IT Minute: New Service Finds Patches and Updates for You!

When wiki-based software guide ITerating launched earlier this year, the plan was simple: Create an editable directory of open source, commercial, and hosted software. Visitors use the site to research products, read and write consumer reviews, and compare features to make informed purchasing decisions. Now ITerating has added a unique feature to help make sure system administrators never miss an important patch or version update again.

Nicolas Vandenberghe, CEO of ITerating, says soon after the Web site launched, it became apparent that users wanted -- and needed -- a way to track current information about the software that is important to them. Tracking activity at hundreds of vendor Web sites on a regular basis just isn't feasible for a busy IT professional and developers at ITerating knew there had to be a better way. ITerating decided the answer was to develop a Web service that would connect to wide range of repositories and archives to look for the information automatically. To create this service, they worked with leaders of the Semantic Web community to combine several existing ontologies into a comprehensive vocabulary structure that powers the data collection. The result is a service that monitors over 17,000 software products for updates and patches.

Typically, applications check for updates on their own by connecting to a vendor Web site periodically and downloading whatever is new since the last check. Some apps, however, require users to watch for update notifications via email or the Web site, and it's easy for system administrators managing dozens or hundreds of apps to miss a critical patch.

With ITerating's new service, users simply subscribe for free to a product or category, and the site will notify you when a patch, update, or new version of your software is available.Currently users can subscribe by using an RDF reader but RSS feed capability is expected shortly.

"When we started the site, we decided to make it a wiki," says Vandenberghe. "Although people can add their own information, we assumed the bulk of the information would come from electronic import and that much of it should be automated, like feeds that people can subscribe to. We knew we needed [the service] not only for us, but the industry also needed it. Now we've built a foundation for updates using Semantic Web services, which lets the automated data services speak the same language, and combined it with the wiki format. We want to -- and can -- offer a software product guide that's always up-to-date."

By: Lisa Hoover
Source: http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/feature/26639