CCI and NITF
I have read some of your articles about NITF and its growing support. I am glad to see that you help us and others within the news community in holding the torch for NITF.
Reading your articles "XML and NITF Take NEXPO" [July/August 1999, p. S11] and "Learning the (Meta) Language" [NEXPO®99 World Wide Web coverage, www.naa.org/conferences/nexpo99/ thursday.html], I find a misunderstanding that I would like to correct. CCI Europe is not–as stated in your articles–merely "planning" support for NITF, but we were, together with another esteemed member of the IPTC, the first vendor to adopt NITF in early 1998.
We probably were the first company in the world to use NITF for coding of regular text stories and advanced tabular matter (e.g., sports and financial agate). All CCI NewsDesk Editorial installations since mid-1998 use NITF in production, including USA Today, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and many more.
The decision to use NITF as a format for interchange of news content from wires was made because the CCI News-Desk Editorial and Pagination Systems have been based since 1994 on an internal SGML structure for text, with separation of content and presentation.
I believe that this separation of content and presentation in both the database and all surrounding applications, combined with an ability to create large-scale solutions with advanced work-flow management, has been the main reason for these and other high-end newspapers selecting CCI Europe as a vendor.
Christian Ratenburg
Product Manager
CCI Europe
Højbjerg, Denmark
Fiber Separation
I read with interest your article on the proposed kenaf processing facility for Texas [September/October 1999, p. 33]. I have presented our fiber-separation technology to Kafus. Through another contact, I am about to approach Enron. I am pleased to learn that Enron may be involved with this project as well.
Unfortunately we do not seem to be making progress with Kafus, and I am puzzled as to why. The Tilby cane-separation technology was invented, tested and perfected for the sugar-cane industry. We subsequently found we can also can efficiently separate kenaf, sweet sorghum and hemp into their fiber components. We are able to do this mechanically and can achieve separation rates of close to 100 percent. No one has done more work in the field of fiber separation than we have.
Rick Tilby
President
Tilby Systems Ltd.
Victoria, B.C.
Calibrating Color
I would like to respond to an article on your World Wide Web site concerning calibration of color instruments for use in the newsprint industry.
It is important to note that two specific international standards, TAPPI Official Test Method T525 and ISO Standard 2469, describe the instrumentation and procedures for measuring diffuse brightness. The associated color and opacity standards can also be referenced, but these two standards are the basis for all diffuse methods within the paper industry. Special care is given to take newsprint into account.
Also, in terms of calibration laboratories, ISO has a very specific hierarchy for the issuance and transfer of calibration standards. According to ISO conventions, there can only be one authorized laboratory in a given country. Technidyne Corp. is the U.S. representative. We are very proud of this honor since we were nominated by ANSI and accepted as the U.S. representative by completing the requirements set forth by ISO TC6, the paper-industry technical committee. Through this association, Technidyne has solidified its position among the leading paper-industry research institutions for optical measurement.
M. Todd Popson
Vice President
Technidyne Corp. New Albany, Ind.
Poster Pays Off
Thank you for your assistance enabling us to put together a work-flow poster for our Y2K contingency planning [based on the TechNews "Less is More" poster, November/December 1996].
We printed out about a dozen copies for our contingency-planning meeting and got so many comments that we printed the chart–along with an explanation of our contingency-planning process–in our internal newsletter to employees.
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Even with your template and artwork, it took weeks of gathering information and reconfiguring to fit our work flow. Without your help, it would not have been possible to do this sort of informational graphic.
Anthony J. Simollardes
Advertising Operations Manager
Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette