Microsoft Corp. has begun distributing 500,000 copies of the Beta 2 version of the new Microsoft Office System, which will leverage its XML underpinnings to include access to various content sources directly from within Office applications. Seven Office System products are provided in the Beta evaluation kit, including Beta 2 versions of the new Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access), the two new Office System additions, (InfoPath and OneNote), and Microsoft Office FrontPage, Publisher, SharePoint Services, and SharePoint Portal Server 2.0. The products were developed with four design goals in mind: improved information intelligence, including personalized access and delivery of business information; streamlined process management; more effective teaming and collaboration; and a more personal impact on the business user (improved Tablet PC support, new digital note-taking application, improvements to Outlook, and new junk email filter tools). Office 2003, the successor to Microsoft Office XP, is the cornerstone of the Office System. Office 2003 includes enhancements such as integration with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies; XML support in Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and Microsoft Office Access 2003; and support for Information Rights Management. Microsoft Office System products are scheduled for release in mid-2003. Beta testing will continue until November 30, 2003.

Three research and information providers have already announced that they will offer services in conjunction with Microsoft Office 2003. Factiva, Gale, and eLibrary have all integrated search tools into the Research Task Pane of all Microsoft Office 2003 applications and are available as a part of the Microsoft Office 2003 Beta 2 trial. These and other information sources can be accessed directly from Office applications like Word and Excel. If an Office user already has a paid subscription (or if a given service is free), they can right click on a word or phrase, choose "Look Up" and then a Research Window opens. Users than can choose from a variety of content sources and access and import the information directly, without leaving the application. If they don't have a subscription to a desired information services, users will be prompted to purchase the information a la carte or to subscribe.

Factiva's first solution for Office 2003, Factiva News Search, is designed to allow information workers to conduct research on Factiva's collection of sources directly from a report, spreadsheet, or presentation they're creating. For example, while drafting a brief in Word 2003, competitive intelligence professionals can use Factiva News Search to look up industry trends from newspapers, journals, and newswires from around the world and insert that research into their document. While evaluating Beta test feedback, Factiva and Microsoft will also be researching customer solutions that can be built on top of the Office 2003 System.  

Gale, a research and reference publisher and a part of The Thomson Corporation, will offer users of the Microsoft Office System access to a portion of Gale's online information resources. By highlighting a company name in most Microsoft Office 2003 applications, customers can receive Gale-published company profiles within the application. Microsoft Office 2003 customers will also have access to a new Web-based online service offered by Gale (previews at www.gale.com/bizdev) that will enable them to purchase individual reports or subscribe to a database of more than 450,000 company profiles covering public and private companies from around the world. Each profile is a report on the highlighted company, with an overview of its businesses, executive names, financial data, recent news and announcements, and other information.

Alacritude, LLC, publisher of eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com, will offer eLibrary through Microsoft Office 2003. The agreement allows users to search for eLibrary documents when a word is highlighted within most Office applications. eLibrary search results appear in a research pane within a Microsoft Office 2003 document and include article abstracts from newspapers, newswires, magazines, journals, and transcripts, as well as information from maps, photos, and reference sources. eLibrary search results and article abstracts are available for free, and eLibrary offers unlimited, full document access with additional research capabilities for those who pay a subscription fee.

(http://www.alacritude.com), (http://www.factiva.com), (http://www.gale.com), (http://www.microsoft.com), (http://www.thomson.com)

iUpload, a provider of content management services is merging with WebPartz, a provider of hosted ebusiness component applications. The new company will transact business under the iUpload brand, and expand its service to manage content from all categories: staff, application, and visitor-generated content. By merging, WebPartz and iUpload form an Application Service Provider (ASP) delivering content management services across all categories. iUpload adds tools from WebPartz to manage content from applications and Web site visitors. These functions include online surveys, email marketing, newsletter publishing, site-wide search, and wireless applications. The result provides a way for marketing organizations to add content management functionality to Web sites and ebusiness portals without requiring IT resources. The new company formed by the merger of iUpload and WebPartz provides these functions as "partz," allowing marketing departments to elevate a brochure-ware Web presence to an ebusiness site by blending partz into a solution that best meets their needs. The content management function will serve as the interface to the other partz, so instead of four or five separate applications, the iUpload interface is the hub for using the other partz.  

(http://www.iupload.com), (http://www.webpartz.com)

Stellent has announced that it will offer businesses currently using content management software from divine a substantial credit when they switch to the Stellent Content Management system. This credit is based on the amount paid for divine's software licenses and is in response to divine's announcement on Feb. 25, 2003that it has filed for bankruptcy. A similar credit is also available for customers who were in a closing cycle with divine at the time of its bankruptcy filing. Stellent is targeting divine's base directly with this offer, and will also extend the offer to key divine partners, most notably IBM. In addition, Stellent will offer a combination of consulting services and tools to help streamline the migration process.

(http://www.stellent.com)

Three of the news dailies have added an advanced news retrieval system developed by IBM and Convera. The Hindu, India's leading national daily newspaper; San Antonio Express-News, one of South Texas' leading dailies; and Sun-Sentinel, the major daily newspaper of Florida's Broward and South Palm Beach counties are using Convera's RetrievalWare search, retrieval and categorization technology to streamline production operations as part of IBM's Network Interactive Content Access (NICA) publishing industry solution. NICA is a digital asset management pre-press solution that provides newspaper and magazine publishers the ability to manage, archive, retrieve and reuse publishing data such as text, images, graphics and PDFs while offering integration with their production workflows, editorial creation front-end systems and industry specific business practices. NICA also provides the workflow management that allows the easy repurposing of publishing content either from its own repository or from an external enterprise content management repository, and it helps perform faster, more accurate searches in their native language.

(http://www.convera.com), (http://www.ibm.com)

On February 13th, a special exhibit chronicling the relationship and works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso opened at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A larger, more extensive exhibit including these works is also now available on the Web thanks, in part to software from SealedMedia, which offers a critical layer of security to the online collection. The English language version of www.matissepicasso.org site has now gone live to view the 700 paintings, 6,000 drawings, 250+ photos and 6,000 press articles that comprise the entire collection.

In conjunction with the private sponsorship grant of LMVH, matissepicasso.org is supervised by Anne Baldassarie, curator at the Picasso Museum of Paris and is managed by the Reunion des musees nationaux (RMN), which collaborates with over 30 institutions in the management, maintenance and exhibition of museum art. The site was developed to bring the exhibit to the public but specifically as a means to offer high-resolution versions of the works to the art research and teaching communities. In order for these high-resolution images to be made available on the Web, the RMN needed to assure the estates, Picasso administration and the Matisse succession, which still own the respective rights to the collection, that they could be shared on the Web safely and securely. Of particular concern was the issue of piracy, that some users with access to high quality versions of these famous works would use them for illegal merchandising through posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.

(http://www.sealedmedia.com), (http://www.matissepicasso.org)

Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation, has launched linking technology that allows library patrons to search library holdings in WorldCat (the OCLC Online Union Catalog) on the OCLC FirstSearch service through Gale's InfoTrac search interface. The link is designed to enhance a user's experience with library gateways for online searching. The link from InfoTrac to WorldCat can be activated at no charge by any library that subscribes to both services. When InfoTrac users receive search results a link-to-holdings button will appear. Clicking that button will allow them to view holdings without having to switch services. Libraries can enable the link by entering their FirstSearch authorization number and completing a short linking profile within the InfoTrac administrative module.

(http://www.gale.com), (http://www.oclc.org), (http://www.thomson.com)

Dialog, a Thomson business and provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, has announced that it will take over hosting and maintaining World News Connection (WNC), the U.S. Government's daily online global news monitoring service. WNC is published by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a Web-accessible service that offers an extensive array of translated and English-language news and information compiled daily by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). FBIS bureaus around the world monitor news sources in their regions, covering virtually all countries worldwide except the United States. Editorial content includes articles and reports originating in countries that are not normally included in publicly available news digests, such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. WNC is currently offered directly by the NTIS. The service offers the full text and summaries of newspaper articles, conference proceedings, television and radio broadcasts, periodicals and non-classified technical reports. Content is added to the online service every government business day, and generally is available for electronic searching and retrieval within 24-72 hours of original publication or broadcast.

(http://www.dialog.com), (http://www.ntis.gov)

ZyLAB, a developer of document imaging and full-text retrieval software, has announced that it has enhanced its ZyIMAGE data storage and records management & archival product suite by incorporating XML as the data format employed to store scanned and electronic documents. A key driver to incorporating XML data formats is to help ZyLAB customers better adhere to corporate governance legislation such as Sarbanes Oxley, which is designed to ensure organizations have clear policies, proper records management systems, and adequate audit trails for its enterprise-wide information. XML enables users to handle documents as separate files while also treating the information in the document as if it is stored in a database record. ZyLAB believes that incorporating XML allows information to be stored more efficiently than by storing unstructured data such as large text files, audio, video, and other information in traditional relational database systems.

(http://www.zylab.com)

Neptune8.com, a software consulting firm specializing in libraries, has signed a distribution agreement with Antarctica Systems for their Visual Net software. Neptune8.com will focus on bringing Visual Net to the library, library automation, and research markets in North America and Europe. Visual Net uses mapping techniques to create a Graphical User Interface for library collections and other information repositories. This allows users to point and click through the libraries' holdings without guessing at keywords or understanding call numbers. The company's goal is to help libraries and library automation vendors successfully deploy Visual Net. Neptune8.com offers implementation services including conversion of MARC and other format databases. Neptune8.com also offers Visual Net software leasing and ASP options.

(http://antarctica.net), (http://www.neptune8.com)

Variety magazine, a Reed Business Information publication, has entered into a partnership with AP Digital, a division of The Associated Press that distributes news and information to interactive applications, to further the magazine's presence in the online business-to-business, commercial, and media markets. The partnership makes AP Digital the online distributor of Variety content, including market coverage, global reports, box-office charts, reviews and authoritative features and columns, to both U.S. domestic and international commercial Web sites, corporate portals, intranets, and wireless services. AP Digital will also market Variety's content to AP's newspaper and broadcast member Web sites.  

(http://www.apdigitalnews.com), (http://www.ap.org), (http://www.reedbusiness.com)

Ingeniux Corporation, a provider of XML-based Web content management and publishing systems, has announced that Knox College, a private liberal arts college located in Galesburg, Illinois, has launched the re-branded Web site using Ingeniux Content Management System (CMS). Ingeniux CMS was selected for its XML-based architecture and an intuitive, user-friendly environment that empowers faculty, staff and students across the campus to contribute Web content to the site. The goal of the re-launch was to standardize the new design and layout of the college's Web site across the campus. Key to success for Knox includes brand continuity in design and layout of the Web site while still giving creative freedom to content creators. The college's previous Web system relied on submitting all content to a single person for page development and layout. Now, content owners across the college, from admissions to athletics, can create and maintain content while Ingeniux CMS insures consistency of look and feel. Features of the systems include drag-and-drop from common applications, spell check, rollback to previous versions, and preview of all content.

(http://www.ingeniux.com), (http://www.knox.edu)

Atomica Corporate has announced the immediate availability of GuruNet 4.0, an advanced version of its application for Windows PCs, and the successor to Atomica Slingshot. With a single click on any word or phrase on the screen, GuruNet delivers real-time and reference information, including dictionary and encyclopedia terms, thesaurus, acronyms, technical terms, company descriptions, stock quotes, biographies, news, sports, weather, maps, translation, and more. GuruNet's technology displays a pop-up window on demand, without interrupting users' work. It is designed to work within any Windows application: email, Office, enterprise apps and web browsers. Answers are activated by an alt-click on any word on the screen; GuruNet provides an instant definition, overview or snapshot description. As opposed to traditional search engines, which index the billions of pages on the Web, GuruNet displays pre-compiled and organized reference data from over 50 content sources. It eliminates the need for the user to follow links back and forth serially, hunting for relevant facts. Rather, it delivers reference information in a summary. Among GuruNet's improvements are: user interface innovations; richer, more dynamic content; expanded customization; instant audible word pronunciation; and an advanced power query capability. Atomica aims to streamline both personal communication and business research by providing simplified access to premier reference resources. In addition to single end-users licenses, the company offers educational, corporate, and large-organization group discounts.

(http://www.atomica.com), (http://www.gurunet.com)

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a life science and technology company, has chosen FileNet Corporation to enhance the ecommerce capabilities of its multiple Web sites with the deployment of automated Web content creation and management processes using FileNet Web Content Management (WCM). Implemented by FileNet's Professional Services teams in June 2002, the FileNet ECM solution at Sigma-Aldrich is designed to streamline the centralized management of content throughout the company's global locations. (Sigma-Aldrich uses multiple Web sites to support five brands, Sigma, Aldrich, Fluka, Supelco and Riedel-deHaën, in numerous markets and geographical locations). Content can now be individually targeted to each of the company's five brands and multiple market segments, using only one centralized system for content management, ecommerce, catalog infrastructure, search engine, and navigation, while maintaining consistency. The security features of FileNet WCM allow management at the company's St. Louis, Missouri headquarters to retain control of the common architecture and consistent look and feel of Sigma-Aldrich's Web presence, while giving content creators the freedom and flexibility to manage the content in a template environment. Content creators at Sigma-Aldrich offices use the FileNet WCM system on a daily basis to contribute to and manage approximately 18,000 static pages throughout multiple Sigma-Aldrich Web sites. FileNet WCM allows Sigma-Aldrich's customers to make informed purchase decisions through the convenience of browsing more than 200,000 products in the online catalog, which results in the placement of more than 70,000 online orders per month. FileNet WCM does not require end-users to have special technical knowledge or training, Sigma-Aldrich content creators can access the templates of the FileNet WCM system in a password-protected area on the Sigma-Aldrich corporate Web site to contribute or update content within minutes.

(http://www.filenet.com), (http://www.sigma-aldrich.com)