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Last modified: February 02, 2002
XML Industry News: July - September 2001

XML News

This XML Industry News section consists mainly of links to company press releases announcing support for XML/XSL/XLink, July - September 2001. An effort has been made to include representative items, but the collection is not exhaustive. Other documents with reference collections:

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

Search: [Indexed Search]

  • [September 27, 2001] "Adobe Streamlines Workflows for Publishers with New Metadata Technology. Adobe Commits to Open W3C Standards. IBM, Kodak and KPMG Consulting Among Industry Giants that Support XMP." - "Adobe Systems Incorporated, a leader in network publishing, today unveiled new technology behind the Adobe family of products that streamlines workflows saving time and money for publishers. Called XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform), this framework enhances workflows so that content can be applied seamlessly between print, Web, eBooks and other media. XMP provides Adobe applications and partners with a common metadata framework that standardizes the creation, processing and interchange of document metadata across publishing workflows. XMP will be incorporated into all Adobe products eventually and is available for developers via a software development kit (SDK). Users will benefit from XMP's ability to contain metadata within application files. Adobe has won support for XMP from leading companies including Artesia Technologies, Documentum, Getty Images, IBM, Interwoven, Kodak, KPMG Consulting, Inc., one of the world's largest consulting companies, MediaBin, Inc., North Plains Systems, WebWare and Xerox Corporation. XMP incorporates many World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. W3C produces the technologies that serve as the foundations for Web architecture, including XML itself and Resource Description Framework (RDF), the foundation for Metadata on the Web, and Semantic Web developments. W3C's Semantic Web Activity Lead, Eric Miller, cites XMP as a 'significant contribution to supporting the effective discovery and management of resources based on open metadata standards. It's an important piece that brings the Semantic Web closer to realization'... Metadata is becoming integral in the production, management and publication of digital content. Based on W3C's standards, XMP facilitates metadata exchange and packages metadata inside application files creating opportunities for digital rights management, job processing, workflow automation and many other areas of production where metadata is critical. Adobe has taken the 'heavy lifting' out of metadata integration, freeing integrators and publishers to spend more time defining a workflow, and less time integrating it. The SDK is available as a guide for integration to non-Adobe applications and contains sample source code for extracting and parsing the XMP packets..." See: "Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP)."

  • [September 24, 2001] "Netegrity Introduces First JSAML Toolkit-Company to Deliver Industry's First SAML Implementation to Enable Rapid Deployment of SAML Solutions Across E-Business Networks." - "Netegrity, Inc., a leading provider of solutions for securely managing e-business, today announced a freely available JSAML toolkit to make it easier for corporate developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to quickly create and deploy SAML-ready solutions. With Netegrity's JSAML toolkit, developers can enable their applications and security products to become solutions that securely exchanging user identity and entitlement information with partners using the SAML language. Netegrity is the first company to provide a reference implementation of SAML based on the OASIS group's proposed Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard... To realize the true benefits of e-business networks, the industry needs new standards, new tools and new products to solve the problem of sharing security related information across a network of companies with very heterogeneous and proprietary infrastructures. Netegrity has taken a leadership position in this emerging market. Several months ago, Netegrity worked with its partners to create the foundation specification for the SAML language and is now a major driver of the SAML committee at OASIS. Netegrity recently announced its AffiliateMinder product for securely managing affiliate user networks. "TransactionMinder" was also introduced as a new product line for securing the emerging web services platforms. Both of these products are based on the SAML specification and will enable security across e-business networks. Netegrity is now delivering the tools that companies need to begin the development and deployment of SAML solutions across their own security solutions. With the JSAML toolkit, companies can accelerate their adoption and implementation of SAML. Netegrity's JSAML Toolkit Netegrity JSAML Toolkit is a light-weight toolkit that comes with complete documentation and use-case examples (including source code) to get developers, corporations, ISVs and partners productive quickly. The toolkit is designed to be used with e-business applications and existing homegrown or industry standard security solutions to enable them to be share security information through SAML..." See: "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)."

  • [September 24, 2001] "Adobe InDesign 2.0 Sets New Standards for Professional Layout and Design Software. Performance Improvements, Strong Integration With Leading Adobe Software, and Hundreds of New Features, Allows Print Professionals to Unleash Their Creativity." - "Adobe Systems Incorporated, leader in network publishing, today announced the new version of its professional layout and design program, Adobe InDesign 2.0. Developed with the feedback of graphics professionals worldwide, InDesign 2.0 software helps solve many layout and design problems customers have today and delivers the tools to manage cross-media publishing now and in the future. New features such as extensible markup language (XML) import and export support, transparency, table creation, long document support, a superior printing interface, native Mac OS X support and tighter integration with other Adobe products, enables graphic designers, production artists and prepress professionals to exercise design innovation and improve productivity... InDesign 2.0 enables creative professionals to more effectively create, manage and deliver visually rich content to multiple channels including print, Web and PDAs. With the new Structure View and Tag palette, InDesign introduces built-in, extensible support for exporting Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as well as importing and exporting XML files. This enables an exchange of assets that helps close the gap between professional print and web workflows, and also provides tighter integration with products like Adobe GoLive software. Through its tagged Adobe PDF support, InDesign exports graphically rich eBooks that can be viewed on different devices. InDesign also supports Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) for embedding metadata in documents..." [From the description of features:] "Move beyond print with Adobe InDesign 2.0. (1) Structure view and Tag palette for creating XML to repurpose legacy documents, build XML templates, and more (2) Support for importing and exporting well-formed XML (3) Ability to collaborate on InDesign files through built-in WebDAV support (4) Easier tracking, management, and retrieval of InDesign documents through Adobe's new XML-based metadata framework (5) Export to rich content formats, including SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), XML, or tagged Adobe PDF (eBooks) (6) Tight integration between InDesign and GoLive. "

  • [September 21, 2001] "OMG Members Meet in Toronto, Charter Web Services Special Interest Group. Multiple Activities Advance Model Driven Architecture Specifications." - "...OMG's Unified Modeling Language (UML), which provides the basis for the MDA, is currently undergoing a major upgrade to Release 2.0. At this meeting, OMG members evaluated proposals for two parts of this new release: UML Infrastructure, and the Object Constraint Language. These proposals will be revised over the next several months to take into account member comments, and then presented at a future meeting for re-evaluation and subsequent adoption. The remaining parts of the revision, UML Superstructure and Diagram Interchange, will be evaluated at OMG's next meeting in Dublin, Ireland, to be held during the week of November 9, 2001. Of the five new specifications which passed final member evaluation and started the adoption vote process at the meeting, three enhance OMG's modeling specifications: one tailors the UML to Enterprise Distributed Object Computing; another adds the ability to model scheduling for real-time computing systems, while the third enables XMI, OMG's XML-based model interchange language, to take advantage of the W3C's new XML schema definition. Two additional specifications enhance OMG's vendor-independent middleware specification, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), in key areas: One defines a facility to manage membership in security domains, while the other provides air traffic control systems with a standard facility to manage surveillance of aircraft... The OMG initiates the process that defines new standards by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP). At this meeting, members issued two RFPs to enhance CORBA: One will define a procedure and set of interfaces for online upgrades, standardizing the way CORBA systems provide 7X24 service without interruption for software upgrades; the other will standardize an MDA-based publish-subscribe data distribution service for real-time CORBA systems. Any company may join OMG and submit in response to an RFP. These and all other active RFPs may be accessed from the web page www.omg.org/schedule. Membership information appears at www.omg.org/membership. Dates and locations of future meetings are listed on www.omg.org/news/schedule/upcoming.htm..." See: "OMG Model Driven Architecture (MDA)."

  • [September 20, 2001] "Sun Ships Forte For Java, Release 3.0 To Simplify Development of Enterprise Applications For Sun ONE. Forte for Java Optimized for iPlanet Application Server 6.0. Sun Contributes Seven Key Modules to NetBeans Open Source Community." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of release 3.0 of the Forte for Java integrated development environment (IDE). The product dramatically simplifies application development that uses Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technologies, such as Enterprise JavaBeans components. The IDE supports deployment to leading J2EE application servers, has been optimized for the iPlanet Application Server 6.0, and is a core component of the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) -- an open architecture and integratable product portfolio to create, assemble and deploy Web services. Sun today also contributed seven modules to netbeans.org, further enhancing the position of NetBeans as the leading open source tools platform. The Forte for Java IDE is built on the NetBeans platform. Forte for Java, release 3.0, Enterprise Edition supports the building and deployment of J2EE applications on leading application servers. In addition, the integration between the Forte for Java IDE and the iPlanet Application Server has been enhanced to support the development of enterprise Java applications as well as Web services. The IDE allows developers to target the iPlanet Application Server and optimize their applications for performance, scalability and high availability. A new Web services module provides automatic binding of Java technology and XML through intuitive wizards, generates Java code that supports run-time access and execution of services, and supports Web-based publishing to a services registry. The product also supports the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), making it easier to build applications and services that can be accessed via the Web, mobile devices, or personal digital assistants. Through the Forte for Java Extension Partner Program, companies are developing innovative modules that extend the Forte for Java environment to provide support for SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and UML modeling..."

  • [August 28, 2001] "webMethods and Covisint Unveil ebXML Proof of Concept at Autotech 2001. Companies Demonstrate Universal Document Translation for Ebusiness Through Public Exchange." - "webMethods, Inc. and Covisint "will reveal an AIAG sponsored Proof of Concept (POC) demonstrating the ability to facilitate electronic transactions through the global automotive exchange using the ebXML format. This POC also exhibits the capability of the webMethods integration platform to support a variety of electronic document formats and standards - both XML and EDI - accelerating e-commerce through public exchanges by leveraging participants' IT investments in legacy systems... The demonstration will be hosted by Covisint in booth #726 at AutoTech 2001. The demo will feature a typical electronic transaction between a manufacturer and supplier facilitated through Covisint utilizing the webMethods integration platform. Multiple electronic document standards, including EDI, OAG, and ebXML, will be utilized, transformed, and re-converted through this end-to-end transaction. In the demonstration scenario, Covisint will act as an intermediary between an automotive manufacturer and supplier. The manufacturer will send an EDI-based Forecast/Material Release document to Covisint. This forecast will be transformed - based on the requirements of the individual supplier - into an OAG document and routed to the supplier using ebXML. The supplier will return an OAG Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) using ebXML back to Covisint. The ASN will be transformed - based on the requirements of the manufacturer - into an EDI-based Advanced Shipping Notice document and transmitted to the manufacturer. Covisint, the supplier, and the manufacturer will all be connected in real-time, and the entire manufacturing forecast and notification process will be managed using the webMethods integration platform..."

  • [August 28, 2001] "Popkin, Casewise And Computer Sciences Corporation to Develop Business Process Modeling Notation With Support From BPMI.Org." - "The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org), Popkin, Casewise, and Computer Sciences Corporation have announced the formation of a Working Group to develop a standard notation for business process modeling. The notation, named Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), will be developed within the Business Process Management Initiative and will support the semantics of the Business Process Modeling Language (BPML). This initiative is a direct result of a unique collaboration between market leaders of the modeling industry: Popkin Software and Systems Inc. and Casewise, and leading systems integrator, Computer Sciences Corporation. The three companies recognized that, in the modern commercial world of enterprise-wide and inter-company collaboration, the effective communication of business process information is vital. There is currently no commonly accepted standard for business process notation. This is a limiting factor in the ability for companies to describe their processes to each other and in the skill of the business audience to comprehend a set of business processes. A decade ago, CSC led the way in breaking down the inefficiencies within companies with its innovations in business process reengineering. Now firms face relentless pressure to perform better, faster, cheaper, and with super pleasing results. To achieve this, firms must only do what they do extremely well - all else must be performed by partners. However, working with partners requires breaking down the inefficiencies between companies and coping with frequent change across the entire end-to-end value chain. In this new world of collaborative commerce and collaborative sourcing a standard business process is simply not adequate. Today, organizational change occurs through Process Management. All three companies agreed on a joint effort to produce and support a standard business process modeling notation, and agreed that BPMI would be the ideal vehicle for its growth and standardization... Popkin, Casewise and CSC aim to work closely together to develop the first draft of BPMN. CSC's widely used Catalystsm methodology previously influenced the development of standard modeling notations and methods implemented by Popkin and Casewise. The development of BPMN, based on BPML semantics, is an extension of that relationship and collaboration..." See: "Business Process Modeling Language (BPML)."

  • [August 23, 2001] "International eBook Standards Body Updates Industry Specification. eBook Device and Software Vendors Praise New Standard." - "The Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org) has released an updated version of the Open eBook Publication Structure Specification. Entitled `Publication Structure Specification 1.0.1,' the new industry standard for authoring reusable content for eBook devices and readers supercedes the 1.0 version of the OEB Specification. The OEB Publication Structure (OEBPS) is an XML-based specification for the content, structure, and presentation of electronic books. Developed and maintained by the Open eBook Forum, a group of over 85 leading organizations involved in electronic publishing, the standards body and trade association includes Gold Sponsorship from Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems and Intertrust Technologies... Version 1.0.1 of OEBPS, which is based on over a year of industry experience with 1.0, does not add additional features to the specification but only removes ambiguities and corrects errors. Version 2.0 of OEBPS, which will introduce new features and substantial enhancements -- particularly in the areas of presentation, linking and navigation, internationalization, and metadata -- is currently under development. 'Comprehensive specifications that achieve the goal of simultaneously supporting both interoperability and innovative functionality are absolutely critical if electronic publishing is going to deliver on its promises,' said Allen Renear, Chair of the OeBF Publication Structure Working Group and Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 'The OEB Publication Structure has solidly established itself in ebook publishing as precisely what is needed to build a thriving industry.' The Publication Structure Working Group encourages all participants and interested parties to download copies of the OEBPS 1.0.1 specification from the Open eBook Forum web site... The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) is an international, non-profit trade and standards organization. The Forum's mission is to promote the development of a thriving eBook market. To do this, it creates, maintains and promotes adoption of eBook standards and brings together all the participants in the eBook world by providing an inclusive forum for discussion of eBook related social, legal, and technical issues." See "Open Ebook Initiative."

  • [August 23, 2001] "OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop Human Markup Language." - "OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, today announced its members have formed the OASIS HumanMarkup Technical Committee (TC) to develop and promote a specification for conveying human characteristics through XML. The Human Markup Language (HumanML) will embed contextual human characteristics (cultural, social, kinesic, psychological and intentional features) within information. Applications include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, conflict resolution, psychotherapy, art, workflow, advertising, cultural dialogue, agent systems, diplomacy and business negotiation. 'HumanML offers the potential to reduce misinterpretation and allows people to express themselves more deeply,' explained Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga, chair of the OASIS HumanMarkup TC. 'Employing the same infrastructure and technology used in business-to-business transactions, HumanML lets us define and elucidate the various subtle, complex human processes involved in communication. Using HumanML, we can substantially reduce interpersonal and intersocietal conflicts associated with the inadequate conveyance of human traits and expression.' Other efforts within the scope of the OASIS HumanMarkup TC will include messaging, style, alternate schemas, constraint mechanisms, object models, and repository systems, which address overall concerns of representing and amalgamating human information within data. 'HumanML is an exciting example of the breadth of technical work being undertaken by OASIS members. Unlike standards bodies that dictate direction through a central authority, OASIS offers an open technical agenda that is set by our members themselves,' commented Karl Best, director of technical operations for OASIS. 'HumanML extends the use of XML into totally new arenas and offers the potential to affect the way we communicate with one another.' Participation in the OASIS HumanMarkup TC is open to all employees of OASIS member companies and all OASIS individual members..." See: "Human Markup Language (HumanML)."

  • [August 22, 2001] "New XML Standards Provide Global Gateway to Efficient B2B Internet Trade. EAN International, Uniform Code Council, and Global Commerce Initiative Produce World's First Full and Open International Standards for e-Business." - "The Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC), EAN International, and the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), have announced the release of the world's first open, global standards for Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas. Jointly developed by the UCC and EAN International, and based on the GCI's Global Commerce Internet Protocol, these standards will provide users with a global language of e-business to conduct efficient Internet-based electronic commerce. The EAN.UCC XML Schemas launched today specify five key business transactions: Item Alignment, Party Alignment, Order, Despatch Advice, and Invoice, as well as extensions for Allowances and Charges and Payment Terms. This breakthrough achievement will provide global users in all industries with an open e-business solution that can fully and efficiently exploit the power, speed, and reach of the Internet. The XML standards were developed with strong user involvement and global support, including GCI member companies. The UCC and EAN International developed this first suite of XML standards to be the foundation of a global, multi-industry solution that will enable all companies to streamline their e-business processes via improved interoperability and efficient data transmission. Their development was based on Business Process Models and the principles of simple electronic business (Simpl-eb), in order to simplify the business processes independent from syntax and technology." See the news item.

  • [August 22, 2001] "OGC Recommendation Available to the Public." - "The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announces that an OpenGIS Recommendation has been made available to the public. The paper titled 'Recommended Definition Data for Coordinate Reference Systems and Coordinate Transformations' is available for public review. This Recommendation Paper specifies a data model for metadata in support of the OpenGIS Coordinate Reference Systems (CRS) and Coordinate Transformations (CT) Implementation Specifications, and specifies standard definition data for the data model. Because the specified data model is more general than an OpenGIS Implementation Specification and more specific than the OpenGIS Abstract Specification, the work is being delivered in a Recommendation Paper. Representatives from three OGC member organizations, BAE SYSTEMS Mission Solutions, the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC), and Shell International Exploration and Production B.V. developed the model using object-oriented analysis and design thinking. This specification harmonizes and improves the relevant XML work previously done by OGC. This OGC standard data model for coordinate reference systems and coordinate transformation definition data is intended for initial use with OGC's OpenGIS Geography Markup Language (GML) and Coordinate Transformation (CT) Implementation Specifications. That is, each of these two specifications is expected to use a subset and/or superset of the Definition Data described in the Recommendation Paper. Future revisions of this specification will convert the current XML Document Type Definitions (DTD) to XML Schema. Comments regarding this Recommendation Paper should be forwarded to the OGC Coordinate Transformation Working Group. OGC is an international industry consortium of over 200 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. OpenGIS Specifications establish common interfaces that "geo-enable" the Web and mainstream IT, enabling technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications." See the news item.

  • [August 15, 2001] "IBM Merges WebSphere Portal Server And Lotus K-station Into Single Portal, Announces New Portal Partners." - "Continuing to widen its leadership in portal technology, IBM announced today a single portal platform by merging the power and collaborative functions of the Lotus K-station portal into the IBM WebSphere Portal Server, IBM's strategic portal framework. Also, validating the marketplace's acceptance of IBM's portal server, 20 new participants in the IBM Portal Partner program were announced... At Solutions 2001, the IBM Technical Developer Conference here, IBM demonstrated the dual ability to publish WebSphere Portal Server portlets to a Web services directory and also to search the directory and add a web service as a new portlet for use in WebSphere Portal Server. Web services are becoming a significant method for making information and applications available via the Internet and portals will allow customers to integrate Web services both as sources of data and remote applications. Customers will be able to use WebSphere Portal Server to set up distributed enterprise portals that will allow dispersed employees and partners to share portlets of all types using Web services. IBM will deliver interoperability between WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus K-station in the fourth quarter of this year and full integration in the first quarter of 2002. IBM already is a provider of UDDI infrastructure and offers Web services tools on alphaWorks (IBM's developer site) that enable portlets to call existing web services as either data sources or business process tasks. The additional Web services capability planned for delivery in WebSphere Portal Server in the first quarter of 2002 adds the important ability to share portlets across many portal servers."

  • [August 14, 2001] "TIBCO Software Extends Enterprise-Class Extensibility Family With XML Transformation Solution. New Comprehensive Solution for XML Mapping and Transformation Based On Open Standards." - "TIBCO Software Inc. today announced the extension of its enterprise-class, open standards-based Extensibility family with a new XML transformation solution called XML Transform. XML Transform is a comprehensive design solution that rounds out TIBCO's XML design capabilities and enables users to map documents in a visual setting through the creation and debugging of Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) stylesheets. As an enterprise-class XSLT development platform, XML Transform provides an interface for solving real-world data transformations while ensuring flexibility and portability through utilization of open standards. Through its industry-leading schema support, intuitive interface and debugging environment, XML Transform offers users with an advanced XSLT development solution... The TIBCO Extensibility platform offers enterprises a complete solution for developing and deploying XML-based business processes. Organizations can now fully leverage the flexibility and portability of XML through use of TIBCO's XML platform comprised of the following industry-leading solutions: (1) Turbo XML for creating and editing XML, schemas and DTDs; (2) XML Validate for validating and processing XML in a run-time environment; (3) XML Transform for mapping and transforming XML documents; (4) XML Canon/Developer for storing, managing and distributing XML assets. Key features include (1) Intuitive GUI for XSLT Stylesheet Editing: XML Transform's graphical user interface utilizes simple drag and drop mappings to facilitate the coding of complex XSLT stylesheets. These XSLT stylesheets can then be integrated into a run-time environment to seamlessly transform XML documents and messages. XML Transform's user interface also provides several panes for viewing and editing the XSLT source code, transformation errors and summaries of XSLT templates that both simplify and guide the development process. (2) XSLT Debugging Environment: XML Transform's facilities for debugging simplify the process of locating errors in XSLT stylesheets... (3) Transform XML to XML and HTML: Through the creation of XSLT stylesheets using XML Transform, XML data can be converted into XML or HTML. For organizations trading XML data internally and externally, XML Transform allows disparate groups to share a common information base, ensuring congruence across all divisions, with partners and suppliers... (4) Open and Portable Platform: Organizations utilizing XML Transform can create open standards-based XSLT stylesheets that may then be deployed using best of breed XSLT engines. XML Transform is available for Windows 2000/NT/98/95 and UNIX platforms. (5) SmartDrop: XML Transform utilizes SmartDrop, a schema-aware feature that expedites the development process. SmartDrop views the existing structure of a schema or XML document and automatically maps like elements with the new schema or XML document that is being created. This advanced feature of XML Transform automates development, saving valuable time..." Related tools: "XSL/XSLT Software Support."

  • [August 14, 2001] "Industry Consortia Gather to Collaborate on Specification Development. HR-XML, OASIS, OMG, UN/CEFACT and XBRL.org Host Interoperability Summit Series." - "Standards groups and consortia from around the world will gather in Orlando, Florida, 6-8 December 2001 for the Interoperability Summit, the first in a series of inter-consortia meetings aimed at identifying common ground and coordinating development of electronic business specifications. Hosted by HR-XML, OASIS, Object Management Group (OMG), UN/CEFACT and XBRL.org, the Interoperability Summit Series will identify intersections between major horizontal and vertical groups in order to promote acceptance of common models and approaches. 'Duplication of effort and overlap of specifications are major deterrents to interoperability,' said Patrick Gannon, president and chief executive officer of OASIS. 'We believe that if everyone communicates and collaborates on common issues, we'll all be more productive in achieving our own specific goals. The summit series will provide a forum to identify and coordinate the work that affects us all.' 'Interoperability across platforms, languages and deployment technologies is of critical importance to CIOs today,' said Dr. Richard Soley, chairman and chief executive officer of the OMG. 'OMG's Model Driven Architecture is specifically designed to attain that goal, and lack of agreement on vertical-market models is the major roadblock to achieving the goal. OMG is proud to be one of the sponsors of the Interoperability Summit event and to act as one of the hosts for this first meeting.' Each Summit in the series will focus on a specific modeling topic or business domain. The first meeting will target Human Resources (HR) management, with future summits dedicated to other wide-reaching, horizontal business functions. A second Summit on Procurement is planned for 2002... The Interoperability Summit is open to all industry groups, standards bodies and consortia that have a vested interest in the modeling topic. In addition to HR-XML, OASIS, OMG, UN/CEFACT and XBRL.org, the Orlando meeting is expected to attract representatives from ACORD, BASDA, Health Level Seven, IDEAlliance, IFX, IMS Global Learning Consortium, Open Applications Group and the NAPM XML Initiative. Other groups are welcome and may register at http://www.omg.org/interop/..." Contact: interop-summit@omg.org.

  • [August 08, 2001] "Corel Corporation to Acquire SoftQuad Software. Companies Sign Definitive Agreement: Acquisition Advances Next Phase of Corel's Growth Strategy." - "Corel Corporation and SoftQuad Software, Ltd. today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement whereby Corel will acquire SoftQuad in a stock-for-stock transaction to be accounted for as a purchase transaction. This acquisition advances key aspects of the company's growth strategy and builds upon its recently-announced plans to acquire Micrografx, Inc. By acquiring SoftQuad and its ground-breaking XML-enabling technologies, Corel is adding a key ingredient required to implement horizon two of its growth strategy. In addition, this acquisition will enable Corel to enrich the existing XML capabilities within its WordPerfect product line. 'Upon completion of this acquisition, we believe we will have the core technologies needed to realize our vision of providing customers with an expansive cross-media publishing solution,' said Derek Burney, president and CEO of Corel Corporation. 'We intend to give customers the tools they need to create, manage and simultaneously deploy customized content across multiple delivery channels, including the Web. This streamlined production process will afford them maximum flexibility while saving them valuable time and resources. Our solution will capitalize on SoftQuad's expertise in the XML arena and its strong partnerships with leading content management system vendors, Micrografx's innovative emerging technologies and Corel's internationally recognized strengths in graphics and publishing. This acquisition will also benefit our WordPerfect customers. By integrating SoftQuad's market-leading XML technologies into our award-winning word-processing application, we will further enhance the XML functionality that many of our customers in the government and legal community currently enjoy.' [And] 'We are pleased to be joining forces with a company that shares our vision for pervasive XML content,' said Roberto Drassinower, CEO of SoftQuad. 'With Corel's development expertise, international brand recognition and strong balance sheet, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of XML-based content creation, transformation and exchange solutions to our shared customer base. Corel and SoftQuad share synergies which, when the two operations are combined, are expected to generate new revenue opportunities and cost efficiencies from which its collective global customer base will benefit. Based on preliminary estimates, after the realization of anticipated synergies and excluding any one-time integration costs, this acquisition is expected to be accretive to cash flow and cash earnings per share within approximately twelve months from the date of closing... Over the next several weeks, Corel and SoftQuad will work together on a comprehensive plan outlining how best to integrate the two companies'." [Announcement also at Corel]

  • [August 08, 2001] "Reuters Use of FpML 1.0 in New Internet Trading System Indicates Growing Industry Acceptance, says FpML.org." - "Planned use of FpML 1.0 by Reuters in a new Internet-based system for traders in the Overnight Index Swaps (OIS) market is a clear indication of the new standard's general industry acceptance, Brian Lynn, co-chair of FpML.org's Standards Committee said today. Lynn, a vice president responsible for e-trading systems, and FpML program manager at JP Morgan, is one of several major securities industry volunteers working to develop the new standard for Internet trading of OTC derivatives. Mark Robson, Reuters Director, Business Development, Money Transaction Solutions, said, "Dealing for Swaps, an enhancement to Reuters Dealing 3000, will use FpML version 1.0 to export trade data. We aim to launch the service in the fall." He explained Dealing for Swaps as "a secure, browser-based solution allowing traders in the OIS market to automate their workflow, structure trade negotiations, reduce processing costs and increase their overall efficiency." The enhancement will be available via Reuters Dealing 3000 and delivered over the Radianz network. Lynn said, "Reuters is an active participant in developing FpML and now becomes one of the early adopters of the standard. Reuters has dedicated four employees to working with FpML.org and is a major contributor to our Business Message and Architecture and our FX options working groups." He added, "The success of this standard is based on volunteers from multiple industry segments donating their time to address the myriad technical issues involved in automating the flow of information across the entire derivatives network." FpML is the XML-based, freely licensed e-Commerce standard supporting OTC trading of financial derivatives. FpML.org is a non-profit consortium comprised of leading global derivatives trading institutions, financial, technology and consulting firms. FpML.org endorsed FpML version 1.0, covering interest rate swaps and forward rate agreements, as a recommendation in May 2001. Version 2.0, covering interest rate options such as caps, floors and swaptions, will be released for trial recommendation later this year." See "Financial Products Markup Language (FpML)."

  • [August 08, 2001] "Silverstream Software Introduces jBroker Web 1.0. Free Web Services Engine Provides Unmatched Performance for Java-based Web Services." - "SilverStream Software, Inc. today announced the availability of jBroker Web 1.0, a high-performance, portable Web Services engine and tools designed to build, run and invoke Web Services using Java. jBroker Web provides unmatched performance and deploys to standard J2EE application servers. jBroker Web provides a standards-compliant, Web Services runtime with a small footprint and flexible architecture. It is a complete XML Remote Procedure Call (RPC) environment for building, running and invoking Web Services using Java. Based on the Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) programming model, jBroker Web invokes Web Services like any other remote object to speed and simplify the development of Web Services. Some of the key features of jBroker Web 1.0 include: (1) The ability to generate a Web Service from any Java class including EJBs; (2) The ability to generate a Java client to access a Web Service from a WSDL file; (3) A high performance, scalable SOAP 1.1 runtime with 4-6 times the performance of Apache SOAP; (4) Interoperability with several SOAP implementations including Apache and Microsoft; (5) The ability to leverage J2EE security features for authentication and access control; (6) Deployment into standard J2EE application servers including SilverStream, IBM's WebSphere, BEA's WebLogic, Oracle 9iAS, Apache Tomcat and others. jBroker Web is also fully integrated with the SilverStream Application Server and provides the Web Services engine for the SilverStream eXtend product line, including the SilverStream eXtend Workbench. SilverStream eXtend is the first complete and integrated services environment that enables organizations to exploit the value of existing systems and deliver business applications to any user on any device or platform..." See also (1) the previous announcement, and (2) "SilverStream Software Ships the SilverStream Application Server with Full Web Services Capabilities. Provides a High-performance Web Services Engine and Tools to Simplify J2EE and Web Services-based Application Development." SOAP and WSDL: "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)"; "Web Services Description Language (WSDL)."

  • [August 08, 2001] "Oracle Unveils New Java and XML Development Tool for J2EE Applications and Web Services on Oracle9i. 1.7 Million Developers Get Early Access to New Oracle9i JDeveloper From Oracle Technology Network." - "Continuing its commitment to provide developers with the latest Internet technology, Oracle Corp. today announced early access to Oracle9i JDeveloper through an Early Adopter Program (EAP) from Oracle Technology Network -- the industry's first Developer Services Provider. More than 1.7 million members of OTN can immediately begin to develop Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based applications and Web services with Oracle9i JDeveloper -- the first component of Oracle's new generation of application development tools that takes advantage of Oracle9iApplication Server and Oracle9i Database. Written entirely in Java for seamless cross-platform development, the new Oracle9i JDeveloper delivers the industry's first complete and integrated J2EE and XML team development environment for the rapid delivery of Web services and transactional applications accessible through Web, wireless and voice interfaces. Oracle9i JDeveloper changes the face of J2EE application development by combining traditional Java programming techniques with the latest modeling approaches in a single, integrated development environment for complete development lifecycle management... Oracle9i JDeveloper introduces Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeling to Java and XML developers who can now model and generate business objects and processes of e-business applications using unique "three-way" synchronization between code, models and wizards regardless of where changes are made. [It provides] improved code quality and performance, includes integrated performance and memory analysis tools for tracking performance problems, memory leaks and deadlocks, and seamlessly enables organizations to manage multi-developer, multi-stream projects of any size and any complexity... Integrated Java, XML and SQL Development: (1) Internet Applications for Java and Beyond : Oracle9i JDeveloper offers unique Java, XML, and SQL integration to meet the fast growing needs of Internet developers looking to build next-generation J2EE applications and Web services. (2) Built-in XML Schema Editor: Oracle9i JDeveloper includes an integrated XML schema-driven syntax editor which enables Java and XML developers to leverage the latest specifications defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to create XML-based Internet applications. (3) Support for J2EE Web Services: Oracle9i JDeveloper enables developers to create Web services from Java classes, Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), Oracle Business Components for Java and PL/SQL procedures..."

  • [August 08, 2001] "MathSoft Introduces Mathcad Client. New Cost-Effective Tool Enables Dynamic Workgroup Collaboration and Web Capabilities for Distributing Mathcad Content." - "MathSoft Engineering & Education, Inc., a leading provider of interactive math, science and engineering software products and content, today announced Mathcad Client, a low-cost deployment solution for sharing and collaborating on Mathcad-created content across and throughout organizations. With over 1.5 million users in math, science and engineering worldwide, Mathcad is the most widely used software application for applying mathematics. [Use:] (1) Using Mathcad Client as a standalone interactive viewer for Mathcad documents: Engineers can share their Mathcad-created designs and calculations with anyone who has the Mathcad Client software. Mathcad and Mathcad Client fully support the MathML standard for both presentation and content of mathematics online. As a result, both packages uniquely provide the interactivity afforded by the Mathcad environment and new functionality for publishing math on the Web. (2) Embedding Mathcad calculations and content in other applications: Mathcad Client supports popular Mathcad add-ins for Excel, Visio, and AutoCAD, as well as standard OLE embedding and support for other applications. Mathcad Client can even be used to support embedded uses in applications developed in Visual Basic and C++. (3) Using Mathcad Client as a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer or Netscape to view Web-based live math content: Users can combine the navigation capabilities of their favorite Web-browser with the math display and calculation capabilities of Mathcad Client to create a powerful solution for publishing technical material on the Web... Through the integration of MathML (Mathematical Mark-up Language), the first XML standard to be approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Mathcad Client offers organizations new options for publishing and communicating technical content. Users can both save worksheets in MathML format as well as read MathML files back into Mathcad Client as active documents. Mathcad Client is the first tool of its kind to offer bi-directional support for MathML. In combination with IBM techexplorer Hypermedia Browser, Mathcad and Mathcad Client are the only tools to fully support both the presentation and calculation standards of MathML." See: "Mathematical Markup Language (MathML)."

  • [August 08, 2001] "TIBCO Extensibility Releases XML Transform 1.0.0." TIBCO Extensibility has announced the version 1.0 release of XML Transform. "XML Transform is a comprehensive design solution for creating and debugging complex XSLT stylesheets. As an enterprise-grade XSLT development platform, XML Transform provides an interface for solving real-world data transformations while ensuring flexibility and portability through utilization of open standards. Through its industry-leading schema support, intuitive interface and debugging environment, XML Transform offers users with the most advanced XSLT development solution available. The TIBCO Extensibility platform offers enterprises a complete solution for developing and deploying XML-based business processes. Organizations can now fully leverage the flexibility and portability of XML through use of TIBCO's XML platform comprised of the following industry-leading solutions: (1) Turbo XML for creating and editing XML, schemas and DTDs; (2) XML Validate for validating and processing XML in a run-time environment; (3) XML Transform for mapping and transforming XML documents (4) XML Canon/Developer for storing, managing and distributing XML assets..."

  • [August 07, 2001] "CommerceNet to Assist in Next Phase of UN's ebXML Initiative for eCommerce. Will Provide Support for Recently Formed eBusiness Transition Working Group (eBTWG) to Continue UN's ebXML Initiative." - "The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) today reaffirmed its continuing role in pioneering the development of XML standards for electronic business. With its acceptance of an in-kind donation from CommerceNet, UN/CEFACT will be able to continue its efforts to standardize ebXML, a suite of specifications that enables enterprises to conduct business over the Internet. CommerceNet's in-kind donation will provide administrative and logistical support of UN/CEFACT's eBTWG (eBusiness Transition Working Group). Established in July 2001, eBTWG identifies specific work items necessary to complete the ebXML Business Process and Core components projects, including business processes, core components, and architectures...As a transitional working group, eBTWG will spearhead the ebXML initiative until the Electronic Business Working Group (eBWG) is established. 'We are delighted that CommerceNet has agreed to join our efforts in developing worldwide standards to further enable electronic commerce,' says Ray Walker, Chair of the UN/CEFACT Steering Group. 'CommerceNet's support provides resources to continue our critical ebXML work.' Klaus-Dieter Naujok, the newly appointed Chair of the eBTWG, and Chief Scientific Officer of IONA Technologies agrees, adding that 'CommerceNet provides eBTWG with the opportunity to take ebXML work items to the next level. Organizations worldwide have committed to the ebXML initiative, and now UN/CEFACT can ensure that global standards for using XML to conduct electronic business will become reality.' Fred Sollish, Program Leader for CommerceNet's Evolving Supply Chain Initiatives, will manage the support team for eBTWG. Plans are underway to host three working forums during the upcoming months. These forums are for all individuals, groups, and companies wanting to contribute to the development of ebXML and eCommerce standards. The first forum will be held in California in mid-October, followed by a session tentatively scheduled in southern Europe in January 2002 and Asia in May 2002." See: "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

  • [August 02, 2001] "Bind Systems Releases BindPartner, The World's First Business Process Web Services Platform." - "Bind Systems Ltd, an innovator in the area of open Web services based technology, released the second Early Access release of its BindPartner Business Collaboration Platform this week. BindPartner is a business centric environment for developing, executing and managing inter-enterprise collaborative business processes. The BindPartner Platform uniquely integrates ebXML, WSDL and SOAP Web services technology with J2EE, JMS and Java enterprise software. This BindPartner EA2 release further augments ebXML business process, profiles, agreements and messaging support, introduces Web services integration through JMS to complement Java code generation and seamlessly supports secure, encrypted, authenticated Internet communications... Key BindPartner Features Include: (1) Runs inside a full J2EE container; (2) Auto-managed process choreography integrity at runtime; (3) Full graphical process modelling, integration and deployment environment; (4) Supports ebXML 1.0 business process, profiles, agreements and messaging specifications; (5) Supports rapid Web services integration through JMS and Java code generation; (6) Supports secure, encrypted, authenticated Internet communications; (7) Manages transparent co-existence of ebXML and SOAP/WSDL based Web services. The BindPartner Early Access Release 2 is freely available now for download for a 60-day evaluation... 'BindPartner enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators (SIs) and End-User organizations to build secure, inter-enterprise process-oriented solutions made available as Web services.' said Colm Caffrey, Chief Executive Officer at Bind Systems. He added, 'BindPartner's use of open standards throughout is a key enabler for these organizations'."

  • [August 01, 2001] "OpenTravel Alliance Endorses ebXML." - "Industry support for ebXML continues to build as the international travel consortium, OpenTravel Alliance (OTA), announced endorsement of ebXML in its new specification. ebXML, sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, provides a standard method to exchange messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. OTA released for member review new specifications for requesting availability and booking reservations in the airline and car rental industries. These OTA specifications unite OTA and Hospitality Industry Technology Integration Standards (HITIS) respective customer profiles into one comprehensive profile. In conjunction with the Travel Technology Initiative, (TTI), based in the United Kingdom, OTA also released draft specifications that provide a message exchange between wholesalers and tour operators for booking holiday package tours. These specifications will utilize the ebXML secure messaging structure as a recommended reference envelope layer that provides OTA specification users with a unified, interoperable solution. OTA's next publication, projected for November 2001, will map the OTA infrastructure to the ebXML Message Handling Service specification, v1.0. 'Industry groups developing their own XML-based specifications can't operate as islands. Cross-industry communication is as important as exchanging messages within a community,'" explained OTA President Mike Kistner, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Best Western International. 'By recommending ebXML, we ensure that OTA messages adhere to the international standard and enable implementations of OTA specifications to meet the requirements of the global marketplace.' [And] 'Endorsement by OTA is a major milestone for ebXML. The travel industry joins other communities who have integrated ebXML, including automotive, information technology, electronic components and semiconductor manufacturing and retail,'" noted Bill Smith of Sun Microsystems, president of OASIS and member of the ebXML Executive Committee. Smith referenced similar announcements of ebXML support from Covisint, the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), Open Applications Group and RosettaNet... The OpenTravel Alliance develops communications specifications to allow for the efficient and effective exchange of travel industry information via the Internet. With over 150 members representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, OTA is comprised of representatives from the airlines, car rental agencies, hotels, leisure suppliers, non-suppliers, tour operators, and trade associations. These travel industries, together with an OTA interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, are developing open Internet-compatible messages using XML data terms." See "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)" and "OpenTravel Alliance (OTA)."

  • [August 01, 2001] "Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola Welcome Evolution of WAP Standard. New WAP 2.0 Protocol Based On Widely Accepted Internet Standards Will Further Advance Mobile Services." - "Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola today announce their support of the newest version of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) standard, WAP 2.0, as developed by the WAP Forum. The companies also express their intention to develop products, content, and services based on the new standard. The new generation of the WAP specification together with improved handsets and other wireless devices ensure a much better development environment for advanced mobile services. Based on well-established Internet standards including TCP and HTTP as well as the necessary components specifically adapted for wireless environments, WAP 2.0 will provide a simple, yet powerful tool-kit for easy development and deployment of a multitude of useful and exciting new services. WAP 2.0 has adopted XHTML Basic as the base for its mark-up language. XHTML, developed by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is the language that will be used to create all content, regardless of whether it is intended for the fixed Internet or the mobile phone world. By narrowing the gap between wired and wireless content, XHTML greatly accelerates the pace at which services can be created and improves the usability of wireless services for consumers. Other Internet standards that have been adopted in WAP 2.0 include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Transport Layer Security (TLS), HTTP and TCP. By specifying how these standards are best used in a wireless environment a better user-experience is achieved. The richer content and multimedia services that will be available in 2.5G/3G networks are going to be based on these and similar standards and will therefore integrate seamlessly with WAP technology. The release of WAP 2.0 includes the first release of Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), a service developed jointly together with 3GPP, which allows users to send multimedia messages, combining sounds with images and text, to each other in a fashion similar to sending SMS. Additionally, WAP 2.0 further evolves WAP Push, which can be used for services such as online auctions, where it is important for users to receive information at the point of interest (i.e., the moment something interesting happens), rather than being forced to actively look for the information..." See also the announcement for WAP Version 2.0

  • [August 01, 2001] "Cisco Systems Introduces Cisco CTE 1400 Series Content Transformation Engine for Mobilizing Content to Wireless Devices & IP Phones. Breakthrough Appliance Accelerates eBusiness Applications." - "Cisco Systems, Inc., worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today introduced the Cisco CTE 1400 Series Content Transformation Engine, Cisco's first appliance-based solution that enables enterprise and service provider customers to deliver existing Web content to a variety of new devices, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Cisco IP Phones. An integral part of Cisco AVVID, the Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data, the Cisco CTE is a single rack-unit appliance designed to convert HTML and XML data formats appropriate for client devices with special display requirements. The Cisco CTE works within existing Content Networking infrastructures, including content switches and caching devices, to extend enterprise content and applications in the mobile world... The Cisco CTE can be deployed in enterprise and service provider environments using existing HTML/XML content. After accepting requests from client devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs or IP phones, the Cisco CTE requests the content from back-end servers. The Cisco CTE functions as a reverse-proxy, acting as a Web server to the client device and as a client device to the Web server. The Cisco CTE, which includes technology from WebUnwired, Inc., transforms the content properly for each device type sending only essential information formatted to fit the screen and memory requirements of the specific requesting device. The Cisco CTE works seamlessly with routers, switches, server load balancers, content engines, Web servers, firewalls, virtual private network (VPN) solutions and IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN products to provide a seamless, high performance solution... The Cisco CTE can be easily and quickly installed into any network infrastructure without requiring any changes to existing hardware or back-end software, unlike software solutions currently available for content transformation. Each Cisco CTE supports up to 10,000 simultaneous users and 1,400 concurrent active sessions per unit. Users can easily scale upward for increased performance and redundancy by including additional Cisco CTE's. The Cisco CTE supports major standards like HTML, XML, XSL, XSLT, XHTML and WML. Using a GUI-based tool, CTE Design Studio, customers easily and quickly define rules for how content -- whether it is on the Internet or inside the enterprise in intranets or extranets -- will appear on a specific client device. Once created, these transformation rules can be modified easily to suit other document types or devices. Customers also benefit from the portability for the transformation rules -- they can be downloaded to multiple Cisco CTE's located anywhere in the network and take effect immediately, allowing mobile-devices and IP phones to receive the transformed content on the next request. The Cisco CTE also supports security features such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) sessions and works well with existing virtual private networks (VPN) and login-authentication. In addition, it maintains secure connections to client devices, independent of the Web server connection."

  • [August 01, 2001] "The Open Applications Group Announces Support for ebXML. OAGI to incorporate electronic business messaging specification from United Nations trade and technology body and OASIS into over 182 mature Business Object Documents (BODs) or XML-based business messages." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world, today announced plans to integrate the ebXML specification into the 182 business transaction standards currently published by the organization. EbXML was developed in an open process jointly sponsored by the UN/CEFACT and OASIS (Organization for Structured Information Standards) to standardize XML-based messaging and information interchange in Internet transactions between companies. UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body that develops policy and technology to facilitate trade and electronic business worldwide. The OAGI Integration Specification (OAGIS) defines over 182 XML-based business objects (BODs) for business-to-business and application-to-application integration in e-Commerce, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, human resource management and finance. It is expected that OAGI support for ebXML will significantly accelerate broad-based adoption of this specification. OAGI is currently believed to have the largest installed based of any XML-based set of business messages. 'We expect that ebXML and OAGIS will work hand in glove,' said David Connelly, president and CEO of OAGI. 'ebXML provides a technical framework for transactions that is international in scope. We offer a large, international installed base supporting a mature set of XML-based business object documents that facilitate hands-free interoperability within and between companies. Both standards are horizontal in nature and can be used in almost any industry sector.' According to Connelly, the latest release (v. 7.1) of the business process based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) contains the largest and richest set of XML Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world. 'It goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging World of e-Commerce and e-Business,' he said. The OAGI is a non-profit consortium of technology providers and end-user organizations. The organization develops best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the world's largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability and the only XML development organization supporting 'end to end' integration. That includes technology for business-to-business, application to application and application to execution systems transactions. Member company teams have built a consensus-based framework for business software application interoperability and a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content." See "Open Applications Group" and "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

  • [August 01, 2001] "WAP Forum Releases WAP 2.0 Specifications for Public Review. WAP 2.0 Integrates Latest Internet Standards and Content Technologies into Mobile Environment, Providing Platform for Richer Mobile Experience." - "The WAP Forum, the industry association that develops and fosters the growth of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), today announced the release of WAP 2.0 for public review. This next generation of the WAP specification helps content developers deliver a richer and more secure experience to mobile Internet service subscribers. WAP 2.0 is a significant evolutionary step in the worldwide standard and will allow application developers to create compelling mobile content using the same tools and techniques they are already familiar with using for other Internet applications. The new architecture of WAP 2.0 continues the convergence of WAP with the evolving Internet, merging the work of the WAP Forum, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and enabling more rapid development of new mobile Internet applications... Device manufacturers have the opportunity to develop handsets that support applications that optimize the usability of WAP applications by capitalizing on new WAP 2.0 features, such as the ability to include color, multimedia messaging, large-file downloading, improved navigational functions, and user-friendly menus. New technologies of WAP 2.0 that will improve the user experience are Data Synchronization, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Persistent Storage Interface, Provisioning, and Pictograms. Additionally, Wireless Telephony Application (WTA), Push, and User Agent Profile (UAPROF) utilize more advanced features in WAP 2.0 than in previous versions. For Data Synchronization WAP 2.0 adopts the SyncML protocol in order to ensure a common solution framework with a multitude of devices. The SyncML messages are supported over both the Wireless Session Protocol (WSP) and HTTP/1.1 protocols. MMS provides the framework to develop applications that support feature-rich messaging solutions, permitting delivery of varied types of content in order to tailor the user experience. The Persistent Storage Interface provides a set of storage services that allow the user to organize, access, store and retrieve data on wireless devices. The new Provisioning feature permits the network operator to manage the devices on its network with a common set of tools. The Pictogram feature permits the use of a set of tiny images, allowing users to quickly convey concepts in a small amount of space while transcending traditional language boundaries..." See the discussion.

  • [July 31, 2001] "Interbind. Inc. Announces Beta Version of its CodeGen Service." - "Interbind, Inc., an enabler of business data and process integration using Web Services, has announced the release of the Beta version of its CodeGen service, an interactive Web application that allows developers to input WSDL records and receive ready-to-implement Web Services code. Interbind's CodeGen service offers developers the easiest and fastest way to integrate applications and data with existing Web Services and is the latest step in Interbind's Web Services strategy. Interbind has designed the code generated for the CodeGen service to run in IBX, Interbind's lightweight, pure Java runtime environment. The CodeGen service is targeted at all developers tasked with implementing Web Services solutions. Interbind's CodeGen features include the ability to generate: (1) XIO template files for XML Schema components that make up the messages in the WSDL; (2) Java beans that map to those XIO templates and hold the message components; (3) Java client application that includes methods for each operation in the WSDL; (4) Ant build script to compile the generated code; (5) A detailed log of the generation process for a specific session." [Also: 'A trial version of interbindIBX 1.0 is currently available for free download... interbindXIO is Interbind's innovative XML input/output library. interbindXIO uses a template-based approach to serialization and deserialization of Java objects to and from XML. A trial version is available for free download.']

  • [July 31, 2001] "Bowstreet announces new version of product that enables mainstream enterprise customers to immediately begin transition to dynamic web services. Business Web Factory 4 integrates with e-business middleware and applications from BEA, IBM, Microsoft, PeopleSoft, SAP, Sun Microsystems and others." - "The Business Web Factory 4 includes new interoperability with the latest XML web services standards; with high-performance application servers, e-business middleware and enterprise applications from BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, PeopleSoft, SAP, Sun Microsystems and others; and with web usage analysis software. The Business Web Factory enables point-and-click legacy systems connectivity and web services assembly and automation, so developers don't have to code these functions line by line. The Bowstreet Business Web Factory 4 adds support for six web services and XML standards that make web services useful and interoperable across platforms. These standards include: (1) Web Services Description Language (WSDL). The Business Web Factory is the first dynamic web services assembly system to automatically consume web services defined by WSDL. (2) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Enhanced SOAP support makes the Bowstreet Business Web Factory 4 fully compliant with one of the industry's most important specifications for web services interoperability. (3) SAX, DOM and JDOM. The Bowstreet Business Web Factory 4 natively understands and processes three application program interfaces (APIs) for developers using XML in their applications..."

  • [July 31, 2001] "InfoSpace's Platform and Applications to Integrate and Offer Associated Press News and Photos. InfoSpace technologies, including wireless SMS alerts and speech-enabled applications, among others, to deliver news and information in XML format from AP Digital." - "InfoSpace, Inc., a leading provider of the platform and applications that enable partners to deliver consumer and commerce services across the Internet to any device over current and next-generation networks, and AP Digital, a division of The Associated Press, today announced the planned integration of AP Digital's comprehensive portfolio of news and photos into InfoSpace's platform. News and information from the AP, the world's largest news agency, will be delivered through InfoSpace's platform across wireless, wireline and broadband networks. AP news services will also be distributed through applications including wireless SMS alerts and speech-enabled applications, among others. InfoSpace will provide its customers with access to a stream of national and international news and photos from AP Digital, providing business, politics, health, finance, sports, technology and entertainment news, with updates made around the clock. InfoSpace plans to make AP Digital news in XML format available to any device connected to the Internet through its platform and applications..."

  • [July 24, 2001] "Oil Industry, POSC and Government Collaborate On Well Data Standards Using XML." - "POSC, an international member consortium focused on leveraging eBusiness and Internet technology for the energy industry, recently announced that a number of key players from the European oil industry agreed to collaborate on implementing standards using XML for exchanging basic well data over the Internet. A meeting was held in Aberdeen, Scotland, supported by senior representatives from BP, Shell, Esso, Conoco, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Paradigm, CDA, DTI and POSC. They agreed to collaborate in a project to develop and implement within three months an XML standard for well data in the North Sea. A major challenge in the oil industry is the process of dealing with governments; obtaining consents, reporting activity and delivering information. The web is becoming a basic tool worldwide in the oil industry for data exchange amongst companies but the lack of standards is seen as a major problem. POSC have identified the need to establish easy to use web standards between oil companies and governments worldwide as a key challenge for the next few years. The business processes that have been identified that would benefit from global standards for web delivery are: Allocation of licences for acreage, Transfer of assets, Well and drilling consents, Well operations notifications, Environmental consents, Use of dangerous chemicals, Dispersal of produced water, Field approvals, Oil production returns, Pipeline consents, Decommissioning consents, Release of data. POSC is an international membership organization focused on the rapid development, implementation and use of Energy eStandards -- information exchange and interoperability standards in support of eBusiness for the energy industry. Founded by five major oil companies in 1990, and with a membership of over 50 energy-related companies, POSC has headquarters in Houston with an office in London. Current activities, which leverage the industry's significant investment in information standards over the past decade, include XML-based eStandards for representing and exchanging technical information -- in particular, global standards for well header information and transportable exchange standards for well logs." See: "Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) XML Related Projects."

  • [July 24, 2001] "Transentric Announces Availability of Additional TranXML Schemas. Company to sponsor creation of TranXML.org." - "Transentric, a leading supply chain and electronic message management company, today released ten additional TranXML(TM) schemas to support an open standard for Internet-enabled applications. TranXML was developed as an open standard language and created specifically for the procurement and delivery of transportation and logistics services required for supply chain execution. Industry participants can use TranXML for various trading partner relationships, including point-to-point, application service provider (ASP) models or e-marketplaces. The schemas released today include rail waybill, car handling request, car handling response, shipper car order, switch list, advance shipping notice, warehouse stock transfer, warehouse stock transfer receipt, warehouse shipping advice and inventory adjustment. Previous schemas released include load tendering, delivery, freight billing, reconciliation, scheduling/forecasting and equipment ordering... Transentric is sponsoring the creation of TranXML.org, a nonprofit, independent organization to provide a collaborative forum for the development and maintenance of the standard. Its vision is to provide significant savings to trading partners by reducing the maintenance and development costs of supporting application data interfaces. The collaborative effort will encompass carriers, shippers and third parties to guarantee that business needs are met, facilitating inter-enterprise messaging in the transportation domain. TranXML.org is working with other XML standards groups, as well as ASC X12, UN CEFACT, UCC and the ebXML Joint Core Components workgroups in an effort to make TranXML interoperable with other standards. TranXML has endorsed the ebXML framework and the Message Service Specifications for Transport, Routing and Packing. TranXML provides an easy and inexpensive way to implement new trading partner relationships and even enables users of traditional EDI to leverage their investments and extend their trading partner reach. Moreover, ASP companies are able to provide interoperability between disparate applications and ERP systems. In addition, businesses without EDI infrastructure can enable new trading partner communities using TranXML." See references and description in: "TranXML."

  • [July 24, 2001] "Netegrity Unveils Product Strategy for Web Services. New TransactionMinder Product First to Address Need for Securing and Managing Web Services." - "Netegrity, Inc., a leading provider of solutions for securely managing e-business, today announced its product strategy to provide the industry with the first comprehensive platform for securing and managing Web services. One of the challenges holding back the adoption of Web services today is a company's inability to secure the Web services being made available over the Internet. With today's announcement, Netegrity addresses this complex issue with a new product for securing Web services, code named TransactionMinder. TransactionMinder provides a centralized, policy based platform for securing Web service discovery and consumption, Web service publication, and delegated administration of Web services deployment. TransactionMinder will integrate XML security standards, such as SAML and XKMS, with leading Web service architectures, such as the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) and Microsoft.NET, to provide a secure environment in which to deploy these services... Netegrity's new TransactionMinder product line is designed to provide the market with the first, centralized, policy based platform for securing and managing XML based Web services. With TransactionMinder, companies are no longer limited to very basic transport level authentication, which is inadequate for securing Web services. TransactionMinder provides a broad range of shared security services that are needed to secure XML documents and messages that are the foundation of Web services. TransactionMinder builds on Netegrity's shared services vision to provide companies with a set of services for centralizing Web service security. Netegrity's centralized security platform will integrate with the new and emerging Web service architectures such as Sun ONE and Microsoft.NET and integration platforms from companies such as BEA, Bowstreet, Oracle, and webMethods. This centralized approach eliminates the need to build proprietary and non-scalable security across multiple Web service platforms and in multiple Web service applications. TransactionMinder delivers the following capabilities: (1) Policy Based Security for Web Services: TransactionMinder enables companies to define policies for determining the appropriate authentication and authorization rules to apply to the Web service based on the contents of the XML document. New authentication schemes that TransactionMinder will leverage include SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), XML digital signatures, and extraction of credentials from the document. Authorization rules can now be established that will extract relevant information from the XML document to determine the authorization for that web service. (2) Authorization for UDDI registries and WSDL profiles: With TransactionMinder, companies can publish their Web services and WSDL profiles in public and private UDDI registries and then control access to these services from policies that determine the user's role and relationship with the company. (3) Non-repudiation Services: All Web service transactions can be digitally signed and stored in a tamper-evident audit. All transactions can also be fully traced and profiled. (4) Delegated Management Services: As more and more companies deploy Web services in UDDI registries, the need to manage changes and updates to these services becomes critical. DMS for Web services will enable companies to delegate management of the UDDI registry to their partners for more rapid self-service of Web service updates. (5) Open and Standards Based: TransactionMinder is designed to work with industry standards such as SAML, UDDI, WSDL and messaging frameworks such as SOAP, ebXML and RosettaNet..." See: "Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)."

  • [July 24, 2001] "Bentley Provides AISC Steel Information in XML." - "Bentley has formatted the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) data on rolled steel shapes in XML. Providing data on wide flanges, angles, channels, tees and more in the Internet-friendly XML format, rather than in books and spreadsheets, will add valuable structural design data to engineering models, and provide a standard, extensible method of sharing data throughout the project life cycle. Besides better interoperability between desktop applications, the XML data format will allow the rolled steel shapes to be displayed in customizable views over the Web or downloaded to a PDA or cell phone at a job site. For example, steel mills, which fabricate these sections, could link to the model XML data via the Internet and provide updated quantities or schedule details in real time. Designers can use this collaborative input when making design decisions. 'XML is all about collaborating with higher-level data, which serves the project team's need to compress project schedules,' comments Duane Barrett, vice chair, aecXML Domain - Steering Committee for the International Alliance for Interoperability. 'The AISC steel tables in XML format are key to supporting this objective.' Bentley intends to submit the XML data to the IAI for inclusion in the aecXML standard. As AISC extends the information about the rolled steel shapes in future versions, it will not require modification of applications that use this new format, such as Bentley's MicroStation TriForma, Architecture for MicroStation TriForma and Structural for MicroStation TriForma. Having the rolled steel shapes in a standardized format may inspire other software vendors to develop applications that leverage the XML format." Details in: "Bentley Provides AISC Steel Information in XML format." See "aecXML Working Group - Architecture, Engineering and Construction."

  • [July 24, 2001] "Next Version of J2EE Is Now Available for Download, with Enhanced Features Developed through the Java Community Process. Enhanced EJB Specification 2.0 Brings Interoperability and Portability to a Wider Audience of Developers." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the immediate availability of version 1.3 beta 2 of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). This latest release includes a new specification for Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), an architecture for distributed enterprise software components. The specification provides enhanced support to programmers, including cross-platform portability, ease of development and deployment, and enhanced performance. The EJB 2.0 specification simplifies the development process, making it easier for developers to focus on business logic and pass on to end users the EJB architecture's benefits, such as scalability, multi-transaction capabilities, and security features. The EJB 2.0 specification includes: (1) World-class support for freedom of choice between multiple tools, databases, applications servers, networks, storage devices, and vendors; (2) Integration with Java Messaging Service (JMS) through Message Driven Enterprise JavaBeans, for legacy data and multi-client interoperability; (3) Improved container-managed persistence for ease of data modeling and portability; (4) A query language for rapidly finding and exchanging information; (5) EJB relationship support for faster deployment and improved performance; (6) Increased network interoperability support for EJB components through Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), an object-oriented protocol that allows distributed programs written in different programming languages to interoperate... The J2EE v 1.3 beta 2 SDK also features enhanced XML support through a variety of robust APIs. (API refers to Application Programming Interface, the specific method by which a computer program can make requests of its operating system or another application.) These enhancements include: (1) Implementation-independent support for parsing and transforming XML documents with the Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP), giving "plug and play" support for a variety of available parsers; (2) XML translation and filter support for dynamic web publishing based on Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technologies."

  • [July 23, 2001] "OASIS Elects New Members to Board of Directors. Colin Evans of Intel, Jim Hughes of Hewlett-Packard, Christopher Kurt of Microsoft, Simon Nicholson of Sun Microsystems and Michael Weiner of IBM to Lead XML Interoperability Consortium." - "OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, today announced the election of five new members to the organization's board of directors. Jim Hughes of Hewlett-Packard, Christopher Kurt of Microsoft Corporation, Simon Nicholson of Sun Microsystems and Michael Weiner of IBM will each serve two-year terms as OASIS directors, providing business leadership to advance the Consortium's technical work. In addition, Colin Evans of Intel was appointed to serve out the term of a former Board member, who vacated her seat earlier this year. The five new directors join current OASIS Board members, Patrick J. Gannon, Una Kearns of Documentum and Norbert H. Mikula of DataChannel. [Statements from the five new Board members.] On behalf of the OASIS membership, Laura Walker, executive director of the Consortium, expressed thanks to Eric Garcia of Sabre, Alan Hestor of Xerox, Bill Smith of Sun Microsystems and Dr. Robert Sutor of IBM for their service on the OASIS Board as their terms conclude. OASIS is the international, not-for-profit consortium that advances electronic business by promoting open, collaborative development of interoperability specifications. With the United Nations, OASIS sponsors ebXML, a global framework for electronic business data exchange."

  • [July 23, 2001] "DISA Launches Free News Wire Service: E-Business Standards Today." - "To help business and technical professionals navigate and better understand the confusing landscape [of e-business standards], the Data Interchange Standards Association announces E-Business Standards Today, a daily news wire and weekly newsletter devoted to developments related to standards in e-business. Every business day, E-Business Standards Today chronicles information on changes in communications infrastructures, additions to Internet or XML standards, new industry vocabularies, developments involving business consortia and their use of e-business, and reports of research on the use of technologies and best practices related to e-business. DISA posts the daily newswire at www.disa.org/dailywire. Members of the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 or DISA's affiliated industry groups may also subscribe to a free weekly newsletter distributed by e-mail that compiles the week's developments. DISA staffer Alan Kotok, a veteran reporter and writer on e-business, serves as editor of the daily wire and weekly newsletter. Kotok prepares the copy directly in XML, using the News Industry Text Format, a publishing industry vocabulary for news copy. DISA also maintains the news database in XML. As the co-author of a new book coming this August from New Riders Publishing - ebXML: The New Global Standard for Doing Business on the Internet - Kotok's expertise provides clarity to the multifaceted e-business standards environment. DISA is home for ASC X12 and industry groups developing cross-industry e-business standards that provide the foundation enabling individuals and organizations to participate in global e-business. Driving an array of e-business initiatives, DISA provides technical and administrative support to its affiliated organizations..." See "ANSI ASC X12/XML and DISA."

  • [July 23, 2001] "OMG Standards Efforts Moving to New Model Driven Architecture. Members Adopt CAD Services and Laboratory Equipment Control Specifications, Enhance CORBA." - "The Object Management Group's (OMG) latest Technical Meeting Week, sponsored by IONA, attracted about 600 OMG members and guests to Danvers, MA, USA, north of Boston, where they advanced the organization's standards efforts and participated in other related activities. At this meeting, OMG members moved to adopt the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) as the group's base architecture in which future standards will be defined. In the MDA, a specification starts out as a Platform-Independent Model (PIM) defined in UML; from it, MDA-based development tools produce platform-specific models and implementation definitions on multiple platforms. This allows MDA to support application portability and interoperability across a wide range of middleware platforms, and extends OMG's reach beyond CORBA to such platforms as Enterprise Javabeans (EJB), XML/SOAP, .Net, and others. MDA business benefits include: (1) Full support throughout the application life-cycle; (2) Reduced costs from beginning to end; (3) Reduced development time for new applications; (4) Best possible representation of business rules, the foundation of every application; (5) Scalability, robustness, security, implemented in the best possible manner; (6) Stable, model-based approach extends usable application lifetime and thereby maximizes ROI from software investment; (7) Smooth integration across middleware platform boundaries; (8) Rapid inclusion of emerging technologies into existing systems. OMG members completed technical work on seven new specifications. Two of these new specifications come from OMG's Domain Technology Committee (DTC), which defines computing standards for specific industries. The DTC defined a Computer Aided Design (CAD) Services standard for manufacturing, and a set of Laboratory Equipment Control interfaces. Spearheaded by OMG's Life Science Research Domain Task Force, the Laboratory Equipment Control interfaces will be useful in laboratories everywhere. OMG's Platform Technology Committee (PTC) adopts infrastructure and modeling specifications. It is standardizing an extension to CORBA for load-balanced processing in data parallel programs, a dynamic scheduling service for Realtime processing, and a multicast protocol for delivery of events in distributed systems. CORBA security, already well developed, gets a new standard for Security Domain Membership, and the OMG's modeling specification suite adds a metamodel and UML profile for Software Process Engineering... OMG members initiated a new technology adoption by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), stating requirements and deadlines. In Danvers, OMG members issued four new RFPs: The DTC issued one RFP, which will standardize Telemetric and Command Data handling for space and ground-based systems. The PTC issued two RFPs that will enhance CORBA: One, coming out of the Telecommunications Domain Task Force, will define interworking between the CORBA Notification Service and the Java Messaging Service (JMS); the other will update the mapping to the well-established language C to include valuetypes and other recently-added enhancements. A third PTC RFP will define a UML profile supporting software testing, allowing this important capability to be defined into an application at the model... A workshop on Objects in Bio- and Chem-Informatics (OiBC) attracted over 175 attendees. OMG members viewed live demonstrations of eleven different CORBA products, and attended tutorials on CORBA, the Object Management Architecture, XML in CORBA systems, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and UML modeling of Real-time systems... For more information about the MDA, see www.omg.org/mda. See: "OMG Model Driven Architecture (MDA)."

  • [July 23, 2001] "ASC X12 Announces E-Business XML Cross-Industry Summit." - "E-Business XML Cross-Industry Summit. Hosted by the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12. August 15, 2001, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Washington, DC 20005. This event will include representatives from such leading trade associations and industry groups as: ASC X12, BITS, Chemical Industry Data Exchange, CommerceNet, Data Interchange Standards Association, Interactive Financial eXchange Forum, Meat & Poultry B2B Data Standards Organization, Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, Open Philanthropy eXchange Forum, OpenTravel Alliance, Petroleum Industry Data Exchange, Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council, XML/EDI Group. The summit objective is to collaborate with industry groups and associations to extend the reach of e-business to 100% of the supply chain and to provide companies of all sizes around the world integrated and seamless electronic business exchange.To accomplish this goal, ASC X12 is asking XML developers to share business processes and rules they follow in order to create XML DTDs or schemas. This information will then be gathered and consolidated as XML best practices. Taking these best practices, what we know from the ebXML technical specifications, and the current state of the next generation of standards, a standard set of XML design rules will be created. ASC X12 invites all trade associations and industry groups to contribute their expertise. Please RSVP by August 10 for this free event by contacting Ginger Fletcher at vfletcher@disa.org or (703) 837-6186. The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, accredited by the American National Standards Institute and comprised of cross-industry representation, develops the most robust e-business exchange standards that interact with a multitude of e-commerce technologies and serve as the premier tool for integrating electronic applications. Through standards setting and active participation in emerging and technically relevant initiatives, ASC X12 facilitates the effective exchange of electronic information. Propelling global e-business, ASC X12 serves as the entry point for the United States into the United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT), an international standard relating to the exchange of trade goods and services. Please visit www.x12.org/summit for the agenda and additional details."

  • [July 23, 2001] "Borland Drives Web Services with Delphi Evaluation Program. Borland Delphi 6 Now Available for 60-Day Free Trial Download." - "Borland Software Corporation, a leading provider of e-business platform solutions, today announced the free evaluation version of Borland Delphi 6 Enterprise Edition, a rapid application development (RAD) environment for the Windows platform. Delphi 6 Enterprise Trial Edition enables businesses to easily evaluate next generation e-business application development with Web Services. Developers can go to www.borland.com/delphi today to download Delphi 6 Enterprise Trial Edition and evaluate for 60 days. Delphi 6 enables the rapid development and deployment of next generation e-business applications, and is the only RAD development environment that fully supports all major emerging Internet based Web Service standards, including XML, SOAP, WSDL, and XSL. Additionally, Delphi supports emerging Web Services based vendor platforms such as .Net and BizTalk from Microsoft, and ONE from Sun Microsystems, while providing the scalability and reliability that enterprise and Web developers require. 'Borland is making it easy for businesses to evaluate Web Services, free-of-charge,' said Simon Thornhill, vice president and general manager of the RAD business unit at Borland. 'Delphi 6 enables organizations to both create and leverage Web Services to transform their business into e-business. Delphi 6 Web Services and XML technologies, using the Internet and Web infrastructure as the platform, seamlessly connect applications, business processes, customers, and suppliers anywhere in the world with standardized language and machine-independent Internet protocols. When paired with Borland Kylix, the first native RAD environment for the Linux operating system (OS), Delphi 6 users can build single-source applications for both Windows and Linux, providing new opportunities and increasing the potential return on development investments. Borland Delphi 6 is the first rapid application development environment for Windows that fully supports new and emerging Web Services. With Delphi 6, corporate or individual developers can create next generation e-business applications quickly and easily. Major features include BizSnap, WebSnap and DataSnap that enable developers to create applications that simplify business-to-business integration with full support for XML, SOAP, XSL and WSDL. Delphi 6 support for industry standard Web Services enables immediate and ongoing integration with emerging Web Services based vendor platforms such as .Net and BizTalk from Microsoft, and ONE from Sun Microsystems."

  • [July 23, 2001] "Global Commerce Initiative Launches ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot. 'Critical Step in Adoption,' Says Rik Drummond, Vs.1 Chair ebXML Messaging Specification." - "The Global Commerce Initiative announced today they would launch the 'ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot.' Drummond Group Inc. will facilitate the interoperability testing of messaging software between various vendors to develop recommendations for implementations of these standards. 'Standards are often developed and not adopted,' says Rik Drummond, Chief Scientist, Drummond Group Inc. 'There was a tremendous amount of work in developing ebXML and the ebXML messaging specification. Interoperability testing ensures that this work will get adopted by the user community quickly and on a global scale.' 'It is our principle within the Global Commerce Initiative to test the standards and recommendations we are endorsing,' states Peter Jordan, Director IS Strategic Projects Kraft Foods International, Member of the GCI Executive Board and Co-Chair of the Business Process Group. 'Our XML pilots have clearly shown that messaging systems were not interoperable and this pilot is a big step forward in providing this missing bridge.' Drummond Group Inc. is now formally soliciting participation in the ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot." See: "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)" and "Global Commerce Initiative (GCI)."

  • [July 18, 2001] "OASIS Enhances Support for Members in Europe. XML Interoperability Consortium Opens Office in the Netherlands and Appoints Pim van der Eijk as European Representative." - "OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, enhanced support for its growing membership in Europe by opening a new office in the Netherlands, headed by Pim van der Eijk. As the OASIS European Representative, van der Eijk will support and expand OASIS membership in Europe by organizing activities and promoting involvement in the technical work of the Consortium. According to van der Eijk, European organizations are drawn to OASIS because the Consortium encourages open collaboration on interoperability issues critical to European companies. The international focus of the Consortium facilitates global participation. Members of each technical committee specify which language they will use to conduct their work, and most discussions are held via email or conference calls to accommodate participants from multiple continents. When face-to-face meetings are held, a technical committee chooses a location convenient to its own members. Prior to joining OASIS, van der Eijk held technology positions at Excelon, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Digital Equipment Corporation. He is an active participant in the Dutch SGML/XML User Group."

  • [July 16, 2001] "Noonetime Launches Constellation, An XML-Based Software Solution For Content Migration. Document Migration from Quark Xpress to XML and Back is Effortless." - "Noonetime, a leading provider of XML-based content migration software tools, announces the expansion of their product portfolio with the launch of Constellation, a software solution that uses behind-the-scenes technology to facilitate seamless two-way content migration, editing, and re-purposing between XML and other authoring applications... Constellation's first release allows QuarkXpress users to automatically export documents to XML, edit the document on-line, and re-import the revised document back into the original Quark template, preserving all styles and formatting. Shortly Noonetime will be releasing these same capabilities for Microsoft Word and FrameMaker." ['Constellation incorporates all of the XML migration and management capabilities of their leading Xtract and Xtract Plus products with the newly released COLA and StarMapper solutions to create a two-way, completely integrated solution for managing XML content. Through the use of patent pending, two-way technology, Constellation allows users to take the management of XML as far as they want, providing a simple, user-friendly interface so non-technical users can benefit from the power of XML without having to deal with the technical aspects. XML sits behind the scenes, allowing content creators to work in their native authoring environments and automatically convert the content to XML; nothing about their content creation process is affected. For the more technically savvy, we provide access to the technicalities behind the creation, editing, and mapping of XML, DTDs, and XSL stylesheets. Constellation addresses how to get your existing and newly created content to XML, without the use of templates. Using Noonetime's superior Xtract technology, content created in Word or QuarkXpress is automatically transformed to XML. Xtract Plus completes the round trip process by importing the extracted XML back to its original document layout. StarMapper takes over from here, mapping between components from a source DTD or Schema and a target DTD or Schema, simply by selecting the elements and clicking on a button to map. As the elements mapped, an XSL stylesheet specifying the transformation for an XML document is automatically created. The exported document can be edited remotely using COLA, an online editing and authoring tool. Once again, the XML sits behind the scenes, so users can edit documents in a non-technical environment. COLA is structured so that, through the editing process, well-formed XML is always being created, even if the user knows nothing about XML. Once the document is complete, it can either be imported back to the original document source for print or delivered through other channels, including Internet and wireless devices. Constellation provides a seamless, roundtrip solution to make working with XML effortless."]

  • [July 12, 2001] "DataMirror Launches Enhanced Version Of DB/XML Transform Software. Powerful XML-driven Software Allows Companies to Exchange and Flow Data Over the Web." - "DataMirror Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise application integration and resiliency solutions, has announced [2001-07-09] an enhanced version of DB/XML Transform, software that allows companies to leverage all information across their enterprises by transforming and flowing data bi-directionally between database, XML and text formats in any combination. DB/XML Transform converts data to and from XML which is fast-becoming the industry standard for integrating, transforming and flowing data and structured content over the web. Through XML, data can be transformed from any format to any other format for building powerful applications such as corporate portals, e-Business and business-to-business integration. DataMirror also announced a new version of DB/XML Vision, a cost-effective, scaled-down version of DB/XML Transform for simple database to XML conversion projects. Today's announcement is part of a broad strategy to incorporate XML-based enterprise application integration features into DataMirror's award-winning data integration and resiliency product family. 'To thrive in an integrated e-Business economy, companies must find a common denominator for seamlessly and dynamically transforming and exchanging business information between corporate databases, web sites and business partners,' said Nigel Stokes, Chairman, President and CEO, DataMirror Corporation. 'DataMirror DB/XML Transform helps companies stay competitive by providing them with a powerful 100% Java-based and XML-driven solution for flowing data and structured content over the Internet'." See: "XML and Databases."

  • [July 12, 2001] "Drummond Group to Lead XML Infrastructure Pilot for Open Applications Group and Automobile Industry." - "Drummond Group, Inc., a leading supply chain strategy firm, will facilitate definition of a set of XML based Infrastructure specifications and protocols for the Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGI) and the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) consortium. OAGI and STAR have partnered to lead a series of specification building projects focused on automotive distribution business processes and the messaging infrastructure supporting them. Drummond Group will lead the messaging infrastructure development effort for this group. Drummond Group, Inc. is a senior-level strategy practice whose discovery and analysis processes have successfully assisted a multitude of diverse companies from Fortune 100 to start-ups. Started in 1990 by Rik Drummond, a recognized industry expert in eBusiness, the vendor neutral group works on linking horizontal infrastructure technologies, standards and interoperability issues with the needs of vertical industry such as retail, grocery, healthcare and transportation. Open Applications Group Inc. -- The Open Applications Group (OAGI) is a non-for-profit consortium building and delivering XML schemas and business process collaboration definitions for e-Business and Application Integration. The OAGI is the largest publisher of horizontal, framework independent, XML-based messages and business collaboration definitions for business software interoperability in the world. The work supports ebXML, BizTalk Framework, and the RosettaNet Implementation Framework. The Open Applications Group has hundreds of live sites worldwide and nearly 80 software and services vendors supporting the work. The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the Information Technology (IT) standards body for the retail automotive industry. The goal of STAR is to use voluntary IT standards as a catalyst to fulfill the business information needs of dealers and manufacturers, thus reducing the time and effort previously required supporting this activity." See the discussion. [source]

  • [July 12, 2001] "Automotive Retail Industry Standards: Open Applications Group Selected to Develop Business Collaborations and XML Messages Based on OAGIS. Technical Infrastructure to be Based on ebXML." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world, today announced they have been selected by the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) consortium as their development partner for their next generation business language and data messaging architecture. The two organizations have formed a collaborative initiative to design XML (Extensible Markup Language) based messages conforming to and extending the OAGIS specification, the Open Applications Group's library of specifications for eBusiness and Application Integration. The STAR consortium seeks to facilitate cost-effective communications between dealerships and auto manufacturers. Millions of messages flow daily between the two as they sell and repair vehicles while fulfilling their customers' transportation needs. The STAR/XML project will enhance current systems, making them more timely, easier to use, and more automated. The STAR/XML initiative will use the standard collaborations and messages from the OAGIS specification and will also build new collaborations and messages specifically for the STAR constituency. In addition, OAGI architects and technologists, working with domain experts from the auto industry, will design a standardized infrastructure to streamline business data flowing between auto dealerships, manufacturers and other auto distribution "value chain" companies. This infrastructure will be Internet based and utilize elements of the recently approved ebXML specification, which is a B2B protocol recently approved by the United Nations. The results of this initiative will enable STAR members to conduct business in real time by communicating data in common terms using standardized business processes." See the discussion. [source]

  • [July 11, 2001] "Logility Announces Immediate Support for VICS CPFR XML Standard. Industry Standard Provides Trading Partners Open Architecture Connectivity." - "Logility, a leading supplier of business-to-business collaborative commerce solutions to power e-Business and optimize the supply chain, today announced support for the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards (VICS) Association CPFR XML standard providing trading partners an open architecture for seamless collaboration. The CPFR XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard enables the exchange of key information between supply chain trading partners to automate the CPFR (collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment) process based on the VICS guidelines. The VICS CPFR XML standard will allow companies that participate in CPFR via peer-to-peer, hub-and-spoke or trading exchange relationships to share sales and order forecasts, event calendars, historic product activity, performance metrics, event monitoring and exception alerts using standard Internet protocols. The XML standard will permit companies using Logility Voyager Collaborate, that were formerly using EDI (electronic data interchange) for CPFR messaging, to easily convert to XML-based messaging without a major technology investment. 'Logility's support for the VICS CPFR XML standard further solidifies our commitment to open standards for collaboration,' said Andrew White, vice president of product strategy for Logility. 'Logility Voyager Collaborate, Logility's fourth generation CPFR solution, includes embedded support for XML and allows retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and suppliers the ability to increase supply chain visibility, optimize their operations, manage common objectives and prioritize, notify and resolve exceptions in a real-time environment.' As a pioneer in collaborative applications, Logility introduced the first XML CPFR schema in 1999 and accelerated the industry standard definition when it contributed much of this work to the VICS technical sub-committee. Working with retailers, manufactures, distributors and other software and professional services providers, the VICS board approved the CPFR XML standard on June 25, 2001." See: "VICS CPFR XML Messaging Standard."

  • [July 05, 2001] "NetFederation Officially Starts NewsML Showcase." - "Cologne, Germany. 03-July-2001. The German-based NetFederation Interactive Media GmbH has published a NewsML showcase today. The NetFederation showcase contains information on the XML flavour NewsML for business users and developers. The aim of this showcase is to become a portal for NewsML knowledge and a discussion forum for business usage. You can access this showcase directly via www.net-federation.de/newsml. NetFederation is a leading company in NewsML technology in Germany. The company is currently developing a prototype NewsML-specification for the Corporate Communication department of the international pharmaceutical company Aventis (France). NetFederation's prototype for Aventis aims to standardize all of the company's internal and external communication flows. The project intends to facilitate the information exchange and workflow of all Aventis communicators and internal communication portals. Furthermore, the prototype can enable Aventis communicators to export company news directly to external news-databases (e.g. of news agencies, online health-care portals). This project is called 'ACM - Aventis Content Marketplace' and is one of the first prototypes worldwide to standardize information exchange between internal and external company communication systems by making use of XML technology standards." See "NewsML and IPTC2000."

  • [July 05, 2001] "Creative Science Systems Announces Release of Schema to Java Compiler." - "Creative Science Systems, Inc. leverages its market leading integration middleware technology NetZyme to deliver Schema to Java Compiler Tool. Schema2Java Compiler Tool is the first publicly available tool to generate run time Java code from arbitrary XML Schema that supports the implementation guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML Schema Technical Recommendation. W3C is the world-renowned standards body for developing interoperable Web Technologies. 'Commercial-grade implementation of XML Schema will provide a surge in development of a new wave of web services and integrated networked products both in the enterprise and consumer market,' said Dr. Michael Shapiro, VP of Engineering at Creative Science Systems. 'Creative Science Systems continues to demonstrate its leadership in engineering of early stage technological innovations into business-centric core technology solutions with the release of Schema2Java Compiler Tool as the first functioning development tool that offers implementation of this worldwide standard." Schema2Java Compiler tool is available as a free software service at www.schema2java.com. Commercial version of Schema2Java is expected to ship in October 2001... Java code, outlined in the packages allows the processing of XML documents described by specific schema. Usually, the incoming XML document gets unmarshalled into the instances of the classes generated from the schema, processed, and, finally, gets marshalled back into XML form..." For schema description and references, see "XML Schemas."

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