such as the WS-Security specification, which IBM co-authored. As a result, businesses will now be able to develop Web Services applications that are secured beyond the firewall -- meaning they can facilitate secure transactions with partners in their supply chain, regardless of the Web services or security technologies used by other partners. Specifically, IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 5 will support WS-Security in the fourth quarter and in IBM Tivoli Access Manager, early next year. This specification defines a standard set of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) extensions, that can be used to provide integrity and confidentiality in Web services applications. IBM is developing the first comprehensive open-standards based Web services infrastructure that extends enterprise-class security capabilities to Web services deployments running on a variety of platforms. New features across the WebSphere and Tivoli software portfolio can help IBM customers automate the process of extending customer and partner-facing Web services applications to more organizations and users, helping reduce the reliance on proprietary technologies and costly manual integration. IBM also plans to support new federated identity management capabilities in its WebSphere and Tivoli software to provide a way for Web services and enterprise applications to share identity information across multiple networks, helping businesses extend market reach by securely integrating with suppliers, partners and customers. IBM Tivoli Access Manager will feature new federated identity management interfaces that enable customers to plug in support for identity standards. This next release, scheduled for November, will initially feature out-of-the box support for the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS). IBM plans to extend this capability to include support for various identity standards such as the Security Assertions Markup Language (SAML), Kerberos, XML Digital Signatures, and other security tokens formats as they mature in standards organizations. Additionally, IBM will support secure token management, trust brokering, integrated identity mapping and credential mapping services..." See: (1) "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)"; (2) "XML Key Management Specification (XKMS)."
[September 17, 2002] "Birdstep Technology Announces True Native XML Embeddable Database for Mobile Applications. Company Also Releases New Version of RDM Mobile Database." - "Birdstep Technology Inc. today introduced its first true native XML database, RDM XML, which supports both Java and C++ programming languages. The company also released version 2.0 of its RDM Mobile embeddable database, which includes native C++ and Java interfaces and is ideal for applications with high performance requirements or extremely limited storage capabilities. Both products offer full-bodied database functionality in a small footprint using an architecture based on the object-oriented internal structure and COM-based programming interfaces. The architecture is optimized to handle hierarchical data, which meets the requirements of XML data representation... RDM XML provides interfaces, such as SAX, DOM and XPATH, for storage and retrieval of data. It also implements the emerging DOM/XPATH integration standard supported by the WWW Consortium (W3C). New features of RDM Mobile include the regular expressions tool for evaluating arbitrary expressions and matching string attribute data, and casual attributes for unstructured XML documents. The optional transaction handling module keeps the database consistent by using a transaction log and allows a transaction to be aborted through a user call. RDM Mobile 2.0 database engine is approximately 175 kB on the Win32 platform. The size can be reduced to 150 kB by removing the transaction handling feature. The complete XML package includes full DOM, XPATH and SAX export functionality and adds 215kB to the RDM Mobile engine. The optional XML parser and SAX file import DLL comprise an additional 150kB. Both databases are deployed with the developer's application, giving the developer control and predictability over the application's data management. Customers include Navara Ltd. and Software AG. RDM XML and RDM Mobile are also embedded in Birdstep's own wireless products, IP Zone server and Mobile IP client software..."
[September 17, 2002] "CambridgeDocs Addresses Need for XML Content Integration with New Backbone Strategy and Future Products. Multi-billion dollar markets including Content Management, Document Management, Enterprise Information Portals, and Web Services intersect content integration using XML technology." - "As an initial step to its entry into the fast-growing market for XML content integration software, CambridgeDocs today disclosed details on the company's long-term product and architectural strategy, the XML Content Backbone. The company will focus on unstructured content such as that contained in Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, plain text and HTML documents, accounting for a significant percentage of the legacy content found in large organizations... CambridgeDocs will be developing products towards a long-term strategy that it calls the XML Content Backbone. Conceptually speaking, the XML Content Backbone is a software product platform that will serve to integrate the unstructured content from disparate systems across the enterprise and from the extended enterprise. The XML Content Backbone will be able to migrate, integrate, route, and assemble content from document management systems, content management systems, groupware systems, desktop applications, and publishing systems using any industry XML standard such as DocBook, RIXML, HR-XML, NewsML, LegalXML or any custom application XML schema. The XML Content Backbone will achieve this integration by first converting all types of unstructured content to 'meaningful' XML to get on the backbone. These 'packets of content' can then be routed and delivered to repositories for migration, for syndication, for publication, and for Web Services... The CambridgeDocs mission is to develop a coherent XML Content Backbone for bringing order to the 'content chaos' that exists in most organizations. CambridgeDocs products allow for interoperability of content that was created in different formats by utilizing newly emerging XML standards. Founded in January 2002 as XYZ Technologies Inc., the company is lead by a team of experienced entrepreneurs with extensive backgrounds in managing documents and unstructured corporate data in government, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense and education/e-learning..."
[September 17, 2002] "French Staffing Leaders Endorse HR-XML's Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards." - "France's leading staffing firms today signaled their support for Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES), a set of open data exchange standards developed by the HR-XML Consortium, an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to creating standards for human resources management. Executives from Adecco, Adia, Groupe Expectra, Kelly, Manpower, and VediorBis released a letter endorsing SIDES and announcing the intent of their companies to work within the HR-XML Consortium to develop extensions reflecting business practices and legal requirements within the French staffing industry. SIDES is a comprehensive suite of data exchange standards that offers streamlined communications between staffing customers and suppliers as well as improved accuracy and timeliness of invoicing. In the endorsement letter, the French staffing leaders also called upon their information technology suppliers and partners to similarly support SIDES within their software and service offerings... The SIDES specification defines a common vocabulary for staffing data exchanges and provides a rich and customizable set of options to fit a wide variety of needs." Announcement also in in French. See "Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES)"
[September 16, 2002] "Republica Releases X-Fetch Performer 2.1, Accelerating XML Application Development." - "Republica is proud to announce the release of its improved real-time XML processor X-Fetch Performer 2.1, making X-Fetch Performer one of the most advanced XML processing technologies currently available while further reducing the required implementation and maintenance effort to a minimum. X-Fetch Performer is a leading edge, run-time configurable solution for parsing and validating data from XML sources and forwarding this data to software components that can remain completely independent of the XML standard. X-Fetch Performer is especially focused at XML application developers, designed to overcome the high maintenance demands as well as the performance problems associated with currently wide-spread SAX and DOM parsers: the lack of speed of these solutions and the inability of these solutions to process large XML files or continuous XML streams -- both in XML parsing and XML Transformations. The data streaming capabilities of X-Fetch Performer provide local random access to XML data: critical information contained in an XML document can be directly applied without having to load the entire document. Furthermore, a low and constant memory usage is guaranteed, resulting in the ability to process huge XML files, even continuous XML streams in real-time. With XPath-based configuration and configurable streaming as well as allowing software logic to be independent of the XML standard via data binding, the maintenance and implementation effort is now reduced to a minimum. X-Fetch Performer allows solutions to be modular and ready to react to changes in their environment. This leads to drastic cost reductions for applications that need to leverage - filter, order and route - XML content in a time-critical manner. All this combined with compatibility with SAX and DOM solutions makes X-Fetch Performer an ideal tool for the enhanced reuse of existing and tested software components and offers clear benefits to support rapid, low-maintenance/fast-implementation XML application development..."
[September 16, 2002] "Modulant Forms Industry Solutions Center to Solve Data Standards Entanglement Problem. Leverages Advanced Model-Based Mapping Technology to Bridge Chasm Among Popular Standard Data Vocabularies." - "Modulant, a leading provider of semantics-based interoperability solutions, today announced the formation of an Industry Solutions Center - a strategic group dedicated to establishing interoperability among leading standard data vocabularies. Modulant has created the Industry Solutions Center to address a long-standing challenge in the IT community: how to reconcile the use of disparate, competitive data standards for business exchanges. The group's charter is to create cross-platform mappings that bridge diverse data vocabularies among a wide range of standards. Initially, Modulant will leverage its deep expertise in the area of collaborative commerce and product lifecycle data management to unite standard formats such as ebXML, STEP, OAG, EDIFACT, X12, and RosettaNet into a common framework for data-level interoperability. Product data standards, in particular, have evolved into a bewildering assortment of non-interoperable formats and data definitions due to the high degree of fragmentation, constantly evolving baseline, lack of widespread agreement on a common vocabulary, and ensuing proliferation of 'standard' hybrids to accommodate local vocabulary variations... Modulant is the leading provider of semantics-based interoperability solutions that improve the speed, success rate, and ROI of integration efforts along the product value chain. Fundamentally different from traditional integration approaches, Modulant's semantic mapping, modeling, and mediation capabilities enable product lifecycle management (PLM) applications to exchange information with other applications across the extended enterprise - without requiring agreement on standard data vocabularies or custom coding of data transformations. Modulant's unique semantic mediation approach creates a loosely-coupled, scalable, and highly-adaptable interoperability framework that enables companies to significantly improve efficiency, agility, and collaboration capabilities throughout the product lifecycle -- from development through sourcing, production, and distribution..." ['The Modulant Contextia Interoperability Workbench uses a model-driven approach to capture and formalize the meaning, relationships, and contexts of domain information. Models and mapping specifications for all source and target systems are described in XML and stored in a repository for execution. The Modulant Contextia Interoperability Server uses the mapping specifications to perform run-time data transformations while preserving the underlying semantics. Graphical tools enable users to easily administer and maintain mapping specifications and run-time executions.']
[September 16, 2002] "Context Media Pledges Support for PRISM. Context Media Reaffirms Commitment to Key Industry Open Standards Initiatives." - "Context Media, Inc. today announced further commitment to the adoption of open standards for managing enterprise content through its support for PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata). The goal of open standards initiatives like PRISM is to provide customers with the freedom of choice to take advantage of multi-vendor, interoperable enterprise content management solutions. PRISM is a key industry initiative hosted by IDEAlliance and sponsored by a group of companies who have an interest in creating and using a common metadata standard as a basic part of the content infrastructure. PRISM metadata helps automate the flow of content by providing information about the content being exchanged, including rights information, content indexes, creation and publication dates, and how specific pieces of content relate to other content. The PRISM vocabulary makes it possible for publishers to efficiently repurpose content; improve search precision for querying and data mining; automate globalization; improve process control and automation; and facilitate the management of rights and permissions. Context Media's Interchange Suite has given enterprises the opportunity to take advantage of the full value of their content without disrupting their current workflow or replacing their current content/asset management infrastructure. Through the Interchange's foundation in open standards and XML based technologies, its extensible schema can incorporate the PRISM vocabulary in order to provide publishers with the specific tools they need to execute their crucial daily business activities. Through the Suite's tools, enterprises can quickly locate assets based on PRISM criteria, such as an item's presentation type, subject, creation date, or whether or not the organization has the necessary rights to reuse the content. Once the desired assets are identified, they can be made available to the appropriate individuals or departments to be efficiently and confidently repurposed or redistributed..." See: "Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM)."
[September 16, 2002] "Altova Inc. Releases New Product Line of XML Tools to Accelerate XML Adoption in the Enterprise. Powerful New Product Line of XML Editing Tools to Satisfy Unique Needs of Developers, Web Designers and Business Users." - "Altova, Inc., producer of XMLSPY, the world's leading XML development tool with over 600,000 registered users and 90% of the market share, announced today the release of a new product line consisting of easy-to-use software tools to facilitate and advance the adoption of XML technologies. Presently, XML technologies are recognized as an important aspect of systems integration, electronic commerce, and Web Services applications. In order to maximize software developer productivity, corporate information reuse, and the adoption of XML for use in conjunction with web applications; Altova is pleased to announce the availability of three new XML tools -- XMLSPY 5, AUTHENTIC 5, and STYLEVISION 5. XMLSPY 5 is the industry standard XML Development Environment for designing, editing, and debugging enterprise-class applications that involve XML, XML Schema, XSL/XSLT, SOAP, WSDL and Web service technologies. XMLSPY 5 is a necessary productivity tool for J2EE, Microsoft .NET, and database developers. AUTHENTIC 5 is a standards-based, browser-enabled document editor that allows business users to seamlessly capture thoughts and ideas directly in XML format. This can then be saved for later retrieval or transformation to any content management system, database, or XML repository for subsequent retrieval and transformation, unlocking corporate knowledge. AUTHENTIC 5 is ideally suited as an editing component for use in building document frameworks; which are standard-based, XML Schema-driven document and content management systems that empower business users to create, manage, search, and publish content for multiple audiences or devices across an enterprise. AUTHENTIC 5 fully supports all popular server repositories, including Oracle9iR2, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Software AG's Tamino Server, and other leading content management or XML databases. STYLEVISION 5 is a radical new XML tool for web developers that provides powerful conversion utilities for painless migration of traditional HTML websites to advanced XML-based sites in full compliance with new Internet standards: XML, XSLT & XML Schema. Stylevision is the only Web developer tool to support HTML Importing, the process by which any traditional HTML page is distilled and separated into three files: an XSLT stylesheet for presentation, an XML Schema (or DTD) that defines the page's content model, and the XML document that contains the page's content itself. Through a visual drag-and-drop interface, a user can separate a page's presentation from content by highlighting content from an existing HTML file, dragging it across the screen, and then assigning it to a content model. Conversion of HTML based websites to XML will facilitate the internationalization, searching, and indexing of billions of documents on the web...." See additional references in the news item.
[September 14, 2002] "CDC Solutions Launches Complete eCTD Solution to Manage The Entire Regulatory Submission Lifecycle. Sophisticated eCTD Solution Unveiled at Momentum 2002 in Orlando, FL." - "CDC Solutions Ltd., leading global provider of document-based solutions to the life sciences industries, today launches a complete solution to accommodate life sciences organizations in meeting the challenge of managing and publishing regulatory submissions according to the emerging specifications of the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD). Unveiled for clients, partners, and potential customers at Momentum 2002, CDC's sophisticated eCTD solution solves the mission-critical steps in managing the entire submission life cycle while providing the ability to quickly adapt to change as the eCTD format evolves in the future. Included in the EZsubs Submission Manager, the eCTD solution is designed with an advanced architecture and unmatched flexibility that leverages the proven technology of EZsubs to help ensure organizations meet the regional and International Conference on Harmonization's (ICH) eCTD specifications. The eCTD is part of the ICH initiative to provide a common format for industry to agency transfer of regulatory information that is acceptable across the ICH regions of the United States, Japan, and the European Union. This initiative is part of the primary ICH goal to facilitate a more economical use of human, animal, and material resources, and the elimination of unnecessary delay in the global development and availability of new medicines... The eCTD introduces the use of an 'XML backbone' as a new way of approaching electronic submissions which benefits both sponsor organizations and agencies by providing the mechanism to record all interactions and highlighting changes between submissions. CDC's eCTD solution provides not only an easy to use XML generator, but all the functionality necessary to map the life-cycle of the product to the related documentation through the organizations' content management system. The eCTD solution works with CDC Solutions' Xref manager to provide advanced cross referencing at the author level allowing users to insert, manage, and maintain cross references as documentation changes with continued product development...." See: "Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) for Pharmaceuticals."
[September 13, 2002] "CECID Donates MSH Code to ebXML Development Community." - "Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID), Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS), The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to announce its code base donation of a Message Service Handler (MSH) implementation, coined Hermes, to the ebXML development community. This open-source project is hosted at www.freebxml.org and released under the Academic Free License that permits royalty free use of the source and binaries. Developers are encouraged to download Hermes for further development. Hermes is a Message Service Handler (MSH) implementation that is in compliance with the OASIS ebXML Message Service (ebMS V2) Standard. In addition, it is the first open source MSH to use RDBMS persistent storage to implement advanced ebMS features like reliable messaging. ebMS is a key component in the ebXML technical architecture. It utilizes SOAP, Internet transport protocols (e.g., HTTP and SMTP), and other security standards (e.g., XML Signature) to provide a standardized, reliable, and secure infrastructure for enterprises to exchange messages. Hermes supports secure messaging functions through widely-adopted Internet security technologies, such as XML Signature, SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and S/MIME (Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). It has also implemented reliable delivery features defined in ebMS Standard to ensure the exchanged message is received and intact. The feature list of Hermes includes message packaging, reliable messaging, message ordering, error handling, security, synchronous reply, message status service, and RDBMS persistent storage. Hermes also supports transport protocols, such as HTTP and SMTP, to suit different needs of large and small enterprises, and different business requirements. Currently, it is being prepared for the Drummond Goup's Interoperability Conformance Test. Hermes has been implemented by developers at CECID under the auspices of Project Phoenix. Project Phoenix is primarily sponsored by the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Government. Hermes is donated to the ebXML development community and released under the Academic Free License..." See details in the news item "freebXML Initiative Supports Open Source ebXML Implementations: Message Service Handler (MSH) and Registry/Repository."
[September 14, 2002] "Chutney Technologies Eliminates Web Services Bottlenecks with New Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP." - "Chutney Technologies, Inc., pioneer and leader of the Application Optimization market, today [2002-09-09] announced the availability of Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), a software product that accelerates the deployment and minimizes the capital and operational costs of Web services projects. The product can eliminate 100% of the overhead in a Web services transaction, ensuring that Web services-enabled applications deliver a superior quality-of-service to users while not overburdening server and network resources. With the addition of Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP to its existing product family, Chutney is now the first company to offer software solutions for optimizing every layer of an enterprise application architecture. 'Web services promise to revolutionize the way that software components are developed, integrated and accessed,' said Michael Hoch, Senior Analyst, Internet Infrastructure at Aberdeen Group. 'However, early deployments of Web services are causing user frustration and infrastructure strain due to the constraints of the very standards upon which they are built, such as XML and SOAP. To avoid these problems, enterprises should include application optimization solutions as the Web services are deployed. Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP is the first solution I've seen that addresses these challenges, and will help make Web services a viable model for today's enterprise applications.' Though vital to the Web services model, the SOAP protocol is a prime source of overhead. Every Web services transaction involves wrapping the request and response into a SOAP message, extracting the request and response from a SOAP message, and exchanging SOAP messages over a network. Additionally, there are processing and I/O operations that must be performed by the Web service itself to generate a response, injecting further delays into the process. Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP provides the absolute fastest means for completing a Web services transaction, by eliminating the need to perform the usual sequence of steps. The product is fully and seamlessly interoperable with the leading SOAP implementations, including Microsoft SOAP toolkit and Apache SOAP, so it can be implemented very quickly with no code modification. Underlying Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP is patent-pending technology that delivers the already-known output of a Web service call to the requesting application directly from a locally-resident storage engine. The normally-required SOAP messaging operations, Web service processing and I/O tasks, and network transmissions are thus bypassed for each call invocation. As a result of this 'smart shortcut', Chutney Apptimizer for SOAP reduces user response times, increases active user loads, and offloads server, network, and database resources..." See "Speeding Up SOAP," by James R. Borck.
[September 10, 2002] "PRISM Gains Traction and Announces Companion Specifications. Working Group Members Hearst, LexisNexis, Time Inc. and Others Develop Standardized Markup to Automate Common Publishing and Content Processes." - Members of PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata), an IDEAlliance Working Group, today announced they have expanded the group's scope by creating standardized XML DTDs (document type definitions) based on the PRISM standard. The new DTDs will address common content applications faced by publishers and aggregators, and are designed to help lower costs by providing a single format for all organizations to maintain. In addition, having a standardized XML format lowers the entry point for smaller organizations that can now send their content to aggregators who plan to implement the DTDs to receive content from larger publishers. Lastly, providing the articles in XML offers more capability, since organizations will now be able to markup their content in new ways. 'This is excellent news for PRISM and demonstrates the tremendous value provided by having a consistent language for publishers and other content providers,' said Amre Youssef, Director of Publishing Technologies at Hearst Magazines. 'This also broadens the applicability of PRISM metadata to the industry as a whole.' The DTDs are being developed to enable members of the Working Group, as well as other companies wishing to adopt PRISM, to more easily implement the specifications. The PRISM Group's goal is to address critical, yet common business workflow problems for content companies by providing XML DTDs that combine PRISM metadata with specific types of content markup. As part of today's announcement, the PRISM Group will be making available this month an XML DTD for describing magazine article content to enable automated delivery to aggregators and other companies. The DTD extends PRISM metadata with markup to describe article content such as paragraph headings, photographs and sub-headings. 'By enabling the delivery of detailed information in a consistent format, the new DTD allows publishers and other content-related companies to better communicate with a broader range of partners who are just now standardizing on XML,' said Ron Daniel Jr., Principal of Taxonomy Strategies and editor of the PRISM specification. 'Having a standardized format describing magazine article content will cut the costs associated with aggregating content, while the use of PRISM and XML provides greater capabilities for publishers.' 'Companies like ours manage content from a large number of sources,' said Chet Ensign, Sr. Director of Architecture & Development Services at LexisNexis. 'Today, we receive metadata in as many different formats as content. We believe the PRISM standard, by providing a standard metadata vocabulary, can help us streamline our processes significantly.' Since its establishment in 1999, the PRISM Working Group has grown and diversified. Publishers such as Hachette, McGraw-Hill and Time Inc. are now joined by newer members such as Hearst Magazines, Gruner + Jahr, Lippincott, Reed Business Information US, and LexisNexis. Marketing professionals, application providers, linguists, publishers, content aggregators, standards architects and developers have joined to take advantage of the standard's ability to help them automate and manage their content workflow process, while jointly developing specifications that work for all content..." See: "Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM)."
[September 10, 2002] "Documentum Delivers Major New Release of Market Leading Enterpise Content Management Platform: Documentum 5. Extends ECM with Next-Generation Capabilities Including Reports Management, Records Management, Collaboration, Trusted Content Services and Rapid Deployment." - "Documentum, a leading provider of enterprise content management (ECM), today announced Documentum 5, the latest version of its award-winning ECM platform. The platform was unveiled at Momentum, Documentum's Worldwide User Conference, to more than 1500 customers and partners. Based on extensive input from Documentum customers and partners, the platform offers: (1) Enhanced usability and deployability to enable widespread adoption of content management; (2) Expanded enterprise collaboration that can be extended to any business process; (3) Fixed content management, to manage images, reports and records; (4) Advanced trust, security and compliance services to provide unmatched protection of content assets; (5) An open, standards-based development environment for easy application development. Documentum 5 is the only ECM solution that offers unified content services for enterprise document management (EDM), web content management (WCM), digital asset management (DAM) and now fixed content management (FCM) -- records, reports and scanned images -- in a single, integrated platform. Unlike other content management solutions that support limited content types, Documentum 5 delivers fully integrated content management services and an integrated repository for all types of content, across the entire extended enterprise... Documentum 5 adds fixed content management capabilities to the Documentum platform, including new services for enterprise reports management, records management and production-level scanning and imaging. Reports management, commonly referred to as Output Management, captures and stores reports from enterprise applications in the Documentum repository in PDF or XML and distributes them through Documentum's web publishing capabilities, giving users access to reports via web sites or portals. With new records management capabilities, organizations can apply automated retention and destruction policies to any type of content beyond its active life..." See details in the product datasheet.
[September 10, 2002] "OASIS Members to Develop Web Services Management Protocol." - "Members of the OASIS standards consortium have formed a technical committee to facilitate distributed systems management over the Internet. The work of the new OASIS Management Protocol Technical Committee will enable businesses to manage their own Web services and oversee their interaction with services offered by other companies. The OASIS Management Protocol will be designed to manage desktops, services, and networks across an enterprise or Internet environment. 'The widespread need for the integration of systems and network management tools is causing the industry to take a more holistic approach to the management of networks -- and Web services provide the ideal vehicle for making that happen,' explained Winston Bumpus of Novell, chair of the OASIS Management Protocol Technical Committee. 'Our work at OASIS will help level the playing field and allow companies to manage systems regardless of the platform they use.' OASIS is reviewing a number of Web services standards and operations for potential use in the Management Protocol, including XML, SOAP, Open Model Interface (OMI), and the Distributed Management Task Force's Common Information Model (CIM). The Management Protocol joins several Web services standards currently being developed within OASIS. Other specifications include UDDI for discovery, ebXML for electronic business commerce, WS-Security for secure Web services, WSIA for interactive Web applications, WSRP for remote portals, and others..." See "Management Protocol Specification."
[September 05, 2002] "Popkin Software to Offer Integrated Support for Release 1.0 of Business Process Modeling Language (BPML). New Standard Offers Transactional and Collaborative Business Process Modeling." - Popkin Software, a leading developer of enterprise modeling tools, today announced full, integrated support for the first public draft 1.0 of the Business Process Modeling Language (BPML 1.0) in its flagship enterprise modeling tool, System Architect. Created under the auspices of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) within which Popkin is a leading author, the new BPML standard provides a formal model for modeling executable end-to-end business processes that address all aspects of enterprise business processes. The new BPML standard also offers support for XML Schema-based process definitions for streamlining communications among the heterogeneous systems and modeling tools used in Web services... Popkin's System Architect enterprise modeling suite will offer integrated support for the BPMI standard in a future release. This follows an announcement last August by Popkin, Casewise and Computer Sciences Corporation about a joint effort to produce and support a standard business process modeling notation (BPMN) under the umbrella of BPMI.org. The first draft release of BPML 1.0 includes early facets of the BPMN. The BPML 1.0 specification is available royalty free for download from BPMI.org's web site...." See also (1) "Business Process Modeling Language (BPML)"; (2) the August 2002 BPMI.org white paper "BPML | BPEL4WS: A Convergence Path toward a Standard BPM Stack."
[September 05, 2002] "ebXML Messaging Service Specification Approved As OASIS Standard." - "ebXML Messaging Service Specification version 2.0 has become the newest OASIS Standard, successfully completing a recent election by the consortium's membership at-large. The ebXML Messaging Service standard, which provides a secure method for exchanging electronic business transactions using the Internet, carries forward work initiated by OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT)... To attain status as an OASIS Standard, ebXML Messaging Service v2 was first approved by its development team as an OASIS Committee Specification. After being implemented by a minimum of three organizations, it then underwent a 90-day open review, before the final balloting of OASIS members... ebXML Messaging is one of a suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. ebXML Messaging Service v2 joins two other ebXML specifications that were recently approved as OASIS Standards, ebXML Registry Service (RS) v2 and ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) v2. The ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA) has completed the first-level of OASIS approval process as an OASIS Committee Specification. Development of ebXML specifications for Business Process and Core Component work continue with the UN/CEFACT process. ebXML Messaging Service v2 was developed by Commerce One, Cyclone Commerce, eXcelon, Fujitsu, GE Global Exchange, IBM, Intel, Mercator, SAP, SeeBeyond, Sonic Software, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, webMethods, and other OASIS Contributor and Individual members..." See: "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
[September 04, 2002] "Cape Clear Software Releases Free WSDL Editor to Support Web Services Programming." - "Cape Clear Software, a leading provider of Web Services technology, today released a free graphical WSDL Editor for programmers interested in working with Web Services. The Cape Clear WSDL Editor delivers the first complete environment for rapid Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) development. It supports novice programmers, while also providing sophisticated features for more experienced Web Services developers. The WSDL Editor includes powerful wizards that eliminate the complexity of WSDL, as well as WSDL validation, which simplifies testing, and support for the rapid creation of Web Services from XML Schema. 'The WSDL Editor is to Web Services development what WYSIWYG HTML editors were to Web page development,' according to John Maughan, business manager for CapeStudio at Cape Clear Software. 'It offers an intuitive graphical environment for the design of Web Services and, in particular, assists developers who wish to create Web Services from existing XML interfaces such as SWIFT, ACORD, BAPI, and RosettaNet. Many developers are struggling with the complexities of WSDL; the WSDL Editor is designed to help them out.' [...] Cape Clear Software has one focus: creating Web Services technology that reduces the business costs of software development and integration. CapeConnect is a Web Services based platform for enterprise integration that is simple, fast, and cost-effective to deploy and maintain. CapeStudio is an integrated Web Services development environment, simplifying design, development, integration, and deployment of Web Services applications using XML, WSDL, and UDDI. Cape Clear's products link packaged business applications, such as ERP and CRM, and diverse technologies, such as Java, J2EE, CORBA, and Microsoft .NET, across intranets and the Internet. Founded in 1999, Cape Clear is a privately held firm with offices in Dublin, London, California, Colorado and Massachusetts." See: (1) the news item "Cape Clear Software Releases Free WSDL Editor Graphical Tool"; (2) "Web Services Description Language (WSDL)."
[September 03, 2002] "Reactivity Joins WS-I and OASIS to Help Define Security Standards. Thought Leader in Application Security Contributes to Standards Bodies." - "Reactivity, Inc., a provider of software products that secure XML-based integration, today announced it has joined the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). As a member of these international standards-setting organizations, Reactivity will help define XML-based security standards and develop tools to ensure standards compliance and interoperability among Web services and other applications. Reactivity is participating in the WS-I special interest working group on application security, developing testing tools to assess the interoperability and assist in the implementation of products based on WS-I recommendations. Reactivity is contributing its security expertise to the development of the WS-I's Basic Profile and its security recommendations and interoperability roadmap. Reactivity executives are also active participants in OASIS teams chartered to further the development of the WS-Security standard and the specifications for XML-Signature and XML-Encryption... The WS-I is an open standards body chartered to promote interoperability among Web services based on common, industry-accepted definitions and related XML standards support. It works across the industry and with other standards organizations to respond to customer needs by providing guidance, best practices and resources for developing Web services solutions. The work of OASIS complements that of the WS-I and other standards bodies with a charter to make standards easy to adopt in open system applications. As an industry consortium, OASIS does not create new standards, but drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business standards including XML, Web services and security... Reactivity provides software products that secure XML-based integration. The company's flagship product, the Reactivity Service Firewall, reduces the risks associated with integrating applications by systematically securing and monitoring messages between business partners, internal organizations and customers. By decoupling security from application development, Reactivity eliminates the need for time-consuming, expensive and inflexible custom coding of individual applications. The company is targeting Fortune 2000 enterprise customers in select vertical markets that leverage XML and Web services to integrate applications..."
[September 03, 2002] "Insurance Services Office Launches Industry's First XML-Enabled Personal Injury Claims Management Solution." - "Insurance Services Office (ISO), a leading provider of insurance claims services and information about property and liability risk, has enhanced its Claims Outcome Advisor (COA) application to provide the industry's first XML-enabled personal injury claims management solution. COA now easily integrates directly with third=party systems, such as insurers' in-house claims administration databases, and with claims management workflow systems. This enables the automatic transfer of information to improve speed and accuracy of claims management, streamlining claims handling processes and facilitating best practice on every claim. Already in use in the U.S. insurance market, COA's integration capabilities use the universal, platform-independent XML (Extensible Markup Language) format to enable a two-way flow of data between third-party applications and COA's personal injury claims database. This ensures synchronization of data and elimination of error-prone and time-consuming rekeying of data. The XML format streamlines claims management processes by integrating COA directly with in-house claims administration systems in which insurers store core claims information, such as claimant's name, address and date of loss. COA can also integrate closely with other XML-compatible third-party databases, including those of the Compensation Recovery Unit as well as fraud databases... "The incorporation of XML-based integration and workflow tools into our Claims Outcome Advisor solution is a clear demonstration of ISO again taking the technology leadership in personal injury claims management," said David Smart, business development director of ISO. "These enhancements to COA will streamline claims management processes and facilitate best practice, enabling insurance companies to improve customer service and enhance visibility of their business processes..." ISO's Claims Outcome Advisor (COA) solution, supplied by its wholly owned subsidiary, ISO Claims Services, Inc., is the industry's first personal injury claims management solution that manages the multiple dimensions of insurance companies' personal injury claims portfolios. COA understands the severity and recovery implications of over 20,000 medical conditions, including injuries, treatments, complications and pre existing conditions, and 14,000 occupations..."
[August 30, 2002] "HL7, SWIFT, VCA, and e.centre Join OASIS UBL Liaisons." - "Data standards organizations representing health care, banking, prescription eyewear, and supply chain management have become the latest industry groups to appoint representatives to the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee. HL7, SWIFT, VCA, and e.centre join liaisons from a broad group of industry standards organizations in the subcommittee that provides guidance to UBL, the initiative to define standard XML business forms for electronic commerce... [1] Health Level Seven, Inc. is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited Standards Development Organization (SDO) dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. [2] SWIFT is the industry-owned cooperative supplying secure messaging services and interface software to 7,000 financial institutions in 197 countries. [3] Vision Council of America is the U.S. prescription eyewear trade association representing 2,000 supplier companies and 80 leading manufacturers. [4] e.centre is an independent, not-for-profit association providing guidance and support for its 16,000+ members on supply chain efficiency through the use of the EAN.UCC System for bar coding and business-to-business communications such as EDI (electronic data interchange)... Organizations that have already appointed liaisons to UBL include: ACORD, representing the insurance industry; ARTS, representing retail sales; ASC X12 and the UN/EDIFACT Working Group, representing U.S. and international EDI standards; EIDX, representing the electronics industry; NACS, representing convenience stores; RosettaNet, the information technology consortium; and XBRL, the accounting industry standards organization. UBL liaisons provide input to UBL and coordinate the review of standard XML business schemas as they become publicly available. Information about the UBL Liaison Subcommittee and its members can be found on the LSC web page. 'Input from industry data exchange organizations ensures that UBL reflects the needs of the marketplace,' said Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, chair of the OASIS UBL Technical Committee and organizer of the working group that created XML. 'Our goal of defining a common XML library for basic business documents like purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices crosses all industries. Contributing to the development of our library of UBL schemas allows industry groups to pool their resources in the design of common business documents and to focus their special expertise on the development of XML schemas for the documents that are specific to their own domain'." See: "Universal Business Language (UBL)."
[August 29, 2002] "Open Mobile Alliance Announces First Milestones. OMA Unveils First Specifications For Public Review While Increasing Membership And Defining Organizational Structure." - "The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), committed to driving open standards and interoperable mobile services across the world, today announced the first milestones since its launch in June this year. Demonstrating the alliance's positive momentum, this progress includes the release of the first specifications for public review, increased membership and a new organizational structure. OMA just released the OMA Download Feature Set for public review. The OMA Download Feature Set, comprised of five specifications, will enable the distribution and download of content to mobile terminals, independent of vendor. The set provides an application-level Over-the-Air protocol that enhances download reliability, and protocols and rules to associate digital rights with any content. In developing the feature set, OMA worked closely with other key industry organizations including the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP), 3GPP2, CDMA Development Group (CDG), the GSM Association, and the Java Community Process (JCP) to ensure interoperability and accelerate the adoption of these technologies in the marketplace. OMA encourages all parties interested to submit their comments on the specifications until September 7, 2002. The specifications are available online. ... Since June 2002, 21 new companies have joined OMA. Moreover, OMA has 32 new Sponsor companies -- the highest grade of membership. To date, the membership of the Open Mobile Alliance covers the entire mobile services value chain, including the world's leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology and infrastructure companies and content providers... Additionally, OMA has established a new workgroup for Mobile Web Services. The group will create a specification suite that will aid developers in applying web service technology and standard development tools to discover, access and leverage the service enablers within the OMA framework. This will result in much richer application services for the mobile user. The specification suite will provide developers with bearer-agnostic mobile network service components such as location, content downloading, device management and presence..." See also: "Proposed Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Rights Expression Language Based Upon ODRL."
[August 28, 2002] "Software AG Adds SOAP Gateway to Reduce the Complexity of Managing Web Services. New EntireX XML Mediator Release Provides SOAP Gateway and XSLT Generation Tool to Support Web Services and Improve Document Integration." - "At the XML Web Services One Conference 2002, Software AG, Inc., a pioneer in XML solutions, announced today that its newly released EntireX XML Mediator version 7.1.1.3 includes a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Gateway to reduce the complexity of managing Web Services. The XML Mediator SOAP Gateway eliminates the coding necessary to call a Web service and generate a response. It also provides increased efficiencies because all Web services can now be managed in one place via an intelligent GUI. As companies increase the number of Web services within their enterprise, EntireX XML Mediator provides a scalable, easy-to-manage environment. In addition to its SOAP Gateway, another significant XML Mediator 7.1.1.3v component is an XSLT generation tool. XML Mediator now comes packaged with a license for TIBCO's XML Transform, a comprehensive design solution for creating and debugging XSLT stylesheets. Through its industry-leading schema support and intuitive interface, XML Transform offers Mediator customers one of the most advanced XSLT development solutions available. EntireX XML Mediator is an XML document exchange tool that manages the flow and behavior of XML-based information. These new enhancements make it easy to quickly exchange and share data, securely with the in-built support of HTTPS, over the Web between disparate systems within organizations and between business partners by leveraging Web services. XML Mediator enables businesses to receive, transform, distribute (or route), and store critical e-business documents over the Internet using defined business rules and XML standards to facilitate their movement through and amongst enterprises... EntireX XML Mediator supports solutions for B2B exchange, application synchronization, distributed data interchange and business reporting. For example, as the key product component of Software AG's data exchange solutions, XML Mediator manages and controls the flow and behavior of XML-based information. It leverages XML to manage and automate document interfaces by discovering relevant information and using that information to trigger specific processing events such as aggregating documents, transforming documents to other XML formats or presentation styles such as CIDX, HL7, ACORD and HTML and then routes them to their appropriate destination..."
[August 28, 2002] "Liberty Alliance Increases Ranks With 30 New Members From Across the Globe." - "Liberty Alliance today announced that 30 additional organizations have joined in the consortium's effort to develop open and interoperable specifications for federated network identity. Liberty Alliance's growing member base now represents more than 95 for-profit, not-for-profit, and government organizations from around the globe. The new affiliate and associate members announced today span various industries, from telecom and media to healthcare and biometrics. These new members add depth of knowledge and experience to the collective goals and expertise of the Alliance. These new members are [see text of announcement]... The Liberty Alliance welcomes any commercial or non-commercial organization to join as members. There are three available membership levels within the Alliance -- sponsor, associate and affiliate. For more information on these membership levels, or to sign-up, please visit www.projectliberty.org/membership. The Liberty Alliance will be holding its first all-participant meeting on September 19, 2002, in Chicago. All member levels are invited to attend and participate in these meetings to discuss the Alliance's progress and provide input on the strategic direction of the Alliance and its specifications. The Liberty Alliance Project (www.projectliberty.org) is an alliance of more than 95 technology and consumer organizations formed to develop and deploy open, federated network identification specifications that support all current and emerging network devices in the digital economy. Federated identity will help drive the next generation of the Internet, offering businesses and consumers convenience and choice. Membership is open to all commercial and non-commercial organizations. Founding members of the Alliance are: American Express, AOL Time Warner, Bell Canada, Citigroup, France Telecom, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard Company, MasterCard International, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems, RSA Security, Sony Corporation, Sun Microsystems, United Airlines and Vodafone..."
[August 27, 2002] "Palm and BEA Partner to Mobilize Web Services in the Enterprise. Industry Leaders to Enable Enterprises to Develop and Deploy Web Services and Extend Enterprise Data Access to Palm Handhelds." - "Palm Solutions Group, the pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, and BEA Systems, Inc., the world's leading application infrastructure software company, today announced a long-term, strategic relationship to bring Web services to Palm branded handhelds. Palm will develop tools and a device-side software suite to simplify development and deployment of mobile Web services to extend enterprise applications on Palm handhelds. Palm and BEA will work together to integrate this solution with BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 and BEA WebLogic Workshop products as server-side controls. This Palm SG solution will be the first WebLogic Workshop control developed for a handheld device. A key element of this agreement is the use of Palm's new Reliable Transport technology as a core infrastructure component for this solution. Reliable Transport will provide a robust, secure, and usable platform for sending XML data back and forth between the server and Palm handhelds. The solution will be designed to easily allow Palm developers to use BEA WebLogic Workshop as the server-side programming framework, while WebLogic Workshop developers utilize Reliable Transport to send messages to and from Palm handhelds. This alliance will allow an expanded audience of enterprise developers to extend enterprise applications and data to Palm branded handhelds using Web services. Ultimately, new types of Palm handheld applications -- which can directly interface into complex, back-end business logic through the use of open-standards -- will be possible. Both Palm and BEA believe that by adopting and promoting open technology standards, they will help drive the adoption of full-scale mobile applications. This agreement supports Palm's strategy to deliver broad development support and simplify access to enterprise applications and data by integrating core mobile infrastructure into leading application server platforms such as BEA WebLogic. Palm's vision is to deliver products and solutions that offer a robust environment for developing and deploying mobile applications that provide easy access to enterprise data and applications. This is part of a series of technologies and partnership announcements designed to demonstrate that the Palm handheld is the most flexible device for building mobile enterprise applications for accessing mission-critical data via a cradle or over wireless networks..."
[August 27, 2002] "Check Point Software First to Secure Web Services. XML/SOAP Security Made Possible With Breakthrough Application Intelligence Technology." - "Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced it has enhanced its market-leading Internet security solution with Application Intelligence Technology to provide integrated security for Web services' two most commonly used protocols, XML and SOAP - making Check Point the first and only company to provide complete XML and SOAP security. Check Point's breakthrough solution ensures the validity and integrity of Web services communications, enabling organizations to securely share information directly between business applications without compromising the integrity of their networks... Security for XML and SOAP will be available at no additional cost in the latest version of Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1 Next Generation, Feature Pack 3, in September 2002. Securing Web services extends Check Point's vision of making Internet communications available and secure everywhere and demonstrates Check Point's on-going commitment to developing innovative security solutions required to meet the needs of today's dynamic enterprise environments..."
[August 26, 2002] "Microsoft Enables Developers to Build Advanced, More Secure Web Services. Company Announces Technology Preview of Microsoft Web Services Development Kit." - "Taking the next step to enable advanced Web services capabilities, Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the technical preview for the Microsoft Web Services Development Kit (WSDK), which provides the tools developers need to build advanced Web services applications using the latest Web services specifications, such as WS-Security, WS-Routing and WS-Attachments. Available for free download on the MSDN developer program Web site, the Microsoft WSDK makes it easy for developers to write and implement advanced Web services specifications by enhancing Visual Studio .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework. For example, with the WSDK, a Visual Studio .NET developer can now simply add a few lines of code to an existing Web service application to add support for WS-Security-compliant digital signatures or encryption... The core features included in the technology preview of the Microsoft WSDK include these: (1) Security: Ability to help secure XML Web services across platforms and trust domains, including digital signing and encryption of SOAP messages that are compliant with the WS-Security specification. Jointly introduced by Microsoft, IBM Corp. and VeriSign Inc. in April 2002 and submitted to OASIS in June, WS-Security is one of the first Web services standards to support, integrate and unify multiple security models, mechanisms and technologies, allowing a variety of systems to interoperate in a platform- and language-neutral manner. (2) Routing: Ability to route an XML Web service through intermediaries using the WS-Routing specification, which describes how to place message addresses in the SOAP message header and enables SOAP messages to travel serially to multiple destinations along a message path. The route a SOAP message takes to an XML Web service can be transparently delegated among Web servers. (3) Attachments: Communication between XML Web services can contain attachments that are not serialized into XML. The WSDK provides the ability to add attachments to SOAP messages following the WS-Attachments specification, jointly submitted with IBM to the IETF in July 2002..."
[August 26, 2002] "Ipedo Introduces XML Views Integration Technology. Simplifies Content and Data Merging, Consolidates XML for Web and Web Services Applications." - "Ipedo, a leading provider of software products for managing and delivering dynamic content over the Internet, today introduced Ipedo XML Views, a new integration technology that unifies information management for portals, custom Web applications and Web services initiatives. Integrated into its award-winning Ipedo XML Database and Ipedo Integration Manager, XML Views expands the reach of corporate information resources while reducing the complexity. Ipedo XML Views are virtual, real-time snapshots of information from external XML and non-XML sources presented in a standard, common XML format to simplify integration tasks in applications. Once constructed, XML Views can be manipulated using XML query and transformation standards, and multiple XML Views can be combined to create information composites tailored for specific applications. Ipedo's XML Views technology provides virtual connections to remote information sources for quick, easy access, whether structured data from databases or unstructured Web content... XML Views features include: Composite Data and Content Integration; Simple Connect Architecture; Multi-Source Search and Update; Index and Cache Acceleration; Intelligent Query Optimization. The XML Views architecture works across existing relational databases, content management systems and Web Services, and can be tailored using an adapter development kit. The all-Java design includes support for JDBC, JMS, and SOAP, and can be deployed in conjunction with J2EE application servers such as BEA WebLogic or IBM WebSphere..."
[August 22, 2002] "OASIS Seats New Board of Directors and Forms Technical Advisory Board." - "OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, today announced the election of four members to its Board of Directors. Edward Cobb of BEA Systems, Colin Evans of Intel, Patrick Gannon of OASIS, and Laura Walker of the Federal Reserve System were selected by the OASIS membership to provide business leadership to advance OASIS as a major standards-setting body for Web services, e-business security and other applications. The consortium also announced the formation of the OASIS Technical Advisory Board, a group of appointed and elected industry experts who provide guidance on issues related to strategy, process, interoperability, and scope of OASIS technical work... Cobb, Evans, Gannon, and Walker join current OASIS Board members, Jim Hughes of Hewlett-Packard, Christopher Kurt of Microsoft, Simon Nicholson of Sun Microsystems, and Michael Weiner of IBM. Each director serves two-year terms. On behalf of the OASIS membership, Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS, expressed thanks to Una Kearns of Documentum and Norbert H. Mikula of Intel for their service on the OASIS Board of Directors as their terms conclude... The new OASIS Technical Advisory Board was formed to identify opportunities and areas for standardization within OASIS that will be beneficial for the entire community. Members include Derek Coleman of HP, Angel Diaz of IBM, Chet Ensign of Lexis/Nexis, Eduardo Gutentag of Sun Microsystems, Jackson He of Intel, Sanjay Patil of IONA, Krishna Sankar of Cisco, and Heinz Ulrich Roggenkemper of SAP. Christopher Kurt of Microsoft and Karl Best of OASIS will also serve, representing the OASIS Board of Directors and staff, respectively. 'OASIS remains committed to its membership-driven Technical Committee process, and our group will act as its steward,' said Eduardo Gutentag of Sun Microsystems, who serves as chair of the OASIS Technical Advisory Board. 'We will advise the Board of Directors on the OASIS technical agenda and on interoperability and alignment issues, and encourage the formation of joint committees to address those issues. We will seek convergence and the elimination of barriers to interoperability, and help coordinate OASIS work with that of other standards-setting bodies'..." Cf. "OASIS Standards Group Updates Board, Names Tech Team."
[August 21, 2002] "Fujitsu Interstage Demonstrates Business Process Interoperability for the Automotive Retail Industry. Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) Project Shows Fujitsu Interstage Providing Business Process Integration across Vendors Utilizing ebXML, OAGIS and Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) Specifications." - "Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that Fujitsu has successfully shown Business Process interoperability utilizing B2B specifications that are being developed to meet the needs of the North American automotive industry. The demonstration executed a business process scenario developed by the STAR consortium based on the OAGI's Business Object Document (BOD) specification for interoperable Extensible Markup Language (XML) messages and the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) framework. The OAGI is the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world. The demonstration was conducted at the OAGI technical meeting in Detroit, August 13-15, 2002 attended by automobile companies, manufacturers from other industries, industry organizations and IT vendors. Fujitsu and Sybase, Inc exchanged messages, implementing STAR's Parts Order scenario using Open Application Group Interoperability Specification (OAGIS) BODs and ebXML specifications. This interoperability test proved that Fujitsu's Interstage CollaborationRing can communicate with other ebXML products, using STAR's BODs and business scenarios implemented using ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS), the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA), and ebXML Message Service (ebMS)... The OAGI specification has been adopted by the Auto Industry Action Group (AIAG), STAR and Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) consortiums for next generation business language and data messaging architecture. These organizations have formed collaborative initiatives with OAGI to design XML-based messages conforming to and extending the OAGI BOD library for eBusiness and Application Integration and the ebXML framework for B2B. The organizations' B2B infrastructure is Internet-based and utilizes elements of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business' (UN/CEFACT) ebXML specification -- a B2B protocol being deployed worldwide. The results of these initiatives will enable auto industry companies to conduct business in real time by communicating data in common terms using standardized business processes. The interoperability demonstration was a project of the OAGI/NIST B2B Test Bed -- a joint initiative of the OAGI and NIST, which strives to advance the state of the art in B2B. The B2B Test Bed is available to users and vendors for testing and validating business level data exchanges among business partners utilizing open, standards based approaches..." See: (1) "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)"; (2) "Open Applications Group"; (3) "Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR)."
[August 20, 2002] "Sun Microsystems Delivers New CIM-Compliant San Management Software. Continues To Lead Industry On Storage Open Standards. Complete Storage Management Portfolio Enables Customers to Improve Service Levels and Reduce Total Cost of Ownership." - "Today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced Sun StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager (ESM) software for Storage Area Network (SAN) management. Designed to help lower customers' storage TCO, the new software provides a centralized management platform for viewing and managing storage environments. The 'single pane of glass' incorporates the core management services of SAN topology reporting, device configuration, and proactive health monitoring and diagnostics - helping Sun's customers increase uptime and improve service levels. With the introduction of ESM, Sun is delivering a comprehensive storage management software portfolios in the industry, encompassing SAN and systems management, data continuance, and file and volume management. As the industry's first system vendor to deliver a Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM)-compliant SAN management platform, Sun is demonstrating its leadership in delivering on the demand for simplified SAN management. Unlike proprietary Application Program Interface (API) exchanges conducted by some vendors, standards compliance will enable customers to quickly and easily leverage new storage technologies, products and solutions as they emerge from Sun and other vendors. 'Customers are demanding simpler, integrated and open storage management and Sun is delivering on those demands,' said James Staten, director of Network Storage, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 'Sun's new StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager software combines the three most common storage management tasks into a single pane of glass. By integrating these functions, our customers will see real savings in administration costs and greater uptime as health problems discovered by the diagnostic expert can be acted on immediately without changing tools.' The new Sun StorEdge ESM software is based on the Storage One strategy and is built on the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE). The new software also serves as a key element to Sun's fully integrated, open SAN architecture. Sun has been instrumental in advancing the open WBEM/CIM-based standards for storage management. Working side by side with best-of-breed storage partners like Hitachi Data Systems, Qlogic and Brocade, Sun has achieved a new level of interoperability designed to provide customers with ease of deployment and increased manageability, supportability and scalability..." See "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)."
[August 20, 2002] "CIDX, GPA Join Forces to Promote XML Standards." - "The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) and Gas Processors Association (GPA) announced today an agreement to collaborate on the adoption of XML-based standards within the gas processing industry and implementation of the Chem eStandards to facilitate electronic trade within and between the gas processing and chemical industries. Developed by the chemical industry, the Chem eStandards are uniform standards that use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to enable data exchange for the buying, selling and delivery of chemicals. An electronic commerce language, XML is used worldwide to define structures for data exchange among companies in all industries. Under the agreement, GPA will become an associate member of CIDX and will participate through representation on CIDX working teams. GPA representatives will also attend CIDX general membership meetings and will work directly with all GPA members to identify, define and communicate further enhancements to the Chem eStandards that meet the gas processing industry needs. 'Today's announcement represents a sound, strategic move for the gas processing industry,' said Mark F. Sutton, GPA Executive Director. 'Through the CIDX agreement, our members will be able to leverage a proven, effective XML standard, and the association will augment its efforts to build industry-specific XML standards without incurring the significant costs associated with creating and operating an independent standards body.' CIDX is a global trade association and standards body, whose mission is to improve the ease, speed and cost of conducting business electronically between chemical companies and their trading partners. Through the collaborative effort of over 80 chemical industry leaders, CIDX has built the XML based Chem eStandards, which define 52 business messages required by chemical companies to carry out highly secure transactions with suppliers and customers over the Internet. The Chemical Industry Data Exchange uses the trademarks CIDX and Chem eStandards..." See: "XML-Based 'Chem eStandard' for the Chemical Industry."
[August 20, 2002] "F5 Joins the Web Services Interoperability Organization." - F5 Networks, Inc., leading provider of Internet Traffic Management (ITM) products, today "announced it is the first ITM vendor to join the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) to help influence and establish emerging standards for Web services. F5 shares WS-I's vision of promoting open standards for Web services interoperability, and is the only networking vendor to offer a fully integrated suite of ITM products that are Web services-enabled via F5's open iControl Application Programming Interface (API). 'We're excited to have F5 Networks join WS-I and welcome their participation in the various working groups,' said Tom Glover, chairman of WS-I. 'The goal of true interoperability can only be achieved with the participation of companies from a diverse set of industries. F5's participation will help to ensure that the deliverables WS-I produce will meet the real-world interoperability needs of businesses.' To successfully deploy Web services and mitigate the risks associated with these new applications, it is crucial that the application and network work in concert to avoid challenges with the availability, scalability, and security of mission-critical deployments. F5 Networks is the only networking vendor that enables applications and web services to 'speak to' and influence the behavior of the underlying global network via F5's open iControl architecture and API; accessible via SOAP/XML and CORBA interfaces to suit a variety of application requirements. Through iControl, each F5 networking device is a Web service provider and consumer offering comprehensive programmatic interfaces exposed via Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Through support for WSDL and SOAP/XML, iControl enables applications to monitor critical network information and combine it with application health and performance to adjust both application and network behavior for optimized scalability, availability, and performance. Further, support for Microsoft .NET and J2EE development platforms enables developers to leverage this API with familiar tools, speeding development and deployment... The Web Services Interoperability Organization is an open industry organization chartered to promote Web services interoperability across platforms, applications, and programming languages. The organization brings together a diverse community of Web services leaders to respond to customer needs by providing guidance, recommended practices, and supporting resources for developing interoperable Web services..." See: "Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I)."
[August 20,


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