Dashbriefs: Uima Standard; Microsoft Forms Interoperability Alliance

Apache And OASIS Embrace IBM's Uima Standard

Having delivered its Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) specification for integrating disparate search technologies to the SourceForge open-source software development community in early 2006, IBM announced in November that Apache has launched a project for UIMA-based software. In addition, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) established a committee to make the UIMA spec a standard. The moves were just what was needed "for broad adoption of software in an open and portable fashion," says Nelson Mattos, a vice president at IBM Research.

Microsoft Forms Interoperability Alliance

Microsoft has formed an alliance with software and hardware vendors with the goal of improving interoperability. Members included well-known vendors such as AMD, BEA Systems, Business Objects, CA, Software AG and Sun Microsystems. The alliance emerges as Microsoft is moving deeper into the IT infrastructure of large corporations and heterogeneous environments. Microsoft also is responding to complaints that Windows is difficult to integrate.