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Member Newsletter
October 2004
Welcome to a new edition of The Open Group Member Newsletter!
We hope it will be a valuable resource for our members, and
a tool as useful as The Open Group website.
Please let us know if there is anything you would like to
see in this newsletter, or on our website, by e-mailing
us. We look forward to hearing your feedback.
In This Issue:
FEATURE
NEWS
CALL TO ACTION
CONFERENCES
EVENTS
THE WEB
OTHER
Does Your Company Know What it Knows?
By Dr. Chris Harding, The Open Group
Today’s executives face continuous pressure to improve
business processes, increase operational efficiency and productivity,
and make their businesses run better. But to be effective in
their roles, they need to have an accurate and up-to-date picture
of the business. This presents a challenge. And the post-industrial
trend to de-emphasize organizational boundaries makes finding
and re-using information - which may have been created by other
people in other departments, or in other companies - even more
of an issue. Far too often, the information is not available
in the required form or much of it is in “silos”
and not readily accessible when and where needed.
Most corporations don’t know what they know. In addition
to structured information that exists in the database, corporate
information proliferates in a variety of other formats from
information dispersed in an email or exchanged over the phone,
informal notes scratched in notepads or on handhelds, to more
formal working files stored by employees on their desktops or
on shared drives. All of this information is unstructured, not
readily available to others. This applies even to files on the
shared drives, which although technically accessible, might
be hard to find and use – often, author-assigned file
names such as “proof1” or “final-to-marketing”
are not intuitive and clear to others. According to Mike Ball,
General Manager of the ApplicationXtender Business Unit of EMC
2, approximately 80% of corporate information exists in unstructured
form.
As a result, a lot of time is wasted trying to find information.
Often, information is not re-used because it is faster to re-create
it from scratch than find it. Information also gets lost with
employee turnover - most of their unstructured data gets lost
with their departure.
But finding information is not enough – it is necessary
to establish its credibility. How good is it, how much can it
be trusted and relied upon for making a business decision? The
revenue impact of a decision based on trusting the wrong information
can be huge. We all have seen emails claiming to be from Nigeria
and asking for help. We don’t doubt that those are scams.
But sometimes the credibility (or lack of) is less obvious:
for example, how credible are conclusions in a spreadsheet found
on a shared drive? On what data and assumptions was it based?
Executives face increased pressure to have quality information
at their fingertips not only for operational reasons but also
due to recent compliance requirements, including the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act amongst others. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey noted
that the new reporting requirements present a major challenge
to most US multinational companies. Two-thirds of the surveyed
top executives report that their company’s business information
processes typically require significant amounts of human intervention,
or have a lack of embedded compliance controls. Both of those
slow information flow. According to Mike Willis, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Partner, the new reporting requirements are exposing some glaring
weaknesses in business information processes.
Existing technologies such as ERP, data warehousing and enterprise
content management, although helpful, are not solving the problem.
Users are acutely aware of that, and are looking for new options.
David McCaskill from Procter & Gamble formulated the problem
clearly at The Open Group’s Brussels conference on information
management where he called for Google-like search capability,
an easy-to-use interface that could provide instant access to
integrated information as needed. He is not alone. More and
more users are joining in and the market for corporate search
and web-based integrated information infrastructure, which is
sometimes called corporate intraweb, is heating up. And vendors
are starting to notice: Google is said to be working on a corporate
search capability, Microsoft’s approach is a content-based
file system planned for Longhorn, the next generation of Windows,
and IBM is testing “Masala”, new software that can
index and locate information from corporate networks, desktops,
intranets and internet, in a variety of formats including databases,
office files, email messages, and images.
Standards efforts in this area are also underway. The underlying
layer for improving search capabilities, clarifying credibility,
increasing re-use, and supporting legal compliance is the layer
of metadata, on which several standards initiatives are focusing.
To name just a few, there are efforts of the Dublin Core Metadata
Initiative focused on the development of interoperable online
metadata standards, activities of UDEF, a cross-industry initiative
focused on developing universal classification system for data,
and work by W3C, which focuses on semantic web. More standards
work is needed though – for example related to development
of information architecture including design pattern and building
blocks and standards for information tagging or development
of universally accepted information quality metrics.
So when can managers hope to have all the necessary information
at their fingertips instantly? It will take time to develop
and deploy the technology needed to make the vision of Boundaryless
Information Flow™ a reality, so that people can find what
they need, when they need it, securely and reliably. It could
take five years. But when it does happen, it will be a leap
ahead that will fundamentally change the way of doing business
and significantly increase efficiency and productivity.
For more information, please contact Dr. Chris Harding at:
c.harding@opengroup.org
Top of Page
The Open Group in the Media
- October 14, 2004 - Messaging Pipeline: The
Open Group Stand On Sender ID
- October 14, 2004 - ECN: Aonix
Provides Partitioning Technology for the High-Integrity
Java Applications Project; European Community Develops Architecturally
Neutral Real-Time System
- October 2004 – Embedded Control Europe: Aonix:
partitioning technology for architecturally neutral platform
- October 13, 2004 - Lycos.com: Aonix
Provides Partitioning Technology for the High-Integrity
Java Applications Project; European Community Develops Architecturally
Neutral Real-Time System
- October 13, 2004 - Yahoo.com: Aonix
Provides Partitioning Technology for the High-Integrity
Java Applications
- October 4, 2004 - NetworkWorldFusion: IBM
Tivoli digs deeper into app transactions
- October, 2004 - ERCIM News: COPRAS
European Project Kick-off Meeting
- September 30, 2004 – InfoChannel.com.mx (in Spanish):
NCOIC,
integración de comunicaciones globales
- September 29, 2004 – RF Globalnet: Industry
Giants To Form Network Centric Industry Consortium
- September 29, 2004 - Saab
- 27 Companies Agree to Form NCO Industry Consortium
- September 29, 2004 – ebizQ.net: Network
Centric Operations Industry Consortium Created - ebizQ
- September 28, 2004 -LWN.net: The
Open Group announces a Poster Competition
- September 27, 2004 - ECN: First
POSIX certified OS
- September 22, 2004 - TMCnet: Network
Centric Operations Industry Consortium -NCOIC- Launch
- September 16, 2004 - EDN: Embedded
Linux nears real time
Press Releases:
Top of Page
Certification News
First UNIX 03 Certification
We are very pleased to announce that IBM is the first supplier
to register a system as conforming to the UNIX 03 Product
Standard: AIX 5L for POWER V5.2 dated 8-2004 or later with
APARs: IY59610, IY60869, IY61405 with VAC 6.0.0.8 or later
on pSeries CHRP systems.
In addition, IBM has registered the same product for the XTI
- Transport Services V2, and Magnetic Media Product Standards.
To read the Conformance Statements please refer to: http://www.opengroup.org/csq/
For more information on UNIX 03, please refer to: http://www.unix.org/unix03.html
For the latest official list of UNIX® registered products,
please refer to http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/
TOGAF Certification News
The number of architects certified to the TOGAF 8 Certified
Product Standard has now exceeded 160.
The current numbers of certified individuals, products and
services are as follows:
- TOGAF 8 Certified Product Standard - 163 registered individuals
- TOGAF 8 Training Product Standard - 2 products from 2
companies
- TOGAF 8 Professional Services Product Standard - 3 products
from 3 companies
- TOGAF 8 Tool Support Product Standard - 2 products from
2 companies
- TOGAF 7 Certified Product Standard - 28 registered individuals
- TOGAF 7 Training Product Standard - 2 products from 2
companies
- TOGAF 7 Professional Services Product Standard - 7 products
from 7 companies
- TOGAF 7 Tool Support Product Standard - 2 products from
2 companies
The full register is online at http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/cert/register.html
S/MIME Gateway Certification
News
We are pleased to announce that NetIQ Corporation has registered
NetIQ MailMarshal SMTP Secure 5.5 as conforming to the S/MIME
Gateway Product Standard.
To see the Conformance Statement please refer to the certification
register at http://www.opengroup.org/smg/cert/register.html
and click on the CSQ icon for the product.
S/MIME Gateway certification provides interoperability of
S/MIME (Secure MIME) protected messages, which are encrypted
at the organization boundary. The S/MIME Gateway Product Standard
defines the format of messages, the format of certificates
used for exchange of public keys and a protocol for certificate
exchange and installation. For more information on the S/MIME
Gateway certification program, please refer to http://www.opengroup.org/smg/cert/
SIF Compliance Program
News
The Open Group is pleased to announce that the following product
has been registered as conforming to the SIF-enabled Application
Product Standard 1.1:
MAXIMUS, Inc. - SchoolMAX Student Information System 3.1.0
with SMAX SIF AGENT 1.0
To view all current SIF certifications and Conformance Statements,
please see the SIF Certification Register at: http://www.opengroup.org/sif/cert/register.html
For more information on the SIF compliance program, please
refer to: http://www.opengroup.org/sif/cert
Top of Page
Spotlight on recent publications: Measurement of Quality of
Digital Information
The Open Group's Business Scenario, Measurement of Quality
of Digital Information, is now available from the on-line
bookstore. The document explores the business and technical
environment and processes, and the human and computer actors
involved in information management. It identifies five important
quality dimensions for measurement, and makes specific requirements
for standardization of metadata, tagging, and metrics, to
enable enterprises to measure and improve their information
quality.
Download the document: http://www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/k042.htm
Top of Page
The Open Group's Messaging Forum calls for industry action
Mike Lambert, Fellow of The Open Group and Director of The Open
Group's Messaging Forum, clarifies the status of the Sender-ID
Framework proposal, and calls for industry action. According
to Lambert, Sender-ID Policy Framework is the only authentication
proposal on offer that can be implemented without massive disruption
to existing mail systems. The recent licensing dispute does
not significantly impact the value of its deployment. At its
next meeting, The Messaging Forum will discuss proposals and
next steps to be taken. Interested parties are welcome to participate.
Read more: http://www.opengroup.org/messaging/spam/spam_mgl_position.htm
Top of Page
The Open Group announces design contest for UNIX® System
Poster
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the UNIX® system,
The Open Group announced a design contest for a new UNIX®
system Poster. The contest deadline is October 31, 2004
The design should capture the magic of the UNIX system, featuring
images based on UNIX system interfaces, utilities, languages,
and/or organizations. The winning design will be produced
and distributed at future events such as LinuxWorld Expo 2005.
The designer will be acknowledged on The Open Group's UNIX
System web page and receive a Linspire Mobile PC, a number
of copies of the poster, a collection of UNIX system memorabilia
and a copy of the Single UNIX specification of CD ROM. The
first twenty entrants whose work is accepted for display,
will also receive UNIX license plates.
All entries should be emailed to umagicposter@opengroup.org
Contest rules and more details are posted at: http://www.unix.org/uposter.html
Top of Page
This week in New Orleans:
- Boundaryless Information Flow™: Securing the Extended
Enterprise
- Architecture Practitioners’ Conference: Enterprise
Architecture: Making IT Pay
Boundaryless Information Flow™:
Securing the Extended Enterprise
The Open Group’s autumn security focused conference
is taking place on October 18-22, 2004 at the Hotel Monteleone
in New Orleans, LA, USA, and brings together the foremost
IT security and other experts to detail the current security
threats, discuss the issues for enterprise communications,
and outline practical solutions.
Keynote Address:
- Mick Coady, VP Security Practice, Computer Associates
Int.
Other speakers include:
- Bob Blakley, Chief Scientist, Security and Privacy, IBM
- Mark O’Neill, Chief Technology Officer, Vordel
- Mark Reichert, Chief Technology Officer, Schools Interoperability
Framework
- Ben Calloni, Research Program Manager, Lockheed Martin
Aeronautics Company, Chair RTES Forum
- Lee C. Cooper, Security Program Manager, Oracle
- Tony Hain, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems
- Mike Lambert, Director, Messaging Forum, The Open Group
Check the program at: http://www.opengroup.org/new-orleans2004/program.htm
Architecture Practitioners’
Conference: Enterprise Architecture: Making IT Pay
The 3rd Architecture Practitioners' Conference is taking place
on October 19-21, 2004 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans,
LA, concurrently with The Open Group’s Securing the
Extended Enterprise conference.
This two-day event focuses on how enterprise architecture
can best contribute to creating real business value, provide
experience-based insight into the approaches and methods that
have proved most effective for developing enterprise architectures
around the world, and clarify the limitations that exist in
this emerging field. The conference takes a highly practical,
hands-on approach, combining presentations and discussions
on best practices with interactive workshops, case study reviews
and demonstrations of the latest tools.
Check the program at: http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/0410norl/apc-agenda.htm
During the two conferences, attendees
can access proceedings for both events at: www.opengroup.org/conference-live.
After the conference, the proceedings will be available at:
www.opengroup.org/proceedings/q404
Top of Page
Look ahead to San Francisco in January 2005: Boundaryless Information Flow™: Architecting Identity
Management
The January 24-28, 2005 conference occurring in San Francisco,
CA, USA, will spotlight the progress made on enabling interoperable
identity management solutions, and introduce key concepts
of architecting identity management including trust, identity
management and authentication; provisioning; permissions management
and authorization; and directories and their roles. It will
discuss the business value of identity management, the most
effective measures for cost/benefit assessment, limiting legal
liability, and how to make informed decisions.
- Keynote: Jamie Lewis, CEO & Research Chair, Burton
Group
Read more: http://www.opengroup.org/san-francisco2005/
Top of Page
Industry Events Calendar
Events of The Open Group
Boundaryless Information Flow™:
Securing the Extended Enterprise
October 18-22, 2004
New Orleans, USA
http://www.opengroup.org/new-orleans2004/
3 rd Architecture Practitioners’
Conference
October 19-21, 2004
New Orleans, USA
http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/0410norl/q404arch-prac.htm
Boundaryless Information Flow™:
Architecting Identity Management
January 24-28, 2005
San Francisco, USA
http://www.opengroup.org/events/q105/
Enterprise ArchITecture Europe 2005
April 25-29, 2005
Dublin, Ireland
http://www.opengroup.org/events
Enterprise ArchITecture 2005
July 18-22, 2005
New York, USA
http://www.opengroup.org/events
Open Source and Standards Summit
October 17-21, 2005
Brussels, Belgium
http://www.opengroup.org/events
Other Industry Events
HealthMart 2004
Presented by Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
October 29, 2004
Boston, MA
www.mahealthdata.org
MDA-TOGAF ADM Workshop
Co-located with the OMG Technical Meeting
November 4, 2004
Washington, DC
http://www.omg.org/news/schedule/
INBOX East 2004 - The Email Event
November 17-19, 2004
Atlanta, GA
www.inboxevent.com
Note: The Open Group’s Mike
Lambert will present ‘Practical Lessons in Regulatory
Compliance’. Save $100 off with a discount code OGE04
Top of Page
The Open Group’s Mike Lambert will speak at the INBOX Eventn
Mike Lambert, Fellow of The Open Group and Executive Director
of The Open Group Messaging Forum, will be speaking at INBOX
East - The Email Event, which takes place on November 17-19,
2004 in Atlanta, Georgia. Catch his session "Practical
Lessons in Regulatory Compliance" on day one of the conference.
INBOX covers the latest in spam, phishing, storage, compliance,
marketing, real time collaboration and the business and strategy
of messaging systems in 30 conference sessions, 4 keynotes
and plenaries, 5 symposiums, in-depth workshops and the exhibit
hall.
Sign up today and use discount code: OGE04 to save $100 off
your conference registration. http://www.inboxevent.com
Top of Page
Top Downloads from the Web
Top 10 publications downloads in September
2004
1. The Single UNIX Specification, Version 3
2. TOGAF, Version 8 'Enterprise Edition'
3. Distributed TP: The XA Specification
4. X/Open Single Sign-On Service (XSSO) - Pluggable Authentication
5. Security Design Patterns
6. DCE 1.1: Remote Procedure Call
7. Single UNIX Specification, Version 2 - 6 Vol Set for UNIX
98 Hardcopy
8. Identity Management
9. Common Security: CDSA and CSSM, Version 2 (with corrigenda)
10. Systems Management: Application Response Measurement (ARM)
Top 10 page views in September 2004
1. The Open Group home
2. The Base Specifications, Issue 6
3. The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2: Keyword search
page
4. Open Motif home
5. A-Z Index
6. Contacts
7. Open Motif Downloads
8. CDE home
9. TOGAF 8 welcome page
10. Testing Downloads
Top of Page
Final Thoughts
Please let us know if there are other subjects you would like
to see covered in this newsletter, if you have any comments
on any story or article in the newsletter, or to send letters
to the editor for possible publication in the future.
You can contact us at memnews-feedback@opengroup.org
. We look forward to hearing from you, and will see you next
month.
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