Demo to showcase tech innovators

Despite continued economic pressures, 61 technology innovators will unveil a host of products at IDG Executive Forum’s annual Demo conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week.

Included are technologies in the Web services, wireless, and collaboration arenas that represent what conference chair Chris Shipley said reflects a continued focus on the enterprise. “A lot of the products that we might have classified as [being] for small business have moved upstream,” she said.

In the Web services arena, Dorado, of San Mateo, Calif., plans to demo ChannelMaster, a vertical application for the real estate market that utilizes Web services to access lending data.

“At a general level, the idea is that ChannelMaster itself is a core application that runs on a three-tier, WebLogic-Oracle stack,” said Michael Peich, director of marketing at Dorado, “and we use Web services as the basic framework for integration, integrating both legacy back-end systems as well as a number of different services that play into real estate and mortgage transactions.” Other Java application servers or databases also will work, he said.

ChannelMaster hooks up with a piece of server software called the .More Server, which provides a wrapper around data from legacy systems and services and makes it appear as Web services, via SOAP over XML, Peich said. ChannelMaster is being extended to real estate agents in the new version, which is expected to ship this spring or summer. Previous versions have been tailored to lenders and mortgage brokers.

On the wireless front, Vivato will introduce a Wi-Fi switch that looks to displace access points. The switch is mounted like an access point, but unlike an access point, has the ability to follow users as they move across a campus. The startup claims 150 to 200 simultaneous users can be supported with the 802.11b-enabled switch. An 802.11g version will come out later this year and provide 54Mbps throughput.

Navini Networks is also pushing the wireless envelope, developing technology to support its business by giving service providers the ability to offer small businesses wireless access using SCDMA (Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) technology that blankets areas from 3 miles to 5 miles wide.

The company will introduce a PCMCIA card that permits better mobile access in than did the modem that customers previously had to deploy for its wireless service.

Meanwhile, SupportSoft will extend its support platform to work on mobile devices, enabling service providers or enterprise tech support to serve and manage mobile devices that use the Palm, Windows CE, or BlackBerry OS.

Addressing the enterprise hunger for more effective collaboration, Tacit Knowledge Systems will unveil ActiveNet, which is designed to enhance existing collaboration tools by identifying the activities and focus of people in an organization and connecting them to other workers. Billed as collaboration management, the software leverages Web services protocols to mine information in corporate content and collaboration systems and identify what phrases each person is using as part of his or her written work or communications.

Available as a standalone collaboration portal or as services within a portal or other applications such as e-mail, ActiveNet employs profiling, search, and content linking technologies to bring workers together and then help them launch into their collaboration tools of choice — including e-mail, IM, or shared spaces, according to David Gilmour, founder, president, and CEO of Tacit in Palo Alto, Calif.

“ActiveNet makes the right collaboration happen,” Gilmour said. “There are all kinds of tools out there that focus on the how of collaboration. We can automate the process of answering the who, when, and why of collaboration.”

In a similar vein, Kubi Software at Demo will launch its Kubi Client, which embeds collaboration spaces in e-mail systems such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook. The system is based on an SMTP-based protocol the company developed that is also XML-formatted and secured by PKI. XML formatting helps unify the differences between the competing e-mail platforms.

The Kubi Client binds to an existing e-mail client, allowing individuals and teams to work together in structured collaboration spaces without leaving the Notes or Outlook client, said Julio Estrada, founder and CEO of Kubi, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Estrada formerly served as chief architect for Lotus Domino Web Server and Lotus QuickPlace collaboration technologies.

“Most people use e-mail to collaborate and they struggle. This is a new approach to delivering collaboration in the context of the e-mail environment,” Estrada said. “Our approach is to extend or transform e-mail apps into effective collaborative environments.”

The Kubi Client also gives users access to other tools for collaboration including calendars, contacts, team folders, documents, and discussion threads.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to inoculate Microsoft Windows environments from unauthorized applications executing, BBX Technologies is launching both its company and ImmuneEngine software. A monitoring tool, ImmuneEngine watches Windows operations at the memory stack, tracks keyboard and mouse actions, and tracks operations being performed to catch all file creation input/output operations, said James Kollegger, CEO of New York-based BBX Technologies.

If ImmuneEngine flags the writing of an unauthorized executable, the security product automatically deletes the suspicious file. Existing executables that start misbehaving against a security policy are pushed off the program stack. In addition, Kollegger said system files that have been damaged or modified by any type of virus, Trojan Horses, worms, spyware, or malware will be restored to their original state by the software.

EDS is assisting BBX Technologies with ImmuneEngine’s integration into existing security architectures.