The Trend Towards Distributed Content Management

There continues to be a lot of discussion about the difference between, and relative merits of, individual content management applications, especially web content management (WCM), and enterprise content management (ECM). Sometimes the debate focuses on a difference of breadth of content types, or of reach across an organization, and sometimes the discussion looks more at the depth of content complexity or reach into content supply applications.

Waldt, Dale. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management

Using XML in Databases

Today, we can find many applications to manage XML content that demonstrate the power and flexibility that can only be achieved through XML-native databases. Information intensive companies such as the airline and manufacturer described in this paper have achieved significant technical and business benefits from their use of XML standards and database technology over alternative approaches.

Waldt, Dale. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management>Databases>XML

XBRL: The Language of Finance and Accounting

The eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a language for capturing financial information throughout a business' information processes that will eventually be reported to shareholders, banks, regulators, and other parties. The goal of XBRL is to make the analysis and exchange of corporate information more reliable and easier to facilitate.

Waldt, Dale. XML.com (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Financial>XBRL

XML Initiatives in Pharma

The pharmaceutical industry has been slow to adopt XML until recently. Initiatives in the US and EU, as well as other jurisdictions, have begun that use XML to define important documentation formats as part of the drug product life cycle. In the US the FDA is mandating that drug product descriptions called "labels" be submitted in an XML format called the Standard Product Label (SPL) language by the end of 2005 and similar mandates are being made in the EU and other regions. Since most pharmaceutical companies are international, companies are scrambling to figure out the best method for managing their data in order to meet all of meeting these specific requirements. Also, drug label information will become an important component in the broader set of medical records and prescription standards that are being developed concurrently. This session will describe the roles and status of these standards, initiatives for adoption in the US and the EU, and provide some ideas on strategies for managing data within this complex set of requirements.

Waldt, Dale. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>XML