Three-fourths of Respondents Indicate Need or Desire to Print Directly from Laptop or PDA  
HIGHLAND, UT, October 16, 2000— Users of handheld organizers, palm size computers, laptops and advanced mobile phones want to print directly from these devices, according to a new preliminary study sponsored by The Salutation Consortium, a non-profit corporation focused on providing technologies that improve information exchange among portable computing devices .

More than 300 mobile device users were contacted via telephone poll by independent market research firm, Strategic Alternatives of Florida.   Respondents were asked a series of questions regarding their mobile device usage and printing needs.

Of these more than 300 mobile device users surveyed, 75 percent or 225 people said they wanted an easy to use printing capability from their devices.

“What we have is a growing population that sees mobile as a way of life,said Robert Pascoe, president of the Consortium.   “As manufactures of these devices and software developers, we need to create the walkup and print tools necessary to make this a reality.   Service discovery software, the ability to find and communicate with different end devices, plays an invaluable role in solving this need. ”

Additional findings include 75 percent of the laptop users wanting a wireless printing solution.   Handheld organizer users want a wireless printing solution 46 percent of the time.   In addition, 36 percent of mobile device users wanted business centers such as those found in airports and hotels to provide walk up and use wireless printing.

IBM, a charter member of the Consortium, agrees with the need to continue research into the printing requirements and demands of mobile device users.

NEED FOR WIRELESS PRINTING SOLUTIONS    

“Walk-up and print is yet another of the many new services that mobile device users want and need.   We support The Salutation Consortium in its efforts to advance the technological requirements to make this a reality, said Brent Miller, Senior Programmer, for IBM’s Pervasive Computing Division.

The Salutation Consortium understands that the study is preliminary and suggests more extensive research be conducted to further validate the findings.   Visitors to the Consortium’s web site ( www.salutation.org ) are welcome and encouraged to download the study’s findings. In addition, the Consortium considers the research ongoing and is asking all those interested to access the survey from the site and provide their responses.

As an incentive to responding to the survey, the Consortium will be giving away a WinCE Organizer with a color screen to a randomly selected survey respondent.

About the Salutation Consortium 

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation that promotes and distributes, royalty-free and via open source, the Salutation Architecture, a service discovery and session management protocol developed and sponsored by leading information technology companies such as IBM.   The Salutation Architecture is independent of operating system, communications protocol or hardware platform.   It provides information exchange among and between different wireless handheld devices and office automation equipment.

IBM is a charter member of the Consortium. President of the Consortium, Robert Pascoe, is an employee of IBM whose job is to steer the Salutation organization.

In addition to IBM, member companies include America   Online, Axis Communications, Canon Inc., Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA), Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Limited,       Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Konica Corporation, Kyocera Mita Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., MBurst, Inc., Murata Machinery, Ltd., National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Oki Data Corporation., Ricoh Company, Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., Square, Toshiba TEC Corporation, USA Technologies, Inc.

Academic members include Dr. Tamel Bose, Dr. Roger Debry, Marcus Giese, Kaspar Helldén, Professor Alan Leong, Professor Wenching Liou, Dr. Steven Reiss, Dr. Golden G. Richard III, Daniel Stevenson, Sudakshina Sharma Sarkar, Dr. Tomohiro Takagi, Heath Westover, Young Bok Yoon.

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 21, 1997 – The Salutation Consortium today announced that it is working with Hewlett-Packard Company, a member of the Consortium, on ways to support HP’s newly announced JetSend technology in the Salutation Architecture.

“We are identifying areas where integration of the two technologies will enhance user benefits,” said Robert J. Horton, Alliance Marketing Manager, HP Information Appliance Operation. “Users will be well served when these two technologies supplement and complement one another.”

“One of the early members of the Consortium, HP has demonstrated its commitment to developing technology that will simplify communications between a broad range of information appliances. JetSend is a major contribution to moving this vision forward,” said Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Consortium.

Comparison of JetSend and Salutation

Salutation and JetSend are based on the common vision of enabling different types of equipment, including computers, office equipment, and home devices to interoperate. The Salutation Architecture sends a network query to determine the characteristics of a device, application or service, allowing fullest possible use of the characteristics discovered. JetSend is a device-to-device protocol that allows two devices to connect, negotiate data types, provide status updates, and exchange information. In enabled devices, both JetSend and Salutation work without user intervention.

Both approaches fit into today’s computing environment.

The Salutation Architecture supports a process to determine and make full use of unique features of a connected information appliance. For example, Salutation provides benefits in a directory centric environment. A directory service can maintain detailed information about connected appliances and assure that each device operates to its fullest capacity.

JetSend’s device-to-device protocol provides benefits where a directory-centric model does not apply. JetSend ensures that two information appliances can share one of a set of data types and allows the appliances to select the capabilities that will provide the highest available level of information exchange. In this way, JetSend ensures communication can take place between the devices.

Steps Toward Integration

As a first step toward providing users with an integrated approach, the Consortium, with HP’s assistance, will investigate adding a JetSend Functional Unit to the Salutation Architecture. The JetSend Functional Unit would allow a user to utilize the Salutation APIs and protocols to determine to the “JetSend capabilities” of an information appliance and adjust interactions based on the response. The Consortium will also investigate other approaches to integrating the two technologies. An initial checkpoint is scheduled for the Salutation Technical Subcommittee meeting in October.

About the Consortium

The Salutation Consortium has published an open specification that enables an application to locate a particular resource on a network through a broadcast query. The specification is independent of network transport, hardware platform, and operating system software and supports standard Internet and other message formats.

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Casio, Cisco, Eastman Kodak, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Integrated Systems, IBM, Iwatsu, Justsystem, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Lexmark, Matsushita, Microware Systems, Minolta, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Novell, Oki Data, Ricoh, Rios Systems, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, WhetStone, and Xerox.

Sony Support for Salutation First from Outside Consortium

SAN JOSE, Calif., February 24, 1998—Hitachi Seibu Software, Ricoh, and Sony have introduced a new suite of network document management software and supporting office peripherals using Salutation technology to simplify network interoperability, said Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Salutation Consortium. Salutation is open middleware technology for locating and controlling equipment across the Internet or a company intranet.

The products increase support for IBM’s NuOffice document management software in the Japanese market, where it already boasts a family of supporting peripherals and software from Canon, Fuji Xerox, Mita, Muratec, and Ricoh. Several vendors have announced NuOffice products for availability in the US market later this year. NuOffice, based on Lotus Notes, provides a complete office system for large customer sites with many mobile or telecommuting users.

“Sony’s Salutation-enabled product is the first from a major vendor who is not a member of the Salutation Consortium,” said Pecora. “Consortium members set their goal to develop an architecture that would attract wide industry support, and to make that technology available without cost and license fees to all developers.”

Hitachi Seibu Software Millemasse Salutation Gateway

Hitachi Seibu Software’s Millemasse Salutation Gateway automatically registers scanned image data and fax images to a Lotus Notes database via NuOffice. The image data itself is registered to the Millemasse/FS server, and only document management information for the image is registered to the Notes database, reducing the capacity required on the Notes database.

Ricoh RGO Salutation Software

Ricoh Co. Ltd. released RGO Salutation Software for Ricoh’s existing family of Salutation-enabled digital multifunction peripherals (MFPs) and laser printers. RGO software, residing on a server along with IBM’s NuOffice, enables the Ricoh peripherals to serve in a network in the Notes groupware environment. Notes users can scan an image from an MFP directly into a Notes client and save the image in a database. Early versions of RGO supported more than 37,800 Lotus Notes users at Ricoh.

Additional software from Rios Systems, a company jointly owned by Ricoh and IBM Japan, enables Notes users to send and receive Notes documents via fax. Fax documents can be received as images into a Notes database, as well.

Sony i-file and WebDoc

Sony Corp. introduced i-file and WebDoc, which together handle the total document life cycle of both conventional paper documents and network-accessible files. The new products integrate document management with groupware, workflow, databases, and MFPs from several vendors to make documents more accessible from the device at hand.

For example, a document can be scanned by a copier or a fax machine for direct input to an i-file server, and in reverse, an i-file document can be printed on a copier or fax, in addition to a conventional printer.

WebDoc uses the web on an extended intranet. WebDoc can register a paper document to a home page and display it merely by scanning it into i-file, with no manual HTML translation required.

About the Consortium

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include Adobe Systems, APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Cisco, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Granite Systems, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Matsushita, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Okamura, Oki Data, Ricoh, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Apr. 20, 1998–Participants in “The Impact of Salutation on Tomorrow’s Fax Applications,” a two-day workshop sponsored by the Salutation Consortium, heard manufacturers of fax devices, fax servers, and multifunction devices detail progress in applying Salutation technology to distributed printing, image capture and transmission, and Internet fax.

Twenty-three attendees representing 16 companies saw demonstrations of Salutation products and development tools from IBM Japan, Mita, Muratec, STS Consulting, and XtraWorX, LLC. Keynote speaker was Pete Davidson, Davidson Consulting, affiliated with International Data Corp. and Buyer’s Laboratory. Davidson, editor and publisher of FaxWire, said, “There is a definite need for Salutation and nothing else is in this space. Salutation is a good answer for solving some very real needs. Without Salutation there will be less market for vendors to share.”

The Salutation Architecture is open middleware technology for locating and controlling fax machines, printers, copiers, and other computer equipment across the Internet or a company intranet. It lets you query the network to discover which devices attached can receive your images, files, and messages. For example, a laptop computer can locate a color printer, or a digital camera can send an image directly to a fax machine. Salutation reduces LAN administration by autoregistering new devices on the network and by supporting ad hoc discovery, with no need for maintaining enterprise-wide directories.

Workshop participants pointed out in discussion that Salutation fax functions support Inbound Routing, Receipt Notification and Read Confirmation over G3 fax protocol, all key features for developing new fax applications.

Edgar M. Tompkins, Mita marketing manager for the Integrated Document Imaging Division briefed attendees on Mita’s Salutation fax machines now available in Japan. “Salutation enables users to fax directly to an email address, without intermediate scanning steps. A recipient can retrieve an image via email from a remote location. Customers are pleased with their ability to support mobile workers with convenient, secure access to information,” said Tompkins. The Mita fax is marketed in conjunction with IBM Japan’s Salutation extensions to the Lotus Notes office system. According to Tompkins, the company is looking to expand the platforms supported and plans to launch the product in the US.

The Muratec fax with Salutation, demonstrated to workshop participants, is also marketed in Japan with NuOffice, the IBM Japan Salutation extensions to Lotus Notes. NuOffice provides a complete office system for large customer sites with many mobile or telecommuting users. The Salutation extensions to Lotus Notes enable users to send fax and email messages to the device most convenient to the recipient.

Salutation development tools demonstrated were XtraWorX LLC’s Port of Entry and STS Consulting’s Salutation API Driver, both now in beta test. Port of Entry bridges legacy desktops and peripherals to Salutation and presents a consistent access format for network peripherals. The API Driver graphically builds API calls on Windows, teaches programmers the Salutation interface, and demonstrates API call attributes and responses.

Manufacturers of fax server products led discussions about the need for security and standards in the network environment. Salutation Consortium managing director Robert F. Pecora stated that “Salutation is a thin layer to integrate existing standards and deliver additional user capabilities.” Global Village Communication director of engineering Steve Urvan added, “We’re interested in how the Salutation vision of standardized APIs for capability discovery could extend the potential for our LAN fax server.”

According to many participants, the growing market for color output devices, both printers and fax, will make the Salutation discovery capability very attractive to users. “The sender will be able to know in advance if a receiving device can print in color. Sometimes it’s not enough to send a fax–you want to send a color document,” Pecora said.

Salutation Consortium

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include Adobe Systems, APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Cisco, Eastman Kodak, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Integrated Systems, IBM, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Lexmark, Matsushita, Microware Systems, Minolta, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Novell, Okamura, Oki Data, Ricoh, Rios Systems, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.

HIGHLAND, UT, August 2, 1999—The Salutation Consortium, a non-profit corporation focused on providing technologies that improve information interchange, announced an ongoing effort with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

The goal of this cooperative effort is to converge the two groups’ service discovery technologies to create a single implementation, making it easier for software developers to write one applications that works in both environments.

The Salutation Consortium has been providing counsel and guidance to the Service Directory taskforce of the Bluetooth SIG’s Software Working Group.

“We are committed to providing a single service discovery technology across communication protocols,” said Robert Pascoe, president of The Salutation Consortium. “Working with Bluetooth enables us to exchange technical requirements and understand business needs in order to provide a universal language for the exchange of information.”

“We are fortunate to have The Consortium’s expertise in our combined work effort,” said Brent Miller, chair of the Bluetooth Service Discovery subcommittee and a senior software engineer in IBM’s Pervasive Computing Technology group. “Their in-depth knowledge and cooperation accelerated the process of demonstrating how to use Salutation technologies in the Bluetooth communications stack.”

A white paper on the topic co-authored by the two groups is available at /whitepaper/BtoothMapping.PDF.

Salutation technology is independent of operating system and communication protocol. This provides for a single-service discovery implementation across devices, applications and services.

The Salutation Consortium is also developing a Salutation “Lite” implementation for Bluetooth and the Infrared Data Association (IrDA), enabling developers to write one common API for both environments.

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation that promotes and distributes, royalty-free, the Salutation Architecture, a dervice discovery and session management protocol developed by leading information technology companies. It is an open standard independent of operating system, communications protocol or hardware platform.

Member companies include Advanced Peripheral Technologies, Axis Communications, Canon, Fuji Xerox, Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, Granite Systems, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Konica, Matsushita Electric Industrial co. Mita Industrial Co., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Murata Machinery, Ltd., Oki Data Corp., Ricoh Company, Seiko Epson Corp., Sharp Corporation, Toshiba Corp., Xerox Corp.

Information about the salutation Architecture is available at http://.

The Bluetooth SIG is an industry group consisting of leading companies in the telecommunication and computing industries that are developing an open specification for wireless communication of data and voice. It is based on low-cost, short-range radio link, built into a 9x9mm integrated circuit, facilitating protected ad hoc connections for

stationary and mobile communications environments. The SIG is sponsored by Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, IBM, Intel, Nokia Mobile Phones and Toshiba.

DENVER, Colo., June 7, 1999—The Salutation Consortium today previewed an open architecture for capability discovery and information sharing aimed at developers of mobile devices with limited bandwidth and battery-based power constraints. The preview took place at the Windows CE Developers Conference, which opened today.

Salutation previewed the prototype Salutation Manager Lite (SLM Lite) architecture at the conference in order to obtain feedback from WinCE developers and confirm that the prototype meets all developer requirements. “Hand held and palm-size WinCE computers with IrDA infrared communications links are a perfect environment for SLM Lite,” said Robert Pascoe, technical consultant to the consortium. “This new generation of devices needs to be able to share information with a broad range of computers and peripherals. Salutation is independent of operating systems, so SLM Lite will be portable to other versions of WinCE, Palm OS, and Java. Since Salutation has no networking protocol prerequisites, SLM Lite will support TCP/IP and Bluetooth, as well.”

The Salutation Architecture was originated by leading information technology companies who foresaw the need for an open, standard way for locating and controlling equipment across networks. Key to the process, Salutation enables a device to search for a capability (such as operating environment and display characteristics) and once a device has been located, Salutation facilitates the attachment of the proper device drivers and data transforms, allowing maximum possible use of the device and its capabilities.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 19, 1997: Richard J. Osterman, president of the Salutation Consortium, announced that the industry association has named Robert F. Pecora to be managing director. Pecora is responsible for Consortium marketing and member recruiting activities in North America and Europe.

Pecora was employed by IBM for more than 30 years in marketing positions related to office systems, application enabling software and other areas. OBob PecoraOs marketing background in application software and office technology is an excellent fit for the ConsortiumOs charter in 1997. Pecora will help the Consortium and its members educate the market about the opportunities we offer vendors who are creating products and services for tomorrowOs networks,O said Osterman, IBMOs manager, Salutation Project Office.

Pecora takes over from Mary Hill, who remains active in Consortium activities. Hill is a business development manager at Cisco Systems, a member company.

The Salutation Consortium has published an open specification that enables an application to locate a particular resource on a network through a broadcast query. A Salutation search can identify the location of a copier with legal-size paper, for example, or find the nearest color printer. The specification is independent of network transport, hardware platform, and operating system software and supports standard Internet and other message formats.

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Casio, Cisco, Eastman Kodak, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Integrated Systems, IBM, Iwatsu, Justsystem, Kobe Steel, Konica, Lexmark, Matsushita, Microware Systems, Minolta, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Novell, Oki Data, Ricoh, Rios Systems, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.

HIGHLAND, UT, August 9, 1999—The Salutation Consortium, a non-profit corporation focused on providing technologies that improve information interchange, has named Robert Pascoe of IBM as its new president.

Pascoe currently works for IBM and was instrumental in the formation of the Consortium, serving as its first president on an interim basis in 1995. He has continued to be active in Consortium affairs, providing strategic and technical counsel to its members.

Pascoe was nominated by IBM for the president’s position and was elected at the July 1999 Consortium Board of Director’s meeting.

At IBM, Mr. Pascoe reports to Ken Kasuga, Director of Strategy and Business Development, IBM’s Pervasive Computing Division.

“Bob’s long-standing links to the Consortium make him the obvious choice for president,” said Kasuga. “Bob’s leadership will help the Consortium drive adoption of a common information exchange platform among computers, peripherals and application software, ultimately benefiting the end user.”

“We consider this a strategic move forward for the Consortium and the Salutation Architecture,” said Robert Pecora, managing director of the Consortium. “Bob’s technical and management experience will be critical in our efforts to establish the Salutation Architecture and its information exchange techniques as a de facto standard fostering interoperability.”

Bob has more than 30 years experience with IBM and Novell including hardware and software development, product planning and management and new business development.

He is also founder of XtraWorX, LLC (Highland, UT, www.xtraworx.com), that developed the Port-of-Entry product, which enables Windows desktops and laptops with the Salutation Architecture. XtraWorX is also developing a ‘Lite’ version of the Salutation Manager for use in Windows CE and Palm

OS. Bob holds 13 U.S. and international patents and is the recipient of nine IBM Invention achievement Awards. He has been a guest presenter at conferences including SigDoc, Federal Office Systems Expo, COMMON, COMDEX, Documation and CAPVentures Multifunction Conference.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Apr. 20, 1998–At Comdex Japan, Mita’s Salutation-enabled Network Connection Kit for Notes was named “Best of Comdex” in the category of Enterprise System Software. The award is the first major industry award given to a product based on the Salutation Architecture, open middleware technology for locating and controlling faxes, printers, copiers, and other computer equipment across the Internet or a company intranet. Comdex Japan ’98 was held April 6-9 in Tokyo.

“This prestigious award is an important recognition both for Mita and for the Salutation Architecture that gives Mita’s software a new class of capabilities,” said Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Salutation Consortium. The Consortium, developer of the Salutation Architecture, is a non-profit corporation with 35 member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Mita’s Network Connection Kit for Notes, available in Japan, is an option for the Antico 10 and Antico 30 plain paper faxes. It is marketed in conjunction with NuOffice, IBM Japan’s Salutation extensions to the Lotus Notes office system. Salutation enables NuOffice users to fax directly to an email address, without intermediate scanning steps. NuOffice users can use the Antico 10 and Antico 30 as network scanner/fax/printer from a Notes desktop.

Edgar M. Tompkins, Mita marketing manager for the Integrated Document Imaging Division, said, “Customers using the Mita Salutation software with NuOffice are pleased with their ability to support their field sales forces and their telecommuting workers with convenient, timely, and secure access to information.” According to Tompkins, Mita is looking to support additional office system platforms supported and is investigating plans to launch the product in the US.

White Paper Details Benefits, Development Opportunities for Consumer Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 5, 1999– The Salutation Consortium today published a white paper challenging developers of palm-size and handheld computers to use the Salutation Architecture as a common standard for locating and controlling devices, services, and applications, instead of vendor-specific solutions.

The white paper, titled “Geographic Computing: Enabling New Markets for Hand Held and Palm-Size Information Appliances” is available on the Salutation Consortium website: .

The Salutation Consortium is distributing the white paper to vendors and industry organizations, discussing with them opportunities for using Salutation as a common standard for ad hoc communications initiated by palm-size and handheld computers. Such a standard could, for example, allow the user of a handheld computer ad hoc walkup network connectivity, a key attribute of many consumer applications for information appliances.

The Salutation Architecture is an open communications protocol for locating and controlling peripherals and information appliances. A Salutation-enabled palm-size or handheld device can send a wireless query to another intelligent device. Based on the response, the palm-size or handheld device is able to make full use of the capabilities of the second device.

“To provide the most user-friendly operation, these pocket computers need walk-up networking regardless of platform, operating system, or LAN technology. There’s time to get out in front of vendor-specific solutions with Salutation’s nonproprietary APIs that support interoperability and extend ad hoc interoperability to other applications, as well,” said Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Consortium.

In related efforts to investigate the opportunities for ad hoc discovery technology, Pecora attended the recent Palm Computing Platform Worldwide Developers Conference. “I spoke with more than a dozen companies about how the wireless networking links for Palm computers could be made more useful with creative applications that take advantage of the Salutation Architecture’s ability to locate another device and negotiate how to make the best use of its resources,” said Pecora. “Followup and specific proposals will continue over the next few weeks.”

About the Consortium

The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation with member organizations in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Member companies include Adobe Systems, APTi, Axis Communications, Brother, Canon, Cisco, Fuji Xerox, Fujitsu, Granite Systems, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Konica, Matsushita, Mita, Mitsubishi, Murata (Muratec), Okamura, Oki Data, Ricoh, Rios Systems, Sanyo, Seiko Epson, Sharp, Sun Microsystems, Toshiba, and Xerox.