Content Management Matters ™

JustSystems, a Japanese software vendor specializing in XML and information management technologies, announced that XMetaL, the company's XML-based software for structured authoring and content collaboration, has been selected as a 2008 KMWorld Trend-Setting Product.

When we talk about the Semantic Web we mean more meta-information hidden in the page code, but derived from the content itself, with the aim of letting Web services and search engines know exactly what's there without having to guess from keywords and tags. XML is one format which can structure content to contain more classification material. RDF is the preferred data model used, which splits content into entities and relationships, and the RDF model most usually utilizes XML to structure content.

JustSystems is continuing its growth strategy to expand across North America and Europe by designing new partnership levels designed to recruit more value-add partners to sell and integrate their software into organizations.

Their focus is to recruit experienced vendors and system integrators in the areas of structured authoring and dynamic publishing. JustSystems, as you know, is a provider of document management solutions that implement DITA. So it only makes sense they would be looking for new partnerships with companies experienced in this area.

They have defined three new partner participation levels that will enable potential partners to grow their relationship with JustSystems slowly. These include:

• Associate - initial commitment and basic support
• Authorized - More formalized and predictable sales of JustSystems products
• Premier - Designed for system integrators who want to build a solution offering around their technology

The higher up you go in the partnership levels, the more marketing, sales and technical support you get. In addition JustSystems will product discounts and sales opportunities to higher level partnerships.

If think you have what it takes to become a value-add partner for JustSystems, go to their site and read more details.

Gartner is getting a little more hip naming their reports and JustSystems is one content management vendor benefiting from it. After all, being named a "cool vendor" can't hurt a company can it?

Looking for a content management system that enables to you author and publish DITA-based technical documentation? Take a gander over this way. Canadian vendor, IXIASOFT, have just unwrapped the latest release of their XML-based solution -- DITA CMS Framework 2.1.

Compatibility with DITA 1.1 is one of several interesting improvements bundled-up in this latest push.

Last week we brought you news of a webinar on DITA in the Enterprise to be chaired today by IBM and JustSystems, in which the companies' co-authored DITA Maturity Model is to be presented.

Now we can bring you details on just what the Maturity Model is all about. We're not saying you should slack off and not bother with the Webinar. We're just giving you the option, is all.

Flummoxed by the DITA revolution sweeping Enterprise CMS? Wondering what it's all about, or toying with the idea of adopting a DITA/XML architecture for your enterprise content?

If so then tune into a webinar hosted by IBM and JustSystems on February 5th, which will cover the main implementation issues involved in XML adoption, and sketch out a best-practice framework for implementing DITA in the enterprise.

Documents and applications; they make up the backbone for any wired business, but what happens when these two separate things converge into one? According to JustSystems, you get the future of XML document authoring.

And so JustSystems introduces the latest version of XMetaL Author Enterprise and XMetaL Reviewer, transforming documents into a dynamic experience.

Japan's JustSystems has announced plans to discuss the evolving role of XML at the XML '07 Conference and Exposition. And you might want to see it, because the company's making some very tall statements about the development of our favorite little markup language (the eXtensible kind, of course).

To watch the fireworks and partake of the bubbly, pop in at the Marriott Copley in Boston from December 3-5 -- just days after Gilbane Boston takes place.

Might as well make the most of the frigid East in dead of winter, yeah?

JustSystems is busy this month. Just days after its webinar on DITA and single-source XML publishing, the company will be appearing at LavaCon '07.

LavaCon '07 is the fifth annual conference on advanced technical communication and product management. JustSystems will be hosting a workshop to help participants prep for new approaches to old schematics, particularly with regard to XML and DITA.

At the workshop, you'll find out how to gauge your financial returns on XML and DITA approaches. You'll also learn how to migrate your content to a topic-based authoring and management system.

The conference will be held on October 27-30 in New Orleans at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel. If you plan on sticking around the full three days, you might want to catch JustSystems' partner seminars, co-hosted by IBM and Sterling Commerce. They're called "Calculating the Fiscal Return of Using XML and DITA," "Migrating to XML Case Study: Sterling Commerce," and "The Tao of DITA."

If that last is anything like The Tao of Pooh, you'll have to let us in on it.

Learn more about the conference.

JustSystems is hosting a complimentary webinar called "Fast-track Single Sourcing: The Road to DITA Success," part of its XML Advisor Webinar series.

The event takes place on Thursday, 25 October at 1 PM Eastern. Attendees will learn how to build a business case for the Darwin Information Type Architecture (DITA), currently the standard for XML-based and single-source (a.k.a. component) content management.

You'll also learn how to define topic templates, conditional text and metadata; considerations for specialization and training end users; and how to customize DITA output or create a tool checklist.

Lots of handy-dandy stuff. Register here.

By uniting IBM's DB2 9 Viper data server and FileNet P8 with its xfy and XMetal offerings, JustSystem hopes to unify content and data views within the enterprise.

VP Paul Wlodarczyk of solutions consulting at JustSystem explains, IBM covers Web services with FileNet P8, and XML data with the DB2 9 Viper data server. With xfy and XMetaL, we can leverage content from each of those sources to help developers rapidly deliver the unified view that business users want."

Guess this means less tabbing back and forth for us. If all goes as well as planned, the solution will also:

• Speed document creation and collaboration
• Vanquish errors associated with dynamic documents
• Reduce costs by leveraging existing engineering data assets

JustSystems is currently appearing as a Diamond Partner for IBM's Information On Demand 2007 conference. Its offering is targeted to financial services, big pharma and life science, high-tech and manufacturing industries, if only because these sectors boast the same issues other enterprises have except with unique security, compliance and data issues.