EBT announces support for using SGML open catalogs to deliver SGML documents on the Internet; New releases of EBT's DynaText CD/Web Browser and DynaWeb Server fully support SGML on the World Wide Web.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 1996-- Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT), the premier supplier of integrated CD/Web publishing solutions, today announced support for using the SGML Open Catalog(1) standard to enable interchange of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) documents on the Internet.

SGML Open Catalog is a widely embraced industry standard that enables SGML systems to interoperate in traditional CD- ROM or LAN environments. The SGML Open Catalog includes an extension mechanism that EBT has utilized to apply the Catalog standard to the Internet. This will enable exchange of SGML documents on the World-Wide Web, as well as via electronic mail.

The use of SGML Open Catalogs on the Internet is described in the document, "Using Catalogs and MIME to Exchange SGML Documents(2)," that is being considered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Additionally, the SGML Open Consortium(3) is registering the Catalog with the IETF as a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) Content Type. These actions will facilitate exchange of SGML documents between disparate Web servers and Web browsers and between different e-mail systems.

"Utilizing the SGML Open Catalog opens the Web to documents much more richly structured than any version of HTML(4)," said Kent Summers, director of marketing at EBT. "This is very good news for professional information publishers. As more browser vendors support the SGML Open Catalog standard on the Internet, control of document tag sets and formatting go back into the hands of the publisher where they belong," continued Summers.

"Our intent to register SGML-Open-CATALOG as a MIME type is a key part of the Consortium's strategy to enable the delivery of SGML on the Internet," said Mary Laplante, executive director of SGML Open. "A number of our vendor members already support our catalog mechanism for interchanging files, and they're eager to see extensions that lead them in new market directions. We are pleased that EBT has used our technical work as the foundation for an important contribution to the development of the Internet as a publishing medium."

EBT's DynaText(R) 3.0 Professional Publishing System provides a true SGML-based integrated CD / Web publishing environment and will fully support browsing SGML on the Internet. Furthermore, EBT's DynaWeb(tm) 3.0 Web server will directly support publishing SGML on the Web.

In addition to viewing SGML, DynaText 3.0 also directly browses HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents on the Web, as well as SGML-based DynaText electronic books from remote DynaWeb servers and from CD / LAN environments.

Concurrently, a major new feature of EBT's DynaWeb 3.0 Web server is its unique "client-aware" technology. Based on the capabilities of the browser used to access a DynaWeb server, DynaWeb 3.0 will: convert SGML information to HTML on-the-fly; deliver raw SGML; or serve SGML-based DynaText books directly on the Web.

EBT's online publishing tools provide professional publishers with a standards-based solution for the next- generation of integrated CD/Web publishing. Leading organizations such as Ameritech, Brown University, Control Data Corp., EMC, General Motors, JYACC, Motorola, Novell, R.R. Donnelley, Semiconductor Research, Siemens Nixdorf, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, UCAL Berkeley, UNISYS, and VISA utilize DynaText/DynaWeb for publishing mission critical information via the World-Wide Web, internal "Intranets", and CD-ROM.

EBT(tm) software enables publishers to develop information once, to deliver the information via multiple electronic delivery media (CD-ROM, LAN/WAN, and WWW), and to optimize the viewing, navigation, searching and presentation of the information based upon the capabilities of the browser used to access the information.

Electronic Book Technologies, Inc.(EBT) is a privately held corporation based in Providence, RI, USA. EBT, a founding member of SGML Open and the MIT World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C), develops and markets a product suite engineered from the ground up around SGML. EBT can be found on the Web at www.ebt.com.

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DynaText, DynaWeb and EBT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Book Technologies, Inc.

(1) The SGML Open Catalog mechanism is defined in the Consortium's publication Technical Resolution 9401:1995 on Entity Management which can be found at http://www.sgmlopen.org/sgml/d ocs/library/techpubs.htm

(2) A copy of the Internet Draft "Using Catalogs and MIME to Exchange SGML Documents" can be obtained at ftp://ds0.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mimesgml- exch-00.txt

(3) SGML Open is a non-profit, international consortium of providers of products and services, dedicated to accelerating the further adoption, application, and implementation of the Standard Generalized Markup Language, the international standard for open interchange of documents and structured information objects. SGML has been adopted across industries including aircraft, airlines, automotive, computer, defense, electronics, pharmaceuticals, securities, telecommunications and transportation, as well as by government systems integrators, publishing companies, and academic research centers.

(4) HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple application of SGML used for marking up and rendering documents within the World-Wide Web environment on the Internet.

CONTACT: Paul Lamoureux([e-mail])

EBT

[phone] x241

or

Aly Reynders, Craig Librett

Miller/Shandwick Technologies

[phone]