XML Industry News. July - December 1999.

This XML Industry News section consists mainly of links to company press releases announcing support for XML/XSL/XLink, July - 1999. Separate documents contain references for current press releases and for January - June, 1999. The press releases from 1998 are referenced in their own document. Some earlier press releases from Fall 1997 are listed in the document which references XML Industry Support. 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 and the archived XML reference collection. This page is experimental, and entirely provisional.

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• [December 22, 1999] "OpenBox Laboratory Launches Online Access to XML Protocol Tools for Enterprise Developers." - "Innovision Corporation, the XML Protocol leader, today announced the availability of OpenBox Laboratory on its public Web site at http://www.innovision.com. OpenBox lab provides early access to new XML technologies for enterprise developers and industry standards organizations. Accessed from Innovision's Web-based lab, the XML-to-Java Transformation Facility allows developers to freely create their own PSOMs (Protocol Specific Object Models), or browse and download existing PSOMs instantly. PSOMs are all-inclusive Java classes representing a protocol or document object model. OpenBox provides an easy way to develop XML-based applications using familiar object-oriented programming techniques. In an example application, a tutorial provides necessary information to design, generate and utilize a PSOM. Innovision's XML-to-Java Transformation Facility is based on a formal specification provided within OpenBox and includes information on related Java interfaces and specifications. OpenBox also contains Java and XML tools, specifications and white papers useful for enterprise and industry application of XML Protocols."

• [December 21, 1999] "Object Design, Inc. Announces Hyporium Trading Hub eBusiness Deployment of eXcelon XML Application Platform. First of its Kind Internet-based IT Trading Site Relies on eXcelon to Deliver Successful Selling Over the Web." - "Object Design, Inc., a global provider of innovative eBusiness products and solutions, today announced that its eXcelon XML application platform is the power behind the Hyporium Trading Hub, a United Kingdom based online trading hub that allows buyers, resellers, distributors and manufacturers to electronically trade over the Web. Created by leading e-commerce enabler Hyperchannel Ltd, Hyporium Trading Hub is designed to help everyone involved in IT trade embrace electronic commerce. Hyporium Trading Hub allows resellers to create online virtual stores. This includes: store management to set up the style of the store, how they want their prices represented, what they want to sell, what access levels they want and what payment methods they want. Hyporium Trading Hub enables them to create a virtual store that can be easily customized, getting away from the restrictions of the bricks and mortar approach. It allows buyers to visit the IT resellers virtual stores online, input their requirements and obtain immediate, real-time price and availability quotes. Hyporium Trading Hub is set to launch in Germany early next year, as well as in five other European countries. Companies such as IBM, Compaq, 3Com and Novell have already signed up with Hyporium. eXcelon is the first application development environment for building and deploying XML-based e-Business applications. The product consists of three primary components: eXcelon Toolbox (consisting of eXcelon Explorer, eXcelon Studio, eXcelon Manager and eXcelon Stylus), the eXcelon data server and Xconnects. Manufacturers currently endorsing Hyporium include Compaq, IBM, Oracle, Novell and 3Com. Distributors involved in the project include C2000, Computacenter, Logitek, WestCoast, Unipalm, InterQuad and Computer 2000. Leading resellers joining Hyporium include Business Systems Group (BSG), Integrated Network Solutions (INS) and CAE Office Systems."

• [December 21, 1999] "Lawson Software to Resell TSI Software's Mercator for E-Business Integration Within its XML-based Collaborative Commerce Suite. 2TheMart.com E-Marketplace is First Customer Powered by Lawson Insight and Mercator." - "TSI International Software Ltd., a leading provider of e-business integration software, today announced that Lawson Software is reselling the market leading Mercator integration broker to provide XML-to-any transformation and integration for the LAWSON INSIGHT II Collaborative Commerce Suite. The first successful implementation of the combined product is providing business-to-business (B2B) integration between Lawson applications and the IBM Net.Commerce product for 2TheMart.com, Inc., a new electronic marketplace. TSI Software's Mercator is embedded at the heart of the Lawson Collaborative Commerce Suite within the LAWSON INSIGHT II Business Component Integrator. Mercator provides critical 'any-to-any' data transformation and mapping between external data formats and the XML data formats utilized by Lawson e-business applications. The Collaborative Commerce Suite is an integrated set of pre-configured business applications that allows users to create inter- or intra-enterprise business processes between the Web-based Lawson Financial, Procurement, Human Resources and Supply Chain applications and other best-of-breed applications."

• [December 21, 1999] "The E-Content Company Joins WAP Forum to Accelerate the Delivery of XML-based Content to Wireless Mobile Devices. WAP Membership Extends the e-Content Company's Commitment to Providing e-Business Solutions." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering XML-based content management solutions for e-business, today announced that it has joined the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, a consortium of more than 260 firms dedicated to developing the de facto world standard for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phones and other wireless devices. Further demonstrating its commitment to providing customers with innovative e-business solutions, the e-content company will work closely with the WAP Forum and its members to accelerate the delivery of customized XML-based content to virtually any mobile wireless device. The e-content company is on the forefront of enterprise e-business with BladeRunner, its XML-based content management solution. Recently, the company announced XML Wireless Application Product (X-WAP), a new BladeRunner application that enables enterprises to dynamically assemble and distribute information to wireless devices from a single source presentation, dramatically extending enterprise e-business. Through the power of the eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), enterprises can seamlessly transform WML, HTML, and XML business content for presentation to wireless devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, pagers and e-books. With X-WAP's sophisticated XSL creation tools, content providers have unprecedented control over how their content is rendered on all these devices." For references, see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

• [December 21, 1999] "Benefon Licenses Microsoft Mobile Explorer To Bring WAP and HTML-Based Services and Content to Mobile Phones." - "Microsoft Corp. and Benefon today announced the licensing of Microsoft Mobile Explorer (MME) for Benefon's new wireless communication products. Microsoft Mobile Explorer, first announced on December 8 [1999], is a comprehensive, open software platform designed to power Internet-enabled mobile telephones. MME enables wireless carriers to provide their customers with the choice of a broad line of applications and services on data-enabled telephones. It is a key component of Microsoft's end-to-end wireless strategy to provide mobile Internet solutions that utilize additional technologies such as Microsoft Exchange Server, the BackOffice family and MSN Mobile Services. 'The mobile Internet is elemental in realizing Benefon's vision of putting wireless technology to meaningful use and contributing to the quality of life of people with individual needs,' said Jorma U. Nieminen, president of Benefon. 'What appealed to Benefon in our choice of a technology partner for the mobile Internet was Microsoft's commitment to supporting industry standards such as HTML and WAP and promoting their convergence under XML, to the benefit of customers and service providers alike'. 'Microsoft Mobile Explorer is a key step in realizing Microsoft's vision of empowering knowledge workers and consumers through great software any time, anywhere and on any device,' said Kevin Dallas, group product manager of the Productivity Appliances Division at Microsoft." ['Microsoft Mobile Explorer for feature phones is an operating-system-independent, air-link agnostic, browser-based solution that enables secure corporate or personal access to e-mail, personal information manager data and the Internet when connected to a wireless network. It includes the first dual-mode microbrowser that can display both HTML- and WAP 1.1-authored Internet content.'] For references on WAP, see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

• [December 20, 1999] "General Electric Gas Turbine Business Provides Configuration Information with Sequoia's Interactive Enterprise Information Portal. E-Business Solution based on Sequoia XML Portal Server Gives GE's Gas Turbine Customers Ability to Access and Act on Vital Turbine Configuration Information via the Internet." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of interactive enterprise information portals (EIPs), today announced that General Electric's Gas Turbine Business in Greenville, South Carolina has selected Sequoia Software's XML Portal Server (Sequoia XPS) to dramatically improve the way its customers access and act on information. The Sequoia-powered EIP provides GE technicians and customers, including many of the nation's largest power companies, with Web browser-based access to the precise data needed to maintain the 4,600 plus GE gas turbines now in service. . . Sequoia Software Corporation, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, is the leading provider of Interactive Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs). Sequoia's EIP application, Sequoia XML Portal Server(XPS) increases the accuracy of search and retrieval and lets you act on information directly through the portal, dramatically increasing your productivity and effectiveness."

• [December 20, 1999] "IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 with XML Access Now Available. The New Business Document System from IXOS Enables Access to Archived Documents in Off-line Mode and Provides Improved Integration of Groupware Applications." - "IXOS SOFTWARE AG, Munich, a leading provider of software solutions for the management of business documents in the SAP R/3. system environment, today announced the immediate availability of IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0, the new version of its Business Document System (BDS). Announced in October of this year, IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 incorporates Java and XML technology and provides an extended range of services. Additionally, the IXOS-DocuLink component enables users to access business transactions and related documents in off-line mode. With IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0, groupware users can now be integrated in business processes in their familiar application environment. IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0, in conjunction with the IXOS-DocuLink module, enables users in off-line mode to manage business documents from every conceivable origin, within the SAP R/3 infrastructure. In IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0, XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used to assign business document attributes, which represent information and metadata in a system-independent form. This means that documents can be extracted out of the SAP R/3 context and can be retrieved via XML-capable browsers. Incorporating this global standard helps all IXOS customers leverage their investment and allows them to link their archiving system with their e-business applications. IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 is now available in English and German language versions. Other international language versions are intended for delivery in two months. As with all IXOS products IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 is fully year 2000-compliant."

• [December 17, 1999] "Vertex Introduces eQuantum for Sales and Use Tax, Featuring the First Object-Oriented Architecture for the Tax Compliance Industry. Designed Specifically for Calculating Taxes on Electronic Commerce Transactions." - "Vertex Inc., a leading provider of state and local tax compliance solutions for corporations, will introduce eQuantum for Sales and Use Tax, featuring integration via Java and XML programming languages to Java-based storefront applications. The eQuantum product, scheduled for general availability during the first quarter of 2000, will provide maximum functionality, flexibility, and efficiency in calculating sales and use taxes on electronic commerce transactions. eQuantum accepts transaction data passed from the host application, via either Java Objects or XML documents, in order to provide a sales tax quote and/or final tax calculation to the on-line customer. The system includes databases to determine the appropriate taxing jurisdiction, applicable tax rates, and any customer-, product-, or jurisdiction-based exceptions. The tax amount is then passed back to the host application and, if necessary, recorded in a register database for tax reporting purposes."

• [December 16, 1999] "Epic Data Releases Java and XML-Based Wireless Application For SAP R/3." - "Epic Data International Inc. today announced the full product release of EPIConnect: Warehouse Edition, a powerful shrink-wrapped software application for the SAP R/3 logistics system. EPIConnect is the first in a new generation of wireless applications developed with eXpresso, Epic Data's leading-edge development environment based on XML and Java technologies. 'The release of EPIConnect demonstrates Epic Data's strategic commitment to using the most advanced open technologies available: Java and XML. We're committed to Java as the leading development environment for application platform independence and to XML as the de facto standard for electronic business-to-business exchange. We believe that the use of these technologies in wireless applications will be rapidly validated by the marketplace,' said Dr. Jacek Lipowski, Epic Data Vice President of Technology."

• [December 15, 1999] "Open Applications Group, Inc. to Deliver Standardized Request for Quote in XML. SupplierMarket.com Joins OAGI and Presents Plan to Lead OAGI's Effort to Increase Efficiencies Through Standardized RFQs." - "The emergence of online trading communities, and the need to integrate them into back-end legacy systems, has increased the need for standards. Request for quotes (RFQs), the most common method for businesses to share information about needed goods and services are company-specific and lack industry standardization. In an effort to ease integration and communications along the supply chain, Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) will standardize RFQs in XML. SupplierMarket.com, a leading Internet marketplace for the buying and selling of built-to-order, industrial manufactured products, will lead the effort for OAGI to standardize RFQs in XML. The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and Application Interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors. The OAGI membership is composed of many of the most prominent business software vendors, EAI vendors, Systems Integrators, and end-user associated organizations in the world, including: Agile Software, American Software, AT&T Wireless, Bluestone, Candle, Compaq, Component Software, Computer Associates, CrossWorlds Software, DATEV, Extricity Software, Ford Motor Company, Fortress Technologies, GloTech Solutions, Great Plains, HK Systems, Inc., I2, IBM, Indus, Integrated Systems & Services Group, J.D. Edwards, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, NEC, Netfish Technologies, ObTech, OnDisplay, Oracle, PCS Inc., PeopleSoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI, QAD, Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems, SAP, Teklogix, Trilogy, TSI, USData, Vitria, Wonderware, and webMethods." See "Open Applications Group - OAGIS 6."

• [December 15, 1999] "Viewlocity Announces XML Connector for E-Business. New Connector Expands Rich Heritage of Connecting Supply Chains." - "Viewlocity, a global leader in providing supply chain integration and synchronization for e-Business, announced today the availability of its XML Connector at the e-Business Conference and Expo in New York City. The new Extensible Markup Language (XML) Connector leverages Viewlocity's leadership in providing business-to-business connectivity across complex supply chains. Viewlocity has rich heritage of connecting more supply chains than any other vendor. The firm's wealth of experience includes empowering clients to connect to suppliers, customers, distributors, contract manufacturers, and logistics services providers. In the past, connectivity with trading partners was primarily accomplished via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Today XML provides a more open, flexible, internet-based communication standard. Viewlocity is helping clients leverage their existing investments in EDI while migrating them to XML. In fact, several global enterprises are currently launching their XML initiatives using Viewlocity's new XML Connector. The versatility of Viewlocity's XML capability will be exemplified with its XML support for clients of SAP, the leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, SAP. One of the first applications of its XML connector solution is with the SAP R/3 Business Connector during the first quarter of 2000. Viewlocity has currently over 170 installations of its SAP ALE connector in demanding SAP interoperability applications worldwide. Trading partners need to share an extremely diverse variety of information types such as orders, product design information, forecasts and production schedules. Viewlocity leverages XML to provide flexible support for this diversity with key capabilities that include graphical tools to edit and view business objects, as well as transform and share the business objects. Externally, these customers are sharing critical data with their trading partners. Viewlocity's XML Connector enables easy access and open exchange of business messages, allowing companies to take full advantage of web-based collaboration opportunities and form dynamic trading communities."

• [December 15, 1999] "Chrystal Software Announces Content Management on Sun Solaris Operating Environment Clients. Cross-platform support with a Java-based end-to-end publishing solution." - "Chrystal Software, a Xerox New Enterprise Company, today announced content management for clients of Sun Microsystem's Solaris Operating Environment clients. Chrystal Software customers will be able to employ eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) solutions in Solaris operating system-only or mixed computing environments. Capabilities include content management, Web-based access for authoring, view and annotation, and connection to popular authoring tools. Content management is an ideal solution for organizations producing and publishing all types of structured documents created using popular authoring tools. By managing documents down to the component level, users can retrieve, access, version, and secure each component individually, while maintaining the link between each component within the document, or documents, of which they are a part. A graphic, a procedure, or a paragraph are examples of components that can be dynamically assembled within the content management framework to create personal, interactive content. Pivotal to the Solaris Operating Environment integration was Chrystal Software's introduction of Web-based editing using Java technology for all documents and XML/SGML components. This enables authors to access their documents, make changes, and check in documents from distant locations, while working from home or during travel. This add-on functionality uses a standard browser interface running on Solaris desktops. In addition to XML/SGML, file check-out/check-in works with graphics, word processing files, and any other file format client software. The Solaris Operating Environment provides seamless support for 32- and 64-bit applications, superior Java technology performance, and high reliability and is available for systems based on both Intel and SPARC microprocessors."

• [December 15, 1999] "Flashline.com Unveils Component Registry, the Industry's First Open XML-Based Resource for Documentation on Reusable Software Components. New Offering Accelerates Time to Market and Establishes a Complete, Universal Format for Documenting Components." - "Flashline.com today launched Component Registry (www.componentregistry.com), the first non-commercial, open resource to provide critical component documentation for the industry's large and growing collection of JavaBeans, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), and COM software components. By providing all of the component information cataloged on one site, IT professionals using this valuable service will reduce development time and speed time to market for their component-based development projects. At the core of Component Registry is an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) which defines the standard format for documenting software components. This universal format for component documentation eliminates the need for developers to search extensively for the necessary component data, resulting in faster and easier application development. Component Registry also serves as remote catalog storage for component documentation. This centralization of data allows for easy access to the component information, making it simple for developers to receive the information immediately. In addition, the use of XML in the Component Registry allows developers to repurpose the component data into any format. XML also makes the component information portable and fully searchable. Component Registry incorporates software components from developers and development companies worldwide. Currently, the following companies endorse Component Registry as a dynamic way to access component documentation: Sun/Netscape's iPlanet, IONA, KL Group, Pramati Technologies, ProSyst USA, Protoview Development, Wildcrest Associates, HexaTech, Instant Computer Solutions, Intuitive Systems, Inc., Hallamshire Software, Virtua Communications Corp., InfoRad, Tidestone Technologies and Diamelle Technologies... Think of it as a Yahoo!. for software components. Component Registry bridges the information gap in the software component industry by providing a searchable XML database of component documentation. Component Registry's XML DTD provides a universal organizational format for component documentation, freeing vendors of the need to redesign their documentation to suit different presentations, and placing their component data in easy reach of the developers who purchase the components. It's one-stop shopping -- an informational express lane for components and the documentation necessary to put them to use."

• [December 15, 1999] "RosettaNet Opens European Office. Names Director of European Partner Relations to Extend Global Implementation of Supply Chain Standards. Establishes Partner Relations Group in U.S." - "RosettaNet today announced that it has opened a European Office and has appointed Thierry Ceillier as Director of European Partner Relations. Headquartered near Geneva, Ceillier will manage the RosettaNet effort to identify and integrate specific European requirements of companies participating in a global initiative to align supply chain interface eBusiness processes within the information technology (IT) and electronic component (EC) industries. He will also manage the European Partner Relations in these two industries. His appointment coincides with the scheduled first meeting of the RosettaNet European Review Committee on December 7, at which time supply chain trading partners will address issues relating to implementation of RosettaNet standards in Europe...RosettaNet is an independent, self-funded, non-profit consortium dedicated to the development and deployment of standard electronic business interfaces to align the processes between supply chain partners on a global basis. More than 60 companies representing $600 billion in annual revenues currently provide the mandate for RosettaNet's standards development strategy." For additional references, see "RosettaNet."

• [December 15, 1999] "Bridges for Islands Announces Partnership With RosettaNet. Bridges for Islands Leverages RosettaNet's Standards to Facilitate Business To Business Integration." - "Bridges for Islands Inc., an innovative provider of e-Business Application Integration solutions, today announced its membership in RosettaNet, an Information Technology industry- wide consortium that develops XML-based (eXtensible Markup Language) business process standards for B2B. Bridges for Islands is joining RosettaNet as a Solution Partner. RosettaNet's set of standards, including PIPs (Partner Interface Processes), define dialogs for business transactions that enable business partners to fully leverage e-Commerce applications and the Internet. Bridges for Islands offers e-Business tools that support RosettaNet standards. As a RosettaNet Solution Partner, Bridges for Islands will provide the technology and services to aid companies in implementing RosettaNet interfaces. Bridges for Islands with its Brahms B2BEngine will provide the products, tools, services and consulting to ensure increased adoption of RosettaNet standards across the entire supply chain..." For additional references, see "RosettaNet."

• [December 15, 1999] "Bridges for Islands Announces BRAHMS B2BENGINE. BRAHMS B2BENGINE Provides Rapid Integration Between Enterprises and Their Business Partners." - "Today, at the eBusiness Expo, Bridges for Islands, Inc., an innovative provider of solutions for e-Business Application Integration, announced the availability of its XML-based BRAHMS B2BEngine. The new product seamlessly connects previously disparate trading partners, enabling the automation of their business processes. Since BRAHMS B2BEngine is based on open XML standards, its integration solution can meet the needs of any business integration scenario. BRAHMS B2BEngine was designed and modeled to integrate enterprise information systems by spreading BRAHMS B2BModules among business partners. BRAHMS B2BEngine incorporates the latest technologies, such as XML and EJB, creating an open and flexible environment that easily adapts to changes. These technologies allow applications to exchange disparate data across enterprise boundaries via public networks, enabling trading communities to utilize the Internet. It allows companies to easily build dynamic alliances to leverage the changing business environment by streamlining the entire supply chain, increasing margin and reducing time to market."

• [December 15, 1999] "MERANT Introduces New XML Technology, Delivering Critical E-Business Data Integration Capabilities. XML Data Integration Technology Speeds Business-to-Business Implementations." - "Continuing to build on its Egility Data Integration solution for e-business, MERANT today unveiled DataDirect Connect for XML. For the first time, companies can access and integrate real-time XML data across existing standards-based applications, removing the need to rewrite applications in order to leverage XML. DataDirect Connect for XML reduces the amount of work required to implement XML for data integration, helping customers rapidly implement business-to-business systems. DataDirect Connect for XML is one of the technologies fundamental to helping companies implement MERANT's Egility Data Integration solution for e-business. The MERANT Egility Data Integration solution combines products and services that help extend the effectiveness of data in the enterprise value chain, enabling rapid and dynamic access to integrated information for an organization's customers, partners, suppliers and employees. MERANT Egility Data Integration empowers businesses for change by equipping them with a data integration strategy to respond to rapidly changing market dynamics. DataDirect Connect for XML is available immediately."

• [December 15, 1999] "UniCapital Corporation Publishes First Electronic Invoicing Schema on Microsoft's BizTalk for Commercial Equipment Finance Industry." - "UniCapital Corporation today announced it has published an Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema on Microsoft's BizTalk Web site that will enable commercial equipment leasing companies to exchange invoices seamlessly with customers over the Internet. UniCapital expects that this schema will facilitate e-commerce in the $220 billion equipment leasing industry by providing companies with a universally compatible program for filing invoices electronically. By developing a standard e-commerce language for invoicing, UniCapital expects its schema to result in cost savings and increased operating efficiencies for equipment leasing companies and their customers. Introduced by Microsoft in March [1999], the BizTalk Framework makes it easy for businesses to exchange information between software applications and conduct business over the Internet with trading partners and customers. The BizTalk framework includes a design framework for implementing an XML schema in a consistent manner to enable integration across industries and between business systems, regardless of platform, operating system or underlying technology."

• [December 15, 1999] "XMLSolutions Participates in the ebXML Global Initiative With The United Nations and OASIS." - "XMLSolutions announces participation and support of the Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML). The United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), have joined forces to initiate a worldwide project to standardize XML business specifications. ebXML has invited organizations to join in their efforts to create a cohesive framework that will enable XML to be utilized for the exchange of all electronic business information. XMLSolutions is proud to be one of more than 50 companies, consortiums, and international standards bodies participating in the ebXML initiative. The first ebXML meeting was held November 17 - 19 [1999] in San Jose, California. ebXML.org (www.ebXML.org) is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS with a mandate to undertake a 15-18 month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML ('Extensible Markup Language') can be standardized. The goal is to provide an open technical framework to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of electronic business data in application-to-application, application-to-person and person-to-application environments."

• [December 15, 1999] "Infoteria Announces iXSLT, the First Commercial XSLT Processor for C++." - "Infoteria Inc., a leading XML software design and development company, today announced that its iXSLT, the first full-featured commercial XSLT processor for C++, will be available worldwide in February, 2000. XSLT is the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Recommendation specification, which transforms XML data to any other kind of XML structure and HTML. Infoteria's iXSLT is fully compliant with W3C's XSLT 1.0 Recommendation and has been implemented by C++ for highest performance. It is available as an executable module (EXE), a dynamic link library (DLL) and a Windows COM module. Using as an executable module, users can easily embed XSLT processes in CGI (Common Gateway Interface) or Windows Shell. Using as a dynamic linking library from C++ applications, users can perform even faster XSLT processing for multiple data with pre-loading XSLT files. Using as a COM module, iXSLT can be embedded in ASP (Active Server Pages) and Visual Basic programs. As for the interface, iXSLT supports standard I/O, file, URL and API to meet various implementation requirements. iXSLT is available in February, 2000 as an executable (EXE), dynamic linking library (DLL) and COM module for Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and 2000."

• [December 15, 1999] "Corel Corporation Integrates Jabber Instant Messaging Into CorelCity.com Application Platform. Webb Provides First Instant Messaging Service Based On Jabber.org's Open-Source Movement." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc., a leading provider of infrastructure services for local commerce, today announced JabberIM, its first instant messaging service built in partnership with the Jabber.org XML-based, open-source movement. JabberIM is included in Corel Corporation's recently announced application platform, CorelCity.com, in addition to being embedded within Corel's new Linux Desktop OS. JabberIM provides CorelCity.com users with an all web-based means of creating buddy lists and sending instant messages. Webb has integrated and hosts JabberIM services on Corel's behalf for the CorelCity.com platform. No terms or financial information on the partnership is being released. Webb Interactive Services is building a business and technology infrastructure to enhance buyer-seller interaction in the local commerce market. Webb is leveraging its community building expertise with the emerging standards of XML to create commercial communities that empower our distribution partners in the local directory services, community banking and enterprise communications market sectors. Webb clients include Switchboard, Inc., CBS, RE/MAX International, Inc., and CU Cooperative Systems, Inc. (a network of more than 650 credit unions)."

• [December 13, 1999] "RPX-Signature: Remtec ready to launch a pioneering XML-based digital signature solution." - "Remtec Systems, Ltd has developed a pioneering solution, RPX Signature, for digital signatures and signature verification in e-Business applications. RPX Signature provides maximum integrity, message and signer authentication and signature verification for data of any type, whether located within the XML-data that includes the signature or elsewhere. The new XML (Extensible Markup Language) based RPX Signature application component follows the World Wide Web Consortium working draft for digital signatures. This is a major breakthrough in information security, one of the key issues in enabling the development of reliable e-Business transaction applications. Remtec offers its partners and customers opportunities to utilize Remtec's RPX Platform in their applications, now including strongest available information security. Applications can also use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Smartcard based certificates, where applicable. 'We wanted to be among the very first to combine a powerful Java and XML application architecture with strong security services, offering highest security and integrity for critical e-business applications.' Remtec offers secure information logistics and communication solutions for B-to-B based on a Java and XML application environment (RPX Platform). Examples of solutions based on RPX Platform are: on-line spare part and product catalogues, electronic technical manuals, on-line reporting of operations and workflow, data acquisition and remote diagnostics."

• [December 13, 1999] "Joint Venture to Develop XML Standards for Reinsurance. ACORD and IVANS Selected to Convert Existing Joint Venture EDI Standards." - "The Joint Venture (JV), a group of international insurance industry organizations banded together to develop standards for structured data exchange, is initiating an XML version of standards for processing major types of reinsurance transactions. Currently, JV standards documentation is based on global UN/EDIFACT syntax, independent of industry affiliation. The Executive Board of the JV has chosen ACORD, an insurance industry standards association, and IVANS Inc., an e-business solutions provider serving the insurance industry, to collaborate on an XML version of data standards for processing major types of reinsurance transactions. Scheduled for completion by the end of the first quarter, 2000, the JV XML standards will help reinsurance keep pace with cross-industry XML initiatives. 'The JV XML standards will be the universal XML standards for reinsurance, supported by every major reinsurer and intermediary in the US, London and Western European markets,' says Dan Carmichael, president and chief executive officer of IVANS. 'Any individual company or vendor that is developing proprietary XML applications for reinsurance or insurance will eventually have to map to the JV XML standards to communicate with the rest of the world.' Earlier this year ACORD developed an insurance industry XML dictionary, and the JV project will produce an XML dictionary for JV data. In addition, the project includes Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for all JV messages and research documentation of ongoing XML developments. As part of the XML development, ACORD and IVANS will anticipate evolution of the UN/EDIFACT framework. They will also take into account other emerging international standards, other technologies for transmission among data partners, and XML implementations in other industries. Project objectives include assessment of documentation options and recommendation of standards creation for additional technologies, such as object modeling." See "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [December 13, 1999] "New Management-specific XML Dialect From Manage.Com Helps On-line Businesses Control Infrastructure, Business Processes. manageXML Can 'Wire' Together Managed Objects, Model and Simulate User's E-Commerce Sessions." - "A 'dialect' of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) specifically designed to let on-line businesses and service providers manage the delivery of services to their customers across extranets has been developed by Manage.Com. The new manageXML language, fully compatible with the web-standard XML, enables users of Manage.Com's FrontLine e.M eBusiness management software to create a set of document-like descriptions of managed objects, including Internet infrastructure devices, transactions and business processes. The documents, which establish inter-object relationships and dependencies, supply FrontLine e.M with the basis for provisioning services and taking corrective action. manageXML can model not only physical objects but also logical entities. This is essential in representing logical objects such as managed services, for example, and modeling eCommerce sessions that simulate a user's progress through a series of transactions. Bob Quillin, Manage.Com vice president of marketing, said, 'XML has already spawned a number of market-specific dialects, from eCommerce applications such as Commerce XML (cXML) and the Common Business Language (CBL) to scientific applications like mathXML. manageXML provides the same benefits for eBusinesses needing to directly link their business objectives with their Internet infrastructure. An on-line retailer can represent its top 10 transactions -- shopping cart, catalog browsing, etc. -- in manageXML, and monitor the consistency of performance its on-line users see with each of these transactions. Alternatively, an ISP can take advantage of manageXML to define a set of documents that make up a hosted service package, providing its customers real-time visibility into the performance of those services.' Included with manageXML is an Authoring Kit that provides software tools, templates, examples and documentation designed to facilitate the creation, validation and testing of manageXML documents. Key components of the kit include manageXML authoring tools, which help vendors and integrators wishing to build new manageXML documents using previously defined vendor-specific documents or transfer managed definitions originally created as SNMP MIBs; the manageXML static validator, which ensures correct syntax and format of documents created in manageXML; and a manageXML object validator, which enables correct formation of manageXML documents."

• [December 13, 1999] "Industry Leaders Endorse HR-XML Framework. Consortium to Deliver Business-to-Business E-Commerce Standards Starting With Staffing and Recruiting." - "The HR-XML Consortium announced today that more than 25 organizations have endorsed an XML framework designed to enable web-based workforce management and recruiting services. Based on open, business-to-business e-commerce models, these next- generation workforce management and recruiting services promise to deliver employers greater ROI for their staffing expenditures, while giving HR and staffing vendors new opportunities for growth and profit. The HR-XML Consortium is a newly formed non-profit group dedicated to the development and promotion of standardized human-resources-related XML vocabularies for enabling business-to-business e-commerce and the automation of inter-company exchanges of human resources data. As companies turn to the Internet to conduct business, efficient integration of applications will become essential. Supporting and deploying XML schemas will allow applications with similar types of business data to easily pass information between computers. 'The adoption of HR-XML standards is a key element in creating talent marketplaces that provide true collaboration and a secure transactional environment,' said Chuck Allen, HR-XML Consortium Chair. 'The endorsement of so many industry leaders puts us well on the path to creating a robust, meaningful standard.' Staffing and Recruiting is the first of many HR areas that the HR-XML Consortium will standardize. The HR-XML Consortium is a newly formed non-profit group dedicated to the development and promotion of standardized human-resources-related XML vocabularies for enabling e-commerce and the automation of inter-company exchanges of human resources data. Founding members of the Consortium are Icarian, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of workforce management solutions (www.icarian.com), and Structured Methods, a Raleigh, NC-based, XML solutions provider (www.structuredmethods.com)." See also "HR-XML Schemas" and the main database entry, "HR-XML Consortium."

• [December 13, 1999] "Arbortext continues leadership role in standards support with latest release of XML e-Content software, Epic 3.0/Adept 9.0." - "Arbortext, Inc. announced today that its modular eContent software products, Epic 3.0 and Adept 9.0, now support key Web standards aimed at easing customer and third-party developer efforts and maintaining interoperability with other key software platforms. In addition to extended Java support, Epic and Adept now support Extensible Style Language (XSL), Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT), Document Object Model (DOM) and Component Object Model (COM) standards. Combined with support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and additional scripting languages, these new standards offer Epic and Adept users a wide new range of interoperability options for developing XML-based e-Content."

• [December 13, 1999] "Ontology.Org Joins With United Nations and OASIS to Support ebXML Global E-Business Initiative." - "Ontology.Org, an independent research organization founded by Computer Sciences Corporation, has announced its support for and participation in the Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of e-business data. ebXML is a joint effort of the United Nations CEFACT, a U.N. body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and e-business, and OASIS, a non-profit, international consortium dedicated solely to product-independent data and content interchange. Ontology.Org (www.ontology.org), founded in May 1998, is committed to improving XML practices through the adoption of knowledge engineering techniques and shared ontologies, which has become an important topic in the development of business to business commerce on the Internet. Ontology.Org has joined with more than 120 representatives from such varied organizations as ACORD, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) x12, Commerce One, CSC, DataChannel, DISA, UN/EDIFACT, IBM, OAG, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems to launch the ebXML initiative. 'We applaud the effort of UN/CEFACT and OASIS to bring together the EDI and XML communities to define XML standards for electronic business,' said Howard Smith, director of Ontology.Org. 'Ontology.Org's community of knowledge engineers understand all too well the challenge ebXML.org will face in re-engineering the complexity and scale of EDI for the new Internet economy. We look forward to collaborating with ebXML participants to solve this problem.' 'OASIS is pleased to have Ontology.Org participate in the important work of ebXML,'' said Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. 'As an open, vendor-neutral initiative, ebXML will facilitate communications and level the playing field for mature and developing economies.' 'The primary objective of ebXML is to lower the barrier of entry to e-business in order to facilitate trade, particularly with respect to SMEs and developing nations,' added Ray Walker, chair of the UN/CEFACT. 'The success of global e-business is analogous to the success of the telephone -- unless everyone has simple and inexpensive access, it won't work.' EbXML.org is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS with a mandate to undertake a 15-18 month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) can be standardized. The goal is to provide an open technical framework to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of electronic business data in application-to-application, application-to-person and person-to-application environments."

• [December 08, 1999] "Reuters to Use XML for News." - "Reuters, the global news and information group, is to introduce NewsML to present its news services. NewsML is an open standards-based format for the creation, transfer and delivery of news. It is based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the emerging Internet standard for data sharing between applications developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, the co-ordinating body for Internet developments. Reuters has taken the initiative in the creation and adoption of NewsML through the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC). The IPTC recently established a programme, IPTC 2000, which will deliver a single XML-based format for managing news production. An increasing number of Reuters subscribers are establishing themselves on the Internet and requesting delivery in XML. Jo Rabin, Reuters Vice President, Development, said: 'XML will make a substantial difference to the cost efficiency of our customers in many industry sectors. NewsML will offer new applications to a wider news market and make it easier to achieve the linkage of multi-media products ranging from text, photographs and video to wireless communications. Our adoption of NewsML is an example of Reuters policy to encourage the development of open standards, in line with its membership of the World Wide Web Consortium'. Reuters supplies the global financial markets and the news media with the widest range of information and news products including real-time financial data, collective investment data, numerical, textual, historical and graphical databases plus news, graphics, news video, and news pictures. It reaches over 519,000 users in 57,720 locations and extensively uses internet technologies for wider distribution of information and news. Reuters designs and installs enterprise-wide information management and risk management systems for the financial markets as well as providing equity and foreign exchange transaction systems. Reuters provides news and information to over 225 Internet sites reaching an estimated 12 million viewers monthly. Reuters is the world's largest news and television agency with 1,946 journalists, photographers and camera operators in 183 bureaux serving 157 countries. The International Press Telecommunications Council was established in 1965 to safeguard the telecommunications interest of the world's press. Since the late 1970s its activities have primarily focused on developing and publishing Industry Standards for the interchange of news data. At present, the IPTC membership is drawn mainly from the major news agencies around the globe but it also has a strong representation from newspaper publishers as well as system vendors." For background, see "NewsML and IPTC2000."

• [December 08, 1999] "Flashline.com Releases JavaDox - The First Standards-based eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Version of Java 2 Platform Documentation." - "Flashline.com today announced at Java Business Conference the release of JavaDox 1.0, the industry's first fully searchable and easily formatted eXtensible Markup Language (XML) representation of Java 2 platform documentation. JavaDox was developed to make Java class documentation easier for developers to create and use. JavaDox is modeled on the Javadoc(TM) documentation standard created by Sun Microsystems. Without modifying existing code, developers are now able to utilize JavaDox to generate Java documentation in XML, rather than in HTML as produced by Javadoc. XML allows information to be stored in a pure, shareable format that separates data from presentation. Storing documentation in XML enables developers to fully employ the advantages of XML. In addition to Sun Microsystems, the following prominent industry vendors endorse JavaDox as a robust documentation tool: IONA Technologies, KL Group, ProtoView Development, Wildcrest Associates, Pramati Technologies, Intuitive Systems, Tidestone Technologies, Instant Computer Solutions, Virtua Communications, InfoRad, Hexatech, and Hallamshire Software. Flashline.com has published the documentation for the Java 2 platform in the JavaDox format. This documentation is available at www.componentregistry.com/javadox. The JavaDox Document Type Definition (DTD), Schema, sample XSL files, and the Doclet Program are available for public review.

• [December 08, 1999] "SoftQuad Software Releases XMetaL 1.2. Better Performance for Users, XSLT Support for Web Publishing." - "SoftQuad Software Inc., a pioneer in standards-based content authoring solutions, today announced the release of XMetaL 1.2, a free upgrade for its advanced, yet easy-to-use, XML authoring solution. The upgrade increases XMetaL's performance and productivity for users of all skill levels, and provides powerful new tools for publishing XML documents to the Web. 'With this release of XMetaL, we wanted to improve the user experience and make it easier for organizations to publish their XML documents to the Web,' says Roberto Drassinower, president and CEO, SoftQuad Software Inc. 'We've reached an important XMetaL milestone by giving organizations even more flexibility in how they create, use and share their content.' For content authors, XMetaL 1.2 includes a number of performance and productivity enhancements, including improved table handling, improved CSS rendering, improved spell checking and more intuitive editing functions. To help organizations produce Web-ready HTML from XML documents, XMetaL 1.2 includes a built-in XSL transformation engine. The engine is implemented as an XSLT COM object, which developers can access through scripts. Using XSL stylesheets, XML documents can easily be transformed to HTML for output to a browser or a file. In addition, developers can use the XSLT COM object for performing other complex document transformations on the fly, directly within XMetaL. Other improvements now found in XMetaL 1.2 give developers the ability to automate more processes to increase productivity when authoring XML documents. These include: (1) Broader Event Trapping. XMetaL now tracks a broader range of user events, including on-browser preview, to allow more refined optimization of the authoring environment through scripts or XMetaL's menu-based productivity tuning tools. (2) Scriptable Entity Creation. XMetaL's improved handling of entities gives developers the ability to automate the creation and use of entities through scripts. XMetaL is a powerful, full-featured XML and SGML authoring solution that can quickly be tuned for productivity, integrated with any publishing system, tailored to meet the needs of authors, and deployed across an organization. Ideal for organizations with an existing document solution, as well as those breaking new ground in Web publishing, knowledge management or e-commerce, XMetaL provides the power and flexibility required to create content quickly and cost-effectively."

• [December 08, 1999] "SoftQuad Software Announces Significant Integrator, VAR and OEM Channel Agreements For XMetaL. XMetaL Gaining Significant Industry Acceptance and Momentum." - "Today, at the XML'99 conference in Philadelphia, PA, SoftQuad Software Inc., a pioneer in standards-based content authoring solutions, announced the signing of five new XMetaL channel agreements - AGRA Systems Limited, American Computer Innovators Inc., Datalogics Inc., Movement, Inc. and Software AG - that add to SoftQuad's network of over 70 VARs and OEMs in 13 countries. 'XML'99 is the launching point for XMetaL 1.2 and our comprehensive channel strategy, which focuses on signing the top integrators, VARs and OEMs who use XML for web publishing and e-commerce,' says Roberto Drassinower, president and CEO, SoftQuad Software Inc. 'We're very excited about meeting our channel objectives and we now have partnerships with many of the most successful companies in the industry. With the addition of these latest five new partners, it's clear that XMetaL continues to set the XML authoring standard.' XMetaL is gaining considerable industry acceptance and momentum, primarily due to its ease of use, straightforward deployment and customization features. XMetaL has benefited from rave reviews from both the press and analyst community and, with today's launch of XMetaL 1.2, it is regarded as the most advanced XML authoring solution available, delivering unprecedented ease-of-use to authors while shielding them from the complexities of XML. XMetaL has a familiar word processor-like environment which makes it a broadly deployable solution that drastically reduces training and implementation costs. XMetaL can increase performance, productivity and stability for users of all skill levels, while giving developers additional tools and functionality to create a more intuitive and integrated XML authoring environment."

• [December 08, 1999] "DataChannel and Extensibility Partner to Advance XML Leadership. Extensibility to Support PML 1.0. DataChannel Extends Training." - "In a joint announcement from XML '99, DataChannel and Extensibility have partnered to deliver advanced XML industry solutions. The collaborative efforts from this alliance will help businesses leverage existing information systems by synchronizing data exchange from disparate systems, differing schemas, and e-business applications. Extensibility, the foremost authority on XML Schema management, will create a validated schema for DataChannel's Portal Markup Language 1.0. (PML 1.0). PML 1.0 has been submitted and accepted by the OASIS group as the first industry standard markup language for content display and management by an Enterprise Information Portal. XML Authority, Extensibility's unparalleled schema processing and validation server will contain PML 1.0 support in its next release. DataChannel will accelerate its lead in providing XML training and solutions by becoming the lead training partner for Extensibility, creating new curriculum and certification for XML Authority as well as other company offerings. These courses, along with other advanced tutorials from DataChannel will be offered in both open-enrollment and customized training sessions, available the first half of next year. Additionally, DataChannel will include an evaluation copy of XML Authority in the SDK of its XML-based Enterprise Information Portal, DataChannel Server 4.0 scheduled for first quarter of 2000. Coupling of the two products will deliver the industry's most advanced XML tools, training, support, and sample development allowing customers and partners to build extensible, scalable, XML-based corporate portals. DataChannel will also include XML Authority in its repertoire of offerings for schema design services and portal implementation engagements."

• [December 08, 1999] "Microsoft Announces Finalized BizTalk Framework Microsoft Teams With Customers, Partners and Industry Standards Bodies To Define BizTalk Framework and Accelerate Adoption of XML-Enabled E-Commerce." - "Microsoft Corp. today announced availability of the BizTalk Framework Document Specification 1.0, an updated component of the framework based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and industry standards for sharing information. The Microsoft BizTalk Framework provides specifications for the design and development of XML-based solutions for communication between applications and organizations by leveraging standard Internet technologies such as XML, XML schema and MIME. This data-focused approach allows businesses to easily exchange XML documents with online trading partners and internal systems regardless of the platform, operating system or the underlying technology of their existing systems. Microsoft submitted the BizTalk Framework Document Specification 1.0 to the BizTalk Steering Committee -- composed of industry-leading vendors, standards bodies and corporate customers -- for review in September. The committee finalized and published the document specifications on the BizTalk.Org Web site, a public online library of shared XML information, resources and business document schema. Any individual or organization can access the specifications and use them to implement e-commerce and application integration solutions using the BizTalk Framework. With the final version of the specification now available, corporate developers and independent software developers can immediately embark on the development of BizTalk-compatible applications." See "BizTalk Framework."

• [December 08, 1999] "Justsystem's Tech Roadmap Adopts XML-Based Spreadsheet." - "Justsystem Corp. announced its product roadmap called XML Document Solution, based on extensive markup language (XML) technology. The first product associated with this solution is the Ichitaro Ark word processor released on Dec. 3, followed by the XML-based spreadsheet and drawing software products. When used with the company's search engine called ConceptBase Search, these products will enable users to effectively reutilize stored information and to have a wider selection of terminals for use with the system. Justsystem will develop a suit of such products for availability in the first half of 2000. Ichitaro Ark released on Dec. 3 is a Java2-based word processor that is capable of exchanging documents over the Internet. The company is planning to introduce a series of new products in the first half of 2000 by applying the XML engine of Ichitaro Ark, called Ark Platform, to the existing Sanshiro spreadsheet software, and Hanako drawing software. A Justsystem official said that development of XML-based products will allow the company to construct a sophisticated knowledge-sharing system by combining XML data definitions and the concept search engine of ConceptBase Search, and to distribute information to terminals like PDAs, in addition to PCs."

• [December 07, 1999] "Sun Microsystems Leads Industry Effort to Simplify XML. Java 2 Platform Support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) dramatically eases the creation of Ecommerce applications." - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today made two announcements that underscore its support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) with the Java 2 platform: the availability of the Java Application Programming Interface (API) for XML Parsing Optional Package ("JAXP"), and the formation of an expert group for the XML Data Binding project. The expert group for this project, which is going through the Java Community Process, consists of Allaire, Ariba, BEA/Web Logic, Bluestone Software, AOL/Netscape, Extensibility, Fujitsu, IBM, Object Design, Oracle, webMethods and Sun Microsystems. With these announcements, Sun is leading the effort to deliver XML technologies for the Java 2 platform that will ease the creation and maintenance of Java technology-based applications enabled by XML and improve portability of data exchange between disparate business systems. In 1996, Sun spearheaded an initiative through the W3C to develop the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), a standards-based universal syntax for describing and structuring data in a way that is independent from the application logic. Sun's announcement of the Java technologies for XML provides universal application logic that complements XML. The Java 2 platform and XML are complementary technologies that each have common features critical for industrial-strength Web-based applications, including platform-independence, industry standards, extensible, reusable, and global language support. Together, the Java 2 platform and XML will allow enterprises to simplify and lower the cost of information sharing and exchange in Web applications. The JAXP optional package provides basic functionality for reading, manipulating, and generating XML documents through pure Java APIs. Seamlessly integrated with the Java 2 platform, JAXP provides a standard way for a Java platform-based application to plug in any XML-conformant parser. While the reference implementation uses Sun's experimental high performing Java Project X as its default XML parser, the software's pluggable architecture allows any XML- conformant parser to be used, such as the xml.apache.org XML parser, code named Xerces. As part of Sun's ongoing commitment to industry developed standards, JAXP is fully conformant to XML standards from the W3C and the XML community. JAXP is being developed through the Java Community Process ("JCP"), which is the formalization of the open process that Sun has been using since 1995 to develop and revise Java technology specifications in cooperation with the international community of developers using Java technologies. Sun also announced the expert group of industry leaders within the JCP that is working to create XML Data Binding software for the Java 2 platform. This project, code-named Project Adelard, will enable developers to deliver and maintain high-performance XML-enabled applications with a minimum of development effort. Project Adelard provides a two-way mapping between XML documents and Java technology-based objects along with a schema compiler tool. The compiler will automatically generate Java classes from XML schemas without requiring developers to write any complex parsing code. In addition, the compiler will contain automatic error and validity of checking of XML messages, helping to ensure that only valid, error-free messages are accepted and processed by a system. Thus, not only will developers be able to more easily develop and process Java technology-based applications that leverage XML, but enterprises will also lower costs through more productive development."

• [December 07, 1999] "Bowstreet Delivers Industry's First Product To Support DSML, Enabling Companies To Mass-produce Highly Customized B2B Web Sites." - "Bowstreet, the leader in mass-customization of business-to-business e-commerce, today said it is the first company to deliver a product supporting the Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), a specification Bowstreet, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and the Sun-Netscape Alliance submitted to industry standards bodies today. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory leverages DSML - a way to represent directory contents in Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Internet's lingua franca for commerce - to let companies automatically mass-produce, link and highly customize B2B Web sites. This capability breaks a long-standing e-commerce bottleneck: the time, cost and pain of building separate Web sites for each customer and partner from scratch. By establishing directories as the infrastructure for e-commerce applications, DSML enables Bowstreet Web Automation Factory customers to mass-customize B2B Web sites and easily share valuable business data and business processes within and across company boundaries. Other companies are expected to follow Bowstreet's lead. In fact, 20 leading technology companies, including Lotus, Nortel and Red Hat, today announced they will support DSML." See the main news entry "Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) Submitted to Industry Standards Bodies."

• [December 07, 1999] "DataChannel Expands XML-Based Enterprise Portal Solution With WAVO's Real-Time News Delivery. XML-formatted Real-Time News Service Feeds DataChannel Server." - "Bellevue, Washington-based DataChannel, Inc., the leading developer of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions, and WAVO corporation, an industry leading Digital Media Services Provider, today announced that Wavo's NewsPak will be immediately incorporated into DataChannel's portal solution. NewsPak is the industry's leading solution for delivering pre-licensed, real-time news content to Web servers worldwide. It aggregates content streams from a catalog of over 600 media sources, including CNBC, Ziff-Davis, Financial Times, USA Today, Comtex, Knight Ridder and UPI. Providing these streams in a richly meta-tagged XML format, NewsPak will give DataChannel customers unparalleled ability to search, manage and personalize news information. 'Wavo NewsPak is a perfect mechanism for bringing external news into our DataChannel Server because its XML-based format is an easy snap-in with our technology,' said Steve Jones, vice president of marketing for DataChannel. 'DataChannel Server is the only XML-based Enterprise Portal server that can deliver those news feeds in real-time to a targeted audience through a customizable web-based user interface to any device.' DataChannel Server is the core of the company's EIP Solutions Framework, which provides a platform for building e-business solutions integrating data from a variety of sources. Utilizing a personalized Web interface, DataChannel portals allow users to quickly and seamlessly search for, retrieve and manipulate strategically relevant information from heterogeneous environments. Giving portal customers the option to incorporate external news via NewsPak is consistent with DataChannel's strategic vision of providing the most unique, comprehensive EIP solution available." NewsPak news is delivered in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format.

• [December 07, 1999] "XyEnterprise Announces Parlance Content Manager v3.0 Featuring Dynamic XML Support, New User Interface, and API. Latest Version Targets Content Creators Using XML for e-Enabled Business." - Xyvision Enterprise Solutions Inc. (XyEnterprise), a leading developer of XML-enabled content management and publishing software, has announced the latest version of its content and document management software, Parlance Content Manager. This new version builds upon Parlance's proven component management functionality by extending its application development environment with COM and JAVA APIs and enhanced support for XML. Additionally, its redesigned user interface offers greater ease of use of the content repository and integrated tools. Parlance 3.0 includes support for dynamic XML import, use, and delivery. Users can automatically load XML encoded data from an editor, legacy data system, or other source and, based on content, document type definition or schema, derive a configuration from the data source. Parlance manages these XML components and metadata at an object level for availability in any desired combination or format including web sites, paper documents, or other electronic media. Parlance Content Manager offers a new user interface that provides visual access to content objects and their relationships, the ability to search on XML and other content, and access to XML metadata. The Parlance interface can be customized based on user or enterprise preferences. The desktop client interfaces with Parlance's powerful integrated workflow, enabling users to develop, view, invoke, and automate new and existing workflows. Additionally, Parlance's interface enables ready access and manipulation of versions, history, projects, and other vital data resident in the system. Parlance Content Manager comes complete with a new Application Programming Interface (API) based on Microsoft COM (Common Object Model) for the Windows NT version of the product. A subsequent UNIX release will offer the same API functionality in JAVA. This API enables smooth integration with other applications in an enterprise environment and facilitates the use and delivery of content from editorial environments to the web. Integrators can offer customized solutions based on programming interfaces that leverage Parlance's server functions."

• [December 07, 1999] "Radiant Logic Introduces RadiantOne: LDAP & XML Based Virtual Directory Server Unlocks Back End Data for E-business." - Radiant Logic Inc., of Novato, California today introduced RadiantOne, a Virtual Directory Server (VDS) based on LDAP, XML and SQL technology. A new addition to the directory world, a Virtual Directory provides an up to date "directory view" to multiple database sources, without requiring complex synchronization. The concept is simple: a virtual directory looks like a regular LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server, but it doesn't store data, it stores addresses of data records. When it receives a request, it reformats and reroutes the query to the relevant database, returning the data to the person or application that requested it. This simple, but powerful concept is based on directory-driven universal addresses for data records that can be accessed by people and applications across the Web. The RadiantOne VDS has been designed to serve companies that are deploying enterprise directories as well as companies that want to use directories for e-commerce application development. Using RadiantOne for enterprise directories will help companies solve the problems of limited, inflexible, content-poor enterprise LDAP directories. One of the biggest more challenges for enterprise directory architects is the inflexible and static nature of LDAP namespace and schema design. RadiantOne solves this problem with its ability to quickly change the structure and the contents of the directory through its easy to use point and click ViewDesigner application. In addition, in today's e-business environment, enterprises need a central, authoritative source for critical information about employees, customers, products, etc. RadiantOne allows directory managers to include nearly any type of structured data into their corporate directory, and to access it from nearly any type of interface -- Web browser, Microsoft Windows, PDA, mobile phone, etc. The database views, or IRLs, are actually LDAP objects (distinguished names) that can be added to the enterprise directory. The flexibility of the RadiantOne product with its point and click ViewDesigner allows administrators to add, change or modify their directory content or structure in minutes rather than weeks. The RadiantOne architecture represents a breakthrough based upon a combination of industry standards, including LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and SQL (Structured Query Language). The product is fully compliant with LDAP Version 3.0 and has been built upon the Netscape Directory Server 4.0. The RadiantOne engine is fully integrated with Microsoft Site Server and Active Directory, offering roles-based security and open links to higher level security offerings. Future releases of the product will be offered on Unix and other leading platforms."

• [December 07, 1999] "Architag International Corp. Announces xRay, a New XML Editor." - "Architag International Corporation today announced the alpha release of their first software product, xRay, for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The product is a real-time, validating XML editor designed to provide fast creating, viewing and editing of XML documents. 'We are proud to offer this tool as a contribution to the XML community,' said Brian Travis, President and CEO of Architag. 'While there are several editing tools available for the XML implementer, we felt the need for a diagnostic tool that allows users and developers to look inside their XML documents the way the XML parser does.' The product's speed means that it can also be used by professional keyboarders producing XML documents in a production environment. xRay is a real-time editor. On every keystroke, the editor validates the XML document and displays errors in a window on the screen. Multiple windows can be displayed, each containing its own XML document. xRay works with well-formed XML documents, but also validates according to different types of schemas. 'One of the breakthroughs in xRay is the ability to create and modify a document type definition (DTD) schema, but also create and validate against XML Data, a schema submission to the W3C,' said Travis. 'xRay is also the first XML editor that verifies rich datatypes, like numbers and dates, against the XML Data schema.' The xRay XML Editor is currently in a limited alpha testing release. Developers who are interested in participating in the test can contact Architag at xray-alpha@architag.com.

• [December 07, 1999] "Infoteria Announces iConnector and iMessenger. Availability of English version empowers rapid XML-based solution development worldwide." - "Infoteria Inc., a leading XML software design and development company, today announced that the English version of their industry leading XML products iConnector and iMessenger will start shipping in the first quarter of 2000 and be available worldwide. iConnector and iMessenger are member of Infoteria's XML Solution Components which offers comprehensive B2B database and application integration. iConnector and iMessenger are exhibited at the exposition of XML '99 as the first public demonstration in the United States. The iConnector series, the leading XML software packages in Japan, is a gateway product between traditional databases and XML data. iRuleGenerator, included in the iConnector series, allows users to map XML data structure to the database schema, and visa versa, easily using a graphical user interface (GUI). iConnector supports previous versions of the industry's leading databases, such as Oracle 7.x and Lotus Domino 4.5/4.6, as well as the latest versions of those database. iConnector also offers cross database relational joins where incoming XML data can be stored using another database as reference. The iConnector series consist of 3 packages, iConnector for Oracle, iConnector for Lotus Domino and iConnector for Access. Additional database support is planned in second quarter, 2000. iMessenger enables the sending and receiving of XML data via SMTP protocol. It has GUI setting screen and can run as a server to pool the incoming XML messages using IMAP4 or POP3 protocol. Both iConnector and iMessenger are easily used in CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and ASP (Active Server Pages) to build XML based web services, in addition to integrating inter-enterprise information systems."

• [December 06, 1999] "XMLSolutions Announces Beta Availability of First XML Schema Management Tool. Features Centralized Management of DTDs and XML Schemas that Facilitates Business to Business Interchange." - XMLSolutions announced the Beta program opening for release 1.0 of Schema Central. This is the industry's first tool to provide centralized management of XML schemas and DTDs. With large companies moving from the experimentation to implementation stages for XML-based applications, they are seeing a confusing proliferation of schemas from a variety of sources: industry standards groups, technology vendors, trading partners, and in-house projects. Schema Central is a web-based management facility that simplifies XML implementation by providing the following benefits: (1) Simplifies setup for XML interchange with new trading partners; (2) Allows XML schemas to be modified and tracked as business rules change; (3) Promotes reuse of existing schemas, reducing the number of redundant, but incompatible, schemas; (4) Delivers easy side-by-side comparison and mapping tool for viewing like schemas and DTDs. Schema Central allows an organization to set up a centralized repository of schemas, providing tools to import, generate, browse, edit, categorize, validate and manage the development of XML schemas and DTDs. XMLSolutions enables customers to profitably and painlessly expand their existing EDI implementation to non-EDI trading partners through EDI-XML translation."

• [December 06, 1999] "XyEnterprise Previews Content@ Content Management Software for Microsoft Word. New technology offers component management of XML, RTF, and Word files. Adds structure to unstructured data for e-Business applications." - "Xyvision Enterprise Solutions Inc. (XyEnterprise), a leading developer of content management and publishing software, previews its new content management application, Content@ (pronounced Contenta) at the XML '99 conference in Philadelphia this week. Content@ provides content management for users of Microsoft Word by storing and managing Word document components in a dynamic database repository. Content@ offers integrated workflow, meta-data support, full-text search and facilitates the re-use of document components for web, print, and other media. Content@ is a content and document management application that enables users to create efficiencies in their data creation and delivery process. Content@ enables groups of users to simultaneously collaborate on multiple parts of the same Word document, store components of the document in a variety of formats, and recombine these components into customized deliverables in web or print format. Content@ promotes significant efficiencies in the time required to create and distribute business critical documents such as policies and procedures, proposals, financial reports, marketing materials, and many other documents created in Word. With Content@, users can store complete Word files or components of Word files in DOC, RTF, XML or HTML format. This content can include text, spreadsheets, graphics, presentations, sound, and video. Content@ enables content creators and consumers ease of use and powerful content access and re-purposing as they bring their data from the desktop to the internet. Content@ preserves the normal editorial environment within Word and adds a Content@ menu that provides access to the content repository. Through this interface, users can view, select, and edit content objects. Users can access full-text and meta data searches, create new components from existing documents or new documents, re-use content in a variety of data collections, and interact with Content@'s built in workflow. Users create components for re-use from their current documents by accessing the 'Create Components, function from the Content@ menu. After creating components, Content@ creates unique objects in the repository and will track the version, history, re-use, children, and other aspects of each content object."

• [December 06, 1999] "Light Plaza and XML For All Announce XML-Based Turnkey Internet Document Delivery Systems." - "Light Plaza and XML For All, Inc. today announced the release of two Internet document delivery systems: The Light Plaza ScanServer is used to quickly scan paper documents and books and to prepare them for Internet delivery. The Light Plaza BookServer is a high-performance Internet document server. A typical configuration consist of one or more ScanServer document entry stations feeding into a single BookServer that delivers those documents over the Internet. Both the ScanServer and BookServer are out-of-the-box ready-to-use turnkey systems. Using these systems, new documents can be easily brought up on the Internet in a matter of minutes. The ScanServer is built around a Celeron-based Windows NT workstation and includes a high-speed autofeed, double-sided document scanner as well as a special "edge scanner" that makes it easy to scan books without removing their bindings. The BookServer is built around a Pentium-based Linux workstation. Both systems include a CD-RW drive and software for entering and editing meta data; full support for black-and-white, grey-scale, and color tiff, jpeg, and postscript documents; OCR, index and full-text search of scanned documents; high-performance on-the-fly creation and delivery of gif images to client browsers; and an advanced scripting system from XML For All. The use of XML for all meta data together with the inclusion of XML For All script source for the entire user interface yields a system that is completely open and exceptionally easy to customize."

• [December 06, 1999] "FileNET Introduces Panagon Web Publisher 4.0 Offering New XML-based Web Content Management Support with Compelling Return on Investment. New Product Version Delivers on FileNET's e-Content Management Strategy." - "FileNET Corporation today announced its new Panagon Web Publisher 4.0 software, which provides new XML language and incremental publishing capabilities for enhanced content management support of Web-based information portals. This is one of the first components of an upcoming major set of announcements slated for early 2000 in the e-content management space from FileNET. Panagon Web Publisher is currently being actively used by more than 30 major companies to automate and streamline their Web publishing needs and reduce bottlenecks in a critical area of e-commerce. FileNET has seen strong acceptance of this product with customers like Bank of America, UnumProvident Corporation, United States Postal Service, and Tandy Corporation, all of which are using the product in support of e-content management. Panagon Web Publisher 4.0 (PWP 4.0) is a template-driven software engine designed to automate the conversion of native application-authored documents into stylish, consistent Web publications. This conversion is guided by user-specified templates and results in fully linked XML and/or HTML Web sites. PWP 4.0 eliminates much of the tedious labor involved in creating and maintaining Web sites because translation to XML or HTML is automatic, leading to increased organizational productivity because content authors aren't required to learn XML and HTML programming and Web masters aren't required to edit content."

• [December 06, 1999] "XML For All Announces XFA Edit, an Advanced XML Editor." - "XML For All, Inc. today announced the release of XFA Edit, an advanced text editor for XML and HTML documents that runs under Microsoft Windows operating systems. XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, is a W3C standard with broad industry support that is quickly becoming the notation of choice for structured information exchange. XFA Edit is implemented as an intelligent XML editing mode that runs on top of Lugaru's Epsilon, an EMACS-like editor. A single package that contains both Lugaru Epsilon and XFA Edit can be ordered from the XML For All Web site at www.xmlforall.com. Epsilon supports full screen editing with an EMACS-style command set, non-intrusive mouse support, the ability to simultaneously edit an unlimited number of files, an extensive help system and on-line documentation, advanced search and search and replace commands, multilevel undo and redo, and advanced customization via the Epsilon EEL scripting language. XFA Edit adds color highlighting for XML tags, strings, attributes, and comments; checking for matching tags, quotes, and parenthesis; automatic indentation of nested XML elements; fast XML element navigation; and automatic insertion of XML end tags. All features can be individually customized via an extensive set of options. Support is provided for editing HTML, XML, and XML For All's XFA scripts. Complete EEL source code for XML Edit is included."

• [December 06, 1999] "SAQQARA Introduces Industry's First Comprehensive E-Business Software Suite Enabling Advanced Product Selection. Suite Enables 'Content for Commerce' Solution: Includes Product Content Management, Search, Configuration and XML Exchange for Complete Business-to-Business E-Commerce." - "SAQQARA Systems, Inc., a leading provider of business-to-business e-commerce software and services, today announced the SAQQARA Commerce Suite that enables a true "content for commerce" solution featuring product information management, publishing and XML exchange applications. Extending SAQQARA's award winning catalog management software currently in use by multiple Fortune 500 companies, the new SAQQARA Commerce Suite represents a unique offering that combines search and guided buying functionality for industrial manufacturers and suppliers to easily establish an e-business strategy and capitalize on the tremendous e-commerce sales opportunities. By deploying the new SAQQARA Commerce Suite, businesses have a front-end application to launch customized commerce strategies that include integration with existing enterprise systems and interoperability with supply chain partners. Specifically, the suite provides Global 2000 manufacturers with a set of complementary Web server applications that enable them to manage and publish detailed product information with advanced product selection capabilities, exchange product information with supply chain partners via emerging XML standards, analyze customers' online selection processes and fully participate in business-to-business electronic commerce opportunities."

• [December 06, 1999] "Founding Sponsor, Mediaplex, Inc., Hosts Launch Event for the Open Standards adXML.org. Industry Leaders Meet to Define the First XML Schema for the Advertising Industry." - "Mediaplex, Inc., a leading eBusiness marketing and technology company, today announced a launch event for the international open standards adXML.org. The adXML.org introduces a self-describing XML-based vocabulary specifically for the advertising industry that enables advertisers, agencies and Web publishers to issue and acknowledge a broad range of transactions on the Internet in real time. Designed to benefit the advertising industry with the same speed and accuracy that cXML delivers to e-commerce, the adXML.org has gained the support of industry leaders involved in both online and offline advertising. Attendees at the launch will include advertisers, publishers, online interactive agencies, traditional agencies, software vendors, and companies representing wireless, print, outdoor and broadcast media. Mediaplex, along with other members of the adXML.org foundation committee, is hosting the complimentary launch event to involve the advertising industry in the development and advancement of adXML. The event will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Dec. 9 at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco International Airport. The agenda includes a morning executive overview and an afternoon specification working session. Registration is free at www.adxml.org."

• [December 06, 1999] "Exchange Applications Announces Development with PricewaterhouseCoopers of Links Between neXtricity Software and Customer-Facing Applications." - "Exchange Applications, Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's largest professional services organization, announced today that they are co-developing interfaces that link Exchange's new neXtricity software to customer-facing applications from leading vendors such as Siebel Systems and Broadvision. Exchange Applications and PricewaterhouseCoopers will publicly demonstrate neXtricity for the first time at the NCDM trade show this week in Orlando, Florida. neXtricity is a real-time, multi-channel decisioning software for eCustomer Relationship Management. The neXtricity links that PricewaterhouseCoopers is co-creating, known as Application Program Interfaces or APIs, will enable companies to gain a complete view of customer activity across all channels, and leverage that information to make customer communications decisions in real-time. Launched just three weeks ago, neXtricity is already being implemented at one of the world's largest financial institutions. By synchronizing historical information with customer interaction data, neXtricity can dynamically determine the optimal next course of action. It can, for instance, notify a call center representative that a high-value customer expressed interest in a product at the Web site that day, and provide a history of interactions and preferences to the CSR for a highly targeted and personalized response. The end result is an ability to more rapidly and effectively understand customer preferences, and ultimately increase revenues through efficiency."

• [December 06, 1999] "WebMethods Announces Rosettanet eConcert Webinar Series. Experts from webMethods, Forrester Research, KPMG and RosettaNet to discuss leveraging RosettaNet for successful B2B e-commerce initiatives." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and integration solutions, today announced a series of executive Web-based seminars (Webinars) hosted in conjunction with RosettaNet, Forrester Research and KPMG. RosettaNet is a non-profit consortium of major technology vendors, merchants and buyers created to develop a universal standard for the exchange of information between businesses online. webMethods was the first solution provider to join RosettaNet. The eConcert Webinar series will address how RosettaNet's e-business interoperability standard provides a common interface for system-to-system integration across the entire supply chain. Leading the discussion will be Kimberly Trudel, director of Industry Solutions, webMethods, David Jaskulke, director of IT Partner Relations, RosettaNet, Lori Orlov, senior commerce technology analyst, Forrester Research, and Jim Oravec, senior manager, KPMG. The panel will discuss the changing e-business landscape as well as technical solutions and implementation approaches for incorporating RosettaNet into successful B2B e-commerce strategies."

• [December 03, 1999] "Zope and Microsoft Integrate Using Web Standards." - "Digital Creations announced today increased interoperability between its Open Source Zope application server and Microsoft platforms using open standards. An early 2000 Zope release will include support for two protocols heavily supported by Microsoft, the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol. 'Zope is the leading Open Source application server for content management and portals,' says Paul Everitt, CEO of Digital Creations. 'Our customers and community gain tremendously when Zope and Microsoft applications communicate in a rich way. We are pleased to aggressively support these open standards that Microsoft has taken the lead on.' 'To build integrated e-commerce applications you must be able to connect different Web services together easily and quickly using Internet standards such as HTTP and XML,' stated John Montgomery, product manager in Microsoft's Developer Division. 'Digital Creations' support for SOAP and WebDAV in Zope will help organizations integrate a truly diverse set of applications and services.' SOAP is a remote procedure call standard based on HTTP and XML, two key standards managed by the World Wide Web Consortium. SOAP allows a program running on one machine to have basic, structured interactions with a program running on another machine. Microsoft submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force a draft specification for version 1.0 of the Simple Object Access Protocol. The Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol for collaborative editing on the Web. Microsoft was first to market with WebDAV authoring software in Internet Explorer 5 and Office 2000, while Zope was the first application server to provide WebDAV support. Digital Creations is working with Microsoft to ensure interoperability with the upgraded WebDAV support in Windows 2000... Visit www.digicool.com for more information, and get Zope free at www.zope.org." See also: (1) "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)" and (2) "WEBDAV (IETF 'Extensions for Distributed Authoring and Versioning on the World Wide Web')."

• [December 03, 1999] "XMLSolutions' Provides EDI-to-XML Translation Demo Via the Internet." - "XMLSolutions announces that users of electronic data interchange (EDI) systems can submit any standard X12 or EDIFACT document for XML translation by visiting www.xmls.com. XMLSolutions, after receiving the EDI document, will apply the XEDI approach to EDI-XML translation (www.xedi.org) and return to the user by e-mail, the XML representation of the EDI file. 'Through this demonstration, companies will better understand the XEDI approach to EDI-XML translation and will begin to explore the possibilities that XML advancement brings to all industries that use EDI,' stated Rob Jones, Product Manager, XMLSolutions. To reach the EDI to XML translation site, visit the XEDI Translator section of XMLSolutions' Products area at http://www.xmls.com. XMLSolutions enables customers to profitably and painlessly expand their existing EDI implementation to non-EDI trading partners through EDI-XML translation."

• [December 02, 1999] "DataChannel Participates with United Nations and OASIS to Support ebXML Global Business Initiative." - "DataChannel, Inc. a leading developer of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions today announced its support of the Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), a joint effort of the United Nations CEFACT and OASIS. ebXML is an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. DataChannel is one of more than 50 organizations participating in the ebXML initiative. 'We are very pleased that DataChannel has joined this effort,' said Robert S. Sutor, chief strategy officer of OASIS and Vice-Chair of the ebXML Initiative. 'DataChannel is an active sponsor of the OASIS XML.org industry portal. We look forward to their contributions to the development of these important open XML standards for global e-business.' The first ebXML meeting was held November 17 - 19 in San Jose, California, and was attended by over 120 participants representing more than 50 companies, consortiums, and international standards bodies. ebXML.org is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS with a mandate to undertake a 15-18 month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) can be standardized. The goal is to provide an open technical framework to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of electronic business data in application-to-application, application-to-person and person-to-application environments." For other references, see "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

• [December 01, 1999] "RosettaNet Reaches Critical Milestone. Releases First 10 XML PIP Specifications." - "Furthering one of the most ambitious standards implementation efforts in history, RosettaNet, an independent consortium dedicated to development and deployment of supply chain eBusiness standards, Wednesday announced the release of its first 10 XML Partner Interface Processes (PIPs). Cooperatively developed by RosettaNet member companies, the PIPs are designed to align the electronic business processes of trading partners within the information technology (IT) supply chain. RosettaNet's PIPs are specialized system-to-system XML-based dialogs that define how business processes are conducted between IT manufacturers, software publishers, distributors, resellers and corporate end users. RosettaNet PIPs are essential to enabling the standardization of eBusiness processes among buyers and sellers in the supply chain. The PIPs were developed by analyzing supply chain processes, identifying mis-alignments, and designing a standard solution that enables global-scaled deployment. With the completion of these 10 PIPs, RosettaNet takes a step closer to achieving its goal of global deployment on Feb. 2, 2000. RosettaNet is unusual to industry standards-setting efforts in that it is designed to go beyond data interchange to align business processes. Like the earlier release of RosettaNet's technical and business dictionaries and set of eBusiness protocols, the 10 PIPs enable supply chain trading partners to create standard message documents for use in conducting eBusiness via the Internet. The first 10, of an eventual 100 PIPs, support catalog updating and purchasing. They define common XML dialogs for: Managing product subscriptions, Distributing new product information, Querying product information, Querying technical information, Distributing SKUs, Querying price and availability, Transferring shopping carts, Managing purchase orders, Querying order status, Distributing order status." See description and references in "RosettaNet."

• [December 01, 1999] "Organizations from Around the World Gather to Launch ebXML Global Electronic Business Initiative." - "The Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), a joint effort of the United Nation/CEFACT and OASIS, attracted the participation of major industry standards organizations and companies from around the world at its inaugural meeting in San Jose, CA, USA. ebXML is an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be used in a consistent manner for the exchange of electronic business data. More than 120 representatives from organizations as varied as ACORD, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, Commerce One, DataChannel, DISA, UN/EDIFACT, IBM, OAG, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and others joined together to launch the ebXML initiative. Project teams were identified at the inaugural meeting and began work on the following: ebXML Requirements, Business Process Methodology, Technical Architecture, Core Components, Transport/Routing and Packaging, Registry and Repository, Technical Coordination & Support, Marketing, Awareness & Education. ebXML project teams will teleconference until the next face-to-face meeting, scheduled for 31 January - 4 February 2000, in Orlando, Florida. Subsequent meetings are scheduled for 8 - 12 May in Brussels, Belgium, 7-11 August in the United States and 6-11 November in Tokyo, Japan." See "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

• [December 01, 1999] "Bricsnet Launches the Most Comprehensive E-Marketplace for the Building Industry. Bricsnet.com will enable building professionals to manage the full building process lifecycle online." - "Bricsnet today launched Bricsnet.com, a fully integrated e-marketplace that will enable dispersed building teams to manage the full lifecycle of the building process online. The Bricsnet.com e-marketplace combines, for the first time, capabilities of an application service provider and an information portal to create a work-centric environment where industry professionals can securely access all the software tools and building content needed to make the building process easier and more efficient. Bricsnet.com will provide building professionals with a single Internet destination to design a building, manage a geographically dispersed project team, access information on commercial building components, exchange ideas and knowledge and, ultimately, bid on and procure building supplies from manufacturers worldwide. Bricsnet's e-marketplace surpasses all business-to-business (B2B) building industry alternatives available today. Where competitors offer only fragments of capabilities, such as a project extranet, Bricsnet.com integrates all work-centric applications and building content that building industry professionals need: architectural design software, structural engineering software, project extranet services, global access to localized building product information, e-commerce, and professional discussion forums... Bricsnet.com users will be able to select a product from a global library of information, and drag the product directly into a sophisticated 3D modeling application. These building components can interact with e-commerce and scheduling systems via the emerging XML standard. Bricsnet.com will be much more than just another B2B site with passive, immobile content, it will be an interactive environment designed to streamline the building process."

• [December 01, 1999] "elcom.com Joins RosettaNet - Will Contribute to Implementation of Standards for XML-Based Supply Chain Interfaces. elcom.com to Work with RosettaNet Consortium to Adopt Standards for eProcurement Process Interoperability." - "elcom.com, inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elcom International, Inc., today announced its support for the RosettaNet standards and will collaborate with RosettaNet members in implementing a common set of business interfaces and content standards for automated procurement (eProcurement) systems. The RosettaNet consortium, driven by trading partners and solution providers within the information technology and electronic components supply chains, is developing a set of global process standards that enable businesses to operate more effectively and lower the cost of business-to-business commerce. RosettaNet will harness the global and pervasive reach of the Internet by defining - and leading the implementation of - open and common processes designed to align the electronic business interfaces between supply chain partners. Said Elcom International's Chairman and CEO, Robert J Crowell. 'Participation in the RosettaNet consortium is consistent with our strategy to provide high levels of XML-oriented interoperability with supplier back-end systems. In 1994, we pioneered the concept of virtual sourcing, and we are committed to emerging standards which enable PECOS Internet Procurement Manager, our remotely-hosted automated procurement system, to extend supply chain integration. As RosettaNet's XML standards becomes more widely adopted, interfacing between PECOS Internet Procurement Manager and supplier's existing legacy and ERP systems will become easier than ever. We believe our strong technology foundation, combined with our legacy in supply chain integration, will enable us to assist in the accelerated implementation of industry-wide adoption of the RosettaNet standards.' elcom.com's PECOS Internet Procurement Manager is a second generation Internet-based automated procurement system designed to offer the many benefits associated with procurement automation without a large up-front financial commitment and without the IT personnel and resources burden typical of first generation eProcurement offerings. These benefits include reduction in product costs, improved operational efficiencies, outsourced content management, reductions in maverick spending, implementation of new services such as just-in-time delivery, and improved analytics enabling more informed decision making. elcom.com's offering, delivered through the combination of technology, content, and services, will take full advantage of the emerging RosettaNet standards." See also "RosettaNet."

• [December 01, 1999] "Acxiom Corporation Announces XML Support For Online Data Delivery. Format Provides Developers with Multiple Language and Platform Options." - "Acxiom. Corporation announced today the Acxiom Data Network now supports XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as its basis for providing InfoBase data products over the Internet to qualified, registered businesses. The addition of XML, a flexible document format for the Web, now allows developers to integrate the Acxiom Data Network with multiple languages and platforms. Translating XML-provided data to serve multiple applications, over multiple platforms, is a clear-cut process. With XML, developers now have the option of integrating Acxiom Data Network technology with ActiveX/COM objects on Windows platforms or writing their own interface with any platform and language that supports XML. In addition to support of the XML format, a new Acxiom Data Network software development kit, SDK 1.3, was recently made available. This new kit enables developers to integrate the functionality of Acxiom's InfoBase data products including InfoBase TeleSource, InfoBase Profiler and InfoBase Enhancement into their own applications. Applications can access Acxiom data products in a real-time, on-demand environment simply by utilizing the same software programs companies use everyday for decision support, marketing automation, contact management and sales force automation."

• [December 01, 1999] "The E-Content Company Announces XML-based PowerPoint Authoring. Will Enable e-Business to Leverage PowerPoint Information Assets for Customer Relationship Applications." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business initiatives, today announced the addition of Microsoft PowerPoint as an integrated authoring tool within BladeRunner for the creation of XML content for e-business applications. Marking an industry first, users of BladeRunner will be able to generate XML content from PowerPoint to gain greater access and leverage valuable information stored in this popular presentation software. PowerPoint is the latest addition of software tools to extend the authoring capability of BladeRunner further into the popular Microsoft Office suite. BladeRunner is the first complete content management solution for the extended enterprise that enables companies to create, manage, and deliver e-content - targeted, timely, personalized, intelligent and medium-aware business content - for web-enabled applications, using eXtensible Markup Language ('XML') as its technology backbone and Microsoft Word for content creation. Companies are able to apply intelligence, structure and style to their business information, generate output in a variety of formats, and dynamically integrate that information with other electronic and business processes in support of their e-business initiatives."

• [November 30, 1999] "Chrystal Software Announces Eclipse. Interactive Content Significantly Improves Effectiveness of Business Web Sites." - "Chrystal Software, a Xerox New Enterprise Company, today announced Eclipse, an innovative solution incorporating traditional Web pages and new, interactive content. Eclipse integrates with leading authoring software, Internet browsers, Web servers, and Web design software, and supports eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standards. Chrystal Software will be demonstrating Eclipse at XML '99 in Philadelphia, PA, December 6-9. With Chrystal Software's Eclipse, businesses that want to add interactive content to their Web sites can do so rapidly and incrementally. Eclipse incorporates traditional Web site content, allowing the Webmaster to continue using familiar HTML editors, file system managers, and other tools. New, interactive content is defined and managed in a complementary fashion. Eclipse uses XML in a myriad of ways. As visitors move through the Web site, Eclipse combines XML user profiles and actions to generate interactive content requests. These requests are fulfilled with XML content, determined by a combination of content and tag searches. The resulting interactive content is styled and delivered to the visitor in rapid fashion. Very often, this interactive content is combined with other Web site content such as HTML and graphics files. The personalization is transparent to the visitor."

• [November 30, 1999] "ACORD And IFX Forum Announce Cooperative XML Standards Development." - "During semi-annual Standards Subcommittee Meetings in San Francisco, ACORD announced a reciprocal membership agreement with IFX Forum. Both organizations set information technology standards for message transmissions in financial services industries. They will cooperate in the development of XML standards for the electronic exchange of data in the insurance and banking industries. The collaboration is typical of recent announcements of alliances between standards bodies to consolidate development. The arrangement will combine the insurance expertise of ACORD and the banking expertise of IFX Forum. The organizations will focus on the base IFX specification and the proposed ACORD Insurance XML specifications to produce a framework supporting XML-based transaction services. Joint participation is underway. ACORD and IFX Forum have exchanged memberships and committed to participation in each other's working groups. ACORD participants are assessing the base IFX specification and supplying IFX Forum with recommendations. In turn, IFX Forum will route insurance-related issues through the ACORD standards process. According to Kevin Schipani, ACORD's group manager, research and development, 'ACORD's XML working groups have followed IFX developments for several months. We are recommending adoption of key functionality into our own early XML specifications. We appreciate the opportunity to add value to the IFX base specification as we develop compatible insurance services.' The IFX specification defines a messaging standard for secured Internet Protocol (IP)-based banking business messages over the public Internet or private networks. The significance of XML and IP for the insurance industry is the progression from batch store-and-forward Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transmissions to real-time messaging. Insurance business benefits include fast, reliable rates, quotes, applications, policies, claims and other transactions among a variety of trading partners-carriers, producers, rating bureaus, third-party administrators and service providers." See "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [November 30, 1999] "Stack Overflow Launches The Mozquito Factory -- The World's First XML Authoring Environment Designed for XHTML." - "Stack Overflow AG today announced the commercial availability of the Mozquito Factory, the world's first XHTML authoring environment. XHTML bridges HTML -- the lingua franca of the Web -- with the power of XML, bringing richer Web pages and more flexible Web applications for a wide range of platforms and browsers: from desktop PCs to televisions to kiosks to automobiles and mobile devices. Written entirely in Java, the Mozquito Factory is a client-side, stand-alone authoring environment. The Mozquito Factory significantly reduces authoring costs for complex, highly dynamic Web interfaces -- saving hundreds of hours of programming time. Built upon a modular framework, the Mozquito Factory combines three independent applications into a powerful toolkit: (1) Mozquito Engine: to enable current browsers, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and higher, to process the extensibility and display next-generation data formats and standards, including XML and XHTML. (2) XHTML Validator: to automatically validate any XHTML or XML document, optimize markup, and invoke the Mozquito Engine upon successful validation to view the Web page. In addition, the XHTML Validator displays error messages to help users improve their authoring skills and easily learn about new tags and attributes. (3) Factory Editor: to author and edit highly dynamic XHTML, XML and forms-intensive Web sites without scripting or programming. With the Mozquito Factory, users no longer need to worry about incomplete implementations caused by the browser wars or tiresome cross-browser scripting in JavaScript/JScript/VBScript or Java Applet programming. Developers can now design and create online shops, eCommerce applications, quizzes, polls, questionnaires, games, calendars, order forms, surveys, administration interfaces and complex, dynamic Web pages in minutes."

• [November 30, 1999] "Onesoft Launches Next Generation, Extensible E-commerce Software Using Patent-Pending XML Technology. OneCommerce 3.0 offers unique combination of flexibility, scalability and extensibility for future-ready Internet commerce sites." - "OneSoft Corporation, a leading provider of smart Internet commerce solutions, today launched version 3.0 of its award-winning OneCommerce software. OneCommerce Enterprise Edition 3.0 is the next generation XML-based solution, providing businesses with true extensibility to optimize revenue. OneCommerce provides a patent-pending architecture that includes distinctive capabilities to attract and retain customers, such as Dynamic Personalization, for targeted and personalized marketing and merchandising to increase customer conversion rate; comprehensive content management to target customers with the right product and information; and remote site administration and control for non-technical business managers to make informed decisions. OneCommerce 3.0 is the first 100% XML-enabled and component-based, complete Internet commerce solution available in the industry. OneCommerce's innovative, standards-based architecture is specifically designed to launch online initiatives quickly that are future ready as business and technology change. Its patent-pending architecture allows businesses to add functionality to capture revenue and processing capacity for instant scalability."

• [November 30, 1999] "Microsoft and NEON Form Strategic Relationship To Enhance E-Commerce Integration. NEON to Join BizTalk Steering Committee; Companies to Jointly Enhance and Market E-Commerce Integration Solutions." - "Microsoft Corp. and New Era of Networks Inc. today announced a strategic relationship to jointly enhance and market e-commerce integration solutions based on Microsoft. platforms and NEON's e-commerce Integration products. NEON is endorsing the Microsoft BizTalk Framework and BizTalk products and tools. In addition, NEON is joining the BizTalk steering committee as a leading e-commerce integration vendor. Other leaders in technology, including American Petroleum Institute, Ariba Inc., The Baan Co., The Boeing Co., Clarus Corp., Commerce One Inc., Concur Technologies Inc., Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), J.D. Edwards & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Microsoft, Open Applications Group (OAG), PeopleSoft Inc., Pivotal Software Inc., RosettaNet and SAP AG serve as members of the committee. In a related news release, 'NEON Announces Windows-Based Biztalk Integration Solution,' NEON also announced its introduction of a new product that takes full advantage of the Windows. DNA platform and will tightly integrate with the BizTalk Server and Babylon products from Microsoft. NEON enables organizations to deploy scalable, Windows-based application integration to create business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions from existing or legacy systems. Introduced in March of this year, Microsoft BizTalk is a powerful cross-platform e-commerce framework that makes it easy for businesses to integrate applications and conduct business with trading partners and customers via the Internet. Microsoft will use the BizTalk Framework, in conjunction with other software companies and industry-standards bodies, to use XML to enable integration between businesses and across industries."

• [November 30, 1999] "OASIS Addresses NATO on XML Adoption." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, recently advised NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, on the impact of XML on information technology development and its potential for NATO's information systems. Dr. Robert S. Sutor (IBM), chief strategy officer of OASIS, addressed participants in the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) XML Workshop in The Hague, The Netherlands. The NC3A XML Workshop analyzed potential application areas for XML in NATO and assessed (in global terms) the benefits which adoption offers. The Workshop reviewed the development status of XML and took stock of defense-related XML activities within NATO and its member countries. OASIS contributed to the development of recommendations for a way ahead for NATO regarding XML (bodies to be involved, potential exploratory prototyping or pilot activities, and participation in the international XML standardization effort)." [PR OASIS Web site]

• [November 30, 1999] "eLink 2000: Leading Companies Present at Industry's First Conference on Global Business-to-Business E-commerce in Europe. Commerce One, BT, Anderson Consulting, Compaq, Microsoft, PeopleSoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers to Sponsor Major Industry Event in London on February 21-23, 2000." - "Commerce One, Inc., a leading provider of global business-to-business electronic commerce solutions, announced today the industry's leading conference on global e-commerce for procurement, IT and financial executives, eLink 2000: E-Commerce Solutions for Global Trading. eLink 2000 Europe will be held on Feb. 22-23, 2000, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. The two-day event is being sponsored by Commerce One, British Telecom, Anderson Consulting, Compaq, Microsoft, PeopleSoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Conference attendees are expected to come from throughout Europe. eLink 2000 will provide attendees with information on the latest technology, customer case studies and advice on achieving the benefits of e-commerce. In addition, sponsoring companies will announce significant e-commerce products and strategies. eLink 2000 will also include partner and sponsor exhibitions and sessions, customer case studies and a series of news conferences. Topics for discussion will include the significance of online auctions for business-to-business e-commerce, the Global Trading Web of commerce portals, and XML in the future of e-commerce."

• [November 30, 1999] "Softshare Implements XML Translation Solution for Gardening Specialty Retailer, Smith & Hawken. By Sending XML Packing Slips to Its Drop Ship Vendors, Smith & Hawken Speeds Up Catalog Order Processing." - "Softshare, a supplier of electronic commerce software and services, announced today that it has implemented an innovative XML translation solution at Smith & Hawken, the California-based gardening retail and catalog company. The solution, which automates the generation and delivery of XML packing slips, reduces catalog shipment turnaround time by providing faster communications between Smith & Hawken and its drop ship vendors. With Softshare's translation solution, Smith & Hawken now uses Softshare's universal data translator, Softshare Delta, to translate flat files from its AS400 into XML packing slips. XML was chosen instead of EDI because of its flexible formatting capabilities. Because Softshare Delta supports XML stylesheets, the packing slips can be formatted using color and graphics. In addition to Softshare Delta, Smith & Hawken has implemented two other Softshare products to complete their integration solution. Using Softshare's Electronic Commerce Server (ECS), Smith & Hawken sends each bundle of generated XML packing slips via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to the appropriate drop ship vendor. In order to preserve the XML formatting of the packing slips, Smith & Hawken's drop ship vendors are running Softshare's desktop EC application, Softshare Vista. As the XML packing slips arrive within Softshare Vista, a preprogrammed event triggers their automatic printing."

• [November 29, 1999] "Viador and Hynet Technologies to Help Companies Access and Deliver Dynamic e-Business Content Via XML. Centralized Access to Business Critical Information for Companies With Time-to-Market Challenges." - "Hynet Technologies, a leading provider of Dynamic Customer Content (DCC) solutions for empowering e-business, and Viador Inc., a leading provider of enterprise portals, today announced a joint development effort designed to help companies with time-to-market challenges to easily access and deliver dynamic, personalized information through Viador's enterprise portal. As a result, users will be able to access the Hynet Directive(TM) XML repository via Viador's E-Portal Suite, giving Viador customers access to business-critical information such as sales proposals, marketing collateral and globalization of e-Content. Viador's E-Portal Suite is a single, Web-based access point that provides an entire business community -- employees, customers and trading partners -- with desktop access to the specific information they need to make better business decisions. Hynet Directive is expected to increase the value of Viador's offering by incorporating sources of data that were previously difficult to integrate so that users can utilize all relevant information, regardless of its source."

• [November 24, 1999] "Chrystal Software Announces Content Management for XMetaL. Solution Provides End-to-End Support for XML-based Web Publishers." - "Chrystal Software, a Xerox New Enterprise Company, today announced full support for XMetaL, SoftQuad Software Inc.'s award-winning XML authoring tool. XMetaL has been integrated with the company's product line and represents a significant move by Chrystal Software into the Web-publishing arena. XMetaL is an advanced XML authoring tool that delivers unprecedented ease of use to authors, while shielding them from the complexities of XML. A familiar word processor-like environment makes XMetaL a broadly deployable solution that drastically reduces training and implementation costs. Whether creating content for technical publications, content management, knowledge management, on-line publishing, or other applications that could benefit from XML, content creators love XMetaL's ease of use and IT professionals appreciate its simple deployment capabilities. By generating XML at the source, XMetaL streamlines the publishing process and virtually eliminates the high costs of ongoing document conversion. XMetaL is easy to use, powerful, broadly deployable, and can easily integrate into existing document-publishing systems, making it the perfect solution for authoring digital content. XMetaL recently won the Web'99 Web Tools Awards' Outstanding Product of the Year in the Authoring Tools. XMetaL 1.0 is an advanced, simple-to-deploy XML content authoring solution that delivers a familiar word processing-like interface, allowing mainstream users to easily create XML Web content. HoTMetaL PRO 6.0 enables users to quickly and easily create, publish, and manage sophisticated web sites."

• [November 23, 1999] "Wireless Application Protocol Forum Selects the Open Group to Develop Test Suite for New Wireless Internet Standard. The Open Group Will Serve as Certification Authority for WAP Version 1.1." - "The Open Group, a vendor and technology-neutral consortium dedicated to enterprise integration, today announced an agreement to serve as the certification authority for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum's world standard for wireless information and telephony services. For certification testing, The Open Group developed a test suite specification to ensure wireless vendors' products are compliant with the WAP V1.1 specification. As the certification authority, The Open Group will develop and operate the certification program on behalf of the WAP Forum. 'The Open Group was chosen for the WAP Version 1.1 certification testing because of its unrivaled experience in open systems testing and certification,' said Doug Holbrook, chair of the WAP Forum's WAP Interoperability Group. 'The Open Group provides the WAP Forum with the expertise required to meet our aggressive commitment to interoperability.' The WAP Forum has a large number of specifications describing the functionality and specific coding requirements of wireless phones and other devices for WAP certification. The Open Group's test suite measures conformance to the Wireless Markup Language (WML) application layer specifications, as well as WMLscript and WMLscript libraries. The certification test uses a WML server that delivers tests that run on the devices or phones, and performs a functionality and interoperability test at the application level. WML, an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) application, serves as the markup language for WAP devices, just as HTML is the markup language for web pages. WMLscript and the associated WMLscript Libraries define a programming language, related to the ECMAscript language used for programs to run on web browsers." On WAP, see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

• [November 23, 1999] "webMethods Signs Top Internet Consulting Firms as Strategic Alliance. Partners. Intelligroup and Lante Corporation select webMethods as preferred provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of business-to-business e-commerce integration solutions, today announced strategic alliances with industry-leading consulting firms Intelligroup, Inc. and Lante Corporation. As part of their expanding e-commerce practices, these consulting firms will incorporate webMethods B2B into their methodology and provide customers with a broad range of consulting and implementation services to execute B2B e-commerce strategies. webMethods B2B provides a business community integration platform that makes it possible for companies to pursue direct integration with trading partners, while also participating in emerging B2B Marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network and Clarus SupplierUniverse. webMethods B2B utilizes XML and open Web standards, such as RosettaNet, OAG, OBI and ACORD, to connect integrated business communities and enable companies to conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing IT infrastructure." See also the recent announcement for a webMethods IPO.

• [November 23, 1999] "CDbeat.com Taps Bluestone Sapphire/Web and XML Suite to Revolutionize Its Online Technology/Content. Entertainment Software Company Utilizes Bluestone's Portal-Strength Solution to Establish Global Music Technology Content Network and Support Tens of Thousands of Concurrent Users." - "Bluestone. Software, Inc., a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software, today announced that CDbeat.com, Inc., the developer of proprietary Internet entertainment software, will launch its CDbeat Internet service on Bluestone's award-winning Sapphire/Web. Application Server infrastructure and Bluestone XML Suite integration server - based on Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards. CDbeat's free, proprietary disc/digital file recognition software has the capability of allowing users who play ordinary music CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs or downloaded MP3 files in their computer the option of being connected simultaneously to a limited number of customer pre-selected Internet sites related to that particular artist or content. Related sites can include artist home pages, fan club sites, collectibles auction sites, online stores, etc. CDbeat also intends to acquire various forms of Internet-related content, including music and film catalogs, celebrity Internet sites, educational, and medical resources, etc., which it will offer its customers. CDbeat's service is scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2000. The essence of the CDbeat service is the delivery of entertainment-related content to a global user population with interests and tastes spanning the entire entertainment spectrum. Consequently, CDbeat must discover and respond to each user's unique preferences. To do this, CDbeat maintains a dynamic profile for each of its customers, who fill out a profile form upon registration and agree to continuous, transparent profile updates facilitated by Bluestone XML-Server. Using XML as a communications medium, the PC-side CDbeat software monitors the user's listening habits, and then updates the user profile on the CDbeat server. In conjunction with Sapphire/Web, Bluestone XML-Server also works to deliver CDbeat and distributed, third-party content in the form of dynamically generated HTML pages, which users view in browsers, such as IE4 or IE5 running the CDbeat viewer component. Critical to CDbeat will be Sapphire/Web's support for non-stop, portal-level activity, including 1,000,000+ registered users, tens of thousands of concurrent users, and dynamic page creation based on constantly changing user profiles."

• [November 23, 1999] "Flow Systems and ALPNET to Develop Automated Language Translation Solution for B2B Catalog Publishers." - "Flow Systems Corporation and ALPNET, Inc. today announced that they will cooperate in marketing a highly-automated process for translating catalog content into multiple languages. The translation capability will be added to Flow Publisher, a catalog content management and publishing solution for business-to-business catalog publishers with large or technically complex product lines. Under the agreement, Flow Systems and ALPNET will market a tightly integrated process that will allow users of Flow Publisher to quickly and cost-effectively translate and publish multilingual catalog content in print, Web, CD-ROM, and other data formats. Content may be extracted from Flow Publisher at any time in an XML-compliant format where ALPNET automated translation management tools and terminology databases will be used to translate the content into each of the target languages. The translated content will then be imported to the Flow Publisher multilingual content database."

• [November 23, 1999] "Active Software and Netfish Technologies Partner for Rapid RosettaNet B2B Implementations. Technology Leaders Offer Free RosettaNet Software to Help Companies Install EConcert Pilots and Meet February 2, 2000 Implementation Goals" - "With less than 90 days before the dawn of live RosettaNet installations throughout the IT industry, Active Software, Inc., a leading provider of eBusiness integration software products, and Netfish Technologies, Inc., a leader in B2B process integration, today announced they are licensing without charge all the software necessary to prototype RosettaNet process integration between trading partners. As part of their strategic partnership for B2B integration, Active Software and Netfish have developed a Readiness Kit for RosettaNet EConcert which contains everything required for manufacturers, resellers, distributors and other supply chain partners to develop and implement business processes conducted through RosettaNet standards by RosettaNet EConcert Day, which occurs on February 2, 2000. The RosettaNet EConcert Readiness Kit includes fully functional versions of Active Software's ActiveWorks Integration System and Netfish's XDI Server. The combined solution offers the most complete and compelling RosettaNet kit available, incorporating both Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) technologies to dynamically integrate applications within and across the extended enterprise through RosettaNet standards. Using this kit, RosettaNet members participating in EConcert trials can quickly and easily implement and deploy a RosettaNet Partner Interface Process (PIP). A PIP is a XML specification designed to align a specific business process, such as procurement or introduction of a new product to distribution channels, between supply chain partners using e-commerce applications and the Internet." See other references in "RosettaNet."

• [November 23, 1999] "eBusiness Technologies' DynaBase Selected by UUNET to Enhance US and Global Web Sites. DynaBase's Content Management Capabilities Will Facilitate Rapid and Dynamic Web Publishing." - "eBusiness Technologies, a division of Inso Corporation and a leading provider of solutions and services for e-business applications, today announced that UUNET, an MCI WorldCom company and a leader in Internet communications solutions, will implement DynaBase to manage and publish the company's U. S. and Global Web sites. The sites offer a complete range of online services, including company news, technical support, and product information. 'UUNET is recognized as the first commercial Internet Service Provider and is a true leader in the industry,' said James Ringrose, president of eBusiness Technologies. "It is a pioneer in the future of online business communications, and we are very pleased that it has selected DynaBase as the e-business application to help manage and dynamically deliver its Internet presence. DynaBase was chosen for several reasons, including: (1) DynaBase's XML-based dynamic delivery technology. (2) eBusiness Technologies' in-house professional services division. (3) DynaBase's integration and management of embedded and external databases.

• [November 23, 1999] "RealNetworks Announces Support for the W3C's Second Working Draft of SMIL Boston. SMIL Boston Extends Capabilities of the Web's Standard Multimedia Format, Building on Widespread Deployment of Smil 1.0 and More Than One Billion SMIL Presentations Played by Consumers." - "RealNetworks. Inc., a recognized leader in media delivery for the Internet, today announced support for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C.)'s second working draft to advance the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) standard, known as SMIL Boston. This latest step forward in the SMIL Boston builds upon the widespread adoption of SMIL as the integration language for Web-based multimedia. The SMIL Boston second working draft proposes extensions to the W3C approved SMIL 1.0 standard, based on feedback from thousands of SMIL 1.0 developers and tens of millions of consumer users and more than a billion SMIL presentations played on the Web since May 1998. Current members of the W3C Working Group developing SMIL Boston are key international industry players in Web multimedia, interactive television and audio/video streaming. In alphabetical order, they are: Canon, Compaq, CSELT, CWI, France Telecom, Gateway, GLOCOM, INRIA, Intel, Macromedia, Microsoft, Oratrix, NIST, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, RealNetworks and WGBH. SMIL 1.0 is the W3C Recommendation (standard) for Web-based multimedia first implemented by RealNetworks with the advent of RealSystem G2 in June of 1998. RealNetworks co-authored the SMIL 1.0 specification. SMIL 1.0 enables the delivery of long format, Web-based multimedia to a broad range of audiences, from modems to T3 Internet connections. As an open XML-based language, SMIL enables a wide range of audio-visual presentation authoring environments, ranging from simple text editors to graphical editing tools such as RealNetworks RealSlideshow. The SMIL Boston Working Draft proposes several extensions to SMIL 1.0, such as integration with TV broadcasts, animation functionality, improved support for navigation of timed presentations, and the possibility to integrate SMIL markup in other XML-based languages."

• [November 22, 1999] "Lutris' Enhydra Open Source Java/XML Application Server Technology Chosen By Palm Reach to Provide Content to The Wireless World. Browser-enabled Wireless Devices Can Now Receive Live News Feeds and More." - "Lutris Technologies, the primary sponsor of Enhydra, a leading Open Source Java/XML application server, and Palm Reach, the leading content provider for wireless devices announced today that Palm Reach used Enhydra to develop software that provides content to state-of-the-art browser-enabled cell phones and other wireless devices for professionals who need instant news and information wherever they are. Enhydra XMLC provided Palm Reach with a device-independent framework for supporting multiple Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) products. Enhydra XMLC is a Lutris Open Source technology for building Web application presentations based on the Internet standard XML. Palm Reach leverages pure XML presentation information with device-specific descriptions to support each display device. The integration of these technologies provides mobile users with a WAP-phone or other Internet-enabled device access to a wealth of information at the Palm Reach site."

• [November 22, 1999] "Lumeria Announces DTD.com, a Powerful New Site and Web Application for XML Developers. DTD.com Web Site Includes DTDfactory -- a DTD Editor and Validator -- and DTDwarehouse -- the World's Largest Repository of XML DTDs." - "Lumeria, the world's first infomediary incubator, today announced the launch of DTD.com, a ground-breaking site for web software developers that combines a web repository for XML DTDs (document type definitions) with a web-based tool for editing and creating DTDs. XML is the cutting-edge successor to HTML as the lingua franca of the web, and DTD.com is designed to help accelerate the adoption of XML. Although XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, offers many advantages over the more commonly used HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, no standard way exists for identifying the kind of information contained in XML documents and applications. DTDs reveal the specific tags used for identifying particular information in an XML document or application, such as the fare and departure times in an airline schedule. DTD.com offers web developers two free benefits. First, DTD.com provides the XML community with a free knowledge repository -- called the DTDwarehouse -- for storing and sharing DTDs and information about each DTD. Secondly, DTD.com gives away a free web-based knowledge management application, called the DTDfactory, which lets XML developers mine the data in the DTDwarehouse, create their own DTDs, validate them against industry standards, and share their knowledge of DTDs with other developers. With the goal of becoming a standard repository for all DTDs, DTD.com enables XML developers to upload their own DTDs -- whether entire DTDs or suggested tags -- to the DTDwarehouse to share with other developers. DTD.com will also aggregate these DTDs or tags and submit them for approval by the appropriate standards committees as a way of accelerating the standardization of XML. Lumeria has launched DTD.com in an effort to stem the potential fragmentation of XML that is likely to occur in the near future. DTD.com addresses this problem by creating the world's largest repository, where developers can share DTDs and their knowledge about them. The DTDwarehouse is the world's largest DTD repository and is stocked with over 180 DTDs covering a wide range of subjects, from mathematics to science, government, education, and personal profiling. In addition, DTD.com supports Lumeria's proposed new standard for personal profiling, called the Profile Markup Language (PML) -- an extremely rich profile description and exchange platform, which is based on XML."

• [November 22, 1999] "Arbortext Gives Customers Powerful e-Content Creation, Processing and Publishing Systems With Key Capabilities Now Available as Optional Modules. XML-Based Epic 3.0/Adept 9.0 Releases Include a New Junior Member, The Low-Cost, easy-to-use Adept Editor Lite Edition." - "Arbortext, Inc., a leading provider of XML-based e-Content software, announced today its release of modular Epic 3.0 and Adept 9.0 e-Content software that supports customers' information creation, publishing and personalization needs. The simultaneous release of both packages, which for the first time have a common user interface, allows existing Adept users to preserve their investment in their current infrastructure and simplifies migration to Epic. Epic is Arbortext's XML-based e-Content software that lets companies create, assemble and deliver their vital business information to the Web, CD-ROM and print. Arbortext will also offer a new product called Adept Editor LE (Lite Edition), an XML/SGML editor with a simplified user interface for the occasional e-Content contributor. LE puts the power of XML into the hands of less-technical, but strategic e-Content contributors within any organization. Epic includes all of Adept's features with additional capabilities such as personalization, which allows e-Content documents to be tailored to the audience that will be viewing them. More feature-rich than HTML, XML brings manageable intelligence to data allowing it to be reused and published to multiple media formats. 'Epic and Adept users can benefit from the cost-effective flexibility and new features in these releases,' said Michael Maziarka, director of the dynamic content software strategies team at the market research firm CAP Ventures. 'Arbortext has solved some significant migration and ease of use issues for customers with smart packaging and new built-in capabilities. The introduction of LE and modular packaging enables companies to expand and extend XML-content creation and publishing capabilities to additional users in their organization at their own pace'."

• [November 22, 1999] "Extricity Software Leads Industry in Driving Global Adoption of RosettaNet E-Business Standards. Extricity Expands Reputation as the 'Standard Behind the Standard' for RosettaNet, Extricity Used in Conjunction with More Than 70 Percent of RosettaNet Pilot Implementations." - "In 1999, Extricity Software, Inc., leader in providing business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce software for Global 2000 companies, continued to facilitate the global adoption of the RosettaNet e-business standards and increase its reputation throughout the industry as 'Standard Behind the Standard' for RosettaNet. In this leading industry role, Extricity Software expanded its customer list of companies who selected Extricity to provide a business-to-business ecommerce solution based on RosettaNet e-business standards, and launched the industry's first complete software solution dedicated to RosettaNet. In addition, Extricity announced a strategic alliance with PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide the industry's first comprehensive and packaged software and services solution dedicated to supporting and deploying RosettaNet e-business standards."

• [November 19, 1999] "Salvo Enables Business-to-Business Demand Chain Applications With XML Support. Salvo Allows Rapid Development and Deployment of XML-Based Applications." - "NetManage eBusiness Group, a leader in Enterprise-to-Extranet solutions for the demand chain, today announced that Salvo. now supports XML-based communication between business applications. As part of NetManage's ongoing eBusiness strategy, Salvo's unique business logic engine and superior information access capabilities can use XML technology to standardize management and distribution of information from application to application. Salvo effortlessly overcomes the barriers between applications, allowing disparate systems to share and exchange backend data, including XML-based data sources. In addition to presenting integrated information using HTML, or via its COM/ActiveX and JavaBean interfaces, Salvo can now also present information to other applications in XML formats. While XML allows organizations to create application-specific dialects that depict enterprise data, Salvo provides a complete development framework to allow programmers to represent customer-oriented business processes using high-level business logic. By encapsulating data, information and business logic into re-usable Information Objects, Salvo offers a highly scalable, robust and complete solution allowing for presentation of enterprise information from virtually any source in an XML format."

• [November 19, 1999] "Infoteria Announces Product and Schema Design Support for Biztalk Framework. First Such Support From a Japan-Based Company." - "Infoteria Inc, a leading XML software design and development company, today announced its support for Microsoft's BizTalk Framework. BizTalk Framework will appear in upcoming Infoteria products such as XML Solution Components and XML Schema Design Service such as MML (Medical Markup Language) released by the Japan Association for Medical Informatics (JAMI). Infoteria's announcement of support today is the first by a Japanese company. 'BizTalk Framework is a platform-independent, vendor-independent framework for Enterprise Application Integration,' said Pina Hirano, President and CEO of Infoteria Inc. 'By supporting the BizTalk Framework in our products and services, we will allow users to easily create BizTalk Framework compliant B2B solutions in heterogeneous vendor environments. In addition, Infoteria's Schema Design Service offers BizTalk Framework compliant schema creation. For instance, Medical Markup Language (MML) developed using our Schema Design Service is already BizTalk Framework ready, and will be submitted to BizTalk.org in the near future.'

• [November 18, 1999] "The E-Content Company Introduces First Scalable XML Dynamic Content Web Server. BladeRunner Web to Deliver Only End-to-End Next Generation Web Solution for E-Business Applications." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications today announced BladeRunner Web(TM), the first highly scalable dynamic XML content server. Designed to host the next generation web site, BladeRunner Web reinforces the e-content company's leadership position by delivering the first end-to-end XML content management solution that enables content creators to publish content in virtually any format to a variety of web-enabled devices. With BladeRunner Web, companies can now better leverage their valuable content and the Web to build successful e-businesses through e-relationships. BladeRunner Web is an extension of the e-content company's XML-based content management solution. Designed specifically for the next generation Web, BladeRunner Web is highly scalable so it can handle volumes of information and a large number of Web-based transactions. A primary benefit to BladeRunner Web is that it holds a single copy of HTML or XML content from which virtually any number of presentations can be dynamically generated by simply applying the appropriate XSL style sheet. This eliminates the redundancy of having to manually re-create many versions of the content for each presentation. In addition, BladeRunner Web features a distinct set of tools including Composer/Styler which allows users to edit XML and create customized style sheets; XML Authoring for Microsoft Word, an add-on for enabling XML output from this popular word processing application; and a collection of management tools that allows users to monitor and control content operations. BladeRunner Web is scheduled for general release in the first quarter of calendar year 2000."

• [November 17, 1999] "DISA Expands Role to Include XML, Broader E-Commerce Arena. New Collaborative Services Initiative Ensures DISA's Role in XML And Internet Technology Development." - "Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) launched the Collaborative Services initiative that expands the association's reach to extensible markup language (XML) and Internet technology development. Embracing an innovative dynamic that is continually evolving, DISA is working on developing XML specifications with a wide array of organizations, including OpenTravel Alliance (OTA), Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Forum, and Mortgage Bankers Association of America's (MBA) Mortgage Industry Data Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) initiatives. Other DISA partnerships, such as BizTalk, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, are also crafting XML and Internet-related technologies. DISA offers today's organization a constellation of separate services that together provide a comprehensive package for every e-business initiative, including XML and Internet technologies. Favored for its professionalism and international recognition, DISA covers everything from managing membership administration to providing information technology services. DISA is devoted to offering the finest in collaborative services, including: (1) Standards development operations; (2) Membership development; (3) Standards database publishing; (4) Meetings logistics; (5) Marketing and communications; (6) Educational seminars." See: "ANSI ASC X12/XML and DISA."

• [November 16, 1999] "Leading E-Customer Solution Vendors Form Customer Profile Exchange 'CPEX' Working Group. Open, XML-based standard incorporates online and offline data to enable singular, simultaneous customer view within multiple enterprise applications." - "Addressing the need for e-businesses to maintain a singular, holistic view of their customers, leading vendors in the e-business and e-customer applications market today announced the Customer Profile EXchange (CPEX) working group. CPEX offers a vendor-neutral, open standard for facilitating the privacy-enabled interchange of customer information across disparate enterprise applications and systems. Charter working group members currently include [numerous] industry leaders... The CPEX standard integrates online and offline customer data in an XML-based data model for use within various enterprise applications both on and off the Web. The result is a networked, customer-focused environment that allows e-businesses to leverage a unified view of their customers into more compelling e-relationships. More than simply a DTD or XML tag set, CPEX will include a data model, transport and query definitions, and a framework for enabling privacy safeguards. Businesses will be able to apply CPEX across a disparate range of back-office applications, front-office applications and Web customer automation applications. While the benefits of a singular customer view are growing increasingly apparent within an enterprise, CPEX solutions will prove vital in tomorrow's world of connected enterprises. The CPEX working group intends to develop an open-source reference implementation and developer guidelines to speed adoption of CPEX among vendors. CPEX will enable enterprises to implement the privacy safeguards their customers and governments require in a unified approach, rather than piecemeal in each application. The transitive CPEX model of secure customer objects will enable more widespread use of these privacy safeguards independent of the privacy standards that may be developed and instituted. Open to any vendor that wishes to contribute to the standard, the CPEX working group is chaired by Siebel Systems, the Marketing Committee is co-chaired by net.Genesis and Vignette Corporation, and Andromedia/Macromedia chairs the Technical Committee. The CPEX working group is hosted by IDEAlliance.org, a neutral, non-profit organization that also hosts ICE, PRISM and several other XML working groups." On the XML connection: see "Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) Working Group."

• [November 16, 1999] "Calico Joins Key E-Commerce Standard Initiative. Calico Participates in Customer Profile EXchange (CPEX) Working Group." - "Calico Commerce, Inc., a leading provider of electronic commerce software and services, today announced its participation in the Customer Profile EXchange (CPEX) working group. CPEX offers a vendor-neutral, open standard for facilitating the privacy-enabled exchange of customer information across disparate enterprise applications and systems. Calico is committed to helping shape industry standards that broaden the adoption of more open and flexible e-Business solutions. Calico joins other leading e-Business vendors in the CPEX working group to address the need to maintain a singular, holistic view of their customers. The CPEX standard integrates online and offline data with an XML-based description of customer information for use within various enterprise applications both on and off the Web. The result is a networked, customer-focused environment that allows e-businesses to leverage a unified view of their customers into more compelling e-relationships. Open to any vendor that wishes to contribute to the standard, the CPEX working group is chaired by Siebel Systems, the Marketing Committee is co-chaired by net.Genesis and Vignette Corporation, and Andromedia/Macromedia chairs the Technical Committee. The CPEX working group is hosted by IDEAlliance.org, a neutral, non-profit organization that also hosts ICE, PRISM and several other XML working groups. CPEX solutions are focused upon real-world implementations in real-world time. Formed by Vignette Corporation in September of 1999, CPEX was chartered and launched in November of 1999. The first CPEX specifications are expected to be available for public review in the first half of 2000, with interoperability demos scheduled to begin in the second half of 2000. More information on CPEX will be available [soon] at www.cpex.org." On the XML connection: see "Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) Working Group."

• [November 16, 1999] "Net Perceptions Announces Four Strategic Alliances to Deliver Personalization Technology to Customers of World's Leading E-Commerce Companies. CEO Predicts Personalization Key to 80 Percent of Corporate Marketing Efforts Within Two Years." - "At the first Personalization Summit in San Francisco today, Net Perceptions Inc. made a series of strategic announcements with a number of the world's leading e-commerce companies. Net Perceptions will work with the companies to deliver a host of enhanced customer relationship and marketing solutions based on its collaborative filtering technology. Together, these announcements underscore Net Perceptions' position as the leading supplier of realtime personalization solutions and reinforce the core importance of personalization technology for the next generation of Internet commerce. Under the agreements announced today, Net Perceptions will work with IBM Corp., net.Genesis and DoubleClick Technologies Inc. to offer an adaptive Internet marketing solution to help customers make more informed decisions about online marketing campaigns, sales strategies and Web content. Net Perceptions, together with leading vendors in e-business and e-customer applications, today announced the Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX), a standard for allowing e-businesses to have a unified view of their customers within multiple enterprise applications... Net Perceptions and formation of Customer Profile Exchange. Net Perceptions joins Vignette, net.Genesis and other leading e-customer solution vendors as a member of the Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) working group, whose mission is to offer a vendor-neutral, open standard for facilitating privacy-enabled exchange of customer information across disparate enterprise applications and systems. This XML-based standard will incorporate both online and offline data to allow for a singular, holistic view of supply and demand chains, thereby allowing all primary business functions to collectively, rather than independently, grasp a customer's identity, behavior and needs."

• [November 16, 1999] "World Wide Web Consortium Issues XSL Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath) as Recommendations. Two specifications work to transform XML documents and data, supporting presentation flexibility and device independence." - "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today releases two specifications, XSL Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath), as W3C Recommendations. These new specifications represent cross-industry and expert community agreement on technologies that will enable the transformation and styled presentation of XML documents. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C membership, who favor its adoption by the industry. XSLT makes it possible for one XML document to be transformed into another according to an XSL Style sheet. As part of the document transformation, XSLT uses XPath to address parts of an XML document that an author wishes to transform. XPath is also used by another XML technology, XPointer, to specify locations in an XML document. 'What we've learned in developing XPath will serve other critical XML technologies already in development,' noted Daniel Veillard, W3C Staff contact for the XML Linking Working Group. Together, XSLT and XPath make it possible for XML documents to be reformatted according to the parameters of XSL style sheets and increase presentation flexibility into the XML architecture." See also the testimonials.

• [November 15, 1999] "Worldweb.Net and ScreamingMedia Offer Seamless Content Aggregation And Internet Content Management Solution. Partnership Offers e-Businesses Access to Greater Revenue Streams, Increased Brand Loyalty and Stronger Customer Relationships." - "Worldweb.net of Alexandria, Virginia announced today a partnership with ScreamingMedia's content distribution service, which will be integrated with Worldweb.net's Expressroom -- an XML and Java-based Internet content management application for enterprise-level websites. This partnership will allow all existing and future Expressroom users to seamlessly integrate the highest- quality news and information feeds from the most respected content providers throughout the world, including AP, The New York Times Syndicate, The Sports Network, Medical Tribune and hundreds more. Expressroom is an Internet content management solution that provides the control needed to produce, manage and administer today's sophisticated and dynamic enterprise websites. By integrating ScreamingMedia's Java-based Siteware syndication application with Expressroom, users will now have access to tens of thousands of XML news and information items in real-time, leading to rich and consumer-oriented user experiences. Worldweb.net's Expressroom is the industry's first real Internet content management solution, providing all the control, flexibility and power needed to produce, manage and administer sophisticated enterprise websites. Expressroom is a platform-independent, media-independent application that is the most advanced online website management system available today. Expressroom allows users the ability to easily repurpose existing content, work within familiar interfaces, generate pages dynamically, control workflow, collaborate with remote sources, search with advanced capabilities, develop an e-commerce infrastructure, and administer ad placement -- all in real time."

• [November 15, 1999] "Cardiff Software Adds eForms Warehouse and XML Capability to Internet Servers and Knowledge Management Applications. Targets Microsoft and Lotus, Web-based KM. Cardiff's New Automated Taxonomy, Connect Agent Technology and Adobe ePaper and XML Integration Turn Knowledge Management Products Into Automated Business Platforms." - [Cardiff Software has introduced revolutionary support for XML, the Extensible Markup Language, that allows organizations to take existing paper, HTML and PDF forms and connect directly to XML e-commerce, e-business and server applications.] "At the Comdex tradeshow today, privately held Cardiff Software, Inc. unveiled new products that turn Internet servers and knowledge management systems into platforms that convert existing paper forms into automated online eForms, leveraging existing investments in network hardware and software to create eForm Warehouses. Using Cardiff's PDF+Forms, HTML+Forms and TELEform products, organizations can now collect, validate and process form data into database, Back Office and XML applications -- automatically. PDF+Forms converts paper forms into Adobe ePaper forms, which are made available for online access, completion and submission throughout the organization. With its built-in integration with Cardiff TELEform, the product supports a wide range of database, form archive and XML applications. The TELEform server automatically applies business rules and data checking techniques, confirming data before it is passed to target back-end applications. Copies of completed online forms, with search and attribute information, are automatically populated into targeted archive and knowledge management folders by the system. In the end, data from forms is automatically collected, verified and processed, while ePaper copies of completed forms are available for instant review by management or customer support personnel. The HTML+Forms solution enables organizations to support standard HTML forms within an eForms Warehouse, while taking advantage of automated data collection, validation and processing to database, Back Office and XML applications. This is critical for organizations that need to support world-wide access to the eForms Warehouse over low-bandwidth connections."

• [November 15, 1999] "Sun-Netscape to Enable iPlanet ECXpert with Digital Receipts from Receipt.com. Digital Receipt Provides Positive Proof of Online Transactions." - "Receipt.com (formerly Differential Inc.), a pioneer of trusted transaction and secure document delivery services over the Internet, today announced that Sun-Netscape is enhancing iPlanet ECXpert, an Internet commerce exchange application, with Digital Receipts. Empowered with XML-based Digital Receipt's, ECXpert will enable customers to exchange legally-binding, auditable transactions over the Internet. Digital Receipts provides positive proof of e-transactions as well as detailed reports on information transfer and receipt. This capability will be available within the ECXpert 4.0 release, scheduled for release in April 2000. Digital Receipts is Receipt.com's next generation of products that create secure, provable, and reconcilable Digital Receipts using technology that is based on the emerging XML standard. The service, Receipt.com, provides a trusted third party for electronic notarization and archiving of digital receipts."

• [November 15, 1999] "Dell Extends Worldwide Internet Leadership With New Commerce, Customer Support Features. Leading Commerce Site Redesigned to Accommodate Customer Preferences." - "Dell Computer Corporation, a leader in Web-based business solutions, today announced a global redesign of www.dell.com, with new Internet-enabled capabilities that make interactions easier and more tailored to discrete customer needs. Dell's refined Web site, one of the world's leading e-commerce sites, allows customers to buy, search for information and seek support according to their personal preferences and technology experience. The redesigned www.dell.com is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), a database-driven language that enables extremely fast content updates worldwide, allowing Dell to respond more quickly to customer needs or industry changes. For example, new product features are added simultaneously to Dell's 50 country-specific sites, in local languages and currencies. In this way, XML ensures that www.dell.com has accurate and consistent information worldwide, and enhances Dell's already sophisticated technology infrastructure to speed information sharing with customers and suppliers. Dell's Web site, which generates $35 million each day in revenue, is one of the largest online commerce sites based on XML technology."

• [November 15, 1999] "net.Genesis Announces net.Activator, the First e-Business Solution for Triggering Marketing Events Based On e-Customer Analysis." - "net.Genesis Corp., a leader in e-customer intelligence solutions for Internet-enabled and Fortune 500 enterprises, today unveiled net.Activator, the first integration of event-driven technology into an analytical platform. net.Activator is a patent-pending, XML-based extension of the net.Analysis platform that enables e-businesses to leverage e-customer intelligence into marketing action in an automated environment. net.Activator utilizes the e-customer data that has been collected, stored and analyzed by net.Analysis to trigger events -- ads, content, mail and e-mail -- that enrich one-to-one marketing. net.Activator leverages XML capabilities, building them onto its event-driven engine, triggering events based on the information that net.Analysis has filtered, cleansed and correlated into actionable business views. net.Analysis then tracks the effectiveness of the triggered ad, content or mail, closing the loop in the customer intelligence value cycle, enabling true e-business optimization. net.Activator extends the existing net.Analysis Scheduling and Publishing system to encompass subscription requests from other applications. net.Activator generates and distributes reports automatically to interested applications. It is implemented with a programmatic, event-driven, publish-and-subscribe mechanism."

• [November 15, 1999] "Gates Says New Era in Internet Computing Will Bring More Choice and a More Personal Web." - "Proclaiming a new era in Internet computing, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and CEO Bill Gates told an industry audience during his COMDEX/Fall '99 keynote tonight that Web sites will change radically in the coming year from places where information is merely displayed to personal interactive service centers where consumers will be able to simply and easily access the information, goods and services they want, when they want it, from a variety of devices. Looking ahead to the new year, Gates said six trends in the technology industry are combining to transform the Internet and personal computing: XML will become a key Internet technology, becoming more visible than even HTML... Privacy-enabling technologies such as P3P and XML-based privacy statements will help to protect consumer privacy..."

• [November 15, 1999] "Sequoia Software Partners With Architag University To Expand XML Training; Leading Provider of XML-Powered Interactive Enterprise Portals Committed to Expanding Understanding and Use of XML." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, the leading provider of interactive enterprise portals, today announced a partnership with Architag University, a professional training organization, to offer the public training courses in eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) at Sequoia's Columbia, Maryland corporate offices. The joint training program addresses the exploding demand for programmers with experience at developing XML-based information systems and reflects Sequoia's long-standing commitment to accelerating the adoption of XML. Sequoia's flagship product, Sequoia XML Portal Server leverages the power of XML to help organizations radically improve the way they access and manage information from multiple sources, such as databases, business applications or Web sites. Sequoia-powered interactive enterprise portals dramatically improve the search and retrieval process and establish robust bi-directional connectivity with legacy applications so that users can act on information directly from the portal desktop, alleviating information bottlenecks, streamlining business processes and transforming information into knowledge, thereby reducing the cost of doing business."

• [November 15, 1999] "Intraware Adds XML Leader Object Design's eXcelon Development Suite to Burgeoning IT e-Marketplace. Industry-Leading XML-Based Development and Deployment Platform Added To Intraware.shop. Specially Priced XML Starter Kit Offered for Corporate Developers." - "Intraware, Inc., the leading IT e-Marketplace for Web-based software and services, today announced a strategic relationship with Object Design, Inc., a global provider of innovative e-business products and solutions. Today's alliance enables Intraware customers to access the Object Design product line through intraware.shop. Intraware customers can now purchase online, perform online demonstrations, and electronically receive eXcelon, Object Design's XML-based application development environment for building and deploying e-business applications. Intraware is also including Object Design's eXcelon Stylus, the industry's first professional Extensible Style Language (XSL) editing tool, in its XML Starter Kit. Intraware's XML Starter Kit, which is available on Intraware's Everything-XML Web page http://www.everything-xml.com, is a specially priced XML product bundle designed specifically for corporate developers. In addition to the eXcelon Stylus XSL style sheet, the XML Starter Kit includes a dynamic XML server, an XML editor and XML schema tool, as well as XML training... eXcelon is the industry's first complete, XML-based development environment and deployment platform for e-business initiatives. It includes a suite of graphical development tools, connectivity tools to leverage legacy systems, and a data server for storing, managing, querying, and delivering XML information. With today's partnership, Intraware and Object Design are collaborating to accelerate and simplify the delivery of XML-based solutions, which are recognized as one of the fastest growing technologies for business-related software and a core component of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and business-to-business e-commerce."

• [November 15, 1999] "Oracle Announces XML-Based Integration Server Software to Make the Connected E-business a Reality. Oracle Integration Server Provides Infrastructure To Link Customers, Employees and Trading Partners Through New E-Business Processes." - "At Oracle OpenWorld '99 today, Oracle Corp. announced Oracle Integration Server, providing XML-enabled infrastructure for enterprises and e-business exchanges. In combination with Oracle's portal strategy, Oracle Integration Server incorporates business process integration on all levels-including user interfaces, applications and back-end data-to easily transfer data internally and business-to-business. Also, the Oracle Integration Server uniquely includes message warehousing to enable analysis and optimization of business processes. As e-businesses expand electronic commerce initiatives beyond consumer storefronts to Internet exchanges, business process integration is crucial to success. When dealing with numerous partners or merging with other companies, e-businesses often find a mixture of incompatible IT infrastructures which make information exchange nearly impossible. Rather than a wholesale replacement strategy or point-to-point solutions, Oracle Integration Server provides a standards-based integration layer above these different systems, enabling information to flow easily between different applications and systems. By utilizing XML, the Internet standard for information exchange, the Oracle Integration Server facilitates data exchange, reduces integration costs, and increases customer flexibility. Oracle Integration Server is expected to be the first among mainstream vendors to enable message interchange between heterogeneous messaging systems such as IBM MQSeries, TIB/Rendezvous, and Oracle Advanced Queuing. In addition, the software supports different methods of message transmission, including publish, subscribe, point-to-point, and multicast. As part of its e-business integration strategy, Oracle is working with a number of industry-leading vendors such as TSI Software, Vitria Technology, TIBCO Software, Active Software, STC, and Oberon to provide a comprehensive enterprise integration solution."

• [November 12, 1999] "SYS-CON Publications, Publisher of Java Developer's Journal, Announces XML-Journal, a New Magazine That Focuses Exclusively on XML Technology. New SYS-CON Publication Gives XML and Web Application Developers Valuable News and Information on XML Industry Standards and Open, Cross-Platform Development with XML." - "SYS-CON Publications, Inc., today announced the debut of the the first print magazine devoted to XML technology. Published bimonthly by SYS-CON Publications, XML-Journal (www.XML-Journal.com) will provide detailed technical information and instructions from the leading names in XML-based application development. The journal will also feature interviews with industry leaders and experts in the XML, Web and e-commerce development communities, as well as reviews of software add-ons and plug-ins, companion tools, and analyses of successful deployments of XML-based applications. The premier issue of XML-Journal will be available on newsstands and mailed to subscribers in December. Subscribers to XML-Journal will immediately receive SYS-CON's 'Collector's Edition XML Focus Issue' free of charge as part of their subscription. XML-Journal is designed to provide XML developers and consultants with articles columns that bring special insight to building and deploying XML-driven Web applications. The publication also will offer the XML developer community a venue for contributing and sharing XML knowledge. Ultimately, the journal is intended to facilitate the growth of the XML developer community by providing a consistent source of the latest, cutting-edge technical information. Published bimonthly by SYS-CON Publications, XML-Journal is scheduled to have an initial circulation of approximately 30,000 copies. The magazine's content is directed by an editorial board of leading XML experts."

• [November 12, 1999] "PMSC, Through its DORN Subsidiary, Announces Claims Management System and Data Specification Become First of Their Breed to Speak XML." - "Policy Management Systems Corporation announced today through its wholly-owned subsidiary, DORN Technology Group, Inc., that DORN's claims management system and its universal claims data specification are the first of their kind programmed in the Extensible Markup Language (XML). In this case, XML will streamline the exchange of data among all those processing, managing and analyzing claims via the Internet. As a result, DORN's claims management system, RISKMASTER./World, can reduce significantly the cost of handling claims online. The XML version of RISKMASTER/World will facilitate online communication between claims handlers such as self-insured organizations, third party adjusters, insurance pools, and insurance companies. XML eliminates many problems associated with incompatible data formats. For example, users can more easily exchange data via e-mail, browser, file, and live feeds. This new functionality will help DORN maintain its leadership among providers of online claims management systems. Meanwhile, DORN's universal claims data specification will help claims application developers create custom XML tags that define where specific data elements begin and end. This helps speed the process of establishing a claims data standard for the entire claims industry."

• [November 12, 1999] "Icon Information-Systems Announces Release of Version 3.0 of XML Spy Product." - "Icon Information-Systems announces the release of version 3.0 of its highly-acclaimed XML Spy product, which will be showcased at COMDEX, Las Vegas, next week. XML Spy is a professional validating XML editor that lets you edit all XML, XSL, Schema, and DTD files and provides four integrated views on the documents: (1) The Enhanced Grid and Database View shows the entire structure of an XML document in a hierarchical presentation that allows in-place editing of all elements. Sequences of repeating elements are automatically transformed into a spreadsheet-like display. (2) The Text View gives you the option to view the XML document in source form with customizable syntax-coloring and allows you to directly edit the source for low-level tasks. (3) The integrated Browser View uses Internet Explorer 5 to render an XML document inside XML Spy. This view fully supports CSS and XSL style-sheets and can be displayed in a separate window. (4) All the files belonging to one project can now be organized in the convenient Project View. The Intelligent Editing concept of XML Spy makes it easy to generate valid XML documents by providing constant entry-help for elements, attributes, and entities based on the DTD/schema in use."

• [November 10, 1999] "The Apache Software Foundation Launches xml.apache.org Technology Project. Industry Leaders Donate Technology to Provide Open Source Tools for XML." - The Apache Software Foundation, in collaboration with Bowstreet, DataChannel, Exoffice, IBM, Lotus Development Corporation and Sun Microsystems, today announced the formation of the xml.apache.org Project in response to the overwhelming demand for Open Source XML and XSL tools triggered by the rapid adoption of XML. Founded in June 1999, the Apache Software Foundation provides organizational, legal, and financial support for the Apache open-source software projects. Formerly known as the Apache Group, the Foundation incorporated as a membership-based, not-for-profit corporation to ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the participation of individual volunteers, to enable contributions of intellectual property and financial support, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in open-source projects. xml.apache.org will advance the development and deployment of XML and XSL standards, and demonstrate the power of these technologies on both Web server- and client-side environments. In addition, xml.apache.org will provide a robust set of XML- and XSL-related libraries and applications within an industry-wide, peer-based Open Source development process. The xml.apache.org Project is being bootstrapped with technology donations from several vendors and Open Source XML developers, and will be maintained by the Project team. The donated technologies include: (1) XML4J and XML4C Parsers from IBM - parsers that read and validate XML documents, and are essential components in XML-based solutions. (2) Java Project X and XHTML Parser from Sun Microsystems - a high performance and fully conformant XML parser with optional validation; (3) LotusXSL, from Lotus Development Corporation - an XSLT processor that accepts and interprets the new W3C XPath and XSL transformation; (4) XPages, from DataChannel - an XML application markup language for quickly building data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources; (5) FOP, from James Tauber, now with Bowstreet - the world's first implementation of XSL for print use; (6) Cocoon, from Stefano Mazzocchi and the Java-Apache community - a 100% pure java XML publishing framework; (7) OpenXML, from Exoffice and Assaf Arkin - an open source, pure Java, fully featured framework for XML-based applications; (8) XSL:P, from Exoffice and Keith Visco - a free, open source XSL processor written in Java."

• [November 10, 1999] "The Official Documentation for the DocBook DTD Released by O'Reilly: DocBook: The Definitive Guide." - "The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), the organization responsible for the continued maintenance of the DocBook DTD, has designated O'Reilly's latest release, DocBook: the Definitive Guide, as the official documentation of the DocBook DTD. DocBook: the Definitive Guide was written by Leonard Muellner and Norman Walsh, who is the creator of the DocBook XML implementation. This important new book is the complete and official documentation of the DocBook Document Type Definition (DTD) and many of its associated tools. DocBook is a system for writing structured documents using SGML and XML. DocBook provides all the elements you'll need for technical documents of all kinds. A number of computer companies use DocBook for their documentation, as do several Open Source documentation groups, including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). With the consistent use of DocBook, these groups can readily share and exchange information. With an XML-enabled browser, DocBook documents are as accessible on the Web as in print. DocBook: The Definitive Guide will be at your local bookstore, and in its entirety, online at the following Web sites: O'Reilly, OASIS, and The DocBook site. OASIS, the organization that is the official maintainer of the DocBook DTD, has identified DocBook: the Definitive Guide as the official documentation for the DocBook DTD. [DocBook: The Definitive Guide, by Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner; ISBN: 1-56592-580-7, 652 pages, $36.95 (US$) , Includes CD-ROM.]"

• [November 10, 1999] "DataChannel Announces XML Backbone, a Comprehensive Platform for Enterprise Data and Application Integration. Industry Leader Formalizes Professional Services Practice to Deliver XML-based Platform for E-business as part of its Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) Solutions Framework." - DataChannel Tuesday announced the XML Backbone, an architectural platform for e-business that delivers comprehensive enterprise data and application integration. XML Backbone is a core component of the DataChannel Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) Solution Framework that enables access to all enterprise data resources. DataChannel's Professional Services teams design and build the XML Backbone based on both common enterprise landscape elements and unique customer requirements using best of breed technology that ensure enterprise-class scalability, reliability and extensibility. The XML Backbone is a data exposure and integration services layer based on XML and built by a DataChannel Professional services team that has extensive expertise in XML and enterprise integration. The XML Backbone incorporates the DataChannel Server 4.0, a portal server, and other DataChannel open-standards technologies like DataChannel Xpages and DataChannel Xconn. DataChannel will leverage strategic partners for connector technologies such as STC's e-Gate 4.0."

• [November 10, 1999] "DataChannel Supports Xml.Apache.Org Technology Project. Industry Leader Donates XML Application Markup Language to Open Source Tools Library." - DataChannel Tuesday announced support for the formation of the XML.APACHE.ORG Project. DataChannel will donate its XPages, an XML application markup language, to the Apache XML Project Open Source Library. The rapid adoption of XML has triggered an overwhelming demand for Open Source XML and XSL tools. DataChannel Inc., the leader in XML-based Enterprise Information Portal Solutions is continuing its active role in enabling the accelerated development and deployment of XML applications for electronic commerce and business-to-business transactions by supporting Apache's Open Source Library. DataChannel's XPages is an XML application markup language for quickly building data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources. XPages offers a dynamic application environment defined by an XML file that aggregates multiple data sources, makes that data URL addressable and defines custom methods to access that data for presentation at the desktop or other devices. The DataChannel submission to the XML.APACHE.ORG Project includes Java code for a servlet based engine... XPages is the industry's first implementation of a standards-based, Web-aware, XML-native, platform independent engine for rapidly integrating disparate data sources. This data may span unstructured data sources like documents, spreadsheets, and web content, as well as structured data sources like databases, legacy systems, and customized mission critical applications. Using XML declarations to specify the integration of data sources provides the capability for efficient implementations that have enterprise-class scalability and reliability."

• [November 10, 1999] "Liquid Software's XML-Based Product to Link Alexus Networker HR With PeopleSoft HRMS. Partnership Will Leverage XML Technology to Deliver Seamless Integration Between PeopleSoft and Alexus' Networker Applications for eBusiness." - "Liquid Software, Inc., the provider of LiquidLINK Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) products for eBusiness and enterprise software vendors, and Alexus International, Inc., provider of the Web-based Networker Applications for enterprise workforce solutions, today announced their partnership to deliver Networker LiquidLINK for PeopleSoft. Built on LiquidCENTER, Liquid Software's PeopleSoft-certified integration engine, Networker LiquidLINK will use an XML-based exchange methodology to create efficient end-to-end workflow between PeopleSoft and Networker workforce applications, including: staffing and position management; requisition, job posting and candidate management; recruiting and hiring; and employee deployment, development and retention. Using secure, role-based access, Alexus Networker empowers recruiters, hiring managers, and salaried and hourly employees to participate in workforce processes from a user-friendly desktop browser. With Networker LiquidLINK, PeopleSoft customers will enjoy this best-of-breed functionality while leveraging the power of their ERP backbone."

• [November 10, 1999] "StreamServe Takes the Lead in Providing Support for XML and Application-Enabled Pervasive Business Communications. StreamServe 2.3 expands business application distribution to cellular phones, paves way for WAP/Palm Pilot output." - "Today, StreamServe becomes the first intelligent output management and e-communications software vendor to offer a solution that allows individuals to receive personalized enterprise application information via cellular phones and other pervasive devices. StreamServe 2.3 also includes expanded XML capabilities that enable businesses to use a variety of XML schemas to communicate with their business partners. Using StreamServe 2.3, which interfaces seamlessly with business systems, such as SAP, Baan, Oracle, QAD and Intentia, users will now be able to route business critical information from an enterprise application server directly to a customer, business partner or employee's cellular phone or pager using the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol. Before it is routed, the information is formatted and personalized to provide only the information each receiver needs. For example, corporate executives can use their cellular phones to request information, such as order status and P&L reports, directly from the business application, greatly improving timely access to mission critical business information. In addition to the SMS functionality, StreamServe 2.3 also has several other unique features, including XMLOUT, which supports Microsoft's BizTalk to enable businesses to choose the XML-based format, or schema, they want to use when sending information to its business partners. Companies can choose from a variety of XML schemas, including Common Business Library and Commerce XML (cXML)."

• [November 10, 1999] "bTrade.com Gets Down to e-Business. Finally Low Cost XML - EDI for the Average User, the Large User and Legacy-bound User Alike. Web Delivered Solutions At an Affordable Price." - bTrade.com, an Irving, Texas-based Internet services company, announces the availability of data transport/data security/data transformation (Data Portal) services. These services enable small companies, large companies and even legacy-bound companies to use the Internet and Extranets to exchange business data, regardless of data format. bTrade's data transformation allows large hub accounts and legacy-bound users to inter-operate with XML, HTML based end users without changing anything in their host environment. Web-EDI Data Portal clients are also provided with bTrade's service. bTrade's Data Portal Client includes data transformation (i.e. XML, X12, EDIFACT, HTML, EXCEL, ODBC, SQL, Flat File transformation), eliminating the need to expend large amounts of dollars and time on translator products, costly client/server software and their implementation. Since the data transformation is done on the Data Portal Client (free from bTrade), bTrade does not charge for data transformation, but includes basic data transformation as part of its standard Data Transport offering."

• [November 10, 1999] "New LiveData XML Server From Cycle Software Enables Web Technology Solutions for Utilities. From Back Office Ops to Customer Apps With XML." - Cycle Software, developer of the LiveData family of enterprise integration products for the utility industry, today announced LiveData Server version 5.0 with XML. Originally designed as a solution for adding extensions to HTML, XML is experiencing increasing adoption across the industry as a successful gateway technology between autonomous heterogeneous systems. It is extensible, easily understood and managed, and platform-, language- and vendor-independent. LiveData Server Version 5.0 with XML offers the innate power and flexibility of XML with the following special features: (1) Fast and friendly schema mapping: every external protocol and application is mapped into an object framework, providing a maximally flexible middle ground where it is possible to do the correct mappings from one to another; (2) Bi-directional communication: specific requests made via XML to server are coordinated into several underlying requests to different systems supported by LiveData Server such as ICCP. They are then intelligently mapped back up to an interactive, state-of-the art Web page or commonly deployed DBMS system; (3) Support for the latest browser side Java Scripting techniques, including Microsoft extensions. Combining the flexibility of XML with the capability of ICCP, Cycle Software provides system integrators and Utility companies with the ability to provide an effective Internet- or Intranet-based method for the delivery of real-time data."

• [November 10, 1999] "ClientSoft Enhances Family of Products Delivering Host Applications to the Web. New Versions support Javascript, Visual Basic Script, and XML Formatting." - ClientSoft, a leader in the legacy extension marketplace, today announced major enhancements to its ClientBuilder Enterprise 2000 and WebPack 2000 products, providing a more open framework for application developers to connect and integrate legacy systems with front end applications. The enhancements were developed in response to the growing acceptance of e-business and the requirements to integrate disparate back end office systems into one common, easy to use front end application. More than 40 new features have been added to the products which give customers who have significant investments in legacy applications all the benefits of today's client/server and Internet technologies without requiring any changes to existing host-based systems. [Features include] (1) Support of XML formatting. This provides building blocks to allow a ClientSoft development file (CSD) to be presented in text format that is readable by any XML parser. CSDs can be completely converted to XML files, compliant with XML industry standards. (2) An enhanced data dictionary in XML format. It allows users to search for fields, records, containers and screen objects."

• [November 10, 1999] "South Wind Design: xmlFX DTK Jump-starts XML Application Development. Toolkit Empowers C++ Developers to Master Internet-Enabled XML Data Interchange." - South Wind Design, Inc. announced the release of xmlFX Developer Toolkit for C++ v1.0 (xmlFX DTK) to expedite the development of business-to-business XML applications. Key benefits include Internet-readiness and an intuitive yet powerful XML query language (SXQL) for accessing and manipulating transactional XML documents. Because it leverages existing skill sets, there is little or no learning curve. Now, developers can work with the new XML standards using a familiar programming language, naturally becoming champions of XML within their IT organizations. The xmlFX DTK is targeted at the manipulation of transactional documents as opposed to display documents. Its been proven robust in a production environment that processes hundreds of thousands of XML transactions every day. Built-in Internet support empowers the user to read and write XML documents over the Web, using HTTP and FTP protocols. The xmlFX DTK is available now, complete with on-line documentation and Web-enabled technical support. The initial release targets Microsoft Visual C++ 6."

• [November 10, 1999] "XEDI Gains Additional Endorsements From Industry Experts. XML Representation of EDI Endorsed by Cameron Consulting." - Cameron Consulting, a market analysis and consulting firm specializing in the researching of critical computer technology areas, today endorsed XMLSolutions' XEDI (zee-dee) approach to the XML representation of EDI (electronic data interchange) documents. Said Debra Cameron, President, Cameron Consulting: 'XEDI leverages information inherent in EDI itself, providing a base on which to build more complex applications in the future while providing full EDI support today. Further, XEDI can take EDI and map it to the format of any of the other standards currently under development today, such as RosettaNet or cXML. While alternative approaches to XML/EDI struggle to support the hundreds of transactions available in X12 and EDIFACT, writing DTDs for each transaction, XEDI is designed to support the entire X12 dictionary and the entire EDIFACT dictionary with a single 30-line DTD'."

• [November 10, 1999] "Oracle Connects E-Businesses Via Industry's First Comprehensive XML Developer's Kit And Support Program. New Tools and Support Program Provide Low-Level Infrastructure for New Era Of E-Business Marketplaces." - "Demonstrating its continued commitment to Internet standards, Oracle Corp. today announced the immediate availability of the beta version of Oracle XML Developer's Kit-bundled components, tools and utilities for building and deploying XML-enabled applications to create and maintain e-business marketplaces. In addition, Oracle is also establishing the industry's first XML support program to help ensure consistent, reliable and speedy deployments of XML business-to-business infrastructures. Specifically, Oracle XDK includes the following: (1) XML Parsers: supporting Java, C, C++ and PL/SQL, the components create and parse XML using industry standard DOM and SAX interfaces. (2) XSL Processor: transforms or renders XML into other text-based formats such as HTML. (3) XML Class Generator: automatically generates Java and C++ classes to send XML data from Web forms or applications. (4) XML Transviewer Java Beans: visually view and transform XML documents and data via Java components. While other companies only offer shareware and trial XML components, Oracle is one of the first to provide a supported and licensed XML development kit for building and deploying XML-enabled applications. In order to provide first-class support to Internet developers, XML experts in Oracle Support will provide both phone and Web-based support for Oracle XDK. Support will be free of charge to those with a current maintenance agreement for the Oracle database or Oracle Application Server."

• [November 10, 1999] "Symix Publishes XML Schema for Collaboration-Critical Midmarket Transactions to BizTalk.org." - "Symix Systems, Inc. today announced that it has published key XML schemas to the BizTalk.org repository as a part of its digitalmidmarket.com initiative for midsize manufacturers and distributors. The Microsoft BizTalk Framework accelerates the rapid adoption of XML for business-to-business and business- to-consumer e-commerce. As a part of its eBusiness initiative, Symix is supporting the use of XML as a common data exchange framework. Symix has posted two midmarket- and industry-specific XML schemas -- Bill of Materials (BOM) and Order Promise Date Request/Response -- to BizTalk.org to facilitate the collaboration and information exchange between its midmarket customers and their customers and trading partners. Symix is the first midmarket applications vendor to integrate the XML-based BOM into its existing back office systems for manufacturers and distributors. The XML integration capabilities enable Symix's customers to quickly and accurately transfer the BOM among other manufacturing sites or service providers using eBusiness, regardless of the recipients' business system or underlying technology platform. Symix plans to post additional schema to the BizTalk.org repository to drive the adoption of XML as a midmarket standard. Symix has an ongoing collaborative relationship with Microsoft, a 'charter member' of Symix's digitalmidmarket.com initiative."

• [November 09, 1999] "GCA's XML'99: BizTalk, XML.org, and UN-XML to the Frontlines." - "XML'99, the most comprehensive XML event to-date features discussion of BizTalk.org, OASIS's XML.org, and the UN-XML repository initiatives. In order to spearhead and initiate the use of XML in e-business and other applications, a number of organizations have or will have repositories established in the near future. The main purpose of the repositories is to allow access to schemas and/or information about certain schemas developed by vertical industry groups or organizations for certain specific applications. One may choose to use a schema from the repository or write a new one based on their requirements. During the program of XML'99, slated for December 5-9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, attendees will hear from James Utzschneider, BizTalk.org and Norbert Mikula, OASIS on the status of BizTalk.org and XML.org. Dick Raman, EDI-TIE, will discuss the importance of the UN-XML initiative and its impact on the Web."

• [November 09, 1999] "Harbinger Announces Initiative to Accelerate Automotive Industry Portals." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today its plans to deliver capabilities that will complement and accelerate implementation of Ford's AutoXchange portal and GM's TradeXchange portal. These capabilities will package Harbinger's software and services, including XML and Automotive Network eXchange (ANX) support, to provide solutions that help suppliers integrate with the newly announced automotive portals. The solutions will be delivered via Harbinger's Internet E-Commerce portal, harbinger.net, on behalf of the automotive industry. Harbinger currently supports 50 percent of the E-Commerce enabled suppliers to the major automotive manufacturers. Additionally, Harbinger has been working closely with the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) on ANX support requirements and is preparing to deliver this capability in 4Q99. ANX capabilities will be delivered as a value-added service on harbinger.net with all of the software and trading partner support that differentiates Harbinger's supplier solutions. This will provide low-cost, full-service connectivity for small to medium size automotive suppliers."

• [November 09, 1999] "New Release of Bluestone Visual-XML Expands XML Integration Options, Eases Application Customization. Bluestone's XML Developer Toolkit Enables Users to Quickly, Efficiently Extend their Enterprises to Customers, Partners, and Systems ." - "Bluestone Software, Inc., a leading provider of Enterprise Interaction Management software, today announced the general availability of Bluestone Visual-XML 1.1, the latest release of the company's approachable and easy-to-use toolkit for building XML applications. The new version expands XML options for intra- and inter-company integration and simplifies customization of dynamic XML applications. In doing so, Bluestone Visual-XML 1.1 provides easier application and data integration for users of Bluestone XML Suite, the company's integration server framework, and Total-e-Business, Bluestone's comprehensive e-business solution that includes XML Suite as its integration server component. Enhancements to Bluestone Visual-XML focus on expanding the reach of XML to customers, partners, and systems, as well as expediting the customization of XML-driven business systems to let users quickly respond to changing business requirements. Bluestone Visual-XML's new transformation engine and dynamic XML Stylesheet Language (XSL) engine combine to support a wide range of XML documents, DTDs, client devices, and user display preferences, while the new Universal Listener Framework (ULF) Console gives users point-and-click control over ULF services."

• [November 08, 1999] "DataChannel and STC re-define 'E' in XML-based Enterprise Information Portals. DataChannel joins STC e*SP Alliance Program." - "DataChannel and STC jointly announced today a Strategic Alliance that will create the most extensive XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) in the industry. DataChannel has joined STC's e-Solutions Partner (e*SP) Alliance Program as an e* Software Partner. DataChannel will combine STC's e*Gate 4.0 with DataChannel Server 4.0, to access any system, data, or application in the enterprise. STC's mission is to provide business process connectivity and enterprise application integration technology -- supplying real-time and batch enterprise integration of applications, databases and legacy systems to a wide variety of industries. STC's e*Gate* 4.0 e-Business Integrator is a fourth generation product implemented at more than 1,200 sites worldwide. e*Gate 4.0 is fully Internet-enabled and allows companies to tie together new Web-based applications with existing systems such as ERP and CRM - regardless of platform or technology -- with unprecedented speed and reliability. The breadth of application integration and real-time transaction processing provided by STC's e*Gate will enable DataChannel's EIP to create a dynamic, two-way, e-business interface, to any system, data, or application throughout the enterprise. In addition, STC has created an XML DTD converter that allows the DataChannel Server to transform information from its original source to XML format, which can then be managed, integrated, published, or indexed dynamically through the portal server. This is the foundation of the alliance. By providing proprietary data structures in open, XML format, an enterprise can rapidly re-purpose its information for use by any application."

• [November 08, 1999] "PricewaterhouseCoopers Adopts Extensibility's XML Authority as a Key Component of Its Universal Data Interface Middleware Product." - "PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's largest professional services organization, and Extensibility Inc., the leading XML schema solutions provider, have joined forces to provide schema formation capabilities to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Universal Data Interface (UDI) middleware product designed for e-business applications. Extensibility's XML Authority will be integrated into UDI to design and manage XML-based grammars. PricewaterhouseCoopers and J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated jointly proposed FpML (Financial Products Markup Language), a new protocol for Internet-based electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives, initially handling interest rate and foreign exchange products. FpML enables Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis. Extensibility's XML Authority also is being used to design, document and manage the FpML schema. The UDI server engine is an established middleware technology with more than one dozen sites currently in production. In addition to its extensive connectivity and middleware functionality, the UDI also is a high-speed validating XML parser, with XML-based object definitions..." See "Financial Products Markup Language (FpML)."

• [November 08, 1999] "The E-Content Company Introduces XML-Based Training Toolkit. E-Learn Maximizes XML to Dynamically Create and Assemble Customized Training Programs and Courseware." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications today announced the release of e-Learn, a new toolkit that enables companies to automate training processes by creating, managing and dynamically assembling training materials according to an individual's skills and needs. Extending the power of the BladeRunner XML content management solution, e-Learn dramatically enhances the learning process and provides companies with a solution to bring employees up to speed, to solve problems quickly and to increase productivity. E-Learn enables companies to create, update, manage, and dynamically assemble training materials and programs providing a faster and more effective way for people to obtain the skills they need to solve problems quickly and to be more productive. In addition, e-Learn automates the process of training and courseware management by leveraging the power of XML. With e-Learn, content for training materials can be created once and repackaged in an unlimited number of ways to match the specific needs of individuals. The result is a comprehensive learning solution for tailoring courseware to enable continuous learning."

• [November 08, 1999] "Meta Data Coalition Drives New Key Initiatives. November 11 Technical Meeting, Open to All Coalition Members, Will Address These Initiatives Plus Several New Models." - "The Meta Data Coalition (MDC), a not-for-profit organization in the process of standardizing metadata, announced today several new key initiatives as part of its technical meeting November 11, 1999. In July 1999, the membership of the Meta Data Coalition ratified the MDC-OIM 1.0, which provides the basic meta-model for representing databases and the interrelationships between them. The new initiatives will extend the model into several key areas such as business models and information portals. This will enable the integration of an even larger set of tools and business applications using the MDC-OIM and its XML interchange format. MDC and OMG Aligning Metadata Standards in the Market: As a result of the Metadata Coalition's membership exchange with the Object Management Group (OMG), the data warehousing part of the MDC-OIM has been used as a design reference for the OMG's CWMI (Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange). With the continued co-operation between the technical task forces of both organizations, the metadata standards will be aligned. The MDC has established a collaboration with the European Commission's ESPRIT Project ATLAS, which is headed by Unisoft, Greece. ATLAS incorporates technologies for real-time business information systems and plans to use the MDC-OIM Business Engineering and Knowledge Management Models to drive the transition from online to real-time business information systems... Standardized Metadata for Component (Object) Design and Reuse [is] a component model [which] specifies component interfaces and describes the design, assembly and deployment of components into a system, based on some standard component architectural style. The new model provides the necessary metadata types for these descriptions. The work is based on the meta-model of Catalysis, a UML-based methodology for end-to-end component-based development." See "MDC Open Information Model (OIM)."

• [November 08, 1999] "ObjectSpace Radically Simplifies XML Development with Release of Dynamic XML - DXML." - "ObjectSpace, a leader in enterprise distributed computing, today announced the general availability of Dynamic XML (DXML) 1.0 for Java. XML is the W3C standard for information exchange on the Internet, which simplifies the exchange between applications and provides great flexibility in how information can be presented and used by end users. DXML radically simplifies XML development by allowing developers to create, write, and read XML documents as if they were standard Java Beans. Without DXML, developers face a much larger learning curve and must master the intricacies of low-level XML technology like parsers, document type documents (DTD) and Document Object Models (DOM). To foster rapid growth of the XML development community, ObjectSpace has released DXML free-of-charge to Java developers. 'Our first contribution to the Java community, JGL (the generic collection library for Java), was a tremendous success, reaching over 100,000 developers and licensed by every major IDE vendor. It quickly became the de-facto standard for Java containers and algorithms,' noted Graham Glass, co-founder and CTO of ObjectSpace. 'We believe that DXML will achieve the same level of success because it allows any Java developer to tap into the full power of XML with almost no learning curve. We will be aggressively licensing DXML to any vendor that wishes to quickly bring the power of XML to its user base.' DXML is also seamlessly integrated into Voyager 3.1, the latest release of ObjectSpace's flagship product for enterprise distributed computing."

• [November 08, 1999] "Bowstreet's Web Automation Factory Breaks Major Bottleneck to e-commerce Adoption: Time, Cost and Pain of Customizing B2b Web Sites. Breakthrough technology for mass-customizing B2B Web sites targeted at Fortune 1000, B2B trading portals and application service providers (ASPs)." - "Bowstreet Software Inc. today announced the much-anticipated commercial release of the Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, which breaks a critical e-commerce bottleneck by enabling companies to quickly deliver affordable, highly customized business-to-business Web sites for multiple customers and business partners. Bowstreet also announced that a growing list of Fortune 1000 companies and e-commerce leaders are beginning to use the XML- and directory-based suite to instantly "mass customize" their B2B Web sites. These customers include Federal Express, B2B industry portal innovator FreeMarkets, IBM, Merrill Lynch, NetRatings (a Nielsen Media company), Nortel, Sabre and Thomson Financial Services. Bowstreet's Web Automation Factory is the first product that uses Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), an emerging e-commerce standard pioneered by Bowstreet and supported by IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and the Sun/Netscape Alliance. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory, based on patent-pending technology, eliminates what many industry observers believe to be the biggest obstacle to the adoption of B2B e-commerce: the challenge of creating, maintaining and linking Web sites that provide many tightly integrated B2B connections, each customized for the unique needs of a different partner or customer. The Bowstreet Web Automation Factory's four core components are: (1) Publisher is used by IT professionals to create and publish business processes in XML as a directory of Web services, thereby making them available for use by other businesses. (2) Automator is used by IT professionals to create templates that enable customized functionality and processes to be built into Web sites. (3) Customizer is a browser-based system that is used by line-of-business managers to create and manage user profiles that drive the behavior of the Web site or application. (4) The Bowstreet Web Automation Engine is the heart of the Factory. It manages all metadata in corporate directories and generates customized Web sites on the fly at run-time based on the user profile. The Web Automation Engine supports DSML connections to all major directories including those from IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and Sun/Netscape." See also "Directory Services Markup Language (DSML)."

• [November 08, 1999] "Data Mining Group and IBM Extend Open Standard for Sharing Predictive Models." - "The Data Mining Group (DMG), a consortium of technology organizations, today announced IBM has joined the DMG in its endeavors to extend the Predictive Modeling Markup Language (PMML), the XML-based open standard for defining predictive models. PMML is the first language to provide a quick and easy way for companies to define predictive models and share models between compliant vendors' applications. IBM joins founding consortium companies Magnify, Chicago, SPSS Inc., Chicago, Angoss Software Corp., Toronto, NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio, and the National Center for Data Mining (NCDM) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). 'PMML provides a simple, open framework for working with and exchanging predictive models so that clicks and mortar companies can more quickly exploit the information they discover in their online and traditional data,' said Robert Grossman, chairman of the DMG and president of Magnify, Inc. 'The momentum provided by IBM's support of this standard should make it easier for all companies to build business intelligence into their IT infrastructure.' Today, customers like Mellon Bank, the University of Pennsylvania, Loyalty Consulting and the Bank of Montreal are using IBM data mining solutions to solve real-world business problems. 'PMML allows users to develop models within one vendor's application, and use other vendors' applications to visualize, analyze, evaluate or otherwise use the models. Previously, this was virtually impossible, but with PMML, the exchange of models between compliant applications now will be seamless. The DMG currently is working on PMML Version 1.1, an XML-based language providing applications a vendor-independent method of defining models so that proprietary issues and incompatibilities are no longer a barrier to the exchange of models between applications. Predictive models express the patterns of information discovered in data mining, which companies then may use to develop specific strategies from which they can realize increased profitability." Details: see "Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML)."

• [November 08, 1999] "Object Design Announces Availability of eXcelon Stylus, New Tool for Building XML-based eBusiness Applications. Industry's first visual XSL editor bridges the gap between XML and HTML." - Object Design, Inc., a global provider of innovative eBusiness products and solutions, today announced the general availability of eXcelon Stylus, the industry's first professional eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) editing tool for building next-generation eBusiness applications. eXcelon Stylus simplifies the process of creating data-driven Web pages by giving developers an easy-to-use visual tool for generating XSL, a critical technology for developing eBusiness applications because it enables XML to be transformed into HTML for presentation on the Web. eXcelon Stylus speeds development of XSL stylesheets by integrating XML data, stylesheet editing and Web page preview in a single visual environment. Its 'smart editing' capabilities assist with all XSL and HTML instructions, and its 'visual backmapping' technology allows for one-click debugging and maintenance. eXcelon Stylus is available both as a stand-alone tool, and as part of the tool set for ODI's eXcelon 2.0 eBusiness application development environment, which is a dynamically extensible platform for building and deploying XML-based eBusiness applications. eXcelon 2.0 comes with an XSL engine that automatically processes eXcelon Stylus-generated XSL, with its associated XML to create HTML for presentation on the Web. Together, the two products offer a complete XML application development environment for building and deploying eBusiness applications."

• [November 06, 1999] "ConneXt Speeds Customer Information System Implementation Via Extensible Mark-up Language -- XML -- APIs. ConneXt Builds On Open, Internet-based Technology to Lower Costs to Utilities." - "ConneXt, Inc., a Seattle-based software company focused on delivering leading billing and customer care solutions to the utility market, announced a breakthrough in speeding the implementation time required for large utility billing systems through the use of XML technology. ConneXt has revealed that its ConsumerLinX solution is using and supporting XML for all needed application programming interfaces. First to benefit from the new technology will be Puget Sound Energy, now in the final stages of installing ConsumerLinX. They are using XML to interface ConsumerLinX to its new telephone call center equipment. The resultant integration will allow customers ready access to account or outage information via touch-tone phone. PSE telephone representatives will benefit by having customer information appear on screen before they answer each call."

• [November 06, 1999] "Open Applications Group posts XML Schemas for Business Transactions on BizTalk.org." - "The Open Applications Group, the largest publisher of eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based content in the world, today announced that they have posted 122 XML schemas for business transactions to BizTalk.org. This set of transaction definitions represents a rich set of content that organizations can use to enable faster and more efficient interoperability. The Open Applications Group is rapidly becoming known as the premier XML content developer in the world. Currently, the OAGI is developing more business transactions schemas, and they hope to collaborate with vertical industry groups to pursue the development of convergent architecture and content. The OAGI is a charter member of the BizTalk steering committee and is an industry contributor to the development and adoption of XML and XML-based content. They have built a body of work called the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS), which defines a set of components, processes and interfaces for use in e-Business, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Financials, and Human Resources applications."

• [November 06, 1999] "XMLSolutions Announces the Launch of XEDI.ORG; XML Representation of EDI Endorsed by Aerospace Industry Association." - "Northern Virginia-based XMLSolutions today announced the launch of XEDI.ORG. XEDI ('zee-dee') is an approach to the XML representation of EDI (electronic data interchange) documents. The Aerospace Industry Association, which represents every aerospace manufacturer in the United States, has been testing the XEDI solution, and has endorsed this approach as the standard approach to XML EDI. The AIA endorsed XEDI Approach is unique in that a single, very simple document type definition (DTD) is used to define all versions of all X12 and EDIFACT transaction sets. The other unique feature of this approach is that it makes use of existing ANSI X12 EDI standards dictionaries in XML form, making every EDI implementation in every industry immediately usable in XML without the lengthy DTD development process that is so prevalent. 'Our major reason for moving to XML is to provide a single file format that can be used in both a web browser and in an integrated systems application. This eliminates the biggest EDI drawback that is the cost and complexity of PC based EDI for small and medium enterprises,' said Tom Warner, Chair, EC Harmonization Subcommittee, Aerospace Industry Association of America. Information on the XEDI approach to XML representation of EDI is available to the general public at http://www.xedi.org and is an open source, open definition project."

• [November 06, 1999] "Commerce One Announces the Industry's First XML Development Toolkit for Building E-Commerce Applications. XDK 1.0 Promotes Industry-wide Development of Interoperable E-Commerce Applications Using XML Schema Documents." - "Commerce One, Inc. pushed XML-based e-commerce another step forward today by announcing the Commerce One XML Development Kit (XDK) 1.0, the world's first Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema toolkit that enables the industry-wide creation of XML-based business documents and applications. For end users, these new XML-based applications will result in information-rich, robust e-commerce transactions that are as ubiquitous as web pages. Targeted at developers, XDK 1.0 is immediately available and can be downloaded free of charge at Commerce One's MarketSite. Commerce One is committed to open XML foundations for electronic commerce by providing XML tools, XML elements, and a document framework for the entire industry. The company's comprehensive XML e-commerce solutions now include: (1) XDK 1.0 - the development toolkit for document-based programming, released in October 1999. (2) CBL 2.0 - Common Business Library, the first open XML specification for the cross-industry exchange of business documents, released in July 1999. CBL is a set of XML schema components, documents and a framework that allows the creation of robust, reusable, XML applications for e-commerce. (3) XML schema language - resubmitted to the W3C in July 1999, this schema language provides the framework critical for e-commerce transaction validation. XDK 1.0 will leverage the W3C standard schema language when it is published. (4) Commerce One MarketSite - the industry's leading commerce portal, enabling businesses to create open, interoperable marketplaces that automate all their interactions with suppliers, from order to payment. Commerce One's XDK 1.0 is available immediately free of charge from CommerceOne MarketSite."

• [November 06, 1999] "Extensibility and Commerce One collaborate on XML based e-commerce toolkit." - "'As the leading XML schema solutions vendor, we recognize the potential power of Commerce One's XDK 1.0,' said Reid Conrad, president and CEO of Extensibility. "Commerce One is recognized as the leader in schema-based XML development for e-commerce, and we are working very closely with them to further integrate our products with Commerce One's XDK 1.0 and Common Business Library CBL 2.0). Our combined efforts will provide users a head start in developing the next generation of e-commerce applications'."

• [November 06, 1999] "Extensibility Continues to Rule the XML e-Business Vocabularies and Grammar Space. Releases XML Authority 1.1. Industry Leading XML Schema Solution Provides Interoperability Across All Major Schema Dialects and Enhanced Functionality for Building and Managing e-business Vocabularies and Grammars." - "Extensibility Inc., today announced XML Authority 1.1, a major upgrade to the industry leading XML schema design conversion and management solution. XML Authority is currently used by thousands of organizations to build XML based e-business vocabularies and grammars. The acceleration of e-business depends heavily on the use of XML schema to ensure the integrity of automated transactions and information interchange. Major enhancements to XML Authority 1.1 include Interoperability across all major schema dialects including DTDs, Microsoft's XDR and BizTalk-compatible framework, Commerce One's SOX Versions 1 and 2, and XML schema..."

• [November 06, 1999] "X-Builder Version 2.5 Released. Development Tool For Faster Web Download Adds New Features Including XML and XSL Support." - "XBuilder, which addresses one of the most persistent problems on the Internet -- slow web content download, has been upgraded to version 2.5. Developed by Sign Me Up Marketing of Bellingham, WA, XBuilder 2.5 increases download speed by more than 4X. 'We're pleased to announce that we have added support for XML and XSL (Extensible Markup Language and Extensible Stylesheet Language) to XBuilder 2.5. When an XML site is compiled by XBuilder, our software transforms the XML and XSL at compile time resulting in HTML that can be served directly to any browser. With this technique you get the benefits of programming in XML while your users have the option of choosing browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 to view the finished page,' said Wayne Berry. Also, the compilation removes the processing of the XML at request time -- increasing site download speed dramatically. Because XBuilder is designed to build a whole web site, you can transform all your XML pages at once, or merge your Active Server Pages (ASP), XML, and HTML pages in one static site."

• [November 06, 1999] "O'Reilly Releases Pocket Reference to XML." - O'Reilly & Associates' latest release in the handy Pocket Reference series, The XML Pocket Reference, is both a concise introduction to XML terminology and syntax, and a quick reference to XML instructions, attributes, entities, and data types. It also covers XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language), necessary to ensure that your XML documents have a consistent look and feel across platforms... This small book acts both as a perfect tutorial for learning the basics of XML, and as a convenient reference to the XML and XSL specifications." [By Robert Eckstein. 1st Edition October 1999. ISBN: 1-56592-709-5 112 pages, $8.95.]

• [November 06, 1999] "Cimtek Commerce Adopts XML Technology for Healthcare. E-Commerce Transactions on HIDAHELP.com and medicalbuyer.com. Technology enables buyers and sellers of any size to participate in Web-based transactions." - "Cimtek Commerce, a leading provider of vertically integrated e-commerce solutions for the medical supply industry, today announced that its Internet trading hubs, HIDAHELP.com and medicalbuyer.com, will now support the latest meta-language standard, Extensible Markup Language (XML). By integrating this leading-edge standard, Cimtek Commerce offers buyers and sellers of medical supply products the most flexible and robust solutions for electronic transactions in a business-to-business environment. By leveraging XML technology along with its current Internet electronic data interchange (EDI) capability, Cimtek Commerce is the first vertical e-commerce trading hub serving the medical supply industry to enable all buyers and sellers, regardless of size or current technology infrastructure, to participate in web-based business transactions."

• [November 06, 1999] "CitX Launches NotarX - First Portal and Web-based Digital Identity Certification Service for Notaries. New Portal and Web-based service enables Notaries to play active role in B2B e-Commerce and e-Healthcare by providing digital notarization of user identity credentials." - "CitX Corporation, through its partner Baltimore Technologies (LSE: BLM), a global leader in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based cryptographic solutions, today announces the development of NotarX, the first Web-based application designed for use by Notaries to provide digital certification of an individual's identity credentials for trusted e-Commerce transactions and authorized access to sensitive information such as medical records. CitX Corporation provides Web and XML enabled EDI Mapping Engine Interface Modules to automatically exchange data with EDI systems."

• [November 06, 1999] "Ardent Software Convenes Summit of Industry Leaders to Address Meta Data Management Challenge. Experts from The Data Warehousing Institute, Enterprise Warehousing Solutions, Intelligent Solutions, META Group, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation to Meet at Key Data Warehouse Conference." - "Ardent Software, Inc., a leading global data management software company, today announced that it will moderate a panel discussion to examine critical meta data management challenges facing organizations building data warehouses. "Meta Data Management Value Proposition: Today's Myth and Reality" will be held in conjunction with The Data Warehousing Institute's Fifth Annual Leadership Conference in Orlando. The panel will examine issues such as standards initiatives and interoperability, the potential advantages of XML, the Microsoft Meta Data Repository, and methodologies for successful meta data integration and sharing."

• [November 06, 1999] "Computron Partners With webMethods for B2B E-Commerce Initiatives. webMethods to Provide Essential Component in Computron E-Commerce Applications." - "Computron Software, Inc., a leading global provider of business process automation and back office financial management software, today announced its agreement with webMethods, a leading provider of open solutions for business-to-business e-commerce. Signed at the end of September, this agreement will allow Computron to integrate webMethods B2B into the forthcoming Computron e-business solutions. These solutions, previewed at Computron's recent International Users Conference, are scheduled for general release in Q1 of 2000. The integration of the webMethods B2B software infrastructure and Computron's latest e-business solutions will let companies quickly achieve seamless business-to-business capabilities over the Internet. By leveraging open standards, such as XML and RosettaNet, webMethods B2B allows the deployment of e-business initiatives without the time or expense of altering existing legacy, proprietary or ERP applications."

• [November 06, 1999] "DataChannel Supports IBM Enterprise Information Portal." - "DataChannel today announced support for IBM's Enterprise Information Portal. DataChannel is pleased to team with IBM to extend access to enterprise data residing on a variety of IBM and other heterogeneous systems residing within the enterprise through the DataChannel Server 4.0, an XML-based portal server. The powerful combination of DataChannel Server 4.0 and the IBM Enterprise Information Portal provide rapid application development tools through the use of open standards. The combined DataChannel and IBM Enterprise Information Portal solutions help deliver on the promise of XML with real world applications that dynamically access and deliver enterprise data through a secure personalized interface. DataChannel Server 4.0 leverages key components of IBM's Enterprise Information Portal framework to provide bi-directional data access and support for mobile devices. With the combination of IBM's e-business portal strategy and DataChannel's XML-based portal server, enterprise customers will now be able to extend access to mission critical information, structured and unstructured, across the Internet to their customers, employees, and partners."

• [November 06, 1999] "Informatica Achieves Industry First With Delivery of XML-Based Metadata Exchange. Version 1.6 of Informatica's Metadata Exchange (MX2) Application Programming Interface Reinforces Company's Position as Leading Platform for E-Business Analysis. Leading Business Intelligence Tool Vendors Such as Business Objects, Cognos To Deliver MX2-Compliant Products in Q4'99." - "Informatica Corporation, provider of one of the leading software platforms for powering e-business and analytic applications, today announced the general availability of MX2 1.6, the latest version of its industry-leading Metadata Exchange (MX2) application programming interface (API). MX2 1.6 is the decision support industry's first object-oriented metadata exchange facility to support XML, a text-based programming language that is emerging as the 'lingua franca' for integrating and managing e-business solutions, as well as bi-directional metadata exchange. With the shipment of MX2 1.6, Informatica has again raised the technology bar for enterprise decision support, and delivered to customers a complete solution for metadata access and management... Before implementing MX2, Experian's data warehousing team was inputting, updating and maintaining system metadata by hand. By deploying the MX2 bridge, the Experian team can now automate metadata capture and propagation to the BusinessObjects front-end application, reducing set-up time and facilitating the complex process of coordinating metadata updates on a daily basis."

• [November 06, 1999] "Former Microsoft Executive Launches ASP to Develop/Host XML-based Business Applications." - "Former Microsoft executive Graham Clark has launched BAport Technologies, a new software company that will develop small business applications for the emerging Internet Application Service Provider (ASP) market. BAport's applications are optimized for the ASP market, and inherit the benefits associated with this application delivery model; no user upgrades, no upfront costs, automatic data back-ups and anywhere-anytime access. In addition, BAport has developed a unique and market-leading application architecture based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) family of technologies."

• [November 06, 1999] "Solbright Announces Dispatch 3.0 With Rich Media Testing Capabilities." - " Solbright Inc., a leading provider of digital media solutions, announced today the release of Dispatch 3.0, with new capabilities to validate rich media ads before sending campaigns to the web publisher. Dispatch is the only open XML-based online advertising management system for interactive agencies that organizes, administrates, and automates the online media buying, trafficking and reporting process. With the introduction of rich media testing capabilities, the interactive agency can streamline the ad submission process by accessing site-specific production specifications and rules. Dispatch 3.0 maintains a database of web sites and stores information regarding their specific requirements such as media type, ad file size, dimensions, etc., validating the ads against this database." See "Solbright Inc. Announces Comprehensive XML Based Infrastructure for the Internet Advertising Industry."

• [November 06, 1999] "webMethods Launches European Operations. Global Demand For B2B E-Commerce Solutions Drives Expansion Into Benelux, Germany and Great Britain." - webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today announced the company opened a European head office in Hilversum, in The Netherlands, along with sales and service offices in Frankfurt, Germany and Reading, England. Chris van der Harst, general manager, will oversee European operations from the company's headquarters office in The Netherlands. webMethods B2B, the company's flagship product, provides a comprehensive solution that allows organizations to effectively realize their business community integration (BCI) strategies by tightly and seamlessly linking customers, suppliers and B2B marketplaces into real-time trading networks. Through broad support of open standards and protocols, such as XML, RosettaNet, FpML, cXML, OBI, OAG, ACORD, Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI, webMethods B2B connects integrated business communities and enables companies to conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing infrastructure. With its recent European expansion and continued growth in the U.S., webMethods has nearly doubled in size over the past year and currently employs approximately 200 people worldwide."

• [October 28, 1999] "Sun Microsystems Unveils Developers' Toolkit for Creating IMS-Compatible XML Education Content and Applications Sun Works With SRI International to Produce Toolkit and Source Code Using Java Technology." - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today unveiled a developers' toolkit for the creation of XML documents that conforms to the IMS Meta-data Specification standard. Working with SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, Sun created the toolkit using Java technology for distribution from the IMS website to IMS members and the educational community. IMS is a global coalition of more than 200 educational institutions, commercial organizations and government entities defining standards for distributed learning. Sun Microsystems is an investment member of IMS, whose main goal is to create standards for the interoperability of management tools, learning content and platforms for the education and training markets. According to Steve Griffin, IMS Technical Director, 'This toolkit and source code are an important contribution by Sun and SRI International to the community of educational and training content and technology providers who use Java technology in the creation of solutions for their markets. The toolkit will simplify and increase the speed at which developer can provide content that complies with the IMS Meta-data Specification'. For information about Sun in Education, please visit http://www.sun.com/edu." See the "IMS Meta-data Compliant Tookit" (description) and distribution. On IMS, see "Educom Instructional Management Systems Project (IMS) Metadata Specification."

• [October 27, 1999] "Sequoia Software and Wavo Partner to Deliver Over 400 Media Sources to Sequoia's Interactive Enterprise Portal Customers. Agreement Allows Sequoia to Integrate Wavo's NewsPak(TM) XML-formatted Real-Time News Feeds with Sequoia XML Portal Server." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of interactive enterprise portal solutions and Wavo Corporation, an industry leading Digital Media Services Provider, today announced that Sequoia has become one of the first to join Wavo's Business Partner program. Sequoia will immediately make Wavo's NewsPak, an XML-formatted real-time news feed available to customers deploying Interactive Enterprise Portals based on its XML Portal Server. NewsPak is the industry's leading solution for delivering real-time content to Web servers worldwide. With NewsPak any Sequoia XML Portal Server user can access error-free, real-time content streams from a catalog of over 400 media sources including CNBC, Ziff-Davis, USA Today, Comtex, Knight Ridder and UPI. The NewsPak feeds are automatically tagged in industry-standard XML formats, which allows them to be searched, customized and managed by the Sequoia XML Portal Server as though they were any other XML data source. Sequoia XML Portal Server uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) to bridge structured and unstructured data from disparate sources, and provides a personalized Web interface from which users can quickly and easily search for, retrieve and act on information. Sequoia XML Portal Server allows users to conduct extremely accurate context-sensitive searches. Additionally, Sequoia XML Portal Server further shortcuts information retrieval by providing users with customized content summaries called Aggregate XML Objects (AXOs). AXOs are assembled by aggregating multiple, unique XML data elements into a new object that represents a user's specific information requirements."

• [October 27, 1999] "click2learn.com, inc. ships Assistant 7.1. Addition of the New Universal Media Player Makes It Even Easier for Authors to Add Internet Media to Web Based Training." - click2learn.com, inc., formerly known as Asymetrix Learning Systems, Inc., today announced the availability of ToolBook II Assistant 7.1. Version 7.1 represents the next generation release of the industry's leading authoring product designed to allow trainers and subject-matter experts to create compelling, web-delivered courseware in a templated, drag & drop interface. Assistant 7.1 adds the new Universal Media Player that allows authors to easily enhance a learning application with sound, video or other media type. This new Catalog object provides support for all of the standard media formats (AVI, WAV, MIDI) and the media formats supported by the new Windows Media Player (Windows streaming media, MPEG video, QuickTime video, MP3 audio), the RealNetworks RealPlayer G2 (all RealMedia formats, SMIL), the Macromedia Flash Player, as well as other media file formats which are also supported in this new release. The Universal Media Player is the latest in a host of innovative web authoring features in Assistant 7.1, including a DHTML runtime engine that allows authors to convert their applications to DHTML for delivery to 4.x and higher browsers. Additionally, Assistant 7.1 includes XML support by exporting to an intermediate XML file in the process of translating applications for delivery on the Web."

• [October 27, 1999] "Active Software Supports XML for Rapid Business-to-Business Integration. New ActiveWorks XML Adapter Represents First Stage of Multi-Phase Business-to-Business Strategy." - "Active Software, Inc., a leading provider of eBusiness integration software products, today announced a new Extensible Markup Language (XML) Adapter, enabling customers to quickly and easily integrate XML-based applications with a wide variety of enterprise applications. Today's announcement represents the first stage of the company's multi-phase business-to-business (B2B) strategy, named 'Project Broadband,' which will be unveiled over the next two quarters. Upon completion of Project Broadband's final phase, Active Software will provide the industry's only comprehensive solution for dynamically integrating applications within and across the extended enterprise, addressing all aspects of creating and managing Internet-based trading partner communities. XML has emerged as one of the most significant standards in eBusiness integration as it allows business users to extend their integration systems outside the walls of their company to business partners and customers to support supply chain and eCommerce initiatives. As a result, customers are rapidly embracing XML as a core part of their B2B strategies, while software vendors are rushing to incorporate XML into their next-generation products. Active Software's XML Adapter allows XML and non-XML based enterprise applications tocommunicate with XML-based systems, enabling a seamless flow of information for organizations engaged in B2B collaboration."

• [October 27, 1999] "Association for Financial Professionals and CFOWeb.com Create Alliance to Foster Online Capital Markets E-commerce." - "In a move to foster the use of the Internet for institutional financial management, the Association for Financial Professionals (formerly the Treasury Management Association) announced a strategic alliance with CFOWeb.com the first-ever business-to-business e-commerce portal for capital markets. CFOWeb.com is the first-ever business-to-business e-commerce portal for capital markets. CFOWeb.com includes an array of best-in-class products and services delivered by industry leading providers to offer maximum value to end-users. CFOWeb.com was developed by Integral, a leading provider of e-commerce infrastructure for capital markets. Existing Integral customers include JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Citibank. The Integral platform, based on enterprise Java technology and XML, represents the state-of-the-art in open standards based systems. The core of the Integral platform is Integral's Internet Financial Server (IFS), an intelligent server capable of modeling financial instruments and events including front to back office trading and risk management processes."

• [October 27, 1999] "New Motorola, Unisys Agreement Expands Access to Internet. Integrated Offerings from Industry Leaders To Make Development of Enhanced Voice Applications Easy." - "Motorola and Unisys today announced an agreement expected to significantly expand access to the Internet. This agreement proposes to allow consumers to find information and conduct transactions on the Internet using any telephone. According to the agreement, Motorola will license its VoxGateway software to Unisys and Unisys will license its award-winning Natural Language (NL) Speech Assistant toolkit and runtime environment to Motorola. Both plan to distribute VoxGateway software as part of their products. The two companies plan to enhance the capabilities of Motorola's VoxGateway software and integrate it with the NL toolkit. These plans include developing an advanced NL Speech Assistant Code Builder, which is expected to automatically generate program code in VoxML programming language, a precursor to the VoiceXML standard. By reducing the need for manual coding by application developers, this will create an easy-to-use software development toolkit for third parties, which is expected to mean more programs will be written that use these technologies. This technology integration provides a foundation for the VoiceXML standards proposal, which will support telephony and speech access to the Internet. In March of this year, 20 leading speech, Internet and communications technology companies announced the formation of the VoiceXML Forum to develop standard access technology." See: "VoiceXML Forum (Voice Extensible Markup Language Forum)."

• [October 26, 1999] "PricewaterhouseCoopers and Extricity Software Form Strategic Alliance To Drive Global Mainstream Adoption Of RosettaNet E-Business Standards." - "Extricity Software, Inc., a leader in business-to-business e-commerce software, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world's largest professional services organization, have formed a strategic alliance to provide a comprehensive and packaged software and services solution dedicated to supporting and deploying RosettaNet electronic business standards. RosettaNet is an industry standards consortium dedicated to the development and deployment of electronic commerce partner interfaces to align the supply chain business processes within the IT and electronic components industries. The PricewaterhouseCoopers and Extricity Software alliance provides the industry's first combined software and services solution that helps companies easily and rapidly implement the new RosettaNet e-business standards. Extricity Software recently announced the availability of a complete software solution named the Extricity AllianceInteract for RosettaNet. As an integrator of Extricity's AllianceInteract for RosettaNet business-to-business software, PricewaterhouseCoopers will help high tech companies implement the RosettaNet e-business standards."

• [October 26, 1999] "Sun-Netscape Alliance Delivers New iPlanet Calendar Server Software. New 'Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device' Calendar Solution Extends Scheduling to Millions of Service Provider and Enterprise Users." - "Building on its leadership in the standards-based messaging market, the Sun-Netscape Alliance today announced the availability of iPlanet Calendar Server software that provides scheduling services to millions of users. This scalable, extensible platform improves collaboration and communication with decreased total cost of ownership (TCO) for the enterprise, and allows service providers to increase revenue and differentiate themselves through value-added services. The iPlanet Calendar Server is Internet Standards-based, with a feature set designed to support Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) calendar standards including iCAL, iMIP, LDAP, and XML offers interoperability and investment protection. It provides a data format is based on iCalendar and XML."

• [October 26, 1999] "Aspen Technology Launches E-Business Initiative. AspenTech to offer process-centric manufacturers supply chain automation and business-to-business e-commerce solutions via Extricity Software partnership." - "Aspen Technology, Inc., a leading supplier of manufacturing enterprise optimization solutions for the process industries, today launched an e-business initiative and announced Aspen e-Business, the first in a series of business-to- business e-commerce applications. As part of this initiative, AspenTech has partnered with business-to- business application leader Extricity Software, Inc. to deliver e-commerce solutions that will enhance integration and automate the flow of information between disparate supply chain and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and customers, suppliers and trading partners. AspenTech currently has more than 2,000 supply chain applications installed in the process industries--more than any other supply chain vendor. AspenTech will integrate Extricity's strong business processes modeling, e-commerce and process execution technologies with its own process plant modeling, automation and optimization systems. The Extricity AllianceSeries(TM) family of XML-based e-commerce solutions allows Global 2000 companies to dramatically improve both their efficiencies and competitiveness by leveraging the Internet to automate critical business processes and the flow of information between partners, customers and suppliers."

• [October 26, 1999] "XML '99 - Largest Exposition to Date Showcasing XML and Related Technologies." - "XML'99, the premier event on XML and related technologies convenes in Philadelphia, December 5-9. Featuring over 200 speakers representing vertical industry users and technology developers, XML'99 is guaranteed to boggle the mind with the innovative applications and developments in the XML arena to date. Co-located with Markup Technologies '99, the theoretical conference for markup languages, XML'99 offers access to leading industry experts, educational tutorials, the XML bookstore, and numerous networking opportunities."

• [October 26, 1999] "System 1 Software Agrees to Define and Publish Specific BizTalk Schema for the Commercial Equipment Finance Industry. XML-Based Credit Application for Commercial Equipment Financing Enables Exchange of Data across Disparate Information Systems, Bridging Funding Sources, Brokers, Lessors, Equipment Vendors and Lessees." - "System 1 Software, Inc., a leading e-commerce and enterprise workflow solution provider for the commercial finance marketplace, today announced that it has designed and published a schema for the equipment finance industry based on the Microsoft BizTalk Framework. The company developed an XML schema for electronic financing credit applications that facilitates the seamless exchange of information over the Internet. Applications for credit based on this schema can be submitted by an equipment finance professional (broker), a vendor or borrower to request funding for equipment financing from a bank or finance company lender or lessor, or broker, regardless of differing operating systems or databases. The BizTalk Framework, launched by Microsoft Corp. in March, is a framework that encourages the consistent use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and industry standards for sharing information and conducting e-commerce. The widespread adoption of the BizTalk schema for the many documents used in equipment financing will enable companies to communicate more effectively and open up new business opportunities by creating a standard in the industry. System 1 Software supports Microsoft's initiatives to encourage the adoption of industry standards for the exchange of business information using XML and BizTalk Framework schemas."

• [October 26, 1999] "Receipt.com Launches the First Digital Receipt Solution for B2B E-Commerce. XML-Based Digital Receipt Offers Irrevocable Proof of Online Transactions." - "Receipt.com (formerly Differential Inc.) has launched the first-ever Digital Receipts for e-commerce transactions and messages. The XML-based solution issues highly secure electronic notarized receipts that give companies irrevocable proof that an online transaction has occurred. Based on emerging XML standards, Receipt.com builds the infrastructure that helps businesses replace costly legal paper processes, limiting private networks, and inflexible EDI systems. Digital Receipt issues tamper-proof, electronically notarized receipts...Receipt.com is a pioneer of trusted transactions and secure document delivery over the Internet for Global 2000 companies. Receipt.com services and software are based on XML digital signatures standards to create XML digital receipts for secure, provable, and reconcilable transactions -- a solution that is Safer Than Paper. Receipt.com serves the banking and financial services, insurance, and business-to-business e-commerce industries. The company's customers include Aetna, Apple Computer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, CNET, Dell Computer, DHL, Dun & Bradstreet, EDS, Gap, Inc., Hong Kong Telecom, The National Association of Securities Dealers, Netscape, and a number of leading U.S. and international commercial banks."

• [October 26, 1999] "QMSoft Announces Centrus CIO-XML First XML Address Data Quality Solution for E-Commerce, Call Center and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications." - Qualitative Marketing Software Inc., a recognized leader in data quality and data enhancement technology for enterprise and e-commerce solutions, today announced the imminent availability of Centrus(tm) CIO-XML, the first address data quality solution that incorporates the new powerful and flexible XML software language standard that allows for more efficient publishing of consumer and business data over the Web. This new version of Web-enabled data quality and data enhancement technology from QMSoft lets small to large companies integrate the Centrus brand into their E-Commerce, Call Center and CRM applications in order to get to know their customers better. Centrus CIO-XML -- version 2.0 of Centrus CIO, an extensive real-time address data quality, enhancement, record matching, spatial analysis and demographic data solution for intelligently managing call center, e-commerce and point-of-sale customer interactions, is expected to be ready to ship early 1Q 2000. With the use of CIO-XML, IT professionals and database marketing managers can easily integrate multiple data sources. QMSoft hosts data sources such as household and business data files, Claritas Demographics, GDT DynaMap 2000 streets, flood maps, tax maps, and more. Additionally, CIO-XML potentially helps reduce long-term maintenance and operating costs, virtually eliminating the need for multiple and duplicative hardware and software."

• [October 25, 1999] "Dell Chooses webMethods Solution for B2B Direct Initiative. webMethods B2B Securely Connects Customers to Contracted Information Via Dell's Integrated Initiative." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today announced that Dell Computer Corporation, the world's leading direct computer systems vendor, will use webMethods B2B to provide the backbone e-procurement transaction integration system for Dell's B2B Direct initiative. Dell recently announced B2B Direct as its new e-commerce strategy for streamlining the Internet procurement process for its corporate, governmental and institutional customers. Dell customers can increase productivity and reduce procurement costs by linking their existing IT infrastructures over the Internet to B2B Direct. Through webMethods B2B, Dell customers can integrate procurement operations directly with Dell through enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and Web purchasing portals--without manual processing or custom re-engineering of legacy, proprietary or ERP systems. webMethods provides a comprehensive solution that allows organizations to effectively realize their business community integration (BCI) strategies. Through broad support of open standards and protocols, such as XML, RosettaNet, FpML, cXML, OBI, OAG, ACORD, Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI, webMethods B2B connects integrated business communities and enables companies to conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and existing infrastructure."

• [October 25, 1999] "Arlington County Streamlines Access to Land Records with Sequoia XML Portal Server. Users Can Easily and Accurately Search for and Retrieve Land Records Via the Internet." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of XML-powered interactive enterprise portals, today announced that Arlington County, Virginia has selected the company's Sequoia XML Portal Server to provide employees and citizens with quick, easy access to County Land Record documents from any Internet-enabled desktop computer. Using the Sequoia-powered County Records Portal, users will have accurate and efficient access to Deeds, Wills, Judgements and Financing Statements documents over the Internet. 'Sequoia's XML Portal Server is an integral part of our efforts to simplify the way County employees and residents access and interact with information,' said Paul Carter, project manager for Arlington County. 'The portal creates an easy to use, self-service mechanism, allowing users to search through the millions of documents stored in the County's repositories with pinpoint accuracy. This will save our users a significant amount of time and effort, and at the same time, enhance the quality of the service provided by the County's Land Records office.' Sequoia's XML Portal Server uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to bridge structured and unstructured data from disparate sources. In Arlington County, the deployment will give title searchers, creditors and attorneys--as well as users from County agencies such as Real Estate, Public Works and the Treasurer--the ability to easily and accurately search for and retrieve information from Deeds, Wills, Judgements and Financing Statements documents."

• [October 25, 1999] "InsureZone.com First to Use Advanced XML-Based Insurance E-Commerce Standard. Lexica Will Make Technology Available to Others, Simplifying Exchange of Data Between Carriers, Vendors and Customers." - "Lexica announced today that its InsureZone.com Internet insurance Web site will be the first to use its advanced Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards specifically designed for comparing and buying auto insurance on the Web. Lexica also announced that it plans to publish its XML standards with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for other vendors to adopt and use. The move could accelerate the growth of auto insurance e-commerce as XML becomes the markup language of choice for the Web. Lexica will begin publishing its XML schema standards in November in the OASIS XML.org community. Henry said the company will continue to publish and refine the standards in the months ahead with actual real world examples from InsureZone.com and its software platform, Lexica Online. Lexica will coordinate its efforts with those of the various standards bodies. As part of that effort, Lexica also announced that it has joined OASIS and the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C). [Peter Henry, Lexica's president and chief technology officer] said Lexica intends to take a very active role in these organizations."

• [October 25, 1999] "Solbright Inc. Announces Comprehensive XML Based Infrastructure for the Internet Advertising Industry." - "Solbright, Inc., a leading provider of digital media solutions, announced today a complete XML based infrastructure architecture for the exchange and management of data associated with all aspects of Internet advertising. Through the power of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the costs and delays associated with routing and processing insertion orders, creative assets, invoices, and reports between web site publishers, advertisers, and agencies can be minimized by establishing the standard by which information can be exchanged across disparate business systems. 'XML enables systems to communicate regardless of platform, technology, or protocol,' said Kent Allen of the Aberdeen Group. 'This makes it the ideal standard for the complex communications involved in Internet publishing. I expect XML to be on the radar screen of every Internet technology company in the very near future, if it isn't already.' Solbright is making use of their XML based infrastructure to ensure seamless integration of critical data across ad management systems used by agencies, advertisers, and publishers."

• [October 22, 1999] "Harbinger Announces New Internet-Based Software Distribution and Implementation Program." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today an Internet-based distribution and implementation program for the company's desktop software products. The program, Harbinger Direct, will enable customers to access new software, maintenance updates, electronic trading forms and customer support directly from the company's E-Commerce portal, harbinger.net. The service is part of the Harbinger Business Community Integration program for trading community development and management, and is designed to speed the delivery, installation and implementation of new E-Commerce software products to customers. Using Harbinger Direct, customers can quickly and conveniently access required software and service functions that previously required multiple manual steps. Among its many capabilities, customers using Harbinger Direct can now electronically order and receive their software, plus instantly download a library of E-Commerce forms that support the trading requirements of thousands of companies. The service also provides automatic set-up and maintenance of E-Commerce trading accounts on harbinger.net, viewing and printing of XML-enabled documents, online delivery of electronic software updates, and connections to a 24x7 self-serve customer support center. All services are available using a standard browser interface and Internet connection."

• [October 21, 1999] "Excelergy Releases XML Standards for the Deregulated Energy Industry. Standard Business Library Opens Internet Communications to Facilitate Customer Choice." - "Excelergy Corporation, a technology leader for the deregulated energy industry, today announced the release of an XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard business library for use by participants in energy choice. The first company to present information on XML standards for the deregulated retail energy industry, Excelergy is promoting 'open' communications among customers, energy service providers and distribution companies in the competitive energy environment. Excelergy defined partner interface processes (PIP) for the relevant transactions (e.g., enrollment, usage, and payment) for the deregulated energy space. The XML library contains vocabularies and document type definitions (DTDs) to enable interoperable data transactions among energy participants including suppliers and utilities. XML is an easy to use, 'self-describing' language which facilitates the editing and manipulation of data. The paper 'XML for Retail Energy Transactions: A White Paper,' highlighting the trading partner XML standard developed by Excelergy, is now available on Excelergy's web site. For information on XML standard business library, a listing of the XML vocabularies, and to order a copy of the White Paper free of charge, visit the Excelergy web site."

• [October 21, 1999] "Object Management Group to Host Finance and Insurance Information Day. Finance and Insurance Information Day on November 16, 1999." - "On Tuesday, November 16, 1999, the OMG's Finance Domain Task Force will host a Finance and Insurance Information Day in conjunction with the OMG's Technical Committee Meeting Week. This Information Day is designed to update information technology managers, architects, system integrators and vendor organizations regarding current CORBA standards efforts in financial software, and inform them about opportunities to influence the strategic direction of Financial System Integration standards and products. Attendees will be briefed on CORBA 3.0, the latest addition to the OMG standard, and how XML, UML, EJB and CORBA Components are being used in the Finance and Insurance Industry. In addition, attendees will see demonstrations of products implementing OMG specifications."

• [October 20, 1999] "Enigma to Acquire Inso Corporation's Technical Publishing Business. Enigma Signs Definitive Agreement to Purchase the DynaWeb/Text Product Suite from Inso Corporation." - "Enigma, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent content publishing for the Web and offline media, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Inso Corporation's DynaWeb/Text and Synex product lines. This acquisition further strengthens Enigma's commitment to providing customers with a comprehensive e-publishing solution for e-business. Under the terms of the agreement, the technical publishing component of Inso's Product Data Management division will be purchased for approximately $15.5 million in cash and assumption of liabilities. The transaction will be a stock purchase between Enigma Inc. and its affiliate Enigma Information Systems Ltd. of the all the outstanding stock of Inso's subsidiaries, Inso Providence Corporation and ViewPort Development AB of Stockholm. The DynaWeb/Text product suite is among the leading solutions that provide a single, highly automated production process for the creation and delivery of large, structured documents via the Web or CD-ROM. 'Our strategy is to continue to support and build off the DynaWeb/Text product line to offer enhanced functionality for all of our customers,' stated Randy Clark, vice president of marketing at Enigma, Inc. 'The advanced SGML/XML technologies of the Inso product will be a great complement to the multi-source capabilities that we already have in the Enigma product. By further leveraging the DynaWeb/Text advanced technology with Enigma's enhanced illustrated parts catalog (eIPC), Xtend, and integration into DMS and ERP systems, Inso customers will have solid platforms for building Web-based product support and follow-on selling applications'." See also the announcement from Inso: "Inso Corporation Signs Definitive Agreement to Sell its DynaText/DynaWeb Publishing Business to Enigma Inc."

• [October 20, 1999] "Geac SmartEnterprise Solutions Demonstrates e-Business Solutions Based On XML Standards. Geac Leads First Ever Direct Exchange of Purchase Orders Between Different Accounting Packages with New XML Standard." - Geac SmartEnterprise Solutions, a provider of world-class enterprise business applications, is taking a leading role in the development of a new international XML standard for business-to-business e-commerce. Reflecting its expertise in evolving technologies and business processes, Geac is participating in a series of first ever public demonstrations of the BASDA (Business and Accounting Software Developers' Association) electronic Business Interface Standard (eBIS) this week in the UK. Geac will use the XML standard, which has been developed with the support of other leading software providers such as Microsoft and SAP, to exchange electronic purchase orders and invoices between disparate accounting packages. . . a new XML-based order can be displayed and printed as a normal email order document. If the message is received by a system that is not eBIS enabled, it can simply be displayed and printed as a document. The BASDA eBIS initiative is fully supported by Geac and its strategic business partners, Microsoft and IBM. Microsoft is represented on the eBIS Working Party and will fully support the BASDA initiative in future versions of Outlook and BizTalk. Like IBM, it has also pledged to publish the BASDA eBIS schema on its web site and promote the standard worldwide. In the coming months, Geac plans to continue its strong support for the BASDA eBIS initiative. Among the planned next steps are the development of XSL style sheets to accompany messages, ensuring secure modes of message delivery and the extension of the eBIS standard to additional business documents. BASDA, based in the UK, represents 300 of the leading international developers and suppliers of business and accounting software. The BASDA eBIS schema supports US, European and Asian requirements, and reflects the global reach of Geac's extensive customer base."

• [October 20, 1999] "XML Global Creates a Collaborative Forum for Developing XSLT Web Communication Standards." - "XML Global, developers of XML business solutions, today announced the launch of a new portal site for XSLT (www.XSLT.com), providing Web developers and programmers with information on XSLT (extensible stylesheet language transformations). XSLT is quickly becoming the predominant language on the Internet for performing XML transformations, and XML is rapidly becoming the backbone for e-business applications, both on and off the Web. Through XSLT.com, XML Global intends to foster a community of XSLT users, enabling them to join e-mail groups and open forums and find the latest XSLT tools. The Web site provides individuals and companies information about the developments in XSLT and access to recent news on products and standards. XSLT.com links to related XSLT sites to highlight the contributions of others, instead of duplicating them. The site also allows developers and programmers to research upcoming conferences and available educational materials..."

• [October 20, 1999] "Barry & Associates Publishes XML Data Servers: An Infrastructure for Effectively Using XML in Electronic Commerce. Report Provides Comprehensive Overview of Architectural Options for an XML Infrastructure." - "Barry & Associates, Inc. today announced publication of XML Data Servers: An Infrastructure for Effectively Using XML in Electronic Commerce. This report provides various architectural options for an XML infrastructure, with an emphasis on application development in the middle-tier. There are two main audiences for this report. The first audience is managers, who will find the report to be an excellent overview of technical issues and infrastructure needs. Managers can read through the report to create a vision of how to support XML for their business. The second audience is the technical staff -- analysts, software architects, and technical management -- who dig into technical work. The technical staff will find the architectural options and the reasons for these options extremely helpful in designing their work. Also, the detailed checklists in the pertinent chapters provide the groundwork for in-depth understanding of product features and why they might matter in various architectural options."

• [October 20, 1999] "Advanced BusinessLink Adds XML to Strategi." - "ADVANCED BusinessLink, a leading provider of e-business solutions for the IBM AS/400, announces native XML support in its Strategi middleware. Previously, AS/400 users needed to rewrite applications in a 4GL or Java to get the benefits XML offers. Strategi instantly allows any AS/400 data file to be sent over the web as XML with a simple command. Strategi's Push Technology allows XML files such as to be pushed to intended recipients across the Internet to suppliers, distributors or customers. Security is guaranteed with 128-bit SSL and recipent identity verified using digital client certificates. With Strategi, XML data can originate from existing legacy application logic, AS/400 database files or newly developed applications in RPG, Java, etc. In addition, Strategi's template-based messaging middleware, HSM (High Speed Messaging), allows XML documents to be tailored specifically to meet the requirements of each receiving party automatically, without host programming."

• [October 19, 1999] "Biztalk Jumpstart Kit Version K Released." - "Today, Microsoft released an update to the BizTalk Jumpstart Kit. The update includes enhanced tools and samples, updates and cross platform support. In September, Microsoft released the BizTalk Jumpstart Kit - a full sample architecture and tool set for building and adding XML support to new and existing applications. Since that time, thousands of copies of the BizTalk Jumpstart Kit have been downloaded and given to developers that want to see how easy it is to write application extensions that use XML to solve the tough interop challenges that face businesses today. Feedback has been streaming in praising the BizTalk Jumpstart Kit for making the tough technical challenge of learning to be effective with XML. Based on that feedback, the first update to the Jumpstart Kit was released on 19 October, 1999. The BizTalk Jumpstart kit update is now released as two separate files... Enhancements include: (1) Enhanced Tools: Tool enhancements include broader support for complex schema constructs in the code generators. (2) Improved selector: The selector has been reworked to provide greater through-put, more flexible message routing, greater stability under application error conditions and improved system log debugging messages. (3) Debugging Assistants: Optional tools let you route XML messages received to a view window. (4) Cross Platform Support: A PERL version of the basic toolkit infrastructure is provided in a compressed archive (.tar) (5) Enhanced sample: Sample program HTML has been upgraded to be more efficient."

• [October 19, 1999] "Progress SonicMQ Enjoys Rapid Acceptance. First Java Messaging Server from Leading Vendor Now Available for Preview." - "Progress Software Corporation, a leading supplier of application development, deployment and management products, announced its Progress SonicMQ Internet messaging server for Java developers is enjoying strong market acceptance since the availability of the preview release two weeks ago. ChanneLinx is a B2B enabler, with products that include online ordering, an electronic catalog and an XML transaction processor/translator. The first standalone Java messaging server from a major application development vendor, SonicMQ extends the basic JMS specification, providing the speed, robustness and flexibility essential for scalable performance. SonicMQ is designed with the scalability and performance to match the Progress Apptivity product, recently rated by PC Week as the world's fastest and highest-performance Java application server. 'To deliver a complete infrastructure that will meet requirements for enterprise application integration and e-business, the industry needs MOM products that can combine services such as JMS with data format standards such as XML,' said David Kelly, vice president of Application Development Software at Hurwitz Group. 'Vendors will need to extend the JMS spec and add capabilities for data exchange such as XML, security, quality of service, administration and workload distribution'."

• [October 19, 1999] "Forecross Announces New Business." - "Francisco-based Forecross Corporation announced today that it has signed three new contracts. The first, valued at $200,000, is to provide tactical advice and direct assistance to a ``Big 5'' accounting and services firm regarding the integration of XML-related services into their customer offerings. The second is to perform independent validation services on approximately 9 million lines of CA-ADS and Wang COBOL source code for Sapiens Americas. Finally, the company has signed a $150,000 contract with a national financial services firm to do a legacy migration pilot project. 'We are delighted to sign these three new contracts,' commented Bernadette C. Castello, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. 'The legacy migration pilot along with our growing pipeline of migration prospects, could indicate a resurgence of demand for this type of service that is probably catalyzed by the conclusion of most companies' spending on year 2000 remediation and testing. And because XML is a key part of our expanding toolset to leverage the value of legacy applications, we are focusing a great deal of attention on this and other XML projects.' Regarding the year 2000 project, Ms. Castello commented 'we continue to see an on-going need for year 2000 services, and are happy to close contracts such as these with our teaming partners'."

• [October 19, 1999] "Advanced Data Engineering Signs Contract with WebMD to Convert Reader's Digest Books to XML." - "Advanced Data Engineering is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with WebMD, Inc. to convert the Reader's Digest books on nutrition and healthy cooking to XML. As part of their Internet strategy, WebMD and Reader's Digest have formed an alliance to exchange health-related content. This particular project will include converting thousands of pages of text and graphics from QuarkXpress to XML for delivery over the Internet. According to Allan Syiek, Vice President, Advanced Data Engineering, 'By converting to XML, WebMD and Reader's Digest will be able to leverage their information assets through new distribution channels.' XML is a leaner, simpler version of SGML and offers much more than HTML. Because XML separates a document's content and hierarchical structure from how it is displayed, style sheets can be applied to customize the same information for a particular audience or market. XML also allows businesses to create content once for multiple media -- print and electronic. Advanced Data Engineering, Inc. specializes in data conversion and electronic publishing, helping businesses -- legal, medical, technical -- get their information to a larger audience faster. Advanced Data Engineering has over 10 years of experience converting millions of pages of complex documents from many sources into a single structured format like SGML, XML and HTML."

• [October 19, 1999] "Extricity Introduces First Complete Solution Dedicated to RosettaNet Standards. New Extricity AllianceInteract forRosettaNet Enables Companies To Easily And Rapidly Implement RosettaNet E-Business Standards." - "Extricity Software, Inc., today announced the availability of a comprehensive new e-business software solution based on the electronic business standards developed by RosettaNet. RosettaNet is the leading industry standards body and consortium dedicated to the development and deployment of electronic commerce partner interfaces to align the business processes within the IT and electronic components supply chain industries. Extricity Software is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for leading IT companies who have committed to making the global use of RosettaNet's supply chain standards a reality by February 2, 2000. Using RosettaNet 'Partner Interface Processes' (PIPs), these leading IT industry companies are defining how business processes are conducted over the Internet between members of the IT supply chain, which include manufacturers, distributors, resellers, and end users. To date, Extricity Software has been selected by leading companies, including CompUSA Inc., Ingram Micro Inc., and Solectron Corp. to implement their RosettaNet e-business standards solution."

• [October 19, 1999] "Extricity Software Selected by CompUSA to Provide Business-to-Business e-Commerce Solution." - "Extricity Software, Inc. has been chosen by CompUSA Inc., one of the nation's leading computer retailers, to undertake a comprehensive business-to-business integration solution based on the RosettaNet standards. RosettaNet is the leading industry standards body and consortium focused on delivering pre-defined business-to-business interface processes for the IT and electronic components supply chain industries. CompUSA currently operates 213 CompUSA Computer Superstores in eighty-three (83) major metropolitan markets across the United States. Extricity also announced today a comprehensive new e-business software solution based on the e-business standards developed by RosettaNet. Extricity AllianceInteract for RosettaNet is available immediately. Extricity Software, Inc. is a premier provider of comprehensive, packaged business-to-business software solutions. The Extricity AllianceSeries family of XML-based e-commerce solutions allows Global 2000 companies to dramatically improve both their efficiencies and competitiveness by leveraging the Internet to automate critical business processes and the flow of information between partners, customers and suppliers."

• [October 19, 1999] "The E-content Company Announces X-WAP, the First XML-based Application to Deliver Content to Any Wireless Device. Alcatel, Motorola, Nokia and SoftBook Press Collaborate with the e-content company to Deliver e-Business Anywhere, Anytime." - The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering XML-based content management solutions for e-business, today announced X-WAP (XML Wireless Application Product), a new BladeRunner application that will allow enterprises to distribute information to any wireless device, dramatically extending enterprise e-business. Through the power of eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), enterprises can now dramatically extend the reach of their intranets by seamlessly transforming WML, HTML, and XML business content for presentation to wireless devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, pagers and e-books. The e-content company will be debuting X-WAP at the ICE '99 in San Francisco (October 19-21) with demonstrations of content being served live to a variety of mobile and wireless devices including the One Touch Pocket cellular phone from Alcatel; the Palm VII PDA from Palm Computing, Inc., a 3Com Company; the Nokia 9000il Communicator and the 7110 cellular phone; the StarTac cellular phone and PageWriter 2000X digital pager both from Motorola; and the Softbook electronic book from Softbook Press. To date, wireless access to the Web has required some type of gateway filtering technology or specialized site; neither of these flexibly adapt to numerous devices each with unique capabilities such as screen size. With X-WAP, content in XML, or structured HTML, can be efficiently transformed into output, exploiting the unique features of each device. In addition, with X-WAP's sophisticated XSL creation tools, content providers have unprecedented control over how their content is rendered on all these devices." On WAP, see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)" and the WAP Forum.

• [October 19, 1999] "OnDisplay Announces CenterStage 4: Comprehensive Business-To-Business Integration Solution. XML Based Business Document Framework Delivers Many-To-Many and Any-To-Any Trading Partner Networks; Company Also Announces Three New B2B Customers." - "OnDisplay, Inc., a leading provider of software applications for powering compelling e-business portals and e-marketplaces, today announced CenterStage 4, the first business-to-business integration software solution to address the full range of online marketplace interactions. CenterStage 4 addresses the needs of multiple trading partners that must exchange dynamic content and transactions in multiple formats simultaneously. Designed specifically to power secure transactions among thousands of trading partners, CenterStage 4 delivers complete back-office to back-office exchange capabilities through any XML standard or other business document format. At the same time, the company announced that three leading B2B players -- e-commerce leader Harbinger, e-commerce provider PurchasePro.com, and computer e-tailer ClubComputer.com -- have selected CenterStage 4 to power their online businesses. OnDisplay's new CenterStage 4 application suite represents a major new release of OnDisplay's Internet infrastructure software. Unlike first-generation XML integration tools for point-to-point connections, CenterStage 4 operates as a fully integrated, comprehensive solution for customized trading partner integration -- exchanging both content and transactions from back office to back office. CenterStage 4 features an XML-based business document framework, which enables it to automatically support all current XML standards, as well as other data exchange formats that may be implemented by a trading partner. Buyers, suppliers, and e-marketplaces can format their transactions in any of the many new languages of e-business: cXML, RosettaNet, CBL, BizTalk, OBI, ICE, proprietary formats, or EDI formats such as ANSI X12, and the CenterStage platform will automatically convert their transactions into the chosen formats of relevant trading partners. The business document framework will allow trading partners to easily adapt now and in the future to multiple standards by providing a seamless way to take the XML document definition, regardless of the schema definition used, and import it into the business document framework."

• [October 19, 1999] "POET Software and Staffware Partner to Provide Streamlined XML Content Solutions." - "POET Software today announced the integration of Staffware 2000 workflow with POET Content Management Suite (CMS). The integration of the two products will provide corporate and commercial publishers with higher quality content and significant cost savings through workflow-enabled XML/SGML content management solutions. Through partnerships with Staffware and other key solution providers, POET continues to extend its lead in providing comprehensive, flexible and effective XML content management solutions. POET CMS provides publishers with a complete environment for the collaborative authoring, production, sharing, re-use and Web delivery of complex XML and SGML content. POET CMS features an open architecture and a rich SDK for integration with best-of-breed tools and legacy systems, as well as the development of application-specific interfaces to extend content management to contributors outside of the publishing department and across the enterprise. The combination of POET CMS and Staffware 2000 workflow streamlines the processes that are crucial to team-based XML content publishing. While POET CMS provides large teams with concurrent management of XML content, Staffware 2000 workflow automates the tasks that connect the creation, review, translation, and production of XML content. As a result, the content publishing process is faster and more efficient, producing higher-quality content."

• [October 19, 1999] "Formark LiveForms Integrates UWI.Com's InternetForms with Livelink Intranet. Sophisticated XML-based form technology now available for users of Livelink Intranet by Open Text." - "Formark Ltd., a leading developer of web-based applications that leverage the dominant knowledge management product, Livelink Intranet, to automate and integrate business-critical processes, and UWI.Com, the leading provider of XML Internet forms solutions for business-to-business e-commerce, announced today a strategic partnership. Formark has integrated UWI.Com's InternetForms Commerce System with Open Text's Livelink Intranet to create LiveForms, an XML application that enables Livelink users to automate business processes and undertake e-commerce on Livelink supported intranets and extranets. Formark's LiveForms brings secure, legally-binding InternetForms to Livelink users, and provides a sophisticated range of features not available to Livelink users with other form solutions. Formark LiveForms support: role-based workflow distribution; multiple electronic signatures; easy to use designer and database connectivity; ability to work offline; and legally-binding records. UWI.Com's InternetForms Commerce System is a suite of products based on XFDL (Extensible Forms Description Language), the world's first open XML protocol for legally-binding transactions on the Internet. Unlike many forms packages, extensive programming and scripting expertise is not required to quickly and easily develop forms and integrate them with external databases." See "Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL)."

• [October 18, 1999] "ASC X12 Publishes Technical Report Representing X12 Semantics in XML Format Rising interest in XML initiatives prompts X12 to form XML group and endorse ebXML project." - "The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 embarked on an array of initiatives to express X12 semantics in eXtensible markup language (XML) syntax. At the recent ASC X12 meeting in Orlando, FL, October 3-8, 1999, X12's Communications and Controls Subcommittee approved for publication a technical report designed to provide an experimental representation of X12 semantics in XML syntax. In an equally substantive move, X12 formed a steering committee task group charged with drafting policies and procedures that relate to X12 and XML, serving as a liaison to other XML groups and creating common approaches for XML/electronic data interchange (EDI) development within X12. Additionally, ASC X12 members endorsed the efforts of the ebXML work group, formed by the United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). As a contribution to ebXML endeavors, X12 Committee representatives submitted the technical report on XML and X12 to the newly formed ebXML work group. Several X12 members plan to participate in ebXML efforts to define the technical basis for standardizing the global implementation of XML." See the main entry: "DISA, ANSI ASC X12/XML."

• [October 18, 1999] "Informix Joins OASIS. Major Database Vendor Becomes Sponsor Member of XML Consortium." - OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, welcomed database-powered solutions provider, Informix Corporation, as the newest Sponsor member of the international XML consortium. Informix will contribute to the technical work of OASIS, which focuses on advancing XML interoperability. 'As a leading provider of database solutions, Informix brings a valuable perspective to the work of the Consortium. We welcome their contributions, particularly as we develop the XML.org Registry and Repository,' noted Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. 'Participation in OASIS is crucial for any company with an interest in the success of XML. The growing diversity of OASIS membership reflects the degree to which XML is affecting the industry'."

• [October 18, 1999] "iE EXtends Industry's Most Robust Host Application Integration Environment. iE Integrator now enables two-way XML-based 'legacy system' access, enhanced mainframe & AS/400 access and advanced security capabilities." - "iE, an international leader in integrated e-commerce applications, today unveiled iE Integrator version 2.0. iE Integrator is an enterprise class integration platform, solving the widest range of back-end system and new front-end technology problems - driven typically by the needs for e-commerce, customer relationship management and mergers and acquisitions. An important new feature within iE Integrator is its two-way support for XML. Using standard XML components, iE Integrator facilitates automatic translation and mapping of XML documents into Web-based applications, andback-end host, transactional and database environments. iE Integrator is an updated version of iE's former Amazon Integrator product, a development and deployment environment for server based applications that integrate mulitple, disparate mainframe systems and databases with multiple, disparate front-ends, including the Web and front-office applications."

• [October 18, 1999] "IONA announces IONA iPortal Suite, a comprehensive suite of products for building Enterprise Portals. IONA Extends Leadership in Standards-based Middleware to Provide New Solution for eBusiness Applications." - "IONA Technologies today announces IONA iPortal Suite, the industry's first multi-platform suite of products that addresses the problems in developing, deploying and managing a specific class of eBusiness applications commonly referred to as enterprise portals. IONA iPortal Suite features a new architecture that tightly integrates four separate products: IONA iPortal Application Server, IONA iPortal Integration Server, IONA iPortal Server, and Orbix 2000. IONA iPortal Suite unifies the members of an eBusiness project team and allows them to easily deploy and manage an enterprise portal that integrates with existing enterprise applications. The IONA iPortal Suite supports all major industry standards and the latest releases of component technology, including CORBA, EJB, Java2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, specification (J2EE) and Internet standards such as HTTP, XML, and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). 'To build scalable and integrated e-commerce applications you must be able to connect different Web services together easily and quickly using Internet standards such as HTTP and XML,' stated Tod Nielsen, Microsoft's vice president, Developer Division. 'IONA's support for SOAP in IONA iPortal Suite will help organizations integrate the Web and the enterprise'."

• [October 18, 1999] "Netfish Debuts with E-Commerce Business Integration Solution. First End-to-End Solution to Unify Trading Partners' Business Processes And Automate Workflows Across Organizations." - "Netfish Technologies, Inc. made its debut today with a B2B e-commerce efficiency breakthrough that enables companies to save millions of dollars a year by streamlining and automating their manufacturing, procurement and distribution processes with other organizations, allowing whole business communities to operate with the efficiency of a single virtual enterprise. The Netfish XDI system is the first end-to-end solution businesses can use to gain a competitive advantage through reduced costs and improved operating efficiency by enabling an entire trading community to communicate transparently and securely over the Internet and by coordinating the complex business workflows across multiple organizations. Based on the rapidly emerging XML standard, the lingua franca of e- commerce, and written in Java, the Netfish XDI system goes far beyond existing XML-based B2B solutions by quickly integrating with existing ERP systems and making it easy to automate and manage the workflows for complex transactions between trading partners with different applications, formats and systems. The Netfish XDI System requires no programming to integrate with ERP systems from leading vendors."

• [October 18, 1999] "Product Premiere at SYSTEMS '99: IXOS Unveils Version 4.0 of the Business Document System, IXOS-ARCHIVE with XML Access. IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 Now Offers Offline Access to Archived Business Documents and Greater Flexibility in Integrating Groupware Applications, Fax Solutions and Scanners." - "IXOS Software AG, a leading provider of software solutions for the management of business documents in the SAP R/3 solution environment, will present the new version (4.0) of its IXOS-ARCHIVE business document system at the SYSTEMS trade show in Munich today. As one of the major new developments in Release 4.0, the enhanced IXOS-DocuLink component allows holistic views of business processes in offline mode. The offline functionality allows access to business documents anytime, from everywhere and any place. Notes users can now be integrated, allowing them to maintain a comprehensive overview of enterprise-wide business documents within familiar application environments. Version 4.0 also incorporates Java and XML technology with core components of IXOS-ARCHIVE to support cross-platform use throughout enterprises. IXOS-ARCHIVE 4.0 uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) to assign attributes to business documents which represent information, including metadata, in a system-independent form. Business documents can now also be accessed via XML-capable Web browsers. The compliance with this worldwide recognized standard safeguards the investments made by IXOS customers. Business documents are stored using hierarchic folder structures, which can be viewed either with the SAP graphical user interface or via an intuitive Web interface. Irrespective of their source, business documents can thus be displayed and positioned in relation to one another within one, single folder."

• [October 18, 1999] "Persistence Software and webMethods Partner on Ideal EJB-XML E-Commerce Solution. Offering Combines Application Processing and Integration Services." - "Persistence Software, 'The Engine for E-Commerce', today announced a partnership and product licensing agreement with webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, to deliver a next generation transaction processing hub for business-to-business e-commerce. Combining the productivity of an EJB application server with the flexibility of an XML-based business-to-business integration server gives customers the ability to integrate business systems across enterprise boundaries. Unlike early business-to-business e-commerce offerings, the combination of Persistence PowerTier and webMethods B2B enables developers to create dynamic real-time supply and demand chains that leverage the Internet to integrate the business systems of diverse suppliers, customers and partners worldwide. Traditional business-to-business e-commerce applications are only available to end-users via browsers while this solution positions e-commerce applications for automated, machine-to-machine data exchange. Recent reports from Gartner and Meta Group have stated that customers will combine services from application servers and integration servers to create complete e-commerce solutions. Persistence PowerTier and webMethods B2B together deliver an ideal platform for business-to-business e-commerce. The integration of the two products enables ubiquitous, real-time e-commerce services. Customers get the high-performance processing power and forward caching of data provided by PowerTier, along with the broad support for emerging XML-based B2B protocols, data mapping and transformation, rich security, and reliability provided by webMethods B2B. PowerTier customers can now leverage seamless interoperability with e-commerce standards including XML, RosettaNet, FpML, cXML, OBI, OAG, ACORD, Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI."

• [October 16, 1999] "MBA Announces New Internet Data Standards Organization. Inclusive Workgroup Continues Efforts to Serve Entire Industry." - "During a press conference at its 86th annual convention, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) announced it would take an active role in the maintenance and administration of mortgage industry data standards through its new Internet data standards organization Mortgage Industry Data Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO). MISMO aims to ensure that the standards development process is open and democratic, responsive to business needs of the users, and designed to include and support the entire industry. Driven by the MBA's Technology Committee's XML Workgroup, the announcement demonstrates MBA's commitment to the development and implementation of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the mortgage industry. Past MBA Workgroups with similar structure and objectives have exhibited proven results. Since 1991, over 20 mortgage industry specific X12 transaction sets have been developed and approved by MBA Workgroups. Most are still actively supported, including all HUD claims and notifications, as well as activities by major credit reporting agencies, mortgage insurance companies, and major appraisal software vendors. The development of XML-based standards started in early 1998 when the MBA Emerging Technologies Workgroup began exploring XML as an additional standard which could easily integrate with existing X12 infrastructure while providing a means for standards compliance for new systems more suitable to XML. In May 1999, a separate XML Workgroup formed to develop a pilot XML standard, which is to be submitted for review at the 86th Annual Convention." Contact: David Williams. [local archive copy]

• [October 14, 1999] "Eight Firms Form FpML Steering Committee, Stepping Up Commitment to Derivatives E-commerce Standard. Technical committee meetings attract large audiences; additional vendors announce support." - "Senior derivatives leaders from eight financial firms announced the formation of the FpML Steering Committee. FpML (Financial Products Markup Language) is a business-to-business e-commerce protocol for derivatives. The Steering Committee signals the firms' support of the FpML standard at the business level and will guide the FpML organization in its development of the protocol. The announcement follows two major FpML summits that drew hundreds of derivatives industry specialists on two continents. Initial member firms of the Steering Committee will include Bank of America, the Chase Manhattan Corporation, Deutsche Bank AG, Fuji Capital Markets Corporation (a subsidiary of The Fuji Bank, Limited), J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Paribas, and Warburg Dillon Read, the investment banking division of UBS AG. A small number of additional members are expected to join the committee in upcoming weeks. The committee will provide senior business-level oversight for development of the standard, including setting priorities and committing resources. Several members of the Steering Committee plan to begin testing prototype trade affirmation workflows using FpML in the near future. FpML is based on XML, the emerging Internet standard for data sharing between applications. The FpML protocol enables Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis. It promises to reduce the cost and improve the quality of risk management for businesses globally. J.P. Morgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers proposed the standard in June and have since developed industry consensus around the standard." See "Financial Products Markup Language (FpML)."

• [October 14, 1999] "InfoGlide: XML Similarity Search Engine Searches Context on the Web. CRM, Internet Auction Fraud and Internet Search Applications." - "The InfoGlide XML Similarity Search Engine, the first hierarchical search engine built exclusively for XML, is now being shipped. Having established broad patent protection, InfoGlide Corporation has delivered on 7 years of development and two years of testing in live beta sites with some of the world's largest financial, government and e-commerce institutions. The patented XML Similarity Search Engine departs from traditional SQL and relational technology. It looks at every attribute in complex, diverse and sparse databases and measures them against one another. Similarity Search creates patented 'data bands' or metadata-like hierarchical structures which enable it to search across hundreds of attributes instantly. Each attribute is weighted and scored by the user. Scores are then rolled up. David Wheeler said, 'Every search engine today relies on some form of SQL searching. SQL is relational, not hierarchical and XML is hierarchical by its very nature. Thus, any SQL based technology cannot take full advantage of the context of a hierarchy. The patented Similarity Search Engine searches across multiple databases, is immune to 'dirty data' and can measure and score every attribute -- into the thousands. We determined 6 years ago that SQL could never support the context, richness and complexity of the hierarchical world. Since XML is hierarchical, SQL will always be an incomplete solution. Similarity Search Engine handles the sparseness, complexity and context issues perfectly'."

• [October 13, 1999] "QRS Announces qXML for Product Information Acquistion." - "QRS Corporation, a leading provider of e-commerce solutions to the retail industry, announced today it will release QRS XML (qXML), an implementation of XML for the exchange of product information in the retail industry. qXML is the first XML-based exchange-format designed specifically to optimize retail supply chains, simplify the integration of EDI-based product information and expand the breadth of product information exchanged between trading partners. [qXML] provides grocery retailers and vendors a means of communicating product information more completely and efficiently. It will soon be expanded to include general merchandise, apparel, mass merchants, drug and convenience stores. qXML will augment current EDI specifications by providing trading partners with the ability to collectively communicate specific product information with synchronized pricing and promotional information. This will reduce costs associated with product information acquisition and promotions. Vendors will now be able to communicate data such as nutritional information, ingredients and flavor as part of the basic item information. By starting with current EDI standards and blending them with advanced business needs, we have developed a solution that will complement those customers who have already implemented EDI as well as offer a complete solution to those that are not EDI enabled."

• [October 13, 1999] "SMS Selects BladeRunner to Deliver Product Information for the Health Industry With the Power of XML. Content Management Solution to Boost Customer Satisfaction in Technical Documentation and User Assistance." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering XML-based content management solutions for e-business, today announced that Shared Medical Systems Corporation (SMS), the healthcare industry's network computing leader, selected BladeRunner as the cornerstone of its initiative to create and manage content for user documentation and embedded user assistance such as online help and electronic cue cards. With the deployment of BladeRunner, SMS gains competitive advantage by enhancing its ability to deliver product information to the web more quickly. SMS will take advantage of the power of BladeRunner by creating and storing XML content to develop user documentation and user assistance and publish it to a variety of media including CD-ROM, web and hardcopy."

• [October 13, 1999] "Vertex's evolve Product Delivers XML Interfaces For IBM MQSeries." - "Vertex Industries, an IBM Partner World for Developers program member, today announced that they will develop XML and other webcentric interfaces for IBM MQSeries middleware products. The new functionality will be delivered in Vertex's evolve middleware tools suite. Vertex Industries evolve suite of next-generation middleware tools provides the functionality to translate and transform messages between XML documents and legacy data structures. evolve utilizes IBM MQSeries as the pathway to transport the messages between disparate computing platforms. evolve leverages the ability of XML technology to exchange data between applications running in heterogeneous environments. Using the information contained in C headers and COBOL workbooks, self-describing messages are created that are transported via IBM MQSeries to applications running in the different computing environments. 'The convergence of XML and EJB within our suite of middleware products extends the reach of enterprise applications to the Internet and to the virtual work space where both e-commerce and enterprise computing are rapidly coming of age.' [Vertex President Ron Byer]"

• [October 12, 1999] "CommerceNet Issues eCo Interoperability Specifications for XML-Based Electronic Commerce. Worldwide Industry Leaders Collaborate to Develop 'Plug and Play' Architecture And Building Blocks for eCommerce Applications. Also Available in Japanese." - "Furthering its mission to shape the future of eCommerce, CommerceNet today announced the release of the eCo Interoperability Framework Specification, which builds a bridge between disparate, proprietary electronic commerce solutions, in most cases letting businesses interoperate online without manual intervention. The eCo Interoperability Framework provides a single common protocol through which eCommerce systems can describe themselves, their services and their interoperability requirements. The eCo Framework Working Group, which developed the specification, includes key industry players such as 3Com, American Express, American Power Conversion, ASC/X12, Berkeley National Lab, Cisco Systems, Commerce One, Compaq, CSC, GEIS, Harbinger, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Intuit, ISO, Microsoft, Mondex International, NEC, Netscape, Novell, Royal Bank of Canada, Sun Microsystems and UWI.com, as well as experts in XML, OBI, OFX, OTP, XML/EDI, RosettaNet and CBL. The eCo Interoperability Framework consists of two components: (1) The eCo Architecture defines the way businesses describe themselves and their commerce services, as well as the markets or trading communities to which they belong. (2) The eCo Semantic Recommendations describe best practices for developing XML based e-commerce documents. The recommendations also define a set of XML building blocks and document definitions that will let futureXML specifications to interoperate easily with existing ones. It includes a 'starter set' of example business documents, such as purchase orders and invoices. The library of building blocks includes XML encodings for ISO and related standards for currency, time/date, country codes, measurement, address and other reusable components." See also the fact sheet and testimonials for the eCo Interoperability Framework.

• [October 12, 1999] "Ontology.Org lends support to CommerceNet eCo Framework Specification. Worldwide Industry Leaders Collaborate to Develop 'Plug and Play' Architecture and Building Blocks for eCommerce Applications." - "Ontology.Org today announced its support for the launch by CommerceNet of the CommerceNet eCo Interoperability Specifications. Kevin Poulter, Chief Technology Officer for Ontology.Org and member of the eCo Working Group, said 'The completion of the eCo Specifications Phase 1 will help to provide the impetus to move to the next generation of interoperable commerce. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to work with organisations who wish to build on eCo and establish network-based eCo compliant e-services.' Howard Smith, Director of Ontology.Org and member of the eCo Working Group representing Computer Sciences Corporation, stated 'eCo marks a significant first step in Ontology.Org's vision of truly interoperable Internet Commerce. Enterprises are either experimenting with or deploying a variety of B2B commerce solutions. It is often the case that within an iMarket or extended enterprise, the different trading participants will deploy different solutions based on feature sets that match their particular requirements. Integrating these systems is a formidable task. eCo is an important step forward towards the goal of spontaneous Internet commerce. Ontology.Org will continue to work with CommerceNet in support of this agenda objective and will leverage eCo in future programmes'."

• [October 12, 1999] "IPNet Solutions Among First to Achieve Secure Internet EDI Interoperability. CommerceNet Certifies IP.Net.Suite as One of the First eBusiness Solutions to Enable Secure Transactions Over the Internet." - "IPNet Solutions, a provider of industry-leading eBusiness solutions, Tuesday announced that it is among the first to pass Internet electronic data interchange (EDI) interoperability testing conducted by CommerceNet, an eCommerce industry association. The CommerceNet tests confirm that IPNet's flagship product, IPNet.Suite., enables the secure, protected exchange of business documents over the Internet. The tests also verify that IPNet.Suite is interoperable with other leading transaction management products including those from Compaq, GE Information Services, Microsoft and Netscape. IPNet Solutions' integrated suite of software applications, IPNet.Suite, allows companies to support all trading partner transactions including traditional EDI, Internet EDI, XML, Internet-based buying and selling, as well as supply chain management (SCM) solutions including vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and business data object exchange. IPNet.Suite supports major Internet standards and initiatives including CPFR (Collaborative PlanningForecasting and Replenishment), RosettaNet, OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) and Microsoft's BizTalk."

• [October 12, 1999] "Intelisys Accelerates Adoption of B2B e-Commerce by Embracing Open Standards. IEC-Enterprise 4.0 Fully Supports XML Messaging and the Microsoft BizTalk Framework to Maximize Interoperability Between Buyers and Suppliers ." - "Intelisys, a global leader in electronic procurement, today announced that IEC-Enterprise, Version 4.0, supports full-scale interoperability between all buyers and suppliers, regardless of the data protocol. A leading long-time proponent of open standards on the Internet, Intelisys built an architecture that facilitates a broad buying community by enabling fluent data exchange of documents in many formats including any variant of XML. Intelisys is also working with Microsoft Corp. to accelerate the adoption of business-to-business electronic commerce. The companies plan to integrate Intelisys' operating XML definitions with the Microsoft BizTalk Framework to define schema for communicating business-to-business e-commerce transactions."

• [October 12, 1999] "Object Design Announces eXcelon 2.0, Industry's First XML Application Development Environment for eBusiness. New tools, connectivity capabilities make eXcelon the first complete XML application development environment for building and deploying eBusiness applications." - "Object Design, Inc., a global provider of innovative eBusiness products and solutions, today announced eXcelon 2.0, the industry's first eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based application development environment for building and deploying eBusiness applications. eXcelon 2.0 provides developers with the industry's most comprehensive solution for building and deploying XML eBusiness applications in areas such as business-to-business, enterprise application integration, knowledge management, customer-relationship management and Web eCommerce. eXcelon 2.0 provides developers with everything they need to build eBusiness infostructures and the applications that run on them, including: (1) eXcelon Toolbox: A suite of XML development tools for building eBusiness applications, including the industry's first professional eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) editor. (2) eXcelon Data Server: A powerful eBusiness engine for storing, managing and delivering XML eBusiness information. It is the only XML data server that supports XML's extensibility while also enabling developers to blend structured data (information from databases) with unstructured data (all other corporate information) for use in eBusiness applications. (3) Xconnects: A connectivity solution that enables eBusiness developers to access information from virtually any corporate data source, convert the data into XML and then load it into the eXcelon Data Server where it can be managed and used for eBusiness applications."

• [October 12, 1999] "Cohera Announces Partnership With webMethods to Integrate SAP Applications and Web-Based Documents. Partnership Enables Cohera to Deliver Data Integration Capabilities Inside and Outside of Corporate Firewalls." - "Cohera Corporation, a leading provider of Federation Systems (FS) for e-business, today announced a partnership and product licensing agreement with webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, to deliver the integration of key data sources inside and outside of corporate firewalls. By incorporating webMethods B2B server into its Federation System, Cohera adds the ability to dynamically integrate corporate SAP applications and web-based XML and HTML documents with other corporate data sources such as Oracle databases and mainframe-based VSAM or DB2 sources. webMethods provides an open solution for managing business community integration between companies, partners, customers and suppliers. Based on XML technology, webMethods B2B is an enterprise-strength product suite that safely and reliably integrates diverse business communities over the Internet in real time. webMethods B2B provides the widest support of open Internet and proprietary standards and initiatives, including XML, RosettaNet, FpML (financial industry), cXML, OBI, OAG, Accord (insurance), Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI. Adding webMethods B2B to Cohera's data source adapters gives users the ability to construct an on-the-fly coherent picture of a customer or an order -- even though the necessary information may reside in multiple systems, some of which may belong to other companies. Cohera's new XML-based SAP adapter allows users to join data in their SAP system with other internal legacy systems as well as supply-chain data via the web."

• [October 11, 1999] "OASIS Publishes XML Exchange Table Model Document Type Definition." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced public availability of the XML Exchange Table Model Document Type Definition. Published as OASIS Technical Memorandum TR 9901:1999 (http://www.oasis-open.org/html/techpubs.htm), the XML Exchange Table Model DTD is an XML expression of the exchange subset of the full CALS Table Model DTD (http://www.oasis-open.org/html/a502.htm). 'The benefit of the exchange subset is that, if an application's tables are tagged according to this subset, there is a high probability that the table will be interoperable among the great majority of OASIS vendor products,' explained Norman Walsh (Arbortext), chair of the OASIS XML Tables Technical Committee. 'This memorandum satisfies the growing desire among OASIS member companies to have an official XML version of the Exchange Table Model.' 'The XML Table Model is an important step forward,' said Norbert Mikula (DataChannel), chief technical officer of OASIS. 'For years, the SGML Table Model has been the heart of table interoperability. Now, the XML Table Model will provide the same utility for the XML world'.

• [October 08, 1999] "SYS-CON Publications, Publisher of Java Developer's Journal, Announces XML-Journal, a New Magazine That Focuses Exclusively on XML Technology. New SYS-CON Publication Gives XML and Web Application Developers Valuable News and Information on XML Industry Standards and Open, Cross-Platform Development with XML." - "SYS-CON Publications, Inc., today announced the debut of the the first print magazine devoted to XML technology. Published bimonthly by SYS-CON Publications, XML-Journal will provide detailed technical information and instructions from the leading names in XML-based application development. The journal will also feature interviews with industry leaders and experts in the XML, Web and e-commerce development communities, as well as reviews of software add-ons and plug-ins, companion tools, and analyses of successful deployments of XML-based applications. The premier issue of XML-Journal will be available on newsstands and mailed to subscribers in December. Subscribers to XML-Journal will immediately receive SYS-CON's 'Collector's Edition XML Focus Issue' free of charge as part of their subscription. XML-Journal is designed to provide XML developers and consultants with articles columns that bring special insight to building and deploying XML-driven Web applications. The publication also will offer the XML developer community a venue for contributing and sharing XML knowledge. Ultimately, the journal is intended to facilitate the growth of the XML developer community by providing a consistent source of the latest, cutting-edge technical information..."

• [October 07, 1999] "Adler Consulting Announces Release of DataPackage XML, A Client/Server Optimization Tool For Visual Basic." - "Adler Consulting announced the availability of DataPackage XML, an ActiveX component designed to optimize Client/Server applications, specifically programs that use Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). DataPackage enables developers to store any type of data, including multiple database queries, in a single XML file which can then be encrypted and compressed before delivery to a client computer. On the client, DataPackage functions as an in-memory database engine offering many advanced features not found in other tools. DataPackage XML is based on an easy to use object model that will be instantly familiar to programmers using Microsoft ADO. An evaluation copy of DataPackage XML can be downloaded on the Internet. DataPackage XML reads and writes XML 1.0 files, which facilitates seamless communication with programs from any major operating system. DataPackage XML includes tools to convert Microsoft ADO data into the DataPackage XML format. This feature allows programmers to use ADO data sources on servers, convert the data into a DataPackage XML file, and send it to the client where a DataPackage XML control can access it like a normal database engine. Also included is a component that makes it easy to read and write DataPackage XML files from any web server via HTTP."

• [October 07, 1999] "Nuance Ushers in a News Age of Communications with Voyager Voice Browser. Product Provides Universal Access for Communications, Content and Commerce. World's Largest Technology Companies Announce Support." - "Nuance, a leader in natural speech interface software for telecommunications, enterprise and Web-based systems, today debuted Nuance Voyager, a voice browser that fundamentally changes the way people use the phone to communicate, access information and conduct business. Voyager significantly enhances the capabilities of the telephone network in the same way that Web browsers widened the appeal of the Internet. More than 25 leading telecommunications and Internet companies have agreed to work with Nuance and its Voyager product Voyager is built on Nuance's market leading speech recognition and voice authentication software. The powerful and easy-to-use Voyager voice user interface is rendered through a combination of SpeechObjects and the VoxML (or the forthcoming VoiceXML) language and is based on many years of Nuance experience designing speech applications. Not only can Voyager access the full range of functionality in any application that is built with SpeechObjects or VoxML, but it can also access all other speech applications."

• [October 07, 1999] "DataChannel's XML-based Enterprise Information Portal Recognized as Key Innovator at Fall Internet World. DataChannel Seen on CNBC as 'Top Internet Company to Watch' and Selected for Preview '99." - "DataChannel, Inc. announced today that its next generation XML-based Enterprise Information Portal Solution has been selected as a key Internet Innovation at Fall Internet World. The two significant showcases at the show, Preview '99 and CNBC, will feature DataChannel as one of the 'Top Internet Companies to Watch at Fall Internet World.' Said Lucie Fjeldstad, newly appointed as Chief Executive Officer, DataChannel, Inc.: 'The momentum behind e-business with its evolving business-to-business emphasis, mandates that companies do more than just manage transactions between their business partners. They must build their e-business backbone from the core of their Enterprise architecture. Adding another layer of technology or implementing another e-business server only adds to the confusion of legacy systems. Our approach is to build our Enterprise Information Portal on a re-usable infrastructure using open standards like XML. That infrastructure belongs to the customer and unleashes the information of their existing systems. Looking from the outside into the enterprise is a band-aid approach to the problem. Creating an e-business strategy from the inside out ensures that a company's entire IT infrastructure becomes "e-business" ready.' DataChannel is one of a handful of Internet companies that were selected from the entire field, and is the only privately held company. The segment will air from the trade show floor of Fall Internet World."

• [October 06, 1999] "FRx Software Announces Support For XML. Announcement Demonstrates Support for AICPA XML Initiative." - "FRx Software Corporation, a leading provider of financial reporting and analytic applications, today announced that its upcoming product release, code-named 'Vulcan,' will embrace the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) XFRML initiative to create standardized digital financial statement formats using XML (Extensible Markup Language). 'The XFRML initiative provides a framework that allows the financial community a standards-based method to prepare, publish in a variety of formats, reliably extract and automatically exchange financial reports and the information they contain,' said Louis Matherne, director of information technology from the AICPA. 'We are very pleased to have FRx supporting this initiative. Their position as leaders in financial reporting will contribute significantly to the adoption of the standard.' FRx's first XML output option will create a single, standard XML output file that can be viewed using FRx's DrillDown Viewer or any other browser that supports XML. This output option allows reports generated by either of FRx's applications to be shared with any other XML-aware application. The second option will create an XML output file exclusive to FRx's applications that is geared towards high performance and advanced viewing and drilling capabilities within the DrillDown Viewer. With the second option, users will be able to drill through corporate hierarchies as well as summary information to transaction detail. Both options will provide users with the ability to export the XML data to OLAP cubes, Lotus, Excel or ASCII file formats. The XML output functionality will be included in FRx's 'Vulcan' product, scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 1999." See "Extensible Financial Reporting Markup Language (XFRML)."

• [October 06, 1999] Industry Visionary, Lucie Fjeldstad, Accelerates DataChannel XML Leadership as CEO. David Pool, DataChannel's Founder, to Start New XMLFund." - "DataChannel Tuesday announced the appointment of Lucie Fjeldstad, to the office of chief executive officer and president. Fjeldstad joined DataChannel nearly a year ago as its president. Her background and experience in enterprise software and multimedia combined with DataChannel's expertise in XML, has made DataChannel the largest dedicated enterprise XML solutions company in the world. This combination of dynamics, experience and innovation has opened the door to major Fortune 100 accounts including AT&T and General Motors. In a related move, David Pool, founder and former CEO of DataChannel, announced today the creation of XMLFund, a new venture fund focused on building the next generation of XML-based companies, start-ups to compliment DataChannel and to further advance XML technologies, applications and solutions. Pool, an Internet Pioneer, produced the world's first Internet software suite, ``Internet-in-a-box'' as the founder of Spry Inc. which was later purchased by CompuServe. 'We are just seeing a glimpse of how XML will change the face of e-business computing. The XMLFund will focus on start-up companies who demonstrate cutting-edge advancement, implementation, and extension of XML and its surrounding technologies'."

• [October 06, 1999] "DataChannel's XML-Based EIP Solution Solves Fortune 1000's Core IT Issues. Customer Advisory Board Reaffirms DataChannel XML-based EIP Strategy." - DataChannel, enterprise XML solutions provider, Tuesday announced the formation of the DataChannel Customer Advisory Board. The new advisory board, which is composed of such Fortune 1000 companies as AT&T and General Motors, held its first strategic meeting last week, outlining their tactical approach towards the direction of the XML-based enterprise information portals (EIP) as well as defining the future of DataChannel's solutions roadmap. The roadmap provides XML-based EIP solutions that focus on maximizing a corporation's enterprise information resources through products, services and partners versus an out-of-the-box, vendor-centric approach. 'DataChannel customers are helping us to define the next generation of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal solutions based on their core IT issues,' said Lucie Fjeldstad, president, DataChannel Inc. 'The future of DataChannel and our key products and services is dependant on solving customer's critical problems and exceeding customer expectations.' DataChannel's XML-based EIP solution was designed to help Fortune 1000 customers meet the challenge of e-business: getting the right information to the right person at the right time. The power of XML makes it possible for DataChannel to extend its EIP reach; XML is the open-standards language of e-business. Built from the ground up on XML, DataChannel's next generation enterprise information portal server is the most advanced flexible platform for building, delivering and managing robust EIP solutions."

• [October 06, 1999] "Sun-Netscape Alliance Forms Strategic Relationships to Expand Capabilities Of Online Billing Offering for Telcos, Service Providers. Relationships with Portal, Solect, Vantive and SAIC to Enable Tighter Integration Between Alliance iPlanet BillerXpert and Backend Systems And Increased Customer Care Capabilities." - "Reaffirming its position as a leading provider of electronic bill presentment and payment applications, the Sun-Netscape Alliance is one of the first solutions vendors to announce new strategic relationships with best of breed software and service providers to offer an end to end, tightly integrated offering that spans backend billing and rating, bill presentment and payment and customer service and care targeted at Telcos and Service Providers. These new relationships with Portal Software Inc., Solect, Vantive Corp. and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will enable Alliance iPlanet BillerXpert customers to streamline their electronic billing processes, generate new revenue opportunities and achieve significant cost-savings. Through its relationships with Portal and Solect, the Alliance will help enable customers to achieve a tighter integration between iPlanet BillerXpert for EBPP and their billing and rating engines. This direct connection between iPlanet BillerXpert and the billing and rating technologies leverages XML to help eliminate the costly process of breaking down complex print image data and realizes a significant cost-savings to telcos and service providers."

• [October 06, 1999] "Oracle Shifts Java Development Into Overdrive With Production Release of Oracle Business Components for Java. Ships New JDeveloper 3.0 Toolset, Leverages XML for Quickly Building, Customizing, Testing, and Deploying Software Components." - "Oracle Corp.today announced the delivery of Oracle. Business Components for Java, the first Java framework to help developers build, customize and deploy reusable components for both packaged and custom applications. Oracle Business Components for Java is the first standards-based, server side framework for delivering scalable, high-performance Internet applications. With Oracle Business Components for Java, development time is dramatically reduced and customization is easier and therefore less costly than ever before. The new Oracle JDeveloper 3.0, generally available this month, is the industry's first Java development tool capable of assembling business components into complete applications. With the industry shift away from complete custom development, the ability to tailor packaged applications becomes essential for customers to achieve an exact fit with their business needs. Traditionally, in order to customize packaged applications developers were required to modify the original source code, a very time consuming and resource-intensive process. Oracle Business Components for Java eliminates this problem by using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to publish an application's metadata. As a result, customizing an application is as easy as editing XML information, without requiring any changes to the original source code."

• [October 06, 1999] "Microsoft BizTalk Support in UWI.Com's InternetForms Commerce System Automates Trading Networks. Rapid deployment, management, and integration of intelligent, legally-binding XML documents through BizTalk facilitates seamless 'face' for e-commerce systems." - "The problem of full trading network automation was addressed today at Fall Internet World in an announcement and product preview from UWI.Com, the leading provider of XML Internet forms solutions for business-to-business e-commerce. UWI.Com announced support for Microsoft BizTalk within InternetForms Commerce System (ICS), facilitating the use of legally-binding XML InternetForms as an interoperable front-end, or face, for disparate e-commerce systems. UWI.Com also previewed a new product, code-named InternetForms Server, for optimizing the deployment, management, and integration of intelligent XML documents in both traditional and new age e-commerce systems. The company will be previewing versions of the software at Fall Internet World in New York Oct. 6 - 8. 'The automation and expansion of trading networks is a required component of an organization's competitive advantage,' said Jeff Morris, lead product manager for BizTalk Server at Microsoft. 'UWI.Com's support for BizTalk within the InternetForms Commerce System product line enables companies to quickly automate their trading through the use of digitally signed XML forms as a front end to e-commerce systems.' By supporting BizTalk, InternetForms enable large organizations to realize an immediate return on their e-commerce investments by integrating the up-to-80-percent of their network -- mainly small and medium sized enterprises -- that have not invested in comprehensive e-commerce systems. This includes organizations trading using Microsoft's BizTalk solutions, as well as e-commerce systems from vendors supporting the BizTalk initiative, including Ariba, Commerce One, SAP, and PeopleSoft."

• [October 06, 1999] "The Face of E-Commerce: UWI.Com Provides cXML Connectivity to Ariba Network." - UWI.Com, a leading provider of XML Internet forms for business-to-business e-commerce, today announced that it will incorporate cXML (Commerce Extensible Markup Language) connectivity into its InternetForms Commerce System. The integration will provide supplier organizations with robust connectivity to the Ariba Network platform through an intelligent, standards-based front end. UWI.Com also announced that they are developing a suite of software that will facilitate the deployment, integration, and management of e-commerce documents as the interoperable front-end, or face, of both traditional and new age e-commerce systems. Both UWI.Com and Ariba are widely recognized as innovators in the business-to-business e-commerce market. Over 100 companies, including Ariba and its buyer and supplier organization customers, support the cXML standard. The Ariba network of buying organizations includes twelve Fortune 100 companies as well as many industry leaders in the Global 2000. UWI.Com's InternetForms offer an intelligent interface that will allow suppliers to quickly participate in the Ariba Network platform, while ensuring that information submitted is complete, error-free, and secure. By encapsulating the cXML business semantics used by the Ariba Network platform, InternetForms provide enterprises with intelligent and secure XML documents that can easily interoperate with a wide range of e-business systems."

• [October 06, 1999] "OASIS Expands European Member Support. Pam Gennusa to Represent XML Consortium from London Office." - "OASIS, the Organization for Structured Information Standards, today announced plans to increase its European member support by establishing representation in London. The international XML consortium has retained well-known industry expert, Pam Gennusa, to expand OASIS' presence and enhance services to Consortium members in Europe. Gennusa, best known for her roles as conference chair of XML Europe and former director of DPSL, will support OASIS members based in Europe, including Reuters Ltd., Software AG and STEP, and the European offices of OASIS members based in other parts of the world. Gennusa will also work to grow membership in the Consortium, which is gaining increased recognition for its industry portal, XML.org.

• [October 06, 1999] "Leading Open Source Application Server From Lutris Available With Red Hat Linux. Enhydra and XMLC Bundled With Official Red Hat Linux 6.1." - Lutris Technologies today announced the inclusion of Enhydra, the most widely deployed Open Source Java/XML Application Server, on the Red Hat Application CD that ships with Official Red Hat Linux 6.1. Enhydra 2.2 is an Open Source application server that includes XMLC, eXtensible Markup Language Compiler. XMLC is a development tool that uses the popular Internet standards, XML and Document Object Model (DOM), for the creation of dynamic Web applications. Red Hat is the first commercial vendor to distribute Enhydra. With the dominant market share of the Apache web server and the rapid acceptance of Linux, the Open Source community has produced a Web server platform that is well supported and tested. However, through consulting engagements and delivering numerous Web projects, Lutris realized that a complete Open Source Internet server platform was missing a critical piece: an application server. Enhydra provides the final part of this equation, the first Open Source Java/XML application server for building Internet applications. Enhydra is a 100% Java application server with industry-leading XML support. Enhydra was released to the Open Source community on January 15, 1999. Since that time, Enhydra has become the dominant Open Source application server and www.enhydra.org, has been visited by over 80,000 users resulting in more than 11,000 downloads. Hundreds of independent developers are actively contributing to Enhydra. Web projects leveraging Enhydra are underway worldwide by IT departments, Internet consultants, and start-up companies. Enhydra supports Unix, Linux, Windows and NT, as well as industry-dominant Web servers including Apache, Netscape Enterprise Server and Microsoft IIS. The only platform requirement is the presence of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.1.6 or higher."

• [October 06, 1999] "Informix XML-Enables Internet Foundation.2000. Defines Roadmap for XML Strategy." - "Informix Corporation, technology leader in enterprise database-powered solutions today announced support in Informix Internet Foundation.2000 for eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for universal data exchange. With XML, Internet Foundation.2000 customers will be able to integrate existing data with their new E-commerce applications and efficiently exchange data with their customers, partners, and suppliers. Informix also announced its strategy to support XML across all of its products to deliver the easiest and fastest way to build and integrate applications and data for the new i.Economy. Businesses are now moving their focus from electronic storefronts to streamlining their supply chain processes through business-to-business integration. With this migration, infrastructure requirements become more and more complex. XML is a metadata-rich way of representing data that is understandable to both humans and machines. It facilitates the increasing need for the tighter integration of intracompany applications and the evolving requirements for seamless inter-company communications. More specifically, Informix today announced: (1) XML support in Internet Foundation.2000 Available immediately, XML is supported through the newest version of the Informix Web DataBlade module. (2) Hierarchical XML Data Storage - Allows Internet Foundation.2000 users the ability to import, export, store and query/index XML structures in their native hierarchical format. (3) XML Product Roadmap - In the first half of the year 2000, Informix will deliver other XML-enabled products, including a server-based workflow engine that supports the communication of XML documents and enables rules to be embedded in documents for exception handling or processing. An XML metadata repository is also in development, which will make metadata uniformly accessible to tools and applications, regardless of the data source. Other XML-related standards like XSL, XML Schema, XML Query Language (XQL), XML Linking, and XML Infoset are planned to be supported as they are finalized by the W3C."

• [October 06, 1999] "Lotus Delivers XML and Microsoft COM Support To Advance Rapid Application Development." - "At Internet World, Lotus Development Corp. announced Domino Release 5 (R5) server support for two emerging technologies: Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Microsoft Component Object Model (COM). These two technologies enable organizations to develop powerful collaborative e-business applications that build strong relationships among employees, suppliers and customers. Support for XMLand COM further reinforces Domino's position as the premier platform for developing and deploying e-business applications, delivering Domino's collaborative capabilities to new communities of developers and new classes of applications. By supporting XML, Domino Application Server R5 makes it easy to incorporate this industry-standard data type into an organization'sbusiness processes. Lotus Domino offers a rich development environment for XML-based applications, which allows organizations to leverage XML in the most powerful collaborative e-business applications. Examples include supply chain integration, content management, employee self-service and customer relationship management -- for which Domino is already deployed in enterprises around the globe. Domino's architecture is uniquely suited to capture and exploit the strengths of XML and its related technologies, such as the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Already developers are writing applications that populate or extract data stored in a Domino database, through open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and creating Java servlets and agents that import or produce XML. With the LotusXSL processor, Domino can apply style sheets that translate between disparate XML formats, or to rendering formats such as HTML. For example, XSL stylesheets can be invoked for formatting XML data appropriately for disparate client form factors such as browsers, handheld computers and wireless devices. This 'shorthand'' formatting delivers the power of Domino applications to a virtually unlimited array of devices -- without recoding. Beginning with the next quarterly update, Domino can present a view of information as an XML document. Using a simple URL, applications can leverage the Domino Server's indexing and processing facilities. For example, a java applet can chart view information presented as XML, or send only appropriate entries to a servlet for further computation."

• [October 06, 1999] "The E-content Company and Net Perceptions Form Strategic Partnership to Deliver XML-based Personalized Content to the Web. BladeRunner Extends Functionality with Precision Profiling, Personalization and Recommendation Features." - "In keeping with the Company's strategy to deliver powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business initiatives, the e-content company, leader in developing and marketing XML-based solutions for e-business applications and a division of Interleaf, Inc., today announced a new partnership with Net Perceptions, a leading supplier of real-time personalization solutions. The combination of the e-content company's BladeRunner with Net Perception's personalization technology provides BladeRunner users with a competitive advantage through the ability to serve customized web content according to customer interests and to target communications with relevant information for a variety of audiences. With the integration of Net Perception technology, BladeRunner reaches a higher level of personalization by providing an engine toolkit that analyzes web activity along with both pre-determined and current information about the user. With the addition of this new feature, BladeRunner strengthens its one-to-one marketing capability by allowing users to build deeper relationships with their customers. In addition, BladeRunner will include a robust recommendation feature that enables the creation, management and publishing of personalized content that is based on specific interests and needs of the user."

• [October 06, 1999] "Chrystal Software Introduces Content Management for Epic -- XML-based System for Information Creation and Publishing." - "Chrystal Software, a Xerox New Enterprise Company, announced today the compatibility of Astoria 3.4 with Arbortext's Epic, the industry's first Extensible Markup Language (XML) based enterprise software system for information creation and publishing. Epic is Arbortext's XML-based e-Content software to create, manage, personalize and deliver vital business information to web, print and CD-ROM media. Epic uses XML to accelerate time to market and supports the complete process of creating, collaborating on, presenting and improving the vital business information customers produce in Web, CD-ROM, and print formats. A content management solution for organizations producing and publishing all types of structured documents, Astoria manages content created using systems like Arbortext's Epic and ADEPT Editor. It manages documents down to the component level, including retrieving, accessing, versioning, and securing each component individually. Astoria also maintains the link between each component within the document, or documents, of which they are a part. Unlike traditional document management systems which are designed to manage many-to-one relationships, Astoria's object-oriented framework is adept at handling these many-to-many relationships."

• [October 06, 1999] "DataChannel and Inso Eliminate Application Dependency For Information Access." - "DataChannel and Inso Corporation's Information Exchange Division jointly announced a marketing alliance which advances the web-performance of DataChannel's Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) Solutions with the use of Inso's recently released Outside In. Server V.2. Outside In Server automatically creates high quality, customized web pages on-the-fly from virtually any business document. DataChannel's EIP Solution Framework is a total solution for building an Enterprise Information Portal and unleashes corporate information with Internet access, enabling companies to map their IT strategy while driving business objectives. Inso's powerful Outside In Server enables companies using the DataChannel Portal Server as their EIP solution to access more than 200 file formats without requiring the native applications, plug-ins, or java applets to be installed on company desktops - a huge timesaver for DataChannel EIP customers. Outside In Server is a critical addition to DataChannel's WEBView 2.0, a core file viewing component of the DataChannel server. 'Our customers are web-enabling their enterprises to compete in this new e-business economy,' said Lucie Fjeldstad, CEO, DataChannel, Inc. 'It is imperative that their employees, partners, and customers gain immediate access to critical information without the burden of application dependence and without the time consuming task of manually creating web pages from standard business documents'."

• [October 05, 1999] "OAO and JetForm Join in Strategic Relationship, Focuses on leveraging EC/EDI, XML and electronic forms technology to develop EDI-to-XML interoperability." - "OAO Corporation and JetForm Corporation, a global leader in workflow and e-process solutions, today at the Electronic Commerce World Conference (Orlando, FL) announced a strategic business relationship to integrate OAO's electronic commerce (EC)/Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology and JetForm's XML-based e-process framework. This effort enables companies to provide completely automated, seamless, open standards based EDI-to-XML interoperability for e-business processes such as request for proposals, electronic purchase orders, electronic invoicing and support. Through this partnership financial, contracting and government/military organizations will be able to present EC/EDI transactions in intelligent XML-based forms. Because XML acts as a 'front end' for the EDI technology customers can participate in all levels of e-business processes without the cost and procedure of installing and maintaining expensive leased line technology. Partners are no longer limited to those who can justify an investment in EDI technology. The strategic teaming and development effort will create a transparent EDI bridge between OAO's EC/EDI technology, specifically Easy Mix based on the Implementation Definition (IMPDEF) message, and JetForm's e-process framework and XML Forms Architecture (XFA). This will provide a seamless interface between EDI codified standards and XML structures offering an enhanced user interface, elimination of redundant inputs and errors and a faster processing time." See: "XML Forms Architecture (XFA)" and the XFA Web site.

• [October 05, 1999] "VSI Ships First Release of Breeze Commerce Studio. Advanced XML Development Tool Now Available as Free Download." - "VSI (V-Systems Inc.), a company dedicated to 'Bridging the Gap between Business and E-Business, Tuesday announced the availability of Breeze Commerce Studio, a powerful new developer's toolkit for building XML-based business solutions. Breeze Commerce Studio provides an advanced visual environment, designed for XML and Java developers, that speeds the integration of multiple data sources by utilizing a powerful XML schema editor, schema importer and Java code generation tools. This empowers developers to optimize overall development productivity and build XML-based business solutions quickly and easily. Breeze Commerce Studio enables developers to create, import and modify XML schema (DTDs). Additionally, Breeze can import schema from JDBC and ODBC connectable databases and generate Java code in the form of objects that can be integrated into applications. The objects will validate XML documents based on the parameters and constraints set in the schema. Breeze also includes a toolkit which can route XML data via HTTP, TCP, e-mail, file and XML-enabled fax servers. Breeze features an intuitive graphical interface designed to maximize developer productivity. Breeze Wizards quickly step the developer through the process of importing DTDs and database schema. Once a DTD or database schema has been imported, additional constraints and data types can be assigned to the elements of that schema. The Breeze Export Wizard then generates Java code providing access to XML documents and databases that adhere to the specified schema. The code generated by Breeze presents an object view of XML documents and databases to the developer. This approach allows the developer to treat XML documents and databases like any other object in the application. It also simplifies accessing XML from Java over other approaches such as DOM, which requires an in-depth knowledge of both a Java API and the underlying XML and SAX (Simple API for XML)."

• [October 05, 1999] "NEON Adds XML and EDI Adapters to e-Business Product Line." - "New Era of Networks, Inc. today introduced new adapters to connect with e-Business applications. With the NEONadapter for XML and the NEONadapter for EDI, NEON Integration Server users can now integrate XML and EDI-based business-to-business (B2B) systems with any other application in their enterprise. Both adapters are available immediately. XML and EDI are two of the most significant standards in e-Business. Customers are rapidly embracing XML for new e-Business initiatives, while software vendors are rushing to incorporate XML into their next-generation products. EDI, on the other hand, represents 'legacy e-Business.' Many businesses are looking to leverage their EDI capabilities going forward, particularly by moving their EDI traffic onto the Internet. Analysts predict many companies will use XML and EDI together, such as using XML for purchasing and EDI for payments. NEONadapter for XML allows organizations to integrate XML with non-XML based systems. Customers also can use the product to integrate systems utilizing different XML dialects, such as Microsoft's BizTalk and RosettaNet. Product features include: (1) Automatic Loading XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs): NEONadapter for XML decreases implementation time by parsing XML DTDs and automatically generating formats for the NEONFormatter. (2) User-Defined Prefixes for Format Name Qualification: NEONadapter for XML enables users to add prefixes to the DTD message format. For example, customers who adopt industry standard formats, such as the OAG's BODs, can specify prefixes for the adopted formats. (3) Choice of Connectivity Options: NEONadapter for XML allows any new application that is queue-enabled to work with the adapter. Additionally, by daisy-chaining NEONadapter for XML with NEONadapter for Protocols, customers can interface protocol-oriented, XML-based systems as well."

• [October 05, 1999] "Harbinger Expands XML Initiatives." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today expansive new corporate-wide initiatives that bring eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to the forefront of its Internet E-Commerce strategy. First, Harbinger will launch an on-network XML translation service via its E-Commerce portal, harbinger.net, along with an online XML document repository that is being developed by Harbinger for its EC Resource Center. Harbinger also plans to support XML in future releases of its suite of TrustedLink translation software. Finally, Harbinger announced that it has formed an alliance with OnDisplay, an e-business technology leader, to integrate their state-of-the-art XML products into certain of Harbinger's products. In conjunction with these initiatives, Harbinger is working with international non-profit organizations, including UN/CEFACT and OASIS, to standardize XML business specifications and is supporting other collective efforts such as the Microsoft BizTalk Framework to drive the adoption of XML in Electronic Commerce. Harbinger plans to roll out an on-network XML translation service this December that will be available to customers using harbinger.net. The service, which automatically translates Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) documents to/from XML and will process native XML transactions as well, promises to facilitate translation and mapping in Internet electronic trading, while helping companies speed the implementation of new E-Commerce applications. The on-network service is currently in limited production tests."

• [October 05, 1999] "OASIS Grows As Concern for XML Interoperability Rises. Corel, Extricity Software and Keyfile Join International XML Consortium." - "Membership in OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, reached an all-time high as Corel Corporation, Extricity Software and Keyfile Corporation became the newest Sponsors of the international XML consortium. The companies cite the urgent need to come together in a vendor-neutral forum to help bring stability and order to the fast-moving scene of XML standards work. New OASIS Contributor members include Cognito, Infoteria, NetFish, Noonetime, ProcureNet and Tokyo Electron. 'Our membership growth confirms the significant role that OASIS plays in ensuring that both vendor and users have a neutral and open forum for meaningful dialog about how to best implement XML industry,' commented Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS."

• [October 05, 1999] "Webb Introduces XML-Based Community and Communications Solution For Local Commerce, Customer Support and Enterprise Markets. CommunityWare/XML Platform Pioneers New Ways To Harness The Content And Commercial Opportunities Of Communities." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. today introduced its complete CommunityWare/XML product suite rebuilt entirely under XML, and targeted at local commerce, customer support, and enterprise collaboration markets. CommunityWare/XML - including Publish, Interact, and Administer modules - offers a comprehensive solution for enabling communities and communications to mine the valuable content that until now could not be feasibly gathered. This next-generation CommunityWare/XML platform fully integrates XML technology allowing for more powerful searching, reorganization, and use of the content generated in community interactions. The platform also integrates the open- source, XML-based instant messaging technology from Jabber.org, which is the cornerstone for extracting value from the enormous commercial potential of instant messaging. [Said Simon Greenman, Webb general manager] 'CommunityWare/XML enables this opportunity to finally be realized, and creates a platform that unlocks the incredible commercial potential hidden in the content. We're working with our partners to develop some very revolutionary approaches to buyer/seller interaction, enterprise communications and community-based customer support.' The comprehensive CommunityWare/XML platform offers template-driven web site generation, instant messaging, chat, discussion forums, and calendars, and enables system administrators to monitor their online community, control content, modify the site and gather statistics on members, activity and transactions."

• [October 04, 1999] "Network54.com Community Portal Adds Fine Grained Access Control And XML Based Syndication. Network54.com Community Portal Adds Fine Grained Access Control and Enables XML Based Syndication for its Popular and Free Web Forums." - "Network54, a provider of advanced resources for communication between groups of people over the Internet, launched new access control and syndication features for its popular free forum service. XML Syndication: Network54 has enabled its directory structure as well as every forum with XML. The hockey directory, for example, syndicates a list of the most popular discussions on the ice sport, while a specific forum transmits its most recent message titles. To insure easy dissemination, Network54 supports ScriptingNews and both revisions of MyNetscape RSS formats. Already, according to www.xmltree.com, Network54 is the largest supplier of publicly syndicated XML content. Network54 provides advanced resources for communication between groups of people over the Internet, specializing in forums and chat rooms." [From the Web site, 'XML and Content Syndication': "For the purpose of this site, XML is a kind of file that lets web servers talk to each other in an open manner. Like multimedia files, there are many different formats (WAV and MP3 for music, JEPG and GIF for images, etc). XML formats which Network54 currently supports are: RSS, RSS v0.91, Scripting News 2.0b1, and OCS Directory 0.4. If you use my.netscape.com or other site that imports XML, you can add Network54 directories and forums to your homepage as added channels. Using the XML version of a forum listing in the Network54 directory will show a channel that lists the most popular message borads on that subject, right inside your homepage. You can do the same thing with a forum, so you can see the latest messages in your forum on the same page as your news and stock quotes..."] See RSS references in "RDF Rich Site Summary (RSS)."

• [October 04, 1999] "Microsoft Announces Availability of Exchange 2000 Server Beta 3. Messaging and Collaboration Platform Enhances Productivity of Knowledge Workers." - "Today at the fourth annual Microsoft Exchange Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server beta 3, the message and collaboration server previously code-named 'Platinum.' Exchange 2000 is the reliable, easy-to-manage platform for messaging and collaboration that brings users and knowledge together. It provides an enhanced platform for messaging and collaboration, increased knowledge worker productivity with Microsoft's new Web Store technology, and access to people and information at any time, from anywhere. Exchange 2000 includes Leading support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and other Web standards, enabling high-performance Web interaction, with Complete application platform for high-performance, Web-enabled business and workflow applications..."

• [October 04, 1999] "Scriptics Unveils XML-Based Business-to-Business Integration Platform. BizConnect Dramatically Reduces Time, Complexity and Cost of Web-centric Business-to-Business Application Development." - "Scriptics Corporation, a leading developer of business integration tools founded by Tcl creator John Ousterhout, today unveiled a breakthrough business-to-business integration server. Known as BizConnect, the new software platform delivers the industry's first easy-to-use XML infrastructure for developing business-to-business applications. With an innovative business logic paradigm as simple as paper and 'Post-It Notes', and flexible integration with a wide range of software component standards, enterprise applications, legacy software and Internet technologies, BizConnect dramatically reduces the time, cost and complexity of business-to-business application development. BizConnect delivers a complete development and deployment platform that enables companies to bring business-to-business applications to market 5 to 10 times faster than alternative approaches. Additionally, by leveraging established Internet infrastructure and software technologies and standards, Scriptics makes it easy for companies to integrate their business-to-business applications with existing enterprise applications, other Internet/XML applications, back-office and front-office systems and software components. BizConnect is based on XML, HTML/HTTP, Visual Basic/COM, Java/EJB, SQL/database and the open source Tcl scripting language, and can easily be extended with software components developed using traditional languages, including Visual Basic, C, C++ and Java/EJB. BizConnect includes the Apache Web server on Unix and contains an interface to Microsoft IIS Web server on Windows NT. With XML translation functionality, it is an ideal platform for integrating the different forms of XML that will be deployed at many organizations and across most inter-business supply and value chains..."

• [October 04, 1999] "OASIS Advises Europe on XML Registries and Repositories. XML One Features 'Building the XML Backbone' by Norbert Mikula." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, will address representatives of the European XML community on the significance of XML registries and repositories. In a presentation at XML One Europe in Westminster, London on 6 October 1999, Norbert Mikula (DataChannel), chief technical officer of OASIS, will brief attendees on 'Building the XML Backbone' and the importance of a vendor-neutral XML Registry and Repository from an applied systems design perspective. 'The need to establish an open, vendor-neutral registry and repository is critical for the industry as a whole,' explained Mikula. 'In London, I will discuss the mission of the OASIS XML.org Registry and Repository and how XML.org relates to other industry initiatives including Biztalk and CommerceNet's eCo."

• [October 04, 1999] "Sun-Netscape Alliance Bundles Binary Evolution's VelociGen With iPlanet Web Server Enterprise Edition 4.0. VelociGen Increases Enterprise Server's Performance and Reduces Development Time for Applications Based on Perl or Tcl." - "Binary Evolution Inc., a provider of web application development tools and consulting service, and the Sun-Netscape Alliance announced that Binary Evolution's VelociGen will ship with iPlanet Web Server Enterprise Server 4.0. VelociGen is a web server plug-in for developing robust web applications that integrate with any ODBC compliant database and legacy applications. VelociGen improves Enterprise Server's speed and stability and enables rapid deployment of enterprise applications based on the Perl or Tcl programming languages. The iPlanet Web Server includes a lite version of VelociGen with the option to download a fully functional version from the Sun-Netscape web site. Binary Evolution's products include VelociGen for XML (software for the development and deployment of XML applications)."

• [October 04, 1999] "Top E-Commerce Solution Providers Announce Early Adoption of New Intershop Technology. Nine Leading Solution Providers Announce Advance Implementation of Intershop enfinity E-Commerce Product." - "Intershop Communications, Inc., a leading vendor of sell-side electronic commerce software, today announced the participation of nine leading e-commerce solution providers in the early adopter program for Intershop enfinity. From Internet Professional Service Providers (PSPs) and System Integrators (SIs) to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), these companies are well equipped to rapidly deploy leading-edge e-commerce solutions built on Intershop's next-generation technology. Among the top corporations adopting Intershop enfinity are debis IT Services, Keane, Infopark, JBA, Nuforia, Nvision, Pixelpark, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Unisys. Intershop enfinity's pipeline architecture and support for industry standards including Java and XML, give customers the tools to sell anywhere, integrate everything, today and tomorrow. Intershop enfinity is the first complete XML-and-Java-based, sell-side e-commerce application that offers the enterprise market advanced selling features, tightly integrated with existing business systems, while providing the extensibility to grow into rapidly evolving e-commerce business models..."

• [October 04, 1999] "Intershop Partners With Leading Online Marketplaces Including Ariba And CommerceOne. Major XML Strategy Supports Sell Anywhere Initiative. Intershop Connects 40,000 Sellers to Next Generation Internet Trading Networks." - "Intershop, a leading vendor of sell-side electronic commerce software today announced broad support of XML technologies to provide customers with Sell Anywhere capabilities on major online marketplaces such as CommerceOne's MarketSite.net, the Ariba Network eCommerce platform and SAP's mySAP.com. By supporting the most popular XML-based standards such as CBL 2.0, Commerce XML (cXML), BizTalk and others, Intershop enables its global customer base of more than 40,000 sellers to participate in large dynamic networks for business-to-business and business-to-consumer trading. 'By enabling sellers with access to participation on these and other emerging trading networks, Intershop is adding tremendous value to sell-side e-commerce,' said Frank Martinez, director of industry solutions at Intershop. 'Intershop's XML strategy is designed to enable our customers with Sell Anywhere e-commerce in aggregated marketplaces that represent the next generation of Internet trade'."

• [September 30, 1999] "aecXML Project Unites Broad Coalition. Committees on Two Continents Moving Forward at Rapid Pace, Continuing on the Work Initiated by Bentley. Microsoft Validates Importance of XML Schemas." - "Founding members of the aecXML Project today provided details concerning the rapid progress being made in establishing the new Internet language for project communications in architecture/engineering/construction (AEC). The aecXML Project was initiated in August 1999 by Bentley Systems, Incorporated with the desire that it be a unifying force for progress in the development of a project communications framework for architecture/engineering/construction (A/E/C). Today the aecXML Project represents a wide variety of software vendors, owner/operators, consulting and service organizations and building products manufacturers, organized into working groups on two continents to rapidly define and publish the aecXML schema. The first meeting of the aecXML Project occurred September 15, 1999, simultaneously in Dallas, Texas and Reading, UK, via Microsoft's satellite teleconference facilities. Participants hailed the meeting as an unqualified success, and were quick to sign up to serve on five working groups to continue the work of creating aecXML as a new Internet framework for project communication. Microsoft is indirectly involved in the establishment of aecXML through its BizTalk initiative, a repository of a number of XML 'dialects' created by specific commercial interest groups. Also now available are the initial specification of aecXML, in-depth coverage of the improvements made to the specification since its initial introduction, the BizTalk Framework & Trade Schema Description and several critical presentations focusing on the need for an A/E/C-specific XML language." See "aecXML Working Group - Architecture, Engineering and Construction."

• [September 30, 1999] "Infoteria Launches XML Style Wizard 1.0 For Free Creating XSLT File For XML Data In Easy and Quick Way." - "Infoteria Inc. today announced the immediate release of its XML Style Wizard 1.0. This simple and clear XSLT file generator for XML is offered free of charge and is available for download from Infoteria's web site. Infoteria boasts that by answering only six simple questions, the XML Style Wizard can produce an XSLT file for XML. XML Style Wizard creates the XSLT file by analyzing existing XML data. It allows users to create a table from the XML data, or create a list table from multiple records of XML data. The XSLT file created by XML Style Wizard is used by XML browsers such as Internet Explorer 5.0 from Microsoft and for XSLT processors such as iXSLT from Infoteria. In addition, XML Style Wizard supports both W3Cs latest XSLT specification and the specification implemented in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0." For related XSL/XSLT software, see "XSL/XSLT Software Support."

• [September 30, 1999] "ACORD Releases XML Dictionary for Property/Casualty Insurance. Outlines Next Steps for the Creation of XML Transactions for E-Commerce." - "In record time, ACORD working groups have completed a standardized vocabulary for XML based on the ACORD ObjX and AL3 Standards. ACORD President and CEO, Gregory A. Maciag, said, 'The expertise of the industry volunteers who participated in this effort, and their thorough knowledge of the business environment as well as the ACORD Standards, made possible the delivery of this data dictionary in 'Internet time.' The result of a joint initiative with the Independent Insurance Agents of America, the XML project is targeted to help prevent the potential growth of non-standard DTDs (Document Type Definitions). Jeffrey M. Yates, IIAA CEO for industry and state relations, commended ACORD for its leadership on this significant issue. The use of XML standards will allow agents and companies to move data much more efficiently using the Internet, reducing the need for multiple entry of data, a key goal of SEMCI,' he said. 'It is critical for the companies and agency automation vendors to incorporate these XML standards proactively as they fashion Internet solutions, so that we position our distribution system to compete efficiently with new competitors.' Responding to a specific set of requirements from the IIAA's Agents Council for Technology (ACT), ACORD working groups refocused their XML efforts to address the fragmentation of industry XML standardization. ACT member organizations, all ACORD participants, brought individuals to the table to accelerate the process. The resulting ACORD XML Dictionary encompasses all of the property/casualty data requirements for all existing ACORD Standards including Personal, Commercial, Claims, Accounting, and Surety." For ACORD description and references, see "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [September 30, 1999] "The E-content Company and UWI.com Team to Leverage Power of XML Solutions to Automate E-business Processes. Combination of E-content Solutions with Web-based Forms Increase Efficiency of Business-to-Business Initiatives." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business, and UWI.Com, the leading provider of XML Internet forms solutions for business-to-business e-commerce, announced today a strategic partnership. This new partnership will enable the integration of the e-content company's BladeRunner and UWI.Com's InternetForms Commerce System to significantly increase the efficiency in e-business infrastructure while reducing costs, decreasing time to market and increasing customer service. By integrating BladeRunner and InternetForms, companies will have the ability to cleanly and securely collect important data with XML-based Internet forms and transform it into valuable and manageable e-content information. E-content information is key to the success of e-business initiatives because it gives companies the ability to reuse and repurpose vital information to automate digital transactions, such as electronic procurement and purchasing processes with little or no human intervention. As a result, companies gain competitive advantage by improving business-to-business efficiencies. UWI.Com's InternetForms Commerce System is a complete suite of XML software that allows organizations to conduct secure, verifiable business-to-business e-commerce transactions on the Internet. InternetForms are based on Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL), the world's first open XML protocol for legally binding web transactions."

• [September 29, 1999] "QRS Keystone Realtime 2.0 Delivers XML to the Retail Industry." - "QRS Corporation, a leading e-commerce solutions provider to the retail industry, launched today QRS Keystone Realtime 2.0. With extensible mark-up language (XML) and IBM MQSeries messaging and queuing software, QRS Keystone Realtime 2.0 empowers retailers to seamlessly integrate QRS Keystone product information across multiple platforms directly into their systems. Now, retailers can request the exact data they require from the retail industry's largest product information database. QRS is the only major electronic catalog provider to offer XML capabilities for product information in support of new electronic commerce and e-retail initiatives."

• [September 29, 1999] "SPSS 10.0 Brings Scalability and Performance to Enterprises. Leading Data Mining Software Also Adds Mapping And XML Exportation." - "The world's best-selling desktop statistical software is now available as a scalable application. SPSS Inc. today announced SPSS Server 10.0, a new release of the award-winning data analysis software which now features a server version for increased performance and scalability, a new mapping module for better strategy development and XML model exportation to assist front-line decision makers. The new software is shipping worldwide. The latest release of SPSS 10.0 is available for the first time in a distributed analysis architecture (DAA). SPSS' DAA provides users with a truly scalable, enterprise-level analysis product. SPSS Server minimizes the use of resources and maximizes performance by eliminating the need to copy and convert the data used in analysis, so all data can stay on the server where it resides. SPSS Server 10.0 also eliminates file size limitations, facilitates data access from many sources and allows administrators to maintain a high-level of data security. The end result is enterprises, especially those with huge amounts of centralized data, can analyze their data quickly and securely. [...] The ability to export models in XML format allows analysts to export and deploy models to decision makers throughout an enterprise via an upcoming product called SmartScore. This new package will be used to personalize Web interaction, pinpoint cross-selling opportunities, approve loan candidates and more -- all in real time."

• [September 28, 1999] "Bentley's ModelServer Integrator Supports XML and aecXML. Server-level Information Broker for Engineering Projects Gains New Power to Integrate Information from Diverse Sources." - "Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Exton, PA), today announced that its Web-based ModelServer. Integrator product includes support for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and aecXML. ModelServer Integrator is an information broker for engineering projects that enables engineering enterprises to assemble information from multiple databases and software applications and present relevant, timely, and accurate information to users throughout the organization. ModelServer Integrator's support of XML allows users to take full advantage of the wealth of rapidly emerging support tools, technology, and standards built around XML in such areas as e-commerce and data exchange. Important among these is the industry-wide aecXML effort which Bentley initiated earlier this year. In this initiative, the aecXML Working Group is a forum for industry, government, research communities and end users to contribute to an XML schema particularly suited for architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C)." For further references, see "aecXML Working Group - Architecture, Engineering and Construction."

• [September 28, 1999] "webMethods Introduces First Comprehensive Solution for Business Community Integration. webMethods B2B 3.0 Delivers Broadest Support for B2B Standards and Marketplaces for Rapid Integration Between Trading Partners." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today announced webMethods B2B 3.0. This next generation of the company's flagship business-to-business (B2B) integration product is the first solution to seamlessly connect companies, B2B marketplaces and trading partners in extensive trading networks. These inter-connected networks help companies leverage the changing nature of global business by creating new distribution channels, reducing time-to-market, eliminating supply chain inefficiencies, and improving customer acquisition and retention. Introduced in 1998, webMethods B2B was the first product to deliver XML-based e-commerce solutions to quickly and securely integrate the diverse technology and business processes of companies and their trading partners. webMethods B2B 3.0 builds on this unmatched innovation by delivering expanded functionality to address the requirements for integrating trading partners, B2B marketplaces, buyers and suppliers into powerful online trading networks. webMethods B2B is the only solution for business community integration that makes it possible for companies to pursue direct integration with top-tier trading partners, while also participating in emerging B2B marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network and Clarus SupplierUniverse. In addition to the widest support for current and emerging XML standards such as Commerce XML (cXML), Financial Products Markup Language (FpML), Open Applications Group (OAG) IS, Microsoft Biztalk and others, webMethods B2B 3.0 adds support for non-XML B2B standards such as Open Buying on the Internet (OBI), RosettaNet and major EDI standards such as ANSI X12 and EDIFACT. New integration modules for Baan, Oracle Applications, PeopleSoft, and IBM MQ Series are more than just traditional adapters -- they allow companies to integrate with key trading partners by providing a secure, reliable method for exposing enterprise application interfaces in XML formats over the Internet."

• [September 28, 1999] "webMethods Delivers cXML Transaction Integration for Ariba Network. barnesandnoble.com and Dell Use webMethods B2B to Establish Seamless, Secure, Reliable Integration with Leading B2B Marketplace." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today announced that it provides rapid, secure transaction integration to the Ariba. Network platform through the use of Commerce XML (cXML). webMethods, Ariba, Inc., and other leading business buyers, suppliers and technology providers developed cXML, an open XML-based standard that facilitates the exchange of catalog content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers. webMethods' support of cXML has enabled companies, such as barnesandnoble.com and Dell, to expand their business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce initiatives and streamline business processes by successfully integrating with the Ariba Network platform and all the blue-chip buying organizations using Ariba e-commerce solutions. webMethods' support for cXML provides suppliers with a secure, reliable and guaranteed connection to, and seamless transaction integration with, the Ariba Network platform. This allows businesses to route mission critical business documents such as purchase orders and order confirmations. Based on the successful integration efforts at barnesandnoble.com, Dell and others, Ariba and webMethods have organized a professional services offering to meet the growing demand for B2B integration services. These services are specifically tailored to rapidly enable suppliers to receive cXML orders via the Ariba Network platform."

• [September 28, 1999] "Art Technology Group's Dynamo 4.5 Brings XML, Multi-Language Support to Internet Customer Relationship Management Solutions. Java-based Dynamo ICRM Software Utilizes XML for Data Integration, Content Exchange and Content Targeting, Addresses Need for Global ICRM Solutions." - "Art Technology Group (ATG), developers of e-commerce and online personalization software, today announced that it is shipping an upgrade to its Dynamo product suite. Dynamo 4.5 expands the breadth of ATG's Internet Customer Relationship Management (ICRM) offerings - enabling e-businesses to more effectively manage their online relationships in a global manner. Dynamo 4.5 provides infrastructure support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and has been internationalized to accommodate the expanding global e-commerce market. ATG has been a driving force in helping customers develop meaningful ICRM solutions worldwide. ATG's Dynamo brings together two of today's most important standards - Java and XML. The combination of Java and XML provides companies with a robust, highly extensible platform that facilitates data access and application integration across and between enterprises. This ease of access and integration means e-businesses can speed up their initial time-to-market and react swiftly to changing market conditions. According Frederick W. Rook, Ph.D., Sr. vice president of product development and operations for ChannelPoint, 'the ChannelPoint Internet Exchange requires the exchange of large amounts of diverse data to and from many different channels. ChannelPoint's advanced XML interface based on Dynamo 4.5's XML-based content repository significantly simplifies data interface formats and implementation changes between sources. This allows ChannelPoint to quickly address the business-to-business needs of the online insurance marketplace'."

• [September 28, 1999] "OneNetPlus.com Launches Integrated E-business and Managed Desktop Services Using XML-based Solutions. Services To Enhance IT Infrastructures For Expanding Internet Activities." - "Systems Management Specialists (SMS), an international outsourcing, systems integration and computer services firm, has announced the formation of an Internet enterprise integration company called OneNetPlus.com. The new company will initially offer managed desktop and related technology services to help create the required infrastructure for companies that are expanding activities on the Internet. To facilitate an e-business infrastructure, OneNetPlus.com has developed a comprehensive enterprise strategy, which includes managing desktops, associated servers and connectivity to meet the higher demands imposed by the Internet for improved responsiveness, availability, accessibility and security. This strategy is delivered through managed services using a series of advanced tools, many of which are based on XML. West said. 'XML-based applications are just one type of tool that will be put to work for our clients. Others include advanced uses of Component Object Model and Windows NT cluster servers as well as virtual private networks'.""Systems Management Specialists (SMS), an international outsourcing, systems integration and computer services firm, has announced the formation of an Internet enterprise integration company called OneNetPlus.com. The new company will initially offer managed desktop and related technology services to help create the required infrastructure for companies that are expanding activities on the Internet. To facilitate an e-business infrastructure, OneNetPlus.com has developed a comprehensive enterprise strategy, which includes managing desktops, associated servers and connectivity to meet the higher demands imposed by the Internet for improved responsiveness, availability, accessibility and security. This strategy is delivered through managed services using a series of advanced tools, many of which are based on XML. West said. 'XML-based applications are just one type of tool that will be put to work for our clients. Others include advanced uses of Component Object Model and Windows NT cluster servers as well as virtual private networks'."

• [September 27, 1999] "Oracle, Unisys, IBM, NCR and Hyperion Lead the Effort to Standardize Enterprise Information Sharing. Industry Leaders Propose Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange Standard and Advocate XML-based Common Data Format." - "Oracle Corp., Unisys Corp., IBM Corp., NCR Corp. and Hyperion today announced the submission of the common warehouse metadata interchange (CWMI) standard to the Object Management Group (OMG). The proposed standard is designed to help companies integrate e-business systems quickly and easily by supplying a common format for enterprise systems to exchange data. Over 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies either have deployed or are in the process of evaluating a data warehouse as the foundation for effective decision-making, according to META Group, a technology research firm based in Stamford, Conn. Today, the many software products used to create warehouses or other e-business systems are based on proprietary data formats, which often prevents information sharing between products and hampers access to the knowledge needed to make timely business decisions. The proposed standard, CWMI, defines a metadata format for all data warehouse and business intelligence products. By reducing both the software compatibility testing time and the costs associated with standard warehouse implementations, the Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange standard ensures that mission critical data required for business decision making can be shared among all internal systems. The Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange standard is a landmark submission that follows the creation of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) by the OMG. Marking the next step in the establishment of a metadata interchange among all data warehousing, business intelligence, knowledge management and portal technologies, the proposed CWMI provides a powerful object model with a set of APIs, interchange formats and services that span the spectrum of metadata relating to the extraction, transformation, transportation, loading, integration and analysis phases within data warehousing. CWMI resolves potential integration issues by enabling users to extend the model to meet their specific needs." For details, see "OMG Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI) Specification" and the news entry of September 24, 1999.

• [September 27, 1999] "POET eCatalog Suite Opens Internet Channel for Suppliers to Access Buyers And eMarkets. New Product Enables Suppliers to Extract and Manage Catalog Data, Generate Custom Catalogs for Buyers and Net Marketplaces." - "POET eCatalog Suite, an out-of-the-box solution for extracting, managing and distributing supplier catalog data over the Internet for business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce, is now available from POET Software. POET is the leading provider of data management solutions for the Internet age based on XML and object technology. With POET eCatalog Suite (eCS), suppliers can now automate the traditionally labor-intensive process of assembling catalog information to send to buyers and content aggregation websites. POET eCatalog Suite is the essential supplier link to the Internet market. POET's eCS solution addresses the growing demand for electronic catalog data and permits suppliers to automate the interaction with buy-side procurement software from companies like Ariba, and eMarkets like Ariba Network. Furthermore, even though buyers and eMarkets may require data in different formats-based on dialects of XML specific to a vertical market or procurement application-POET eCatalog Suite insulates the supplier from mastering these various dialects by transforming the data on the fly into the appropriate delivery format. As a result, POET eCatalog Suite enables any supplier to deploy an eCatalog solution that works with the growing ranks of Internet buyers and marketplaces -- today and as B2B eCommerce evolves -- without having to become experts in XML."

• [September 24, 1999] "Bluestone Software, Inc. Announces Public Offering." - "Bluestone Software, Inc. announced today the initial public offering of 4,000,000 shares of its common stock at $15 per share. Bluestone shares will commence trading on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol 'BLSW' on September 24, 1999. All of the shares are being offered and sold by Bluestone. Bluestone Software, Inc. is a performance leader in Enterprise Interaction Management software. Companies deploying Internet Commerce applications depend on Bluestone Sapphire/Web and Bluestone XML Suite Application Server frameworks to integrate business applications into Web-enabled environments, manage information interactions, and exchange data with employees, partners and customers."

• [September 24, 1999] "Informatica and Viador Partner to Deliver Enterprise Portal Solution For E-Business. Alliance to Integrate Core Technologies via XML to Give Users Easy Web Access to Enterprise-Wide Information." - "Informatica Corporation and Viador Inc., leading software vendors in enterprise information access, today announced a joint partnership to develop a single, end-to-end, Web-based architecture to provide global businesses with access to critical enterprise data assets. The jointly developed solution, which initially will be targeted at emerging e-business applications, will feature two of the leading products for integrating and accessing enterprise data: Informatica's data-integration platform, anchored by the PowerCenter data-integration hub, and the Viador E-Portal Suite, an enterprise portal that allows users to securely search, access, and distribute business information from any source via a single, personalized view. The Viador and Informatica integration effort will exploit the capabilities of XML (Extensible Markup Language), a new emerging standard for the exchange of data and metadata between disparate computer systems. The two company's products can already exchange metadata through the use of Informatica's MX (metadata exchange) interface, the data warehousing industry's first viable solution for exporting metadata to business intelligence reporting and query tools, and enterprise portals. The planned integration of Informatica and Viador products is a logical next step as XML takes center stage and becomes a widely accepted language for exchanging data and metadata among a whole of new class of Web- and e-business-enabled applications."

• [September 23, 1999] "Harbinger Supports Microsoft BizTalk Framework for Adoption of XML in Electronic Commerce." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today that it is working with Microsoft Corp. to support the development of its BizTalk Framework, a newly developed tool that promises to advance the adoption of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) in Electronic Commerce. Separately, Harbinger also announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft to establish standards, incorporating XML schema and guidelines, for use with online catalog data management systems. Harbinger is supporting BizTalk in four key areas: First, Harbinger is integrating BizTalk into new products from its Harbinger Labs Division. Second, Harbinger is collaborating with Microsoft to establish standards for online catalog data management. Third, Harbinger is enabling its harbinger.net E-Commerce network portal to exchange BizTalk-compatible XML documents, thus immediately enabling all of its network customers with online access to XML from popular data translation standards. Finally, Harbinger plans to support the BizTalk Framework across its TrustedLink family of mapping and translation software products, which will give Harbinger's 40,000 customers on-site translation capabilities for BizTalk-compatible XML documents. . ." [local archive copy]

• [September 23, 1999] "Contact East, Inc to Offer Electronic Production & Field Service Supplies And Test & Networking Equipment Through Ariba Network E-Commerce Service. Contact East, Inc to Support cXML." - "Contact East, the largest supplier of products for assembling, testing and repairing electronic equipment, today announced that the company will sell production supplies, test equipment, tool kits, networking equipment and workbenches through the Ariba. Network business-to-business eCommerce service. Contact East has joined Ariba Supplier Link, the Ariba supplier partner initiative designed to make goods and services readily available to buying organizations via the Internet. Contact East also announced that it will collaborate with Ariba on the continued development of Commerce XML (cXML), an emerging Internet standard for exchanging supplier content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers. Contact East will use cXML to make its products available via the Ariba Network service. This integration will provide the opportunity for joint Ariba and contact East customers to gain cost savings, efficiency, and convenience in acquiring and managing operating resources, including test instruments, soldering supplies, static protection equipment, adhesives, hand & power tools, inspection equipment, storage & handling products, premise wiring, cable and more." See: "Commerce XML (cXML)."

• [September 22, 1999] "XMLSolutions Releases XMLZip - Leading XML File Compression Tool." - "XMLSolutions Corporation, a leader in E2E (end-to-end) business e-commerce solutions, today announced the availability of XMLZip for the Windows NT and Linux operating systems. XMLZip provides the industry's first compression tool for use with XML documents. XMLSolutions developed XMLZip to provide an efficient solution for handling large XML files. These large XML files use a disproportionate amount of transmission time over the Internet as well as large amounts of storage on both the server and client equipment. XMLZip reduces the size of XML files without adding undo-processing time to access portions of the files. XMLZip's compression technique allows users to determine the level at which they want to compress XML files, thus allowing continued utilization of the DOM API without performance degradation. As an example of the compression delivered by XMLZip, a 1.2 Mb XML document shrinks to a file of just 136-kb! XMLZip supports the Windows NT and Linux platforms and will support UNIX in the near future. To download the latest release, please visit http://www.xmlzip.com."

• [September 22, 1999] "webMethods Joins OASIS Members in Sponsoring the Robin Cover XML Web Pages." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced that webMethods will become the newest sponsor of the Robin Cover XML Web Pages (xml.coverpages.org) [previously 'www.oasis-open.org/cover/'], a comprehensive reference site for information about open document interchange standards. webMethods joins other OASIS sponsor members, the Graphic Communications Association (GCA), Inso Corporation, ISOGEN International and Sun Microsystems, in funding the independent web page to provide long-term, free access to its library of information related to this important standard. OASIS also announced that for a limited time it is offering additional opportunities for sponsorship of the Cover site. 'XML has been a critical component of webMethods' success in helping more than 100 companies integrate their business communities over the Internet,' said Phillip Merrick, president and CEO of webMethods. 'OASIS has played a critical role in educating the industry about how companies can use XML-based solutions to create new business opportunities through B2B e-commerce and integration. We are proud to support the Robin Cover XML Web Pages which has become a leading source of information, education and reference for the business-to-business marketplace'." See the announcement on the webMethods Web site.

• [September 22, 1999] "Netscape Certificates and Smart Cards Create Legally-Binding XML in Free Addition to UWI.Com's InternetForms. UWI.Com Supports Signing Solutions from Every Major Vendor, Including First XML Digital Signature Solution Interoperable with Netscape Products." - "Hot on the heels of a CSC study that put secure e-commerce documents at the top of the CIO's priority list, UWI.Com today announced a free addition to its InternetForms Commerce System (ICS) that enables enterprise users to securely sign XML e-commerce documents using smart cards and Netscape digital certificates. Now organizations can combine the security features of smart cards with Netscape's Digital Certificate Management System to digitally sign UWI.Com's secure, legally-binding InternetForms. This announcement complements UWI.Com's April release of the first third-party support worldwide for Netscape certificates, and continues the company's leadership in supporting signing solutions from every major digital security vendor. Over the past year, UWI.Com has set the standard for legally-binding XML documents. It introduced the industry to the concepts of transaction non-repudiation through the encapsulation of digitally signed data and presentation in a single file for archiving and later verification. This ground-breaking approach to secure XML documents has been validated by leading industry analysts, including Meta Group, Giga Information Group, and Cohasset Associates. UWI.Com co-authored, with Tim Bray, co-editor of the XML specification, Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL), the first XML syntax for legally-binding Internet Forms. XFDL has been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium as an Internet standard. UWI.Com was also the first company to implement a syntax for digitally signed XML, and continues to advise and participate in the W3C's XML Signature working group. Earlier this year, UWI.Com became the first company to offer third-party support for Netscape signatures."

• [September 22, 1999] "Remodeling Your e-Content Is Just a Click Away With XML Handyman Norm Walsh Walking You Through the House of Data Improvement." - "No Extensible Markup Language (XML) job is too big or small for Norm Walsh, Arbortext's e-contractor extraordinaire, who plans to take on a wide range of projects and issues in his new online column, Standard Deviations from Norm." Readers can forget about the boredom of white papers and sleepy tutorials. Standard Deviations from Norm, located at www.arbortext.com, provides not only valuable how-to insights for those trying to implement for the latest XML standard but also a wealth of XML-related resources and links. Hosted by Walsh, who is a principal software engineer for Arbortext and XML standards guru, readers can look forward to rolling up their technical sleeves and learning how to take on XML projects the smart way, saving themselves pain and money by following a leader in the XML world. The first issue of Norm's column provides advice about XPath, an XML path language that will be an important building block for future specifications. Norm shows readers how XPath will provide a common foundation for solving the fundamental problem of locating elements, attributes, and other XML document nodes in a concise and interoperable way. . ."

• [September 21, 1999] "Harbinger Director Chosen to Lead Joint UN/CEFACT and OASIS Initiative On Forming Standard XML Business Specifications." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today that its Director of Messaging and Technology, Klaus-Dieter Naujok, had been selected by the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) to chair a working group developing the framework that will standardize eXtensible Markup Language (XML) business specifications. For more information on this initiative, go to www.unece.org/trade/untdid/sessdocs/xml.htm. Naujok is currently the UN/CEFACT Standards Liaison Rapporteur. He has been involved in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Commerce for 12 years and, in that time, he has served as chair of the Pan American EDIFACT Board (PAEB) and chair of the PAEB Technical Assessment. In addition, he is a member of the UN/CEFACT and ASC X12 Steering committees. At Harbinger, Naujok is Director of software development for the company's messaging security software product Harbinger Templar. He is also responsible for the Standards & Technology Group at Harbinger, providing the most accurate and timely information throughout the company, and out to E-Commerce professionals via the company's portal, harbinger.net. 'To be effective for global business, it is vital that XML specifications are based on a common framework,' said Ray Walker, Chairman of the UN/CEFACT steering group. ``Today, that does not exist, consequently, there are many - often competing - efforts underway worldwide to develop such specifications.... We are delighted that Klaus-Dieter Naujok will lead this group and are excited about the potential for worldwide harmonization.' [And] 'Harbinger strongly supports the UN/CEFACT initiative and is proud to have Naujok leading their efforts,' said Les Wyatt, Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and Management for Harbinger. 'XML holds strategic importance for our product development group. We are actively supporting and implementing a number of programs for XML, and driving industry leaders together to agree on a set of principles and standards for incorporating XML technologies in Internet Electronic Commerce.' UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and electronic business. Headquartered in Geneva, it has developed and promoted many tools for the facilitation of global business processes, including UN/EDIFACT, the international EDI standard. Its current work program includes such topics as Simpl-EDI and Object-oriented EDI, and it strongly supports the development and implementation of open inter-operable, global standards and specifications for electronic business." See the earlier announcement "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework" and the main entry "Electronic Business XML Initiative." [local archive copy]

• [September 21, 1999] "Open eBook Authoring Group Releases Final Version of New Electronic Book Specification. Availability of Single Specification Encourages Publishers to Provide More Electronic Titles." - "In a move expected to accelerate the availability of reading material for electronic books and help ensure that consumers will have access to reading materials from different publishers in a single, universal format, the Open eBook (OEB) Authoring Group today released the final version of the Open eBook Publication Structure 1.0. Open eBook Publication Structure 1.0 defines the format that content takes when it is converted from print to electronic form. The Open eBook specification is based on HTML and XML, the same core languages that define the World Wide Web, and is designed to allow publishers and authors to deliver their material in a single format. The specification is expected to accelerate the availability of electronic reading material, because the single universal format will work on all reading systems that are compliant with the specification. As a result, publishers will be able to reach a wide audience without separately reformatting their titles for each reading system. The specification is also designed to allow existing eBook devices to accommodate it quickly." For additional references, see "Open Ebook Initiative."

• [September 21, 1999] "Microsoft Applauds Success of Open eBook Members As Final Version of Specification Is Released. Microsoft Joins Wide Range of Organizations to Release Standard That Will Help Launch the eBook Industry." - "The Open eBook Authoring Group today released the Open eBook Publication Structure Specification version 1.0 almost one year after Microsoft Corp. proposed the Open eBook standard for the emerging electronic-book industry. Over the past year, members of the Open eBook Authoring Group - which includes publishers, eBook pioneers and other software and hardware firms - have collaborated extensively to complete a specification that outlines the format for books and other traditionally printed material to be easily converted from print to digital form. The Open eBook initiative includes the Authoring Group, as well as more than 40 other members representing major publishers, printers, eBook pioneers and software and hardware manufacturers, plus book distributors and retailers. The specification is based on the HTML and Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications that define the World Wide Web. This approach greatly improves the user's ability to read on screen because the text can reflow to fit any screen size - desktop computer, laptop, eBook device or Palm-size device. An alternate approach is static formatting, which 'freezes' text so that it appears the same size whether viewed from a large desktop monitor or small handheld device. The Authoring Group's decision to enable dynamic content, based on standards widely in use across the World Wide Web, helps ensure an optimal electronic reading experience for users. The Open eBook initiative was proposed in October 1998 by Microsoft Vice President for Technology Development Dick Brass in his keynote speech at the world's first eBook conference in Gaithersburg, Md. At the conference, sponsored by NIST, Brass argued for an open, nonproprietary standard for eBooks." For additional references, see "Open Ebook Initiative."

• [September 21, 1999] "XML.org Publishes OAGIS XML DTDs for Business Object Documents OASIS Forms Relationship with Open Applications Group, Inc." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced that it has formed a strategic relationship with the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI). As part of the agreement, OASIS will make the OAGI XML Business Object Documents available on XML.org, the open, vendor-neutral industry portal hosted by OASIS. Further, the two organizations have agreed to exchange sponsor-level memberships, enabling each to contribute to the other's technical work. The Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) is a model for business software application component interoperability. OAGIS defines a set of components, processes and interfaces for integrating many key enterprise business applications, including financials, manufacturing, human resources, supply chain and logistics both inside and outside the enterprise. The content of OAGIS has been made machine readable in the form of XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for all currently defined OAGI Business Object Documents. It is one of the largest collections of standardized XML DTDs in support of ERP applications in existence." For more on OAG, see "Open Applications Group."

• [September 21, 1999] "Ardent Software Unveils Strategy to Bridge Worlds of Structured and Unstructured Information. Ardent's Enterprise Information Infrastructure Provides a Unified Solution for Timely, Relevant, and Reliable Information." - "Ardent Software, Inc., a leading global data management software company, today announced a new strategic initiative designed to allow organizations to deploy a single enterprise information infrastructure (EII) to support a wide variety of strategic solutions, including e-business, analytical applications and enterprise information portals. Ardent's EII initiative will provide users with reliable, timely, and relevant information from structured or unstructured enterprise data sources to support the decision-making process using the best information available. The approach is based on the rapidly emerging XML standard and is content- and application-independent. 'Ardent's ability to provide structured data solutions, combined with its meta data management capabilities and its XML expertise and technology, give it the foundation of a complete solution'."

• [September 21, 1999] "NEON's MicroScript @ppian Technology Implements XML as an Application Integration Standard." - "MicroScript, the healthcare business unit of New Era of Networks, Inc. today announced support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) as a key component of MicroScript's @ppian Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) product line. MicroScript's @ppian technology's use of XML provides an easy way to integrate disparate healthcare applications into Internet/Intranet architectures and e-Business frameworks such as Microsoft's BizTalk initiative. Configuration information, as well as data content and structure information (metadata), can be transported and shared among various implementations by using XML. MicroScript's @ppian implements XML as the storage structure for metadata. Messages processed through the @ppian engine can be serialized as XML documents. The @ppian DataMapper translates messages in a single pass to and from XML, in addition to transforming messages in other formats. Additionally, @ppian's DataMapper uses Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) for data access syntax. The extensive use of XML within @ppian is further evidence of NEON Healthcare's commitment to be a key player in the delivery of Microsoft's BizTalk framework's functionality to the healthcare market. MicroScript previously announced that it would fully support Microsoft's BizTalk framework for cross-platform integration in e-commerce within its healthcare products. In a related announcement, MicroScript announced at MSHUG that it will be one of the first healthcare software application vendors to provide a BizTalk schema for the Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) market."

• [September 21, 1999] "Sequoia Software Introduces Sequoia XML Portal Server. New Features Accurately, Efficiently and Cost Effectively Alleviate Information Bottlenecks, Streamline Business Processes." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of XML-powered interactive enterprise portals, today announced the new Sequoia XML Portal Server. The Sequoia XML Portal Server provides a new information delivery mechanism that dramatically shortcuts the search and retrieval process typical of corporate portals. Formerly known as Interchange2000, the Sequoia XML Portal Server alleviates information bottlenecks, streamlines business processes and transforms information into knowledge--reducing the cost of doing business. The Sequoia XML Portal Server incorporates a patent-pending XML indexing engine that allows users to conduct context-sensitive searches. This enhances information retrieval by giving users the ability to conduct searches that are highly granular, accurate and efficient. The Sequoia XML Portal Server further shortcuts information retrieval by eliminating drill down, the process of finding and piecing together fragments of data from multiple search results. This is accomplished by providing users with customized information snapshots called Aggregate XML Objects (AXOs). AXOs are assembled by aggregating multiple, unique XML data elements into a new object that represents a user's specific information requirements. For example, an AXO created for an account manager could be presented as a unified customer record consisting of information from sales, customer service, customer support and accounting applications."

• [September 21, 1999] "Baylor Health Care System and Stateside Associates Choose Sequoia XML Portal Server. New Interactive Enterprise Portal Software Empowers Users with Better Access to Information for More Informed Business Decisions." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, the leading provider of XML-powered interactive enterprise portals, today announced Baylor Health Care System and Stateside Associates have chosen the new Sequoia XML Portal Server to give their users more efficient and accurate access to relevant information. The Sequoia XML Portal, announced today, aggregates information from disparate information systems and provides a new information delivery mechanism that dramatically shortcuts the search and retrieval process typical of corporate portals. . . 'The Sequoia XML Portal will make it quicker and more convenient for our physicians to get the information they need to provide the best care for their patients,' said Gordon Hayward, project manager at Baylor Health Care System. 'Information acquired by our multiple health care applications, such as the admission system or the laboratory system, will be routed to Sequoia XML Portal. Physicians, from wherever they are, will be able to access information about their patients through a secured network.' Baylor Health Care System plans to use the Sequoia XML Portal Server to replace current methods of information delivery including document faxing and a store-and-forward electronic messaging system. Physicians who make use of the Sequoia XML Portal Server will be able to type in a patient's name and have instant access to information such as admittance records including contact and insurance information, transplant reports, radiology reports, laboratory reports and transcription. With the Sequoia XML Portal Server, physicians can search for and retrieve valuable patient information with a few clicks of the mouse and use that information to improve delivery of care to their patients."

• [September 21, 1999] "ORI Announces ClarientXML Server for Lotus Notes. ORI Announces the First Solution to Provide Real-Time XML Publishing Capabilities for Lotus Notes and Domino 5.0." - "ORI Inc., today announced the availability of the ClarientXML Server, the first solution to provide real-time XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) publishing capabilities for Lotus Notes and Domino 5.0. The new offering will give Lotus Notes users a powerful tool to accelerate e-business development within their organizations. The ClarientXML Server enables corporations to publish existing information or documents residing in Lotus Notes and Domino databases in XML. It allows Lotus Notes and Domino 5.0 servers to communicate using XML, interpret XML documents and perform various Lotus Notes database-related functions. ClarientXML Server accelerates the development of business-to-business e-commerce applications and supply chain management applications for large corporations by facilitating structured communications between computers. The ClarientXML Server is also well suited for knowledge management applications utilizing Lotus Notes, since the ClarientXML Server leverages XML to summarize and categorize data in Domino databases, Web pages and other documents. ORI expects corporations to be able to further increase the return on their technology investment in Lotus Notes by leveraging XML as a technology and the ClarientXML Server as a development accelerator."

• [September 20, 1999] "webMethods Unveils webMethods B2B for Portals and webMethods B2B for Partners. First Complete Solution to Power B2B Marketplaces and Link Trading Partners to Integrated Business Communities." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today unveiled webMethods B2B for Portals and webMethods B2B for Partners. These extensions of the company's flagship product, webMethods B2B, enable organizations to easily connect and manage large online trading networks -- uniquely providing direct real-time integration of critical business applications and databases with those of customers and suppliers. Broad Support of Standards Enables Companies to Easily Link Portals to Partners Since flexible, scalable and robust business community integration among diverse trading partners cannot be accomplished via proprietary protocols, webMethods B2B for Portals and webMethods B2B for Partners deliver open Internet standard technologies that connect legacy, ERP and custom applications within an integrated business community. webMethods provides the widest support of open Internet and propriety standards and initiatives, including XML, RosettaNet, FpML (financial industry), cXML, OBI, OAG, ACORD (Insurance), Microsoft BizTalk and legacy EDI. webMethods B2B for Partners connects partners to the portal or to any enterprise powered by webMethods B2B. Companies can join integrated business communities and conduct business over the Internet with minimal stress to corporate resources and infrastructure. webMethods' XML-based approach to B2B e-commerce streamlines the process of transacting business over the Internet."

• [September 20, 1999] "New IBM software delivers unmatched integration for e-business. Customers using new versions of WebSphere and VisualAge for Java gain simplicity, flexibility." - "IBM today announced new software that makes building, running and managing Web applications -- such as high-traffic retail sites, supply-chain management and Web self-service applications -- easier, faster and more reliable, enabling businesses to integrate their existing IT infrastructure and extend it to the Web. Increased Connectivity Through XML, Enterprise JavaBeans The new versions of WebSphere and VisualAge for Java are based on open standards such as Java Servlets, Java Server Pages, XML, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs). This enables businesses to integrate disparate IT systems -- such as databases from multiple vendors or applications built on different operating systems or platforms -- and extend them to the Web. WebSphere Application Server, Standard Edition, is a Java-based Web application server that helps customers to deploy and manage Web applications ranging from simple Web sites to powerful e-business solutions. The new version increases database connectivity and XML/XSL technology to enable customers to integrate information contained in various databases. VisualAge for Java is an application development environment for building Java applications, applets, servlets and JavaBean components, and connects more clients to more information on more servers through open standards. Version 3.0 features [...] new technical previews for Linux and the XMI bridge between VisualAge for Java and Rational Rose, and new support for deploying to Sun Solaris."

• [September 20, 1999] "XMLSolutions Announces the General Availability ExeterXML Server Release 1.0." - "XMLSolutions Corporation, a leader in E2E (end-to-end) business e-commerce solutions, today announced the general availability of the ExeterXML Server release 1.0. ExeterXML Server can apply server-side style sheets to XML documents, allowing customers to begin fielding XML applications today without worrying about the client capabilities. ExeterXML Server has the built in logic to recognize the capabilities of the requesting application or browser to determine whether or not to serve an XML or HTML document. The ExeterXML Server utilizes the power of IBM's WebSphere Application Server to provide servlet processing which offers enhanced application integration capabilities and architectural flexibility. State-of-the-art scalability allows ExeterXML Server to accommodate the ever-changing workload requirements demanded by e-commerce systems, and the performance capabilities to handle high volume e-commerce transactions. XMLSolutions also employs the WebSphere Studio application for Web site development and implementation. This team-based application empowers web content providers to rapidly enhance or alter web site information through a user-friendly interface. Today, the ExeterXML Server supports the Windows NT, Linux, and Solaris 2.5.1 platforms. A future release scheduled for early October [1999] will include support for the AIX platform."

• [September 20, 1999] "Leading Energy Organizations Back BizTalk Framework. The American Petroleum Institute and Numerous Energy Technology Companies To Support the XML Framework for E-Commerce and Application Integration." - "Today at the Petroleum Industry Data Exchange Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced broad energy industry support for the BizTalk Framework for e-commerce and application integration. The American Petroleum Institute (API) and leading energy technology providers have declared the BizTalk Framework their e-commerce integration guideline for the future. [Said] Kendra Martin, director of Finance, Accounting and Electronic Business for the American Petroleum Institute: 'With BizTalk, we believe we can work with energy companies and other standards bodies to quickly and effectively reap the greatest potential of XML for e-commerce.' Martin and others indicated the potential benefits of BizTalk for the petroleum industry: (1) Easier integration of new, acquired or merged entities; (2) Accelerated pace at which new services can be extended to customers; (3) Operational agility through unifying multiple business units and/or locations; (4) Richer relationships with customers and partners and the ability to form new business relationships through e-commerce. Industry-standards bodies and technology companies are also endorsing the BizTalk Framework and are planning to develop or interoperate with specific BizTalk Framework-based schemas for the industry. The American Petroleum Institute, a major national trade association representing the entire petroleum industry, is a charter member of the BizTalk Framework steering committee and has been integral in helping spearhead the effort within the energy industry. In addition, leading technology and consulting companies such as Ariba Inc., Cambridge Management Consulting, Commerce One Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Concur Technologies Inc., EMC, Enermetrix.com, ESRI Corp., Exodus Communications, IPNet Solutions Inc., J.D. Edwards, OSI Software, Phonoscope Communications, Resource 2000, Technomation, Tobin International Ltd., Webridge Inc. and Wyle Systems have stated their intent to develop or work with BizTalk Framework schemas and incorporate them into their technology solutions."

• [September 20, 1999] "Arbortext to Recognize Superior e-Content Implementations with Best Practices Awards Program. Company Will Award Prizes in Four Categories of Excellence for XML and SGML Implementations That Demonstrate Creativity, Originality, Breadth And Measurable Benefits." - "Arbortext, Inc., announced today it will recognize its customers' most innovative XML and SGML e-Content implementations through a Best Practices Awards Program. An independent panel chosen from Arbortext experts, its customer base, third-party analysts, and other objective XML/SGML experts will judge the competition, which begins in September with entries due on Nov. 15. Using case studies developed through a series of interviews, the panel will choose organizations with the most outstanding implementations. The case studies will detail the participants' purchase process, cost justification, implementation of technology and launch of XML/SGML, as well as future plans for expansion. Winners in the top three categories will receive $25,000 to $96,000 in free software, as well as award plaques. All participants will receive a free admission pass to the Arbortext User Group International Conference 2000 in New Orleans, LA, to be held in April of 2000."

• [September 20, 1999] "Data Junction Corporation Announces 'Directory Junction'. Next Generation LDAP Capabilities in Data Junction Enable Data Transformation and Exchange Between Any Directory, Any Application." - "Data Junction Corporation, a leading developer of data integration and transformation software tools, today delivered next-generation LDAP and LDIF support in the company's flagship transformation product. The addition of the LDAP interface in Data Junction will enable network administrators and developers to seamlessly and rapidly exchange critical data between leading directories as well as numerous databases and applications. Data Junction supports hierarchical record types (including XML, LDIF, Legacy COBOL data, and SQL databases) as well as streaming data transactions. Data Junction is the best-of-breed solution for populating directories with data from numerous sources, exchanging data between disparate directories, databases and applications as well as for appending new records to existing directories and synchronizing directories in multiple locations. Solutions can be deployed on NT as well as UNIX."

• [September 20, 1999] "Data Junction Corporation Announces XML Junction for e-Commerce, Application Integration and Data Exchange. XML Junction Integrates XML With Legacy Data and SQL DBMSs, Speeding The Deployment of Web Applications." - "Data Junction Corporation, developers of the world's most widely deployed data transformation solutions, today announced XML Junction for next generation application integration and data exchange. XML Junction addresses the challenge posed by the proliferation of XML standards and the reality of ever-changing data definitions. The new product provides the ability for companies to quickly and easily reconcile the semantic differences between data and object definitions, both for XML as well as hundreds of other data formats and to assure the integrity of data flowing between applications and business partners. XML Junction leverages Data Junction's proven architecture and ease-of-use to enable a full compliment of XML capabilities for quickly and easily mapping and transforming XML data and objects as well as legacy data. XML Junction comprises a visual designer and a scalable transformation engine that automates the creation, parsing, transformation and integration of XML objects through a graphical drag-and-drop environment. Operating as an integration server, XML Junction performs bi-directional transformation between hundreds of data formats and XML. Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML documents are automatically created or parsed with point-and-click ease allowing data stored in any application to be published to the web or exchanged with any external application -- even data stored in complex hierarchical structures. Furthermore, data stored in XML documents and traditional applications can be endlessly manipulated to ensure compliance with industry specific standards." See also the earlier announcement, "Data Junction Simplifies Application and Data Integration Projects. Next Generation Project Designer, Multiple Record Type Processing, and Support for XML, SAP and Streaming Data Top List of Major Enhancements to Data Junction 7.0."

• [September 20, 1999] The Object Management Group (OMG) announces its cross-membership with the Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards. The OMG and OASIS Exchange Memberships." - "In a move intended to unite the data representation flexibility of XML and the scalable, robust interoperability, transactional semantics, and enterprise-level security of CORBA, the Object Management Group (OMG) announces a membership exchange with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). OASIS has joined the OMG as a Domain Member and the OMG is now a Sponsor Member of OASIS. 'The OMG is integrating XML into the CORBA technical infrastructure, so that new XML-based applications will plug and play with current applications including C, C++, Java, COBOL, Ada as well as future new technologies,' said Richard Soley, chairman of the OMG. 'This Membership exchange provides the OMG with additional access to events in the XML arena.' Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS noted, 'We have a lot in common and much to gain from our affiliation. Both OASIS and the OMG are committed to interoperability through vendor-neutral standards. As a Sponsor Member of OASIS, OMG will bring a valuable perspective to our XML interoperability work. In the same manner, we look forward to contributing our XML expertise to their standardized object software'." See also the announcement from OMG: "Momentum Increases Behind CORBA and XML Integration. The OMG and OASIS Exchange Memberships."

• [September 20, 1999] "OASIS Expands XML Technical Work and Services, International Consortium Adds New Staff Positions for XML.org." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced plans to expand its technical work and member services by adding several new staff positions. Most of the new personnel will concentrate on advancing the work of XML.org, the open, vendor-neutral industry portal for the Extensible Markup Language (XML). OASIS is seeking a program director to lead the implementation and management of XML.org, a technical staff member to support the XML.org and OASIS technical working groups and a webmaster to enhance the Consortium's sites."

• [September 17, 1999] "webMethods, Inc. Teams With SAP to Deliver mySAP.com Marketplace. webMethods B2B to Seamlessly Integrate Buyers and Sellers Across Corporate Boundaries; Demo Scheduled During SAPPHIRE '99." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of open solutions for business community integration, today announced it has partnered with SAP AG to develop the business-to-business (B2B) integration infrastructure for mySAP.com Marketplace. mySAP.com provides an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. This enables companies of all sizes and industries to fully engage their employees, customers and partners to capitalize upon the new Internet economy. With the SAP Business Connector, based on webMethods B2B technology, mySAP.com will connect buyers and sellers in a fully integrated value chain over the Internet. Said Phillip Merrick, CEO and president of webMethods: 'To realize the SAP vision of a connected business community, the company selected the power, flexibility and scalability of webMethods' XML-based solution to overcome the challenges of connecting technically diverse systems. Together, SAP and webMethods are taking a great leap forward in delivering business-to-business integration for companies worldwide.' The webMethods B2B solution is one of the first products to deliver next-generation, XML-based e-commerce solutions to companies worldwide. Today, with unmatched support for a variety of standards, webMethods B2B remains among the easiest and fastest solutions for companies creating trading communities that provide frictionless business-to-business e-commerce between customers, manufacturers, distributors and suppliers." See the related announcements "SAP Delivers on mySAP.com Internet Vision at SAPPHIRE '99" and "mySAP.com Marketplace Opens at SAPPHIRE '99."

• [September 16, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services Signs Agreement with CBS.com, Inc. to Incorporate CommunityWare/XML into CBS.com News and Entertainment Websites." - "Webb Interactive Services Inc. announced the signing of an agreement with CBS.com, Inc. for the provision of its industry-leading CommunityWare/XML community application services. Commencing September 15, CBS.com will begin implementing CommunityWare to facilitate message board discussions on the News and Entertainment features of its popular CBS.com website. Discussion forums will be going live this coming week on the CBS.com website http://www.cbs.com. CommunityWare/XML combines a strong, proven suite of online community tools with a newly created XML-based publishing and content management platform. CommunityWare/XML is an enabling platform with a highly scalable, XML-centric open architecture. Webb leverages key third party technologies from vendors such as WebLogic/BEA, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle and integrates the leading edge open source messaging of Jabber.org. CommunityWare/XML features next-generation content management tools for the analysis, presentation, re-purposing, and reformatting of community-generated content. Webb is pioneering new ways to unlock the commerce and content potential hidden within interactive communities."

• [September 16, 1999] "Internet Pioneers Build a Better EDGAR Using XML. New Web Service Delivers Dramatically Improved Searches of SEC Filings With the First XML-based Financial Information System." - "Invisible Worlds, a San Francisco-based startup company headed by a team of Internet veterans responsible for many of the most significant innovations and standards behind the Internet, today unveiled the EDGARspace portal, a new Web service that delivers dramatically refined searches of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) EDGAR filings. 'The EDGARspace service is the first glimpse into the way XML-based Internet information systems will work in the future,' said Invisible Worlds' CEO and Chairman Carl Malamud, who first put EDGAR on the Internet five years ago. 'For the first time, you can reach inside EDGAR filings for gems of knowledge that were previously buried in text and also rise above the immense collection of documents to make sense of broad searches.' The EDGARspace portal, one of the largest XML-based (Extensible Markup Language) information systems ever developed, demonstrates the potential of this new Web standard by giving investment, financial and research professionals better ways to search for and find information that had been difficult to obtain. . . The SEC filings are enhanced using industry-standard XML to tag key information. For example, a search can target all insider-trading reports within an investor's portfolio, or look for Initial Public Offerings within a particular industry segment. EDGARspace organizes search results with XML 'meta-information,' making large result sets more manageable. Complex search results can be organized by any type of meta-information, such as filing type, document section, industry code, date or company name." See the main database entry, "EDGARspace Portal."

• [September 15, 1999] "Compaq Announces BizTalk Server Compatibility for Its BusinessBus Enterprise Application Integration Framework." - "Compaq Computer Corp. today announced plans to support the Microsoft BizTalk Framework by releasing additional features for its popular BusinessBus Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solution framework. The next release of Compaq BusinessBus, due later this quarter, will use XML as its messaging standard and will incorporate an interface to Microsoft BizTalk Server as well as supporting the BizTalk Framework for exchanging information between applications, partners, and customers over the Internet. Specifically, the BusinessBus XML-compliant application programming interface (API) supports the use of BizTalk schemas in integrated solutions involving packaged or custom applications. In addition, BusinessBus will provide the ability to exchange XML schemas between the BizTalk repository and the BusinessBus Integration Manager, so that changes in business processes, data, or application functionality can be handled via configuration rather than programming."

• [September 15, 1999] "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework." - "The United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) have joined forces to initiate a worldwide project to standardize XML business specifications. UN/CEFACT and OASIS have established the Electronic Business XML Initiative to develop a technical framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. Industry groups currently working on XML specifications have been invited to participate in the 18-month project. The results of the Electronic Business XML Initiative will be placed in the public domain on XML.org. The Electronic Business XML Initiative will be led by Klaus-Dieter Naujok of the Harbinger Corporation, a senior member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Committee, and Dr. Robert S. Sutor of IBM, the Chief Strategy Officer of OASIS." For other references, see the main entry "Electronic Business XML Initiative." [cf. alt URL]

• [September 15, 1999] "Bluestone Integrates Technology with XML Leaders to Extend Bluestone Visual-XML. Cloudscape, Extensibility, Fiorano, PointBase, and Vervet Logic Expand Functionality of Bluestone's Approachable and Easy-to-Use XML Toolkit through Bundling and Integration." - "Bluestone. Software Inc., a performance leader in Enterprise Interaction Management, today announced complementary product agreements with Cloudscape Inc., Extensibility Inc., Fiorano Software Inc., PointBase Inc., and Vervet Logic to bundle and integrate their leading XML technologies with Bluestone Visual-XML, the company's approachable and easy-to-use toolkit for building XML applications. The alliances with leading XML solution providers extends the functionality of Bluestone Visual-XML to include complementary development and deployment services, creating a more robust XML solution for Bluestone's XML audience. Bluestone is exhibiting at XML World in Ottawa, Canada, running September 13-16, 1999. . . Bluestone Visual-XML users now have access to a pair of advanced XML authoring tools -- Extensibility's XML Authority v1.0 XML schema design and conversion tool and Vervet Logic's XML Pro v2.0 XML editor. Bluestone will bundle all five companion products with Bluestone Visual-XML, which will support plug-and-play integration of the products."

• [September 15, 1999] "Motiva BizTalk Schema Facilitates Change Management Across the Supply Chain. Schema Effectively Bridges Disparate Information Systems to Drive Engineering Changes Between Business Teams, Customers and Suppliers." - "Motiva Software Corp., a leader in business-to-business change management solutions, has published a Microsoft BizTalk schema for data and workflow process exchange between Motiva DesignGroup, the innovative change management solution for technical applications, and other core enterprise business systems. The schema will enable companies to implement end-to-end change management processes that drive engineering changes throughout the supply chain, regardless of each participant's information technology infrastructure. . ."

• [September 15, 1999] "Timberline Software Corporation Publishes First BizTalk Compatible Estimating Schemas." - "Today Timberline Software Corporation published the first Microsoft Talk compatible schemas for construction estimating. The availability of these schemas will aid in e-commerce development efforts to allow construction companies to pass cost estimate information freely via the World Wide Web -- within their own organization and with outside project collaborators like suppliers, subcontractors, owners and other members of the building team. The two schemas released, one for a standard cost estimate document and the other outlining the transfer of design and cost information throughout a project's life cycle, fully adopt the Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and industry standards as outlined by the BizTalk Framework. It is Timberline's intention to continue to incorporate the BizTalk Framework guidelines in all ongoing product plans."

• [September 14, 1999] "HR-XML Consortium Publishes BizTalk Framework Compatible Schema for Recruiting Data. Consortium Standards Combined with BizTalk Framework Poised to Bring E-Commerce Solutions to Staffing and Recruiting Transactions." - "The HR-XML Consortium announced the availability of three BizTalk-compatible schemas designed to enable a new generation of web-based workforce management and recruiting services. Based on open, e-commerce models, this next generation workforce management and recruiting services promises to deliver employers greater ROI for the staffing expenditures, while giving HR and staffing vendors new opportunities for growth and profit. The HR-XML Consortium is a newly formed non-profit group dedicated to the development and promotion of standardized human-resources-related XML vocabularies for enabling e-commerce and the automation of inter-company exchanges of human resources data. Founding members of the Consortium are Icarian, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of eWorkforce Management solutions, and Structured Methods, a Raleigh, N.C.-based, XML solutions provider. . . 'As staffing and recruiting take their place at the forefront of business-to-business e-commerce strategies, it is critical to establish robust HR-XML standards to support the pent-up demand for talent acquisition over the Internet,' said Marcus Schmidt, industry manager for e-commerce at Microsoft Corp. 'The BizTalk Framework and Microsoft E-Commerce Strategy are uniquely positioned to facilitate and accelerate the adoption of open XML standards that will dramatically extend the reach of organizations into the vast pool of talent available via the Internet'." See also "HR-XML Schemas" and the main database entry, "HR-XML Consortium."

• [September 14, 1999] "Commerce One Announces Common Business Library 2.0. Industry's First Comprehensive XML Document Library Standard XML Approach Endorsed by Microsoft, CommerceNet, UN/CEFACT and OASIS." - "In a move to accelerate adoption of business-to-business electronic commerce, Commerce One, Inc. today announced the Commerce One Common Business Library (CBL) 2.0, the first open XML specification for the cross-industry exchange of business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, product descriptions, and shipping schedules. Commerce One CBL 2.0 is a set of XML building blocks and a document framework that allows the creation of robust, reusable, XML documents for electronic commerce. Using the CBL 2.0 document framework, businesses everywhere can conduct electronic commerce by seamlessly exchanging business documents of different types, resulting in frictionless commerce across multiple trading communities. To enable companies to preserve their investment in existing standards such as traditional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), CBL 2.0 provides a transition path to XML-based commerce capability. Based on a broad range of Internet and commerce-related industry standards and specifications, CBL 2.0 is endorsed by industry leaders including the Microsoft BizTalk initiative, OASIS, the UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Working Group, and CommerceNet and its eCo Framework Project and Working Group. To encourage its industry-wide adoption and development, CBL 2.0 is free of charge and available immediately from e-commerce document repositories including XML.org, BizTalk.org, CommerceNet and Commerce One MarketSite.net. CBL 2.0 is the first XML specification for electronic commerce designed to take advantage of the expressive power of XML schemas. As a demonstration of its commitment to interoperability, Commerce One is releasing CBL in three different schema languages, Microsoft's XML Data Reduced (XDR), the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL), and Commerce One's Schema for Object-oriented XML (SOX)." [originally published: July 27, 1999]

• [September 14, 1999] "CollaTech Inc. Publishes BizTalk Framework for eCommerce Distribution Hubs. CyberVendor XML Schema Supports Distribution Hubs." - "CollaTech Inc., a leading provider of industry-specific eCommerce solutions, today announced plans for the seamless support for eCommerce dealer purchases and returns with the creation of an XML BizTalk Framework-based hub for distribution networks. Dealers using CollaTech's CyberVendor 3.0 can send XML-based purchase orders and receive real time pricing, updates, inventory and order status reports. By incorporating the BizTalk Framework utilizing CollaTech XML schema, dealer and distribution partners can speed up inventory replenishment, distribution and returns. Currently CollaTech serves a number of strategic business markets, focusing its eCommerce solutions on incorporating best-of-breed business practices in easy-to-maintain eCommerce sites. An example of CollaTech's XML schema in the BizTalk Framework will be implementations in dealer networks. CollaTech will build on its existing CyberVendor 3.0 three-tier distribution architecture for industry-specific suppliers. Using XML forms and documents, dealers using order management systems can improve delivery to customers by reducing cycle time and improving product availability."

• [September 14, 1999] "Prophet 21 Publishes Wholesale Distribution Industry Specific XML Schema to BizTalk.Org." - "Prophet 21, Inc., a leading provider of business software for customer-intensive wholesale distributors, today announced that it has submitted wholesale distribution industry-specific XML schemas to the BizTalk.org repository. Developed by Prophet 21, these BizTalk compatible schemas for the Microsoft BizTalk Framework will enable the seamless exchange of business information amongst the wholesale distribution industry. A participant in the alpha/beta program for Microsoft BizTalk Server, Prophet 21 is working to accelerate the adoption of XML and BizTalk.org by ensuring its products, including Prophet 21 Wholesale and Prophet 21 Acclaim., integrate with any software on any platform that can generate and consume properly formatted BizTalk Framework XML schemas."

• [September 13, 1999] "Bentley Publishes BizTalk XML Schema for Architecture, Engineering and Construction. Over 120 Other Organizations Join aecXML Working Group to Enable E-Commerce in A/E/C Projects." - "Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Exton, PA) today announced that it has published the initial specification for aecXML - a BizTalk Framework-compatible XML schema for project and business-to-business communication for architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C). Bentley is actively promoting refinement of the schema in cooperation with other interested parties through an independent body, the aecXML Working Group. Already, over 120 organizations have joined the group, headed by Jerry Laiserin, interim executive director. aecXML is designed to facilitate communications and e-commerce among the various organizations involved in A/E/C projects. These include architects, engineers, contractors, owner/operators, estimators, consultants, materials suppliers, building product manufacturers, and others. aecXML uses the XML-standard revolution and the BizTalk Framework to remove the current barriers to exchanging A/E/C-specific information in electronic business-to-business conversations."

• [September 13, 1999] "XML.org Expands As XML Information Clearinghouse. Industry Portal Adds New XML Schemas and Introduces XML Specifications Catalog and Submissions Form." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced major enhancements to XML.org, the open, vendor-neutral industry portal for XML. New XML schemas from DataChannel and the HR-XML Consortium have been submitted to XML.org. Other content upgrades include the addition of the XML.org Specifications Catalog (www.xml.org/xmlorg_catalog.htm), a comprehensive list of XML specifications currently under development including links for more information. The site also incorporates the XML.org Specification Submission Form to encourage and enable organizations to share their XML specifications with the community at large. DataChannel's submission to XML.org is the Portal Markup Language (PML), which is designed to support inter-portal communication by providing an XML-based description of portal-related data and metadata. PML incorporates the basics of vocabularies such as Dublin Core, Directory Services Markup and WebDAV and will continue to closely track applicable standards of relevance to this arena." See also "HR-XML Schemas" and the main database entry, "HR-XML Consortium."

• [September 13, 1999] "Windows DNA 2000 Provides Pervasive XML Support for Next-Generation Web Development Microsoft Deepens Commitment to XML as Industry-Standard Integration Mechanism." - "Microsoft Corp. today expanded its industry-leading commitment to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) with a series of announcements for far-reaching XML support in Windows. Distributed interNet Architecture (Windows DNA) 2000, the next generation of the Microsoft. platform for building distributed Web applications. XML, an industry-standard technology developed by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), enables heterogeneous interoperability of data, components, business processes and applications over the Internet. The Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, the cornerstone of Windows DNA 2000, is the first operating system with integrated, end-to-end XML support. Key products of the Windows DNA 2000 solution will offer new features and functionality based on XML, including Microsoft SQL Server, the 'Babylon' Integration Server, Microsoft Commerce Server and Microsoft BizTalk Server. The key enabler for Microsoft's vision of integrated, programmable Web services is XML. Through the exchange of XML messages, services can easily describe their capabilities and allow any other service, application or device on the Internet to easily invoke those capabilities. To help realize that vision, Microsoft today is submitting to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) an Internet draft specification for the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), an XML-based mechanism that bridges different object models over the Internet and provides an open mechanism for Web services to communicate with one another. Highlights: (1) SOAP provides an open, extensible way for applications to communicate using XML-based messages over the Web, regardless of what operating system, object model or language particular applications may use. SOAP facilitates universal communication by defining a simple, extensible message format in standard XML and thereby providing a way to send that XML message over HTTP. (2) Microsoft is tightly integrating XML into the SQL. The next version of SQL Server, code- code-named 'Shiloh,' will be fully XML-enabled and will include a superset of the features available in the technology preview for SQL Server 7.0. (3) Microsoft announces XML Transaction Integrator (XML-TI), a new feature of the forthcoming 'Babylon' integration server that enables customers to easily integrate and commerce-enable their existing enterprise applications via XML. XML-TI allows developers to easily invoke transactions on a host with XML without having to change any existing host code or write any new code. XML-TI consists of a runtime proxy and a component builder that generates an XML document interface for executing legacy CICS and IMS transactions." On SOAP, see "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

• [September 13, 1999] "Microsoft Releases BizTalk JumpStart Kit for Developers. BizTalk.Org Library Open for Business Today With More Than 100 Schemas. JumpStart Kit, Schema Library Allow Developers to Quickly Create BizTalk-Compatible Solutions Today With XML Schema, Tools, Services and Sample Applications." - "At its press briefing on developing Web applications, Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the freely downloadable BizTalk JumpStart Kit to aid developers in the immediate creation of BizTalk-compatible software applications. The Microsoft. BizTalk JumpStart Kit makes it easier for developers to use XML schemas and the BizTalk Framework in current development projects and existing applications and to realize the benefits of industry-standard eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for electronic-commerce and application integration within and across organizations. In addition, a library for BizTalk-compatible schemas is now live on the BizTalk.Org Web site, with more than 100 freely available schemas submitted by 30 organizations. The BizTalk Framework 1.0 specifications will be submitted to the BizTalk steering committee for final review this month. The BizTalk Framework includes specifications, available to the public in draft since May, that outline XML design guidelines for developing and implementing BizTalk-compatible schemas. In October, the BizTalk steering committee will finalize and publish the BizTalk Framework 1.0 specifications. They will be published on the BizTalk.Org Web site, from which any individual or organization can download and use the guidelines to implement and publish BizTalk-compatible schemas. 'The BizTalk Framework provides developers with the guidelines they need to develop and implement XML in a consistent way, and the new JumpStart Kit provides tools that are familiar and easy to use,' said Paul Maritz, group vice president of the Developer Group at Microsoft. 'Microsoft is committed to providing the developer community with tools and resources to further accelerate the adoption of XML standards to enable the next generation of Web applications'."

• [September 13, 1999] "Ariba Integrates cXML With Microsoft BizTalk Framework. Industry Leaders Work Together to Enhance Business-to-Business eCommerce." - "Ariba, Inc., a leader in business-to-business eCommerce solutions for operating resources, today announced it has completed its integration of Commerce XML (cXML), an emerging standard for business-to-business eCommerce, with the Microsoft. BizTalk(TM) Framework, delivering a complete schema for conducting business-to-business eCommerce transactions. A member of the BizTalk Steering Committee, Ariba has integrated cXML with the BizTalk Framework to enable seamless electronic exchange of business-to-business content, such as catalogs and purchase orders, between Ariba. eCommerce solutions and the multitude of supplier Web sites based on the BizTalk Framework. More than 80 leading buying organizations, suppliers, and technology providers support cXML, a lightweight XML-based standard for exchanging supplier content and transactions over the Internet. The new cXML schema provides support for multiple catalog management paradigms, real-time information exchange, and end-to-end transaction integration over the Internet. The integration provides buying organizations with the ability to seamlessly access supplier Web sites based on Microsoft e-commerce products through the Ariba Network(TM) service and the Ariba ORMS(TM) application. Using this functionality, buyers can see their approved items and contracted prices and can directly access product configurators and libraries of products. cXML defines a request/response process for the exchange of transaction information for purchase orders, change orders, acknowledgments, status updates, ship notifications and other transactions. cXML is integrated with the BizTalk Framework using the XML-data Reduced (XDR) syntax."

• [September 13, 1999] "Keyfile Corporation Releases XML Workflow Schema for Microsoft BizTalk Framework to Streamline and Automate E-commerce Processes. Keyfile's Keyflow Commerce Supports BizTalk Framework Allowing Customers to Build Visual XML Front Ends and Web Sites for a Wide Variety E-commerce Applications." - "Keyfile Corporation, a leading provider of E-commerce enterprise application integration software and services, today announced it will support the Microsoft BizTalk Framework with an XML workflow schema that can be embedded with online forms, transactions and other XML documents. The schema defines the business logic for receiving, handling and processing the XML document as part of an e-commerce transaction. It is available in the library section of biztalk.org. The BizTalk Framework is supported by the company's award-winning Keyflow Commerce platform. The next release of Keyflow Commerce will support the BizTalk Framework allowing customers to integrate Keyflow Commerce directly with any application or system that makes available standard BizTalk schemas. The Keyflow Commerce platform will include the capability to create and deliver interactive Web pages and forms that let the users interact directly with BizTalk. Keyflow Commerce's XML Forms Designer, a companion application, is used by system designers to create Web pages directly from BizTalk schemas, thereby ensuring Web pages are directly compatible with the BizTalk platform. Applications include order entry for online purchasing, user registration and bill presentment. This capability also is supported and integrated with Keyflow Commerce's Workflow Server and Active Document Workspace. These modules enable the Web designer to extend the capability of the XML forms-based interface by adding structured business logic and transaction tracking and archiving."

• [September 13, 1999] "Clarus Publishes 11 BizTalk Framework Compatible Schemas for B2B Electronic Commerce Clarus Suppliers and Customers Applaud Effort to Enable E-Commerce." - "Clarus Corporation today announced plans to support the BizTalk Framework by publishing 11 schemas for the seamless exchange of electronic procurement information. These XML-based document definitions address the electronic exchange of purchase orders, supplier information, receipt acknowledgement and accounting data, and provide for routing of documents between applications. The schemas are compatible with documents defined by the Open Applications Group Integration Specifications (OAGIS), providing access to external systems such as back-office systems. The BizTalk Server and XML tools Microsoft Corp. is building will help to simplify transformation of data between the different schemas and will greatly reduce the problems associated with the transportation of data between applications."

• [September 13, 1999] "PMSC Subsidiary CYBERTEK Creates XML Schema For the Mortgage Industry on www.biztalk.org." - "Policy Management Systems Corporation today announced through its CYBERTEK subsidiary, its support of Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by developing a schema for the seamless electronic exchange of mortgage origination software. The development of this schema displays CYBERTEK's strong commitment to the mission of BizTalk by establishing electronic commerce standards in the mortgage software industry. CYBERTEK is a premier developer of leading e- business applications dedicated to streamlining the process of the mortgage banking industry. CYBERTEK's expertise in the mortgage industry and technology serves as a solid foundation to provide XML schema to the mortgage industry. CYBERTEK's loan origination system LoanXchange, which is licensed to 10 leading mortgage banks, established CYBERTEK as a leading technology developer for the mortgage industry. CYBERTEK is eager to have LoanXchange's infrastructure built on a popular schema that will permit present and future software vendors to work cohesively together to provide the mortgage industry with consistent and integrated technology for its future growth."

• [September 13, 1999] "Netfish Technologies Publishes BizTalk Framework-Compatible Schema for ANSI X12 EDI Invoices and Purchase Orders. Netfish Customers Now Can Smoothly Transition from EDI to the Power of XML, the Universally Adopted Lanaguage for B2B E-Commerce." - "Netfish Technologies, a leading provider of XML-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced plans to support the BizTalk Framework by developing a schema for the seamless electronic exchange of EDI-compliant messages. Netfish has submitted the new schema to the BizTalk repository for widespread adoption by the industry. In addition, Netfish will begin shipping immediately the BizTalk-compatible schema in its own XDI. suite of products, as well as ensuring the compatability of other contributed schema within XDI. Companies currently conducting e-commerce through traditional EDI technologies can now immediately realize the benefits of XML and Internet e-commerce through the EDI-compatible schema provided by Netfish. Whereas EDI documents have been very rigid in their structure and format and required costly partner-specific implementations, XML and BizTalk will help ensure mutual compatability across a very large e-commerce community. Netfish is ensuring that companies wishing to migrate slowly to XML, now have a pain-free path to converting their current document formats. Netfish has chosen the most recent ANSI X12 EDI standard document formats (4010), the first to support 4 digit date fields, required for Y2K-compliant implementations."

• [September 13, 1999] "Advanced Data Engineering Signs Contract with IDG Books Worldwide to Convert Top For Dummies Titles to XML." - "Advanced Data Engineering is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with IDG Books Worldwide (IDGB) to convert the top For Dummies. titles to XML. This project will include converting thousands of pages of text and graphics from QuarkXpress and PageMaker to XML for delivery over the Internet. Both companies believe that XML will enable IDGB to capitalize on one of its best-selling brands and expand its Internet market. According to Allan Syiek, Vice President, Advanced Data Engineering, 'By converting to XML, which enable customized searches, IDGB will be able to leverage their information assets through new distribution channels.' XML is a leaner, simpler version of SGML and offers much more than HTML. Because XML separates a document's content and hierarchical structure from how it is displayed, style sheets can be applied to customize the same information for a particular audience or market. XML also allows businesses to create content once for multiple media - print and electronic."

• [September 10, 1999] "XML Magazine Launched by Fawcette Technical Publications. A New and Unique Magazine, Aimed at the Exploding XML Development Language Market, Hits Newsstands November 11 [1999]." - "Fawcette Technical Publications (FTP) today announced the launch of XML magazine. With XML's unlimited market potential, the growing community of professional XML developers are searching for information to help them incorporate XML into their e-business solutions. XML magazine is the only publication designed to provide information about the architecture and structure of XML. 'The initial response to the magazine has been phenomenal,' said Paul Spyksma, Director of Sales at FTP. 'The major players in enterprise applications understand the importance of creating their own sustainable identity in the XML market, and XML magazine is their best opportunity.' XML magazine will be available on newsstands in early November with a list cover price of $7.95. Requests can also be made on-line from http://www.xmlmag.com/."

• [September 10, 1999] "Inprise Ships Borland Delphi 5. High Productivity Solution for Internet and Distributed Computing Development." - "Inprise Corporation today announced the shipment and availability of Borland Delphi 5, the latest version of its award-winning rapid application development tool for Windows. Delphi 5 is designed to radically simplify the integration of Windows and browser clients, Web servers, middleware and back-end database systems. This new version also includes support for HTML 4 and XML, the industry standards for building Internet applications for data distribution and exchange. With additional support for Internet technologies and emerging standards like XML, Delphi 5 is the best tool for software developers to rapidly deliver Windows applications and extend those applications to the Internet. . ."

• [September 09, 1999] "Commerce One to Deliver Business-to-Business Auction Services Through MarketSite.net. Partnership with TradingDynamics Targets Estimated 80 Billion Dollar Market for B2B Internet Auctions." - "Commerce One, Inc. and TradingDynamics, Inc. today announced a strategic partnership to add new auction and reverse auction capabilities to Commerce One's popular MarketSite.net business-to-business e-commerce portal. These new capabilities represent a significant advancement of Commerce One's global e-commerce practices and will deliver strategic benefits to both buyers and sellers. Buyers can use MarketSite.net auction services as an effective tool to support their strategic and ad-hoc sourcing efforts, taking advantage of Internet-based dynamic pricing transactions to buy goods and services not covered by contract. Sellers will be able to use MarketSite.net auction services to generate new revenue channels from existing and new customers by capturing the true market value of everything from scarce goods and services to excess inventories. MarketSite.net auction services will leverage the power of Commerce One's Common Business Library (CBL) 2.0 of XML components to facilitate and accelerate the participation of trading partners. CBL 2.0 is endorsed by industry leaders including Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, OASIS, the UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Working Group, and CommerceNet and its eCo Framework Project and Working Group. To encourage its industry-wide adoption and development, CBL 2.0 is free of charge and available immediately from e-commerce document repositories including XML.org, BizTalk.org, CommerceNet and Commerce One MarketSite.net."

• [September 09, 1999] "Commerce One Accelerates Electronic Commerce with Commerce One BuySite 6.0. First e-Procurement Application for the Global Enterprise." - "Commerce One, Inc. today unveiled Commerce One BuySite 6.0 Electronic Procurement Application, a new software release that dramatically reduces the time and effort required for deploying e-procurement automation to end users throughout complex, multinational organizations. With a single installation of BuySite 6.0, the global enterprise can quickly and cost-effectively implement centralized e-procurement capability, eliminating the need to deploy and manage separate systems for different geographic regions or business units. Commerce One BuySite 6.0 provides significant cost and timesavings by supporting the following capabilities within a single, global installation: (1) Multiple languages -- German, French, UK English and Japanese (with additional languages to follow in later releases; (2) Multiple currencies -- all major world currencies and conversions, including the Euro; (3) International date, number and address formats; (4) International tax requirements -- sales tax, GST, VAT and others; (5) Multiple and independent organization operating structures, rules and requirements; (6) XML documents based on the Common Business Library (CBL) open standard."

• [September 09, 1999] "CSC Announces Web-Based XML Application Enabling Disparate Systems to Share Workflow Information." - "Computer Sciences Corporation has announced a new Extensible Mark-Up Language (XML) tagging convention that allows information to be shared over the World Wide Web between disparate workflow applications to achieve end-to-end process interoperability. The new capability is the result of a cooperative effort launched by the DoD's Program Manager for the Joint Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (JCALS) Office and CSC. The JCALS workflow manager is a key component of the JCALS system that CSC has developed and implemented for the DoD. JCALS is a joint service information technology program that improves the processes to acquire, develop and maintain U.S. military systems. It is deployed among all the armed services at 60 locations throughout the United States. The new XML-based specification, developed by JCALS program management and CSC, has been enthusiastically endorsed and accepted by the Technical Committee of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). The coalition is a non-profit, international organization that promotes and develops the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software technology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products."

• [September 09, 1999] "DataMirror Expands Data Integration Market Opportunity with Flat File and XML support. New Product Integrates UNIX and NT Legacy Data Stores With Business Intelligence and e-commerce Applications." - "DataMirror Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise data integration for the Internet era, today announced the availability of Transformation Server for Flat Files. This new product release is a key addition to DataMirror's award-winning Transformation Server product line and significantly expands DataMirror's market opportunity by giving customers access to non-relational data. Transformation Server for Flat Files also represents the first use of XML (Extensible Markup Language) as a core technology in Transformation Server. The incorporation of XML technology into Transformation Server is in keeping with DataMirror's Internet and e-commerce strategy, as well as the Company's overall plan for enabling enterprise data integration from one end of the organization to the other and across the Internet. Transformation Server for Flat Files can reside in any Unix or Windows NT environment and allows users to move data directly into a target relational database without requiring staging. For dot-com companies wishing to leverage legacy systems for data rich e-commerce applications, this is a major advantage. Transformation Server for Flat Files also has built in masking capability to aid in the description and replication of more complicated formats such as dates and currencies."

• [September 09, 1999] "Thomas Register Online and Inforonics Announce TR-XML Order Online Partner Program. Creating a Dynamic Tool That Connects Order Online with 'Trading Network'." - "In its latest effort to increase business-to-business e-commerce on its website, Thomas Register Online, publisher of the leading online guide for sourcing and purchasing industrial products and services, and Inforonics, provider of outsourced e-Business management, today announced expanded product access through a 'trading network' program. Using technology developed in cooperation with Inforonics, Inc., Thomas Register Online is creating a new trading protocol that enables requests for catalog data, product information, orders and payment through the use of XML. XML is a computer language, related to HTML, which allows transactions to take place through an open format of information sharing. Inforonics is implementing the new TR-XML for Thomas Register, which will enable companies to link to and access its website's line item product content. The technology will allow linking companies the ability to: (1) originate a request on a cooperating trading network, (2) execute orders on the Thomas Register e-commerce network, (3) receive and fulfill orders through Thomas Register e-commerce enabled suppliers. Thomas Register has offered the TR-XML(SM) protocol to the CommerceNet XML Catalog Interoperability Pilot Phase II (CIOP II), an effort designed to streamline government purchasing via electronic catalog interoperability, undertaken in cooperation with the General Services Administration, Department of Defense, and NASA. Thomas is a project champion for the Registry Component of CIOP II, and has offered TR-XML access to the company's e-commerce content as part of that project. Thomas will work with CommerceNet's eCo working group to achieve compatibility with their e-commerce architecture. Published by Thomas Publishing Company, Thomas Register Online is the world's largest online resource of industrial and manufacturing information, listing more than 157,000 companies, 64,000 product categories, 7,800 online catalogs and 135,400 brand names."

• [September 09, 1999] "InsWeb Rolls Out XML Interface for Marketplace Partners. The Leading Online Insurance Marketplace Has Developed a Fully XML-Enabled Interface for its 40 Insurance Carriers and Other Internet Partners." - "InsWeb Corp. has implemented an Extensible Markup Language (XML) interface designed to streamline the exchange of data among insurance carriers and other online partners connected to the Internet's leading insurance marketplace. InsWeb has direct connections to 40 participating insurance companies, including State Farm, Nationwide, Progressive, AIG, CNA, Metropolitan Life, and Mutual of Omaha. Offering auto, term life, homeowners, renters and health insurance products, InsWeb also enables consumers to access its shopping services through the industry's most extensive network of Internet partners. Today, InsWeb has relationships with more than 110 leading Web aggregators, including Yahoo!, GO Network, Snap.com, ZDNet, LookSmart, E*TRADE, Wingspan, and enfoTrust.com. 'With XML, it is possible for InsWeb and our insurance carriers to achieve a deeper level of integration with online aggregators that electronically manage and transfer data on behalf of millions of consumers. We expect this improved integration will result in better, more intuitive customer service for consumers and a robust customer acquisition channel for participating insurance carriers,' said [Keith] Lippiatt."

• [September 09, 1999] "CellStar and Sundial Form Alliance to Support Internet Sales of Wireless Products and Services." - CellStar Corporation announced today that it has entered into a service agreement with Sundial Marketplace Corporation (Sundial). Sundial is a New York-based Internet retailer that seeks to simplify the purchasing process for telecommunications products and services. Sundial's web site marketplace (www.sundial.com) enables consumers and small businesses to compare the prices and features of various wireless handsets and accessories and more than 5,000 wireless service plans, and then to transact purchases online. Under their value-added service agreement, CellStar will provide Sundial with cellular telephones, accessories and value-added services, including kitting, fulfillment, warehousing, logistics and product returns processing. Additionally, Sundial will use CellStar's expanded Advanced Order System (AOS), an internet-based system, to manage the fulfillment and shipping of products ordered on the Sundial web site. Sundial's web site has been seamlessly integrated with CellStar's AOS system using an XML-based (eXtensible Markup Language) exchange that enables disparate software systems to communicate with one another over the internet. The integration approach provides a high degree of flexibility in communicating inventory availability, order placement and order tracking on a real-time basis."

• [September 09, 1999] "c-call.com Publishes BizTalk Framework Compatible Schema for Earnings-Related Corporate Events. XML Technology Facilitates Communications Between Public Companies, Institutional Analysts and Investors." - "c-call.com, Inc. today announced its support for the Microsoft BizTalk Framework by publishing a schema for the seamless electronic exchange of earnings-related corporate events of interest to securities analysts, institutional investors and individual investors. These corporate events include earnings releases, analyst conference calls, telephone-accessible conference call replays, and webcasts. Introduced by Microsoft Corp. in March, the BizTalk Framework makes it easy for businesses to exchange information between software applications and conduct business over the Internet with trading partners and customers. The BizTalk Framework includes a design framework for implementing an XML schema and a set of XML tags used in messages sent between applications. Microsoft, other software companies and industry standards bodies will use the BizTalk Framework to produce XML schemas in a consistent manner to enable integration across industries and between business systems, regardless of platform, operating system or underlying technology."

• [September 08, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. Sponsors New XML-Based Open Source Instant Message Technology. Webb to Integrate Jabber, a Leading Edge New IM Platform, Into its CommunityWare/XML Platform and Commerce Services." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. announced today a commitment to support and integrate Jabber.org's effort to create the world's first open source, XML-based instant messaging technology. Coincident with this commitment, Jeremie Miller, Jabber.org's founder, has joined Webb and will continue his role in managing the open source initiative. The commitment from Webb will include funding, software development resources, and community management services in an effort to help increase the momentum and support for Jabber.org (http://www.jabber.org/). Webb will integrate the Jabber IM system into its CommunityWare/XML platform. Through this commitment, Jabber.org will receive increased developer attention that will accelerate the momentum to create a truly open environment for future Internet messaging applications. Commenting on Jabber.org's position on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) efforts to develop an open protocol, and Microsoft's recent commitment to publishing its MSN Messenger format, Miller stated: 'These are both really important movements and both initiatives add great momentum to the future of interoperable, open IM applications. However, the added dimension of XML, and the principles of open source are what Jabber.org is all about. We'll continue to be highly involved and supportive of the IETF initiative. We will also push for XML-based interoperability with Microsoft and others in addition to open access to development formats. That's ultimately how this technology will achieve the spiraling effects of open source as demonstrated by the Linux movement'." See also the Jabber.org backgrounder and the press release.

• [September 08, 1999] "Manage.Com and DataChannel Partner to Bring XML Management Solutions to On-line Businesses. Alliance Will Result in XML 'Wizard' For Use With Manage.Com Products." - "Manage.Com and DataChannel, Inc. have announced an alliance aimed at helping the emerging generation of on-line businesses make effective use of the industry-standard XML (eXtensible Markup Language) in managing the disparate systems and applications on their networks. The alliance calls for DataChannel, a leading supplier of XML-based enterprise information portal solutions, to develop XML-based product extensions that will assist Manage.Com's partners and customers in adapting its FrontLine e.M management software product, which is used to discover, monitor, analyze and diagnose problems across the extended electronic community, or extranet. The development effort will result in an XML ``wizard'' that gives users an automated, intuitive way to create documents in manageXML, Manage.Com's extension of XML specifically for e-management; the documents will specify XML data access, content and display rules for specific, commonly-used network devices, NT systems, web servers and applications. The wizard will be available by the end of 1999 from Manage.Com. DataChannel also will provide Manage.Com partners and customers with training and other professional services on developing with XML and creating manageXML documents." See also Manage.Com's XML Management Initiative.

• [September 08, 1999] "Technomation Publishes BizTalk Framework Compatible Schema for eProposals. Customers Applaud Effort to Enable Integration of eProposals in the E-Value Chain using the BizTalk Framework in Technomation's BizOffice Portal Offering." - "Technomation Systems Inc. today announced plans to support Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by incorporating it into Technomation's BizOffice Portal for eProposals (electronic proposals). Technomation's eProposal XML schema will initially be offered as a schema for the seamless exchange of eProposals and quotations along the integrated E-value chain of proposal creation, quote generation, order entry, inventory control, invoicing, and post-sales customer support. The eProposal XML schema will provide the means for transferring data and descriptions of products or services, including specifications, capabilities, and costs, which can be communicated quickly and effectively to potential customers, vendors, or trading partners. XML-based schemas representing other business processes contributed by other companies will complement Technomation's eProposal XML schema in the biztalk.org library. Companies that use the eProposal XML schema contributed by Technomation will be able to effect E-commerce interchange of proposal, quote generation, and order-creation information, without dependency on specific data-presentation tools or middleware present in the business processes and systems that comprise the E-value chain. Technomation BizOffice's unique dynamic live-document architecture and Microsoft BizTalk Framework-compatible XML schema provide effective tools for selling direct to the customer, while providing integration with backend data warehouses and LOB applications for effecting the transaction."

• [September 08, 1999] "Navision Software Adopts BizTalk Framework for E-commerce Applications. Leading Worldwide Software Provider Continues Microsoft Support and Development." - "Navision Software, a leading worldwide developer of enterprise business solutions, today announced its plans to work alongside Microsoft Corp. to support the BizTalk Framework by developing BizTalk-compatible schemas for seamless electronic exchange of business documents and messages expressed in the Extensible Markup Language (XML). Navision Software's involvement with BizTalk highlights a continued devotion to the further development of Microsoft's future e-commerce platforms, including SQL Server, Windows 2000 Server and Commerce Server. Founded in 1984, Navision Software is a leading developer of innovative enterprise business solutions. Navision Software has more than 31,000 installations worldwide in 75 countries and 22 different country-specific versions. Navision WebShop, the company's e-commerce solution, which recently won the Best Solution Award for Electronic Commerce Integration, is just one result of Navision Software's close relationship with Microsoft."

• [September 08, 1999] "Sequoia Software Announces Partnership with The Windward Group to Create Customized XML-Powered Enterprise Portal Solutions. Sequoia's XML Portal Server Radically Improves End User Access to Relevant Information." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, the leading provider of interactive portal solutions, today announced a reseller agreement with The Windward Group, a technology consulting and project services firm based in Los Gatos, California. The Sequoia XML Portal is a robust, highly configurable platform upon which Windward's technical staff will deliver customized enterprise information portals more quickly and efficiently. 'The Windward Group is a leader in creating consumer and enterprise eSolutions for Fortune 500 companies and Internet startups through the integration of data management and presentation systems,' said Doug Engfer, president of The Windward Group, a Metamor Software Solutions company. 'To allow enterprise users to make informed decisions, it is necessary to access information from disparate systems. The Sequoia XML Portal facilitates the aggregation of information, dramatically improving access to the exact information users need to be more productive and efficient'. Sequoia's XML portal eliminates the need for users to 'drill down' through numerous and often inaccurate links to find and interact with the exact information they require for solving specific business problems. Instead, the Sequoia XML Portal delivers personalized information snapshots assembled from any of the XML data elements managed by the portal's patent-pending XML index. Thus, the Sequoia XML Portal alleviates information bottlenecks, streamlines workflow, and spurs knowledge management -- reducing the cost of doing business."

• [September 08, 1999] "The e-content Company Joins Forces With AICPA to Develop XML-based Reporting Solution." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business initiatives, today announced that it has joined forces with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to develop an XML-based specification for the preparation and exchange of financial reports and data in order to improve access and lower distribution costs for financial information. The specification, which is currently called XFRML (for 'XML-based Financial Reporting Markup Language'), will be the digital language of business. This is a framework that will allow the financial community a standards-based method to prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial reports and the information they contain. XFRML, which will be freely licensed, will also permit the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial information among various software applications. The AICPA has created an XFRML web site (www.xfrml.org) that includes a draft specification, background information, prototypes and a mechanism to provide input to the project team. XML can be used independently or incorporated into other computer applications that require flexible information sharing. XFRML will make use of XML to create the language for financial reporting." See "Extensible Financial Reporting Markup Language (XFRML)."

• [September 08, 1999] "IPC, NEMI Team to Standardize Factory Floor and Supply Chain Communications." - "Association Connecting Electronics Industries and the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) today announced their collaboration on a new suite of standards for communicating on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain. Under the arrangement, IPC will publish two series of standards: IPC- 2540, for factory floor communication, and IPC-2570, for supply chain communication. NEMI's Factory Information Systems (FIS) Technology Implementation Group (TIG) will collaborate with IPC to spearhead the work, following the rules of the IPC standardization process. The supply chain standards will aid OEMs, electronic manufacturing service providers and component suppliers in describing components and materials. The factory floor standards will standardize the language used by assembly placement and test equipment. The new standards will be based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which encodes data into a format that is both human and machine-readable, accommodating their use over the World Wide Web. GenCAM, the industry standard for electronic data transfer, will be used to describe the printed circuit board. The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative is an industry-led consortium of more than 50 electronic equipment manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies and universities. IPC is a US-based trade association dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its nearly 2,600 member companies which represent all facets of the electronic interconnection industry, including design, printed wiring board manufacturing and electronics assembly."

• [September 08, 1999] "Object Design's eXcelon Deployed in NEC's New eBusiness Process Framework. NEC eBusiness framework begins beta testing; leverages XML and eXcelon to provide unified enterprise eBusiness solution." - "Object Design, Inc. today announced that its eXcelon XML eBusiness information server is being deployed by NEC Systems, Inc., as a core component of NEC's new eBusiness Process Framework. The eBusiness framework was developed by NEC's Boston Technology Center and is currently undergoing beta testing. NEC's eBusiness Process Framework is a highly flexible system that allows companies to integrate via the Internet all of their external business processes with internal fulfillment processes. Using industry-standard business-to-business protocols such as Open Applications Group (OAG), Open Buying on the Internet (OBI), and RosettaNet, it serves as a platform for building and deploying next-generation XML-based business-to-business applications in areas. NEC's eBusiness Process Framework supports these requirements by using a business data server, which is driven by eXcelon, an extended integration server, and XML as a common business-data model, and messaging and user-interface infrastructure. Said David Wiedmer, NEC Systems director of e-commerce technology at the Boston Technology Center: 'Our new eBusiness Process Framework supports this new opportunity by providing an extremely flexible way to integrate all eBusiness processes in a single, dynamic environment. eXcelon serves as the XML "nerve center" in the framework and is where all XML is stored, managed and delivered to system components'."

• [September 07, 1999] "Digital Market Joins PDX Standard Group. Standard for Automated Product Content Exchange Proceses Will Improve Efficiency and Time-to-Market, Increasing Profits for Entire Supply Chain." - "Digital Market, Inc. today announced it has joined the PDX (Product Definition eXchange) Standard Group. The company joins the ranks of Agile Software, Intel, Solectron and others in helping to facilitate adoption of a universal communications standard that will promote automated product content exchange processes to improve time-to-market and increase profits for the entire supply chain. The PDX (Product Definition eXchange) Standard Group is a working group of the NEMI VFIIP (National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, Virtual Factory Information Interchange Project). It includes members from major electronics manufacturers involved with the problems of supply chain communication of product definition data. . . PDX is the Product Definition eXchange standard for the e-supply chain. The PDX standardization effort is focussed on the problem of communicating product content information between OEMs, EMS providers and component suppliers. The standard is based on XML because this provides a simple yet powerful and flexible way to encode structured data into a format that is both human and machine-readable. The PDX standard provides a way to describe product content (BOMs, AMLs, Drawings, etc.), ECRs, ECOs, Deviations and RFQs in an XML format. This standard will enable dramatic efficiency improvements throughout the supply chain since partners will have a way to exchange product content and changes in a common language." For other details, see "Product Definition Exchange (PDX)."

• [September 07, 1999] "Data Junction Simplifies Application and Data Integration Projects. Next Generation Project Designer, Multiple Record Type Processing, and Support for XML, SAP and Streaming Data Top List of Major Enhancements to Data Junction 7.0." - "Data Junction Corporation, a leading developer of data integration and transformation software tools, today released Data Junction 7.0, a visual design tool for creating, testing, executing and managing data transformation projects that integrate hundreds of formats and applications. The newest version of Data Junction delivers an extraordinary number of major enhancements that are significant to enterprise development professionals charged with integrating multiple, disparate data sources across organizations of any magnitude. Topping the list of new features are a visual project designer, multiple record type processing, and support for XML, SAP and streaming data transactions."

• [September 07, 1999] "Object Design Launches eXcelon Developer Network and 'Learning Edition' of eXcelon eBusiness Information Server. eXcelon Developer Network and eXcelon Learning Edition provide comprehensive education and support resources to XML eBusiness developers." - "Object Design, Inc. today announced that it has launched the eXcelon Developer Network (EDN), a new Web-based educational facility and support program designed to help people master XML eBusiness development for applications such as Web e-commerce, electronic data interchange, enterprise application integration and knowledge management. The EDN is an interactive Web community that allows participants to access educational materials and exchange information on XML development. Resources on the EDN site include code samples, live demos, success stories, free utilities, discussion forums, white papers, job postings and beta software. Concurrently with the launch of EDN, Object Design has delivered a new Learning Edition (LE) of its eXcelon XML eBusiness Information Server, the industry's only solution for building and deploying XML eBusiness applications. eXcelon LE is a low-cost version of Object Design's eXcelon XML eBusiness Information Server that provides everything developers need to learn how to use XML and to build application prototypes."

• [September 03, 1999] "OMG Meeting Boasts Significant Technology Adoptions and Organization Expansion." - "The Object Management Group recently concluded its Technical Meeting week in San Jose, CA, USA, sponsored by BEA Systems, Inc. Over 575 OMG members, Board of Directors representatives, and invited guests met to work on some 80 technologies in process. Finalization of a number of widely-anticipated new specifications - the CORBA Component Model, the Persistent State Service Specification, IDL mappings to the programming language LISP and the scripting languages Python and IDLscript, and the UML 1.3 revision - highlighted the meeting. In addition, the membership issued an RFP initiating a standardization effort for an OMG IDL representation of XML documents, and voted to create an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Special Interest Group. Three new OMG Board of Directors Representatives were elected, and the current board gave their final approval to 3 adopted OMG technologies. . . A new Persistent State Service (PSS) automates storage for both standard CORBA and CCM applications. Developers declare objects' persistent state in a new OMG language, Persistent State Definition Language (PSDL); from these declarations, the PSS generates code that stores and retrieves state values when needed. The PSS may be implemented on top of either a relational or object database, or may store data in a flat file. The Platform Technology Committee (PTC), responsible for CORBA core and related specifications, issued two RFPs: one to standardize the representation of XML as OMG IDL values, and a second for enhancements to the current OMG Time Service. The XML/Value Type RFP asks for a standard way to represent XML values (documents) using OMG IDL non-object (value) types. This RFP solicits proposals for the following: A standard way to represent XML documents using OMG IDL data types -- primitive data types, constructed data types (structs, sequence, unions), and value types." See "Object Management Group XML/Value RFP."

• [September 03, 1999] "GE Information Services Provides Secure, Internet-based, XML Solution for Arrow Electronics. Arrow Electronics Meets the Second Milestone in RosettaNet's EConcert Project with Intel." - "GE Information Services announced today that it has enabled Arrow Electronics to send and receive purchase orders with trading partner, Intel Corporation, securely over the Internet using the XML specification defined by RosettaNet. As part of RosettaNet's EConcert project, GE Information Services has provided Arrow Electronics with a pilot version of GE's data transformation software, Application Integrator, that has been enhanced to support both XML and the RosettaNet Partner Interface Process (PIP) specifications. GE Information Services has also provided HTTP communications and security components supporting secure socket layer (SSL) and digital signatures. GE Information Services' solution has not only enabled Arrow Electronics and Intel to send and receive purchase orders using RosettaNet's specification, but both companies have integrated the purchase order information into their back-end ERP and in-house legacy systems. A RosettaNet PIP is an XML-based specification designed to align business processes between trading partners. The purchasing PIP implemented in the EConcert project provides a mechanism for creating, cancelling and exchanging a purchase order between various business partners. The open architecture of GE's Application Integrator is the foundation for its Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) capabilities as well as its ability to support emerging electronic commerce technologies such as XML. Application Integrator is a powerful one-pass data transformation and management system that enables companies to electronically exchange business documents, such as purchase orders and invoices, with their trading partners using standard or proprietary formats."

• [September 01, 1999] "POET Software and SoftQuad Form Strategic Alliance to Extend XML Content Creation Role Across the Enterprise. Companies to Integrate SoftQuad's XMetaL XML Authoring Solution and Poet Content Management Suite (CMS)." - "POET Software and SoftQuad Inc. today announced a strategic alliance to integrate SoftQuad's XMetaL XML authoring environment and POET Content Management Suite (CMS). The integrated products will provide customers with a complete solution for developing, managing and publishing XML content for a wide variety of e-Business applications, including web publishing, knowledge management and web-based product information. POET CMS allows easy integration with best-of-breed tools and can be tailored for a tight fit with business processes. XMetaL can be integrated and optimized with existing application specific publishing environments. As a result, the extensibility and openness of these two offerings set them apart from 'one-size-fits-all' content creation and management products. Once integrated, XMetaL and POET CMS can be deployed as an easy-to-use, application-specific content solution. The combined forces of the two products allow content creation to take place across the enterprise rather than solely within the publishing department. The integrated application will be of high interest to all content publishers. XMetaL is an advanced, simple-to-deploy XML authoring tool with a familiar word processing-like interface that delivers unprecedented ease-of-use to authors while shielding them from the complexities of XML. XMetaL offers a powerful array of customization capabilities that optimize the authoring environment for specific applications and facilitate integration with existing publishing systems. POET Content Management Suite provides XML and SGML publishers with granular content management for streamlined authoring and production. POET CMS' advanced workgroup collaboration, component reuse, document versioning and application integration capabilities benefit publishers through greater productivity and shorter production cycles."

• [September 01, 1999] "Digital Imaging Group to Enable Image Workflows Through Metadata Initiative. DIG35 Initiative Group Recommends XML as Interchange Format. Liaison with MPEG-7 To Drive Common Metadata Architecture." - "The Digital Imaging Group (DIG), the digital imaging industry's premier consortium, disclosed its plans to enable a variety of image workflows through its metadata initiative, DIG35. The goal of the Initiative is to simplify the process of collecting and managing information about an image and in the process enable a broad range of applications from image management to digital photo finishing. XML Key to the Power of DIG35: XML, a W3C standard, will be a key technology in the implementation of the standard. The DIG chose XML not only for its widely adopted use, but also for the opportunity to unify its work with a concurrent effort happening in the ISO MPEG Committee (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11), the MPEG-7 Group. The DIG35 Initiative recently formalized an official liaison with the MPEG Committee to collaborate with MPEG-7's effort in the area of still image metadata standardization. Through this partnership, the DIG will help define the metadata for still images within multimedia contents in order to help multimedia producers, owners and users manage their contents. The MPEG liaison is the second major relationship the DIG has initiated with the ISO Working Group. The DIG2000 Initiative is currently working with the JPEG 2000 file format sub-group in conjunction with the ISO JPEG Committee (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29/WG1). DIG2000 members include Agfa, Alinari Photo Archives, Canon Inc., Corbis, Digital Intelligence, Eastman Kodak Co., Hewlett-Packard, LuraTech and NETIMAGE. The DIG35 metadata specifications will also be proposed to the JPEG 2000 file format by the DIG2000 IG resulting in a common set of still image metadata in both MPEG and JPEG standards."

• [September 01, 1999] "Sun-Netscape Alliance Announces iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite For Building Online Trading Communities That Leverage Existing Systems Cross-Company. 40 Percent of the Fortune 100 Use Alliance Software for Integration in the Net Economy. Alliance Also Introduces Netscape Application Server - Process Automation Edition and Netscape ECXpert 3.0." - "The Sun-Netscape Alliance (Alliance) today unveiled iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite, a new suite of e-commerce application and server software that enables companies to build and deploy online trading communities that tie together customers, partners and suppliers and leverage existing systems internally and cross corporate boundaries. The Sun-Netscape Alliance also announced Netscape Application Server -- Process Automation Edition for automating cross-company business processes and Netscape ECXpert 3.0, an upgrade to the Alliance's leading commerce exchange application. The Sun-Netscape Alliance provides a comprehensive, fully integrated portfolio of products to meet the requirements for integration in the Net Economy. It includes broad support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) for cross-company business exchange, and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition development environment. iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite provides out of the box integration with enterprise systems (including Tuxedo, MQSeries, CICS and IMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and as well as tools for integrating with custom applications. It provides broad support for communications protocols such as XML, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), Electronic Data Interchange-Internet Integration, (EDIINT) and Odette File Transfer Protocol (OFTP). Providing broad support for XML, Netscape ECXpert 3.0 is the latest release of the Sun-Netscape Alliances leading application for Internet commerce exchange. Netscape ECXpert enables companies to automate and manage cross-company business processes over the Internet as well as existing private networks. The product gives companies the ability to securely and reliably exchange business-critical transactions, such as purchase orders, invoices and forecasts, and automatically process those transactions using existing systems."

• [September 01, 1999] "Sequoia Software Corporation Solidifies Commitment to OASIS -- Elevates Membership To Sponsor Status. Leading Provider of XML-Powered Interactive Portal Software Will Play an Active Role in Driving Adoption of XML." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of XML-powered interactive portal solutions, today announced that the company has elevated its status to the highest level membership in the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). Sequoia is now a Sponsor member of this non-profit, international consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of product-independent information processing formats, such as XML, SGML and HTML. 'As a sponsor of OASIS, Sequoia joins industry leaders around the world that are making significant contributions to advancing XML interoperability,' said Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. 'OASIS applauds Sequoia's support as an advocate of interoperable, standards-based computing solutions, and we look forward to continuing our work together'. OASIS' open forum on interoperability issues contributes to the development of XML, the emerging standard for dramatically improving access to information. Sequoia's XML Portal leverages the power of XML and the work of OASIS to help organizations radically improve the way they access and manage information from multiple sources, such as databases, business applications or websites, delivering real business value and competitive advantage."

• [September 01, 1999] "MarketWatch.com Expands Reach Through Content Deal with iSyndicate." - "MarketWatch.com, a leading web-based financial news provider, today announced a strategic relationship with iSyndicate, a premier content syndication service on the Internet. MarketWatch.com expects to increase its audience by offering breaking business and financial news through iSyndicate's considerable network, which provides updated content to thousands of websites. CBS MarketWatch.com headlines, which link back to stories on the CBS MarketWatch.com site, will be distributed by iSyndicate through various partners within its network. iSyndicate, the Internet Content Marketplace, is the leading provider of dynamic and relevant Web content designed to help drive commerce and build community on the Internet. Today, the company aggregates, packages, integrates and delivers a breadth of content including audio, video, animations, interactive games, comics and weather from more than 500 trusted sources including Reuters NewMedia, Time, Salon, Fortune, CNET, The Associated Press, Rolling Stone and CBS Sportsline, all in real-time. This content is delivered by iSyndicate to more than 100,000 affiliated web sites, including GeoCities, Xoom.com, Citibank, Netscape, Clairol, PeopleSoft, Nintendo, Nortel and NationsBank. iSyndicate supports a wide variety of formats including the ICE (Information & Content Exchange) standard based on XML for all of its content."

• [September 01, 1999] "Hynet Announces Directive 2.5 - XML-Based Content Management System. Ernst & Young Chooses Directive to Deliver Fully Customized Content Over The Web." - [Seybold Seminars] "Hynet Technologies today announced the availability of Hynet Directive 2.5, an XML-based content management system that transforms static document files into dynamic, reusable Information Units (IUs) for publishing to the Web and print. Hynet Directive 2.5 is designed to rapidly build Dynamic Customer Content (DCC) -- information tailored to the specific needs of individual customers -- for publishing to multiple mediums. Hynet Directive 2.5 is a single source system that captures documents created in familiar word processing applications, such as Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker and XML and transforms the data blocks (paragraphs, graphics, definitions) within them into Information Units. Then, by attaching specific metadata to the IUs, they are essentially 'tagged' and stored in a repository that can be accessed across the corporate environment. Information can then be recalled by virtue of the 'tag' and the IUs can be reused and re-purposed to create varied pieces of corporate knowledge. The collateral can take the form of a Web site or print. Hynet Directive 2.5 also includes a transformation engine that can output information to XML, HTML, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe PDF formats. Hynet's use of XML combined with Directive's point-and-click functionality lets users easily generate multiple electronic publications or develop custom content to be delivered over the Web from within one integrated publishing environment." See also the related announcement, "Hynet Chosen by Ernst & Young as Part of Internet Publishing Solution For Standard & Poor's. Hynet Directive Allows Standard & Poor's to Rapidly Publish to the Internet."

• [September 01, 1999] "Reciprocal Publishing Supports Open eBook Initiative. Digital Rights Management Service Provider Joins Publishers, eBook Pioneers, Online Book Sellers, and Technology Manufacturers in Promoting a Common Standard for Electronic Publishing." - "Reciprocal Publishing announced today that it has joined the Open eBook Initiative whose goal is to create a standard specification for eBook file and format structure based on HTML and XML, the languages used to format information for web sites. The specification is to be announced this fall. 'The Open eBook Initiative welcomes the membership of Reciprocal Publishing to our group. Working together, we can promote a common electronic format to insure interoperability for electronic book reading systems,' said Dr. Victor McCrary of the National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST). McCrary chairs the group responsible for authoring the Open eBook specification and the NIST is the U.S. government organization affiliated with the Open eBook Initiative." See description and references in "Open Ebook Initiative."

• [September 01, 1999] "Sun Microsystems, Inc. Takes Office Productivity to the Net. 'StarPortal' Initiative to Accelerate Transition to Service-Driven Network. Desktop Software Suite Available Now for Free." - " Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the next stage in portal computing with its unveiling of StarPortal, a major initiative to provide word processing, presentation graphics, spreadsheet and other office software tools to any web browser and eventually portable devices. Sun announced broad industry support from key Internet Service Providers, software developers, Internet outsourcing companies and others in this effort. Sun will continue to offer the traditional StarOffice desktop version for free download at www.sun.com/staroffice. StarOffice software runs on the Linux, Windows, Solaris and OS/2 platforms and contains filters for importing other file formats, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and others. Users of Microsoft Office and other popular office suites will require little or no re-training to use StarOffice and can instantly access, modify and even export Microsoft Office files." For the XML connection, see the main news entry.

• [September 01, 1999] "Sun Microsystems' 'StarPortal' Initiative Captures Broad Industry Support. 27 [26] Industry Leaders and Partners Join Initiative to Accelerate Transition to Service-Driven Network. - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. earlier today announced the next stage in portal computing with its unveiling of StarPortal, a major initiative to provide word processing, presentation graphics, spreadsheet and other office software tools to any web browser and eventually portable devices. It is based on the award-winning StarOffice software suite technology Sun acquired in its recent purchase of privately held Star Division Corporation of Fremont, California in August. Sun is receiving broad industry support from key Internet Service Providers, software developers, Internet outsourcing companies and others in this effort to use StarPortal in accelerating acceptance of the network services model." For the XML connection, see the main news entry.

• [September 01, 1999] "Enigma Announces the INSIGHT 5.0 Product Suite for Intelligent Content Publishing. INSIGHT Delivers the Most Comprehensive e-Publishing Solution for Content-rich e-Business." - "Enigma, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent content publishing for the Web and offline media, delivers advanced new functionality with the INSIGHT 5.0 product suite. Architected around XML and packaged with ERP and DMS developer's toolkits, INSIGHT 5.0 offers the most complete e-publishing solution for high-content e-business applications. Enigma's INSIGHT intelligent content publishing suite delivers unified and highly functional Web and CD-ROM publications from any combination of PDF, FrameMaker, word processing, SGML/XML, and graphic/image source data. INSIGHT fully automates the content assembly and e-publishing process, integrating content with a wide set of integrated navigation, view, and search tools. These access mechanisms are vital to users who depend on complex, inter-related content, such as maintenance information, parts lists, drawings, and other product support information. New features within INSIGHT 5.0 include an Enhanced Illustrated Parts Catalog (eIPC), FrameMaker plus PDF support, Web user interface enhancements and Web annotation capabilities. In addition, Enigma's unique 'Distributed Intranet' capabilities have been further automated for delivering e-publications to customer intranets and corporate portals. Incorporated within the INSIGHT 5.0 suite are packaged add-on modules and developers toolkits for integrating INSIGHT e-publications to ERP and DMS systems."

• [September 01, 1999] "Interleaf Releases QuickSilver: First XML Workgroup Publishing Solution for Complex Documents. QuickSilver Offers XML Bridge to the Future of Publishing Solutions." - "Interleaf, Inc., a leader in developing and marketing XML-based solutions for e-business applications, today announced QuickSilver, the first comprehensive XML-based workgroup publishing solution for complex documents. QuickSilver offers customers a bridge to the rapidly emerging XML standard by extending the power of the complete line of Interleaf's high-end desktop publishing solutions known as Interleaf 5, Interleaf 6 and Interleaf 7. With QuickSilver, customers gain competitive advantage by having the unique ability to convert legacy documents to the open XML standard and to publish to multiple formats including Web, CD-ROM or hardcopy distribution. QuickSilver XML is a full-featured application suite for creating and assembling long, complex documents by individuals or workgroups. It offers customers full access to the advanced features of Interleaf technology while allowing the creation of reusable content based on the open XML standard. QuickSilver enables users to manage both XML and non-XML documents throughout their lifecycle in a single integrated system. With QuickSilver, documents can be exchanged with other XML systems, published to paper, posted on a website for viewing, or converted to HTML, PDF or WorldView document collections."

• [August 31, 1999] "Microsoft Collaborates With SAP on Framework for PervasiveComputing And Mobile Devices Based on Windows CE and BizTalk Technology Frameworks Make It Easy for Customers To Integrate Mobile Devices With SAP Solutions Over the Internet." - "Today at SAP TechEd '99, Microsoft Corp. announced that it is working with SAP AG to develop technology architectures for connecting Microsoft Windows CE-based and other mobile devices to SAP inter-enterprise business solutions using the Internet and the BizTalk Framework. SAP and Microsoft are developing open application architectures that enable flexible and complete integration of mobile devices in a wide range of potential customer scenarios ranging from the use of industrial devices to smart phones. The project takes advantage of the Microsoft BizTalk Framework initiative and the work SAP is doing to integrate a new set of technologies that will enable handheld or wearable Internet appliances to intelligently interoperate and interact with mySAP.com. Microsoft and SAP are defining BizTalk Framework-compatible schemas, which will be published in the BizTalk.Org library, to enable the exchange of data between SAP R/3 and Windows CE 3.0 and other systems over the Internet. The BizTalk Framework provides Extensible Markup Language (XML) mapping and routing capabilities that allow the integration of mobile solutions, regardless of platform, operating system or underlying technology."

• [August 31, 1999] "XML-Based Web Collaboration Technologies Enhance Flexibility, Openness of mySAP.com. Open Web Messaging and WebFlow Drive End-to-End Internet Business Processes and Inter-Enterprise Interoperability." - SAP has "unveiled the underlying messaging and Web collaboration technologies in the Internet-Business Framework driving mySAP.com(tm), an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. With extended Web messaging based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Internet-Business Framework enables easy access and open exchange of business messages, allowing companies to take full advantage of Web collaboration opportunities and form dynamic business communities. Fully embracing XML on all architectural levels, the Internet-Business Framework now provides the enhanced flexibility to seamlessly integrate users, applications and data distribution. Users can trigger collaborative business processes by relating relevant information from different internal applications and external Internet services at the workplace layer. Collaborative business processes across application boundaries can exchange open, standards-based XML messages. An XML-based metadata repository hosts information about how to get the right message, in the right format, to the right place and provides the relevant data structures for collaborative Internet applications. Within the Internet-Business Framework, XML-based Web messaging is handled through the SAP Business Connector component, providing secure and remote access to all business data and applications. Based on open Internet communications standards, the SAP Business Connector uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to exchange XML-based business documents over the Internet and across company firewalls. In addition to supporting all SAP message formats including Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs), the SAP Business Connector provides the openness and flexibility to comply with current and future business semantic standards."

• [August 31, 1999] "mySAP.com Provides Collaboration and Interoperability Through Internet-Business Framework. mySAP.com Workplace, Inter-Enterprise XML-Based Web Messaging and WebFlow Debut at SAP TechEd '99." - "Today at SAP TechEd '99, SAP AG, the leading provider of inter-enterprise software solutions, unveiled new XML-based technologies for Web collaboration within the Internet-Business Framework. On the basis of this flexible and open infrastructure, mySAP.com provides an open collaborative business environment of personalized solutions on demand. The new mySAP.com Workplace lets users enjoy easy, uniform and personalized Web access to both intranet and Internet applications and information from any place at any time. XML-based Web messaging and WebFlow empower companies to implement dynamic, collaborative solutions with their employees, customers and partners and to facilitate change at Internet speed. The Internet-Business Framework provides XML-based messaging support through the SAP Business Connector component, giving customers a standard way to move information into and out of business applications. This messaging technology links with open content standards such as Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) that provide a consistent, well-documented standard for open information and message exchange among collaborative business partners, including those using SAP and non-SAP components."

• [August 31, 1999] "eBusiness Technologies Announces DynaBase 3.2. Latest Version to Provide Organizations with More Control over Corporate Information and Facilitate Transformation to e-business." - "eBusiness Technologies, a division of Inso Corporation and a leading provider of solutions and services for e-business applications, today announced version 3.2 of DynaBase, the division's XML-enabled Web content management and dynamic delivery solution. DynaBase 3.2 contains several new or improved features that will allow businesses to better manage their content and realize greater scalability to meet the rising demands for more sophisticated and dynamic Web applications. These features include: (1) Persistent cache - DynaBase 3.2 will ensure optimal performance by automatically restoring the cache whenever the server is restarted. (2) Multiple Webs - With Web sites typically doubling in size and complexity every year, DynaBase greatly simplifies change management by enabling users to divide their data into separate workspaces for different groups in the corporation. These partitioned sets of data still allow management of the whole data set as a single entity, in a single location, through the use of 'Parent/Child Webs.' (3) Fine-grained searching - DynaBase also has built-in support for search of tagged documents with hierarchical structures, such as HTML and XML. By permitting searches of words inside tags, as well as words in documents, DynaBase allows users to efficiently target their searches, resulting in more relevant, focused matches. To support structured searching, DynaBase indexes structured documents as they are imported or checked into the content management system. (4) Dynamic document assembly - Creating personalized, well-targeted content is a goal for most Web sites. DynaBase 3.2 will create dynamic, personalized pages by reusing and repurposing the same document for a variety of users, which keeps content under control by reducing the amount of files and source coding."

• [August 31, 1999] "MERANT Provides Data Integration for Software AG's XML Information Server. MERANT Enables Software AG Customers to Integrate Corporate Data Assets Rapidly and Reliably." - "A market leader in data access and integration solutions, MERANT today announced that Software AG, one of the largest system software manufacturers in the world, selected its DataDirect middleware solution for industry-leading data access to the Software AG information server, Tamino. Software AG's Tamino is the first ever XML information server for e- business. Tamino uses XML (extensible markup language) to turn any data source into an Internet object, with no programming effort. With Tamino, users can store XML information without converting it into other data structures, or integrate data from existing databases into XML structures. Tamino customers are empowered to exchange and transform corporate data over the Internet, quickly and efficiently. Tamino will be available in the fall of 1999." See also the description of Software AG's Bolero.

• [August 31, 1999] "AICPA, Information Technology Companies, and Five Largest Accounting and Professional Service Firms Join Forces in Developing XML-Based Financial Reporting Language." - "The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, six information technology companies, and the five largest accounting and professional services firms are developing an XML-based specification for the preparation and exchange of financial reports and data. The announcement was made today by the AICPA. Through this project, these organizations are seeking to improve access and lower distribution costs for financial information. The specification, which is currently called XFRML (for "XML-based Financial Reporting Markup Language"), will be the digital language of business. This is a framework that will allow the financial community a standards-based method to prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial reports and the information they contain. XFRML, which will be freely licensed, will also permit the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial information among various software applications. The AICPA has created an XFRML web site (www.xfrml.org) that includes a draft specification, background information, prototypes and a mechanism to provide input to the project team. A prototype XML-based set of financial statements is currently in use by Great Plains to present its 1998 financial results on the company's web site. . ." See also the the main database entry and the news entry

• [August 30, 1999] "Arbortext lets more fingers do the authoring with round-trip conversion between XML and Microsoft Word. Conversion support simplifies and speeds e-Content publishing, putting XML at the fingertips of everyone who needs it." - "Arbortext, Inc., a leading provider of XML-based e-Content software, today announced the immediate availability of the 2.0 release of Epic, XML-based software that now supports two-way conversions between Microsoft Word and Extensible Markup Language (XML). With this feature and others, Epic now addresses three tiers of e-Content creators and authors within an organization, extending its capabilities across the enterprise. Epic's round-trip conversion capability makes it possible for a wide range of users to create feature-rich XML content with Word. By allowing authors to convert documents from XML to Microsoft Word and back, organizations can realize the benefits of XML with no disruption to users because they can continue to use the tools they already know. Organizations can also take advantage of XML content that originated outside of Word, a benefit that will grow in importance as XML proliferates across the Web. Finally, customers can use Epic's round-trip conversion to make their XML content available to their partners who are not yet XML-ready."

• [August 30, 1999] "Luminate For SAP R/3 Delivers XML-Based Interface to Open the Most Complete and Powerful Repository of SAP R/3 Application Management Information. SAS Institute Inc. and AMC Technology L.L.C. Deliver Unique Applications Through Luminate Software's OpenData Initiative." - "Luminate Software Corporation, a leading provider of application management software for planning, implementing, and operating SAP inter-enterprise business solution environment, today announced it is the first company in the applications management market to provide an XML interface with the Luminate for SAP R/3 product suite version 3.0. The Luminate OpenData Initiative allows Luminate customers and partners to add significant value by delivering their own applications on top of Luminate's data warehouse with no programming background or SAP R/3 software knowledge required. As the first to open its data warehouse using XML (eXtensible Markup Language), Luminate offers a standard platform for optimizing performance when planning, implementing, and operating SAP R/3 software."

• [August 30, 1999] "Introducing Xdex -- Powerful XML Indexing Made Easy. New XML Indexing Software Provides Better Access to Organizational Data." - "From Sequoia Software, Xdex is a "new Etensible Markup Language (XML) indexing tool that allows organizations to perform indexing and context-sensitive searching across all XML data and documents. Xdex provides organizations with a cost-effective way to easily and accurately access data in existing XML applications and the largest data repositories. Xdex leverages the emerging XML standard with easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy indexing technology that delivers in-context searching and retrieval of any XML document. Xdex is: (1) Scalable: Distributed spidering technology provides the scalability required to quickly and efficiently gather XML content from large distributed systems. (2) Highly flexible: For organizations using specific Document Type Definitions (DTDs), Xdex provides the option of DTD validation. Alternatively, even when organizations have not standardized on specific DTDs, Xdex enables complete context-sensitive searching. (3) Customizable: Out of the box, Xdex provides a web-based interface for searching and retrieving XML data. Alternatively, Xdex can be easily modified to create a customizable web interface. (4) Transparent to end user: If administrators do not want their users to view native XML documents, Xdex incorporates server-side eXtensible Style Language (XSL) to transform XML search results to HTML, making Xdex fully compatible with all popular Web browsers -- regardless of their support for XML."

• [August 26, 1999] "SGML UK Sponsors XML Tutorial." - "RivCom is now pleased to present an Introduction to XML tutorial in London on 9 September. This is a rerun of a highly successful seminar we conducted earlier this year for the SGML UK User Group. The tutorial will be presented by Tony Stewart tony.stewart@rivcom.com (Director of Consulting, RivCom, and Member, W3C Advisory Council) and Adrian Rivers adrian.rivers@rivcom.com (Sales Director, RivCom). The aim of this tutorial is to provide a general introduction to XML, both for those who already have an understanding of SGML, and for those whose interest in Generalized Markup has been prompted by the arrival of XML. The course covers the XML family of standards and their relationship to recent technology developments and other standards. Practical ways in which XML is being used will be demonstrated." 'The SGML UK is the United Kingdom chapter of the International SGML/XML Users' Group (ISUG). The Chapter was formed at an inaugural meeting in London in March 1992 by a group of British SGML users and supporters who had been meeting regularly under the auspices of ISUG since its foundation in 1984.'

• [August 25, 1999] "Epicor Teams With Microsoft to Provide e-Commerce Solutions for Midmarket Companies. Epicor's ERA.net-Commerce Applications To be Based on Microsoft's BizTalk Framework." - Epicor Software Corporation has announced that Epicor has adopted BizTalk as the framework for its Epicor ERA.net-Commerce (EENC) applications, designed to provide business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce solutions for midmarket companies. Through BizTalk, Epicor is extending its Platinum ERA solution to the Internet to support corporate procurement, product catalogs, electronic storefronts and other e-commerce processes that enable midmarket companies to increase their overall productivity and effectiveness. Epicor will incorporate the complete range of Microsoft BizTalk products and tools in the development of Epicor ERA.net-Commerce including current and future versions of the Microsoft Commerce Platform as well as Microsoft Exchange Server. Other key Microsoft technologies to be used include Microsoft Visual InterDev, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ). EENC continues to expand the use of Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based schemas that are the core of the BizTalk framework to include business documents to ultimately provide a true cross-platform environment which is easier and more cost-effective to deploy and support."

• [August 25, 1999] "Clarus Presents SupplierUniverse: First Free Trading Network for B2B E-Commerce. Accelerating the creation of a free trading community by eliminating participation costs." - "Clarus Corporation announced today the first cost-free trading network created to encourage widespread usage and mass adoption of business-to-business (B2B) electronic procurement. This new offering, called SupplierUniverse, is designed to eliminate challenges of trading online by allowing buyers and suppliers to have more control over their trading relationships. Clarus SupplierUniverse reduces barriers of adoption for B2B e-commerce initiatives and provides a virtual bridge between suppliers and buyers for a subscription fee of $995 per customer site per month. Trading partners simply register once to enable the exchange of catalog content and business-to-business transactions. Vendors participating in SupplierUniverse will register at no charge, list an index of their commodities and post a description of their business, enabling retention of their competitive differentiation. SupplierUniverse combines the many-to-many architecture of the Internet and a highly distributed business model to facilitate a true trading network and maximize the bottom line ROI of Web purchasing solutions. SupplierUniverse is based on an open model supporting all major catalog data formats, eliminating bottlenecks, registration and transaction fees--removing the hassles of doing business over the Web. SupplierUniverse is designed to provide frictionless trading and is made up of two components: (1) SupplierUniverse.com -- a portal for managing trading profiles. (2) SupplierXchange -- a distributed XML-based application that extends the Clarus eProcurement system to provide value-added B2B services. SupplierUniverse.com provides innovative B2B services, including supplier catalog certification and proactive communication of trading capabilities. Clarus SupplierXchange is an XML-based application that is highly distributed and can reside at a customer site or be hosted by an application service provider (ASP). It automatically leverages trading information captured in SupplierUniverse.com through a publish and subscribe mode. SupplierXchange ensures trading relationships are kept current and accurate."

• [August 25, 1999] "webMethods Powers the Clarus SupplierUniverse Trading Network. webMethods B2B Connects Buyers and Sellers in Comprehensive Trading Network Using XML." - "Clarus Corporation and webMethods, Inc., announced today they are partnering to power the Clarus SupplierUniverse trading network with webMethods B2B. Clarus, a leader in developing business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions such as the Clarus eProcurement product, will collaborate with webMethods, a leading provider of XML-based B2B integration solutions, to provide the first free trading network for connecting buyers and suppliers. SupplierUniverse will offer a comprehensive and efficient large-scale B2B e-commerce trading network, making e-commerce easier for buyers, suppliers and other trading partners. The unique and open approach of SupplierUniverse facilitates a true trading network, while allowing buyers and suppliers to maintain control over their trading relationships. Buyers benefit from the SupplierUniverse trading network through immediate access to any catalog, regardless of content source; powerful search capabilities; and flexibility to establish trading relationships for complementary B2B services such as content rationalization."

• [August 25, 1999] "VoiceXML Forum Releases Preliminary Specification, More Than Triples Membership. IBM Joins AT&T, Lucent, Motorola as Key Member And Contributes Its Speech Markup Language." - "The Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Forum has released its preliminary specification for VoiceXML, the new markup language that is expected to expand the reach of the Internet through voice access to Web content and services. Since its launch in March 1999 as the VXML Forum, the group has more than tripled in size by adding 44 leading technology industry players to its membership roster. The VoiceXML specification introduces a markup language for voice applications based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), an emerging technology that is expected to revolutionize the Internet industry. The VoiceXML Forum aims to drive the market for voice-enabled Internet services through the creation of a common specification based on existing Internet standards. The VoiceXML specification is expected to simplify creation and delivery of Web-based, personalized interactive voice-response services and enable phone and voice access to integrated call center databases, information on Web sites, and company intranets. The VoiceXML specification also will help enable new voice-capable devices and appliances." See "VXML Forum (Voice Extensible Markup Language Forum)."

• [August 25, 1999] "Ardent Software Partners with DataChannel to Provide XML-based EIP Software Solution. DataChannel Server Provides Portal Interface to Ardent's Data Warehousing Offering." - "DataChannel, Inc. a leading provider of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions and Ardent Software, Inc., a leading global data management software company, today announced that Ardent has joined DataChannel's xPertPartner program as a Solutions Partner. Under the terms of the partnership, Ardent will resell DataChannel's EIP server, RIO 3.2, to augment its DataStage suite of data warehouse creation and management tools. 'As data warehousing continues to evolve as a major component of an emerging enterprise information architecture, Ardent is looking to provide new ways for users to interface with their underlying information infrastructure,' said Mikael Wipperfeld, vice president of data warehouse marketing at Ardent Software. 'DataChannel's portal server is the ideal solution for interfacing with data warehousing and business intelligence solutions because of the product's ability to provide a single access point for information from across the enterprise and the Internet'. DataChannel's portal interface enables customers, employees, and partners to access, manage, and manipulate information through device-independent delivery of Web-enabled applications. These EIP applications are built on an open, XML, standards-based architecture that facilitates the creation of dynamic, personalized applications by exposing and integrating all heterogeneous enterprise data resources -- both internal and external -- thus creating a normalized layer of data abstraction that can be re-purposed for personalized access and management. Additionally, an EIP extends a company's ability to interact with the Internet by accessing, managing, and correlating enterprise data within the Web."

• [August 25, 1999] "Enigma's Electronic Illustrated Parts Catalog (eIPC) Facilitates e-Business by Linking Technical Text and Graphics Content to Back-Office Applications. The eIPC Integrates Intelligent Graphics into Extensible e-Publications." - "Enigma, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent content publishing solutions for the Web and offline media, announces the availability of the new XML-based eIPC. By creating unified publications with seamlessly linked text and graphical content, the eIPC provides end-users with multiple ways to more effectively locate and use technical support and maintenance information. The eIPC also gives end users the ability to automatically create a 'shopping list' by compiling a listing of all selected parts. This allows end-user organizations to more easily control inventory levels and link with e-commerce transaction systems for online parts requisition, effectively driving revenue. Through Enigma's ERP toolkit, or API, tight integration between content publications and other enterprise applications is now possible. By providing advanced navigation capabilities and bi-directional, convenient access between technical information and ERP systems, the eIPC streamlines the support and maintenance process. This increases equipment uptime and facilitates spare parts procurement, providing increased value to both the customer and manufacturer. The eIPC also takes advantage of the international standard for computer graphics metafiles (CGM) technology, offered by companies like Micrografx, which gives users the ability to find information via graphics and the call-outs within graphics. With the eIPC, Enigma's INSIGHT e-publishing solution now offers the most advanced graphics-based search capabilities available, including hot-spotting, zooming and rotating. The seamlessly linked textual and graphical data within an INSIGHT-created eIPC allows users to easily navigate between illustrations of parts and the associated text-based parts list."

• [August 25, 1999] "ESPS CoreDossier 4.0 e-Compliance Solution Embraces DOCUMENTUM 4i Content Management Platform. Integration of Products Provides Added Functionality." - "ESPS, Inc., a leading, developer of electronic compliance (e-Compliance) management solutions, today announced that its CoreDossier 4.0 software offers expanded functionality to users through compatibility with DOCUMENTUM, Inc.'s new content management platform, DOCUMENTUM 4i. DOCUMENTUM, Inc., the leading provider of content management solutions that accelerate innovation and shorten time-to-revenue, introduced its new platform in June 1999 to manage the content creation and delivery for both corporate and e-business portals. ESPS' e-Compliance software, which publishes to the Internet, corporate intranets, directly to paper or to industry-specified standards in formats like HTML, XML, PDF and TIFF, uniquely complements DOCUMENTUM 4i by allowing users to create cohesive compliance publications with source content managed by DOCUMENTUM. The ESPS CoreDossier product suite is designed to deliver e-Compliance management solutions so customers can efficiently plan, assemble, manage, publish and share regulatory submissions and other mission-critical business compliance information. CoreDossier publications may be published into DOCUMENTUM maintaining cross-reference links between publication components. DOCUMENTUM 4i consists of powerful Web application servers, application development and administration tools for building corporate portals. DOCUMENTUM 4i also serves as a robust environment for enabling the speedy and cost-effective development and deployment of global applications by DOCUMENTUM customers and system integrator partners."

• [August 25, 1999] "Scriptics Enhances Open Source Tcl Scripting Language and TclPro Development Tool Suite to Meet Enterprise Integration Requirements. Company Delivers Improved I/O Performance and Security for Internet Applications. Offers Y2K Compliance Testing for Tcl Applications." - "Scriptics Corporation, the Tcl platform company led by Tcl creator John Ousterhout, today announced significant new versions of both the open source Tcl scripting language and the company's flagship TclPro development tool suite. The enhanced products enable Tcl users to efficiently tackle enterprise-scale scripting requirements, such as enterprise application integration and application integration with the Internet. Among the new features included with the Tcl 8.2 scripting language are an extended I/O system known as Trf that delivers I/O compression and encryption, and significantly enhanced string manipulation performance. I/O compression and encryption are essential capabilities for Internet integration, while string manipulation is a fundamental technology that enables disparate applications to share data files. These new technologies can play an important role in helping corporations efficiently conduct business-to-business transactions over the Internet. Tcl 8.2 is an open source technology, freely available from the Scriptics Web site, and a range of other sources. The release lays the groundwork for support of XML, which is coming on strong as the basis for application integration. These moves indicate to me that Scriptics is managing its market for substantial future growth."

• [August 25, 1999] "IBM Helps S/390 Customers Grow Their e-businesses. - "IBM today announced the most powerful release to date of S/390's flagship operating system, OS/390. The new release features significant enhancements to help enterprise server customers meet the need for greater integration, availability and security brought on by e-business growth. OS/390 Version 2 Release 8 delivers enhancements in security, connectivity and systems management to help customers meet the requirements of e-transaction processing. At the heart of today's announcement are security and systems management features, including the ability to dynamically manage Virtual Private Network (VPN) encryption keys through the Internet Key Exchange (IKE), enhanced management and administration of digital certificates used by both server applications and end-users, higher availability of TCP/IP in an S/390 Parallel Sysplex clustering environment, and the capability to print from enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Internet-related applications. Available next year, OS/390 2.9 plans to include further enhancements to native file and print serving for Windows clients, text search support for XML documents and unicode and additional UNIX System Services function."

• [August 25, 1999] "Pageflex, Inc. Introduces WebForm Wizard for the Pageflex Mpower Application Suite. Corporate Marketing Now Has a System for Web Delivery of Customized Information." - "Pageflex, Inc. today announced WebForm Wizard, a new module introduced as part of the Pageflex Mpower application suite. The WebForm Wizard is an NT utility that automatically generates a front-end Web submissions page that can be used to submit projects to the Mpower server via the Internet. The Web Form Wizard automatically creates a Web server page where customer information is entered. Web Form Wizard generates a Web page complete with all of the HTML elements and code necessary to make the Web form work, eliminating the task of writing Web server code. When placed on a Web server, the page can be called up in a Web browser and used to submit a job to Mpower server, resulting in a customized PDF document that can be previewed in the browser or delivered via e-mail. Driven by the profile of a particular target customer, on-demand marketing involves the automatic production of customized business marketing collateral such as datasheets and brochures directly from XML text and graphics data stored in web servers and/or databases. Flexible templates based on page design rules that ensure the generated PostScript or PDF documents meet high stylistic quality standards. Pageflex also licenses its underlying NuDoc XML-based composition engine on an OEM basis to independent software vendors." See also the related release: "Pageflex, Inc. Introduces DesignOut Module for Pageflex Mpower. DesignOut Plug-In Exports Adobe InDesign Files for Use in Pageflex Mpower Projects." - "...announced today the availability of DesignOut, a plug-in for Adobe InDesign that exports Adobe InDesign application files for use in Mpower variable data projects. DesignOut exports InDesign application files and converts it to Pageflex's XML/TSL based templates, ideal for dynamically assembling variable content into customized marketing documents..."

• [August 23, 1999] "Sybase Announces General Availability of Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.0: The Portal-Ready Database. Sybase Adaptive Server Includes Support for Both Java and XML; Extended Capabilities Enable Web Transaction Integration and Management." - "Underscoring its commitment to delivering robust, industrial-strength solutions for enterprise database customers as well as addressing the needs of a new market -- Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) - Sybase, Inc. today announced the general availability of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.0, complete with extended capabilities for native Java support, tight XML integration for Internet content management, high availability, and support for Web transaction management. The company made this announcement at the Sybase TechWave '99 User Conference being held here this week. Designed to empower customers with tools to capitalize on the opportunities of e-Business, Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.0 delivers unique functionality for increased developer productivity, continuous availability of mission-critical applications and integration of disparate operational systems. This functionality, key in the successful delivery of EIP solutions, enables the low-cost and rapid delivery of customer value-added applications for e-Business. Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.0 offers the following new features: integrated Java support with Java VM in the database and Java/SQL; extended XML support in the database including storage, retrieval and querying; and distributed transaction management (DTM) tools leveraging industry standard XA interfaces to ensure the integrity of distributed transactions in a heterogeneous environment."

• [August 23, 1999] "IMS Announces Metadata Specification for Distributed Learning." - "IMS, a global coalition of more than 200 educational institutions, commercial organizations and government entities, today announced the release of the IMS Metadata Specification, designed to promote the discovery of distributed learning resources online. Widespread adoption of this specification will enhance the interoperability of distributed learning resources for schools, higher education, and training. The IMS Metadata Specification incorporates three technical documents: (1) IMS Learning Resource Metadata Information Model, (2) IMS Learning Resource Metadata: XML Binding Specification, and (3) IMS Learning Resource Metadata: Best Practices and Implementation Guide. The full document is available at the IMS Web site, www.imsproject.org. 'The completion of the specification was truly a global effort,' said Mark Resmer, IMS Executive Director. 'We had excellent collaboration with the IEEE, the European ARIADNE, PROMETEUS and Gestalt Projects, and IMS member organizations worldwide,' according to Steve Griffin, IMS Technical Director. The IMS Metadata specification builds upon the IEEE LOM Base Document (a result of active cooperation between ARIADNE and IMS) which is viewed as an extremely useful standard by the EU PROMETEUS Initiative because it explicitly addresses multilingual/multicultural issues and covers Dublin Core fields. Dr. Eddy Forte, Coordinator of ARIADNE and Chairman of PROMETEUS stated that 'most of what is needed to create exchangeable educational metadata is included in this joint effort'." See "Educom Instructional Management Systems Project (IMS)."

• [August 23, 1999] "Sequoia Software Corporation Acquires Radian Systems, Inc. Acquisition Creates Dominant XML Portal Vendor in the Emerging Enterprise Portal Market." - "Sequoia Software Corporation, a leading provider of XML-powered enterprise portal solutions, today announced that it has acquired Radian Systems, Inc. for a combination of stock and cash. Radian is an established leader in delivering XML products and solutions, and a recent recipient of the AIIM '99 Best of Show award for its XML-based portal products. The two companies will combine their development, sales, products and XML expertise to offer customers powerful enterprise portal solutions that address a fundamental business problem: accessing the exact information needed to make everyday business decisions. The partnership between the two companies combines two leading XML vendors who bring unmatched experience in delivering XML-powered portal solutions. Both organizations bring together an impressive array of customers, including the Baylor Health Care System, General Electric, the State of Texas, the Johns Hopkins Health System, First Trust Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Phillip Morris, Arlington County, Virginia, Prudential Investments, Northwestern Mutual Life and the State of Virginia."

• [August 23, 1999] "SageMaker Sets New Standards For Managing Corporate Information With Launch of SageWave 3.1. New Components and Real-time Sources Enhance Next Generation EIP." - "SageMaker, Inc., a leading provider of Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) is pleased to announce the launch of SageWave 3.1. This is a key milestone in the Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) industry, as no other EIP is able to deliver this level of functionality. SageWave components are available for access to live newswires, numeric databases, research repositories, periodicals and information usage/entitlement management. SageWave is used in many capacities, including competitive intelligence, research and analysis, sales, marketing, production, development, MIS, and strategic planning. Underpinning the new SageWave product is SageArch, SageMaker's business architecture, which is based on Java and XML. The Web equivalent of a trading room architecture, SageArch is the backbone for integrating multiple sources of different information types and feeds, and is capable of handling large numbers of end-users and extremely high system update rates."

• [August 23, 1999] "Covad Eases DSL Deployment for ISPs and End Users. Covad xLink is Industry's First DSL Provisioning Solution; Certified Software Vendor Program Helps Drive Covad xLink Platform Adoption." - "Covad Communications, a leading broadband access and services provider, today announced the availability of its Covad xLink (pronounced 'cross link') platform, an XML (Extensible Markup Language) based application programming interface (API). This platform allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to leverage Covad's industry leading flow-through provisioning system which dramatically eases Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) services deployment by automating and speeding up the entire ordering and provisioning process. This makes it easier for ISPs to add DSL services to their product portfolios, simplifies the process of DSL ordering for end users and improves the overall scalability of DSL deployment. 'Covad xLink is a powerful platform that is striving to eliminate the complexity currently associated with the ordering and provisioning of DSL services. In standardizing its API, Covad is going even further to drive market growth through automated business processes that cut operational costs, raise service levels, and accommodate future XML-based capabilities.' Because the Covad xLink platform is XML based, it integrates with systems via the Internet, allowing ISPs to easily tailor information received from Covad's system. Covad xLink utilizes a component-based design and web distribution model, making the software easier to design and implement."

• [August 23, 1999] "Seybold San Francisco/21st Century Publishing Conference Delivers Creative Solutions to Publishing's Hottest Topics and Issues. Industry Front-Runners to Help Publishing Professionals Make Strategic Business Decisions." - Seybold Seminars, produced by Ziff-Davis, today announced its Special Interest Days program focusing on a variety of the publishing industry's hottest topics, including color proofing and management, PDF, XML and the maturing market of intellectual property rights. Special Interest Days are niche-focused sessions on the new applications, equipment and technologies that drive the industry. 'Print and pre-press practitioners are grappling with tremendous change in their markets,' said Craig Cline, vice president of content for Seybold Seminars. 'Industry interest in PDF technology is increasing while XML is recognized as the standard that will fuel the Internet economy. These changes are a lot for publishers to understand and deal with, and it is not uncommon to see them racing to master cross-media publishing methods. We designed Special Interest Days to offer our attendees face-to-face interaction with industry leaders and an opportunity to learn innovative ways to handle and manage their daily workload'."

• [August 19, 1999] "Inso PDM Division Announces New Licensing Policy for Balise. Leading XML/SGML Transformation Tool Free to Developers." - "Inso Corporation's Product Data Management (PDM) Division today announced significant changes in the licensing policy of its Balise developer kit, an easy-to-learn scripting language specifically designed to manipulate and transform structured documents and build powerful XML/SGML solutions. The company plans to offer free development licenses for all platforms, expanding the product's availability to XML/SGML programmers worldwide. Proven in major enterprise projects, Balise has more than 200 customers in Europe, including Airbus Industries. Since its introduction into the North American market last year, Balise has already gained support from leading corporations, such as Novell and Schlumberger, which are using Balise to develop industrial-strength document processing and publishing applications. Balise's modern, feature-rich development environment provides a unique XML/SGML-aware, interpreted scripting language that includes built-in memory management. Any C or JavaScript programmer can easily read and understand a Balise program. This shortens the learning curve, reduces training and services costs, and provides almost instant programmer productivity. 'We are very excited about this new licensing policy, which makes the Balise technology more accessible to an increasing number of XML/SGML professionals worldwide'."

• [August 18, 1999] "Intraware Expands XML Product Portfolio With Vervet Logic's XML Pro. Intraware's Online Software Purchasing and Delivery Service - Intraware.shop - Expands E-Business Applications Offerings." - "Intraware, Inc., the leading provider of Internet-based services for IT professionals, today announced a relationship with Vervet Logic that provides intraware.shop -- Intraware's online software purchasing and delivery service -- customers with online sales, downloadable demos and electronic software delivery of Vervet Logic's popular Extensible Markup Language (XML) Pro v2.0, editor. Vervet Logic's industry leading XML editor allows companies to easily parse, query, transform and map XML bi-directionally with ERP applications, ecommerce applications, databases and legacy systems. This relationship underscores both companies' commitment to expanding the adoption of XML, which is recognized as one of the fastest growing technologies for business related software, and a core component of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and business-to-business ecommerce. Vervet Logic's XML Pro is one of the industry's leading products that enable IT managers to build complete in-house XML solutions for data management and interchange. With today's agreement, Intraware is providing Vervet Logic with a powerful web-based channel that offers IT professionals a comprehensive resource center to meet their XML information and product requirements. Through its online Try-and-Buy program and Demo Center, intraware.shop helps IT professionals evaluate and purchase XML products more efficiently. Additionally, Intraware's Everything XML Web page aggregates the most in-depth and up-to-date information and analysis of XML technology."

• [August 16, 1999] TIBCO Software Unveils Next-Generation Internet Infrastructure Software Suites. TIB/ActiveEnterprise 2.0 Suite Ties The Integrated Enterprise To The Web: Enables Companies To Become Real-Time E-Businesses." - "TIBCO Software Inc., a leading provider of real-time infrastructure software for the Internet and enterprise, today announced the next-generation release of its infrastructure software suite, sometimes referred to as 'plumbing' for the Internet. Called TIB/ActiveEnterprise 2.0, the new offering combines the core technology that was first used to digitize Wall Street, with added features to help companies become real-time e-businesses. TIB/Message Broker 2.0 [is the scalable, flexible message brokering product that makes data integration very easy, via support for XML-based schemas. Data transformation and mapping are simplified with new usability enhancements and support for complex mappings. The TIB/Repository 2.0 provides a standard interface to capture and store metadata from heterogeneous systems and applications in the XML format. Storing common configuration elements allows for simpler design of business processes that span distribution systems."

• [August 16, 1999] "Ultraseek Server 3.1 First to Offer Indexing and Search for XML Fields. Adds Powerful New Capabilities for Intranets and Content-Rich Web Sites. New ability to search, index Microsoft Exchange folders, access documents protected by Windows NT Challenge/Response; integrates leading advertising servers for commercial sites." - "Infoseek Corporation has announced the availability of Ultraseek Server 3.1, a new version of the award-winning enterprise search application for Fortune 500-size corporate intranets, enterprise portals and external Web sites. Ultraseek Server 3.1 is leading the way among major search applications by offering broad support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents, as XML begins to gain momentum and move the Internet past the limitations of HTML for defining, structuring, and delivering Web-based content. Since few enterprises have defined many DTDs to date, and there are only a few standards available, Ultraseek Server 3.1 provides a mapping capability for generic DTDs and allows Web administrators to specify any number of customized mappings. In addition, the mappings are pre-loaded with several published DTDs. Enterprises using Ultraseek Server will be able to push ahead with XML development knowing they will be able to take advantage of the structure of those documents and provide search and navigation to their users. 'As XML becomes more pervasive in the enterprise and on the Web, there is a need for search engines to recognize and process XML documents effectively,' said Michael Floyd, editor and publisher of BeyondHTML.com and author of the book Building Websites with XML, to be released later this year. 'More importantly, I think the XML support in Ultraseek Server 3.1 is exciting because it solves a fundamental problem that has plagued the Web and growing intranets - locating, organizing and presenting information in a meaningful way. Ultraseek takes advantage of XML to solve this problem, and in the process improves on current search engine technology'." See also the related announcement, "Ultraseek Server 3.1 Content Classification Engine Features Next Generation Categorization Capabilities for Intranets and Portals." ['CCE is the second-generation content categorization add-on application to Ultraseek Server that lets web administrators automatically create, update and manage topics and categories of content. Together, Ultraseek Server 3.1 with CCE delivers the robust search and content management capabilities that are essential to creating powerful intranets and enterprise portals.']

• [August 16, 1999] "Financial Technologies International (FTI) To Extend Current Use of XML To Support FpML." - "Financial Technologies International (FTI), the world's leading provider of real-time business information platforms, announced today that it has been selected to join the technical committee of FpML (Financial Products Markup Language). The FpML standard, announced publicly on June 9, 1999 by J. P. Morgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be licensed freely to the technical and financial markets and enables Internet-based electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives, initially focusing on interest rate and foreign exchange products. Based on XML, the emerging Internet standard for data sharing between applications, the FpML protocol enables Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations, to portfolio specification for risk analysis. Standardization of information, a cornerstone of FTI's products, enables firms to gain substantial operating efficiencies."

• [August 16, 1999] "Datachannel to Accelerate Growth Within the XML-Based EIP Solutions Marketplace by Expanding Executive Management Team. Senior Executives Bring Experience of Building World Class Companies." - "DataChannel, further strengthening its commitment to be the leading developer of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions, today announced the addition of three distinguished senior industry executives to its ranks. 'As an XML pioneer and one of the first XML-based EIP solutions providers, DataChannel has been successful in attracting some of the industry's leading talent,' said Lucie J. Fjeldstad, president, DataChannel. 'The addition of Paul O'Mara, Stephen Sterba, and Jeff Feinstein positions DataChannel for accelerated growth as the company expands the breadth and depth of its offerings worldwide and transitions from a start-up to an accomplished growth entity'. Formed in 1996, DataChannel's original focus was on XML research and the creation of XML application development tools for use within its own server products, as well as those of other XML-compliant databases." See also the related announcement, "DataChannel Names Executive to Head New XML Business Network."

• [August 16, 1999] "Marshall Industries Utilizes webMethods to Deliver the First Interoperable RosettaNet-Based Solution. Marshall and Solectron Achieve Business Process Integration with The webMethods B2B Product Suite." - "webMethods, Inc., a leading provider of XML-based solutions for business-to-business (B2B) integration, and Marshall Industries, one of the largest distributors of industrial electronic components and production supplies in North America, today announced the completion of the first interoperable, RosettaNet-compliant B2B solution. As part of Marshall Industries' commitment to maximize the Internet for efficient and cost-effective supply chain management, the company selected webMethods B2B product suite to communicate bi-directionally with Solectron using the RosettaNet Implementation Framework. Through this landmark RosettaNet-based solution, webMethods B2B allows Marshall Industries to tightly integrate with the diverse ERP, EDI, Web-based and legacy systems that exist among suppliers, customers, internal organizations and other trading partners. webMethods B2B is a suite of cross-platform, XML-based products that work in concert to deliver business-to-business solutions, which enable real-time integration of a company's enterprise applications with those of its customers, partners, and suppliers. webMethods B2B is unique in its ability to integrate EDI, ERP, databases and legacy applications across corporate firewalls, with secure, guaranteed XML-based messaging. As the adoption of XML-based standards continues to accelerate, webMethods B2B ensures the development of open trading communities across multiple industries as it supports all existing business-to-business initiatives and XML standards including ACORD, OBI, Microsoft BizTalk, Commerce XML (cXML) and RosettaNet."

• [August 16, 1999] "Bentley Announces aecXML for Architecture, Engineering and Construction. Company Submits XML Schema for A/E/C Project Communication For Industry Review." - "Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced that it has developed the initial specification for aecXML -- an XML schema for project and business-to-business communication for architecture, engineering and construction (A/E/C). aecXML is a framework of XML-based schemas to facilitate communications between and among the various constituents involved in the A/E/C process, including: architects, engineers, contractors, owner/operators, estimators, consultants, materials suppliers, building product manufacturers, and others. aecXML uses the XML-standard revolution to remove the current barriers to exchanging A/E/C-specific information in electronic business-to-business conversations. The aecXML schema conforms to Microsoft's BizTalk Framework (www.biztalk.org) and is designed to incorporate and extend cXML, the Commerce XML standard developed by Ariba and others. aecXML adds to these e-commerce foundations the keywords and attributes necessary to describe the components and properties of the various aspects of a building's design, construction, and operation. For example, an aecXML formatted message could request a search for a particular type of sound-control insulation, and a different aecXML formatted message could be used to find a local contractor capable of installing it." See http://www.bentley.com/aecXML and [after August 20, 1999] www.aecXML.org.

• [August 16, 1999] "NetBuy Accelerates eCommerce In the Electronics Industry. cXML Enables Buyer-Friendly, Transaction-Ready Product Information." - "NetBuy, the world's largest source of electronic components, announced its support for the Commerce XML (cXML) standard, leading the way to rapid, seamless eCommerce exchange in the electronics industry. NetBuy pioneered the use of Internet protocols as a means of aggregating inventory from multiple suppliers. Now, NetBuy's adoption of the cXML standard will enable fast, flexible communications throughout the NetBuy universe -- a vast digital trading network connecting thousands of suppliers, buyers, and trading partners. The initial release of the cXML standard has been endorsed by more than 70 companies including Ariba, Microsoft, and Vignette. cXML is a simple, XML-based protocol for entities wishing to engage in business-to-business eCommerce transactions over the Internet. NetBuy views cXML as the emerging standard for eCommerce. cXML is a lightweight, standards-based protocol that every supplier, distributor, aggregator, trading network, and OEM can use. As NetBuy forms alliances with Internet trading partners, such as through the Ariba Network business-to-business eCommerce service, the company will utilize cXML and other open data exchange standards as a primary means of accelerating the adoption of eCommerce throughout the global electronics supply chain. NetBuy will contribute to the evolving nature of the standard, based on prior experience in making standard data exchange a way of life in the electronics industry. NetBuy's dynamic, digital trading network currently links 62 franchised electronics distributors representing more than 330,000 unique parts from more than 2,030 manufacturers with more than 12,600 registered buyers throughout the electronics industry. With a $2.3 billion inventory of over 330,000 electronic components, equipment, software and manufacturing-related items and services from over 2,030 manufacturers, NetBuy opens a new channel for its 62 distributor partners by lowering their cost of doing business in serving the $200 billion electronic component market."

• [August 10, 1999] "ingenta Selects eBusiness Technologies' DynaBase For Web Content Management and Dynamic Delivery. Partnership with eBusiness Technologies Enables ingenta to Build a New Generation of XML-based Portal and e-Community Services." - "eBusiness Technologies, a leading provider of solutions and services for e-business applications, and ingenta, the largest online distributor of international science, technical and medical journals, today announced that ingenta has chosen eBusiness Technologies' DynaBase as a strategic technology. This partnership is an integral component of ingenta's move toward establishing a new generation of vertical portal and e-community services. DynaBase will allow much more rapid and dynamic updating of the front end of ingenta's service, currently the seventh biggest Web site in the UK with over 300,000 regular users. DynaBase also will allow ingenta to diversify its electronic publishing activities into on-line magazines, textbooks and community-based applications such as e-journals. The move to DynaBase marks the latest phase in the transition of ingenta from a simple search-based Web service to a more comprehensive mix of high quality scientific, technical and professional journal content and value-added user services. DynaBase is the most comprehensive and integrated content management and dynamic delivery platform available for e-business. It combines sophisticated content development and management capabilities with a powerful dynamic serving environment. It is designed for use by distributed workgroups in corporate, commercial, governmental and institutional Internet publishing environments. With its object-oriented XML architecture, DynaBase offers the most flexible, cost-effective solution on the market. . ."

• [August 10, 1999] "Oracle Launches Strategic Business Unit Dedicated to Develop, Market And Support Linux Software. New Linux, XML and Java Products Provide a Single Integrated Platform For Internet Developers." - "Recognizing the growing popularity of XML for Internet development, Oracle is today making available on Linux its existing XML infrastructure technologies. These products include the Oracle XML Parser, which extracts and converts application code from four leading development languages (Java, C, C++ and PL/SQL) into XML format; Oracle's XML Class Generator; and Oracle's XML SQL Utilities and XSQL Servlet, which facilitate the reading and writing of XML information to and from Oracle databases. These components ease data exchange between business applications and enable quick and cost-effective deployment of XML technology on Linux. Oracle's XML components, as well as utilities and sample code, are immediately available through Oracle Technology Network. Oracle [thus] today expanded its commitment to Linux with the formation of a new strategic business unit focused on product development, marketing and support for Oracle's Linux initiatives. Oracle also today unveiled new XML products for Linux that for the first time unite XML, Java and Linux within a complete standards-based platform for building and deploying Internet applications. The new Linux products and business unit are expected to solidify Oracle's position as the preferred platform for Linux developers and customers."

• [August 10, 1999] "Softshare Delta Supports Edifecs' SpecBuilder Guidelines. Softshare Delta, Softshare's New Data Translator, Supports Importing of Edifecs' Proprietary XML Standard for Universal Exchange of Guidelines Between Trading Partners." - "Softshare and Edifecs Commerce have announced a collaboration between their two product lines, Softshare Delta and SpecBuilder. Softshare Delta supports Edifecs' proprietary XML-based standard called Guideline XML (gXML). With this support in place, SpecBuilder users can import their XML guidelines directly into the Softshare Delta mapper. Frank Gott, president of Softshare, believes the collaboration to be a natural one, saying: 'Edifecs and Softshare's product lines are very complementary and when combined, provide the electronic commerce implementer with all the tools required to successfully design, build and maintain an e-commerce initiative. Softshare is looking forward to future collaboration with Edifecs to leverage the respective strengths of our products and solve the challenges of a rapidly changing commerce landscape.' Softshare Delta is a data mapping and translation application that integrates EDI and XML documents with an enterprise's existing line of business applications. Softshare Delta translates many data formats including the ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT EDI standards, flat files, databases, XML documents and text documents. SpecBuilder is the world's leading specification development suite. SpecBuilder's powerful yet very simple and easy to use interface allows users to define, manage, print, publish, document and distribute Guidelines. With that goal in mind, Edifecs has defined an XML-based standard called Guideline XML (gXML). Details on gXML are available on www.CommerceDesk.Com." For other references, see "Guideline XML (gXML)."

• [August 09, 1999] "DataChannel Extends Its XML-Based Enterprise Information Portal Solution and Launches xPertPartner Program. New 'Portal Pack' and WEBView 2.0 extend DataChannel's Portal Server Functionality." - "DataChannel, Inc., the industry's leading developer of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions, today announced the extended functionality of its Portal Server and the launch of its xPertPartner Program. Companies endeavoring to build EIP solutions realize the importance and challenges of integrating disparate computing systems to create personalized access to their corporate information. DataChannel's XML-based EIP Solutions Framework is providing new answers to address these challenges by enhancing its Portal Server and developing powerful unified solutions through the xPertPartner program. DataChannel enhanced its XML-based EIP solution by adding two new modules to its Portal Server, DataChannel RIO: the Portal Pack and WEBView 2.0. These modules are Web-centric components of DataChannel's portal that further Web-enable a company's computing architecture; allowing end-user environment customization via a browser, and viewing and publishing of multiple file formats to the portal without the original application."

• [August 09, 1999] "Object Design and Extensibility Announce Partnership to Promote Deployment of XML eBusiness Applications. Object Design's eXcelon and Extensibility's XML Authority streamline XML eBusiness application integration process." - "Object Design, Inc. and Extensibility, Inc. today announced an agreement to co-market and co-promote Object Design's eXcelon eBusiness information server and Extensibility's XML Authority XML schema authoring and conversion tool. eXcelon and Extensibility are compatible products that make it easy for application developers to build and deploy innovative new eBusiness applications in areas such as supply-chain management, business-to-business commerce, enterprise application integration (EAI) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). An XML schema is a format for structuring typical business data, such as invoices, purchase orders, etc. eBusiness applications use XML schemas as a standard way to ensure data quality and to describe mutually agreeable formats for business-to-business and EAI data interchange. For example, XML schemas provide a simple way for the business systems of manufacturers and retail stores to 'talk' to each other, regardless of the business systems being used by each company. In order to reap the compelling benefits of XML in eBusiness applications, companies require complementary technologies like XML Authority and eXcelon for defining, managing, publishing and exchanging XML schema and application data."

• [August 09, 1999] "Baltimore Technologies Announces X/Secure. The First Commercial Product to Secure XML Systems for e-business." - "Baltimore Technologies, a global leader in e-commerce and enterprise security solutions, today announced X/Secure, the world's first commercial product for securing XML documents and systems. Baltimore X/Secure addresses the four fundamentals of security -- confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation and authentication of both data and users. Using the technology of Public Key Infrastructures (PKI), X/Secure builds the framework for trust and identity required for secure online business documents. X/Secure can be used to digitally sign, encrypt, verify and decrypt XML documents. X/Secure implements the IETF's proposed digital signature standard for XML documents and supports all standard asymmetric, symmetric and message digest algorithms including DSA, RSA, DES, 3-DES, RC4, SHA-1 and MD5. Along with these security operations, support is provided for manipulating certificates and private keys in industry standard formats including X.509, PKCS No. 1, PKCS No. 8 and PKCS No. 12. Full PKI support is provided, including certificate revocation and LDAP lookup of certificates. PKCS#10 certificate requests can be generated and submitted to a Certificate Authority such as Baltimore UniCERT."

• [August 09, 1999] "BrainStorm Group Announces XML and Next Generation Web Solutions Conference Series. XMLeadership Series to Debut in Chicago, September 22-24, 1999." - "BrainStorm Group today announced the launch of the XMLeadership Conference & Expo Series, the first forum specifically designed to explore the business impact and benefits of XML technology, standards and applications. Widely acknowledged as the standard for 'common data exchange' within the programmer/developer communities, XML's adoption will have a tremendous impact on key IT initiatives including: EDI, EAI, E-Commerce, Legacy Transformation and Application Development. The Chicago program will be led by Charles F. Goldfarb, conference chairman and principal, Information Management Consulting."

• [August 06, 1999] "RealNetworks Announces Commitment to the W3C SMIL Boston Working Draft. SMIL Boston Extends Capabilities of the Web's Standard Multimedia Format, Builds on Widespread Deployment of SMIL 1.0 and RealSystem G2." - RealNetworks today announced support for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s working draft to advance the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) standard, known as SMIL Boston. RealSystem G2's pioneering use of SMIL enables a new generation of Web-based multimedia that combines the impact of television programming with the interactivity of the Web. The SMIL Boston working draft proposes extensions to the W3C approved SMIL 1.0 standard, based on feedback from thousands of SMIL 1.0 developers and tens of millions of consumer users. Current members of the W3C Working Group developing SMIL Boston are key international industry players in Web multimedia, interactive television and audio/video streaming. In alphabetical order, they are: Canon, Compaq, CSELT, CWI, France Telecom, Gateway, GLOCOM, INRIA, Intel, Macromedia, Microsoft, NIST, Panasonic, Philips and RealNetworks. SMIL 1.0 enables the delivery of long format, Web-based multimedia to a broad range of audiences, from modems to T3 Internet connections. As an open XML-based language, SMIL enables a wide range of audio-visual presentation authoring environments, ranging from simple text editors to graphical editing tools such as RealNetworks RealSlideshow. The SMIL Boston Working Draft proposes several extensions to SMIL 1.0, such as integration with TV broadcasts, animation functionality, improved support for navigation of timed presentations, and the possibility to integrate SMIL markup in other XML-based languages." See the main news entry and the W3C announcement: "World Wide Web Consortium Issues First Working Draft of SMIL Boston. Next version of XML-based multimedia language features reusable modules, generic animation, improved interactivity and TV integration."

• [August 05, 1999] "IBM Releases CommonRules 1.0: Business Rules for the Web." - "CommonRules 1.0 is a Java library that brings e-commerce business rules up to Internet speed. CommonRules enables Web communication of executable business rules between enterprises using heterogeneous rule systems, and enables incremental specification of executable business rules by non-programmer business domain experts. CommonRules provides a common "interlingua" rule representation for exchange of rules between heterogeneous rule representations employed in various rule-based applications. CommonRules defines and supports a new XML rule interchange format for rules, called Business Rules Markup Language (BRML), that corresponds to this interlingua. Rules may be exchanged as XML, directly as Java objects, or in other string formats; the rule-based applications need not be in Java. The interlingua enables two or more applications/websites/agents, that use heterogeneous rule systems/languages, to exchange rules in a fully declarative fashion, while preserving deep semantics so that received rules can be fully assimilated, i.e., understood and executed with the same semantics intended by the sender. BRML complements and extends ANSI-draft Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF), and provides the first XML encoding for KIF. In version 1.0, only a broad sub-case of KIF is represented: clauses. Future versions of BRML plan to represent more of KIF. BRML goes beyond KIF to support logical non-monotonicity, including the negation-as-failure, the most practically important form of negation, and prioritized conflict handling. CommonRules includes a sample translator to/fro KIF's existing (non-XML) string format." For other references, see "What's New."

• [August 05, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services Adds Corel Digital Images To New XML Publishing Service. Quality Digital Content to Be Part of CommunityWare/XML Publisher." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. and GraphicCorp, a division of Corel Corporation announced today a partnership wherein Webb will license images from GraphicCorp's extensive digital image library and co-market GraphicCorp's new ClipartCity.com web subscription services. The image library, providing a large store of digital clipart, animations and photos, will be integrated into Webb's template-driven platform for distribution partners to create a large variety of web page templates. This will be used by small businesses to easily choose unlimited styles and designs for their websites. . . the platform creates a new way to dynamically create template-driven websites that combine a rich database of graphical content, design styles and user-supplied content employing the new XML/XSL standards . . .In addition to a rich template-based approach to produce unique HTML-based websites and advertising content, CommunityWare/XML Publisher creates an XML repository of the content, thereby creating a foundation for enhanced merchant and consumer services. For instance, content can be aggregated to create comparison-shopping, publish dynamic specialty shopping guides, and create special offer and promotion announcements."

• [August 05, 1999] "The e-content Company Extends BladeRunner With New Application Toolkits. E-View and E-Catalog Provide Enhanced Customization Benefits to Drive New Revenue Streams and Competitive Advantage." - The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications, today announced immediate availability of two new powerful XML-based application toolkits, e-View and e-Catalog. The new toolkits, which are the first in a series to be released over the next six months, extend the strength of BladeRunner to deliver dynamic, customized and intelligent e-content solutions for e-business initiatives."

• [August 04, 1999] "World Wide Web Consortium Issues First Working Draft of SMIL Boston. Next version of XML-based multimedia language features reusable modules, generic animation, improved interactivity and TV integration." - "Leading the Web to its full potential, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today releases the first public working draft of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL, pronounced 'smile'), known as SMIL Boston. SMIL Boston builds upon the W3C SMIL 1.0 Recommendation, and adds important extensions, including reusable modules, generic animation, improved interactivity, and TV integration, all written in the Extensible Markup Language (XML). By publishing this working draft at an early stage of the work on SMIL Boston, W3C is ensuring that the public can follow developments, and that the final result may be widely accepted and adopted. Following W3C practice, the Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM) Working Group provides a public mailing list for comments in addition to the feedback channels defined by the W3C Process." See further details in the main news entry.

• [August 04, 1999] "ObjectSpace Announces Release 3.1 of the Voyager ORB plus Services Product Line. New Features Include DCOM Support, Dynamic XML and HTTP Tunneling." - ObjectSpace Inc., a leading supplier of distributed computing solutions for the enterprise, announced the release of version 3.1 of the Voyager ORB plus Services family, which facilitates the creation of dynamic distributed object-oriented systems. Voyager's Dynamic XML radically simplifies the reading and writing of XML documents from the Java programming language. Dynamic XML allows developers to access XML elements using regular type safe Java interfaces instead of low-level XML parser calls. Dynamic XML is the world's first implementation of the concepts behind Sun's 'XML Binding/Archiving.' Code written using Dynamic XML is easier to understand, more compact, less error prone and quicker to produce. Voyager ORB Professional 3.1 also offers multiple, robust scalability features, including a persistent replicated directory, load balancing and connection management, enabling rapid construction of industrial-strength distributed applications."

• [August 03, 1999] "3Com Licenses Phone.com's UP.Browser for Use in the Palm Computing Platform." - 3Com Corporation and Phone.com announced today they have signed a licensing agreement that allows Palm to incorporate Phone.com's Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-compatible UP.Browser in the Palm Computing platform. Leveraging its leadership in the handheld organizer market, Palm will license the industry-leading Palm Computing platform with integrated WAP capability to wireless handset manufacturers to develop devices that deliver superior usability, connectivity, and immediate, reliable access to information for business customers and consumers. The WAP Forum's global wireless application protocol specification leverages existing Internet standards such as XML and IP for all wireless networks. WAP Forum members include terminal and infrastructure manufacturers; operators, carriers and service providers; software houses; content providers; and companies developing services and applications for mobile devices. Phone.com founded the WAP Forum with Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola and plays an active role on the WAP board of directors and in leading the technical evolution of the specification." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

• [August 03, 1999] "Infoteria Announces iPEX for Windows CE. The First Commercial XML Processing Engine for Windows CE Brings XML Technology to the Emerging Mobile Internet Clients." - "Infoteria Inc. ['The Information Cafeteria'] today announced the development of iPEX for Windows CE, the first commercial XML engine for Microsoft Windows CE platform. iPEX is a high performance XML processing engine for C++ applications, which has already adopted by over 10 companies in Japan. The first customer of iPEX for Windows CE is Increment P Corporation, a 100% subsidiary of Pioneer Corporation. They adopted iPEX for the data exchange in their best-selling internet-enabled portable mapping system, MapFan. 'We are excited to support Windows CE as one of our major platforms,' said Pina Hirano, President and CEO of Infoteria Inc. The portable devices are emerging to be the important Internet clients. The adoption in MapFan is a perfect showcase of how XML can effectively work for exchanging data on portable devices. Starting from Windows CE, we will aggressively support the demand of XML engines for Internet-enabled portable devices. Designed to be embedded in any application, iPEX enables Windows CE applications to support XML easily and quickly. iPEX is shipped as a set of libraries for C++. iPEX for Windows CE with English document will be available some time in October this year."

• [August 03, 1999] "POET Software Introduces FastObject Technology With Object Server Suite 6.0. Increased Performance and Functionality Provide Benefits for Developers, Database Administrators, and End-Users." - POET Software -- a leading provider of innovative data management software based on XML and object technology -- today announced its Object Server Suite (OSS) version 6.0. The premiere database management system (DBMS) for the cost-effective creation of packaged, high-performance complex data applications, OSS 6.0 gains even greater performance with POET FastObject Technology. As a result, OSS 6.0 becomes one of the fastest, most flexible DBMS on the market for Java and C++ applications. OSS 6.0 rivals all other relational, object relational, and page-based object database applications. . ."

• [August 02, 1999] "Aspect Joins RosettaNet - Will Drive Standards For Inbound Supply Chain Collaboration. Solutions Leader for Inbound Supply Chain Management to Work With RosettaNet Consortium to Develop and Adopt Standards For E-Business Process Interoperability." - "Aspect Development, Inc., the global leader in inbound supply chain management solutions, announced its support for the RosettaNet standards and that it has joined the consortium as an Architect Partner. Aspect will contribute its vast domain expertise and technical resources to work with the RosettaNet members in defining and implementing a common set of business interfaces and content standards. Aspect products are used today by the world's leading manufacturing, process and distribution companies to provide decision support and supply chain interoperability solutions that accelerate and reduce the cost of product development, significantly reduce product costs, and improve operational and manufacturing efficiencies. . . The RosettaNet standards include the following elements: utilization of HTML/XML, definition of standard dictionaries and associated DTDs, and adoption of a set of standard e-Business process dialogs known as Partner Interface Processes (PIPs). The RosettaNet PIPs will initially cover such areas as product management, order and inventory management, and service/support." See also: Aspect Development and Ariba to Deliver Joint Business-to-Business eCommerce Solution."

• [August 02, 1999] "Wireless Knowledge Supports WAP. Joins Other Industry Leaders to Support Internet-based Standard for Wireless Mobile Devices and Services." - "Wireless Knowledge LLC, a joint venture company between Microsoft Corporation and QUALCOMM , today announced its membership to the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, an industry association comprising more than 125 companies focused on the growth of the wireless market and unified interoperability among digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals. Maintaining its commitment to support existing and future standards, Wireless Knowledge today emphasizes its support for the wireless application protocol, an open and global specification for wireless and telephony services." See "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

• [August 02, 1999] "Financial and Technology Firms Commit to FpML as New Derivatives e-commerce Standard. Firms join technical committee to advance XML-based protocol. Educational seminars in August." - "Fifteen firms, including market participants, professional services providers, software vendors, and system integrators, have announced the formation of a technical committee for the FpML (Financial Products Markup Language) standard announced last month. These firms have committed to working on the technical committee and supporting the use of the FpML protocol within the derivatives industry. Today's announcement confirms FpML's emergence as the business-to-business e-commerce standard for derivatives. Based on XML, the emerging Internet standard for data-sharing between applications, the FpML protocol enables Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis. Members of the technical committee agree to help create a complete, XML-based standard upon which firms can communicate in the wholesale derivatives market. The following firms announced their participation in the technical committee: co-developers J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.; from the financial sector, Banque Nationale de Paris SA, Chase Manhattan Corp., Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank AG, Lehman Brothers Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Freddie Mac; and from the technology sector, International Business Machines Corp., Infinity - A SunGard Company, Integral, Sybase, Inc., and webMethods." References: see "Financial Products Markup Language (FPML)."

• [August 02, 1999] "DataChannel Acquires Electronic Data Foundry to Further Expand XML Expertise in Data Management for Its Enterprise Information Portal Solutions." - "DataChannel, Inc., announced today that it will broaden its expertise in data management and database driven environments for Enterprise Information Portals by acquiring Electronic Data Foundry, Inc. (EDF). EDF is a leading consulting services company in document and information management specializing in the implementation of the open industry standards including XML, SGML, HTML, DSSSL and HyTime. The addition of EDF strengthens DataChannel's professional services offerings by expanding the data management core competency which is critical for building effective Enterprise Information Portals. EDF was founded by Mr. Eric Freese, who has more than 10 years of experience in the area of open-standards based information and document management. Mr. Freese and his team bring a rich background of successful projects and experience including all phases of research, development, and implementation for the integration and management of database systems and microcomputer technologies in business, education and government environments. EDF is an ideal addition to DataChannel's Professional Services Division because of its strong expertise in the development of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) products and implementation of related technologies including eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), Hypermedia/Time-Based Structuring Language (HyTime), Topic Maps, HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and the World Wide Web (WWW)."

• [August 02, 1999] "Top XML Experts From NaviSys Participate in ACORD OLifE Seminar." - "NaviSys, a leading insurance software and services vendor, is working with ACORD to educate life insurance carriers about XMLife. Jym Barnes, executive vice president of NaviSys' Electronic Commerce and Internet Solutions division, and Rob Marone, vice president of Technology for NaviSys' Sales Illustration Solutions division, will be featured speakers at ACORD's seminar on OLifE, September 23 and 24, in New York City. The seminar will explore new initiatives in taking OLifE beyond the desktop. Barnes and Marone will lead sessions on XMLife, an XML-based implementation of OLifE. ACORD recently adopted XMLife as a new life insurance industry standard for data interchange. The standard simplifies agent-company communications over the Internet. NaviSys was instrumental in the adoption of ACORD XMLife and uses it as the underlying architecture for NaviSys Straight Through Platform (NaviSys STP). NaviSys STP is the industry's first platform to integrate sales illustration, policy administration, underwriting and the Internet." See: "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [August 02, 1999] "EnterpriseLink Announces SmartTran 2.1 for Advanced Internet and Mainframe Security. XML Support Dramatically Enhances Application Integration and Document Exchange." - "EnterpriseLink Technology Corporation, the leading provider of enterprise application integration (EAI) software, today announced an enhanced version of its SmartTran software. The addition of XML greatly improves SmartTran's integration capability. In addition to supporting browser clients, SmartTran is able to take applications, such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SFA (Sales Force Automation), as its clients and deliver XML documents to them. It can also integrate these applications through the interchange of XML documents. SmartTran's XML support enables customers to request and exchange XML documents with their business partners, as well as integrate applications via the interchange of XML documents. Examples include the ability to send a purchase order via the Internet, directly into a supplier's inventory system. In addition to downstream XML, SmartTran customers can also integrate any applications through the use of XML documents. For non-XML applications, SmartTran includes SmartAPI, a new application interface that enables applications to act as SmartTran clients to access information contained in XML documents."

• [August 02, 1999] "Patent Filed for DDGML - eWonders' Educated E-commerce Tool." - eWonders.com, Inc. releases Dynamic Data Gathering Markup Language (DDGML). DDGML captures and presents real-time E-commerce information, across the Web and without limitations. DDGML is adopted to acquire advantage by transforming E-commerce into educated E-commerce. DDGML is platform independent and leverages Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML is a Web development industry standard, fully supported and integrated in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. 3Com Corporation uses XML to transfer online shopping carts to resellers. IBM use XML to deliver online curriculums to students. DDGML is an interactive tool that benefits both the online shopper and the online merchant by furnishing educated E-commerce information to the requestor. Information to assist the buyer's purchasing decision and improve the online merchant's e-store strategies. Traditional comparison Web sites are deficient because site content is updated by way of a daily file transfer. This daily feed presents static or stale information."

• [August 02, 1999] "webMethods and Infinity Collaborate on Network Trade Model Implementation. webMethods B2B Provides Guaranteed Delivery of XML-Based Financial Transactions. Company Joins Infinity Solutions Network." - webMethods, Inc., the leading provider of XML-based solutions for business-to-business (B2B) integration, today announced that the company has partnered with Infinity, A SunGard Company and a leading provider of enterprise solutions for financial trading, risk management and operations, to implement solutions based on Infinity's Network Trade Model (NTM). The NTM is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) - based, common language standard message formats, through which systems can exchange information about trades, trade data and lifecycle events. Coupled with webMethods B2B, NTM can facilitate secure, guaranteed delivery of XML-based messages for a variety of financial service applications. As part of the agreement, webMethods has also joined Infinity's Solution Network. Earlier this year, Infinity contributed the Network Trade Model to Microsoft Windows DNA and to the FpML standard, which is led by J.P. Morgan & Co. and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. webMethods was the first technology vendor to announce support for the FpML initiative and will work closely with Infinity, JP Morgan and PriceWaterhouseCoopers on this emerging standard."

• [July 30, 1999] "OASIS XML Conformance Test Suite Now Available. International Consortium Provides Set of 1,000 Tests for XML Parsers." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced public availability of the OASIS XML Conformance Test Suite -- a set of more than 1,000 tests that determine the ability of XML parsers to handle test cases built on the W3C Recommendation. The OASIS XML Conformance Test Suite can be downloaded from the OASIS web site at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xmltest/testsuite.htm. This test Suite incorporates tests developed by the OASIS technical committee with those contributed by Sun Microsystems, Fuji Xerox Information Systems, and James Clark. Utilizing an approach defined by committee members G. Ken Holman (Crane Softwrights, Ltd), Mary Brady (NIST), and Dave Brownell (formerly of Sun Microsystems), NIST staff built the test suite as it currently exists. Each set of contributed tests were validated against a set of locally installed parsers and augmented with test descriptions and pointers to the specific production under test, ensuring that each test was well-grounded in the recommendation. This information was encapsulated in an XML test description file for each set of tests, and then generated into a report using the supplied XSL stylesheets." See also: "XML Conformance."

• [July 28, 1999] "META Group Tele-Press Conference. The Future of XML: Hype or Reality? META Group Predicts XML Market Will Vanish by 2004." - "While being positioned as a solution to everything from world hunger to rush-hour traffic, Extensible Markup Language, or XML, will emerge as an important enabling technology across a variety of areas including electronic commerce, application and data integration and complex publishing. However, META Group research indicates that the market for XML solutions will disappear over the next 3-5 years as the technology will quickly become embedded into existing platforms. Near term, META Group advises Global 2000 companies to proceed with caution before investing in expensive, stand-alone XML technology solutions. (1) Existing XML technologies will quickly be acquired and/or embedded within larger platform providers (packages, database systems, middleware, etc.). (2) Only a limited number of GS2000 companies will need to invest in independent XML technologies; most should postpone investment for the next 12-18 months. (3) Long term, XML will have a dramatic impact on a variety of existing applications." A presentation to be given by the META Group (Alexis dePlanque, Hollis Bischoff, Craig Roth, Anthony Bradley). Tuesday, August 3, 1999, Noon EST. Members of the press RSVP to Michelle Doss or Laura Ehrsam at Edelman Public Relations at 214/520-3555.

• [July 28, 1999] "Commerce One Announces Common Business Library -- CBL 2.0. Industry's First Comprehensive XML Document Library. Standard XML Approach Endorsed by Microsoft, CommerceNet, UN/CEFACT and OASIS." - "In a move to accelerate adoption of business-to-business electronic commerce, Commerce One, Inc. today announced the Commerce One Common Business Library (CBL) 2.0, the first open XML specification for the cross-industry exchange of business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, product descriptions, and shipping schedules. Commerce One CBL 2.0 is a set of XML building blocks and a document framework that allows the creation of robust, reusable XML documents for electronic commerce. Using the CBL 2.0 document framework, businesses everywhere can conduct electronic commerce by seamlessly exchanging business documents of different types, resulting in frictionless commerce across multiple trading communities. To enable companies to preserve their investment in existing standards such as traditional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), CBL 2.0 provides a transition path to XML-based commerce capability. Based on a broad range of Internet and commerce-related industry standards and specifications, CBL 2.0 is endorsed by industry leaders including Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, OASIS, the UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Working Group, and CommerceNet and its eCo Framework Project and Working Group. To encourage its industry-wide adoption and development, CBL 2.0 is free of charge and available immediately from e-commerce document repositories including XML.org, BizTalk.org, CommerceNet and Commerce One MarketSite.net."

• [July 28, 1999] "Extricity Software Brings RosettaNet 'Virtual Distribution' Processes to Life for Marshall Industries and Solectron. Extricity AllianceSeries Enables Business-to-Business Transactions Between Marshall and Solectron." - "Extricity Software Inc. continues its active role in the RosettaNet eConcert initiative by helping to demonstrate 'virtual distribution' capability between Marshall Industries, a $1.7 billion distributor of industrial electronic components and supplies, and Solectron Corp., the leading global contract manufacturer. RosettaNet is the leading industry standards body and consortium focused on delivering pre-defined business-to-business processes for the IT industry. In the demonstration, Solectron and Marshall Industries share product catalog information through eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based data exchange according to available RosettaNet standards. In the system that was created, Solectron's Extricity AllianceSeries-based solution interoperates over the Internet with an independently constructed system used by Marshall Industries. These highly synchronized business interactions have been shown to decrease purchased-materials lead times and improve the flow of incoming parts and materials."

• [July 28, 1999] "DataChannel's 'xDev Developer Days' Attracts Over 100 Leading XML Developers. Top XML Gurus Delivered Real World Applications View of XML Technology." - "DataChannel launched the first in a series of its 'xDev Developer Days' conferences with a capacity crowd. DataChannel welcomed over 100 developers from points across the country in San Jose on Friday, July 16th. The attendees rallied to hear the foremost XML authorities speak about applying XML to strategic enterprise-wide development initiatives. The conference featured keynotes and break-out sessions by leading XML experts devoted to bridging the gap between conceptual standards and real world application. The key message was how XML can enhance enterprise-wide data management and information usage. The forum was ideal for experienced developers wanting to gain practical knowledge to build successful XML processes and applications. The break-out sessions focused on: XML Syntax, the DOM, WebDAV, and XSL. The xDev Developer Program provides developers direct access to leading edge XML resources for addressing enterprise-wide data management and information usage requirements. To provide fellow developers with the best in tools, techniques and tips, DataChannel has created a web site highlighting the latest tools and expertise in the XML arena."

• [July 28, 1999] "Cognos Announces Availability of Cognos DataMerchant 3.0. DataMerchant Integrates With Cognos BI Tools For Complete Information Commerce Solution, Adds XML Tagging To Data Delivery Options." - "Cognos, the leading strategic vendor of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced Cognos DataMerchant 3.0, the only software solution for information commerce. Information vendors can realize the benefits of e-commerce by leveraging DataMerchant to create and manage a Web-based storefront where customers can securely query and purchase relational data online. For information consumers purchasing relational data, DataMerchant now provides the option of receiving data tagged with XML. This is particularly useful for the transparent integration of data across disparate data sources. DataMerchant allows organizations to sell valuable corporate information assets by attaching a dollar amount to them. Enhancements to DataMerchant broaden the range of information products that vendors can offer for sale and the formats in which purchasers take delivery."

• [July 28, 1999] "Great Plains to Support Microsoft BizTalk Framework." - "Great Plains announced today that it is collaborating with Microsoft on the new Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based BizTalk framework for integration and electronic commerce solutions. Great Plains plans to post the XML schema of the existing Great Plains COM objects and Commerce Interchange Pipeline components to the BizTalk Web site, http://www.biztalk.org, for distribution. Great Plains will also continue to work with Microsoft on the development of Great Plains' existing and upcoming initiatives focused on current and future releases of the Microsoft Commerce Platform. Great Plains leverages many Microsoft products and technologies, including the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition and Microsoft Exchange, in its business operations, knowledge management and electronic business solutions. In addition, Great Plains is a member of the BizTalk Steering Committee, and is committed to actively participating in efforts to drive industry standards with XML."

• [July 28, 1999] JP Morgenthal's XML & Java 'Boot Camp' Slated Leading E-business Consultant Collaborates with Bluestone and Object Design to Train Developers on XML and Java for E-business, E-commerce, and EAI." - "Leading e-business authority JP Morgenthal of TechSolve, Inc., an e-business consulting services company, announced today that he will host an XML and Java 'Boot Camp' training and education seminar. In collaboration with Bluestone Software, Inc., a performance leader in Enterprise Interaction Management, and Object Design, Inc., makers of the eXcelon XML e-business information server, this intensive two-day seminar will train developers to use XML and Java to build applications for e-business, e-commerce and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). The seminar will be held September 13-14, 1999 at the Metro Center Marriott in Washington, D.C. 'Boot camp' attendees will learn: (1) XML -- Java Reflection, JDBC, JMS, JNDI, and RMI -- Bluestone Visual-XML, an approachable toolkit for building dynamic XML applications (2) Object Design's eXcelon, a dynamically extensible XML e-business information server."

• [July 27, 1999] "VGI Releases Free BSML Basic Browser for Biotech Research." - "Visual Genomics, Inc. (VGI) announced today the release of BSML Basic Browser. This browser is the first in a family of products to bring visual management, analysis, presentation, and communication of the ever increasing amount of bioinformatics data to genomics researchers. Using Bioinformatics Sequence Markup Language (BSML), an open XML standard developed by VGI and sponsored by National Human Genome Research Institute, the BSML Basic Browser's graphical user interface is a gateway to the visualization, analysis, presentation and communication of genomic data. All information underlying the graphical presentation is contained within the BSML document, allowing the user to drill-down through the data to any level of resolution, from the chromosome to the base pair. Dynamic, interactive datamining is made easy by the intuitive 'point and click' visual display. An indispensable bioinformatics tool, the Basic Browser displays BSML documents and even imports gene sequences from local or remote repositories such as GenBank. The Browser is Internet enabled, dynamically loading document references as needed from throughout the world-wide genomics community, including built in access to NCBI's Entrez. Both the BSML Basic Browser and the BSML DTD (documentation) are free when downloaded from the company's WEB site." See: "Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language (BSML)."

• [July 27, 1999] "Bowstreet Leverages Sun-Netscape Alliance Directory Services for Internet Channel Management." - "Bow Street Software, Inc. today announced it will leverage Sun-Netscape Alliance directory service products with Bowstreet's new Web Services Architecture for Internet Channel Management to provide the foundation for a new generation of directory-based web service products that transforms business processes and enables dynamic e-Commerce. The Bowstreet Web Services Architecture fuses two cutting-edge technologies - the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)-based directory services- to develop the first eBusiness platform for creating, deploying and managing hundreds or thousands of highly customized Internet channel relationships over extranets - on the fly and with minimal programming. Customers will be able to use Bowstreet's new Web Services Architecture with the Netscape Directory Server from the Sun-Netscape Alliance to build personalized Web pages for their customers, suppliers and partners. In this context, Netscape Directory Server delivers high-performance, scaleable directory services that enable customers to personalize content based on user profiles. The first Bowstreet products for Internet Channel Management based on the Web Services Architecture will ship this summer. [Said Jack Serfass, Bowstreet's CEO:] 'We have the first solution that combines XML with directory services to automate the creation and management of hundreds or even thousands of customized extranets. This makes it possible to break the Internet channel bottleneck without breaking the bank'."

• [July 27, 1999] "POET Software Joins Microsoft Visual Studio Integrators Program. POET Object Server Suite to Be Seamlessly Integrated With Award-Winning Developer Environment." - "POET Software -- the leading provider of data management solutions for the Internet age based on XML and object technology -- will become a partner in Microsoft's Visual Studio Integrators Program (VSIP), the company announced today. The program has been established to provide developers with seamless access to a number of leading software products, including POET's Object Server Suite (OSS) -- the essential database for Java and C++ objects -- and through the award winning Visual Studio development environment. By becoming a member of the VSIP program, in addition to supporting the BizTalk specifications framework, developers should look to POET as a key company in the rapidly expanding market of eBusiness applications."

• [July 26, 1999] "DTI Announces Breakthrough Architecture For Voice Service Creation. Web-based Architecture Enables Carriers and Subscribers to Define and Customize Services in Real Time." - "Digital Telecommunications, Inc. (DTI), today announced the Extensible Service Policy (ESP) architecture, which utilizes Web technology to empower telecommunications carriers to deliver, for the first time, innovative real-time and dynamic voice services over current and next-generation networks. The ESP architecture enables carriers to quickly and easily offer new services, such as user-configurable call handling, that break through the boundaries and limitations of the current voice service architecture, while maintaining strict standards for security and privacy. Key to the ESP architecture is the application of Web technology to the tasks of defining, storing and modifying call policy information. Unlike traditional Voice over IP approaches, which focus on IP as a transmission medium, DTI's Voice Under IPTM technology brings both circuit- and packet- switched calls under the control of a powerful IP-based call management system. DTI's Call Policy Mark-up Language (CPML) creates a simplified, XML-based language, common to voice and data networks, so service providers, system integrators and subscribers can create and maintain services with the same ease that people publish and maintain Web pages. . . Through a combination of search engine technology and CPML for storing knowledge along with data to distribute call policy to Web pages, the ESP architecture reduces the time and complexity associated with building voice services. It is also an open architecture, which relies on APIs and standard protocols to communicate with network elements such as switches, and an open XML-based language (CPML) for service definition, enabling other Web-based data to be accessed and utilized. To harness the vast pool of Internet programmers to serve the voice market, DTI will publish style guides for CPML programming, identify and catalog XML resources that are useful in CPML development and offer tools to facilitate the development of CPML pages. These will be available to service providers, end users, systems integrators and developers who wish to build unique service features and offer them for sale. To make CPML features available in today's networks and in networks incorporating equipment of a variety of types, DTI will also provide Telecommunications Services Portal features to exercise voice switches and gateways using standard protocols such as SS7 and MGCP. Equipped with a Service Agent, these products can then interact with the Telecommunications Services Portal to receive feature signaling through their APIs, or through proprietary call control languages the vendors may have adopted." See also the white paper and other references.

• [July 26, 1999] "Rational and Microsoft Extend Strategic Alliance to Strengthen Solution for Building Next-Generation Enterprise Web Applications. Tighter Integration Between Rational's Team-Unifying Solutions and Microsoft Technologies Further Accelerates New Enterprise Web Applications." - "Rational Software Corporation and Microsoft Corp. today announced an alliance to help organizations build and deploy the next generation of enterprise Web applications more quickly and reliably using the Microsoft Visual Studio development system. Rational will extend its support for additional Microsoft Windows Distributed interNet Applications (Windows DNA) and COM+ technologies such as Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software, Microsoft SQL Server, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). Rational and Microsoft will also continue to use the market-leading Rational Rose. modeling technology as a basis for co-developing the Visual Modeler component of Visual Studio. Visual Modeler supports logical application design based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and allows the detailed visual description of components, component relationships, methods, properties and events. The companies are continuing to work closely together on modeling technology for Visual Studio."

• [July 26, 1999] "SoftQuad and Object Design Form Strategic Alliance for Next-Generation XML Web Publishing Applications. Companies to integrate and co-market SoftQuad's XMetaL XML authoring tool and Object Design's eXcelon XML eBusiness information server." - "SoftQuad Software Inc. and Object Design, Inc., today announced a strategic alliance to integrate and jointly market SoftQuad's XMetaL XML authoring environment and Object Design's eXcelon XML eBusiness information server. The integrated products provide customers with a complete solution for developing, managing and publishing XML content for a wide variety of eBusiness applications, including knowledge management, Web product catalogs, Web publishing, etc. The rapid growth in Web applications such as e-commerce, Web portals, knowledge management and customer-relationship management is fueling demand for XML content. XMetaL is an advanced, simple-to-deploy XML authoring tool with a familiar word processing-like interface that delivers unprecedented ease-of-use to authors while shielding them from the complexities of XML. XMetaL offers a powerful array of customization capabilities that optimize the authoring environment for specific applications and facilitate integration with existing publishing systems."

• [July 26, 1999] "NetResults ProShop to Connect With Ariba Network." - "NetResults today announced its plans to enhance its ProShop e-commerce software to connect suppliers who use ProShop to Ariba Network. NetResults also announced it has joined the Ariba Supplier Link (ASL) program, Ariba Inc.'s supplier partner initiative designed to make goods and services readily available to buying organizations via the Internet. NetResults also announced that it will collaborate with Ariba on the continued development of Commerce XML (cXML), an emerging Internet standard for exchanging supplier content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers. And, NetResults plans to support cXML in its ProShop software so suppliers who use ProShop can easily make their products available via the Ariba Network."

• [July 26, 1999] "Parametric Technology Corporation Announces Windchill Release 3.0 with New Enterprise Product Modeling -EPM- Solutions. Improves Product Innovation and Team Collaboration while Reducing Concept-to-Production Cycle Times." - "Building on its suite of product and process lifecycle management solutions, Parametric Technology Corporation today announced Windchill Release 3.0 with new Enterprise Product Modeling (EPM) solutions for connecting engineering workgroups to the extended enterprise. With Release 3.0, Windchill also offers enhanced Federation capabilities, such as federated proxy objects that reference data in external systems, federated directory services and the use of leading edge XML technology for data exchange achieved through even tighter integration with Info*Engine. This combination of application integration coupled with Windchill Foundation enhancements allows a company to leverage their existing infrastructure while breaking down traditional barriers that have existed between CAD, PDM, MRP/ERP and legacy applications. This advanced level of enterprise application integration ensures a complete, up-to-date product picture regardless of the source or location of product knowledge, which is essential to delivering a competitive, differentiated product."

• [July 26, 1999] "Open Text Announces Agreement to Acquire Microstar Software. Open Text Strengthens Market Position With Addition of XML Solutions Provider." - "Open Text Corporation today announced it has entered into an agreement with Microstar Software Ltd. of Ottawa, Ontario to acquire all the outstanding shares of Microstar for $2.10 per share payable in cash. Microstar, which had revenues of $6.2 million for its last fiscal year ended January 31, 1999, is a leader in the XML software field. Microstar is recognized for its innovative standards-based solutions based on SGML and XML. Microstar's technology expertise includes the development of XML and SGML tools such as Near & Far Designer and the Ælfred XML parser. [Says Tom Jenkins:] 'The purchase of Microstar Software will add to our XML based capability to help our e-business customers adopt our Livelink technology more rapidly in Extranets. In addition, Microstar has a great deal of experience in the government sector and this is also a great benefit for our government customers'."

• [July 26, 1999] "ExecuTrain Selects the E-content Company for XML-Based Courseware Initiative. Leading IT Training Company Embraces BladeRunner to Provide Customized Courseware." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications today announced that ExecuTrain Corp. has embraced BladeRunner(TM) as a new content management backbone for providing customized courseware authoring. BladeRunner enables companies to create, manage, and publish structured e-business information - targeted, timely, personalized, intelligent, medium-aware business content - for web-enabled applications using XML as its technology backbone and Microsoft Word for content creation. . . Founded in 1984, ExecuTrain Corp. has provided worldwide computer training to enhance corporate productivity for more than 15 years. The Atlanta-based organization offers instructor-led technology-based training on today's popular business application packages. ExecuTrain also provides technical and customized training for proprietary company-specific software. The privately-held company has 251 franchise and company-owned locations in 38 countries and has trained more than 6.4 million people worldwide. The e-content company develops and delivers BladeRunner, the division's flagship solution that provides the only end-to-end XML-based content management solution for e-business applications. The e-content company is a separate business segment of Interleaf, dedicated to the development of XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications."

• [July 22, 1999] "SoftQuad's XMetaL Wins Web'99 Award as Best Authoring Tool of the Year." - "XMetaL, the XML content creation software solution from SoftQuad Software Inc., a leading provider of content creation solutions, has won the Web'99 Web Tools Awards' Outstanding Product of the Year in the Authoring Tools category. The Web'99 Awards focused upon revolutionary, not just evolutionary, changes in products targeted for web designers and developers. Bob Kaehms, Editor in Chief of Web Techniques, and David Sims, Editorial Director of Songline Studios, made the presentations. 'We gave this award to a product that we consider to be the next-generation of web design: SoftQuad's XMetaL,' says Bob Kaehms. 'SoftQuad was working ahead of the curve to get web authors thinking about using XML in their page design. Using a familiar user interface, you can learn to create mock up pages in XML and SGML. There are multiple editing views, and you can convert database content to XML.' The rapid growth in web applications such as e-commerce, web portals, knowledge management, and customer relationship management, is fueling demand for XML content. XMetaL is an advanced, simple-to-deploy XML authoring tool with a familiar word processing-like interface that delivers unprecedented ease-of-use to authors while shielding them from the complexities of XML. Its ability to be tightly integrated with content management systems makes it the ideal solution for creating content for dynamic delivery to web sites. Peter Sharpe, Chief Scientist, SoftQuad Software Inc., received the award for XMetaL at the Web'99 Web Tools Gala Dinner, hosted by the editors of Web Techniques and Web Review in San Francisco on June 29, 1999."

• [July 22, 1999] "Companies and Individuals Contribute to XML.org Registry/Repository and XML Conformance at Upcoming OASIS Summer Workshop. OASIS Welcomes Individual Members with Special Offer." - "Companies, individuals and industry associations involved in XML are invited to participate in the sixth annual OASIS Summer Workshop. This year, Workshop highlights will include sessions dedicated to the Consortium's Registry and Repository and XML Conformance Technical Committees. In addition to OASIS committee working sessions, the OASIS Board of Directors will conduct its quarterly meeting, interface with the Board of Directors of CGM Open, an OASIS affiliate organization, and meet with the XML.org Steering Committee. The recently formed XML.org Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from XML.org sponsoring organizations including Commerce One, DataChannel, Documentum, GCA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, SoftQuad and Sun Microsystems, will hold its second strategy meeting during which they will finalize policy regarding allowed schema languages for schema submissions for XML.org. Registrations are now being accepted for the three-day meeting that will address future directions for the registry and repository capabilities of XML.org, the XML industry portal, and other OASIS technical projects. The members-only event, which will be held August 11-13, 1999 in Montréal, Canada, is expected to attract XML users and vendors from around the world."

• [July 22, 1999] CompTIA Announces Joint Conference with the Electronics Industry Data Exchange Association (EIDX). CompTIA's Electronic Commerce Standards Board (ECSB) Also Will Hold Its European Chapter Quarterly Meeting in Scotland." - "The Computing Technology Industry Association's (CompTIA) global Electronic Commerce Standards Board (ECSB), an e-commerce standards-setting body, announced it will hold its first joint conference with the Electronics Industry Data Exchange Association (EIDX) in Houston, Texas, August 9-13, 1999. Hosted by Compaq Computer Corporation, the conference will examine the latest developments surrounding electronic commerce technologies, EDI and XML standards and successfully accelerating the supply chain process. The ECSB also announced that it will hold its European chapter meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, July 27-28, 1999. Hosted by IBM, members will examine progress made by several recently formed global committees that are assessing RosettaNet and XML implementations. More than 150 major industry players are expected to participate in the Houston and Glasgow meetings, including APC, CHS Technologies, Compaq, Computacenter, Computer 2000, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Inacom, Ingram-Micro, Lotus, Merisel, Sun Microsystems and Tech Data, among others."

• [July 21, 1999] "Open Applications Group and Microsoft Announce First Pilot Project to Migrate Industry Standard to BizTalk Framework Specifications. Leading Consortium to Publish BizTalk Framework-Compatible Schemas To BizTalk.Org." - "The Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGI), a nonprofit industry consortium composed of business software component interoperability stakeholders, and Microsoft Corp. today announced a pilot project to review migration of the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) XML Definitions to the BizTalk Framework specifications. The XML working group within the OAGI, which includes Candle Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., HK Systems Inc., IBM Manufacturing Systems, Microsoft, NEC Corp., PeopleSoft Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers, plans to update the current OAGI XML documents, which were developed under the W3C XML 1.0 specification, by prototyping them under XML-schema and BizTalk Framework specifications. The goal is to produce a compatible set of XML-schema documents and publish them in the BizTalk.Org library. . ." See the more complete news entry in [July 21] "What's New." For additional references, see "Open Applications Group." And: Microsoft announcement.

• [July 21, 1999] "Wrox Press Announces The Staging Of Its First ASP Professional Web Developers Conference." - Wrox Press, one of the leading information providers for the Web Programming Community, today announced the staging of its first conference aimed at the ASP / XML Professional Web Developer World. Wrox Washington '99 embodies the Wrox Programmer to Programmer TM philosophy. It brings together a combination of recognized industry professionals, Web solution providers, Microsoft product developers, and Wrox authors and technical reviewers to present up to the minute briefings on XML and ASP with related technologies (ADO, RDS, MTS, MSMQ, ADSI, Site Sever)." See Wrox Programmer to Programmer Conferences.

• [July 21, 1999] "Bluestone Reaffirms ITS Channel Commitment to Maintain leadership in Application Server Market. Channel Partner Program Puts Bluestone's Enterprise-class Application Server Frameworks in the Hands of Value Added Resellers and Systems Integrators." - "To seal its channel commitment, Bluestone has launched its Channel Partner Program, which combines aggressive marketing, sales, and support services with Bluestone's industry-leading Application Server frameworks. Specifically, the program includes Sapphire/Web, the platform-independent Java Application Server framework that sets the new standard for enterprise-class Internet Commerce; and Bluestone XML Suite, Bluestone's revolutionary dynamic XML Application Server and toolkit that provides a fundamental platform for building, distributing, and deploying XML applications. The program targets value added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators working with Java, Web, and XML technologies to build enterprise-class Internet Commerce, legacy application integration, and extended SAP and PeopleSoft solutions."

• [July 21, 1999] "BEA Acquires Java Education and Consulting Specialist TRGI to Strengthen BEA's Leadership in End-To-End Java Education." - "BEA Systems, Inc., a world leader in mission-critical Web and transaction middleware solutions, today announced that it has acquired Technology Resource Group, Inc. (TRGI), a leading Java information technology education, mentoring, and consulting organization. Based in Maynard, Mass., and with European headquarters in London, TRGI's staff of 15 full-time employees delivers to Fortune 500 companies a curriculum of 45 different courses on the analysis, design, and development of component-based distributed systems, and the use of Java, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), extensible markup language (XML), and unified modeling language (UML). These are technologies that are helping to transform companies worldwide into Web-enabled, e-commerce-based businesses."

• [July 21, 1999] "Seybold San Francisco/21st Century Publishing to Address Key Technologies That Are Changing the Face of Print and Web Publishing. Conference Includes Tutorials and Seminars Specifically Designed for the Major Publishing Venues of the 21st Century: Print and Pre-Press, Web Publishing And Cross Media." - "Seybold Seminars, produced by Ziff-Davis, announced today Seybold San Francisco 99, a week-long publishing summit of intensive workshops, product evaluations and industry interaction. The publishing industry's premier event will enlighten all Web and print publishing practitioners and professionals on how to leverage new technologies for improved business performance. The five-day conference will be held at the Moscone Center from August 30 - September 3, 1999. Also featured at Seybold San Francisco 99 will be a Workflow Pavilion, in-depth tutorials on digital imaging, color production, on-demand printing and the latest in XML technology. The exposition floor plays hosts to over 300 exhibitors displaying and demonstrating cutting edge technology and products for the publishing industry."

• [July 20, 1999] "webMethods, PSDI AND MRO.com Partner to Deliver XML-Based Solutions For Business-To-Business E-Commerce. PSDI to Incorporate webMethods' XML Technology into MRO.com and MAXIMO. Companies Collaborate on Future XML-based Solutions." - webMethods, Inc., the leading provider of XML-based solutions for business-to-business e-Commerce and integration, and MRO.com, Inc., a leading provider of MRO e-Commerce systems and wholly-owned subsidiary of PSDI, today announced the companies have entered a strategic partnership to deliver a series of XML-based e-Commerce solutions to PSDI customers. Under the agreement, PSDI will incorporate webMethods' XML technology into MRO.com, PSDI's business-to-business e-Commerce network that connects buyers and suppliers over the Internet. 'We've selected webMethods B2B(TM) to serve as PSDI's standard integration environment for MRO.com and future developments related to our e-Commerce and EAM product solutions,' said Jack Young, executive vice president, research and development, PSDI. 'webMethods' sophisticated XML technology provides us with a flexible architecture to bind business services over the Internet and guarantee the delivery and security of all XML messages between MRO buyers and suppliers.' Fully complementing MRO.com's cross platform, Java-based, distributed-component architecture, webMethods B2B supports all existing XML initiatives and standards including OAG, RosettaNet, Commerce XML (cXML), Microsoft BizTalk, Information & Content Exchange (ICE) and Open Buying on the Internet (OBI)."

• [July 20, 1999] "Elite Endorses New Standard for Electronic Billing and E-Commerce for Law Firms and Their Clients." - "Elite Information Systems Inc., a worldwide leader in practice and financial management systems for professional-service firms, announced its endorsement for the widespread use of the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) and has signed on as a member of the oversight committee for the new standard. LEDES is a standard file format to be used by the legal industry for the electronic exchange of information. PricewaterhouseCoopers developed LEDES and introduced it in January 1999, acting in response to the legal industry's lack of common standards for electronic data exchange. In May 1999, the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) was formed by 17 prominent legal-industry organizations, including Elite, to assume responsibility for the promotion and further development of LEDES. LOC plans to add an XML version of LEDES to make the format truly universal and Internet-compatible."

• [July 20, 1999] "EEI Announces e-FTX Version 2.0, Leading Suite of Products for Delivering Online Services. Convergence in the Financial Industry Creates Need to Deliver Complete Financial Services - Banking, Brokerage, Defined Contributions, Bill Presentment and Payment, and XML - Based Business to Business Transactions." - "To meet the burgeoning demands of convergence in the financial industry, Enterprise Engineering Inc. (EEI) is announcing the e-FTX Suite (Enterprise Financial Transaction Exchange), Version 2.0. While many companies today offer separate OFX (Open Financial Exchange) or FIX (Financial Information Exchange) servers for limited types of financial transactions, e-FTX is the only standards independent platform, enabling the delivery of a host of financial services. [Enterprise Transaction Financial Exchange (e-FTX) Platform, Protocol Service, Bill Payment Warehouse, SIML (System Integration Modeling Language).] e-FTX version 2.0 allows for the delivery of Web based banking, brokerage, defined contributions (401K), bill presentment and payment, insurance, mortgages, and tax reporting as well as XML based business to business transactions."

• [July 20, 1999] "SAP Introduces System mySAP.com. SAP Fully Embraces Internet in Total e-business Solution Evaluation, Implementation, Provision, Operation and Improvement Stages." - SAP AG today announced System mySAP.com, a comprehensive, open e-business solutions environment comprising portals, industry-specific enterprise applications, Internet applications and services, as well as XML-based technology that enable companies to participate in the Internet economy. System mySAP.com encompasses business collaboration scenarios spanning from back-end to front-end to virtual marketplaces and vice versa. These scenarios cover electronic commerce, customer relationship management, strategic enterprise management, business intelligence, supply chain management, human resources, logistics, manufacturing, financials, knowledge management, and industry-specific templates, virtual training classes and professional services provided by SAP and its partners."

• [July 20, 1999] "OASIS Advises White House on E-Commerce. International XML Consortium Contributes to Internet Standardization Forum." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, has agreed to participate in a focus group on Internet Standardization and E-Commerce organized by the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The focus group, which will be held at the White House Conference Center in Washington, DC on Tuesday, July 20, will examine how changing technological, market, and legal environments are affecting the development of standards for the Internet, electronic commerce and knowledge management. 'This focus group will assess the health and requirements of standards activities, projecting the key features of the global standards landscape over the next five to seven years. We will gauge the effects of the rapid growth of electronic commerce and Internet services on standards development and identify the implications for national and international policy, including competition, antitrust and intellectual property law,' said Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. 'Through this dialog, the OSTP seeks to understand the significant political and institutional trends for industry alliances, consortia, and standards organizations and whether and how the government should engage in these standards activities'."

• [July 20, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services selects BEA WebLogic Server to launch XML commerce platform. Webb platform forges XML/Java with BEA WebLogic technologies to deliver e-commerce components." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. announced today that, as part of the company's aggressive effort to evolve its XML-based community publishing and commerce platform, it has incorporated the WebLogic Server from BEA Systems, Inc. as its application server platform for delivering XML-based components. Webb's cutting-edge XML-based publishing technology creates a new platform for publishing and aggregating local content and commerce information that is capable of supporting tens of thousands of small businesses. Using XML and Java as the underlying technology will better allow Webb to leverage the content in a way that enables consumers to shop more easily and enables merchants to publish and promote their products far more effectively."

• [July 20, 1999] "Glyphica's Latest PortalWare Release Based on New Technologies, Internet Standards." - "Glyphica, at the forefront of Web-based sales effectiveness solutions, today announced version 3.0 of its popular InfoPortal product line with new technology enhancements based on emerging Internet standards. The new releases -- InfoPortal 3.0/Sales Edition and InfoPortal 3.0/Marketing Edition -- include new personalization features, ODBC connectivity to hook into data systems, enhanced collaboration capabilities, and support for XML and WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning). The new products are designed to help organizations with complex selling requirements and products to accelerate sales cycles, gain more account and competitive intelligence, and ultimately, make it easier for their customers to buy. Glyphica's WebDAV Server in conjunction with WebDAV clients (such Internet Explorer 5.0 and Office 2000) make it possible for users to drag-and-drop documents from their desktop to InfoPortal 3.0. In addition, the InfoPortal 3.0 applications use XML for data interchange between applications, storage of persistent data from external or legacy databases, and the presentation of certain dynamic information such as threaded discussions. The latest version of PortalWare also supports additional Web standards such as WIDL (Web Interface Definition Language) for passing data between applications and DASL (DAV Searching and Locating) for advanced searching of web-based content collections." See also "Glyphica Launches InfoPortal* 3.0 Products with Sales Edition and Marketing Edition."

• [July 20, 1999] "On the 30th Anniversary of the First Moon Landing, SpeechWorks Defines a New Site - SpeechSite. New Product Offers Easiest Access to Employees, Typical Web Site Data and E-Commerce Using Speech Recognition Over the Phone." - "The SpeechSite product is based on the award-winning SpeechWorks' 5.0 product line that includes its highly accurate SMART recognition engine; industry-leading building blocks, known as DialogModules; and powerful tools. SpeechWorks' core technology and auto attendants are already handling millions of calls and transactions at companies such as United Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, FedEx, E*TRADE and Guardian Life Insurance Company. In the SpeechSite architecture, a speech server -- a telephony platform with SpeechWorks' speech recognition capabilities -- will typically run alongside a web server, both of which sit in front of corporate databases. SpeechSite can obtain data directly from the corporate databases, or can be served via XML from the web server."

• [July 19, 1999] "The Open Applications Group Forms Customer Interoperability Council to Foster Adoption of XML Based Application Integration Technology." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), a non-profit industry consortium comprised of many of the most prominent stakeholders in the business software component interoperability arena in the world, today announced the formation of a Customer Interoperability Council, made up of leading end users, that will work with the OAGI's existing software vendor membership to promote adoption of standards based application integration technology. The OAGI Interoperability Council will focus on development of industry specific Business Object Documents that define inter-application message formats and the deployment of enterprise integration frameworks based on the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS), the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and transactions sent over middleware conforming to the newly released Open Applications Middleware API Specification (OAMAS). This approach will simplify integration of Financial, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Supply Chain application components both within the enterprise and among trading partners." See "Open Applications Group (OAG)."

• [July 19, 1999] "Meta Data Coalition accepts the Open Information Model as a standard, work underway on extensions." - "The Meta Data Coalition (MDC) announced today the acceptance of the MDC Open Information Model (OIM) as a standard. The MDC OIM is a technology-independent and vendor-neutral metadata standard that is based on technology developed by Microsoft Corp. together with over 20 leading industry partners. Microsoft transferred the right to maintain and evolve the OIM, a product that ships in SQL Server 7.0 and Visual Studio 6.0, to the MDC at the end of 1998. The technical work by the MDC has concluded with a vote by the membership on July 15th to adopt this as a standard. 'The Meta Data Coalition's goal is to evolve standards for metadata exchange quickly,' stated Dr. Katherine Hammer, co-chair of the MDC and president and CEO of ETI. 'Because of the investment made by the MDC's technical subcommittee in defining the two previous versions of the Meta Data Interchange Specification, the MDC was able to use Microsoft's OIM to create a robust standard very quickly. This would not have been possible starting from scratch and would have less value to vendors and end users.' Already, four repository companies can provide implementations for the MDC OIM: CA/Platinum, Microsoft, Softlab, and Viasoft." See ""XML as an Underlying Standard of the OIM."

• [July 19, 1999] "Microsoft Continues Innovations in Knowledge Management, Enabling Rich Information Sharing Between Business Systems Meta Data Coalition Formally Adopts Open Information Model as Standard And Reviews New Metadata Extensions From Microsoft." - "Microsoft Corp. today announced it will hold an open design review for gathering industry feedback on new metadata extensions that will enable a business to integrate its line-of-business, data warehousing, and knowledge management environments. Also today, the Meta Data Coalition (MDC) formally announced that the Open Information Model (OIM) has been accepted as the metadata standard. The OIM extensions are the result of extensive collaboration with industry partners and represent the first milestone in the effort initiated with the Meta Data Coalition in December 1998. The open design review period for the new model extensions begins today with the availability of preliminary specifications for three models. . . " See above.

• [July 19, 1999] "Data Mining Consortium Develops Predictive Modeling Open Standard To Enable Model Sharing Between Different Vendors' Applications." - "The Data Mining Group (DMG), a consortium of technology organizations, today announces the first version of an XML-based open standard for defining predictive models. Marking an industry first, the Predictive Modeling Markup Language (PMML) provides a quick and easy way for companies to define predictive models and share models between compliant vendors' applications. The founding consortium companies include: Magnify, Chicago; SPSS Inc., Chicago; Angoss Software Corp., Toronto; NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio; and the National Center for Data Mining (NCDM) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). DMG founders invite other vendors and interested parties to participate in the proposed W3C standards initiative. First developed by NCDM and then revised and enhanced by the DMG, PMML is an XML-based language providing applications a vendor-independent method of defining models so that proprietary issues and incompatibilities are no longer a barrier to the exchange of models between applications. Predictive models express the patterns of information discovered in data mining, which companies then may use to develop specific strategies from which they can realize increased profitability." See: "Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML)."

• [July 19, 1999] "Object Design, Inc., Announces Conversion Program for Companies Making the Switch to ObjectStore. Program designed to benefit customers who migrate from competitors' object-oriented databases to ObjectStore. Includes substantial trade-in credit." - "Object Design, Inc. today announced a new conversion program that will make it easy and cost-effective for companies using competitive object databases to change over to Object Design's industry-leading ObjectStore database. The key element of the program is an attractive trade-in credit for companies that choose to exchange their existing object databases in favor of ObjectStore. Any company doing this will receive credit for 50 percent of the sunk license costs from its investment in a previous object database management system, provided that the credit does not exceed the amount spent on ObjectStore. Object Design's eXcelon division develops and markets the eXcelon eBusiness information server, a product that enables companies to gain competitive advantage by leveraging the extensibility and flexibility of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) in eBusiness applications. The company backs its products with comprehensive training, services and support."

• [July 19, 1999] "Clueless about Extensible Markup Language? XML Doyenne Eve Maler Offers Expert Advice and No-Nonsense Answers in 'Eve's Advisory'. Online Resource Site Provides XML Information in Plain English to Satisfy Even the Most Curious and Confused in the High-Tech Community on This Next- Generation Computing Language." - "Eve [Maler]'s Advisory column is the best source for answers and resources available today about XML -- courtesy of Arbortext, Inc., a leading provider of XML-based e-Content software. Located at www.arbortext.com, the site provides free insights on XML, as well as a wealth of XML-related resources and links. Hosted by XML expert Eve Maler, manager of solutions marketing at Arbortext, Eve's Advisory provides a forum for questions and is designed to give clear, concise answers. The debut issue of Eve's Advisory, entitled, 'Validation: It's a Good Thing,'answers a reader's question about whether XML will free him from the tyranny of rigid structure in document authoring. Readers can send their own questions to askeve@arbortext.com. The site also provides links to resources, such as standards information, XML authoring tips, and calendars and agendas for upcoming educational events, end-user forums, and online product tutorials. . ."

• [July 19, 1999] "Intershop Announces Intershop 4 Product Line. Enables CSPs to Quickly and Easily Mass-Deploy E-Commerce Hosting Services To Small and Mid-Sized Businesses." - "Intershop Communications Inc., the leading provider of sell-side e-commerce hosting solutions with more than 20,000 deployments worldwide, today announced Intershop 4, the latest version of its market-leading e-commerce software for commerce service providers (CSPs). Intershop 4 [is] 'XML-Enabled, Open Architecture Provides Better Integration'. Intershop 4 Hosting & Merchant are compatible with the new XML-enabled, Java-based Intershop Developer Kit (IDK). The IDK includes a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable developers to extend the functionality of Intershop 4."

• [July 19, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services (Formerly Online System Services) Launches XML-Based Publishing Platform for Local Advertising and Commerce. CommunityWare/XML Publisher Pioneers a New Platform for Enhanced Local E-Commerce and Buyer-Seller Communications." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. unveiled its new platform for creating online advertising pages and business websites. The new application -- CommunityWare/XML Publisher -- is completely developed in the XML environment, creating the industry's first integrated solution to harness the content and commerce opportunities in online advertiser-based directory services. In addition to a rich template-based approach to automatically produce HTML-based websites and advertising content; CommunityWare/XML Publisher creates an XML repository of the content, thereby driving a foundation for enhanced merchant and consumer services. For instance, content can be aggregated to create comparison-shopping, publish dynamic specialty shopping guides, and createspecial offer and promotion announcements. These CommunityWare/XML services will be implemented in the upcoming months. The Kelsey Group expects this type of XML-based publishing system to be key to weaving new kinds of electronic commerce around dynamic, multimedia delivery of up-to-date, targeted content. . ."

• [July 19, 1999] "IEEE Selects LivePage Enterprise To Power Growing Technical Publishing Platform. Direct Web Publishing Will Allow Subscribers Fast Access to IEEE's Technical Information." LivePage Corporation today announced that the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional society and a leading technical publisher, has chosen LivePage Enterprise to power its new IEEE electronic publishing web site. Over 335,000 individual members - researchers, engineers, scholars and students - in 150 countries as well as users at academic institutions, corporations, and government agencies worldwide will have the ability to access IEEE publications through this new site. The flagship product, LivePage Enterprise 2.0, lets customers get, organize and manage content (including XML), and deliver that content effectively for communities of end-users . . ." See the earlier XML announcement from LivePage: "LivePage Enterprise 2.0 Announced XML Support Highlights New Release of Content Base Management System."

• [July 16, 1999] "Revolution in Currency Trading." - "TheFXMarketT. is a revolutionary Internet based on-line foreign exchange transaction system providing Traders and Dealers optimal market efficiency. This new system is a proprietary electronic transaction and price discovery process that acts as a transparent automatic Market Maker. For each currency pair traded, a dynamically updating FX Order BookT. is displayed on the computer monitor, allowing Traders to see both their orders and other outstanding orders. TheFXMarket system internally matches marketable orders and tracks and displays non-marketable limit/contingency orders in currency FX Order Books. It instantly executes pending orders as called in the price discovery process. All transactions are matched within the FX Order Book without human discretion. . . The on-line trading platform is browser based, using Microsoft Internet Explorer IE5, which allows for immediate installation, responsiveness, flexibility and consistently managed state-of-the-art technology. The trading platform/browser dynamically updates market data, the trading blotter and portfolio information in real-time using XML (Extensible Markup Language). The use of XML by Forex Digital Services, Inc. offers the prospect of creating a globally accepted and cross-platform way of managing and communicating foreign exchange transaction information. With the development of TheFXMarket, XML has the momentum to become the Forex international standard, creating a unifying universal communications layer." A new World Wide Web vertical portal will support the system.

• [July 15, 1999] "The e-content company Certifies Industry Leading Content Management Systems Integrators as Consulting Partners. SAIC and Microstar First to Align with the E-content Company to Deliver Content Management Solutions with BladeRunner." - "The e-content company, a division of Interleaf, Inc. and leader in delivering powerful XML-based e-content solutions for e-business initiatives, today announced Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Microstar Software Ltd. as the first certified Consulting Partners for BladeRunner, the Company's flagship content management solution. As a certified Consulting Partner, each organization can now design and implement solutions with BladeRunner, giving more customers access to XML-based content management technologies to address their e-business initiatives. The e-content company is a separate business segment of Interleaf committed to the development of XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications. Since the group was assembled in 1998 with dedicated development, consulting, marketing and sales resources, the e-content company has emerged as a leader in XML-based content management solutions. The e-content company develops and delivers BladeRunner, the division's flagship solution that provides the only end-to-end XML-based content management solution for e-business applications." See the earlier announcement, "Interleaf Establishes 'The E-Content Company'."

• [July 14, 1999] "Clarus Supports BizTalk Framework to Accelerate Adoption of Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce Standards. Clarus cooperates with industry-leading partners and customers, Encourages Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards for electronic commerce and application integration." - "Clarus Corporation, a leading provider of Web-based commerce applications, today announced its membership in the BizTalk Framework steering committee. This group of industry-leading vendors, standards bodies and customers oversees the BizTalk.Org Web site and guides development of the BizTalk Framework to accelerate adoption of XML for business-to-business electronic commerce and application integration. As a member of the steering committee, Clarus will participate and contribute to the recently announced BizTalk.Org Web site (www.biztalk.org), where BizTalk Framework Tags and BizTalk Framework Documents are published. Clarus will also provide insight into the future development of the BizTalk Framework, which is hastening the implementation of XML schemas and industry standards that enable businesses to integrate their systems regardless of the platform, operating system or underlying technology. The enterprise integration framework for Clarus Commerce, Clarus Fusion, enables integration between heterogeneous back-office systems and publishes Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents adhering to Open Application Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) and BizTalk Framework specifications. The Clarus solution also takes advantage of Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition and provides secure purchase and order payment communications to suppliers via the Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP)."

• [July 14, 1999] "Enigma Announces Integration of Micrografx's ActiveCGM Viewer into INSIGHT Intelligent Content Publishing System. InterCAP Graphics Systems, Micrografx's Newest Subsidiary, Lands New Partnership." - "Enigma, Inc., the leader in intelligent content publishing for the Web and offline media, has signed an OEM agreement with InterCAP Graphics Systems, Inc., a Micrografx, Inc. subsidiary, to embed InterCAP's ActiveCGM Viewer into Enigma's INSIGHT. This agreement will enable the seamless integration of InterCAP's advanced graphics capabilities with INSIGHT's e- publishing system. InterCAP's ActiveCGM Viewer is based on the international standard for computer graphics metafiles (ISO/IEC 8632:1992). By integrating InterCAP's ActiveCGM functionality into INSIGHT, end users will be able to more effectively navigate through publications via graphics. In addition to the standard INSIGHT navigation tools, users can now find information via graphics and the call-outs within graphics. For example, users can now locate information through a fully hyperlinked visual table of contents. Enigma's INSIGHT intelligent content publishing suite creates unified and highly functional Web and CD-ROM publications from PDF, FrameMaker, word processing, SGML/XML, and graphic/image data. INSIGHT fully automates the collaborative content assembly and e-publishing process, and provides a wide set of tools to the end user who must interact with complex, inter-related content such as maintenance information, parts lists, drawings, and other product support information." On CGM, see Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM). ISO 8632:1992.

• [July 14, 1999] Timberline Software Corporation to Pursue Construction Project Management Market." - "Timberline Software Corporation today announced plans to offer software for the construction project management market. The company currently develops estimating and accounting software for the construction and property management industries. A project manager's job often encompasses accounting and estimating functions as well as strict project management. Yet today's project managers find it difficult to integrate the accounting, estimating and project management software their companies use, thus creating inefficiencies...Timberline fully embraces the BizTalk framework of Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and industry standards. This new standard for sharing information will enable Timberline's clients to integrate their systems and processes to easily interchange BizTalk documents with online trading partners regardless of the platform, operating system or underlying application technology."

• [July 14, 1999] "ACORD Releases XML for Life Insurance." - At the June meeting of the ACORD Standards Subcommittee, the ACORD OLifE Subcommittee approved the final version of an XML DTD for life insurance data, dubbed ACORD XMLife. In November 1998, NaviSys took the lead by creating a proposed Document Type Definition (DTD) based on the OLifE model and submitted that to the ACORD OLifE group for consideration, along with a white paper detailing issues uncovered during the conversion process. 'The prospect of XMLife becoming an ACORD standard for the life insurance industry means that enterprise-level integration projects between third party and carrier- or agency-developed systems will be relatively straightforward and simple to implement. This will be a marked improvement over the situation today,' said Rob Marone, vice president, technology, NaviSys. . . One of the strengths of XML is that it supports a hierarchical structure directly, without any 'tweaking' required. The process of creating XML off the proven object hierarchy established in OLifE was very straightforward." See "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [July 14, 1999] "ACORD Transaction Working Group Brings Experience, Expertise to XML Standards Process." - "Representatives from major insurers and vendors gathered in Ft. Lauderdale during ACORD's Standards Week to continue defining the ACORD Insurance XML Standard. The Transaction Working Group is tackling the necessary infrastructure and protocol needed to effectively transport XML transactions. Participating in the working group are Microsoft, Travelers, PMSC, SAFECO, NCFocus, National Grange Mutual, Symmetry Technology Labs, Progressive, APT, Ontos, ISO, Hartford, Applied Systems, Kemper, Delphi, IVANS, CGU, AMS, St. Paul, Docucorp, and others. The strength of the group is due to the extensive experience and knowledge of the individuals. . .Working aggressively toward an August 31, 1999 deliverable, the groups plan to complete the ACORD Insurance XML Dictionary. The objective, introduced by IIAA/ACT, is to prevent industry fragmentation by providing a base dictionary for the production of all future insurance XML transactions." See "ACORD - XML for the Insurance Industry."

• [July 14, 1999] "Powerful DirectoryPortal Products From Innosoft. Innovative DirectoryPortal technology integrates XML and LDAPv3 resulting in rapid deployment and easy extensibility of directory-enabled applications for a range of eBusiness solutions." - "Innosoft International, Inc., an established enterprise directory product vendor, unveiled its new DirectoryPortal products at the Burton Group Catalyst conference. Based on Innosoft's award-winning LDAPv3 directory technology, the DirectoryPortal products integrate eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and LDAPv3 into a sophisticated directory-enabled application server platform. The new products enable rapid deployment of web-based applications that dynamically access and integrate the rich information content available from LDAP directories. The products demonstrated at the Catalyst conference include the DirectoryPortal Builder, DirectoryPortal Servlet, and Enterprise DirectoryPortal Browser. All three applications will be available for free 30-day evaluation in August. Commercial licensed versions will be available early 3Q99. According to Dr. Greg Lavender, Director of Technology for Innosoft's directory products, 'Organizations increasingly rely on the rich information content that is accumulating in corporate directories. To date, directory applications such as e-mail address books provide only a simplistic view of this important information. By combining XML and LDAPv3 in a flexible directory-enabled application server that resides between the user's desktop and a directory server, a powerful set of directory-enabled applications can be rapidly deployed. The immediate result is that directories are no longer islands of information for a few users and applications, but instead are dynamically integrated collections of content that can be utilized in a variety of new ways to facilitate business processes'." See also "from InternetWire.

• [July 14, 1999] "EXE Technologies Announces Support of Microsoft's BizTalk Framework. Retail, Manufacturing and Third Party Logistics Distributors to Benefit from XML-Based Business-to-Business Communications." - "EXE Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of supply chain execution (SCE) software, featuring best-of-breed warehouse management systems (WMS), today announced its commitment to support Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by developing industry-specific schemas that will enable the seamless exchange of business information for EXE's customers. The BizTalk framework, launched by Microsoft Corp. in March, is a framework for application integration and electronic commerce based on new Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas and industry standards for sharing information. The BizTalk Framework makes it easy for businesses to exchange information between software applications and conduct business over the Internet or private networks with trading partners. EXE Technologies will support Microsoft's advocacy of XML and industry standards for sharing business information by using BizTalk schemas and developing industry-specific schemas for EXE applications. EXE customers will execute BizTalk schemas as the default business-to-business communication language and EXE-developed schemas for industry-specific functionality. Industry-specific schemas developed by EXE will be submitted to the BizTalk.org schema repository." See "BizTalk Framework."

• [July 13, 1999] "Intraspect Delivers Industry Leading Support for Microsoft Office 2000. Industry's First WebDAV-Compliant Collaborative Knowledge Management Solution." - "Intraspect Software, the market leader in Collaborative Knowledge Management applications, announces full support for Microsoft Office 2000 and the WebDAV protocol in their flagship product, Intraspect Knowledge Server (IKS). Using Intraspect, Microsoft Office 2000 users are 'one-click-away' from building secure, collaborative knowledge portals, to stay better connected and make better, faster decisions over the web. . . 'I am very excited that Intraspect is adding WebDAV support to its Intraspect Knowledge Server,' said Jim Whitehead, chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WebDAV working group. 'WebDAV support is a natural for web-based collaboration since it provides a standard, non-proprietary way to collaboratively author documents, web pages, images, and XML. By adding their weight to the WebDAV standard, Intraspect brings us closer to achieving the original vision of the Web as a writeable, collaborative medium'. WebDAV has considerable backing from Microsoft, Netscape, and other industry leaders in standards-based Internet computing. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5.0 and all Microsoft Office 2000 applications are WebDAV clients. The WebDAV specification is available at http://www.ietf.org/ids.by.wg/webdav.html/. Further information on WebDAV can be found at the WebDAV resources site at http://www.webdav.org." See also "WEBDAV (Extensions for Distributed Authoring and Versioning on the World Wide Web."

• [July 12, 1999] "DSML Launch Press Release: IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and Sun-Netscape Alliance Support Effort to Develop Directory Services Markup Language (DSML)." - "Bowstreet Software, Inc. today announced at the Catalyst 99 conference that it will lead work to define an industry standard for describing directory service information in the eXstensible Markup Language (XML). The effort to develop a Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) builds upon work performed by Bowstreet while creating its Web Services Architecture. The DSML effort will be supported by industry leaders IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and the Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide customers more flexibility in using and sharing directory information in XML-enabled applications. 'DSML increases the value of directory services by enabling a new breed of XML applications,' said Jamie Lewis, president of the Burton Group. 'With the advent of DSML, companies can use directory information in web-based applications and exchange information with their customers and partners, regardless of which directory products they use. The combination of directory services and XML is a significant step forward in creating directory-enabled applications and accelerates the shift toward web service architectures.' DSML provides a way to use directory information without knowing the specific data formats of each directory. End users will benefit because Web-based applications can be aware of their directory policy and profile information and adapt accordingly. Additionally, DSML enables 'friction-free' eCommerce value chains to be integrated across corporate boundaries based on directory information. This capability provides an essential building block as directories play a more significant role on the Internet. Furthermore, DSML complements the goals of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and helps to extend the power of LDAP to web-based applications." See also the recorded conference.

• [July 12, 1999] "Novell Provides First Directory Solution for Linking Business Data To Electronic Business Applications. Novell Solution Brings All Data Together. Allows Rightful Owners to Control Information Using Industry Standard XML." - "Novell, Inc. today unveiled its solution for helping customers link business data for easy use in electronic business applications. At the Catalyst Conference, Novell demonstrated, for the first time, a new software solution called DirXML. Extending the capabilities of Novell Directory Services (NDS) 8, this new solution seamlessly links and manages all the places where business and network information is stored. This includes software applications, network operating systems, databases and network devices. This is the first solution based on a directory that not only brings all data together, but also keeps control of the information with the individual departments that own the data. DirXML will connect all data without the need to modify existing software, allowing companies to build on their existing technology investments. A directory stores and manages user identity, network and application information on a computer network. According to the industry analyst firm The Burton Group, most large corporations have at least 100 directories and software applications where data is stored, including human resources databases, corporate e-mail address books, computer account databases and phone extension listings. Many of these applications contain the same information, causing administrators to duplicate efforts as they maintain the data integrity, consistency and accuracy of the various directories. DirXML will allow companies to automate business processes by sharing and reusing the common data between various application directories, saving time and money."

• [July 12, 1999] "New Solution Extends E-Business. Novell's DirXML Links Business Data Across the Enterprise." - "This week at the Catalyst Conference, Novell demonstrated, for the first time, a new software solution called DirXML that extends the capabilities of Novell Directory Services (NDS) 8. This new solution seamlessly links and manages all the places where business and network information is stored, including software applications, network operating systems, databases, and network devices. This is the first solution based on a directory that not only brings all data together, but also keeps control of the information with the individual departments that own the data. DirXML will connect all data without the need to modify existing software, allowing companies to build on their existing technology investments. 'DirXML is more than a standard meta-directory -- it eliminates the barrier between e-business and enterprise directories,' said Christopher Stone, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development for Novell. 'As opposed to existing offerings, Novell's DirXML uses XML to make it easy to support all data sources including ERP systems and meta-directory solutions from other vendors. Our goal is to connect all the data on the network to enable enterprise companies to expand their electronic business opportunities'."

• [July 12, 1999] "XML-Based Process Management Standard launched by Workflow Management Coalition - 'Wf-XML'. Move Provides Process Control for Inter-Enterprise Applications - Key Enabler for Business to Business e-Commerce." - "At its latest quarterly meeting, the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) launched a major initiative to provide XML-based workflow standards. The WfMC initiative has brought together the work originated in the OMG jointFlow submission and the initial proposals from the IETF sponsored SWAP (Simple Workflow Access Protocol) group. Wf-XML is an XML-based variant of the WfMC Interoperability Interface which can work with HTTP or a number of other transport mechanisms, including email and direct TCP/IP connection, or MOM (Message Oriented Middleware). The specification - currently at alpha level - includes a definition of the basic DTDs defining the XML encoding of workflow messages to support interoperability. This will be extended to include workflow operations from the other WfMC interfaces, to form a complete XML-based specification for all workflow functions. As part of this work, the interoperability specification has been implemented as a prototype on two different workflow systems and has been successfully tested in interoperability proving. Over the next few months, the WfMC will refine and release the WF-XML specification as a full standard and will continue to invite input and comment from other industry groups including the IETF and W3C."

• [July 12, 1999] "Object Design, Inc., Announces Wells Fargo Bank Deployment of eXcelon-based XML Knowledge Management System. Partner Micro Modeling Associates deploys innovative system to provide Wells Fargo employees with customized 'universal' access to corporate information resources." - "Object Design, Inc. today announced that Wells Fargo & Company has deployed a new eXtensible Markup Language (XML) knowledge management system based on Object Design's eXcelon eBusiness information server. The knowledge management intranet system will support Wells Fargo's Retirement Plan Services (RPS) and Institutional Trust groups, providing access to internal client and company information to employees across the company. eXcelon is an XML-based information server that enables companies to manage and distribute eBusiness information. Because XML can be used to represent any kind of information -- both structured information in databases and unstructured information on desktops, Web servers, email servers, etc.--eXcelon is enabling Wells Fargo to leverage all types of information in the new knowledge management system."

• [July 12, 1999] "eLink'99: Leading Companies Present Industry's First Conference on Global Business-to-Business E-Commerce. Commerce One and PeopleSoft Host Premier Industry Event. Compaq, Microsoft, and PricewaterhouseCoopers are Co-Sponsors." - "Commerce One, Inc., a leading provider of electronic commerce solutions, announced today the industry's first annual conference on global e-commerce for procurement, IT and financial executives, eLink'99: E-Commerce Solutions for Global Trading. The two-day event is being hosted by Commerce One and PeopleSoft, and co-sponsored by Compaq, Microsoft, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. eLink'99 will address e-commerce solutions for global trading and provide attendees with information on the latest technology, customer case studies and analyst advice on achieving the benefits of e-commerce. In addition, sponsoring companies will disclose news of significant e-commerce products and strategies at eLink'99. eLink'99 will be held September 9-10, 1999, at the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The conference will include keynote addresses by Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm and founder of The Chasm Group, and George Gilder, author of Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise and contributing editor of Forbes Magazine. eLink'99 will also include partner and sponsor exhibitions and sessions, an industry analyst panel, customer case studies and a series of news conferences. Topics for discussion will include the significant role of XML technology in enabling e-commerce.

• [July 12, 1999] "FpML Gains Further Momentum as Infinity Signs On To Technical Committee and Plans Product Integration. Enterprise software leader to work toward convergence with Network Trade Model." - "J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated announced today that Infinity, A SunGard Company, joined the technical committee of FpML (Financial Products Markup Language). Infinity, a leading provider of enterprise software for financial trading, risk management, and operations, has committed to working on the committee and supporting the use of FpML and the convergence of FpML and Infinity's Network Trade Model. The FpML standard, announced last month by J.P. Morgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be licensed freely to the technical and financial markets and enables Internet-based electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives, initially focusing on interest rate and foreign exchange products. Based on XML, the emerging Internet standard for data-sharing between applications, the FpML protocol enables Internet-based integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis." See "Financial Products Markup Language (FpML)."

• [July 12, 1999] "Bowstreet, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and Sun-Netscape Alliance to Hold Teleconference July 12." - "Live broadcast from the Catalyst 99 Conference, Lake Tahoe, California. Bowstreet, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and Sun-Netscape Alliance to Hold Teleconference July 12 at 2:40 PDT time to Announce Joint Standards Initiative for 'Friction Free' e-Commerce. Teleconference to announce new standards initiative, based on XML and directory services, for e-Commerce. Dial-in number: 888-606-8407. For playback of teleconference: 800-964-3648 through Friday; Password: Bowstreet." Topic: 'Directory Services Markup Language (DSML). DSML to be put into the public domain. Microsoft will extend Zoomit to support XML and bridge to DSML.' See DSML Web site.

• [July 09, 1999] "Extensibility Announces First Commercial Product for BizTalk Framework Schema Validation. Extensibility to Provide Enhanced Schema Facilities for the BizTalk Framework." - "Extensibility Inc. Friday announced the first commercial product for BizTalk Framework schema validation. XML Authority 1.1 will provide import and output support for BizTalk Framework compatible schemas and for the XDR schema format and for the W3C schema specification when it becomes available. It will also provide advanced support for XML namespaces. The test version of XML Authority 1.1 will be made available free of charge to XML Authority 1.0 customers in late July. A special trial version of XML Authority 1.1 will be accessible for download from the BizTalk.org site at www.biztalk.org in August. [local archive copy]

• [July 09, 1999] "Managed Object Solutions Delivers Version 1.2 of Formula Management Integration Engine. New release adds Tivoli and HP adapters, XML support, centralized automation, and business-centric views." - "Managed Object Solutions, Inc. (MOS) today released Formula version 1.2. This new release integrates with Tivoli Systems TME/10 NetView, Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) and Hewlett-Packard OpenView Network Node Manager, and provides XML support, business-centric views, and centralized automation. Formula's new Extensible Markup Language (XML) support simplifies customization of business-centric views. Already capable of providing a universal management console for operations managers, Formula now can take disparate information and organize it on business-centric lines, supplying a specific, valuable view to businesspeople, line-of-business managers and service provider customers."

• [July 08, 1999] "OASIS Opens Membership to Individuals and XML Industry Groups. International XML Consortium Restructures Membership to Expand Access to XML Technical Work." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced the restructuring of its membership requirements, widely expanding access to its XML interoperability technical work. The non-profit consortium, which was previously open only to companies who use or provide products or services based on structured information standards such as XML, SGML and CGM, added new membership categories for individuals and associate XML industry groups. . . OASIS membership levels now include Sponsors, Contributors, Individuals and Associates. Organizations participate in OASIS as either Sponsors or Contributors, based on the level of benefits they wish to receive. Sponsors, who take advantage of comprehensive technical and marketing benefits, support the consortium for 9500 USD annually. Contributors, who also benefit from OASIS marketing and technical work, pay 5000 USD (companies with ten or more employees) or 2500 USD (companies with fewer than ten employees). The new Individual Membership, at 250 USD per year, is offered to those who wish to participate in OASIS technical activities."

• [July 08, 1999] "Webb Interactive Services (Formerly Online System Services) And the Switchboard Network Form Technology and Distribution Partnership. New XML Commerce Platform to Enhance Switchboard Site and Merchant Services." - "Webb Interactive Services, Inc. announced today a technology partnership with Switchboard, Inc., focused on bringing Webb's XML-based community publishing and commerce platform to Switchboard's network of merchants, users and distribution partners. Switchboard, Inc., a majority-held subsidiary of Banyan Worldwide, is a leading Internet directory that represents thousands of merchants nationwide. Webb's pioneering XML-based Internet publishing and advertising platform will strengthen online business/consumer interaction in areas such as offer management and comparison shopping."

• [July 07, 1999] "XML Support Builds as Industry Leaders Rally Around OASIS." - "In response to recent announcements including the XML.org industry portal, record numbers of XML users and vendors have joined OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. In this, its sixth year since being founded as SGML Open, OASIS has seen membership increase 300 percent. New OASIS Sponsor members include DOCUMENTUM, Interwoven, Microsoft, Object Design, Reuters, and Wavo. Additionally, IBM, NIST and Synthbank have upgraded their previous membership to Sponsor-level status. Also joining OASIS as Contributor members are Bluestone Software, CourseNet Systems, Extensibility, GE Information Services, Hynet, iMediation, Novell, ProcureNet and Sequoia Software. . ."

• [July 07, 1999] "UserLand and Digital Creations Form Strategic Alliance. Frontier and Zope to Interoperate Using XML-RPC Standard." - "UserLand Software, Burlingame, CA, and Digital Creations, a Virginia-based company providing consulting services for Web business applications, today announced a partnership between their flagship content management systems to support the XML-RPC standard. Frontier, developed by UserLand, and Zope, developed by Digital Creations, will interoperate using the XML-RPC protocol for distributed processing using the Web. Additionally, UserLand has selected Zope as its deployment server for Unix environments. Frontier, first released in 1992, is the market-leading content management solution for Windows and Macintosh systems. Zope is an Open Source application server for Windows and Unix. XML-RPC allows one program to operate with another program, similar to high-end solutions such as CORBA or COM. Unlike these solutions, though, the simpler XML-RPC runs atop the standard Web protocols and allows for easy implementation. Additionally, UserLand announced a partnership with Digital Creations to leverage Zope for deploying Frontier content to Unix servers." See also the XML-RPC Home Page from Frontier.

• [July 07, 1999] "Integral Freely Releases First Capital Markets XML to Unify Industry Efforts. Sun Microsystems and Chase Manhattan Corporation Among The First To Support This Initiative." - "Delivering on its promise made in early May, Integral Corporation announced today the general availability of FinXML 1.0, a standard data interchange language for capital markets. Leveraging the success of its in-house working group, Integral is initiating an industry-wide FinXML consortium. As a major step towards this goal, the working group has openly released the FinXML data table definitions (DTDs) to the public. They can be downloaded for free from the Web site www.finxml.org. As a next step, FinXML DTDs will be mapped to other XML approaches in the financial industry unifying industry efforts. The FinXML consortium will provide a safe and open choice that supports emerging XML standards -- to foster and accelerate adoption of XML in the financial industry. FinXML's specifications were developed in conjunction with standards defined by ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc.), which are already being widely used in the financial industry. FinXML is interoperable with existing financial protocols such as FIX and S.W.I.F.T. In addition, FinXML will be made compatible with outside industry standards such as Microsoft's BizTalk and Ariba's cXML, which support e-commerce and EDI. FinXML is expected to mature and expand with feedback from the consortium." See also "Integral Introduces Browser-Based Capital Markets System. Provides Industry's First Enterprise JavaBeans-based Trading and Risk Management System." For general information, see "FinXML - 'The Digital Language for Capital Markets'."

• [July 07, 1999] "Dreyfus Brokerage Selects New Innovision Financial Server To Deliver XML Web Top." - "Dreyfus Brokerage Services, Inc. has selected the new Innovision Financial Server platform to provide valuable new services to its online account holders. The latest release, Innovision Financial Server 2.0, introduces a suite of development tools and templates used for creating dynamic thin-client Financial Web Tops. These XML applications provide customized financial data to multiple computing devices including browsers and handhelds. . . Innovision's suite of XML products helps corporations leverage industry-defined data interchange standards to reduce technology costs and expand market reach."

• [July 07, 1999] "Interleaf Establishes 'The E-content Company'. Business Segment to Focus Solely on XML-Based Content Management Solutions for E-Business Applications." - "Interleaf today announced the establishment of 'the e-content company.' Recognized as a separate business segment, the e-content company is dedicated to the development of powerful XML-based content management solutions for e-business applications. The e-content company develops and delivers BladeRunner, the division's flagship solution that provides the only end-to-end content management solution for e-business applications. BladeRunner enables companies to create, manage, and publish e-content - targeted, timely, personalized, intelligent business information - for web-enabled applications using XML as its technology backbone and Microsoft Word for content creation."

• [July 07, 1999] "Xenos Group introduces the first total software solution for document presentment and delivery. Documorph 2.0 enables e-commerce by electronically presenting statements, bills and other documents to the Internet." - "Xenos Group, an e-commerce document presentment software company, today announced the introduction of the next generation of its flagship product, Documorph. Documorph 2.0 enables e-commerce and one-to-one marketing by electronically presenting high-volume documents -- such as customer statements and bills -- to the Internet without the cost of replacing systems or changing existing applications. A flexible and robust solution for online customer communications, it is the only product in the market today that successfully handles all of 'the big four' presentment standards: HTML, PDF, TIFF and XML. Documorph 2.0 delivers print streams to the Web, as well as to archives and databases, e-mail and CD-ROM."

• [July 06, 1999] "XML.org Moves Forward with Commitment from Leading XML Companies. Commerce One, DataChannel, Documentum, GCA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, SoftQuad and Sun Microsystems Commit as XML.org Founders." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced it has received financial commitment from industry leaders for XML.org, the global XML industry portal. IBM, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems have all agreed to support XML.org as Founding Partners, and Commerce One, DataChannel, Documentum, the Graphic Communications Association (GCA) and SoftQuad have demonstrated their support as XML.org Founding Affiliates. 'XML.org Founding Partners and Affiliates should be commended for their commitment to open information exchange,' said Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. 'By funding XML.org and by serving on its Steering Committee, these organizations are enabling the advancement of XML for E-business.' 'One of the first actions of the XML.org Steering Committee will be to establish a public architecture for an XML registry and repository that offers access to XML schemas and resources for electronic commerce and business-to-business transactions, while fostering tool and application interoperability,' explained Bob Sutor, chief strategy officer for OASIS."

• [July 06, 1999] "Bluestone Software Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering." - "Bluestone Software, Inc., a performance leader in Enterprise Interaction Management software, announced today it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. Bluestone is a leading provider of software that permits businesses to extend information over the World Wide Web in a highly scalable and controlled manner. Bluestone Software, Inc. is a performance leader in Enterprise Interaction Management software. Companies deploying Internet Commerce applications depend on Bluestone Sapphire/Web and Bluestone XML Suite Application Server frameworks to integrate business applications into Web-enabled environments, manage information interactions, and exchange data with employees, partners, and customers.

• [July 06, 1999] "GlobeID Delivers First Implementation of Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) Standard. First ECML Transaction Implemented As GlobeID Adopts Emerging Standard." - "GlobeID, one of the leading vendors of world class electronic commerce transaction solutions, has performed the world's first secure Internet purchases using the Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML) standard. The transaction, which took place on Tuesday 6 July 1999, was run at GlobeID's Paris office. The ECML format was announced in early June by a consortium of major technology companies, including AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Compaq, CyberCash and others, along with Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Until now no real-time transaction application has been conducted. GlobeID has become the first to do so. GlobeID's @dvanced Payment Solution Suite is a world class advanced Internet payment solution providing the financial services industry, payment aggregators and large billers with a strategic foundation to enter the electronic commerce market. ECML, the new proposed standard, is [so?] a set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) tags that merchants will be asked to use on their merchant servers to make form completion easier. In a recent research study Jupiter Communications cited that 27% of all on-line shopping carts are abandoned due to the time taken to fill out forms. . ." [local archive copy]

• [July 06, 1999] "Progress Apptivity 3.1 Delivers Enhanced Capability and Connectivity for Web Business Applications. Industry Leading Java Application Server Now Supports XML for Seamlessly Scalable E-Commerce Applications." - "Taking a major step toward its announced goal of developing a Universal Application Architecture for e-commerce, Progress Software today announced Progress Apptivity Version 3.1, its industry leading Java application server and integrated development environment. The new version's support for XML facilitates the deployment of broadly available business-to-business and e-commerce applications. In addition, enhanced SQL functionality strengthens e-commerce applications by allowing custom, vendor-specific queries on enterprise databases. Progress Apptivity Version 3.1 greatly increases the ability for enterprises to exchange information via support for documents formatted with the XML data interchange language. Progress Apptivity Version 3.1's integrated XML support enables more rapid deployment of business-to-business transactions such as procurement and cataloging without the need for external XML servers. Via enhanced Progress Apptivity SmartAdapter technology, inbound XML data are seamlessly integrated into local applications as relational data, reducing the need for manual conversion."

• [July 06, 1999] "FutureTense Announces Newest Version of Proven e-Publishing Application. IPS Xcelerate 2.0 is Enhanced With New Search Engine Integration, Enhanced Workflow and Revision Tracking." - "FutureTense, Inc., a leading provider of e-Publishing software, today announced the availability of IPS Xcelerate(tm) 2.0, a next-generation e-Publishing application that offers organizations an enterprise gateway to e-Business. Developed on the FutureTense Internet Publishing System (IPS) platform, Xcelerate offers a customized application solution that integrates with best-of-breed application technologies such as personalization and e-Commerce tools. Xcelerate is an XML-based, scalable, high-performance e-Publishing application that dramatically streamlines the production process."

• [July 06, 1999] "Lutris Delivers XML Compiler to Leading Open Source Application Server. Enhydra XMLC Leapfrogs Sun JavaServer Pages and Microsoft Active Server Pages." - "Fueling the rapid adoption of its Open Source Java application server, Lutris Technologies today released Enhydra 2.1. Enhydra 2.1 is a Java/XML application server with new developer tools leveraging the popular Internet standard eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Enhydra XML Compiler (XMLC) is a new XML technology that eliminates the shortcomings of embedding code in HTML found in Sun's JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP). Merging W3C consortium standards XML and the Document Object Model (DOM), Enhydra now supports a new, more efficient approach for interface designers and programmers to co-develop Web applications using Java to generate dynamic HTML. Enhydra XMLC helps lay the foundation for the next generation of Internet application design and development tools. XMLC converts HTML documents into Java classes represented as DOM objects. The W3C standard DOM defines a way to represent XML documents as a Java object tree. This process lets developers easily isolate data application logic from interface design, improving collaboration between the developer and the interface designer. The inclusion of simple id tags in an HTML document means that HTML templates can be created with any HTML editor, and then be modified and re-used with no impact on the underlying application."

• [July 05, 1999] "Differential And UWI.Com Team Up To Provide Complete E-Commerce Evidence Solutions. Digital Receipts in the Back Office and InternetForms in the Front Office Protect Companies Engaging in Electronic Commerce." - "Two leading developers of secure XML e-commerce technology, Differential and UWI.Com, today announced a strategic relationship. The combined technology provides a safer than paper solution for enterprises and financial institutions to securely send and receive legally binding transactions and other contractual agreements for conducting business-to-business e-commerce. Differential's Digital Receipt Infrastructure compliments InternetForms by providing a complete non-repudiation solution for e-commerce and legacy systems. A 'Digital Receipt' is an XML document which captures the digital signatures of the sender and the receiver, a verifiable time stamp and standardized transaction details. 'Non-repudiation and proof of transactions are critical to the development of high-value e-commerce,' said Eric Jordan, president and CEO of UWI.Com. 'The combination of UWI.Com's intelligent, digitally signed XML InternetForms and Differential's back-end Digital Receipts provide the perfect combination of intelligence, security, and reliability for e-commerce systems'."

• [July 01, 1999] "New Wireless Application Protocol Version 1.1 Embraced as World's Mobile Internet Standard. Wireless Hardware and Software Providers, Network Operators and Content Developers Set to Release WAP V1.1-Ready Products and Services in 1999." - "The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum today announced the release of the WAP Version 1.1 specifications, a newly enhanced version of the mobile Internet standard that will enable the rapid commercial deployment of WAP-ready products and services worldwide. Using WAP V1.1, users of digital mobile phones and other wireless devices will be able to securely access and instantly interact with Internet/intranet information and advanced telephony services. The announcement was made in conjunction with the WAP Forum's members meeting, June 27-July 2, in San Francisco. Representatives from 120 WAP Forum member companies from across the globe have joined together at the meeting to advance the development of WAP and build relationships with other industry organizations to ensure that future Internet standards address the needs of low power, low memory wireless devices. To ensure interoperability of WAP products, the WAP Forum has contracted The Open Group (www.opengroup.org) to develop a test suite to support a certification program for WAP V1.1 conforming clients and servers. The test suite is focused on the Wireless Markup Language (WML) application layer specifications, but also includes tests for the underlying communication protocols. Note the recent W3C submission from from Ericsson, IBM, Motorola, and Phone.com for WAP Binary XML Content Format (W3C NOTE, 24-June-1999), and see for complete references "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification." [local archive copy]

• [July 01, 1999] "New OASIS Leadership Provides Direction for XML Market. Leading XML Users, Vendors and Consultants Are Represented on Consortium Board of Directors." - OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced the election of a new board of directors led by Simon Nicholson (Chrystal Software) as chairperson and Bill Smith (Sun Microsystems) as president. Jonathan Parsons (Xyvision Enterprise Solutions) serves as vice president/secretary/treasurer and Bob Sutor (IBM) as chief strategy officer. Norbert Mikula (DataChannel) serves as chief technical officer and leads the technical track. Mary McRae (DMSi) serves as chief marketing officer and leads the marketing track. Alan Hester (Xerox) serves as director and liaison to the CGM-Open affiliate consortium."

• [July 01, 1999] "Forecross Joins FpML Team Existing Systems Technology Leader Joins Technical Committee for New XML Standard." - "San Francisco-based Forecross Corp. announced today that it has joined the Technical Committee of the FpML(TM) standards organization, which was founded in June 1999, by J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The company will be represented on this committee by Kim O. Jones, president, CEO and co-founder. FpML (Financial Products Markup Language -- www.fpml.org) is a new protocol for Internet-based electronic dealing and information sharing of financial derivatives, initially focused on interest rate and foreign exchange products. It is based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) which is the emerging Internet standard for electronic commerce and data sharing between applications and businesses. The FpML specification, which will be freely licensed, is expected to become a standard in the rapidly growing field of business-to-business, Internet-based integration for a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis." See "Financial Products Markup Language (FpML)."