1189253043Content WireDeskcomputer,development time,global technology,innovation,look forward,new research,new technology,research and development,science,senior research,senior technology,senior vice president,strategic technology,supercomputer,Technology,technology research,vice presidentCray Opens Development Center in Austin Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. has opened a new engineering development center in Austin, Texas. "Austin has a very strong high-tech community in both hardware and software and provides a deep pool of technology and engineering talent," said Peg Williams, senior vice president of research and development at Cray. "We look forward to becoming part of the community and, at the same time, advancing Cray's leading-edge technological strength and innovation in HPC." Austin's status as a technology hub, the close proximity to a number of strategic development partners and the University of Texas, with its strong computer science and computer engineering programs, were key factors in the company's decision to open a facility in the area. Located at 6200 Bridgepoint Parkway, engineers in the new Austin office will focus on developing boards and custom ASICs for Cray's high-end custom supercomputers, along with supporting future software development. In addition to the new Austin office, Cray has engineering facilities in Seattle, Mendota Heights, Minnesota and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Cray's corporate headquarters are located in Seattle. www.cray.com http://www.content-wire.com/cray-opens-development-center-austin1188563972Content WireDeskaccountability,benefit,boundaries,charity,circumstances,corporations,decisions,Democracy,Development,development environment,development time,economy,Economy,global economic,health care,help companies,human rights,Human Rights,inevitably,love,money,money to be made,necessarily,new economy,one of the few,open source,open source world,prioritize,public sector,real estate,real time,relationship,repeatedly,respect to,reveal,single source,six months,six percent,take advantage,three months,time and money,time it takes,time spentThe Ten Most Important Lessons Learned - Two Years of KatrinaBy Bill Quigley  One. Build and rebuild community. When disaster hits and life is wrecked, you immediately seem to be on your own. Isolation after a disaster is a recipe for powerlessness and depression. Family, community, church, work associations are all important – get them up and working as fast as possible. People will stand up and fight, but we need communities to do it. Prize women – they are the first line of community builders. Guys will talk and fight and often grab the spotlight, but women will help everyone and do whatever it takes to protect families and communities. Powerful forces mobilize immediately after a disaster. People and politicians and organizations have their own agendas and it helps them if our communities are fragmented. Setting one group against another, saying one group is more important than another is not helpful. Stress and distress is high for everyone, but community support will multiply the resources of individuals. Build bridges. People together are much stronger than people alone. Two. Self-reliance. Your community must be ready to re-settle your property as soon as possible and care for those most in need. Prioritize help for the elderly, the sick, children and women, especially the poor. The prime cure for helplessness is taking control over your own life and joining others to fight for justice. Groups and people will want to treat you like a victim – say you are traumatized and incapable of making basic decisions about yourself. They will tell you they know best and act like they know best. Tell them to get lost. Three. Tell your own story. Sharing our stories, successes and failures, is a way to connect and educate ourselves. Connecting with others nationally and internationally who have been through disasters is the very best thing that you can do. Disasters and the corporations that cause them and profit from them do not respect national boundaries. Look for global justice connections. Learn from those who have been through this before. They will tell you - do not let anyone say who you are or what is best for your community – say it yourself. Those in power will blame circumstances outside their control for what happened and inevitably they will blame the victims of the disaster. Those in power will tell the people’s story in ways that makes the powerful look good. If others do not tell the truth – you do it and get your stories out. Real allies help lift up the voices of the people. Four. Value every single human life equally. Every religion and human rights recognizes that every single person is entitled to human dignity. There are no forms to fill out, no criteria to meet. Every single person no matter their race or gender or economic situation has equal value. Every person has the right to participate in the response to the disaster equally. Every single person and family has the right to repair and rebuild and participate in the decisions being made. The exact opposite occurs after a disaster. The people with economic and political power get together and decide what has to happen. They also decide which people are “worthy” of getting help first. They consider poor working people disposable and movable. Since this is an emergency, they say there is not time to allow regular people to participate in the decisions. If every single person is not treated equally before the disaster hits, they certainly should not expect to be treated fairly after. Five. Don’t wait for a leader – become one. Resist the tendency to think someone else is going to come save you. There is no leader out there. We must each become leaders and followers in order to bring about the change that is needed. Each of us is challenged to get beyond our pre-disaster comfort zone. New leadership is essential to avoid just repeating the mistakes that contributed to the disaster. Those who work for human development instead of real estate development will be repeatedly criticized as “obstructionist” by those who do not value every life equally. Be prepared for these criticisms. That is what they said about Mandela, Gandhi, ML King. Good company. Six. Prepare for a Love-Hate Relationship with the Government. After disaster, only the government has the resources to help fix major problems for the social good. We must hold them accountable and demand that the public sector mobilize and assist in an equitable way. At the same time, we cannot wait for the government. Nor can we necessarily listen to the government. After a disaster, the government will immediately be manipulated by those in power. We must both critique the government and build our own alternative community supports. Seven. Government will help businesses first and second and third, and if there is anything left, maybe fourth. Who is in charge of government before the disaster? Governments will look to privatize the public sector – housing, health, education, transportation, every system after a disaster. That was what they wanted before the disaster, so the disaster offers them an opportunity to move their plans into action. Corporations see disasters as opportunities. They look for valuable land that poor people were living on before the disaster. They decide that there is a better economic use for that land. Then they will push the government to come up with some excuse to take the land for other uses. You will quickly see that those with power and money before the disaster end up with more power and more money after the disaster. You will see that 98% of the money distributed in a disaster ends up enriching corporations. Our most colorful example is the blue tarps that the government put on the roofs of houses after Katrina. The main contractor, Shaw Group, got $175 a square to put on the tarps. The subcontracted the work out to another corporation for $75 a square. The second corporation subcontracted the work out to a third corporation for $30 a square. Who in turn subcontracted it out again to guys who did the work for $2 a square. Two dollars a square for the actual worker is less than 2 percent of what the government paid out – guess who got the money. Wonder why the Gulf Coast is not fixed up yet? This is not an accident. It is not that the system isn’t working. It is working for the benefit of those who create and fund and manipulate it. Read Naomi Klein’s THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. It spells it out in detail. If government works primarily for corporations before the disaster, after the disaster it will be a hyper corporate-friendly environment. Eight. Disasters reveal the structural injustices in our communities in race, gender and class and are thus learning and action opportunities. Wonder about the role of race, class and gender in society? Watch what happens when disaster strikes. Who is left behind during the disaster? Who is left behind in the repair and rebuilding and planning and decision-making? Disasters illuminate injustices. There is tremendous educational opportunity to look at what really matters in our society after a disaster. The curtains are pulled back. The bandages are ripped off. Our histories of injustice are laid bare for all to see. International human rights create great opportunities to reframe the justice discussion. But just looking is insufficient. Join in solidarity with the same folks who are left out. If a disaster can be an opportunity for those interested in unjust economic advantage, why cannot we change the pattern and make it an opportunity to redistribute justice in our communities and right the wrongs that created what all can now see? Nine. A justice-based reconstruction will not be funded. Money will flow. Charities, churches and governments will send money for charitable help. If your community is trying to create a more just community than the one destroyed by the disaster, there will not be funding for that. If you are trying to make the community fairer for and with the poor, the elderly, and those who lived in unjust circumstances before the disaster – get ready to raise your own funds for your organization. Funding for charity will come, but funding for justice will not. We must insist on some transparency and accountability from the non-profits and foundations and others who have raised and spent billions in the names of those in distress. They cannot be allowed to operate like multi-national corporations – they must open their books and involve people in their decision-making. Solidarity not charity is one of the great demands to come out of Katrina from the Common Ground collective. Another is “Nothing about us without us is for us” from Peoples Hurricane Relief. After Katrina, it again became clear that decades of oil development has literally destroyed the natural protections around the gulf coast. Yet the disaster actually enriched the oil companies who helped cause it, creating their biggest year of profit in some time. Yet, do you hear the voices of those calling out for the oil corporations to be held accountable for what they have caused? Those voices are small and unfunded. But they, like so many others calling for justice, are out there and will one day be heard. Ten. Love is the answer – justice work is a commitment for the long haul. When disaster hits, there is a natural urge to work around the clock to try to set things right. After a few weeks or months, it will become clear that is not sustainable. Working 24 hours a day is going to make you as crazy as the government. No one likes a crank – even if they are working for justice. Building communities of resistance and working for human development is long-term work. Love is a tremendous source of energy. But we have to love ourselves as well so we can keep living this resistance with others. We have and will continue to make mistakes. We have to get back up, dust ourselves off, forgive ourselves and others, and get back to working in community to create a more just world. It is important to laugh too. Remember that last job held by the guy in charge of disasters for the entire US government was as head of an association of dancing horses! We can’t make this stuff up. We have to love and laugh along with our tears and rage and keep learning new lessons. Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at Quigley@loyno.edu http://www.content-wire.com/ten-most-important-lessons-learned-two-years-katrina1170115200Content Wireadminaccess control,adoption,best practices,boundaries,collaboration,complexity,Conceptualization,core issue,desktops,Development,development time,development tools,diversity,easy access,entities,environments,extensible,flexibility,GPL,high speed,integration software,Internet,internet,interoperability,Knowledge Representation,methodology,models,new research,novel,one of the few,Ontology,open source,Open Source Semantic Tools,open source world,owl,OWL,OWL,provide tools,public access,queries,recent research,relationships,reliability,research and development,semantic,Semantic Tools,Semantic Tools,Semantic Web Projects,single point,single source,software developers,source of information,system integration,target,Web 2.0,web based,web users,WorldTowards an Open OntologyThis 'Open Ontology' requirement has been sitting on my desktop for a few days now, me thinking, how should I best publish this? Write to the OSI foundation? Wait for the next journal deadline? (could take months) I have a couple of research papers underway, but admittedly I have not been coherently following a Journal Publication strategy in my research, nor in any other area of my life. Also, now I am really urged to make a statement, cause I am already discussing this issue with peers, and there are so many perspectives, and I have not yet heard any doubts as to the validity of the proposed construct, on the contrary. And also, let's admit it, the <a href="http://www.courses.rochester.edu/santora/vietnam/Protest_Songs/The%20Times%20They%20Are%20A-Changi.mp3">Times are achanging</a>. It could take months before the article is published. We should bring this issue out in the open as soon as possible, and get it working. So here it is. What is an Open Ontology With the term 'open ontology' we refer to a given set of agreed terms, both in terms of conceptualization and semantic formalization, that has been developed based on public consultation, that embodies and represents and synthesizes all available, valid knowledge that is deemed to pertain to a given domain, and is necessary to fulfill a given functional requirement. Phew. An Oont must be publicly documented, and accessible and with minimal barriers to adoption. Among the barrier to adoption for Ontology, research identifies not only different linguistic, conceptual and cultural differences, but also knowledge and point of view differences that set apart academics – who generally develop ontologies and related tools and methodologies – from experts – who understand lingo and the dynamics - system developers – programmers, systems designers and end users at large. By 'open' we indicate 'perfectly flexible', extensible, and with adaptive boundaries that dynamically adjust to constantly changing parameters and also 'open as opposed to 'closed', whereby an ontology is developed internally by an organization or consortium, with the purpose of imposing a single view of the world, without a public consultation process and no public deliverable is available that can be used and referenced as guidelines by system developers for the purpose of third party integration. Research confirms that there are tangible barriers to use and adoption of ontology modeling tools and techniques, in particular the absence of a clear set of structured deliverables, the lack of a structured methodology for ontology engineering. Among the barriers to entry is also an extremely high level of technical expertise required to decode and apply guidelines. Open Means Collaborative 'Collaboration' is happening everywhere, thanks mainly to the Internet and 'Web 2.0' type tools that are populating desktops, although few organisational policies and practices are keeping up to speed in leveraging the potential of collaboration. Open source communities have been early adopters of online collaboration environments, although increased abstraction and complexity and increased geographical and cultural distribution challenges effective online cooperation even among open source communities. It is argued by some that t ‘Open source’ is not suitable to Emergency Response projects, yet initiatives spontaneously emerged during recent disasters point towards the emergence of a possible model, that needs to be defined and refined before it can be evaluated and tested. An important emerging research area is 'Collaborative ontology development'. As put by Farrukh Najmi, Engineer at Sun, "Ontologies often need to be developed collaboratively by a group of geographically dispersed Domain Experts within a certain domain. Each Domain Expert builds a different sub-graph (network) of the ontology, may review the ontology sub-graphs produced by others, may edit ontology sub-graphs that they or another Domain Expert created with appropriate access control ". Plural and Collaborative ontology development models are emerging, and among the core attributes identified is the flexibility in incorporating new concepts and/or languages . A wealth of related work is becoming available to witness the shift towards open collaborative environments. Pinto describes collaborative ontology environments as: • Highly distributed: Anyone can contribute more knowledge. • Highly dynamic: Several contributors may be changing knowledge at the same time, with high change rates. • Uncontrolled: There is no control over what information is added, and the quality and reliability of that information. In this case, there will be a lot of noise (positive and negative contributions), and not everybody contributing to the ontology will be focused on the same task or have the same purpose. (Pinto and Martins 2002) GENERIC REQUIREMENTS FOR AN OPEN ONTOLOGY Referring directly to a) the nature of the collaborative environments that is typical of open web based environments and b) the emergence of novel ontology engineering methods, it is becoming mandatory to make a clear case for an ‘Open Ontology’ In summary, we propose that an initial outline of requirement for an Open Ontology that can be referenced universally, including by open source teams, should have the following characteristics. • Should be licensed under GPL, or similar public license • It should declare what high level knowledge (upper level ontology) it references, • It should declare what kind of reasoning/inference supports/it is based on, • It should support queries via natural language as well as machine language, • It should be visible, searchable and support queries via a Web based interface that does not require any plug-in and API for users to download, • It should allow users to provide feedback that should be taken into account in subsequent iterations, • It should be documented and annotated, and available in different file formats including Open Document, • It should be 'easy to understand' by generic users without specialized skills and guidelines should be provided as how it can be used to support development practices, • It should include instructions on how to relate such 'high level knowledge' to standard knowledge representation artifacts used in software and systems engineering, such as entities, attributes, classes, objects, properties, sub-properties, values and relationships, • It should be implementation independent; this means not only usable by OWL/DAML model but also reusable by alternative ontology languages • it should support one view of the world if required, and allow for simultaneous multiple views, meaning that it should aim to be perfectly elastic, flexible and adaptable, • it should take into account language and cultural diversity, and corresponding different value systems and knowledge representation requirements, • it should be supported by tutorials and educational materials at different levels of specialization. The requirements above need further discussion and a public consultation. In addition to the generic requirements above, more conventional system requirements should be specified depending on the target system and goals. To add your requirement, <a href="http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?PaolaDiMaio/Towards_OpenOntology">Sign up to this wiki</a> More about <a href="http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?search=PaolaDiMaio" Paola Di Maio</a>http://www.content-wire.com/towards-open-ontology1167955200Content Wireadminanalytics,checks,decisions,Development,development time,Georgia,money,money to be made,one of the few,People,periods,private capital,rethink,six months,six percent,target,three months,time and money,venture capital,WarHurricane Katrina Saga Not Over: Tale of Two Sisters By Bill Quigley  Gloria Williams and her twin sister Bobbie Jennings are 60 years old. They are two of the over 4000 families who lived in public housing in New Orleans before Katrina struck who are still locked out of their apartments since Katrina. Their apartments are two of 4534 apartments that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced plans to demolish. Demolition is planned even though it will cost more to demolish and rebuild many fewer units than it does to fix them up and open them. Ms. Williams and Ms. Jennings, and thousands of families like them, are fighting HUD, they want to return. Gloria and Bobbie started working early. As children they picked cotton, strawberries, snap beans and pecans before and after grade school every day in rural Louisiana. “We were raised up to work,” they said. They moved to New Orleans after their father drowned. Their home was marked by regular domestic violence. A few years later, their mother was murdered by a boyfriend. As teens they moved in with an abusive relative. They ran away, came back, and stayed with other relatives. They can even remember nights when they slept under their aunt’s bed in a hospital while waiting for her to recuperate. As young women they continued working. They worked in restaurants before starting careers as Certified Nursing Assistants. Then they worked for years in nursing homes and in private homes caring for the elderly and disabled. They fed people, cleaned people, bathed people, cared for people. Each married and raised children and grandchildren. Like 25% of the households in New Orleans, neither owned a car. Both sisters are now 60. In the past few years, their years of physical work took its toil and they could not longer work. Ms. Jennings had back surgery and suffers with high blood pressure. Ms. Williams has heart and lung problems, high blood pressure, and clots in her legs that prevent her from standing or walking for long periods. Each lives solely on about $600 a month from disability. No pensions. When Katrina hit, they had been living in the C.J. Peete apartments for years. Ms. Bobbie Jennings had been there for 34 years. Her twin sister, Ms. Gloria Williams lived there for over 18 years. Their combined families, 18 in all, evacuated to Baton Rouge to ride out the storm. When it was clear they would not be going home any time soon, their host family told them it was time to move on. In September 2005, the family of 18 moved into one daughter’s damaged home in Slidell, about 30 miles away from New Orleans – all sleeping on the first floor because the roof was still damaged. One of their sisters, Annie, was in the hospital with cancer when Katrina hit. It took the family weeks before the finally found her in a hospital in Macon, Georgia. When the city opened, they got rides into town and checked on their apartments. No water had entered their apartments at all. But their doors had been kicked down and all their furnishings were gone. The housing authority told them they could not move back in for a couple more months while their apartments were secured and fixed up. The housing authority started fixing up and painting apartments in her complex, but abruptly stopped after a few weeks. Slidell was getting tight, so they accepted an offer to relocate to California. After a month, they returned. Being 3000 miles apart from family was too heartbreaking. A four day bus ride brought them back to Slidell in January 2006. After hitching rides into New Orleans, Ms. Williams found a subsidized apartment. The only way the landlord would accept her, though, was if she paid him an extra $400 under the table. Otherwise, he would rent it to someone else who would. So Ms. Williams paid the extra money and moved in with her grandchildren while she waited for her old apartment to reopen. She used FEMA money to buy new furniture. In late February 2005, Ms. Williams was hospitalized for three weeks for surgeries on her legs. In June 2005, HUD announced they were not going to let any residents back in her apartment complex and three others (Lafitte, St. Bernard and BW Cooper) because they were going to be demolished. Over one hundred maintenance and security workers for the housing authority were let go. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago and all these decisions are being made in Washington DC. The demolished buildings would make way for much newer and many fewer apartments which would be built by private developers. The demolition and private development would be financed by federal funds and federal tax breaks designed to help Katrina victims! Nearly $100 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds were designated for the private developers. Another $34 million in Katrina Go-Zone tax credits were also donated to the developers. In July 2005, Ms. Williams apartment caught fire and again she lost everything. Her landlord did not want to let her out of her lease. He told her that she and her grandson could still live there, all they had to do was clean the soot off the walls and ceilings. At this, Ms. Williams broke down and went back into the hospital. Ms. Jennings got an apartment and allowed her daughter and her grandchildren to live there because they have no place to stay. She also took her in her little sister, Annie, who was dying of cancer. Annie died on August 17, 2005. Both sisters have severe problems every month making ends meet. Utility bills eat up most of their monthly checks. With no car and their apartments across the river from New Orleans, they cannot get to the doctor. Christmas was very tough. Ms. Williams said "We didn't have a Christmas. We didn't have food to put on the table.” Her grandson went to her sister’s house to get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Ms. Jennings cried as she said “Behind Katrina and my little sister dying, my life just stopped. This is the second year we didn’t have a Christmas. It is so hard to try to start over. I let my daughter and her two grandchildren sleep on the bed. I sleep on a pallet on the floor. Before Katrina I was on blood pressure medicine once a day. Now I take 4 blood pressure pills three times a day. I also take pills for depression, nerves and stress.” “We just want to go home,” Ms. Williams said. “People knew us in our neighborhood. They never messed with us. I could leave my back door open when I went to the grocery. People don’t understand that was our home. We want to go home.” Why would people want to go back into public housing? Aren’t the developments dangerous and crime-ridden? Isn’t this an opportunity to start over and make something better? Public housing residents know full well the problems of public housing, but still they want to return. Why? Start with the fact that New Orleans is in the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War. Tens of thousands of houses still remain in ruins after Katrina. Rents for the rest have gone up 70-80 percent since Katrina. Even before Katrina, there was a waiting list of 18,000 families seeking to get into public housing – now it is much, much worse. HUD’s demolition plans target 4,534 apartments of public housing in the community. They plan to demolish 1546 apartments in BW Cooper, 723 in C.J. Peete, 1400 in St. Bernard, and 865 in Lafitte. These are not the dense high-rise towers. Public housing in New Orleans is made up of development clusters of mostly two and three story buildings with six to eight apartments in each. [..] http://www.content-wire.com/hurricane-katrina-saga-not-over-tale-two-sisters1165449600Content WireadminBusiness,business applications,business development,business information,business logic,Development,development time,functionality,logic,new business,new data,possibilities,relationships,rich applications,Web 2.0,web applications,XMLXML SapiensXML Site Sapiens is a XML-based web interface creation markup language. It allows to describe web-application as a composition of separated abstract components: data, its presentation and functionality. New language intended to reduce time for development and debugging of web applications. XML Sapiens 2.0 contains new possibilities for reusing, transferring of information objects, scenarios and templates and allows developers to create applications with sophisticated business logic and rich interactivity. www.xmlsapiens.orghttp://www.content-wire.com/xml-sapiens1165449600Content WireadminBusiness,business applications,business development,business information,business logic,Development,development time,functionality,Google,logic,new business,new data,possibilities,repository,rich applications,unnecessarily,Web 2.0,web applications,XMLXML Sapiens, for Scheme Know-it-allXML Site Sapiens is a XML-based web interface creation markup language. It allows to describe web-application as a composition of separated abstract components: data, its presentation and functionality. New language intended to reduce time for development and debugging of web applications. XML Sapiens 2.0 contains new possibilities for reusing, transferring of information objects, scenarios and templates and allows developers to create applications with sophisticated business logic and rich interactivity. www.xmlsapiens.org <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-7258139694566163";google_ad_width = 300;google_ad_height = 250;google_ad_format = "300x250_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "CC99CC";google_color_bg = "E7C6E8";google_color_link = "000000";google_color_url = "00008B";google_color_text = "663366";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script> www.sitesapiens.comhttp://www.content-wire.com/xml-sapiens-scheme-know-it-all1155078000Content Wireadminadoption,application developers,application development,application tools,architecture,architectures,benefit,browser,Business,business applications,business benefit,business benefits,business content,business development,business functions,business information,business intelligence,business logic,business models,business need,business process,business process management,business processes,business user,business users,CMS,content analysis,content infrastructure,content integration,content management,Content Management,content management application,content management applications,content management capabilities,content management infrastructure,content management services,content management software,content management system,content management tools,Content Technologies,content technology,core business,corporate data,corporate knowledge,customer service,data access,data management,Data Management,data services,data sources,decisions,deploy,Development,development infrastructure,development time,development tools,dynamic content,dynamic content management,enterprise applications,enterprise content,enterprise content management,Enterprise Web,financial management,financial services,functionality,global content,global network,global reach,global technology,Google,hype,implementation costs,improvements,Information Management,information technology,infrastructure,infrastructure software,innovations,integration costs,integration software,intelligence,Internet,internet,key business,key industry,knowledge management,Knowledge Management,logic,mainstream,management application,management applications,management capabilities,management functionality,management infrastructure,management market,management requirements,management technology,management tools,massive amounts,massive volumes,maturity,metadata,metadata,mobile content,mobile data,mobile devices,mobile services,models,network infrastructure,networking,new business,new data,new technology,one of the few,People,perception,piracy,project management,public access,real time,relationships,robust content,semantic,Semantic Technologies,semantic technologies,Semantic Tools,Semantic Tools,Semantic web organizations,Semantic Web Projects,Semantic Web Standards,service revenue,significant impact,significantly,single point,Social Networks,Social Networks Analysis,Social Technology,software applications,software developers,Standards,supply chain,system integration,target,target market,Technology,technology integration,telecommunications,telecommunications services,time to market,usability,user experience,user interfaces,users experience,value chain,vertical markets,virtual,Web 2.0,web applications,web based,Web CMS,web content,web content management,web content management system,web users,wireless data,wireless data services,wireless industry,wireless services,wireless technologies,WorldContent Management is Key, when it integrates new toolsContent Management technologies have been expanding their core functionality over the years Past are the times when CM is just about web publishing. To understand what your content management system should behave in the future, look ahead. Interesting post by Gartner today projects a clear picture - that you may or may not agree with - but that gives a clear sense of direction for those who build, and those who implement and buy, their next CMS Three major themes, says researchers, are experiencing significant activity and which include new or heavily hyped technologies, that is worth keeping in mind when rolling out your next website Web 2.0 Web 2.0 represents a broad collection of recent trends in Internet technologies and business models. Particular focus has been given to user-created content, lightweight technology, service-based access and shared revenue models. Technologies rated by Gartner as having transformational, high or moderate impact include: * Social Network Analysis (SNA) is rated as high impact (definition: enables new ways of performing vertical applications that will result in significantly increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise) and capable of reaching maturity in less than two years. SNA is the use of information and knowledge from many people and their personal networks. It involves collecting massive amounts of data from multiple sources, analyzing the data to identify relationships and mining it for new information. Gartner said that SNA can successfully impact a business by being used to identify target markets, create successful project teams and serendipitously identify unvoiced conclusions. * Ajax is also rated as high impact and capable of reaching maturity in less than two years. Ajax is a collection of techniques that Web developers use to deliver an enhanced, more-responsive user experience in the confines of a modern browser (for example, recent version of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari or Opera). A narrow-scope use of Ajax can have a limited impact in terms of making a difficult-to-use Web application somewhat less difficult. However, Gartner said, even this limited impact is worth it, and users will appreciate incremental improvements in the usability of applications. High levels of impact and business value can only be achieved when the development process encompasses innovations in usability and reliance on complementary server-side processing (as is done in Google Maps). * Collective intelligence, rated as transformational (definition: enables new ways of doing business across industries that will result in major shifts in industry dynamics) is expected to reach mainstream adoption in five to ten years. Collective intelligence is an approach to producing intellectual content (such as code, documents, indexing and decisions) that results from individuals working together with no centralized authority. This is seen as a more cost-efficient way of producing content, metadata, software and certain services. * Mashup is rated as moderate on the Hype Cycle (definition: provides incremental improvements to established processes that will result in increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise), but is expected to hit mainstream adoption in less than two years. A "mashup" is a lightweight tactical integration of multi-sourced applications or content into a single offering. Because mashups leverage data and services from public Web sites and Web applications, they’re lightweight in implementation and built with a minimal amount of code. Their primary business benefit is that they can quickly meet tactical needs with reduced development costs and improved user satisfaction. Gartner warns that because they combine data and logic from multiple sources, they’re vulnerable to failures in any one of those sources. Real World Web Increasingly, real-world objects will not only contain local processing capabilities—due to the falling size and cost of microprocessors—but they will also be able to interact with their surroundings through sensing and networking capabilities. The emergence of this Real World Web will bring the power of the Web, which today is perceived as a "separate" virtual place, to the user's point of need of information or transaction. Technologies rated as having particularly high impact include: * Location-aware technologies should hit maturity in less than two years.Location-aware technology is the use of GPS (global positioning system), assisted GPS (A-GPS), Enhanced Observed Time Difference (EOTD), enhanced GPS (E-GPS), and other technologies in the cellular network and handset to locate a mobile user. Users should evaluate the potential benefits to their business processes of location-enabled products such as personal navigation devices (for example, TomTom or Garmin) or Bluetooth-enabled GPS receivers, as well as WLAN location equipment that may help automate complex processes, such as logistics and maintenance. Whereas the market sees consolidation around a reduced number of high-accuracy technologies, the location service ecosystem will benefit from a number of standardized application interfaces to deploy location services and applications for a wide range of wireless devices. * Location-aware applications will hit mainsteam adoption in the next two to five years. An increasing number of organizations have deployed location-aware mobile business applications, mostly based on GPS-enabled devices, to support queue business processes and activities, such as field force management, fleet management, logistics and good transportation. The market is in an early adoption phase, and Europe is slightly ahead of the United States, due to the higher maturity of mobile networks, their availability and standardization. * Sensor Mesh Networks are ad hoc networks formed by dynamic meshes of peer nodes, each of which includes simple networking, computing and sensing capabilities. Some implementations offer low-power operation and multi-year battery life. Technologically aggressive organizations looking for low-cost sensing and robust self-organizing networks with small data transmission volumes should explore sensor networking. The market is still immature and fragmented, and there are few standards, so suppliers will evolve and equipment could become obsolete relatively rapidly. Therefore, this area should be seen as a tactical investment, as mainstream adoption is not expected for more than ten years. Applications Architecture The software infrastructure that provides the foundation for modern business applications continues to mirror business requirements more directly. The modularity and agility offered by service oriented architecture at the technology level and business process management at the business level will continue to evolve through high impact shifts such as model-driven and event-driven architectures, and corporate semantic Web. Technologies rated as having particularly high impact include: * Event-driven Architecture (EDA) is an architectural style for distributed applications, in which certain discrete functions are packaged into modular, encapsulated, shareable components, some of which are triggered by the arrival of one or more event objects. Event objects may be generated directly by an application, or they may be generated by an adapter or agent that operates non-invasively (for example, by examining message headers and message contents). EDA has an impact on every industry. Although mainstream adoption of all forms of EDA is still five to ten years away, complex-event processing EDA is now being used in financial trading, energy trading, supply chain, fraud detection, homeland security, telecommunications, customer contact center manahttp://www.content-wire.com/content-management-key-when-it-integrates-new-tools-01153263600Content Wireadminadvanced technology,Brazil,CMS,content creation,content management,Content Management,content management software,Development,development time,Indonesia,Italy,open source,People,project management,retaliation,smart,Switzerland,Thailand,vice presidentContent Management For GoodOn 1 July of this year the Members of the Mambo Foundation voted in the first open election since the creation of the Foundation in August of 2005. Election results have been announced and a new Board will soon be taking over the reins and guiding the Foundation forward. Voting was open to all members of the non-profit Mambo Foundation. Members were able to cast their votes either by proxy or in person at the Annual General Meeting. Interest levels were high and participation rates very good. The votes have been tallied and the new Board of Directors will be as follows: * President- Ric Shreves (Indonesia) * Vice- President- Akarawuth Tamrareang (Thailand) * Treasurer- Paulino Michelazzo (Brazil) * Secretary- Alain Schmalz (Switzerland) * Ordinary Director- Marco Rossi (Italy) The results of the election are noteworthy for several reasons: First, the Board will be composed entirely of members of Team Mambo, that is individuals actively involved in the development of the Mambo Open Source CMS. There are no “outsiders” and no non-participating members. Put another way, the non-profit Foundation will now be governed by the same people who are principal in the development and management of the open source software project. Another fact of note is that this election marks the first time the members have been able to express their wishes for governance of the project by way of a democratic vote, thereby proving by action the validity and legitimacy of the Mambo Foundation project structure. Board President-elect Ric Shreves stated “the elections are a genuine watershed for the project and mark the way forward. The new Board is comprised of a healthy variety of individuals and guarantees that the interests of the project and the users will be the only agenda at work. The Foundation’s interests are now unquestionably aligned with those of the open source project. I am looking forward to a positive year of growth and consensus building.” The new Board officially takes office on the first of August and serves for a one-year term. www.mambo-foundation.orghttp://www.content-wire.com/content-management-good-01149202800Content Wireadminanalytics,application developers,application development,Autonomy,Autonomy,browser,Business,business applications,business benefits,business content,business development,business need,business process,business process management,business solutions,business units,business user,business users,collaboration,Companies,content authors,content infrastructure,content integration,content management,Content Management,content management application,content management applications,content management capabilities,content management infrastructure,content management software,content management solutions,content management system,content repository,Content Technologies,content technology,demand technology,Development,development infrastructure,development time,enterprise applications,enterprise content,enterprise content management,enterprise search,Enterprise Web,flexibility,global content,global provider,global technology,help companies,infrastructure,infrastructure software,integration software,Internet,internet,key business,key industry,management application,management applications,management capabilities,management infrastructure,management solutions,management technology,money,new business,new research,new technology,notebook,People,promises,proprietary,proprietary technology,repository,research analyst,research and development,rich applications,search capability,search engine,search software,search technology,software applications,software developers,system integration,team collaboration,Technology,technology companies,technology integration,technology provider,technology research,technology solutions,text search,time and money,user interface,user interfaces,web applications,web content,web content management,web content management system,web managers,web usersNew Version of multisite management applicationWhile many organizations enable business users to easily change text on a Web site, most users still have to involve a centralized Web development team to implement other simple changes, such as editing navigation or adding a new section to the site — creating yet another Web site bottleneck. According to Forrester, "…the capability gap remains wide between the best that thin client user interfaces (typically rendered through conventional HTML) have been able to offer and the capabilities of the rich desktop, despite numerous proprietary attempts to split the difference. Rich Internet Application technologies like Ajax promise to close that gap. … Ajax promises to be rich enough for the user interface needs of many, if not most, enterprise applications while retaining zero-desktop-deployment benefits of a pure browser application." Stellent, a global provider of content management solutions, released today at the AIIM 2006 Conference & Exposition a new version of its award-winning multi-site management application Stellent Site Studio. Site Studio — a component of the enterprise-scalable Stellent Universal Content Management system — provides a software infrastructure for creating, maintaining and deploying multiple internal and external Web sites. The new version aims to empower Web site managers — often the Web site "audience expert" within a business unit or department — by offering in-context site assembly and organization capabilities through a new Site Studio Manager tool. Additional Site Studio enhancements include built-in usage analytics and an expanded search engine offering. "Stellent coined the widely accepted industry term ‘multi-site management’ three years ago with our introduction of Site Studio, and we remain committed to continually advancing this award-winning technology in order to fully optimize the tremendous task of managing numerous Web sites," said Dan Ryan, chief operating officer for Stellent. "A key aspect of this process is distributing Web site assembly and maintenance to business units, while maintaining centralized control of branding, layout and design. Our new Site Studio Manager tool makes it even easier for companies to strike this balance. Web developers remain responsible for creating site templates to ensure overall consistency, but Web site managers now have greater flexibility to be creative and directly modify more aspects of their sites to ensure their business needs and objectives are met." "Companies increasingly use Web sites for collaboration, communication and commerce, which is driving business units to take more responsibility for their sites," said Lou Latham, principal research analyst for Gartner, Inc. "For many business people, the Web has been the province of the IT group. But IT wants out from under the essentially clerical duty of editing content and navigation, and business managers realize time and money are wasted by interposing an IT ‘middleman’ between content authors and audience experts and the Web. Consequently, we believe demand will grow for Web site management technologies that help facilitate an appropriate balance between IT control and business unit autonomy." Site Studio Manager empowers Web site managers with in-context site management features, and offers a tighter integration with Stellent’s repository analytics tool. www.stellent.com/sitestudio77. <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-7258139694566163";google_ad_width = 300;google_ad_height = 250;google_ad_format = "300x250_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "CC99CC";google_color_bg = "E7C6E8";google_color_link = "000000";google_color_url = "00008B";google_color_text = "663366";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>http://www.content-wire.com/new-version-multisite-management-application-01141689600Content WireadminBusiness,business applications,business development,business model,business need,business opportunities,business users,China,Development,development time,market research,market research firm,mobile network operators,mobile operators,mobile services,network operators,recent research,research analyst,research and development,research firm,share price,time to market,value chain,verticals,video servicesMobile TV in China Ready to Take OffMobile TV subscribers in China will grow to 94 million by 2009, the high-tech market research firm forecasts, with 2007 being the year that the services gather significant momentum. "Telecom operators in China have developed a clear business model for streaming mobile video services over a 2.5G or 3G network," says Anty Zheng, In-Stat analyst. "But unclear regulations need to be straightened out so responsibilities and value chain positioning can be settled; otherwise, market development will be inhibited." Among recent findings - The Chinese government is pushing for widespread Mobile TV availability for the 2008 Olympics. - In-Stat believes that DVB-H is likely to be widely adopted, and that SDMB, TDMB and MediaFLO each have different market opportunities as well. - Attractive applications like MTV and weather ("Snack TV") can be shown within 15 minutes to help users kill time while waiting for transportation. www.in-stat.com <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-7258139694566163";google_ad_width = 300;google_ad_height = 250;google_ad_format = "300x250_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "CC99CC";google_color_bg = "E7C6E8";google_color_link = "000000";google_color_url = "00008B";google_color_text = "663366";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>http://www.content-wire.com/mobile-tv-china-ready-take1139788800Content Wireadminadoption,architecture,assets,blog,Business,business content,business development,business information,business model,business models,business partners,business processes,business users,collaboration,complexity,content analysis,content management,Content Management,content management software,content management system,content management tools,content syndication,content technology,corporate knowledge,corporate marketing,deploy,Development,development time,development tools,enterprise content,enterprise content management,Enterprise Web,environments,Google,Immediacy,Information Management,information technology,insight,intention,Internet,internet,intranet,knowledge management,Knowledge Management,leading technology,leading the way,management product,management technology,management tools,marketing,Marketing,models,new business,new product,new technology,real time,Site Executive,style site,syndication,Technology,vice president,web content,web content management,web content management system,web pages,web usersReal Time Collaboration for Enterprise Content ManagementCollaboration and sharing are at the very heart of knowledge management, and knowledge, on the internet, comes as 'content'. The immediacy and easy of use of blogs and wiki technology models has challenged much of the original complexity that characterized the called 'high end' content management tools. Stellent is this week officializing a trend that has been increasingly widespread, to providing support to users and customers to better manage wikis and blogs adoption within their corporate environments, thus leveraging natural collaboration. “A blog or wiki is simply another Web site among the tens to hundreds of sites a company must manage. For example, a wiki could be used to create a competitive analysis or review documentation online, and a blog might be utilized to gather immediate feedback from employees, partners and customers about new product features,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president of marketing and business development for Stellent. “Similar to other information within an enterprise, this content should be managed within a unified content management architecture. In this way, organizations can leverage the same skills, processes and software to manage all of its Web sites — leading to a lower total cost of ownership and the ability to more effectively maintain consistent branding and security across all sites.” Stellent now enables wiki contributors to easily create hyperlinks in both pattern-matching and wizard style formats, allowing users to link to other topics and pages within a wiki site, as well as other Web sites. When an author creates a new hyperlink about a particular subject, the Stellent system will automatically link to a wiki page about that topic. If the page does not exist, it automatically will create a new page. Stellent is also moving to leverage really simple syndication (RSS) within an enterprise content management (ECM) framework providing out-of-the-box templates to deploy RSS feeds for intranet, extranet and public Web site <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-7258139694566163";google_ad_width = 300;google_ad_height = 250;google_ad_format = "300x250_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "CC99CC";google_color_bg = "E7C6E8";google_color_link = "000000";google_color_url = "00008B";google_color_text = "663366";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>http://www.content-wire.com/real-time-collaboration-enterprise-content-management1134432000Content Wireadminaccounting,Apache,architecture,Business,business content,business development,business process,business process management,business professionals,Companies,content integration,content management,Content Management,content management platform,content management solution,content management systems,content management tools,content technology,creative professionals,Development,development time,development tools,digital assets,digital publishing,enterprise content,enterprise content management,enterprise systems,Enterprise Web,flexibility,global content,global technology,help companies,integration platform,Internet,internet,management platform,management technology,management tools,open architecture,People,productivity,robust content,sorts,Technology,technology allows,technology companies,technology integration,technology platform,web content,web content management,web managers,WorldWeb Content Management Solution for SMERubenstein Technology released RubyContent 3.0 -- the latest version of its web content management solution, optimized for the needs of the small-to-midsize (SMB) digital enterprise. RubyContent 3.0 features a comprehensive set of automated business tools that allows intuitive management of website content-by-content managers and creative professionals -- with no IT support required. Highlighted Links RubyContent 3.0 Rubenstein Technology Group "Most companies don't update their website content often enough because it's too complex, time-consuming and difficult. When they do update their sites, content producers routinely depend upon IT people for help, resulting in an enormous amount of wasted time and resources," stated Jaron Rubenstein, President of Rubenstein Technology Group. "RubyContent alleviates this chronic bottleneck with a robust solution that manages the content publishing process, ensuring maximum productivity for creative and other non-technical staff," he said. Leveraging the Internet as the world's first truly global business medium, RubyContent 3.0 also provides complete multiple language integration -- enabling the management of website content in nearly any written language. Built on the open-source LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, Perl) web development platform for stability, interoperability and flexibility -- as well as the extensive customization options it provides for clients, its open architecture also allows for complete integration with all other Ruby modules, as well as existing back-office systems such as ERP, logistics and accounting. www.rubensteintech.com/ruby/content/details.htmlhttp://www.content-wire.com/web-content-management-solution-sme-01134432000Content Wireadminaccess digital,accessibility,adoption,Brazil,Business,business applications,business development,business information,business need,business partners,business solutions,China,choices,Companies,convergence,corporate data,critical business,customers need,data access,data formats,data management,Data Management,data services,decisions,demand technology,Development,development time,economy,Economy,editors,financial management,financial services,flexibility,global reach,global technology,help companies,IBM,India,information exchange,Information Management,information technology,innovation,integration platform,integration software,international markets,investments,key business,key industry,landscape,management applications,management market,management platform,management solutions,management technology,marketing,marketplace,open source,open source world,open standards,platforms,productivity,proprietary,proprietary technology,public access,records management,Records Management,reliability,repeatedly,Russia,server market,software applications,software platform,source of information,Standards,strategic technology,take advantage,Technology,technology alliance,technology companies,technology integration,technology platform,technology solutions,time to market,vice president,word processing,World,worldwide market,XML IBM Workplace with ODFAs governments across the globe and in emerging economies show increasing interest in open-source alternatives to proprietary software, IBM today extended its support of open standards to the desktop. Adding to its broad portfolio of standards-based server software, IBM announced that the upcoming version of the IBM Workplace Managed Client will support the newly ratified OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (ODF) standard. By extending the support of open standards to the desktop, IBM customers can now help protect an organization's investment in corporate data by ensuring consistency, reliability and accessibility of their documents. This announcement is particularly relevant in emerging markets such as India, since acceptance of open standards, such as ODF, will help governments achieve their goal of truly bridging the digital divide and reaching out to citizens by deploying open, accessible standards -- not proprietary software. Commenting on open standards traction in the country, M. Moni, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC) said, 'As a premier government organization undertaking strategic e-Government/e-Governance projects at national and state levels, NIC has been promoting open standards, open source, and products and technology with clear R&D roadmaps to reach public services to "unreached" and grassroots development. They are the key factors underpinning our endeavours to leverage Information Technology as an enabling catalyst to develop and run products and services more effectively and in tune with India's growing digital based economy. NIC has received a mandate from the Central Department of Information Technology to work in the areas of standards to facilitate implementation of the National e-Governance Programme in the country. The choice, flexibility and reliability inherent in open standards like ODF are critical in our efforts to drive the e-Governance / e-Government momentum in the country. I am happy to commend IBM's initiatives in this technology domain." As an increasing amount of corporate data is captured, stored and exchanged electronically, customers are becoming aware that the accessibility and maintenance of documents is critical to the long-term success of their organization. Proprietary file formats force businesses into a perpetual cycle of royalty and licensing fees, which can restrict growth and innovation by requiring that companies stay locked into their original software choices just to ensure future access to their documents. Open standards like ODF help ensure interoperability between systems, and that documents will be accessible well into the future regardless of the platform or software, offering customers the choice and flexibility to base IT decisions on business needs and avoid being "locked in" to one software platform or vendor. "The ODF standard is a key development in the management of corporate data and documents -- organizations should not have to pay to access their own data, and the ODF standard ensures that key information like financial records, government contracts, payroll data and other corporate information is usable and accessible, regardless of your software platform," said Bob Sutor, Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM. "IBM's commitment to open standards based platforms, particularly the IBM Workplace portfolio of products and solutions, has provided businesses an alternative to proprietary systems, and addresses the market's demand for greater choice and flexibility in their software needs." The choice and flexibility in IT decisions and the time and cost savings of open standards are becoming increasingly popular with businesses around the world, particularly in emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, China and India. "India is fast emerging as a key country in the global technology landscape," says Harish Grama, Vice President, IBM India Software Lab. "With the growth of open standards across the globe, Indian governments and businesses are realizing the need to embrace and contribute to open technology momentum while maintaining their freedom of choice. We have repeatedly seen how open standards increase customer choice in the marketplace and tear down barriers to integration. This announcement is a significant step towards bridging the digital divide by driving down prices and driving up access and interoperability and really demonstrates IBM's worldwide leadership and commitment to open standards." The upcoming release of Workplace Managed Client 2.6 will include support for version 1.0 of the ODF standard. ODF is an XML based standard recently ratified by Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) that pertains to office applications. OASIS is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. IBM is a member of the OASIS Technical Committee that developed the standard. The productivity editors within the upcoming version of the Workplace Managed Client, including word processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheets, will support the ability to import, export and rewrite files saved in the ODF standard. This support for industry standards will allow IBM customers to rapidly create, manage, and exchange documents within their business, as well as with their partners and customers. The support of ODF in IBM's Workplace Managed Client helps businesses of all sizes and industries take advantage of the cost and time effectiveness of open standards while leveraging their existing IT investments to help protect the reliability and efficiency of access to documents in the future. IBM Workplace Managed Client with ODF support will be available in early 2006.http://www.content-wire.com/ibm-workplace-odf-01134432000Content Wireadminaccess digital,accessibility,adoption,Brazil,Business,business applications,business development,business information,business need,business partners,business solutions,China,choices,Companies,convergence,corporate data,critical business,customers need,data access,data formats,data management,Data Management,data services,decisions,demand technology,Development,development time,economy,Economy,editors,element,financial management,financial services,flexibility,global reach,global technology,help companies,IBM,India,information exchange,Information Management,information technology,innovation,integration platform,integration software,international markets,investments,key business,key industry,landscape,management applications,management market,management platform,management solutions,management technology,marketing,marketplace,open source,open source world,open standards,pioneer,platforms,productivity,proprietary,proprietary technology,public access,records management,Records Management,reliability,repeatedly,Russia,senior analyst,server market,software applications,software platform,source of information,Standards,strategic technology,take advantage,Technology,technology companies,technology integration,technology platform,technology solutions,time to market,vice president,word processing,World,worldwide market,XMLIBM Workplace with ODFAs governments across the globe and in emerging economies show increasing interest in open-source alternatives to proprietary software, IBM today extended its support of open standards to the desktop. Adding to its broad portfolio of standards-based server software, IBM announced that the upcoming version of the IBM Workplace Managed Client will support the newly ratified OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (ODF) standard. By extending the support of open standards to the desktop, IBM customers can now help protect an organization's investment in corporate data by ensuring consistency, reliability and accessibility of their documents. This announcement is particularly relevant in emerging markets such as India, since acceptance of open standards, such as ODF, will help governments achieve their goal of truly bridging the digital divide and reaching out to citizens by deploying open, accessible standards -- not proprietary software. Commenting on open standards traction in the country, M. Moni, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC) said, 'As a premier government organization undertaking strategic e-Government/e-Governance projects at national and state levels, NIC has been promoting open standards, open source, and products and technology with clear R&D roadmaps to reach public services to "unreached" and grassroots development. They are the key factors underpinning our endeavours to leverage Information Technology as an enabling catalyst to develop and run products and services more effectively and in tune with India's growing digital based economy. NIC has received a mandate from the Central Department of Information Technology to work in the areas of standards to facilitate implementation of the National e-Governance Programme in the country. The choice, flexibility and reliability inherent in open standards like ODF are critical in our efforts to drive the e-Governance / e-Government momentum in the country. I am happy to commend IBM's initiatives in this technology domain." As an increasing amount of corporate data is captured, stored and exchanged electronically, customers are becoming aware that the accessibility and maintenance of documents is critical to the long-term success of their organization. Proprietary file formats force businesses into a perpetual cycle of royalty and licensing fees, which can restrict growth and innovation by requiring that companies stay locked into their original software choices just to ensure future access to their documents. Open standards like ODF help ensure interoperability between systems, and that documents will be accessible well into the future regardless of the platform or software, offering customers the choice and flexibility to base IT decisions on business needs and avoid being "locked in" to one software platform or vendor. "The ODF standard is a key development in the management of corporate data and documents -- organizations should not have to pay to access their own data, and the ODF standard ensures that key information like financial records, government contracts, payroll data and other corporate information is usable and accessible, regardless of your software platform," said Bob Sutor, Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM. "IBM's commitment to open standards based platforms, particularly the IBM Workplace portfolio of products and solutions, has provided businesses an alternative to proprietary systems, and addresses the market's demand for greater choice and flexibility in their software needs." The choice and flexibility in IT decisions and the time and cost savings of open standards are becoming increasingly popular with businesses around the world, particularly in emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, China and India. "India is fast emerging as a key country in the global technology landscape," says Harish Grama, Vice President, IBM India Software Lab. "With the growth of open standards across the globe, Indian governments and businesses are realizing the need to embrace and contribute to open technology momentum while maintaining their freedom of choice. We have repeatedly seen how open standards increase customer choice in the marketplace and tear down barriers to integration. This announcement is a significant step towards bridging the digital divide by driving down prices and driving up access and interoperability and really demonstrates IBM's worldwide leadership and commitment to open standards." The upcoming release of Workplace Managed Client 2.6 will include support for version 1.0 of the ODF standard. ODF is an XML based standard recently ratified by Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) that pertains to office applications. OASIS is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. IBM is a member of the OASIS Technical Committee that developed the standard. The productivity editors within the upcoming version of the Workplace Managed Client, including word processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheets, will support the ability to import, export and rewrite files saved in the ODF standard. This support for industry standards will allow IBM customers to rapidly create, manage, and exchange documents within their business, as well as with their partners and customers. The support of ODF in IBM's Workplace Managed Client helps businesses of all sizes and industries take advantage of the cost and time effectiveness of open standards while leveraging their existing IT investments to help protect the reliability and efficiency of access to documents in the future. IBM Workplace Managed Client with ODF support will be available in early 2006. <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-7258139694566163";google_ad_width = 300;google_ad_height = 250;google_ad_format = "300x250_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "CC99CC";google_color_bg = "E7C6E8";google_color_link = "000000";google_color_url = "00008B";google_color_text = "663366";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>http://www.content-wire.com/ibm-workplace-odf1132876800Content Wireadminaccounting,accuracy,browser,Business,business content,business development,business partners,business process,business solutions,CMS,Companies,computer,computer systems,content management,Content Management,content management platform,content management solutions,content management system,content management systems,content management tools,content technology,Development,development time,development tools,interactivity,Internet,internet,management market,management platform,management solutions,management technology,management tools,menus,Microsoft,new business,new generation,new technology,proprietary,proprietary technology,provide tools,revenue stream,Standards,target,Technology,technology companies,technology platform,technology solutions,time to market,web based,Web CMS,web content,web content management,web content management systemContent Management System Tools Available for Free DownloadEdentity Web Systems released Agility Content Management System (CMS) developer tools. Agility’s success has been driven by working closely with customers and partners to provide flexible solutions for web content management. Most CMS companies openly discourage external development of their products, Agility embraces it. “Our developer tools put the power of Agility into the hands of your Web developer or your favorite Web development company,” said Jon Voigt, Director of Technology for Agility. “Because our tools are based on standards and the Microsoft .NET framework, there is no proprietary technology to learn. With a single install, your development team can be up and running in a matter of minutes. All of these time savings mean a drastic reduction in cost compared to our competitors.” As well as being built from the ground up using the Microsoft .NET platform, Agility CMS has some remarkable features such as its full-screen content editing in a Microsoft Word-like content editor, and complete page generation with auto-generated menus and sitemaps. Agility CMS is completely browser based and is available from any computer with an Internet connection. “With our developer tools now available we are able to pursue the development of new VAR channels and work directly with developers and system integrators,” said Luca Gorlero, Director of Business Development. “Once they see the value of the tools and how they greatly improve development speed and accuracy they will become our best advocates in the market place.” The company main revenue stream comes from hosting www.agilitycms.comhttp://www.content-wire.com/content-management-system-tools-available-free-download