emit:

I have been thinking further following my post yesterday regarding the acquisition of Vigilys by Crossflo. Then I read your post, and this part of your excerpt really leaped out...not just your underlined portion, but rather the portion I have highlighted in bold...

'and will soon be filing patents on additions to Crossflo’s software core that largely automate the use of this and other federally mandated standards.'

The question that I have been pondering since I have been researching data exchange technologies, and now even more after your posting of this about Crossflo's, is how will Crossflo differentiate themselves from all others. That phrase - "automate the use" - to me, is seamlessly woven into the concept of the core premise of data exchange technologies, including the Crossflo CDX software: a service oriented architecture semantic model.

Based on my research, the SOA semantic model is, in and of itself, not especially unique to Crossflo and the services provided by its products. However, during my research I have yet to come across the "automate" phrase used in the context of the above quote, especially referenced along with it being patented. The semantic component to data exchanges, as I understand it, is what allows the user to be unknowledgeable in the naming conventions of the disparate databases they are querying, meaning that they can "ask" questions of the system they are searching in everyday language terms, and the software surmises what they are searching for by making logical assumptions on the bases of the semantics of the users input for the query. The results returned have been selected using this semantic processing model, so to speak.

Now, what lead me to speculate further is when I combine the "automate" AND "semantic" terms. This begins to take on another level of architecture. What that is I am not sure, but these terms together speak to me in a way that bodes of something with a "next generation" feel. Again, I cannot guess as to what that might be at the moment, so I'll need to research and ponder that some more, but I would not be surprised to see something in this area become a differentiating factor in the future of Crossflo.

Just some wild pondering, for now...

Good luck to us all.

Cheers,

DG