ZapNote: Interwoven

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ZapNote: ArborText

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ZapNote: BroadVision

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XML in the Content Lifecycle

The process of creating content — information meant for human consumption — is almost always extremely effort-intensive. People must spend time organizing information prior to creation, constructing the content, and laying out the information so that it is easily read. With so much time, cost, and effort invested in content, it makes sense to reduce costs by reusing content as much as possible. Furthermore, content-oriented processes involve a complex set of interactions that progress in a “Content Lifecycle” consisting of five major stages: content creation, management, publishing, syndication, and protection. Each of these phases requires different technologies, processes, and resources.

By rearchitecting content representation technologies to treat content as another asset in the corporate IT infrastructure, businesses can realize the benefits long promised to us by reusable and agile content. But first, we need to move from ad-hoc content creation to content componentization, and then to content services. XML and Web Services are the key to this transition that can help organizations maximize the value of their content.

XML in the Content Lifecycle

The process of creating content — information meant for human consumption — is almost always extremely effort-intensive. People must spend time organizing information prior to creation, constructing the content, and laying out the information so that it is easily read. With so much time, cost, and effort invested in content, it makes sense to reduce costs by reusing content as much as possible. Furthermore, content-oriented processes involve a complex set of interactions that progress in a “Content Lifecycle” consisting of five major stages: content creation, management, publishing, syndication, and protection. Each of these phases requires different technologies, processes, and resources.

By rearchitecting content representation technologies to treat content as another asset in the corporate IT infrastructure, businesses can realize the benefits long promised to us by reusable and agile content. But first, we need to move from ad-hoc content creation to content componentization, and then to content services. XML and Web Services are the key to this transition that can help organizations maximize the value of their content.

ZapNote: Backstream

One of the biggest challenges for producers and publishers of content is the publication of that content onto multiple platforms: print, the Web, PDF, wireless, and other forms. The main challenge is that each of these forms carry their own inherent formatting capabilities, navigation structures, distribution characteristics, and rights management capabilities. BackStream provides software solutions that help businesses manage their content, deliver it to multiple devices, and track and trace usage. The system provides a single platform that takes care of content creation, storage, publishing, distribution, tracking and tracing content such as text, photos, images, PDF files, and audio and video files.

ZapNote: UDICo

While real-time message-based architectures are great for distributing on-line transactions, however its capability for handling high volume loads comes into question. One of the vendors solving this problem is the Universal Data Interface Company (UDICo). Their product, TierBroker, can process large volumes of data using a mechanism that creates middleware that connects directly to data sources and exposes them as Web Services to end clients in a small footprint that can be embedded in Excel and Word applications. The product can talk to XML as well as non-XML systems, message-oriented middleware systems including MQSeries and TIBCO, or other systems using SOAP over HTTP.

ZapNote: Epicentric

Portals are being used to provide access to content sources or applications such as Siebel and SAP, and enable a common composite application that is accessible via a web browser-based interface. There is a strong intersection with this application-centric use of portals and what is going on with Web Services. Portals provide a compelling means for application delivery of Web Services in a familiar development and management environment. Epicentric has produced a number of advanced products and services to address this capability, and has championed the development of XML-based formats for specification of presentation-layer interfaces for Web Services.

ZapNote: Userland

Userland has pioneered a variety of technologies that have all one thing in common — making it easier for users to create, manage, and share content in a Web environment. Their goal is embodied in Userland’s three main applications: Frontier, Radio, and Manila.