Cover Pages: XML Industry News: 2003 Q3

XML News

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

Main "What's New" Column
XML Industry News April - June 2003
XML Industry News January - March 2003
XML Industry News October - December 2002
XML Industry News July - September 2002
XML Industry News April - June 2002
Earlier press collections

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

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[September 30, 2003] "Adobe and Xerox Announce Strategic Initiative to Promote Print Production Workflow Standards. Adobe PDF, JDF, XML and PostScript Technologies Incorporated Into Xerox FreeFlow Initiative." - "Adobe Systems Incorporated and Xerox Corporation today announced an initiative to jointly support and promote the widespread adoption of emerging print industry standards for both static and variable information workflow technologies. The standards include Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), JDF (Job Definition Format) job ticketing, Adobe PostScript, XML (Extensible Markup Language), and variable information workflow technologies. The initiative is part of Xerox FreeFlow Digital Workflow Collection that improves digital workflow -- the process by which print jobs make their way from creation through final production and fulfillment... Adobe technologies are incorporated throughout the latest release of the Xerox FreeFlow Digital Workflow Collection. (1) Xerox DigiPath Production Software 4.0 with Adobe Acrobat, PDF Libraries and PDF plug-in support as part of a full and robust Adobe PDF workflow. Adobe PDF is supported throughout all of DigiPath's functionality, including scanning, preflight, imposition, editing, storage, viewing and printing. (2) Xerox DocuSP 3.7 Controllers for production printing with Adobe PostScript 3, PDF Libraries and Normalizer solutions for reliable, consistent print output, native PDF consumption and the highest quality PPML support. (3) The Xerox VIPP Thin Printer for high-volume production, tagging and delivery of optimized Adobe PDFs from the same print data streams used for production printing, using Adobe Acrobat, Distiller Server and PDF Libraries. These PDF files can be used for single or multi-set proofs, archiving, electronic distribution, and Web presentment of variable data documents produced from Xerox VIPP applications. As part of the new initiative, Adobe and Xerox are undertaking joint efforts to drive acceptance of the JDF standard for job ticketing, and to develop integrated solutions that leverage the strengths of their respective variable data printing technologies. Both companies embrace PostScript, PDF, XML and variable data print streams to provide the broadest possible range of one-to-one business applications. Consistent with these priorities, Xerox is supporting the latest PPML Graphic Arts Conformance Subset standard across its line of production products and one-to-one solutions architecture..." See also: (1) "Job Definition Format (JDF)"; (2) "Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML)."
[September 29, 2003] "Antarctica Systems Announces Visual Net 4.0. Maximizing Information Display to Reveal Clarity, Truth in Data." - "Antarctica Systems Inc., a pioneer developer of visualization technology, today announced the availability of version 4.0 of its Visual Net (VN) software. Visual Net's map-based visual displays convey the relevant, meaningful content that business users need to address key business issues. Most enterprise software tools focus on collecting, aggregating and slicing/dicing data -- they have not focused on presenting information in a compelling and usable manner. As a result, many of these tools obscure problems more than they help to clarify. 'The business problems that people address on a daily basis are complex and multidimensional,' states Tim Bray, founder and CTO of Antarctica Systems. 'Other tools fail to meet this challenge. Sometimes key problems and opportunities are missed, even though all of the required information exists.' The improvements in Visual Net 4.0 are aimed at changing the user focus from dealing with the complexities of constructing complex queries to dealing with key business issues... The VN maps display all the complexities inherent in real business issues, showing multiple dimensions of both macro and micro data, unlike other enterprise tools that try to present complex business problems boiled down to one-dimensional snapshots. This enables users to have a complete view of their business problems. Users are presented with better/more relevant information. The VN interface is designed to provide the maximum amount of relevant content to users. Business users do not need to access multiple reports, screens, graphics etc to collect the information required to solve problems. Visual Net screens contain 60-80% relevant content compared to less than 25% for most other enterprise tools. Key issues 'rise to the top' so they can be acted upon quickly before they become critical problems. Once a problem is identified, users can easily drill down to investigate and gather more details -- 'to clarify, add detail.' Critical business information is easily made available to executives and business users, instead of a small set of 'power users'. Users do not need to know how to construct complex queries or generate reports. Visual Net 4.0 has built in more interactivity, allowing users at all levels of the organization to manipulate and filter data to customize the information on the maps, giving users more flexibility in what they see. Visual Net is now equally adept at visualizing three types of information: numeric, textual and geographic -- either individually or in combination..." See also the Visual Net FAQ document.
[September 29, 2003] Open Archives Initiative and Project RoMEO Initiate OAI-Rights Working Group." - "The Open Archives Initiative and Project RoMEO announce the formation of OAI-rights. The goal of this effort is to investigate and develop means of expressing rights about metadata and resources in the OAI framework. The result will be an addition to the OAI implementation guidelines that specifies mechanisms for rights expressions within the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The area of rights expressions is wide-open with many organizations proposing languages and mechanisms. Therefore, the OAI-rights effort will aim to be extensible, providing a general framework for expressing rights statements within OAI-PMH. These statements will target both the metadata itself and the resources described by that metadata. In the context of this broader framework, OAI-rights will use Creative Commons licenses as a motivating and deployable example. A white paper describing the scope and issues in OAI-rights is available online... OAI-rights work will begin in September 2003, with completion of specifications planned for second quarter 2004." Members of the Organizing Committee include Carl Lagoze, Herbert Van de Sompel, Michael Nelson, and Simeon Warner (for the OAI); Elizabeth Gadd, and Steve Probets (for Project RoMEO). The OAI-Rights Working Group includes representatives from US Library of Congress, Rightscom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, American Physical Society, Erasmus Electronic Publishing Initiative, Hewlett/Packard DSpace, Project RoMEO/Loughborough University, eprints.org/University of Southampton, Cornell University Information Science, Humboldt University Berlin, Old Dominion University Computer Science, California Digital Library, FEDORA/Cornell University Information Science, UKOLN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Creative Commons. See details in the 2003-09-26 news story: "RoMEO and OAI-PMH Teams Develop Rights Solution Using ODRL and Creative Common Licenses."
[September 29, 2003] "OASIS Members Collaborate on Global Framework to Enhance Web Services Deployment." - "Members of the OASIS international standards consortium announced plans to collaborate on the development of a global Web services framework that will define a methodology for broad-based, multi-platform, vendor-neutral implementation. The new OASIS Framework for Web Services Implementation (FWSI) Technical Committee plans to design a template for Web services deployment, enabling systems integrators, software vendors, and in-house developers to deliver eCommerce solutions faster and easier. 'FWSI will define the functionality required to help people build robust applications for Web services and Service Oriented Architectures,' said Roberto B. Pascual of the Singapore Government's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), proposed co-chair of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee. 'It will speed adoption of Web services by tremendously reducing the risk, complexity, and implementation effort involved.' The OASIS FWSI Technical Committee will specify a set of functional elements required for practical implementations of Web Services-based systems. These functional elements provide building blocks for developers to use when deploying Web services architectures, enabling rapid development of eBusiness applications by eliminating the need to re-invent elements for each implementation. 'The work of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee will be analogous to creating a recipe for baking a cake,' explained Dr. Lee Eng Wah, of the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), proposed co-chair of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee. 'We will first develop a set of implementation methodologies, which will be like cooking instructions. Then we will focus on designing a set of functional elements for Web services -- the ingredients for the cake.' Rather than define standards for implementing specific Web services components, FWSI will leverage applicable work within OASIS and other standards groups. Technical Committee members predict that the work of the WS-I Consortium will complement FWSI at OASIS. 'We are very pleased that the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee is being launched in Singapore and has the backing of so many companies and agencies here and around the world,' said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS, in an address today at the iX2003 conference. 'By creating a library of core eCommerce Web services, FWSI will accelerate the deployment of Web services and Service Oriented Architectures into the critical eBusiness marketplace.' Members of the new OASIS FWSI Technical Committee include CommerceNet, IDA, Information Technology Standards Committee of Singapore, RosettaNet, SIMTech, Sun Microsystems, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID) at the University of Hong Kong, Yellow Dragon, and other OASIS members. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, and OASIS will host a mail list for public comment..." See the TC website and other details in the news story: "OASIS Announces Framework for Web Services Implementation (FWSI) TC."
[September 26, 2003] "FSTC Issues Results of Web Services Proof of Concept." - "The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) today announced the results of a proof of concept to develop a set of Web services for cash management system integration. The test was aimed at validating the use of Web services technologies for cash management application and data integration for bank-to-bank and bank-to-customer connections. FSTC brought together Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, NEC and its consulting arm Niteo Partners, and Sun Microsystems in this five-month initiative to test aspects of interoperability, security, and the reliability of Web services technologies when applied to multi-bank reporting services in treasury management. The project produced a set of Web services, reference implementation, and next generation treasury portal to demonstrate the utility of the services developed. Some of the key results of this project include: (1) A reference implementation generated from the test, comprised of a re-usable architecture and set of technical specifications that can be developed into commercial offerings, provides project participants a valuable set of baseline Web services and a detailed set of supporting technical and business documentation for planning and developing banking applications in .NET and Java environments. (2) The assessment that more work in technical standards and interoperability is needed, particularly for applications and bank interactions that require end-to-end security and reliability to meet expected service levels. (3) The realization that additional industry efforts are needed to address issues of including attachments and the transport of non-XML data using SOAP messaging. The first phase of the project also concluded that interoperability at the interface level is very immature. In addition, having multiple open source and commercial technologies use a common Web services description language (WSDL) file is problematic as the automatic code generators carry numerous bugs. Fortunately, implementations can typically be made to conform with some re- programming of the generated code. Also, project participants found through this hands-on activity that security, including key management, must be examined and tested carefully in banking applications since security interoperability is very immature in open source code and commercial offerings. XML signature and encryption packages proved difficult to use across heterogeneous technology platforms. The project further recommended that financial institutions should remain optimistic about the benefits pledged by these technologies for partner, customer, and enterprise integration, and that the transition to Web services technologies requires a careful examination of the underlying service architecture required to provide manageable, secure, and reliable financial applications. See also: FSTC Completes Industry Assessment of Liberty Alliance and SAML Technologies. Report Identifies Opportunities for Financial Institutions to Extend Trusted Relationships with Customers and Employees Out to Third Parties."
[September 26, 2003] "IEEE Communications Magazine Special Issue on XML-based Management of Networks and Services." - Call For Papers, IEEE Communications Magazine, Special Issue on XML-based Management of Networks and Services. The increasing dependence of society on the availability and the correct operation of the Internet demands for continuous improvement of Internet management technologies. Traditionally, Internet management is based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which defines the management information exchange between managers and agents. Within agents, the management information is organized in Management Information Bases (MIBs) and described according to the rules of the Structure of Management Information (SMI). Although several versions of SNMP, MIBs and the SMI exist, the basic concepts did not change since the first versions appeared nearly 15 years ago. At that time bandwidth was scarce and processing power of devices was limited. Although many years of experience proved that existing Internet management technology is well suited to monitor network devices, it also became clear that SNMP technology is hardly used for configuration management and management of higher level services. These management tasks still rely on proprietary and ad-hoc technologies. Currently, there is a growing interest in using XML technologies for management purposes. XML has the advantage that it is widely accepted, which means that there are many tools available that potentially support the implementation of management functions. In addition, the promise of XML is to facilitate the easy integration of different applications; something that is particularly important for the cooperation of network and service management applications... It is the intention to present the state of the art and recent developments in XML based management in a feature issue of IEEE Communications Magazine. Authors are therefore invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review for any other conference or journal, in the following areas: Architectures for XML based management, Management based on Web Services (SOAP, WSDL), Management information and data modeling using XML Schema, Translation from traditional information and data models to XML schemas or DTDs, Protocols for XML based management, Interworking between XML and traditional management systems, Secure management using the XML security framework, Application of generic XML technologies (XPath, RDF, XQuery) for management, Implementation experiences and case-studies, Standardization activities (IETF, DMTF)..." Submission Deadline: November 15, 2003. See also: (1) IEEE Communications Magazine; (2) online CFP.
[September 24, 2003] "Microsoft and Monster to Offer Customers 'Smart' Resumes. XML-Enabled Smart Document Templates in Microsoft Office Word 2003 Will Help Job Seekers Create a Professional Resume." - "Microsoft Corp. and Monster, the leading global online careers property and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc., today announced a technology alliance designed to help job seekers build professional resumes. Through the alliance, Monster's downloadable Extensible Markup Language (XML)- enabled 'smart' document templates can be seamlessly installed in Microsoft Office Word 2003, enabling job seekers to upgrade the quality of their resume. The templates will be available via the Microsoft Office Online Web site, which is visited by nearly 25 million unique visitors per month. The Microsoft-Monster alliance is designed to help job seekers create and submit professional-quality resumes easily using industry-standard XML. The resume templates, created in Word 2003, give job seekers the opportunity to build their resumes in a familiar format while incorporating expert resume advice from Monster, the leading provider of comprehensive career management products and services. The advanced technology of Microsoft and Monster also allows job seekers to save their resume in Microsoft Word and promptly post it on the Monster Web site, making it readily viewable to thousands of leading employers nationwide. The use of XML enables the delivery of ready-to-use data to the Monster site, so that resumes can be instantly posted to an individual's My Monster account. Any Microsoft Office Word 2003 customer with an Internet connection will have access to the Monster resume templates. 'The combination of Monster resume templates and XML-enabled Microsoft Word is a natural fit that will offer great benefits to people who want to create an effective, professional resume,' said Brian Farrey, president of Monster Technologies. 'We are very excited about this relationship, which will provide quality Monster resume templates to the extensive Microsoft Office Online audience. The alliance is also further confirmation of Monster's leadership position in providing job seekers the best technological tools and services by being the first career site to partner with Microsoft with this innovative integrated tool.' The templates will be created using smart document technology. Smart documents, an XML-based feature in Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Microsoft Office Excel 2003, include an interactive task pane that provides context-sensitive information and a list of actions the user could choose from that are relevant to the user's current location in a structured XML document. The content available via the task pane will provide job seekers with relevant advice and feedback from Monster as they create their resumes while using the resume templates. For example, job seekers creating a resume can type their 'Objective' information into the document. As they do this, information from Monster resume experts will be available to provide detailed advice on how to create the most effective description of their objective for the type of position they seek..." See also "Rosetta Group XML Résumé Library."
[September 22, 2003] "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Version 1.1 Ratified as OASIS Standard. Baltimore Technologies, BEA Systems, Computer Associates, Entrust, Hewlett-Packard, Netegrity, Oblix, OpenNetwork, Reactivity, RSA Security, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Verisign, and Others Collaborate on Authentication and Authorization." - "The OASIS standards consortium today announced that its members have approved the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) version 1.1 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. SAML provides an XML-based framework for exchanging authentication and authorization information, enabling single sign-on -- the ability to use a variety of Internet resources without having to log in repeatedly. 'SAML has gained widespread industry adoption as a basis for federated identity and security environments,' said James Kobielus, senior analyst at Burton Group. 'Clearly, SAML is a living, evolving standard, and OASIS has, with the new version 1.1, incorporated changes that reflect real-world experience with SAML version 1.0.' According to Prateek Mishra of Netegrity, co-chair of the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee, 'Prior to SAML, there was no XML-based standard that enabled exchange of security information between a security system (such as an authentication authority) and an application. SAML provides a way to specify authentication, attribute, and authorization decision statements. It also specifies a Web services-based request/reply protocol for exchanging these statements.' 'The SAML 1.1 standard introduces important enhancements that improve its interoperability and utility to other Web services security efforts in the industry. This can be seen through the adoption of SAML 1.1 as a foundation for the Liberty Alliance's Identity Federation Framework, the implementation of SAML 1.1 by the Internet2/MACE Shibboleth project, and the development of a SAML profile by the OASIS Web Services Security (WSS) Technical Committee for using SAML with WS-Security,' added Rob Philpott of RSA Security, co-chair of the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee. 'The growing participation of OASIS member companies in SAML's development and our committee's increasing collaboration with other security-related standards groups demonstrate the value of OASIS SAML standardization to the industry.' Liberty Alliance Management Board president, Michael Barrett, also vice president of Internet Strategy at American Express, commented, 'Collaboration between standards organizations is critical to industry momentum and to ensure new technologies like single sign-on and Web services succeed. Organizations looking to benefit from these new technologies need access to proven, interoperable, and secure standards that they can build on for the next new technology. Open standards like SAML and Liberty's specifications have been proven to meet that need.' Members of the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee include Baltimore Technologies, BEA Systems, Computer Associates, Entrust, Hewlett-Packard, Netegrity, Oblix, OpenNetwork, Reactivity, RSA Security, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Verisign, and other security software vendors, financial institutions, government agencies, and academia..." See: (1) "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)"; (2) "Liberty Alliance Specifications for Federated Network Identification and Authorization."
[September 22, 2003] "RSA Security Announces New Products to Deliver on Identity and Access Management Strategy. RSA ClearTrust V5.5 Software Enhances Identity Infrastructures with Tighter Integration with Microsoft Platforms and New User Management and Federated Identity Management Capabilities." - "RSA Security Inc., the most trusted name in e-security, today announced RSA ClearTrust v5.5 web access management software. Delivering advanced user management capabilities, web services support (including SAML v1.1-compliant federated identity management capabilities), robust transactional authorization functionality, and unparalleled integration with Microsoft platforms, RSA Security demonstrates progress in its Identity and Access Management strategy with this new release of RSA ClearTrust software. RSA Security's Identity and Access Management strategy includes an integrated architecture (codenamed NEXUS), new products and strategic alliances that enable organizations to quickly derive quantifiable business value -- including reduced costs, enhanced revenue opportunities and increased user productivity -- from their online applications by securely leveraging digital identities across their infrastructure. "Global enterprises are today faced with the increasing complexity of securely managing expanded populations of users accessing internal and external applications and systems," said Ray Wagner, research director, Gartner Inc. "To meet these challenges, it is critical that they implement a flexible identity management solution that integrates easily with existing technology, protocols and standards. Features like innovative user administration, support for federated identity initiatives, and strong out-of- the-box integration options increase the value of these solutions." ... RSA ClearTrust v5.5 software offers new functionality in the primary areas of concentration within RSA Security's Identity and Access Management strategy, including: (1) Identity Authority Services: The RSA ClearTrust Federated Identity Management Module provides the first commercially available Security Assertions Markup Language (SAML) functionality for generating and consuming SAML v1.1 assertions, enabling customers to leverage identities across business boundaries to drive new relationships and business models. Features of the implementation include full web-based administration, simple installation and configuration, a time-saving policy cloning feature and advanced built-in security capabilities, including digital signatures, certificate validation and authentication mapping between different sites. (2) Access Authority Services: Transactional Smart Rules extends the business rules and user properties of RSA ClearTrust software, enabling real-time dynamic authorization decisions based on attributes from multiple data sources, including databases, directories, XML, flat files or web services. This powerful capability allows customers to implement sophisticated authorization rules using real-time business data and processes..." See also "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Version 1.1 Ratified as OASIS Standard. Baltimore Technologies, BEA Systems, Computer Associates, Entrust, Hewlett-Packard, Netegrity, Oblix, OpenNetwork, Reactivity, RSA Security, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Verisign, and Others Collaborate on Authentication and Authorization."
[September 17, 2003] "Sun Microsystems Selects Sleepycat Software for New Middleware and Desktop Initiatives. Sun to Standardize on Berkeley DB to Meet Non-Relational Data Management Needs Within Key Components of Sun Java Enterprise System and Sun Java Desktop System." - "Sleepycat Software, makers of Berkeley DB -- the most widely-used application-specific data management software in the world with over 200 million deployments -- today announced a worldwide agreement with Sun Microsystems for internal use of Berkeley DB in all current and future Sun products, including key components in the Sun Java Enterprise System, previously called Project Orion, and the Sun Java Desktop System, previously called Project Mad Hatter. The agreement also includes premium support and rights for Sun to use future Berkeley DB upgrades. 'We're very pleased that Sun has standardized on Berkeley DB for embedded use within its software product line,' said Michael Olson, CEO of Sleepycat Software. 'Based on our long, successful history with Sun and proven reliability across thousands of open source and proprietary products, Sun knew they could count on our company and our technology within key components of their exciting new desktop and enterprise software initiatives.' 'Sun Java Enterprise System and Sun Java Desktop System reduce cost and complexity for our customers,' said Joe Keller, vice president of marketing for Java Web Services and Tools, Sun Microsystems. 'Many of the components in Java Enterprise System and Java Desktop System incorporate Berkeley DB, and its stability, performance, scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness make it the natural choice to embed in these components.' 'The agreement between Sun Microsystems and Sleepycat Software is an important demonstration of the viability and value that open source software can deliver in a maturing IT market that demands price performance and ROI,' said Wayne Kernochan, senior vice president at market research firm the Aberdeen Group. 'Sun has carefully chosen best-of-breed software components and Sleepycat's Berkeley DB is certainly a leader in application-specific data management software.' Java Enterprise System is Sun's new integrated infrastructure software system for enterprise computing that offers customers simplified pricing and licensing, and predictable, quarterly updates to lower the cost and complexity of enterprise software. It includes several components that use Berkeley DB for persistent storage, including Sun's market-leading Directory Server, Messaging Server, Identity Server, Portal Server, and Calendar Server. Java Desktop System is Sun's lower cost alternative to the Microsoft Windows and Office desktop software stack, and includes many applications that rely upon Berkeley DB's fast, reliable and proven data management technology for elements of functionality. Berkeley DB helps manage, store and retrieve data in Sun's StarOffice productivity suite, Ximian's Evolution email/PIM client, and the GNOME desktop environment, as well as many other applications that are included with the Linux operating system. Project Mad Hatter also supports connectivity to any database with a JDBC interface..." See: (1) "Sleepycat Software Releases Berkeley DB XML Native XML Database"; (2) "Berkeley DB XML: An Embedded XML Database."
[September 17, 2003] "Attachmate to Host World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Services Choreography Working Group September 15-17, 2003." - "Attachmate Corporation, with more than 20 years of innovation in the legacy application integration space, will host the upcoming World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Services Choreography Group meeting, September 15-17, 2003, at its corporate headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. The W3C develops interoperable technologies, such as specifications, guidelines, software, and tools, to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C provides a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding between organizations. As part of W3C, the Web Services Choreography Working Group, formed in January 2003, addresses issues inherent in the development of Web services and the relationships between different levels of operations within organizations. Web Service Choreography aims at using the power of Web services to allow corporations to create business processes that mirror today's dynamic and ever-changing business needs. 'We are pleased to provide a venue for the important work being done by the W3C because it closely aligns with our customer solutions,' said Markus Nitschke, Attachmate vice president, marketing and product management. According to W3C, the term 'choreography' is used to denote the space that includes differing terminology in the industry, such as orchestration, collaboration, coordination, and conversations -- these terms share a common characteristic of describing linkages and usage patterns between Web services. There is a need for a common interface and composition language to help address choreography. Corporations can expose their application software and resources as Web services so that other corporations can dynamically find and use them in their business processes. Creating a business process requires not only a clear definition of collaboration patterns of all its components but also a way of depicting standard B2B interactions... Attachmate Corporation is a privately held, worldwide supplier of host data and business-logic access and management solutions for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises. The company provides solutions for direct, real-time access to back-office systems, Web-to-host and desktop-to-host solutions, and flexible enterprise application integration and Web service offerings. Attachmate is member of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Unisys Partner, and BEA Star Partner..." See: (1) W3C Web Services Choreography Working Group; (2) general references in "Messaging and Transaction Coordination."
[September 16, 2003] "XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF) Ratified as OASIS Standard." - "The OASIS standards consortium today announced that its members have approved the XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF) version 1.1 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. XCBF provides a standard way to describe information that verifies identity based on human characteristics such as DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, and hand geometry. XCBF can be used in applications as varied as homeland security, corporate privacy, law enforcement, and biotechnical research. It will assist in identifying citizenship, measuring attendance, controlling access to documents, facilitating non-repudiation in commerce, and many other functions... XCBF adds to the growing portfolio of OASIS Standards and specifications for security, which also includes SAML for exchanging authentication and authorization information, SPML for provisioning, XACML for access control, WS-Security, and others. OASIS currently has more than 60 active technical committees. Members of the OASIS XCBF Technical Committee include Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, MTG Management Consultants, and others... Tyky Aichelen of IBM, chair of the OASIS XCBF Technical Committee, stated, "XCBF bridges the gap between the worlds of biometrics and Web services, making it possible to have a common, standardized, secure way to define, store, manage, and exchange biometric information with greater interoperability between systems." "Traditional biometric standards are based on binary encoding formats, which severely limit their use in XML-enabled systems and applications," explained John Messing, American Bar Association representative to OASIS. "By providing a standard way for biometric information to be exchanged using XML, XCBF literally redefines biometrics as a practical solution for a Web-based environment'..." See: (1) OASIS XML Common Biometric Format TC website; (2) XML and Security; (3) general references in "XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF)."
[September 16, 2003] "Sun Microsystems Announces Vision and Initiative for Enterprise Auto-ID/EPC Deployments. Newly Formed Sun Business Leads Auto-ID/EPC Product and Market Development Efforts." - "Sun Microsystems today announced its enterprise Auto-ID initiative. Sun, an Auto-ID leader and visionary with over three years of involvement as a leading member of and advisor to the Auto-ID Center, along with partners including Alien Technology, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, ConnecTerra, Gorilla Logic, Manhattan Associates, Provia, ThingMagic, Tyco Sensormatic, VeriSign and Xterprise, announces the vision and initiative for delivering the hardware, software and services that enable enterprises to link into the EPC (Electronic Product Code) Network. The EPC Network helps make the supply chain efficient, safe and secure by tracking goods along the way, reducing threats of counterfeiting, tampering and terrorism while increasing regulatory compliance. Further accelerating its presence in the Auto-ID market, Sun today also named Julie Sarbacker as director of a new Auto-ID Business Unit at Sun Microsystems. This new business unit will work aggressively with customers and partners to develop and deliver a standards-based Auto-ID/EPC Solution. Encompassing hardware, software, services and best-of-breed partnerships, Sun's enterprise Auto-ID initiative and proposed solution go far beyond that of any other company today. The initiative will help enterprises integrate real-time supply chain data seamlessly into their existing business processes and enterprise assets. 'Sun welcomes all Wal-Mart suppliers, and all other companies seeking to leverage EPC deployments to comply with next generation Auto-ID standards,' said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president for Sun Software. 'Our commitment is indisputable -- with an Auto-ID Business Unit, Julie Sarbacker's executive leadership -- and now with a commitment to leverage our Java Enterprise System in pursuit of Auto-ID opportunities, Sun has clearly set itself apart from those simply writing press releases. Auto-ID is here, and so is Sun with technology and programs.' Enterprise-class reliability, availability and scalability (RAS) is delivered through Solaris OE and Linux-based hardware platforms from Sun, setting the stage for transparent integration into the EPC Network. Sun's software for managing EPC events and the Sun ONE Integration Server are the key software components for this comprehensive offering. Based on the standards set forth today by the Auto-ID Center, Sun software tightly manages EPC events. Specifically designed for the enterprise, the software will deliver a dynamic federated service architecture emphasizing RAS along with manageability and integratability for Auto-ID pilots and deployments. The proposed solution will also include lifecycle services to maximize the value of Auto-ID deployments, helping customers proactively architect, implement and manage IT operations in heterogeneous environments..." See: (1) "Physical Markup Language (PML) for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)"; (2) "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Resources and Readings."
[September 15, 2003] "IBM Announces Comprehensive New RFID Service. Helping Retailers and Consumer Packaged Goods Companies Boost Accuracy in Picking, Packing, Shipping. Cutting Theft in the Supply Chain." - "IBM today announced a comprehensive new service to help retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies harness radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for advanced product tracking and inventory control. IBM made the announcement at the Electronic Product Code Symposium here, where the company conducted live demonstrations of pallets and computer read-outs that show how goods move through -- and are automatically tracked by -- the RFID system, and how payments and inventory are expedited. IBM's offering, which comprises consulting and implementation services as well as specialized software, gives companies a phased approach to RFID. The IBM offering is based on open standards and leverages existing technology investments by linking with the retailer's existing back-end inventory system. It is based on Websphere Business Integrator running on WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Information Integrator, Tivoli Access Manager, and WebSphere Portal Server. Phases: (1) Phase I includes consulting and development of the business case for RFID; (2) Phase II is a 12-week pilot; (3) Phase III, IBM provides the full roll-out of the system... It is estimated that the retail industry, alone, could reduce inventory levels by 25 percent, saving billions of dollars annually by tagging products and using computers to automatically trace them from the warehouse through shipping and to store shelves. In June, executives at Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, called for their top 100 suppliers to implement an RFID system at the case and pallet level by 2005. More recently this was extended to all their suppliers by 2006. 'IBM believes RFID's time has come,' said Faye Holland, worldwide RFID leader, IBM Global Services. 'As our retail and CPG customers see the dramatic benefits this technology brings in cost reduction, improved customer service and streamlined operations, the demand is escalating for RFID expertise, and IBM -- with its Business Partners -- is perfectly aligned to deliver the most comprehensive RFID solution in the marketplace'..." See: (1) "Physical Markup Language (PML) for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)"; (2) "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Resources and Readings."
[September 15, 2003] "ODRL International Workshop 2004 In Vienna." - "The ODRL International Workshop 2004 will be held in Vienna, Austria on 21-23 April 2004. Over the past four years the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) Initiative has gained international significance in the field of digital rights management (DRM) for many sectors and communities. Rights Expression Languages (REL) enable the formalisation of standard and interoperable semantic agreements and contracts from rights holders over the usage of their content by end users and other parties. RELs, like ODRL, are seen as key infrastructure for the management and trading of digital content on the Internet. The ODRL rights expression language has been adopted as an international standard by the Open Mobile Alliance for mobile content and numerous projects and groups around the world. The objective of the ODRL International Workshop is to bring together the research and industry communities to share experiences and discuss the future developments of the language to ensure its timeliness, usability, openness, and future success. The ODRL International Workshop topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following aspects: Implementations of ODRL or parts of ODRL; Processing of ODRL instances in applications; Language concepts and semantics of ODRL; Technical and Semantics Extensions to ODRL; Industry and Research Experiences with ODRL; Domain Specific Vocabularies and Profiles of ODRL; Deploying ODRL for Rights Expressions and Contract Modelling; Potential applications for the use of Rights Expression Languages. The Call for Participation includes the details of the submission requirements for the Workshop..." See also: (1) Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) Initiative website; (2) Open Mobile Alliance; (3) local references in "Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL)"; (4) general references in "XML and Digital Rights Management (DRM)."
[September 15, 2003] "Center for Document Engineering Established at UC Berkeley. Focal Point for Initiatives in XML and Model-Based Approaches for Automatable, Standards-Based Business Computing." - "UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS) and the e-Berkeley Program have established the Center for Document Engineering (CDE). The CDE's mission is 'to invent, evaluate, and promote model-driven technologies and methods' that allow business semantics to drive IT systems. The CDE's origins date to Spring 2002 when SIMS became the first academic institution in the world to teach courses on Document Engineering, emphasizing analysis and design methods that yield XML-encodable models of business processes and business documents. A collaboration with the e-Berkeley Program began soon afterwards because of the natural fit with e-Berkeley's goal of using the Web to transform the University's information-intensive operations. Dr. Robert Glushko, an Adjunct Professor at SIMS and an XML industry veteran, is the Director of the CDE. Glushko said, 'The complex legacy computing environment of the University is a perfect test bed for XML, information architecture, and web services and the E-Berkeley program is a perfect partner for an academic research team.' Jon Conhaim, who heads the E-Berkeley program, will serve as Associate Director of the CDE... The CDE will create, collect, and disseminate XML schemas, software, best practices, and other content for building web services and applications that allow business semantics to drive IT systems and automate business processes. 'I'm delighted to see Berkeley take the lead in the emerging discipline of document engineering, which will be critical to the development of the data standards on which the next generation of electronic commerce systems will be constructed,' said Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, leader of the working groups that created the XML and the Universal Business Language (UBL). 'An enlightened public policy requires the existence of unbiased centers for the development and vendor-neutral evaluation of technologies for business data modeling. The establishment of the Center for Document Engineering represents a milestone in the development of our future business infrastructure and a model for the creation of similar programs in other colleges and universities.' The first initiative of the CDE is the Berkeley Academic Business Language (BABL), an evolving set of models and associated XML schemas for the domain of University education and operations. A second major CDE initiative is an XML application platform that uses models like those in BABL to implement enterprise-class applications whose core data-models are encoded in XML. This platform allows developers to represent data models, business rules, workflow specifications, and user interfaces as externalized XML documents, rather than mixing and scattering them throughout application code. This will make it easier for nonprogrammers to design, develop, and maintain forms and workflow-based Internet applications..." See details in the news story: "Berkeley Center for Document Engineering (CDE) Promotes XML-Encodable Business Models."
[September 15, 2003] "Talking Blocks, CA, and, IBM Announce Submission of Web Services Manageability Standard to OASIS. Leaders in Systems and Web Services Management Create and Jointly Submit Standard to OASIS Web Services Distributed Management Technical Committee." - "Talking Blocks in collaboration with Computer Associates International, Inc. and IBM, will today announce a proposed standard for Web services manageability. The three companies will jointly submit the proposal to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) technical committee. The tenets of the proposed standard create an easily implemented Web services solution that dramatically reduces the amount of custom development that must be done on an ongoing basis. Specifically, the proposed standard: (1) Enhances manageability with XML and WSDL; (2) Uses existing infrastructure mechanisms; (3) Is fully consistent with existing standards based Web Services infrastructures; (4) Does not imply the implementation of the manageability or the manager..." See details in the news story "IBM, Computer Associates, and Talking Blocks Release WS-Manageability Specification."
[September 11, 2003] "Sun is First to Market With Platform for WS-I Compliant Web Services Applications. Recent Beta Release of the J2EE 1.4 Software Developer Kit and Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.2 Demonstrate Sun's Java Web Services Leadership." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the availability of a qualification release of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) version 1.4 source code for licensees of the J2EE platform. Available less than one month after the WS-I Basic Profile was finalized, the source code delivers support for the final WS-I Basic Profile and includes the J2EE programming model for portable Web services applications. The source-code release includes compatibility tests, allowing J2EE licensees to make progress on implementing J2EE 1.4. 'With our partners and as a WS-I board member, Sun is leading the charge in supporting standards-compliant, Java Web Services platforms,' said Jeff Jackson, vice president of Sun J2EE platform and application server engineering, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 'Java and Web Services merge in J2EE 1.4 as the preferred platform for building enterprise-grade applications and the only available software environment that is platform independent and interoperable by design. The introduction of J2EE 1.4, with its support for more Web services standards and protocols than any other platform, is a prime example of Sun's leadership position in this space.' WS-I specifications are designed to ensure interoperability between different vendors' Web services products. Through the Java Community Process (JCP), Java provides open application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide enterprises with a choice and to keep developers from becoming dependent upon a single vendor's technology. Java developers can save time and money by working with standard APIs for XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Web Services, such as JAXP, JAXB, JAX-RPC and JAX-R, instead of proprietary APIs that may change from vendor to vendor. Java and XML technologies allow users to easily develop applications that can be seamlessly deployed across all major operating platforms, including Solaris, Linux and Windows. In addition, Java developers won't be tasked with learning specific Web services specifications or acquiring WS-I interoperability expertise, because profile guidelines are included in Java platforms and development toolkits such as the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP). The Java platform also enables IT organizations to leverage their current technology investments by providing simplified integration with applications and legacy systems, reducing cost and complexity within the organization. As a board member of the WS-I organization, Sun is continuing to make key technological contributions to enhance the interoperability of Web services. To date, Sun has released several versions of its J2EE platform based on early WS-I specifications, such as Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.2 and J2EE 1.4 SDK Beta 2. Once J2EE 1.4 is finalized, Sun will release compatibility tests, source code and a software development toolkit (SDK). Java has long been the developer's choice for Web services, and J2EE 1.4 represents a culmination of work by the JCP and the technology industry to deliver the first platform to support the WS-I Basic Profile..." See also: Java Web Services Developer Pack V1.2 Supports WS-I, WS-Security, and UBL Applications."
[September 11, 2003] "Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) Approved as OASIS Standard. BEA Systems, Citrix Systems, Factiva, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Plumtree Software, Reed Elsevier, SAP, Sun Microsystems, TIBCO, Vignette, and Other OASIS Members Standardize Integration of User-Facing Web Services." - "The OASIS standards consortium today announced that its members have approved Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. WSRP standardizes the consumption of Web services in portal front ends, as well as the way in which content providers write Web services for portals. 'WSRP defines how Web services plug into portals,' explained Delphi President, Thomas Koulopoulos. 'Once a WSRP service is published to a public directory, portal administrators are able to locate and dynamically integrate it with just a few mouse clicks. WSRP is a critical standard enabling distributed portals to share portlets as visual, user-facing Web services for integration with other portals.' WSRP eliminates the need for content aggregators to choose between locally hosting a content source or writing code specific to each remote content source. Instead, WSRP allows content to be hosted in the environment most suitable for its execution while still being easily accessed by content aggregators. The standard enables content producers to maintain control over the code that formats the presentation of their content. By reducing the cost for aggregators to access their content, WSRP increases the rate at which content sources may be easily integrated into pages for end-users. 'The OASIS WSRP Technical Committee was founded in early 2002 with the vision of providing a single interface standard for all interactive, presentation-oriented Web services. WSRP v1.0 succeeds in providing this platform neutral definition of an interface,' said Rich Thompson of IBM, chair of the OASIS WSRP Technical Committee. 'Early vendor support for WSRP -- we've tracked eight implementations to date -- clearly demonstrates the need for this standardized means of accessing remote content.' 'WSRP builds on foundational work from the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C),' said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. 'WSRP uses WSDL to describe interfaces, and requires SOAP bindings for all conformant services. WSRP is an excellent example of how an open, standards-based approach will enable end-user interactive web services to be deployed in a lower cost, faster-to-implement, plug-and-play environment.' WSRP allows remote portlet Web services to be implemented in a variety of ways, including Java/J2EE and Microsoft's .NET platform. WSRP is the result of a collaboration of 25 OASIS member companies..." See details in the news story: "Web Services for Remote Portlets Specification Approved as OASIS Standard."
[September 9, 2003] "Advent 3B2 Launches 3B2-FO, A New XSL-FO Rendering Tool, At Seybold San Francisco 2003." - "Advent 3B2, a leading supplier of standards-based publishing software, is announcing a new, quality-oriented, Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Object (XSL-FO) rendering engine called 3B2-FO at Seybold San Francisco 2003. Advent 3B2-FO software has been singled out as a Hot Pick by the editorial staff of The Seybold Report: Analyzing Publishing Technologies, as a product that should not be missed on the show floor... Advent 3B2-FO software supports both simplified yet flexible document production workflows for adding composition and page formatting information to XML documents so they can be printed. In operation 3B2-FO takes either ready-made XSL-FO files containing layout and formatting data, or files containing raw XML content plus an XSLT transformation script, and converts them into printable Postscript or PDF files. Advent 3B2-FO software was developed in accordance with the W3C XSL 1.0 recommendation of October 15, 2001. In addition to providing compliance with the W3C XSL-FO specification, the software engine includes a number of additional functions that provide extended composition and page layout controls. These will give users more versatile document formatting capabilities resulting in higher quality document aesthetics. The additional capabilities in 3B2-FO include controls over vertical justification on a page, extensive hyphenation controls, and the ability to add crop marks and registration marks to a page. Hyphenation features include the ability to specify the number of characters in words that can be hyphenated, the ability to prevent hyphenation at the end of a block and to use caps to keep capitalized words together, spacing controls (plus and minus) for letter and word spacing of text. Advent intends to add additional extended functionality to 3B2-FO over time. 'We announced our intention to develop an XSL-FO rendering tool last year at our annual International Conference in Atlanta,'comments George Punton, President of Advent Publishing Systems. 'We believe that publishers of XML documents will appreciate the advantages 3B2-FO delivers in terms of expanded functionality and the ability to produce higher quality documents compared to the other engines on the market. Should they eventually require even more comprehensive composition and pagination formatting capabilities, our high-end 3B2 software which is also fully XML compliant, is a logical upgrade path.' 3B2-FO is based on the composition and pagination formatting capabilities of Advent's 3B2 professional publishing software which has been in use in high end STM journal, legal, financial, book, and technical documentation publishing environments worldwide for over 16 years. Because it is based on this mature foundation, Advent expects its 3B2-FO software will provide an unprecedented level of performance and reliability... Advents global customer base includes The European Parliament, Boeing, GlaxoSmithKline, the US Patent and Trademark Office, Bertelsmann and the Canadian House of Commons. The Advent Group consists of Advent Publishing Systems UK (the parent company), Advent 3B2 GmbH (Germany), and Advent 3B2 Inc.(USA)..." See also (1) the FAQ document; (2) "XSL/XSLT Software Support."
[September 09, 2003] "Cisco Systems Unveils Color IP Telephone, A Powerful New Platform for Network-Based Productivity Applications. XML Developers at Cisco ITC Expo Demonstrate Advanced Business Applications on Cisco IP Phones." - "Cisco Systems today announced a new Internet Protocol (IP) telephone with a high resolution, color touch screen, as well as enhancements to two of its entry-level IP phones, which enable a host of compelling new productivity applications that have the potential to greatly improve business processes. The new Cisco color IP Phone 7970G, and XML support on the Cisco IP Phones 7905G and 7912G will be unveiled at the third annual Cisco Innovation Through Convergence Expo (ITC) September 10-12, 2003 at the Westin Santa Clara Hotel in Santa Clara, California. The Cisco ITC Expo provides Cisco's growing community of Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID) partners the opportunity to showcase their innovative Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications running on Cisco AVVID networks. Cisco has introduced five new IP phones in the last year, extending the company's industry-leading portfolio of IP phones, to meet the wide range of business user requirements. Building on the success of Cisco's existing IP Phone 7940G and 7960G with grey scale pixel-based displays, the Cisco IP Phone 7970G enables users to take advantage of a high resolution color graphics display and touch screen to gain desktop access to enhanced images and more detailed network data, improving employee productivity and customer satisfaction... The Cisco IP Phone 7970G supports a comprehensive suite of advanced applications for mobility and collaboration, especially for workers in industry segments such as retail, hospitality, education and government. The IP phone's high-resolution color touch screen delivers high impact color graphics applications that make accessing and interacting with multi-media services faster, easier and more intuitive... Cisco today also announced the availability of XML and network based application support on the entry-level Cisco IP Phones 7905G and 7912G. The added XML-support on these entry-level phones enables users to access business information using the monochrome pixel-based display, extending productivity applications to a broader range of users... Cisco's growing portfolio of XML-enabled phones, such as the new Cisco IP Phone 7970G and enhanced 7905G and 7912G, as well as the 7940G and 7960G enable customization and integration, connecting business processes and people to critical information by providing display-based access to services and applications. Users can easily access information and perform tasks including: (1) Retail: Check customer order on the inventory tracking database using an IP Phone while talking to the customer on the phone -- including a tracking number, confirmation, and delivery details; (2) Hospitality: Use the displays on the IP Phones in hotel rooms to make dining reservations, set up wake-up calls, purchase attraction tickets, get directions, and check on flight status; (3) Education: Take student attendance, locate students, issue monitor passes and daily bulletins; (4) Government: Communicate instantly with employees through instant text messaging and audio streaming to all or selected groups of IP Phones; (5) General Office: Access visual corporate directories with photo images, identify the called or calling party, and touch a section of a colored graph showing on the phone screen to gather details on a statistic..." See additional information appended to the announcement.
[September 08, 2003] "Ipedo Announces New Multi-Source Enterprise Information Integration (EII) Capabilities. Completes Industry-First Realtime Assimilation of Oracle 9i, DB2, MySQL, SQL Server and Web Services Data." - "Ipedo, a leading provider of software that integrates and delivers realtime views of information, today announced the first software platform to complete concurrent assimilation of complex information sets from Oracle 9i, DB2, MySQL, SQL Server and Web Services. The information integration was done using Ipedo's powerful XML-based views and query technologies. With this new capability, Ipedo allows enterprises to create custom information views on demand. Organizations can use these capabilities in a range of corporate initiatives that require composites of disparate information, including employee or partner portals, executive dashboards, and reporting applications. Unlike previous integration technologies, the powerful XML-driven EII capabilities of the Ipedo XML Information Hub go beyond integration and allow custom assembly and persistence of information, in the variety of industry standard formats. The testing was done using the Ipedo XML Information Hub 3.3 with Oracle 9iR2, DB2 Universal Database v3.1, MySQL Pro v4.0, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, and a public Web Service from Google. Information was integrated using XQuery to quickly aggregate real-time business information across multiple sources, leveraging Ipedo's XML Views, Web Services Views, Content Conversion and Universal XQuery Engine capabilities. Details of these features include: (1) XML Views: Creates virtual, real-time snapshots of information from external XML and non-XML sources presented in a standard, common XML format to simplify integration tasks in applications. (2) Web Services Views: Real-time queryable views of Web Services allow applications to integrate and control feeds of information, presented in a common XML format that can be simply combined with other local and remote information sources. (3) Universal XQuery: The distributed XQuery engine searches information across any arbitrary information set using powerful query tools built on open standards. Information is indexed at a highly granular level and indexes are automatically regenerated to insure consistent search performance and quality. (4) Content Conversion: Allows users to create XML representations unstructured content or document sources, including text files, Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat. Converted XML content can be staged in the Ipedo XML Information Hub for subsequent integration with other business information, and delivery to multiple target systems..."
[September 8, 2003] "PureEdge, ACORD Work Together to Provide Insurance Brokers and Companies with Greater Efficiency in Data Collection and Management. Development of ACORD XML Forms to Cut Processing Time and Operational Costs, Improve Data Accuracy." - "PureEdge Solutions Inc., the leader in secure, XML forms-based business process automation, today announced it is working with the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) to develop ACORD XML forms using PureEdge XML technology for use by ACORD's customers. ACORD, a non-profit membership organization aimed at developing data standards for the insurance industry, is leveraging its XML standards to enhance the functionality of the ACORD forms. The new smart e-forms will create opportunities for vendors to develop a broad array of applications that can integrate with agents and brokers' systems and streamline the workflow for carriers. Recently, Microsoft announced it was making ACORD Forms accessible to ACORD Advantage participants through the InfoPath application, which is part of its new Office 11 suite of products. These strategic partnerships between PureEdge, Microsoft and ACORD will cut processing time and operational costs while improving the accuracy of data. Forms will be accessible to insurance providers via point-to-point services, Web services, fax, print and email. Most insurance providers acknowledge the way they gather information via paper forms is both inefficient and cumbersome. In the past, while some custom solutions have been developed to help insurance workers enter data electronically, to date there has been no standardization of the workflow surrounding insurance industry e-forms. For insurance companies, the use of XML-based forms will streamline the collection of data, and then that data can be seamlessly transferred between applications as needed, providing real-time data processing... 'Our work with ACORD reinforces XML as a key standard in insurance transaction processing,' said Mark Upson, President and CEO, PureEdge Solutions. 'By combining business standards with XML data standards the insurance industry will be able to significantly improve on their current means of doing business which ultimately benefits customers. This announcement is evidence of PureEdge's continued commitment to its core vertical markets, and vision of delivering solutions that address the specific pain points within these industries.' By converting the forms into XML e-forms using PureEdge technology, ACORD's standardized forms will become much more dynamic and offer more intelligence in order to seamlessly manage and automate the business process associated with the form. The delivery of this new offering comes as part of PureEdge's business process automation framework, composed of products, partnerships and services to create, manage and deploy XML forms-based processes. With PureEdge, users have the ability to digitally sign documents, use both adhoc and structured routing, work remotely, move data in and out of corporate systems and store all elements of a process in one secure file..."
[September 04, 2003] "Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC and Oracle Showcase Reliable Web Services. OASIS Members Demonstrate Successful Interoperability of Reliable Messaging for Web Services at Technical Committee Meeting." - "Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi, Ltd., NEC Corp. and Oracle Corp. today announced that they have successfully demonstrated interoperability between four independent implementations of reliable Web services based on the Web Services-Reliability (WS-Reliability) specification, which the companies jointly submitted to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) in January. The WS-Reliability specification defines an open reliable messaging infrastructure that enables companies to conduct reliable business-to-business trading or collaboration using Web services. This demonstration is the first deliverable of an ongoing Proof-of-Concept activity for the Web Services-Reliability specification. The OASIS Web Services Reliable Messaging (WS-RM) Technical Committee members plan to update their implementations to accommodate the upcoming release of the next version of the specification, already under development by the committee. The interoperability demonstration will be conducted today during the latest WS-RM Technical Committee meeting in Bedford, Massachusetts. The WS-Reliability specification enabled the four Web service applications used in the Proof-of-Concept demonstration to reliably exchange messages over an unreliable network test bed that simulates message loss, duplication and delays. The network test bed will be used by the group for future WS-Reliability interoperability tests. Additional supporters of WS-Reliability are expected to participate in future Proof-of-Concept demonstrations. The demonstration highlights two functions of the WS-Reliability specification. The first one is 'Guaranteed Delivery' in which the sender will automatically resend the same message if no positive acknowledgement was received, and the other is 'Duplicate Elimination' in which the receiving application eliminates duplicates of the same message. These two functions greatly improve the reliability and efficiency of business applications, by preventing message loss and duplication. This will allow, for example, buyers to ensure that Purchase Order messages are successfully delivered to their suppliers, and prevent suppliers from receiving duplicate orders due to network routing problems. In addition to guaranteed delivery and duplicate elimination, the OASIS WS-Reliability specification also addresses message delivery management, including message persistence, ordered delivery, and delivery status notifications for sending and receiving applications..." See also: (1) "Reliable Messaging"; (2) "OASIS Members Form Technical Committee for Web Services Reliable Messaging"; (3) OASIS Web Services Reliable Messaging TC website.
[September 04, 2003] "HP Advances Grid Strategy for the Adaptive Enterprise. HP Systems to be Grid-enabled. Grid Services to Simplify Use, Management of Infrastructure Resources." - "HP today announced plans to further enable its enterprise infrastructure technologies for grid computing. By leveraging open grid standards, HP plans to help customers simplify the use and management of distributed IT (information technology) resources. The initiative will integrate industry grid standards, including the Globus Toolkit and Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA), across HP's enterprise product lines. HP also announced enterprise consulting within HP Services for grid-based platforms. HP Services will provide management, deployment and lifecycle support of grid architectures. HP's product and service plans extend the company's Adaptive Enterprise strategy to perfectly synchronize business and IT. Grid computing will enable enterprises to draw on IT resources anywhere in the world to meet their dynamic needs for computing resources. Analysts have estimated grid software and services will become a $4 billion market by 2008, but HP expects the opportunity to be significantly larger as corporate IT departments embrace the grid. 'HP started developing grid-like infrastructures more than five years ago. Grid is an important piece of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy, where today, we see the shared computing vision soon turning into reality as commercial enterprises more aggressively seek the agility and cost benefits the grid affords,' said Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer, HP. 'The grid has the potential to solve real business problems by simplifying global access to enterprise computing services. 'For CIOs, the grid can help better synchronize business and technology demands in real time. To help realize that potential, HP has committed to grid-enable our IT systems. Over the next few years, this means products ranging from HP's smallest handhelds, printers and PCs to our most powerful storage arrays and supercomputers, will be able to connect with and serve as resources on the grid.' The 'grid' concept was formally developed in the mid-1990s as a shared computing approach that coordinates decentralized resources and uses open, general-purpose protocols and interfaces to deliver high-quality service levels. The grid is designed to render almost anything in IT -- computers, processing power, data, Web services, storage space, software applications, data files or devices -- as a 'grid service.' Today, HP delivers grid-enabled services, solutions and products to help enterprises better manage and capitalize on change..." See details and references in the news story "HP Integrates Industry Grid Standards Across All Enterprise Product Lines."
[September 03, 2003] "Systinet WASP Developer, 4.6 Extends Popular Java IDEs for Web Services Creation, Supports SOAP 1.2, WS-Security." - "Systinet, the leading independent provider of Web services infrastructure software, today [August 25, 2003] announced the availability of WASP Developer, 4.6, which seamlessly extends the industry's most popular Java IDEs to support Web services creation, debugging and deployment. The new release includes unique support for OASIS Web Services Security (WS-S), providing standards-based message-level security. WASP Developer also offers full support for SOAP 1.2, SOAP with attachments, and the industry's most comprehensive support for Java Web services APIs, including JAX-RPC, JAXM, and SAAJ. WASP Developer, 4.6 is available for the latest editions of Sun ONE Studio/NetBeans, Eclipse, IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer, and Borland JBuilder. WASP Developer is offered free. WASP Developer, 4.6 provides a point-and-click experience that quickly turns any existing Java application into a Web service in minutes, allowing customers to leverage the benefits of Web services quickly and efficiently. New features in the 4.6 release include: (1) SOAP 1.2 Support WASP Server for Java, 4.6 was used as a reference implementation by the W3C for the latest SOAP 1.2 specification. The standard offers a much clearer framework for extensibility, which ensures interoperability between different SOAP implementations. (2) Support for Web Services Security (WS-Security): In addition to the many security capabilities already in WASP Developer, version 4.6 now includes WS-S message-level security. WASP supports both the OASIS WS-Security standard currently and the earlier, Microsoft-IBM WS-Security specifications. This ensures that WASP is compatible with all WS-Security implementations. (3) SOAP with Attachments: WASP Developer supports MIME and DIME encoding of SOAP attachments. Most vendors have standardized on the newer DIME mechanism for handling SOAP attachments. WASP Developer can automatically generate client-side code for an existing Web service, regardless of where it is running, what programming language it used for development, or what SOAP implementation it is running on. WASP Developer also automates the conversion of Java to WSDL, or WSDL to Java. WASP Developers can browse UDDI registries, select a Web service, import its WSDL file, and generate client code. WASP Developer 4.6 also publishes to a UDDI directory, greatly simplifying the discovery process. Integrated debugging supports client- and server-side debugging - there's no need for an external debugging tool. SOAP Spy is an interactive message-tracking console that traces SOAP messages and allows arbitrary modification of any SOAP request. WASP Developer, 4.6 is designed to make developers quickly productive: it leverages popular and familiar IDEs, automates the creation process, and provides integrated tools for debugging and message tracking..."
[September 03, 2003] "Plumtree Ships Products to Fully Support WSRP and Proposed JSR 168 Portlet Standards. Plumtree's Standards Implementation Consumes Portlets from BEA, Citrix, IBM, and Oracle." - "Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software today released new software to support Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) from OASIS and the proposed final draft of the Java Specification Request 168 (JSR 168) portlet standard. Plumtree is one of the first software vendors to release products for supporting the new WSRP and the proposed JSR 168 portlet standards, and one of the only vendors to build and test those products for use on application servers from several different vendors. For both standards implementations, Plumtree's support extends to versions 4.5, 4.5WS and 5.0 of the Plumtree Corporate Portal. The standards are important to Plumtree because they free customers from basing technology decisions on whether a vendor's proprietary conventions will prevail in the market: a customer investing in Plumtree's industry-leading Enterprise Web software can now develop industry-standard portlets, and ensure that the investment can be put to work within virtually any portal... Plumtree's implementations of WSRP and of the proposed JSR 168 standard are based on its Web Services Architecture, which allows portlets to run remotely from the application server hosting the portal. This architecture helps ensure that the portal remains open to resources hosted on a wide range of application servers, and unaffected by faults in any one portlet. This architecture also supports a wide range of other integration components that run as Web services, for indexing content, importing security information, federating searches and profiling users. Plumtree is one of the only vendors that has published performance and scale-test data for a Web services-oriented architecture, and has successfully deployed hundreds of portals based on that architecture... To support JSR 168, Plumtree participated in the Java Community Process review of the draft standard, developed the Plumtree JSR 168 Portlet Container based on the proposed final draft, and pre-tested the Plumtree Container against the current version of the JSR 168 Technology Compatibility Kit to prepare for full compatibility. Plumtree plans to update its container with any changes made in the final release of the JSR 168 standard. In any implementation of JSR 168, the portal communicates with a container, which contains the actual JSR 168 portlet. Unlike implementations planned by some other vendors for JSR 168, the Plumtree Container was designed to run on many application servers and Web servers including Apache Tomcat, BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere... As a major participant in the OASIS WSRP Technical Committee, Plumtree is now releasing its WSRP Portlet Consumer to allow customers to embed WSRP-portlets in Plumtree-powered Web applications. Plumtree's WSRP Portlet Consumer is a software component that acts as the intermediary between the portal and the raw WSRP portlet, which is known as the WSRP producer. The Plumtree WSRP Portlet Consumer can run on the same platform as the producer, on the portal, or on a middle tier between the portal and the WSRP producer, offering customers flexibility in scaling the portal deployment to many business units, each with their own portlets..." See: (1) Plumtree Corporate Portal; (2) "JSR 168 Portlet API Specification 1.0 Released for Public Review"; (3) OASIS Web Services for Remote Portlets TC website; (4) "Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP)."
[September 02, 2003] "Uniform Code Council's U Connect Conference to Connect People, Process and Technology. Expanded Conference May 25-27, 2004 to Feature over 90 Sessions." - "The Uniform Code Council (UCC), leaders in facilitating efficient international business, announced today that the organization will hold its annual U Connect Conference May 25-27, 2004, at the Hilton Anaheim Resort in Anaheim, California. The three-day education and networking event will bring together a global audience of supply chain technology users from a variety of industries for educational sessions, networking opportunities, and an exhibition by technology vendors. In 2003, the conference accounted for nearly 1,200 supply chain professionals, including consultants, solution providers and technology executives. 'There is no greater need in our knowledge-based economy than to be connected with the people, process and technology that drive business. The 2004 U Connect Conference is planned around this concept,' said Tom Rittenhouse, President and Chief Executive Officer of the UCC. 'U Connect will deliver a comprehensive educational and business-building experience for attendees.' The conference focuses on how companies can employ the latest standards-based solutions, technologies, and business processes to manage their supply chain more efficiently. Sessions will deliver insight from industry professionals about practical applications and case studies on improving business practices and solving supply chain challenges. 'Year after year, U Connect proves itself as a unique conference that truly is developed by supply chain technology users to benefit supply chain technology users,' said Becky Pickett, Development Manager, eBusiness, Ahold Information Services. 'Whether you are a new attendee or have been to U Connect in the past, you will walk away with the knowledge and tools to bring more efficiency to your business.' The 2004 U Connect Conference will offer more than 90 informative sessions that cover business-critical topics... Tracks include: (1) Implementing Foundational Data will offer 'how-to' basics and case studies on implementing UCC keys, including Global Trade Item Identification Numbers (GTIN), Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSCC), Global Location Numbers (GLN), and Global Individual Asset Identifiers (GIAI). (2) Electronic Product Code (EPC): Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) To 'E'Volutionize The Supply Chain will cover the commercialization of the electronic product code (EPC), which has begun through a joint venture of the UCC and EAN International. This global industry initiative has the potential to transform the supply chain and deliver unprecedented benefits. The track will focus on how the EPC is moving from the laboratory to the real world and give attendees the roadmap they will need to get started. (3) Data Synchronization will offer information on UCCnet foundational services, comprehensive sessions on the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), and case studies on implementations of GDSN. (4) Technologies and Standards in Trading Partnerships will include business case examples and discussions on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Extensible Markup Language (XML), EDI over the Internet (AS2), and Business to Business (B2B) integration. (5) Collaborative Commerce Standards Development and Implementation will provide information about the Global Standards Management Process (GSMP), current and future initiatives of the process, and the global standards of foundational data. (6) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) will provide an understanding of CPFR, the value it can bring to a company, and the barriers that companies have encountered when implementing CPFR..."
[September 02, 2003] "Webswell Connect 1.1 Beta Provides Open Source ebXML Integration Framework." - "The Webswell company has launched a new release of its open source ebXML integration framework Webswell Connect, version 1.1 Beta. The 1.1. Beta version contains: (1) E-business registry server and client. The server stores and allows to find and process information about partners participating (or willing to participate) in e-business integration. The information includes partner profiles, technical descriptions of services, business processes and technical agreements. This component is based on ebxmlrr registry and repository implementation. (2) Messaging system, a component responsible for secure and reliable messaging between communicating parties. It is used for transmitting business documents during business transactions (which can be conducted by special agreements between business partners). (3) Simple user interface for sending/handling messages. It allows end users to participate in e-business transactions without having full framework with business processes implementations installed. Additional software necessary for installation, configuration and running of the framework (database server, Tomcat, etc.) All components are preconfigured and ready to use. Webswell Connect allows easy, interactive and user-friendly installation. It is entirely open source, free and available for download..." General references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
[August 28, 2003] "First Opera for Bidirectional Languages. Opera 7.20 for Windows Fine-Tunes Speed and Performance." - "Opera Software today released Opera 7.20 for Windows Beta. The new release makes it truer than ever that Opera adheres to the its popular tagline 'The Fastest Browser on Earth,' with Opera's engineers having fine-tuned version 7's development branch for maximum performance. Opera 7 for Windows is Opera's most successful version ever, with over 10 million copies downloaded so far just from www.opera.com. In addition to the copies downloaded from Opera's homepage are the many millions more downloaded from other sites around the world. With Opera 7.20's added support for bidirectional languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, Opera is now a true global browser. At the same time, recent press reports indicate that IE is slowing down browser development and that development of Netscape has been largely abandoned. Microsoft will not develop the stand-alone version of Internet Explorer further, instead going for full integration in the upcoming 'Longhorn' operating system to be released in a few years time. Internet Explorer users thus need to buy a new operating system to get a new browser. This leaves Opera as the only major commercial player continuing to push browser development, offering a vast number of new users a continually up-to-date and enhanced Internet experience. 'Opera 7 has been greeted with cheers from users and press all over the world. By continuously listening closely to our users throughout Opera's development cycle over the years, we have succeeded in creating the very best browser there is,' says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software ASA. 'This technological lead is further expanded with today's release. The feedback from our testers has been unison: Opera 7.20 significantly boosts speed and performance.' Opera 7.20 for Windows has already been released in pre-beta versions not announced to the wider public. Opera's Elektrans, the volunteer group that helps millions of Opera users get the very best Internet experience available in every release, has joined forces with a select group of power users that frequent Opera's newsgroups and forums. This elite group has run Opera 7.20 through intensive stress-testing over the last few weeks to ensure that all critical bugs are found and fixed before the final release. The final Opera 7.20 for Windows will be released sometime later this summer." See the changelog for a list of V 7.20 features.
[August 25, 2003] "Waveset Offers SPML Toolkit to Promote Open Standards for Provisioning Across Diverse Identity Infrastructures." - "Waveset Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative identity management solutions, today announced it has developed the industry's first open source SPML (Service Provisioning Markup Language) toolkit that allows third parties to SPML-enable their applications and management platforms. The toolkit offers an easy-to-use interface for configuring, issuing and interpreting standards-compliant provisioning requests across diverse identity infrastructures. This functionality helps organizations extend secure user access privileges and profile information to dynamic user populations, particularly in Web services environments. It is based on SPML version 1.0 which is in the final stages of ratification as an OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) worldwide standard. It is publicly available for download at no cost or restriction at www.openspml.org According to Phil Schacter, vice president of directory and security strategies at Burton Group, 'The availability of an open source implementation of SPML is a critical step in gaining broad industry adoption of this important emerging standard. Standards play a key role in an enterprise identity management architecture by solving difficult integration and interoperability problems and enabling applications to leverage the identity infrastructure independent of any specific vendor's implementation. Waveset's release of its open SPML toolkit will make it easier for both commercial application software providers and enterprise application developers to take advantage of SPML, and should lead to earlier deployment of identity management systems that incorporate support for SPML.' Platforms and software solutions that conform to the SPML specification facilitate the automation of user or system access and entitlement rights to electronic services across diverse IT infrastructures. Waveset's SPML toolkit reduces the time and technical proficiency required of programmers to build this framework by providing a simple to use and easy to understand graphical environment for SPML message generation and analysis. The toolkit also offers a unique browser capability that scans SPML-enabled provisioning systems to provide a graphical view of services offered -- much like a standard Web services UDDI browser -- as well as to generate and de-bug test requests. 'The industry has spent two years working to establish SPML as a key standard for enabling provisioning services across diverse identity infrastructures,' said Darran Rolls, directory of technology at Waveset and chair of the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee. 'As such, it's important that tools like these be made publicly available to drive the adoption of open, standard protocols and ensure continued industry support for a Web services-based, identity-centric business process model..." General references in "XML-Based Provisioning Services."
[August 25, 2003] "Macromedia Announces Dreamweaver MX 2004. New Version Builds Foundation for Widespread Adoption of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)." - "Macromedia, Inc. today announced Dreamweaver MX 2004, the professional choice for building web sites and applications. Dreamweaver MX 2004 continues the product's tradition of innovation by providing a solid foundation for widespread adoption of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a well respected, but previously difficult to implement web standard. Because CSS helps developers separate presentation and style from content, websites built with CSS require less bandwidth, are easier to maintain, and give developers and end users precise design control. Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the only comprehensive tool to deliver deep CSS support in a visual development environment, removing the learning curve and enabling developers to use this standard to cost-effectively deliver great experiences on their web sites and applications. Dreamweaver MX 2004 builds on the success of Dreamweaver MX by further integrating visual layout tools, application development features, and code editing support within a technology-agnostic, platform-independent environment. By supporting all major HTML and server technologies, Dreamweaver MX 2004 unlocks the power of open, standards-based development for the web community while enhancing the basic tools that professionals need. Dreamweaver MX 2004 also includes SecureFTP, dynamic cross-browser validation functionality, built-in graphics editing, seamless integration with Microsoft Word and Excel, and updated support for ASP.NET, PHP, and ColdFusion server technologies... Dreamweaver MX 2004 includes state of the art, standards-based design controls to ensure high-quality design. The entire design environment is built around CSS to enable fast, more efficient development of clean-coded, professional sites with sophisticated designs. Dynamic multi-browser validation automatically checks tags and CSS rules for design compatibility across leading browsers, the most common headache for developers. A built-in graphics editor using Macromedia Fireworks technology enables users to crop, resize, and edit graphics without leaving the Dreamweaver environment... The open, technology-agnostic nature of Dreamweaver MX 2004 allows developers to work with their technologies of choice. Its platform-independent development environment supports all major server technologies, including Macromedia ColdFusion, ASP.NET, JSP, and PHP. SecureFTP encrypts all file transfers and prevents unauthorized access to data, file contents, user names, and passwords. Seamless integration with Microsoft Word and Excel enables users to preserve formatting as CSS when cutting and pasting into Dreamweaver. The product also includes tighter integration with Macromedia Flash, Fireworks, and other design and development tools in Macromedia Studio MX 2004..." See related references in "W3C Cascading Style Sheets."
[August 21, 2003] "The Uniform Code Council Solution Partner Program Launched. Solution Partners Drive Business Opportunities by Providing Integrated Solutions for UCC Member Companies." - "The Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC), leaders in facilitating efficient international business, recently announced the official launch of its UCC Solution Partner Program. The UCC Solution Partner Program increases awareness, adoption, and implementation of UCC standards by facilitating a partnership between the UCC and solution providers to produce standards-compliant, 'off-the-shelf' implementation solutions for the expanding UCC community. The program benefits the UCC community by providing member companies with UCC-certified resources where they can find software, hardware, and consultants for implementation services. By utilizing standardized and compliant solutions, companies will be able to minimize implementation costs, maximize supply chain cost savings, and raise productivity. UCC standards include the EAN.UCC System and RosettaNet standards. EAN.UCC System standards provide companies in 23 major industry verticals with a global language of business to uniquely identify products, assets, locations and logistics units across the global supply chain, as well as enable corresponding electronic information to be communicated in a consistent fashion. RosettaNet uses open Internet-based business standards that align processes within the global high technology and telecommunications trading networks. The new UCC Solution Partner Program serves as an umbrella program for all of the divisions of the UCC. It will support implementation of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) and Electronic Commerce standards of the EAN.UCC System as well as UCCnet, RosettaNet, and the newly formed AutoID U.S., LLC. The UCC is currently migrating UCCnet Alliance Partners to the new UCC Solution Partner Program. The UCC Solution Partner Program will then be expanded to embrace AIDC and Electronic Commerce certification programs later in 2003, with support for the RosettaNet and AutoID U.S., LLC communities in 2004. According to UCC Senior Vice President and President of EAN.UCC Dennis Harrison, the UCC Solution Partner Program has generated significant interest from companies around the world eager to become certified UCC Solution Partners. 'This is a tremendous program that delivers cost effective solutions for our member companies and their trading partners, while driving correct implementation of Uniform Code Council standards,' said Mr. Harrison. Since the program's inception in early July 2003, the following companies have signed as UCC Solution Partners: bTrade, EDS, FullTilt Solutions, HAHT Commerce, Integrated Software Systems (ISS), iWay Software, Inc., LANSA, Ontuet Technologies, Sterling Commerce, TR2 Consulting, Thomas Smith (AGSA.US), Trigo Technologies, Inc., Velosel Corporation, and webMethods..." General references in "Uniform Code Council (UCC) XML Program."
[August 21, 2003] "ebXML Asia Committee Starts New ebXML Interoperability Certification Program. Twelve Organizations Receive Certifications on ebXML Message Service specification 2.0." - On August 8, 2003 the ebXML Asia Committee "announced the start of a new ebXML interoperability certification program and issued ebXML interoperability certification on ebXML Message Service specification 2.0, including basic functions and reliable messaging, for twelve (12) companies and organizations passed the interoperability test. Interoperability is one of key issues to realize Internet based B2B eBusiness using multi-vendor implementations,even across countries. ebXML Message Service is designed for B2B communication and its reliable messaging function is to guarantee message delivery such as arrival of a business message sent from one company to another,preservation of message order and elimination of duplicated arrival of business messages. The goal of the ebXML ASIA Committee interoperability certification is to promote ebXML through the certification of interoperability among ebXML Asia Committee members' products. The certificate includes such information as 'Class' which specifies the ebXML specification to be covered and 'Level' which specifies the test categories. ebXML Asia Committee interoperability test is performed by the Interoperability Task Group (ITG) and the interoperability certification is issued by ebXML ASIA committee... ITG will soon initiate the third round of ebXML Interoperability test, which will cover security related test items of ebXML Message Service Specification... ebXML Asia Committee is a regional committee jointly initiated by the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM) of Japan, the Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce (KIEC) of Korea and the Taipei Computer Association of Chinese Taipei. The Committee was established in December 2000 to promote ebXML in Asia, to jointly deal with ebXML work through the cooperation among Asian countries and to facilitate electronic commerce in the Asian region. With the gradual increase of membership, there are currently more than 24 organizational members from 11 regions of Asia Pacific (Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, and Thailand)..." See: (1) ebXML.org website; (2) UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Group (TMG); (3) general references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
[August 21, 2003] "UDDI Operators Council Releases Version 3 of the UDDI Business Registry. Beta Version to Include Enhanced Functionality for Companies to Build Secure Web Services Registries. UDDI Operators SAP, IBM and Microsoft to Provide Beta APIs for Public Usage of UDDI Version 3 Free of Charge." - "The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Business Registry (UBR) Operators Council announced today the availability of UDDI Version 3 (V.3) beta nodes. The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration protocol is one of the major building blocks that enable successful Web service deployments. UDDI creates a standard interoperable platform that enables companies and applications to quickly, easily and dynamically find and use Web services. 'The beta release of UBR V.3 takes a further step in bringing this important specification closer to successful real-world implementations,' said Charles Abrams, research director, Gartner Research. 'The UDDI Operators Council is providing companies with an early opportunity to explore new functionality when considering extended Web service implementations.' The UDDI V.3 Specification brings the following important capabilities to the UBR: (1) User-Defined Keys: This allows users to create human readable values for keys based on the known concept of domain names. (2) UDDI Business Registry (UBR) as a Root Registry: Once the UBR migrates to V.3, the UBR will serve as the recognized root registry for globally unique keys, where affiliate registries will be able to reserve UDDI keys. (3) Portable Keys: V.3 introduces the ability to copy keys between registries without being altered, enabling public and private registries to import information from others. (4) Digital Signatures: The addition of digital signature support for entities in UDDI enables clients to establish the veracity of data registered in the UBR. UDDI is a cross-industry effort driven by major platform and software providers, as well as marketplace operators and e-business leaders within the OASIS standards consortium. IBM, Microsoft and SAP will provide UDDI V.3 beta nodes. With this beta, the UBR operators continue to provide validation of the UDDI specification through early reference implementations. Early availability of new V.3 features affords tool providers and early adopters publicly available access to this technology. The UDDI Operators Council, which consists of IBM, Microsoft, NTT Communications and SAP, continues to provide support for the momentum in the developer community to harness real-world implementations of the advanced specification. The Operators Council documents and submits their experience with the beta implementation to the OASIS UDDI Specification Technical Committee to help refine and improve the UDDI V.3 Specification..." Further details are given in the news story: "UBR Operators Council Announces Beta Release of UDDI Business Registry for UDDI Version 3.0." See also: (1) "UDDI Version 3.0: UDDI Spec Technical Committee Specification; (2) OASIS UDDI Member Section; (3) general references in "Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)."
[August 2003] "OASIS ebXML Update: Completion of ebXML Second Phase." [Memo of August 27, 2003 from Patrick Gannon, President & CEO, OASIS.] "OASIS and UN/CEFACT have completed the second phase of ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language), our joint initiative that began in 1999. In the first 18-month phase, joint teams completed a set of substantive technical specifications which provided an interoperable, vendor-neutral, openly available stack of XML standards for B2B e-commerce. In a second transitional phase, OASIS and UN/CEFACT split the substantive work, each housing several of the ongoing project teams while maintaining linkage through a Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC). After two years, the ebXML JCC has completed its mission. The two organizations will continue to support and promote the ebXML standards under respective separate procedures. The transitional second phase saw many successes for ebXML, including: (1) the issuance of updated versions 2.0 of the ebXML Message Service (MSG), Registry Information Model (RIM), Registry Services (RS) and Collaboration Protocol Profile & Agreement (CPPA) specifications as OASIS Standards (2) approval by the UN/CEFACT plenary of all the ebXML OASIS Standards (3) widespread implementations and tools based on ebXML, particularly by government agencies and vertical industry supply-chain consortia In its third phase, OASIS will continue to support the OASIS ebXML specifications and serve as a focal point for users and vendors interested in the maintenance, implementation and advancement of our ebXML Standards. This ongoing work includes the following: [a] OASIS Technical Committees for ebXML Messaging, CPPA, Registry/Repository, and Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (IIC) each will continue to actively develop and refine ebXML specifications in use today... [b] Additional efforts, including the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) TC, the OASIS Web Services Reliable Messaging TC, and the OASIS Web Services for Business Process Execution Language (WSBPEL) TC, also will have the opportunity to liaise and define interoperability with the ebXML stack. [c] OASIS will continue to maintain the www.ebxml.org informational web site that we have hosted since the project's launch... OASIS expresses its thanks to the representatives from Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Sterling Commerce, Global Exchange Services, and other organizations who served as our representatives to the ebXML Joint Coordinating Committee and the Joint Marketing Committee during the project's transitional phase. We expect to continue to promote and support various ebXML activities, directed by our four existing OASIS ebXML TCs, the OASIS ebXML Joint Committee, and such other projects as may be initiated under OASIS rules. Indeed, there are many reasons to celebrate our ebXML accomplishments, many exciting opportunities ahead, and many ways for members to drive our continued success..." See also: (1) OASIS ebXML.org website; (2) UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Group (TMG) website; (3) general references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
[August 21, 2003] "UN/CEFACT Announces Successful Completion of ebXML Technical Standards Work Programme with OASIS. UN/CEFACT Continues Development of Technology- and Implementation-Neutral E-Business Standards." - "The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) announces the successful completion of the ebXML technical standards work with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). UN/CEFACT continues to capitalize on the gains made from ebXML in the further development of technology-neutral and implementation-neutral global e-Business standards for government, industry and commerce. UN/CEFACT and OASIS have since 1999 been working on a joint initiative to expand the use and growth of the Internet by developing the next generation of electronic business standards based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). The ebXML (electronic Business with XML) initiative called for an 18-month worldwide open development project to create a technical framework enabling the use of XML as a consistent means for the exchange of electronic business data. The original ebXML initiative concluded in May 2001 with full community approval of a framework of technical specifications. For the past two years, UN/CEFACT and OASIS have enjoyed a close working relationship to finalize the set of ebXML specifications, and in May 2003 the UN/CEFACT Plenary adopted these as UN/CEFACT Technical Specifications. 'Working closely with our colleagues at OASIS has been a unique opportunity for UN/CEFACT to lead the development of global technology standards and help drive awareness of how XML and Internet technology support government, industry and commerce' says Ray Walker, Chair of the UN/CEFACT Steering Group. 'We are extremely proud of our OASIS working relationship and we remain open to working with OASIS in the future.' UN/CEFACT, which is based at UNECE in Geneva and has a global remit, has led the development of international standards for electronic transactions. Its experience and its ability to bring together world-class experts and match trends in information technology with business requirements, in an open and transparent way, gives it a unique viewpoint. 'Recognition that the next technology trend is just around the corner resulted in the recent UN/CEFACT Plenary meeting directing a new work programme to move UN/CEFACT closer to web services' said Dr Christian Fruhwald, Chair of UN/CEFACT. 'This new work, known as UN/CEFACT Business Collaboration Framework (BCF), will allow UN/CEFACT to identify the growing needs of government, commercial and industrial organizations as they approach their global information exchange requirements.' 'Going forward we expect to make use of much of our ebXML technical work as we continue to develop UN/CEFACT's technology neutral and implementation neutral global e-framework. We hope to use the newly established liaisons with the OASIS Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) Technical Committee (TC), plus the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) and our UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Business Process Working Group to align our efforts, and eliminate duplication of work', says Klaus-Dieter Naujok Chair of UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Group and former Chair of the ebXML Project..." See also: (1) OASIS ebXML.org website; (2) UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Group (TMG) website; (3) general references in "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
[August 20, 2003] "Siebel Systems and webMethods Announce Expanded Offering for Universal Application Network. Siebel Integration Applications for Communications, Media and Energy Industries Now Available on webMethods Integration Platform." - "webMethods, Inc., the leading provider of integration software enabling Global Business Visibility, and Siebel Systems, Inc., a leading provider of multichannel eBusiness application software, today announced the general availability of Universal Application Network (UAN) integration applications for the communications, media and energy (CME) industries on the webMethods Integration Platform. Developed by Siebel Systems in collaboration with leading technology companies, Universal Application Network (UAN) is a standards-based architecture for business integration. UAN includes packaged applications and industry-specific business processes that run on industry-leading integration servers, eliminating the cost and complexity associated with traditional integration methods. With UAN, companies can leverage their existing IT investments, deploy best-in-class applications, and optimize their cross-application business processes, resulting in greater organizational agility and a lower total cost of ownership. With this product release, webMethods expands support for UAN by making Siebel integration applications for the CME industries available on the webMethods Integration Platform. UAN CME is available today on webMethods 6 and includes prebuilt objects, transformations, and business process logic to enable rapid, cost-effective delivery of integration solutions. The combination of prebuilt Siebel integration applications and the webMethods Integration Platform provides customers with an optimal architecture and solution for automating critical business processes and eliminating manual data entry steps across multiple IT systems..." Note on UAN from the Siebel white paper on UAN, Universal Application Network: The Industry's First Standards-Based, Vendor-Independent Application Integration Solution: "Universal Application Network is based on Web Services and Extensible Markup Language (XML), which provide the standards for specifying Universal Application Network business processes... At the highest level, Universal Application Network consists of three components: business process library, business process design tool, and integration server. The business process library is a collection of prepackaged end-to-end industry-specific business processes -- such as Customer Creation or Quote to Order -- which can be configured and executed across multiple systems of record and business logic. These business processes are based on XML and Web Services standards and thus are independent of both the underlying applications and integration server... The Business Process Design Tool is an intuitive graphical tool for developing and configuring business process solutions -- including business process flows, common objects, and transformation maps. The design tool has import and export capabilities to accept and emit definitions of the business process solutions in XML standards. The design tool consists of two components: Business Process Flow Modeler and Transformation Modeler. The Business Process Flow Modeler enables the user to describe business processes at various levels of abstraction. A business analyst uses the modeler to describe the business process independent of the underlying applications. A developer can then define further details by providing process flows that indicate how a specific application accomplishes those steps. The Business Process Flow Modeler also provides visual representation of error conditions, transactional boundaries, and compensating transactions. The modeler accepts and emits Web Services-based XML representations of the defined processes... The Transformation Modeler is used to define common objects and transformation maps. The user can visually drag and drop fields and choose available functions libraries to define transformations. The Transformation Modeler also can be used to define custom transformations. It accepts and emits XSD schemas and XSLT-based transformations... The integration server coordinates interapplication communication. Examples of commercially available integration servers include IBM CrossWorlds InterChange Server, Mercator Integration Broker, SeeBeyond Business Integration Suite, TIBCO BusinessWorks, Vitria BusinessWare, and webMethods Platform..."
[August 19, 2003] "World Wide Web Consortium Issues Web Ontology Language Candidate Recommendations. Emerging Ontology Standard, OWL, Strengthens Semantic Web Foundations." - "Today, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued Web Ontology Language (OWL) as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Candidate Recommendation is an explicit call for implementations, indicating that the document has been reviewed by all other W3C Working Groups, that the specification is stable, and appropriate for implementation. OWL is a language for defining structured, Web-based ontologies which enable richer integration and interoperability of data across application boundaries. Early adopters of these sta


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