Information Today
                    Volume 16, Number 6 • June 1999		 Reed Technology to Build Congressional Quarterly Publishing System

Reed Technology has embarked on a multimillion-dollar project for Congressional Quarterly, Inc. (CQ) to develop a Unified Data Repository (UDR) and content management system for publishing to its Web site, CQ.com, and publishing printed products, such as CQ Daily Monitor. CQ.com disseminates a wide array of information concerning Congress and the federal legislative process to over 1,000 member viewers each day, from data feeds to legislative schedules, committee reports, and vote and legislative bill information.

XML will be used during the conversion of data feeds into the media-independent database, as well as for a dynamic product extraction module. Reed Technology’s emphasis is on creating a system that makes it simple and easy for CQ’s editorial staff to edit and query the relational database, edit in XML, track workflow, and create different product offerings for new market segments.

CQ evaluated the many production systems it uses over a wide range of hardware platforms, operating systems, and programming languages, and determined that a Unified Data Repository was required to manage all content for ease of maintenance and daily use. Reed Technology was one of several companies considered for this project.

Reed Technology also announced that it has begun development of a Web site for the Food Master Ingredients Catalog from Cahners Business Information. The site can be found at http://www.foodmaster-ing.com. “Cahners needed a Web solution to replace an existing CD-ROM product,” said Connie Huet, Cahners product manager. “We chose Reed Technology because of their expert knowledge of data conversion, which was required to transfer our CD-ROM-based product catalog pages and directories to Web-based catalogs and directories, as well as their ability to provide innovative Web production services.”

Last fall, Reed Technology released version 2.0 of its Web Publishing Solution (WPS), a comprehensive system for publishing timely information to the Web or corporate intranet. And the company recently announced that it had joined OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) as a corporate member. OASIS is a nonprofit, international consortium that helps to promote the adoption of product-independent formats based on public standards. These standards include SGML, XML, and HTML, as well as others that are related to structured information processing. Reed Technology is a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group and an operating unit of LEXIS-NEXIS.

Source: Reed Technology, Horsham, PA, 800/872-2828; http://www.reedtech.com.

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