The Cover PagesThe OASIS Cover Pages: The Online Resource for Markup Language Technologies
SEARCH | ABOUT | INDEX | NEWS | CORE STANDARDS | TECHNOLOGY REPORTS | EVENTS | LIBRARY
SEARCH
Advanced Search
ABOUT
Site Map
CP RSS Channel
Contact Us
Sponsoring CP
About Our Sponsors
NEWS
Cover Stories
Articles & Papers
Press Releases
CORE STANDARDS
XML
SGML
Schemas
XSL/XSLT/XPath
XLink
XML Query
CSS
SVG
TECHNOLOGY REPORTS
XML Applications
General Apps
Government Apps
Academic Apps
EVENTS
LIBRARY
Introductions
FAQs
Bibliography
Technology and Society
Semantics
Tech Topics
Software
Related Standards
Historic
Last modified: December 30, 2002
XML Industry News: 2002 Q4

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

Search: [Indexed Search]

  • [December 30, 2002] "Dow Jones Newswires Launches Test Feed for Dow Jones NewsPlus. Thomson ONE Will Be the First Platform to Integrate Dow Jones' New XML Feed." - Dow Jones Newswires has announced "that a test feed for Dow Jones NewsPlus, a new XML feed that will provide an interactive, convenient interface for Newswires' market-leading news, commentary and analysis, is now available to market-data vendors to integrate into their products for financial professionals. Thomson Financial, a leading provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community, will be the first distributor to integrate Dow Jones NewsPlus into Thomson ONE, its open framework desktop application. The full Dow Jones NewsPlus XML feed is scheduled to be released by the end of the first quarter of 2003. The first release of Dow Jones NewsPlus will be a major enhancement for Dow Jones News Service subscribers, available first to Thomson ONE customers. Dow Jones editors will select and rank the most critical, market-moving stories for Dow Jones NewsPlus, with summaries on the home page and links to the complete story and related information such as press releases, industry news and fundamental company data. The home page will also provide stock and bond market updates, direct links to critical topics like politics and economic indicators. The interface also highlights select features, such as columns, analysts' comments and DJ Market Talk. Users of the Thomson ONE platform will be able to access Dow Jones NewsPlus directly... Dow Jones Newswires is working with other distributors on integrating the new XML feed into their platforms. Dow Jones NewsPlus will eventually be available on a Web site hosted by Dow Jones. The feed is also flexible enough to support versions for other Dow Jones Newswires' products, integrate into other sites, and to create custom versions for large users with links to users' proprietary information..."

  • [December 30, 2002] "OpenTravel Alliance Announces Publication of OTA Specification Version 2002B." - "The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) is pleased to announce the publication of the 2002B Specification that provides the travel industry and travel related services the ability to deliver new features and enhanced capabilities to travelers, through enhanced XML transactions. The 2002B release enhances messages previously released, as well as, introduces new messages across all of the work groups. The Air, Car, Hotel and Travel Integration Work Groups have each provided an introduction to highlight new features and enhancements offered in the 2002B Specification. OTA would like to thank all its 120 member companies, project teams, working groups and committees that worked so diligently to provide a richer, more robust specification and further travel technology and XML development. Thanks to this effort, the OTA is one step closer to its goal to create a common and complete XML dialect for the travel industry. To view and download OTA's Version 2002B including informative text and XML specifications, please visit www.opentravel.org/2002b.cfm... The OpenTravel Alliance develops communications specifications to allow for the efficient and effective exchange of travel industry information via the Internet. With over 120 members representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, OTA is comprised of representatives from the airlines, car rental firms, hotels, leisure suppliers, service providers, tour operators, travel agencies, and trade associations. OTA working groups, together with an OTA interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages using XML..." See: (1) "OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) Publishes XML Specification Version 2002B" [details for the public review draft]; (2) general references in "OpenTravel Alliance (OTA)."

  • [December 24, 2002] "OGC Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Web Coverage Service Specification." - "Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Technical and Planning Committee meetings, the Coverage Working Group, the OGC Technical Committee, and the OGC Planning Committee voted to release the proposed Web Coverage Service (WCS) Implementation Specification, for public comment, as a Request for Comment (RFC). The RFC details draft interfaces that allow gridded and certain non-gridded geospatial data on a server to be accessed and used by client software as input into spatial model, local rendering and other uses... The Web Coverage Service (WCS) provides access to intact, raw data while WMS provides a static 'picture' of a map. WCS' three key operations, GetCapabilities, GetCoverage, and DescribeCoverageType are designed to work with coverages (imagery, TINS and other types of gridded and non-gridded intelligent data). The GetCapabilities operation returns an XML document from the server that describes the service and the data collections available. The GetCoverage operation of a Web Coverage Service returns values or properties of geographic locations, bundled in a well-known coverage format. Jeff Labonte, Director of the Canada's GeoConnections Program, stated that the Web Coverage Service is an important element that will further development of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure by promoting interoperability of important sources of information such as earth observation satellites and imagery... NASA is the lead submitter on WCS. The submission team also includes BAE Systems, PCI Geomatics, IONIC Software s.a, George Mason University, Polexis, Inc., Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions, Cubewerx, Inc., Natural Resources Canada, and German Aerospace Center DLR. Request for Comment is a key method to integrate public input into OGC's consensus process in the creation of its OpenGIS Specifications. After the Request for Comment period ends, and comments are assembled and addressed, the WCS RFC may be brought to a vote to become an Adopted OpenGIS Specification. OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 230 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS Specifications support interoperable solutions that 'geo-enable' the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications..." See details in the news story "Open GIS Consortium Issues RFC for Web Coverage Service Implementation Specification."

  • [December 23, 2002] "XAware Announces RIXML Components for Financial Services Integration. Integration Building Blocks Enable Financial Services Firms, System Integrators and Software Vendors to Rapidly Adopt RIXML." - "XAware, Inc., a leader in XML-based information exchange and data integration, announces the availability of a suite of software components to help system integrators, corporate IT groups and software vendors implement RIXML for financial services applications. First launched in April 2001, RIXML (Research Information Exchange Markup Language) is an industry-standard dialect of XML that enables the assimilation and distribution of research information. The benefits of RIXML include increased efficiency of research distribution, more effective targeting, personalization and overall usability. XAware's RIXML Components are targeted to financial services firms such as brokerage houses, asset management companies, mutual fund managers and securities houses. XAware's 'building block' approach allows firms to rapidly connect within an existing framework, manage and integrate data and technology from multiple vendors, and progressively incorporate more data into the RIXML standard. The XAware solution enables common information models leveraging XML-based standards for interoperability, and is an engine for compliance with the RIXML standard. 'After successfully completing a RIXML integration project with OppenheimerFunds, XAware is leveraging this experience by packaging a set of RIXML-based integration components,' said Bill Miller, chief executive officer of XAware. 'These new building blocks reduce the complexities of adopting the RIXML standard, while allowing companies to migrate research data over time with an immediate ROI'..." See: (1) the White Paper "Challenges and Solutions for Leveraging RIXML. Application of XAware Technology."; (2) general references in "Research Information Exchange Markup Language (RIXML)."

  • [December 23, 2002] "ADL Releases the Technical Repository Investigation Report." - "The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative is preparing for a world where communication networks and personal information delivery devices are widespread, inexpensive and transparent to users in terms of ease of use, bandwidth and portability. ADL envisions the creation of repositories, or learning 'knowledge' libraries where learning objects may be accumulated and catalogued for broad distribution and use. These objects must be readily accessible across the World Wide Web or whatever forms our global information network takes in the future. There has recently been much effort to advance repository technologies. Current efforts in the development of repository standards and software are broad and varied, with players coming from nearly every major sector. This diversity of interest has resulted in an impressive number of competing standards and supporting technologies. ADL is aware of the important role repository systems play in facilitating content storage, delivery and reuse. Repository systems provide key infrastructure for the development, storage, management, discovery and delivery of all types of electronic content. SCORM content packaging, with its inclusion of mandatory self-descriptive meta-data, plays an important role enabling advanced functionality for repository systems. As such, SCORM packaging plays a key role in accomplishing ADL goals for e-learning interoperability and in advancing the repository state-of-the-art. Paul Jesukiewicz, Director of the ADL Co-Laboratory in Alexandria, has commented that: 'The ADL Repository Technical Investigation Report is the first step in a long process to get a handle on the various repository efforts that could contribute to a potential application profile for SCORM. We are in about the same place today with repositories as we were three years ago with LMSs. We look forward to continuing the investigation into repositories and hope to continue as a catalyst in bringing the various communities together.' The ADL Repository Technical Investigation Report summarizes a number of major specification and standards efforts that may affect future repository architectures and be useful for managing SCORM conformant content..." See: "Shareable Content Object Reference Model Initiative (SCORM)."

  • [December 18, 2002] "Liquent Announces Availability of Two New eCTD Solutions for eCTD Submissions and a Free eCTD Viewer. Products Quickly and Efficiently Produce, Manage, and View Compliant eCTD Submissions." - "Liquent, Inc., global leader in regulatory publishing, intelligence, and intellectual property solutions, today announced three new products to produce, manage, and view compliant electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) submissions for multiple regions: Liquent eCTD Assistant 2.0, Liquent Submission Accelerator for eCTD, and the free Liquent eCTD Reviewer. These new products ensure that life sciences organizations will be well prepared to take advantage of the benefits of the eCTD, an XML-driven specification designed to simplify the creation and review of regulatory submissions. Liquent's new publishing solutions quickly and easily generate eCTD submissions compliant with International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) and regional specifications complete with the requisite XML backbones that can then be easily managed and updated throughout the submission lifecycle. eCTD Assistant 2.0 supports the final ICH Step 4 eCTD specifications and draft specifications from the FDA and EMEA to enable the assembly of submission-ready documents, create the appropriate file/folder structure, assign leaf document attributes, and then build the required XML backbone and regional XML required in eCTD submissions... Also compliant with ICH's Step 4 specifications, Submission Accelerator is a new module for Liquent's CoreDossier publishing software that enables automated eCTD publishing. Available immediately, it ships with a set of pre-defined eCTD templates that are updated as ICH and regional specifications change -- ensuring that submissions are always compliant with ICH standards and the regional specifications provided by regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The eCTD Reviewer is a free tool that provides a comprehensive view of a submission as it is being built and after completion. The eCTD Reviewer is bundled for free with eCTD Assistant 2.0; an advanced version with editing capabilities and a conformity checker is included with Submission Accelerator..." See: "Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) for Pharmaceuticals."

  • [December 18, 2002] "BEA, IBM, Microsoft, RSA Security, SAP and VeriSign Deliver Advanced Specifications to Help Meet Security and Business Policy Needs of Companies Building and Implementing Web Services. New Group of Specifications to Build on Industry Work for Web Services." - Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp., along with BEA Systems Inc., RSA Security Inc., SAP AG, and VeriSign Inc., today announced the publication of a new set of advanced Web services specifications to help businesses share information securely between applications and organizations in a standard way. Using broadly accepted standards and specifications around Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), security, transactions and discovery, the new specifications represent the next step in delivering a comprehensive model of advanced Web services capabilities that integrate currently available technologies with the evolving requirements of emerging applications. IBM, Microsoft and industry partners are now delivering against a previously announced road map with six new specifications. Providing a framework that is extensible and flexible and maximizes existing investments in a Web services infrastructure, these new specifications make it easier to apply business policy and implement security for a wider range of applications. The specifications fall into two key groups. The first helps address key technical concerns in the area of security and build on the work outlined in Microsoft and IBM's co-authored road map, 'Security in a Web Services World.' The second group focuses on streamlining the implementation of business policies in a Web services environment..." See details in the 2002-12-18 news item: "Microsoft and IBM Publish Six New Web Services Security and Policy Specifications."

  • [December 17, 2002] "OpenHSF v8.0 Specification Released by the OpenHSF Advisory Council. First Membership-driven Extension for Document/Assembly Structure Included." - "The OpenHSF Initiative announced today the availability of v8.0 of the openly published HSF specification. This latest specification also includes the first open extension to the specification, which was proposed, reviewed and ratified by the OpenHSF Advisory Council (OAC). Thus it delivers on the OpenHSF Initiative's promise to not only establish a common format for visual interoperability but, through the cooperation of the membership, to "raise the bar of interoperability" beyond simple visual information. The OpenHSF Initiative was launched in Q4 2001 to establish an open, common visualization format for the efficient exchange of rich 2D/3D and meta-data between disparate applications and includes many leading engineering software and end-user organizations. The core HSF format contains 2D/3D & textual data for visualization, while the OpenHSF membership defines and implements open extensions that allow software developers to embed additional meta-data within their HSF files and exchange this information seamlessly with other HSF-compliant applications. The Document/Product Structure extension consists of XML tags, which describe the structure of assemblies, parts or drawings that may be embedded within an HSF file. These tags are fully associative with the graphical objects. This extension is of particular value to applications wishing to express how a particular assembly is structured and how sub-elements of the assembly and drawings relate to one another. In addition to the Document/Product Structure extension, highlights of the latest HSF specification include: (1) XML Tags to facilitate the embedding of XML data directly into an HSF file; (2) New PolyCylinder primitive, which is of particular value for applications that deal with many pipe-like objects such as power plants or factories; (3) Support for scale-independent lines, edges and marker-weights for embedding information into a scene, which maintains its size, independent of the scaling of other geometry in the scene; (4) Additional Transparency options; (5) Descriptions of compression algorithms for 2D and Raster data... The OpenHSF Initiative supplies the complete solution for engineering visualization interoperability. It is an industry-wide effort to establish a common, open and robust format for sharing visualization data between users of disparate engineering applications through the publishing of the HOOPS Stream Format (HSF) specification. With the publication of the OpenHSF Specification document, the entire industry now has complete access to the robust HOOPS Stream Format (HSF), which allows for the intelligent, stream-capable sharing of visualization data between disparate engineering applications. The OpenHSF Advisory Council has been established to ensure the OpenHSF Specification continues to address the needs of the OpenHSF community and remains open and available to all interested parties. OpenHSF Membership includes software vendors such as SolidWorks, Dassault Systems, PTC, MSC.Software, ANSYS, TranscenData, Actify, Informative Graphics, Hitachi Zosen, COADE, CADKEY and dozens of others. End users who help to drive requirements include Boeing and Daimler Chrysler, with input and support from others such as Intel, AMD and the Web3D Consortium..."

  • "World Wide Web Consortium Issues User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Third in Set of Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines Helps Developers Make Accessible Browsers and Multimedia Players." - "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (UAAG 1.0) as a W3C Recommendation, representing consensus among developers and the disability community on accessibility features needed in browsers and multimedia players used to access the Web... 'Web browsers and media players serve people as the front door to the Web. But when those tools aren't usable by people with disabilities, it's akin to locking the door and leaving no key,' noted Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. 'For the past five years, the technical and disability experts in the Web Accessibility Initiative have provided definitive guidelines for making accessible Web content and designing authoring software that does the same, automatically. Today, with the announcement of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, developers have the specific guidance they need to make Web browsers and media players more useful to more people.' The Web is for Everyone -- Content, Authoring Tools, Browsers, and Multimedia Players Must Be Accessible The Web has created unprecedented opportunities for people around the world to learn, work, shop, play, and communicate with others; and even more so for people with disabilities, who have frequently been excluded from many of these activities. Access to the Web for people with disabilities, however, presumes that Web developers choose accessible design over inaccessible design; these guidelines explain how to make accessible design choices when developing browsers and media players. UAAG 1.0 is written for software developers, and addresses requirements such as accessibility of the user interface, rendering of accessibility information, and user choice in configuring browsers and media players. These guidelines also address interoperability of mainstream browsers and multimedia players with assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. UAAG 1.0 is third in a complementary set of Web accessibility guidelines which already include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (ATAG 1.0)..." See other details in the 2002-12-17 news item "W3C Publishes User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 as a Recommendation."

  • [December 17, 2002] "OASIS Members to Develop Web Services Standard for Translation. DataPower, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Others Collaborate on Localization Specification." - "Members of the OASIS standards consortium have formed a technical committee to develop standards to automate the translation and localization process as a Web service. The effort brings together DataPower, IBM, the Localisation Research Centre, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and others in a collaboration that will use Web services as the backbone to a workflow linking the tasks that comprise a complex software localization project... The new OASIS Technical Committee will concentrate first on defining service types that are relevant to the software/content localization and translation industry. Their specification will drive the development of Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) documents that will ultimately be published in a Universal Description and Discover Integration (UDDI) registry and potentially also in an ebXML registry... The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee joins another localization effort at OASIS -- one that works to develop an XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF). The two groups plan to coordinate their efforts. Tony Jewtushenko of Oracle, chair of the OASIS XLIFF Technical Committee explained the relationship, 'The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee will define standard interfaces between the disparate actors that work together in a distributed software localization process. As localizable data moves through the localization actors, XLIFF-aware tools can be used with minimal implementation cost. We expect our experience with XML-based localization technology will result in close relations and shared membership with the OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee'... 'The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee is a clear example of how industry players can come together to jointly develop Web services standards for their critical business interactions,' stated Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. 'Industries that conduct their Web services standards development within OASIS have the opportunity to interface directly with developers of key foundational Web services efforts, such as UDDI, WS-Security, SAML, and more than 45 others'..." See other details in the news item of 2002-11-26: "New OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee."

  • [December 17, 2002] "Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses." - "Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the creative reuse of intellectual works, launched its first product today: its machine-readable copyright licenses, available free of charge from creativecommons.org. The licenses allow copyright holders to easily inform others that their works are free for copying and other uses under specific conditions. These self-help tools offer new ways to distribute creative works on generous terms -- from copyright to the public domain -- and are available free of charge. 'People want to bridge the public domain with the realm of private copyrights,' said Stanford Law Professor and Creative Commons Chairman Lawrence Lessig. 'Our licenses build upon their creativity, taking the power of digital rights description to a new level. They deliver on our vision of promoting the innovative reuse of all types of intellectual works, unlocking the potential of sharing and transforming others' work'... After the copyright holder chooses their license or public domain dedication, it is expressed in three formats to easily notify others of the license terms: (1) Commons Deed: A simple, plain-language summary of the license, with corresponding icons; (2) Legal Code: The fine print needed to fine-tune your copyrights; (3) Digital Code: A machine-readable translation of the license that helps search engines and other applications identify your work by its terms of use... Various organizations and people have pledged their support for Creative Commons, including Byrds founder Roger McGuinn, DJ Spooky, iBiblio, the Internet Archive, MIT Open Courseware project, O'Reilly & Associates, People Like Us, the Prelinger Collection/Library of Congress, Rice University's Connexions project, Stanford Law School, and Sun Microsystems. Implementers include musicians, writers, teachers, scholars, scientists, photographers, filmmakers, publishers, graphic designers, Web hobbyists, as well as listeners, readers, and viewers..." See technical details on the use of RDF/Dublin Core in the 2002-12-16 news item: "Creative Commons Project Offers RDF-Based Licenses for Rights Expression."

  • [December 16, 2002] "Microsoft Delivers Latest Developer Tools for Building Advanced, More Secure Web Services. Web Services Enhancements 1.0 Available for Visual Studio .NET. Developers, With Support From Companies Such as F5 Networks, WestGlobal and WRQ." - "Highlighting industry demand for the latest Web services capabilities, Microsoft Corp. today announced key companies, including F5 Networks, WestGlobal and WRQ Inc., that are taking advantage of Web Services Enhancements 1.0 (WSE) for Microsoft .NET, which gives Visual Studio .NET developers support for the latest Web services specifications, such as WS-Security, WS-Routing and WS-Attachments. The news coincides with Microsoft's announcement of the release to Web (RTW) of WSE 1.0, following the technical preview delivered in August 2002. Available via download, WSE works with Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework so developers can quickly add a few lines of code to their Web services applications to keep pace with the latest industry advancements. In addition to its ability to quickly build new Web services solutions, WSE has been embraced by customers and industry partners as an important tool for connecting to existing systems... Since the introduction of the technical preview in August 2002, WSE has gone through rigorous testing and customer review to reach the milestone of RTW of WSE 1.0. WSE is built on existing XML Web Services standards such as XML and SOAP, while providing the following advanced capabilities: Security. It can 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 2002. Routing. It can 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. 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. WS-Attachments was jointly submitted to the IETF by Microsoft and IBM. Extensible framework. WSE is an extensible pipeline for SOAP message processing. Developers can extend the built-in functionality of the system to customize its encryption and signing capabilities to support proprietary security infrastructures. Custom logic also can be incorporated into the pipeline to provide additional functionality such as auditing, logging, or store and forward..." See: (1) the main page Web Services Enhancements for Microsoft .NET; (2) Programming with Web Services Enhancements 1.0 for Microsoft .NET"; (3) "WS-Security Authentication and Digital Signatures with Web Services Enhancements," by Matt Powell; (4) Inside the Web Services Enhancements Pipeline.

  • [December 16, 2002] "PostX Announces Plan to Support and Integrate New Liberty Alliance v1.1 Specification for Federated Identity Management Standard. Leading Secure Messaging Company first to Embrace Powerful New Open Standard. Also Announces Support of SAML v1.0 (Security Assertion Markup Language)." - PostX has announced 'support and planned integration of the Liberty Alliance v1.1 specifications for federated network identity management. These standards will be integrated into the next generation of the PostX Enterprise secure messaging platform due for release in Q1 2003... PostX has also announced support of SAML in their upcoming release. SAML is the OASIS standard XML schema for security assertions and protocols. It enables security interoperability through the exchange of authentication and authorization information among disparate Web access management and security products. It addresses the need for secure single sign-on across diverse Web access management environments implemented across various organizations, applications, Web sites, and portals. The standard defines standardized exchanges of identity and access management (IAM) information, leveraging Web services standards such as XML and SOAP. 'Liberty Alliance, through its broad membership and high industry profile, has clearly established itself as an important group addressing Web services security through federated identity standards. Liberty is leveraging industry momentum surrounding the new OASIS standard, SAML 1.0, upon which the Alliance has built its specifications,' said James Kobielus, senior analyst at Burton Group. 'Concurrently, several industry vendors publicly announced commitments to implementing the Liberty Version 1.x specifications in their products over the coming year. PostX's support for Liberty Version 1.1 is encouraging, because it shows deepening vendor support for the standard throughout diverse product niches, such as secure messaging.' PostX is the only secure messaging company that plans to implement a federated authentication model based on the Liberty Alliance v1.1 specification. In PostX's implementation, users authenticate with their preferred authentication mechanism, which can be passed within a circle of 'trusted' entities. This allows the promise of single sign-on to be delivered to end users with no reduction in usability or security implementations; it is transparent to the sender and recipient... PostX was founded in 1996 with a mission to maximize ECommunications value for organizations by enabling secure electronic delivery of information vital to business and customer relationships. PostX delivers powerful, secure EStatements, EConfirms, EPaystubs, Ecustomer Service, and EMarketing direct to any computer desktop or wireless device, unleashing real value in the form of significant cost savings, powerful marketing opportunities, and deeper recipient loyalty..." See: "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."

  • [December 16, 2002] "OSS Nokalva Announces XML Support." - "OSS Nokalva, Inc., the world's leading developer of ASN.1 software for building data communications applications, announced today the immediate availability of the OSS ASN.1 Tools for C and Java with XML support. A C++ beta version is also currently available. 'We are very excited because our new software allows ASN.1 application developers to effortlessly encode data in XML,' commented Bancroft Scott, President of OSS Nokalva. 'This creates an exciting opportunity for developers to maximize their return on investment in robust ASN.1 technology with the added benefits of XML. The addition of XML encoding enables XML to be used in places that are bandwidth constrained such as cell phones, PDAs and embedded systems. Developers can now view binary encoded data in human readable format using XML without sacrificing ASN.1's simple and efficient message description.' The OSS ASN.1 Tools support the XML addition to ASN.1 as described in ASN.1:2002. The tools generate fully XML-standards compliant XML encodings, giving developers a means of representing ASN.1 values using XML with the ASN.1 type definition as the schema. The generated XML is governed by the XML Encoding Rules (XER) and Canonical XML Encoding Rules (CXER), providing the user with control over the visual quality of the generated encoding. It also allows for the viewing and editing of the encoded data using any tools that recognize XML independent of ASN.1... The software completely shields the user from the intricacies of the encoding rules and complexities of manual coding and debugging. All software supports the full ASN.1 syntax as described by the ASN.1:1990, ASN.1:1997 and ASN.1:2002 standards and the following encoding rules: Basic Encoding Rules (BER), Packed Encoding Rules (PER) (aligned and unaligned), Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER), Canonical Encoding Rules (CER), Canonical XML Encoding Rules (CXER), and XML Encoding Rules (XER)..." See: (1) "ASN.1 Markup Language (AML)"; (2) "XML Encoding Rules for ASN.1 (XER)."

  • [December 12, 2002] Veridocs Announces Beta Release of XMLdocs at XML 2002. Small to Mid-sized Firms to Benefit from Affordable XML Content Management Solution. Beta Release Available Free Through January 2003." - "Veridocs, a provider of XML software, consulting and development services, today announced the upcoming availability of XMLdocs Beta Release. XMLdocs is a Web-based system for creating powerful, user-friendly XML content management solutions. The Beta Release will be available free at http://my.xmldocs.com. XMLdocs Version 1, slated for release in February 2003, will be available on a hosted basis, an important option for organizations seeking affordable XML content management. Veridocs made the announcement at the XML Conference and Exhibition 2002 in Baltimore, where Veridocs CEO Nat Dunn presented 'XMLdocs: Hosted XML Content Management' -- 'XML is ideal for most content management challenges. Yet to date, XML solutions have been far too expensive for many companies,' says Dunn. 'XMLdocs' subscription-based pricing model and easy-to-use interface makes XML content management affordable -- and useable -- for virtually any organization.' With XMLdocs, organizations can create XML document templates for everything from press releases and product descriptions to knowledge-based articles and help documents. Using these templates, non-technical users write and edit XML documents in XMLdoc's intuitive XML word processor. Documents can then be exported for publication on a Web site or elsewhere through a simple Web Service... Founded in January 2002, Veridocs provides the software and services organizations need to build and maintain XML-based Web sites and applications. The company's flagship product, XMLdocs, is a software service that allows content contributors to collaboratively author XML documents. In addition, Veridocs provides XML consulting and development services, and customized training workshops. Veridocs is a wholly owned subsidiary of Summit Software..."

  • [December 11, 2002] "Novell Adds Secure Identity Management to Key Web Services Standard." - "On December 11, 2002 Novell announced the availability to developers of a new Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) server that adds secure identity management to the UDDI standard. Novell Nsure UDDI Server is based on Novell's market-leading eDirectory software and is the first deliverable of the company's Destiny roadmap for eDirectory. Novell has extended its secure identity management expertise to a key Web services standard to help businesses more easily and confidently deploy Web services. The company today announced the availability to developers of a new Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) server that adds secure identity management to the UDDI standard, bolstering the security and simplifying the management of Web services registries. Novell Nsure UDDI Server is based on Novell's market-leading eDirectory software and is the first deliverable of the company's Destiny roadmap for eDirectory. Since its inception in 2000, adoption of the UDDI standard has been limited, partly because initial Web services deployments have been relatively small, but also because the standard lacks adequate provisions to ensure the security and management of registered services. With the delivery of a UDDI server based on eDirectory, Novell is attacking those limitations head on... Novell Nsure UDDI Server allows businesses to register Web services and make them available to internal or external users, while leveraging the security and management inherent in eDirectory. Users, whether publishing or consuming services, can be required to first authenticate to the directory and verify their identity. Equally important, those users, their access rights, and the registered Web services can be easily managed with eDirectory tools like Novell iManager, which are familiar to most network administrators... Novell Nsure UDDI Server will be available December 17, 2002 for free download..." See: "Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)."

  • [December 11, 2002] "Vordel to Launch New XML Security Suite for Distributed Security and Management of Web Services." - "VordelSecure 2.0, high performance, enterprise-class security suite, uses new distributed architecture to protect Web Services using open standards Vordel, the Web services security company, today announced VordelSecure 2.0, the first enterprise-grade XML security suite to respond to the security needs of organizations that are taking advantage of XML for software integration. VordelSecure 2.0 provides organizations with a high performance, scalable security management solution to secure their XML communications. It provides both XML firewalling and XML access control, and does not rely on a monolithic architecture deployed at a single point. Instead, it may be distributed across all Web Services exposed by an organization, at multiple entry and exit points. Companies deploying Web Services are using VordelSecure to deliver highly secure and highly scalable security. British American Tobacco (BAT) is one company that has adopted Web Services technology as a key building block of its internal business process integration strategy. Kevin Poulter, Head of the Application Technology Group at BAT said, 'BAT chose Web Services technologies such as SOAP and WSDL to streamline integration of our business systems. Security is a key component of our integration architecture and requires the capabilities provided by a specialist XML security product. To ensure the integrity of our architecture it is important for us to maintain a distinction between the security application infrastructure and the enterprise business systems... Derek O'Carroll, CEO of Vordel, explained that VordelSecure is the result of more than three years of development and detailed customer interaction. 'We are offering companies greater flexibility and choice in the way they deploy security for their XML communications,' he said..." [From the VordelSecure 2.0 datasheet: "VordelSecure secures Web Services, filtering XML traffic based on content and identity. SOAP connections to certain Web Services can be blocked, or filtered. SAML, WS-Security, and X.509 digital signatures are used to protect XML traffic within and between organizations. VordelSecure authenticates a consumer using an X.509 certificate obtained from the SSL session or from within the SOAP message. The identity of the user can be established using local directories or XKMS trust services from vendors such as VeriSign and Entrust. SAML Authentication Assertions are also consumed by VordelSecure. VordelSecure performs authorization based on security tokens enclosed in SOAP messages using WS-Security, and also interfaces with LDAP directories and with website authorization systems..."]

  • [December 11, 2002] "Corel to Preview New Tools for Smart Content Creation at XML 2002. Company to Unveil New Technologies for Creating XML and SVG Applications." - "Corel Corporation today announced its plans for the XML Conference and Exposition 2002 in Baltimore, MD. Corel will preview two new technologies designed to power and simplify the creation of XML and SVG applications. 'XML 2002 is an extremely important event for Corel. We are pleased to be unveiling the evolution of Corel's XML solution set to this growing community,' said Derek Burney, president and CEO of Corel Corporation. 'Corel is on the cutting edge in delivering the essential tools that will drive the adoption of open standards for both text and graphical content.' Corel will offer technology previews of its upcoming SVG-based smart graphics studio and the soon-to-be-released upgrade to its award-winning XML editor, Corel XMetaL. Smart Graphics: Building on the strength of SVG, this new studio will enable enterprise customers to create dynamic, data-driven graphical applications. SVG-based smart graphics are the ideal solution for building powerful, enterprise-class visual interfaces for delivering the data and content generated by XML Web services... Corel XMetaL 4: Corel will preview Corel XMetaL 4, the evolution of XML content creation. Corel XMetaL 4 is a platform designed to simplify the implementation of customized XML applications and features tight integration with content management systems. This new platform continues to build upon the strengths of Corel XMetaL 3, enabling anyone to create valid XML content and streamlining the process of distributing information to the Web, print and other media. 'Corel is continuing the tradition of launching important technology at this conference. XMetaL 1 was launched here in 1998, and I'm sure many people will be excited to see the new features added to XMetaL 4. Conference attendees will be equally interested in Corel's smart graphics technologies that enable the creation of SVG-based data driven graphics,' said Lauren Wood, Conference Chair, XML 2002. 'Together, these products show how far XML has come as an enabling technology in supporting enterprise-wide solutions to address business needs'..." See also from the Corel Smart Graphics Solutions White Paper: "The adoption of XML has given text and data the ability to interact with each other. Until now, however, the promise of interactivity has not extended to graphics. To address this problem, Corel Corporation has developed smart graphics solutions. Smart graphics are based on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), which is a standard for describing vector graphics in XML. Corel smart graphics solutions enable developers and designers to create personalized, interactive graphics for both print and the Web. Corel smart graphics solutions allow companies to bring together different content types into a common, seamless workflow. They make it easy to integrate text, graphics, data, and business processes from across the enterprise. They reduce content creation costs, increase productivity, and open up new revenue opportunities. Corel smart graphics solutions provide enterprises with the edge they need to maximize efficiency and meet the cross-media demands of the future..." On SVG, see: "W3C Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)."

  • [December 10, 2002] "XML Cup Award 2002 Presented to Jon Bosak and Tim Bray. Industry Leaders Recognized for Their Achievements and Work on the XML Standard." - "IDEAlliance, today awarded the XML Cup to Jon Bosak and Tim Bray, for outstanding contributions to XML. The presentation was part of the opening session of the XML Conference and Exposition 2002, being held this week at the Baltimore Convention Center, in Baltimore, Maryland. 'Jon Bosak was the Chair of the W3C Working Group that created XML, while Tim Bray was one of the co-editors of the XML specification as well as writing the first XML parser. Both have been energetic evangelists for XML and both are worthy recipients of the XML Cup', said Lauren Wood, Chair of the XML 2002 Conference, who awarded the Cup. 'The biggest decision the XML 2002 Planning Committee had to make was which of them should get the Cup this year, and which next year, so we decided to give it to both.' 'Jon and Tim are well respected within the XML community, as well as the IT community at large, for their innovative contributions. It is an honor for us to present them with the XML Cup this year. They have been inspirations to us all,' stated Marion Elledge, Executive VP, IDEAlliance. 'Our XML conference and exposition has been in existence since the standard was first announced at one of our IT events over five years ago. The XML Cup Award was created to honor talented individuals whose vision and contributions have made a lasting impact on XML technology. We think that this year's recipients more than meet these requirements.' Jon Bosak organized and led the working group that created XML, subsequently serving for two years as chair of the XML Coordination Group of the World Wide Web Consortium. He is a long-time member of OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, and he chaired the committee that developed the OASIS process for the definition of industry-specific XML markup standards. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Electronic Business XML initiative (ebXML), a joint project of OASIS and the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). He currently chairs the OASIS Universal Business Language Technical Committee and serves as the Sun Microsystems representative to the RosettaNet Solution Provider Board. Tim Bray has been in the software profession since 1981. He managed the New Oxford English Dictionary Project 1987. In 1989, Mr. Bray co-founded Open Text Corporation. He built one of the first popular commercial Web Search Engines in 1995 and in 1996-99, as an Invited Expert at the W3C, he co-invented XML and XML Namespaces. Mr. Bray is the author of Bonnie, a file system benchmark widely used in the Linux community and Lark, the world's first conformant XML processor. In 1999 he founded Antarcti.ca Systems Inc. and is currently employed there. He also serves on the W3C Technical Architecture Group. 'We at Antarctica and our customers have been fortunate to work with Tim,' said Barry Yates, CEO at Antarctica Systems Inc. 'His significant past contributions to XML and search engines we believe will pale next to his vision for the next generation of the enterprise user interface. Our customers and the technology world at large will continue to benefit from Tim's work and we know that many more awards like this one today await Tim in the future. 'In a dynamic and changing marketplace, the IDEAlliance XML Conference and Exposition is becoming the premier XML event. With the key leaders in attendance, we are pleased to recognize the innovations in the industry', said David Steinhardt, President of IDEAlliance. 'Next year's XML Cup will be presented during the XML 2003 Conference, being held December 7-12, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We look forward to honoring another visionary at that time and to seeing what advancements are made in the upcoming year'...". See also: "First XML Cup Award Presented to Industry Pioneer James Clark. Recognized for Achievements and Work on the XML Standard."

  • [December 10, 2002] "WfMC Announces Release of Workflow Standard XML Process Definition Language (XPDL 1.0)." - "The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is pleased to announce the release of the Workflow Standard -- XML Process Definition Language -- XPDL 1.0. Together with other WfMC standards, XPDL provides a framework for implementing business process management and workflow engines, and for designing, analyzing, and exchanging business processes. XPDL is the culmination of a 15-month effort by multiple vendors and users to provide a standard that satisfies the needs of diverse organizations... Edited and coordinated on behalf of the WfMC by Mike Marin (FileNET), Roberta Norin (Terrace Software), and Robert Shapiro (Cape Visions), XPDL 1.0 offers the following features: (1) XPDL is based on the WfMC workflow reference model, a recognized workflow standard; (2) It includes application integration and resource specification; (3) XPDL is extendable, allowing the addition of elements and attributes as well as the import of datatypes and operations that are defined in other specifications; (4) It provides a natural fit with graphical representations of business processes; (5) It offers continuity with earlier versions of the specification... XPDL 1.0 uses the popular XML language to describe a business process. A process defined in XPDL (a set of XML statements) can be imported into any workflow engine that supports XPDL. The related objects and attributes (data associated with the process) are now also included in the XPDL process definition. The XPDL process definition can be generated by workflow modeling and simulation tools, or can be manually coded, or can be exported from another XPDL-compliant workflow engine..." See details in the 2002-12-10 news item: "Workflow Management Coalition Publishes XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) Version 1.0."

  • [December 10, 2002] "VeriSign Offers Open Source WS-Security Implementation and Integration Toolkit to Help Developers Integrate Security Into Web Services. Effort Continues VeriSign's Commitment to Driving Trusted Web Services With Royalty-Free Implementation." - "Furthering its commitment to trusted Web services, VeriSign, Inc., the leading provider of digital trust services, announced today the royalty free availability of technology that will allow companies to integrate digital signatures and encryption into Web services. Based on the recently announced WS-Security specification and Addendum, which was co-written by IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign, this implementation provides enterprises, software developers and systems integrators with code they can use to achieve higher levels of trust and security when designing Web services applications and services. Offering this code as open source is intended to accelerate widespread adoption of Web services by making them even easier to secure. In addition, VeriSign announced that it has made available a version of its VeriSign Trust Service Integration Kit (TSIK) with security features for Web services, such as XML Signature, XML Encryption, and XML Key Management Services (XKMS). VeriSign TSIK is a Java-based developer toolkit for integrating security capabilities into Web services. 'Companies simply will not implement Web services until the industry adequately addresses the issues of trust and security,' said Dr. Phillip Hallam-Baker, VeriSign's Principal Scientist and Web Services Security Architect. 'We are helping to address those critical issues by taking a leadership role in providing customers and developers with some extremely useful code that they can implement in their Web services applications today to alleviate those concerns'... VeriSign will provide an open source implementation of WS-Security through its open source libraries, providing resources for building interoperable, trusted Web services using the proposed WS-Security standard. The VeriSign libraries can be deployed to provide protocol support for both client and server applications. In a typical situation, a Web service will rely on these libraries to add secure messaging to whatever business logic the Web service supports. The Trust Service Integration Kit includes three basic components: the messaging framework, the trust layer and XML resources. (1) The messaging framework brings together various VeriSign Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to provide a robust environment for developing secure, trusted, interoperable Web services. The Java libraries enable developers to create Java objects for sending and receiving XML messages in conjunction with a customer Web service API. (2) The trust layer provides APIs for security XML messages using public key infrastructure (PKI), and includes implementations of two key specifications, W3C XML Digital Signature and XML Encryption. These implementations emphasize ease-of-use over feature coverage... The Trust Verifier provides several mechanisms, including real-time XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) lookups, for establishing whether a public key or certificate chain is trusted. (3) The API also includes low-level resources for directly manipulating XML, building data types, navigating through document structures, validating the format of schemas and interfacing with parsers..." See: (1) "Web Services Security Specification (WS-Security)."; (2) "XML Digital Signature (Signed XML - IETF/W3C)."; (3) "XML and Encryption."; (4) "XML Key Management Specification (XKMS)." Other references at XML Security.

  • [December 10, 2002] "HP Expands Web Services Alliance with Microsoft. HP Provides Additional Support for Microsoft .NET and XML Web Services Development. Joins Visual Studio .NET Integration Program." - "Continuing its leading role in the development of manageable XML Web services, HP today announced that it has joined the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Integration Program. Specifically, HP will build and integrate XML Web services developer tools and components into Visual Studio .NET, an industry-leading application development environment. As part of HP's overall strategy to increase the return on its customers' IT investments, the new offerings will be designed to enable developers to improve productivity, reduce development time, increase return on application and infrastructure investments, and deliver enhanced XML Web services applications on multiple platforms. HP's participation in the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Integration Program expands the global initiative the two companies launched in September to accelerate the next generation of computing with .NET and Web services. This initiative builds upon the companies' longstanding relationship, combining HP's expertise in IT infrastructure technology and services with Microsoft's .NET development capabilities. As the first technology partner to be endorsed by Microsoft Corp. as a "worldwide prime integrator" for Microsoft .NET technologies, HP provides technology and expertise that can significantly improve the developer experience across the development lifecycle of applications as far ranging as XML Web services, enterprise and service provider infrastructure technologies, applications and services, and printing and imaging... For HP, the future of XML Web services application development lies at the intersection of Java and .NET interoperability -- where HP is working to support developers by integrating value-added technologies in the development environments they prefer. Combined with HP's support for Java-based initiatives, this integration with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET provides developers with a rich management fabric, expediting the design, development, deployment and support of XML solutions based on HP technology and services... By providing a range of enterprise platform offerings, such as tooling support for high-end, continuous-availability HP NonStop servers, HP enables customers to consolidate many existing application development activities. HP NonStop server customers and partners can leverage the HP Enterprise Toolkit (ETK)-NonStop Edition within the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET integrated development environment to edit, compile, build and deploy mission-critical applications for HP NonStop servers written in a variety of programming languages..."

  • [December 10, 2002] "OASIS TC Call For Participation: Extensible Resource Identifier Technical Committee (XRI TC)." - [Excerpted from the proposal:] "Increasingly, there is a demand for distributed directory services that enable the identification of resources (including people and organizations) and the sharing of data across domains, enterprises, and applications. There are currently no transport- and application-neutral identification schemes to support this infrastructure. The purpose of this committee is to define a URI scheme and a corresponding URN namespace that meet these requirements. This TC will also define basic mechanisms for resolving the identifiers in these schemes and for exchanging data associated with these identifiers. This work will enable the creation of Web-like collections of resources (including, but not limited to, data, systems, services, organizations, and people) that extend the WWW's current generalized addressing and linking capabilities. The URI scheme will conform to RFC 2396. It will also accommodate human-readable names as a subset of the compliant identifiers. The TC will also produce an interoperable URN namespace specification compliant with RFC 2141 and guided by the requirements in RFC 1737 for resources that need the ability to be persistently identified and linked. The TC will also define an XML schema to associate metadata with resources and a service to manipulate this metadata and data associated with the resources. Specifically, this service will reflect the simple transactional nature of the WWW, i.e., it will use a small set of REST (Representational State Transfer) or CRUD-like operators on an infinitely extensible set of XRI-addressable resources. This data exchange service will provide a platform for integration with directory-related specifications such as LDAP, DSML, and SPML. This TC's work will be influenced by the general architecture described in XNS and specifically by the XNS Addressing Specification. The XNS specifications published by the XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG) will be contributed to the TC for consideration in the committee's work. XNS is licensed under RF terms..." General references in "Extensible Name Service (XNS)."

  • [December 10, 2002] "Intel Conducts $5 Billion in RosettaNet e-Business, Web Services. e-Business Technology Provides Productivity Gains and Faster Supply Chain Throughput." - At the Beijing Intel RosettaNet Interoperability Fest, Intel Corporation "announced that it has achieved a significant e-Business milestone and that the computing industry has progressed to the third phase of e-Business, business-to-business integration. The industry first focused on establishing individual companies' web presences and selling products online. Intel has processed more than 10 percent of its revenues and supplier purchases this year using RosettaNet e-Business technology standards. Intel has transacted more than $3 billion in customer orders and $2 billion in supplier purchases on RosettaNet this year, increasing the amount of business processed by almost seven times in one year... Introduced in 1998, RosettaNet is a standard that enables electronics industry companies to conduct e-Business more efficiently and provide greater supply chain visibility. The extensible markup language-based (XML) standard enables suppliers and customers to easily automate supply chain tasks like collaborative demand forecasting, order management, shipping and receiving logistics, invoicing and payments. 'RosettaNet-enabled e-Business is a practical and robust example of web services at work across the enterprise,' said Intel Chief Information Officer Sandra Morris. 'The underlying XML-based technology is invisible to the company or person using it, but it vastly improves a company's business processes. For example, as a result of deploying RosettaNet with one of our direct materials suppliers, Intel will achieve savings this year by eliminating the auto-faxing of purchase orders and has decreased order transaction time from 24 hours to less than one hour. This translates into significant increases in operational efficiencies when multiplied across our supply chain.' Morris was speaking at the launch of the Intel RosettaNet Interoperability Fest (IOF) in Beijing, where Intel will host a three-day testing session among 28 companies operating in China. The IOF event is designed to accelerate the adoption of RosettaNet standards between IT, semiconductor and electronic component B2B trading partners in China... Intel conducts more than 30,000 RosettaNet-based transactions per month with more than 90 customers and suppliers who are based in 17 countries. More than half of Intel's RosettaNet-enabled business was conducted with companies in Asia. Intel's RosettaNet efforts play an important role in Intel's mission to be a worldwide, 100 percent e-Corporation. This five-year effort began with Intel selling products online, ramping to more than $1 billion in online sales per month within the first year. Since then, Intel has expanded this initiative, and using Web-based resources is the core way Intel operates and conducts business with its customers, suppliers and employees worldwide. The company has achieved significant operational improvements and cost savings, including improvements in sales processes, employee productivity and inventory management..." See also "Accelerating RosettaNet Implementation: Key learning from the Intel RosettaNet Interoperability Fest" (November 2001). General references in "RosettaNet."

  • [December 10, 2002] "Systinet Announces New Release of Web Services Platform with Support for Latest Standards and Proven Interoperability with Microsoft .NET. Systinet WASP Web services platform for Java & C/C++ includes enhanced security and Active Directory support for Microsoft .NET endpoints." - "Systinet has "announced a new release of its Java and C/C++ based Web services product suite with support for the latest standards, enabling seamless interoperability and security with Microsoft .NET. The new Systinet WASP (Web Applications and Services Platform) Version 4.5 is a direct response to strong market acceptance of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Through support of the latest Web services standards and rigorous interoperability testing, Systinet can ensure interoperability with Web services built using Microsoft .NET. WASP 4.5 includes numerous standards-based features to ensure seamless interoperability with .NET and to leverage Windows servers as the underlying security provider for all Web services-based applications. (1) Standards Support and Testing for Proven .NET Interoperability: WASP 4.5 includes new and unique features that allow for seamless translation of complex data types, such as collections, between Java and .NET environments. These standards-based features and Systinet's extensive interoperability testing make it easy for Java applications to seamlessly interoperate with .NET applications. (2) Support for SOAP Attachments over DIME: WASP 4.5 adds support for DIME (Direct Internet Message Encapsulation), an emerging standard that streamlines the processing of binary attachments in Web services. (3) Integration with Microsoft Active Directory and Kerberos via Web services: WASP 4.5 now provides unique support for Microsoft Active Directory, which enables WASP to authenticate users against Microsoft Active Directory. In addition, WASP 4.5 supports Kerberos, an essential security feature of Windows 2000 and Windows .NET Servers. Using Active Directory's Kerberos technology, a successful user logon to Windows can be securely and seamlessly reused by WASP - eliminating the need for additional logon actions for Web services applications. 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/C++, interoperate seamlessly with other Web services implementations such as Microsoft .NET, and are portable across a wide variety of platforms and servers..."

  • [December 10, 2002] "VeriSign Announces General Availability of Online Consumer Identity Verification Service. XML-Based Web Service Enables Enterprises to Conduct Real-Time, Identity Verification for Risk Management and Fraud Prevention." - "VeriSign, Inc., the leading provider of digital trust services, today announced general availability of its Consumer Authentication Service (CAS), the industry's first standard Web service for online identity verification and management. VeriSign's CAS provides e-businesses with automated, real-time, 24x7 access to multiple sources of consumer data as well as optimized scoring models that will enable enterprises to quickly and easily determine whether a potential buyer is who they claim to be. Verifying the identity of customers before beginning an online business relationship is critical for any e-business. According to the Federal Trade Commission, 42 percent of all consumer complaints in 2001 involved identity theft. And the risk of exposure to ID theft for companies increased 80 percent between 2000 and 2001. Some studies reveal that one out of every 50 consumers has suffered identity theft. VeriSign's CAS addresses these issues by offering customers, including eBay, Inc., a fully managed identity verification and management service that can be implemented quickly, seamlessly and cost-effectively into any legacy environment... CAS uses a predefined set of XML standards to connect to an enterprise's customer-facing Web application. The authentication data entered by the consumer is automatically routed using XML and encryption through VeriSign's services and checked against a wide variety of best of breed data sources to cross-verify and risk-rank consumer identity in real time. Verification of identity is then automatically communicated back to the enterprise application and to the consumer using underlying XML data. The communication between the enterprise, VeriSign and the data sources is secured with SSL encryption that already is built into standard Web servers and browsers..."

  • [December 09, 2002] "Design Science Announces MathFlow for Arbortext, Supports MathML 2.0 Markup. Supports Creating, Editing, Publishing of MathML-Based Equations Within Arbortext Products." - "Design Science, Inc., the developers of the Equation Editor in Microsoft Office, MathType, WebEQ and MathPlayer, today announced that its MathFlow for Arbortext software will be demonstrated in booth #537 at the XML Conference 2002, December 10-12 in Baltimore, Maryland. MathFlow for Arbortext provides organizations with a WYSIWYG environment where users can import, edit, maintain and publish MathML-based equations to multiple types of media, including print, PDF, HTML and HTML Help. MathML is the XML-based language for encoding mathematics developed by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Math Working Group. MathML is quickly becoming the mathematical representation of choice for the scientific, engineering, pharmaceutical and aerospace industries, as well as the education community, and STM publishers (Science/Technical/Medical)... Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, Design Science, Inc., develops software used by scientists, engineers and educators, including MathType, Equation Editor in Microsoft Office, WebEQ, MathPlayer, TeXaide and MathFlow for Arbortext, to communicate on the web and in print. Design Science has played a leading role in developing MathML and continues to be actively involved in the W3C Math Working Group...Arbortext is the only global provider of XML-based multichannel software that enables the creation, editing and publishing of information to multiple media types -- web, print, CD-ROM, wireless -- from a single source of content. Shipping since 1991, Arbortext's standards-based software supports technical publishing, reference publishing and business publishing applications that enable enterprises to provide more accurate, cost-efficient, complete, timely, consistent and usable information on all media..." See: "Mathematical Markup Language (MathML)."

  • [December 09, 2002] "OASIS Members Form Tax XML Technical Committee." - "Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Inland Revenue of the United Kingdom, United States Internal Revenue Service, IBM, Oracle, Republica, SAP, Software AG, Vertex, and other OASIS Members Collaborate on Tax Information Exchange Standard. Members of the OASIS interoperability consortium have formed a technical committee to advance an open, international standard for the exchange of tax-related information. The new OASIS Tax XML Technical Committee brings together representatives from government agencies in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States, as well as global businesses and financial institutions, to develop a common vocabulary that will allow tax reporting and compliance information to be unambiguously identified and exchanged. 'Everyone stands to gain from Tax XML,' stated Gregory Carson of the United States Internal Revenue Service, chair of the OASIS Tax XML Technical Committee. 'Software vendors and tax agencies will no longer need to maintain jurisdictionally specific applications and interchange standards. CRM, payroll, and financial developers will be able to reduce their system integration costs. Even taxpayers will benefit from the increased services that will be made possible by more flexible Tax XML interchange formats.' The products of Tax XML will include a vocabulary of terms, a repository of artifacts including XML templates, documents exchanged for tax compliance, best practices, guidelines and recommendations for practical implementation. The OASIS Tax XML participants will evaluate and build their new specification on existing XML standards for business information, including the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and others. Participation in the OASIS Tax XML Technical Committee remains open to all organizations and individuals. OASIS will host an open mail list for public comment, and completed work will be freely available to the public without licensing or other fees. Information on joining OASIS can be found on the OASIS website. The first meeting of the OASIS Tax XML Technical Committee will be held at the IDEAlliance XML 2002 Conference in Baltimore on 12 December 2002..." See other details in: (1) "OASIS Members Form Tax XML Technical Committee"; (2) "XML Markup Languages for Tax Information."

  • [December 09, 2002] "Microsoft Empowers Developers to Build Smart Business Solutions With 'Office 11'. Developers Gain Enhanced XML Support and New 'Visual Studio Tools for Office'." - "Microsoft Corp. today announced a new set of technologies designed to enable developers to build business solutions based on the next version of Microsoft Office, code-named Office 11. Among the technologies is a new set of tools, code-named Visual Studio Tools for Office, which enable Visual Studio .NET developers to use Microsoft's premier professional application development tool to build solutions based on Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents, as well as several new XML development experiences. In addition, Microsoft will continue to support Visual Basic for Applications... Developers will have complete access to all the features of Visual Studio .NET 2003, including the powerful editor and debugging environment to write code that is robust, maintainable and less prone to errors. Developers also will benefit from easy-to-use designers for creating user interfaces, working with data and XML, and building server-side code and components. Built-in security features of the .NET Framework offer developers and network administrators greater control and flexibility to allow only trusted code to run in Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. The no-touch deployment feature of the .NET Framework also makes it easier for developers to deploy and maintain code running on servers or end-user systems... In October, Microsoft unveiled the first beta release of Office 11, which features enhanced support for XML, including improved object model programmability, the ability to use XML schemas, built-in support for XML Web services and a new smart document solution model... Word and Excel templates can be designed with an underlying customer-defined XML structure, based on corporate, departmental or industrywide schemas, enabling developers to build a document-based application with context-specific help and supporting information. This ensures that end users can enter and view valid data without having to understand or work directly with XML. Integrated support for XML Web services in Office 11, along with support for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) and XPath, helps developers leverage their existing Office and Web development skills to build solutions that bring XML Web services data into the Office environment, enabling them to create new and more-productive user experiences. Companies can take advantage of industry-leading technologies that yield a competitive advantage through improved use of corporate information at the desktop. Other features of Office 11, such as smart documents and smart tags, ensure that applications will be built with rich user interfaces. Smart documents facilitate the creation of XML-based applications that provide end users with contextual data, help content and workflow, enhancing productivity by presenting information through a programmable task pane when a user needs it. Custom smart tags have been improved in Office 11 to better streamline cumbersome tasks for users, such as reviewing data from a back-end system, by providing content-specific actions or dynamically modifying a document's content. These advancements enable developers using Office 11 to build entirely new solutions or enhance existing solutions to take advantage of rich user interfaces..." See: "Microsoft Office 11 and XDocs."

  • [December 03, 2002] "IBM Advances Pervasive Computing Strategy With New Software. Voice Portal Technology and Tools Extend IBM Momentum With Device Manufacturers, Service Providers and Enterprises." - "Building on a continuing wave of pervasive computing customer deployments and industry alliances, IBM today announced new software products and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage voice portals -- as well as extend enterprise applications, such as mobile databases, to new devices. Today's announcement underscores IBM's ongoing commitment to help customers extend computing to new devices using an infrastructure built on a foundation of open, integrated and scalable technologies. IBM has built momentum helping enterprises extend capabilities to their mobile workforce, assisting service providers find new ways to decrease costs and increase revenue streams, and enabling device manufacturers to provide intelligent access to the enterprise. 'Pervasive computing plays a significant role in the on-demand era,' said Rodney Adkins, General Manager, IBM Pervasive Computing Division. 'Over the past year, we've been aggressively laying the foundation that gives people the flexibility to access and interact with information when they want it, where they want it and how they want it. Today's announcement adds to what is quickly becoming an extensive portfolio of technology, hardware, software and services that span the pervasive computing ecosystem.' Adding to its portfolio, IBM unveiled the new WebSphere Voice Application Access product: middleware that simplifies building and managing voice portals and more easily extends web-based portals to voice. Leveraging the scalability, personalization and authentication features of IBM's WebSphere Portal, it enables mobile workers to more easily access information from multiple voice applications -- using a single telephone number. This new offering includes IBM's WebSphere Voice Server as well as ready-to-use email, personal information management (PIM) functions, and sample portlets. It also supports VoiceXML and Java -- including development tools based on Eclipse, the open-source, vendor-neutral platform for writing software -- and uses open-standard programming languages to create voice-enabled applications that will interoperate with a range of web servers and databases. In keeping with IBM's strategy to provide solutions across multiple platforms, IBM will be working to make WebSphere Voice Application Access interoperable with offerings from third party VoiceXML vendors, such as Nuance and Cisco. In addition, IBM is also working with independent solutions vendors including V-Enable, Voxsurf and Viecore to extend their current solutions..." For a beta version of the WebSphere Voice Application Access product, see alphaWorks Voice Portal.

  • [December 03, 2002] "Extended Systems' SyncML SDK Compliant with New SyncML Standard. Company Returns From SyncFest 9 With v1.1.1 Certification." - "Extended Systems, a leading provider of mobile information management solutions for the enterprise, today announced that the company's SyncML software development kit, which enables mobile device manufacturers to implement the SyncML client protocol into a wide range of devices including smart phones, cell phones and PDAs, has undergone SyncML Interoperability testing and is now certified compliant with SyncML v1.1.1. Extended Systems' XTNDAccess SyncML SDK underwent the rigorous SyncML Interoperability testing at SyncFest 9 in Sophia Antipolis, France. In addition to being compliant with v1.1.1, noted features of the software kit include portable source code, easy-to-use APIs and comprehensive, easy-to-follow documentation, all of which allow developers to reduce development costs and shorten time-to-market. Specifically designed for embedded client devices, Extended Systems' SyncML SDK also features small code size (less than 40k ROM) optimized for memory limited devices and includes support for large objects, allowing developers to use a smaller message buffer resulting in saved RAM space on the device. Extended Systems Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Don Baumgartner said maintaining SyncML compliance is an important initiative for Extended Systems because the standard, and the interoperability and testing processes that drive it, enable device manufacturers to accelerate the introduction of SyncML compliant products by dramatically increasing the number of data capable products in the market. 'In addition,' he said, 'our unique relationships with leading device manufacturers and standards organizations allow us to bring a greater level of knowledge and expertise to enterprise customers.' SyncML is the common language for synchronizing all devices and applications over any network. SyncML leverages Extensible Markup Language (XML), making SyncML a truly future-proof platform. With SyncML, networked information can be synchronized with any mobile device, and mobile information can be synchronized with any networked applications. With SyncML any personal information, such as email, calendars, to-do lists, contact information and other relevant data, will be consistent, accessible and up to date, no matter where the information is stored." According to a recent OMA announcement, "Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has finalized the integration of the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), the MMS Interoperability Group (MMS-IOP), the SyncML Initiative, and the Wireless Village Initiative." See "The SyncML Initiative" and the list of SyncML compliant products.

  • [December 03, 2002] "OMG Announces Integrate 2003. January 28-29 in Burlingame, CA, USA." - "The Object Management Group (OMG) announces Integrate 2003, an event that will focus on the business and technical aspects of application integration using many different infrastructure standards -- OMG's own and other key industry standards including Web Services, XML/SOAP, C#/.Net, Java, CORBA, and more. Sponsored by Rational Software's Power Pack Program, Integrate 2003 is the second event in a new series from OMG and will be held January 28 - 29, 2003 in Burlingame, CA. Attendees will learn how to maximize ROI from integration projects, hear about the latest integration tools and techniques -- what works and what doesn't -- and listen to first-hand accounts of what it takes to steer enterprise integration strategy in the right direction for smart, profitable results. Integrate 2003 targets senior level technical managers who address business and technical issues concerning application integration. A sampling of sessions includes: XML Web Services as an Information Architecture by Alan Nugent, Novell Corporation; Data Integration Issues for the Large Enterprise by Michael Lang, Metamatrix; Enterprise Integration for the 21st Century by Petter Graff, Inferdata Corporation; and a CIO Roundtable discussion. Integrate 2003 will be jointly located with the Burlingame OMG Technical Meeting... With well-established standards covering software from design and development, through deployment and maintenance, and extending to evolution to future platforms, the Object Management Group (OMG) supports a full-lifecycle approach to enterprise integration which maximizes ROI, the key to successful IT. Based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), OMG's standards cover multiple operating systems, programming languages, middleware and networking infrastructures, and software development environments. OMG's Modeling standards, the basis for the MDA, include the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM). CORBA, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is OMG's standard open platform with hundreds of millions of deployments running today. OMG's well-established CORBAservices and industry-specific standards are being re-issued under the MDA in many popular middleware environments. OMG domain (industry-specific) standards cover vertical markets including healthcare, telecommunications, biotechnology, transportation and a dozen other areas. The OMG is headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, with a U.S. government representative in Washington, DC, and international marketing offices in Japan, the UK, and Germany." See also OMG Integrate 2003 in the events calendar.

  • [December 02, 2002] "Adobe Ships Server Products to Automate Document Processes in the Enterprise. Based on Adobe Acrobat and Adobe PDF, New Server Products Enable Organizations to Reduce Document Production Costs." - "Adobe Systems Incorporated, leader in network publishing, today announced the immediate availability of its new server products designed to fully automate document and forms processes that companies rely on to run their businesses. Adobe Document Server and Adobe Document Server for Reader Extensions enable companies to integrate enterprise applications with document workflows throughout an organization, improving document generation, collaboration and process management across the enterprise... Adobe Document Server and Document Server for Reader Extensions utilize Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) technologies to address the growing need for global enterprises and government agencies to extend their business processes. The server products, combined with nearly half-a-billion copies of the free Acrobat Reader distributed by Adobe, give companies a platform to collaborate with their customers and partners via secured documents in on-line and off-line environments. Adobe Document Server lets customers dynamically assemble customized Adobe PDF files from a variety of data sources to create documents such as technical manuals, electronic forms, contracts, business reports and invoices. The software enables enterprises to tap into existing ERP, CRM and CMS systems, document management systems, and industry-standard databases to instantly generate custom one-to-one business communications in PDF. Adobe Document Server also accepts XML commands, and supports Extensible Style Language Formatting Objects (XSL-FO), an industry standard for describing how an XML document should be formatted for a variety of media. Adobe Document Server for Reader Extensions offers businesses and government agencies the ability to assign usage rights to Adobe PDF documents and forms. Once these rights have been assigned, users of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.1 software will be able to save, fill and route PDF forms, add electronic sticky notes for comments or questions, and digitally sign completed forms. These features were previously available only with the full Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software. Companies and government agencies can then easily integrate completed Adobe PDF forms and data in XML with back-end systems for round-trip transactional workflows... Adobe server products are available direct from Adobe, through Adobe-authorized corporate licensing centers and authorized VARs and System Integrators... Acrobat Reader 5.1 is available free-of-charge in English for Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional and Home, and Mac OS 9.1 and 10.1..." See "Enhanced Adobe Document Servers Support XML-Based Workflow and Digital Signature Facilities."

  • [December 02, 2002] "ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Ratified as OASIS Open Standard. New Version of OASIS UN/CEFACT Work Enables E-Business Collaboration." - "The OASIS interoperability consortium today announced that its members have approved the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA) v2.0 as an OASIS Open Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. ebXML CPPA defines business partners' technical capabilities and documents agreements between partners, enabling organizations to securely engage in electronic business collaboration... 'ebXML CPPA ensures interoperability between two parties, even organizations that use software from different sources. The CPP defines a party's message-exchange capabilities and the business collaborations that it supports. The CPA defines the way two business parties will interact in performing the chosen business collaborations,' explained Dale Moberg of Cyclone Commerce, chair of the OASIS ebXML CPPA Technical Committee. 'The OASIS Open Standard also facilitates the migration of both traditional EDI-based applications and other legacy applications to ebXML-based platforms.' ebXML CPPA was developed by Commerce One, Cyclone Commerce, E2open, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Intel, IONA, Mercator, SAP, SeeBeyond, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, TIBCO, Vitria, webMethods, and other members of the OASIS ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Technical Committee... In related news, the ebXML OASIS UN/CEFACT Joint Marketing Team published version 1.0 of the ebXML Adoption Update, a listing of ebXML implementations, projects, products, and industry initiatives from around the world..." See: (1) OASIS ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement TC; (2) "The Significance of CPPA v2," by Jon Bosak; (3) "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

  • [November 27, 2002] "New Data Modeling Technology Speeds Integration Projects Across and Beyond the Enterprise. Contivo's EIM Solution Extends Reach to Legacy and Web Services Integration." - "Contivo, Inc., leading provider of automated data integration, today announced the release of the Contivo Enterprise Integration Modeling (EIM) Solution 3.7 to help enterprises manage data integration more quickly and effectively. The Contivo EIM Solution 3.7 features enhanced capabilities to model and integrate data across and beyond the enterprise by supporting legacy systems, packaged applications, industry standards, and open standards such as Web services... Contivo EIM Solution 3.7 features include: (1) Contivo Legacy Integrator: A standalone Java utility that is seamlessly integrated into the Contivo EIM Solution that supports flat file to XML and XML to flat file processing and transformation. Supported flat file structures include COBOL Copybooks, EDI files, SAP IDoc files, delimited (CSV) and fixed-length record files. (2) Schema Namespace Editor: Enables users to edit and preserve the XML Schema namespace prefix within the target document of transformations, a necessary feature to support XML transformation for business processing. (3) In-Line Comments for Mapping Rules: A new command in the Contivo Analyst Mapping Studio allows users to include comments when defining mapping rules, enabling teams to retain valuable contextual information in the body of the transformation code. (4) New Map Simulation: Provides an integrated design, test and debug environment with the ability to simulate transformations, trace rules and variables for "debugging" and view input and output test data. This function supports testing either XSLT or Java transformations and ensures that maps are accurate and will work inside the runtime environment as expected prior to deployment. (5) Contivo Enterprise Vocabulary Manager: Offers tools and reports to assist in managing and maintaining a semantic vocabulary and its relationships to the modeled interfaces. Available reports include semantic concept usage reports and a fit-gap analysis capability to assist in defining and maintain canonical data models. (6) Java Transformation for BEA WebLogic Integration: Enables users to generate Java transform code based on maps defined within the Contivo Analyst that can be deployed and invoked from within BEA WebLogic Integration..."

  • [November 27, 2002] "Proposed XML-based Standard to Allow Journals and Publishers to Exchange. In-Process Manuscripts Between Different Online Submission and Tracking Systems." - "Aries Systems Corporation today announced the launch of an initiative to formulate a publishing industry standard that would allow the exchange of scientific manuscripts between differing online manuscript tracking systems. In the past two years, Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) journals have identified that the Internet provides an excellent medium for the submission and tracking of scientific manuscripts. While some large societies have developed in-house systems, many journals have also adopted solutions sold by commercial vendors. Aries' proposed XML-based 'Submission and Manuscript eXchange Format' (SMXF) would provide a system-neutral standard for the exchange of manuscript metadata and content. The broad adoption of such a standard would provide key benefits to STM publishers. For example, a journal would be able to download SMXF data from one conforming system, and upload it into another -- thereby ensuring continuity of service and data security. The SMXF standard could also be used to build functionality, enabling cooperating journals to 'share' in-process manuscripts even if they use systems from different vendors. Richard Wynne, the VP of Sales and Marketing at Aries Systems Corporation commented: 'This marketplace will undergo numerous technical and business changes during the next few years. Journals are justifiably concerned about locking their data into incompatible proprietary systems. An open standard like SMXF is the only real way to address fundamental concerns about continuity of service, as well as providing an exciting platform for cooperation between journals. We are committed to making our Editorial Manager system SMXF compatible.' It is anticipated that the SMXF standard would build on top of existing XML initiatives such as PRISM and the Dublin Core, by making additional provisions for in-process manuscript data such as reviewer commentary, status terms and editor decision letters..." See the 2002-11-27 news item "Aries Systems Proposes Submission and Manuscript Exchange Format (SMXF) for STM Publishing."

  • [November 26, 2002] "Vendors to Unveil New Solutions at XML Conference and Exposition 2002. More Than 50 Vendors to Showcase Offerings and Present Latest Innovations." - "The industry's top providers of software, systems and solutions will showcase their latest innovations this December at XML 2002, the world's leading XML conference and exposition. This year's lineup of XML notables includes sponsors Corel and Microsoft, co-sponsor Adobe Systems, as well as Arbortext, Documentum, empolis, Exegenix, Veridocs, XyEnterprise, and many others. Many participating companies will also deliver technical presentations throughout the event in the Vendor Track portion of the conference program. XML Conference and Exposition 2002, produced by IDEAlliance, will take place Sun., Dec. 8, through Fri., Dec. 13, at the Baltimore Convention Center, in Baltimore, MD. The XML 2002 exposition will take place December 10 through 12, 2002. 'This year's exposition features several companies that are new to the XML Conference, as well as some that have returned after a few years' absence,' said Marion Elledge, Senior VP at IDEAlliance. 'This shows a positive turn in the IT industry and that XML continues to grow and play a vital part in meeting today's business challenges.' Featured once again on this year's Expo floor is the cutting-edge Incubator Area, which showcases pre-released commercial tools, free tools, and shareware tools. Users will have the opportunity to preview future products and free tools, while developers capture their feedback. By providing this venue, IDEAlliance is helping to nurture the XML tools of tomorrow. 'Many of the key players in XML will be represented at the conference, talking about and showing the latest XML solutions,' says Lauren Wood, Chair of the Conference. 'Attendees will be able to see and evaluate the new tools and services, speak to senior architects and designers, and find out what the pieces are that they need to put together to solve their business needs'..." See "XML Conference and Exposition 2002" in the events calendar.

  • [November 25, 2002] "Core Integration Automates Data Warehouse Construction. Firm's Suite of Rapid Deployment Solutions Can Cut Development Time up to 70 Percent." - "Core Integration Partners, Inc., a leading provider of business intelligence and data integration services, today introduced its rapid deployment suite of solutions: RapidMAP and RapidMODEL. These 'Wizards' automate the building of baseline data flow diagrams and data models, tedious processes in the construction of a data warehouse that previously could be done only by hand. By using these solutions, Core Integration estimates it can shave up to 70 percent or more off development times. 'The savings in time and money related to design and implementation are quite significant,' said Daniel Linstedt, chief technology officer of Core Integration, who developed the automated processes, or 'Wizards.' These rapid deployment solutions allow developers to produce in a matter of minutes what takes from days to even months to do manually. RapidMAP helps developers automatically create basic source-to-target mappings that can be integrated into Informatica's PowerMart and PowerCenter data integration platforms. Once source systems are identified, RapidMAP will generate XML that contains mapping information for all identified source-to-target relationships. At a recent web seminar, Core Integration demonstrated that RapidMAP can create 1,100 Informatica mappings in approximately three minutes. It would normally take around two weeks to produce the same results manually. 'About 60 percent of a data warehouse project is spent doing the ETL (extraction, transfer and load) portion,' said Linstedt. 'By using RapidMAP, we have shortened this piece dramatically so we can spend more time doing business analyses and other, more important, project functions.' RapidMODEL can be automatically applied in stage area modeling, data warehouses and data marts. And, when new modeling efforts are required, the same, consistent, repeatable process can be utilized... RapidMAP and RapidMODEL are compliant with several major software products that utilize XML to define process flows, including Informatica, the most widely used tool in ETL, Oracle, and MSSQLServer that read XML database schemas..."

  • [November 21, 2002] "Hyperion, Microsoft and SAS Release New Specification of XML for Analysis. New Specification and New XMLA Advisory Council Members Help Drive XMLA as an Industry Standard." - "Hyperion, Microsoft Corp., and SAS today announced a new release of the XML for Analysis (XMLA) specification. XML for Analysis Specification Version 1.1 provides an updated specification and API standard for vendors to access multidimensional databases as a Web service. It is the first version of the XMLA specification to be created in conjunction with members of the XMLA Advisory Council, a standards group that was formed after Hyperion and Microsoft released XML for Analysis Specification Version 1.0 in 2001. XML for Analysis Specification Version 1.1 is available for Web download... In addition to the new release of the XMLA specification, the XMLA Advisory Council announced that it has added seven new members. The new council members -- Crystal Decisions, INEA, MIS AG, MJM Consultant Corp., Panorama Software Systems, SAP AG and Silvon Software, Inc.-- bring additional analytics expertise to the group. The new council members join a growing group of industry leaders that have previously announced their support for XMLA. The primary drivers of the XMLA specification include Hyperion, Microsoft and SAS. XMLA Council members also include Alphablox, ANGOSS Software Corp., Applied OLAP, Applix, Inc., Aspirity, ArcPlan, Inc., Brio Software, Business Objects, Cognos, Comshare Inc., DSS Lab, Inc., Lawson Software, MicroStrategy, ProClarity, Inc., Simba Technologies, SPSS Inc.,Temtec and Vigilance, Inc. The XML for Analysis (XMLA) advisory council is made up of a number of leading business intelligence software vendors that have announced their support and backing of XMLA, a set of XML message interfaces that use the industry standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to define data access interaction between a client application and an analytical data provider working over the Internet. The council has jointly published an XMLA specification that allows corporate developers, third party tool vendors and other partners to query analytical data providers in a standard way. The new standard is expected to accelerate the adoption of Internet business intelligence software and increase the market for those technologies..." See: (1) the 2002-11-21 news item: "XMLA Advisory Council Announces XML for Analysis Specification Version 1.1"; (2) general references in "XML for Analysis."

  • [November 21, 2002] "TextCafe Version 3.0 Now Supports SVG. Generates Scalable Vector Graphics, Enhanced Navigation XML, Document Indexes." - "Texterity, Inc., a leading provider of electronic publishing services, today announced TextCafe Version 3.0, providing conversion of PDF into SVG pages, XML-based table of contents, and XML document search indexes. SVG provides customers with an XML-based representation of pages that appear identical to the original printed page. TextCafe already provides automated, volume conversion for materials that need traditional XML and Open eBook (OEB) format. With TextCafe 3.0, publishers can now easily publish on-line and off-line versions of materials using standard web browsers for Windows, Macintosh and other platforms. TextCafe 3.0 provides the following key features: (1) Automatic conversion from PDF to SVG pages, page-based word lists for indexed searches, and structural Table of Contents in XML format; (2) Ability to view SVG pages within any HTML page, using the Adobe SVG Viewer for either web-based (connected) or standalone (offline) use; (3) Full support for embedded fonts, including ability to create SVG standard font drawing instructions or Adobe Compact Embedded Fonts (CEF); (4) utomatic extraction and optimization of all raster and bitmap images into standard PNG or JPEG formats; (5) Translation of line-drawing and vector images into SVG vector formats; (6) Matching between reflowable XML/OEB output, word indexes and SVG pages, enabling word highlighting and relevancy searching... The full suite of TextCafe 3.0 SVG services include: (1) Conversion: generation of SVG pages, image extraction, search indexes, and XML table of contents from PDF input; (1) Enhancement: automatic generation of links into SVG pages based on part numbers, key words, or structural elements; metadata extraction, linking and highlighting; and deep XML TOC level creation; (3) Hosting: website development, integration, custom look-and-feel documents, links to existing site locations, and authenticated access; (4) Custom: website integration, development, and graphical user interface design for "custom skins" for on-line or off-line electronic books... Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based language for Web graphics developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). TextCafe 3.0 is supported by the Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0, which supports Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. In addition, TextCafe 3.0 SVG is compatible with the new Adobe Graphics Server 2.0, enabling flexible deployment of SVG to any web browser without a plug-in. Founded in 1991, Texterity is a leading provider of electronic publishing services enabling fast, cost-effective automated transformation of published pages into multiple electronic formats. Texterity's electronic publishing solutions include web catalog development, repurposing content and distribution of electronic files to multiple electronic retail channels. Texterity manages the electronic publishing life cycle, including automated conversion and distribution of existing content into XML, SVG, HTML, e-book, wireless, and print..." See: "W3C Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)."

  • [November 20, 2002] "OASIS Members Collaborate to Advance Open XML Format for Office Applications. Arbortext, Boeing, Corel, Drake Certivo, Sun Microsystems, and Others Develop Open Office Standard at Global Consortium." - "Members of the OASIS standards consortium have formed a technical committee to advance an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications. The new OASIS Open Office XML Format Technical Committee brings together representatives throughout the industry committed to establishing standard data interoperability for office applications. Their work will be suitable for documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphs and will retain high-level information for editing. Although the initial work of the technical committee will focus on standardizing data for content creation and management applications, subsequent phases will address simplifying the exchange of data between any application that utilizes XML, which may include business processes, Web services, databases, search engines, and other applications. 'Our goal is to achieve consensus on an open standard that will protect content -- whether it is a 800-page airplane specification or a legal contract -- from being locked into a proprietary file format,' explained Michael Brauer of Sun Microsystems, chair of the OASIS Open Office XML Format Technical Committee. 'A standard method for processing and interchanging office documents will enable companies to own their data and freely choose tools to view and edit information long after originating applications have come and gone.' Sun Microsystems intends to contribute the XML file format specification utilized in the OpenOffice.org 1.0 project to the new OASIS Technical Committee under reciprocal Royalty Free terms. OpenOffice.org is an Open Source full-featured office productivity suite that works transparently with a variety of file formats to enable users of varying office suites to exchange documents freely with one another..." See details in: (1) the 2002-11-04 news item "OASIS Technical Committee for Open Office XML File Format"; (2) "XML File Formats for Office Documents."

  • [November 19, 2002] "Open Mobile Alliance Announces New Specifications, OMA Release Program, and Additional Industry Forum Consolidation." - "The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), committed to driving open standards and interoperable mobile services across the world, today introduced the OMA Release Program including new technical specifications. Additionally, OMA announced the completed consolidation of key industry forums. The OMA specifications will follow the OMA Release Program. Through the program, OMA facilitates and accelerates the creation of mobile services that comply with open specifications and operate across a wide range of networks, countries, and mobile devices. The program requires thorough interoperability testing to ensure that products and services work together seamlessly -- a prerequisite for success in the global mobile services market. The OMA Release Program initially includes seven new enablers, comprised of specifications that are the building blocks for mobile services worldwide. These enablers are mobile browsing, Multimedia Messaging (MMS), Digital Rights Management (DRM), Domain Name Server (DNS) lookup via mobile devices, mobile content download, e-mail push notification, and user/device profiles. The industry can incorporate these enablers into their product road maps and plan for interoperability testing. Additionally, OMA introduced the Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) enabler. This enabler has already successfully passed interoperability tests with several implementations... OMA has finalized the integration of the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), the MMS Interoperability Group (MMS-IOP), the SyncML Initiative and the Wireless Village Initiative. Mobile standardization efforts continue to integrate into OMA. The Mobile Wireless Internet Forum (MWIF) and the Mobile Games Interoperability Forum (MGIF) have announced intention to integrate into OMA. Both initiatives are committed to driving global standards that improve interoperability of mobile technologies..." See: (1) "The SyncML Initiative"; (2) "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

  • [November 19, 2002] "Liberty Alliance Releases Version 1.1 Specification Draft for Public Review. Version 1.1 Draft Provides Maintenance Updates to Existing 1.0 Specifications." - "The Liberty Alliance Project, a business and technology consortium formed to develop open specifications for federated network identity, today released for public review a draft of the version 1.1 specifications, a maintenance update to the version 1.0 specifications released in July. Version 1.1 includes editorial changes that clarify the version 1.0 specifications, as well as fixes and minor enhancements. The update is the result of feedback that the Liberty Alliance has received from members and non-members during the last three months. The version 1.1 document is the first to be issued by the Liberty Alliance for public input, prior to final approval. 'The Liberty Alliance is striving to address the requirements of a wide range of businesses and industries, and as part of this effort we are encouraging non-members as well as members to provide feedback regarding the version 1.1 specifications, which are works-in-progress,' said Simon Nicholson, chairman of the Liberty Alliance Technology Expert Group. 'Because so many organizations are involved in the work of the Alliance, we have a unique opportunity to understand the business issues companies want to solve and the end-user benefits they want our specifications to provide.' The majority of the updates in the version 1.1 specifications are focused on reducing barriers for implementers, by improving flexibility and clarifying some ambiguities in the version 1.0 specifications... The Liberty Alliance is taking a phased approach to the release of its specifications and anticipates that the next major release of specifications, version 2.0, will be issued in 2003. Version 2.0, which will build upon version 1.1, will provide an infrastructure for developing and supporting identity-enabled Web services from companies, organizations or government entities. The infrastructure will include a framework for permissions-based attribute sharing and will allow groups of organizations, often referred to as 'circles of trust' or authentication domains, to be linked together, as opposed to operating as separate islands..." See details in the 2002-11-19 news item: "Liberty Alliance Releases Draft Version 1.1 Specifications for Public Review"

  • [November 19, 2002] "Mindreef Announces Availability of SOAPscope Personal 1.0 at SD East. Industry's First Web Services Diagnostics System Helps Solve Common Web Services Problems." - "Mindreef, LLC announced today at SD East the availability of Mindreef SOAPscope Personal 1.0, the first offering in the company's flagship product family and the industry's first Web Services Diagnostics System. This emerging category of products addresses the challenges of isolating and solving problems of applications built with Web Services. SOAPscope Personal 1.0 is an easy-to-use, platform-independent diagnostics aid for developers, testers and application support technicians. It provides a scalable logger and intelligent viewer for SOAP-based Web services, enabling users to quickly track and troubleshoot problems such as errant data, performance issues and interoperability issues... Debugging XML Web services is different than debugging other types of applications, even classic distributed systems. When components are running on disparate systems spread across departmental or corporate boundaries, even simple problems can be very difficult to isolate. Web services are driving the need for deeper, more specialized tools that focus on the connections between loosely coupled components rather than the code in the components... SOAPscope Personal stores the log in an embedded relational database. This gives users greater flexibility when slicing, dicing and filtering to quickly locate the target messages. By embedding the database Mindreef has made installation and administration simple... SOAPscope Personal offers two ways to hook into the SOAP stream for logging. Sniffer mode allows for quick and easy start-up without any code modification. For finer grained data collecting or for situations where users don't have access to a sniffable network entry point, SOAPscope Persona