Editorial
From data capture to web services...
by way of full-text retrieval and check digits
THIS issue of Information
Management & Technology and IM@T Online coincide with
Cimtech’s annual Document, content and data capture 2003 exhibition
and conference held at the Fielder Centre, Hatfield, Herts. Our main article
is written by one of the leading authorities in the data and document
capture industry. Richard Cutler of ROCC Computers, who has been in the
business for over twenty years, provides and timely overview of the world
of data capture with a look back at its history, where it is now and a
glimpse of possible future trends. It’s immediately obvious just
how far and how fast things have developed but he offers a warning: “Like
most adolescents the IT industry is subject to fashion and peer pressure—it
enjoys new gadgets and re-inventing itself and this can obfuscate the
view of genuine advances.” Quite.
We’ve been hearing a lot about web services
recently. But what are they? And how can they help your business? If you’re
still in the dark about web services have a look at website http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/Activity
which is all about web services and will probably answer any questions
you might have. But before you rush off to surf the Net, read Neil Curtis’s
article on web services.
John Walsh’s article is about check digits:
what exactly are they? Where and how do they fit into data capture? They
developed from manual data keying because accuracy was (and still is)
more important than speed of data capture; what’s more, they are
a reliable method of reducing data capture costs. With the increased use
of forms processing software using automated character recognition to
automatically capture data from scanned form images, the case for making
greater use of check digits has increased.
There’s an innovative method of electronic
archiving with full-text retrieval described by Alan Turner. The case
study describes how this technology has been used to provide the British
Academy with an affordable, fully searchable solution to the electronic
archiving of the Proceedings of the British Academy.
Amongst the exhibitors at IMeXpo 2003 held in
May was strong representation of European, particularly French, data and
document capture companies. We take a quick look at two of them in NewsTrack,
ITESOFT and A2iA, and bring more detail of SWT’s offerings in Product
Review on p.140. Another product with foreign origins, Russian this time,
is ABBYY’s FormReader v.6.0.
Another event that caught our eye was the Complying
with E-GIF and XML conference in May. Cimtech consultant and specialist
in e-government, Alison Gibney, attended and brings a short report.
Anne Grimshaw
Editor
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