Paul Krill

Microsoft Corp. this summer plans to reveal further details about the next version of its Passport e-business authentication service, although the company is not yet committing to a release date.

Oracle Corp. will stress frameworks and the need to make Java programming accessible to more developers in a release of its JDeveloper development environment that the company will focus on in June.

Universal Business Language (UBL), a proposed OASIS specification for electronic commerce, presents the potential of enabling smaller businesses worldwide to engage in global commerce alongside major vendors, a Sun Microsystems Inc. official said during a presentation in Menlo Park, Calif. on Tuesday.

IBM Corp.'s road map for its DB2 Universal Database platform includes both new features and refinements of existing functions, according to Janet Perna, general of data management at IBM.

A specification for Web services choreography and business processes introduced by Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., and BEA Systems Inc. last August remains under its founders' jurisdiction, despite repeated assurances of its pending submission to an industry standards organization.

EDI lives and .Net cannot be ignored, said industry executives and audience members at a panel session in Santa Clara, Calif. last week.

In a temporary change of heart, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday participated in an industry effort to standardize Web services choreography.

Over-standardization, royalty-free standards, and browser wars were on the minds of industry dignitaries serving on a panel discussing the future of the Web at the XML Web Services One conference here on Thursday.