ebXML Simplified: A Guide to the New Standard for Global E-Commerce
[March 01, 2002] ebXML Message Service Specification Version 2.0 Submitted for Ratification as an OASIS Standard. A posting from Ian Jones (Chair, OASIS ebXML Messaging Services TC) announced that the latest ebXML Message Service Specification Version 2.0 has been approved, and that the technical committee has voted to submit the specification for approval as an OASIS standard. The ebXML Message Service (ebMS) "defines the message enveloping and header document schema used to transfer ebXML messages over a communications protocol such as HTTP or SMTP and the behavior of software sending and receiving ebXML messages. The ebMS is defined as a set of layered extensions to the base 'Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)' and 'SOAP Messages with Attachments' specifications. It provides the message packaging, routing and transport facilities for the ebXML infrastructure. The specification document provides security and reliability features necessary to support international electronic business. These security and reliability features are not provided in the SOAP or SOAP with Attachments specifications. The ebMS is a closely coordinated definition for an ebXML message service handler (MSH)." Implementations of Version 2.0 of the specification have been reported by bTrade Inc., Cyclone Commerce, Sybase, IONA Technologies, Sterling Commerce, and Fujitsu. [Full context] [March 01, 2002] "Call For Papers: ebXML track at XML Europe 2002." May 23, 2002. "ebXML Day in Barcelona is jointly organized by OASIS and UN/CEFACT; we invite participation from members of both these organizations, as well as other industry groups that support ebXML, vendors and users of ebXML products." See the main entry for the XML Europe 2002 Conference and Exposition. [March 20, 2002] Report to the Uniform Code Council (UCC) on ebXML Interoperability and Conformance Validation. A "final status" report from the Drummond Group to the Uniform Code Council announces successful interoperability testing by four vendors participating in the ebXML Interoperability and Conformance Validation Test 4Q01. bTrade, inc., Cyclone Commerce, Sterling Commerce, and Sybase have "completed all requirements and passed tests between each product demonstrating interoperability and conformance to the ebXML-MS v2.0 document; the participating vendors' products are in full compliance with the ebXML-MS v2.0 specification. The vendors underwent thorough and rigorous testing to demonstrate their ebXML software products comply to a common level of interoperability." There was one functional requirement where the testing participants agreed to extend the ebXML specification (Encryption/Confidentiality); this new functionality was developed as a joint effort of the Testing group and presented to the ebXML-MS team. The UCC-Drummond ebXML messaging pilot and subsequent tests will ensure that different e-business software offerings can seamlessly work in concert under real world conditions, eliminating costly communication obstacles and facilitating more efficient trading partner relationships. The ebXML messaging specification has grown in cross industry endorsements over past months with industry groups such as the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR), Open Applications Group Inc., Covisint, the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), and the Open Travel Alliance stating their support." [Full context] [December 12, 2001] OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee Releases Approved Version 2.0 RIM/RS Specifications. Approved Version 2.0 TC specifications for the OASIS ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) and Registry Services Specification (RS) have been published by the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee, together with XML Schemas and UML model diagrams. Implementations of the ebXML Registry's RIM and RS specifications have been reported by several companies. The Registry Information Model document "provides a blueprint or high-level schema for the ebXML Registry. The Registry itself provides a stable store where information submitted by a Submitting Organization is made persistent. Such information is used to facilitate ebXML-based Business to Business (B2B) partnerships and transactions. Submitted content may be XML schema and documents, process descriptions, ebXML Core Components, context descriptions, UML models, information about parties and even software components. The Registry Services Specification defines the interface to the ebXML Registry Services as well as interaction protocols, message definitions and XML schema." [Full context] [January 30, 2002] "OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee Approves Updated Specs. Consortium Membership to Vote on OASIS Standards." - " The OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee announced its approval of the ebXML Registry Services Specification v2.0 and the ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0. Both are updated versions of specifications originally developed under the ebXML Initiative, jointly sponsored by OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). The new versions of the specifications have advanced under the OASIS technical process and have been submitted to the OASIS membership at-large for consideration as OASIS Standards. The OASIS membership will vote on the ebXML Registry specifications in April 2002. The use of registries facilitates business-to-business and intra-enterprise transactions by enabling a manageable method of discovering and connecting with partners, and exchanging business data. ebXML Registry specifications provide a set of services that allow information to be shared between interested parties, enabling prospective trading partners to find one another and conduct business. The shared information, which may include company profiles as well as industry-specific messages, vocabularies and other data, is maintained as objects in a repository and managed by the ebXML Registry Services, defined in the new versions of the specifications... In addition to defining the interface to the ebXML Registry Services, the ebXML Registry Services Specification also identifies message definitions and XML schema. A separate document, the ebXML Registry Information Model, provides information on the types of metadata that are stored in the registry as well as the relationships among the various metadata classes... The two revised specifications have been approved by the members of the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee, which include Boeing, Fujitsu, IONA, Logistics Management Institute, NIST, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, Vitria Technology, webMethods, and others. The specifications are now under review by the entire membership of OASIS; voting on OASIS Standards will be held in April 2002." [March 08, 2002] Sun Microsystems Announces JAXR API Proposed Final Draft. A posting of Farrukh Najmi to the OASIS ebXML Registry TC announces the "publication of the Proposed Final Draft of a specification for Java API for XML Registries (JAXR). The JAXR specification provides a simple Java API for accessing OASIS ebXML and other registries, and will help to promote the use of OASIS ebXML registries within the Java developer community. This version of the specification provides a near final and stable version of the JAXR API with comprehensive support for the version 2 of the OASIS ebXML Registry specifications." JAXR supports "a uniform and standard Java API for accessing different kinds of XML Registries. An 'XML registry' [in this context] is an enabling infrastructure for building, deploying, and discovering web services. Currently there are a variety of specifications for XML registries including, pre-eminently, the ebXML Registry and Repository standard, which is being developed by OASIS and U.N./CEFACT and the UDDI specification, which is being developed by a vendor consortium. JAXR enables Java software programmers to use a single, easy-to-use abstraction API to access a variety of XML registries." [Full context] [January 22, 2002] "The ebXML Registry." By Kristian Cibulskis. In XML-Journal Volume 3, Issue 01 (January 2002). "The Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language, better known as ebXML, aims to allow companies of any size to conduct business electronically via the Internet. Obviously, companies doing business together isn't a new idea. EDI (electronic data interchange) has been used between large businesses to conduct electronic business since the 1960s. However, EDI often requires the implementation of custom protocols and proprietary message formats between the individual companies. Because of this, its use has been restricted to larger corporations that can absorb the initial costs required to do business in this fashion. The goal of ebXML is to provide a flexible, open infrastructure that will let companies of any size, anywhere in the world, do business together. The ebXML effort is jointly sponsored by the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, along with approximately 30 other industry leaders. UN/CEFACT is also the standards body behind EDIFACT, an EDI standard used heavily throughout Europe and the Pacific Rim. The ebXML group has delivered three key components of a next-generation B2B infrastructure: (1) An XML messaging specification; (2) A trading partners agreement specification; (3) A registry/repository specification. A second initiative at OASIS has begun to create a Universal Business Language (UBL), essentially a standard set of XML business documents to be used for B2B transactions. UBL is based on xCBL 3.0, which is freely available and widely deployed. In this article we'll explore the ebXML Registry/Repository, one of the cornerstone components of the ebXML architecture..." See (1) "OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee Releases Approved Version 2.0 RIM/RS Specifications"; and (2) "Announcing JAXR RI 1.0 EA." [November 09, 2001] eBTWG Core Components Specification Project Team Releases New Draft Specification. Members of the eBTWG Core Component Project Team have published a new public-review draft of its Core Components Technical Specification, Part 1, which "contains information to guide in the interpretation or implementation of ebXML concepts." The eBTWG Core Components Specification Project Team operates under the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group, and has been formed to produce: (1) a consolidated ebXML Core Components Technical Specification that incorporates the material in the ebXML Discovery and Analysis, Naming Convention, and Context technical reports adds material related to Metadata Definition; (2) a specification for and the beginning lexicon of core components. The CC system is designed to ensure that two trading partners using different (XML/EDI) syntaxes are using business semantics in the same way. "The UN/CEFACT Core Component solution presented in the specification presents a methodology for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent the general types of business data in use today; it forms the basis for standards development work of business analysts, business users and information technology specialists supplying the content of and implementing applications that will employ the UN/CEFACT Core Component Library (CCL)." [Full context] [January 03, 2002] Covisint Supports ebXML Message Specification and OAGIS Standards. Covisint has announced the "adoption and implementation of the ebXML message transport layer and use of the Open Applications Group's OAGIS standards for the XML document payload as its technology strategy. Covisint's adoption of these standards allows OEMs, automotive suppliers and software providers to make critical business decisions on applications and products that also use these common standards. This will promote software and application interoperability that enhances business agility, improves communication and reduces integration costs. A 'message transport layer' is a set of electronic protocols that works very much like a paper envelope works to 'envelop' a message or letter. It contains information as to who sent it and directs where to deliver the document. The XML payload, in an electronic sense, is the letter inside the envelope. This approach will give Covisint the ability to exchange Internet-based messages between trading partners wrapped in a standard message framework that is being adopted globally... At the outset, Covisint will use 'off-the-shelf' XML standards for the document payload but recognizes the need to develop industry wide XML standards that are focused on the needs of the automotive industry. In addition, Covisint will work in conjunction with other associations to manage a transition plan from existing legacy specifications to the adoption of ebXML and OAGIS XML standards." [Full context] [December 28, 2001] "Covisint Crafts XML Schema." By Renee Boucher Ferguson. In eWEEK (December 24, 2001). ['The auto industry e-marketplace will adopt OASIS' ebXML framework standard and align with the OAG to create an XML schema for the auto industry.'] "Covisint LLC, the auto industry e-marketplace backed by such heavyweights as DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., is making decisive standards moves to improve efficiencies for its members. The Southfield, Mich., company will announce during the first week of January that it has aligned with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards and will adopt that group's ebXML (Electronic Business XML) messaging standard. In addition, Covisint plans to announce in the first quarter that it has aligned with the Open Applications Group Inc. standards body to create an XML schema for the auto industry. Sponsored by two standards bodies, OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, ebXML is a modular suite of specifications that provides a messaging and enveloping standard for companies to exchange electronic business messages, communicate data in common terms, and define and register business processes. Covisint currently receives XML purchase orders from DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, but they are received in three different flavors. Covisint also receives electronic data interchange documents from other members that are also enveloped in a variety of flavors. What Covisint is attempting to do with ebXML is define a standard envelope as well as a standard payload, according to Jeffrey Cripps, the company's director of industry relations. An XML schema is a data structure for documents that not only defines the syntax of a document -- what a field is called -- but also defines semantics, or what a specific field means. Cripps said the exchange seeks to create for the auto industry a schema for a global dictionary that can be used for interoperability among vertical markets--a huge gap in business-to-business. While aligning with ebXML is a significant move for the exchange, Covisint's work with the OAG could prove even more worthwhile by enabling it to develop proprietary standards for the automotive industry under the umbrella of an open-standards group, officials said. Cripps is in talks with the action groups of the North American and European automotive industries -- Automotive Industry Action Group and Odette, respectively -- to see if they will join Covisint and the OAG in developing the schema for the industry..." [November 05, 2001] "Core Components : Delivering on the ebXML Promise." By Alan Kotok (Data Interchange Standards Association - DISA). Published by MightyWords, Inc. October 02, 2001. 71 pages. ISBN 0-7173-1939-3. [Excerpt from a briefing which] "discusses Electronic Business XML or ebXML, a new global standard for conducting e-business, and focuses on the part of ebXML that deals with business semantics, called core components. It provides an overview of this innovative technology, to help business people begin planning for its adoption and benefits. Once implemented in business software and services, ebXML will make it possible for any company of any size in any industry to do e-business with any other company in any other industry, anywhere in the world. To achieve this ambitious goal, ebXML sets out to do what no other business standard has tried to do, namely develop a way for companies to talk business systematically and accurately across industry or linguistic boundaries. Core components are the basic data items that business documents can use and reuse from one document to the next. Many common business documents have the same basic structure and underlying data content. However, different industries use different terms for the same ideas, and for businesses to communicate with each other, they need a way of breaking through these semantic barriers, without asking companies to change their long-standing business practices. This briefing describes how core components fit into the overall ebXML architecture, discusses their derivation and use in business documents, and provides a real-life example showing the potential for generating new business opportunities... The work on core components includes not only the identification of these interchangeable parts in business documents, but the systematic and consistent definition of the business context - the substance of industry business practices and terminology - that give the components their precise meaning in business documents. The systematic combination of core components with context allows for the automatic assembly of e-business documents exchanged with trading partners... EbXML is still a work in progess. The development phase ended in May 2001,ethe core components team having completed its basic methodology and proposed a starter set of core components.. Since then, the two leading e-business standards organizations have joined to continue the work. Industry organizations and individual companies should consider taking part in this important exercise, since it will likely determine the language of e-business for many years to come." An online document in PDF format supplies a longer extract from the briefing. [cache] [November 05, 2001] "Professional ebXML Foundations." Overview of the book by Pim Van Der Eijk, Duane Nickull, J. J. Dubray, Colleen Evans, David Chappell, Betty Harvey, Marcel Noordzij, Jan Vegt, Tim McGrath, Vivek Chopra, and Bruce Peat. [To be] published by Wrox Press, November 2001. ISBN: 1861005903. 600 pages. "ebXML is a framework of specifications that enables businesses to collaborate electronically using XML-based technologies. The framework comprises modular components, addressing each of the key functions required to implement a complete e-business solution. These functions include: defining business processes and associated roles and activities, creating and publishing business profiles in a registry, storing business information in a repository, searching for other business partners, agreeing trading protocols, creating business documents, and sending them via secure and reliable messaging systems. ebXML is open, interoperable, and affordable. Maintained by industry consortia (OASIS and UN/CEFACT) and based on XML, it allows companies to benefit from electronic trading via a global network regardless of size or geographical location, both within and across industries. The book features: (1) An overview of electronic business and the interrelation of the ebXML framework components; (2) Modeling business processes and documents with ebXML BPSS, UMM, and XML Schemas; (3) Defining trading profiles and setting up collaborative agreements with ebXML CPP/CPA; (4) Attracting and discovering business partners using ebXML Registry/Repository or UDDI; (5) Creating business message payloads using ebXML Core Components, XML, and non-XML content; (6) Transporting messages using ebXML Messaging Services, SOAP, JMS, and JAXM; (7) Implementing secure, flexible ebXML solutions; (8) Real world case studies. See the online Table of Contents and the description from Amazon. [November 05, 2001] "ebXML and SMEs. How ebXML measures up for small to medium enterprises." By Michael C. Rawlins (Rawlins EC Consulting). November 2, 2001. [The latest article in a series on "ebXML - A Critical Analysis". This series presents an analysis of the products of ebXML, its success in achieving its stated objectives, and an assessment of the long-term impact of the initiative.] "From several studies as well as professional experience from those involved in EDI implementations for SMEs, there are several reasons that SMEs find e-business, particularly in the form of EDI, difficult. The cited reasons range from too expensive and too costly, to standards being too hard to use, to poor application integration. Despite the wide variety of reasons, the sources of the problems basically break down into two major areas: application support and application integration. Application support for e-business is a fairly wide area because it is strongly affected by the particular business processes that larger partners want to implement electronically. One example is a suppliers business application being able to create the data for a shipment notice electronically to a customer before the goods are shipped, and print a bar code label for the package. Another is the ability to maintain a cross-reference of customer item numbers to internal item numbers. The technical infrastructure side of ebXML deals with lower level middleware and does not address this type of application support. So, no help is provided to SMEs at this level. Another aspect of ebXML and SME problems is the definition of the business processes in which the SMEs participate. ebXML did not define the business processes, but only aspects of the methodology for defining them. I will discuss this in a later article, but it suffices for the purposes of this article that ebXML did nothing immediate for SMEs in this area either. So, ebXML provided no help to SMEs in application support for e-business. The other area is in application integration, i.e., interfacing or integrating the e-business middleware with the business application. Perhaps the best way to determine what ebXML did in this area is to examine the functions and architecture of current EDI and future ebXML based systems, and see if there is any improvement... The short answer is that it made it easier and more efficient for large enterprises to conduct business electronically. For example, an SME dealing with six large customers gains no appreciable benefits by being able to electronically configure its system for trading with them. However, a large enterprise with hundreds or even thousands of suppliers sees significant benefits. There are also a few very nice pieces of work in specific areas in ebXML. However, as good as they may be, the market may not be very interested in them in the long run. My next article will review the likely market impact of the ebXML infrastructure specifications." [October 23, 2001] "ebXML CPP/A APIs for Java." Java Specification Request #157. Specification Lead Dale Moberg (Cyclone Commerce Inc.). Contact Person: Himagiri (Hima) Mukkamala (Sybase Inc.) Summary: "This JSR is to provide a standard set of APIs for representing and manipulating Collaboration Profile and Agreement information described by ebXML CPP/A (Collaboration Protocol Profile/Agreement)documents." Detail: "This JSR is to provide a standard set of APIs for representing and manipulating Collaboration Profile and Agreement information described by ebXML CPPA (Collaboration Protocol Profile/Agreement)documents. These APIs will define a way to construct and manipulate various profile information corresponding to the CPP/A. In addition, these APIs will provide a way to negotiate CPAs between two partners enabling them to conduct e-business. The profile information can be derived from a CPP document or constructed through the API provided or constructed by accessing a ebXML Registriy/Repository using JAXR. The APIs would also assist users in creating a CPA document from merging to CPP documents by doing a selective merge of the profile information or by providing infrastructure to negotiate between the partners. The APIs would also enable users to create a base profile by taking information from a Business Process Specification document... By design, this proposed specification depends on the ebXML CPP/A specification. ebXML CPP/A is an XML format for describing profile and agreement information for partners agreeing to collaborate based on ebXML as the underlying architecture. In addition, since the ebXML CPP/A specification is bound to the ebXML MSH specification and ebXML BPSS specification, this specification is dependent on these." Need: "This set of APIs will allow developers to build ebXML based e-business applications without directly having to access the CPP/A documents. These will also let users of the APIs create CPA documents for taking part in collaborations." Existing documents, specifications, or implementations that describe the technology: (1) ebXML CPP/A; (2) ebXML MSG. [September 22, 2001] UN/CEFACT XML Business Document Library Project (XBDL). A public posting from Klaus-Dieter Naujok (UN/CEFACT/eBTWG & TMWG Chair) on 2001-09-21 announced the approval of an XML Business Document Library Project (XBDL) by executives of the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group. The initiative is a response to "the business user community in providing a migration path for established legacy EDI semantics and associated business process artifact dictionaries containing codes, elements and message semantics to a Standard Library of XML business grammatical components." The XBDL Project as designed was "in concept identical to the recently approved work of the OASIS UBL Technical Committee; however, the work is not related to ebXML infrastructure work, but related to ebXML content and context work which is the agreed responsibility of UN/CEFACT." The project team was scheduled to have its first meeting as part of the eBTWG meeting, 8-12 October 2001 in San Francisco, CA, USA. See: "UN/CEFACT XML Business Document Library Project (XBDL)" [September 20, 2001] CommerceNet and UN/CEFACT eBusiness Transition Working Group (eBTWG) Holds Inaugural Meeting. An announcement from CommerceNet and the UN/CEFACT eBusiness Transition Working Group (eBTWG) describes the first meeting of the working group in San Francisco on October 8-12, 2001. During its initial five-day meeting, "eBTWG will continue UN/CEFACT and OASIS' efforts to further the development of XML standards for electronic business. The working group's first order of business is to pinpoint the specific work necessary to advance ebXML development as related to Business Processes, Core Components and eBusiness Architecture. For the opening meeting, eBTWG has identified three working project teams. In the coming weeks, more project teams will be added to the October agenda. The first three project teams will focus on core areas of ebXML development. The project teams include: (1) The Core Components Specifications Project Team, which is charged with producing a consolidated ebXML Core Components Technical Specification that incorporates the material in the ebXML Discovery and Analysis, Naming Convention and Context technical reports. (2) The Business Collaboration Patterns and Monitored Commitments Specification, which will be responsible for defining and showing through example, what businesses can reasonably expect and what the underlying technology must support within a fully compliant ebXML business relationship. (3) The eBusiness Architecture Specification, which will ensure that electronic business initiatives are technically and practically implementable and that the eBusiness architecture meets the requirements of businesses on a global scale." The eBTWG Executives have also announced the approval of an XML Business Document Library (XBDL) Project which "is to provide a migration path for established legacy EDI semantics and associated business process artifact dictionaries containing codes, elements and message semantics to a Standard Library of XML business grammatical components." [Full context] [September 12, 2001] OASIS Technical Committee Proposed for Universal Business Language (UBL). A call for participation has been issued in connection with a proposed OASIS Technical Committee for a Universal Business Language (UBL). The new Universal Business Language is proposed as "a synthesis of existing XML business document libraries. Work would begin with xCBL 3.0 as the starting point and to develop the standard UBL library by mutually agreed-upon changes to xCBL 3.0 based on industry experience with other XML business libraries and with similar technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange. The TC will endeavor to develop UBL in light of standards/specifications issued by UN/CEFACT, ISO, IEC, ITU, W3C, IETF, OASIS, and such other standards bodies and organizations as the UBL TC may deem relevant. It would harmonize UBL as far as practical with the ebXML specifications approved in Vienna (May 2001), with the work of the Joint Core Components initiative (a joint project of ANSI ASC X12 and the UN/EDIFACT Working Group), and with the work of other appropriate business information bodies. The primary deliverable of the UBL TC is a coordinated set of XML grammatical components that will allow trading partners to unambiguously identify the business documents to be exchanged in a particular business context." The new OASIS TC is to be chaired by Jon Bosak (Sun Microsystems), and is projected to be completed within 1-2 years. [Full context] [October 01, 2001] "OAGIS Implementation Using the ebXML CPP, CPA and BPSS Specifications v1.0." OAGI White Paper. By Jean-Jacques Dubray (Eigner US, Inc.). 9/27/2001. Version 1.03. 64 pages. The OAGI (Open Applications Group, Inc.) has developed the largest set of business messages and integration scenarios for enterprise application integration and business-to-business (B2B) integration. However, OAGI does not specify an implementation architecture (also called an implementation framework). Three major B2B implementation architectures have been developed to this day: RosettaNet, BizTalk, and ebXML. They provide the basis for interoperability between different vendor and home-grown solutions alike. The OAGI policy is to be technology sensitive but not specific, and to use existing open standards when possible. This white paper provides a detailed recommendation for how to transport OAGI BODs (Business Object Documents) using ebXML v1.0 dated 5/14/2001. The reader is expected to have a thorough understanding of the OAGI BOD structure and the ebXML v1.0 specifications. The reader is encouraged to read the OAGI BOD Architecture documents and the ebXML specifications. These documents can be freely obtained from the OAGI and ebXML Web sites... This document provides a general recommendation for the usage and configuration of the ebXML implementation architecture in carrying out electronic transactions with OAGI BODs. In particular, it specifies how to define Collaboration Definitions for scenario diagrams. It also specifies how to declare CPPs and corresponding CPAs based on these Collaborations. The CPPs can be published to an ebXML Registry just like any other CPP. The Messaging Service can be used as is since it is content agnostic. This document also describes the relationship between the infrastructure level messages (Signal Messages) used by ebXML and OAGI (Confirm BOD) to identify message receipt or exceptions. This white paper does not deal with the aspects of ebXML that are not yet part of the specification (such as Core Components). In addition, this paper recommends the use of Business Collaborations outside the context of ebXML. A Collaboration Definition can be used outside the scope of an ebXML solution and consequently could be used to formalized all OAGI scenario diagrams even the one that do not involve B2B communication. This approach may be desirable in order to provide a commercial OAGI solution with out-of-the-box capabilities while retaining the ability to customize the use of scenario diagrams for internal applications. The OAGI Integration Specification (OAGIS) includes a broad set of BODs and integration scenarios that can be used in different business environments, such as A2A and B2B. BODs are message definitions that can be used broadly across many different industries (for example, telecommunications and automotive) and aspects of Supply Chain Automation (for example, Ordering, Catalog Exchange, Quotes, etc.). OAGI also defines the OAMAS (Open Application Middleware API Specification), which is an application programming interface (API) for application integration that provides an abstraction from specific vendor solutions..." See the overview/download page for other eBusiness Framework White Papers. See "Open Applications Group." [cache] [October 18, 2001] "HL7 ebXML Demonstration Overview. Introduction for HL7." By Todd Freter (XML Technology Center, Industry Initiatives, Sun Microsystems, Inc.) October 2, 2001. 17 pages. "Health Level 7 (HL7) is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the development and publication of protocol specifications for application level communications among diverse health data acquisition, processing, and handling systems. This annotated presentation by Todd Freter of the Sun XML Technology Center provides an overview of HL7's ebXML proof-of-concept demonstration. ebXML: [The author describes who launched the ebXML initiative, who is supporting it, and where to go for basic information; presents the five layers of the ebXML e-business framework, starting at the highest level and descending down to the wire-level. It also mentions the technical architecture description and quality review process, which keep the effort honest...; makes the point the ebXML enjoys support and participation from around the globe, and that the effort has garnered several important endorsements.... showsprovides the phases in which ebXML is delivering its work products. In May 2001, ebXML voted to accept all of its specifications either as full specifications or as technical reports to be developed into full specifications. Since then the ongoing work has been divided between the UN and OASIS... It's important to note that the technical effort is also motivated by a desire to enable second- and third-world economies to participate in the internet economy without having to incur the high cost of EDI. To that end, the notion of royalty-free licensing of ebXML specifications is a key consideration..." [cache] [September 05, 2001] "The ebXML technology is based on a set of building blocks designed to meet common business requirements and conditions. The ebXML technical architecture makes use of existing standards wherever possible, building on the experience of EDI while taking advantage of the increased flexibility of XML and ubiquity of the Internet. Because the architecture is modular, industries or companies can choose to implement parts of the ebXML technology rather than trying to do everything all at once. (1) Messaging: The ebXML messages use a specification called the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). SOAP is an XML application that defines a message format with headers to indicate sender, receiver, routing, and security details. A recent enhancement to SOAP allows for the attachment of any digitized content, which enables ebXML messages to send engineering drawings or patient X-rays, as well as business data. (2) Business Processes: A basic feature of the ebXML architecture, and one that separates it from other XML frameworks, is its emphasis on business processes. The use of modeling languages and charting tools such as the Unified Modeling Language (UML) offer ways of systematically capturing the flow of business data among trading partners and representing this business knowledge in a standard format. (3) Trading Partner Profiles and Agreements: Another important feature of ebXML is the systematic representation of company capabilities to conduct e-business in what ebXML calls the collaboration protocol profile (CPP). With CPPs, companies can use a common XML format to list the industries, business processes, messages, and data-exchange technologies that they support. (4) Registries and Repositories: The part of ebXML with which most companies will have contact early on are the registries, which contain the industry processes, messages, and vocabularies used to define the transactions exchanged with trading partners. (5) Core Components: As well as business processes, ebXML relies on core components to provide interoperability among industries and business functions, but core components work at the individual data-element level. Core components identify the data items that businesses use most often and across industries, assigning them neutral names and unique identifiers... At this stage [June 2001], ebXML is a set of documents, with several prototypes completed, but with many companies now building systems to support it... The ebXML specifications developed as a result of a total worldwide volunteer effort, and a completely open and transparent process, where anyone with a computer, Internet connection, and email address could take part. ebXML is a testament to the open standards process and the quality of its results." [See the book excerpt from ebXML: The New Global Standard for Doing Business on the Internet, by Alan Kotok and David R.R. Webber.] [September 03, 2001] "Business Process Specification Schema." Version 1.01. By OASIS ebXML Business Process Team. Non-normative version formatted for printing, July 2001. [11 May 2001.] Latest version URL: http://www.ebxml.org/specs/ebBPSS.pdf. Formal notations in appendices A-C: Appendix A: Sample XML Business Process Specification; Appendix B: Business Process Specification Schema DTD; Appendix C: Business Process Specification Schema XML Schema. "The ebXML Specification Schema provides a standard framework by which business systems may be configured to support execution of business collaborations consisting of business transactions. It is based upon prior UN/CEFACT work, specifically the metamodel behind the UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM) defined in the N090R9.1 specification. The Specification Schema supports the specification of Business Transactions and the choreography of Business Transactions into Business Collaborations. Each Business Transaction can be implemented using one of many available standard patterns. These patterns determine the actual exchange of Business Documents and business signals between the partners to achieve the required electronic commerce transaction... This document describes the Specification Schema, both in its UML form and in its DTD form. The document first introduces general concepts and semantics, then applies these semantics in a detail discussion of each part of the model. The document then specifies all elements in the UML form, and then in the XML form... Business process models describe interoperable business processes that allow business partners to collaborate. Business process models for e-business must be turned into software components that collaborate on behalf of the business partners. The goal of the ebXML Specification Schema is to provide the bridge between e-business process modeling and specification of e-business software components. The ebXML Specification Schema provides for the nominal set of specification elements necessary to specify a collaboration between business partners, and to provide configuration parameters for the partners' runtime systems in order to execute that collaboration between a set of e-business software components. A specification created against the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema is referred to as an ebXML Business Process Specification. The ebXML Business Process Specification Schema is available in two stand-alone representations, a UML version, and an XML version. The UML version of the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema is merely a UML Class Diagram. It is not intended for the direct creation of ebXML Business Process Specifications. Rather, it is a self-contained statement of all the specification elements and relationships required to be able to create an ebXML compliant Business Process Specification. Any methodologies and/or metamodels used for the creation of ebXML compliant Business Process Specifications must at minimum support these elements and relationships. The XML version of the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema provides the specification for XML based instances of ebXML Business Process Specifications, and as a target for production rules from other representations. Both a DTD and a W3C Schema are provided. The UML and XML based versions of the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema are unambiguously mapped to each other..." [August 24, 2001] "ebXML and Interoperability. And other issues from the Terms of Reference." By Mike Rawlins. Part 3 (August 23, 2001) from the series "ebXML - A Critical Analysis" ['The 18-month ebXML joint initiative between UN/CEFACT and OASIS was declared officially completed this past May 11. Now that it is over, it is time to take a look at what it accomplished. This series presents an analysis of the products of ebXML, its success in achieving its stated objectives, and an assessment of the long-term impact of the initiative.'] "The Terms of Reference between UN/CEFACT and OASIS that laid the foundation for ebXML discuss several objectives and issues to be addressed by the initiative. In this article I'll examine how well those were achieved. The primary goal specified in the Terms of Reference for ebXML was to enable interoperability. To assess how well this goal was met I'll use the definition of interoperability from the ebXML Requirements Specification (section 2.5.1). I'll use a fairly simple approach of assigning a letter grade of A through F (with a 4-point scale) to each of the criteria. Then to keep things simple, I'll average the grades for an overall score, weighting each criterion equally. We'll start off with a perfect 'A' for achieving interoperability as the default, then lower by one or more letter grades for deficiencies such as the following: (1) Offering options, with a means to indicate the option chosen, instead of a single solution; (2) Offering several options without reasonable guidance on how to choose among them; (3) Specification not being complete. Where ebXML didn't address a criterion, I assign a failing "F". Here are the criteria and my grading. Where notes were included in the Requirements Specification, I have included them here. The basis of the grading is the ebXML work as of the end of the initiative in May, 2001. Further work may (I hope!) improve the grading, particularly in cases where the work is incomplete... in regard to the deliverables called for in the Terms of Reference, ebXML did develop a set of technical specifications, but we didn't do a very good job at enabling interoperability. ebXML did not address its other two deliverables. In summary, I would have to say that we failed to meet the mandates of the Terms of Reference. This is a rather severe criticism, and I feel obliged to point out that this is by necessity a fairly subjective analysis; others may have different opinions. I again note that much of the work was incomplete or not addressed when the initiative ended, and the assessment may improve considerably as CEFACT continues the business process and core component work. I will, however, show in my next article that assessing ebXML's performance in regard to its other major goal is much more objective and clear cut. By nearly any way you look at it, ebXML was a dismal failure in bringing the benefits of e-commerce to Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and developing countries..." [August 16, 2001] "Overview of the ebXML Architectures." By Mike Rawlins. July 19, 2001. Part of ebXML - A Critical Analysis, "a series which presents an analysis of the products of ebXML, its success in achieving its stated objectives, and an assessment of the long-term impact of the initiative..." From the introduction: "ebXML started its work program with the overall solution and its high level architecture already decided. The task of the Architecture project team was therefore not to develop the architecture from a set of requirements, but to describe the chosen architecture (based on what the other project teams were doing) and flesh out its details. They had quite a difficult time doing this, evidenced by the fact that the Technical Architecture Specification was approved in February 2001, very near to the May 2001 completion of the ebXML work program. One of the main difficulties in describing the ebXML architecture is that, in conventional software architecture terms, there is not one ebXML architecture but instead there are two. One of these is the architecture for the software comprising the technical infrastructure, often referred to as a product architecture. The other is the architecture for performing systems analysis and development, often referred to as a process architecture. The Architecture Specification somewhat alludes to this in its "Recommended Modeling Methodology" section when discussing the Business Operational View and Functional Service View (two concepts taken from the ISO Open-EDI Reference Model). However, it does not explicitly identify two separate architectures. The latest academic thinking about software architectures holds that six attributes are required to fully describe an architecture. These are: (1) Elements (components/parts) from which systems are built; (2) Interactions (connections/connectors/glues/relationships) between the elements; (3) Patterns - The layout of the elements and their interactions, guiding their composition. For example, the number of elements, the number of connectors, order, topology, directionality; (4) Constraints - On the patterns. For example, temporal, cardinality, concurrency, etc.; (5) Styles - Abstraction of architectural components from various specific architectures (Sometimes used interchangeably with patterns). For example: Layered (as in Unix OS, OSI stack), pipe & filter, object oriented; (7) Rationale - Describe why the particular architecture was chosen... The ebXML Architecture Specification does a fairly good job in defining the elements and interactions of the ebXML Architecture..." [August 15, 2001] "OASIS ebXML Registry Proposal: ebXML Registry as a Web Service." Prepared by the OASIS ebXML Registry RAWS Sub-team. Posted 2001-08-15 by Farrukh Najmi to the OASIS Reg-Rep [RAWS] list. An initial RAWS draft proposal for consideration and review by the OASIS ebXML Registry TC. "This document proposes focused enhancements to the ebXML Registry Services specification that will allow the ebXML Registry services to be accessible as a set of abstract web services with concrete normative bindings specified for ebXML Messaging Service and SOAP. Currently the only normative access to the ebXML Registry is over the ebXML Messaging Service. What is lacking is a clean separation between an abstract service interface specification and multiple concrete technology specific bindings (e.g., ebXML Messaging Service). The proposal allows more flexibility and ease of access to clients by defining a second normative interface to the ebXML Registry that is based on the widely adopted SOAP protocol... The primary motivation behind this proposal is to further ebXML Registry adoption. It is our assertion that adoption is furthered by: (1) Building registry clients with limited infrastructure; (2) Enabling additional technology bindings for accessing the registry service; (3) Aligning with emerging and de facto standards. ebXML Registry adoption may be measured in the number of operational public ebXML Registries. Currently this number is one. We would like it to higher... Making ebXML Registry available as an abstract web service with additional technology bindings (e.g., SOAP) gives clients more options to interact with an ebXML Registry. A normative SOAP binding (SOAP 1.1 and SOAP with Attachments with HTTP) is proposed since SOAP has considerable mind share and adoption and has in fact been adopted by the ebXML Messaging Service itself. Numerous tools exist that make it very simple for clients to access any SOAP based web service... The following concrete deliverables are proposed: (1) XML Schema definition for [ebRIM] and [ebRS] with full support for XML namespaces, data types, constraints etc. This schema would replace Registry.dtd; (2) Abstract service definition of Registry Services; (3) WSDL description of the abstract Registry Services and related concrete SOAP binding..." See the associated files in the posting: Registry.xsd: The XML Schema for ebXML registry; Registry.wsdl: Abstract service definition for ebXML Registry service; RegistrySOAPBinding.wsdl: Concrete binding to SOAP/HTTP for the abstract ebXML Registry service. Context: OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee. Draft schemas are available in the .ZIP file. [August 07, 2001] "CommerceNet to Assist in Next Phase of UN's ebXML Initiative for eCommerce. Will Provide Support for Recently Formed eBusiness Transition Working Group (eBTWG) to Continue UN's ebXML Initiative." - "The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) today reaffirmed its continuing role in pioneering the development of XML standards for electronic business. With its acceptance of an in-kind donation from CommerceNet, UN/CEFACT will be able to continue its efforts to standardize ebXML, a suite of specifications that enables enterprises to conduct business over the Internet. CommerceNet's in-kind donation will provide administrative and logistical support of UN/CEFACT's eBTWG (eBusiness Transition Working Group). Established in July 2001, eBTWG identifies specific work items necessary to complete the ebXML Business Process and Core components projects, including business processes, core components, and architectures...As a transitional working group, eBTWG will spearhead the ebXML initiative until the Electronic Business Working Group (eBWG) is established. 'We are delighted that CommerceNet has agreed to join our efforts in developing worldwide standards to further enable electronic commerce,' says Ray Walker, Chair of the UN/CEFACT Steering Group. 'CommerceNet's support provides resources to continue our critical ebXML work.' Klaus-Dieter Naujok, the newly appointed Chair of the eBTWG, and Chief Scientific Officer of IONA Technologies agrees, adding that 'CommerceNet provides eBTWG with the opportunity to take ebXML work items to the next level. Organizations worldwide have committed to the ebXML initiative, and now UN/CEFACT can ensure that global standards for using XML to conduct electronic business will become reality.' Fred Sollish, Program Leader for CommerceNet's Evolving Supply Chain Initiatives, will manage the support team for eBTWG. Plans are underway to host three working forums during the upcoming months. These forums are for all individuals, groups, and companies wanting to contribute to the development of ebXML and eCommerce standards. The first forum will be held in California in mid-October, followed by a session tentatively scheduled in southern Europe in January 2002 and Asia in May 2002." [August 01, 2001] "The Open Applications Group Announces Support for ebXML. OAGI to incorporate electronic business messaging specification from United Nations trade and technology body and OASIS into over 182 mature Business Object Documents (BODs) or XML-based business messages." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world, today announced plans to integrate the ebXML specification into the 182 business transaction standards currently published by the organization. EbXML was developed in an open process jointly sponsored by the UN/CEFACT and OASIS (Organization for Structured Information Standards) to standardize XML-based messaging and information interchange in Internet transactions between companies. UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body that develops policy and technology to facilitate trade and electronic business worldwide. The OAGI Integration Specification (OAGIS) defines over 182 XML-based business objects (BODs) for business-to-business and application-to-application integration in e-Commerce, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, human resource management and finance. It is expected that OAGI support for ebXML will significantly accelerate broad-based adoption of this specification. OAGI is currently believed to have the largest installed based of any XML-based set of business messages. 'We expect that ebXML and OAGIS will work hand in glove,' said David Connelly, president and CEO of OAGI. 'ebXML provides a technical framework for transactions that is international in scope. We offer a large, international installed base supporting a mature set of XML-based business object documents that facilitate hands-free interoperability within and between companies. Both standards are horizontal in nature and can be used in almost any industry sector.' According to Connelly, the latest release (v. 7.1) of the business process based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) contains the largest and richest set of XML Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world. 'It goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging World of e-Commerce and e-Business,' he said. The OAGI is a non-profit consortium of technology providers and end-user organizations. The organization develops best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the world's largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability and the only XML development organization supporting 'end to end' integration. That includes technology for business-to-business, application to application and application to execution systems transactions. Member company teams have built a consensus-based framework for business software application interoperability and a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content." See "Open Applications Group." [August 28, 2001] "webMethods and Covisint Unveil ebXML Proof of Concept at Autotech 2001. Companies Demonstrate Universal Document Translation for Ebusiness Through Public Exchange." - "webMethods, Inc. and Covisint "will reveal an AIAG sponsored Proof of Concept (POC) demonstrating the ability to facilitate electronic transactions through the global automotive exchange using the ebXML format. This POC also exhibits the capability of the webMethods integration platform to support a variety of electronic document formats and standards - both XML and EDI - accelerating e-commerce through public exchanges by leveraging participants' IT investments in legacy systems... The demonstration will be hosted by Covisint in booth #726 at AutoTech 2001. The demo will feature a typical electronic transaction between a manufacturer and supplier facilitated through Covisint utilizing the webMethods integration platform. Multiple electronic document standards, including EDI, OAG, and ebXML, will be utilized, transformed, and re-converted through this end-to-end transaction. In the demonstration scenario, Covisint will act as an intermediary between an automotive manufacturer and supplier. The manufacturer will send an EDI-based Forecast/Material Release document to Covisint. This forecast will be transformed - based on the requirements of the individual supplier - into an OAG document and routed to the supplier using ebXML. The supplier will return an OAG Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) using ebXML back to Covisint. The ASN will be transformed - based on the requirements of the manufacturer - into an EDI-based Advanced Shipping Notice document and transmitted to the manufacturer. Covisint, the supplier, and the manufacturer will all be connected in real-time, and the entire manufacturing forecast and notification process will be managed using the webMethods integration platform..." [August 01, 2001] "OpenTravel Alliance Endorses ebXML." - "Industry support for ebXML continues to build as the international travel consortium, OpenTravel Alliance (OTA), announced endorsement of ebXML in its new specification. ebXML, sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, provides a standard method to exchange messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. OTA released for member review new specifications for requesting availability and booking reservations in the airline and car rental industries. These OTA specifications unite OTA and Hospitality Industry Technology Integration Standards (HITIS) respective customer profiles into one comprehensive profile. In conjunction with the Travel Technology Initiative, (TTI), based in the United Kingdom, OTA also released draft specifications that provide a message exchange between wholesalers and tour operators for booking holiday package tours. These specifications will utilize the ebXML secure messaging structure as a recommended reference envelope layer that provides OTA specification users with a unified, interoperable solution. OTA's next publication, projected for November 2001, will map the OTA infrastructure to the ebXML Message Handling Service specification, v1.0. 'Industry groups developing their own XML-based specifications can't operate as islands. Cross-industry communication is as important as exchanging messages within a community,' explained OTA President Mike Kistner, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Best Western International. 'By recommending ebXML, we ensure that OTA messages adhere to the international standard and enable implementations of OTA specifications to meet the requirements of the global marketplace.' [And] 'Endorsement by OTA is a major milestone for ebXML. The travel industry joins other communities who have integrated ebXML, including automotive, information technology, electronic components and semiconductor manufacturing and retail,' noted Bill Smith of Sun Microsystems, president of OASIS and member of the ebXML Executive Committee. Smith referenced similar announcements of ebXML support from Covisint, the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), Open Applications Group and RosettaNet... The OpenTravel Alliance develops communications specifications to allow for the efficient and effective exchange of travel industry information via the Internet. With over 150 members representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, OTA is comprised of representatives from the airlines, car rental agencies, hotels, leisure suppliers, non-suppliers, tour operators, and trade associations. These travel industries, together with an OTA interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, are developing open Internet-compatible messages using XML data terms." See "OpenTravel Alliance (OTA)." [November 28, 2001] "ebXML Messaging Interoperability Pilot Garners Cross Industry Support. Initiative draws support from Global Retail and Automotive Industries." - "Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), a leading interoperability conformance consultancy, officially announced the launch of the ebXML Messaging Interoperability pilot. The goal of the pilot, slated to run from October 2001 through February 2002, is to demonstrate the exchange of ebXML Messaging and to produce the first group of interoperable off-the-shelf products for these supporting industry groups Global Commerce Initiative and the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail... Rik Drummond, Drummond Group Inc. CEO, says, 'Interoperability in this messaging layer is critical to ensure that all other ebXML components and other industry standards that have endorsed ebXML Messaging, such the Open Applications Group, can also be successful. It is vital that these efforts span cross industries for broader adoption of the specification. Our experience in EDI over the Internet messaging has shown that user driven interoperability testing is critical to adoption of the standard. DGI is excited to set this in motion for ebXML.' ebXML Messaging specifically focuses on the means to transmit a document (payload) from one party to another, possibly via intermediaries. This protocol standardizes the way B2B transactions are transmitted among all sizes of companies from the Large Enterprise (LE) to the Small & Medium Enterprise (SME). ebXML Messaging does not define the business processes or the content of the messages being sent. ebXML Messaging only concerns itself with the secure and reliable transmission of the payload... The current pilot (Phase One) will test the messaging and security issues of ebXML. Use cases from Global Retail and Automotive Retail industries have been used to build the test plans to ensure the developing products are in line with industry needs. All lessons learned are being fed back into the OASIS ebXML Messaging Workgroup and the OASIS Interoperability and Conformance Workgroup to incorporate in future versions of the specification. Subsequent pilots, in 2002 (Phase Two) and 2003 (Phase Three) are planned which will test additional layers of the ebXML specification along with the ebXML messaging layer." [July 23, 2001] "Global Commerce Initiative Launches ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot. 'Critical Step in Adoption,' Says Rik Drummond, Vs.1 Chair ebXML Messaging Specification." - "The Global Commerce Initiative announced today they would launch the 'ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot.' Drummond Group Inc. will facilitate the interoperability testing of messaging software between various vendors to develop recommendations for implementations of these standards. 'Standards are often developed and not adopted,' says Rik Drummond, Chief Scientist, Drummond Group Inc. 'There was a tremendous amount of work in developing ebXML and the ebXML messaging specification. Interoperability testing ensures that this work will get adopted by the user community quickly and on a global scale.' 'It is our principle within the Global Commerce Initiative to test the standards and recommendations we are endorsing,' states Peter Jordan, Director IS Strategic Projects Kraft Foods International, Member of the GCI Executive Board and Co-Chair of the Business Process Group. 'Our XML pilots have clearly shown that messaging systems were not interoperable and this pilot is a big step forward in providing this missing bridge.' Drummond Group Inc. is now formally soliciting participation in the ebXML Messaging Interoperability Conformance Pilot." [June 21, 2001] * See the revised version, June 27, 2001, and the notice. "Progressing the UN/CEFACT e-Business Standards Development Strategy." From United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation And Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). UN/CEFACT Steering Group (CSG) E-Business Team. General CSG eBTeam/2001/EBT0001 16-June-2001. "The UN/CEFACT Plenary endorsed the proposed strategy for achieving its e-Business vision 1 at its March 2001 meeting. Subsequently, the UN/CEFACT Steering Group (CSG) and OASIS announced the successful completion of the development stage of ebXML and reached an agreement for the allocation of responsibility for maintenance and further development of ebXML specifications. Under the agreement, UN/CEFACT will be responsible for Business Processes and Core Components. OASIS will be responsible for maintaining and advancing a series of technical specifications. Jointly, UN/CEFACT and OASIS will be responsible for marketing and developing the technical architecture specification. The CSG believe the most effective way forward is to bring together the expertise and resources of the UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG), the Business Process Analysis Working Group (BPAWG), the Codes Working Group (CDWG), and the Business Process and Core Component work from the ebXML initiative. The result is the consolidation of all these efforts into a new Working Group, the e-Business Working Group, that will be able to address the needs of all its users. This initiative will require considerable planning and consultation if it is to achieve its objectives within the projected time scale. To lead this process, the CSG has established a special e-Business Team to undertake the initial coordination and development work. This paper is the first deliverable of the e-Business Team. It provides the description and responsibilities of the new e-Business Working Group. ['This paper is intended to provide a notional description of the proposed e-Business Working Group and likely responsibilities. It is by no means fully inclusive of all requirements that will eventually be identified. It is intended to establish a baseline and context within which meaningful discussion and alternative proposals can be developed. All aspects of the organisation as well as the various duties will be confirmed through the approval of Mandates and Terms of Reference for the e-Business Working Group and each subgroup.'] See the communiqué from Ray Walker, "UN/CEFACT's Proposal for a New Electronic Business Working Group." [June 21, 2001] UN/CEFACT and OASIS Announce New ebXML Technical Committees. UN/CEFACT and OASIS, sponsors of the ebXML electronic business specifications, "today announced the formation of new technical committees (TC) within OASIS to carry forward the the infrastructure portions of the ebXML work. ebXML specifications, which provide a standard method for companies to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data and define and register business processes, were recently approved, marking a successful 18-month initial development phase. To continue ebXML maintenance and enhancements, OASIS has formed the ebXML Messaging TC, the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement TC and the ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance TC. Members of the existing OASIS Registry/Repository TC have expanded their charter to embrace the ebXML Registry/Repository Specification. UN/CEFACT plans to form a working group for ebXML business process and core components in the near future. Together, OASIS and UN/CEFACT will continue to manage ebXML Technical Architecture and Marketing Awareness functions." [Full context] [June 08, 2001] "Understanding ebXML. Untangling the business Web of the future." By David Mertz, Ph.D. (Phenomenological unifier, Gnosis Software, Inc.). From IBM developerWorks. June 2001. ['ebXML is a big project with a lot of pieces. In this article David Mertz outlines how the pieces all fit together. This overview provides an introduction to the ebXML concept and then looks a bit more specifically at the representation of business processes, an important starting point for ebXML implementations. Two short bits of sample code demonstrate the ProcessSpecification DTD and a package of collaborations.'] "When you read about ebXML, it's difficult to get a handle on exactly what it is -- and on what it isn't. The 'eb' in ebXML stands for 'electronic business,' and you can pronounce the phrase as 'electronic business XML,' 'e-biz XML,' 'e-business XML,' or simply 'ee-bee-ex-em-el.' On one hand, ebXML seems to promise a grand unification of everything businesses do to communicate with each other. On the other hand, one could be forgiven for thinking that ebXML amounts to little more than a pious, but vacuous, declaration that existing standards are worth following. As with every 'next big thing,' the truth lies somewhere in the middle... Sorting out ebXML involves a few steps. Perhaps the first thing necessary for understanding the details of ebXML is to digest an alphabet soup of new acronyms and other special terms. There are a number of these terms in the sidebar (ebXML terminology) to consider before looking at the whole 'vision' of ebXML interactions. Additional terms fit into the entire system, but these particular terms make a good starting point. With this new vocabulary in mind, and a bit of the following background on where ebXML comes from, you can begin to make sense of how all of the differing processes in ebXML hold together. After describing what ebXML does (at least in outline) at the beginning of this article, a final section looks in more detail at the Business Process Specification Schema, which makes up one of the most important elements of ebXML's underlying infrastructure... The UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM), which utilizes UML, may be instrumental in modeling the ebXML Business Processes. However, such modeling is simply a recommendation, not a requirement. In any case, since this article targets XML developers and does not address OOD (object-oriented design), it is more interesting herein to look at the representation of the models in XML documents conformant to the Business Process Specification DTD and XML Schema. The DTD (named 'ebXMLProcessSpecification-v1.00.dtd') appears, at this time, to be the primary rule representation. Both this DTD and a W3C XML Schema, which is (presumably) semantically and syntactically compatible, may be found in the EbXML_BPschema_1.0 recommendation... ... The approval of ebXML specifications is moving along at a fairly rapid pace (certainly for a standards organization). My own estimation is that it will take another year or two to shake out all of the issues and details for such an ambitious vision. It appears, however, that ebXML is on the way to widespread use a few years down the road. Now is the time, therefore, for businesses to begin a serious consideration of their own ebXML implementation plans." Note especially the sidebar, "ebXML Terminology." [June 19, 2001] "Leaders of the DISA Registry Initiative Issue Call for Participation." - "The Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) released [June 02, 2001] a call for individuals and companies to take part in the DISA Registry Initiative (DRIve). DRIve will seek contributions of software, systems, and technical expertise to create the architecture for and operations of a registry of data objects developed by standards organizations affiliated with DISA. These organizations include: (1) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12; (2) OpenTravel Alliance (OTA); (3) Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum; (4) Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO); (5) Open Philanthropy eXchange (OPX) Forum; (6) Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA)... The DRIve registry will meet the requirements of the Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language (ebXML) registry/repository specifications, which include the Registry Services Specification, version 1.0, and the Registry Information Model, version 1.0, approved on May 11. DRIve will also follow other approved ebXML specifications and technical reports affecting the operation of the registry... DRIve will include the basic functions of ebXML registries and its interactions with a DISA repository, as spelled out in the relevant specifications... 'This initiative is very important to the ManTech Enterprise Integration Center (e-IC),' said Robert S. Kidwell, Vice President and Senior Technical Director for ManTech e-IC. 'The e-IC team has embraced XML in all of its leading electronic commerce and electronic data interchange applications such as the U.S. DoD customs clearance project, which involves the shipment of military cargo within eleven foreign countries, and the U.S. DoD Medical E-CAT system, which is a distributed Web application for DoD procurement of key medical supplies. We feel that the DISA initiative will provide the initial foundation for migrating the traditional X12 EDI semantics into a framework that is consistent with that of the ebXML distributed registry and repository vision'." See also "XML Registry and Repository." [source] [May 14, 2001] Final ebXML Specifications Approved in Vienna. An announcement from UN/CEFACT and OASIS reports on the meeting of 11-May-2001 in which ebXML participants approved a core set of electronic business data specifications. From the announcement: "ebXML, which began as an 18-month initiative sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. Approved specifications include ebXML Technical Architecture, Business Process Specification Schema, Registry Information Model, Registry Services, ebXML Requirements, Message Service and Collaboration-Protocol Profile and Agreement. Accepted ebXML Technical Reports include: Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview, Business Process Analysis Worksheets & Guidelines, E-Commerce Patterns, Catalog of Common Business Processes, Core Component Overview, Core Component Discovery and Analysis, Context and Re-Usability of Core Components, Guide to the Core Components Dictionary, Naming Convention for Core Components, Document Assembly and Context Rules, Catalogue of Context Drivers, Core Component Dictionary, Core Component Structure and Technical Architecture Risk Assessment. Adoption, implementation and maintenance of the ebXML specifications will be conducted by UN/CEFACT and OASIS under the auspices of a Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed by the two organizations in Vienna. Coordination of this work will be achieved through a joint UN/CEFACT and OASIS management committee." [Full context] [May 31, 2001] "UN/CEFACT and OASIS Introduce ebXML-DEV Mail List." - "UN/CEFACT and OASIS has announced the formation of ebXML-DEV, a mail list for the ebXML development community. Hosted by OASIS, ebXML-DEV provides an open forum for serious ebXML developers and those interested in implementing ebXML to share information and experiences. Today's announcement follows the recent ratification of the ebXML specifications, which facilitate open trade between organizations regardless of size by enabling XML to be used in a consistent manner to exchange electronic business data. 'Now that we've reached our milestone of developing ebXML, we want to support those involved in implementing the specifications,' said Klaus-Dieter Naujok of IONA, member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Committee. 'The ebXML-DEV mail list fosters the productive discussion of ebXML topics and provides a valuable resource for those seeking practical information.' 'ebXML-DEV is a self-moderated forum for the open exchange of ideas,' explained Karl Best, OASIS director of technical operations. 'OASIS will host the list as a service to the community, but the content of the discussions will be driven by the participants themselves.' Individuals may subscribe to ebXML-DEV online at http://www.ebxml.org. ebXML, sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and electronic business. Headquartered in Geneva, it has developed and promoted many tools for the facilitation of global business processes including UN/EDIFACT, the international EDI standard. Its current work programme includes such topics as Simpl-edi and Object Oriented EDI and it strongly supports the development and implementation of open, interoperable global standards and specifications for electronic business." [July 23, 2001] "ebXML Registry/Repository Implementation." Available July 2001. "This first implementation from Sun is based on the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology. The Registry/Repository implementation can be used to submit, store, retrieve, and manage resources to facilitate ebXML-based business-to-business partnerships and transactions. Submitted information may be, for example, XML schema and documents, business process descriptions, business context descriptions, UML models, business collaboration information, Core Components, or even software components. The Registry/Repository implementation uses EJB technology, which reduces development complexity while providing automatic support for middleware services such as database connectivity, transaction management, scalability, and security. With this download you will receive the following main components: (1) Registry Information Model; (2) Registry Services; (3) Security Model; (4) Data Access API; (5) Java Objects Binding Classes; (6) JSP Tag Library... To install and deploy the Registry/Repository distribution you will require a J2EE environment. We suggest using the following software components: Netscape Communicator 4.72 or higher or Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher; JDK 1.2.2 or later; Application server environment; this implementation includes complete instructions for deploying the Registry/Repository using the following iPlanet Application Server environment components [...], Database server; Sybase or Oracle are recommended to be used for the Registry database..." See the earlier announcement of "Sun Releases The First Java Technology-Based Implementation of eBXML Registry and Repository for Web Services." [June 04, 2001] "Sun Releases The First Java Technology-Based Implementation of eBXML Registry and Repository for Web Services." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the industry's first implementation of the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) Registry/Repository specification, based on Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology. Distributed, scalable registries and repositories for business processes and transaction characteristics are essential to the growth of Web services. The ebXML specifications, which were developed through the joint efforts of OASIS and UN/CEFACT, were finalized last month. The ebXML Registry/Repository Specification provides a registry for advertising and discovering Web services, like a phone book. This specification also includes a repository for the elements needed to conduct Web services, such as business process models, schemas and documents, and trading information. 'With the publication of this reference implementation to developers using J2EE technology, Sun is helping the Java technology development community to harness the power of Web services by continuing to provide timely support for key enabling standards, such as ebXML,' said Bill Smith, Director of Technology Development, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 'Web services registries are going to be an important component of any Web services solution. By using Sun's reference implementation of the ebXML registry, developers can significantly reduce the time required to develop and deploy Web services.' Any developer using the Java platform who needs a registry to submit, store, and retrieve XML resources can use this freely available reference implementation from Sun to build a complete and robust cross-platform solution. 'You can pretty much take this implementation as-is and plug it into any J2EE platform-enabled application server, link it to a database, and you're ready to go,' said Smith. The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) specification is for Web services, but was not designed to act as a repository. The ebXML registry is extremely complementary to UDDI. It expands the capabilities of UDDI, providing registry service application programming interfaces (APIs), a database abstraction layer and a security model. The registry can be downloaded at http://www.sun.com/xml, with availability in early July [2001]." [May 18, 2001] "ebXML: It Ain't Over 'til it's Over." By Alan Kotok. From XML.com. May 16, 2001. ['The final meeting of the Electronic Business XML initiative in Vienna marked the 18-month deadline set for the project, yet there is still plenty left to do.'] "At the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) meeting in Vienna, Austria, 7-11 May 2001, the 150 participants approved the specifications and technical reports defining the ebXML technical architecture. The group also held its most complete proof-of-concept demonstrations at the midpoint of the meeting. But the session ended with ebXML's most promising features, interoperable business semantics, still incomplete. This meeting marked the end of ebXML's 18-month self-imposed deadline that began in November 1999, and the topic of ebXML's future direction took up much of the participants' time and energy. Until this meeting, the ebXML leadership put off any serious discussion of its post-Vienna future. In Vienna, participants got their first chance to see ebXML's new incarnation. EbXML is a joint initiative of Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the UN's Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). Its goal is to develop a set of specifications to allow any business of any size in any industry to do business with any other entity in any other industry anywhere in the world. The group's work has focused particularly on making e-business possible for smaller companies, generally left out of electronic data interchange (EDI) in the past. In this partnership, OASIS brings XML knowledge and experience, while UN/CEFACT, the group that developed and manages the UN/EDIFACT EDI standard, offers the business expertise... At the opening general session, Ray Walker, of UN/CEFACT and one of the ebXML executives, said his organization and OASIS would divide up management of the technical teams, where UN/CEFACT would continue the work on business content and OASIS would handle further work on infrastructure. The groups would create a coordination committee to jointly publish the approved specifications, with further details released during the week...OASIS and UN/CEFACT, according to the new agreement, will jointly publish the ebXML documents, including specifications, technical reports, white papers, and reference documents. In response to an audience question, Walker said that the ebXML site would continue 'for the moment' to provide one source for all ebXML documentation. The Vienna meeting also provided a discussion of future implementation strategies for ebXML. At a briefing for visitors to the meeting, Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, and former co-chair of the W3C's XML working group, laid out a three-stage process for businesses to implement ebXML. (1) Standard infrastructure: ...as a result of its current work, ebXML can immediately offer a package of standard message structures, registries and repositories, company e-business profiles, and trading partner agreements. It would allow even the smallest businesses to send ebXML-compliant messages by e-mail. Larger companies can also take part in ebXML when it suits their purposes, for example, as a complement to their EDI transactions. Registries can start providing the message specifications, industry vocabularies, and profiles of potential trading partners. (2) Standard electronic messages: provide standardized messages defined by individuals or organizations. The standard messages would encourage the development of off-the-shelf software solutions and begin the process of replacing paper documents with electronic counterparts. By 2003, Bosak expects repositories to store and registries to index business process models and standard messages, with the models using UML, DTDs, or prose representations. (3) Single standard semantic framework: a standard electronic semantic framework would automatically generate standard schemas and messages. Business models would represent complete top-down analysis and allow for dynamic modification as new business relationships emerged..." [May 08, 2001] "UN/CEFACT and OASIS Meeting Showcases ebXML for Healthcare and B2B." - "The final meeting of the 18-month ebXML initiative, sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, will feature the most extensive ebXML proof-of-concept yet demonstrated and the first to showcase ebXML's security specification. In Vienna on 9 May 2001, international standards groups, Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), Health Level Seven (HL7), Open Applications Group (OAG), RosettaNet, SWIFT and EDI X12, will team with 28 vendors from around the world to implement the ebXML specifications and demonstrate how ebXML can be used to meet the needs of electronic business today. The demonstration will be part of a week-long ebXML meeting, during which participants are expected to ratify the ebXML specifications and begin the next phase of continued development, implementation and maintenance. The healthcare track of the POC will use HL7 messages and documents as payloads within ebXML transport and routing envelopes. The demo scenario will begin with a patient visit to a physician's office. The office will send a registration message pre-admitting the patient to a hospital for testing. At the hospital, the patient will be examined and lab work will be ordered, the order being transmitted via ebXML to a remote lab. The record of the original patient encounter in the physician's office, plus the registration message, lab order and lab results will be sent to two clinical information portals where the virtual patient record can be collected and accessed. The ebXML POC electronic business track simulates a complete end-to-end B2B transaction, using messages from RosettaNet, OAG, EDI X12, SWIFT and ebXML Core Components. ebXML vendors play the roles of buyer, supplier, registry, marketplace, credit authorization agency and financial institution. The scenario begins with the buyer discovering the seller through the ebXML registry. It then highlights a seller catalogue update through the e-marketplace, followed by the buyer's purchase order request. A request for credit is sent by the e-marketplace to the authorization agency, which responds with an invoice. Following an advance shipment notification, the credit agency transmits messages to the banks of both the buyer and the seller to reflect the completion of the end-to-end business scenario. 'The ability of these 28 vendors to demonstrate ebXML on this scale is a remarkable achievement,' observed Sid Askary of Intalio, ebXML Proof Of Concept Project Team Leader. 'Execution of these complex business and healthcare scenarios and interoperability among so many early adopters is a sign of success for ebXML.' ebXML (www.ebXML.org) is an International Initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS in late 1999 with a mandate to undertake an 18-month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) can be standardized. The goal of ebXML is to facilitate open trade between organizations regardless of size by enabling XML to be used in a consistent manner to exchange electronic business data." [May 11, 2001] "ebXML: E-Business Language of Choice? How an XML Specification Strives to Create One Global Market." By Don Kiely. In InformationWeek Isue 836 (May 07, 2001), pages 79-84. "The grassroots ebXML effort has created a set of standard business processes using XML to create a global online marketplace. The challenge is making a framework that's generic, yet sweeping enough to accommodate large and small firms around the world. bXML, the United Nations-backed standard for E-business, aims to create a single online marketplace where companies of any size or nationality can collaborate and conduct business around the globe. By creating a standard way for companies to carry out common business practices, ebXML promoters hope to lower entry barriers and let small and midsize companies from the far corners of the globe join in the economic advances that their larger brethren already enjoy. It's ironic that this grassroots effort had its genesis in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- a pan-governmental bureaucracy. But the initiative seems to be resonating around the world, with supporters ranging from IBM and Sun Microsystems to government agencies such as the Saudi Export Development Corp. and small businesses like Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe. The goal of ebXML -- being undertaken by about 1,000 participating organizations -- is to create a set of standards that will let companies use XML for E-business. The underlying tenet of ebXML is business workflow and common business processes that every business should be able to understand and use. You could think of ebXML as the successor to electronic data interchange. Where EDI delineated standard E-business documents such as purchase orders, ebXML specifies common business processes and an architecture for carrying out those processes over the Internet. EbXML is being spearheaded by the United Nations Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, as well as the Economic Commission for Europe's Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. EbXML is nearing the end of its planned 18-month gestation period this month, with the publication of a complete set of specifications for using XML as the communication format for global business. The fate of ebXML after May is still undecided, but if the roster of computer vendors and consulting companies participating in the work is any indication, ebXML is likely to make its way into software and service offerings during the coming months. The draft ebXML architecture specifications describe a complex infrastructure for interactions between trading partners and a repository of XML documents from which business processes can be modeled. The architecture provides: (1) A way to define business processes and their associated messages and content; (2) A way to register and discover business process sequences with related message exchanges; (3) A way to define company profiles; (4) A way to define trading-partner agreements; (5) A uniform message transport mechanism... Several major security requirements must be addressed for ebXML to be accepted: (1) Confidentiality: Only the sender and receiver can interpret a document's contents; (2) Authentication of sender: Assurance of the sender's identity; (3) Authentication of receiver: Assurance of the receiver's identity; (4) Integrity: Assurance that the message contents haven't been altered while en route; (5) Nonrepudiation of origin: The sender cannot deny having sent the message; (6) Nonrepudiation of receipt: The receiver can't deny having received the message; and (7) Archiving: It must be possible to reconstruct the semantic intent of a document several years after the creation of the document. The biggest challenge of ebXML is to create a framework for automating trading-partner interactions that's both generic enough for implementation across the entire range of business processes and expressive enough to be more effective than ad hoc implementations between trading partners. The ebXML specification for the application of XML-based assembly and context rules describes how business rules are formed. Given that companies around the world operate in many different ways, it's unlikely that any single standard could possibly incorporate those many variations. No matter where ebXML heads after May, there will be some useful designs for global business interchange. Even if ebXML fizzles, it will have been a useful exercise that can make the world even smaller than it already is." In the same context: Differences between ebXML and UDDI. [May 08, 2001] "ebXML and the Road to Universal Standards." By Dave Carr. In InternetWorld (May 08, 2001). "Another chapter in the quest for universal electronic business standards will end this week in Vienna, Austria, where the ebXML organization is meeting to wrap up its 18-month project. It's still probably an early chapter, with major plot twists yet to come, but it does move the story forward. One encouraging sign: the ripple effect of independently developed XML specifications' being reconciled. The ebXML group recently agreed to incorporate the SOAP protocol, which is popular with many XML Web services enthusiasts, into the ebXML messaging specification, and the version that's going up for a vote this week is based on an extended version of SOAP. Those extensions, in turn, could wind up being incorporated into the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Protocol (XP) effort, which is supposed to produce the successor to SOAP. Previously, this had been shaping up as a typical industry battle, with Sun Microsystems favoring ebXML and Microsoft talking up SOAP (the Simple Object Access Protocol), which is fundamental to its .Net initiative. Then RosettaNet, the group behind the electronics industry's highly advanced electronic commerce standards, said it would incorporate ebXML messaging into the next revision of its standards, rather than continuing to develop its own messaging specification. Carry this convergence forward another couple of steps, and we should see agreement on messaging standards among Microsoft's BizTalk, RosettaNet, ebXML, and other electronic-commerce frameworks. On the other hand, messaging is just one component of ebXML, and there are other areas in which it still needs to be reconciled with competing initiatives. For example, there's overlap between the ebXML registry and repository specifications and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration), another widely supported Web services technology. The reason the ebXML organization was formed in the first place was to bring together electronic-commerce initiatives from OASIS, an industry consortium, and UN/CEFACT, the United Nations organization that created the international standards for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). CEFACT, the Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, was looking at addressing the demand for a modernized version of EDI that would use XML and the Internet while OASIS was trying to solve essentially the same problems from an XML-centric worldview... What ebXML tries to do is establish a baseline framework that can be used to solve problems that may cross industry boundaries. It also aspires to promote a generalized model that those vertical industry groups can build on. To implement ebXML, you're supposed to model your business processes using the Unified Modeling Language, a standard supported by object modeling tools such as Rational Rose, and the UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology. Business partners exchange Collaboration Protocol Profiles and use them to forge Collaborative Protocol Agreements (an extension of IBM's Trading Partner Agreement specifications). Further, it tries to specify some common business processes for interaction that can be used within this scheme..." [April 17, 2001] "Electronic Business XML (ebXML) Requirements Specification Version 1.04." By ebXML Requirements Team. Project team lead: Mike Rawlins. "March 19, 2001." Draft Specification for Review. End of Review Period: 30 April 2001. "This ebXML Requirements Specification represents the work of the ebXML Requirements Project Team. It defines ebXML and the ebXML effort, articulates business requirements for ebXML, and defines specific requirements that shall be addressed by the various ebXML project teams in preparing their deliverables. The scope of the ebXML business requirements is to meet the needs for the business side of both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) activities. Consumer requirements of the B2C model are beyond the scope of the ebXML technical specifications. Application-to-application (A2A) exchanges within an enterprise may also be able to use the ebXML technical specifications, however ebXML A2A solutions shall not be developed at the expense of simplified B2B and B2C solutions. The business requirements to be addressed by the ebXML initiative are divided into nine core areas - General Business, Electronic Business, Globalization, Openness , Usability/Interoperability, Security, Legal, Digital Signature, and Organizational..." [cache] [April 25, 2001] "RosettaNet to Support Messaging Services Specification Developed by ebXML Initiative. Universal Messaging Service Complements RosettaNet's Vertical e-Business Process Standards." - "RosettaNet today announced its intent to support the ebXML Messaging Service Specification for the secure transfer, routing and packaging (TRP) of electronic information. Future releases of RosettaNet's Implementation Framework (RNIF), which serves as a guide for e-business process development and implementation, will include support for the ebXML Messaging Service Specification, in an effort to achieve interoperability goals across industries. A messaging service standard typically specifies how information or an e-business transaction is physically packaged, transferred and routed securely via the Internet. As an underlying communication protocol, a single messaging service standard can be used universally, regardless of industry or geography, to transport electronic information between trading partners. This announcement is among the first in a series of cross-industry XML standards cross-industry initiatives from RosettaNet, the leader in global e-business process standards for the Information Technology (IT), Electronic Components (EC) and Semiconductor Manufacturing (SM) industries. ebXML was established by UN/CEFACT, a United Nations body tasked with facilitating international trade and developing technical solutions for electronic business. OASIS, an international not-for- profit consortium promotes the open, collaborative development of interoperability specifications based on XML. In support of convergence at the messaging service level, RosettaNet has formed an architecture team, headed by Dr. Arvola Chan, a principal architect on loan to RosettaNet by TIBCO Software Inc., a RosettaNet partner... RosettaNet has surveyed the XML-related standards space and, as a service to the industry, has developed a conceptual model that not only defines the components required for B2B business connectivity, but also enables the comparison of horizontal and vertical XML standards efforts using nine distinct layers. RosettaNet's presentation, XML Standards Components and Convergence: A RosettaNet Perspective and supporting documentation is available on its Web site." See "RosettaNet." [March 28, 2001] ebXML Specifications Completed and Submitted for Quality Review Process. A recent announcement from UN/CEFACT and OASIS reports that "all ebXML specifications have been submitted to the ebXML initiative's quality review process. These specifications are the result of more than a year's work by organizations and standards bodies around the world, which have come together to advance a common framework for global electronic business. The complete body of ebXML specifications defining business process methodology, core components, messaging, registry/repository, security, technical architecture and trading partner agreements are expected to be ratified in plenary May 2001. The ebXML Messaging Services Specification integrating SOAP is among the new specifications submitted to the ebXML review process. The effort to integrate SOAP into ebXML was started just five weeks ago. The ebXML announcement followed a proof-of-concept ebXML demonstration provided by vendors at the XML One Conference in London last week. Twenty-some companies collaborated to simulate a global, electronic business trading network using publicly available ebXML specifications. Many of these companies also issued public statements regarding their intentions to implement ebXML-compliant products in the near future." Specifications recently posted for QR include: (1) ebXML Registry Information Model Version 0.60, (2) ebXML Registry Services Specification Version 0.88, (3) ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Specification Version 0.93, and (4) ebXML Message Service Specification: Transport, Routing & Packaging Version 0.98b. [Full context] [April 06, 2001] "ebXML Ropes in SOAP." By Alan Kotok. From XML.com. April 04, 2001. ['Our report on the latest happenings in ebXML covers their adoption of SOAP, and takes stock as ebXML nears the end of its project.'] "The Electronic Business XML (ebXML) project released three more technical specifications for review on 28-March-2001, including a new draft document on messaging services. This part of ebXML -- formerly known as transport, routing, and packaging -- had made more early progress than the other technical features, but it also came under more pressure to include the work of other initiatives, specifically the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Enhancements to the original SOAP specification made it easier for ebXML to join forces. But it also marked something of a change in operation for ebXML, now more willing to make accommodations with other related initiatives in order achieve its goal of a single worldwide e-business standard... SOAP's importance extends beyond its definition of an XML-based message protocol. Several other e-business specifications based on XML -- most notably BizTalk and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) -- use SOAP for its messaging functions. ... The technical architecture specifications approved by the ebXML plenary at its mid-February meeting in Vancouver, Canada, provide a technical map for the other ebXML project teams in developing the details of the technology. The document also provides a look ahead into the end game for the initiative. Part of that strategy includes the critical ebXML registry specifications. Companies will have most of their early encounters with ebXML through the registries, as companies download business processes, list their capabilities to conduct e-business, and search for potential trading partners. At the same time as the release of the messaging specifications, ebXML also released for review two draft specifications for registries: one for the registry services and the other for the registry information model. The registry services document spells out the functions and operations of ebXML registries, while the information model details how registries organize and index the data they represent. Also on 28 March ebXML released for review the draft trading partner profile and agreement specifications. The ebXML specifications carve out specific technically-oriented functions for trading partner information stored in registries (profiles) and the rules of the road for conducting e-business (agreements). As a result, ebXML uses the terms collaboration-protocol profiles and collaboration-protocol agreements to distinguish them from the more comprehensive trading partner profiles and agreements that contain much more than technical details. EbXML expects to finish its technical specifications in May 2000 at its last meeting in Vienna, Austria. At that time, the participants plan to take up the business process and core components specifications, the last two pieces of the technology still in development." For bibliographic details and other description, see (1) "ebXML Specifications Completed and Submitted for Quality Review Process", (2) "ebXML Integrates SOAP Into Messaging Services Specification." [March 06, 2001] ebXML Core Component and Business Process Specifications Available for Review. ebXML Chair Klaus-Dieter Naujok announced the availability of review specifications for ebXML Core Components and Business Process. The review materials include three Core Components reference documents and the draft Core Components specification in four parts. (1) ebXML Methodology for the Discovery and Analysis of Core Components; (2) ebXML Core Components Dictionary Entry Naming Conventions; (3) The Role of Context in The Re-Usability of Core Components and Business Processes (4) ebXML Specification for the Application of XML Based Assembly and Context Rules. Supporting documentation includes an ebXML White Paper for the eBusiness community, "Core Component and Business Process Document Overview v1.01." Comments may be sent to the CC project editor, James Whittle. The review period for the ebXML draft ends 18-March-2001. [Full context] [April 04, 2001] "XML DevCon Features ebXML Proof-of-Concept. BEA Systems, Bowstreet, Commerce One, Contivo, Documentum, Fujitsu, IBM, Killdara, Netfish/Iona, Schemantix, Sun Microsystems, TIE and XML Global Implement Latest ebXML Specifications in Proof-of-Concept Demo." - "Software vendors from around the world will come together to demonstrate ebXML at the XML DevCon conference in New York City on 10-April-2001. BEA Systems, Bowstreet, Commerce One, Contivo, Documentum, Fujitsu, IBM, Killdara, Netfish/Iona, Schemantix, Sun Microsystems, TIE and XML Global will together simulate a global, electronic business trading network using publicly available ebXML specifications for Messaging, Trading Partner Agreements and Registry Repository. UN/CEFACT and OASIS, sponsors of ebXML, point to this demonstration as proof of the stability of the ebXML specifications, all of which are now in the quality review process for final ratification in May 2001. 'XML DevCon will be a great opportunity for anyone involved in electronic commerce to witness ebXML in action,' stated Klaus-Dieter Naujok of Netfish Technologies, chair of ebXML and member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Group. 'These 13 vendors represent the thousands of participants from companies and organizations worldwide who have put so much effort into developing the ebXML specifications.' 'As we near completion of our 18-month initiative, we're seeing a tremendous response from the community for ebXML-compliant products,' said Bill Smith of Sun Microsystems, member of the ebXML executive committee and a president of the OASIS Board of Directors. 'ebXML vendors appreciate that the demand is there, and this demonstration is an important milestone on the road to delivery.' Attendees of XML DevCon will take a step-by-step tour of how ebXML can be used to dynamically formulate trading partnerships through a registry service and exchange electronic business transactions with a consistent XML-based messaging infrastructure. The ebXML demonstration in New York will feature actual payloads from the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) -- although ebXML can be used to exchange any type of business transactions. In addition to the 13 vendors participating in the XML One conference, Interwoven and Cisco provided software for the ebXML demonstration. NTT Communications, Savvion, Sterling Commerce, Viquity and XMLSolutions also were instrumental in the proof-of-concept development." [February 27, 2001] "ebXML Technical Architecture Specification Approved. Record Numbers of Organizations Convene in Vancouver as ebXML Nears Completion." - "Organizations from around the world came together in Vancouver, Canada to overwhelmingly approve the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification. Serving as a roadmap to ebXML, the Technical Architecture Specification provides the foundation for all other ebXML specifications. This announcement from the UN/CEFACT and OASIS marks the deliverable stage of ebXML, as the initiative nears its goal of delivering a complete suite of specifications in May 2001. 'Interest in ebXML continues to build at a phenomenal rate,' said Robert S. Sutor, Ph.D., of IBM, vice chair of ebXML and member of the OASIS Board of Directors. 'The ebXML Technical Architecture Specification gives implementers a clear understanding of the entire initiative and how the various ebXML specifications relate to one another.' The ebXML Technical Architecture Specification defines the relationships, interactions and basic functionality of ebXML specifications including those involving core components, business processes, registry & repository, messaging services, trading partner agreements and security. In addition, the Technical Architecture Specification provides an ebXML use case scenario and conformance guidelines... More than 350 participants from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America approved the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification. The group, which gathered in Vancouver to advance the initiative, remains open to all interested organizations and individuals. Developers and all interested parties are encouraged to review the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification at http://www.ebxml.org/specdrafts/approved_specs.htm. [March 27, 2001] DISA Hosts ebXML-compliant Registry and Repository for E-Business Standards. A recent announcment from the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) describes plans to create an ebXML-compliant Registry and Repository for e-business standards and related content. ebXML, as a joint initiative of the United Nations (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS, is now completing development of set of specifications that together enable a modular electronic business framework. The initial content for the DISA Registry and Repository "will include all ASC X12 EDI standards, the XML specifications being developed by DISA Affiliates, and related content. As the Secretariat to the American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, DISA has provided a neutral forum for e-business standards development for almost 15 years, for a total of 15 annual releases and 30 subreleases. ASC X12 and the UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG) recently launched a joint initiative to enhance business-to-business communications by defining and validating a set of protocol-neutral e-business objects valid within ebXML specifications, UN/EDIFACT messages and X12 standards. This single set of business objects (core components) will serve as the foundation for future developments in Extensible Markup Language (XML) and any other incarnation of electronic data interchange (EDI) and XML. As part of its concurrent educational initiatives, which have long included seminars and training on EDI and XML, DISA is also launching a training program on UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology and Unified Modeling Language (UML)." [Full context] [February 27, 2001] ASC X12 and UN/EDIFACT Working Group Define Business Objects to Unify EDI and XML. A recent announcement from the two 'global e-business standards bodies' ASC X12 and EWG describes the initiation of work to create a single set of business objects ('core components') "that are valid within the UN/EDIFACT and ASC X12 business processes. This joint initiative of the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 and the UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG) is focused on single set of business objects (core components) which would be the basis for future developments with new and emerging technologies such as Extensible Markup Language (XML). The XML standards proposed by X12 and EWG will be based on ebXML recommendations. To complement this effort, ASC X12's Process Integration Task Group (PITG) is coordinating demonstrations of modeling software tools while preparing 'How to' guides to illustrate modeling methodology concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. PITG's work will build on existing frameworks within ASC X12 and EWG and help to define the business processes and modeling." [Full context] [February 22, 2001] ebXML Integrates SOAP Into Messaging Services Specification. An announcement from UN/CEFACT and OASIS describes efforts now underway to "integrate the SOAP 1.1 and SOAP with Attachments specifications into the ebXML Messaging Specification. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is designed to provide the underpinnings for messaging requirements. This development by ebXML will result in an open, widely adopted global standard for reliably transporting electronic business messages over the Internet. The ebXML Messaging Specification encompasses a set of services and protocols that allow an electronic business client to request services from electronic business servers over any application-level transport protocol, including SMTP, HTTP and others. ebXML defines a general-purpose message, with a header that supports multiple payloads, while allowing digital signatures within and among related messages. Although the header is XML, the body of the message may be XML, MIME or virtually anything digital." [details] [January 27, 2001] "Enabling Electronic Business with ebXML." From the ebXML Initiative. White paper. December 2000. "The vision of ebXML is to create a single global electronic marketplace where enterprises of any size and in any geographical location can meet and conduct business with each other through the exchange of XML based messages. ebXML enables anyone, anywhere, to do business with anyone else over the internet. ebXML is a set of specifications that together enable a modular, yet complete electronic business framework. If the Internet is the information highway for electronic business, then ebXML can be thought of as providing the on ramps, off ramps, and the rules of the road. The ebXML architecture provides: (1) A way to define business processes and their associated messages and content. (2) A way to register and discover business process sequences with related message exchanges. (3) A way to define company profiles. (4) A way to define trading partner agreements. (5) A uniform message transport layer. The ebXML initiative is designed for electronic interoperability, allowing businesses to find each other, agree to become trading partners and conduct business. All of these operations can be performed automatically, minimizing, and in most cases completely eliminating the need for human intervention. This streamlines electronic business through a low cost, open, standard mechanism. ebXML is global in support, scope and implementation. It is a joint initiative of the United Nations (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS, developed with global participation for global usage. Membership in ebXML is open to anyone and the initiative enjoys broad industry support with over 75 member companies, and in excess of 2,000 participants drawn from over 30 countries. Participants represent major vendors and users in the IT industry and leading vertical and horizontal industry associations. ebXML is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It is based on Internet technologies using proven, public standards such as: HTTP, TCP/IP, mime, smtp, ftp, UML, and XML. The use of public standards yields a simple and inexpensive solution that is open and vendor-neutral. ebXML can be implemented and deployed on just about any computing platform and programming language. Electronic commerce is not a new concept. For the past 25 years, companies have been exchanging information with each other electronically, based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards. Unfortunately, EDI currently requires significant technical expertise, and deploys tightly coupled, inflexible architectures. While it is possible to deploy EDI applications on public networks, they are most often deployed on expensive dedicated networks to conduct business with each other. As a result, EDI adoption has been limited to primarily large enterprises and selected trading partners, which represents a small fraction of the world's business entities. By leveraging the efforts of technical and business experts, and applying today's best practices, ebXML aims to remove these obstacles. This opens the possibility of low cost electronic business to virtually anyone with a computer and an application that is capable of reading and writing ebXML messages. Businesses of all sizes will adopt ebXML for reasons of lower development cost, flexibility, and ease of use..." [February 09, 2001] "ebXML Technical Architecture Specification." Version 1.0.2. By: ebXML Technical Architecture Project Team. Edited by Brian Eisenberg (DataChannel) and Duane Nickull (XML Global Technologies). 5-February-2001. "This document is a final draft for the eBusiness community. Distribution of this document is unlimited. This document will go through the formal Quality Review Process as defined by the ebXML Requirements Document. This document describes the underlying architecture for ebXML. It provides a high level overview of ebXML and describes the relationships, interactions, and basic functionality of ebXML. It should be used as a roadmap to learn: (1) what ebXML is, (2) what problems ebXML solves, and (3) core ebXML functionality and architecture. Other documents provide detailed definitions of the components of ebXML and of their inter-relationship. They include ebXML specifications on the following topics: Requirements, Business Process and Information Meta Model, Core Components, Registry and Repository. Trading Partner Information. Messaging Services. These specifications are available for download at http://www.ebxml.org." [cache] [February 14, 2001] "ebXML Moves Closer to Completion." By Tom Sullivan. In InfoWorld (February 12, 2001). "[Vancouver, British Columbia.] Bringing the pending technology closer to a final specification, ebXML (e-business XML) standards bodies kicked off a week's worth of meetings and working groups here Monday. ebXML is a specification for XML-based global infrastructure for e-business transactions, being driven by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the United Nations' Center for Trade Facilitation and E-business (UN/CEFACT). The working groups at the conference aim to further a number of ebXML pieces, including the Technical Architecture, Registry Information Model, and Registry Services specification, all of which currently are out for review. Working groups this week will also develop core competencies of ebXML, such as the Implementation Model methodology, as well as messaging and business processes. The goal is to have the final specification ready to be voted on by April 23. ebXML for the last 15 months has been driven by OASIS and UN/CEFACT, under a relationship intended to last 18 months... Bob Sular, vice chairman of the ebXML organization. pointed to the industry movement toward Web services, and the efforts of Microsoft, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard specifically, as catalysts of change in the industry that the standards bodies need to consider in the future." [January 13, 2001] ebXML Technical Architecture Specification Available for Public Review. The ebXML Technical Architecture Project Team has issued a draft version of the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification (4-January-2001, ebXML_TA_v1.0.doc), making it available for review by the eBusiness community. The 40-page draft specification has been edited by Duane Nickull (XML Global Technologies) and Brian Eisenberg (DataChannel), under the direction of project team leader Anders Grangard (EDI France). The current review period ends 26-January-2001. The document "describes the underlying architecture for ebXML. It provides a high level overview of ebXML and describes the relationships, interactions, and basic functionality of ebXML. It should be used as a roadmap to learn: (1) what ebXML is, (2) what problems ebXML solves, and (3) core ebXML functionality and architecture. The document is intended primarily for the ebXML Project Teams to help guide their work. Secondary audiences may include software implementers, international standards bodies, and other industry organizations... This conceptual overview introduces the following concepts and underlying architecture: (1) A standard mechanism for describing a Business Process and its associated information model. (2) A mechanism for registering and storing a Business Process and Information Meta Model so that it can be shared/reused. (3) Discovery of information about each participant including: a) The Business Processes they support, b) The Business Service Interfaces they offer in support of the Business Process, c) The Business Messages that are exchanged between their respective Business Service Interfaces, d) The technical configuration of the supported transport, security and encoding protocols. (4) A mechanism for registering the aforementioned information so that it may be discovered and retrieved. (5) A mechanism for describing a mutually agreed upon business arrangement which may be derived from information provided by each participant from item 3 above. (6) A standardized business Messaging Service that enables interoperable, secure and reliable exchange of messages between two parties. (7) A mechanism for configuration of the respective Messaging Services to engage in the agreed upon Business Process in accordance with the constraints defined in the business arrangement." From the background statement: "For over 25 years Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has given companies the prospect of eliminating paper documents, reducing costs, and improving efficiency by exchanging business information in electronic form. Ideally, companies of all sizes could conduct eBusiness in a completely ad hoc fashion, without prior agreement of any kind. But this vision has not been realized with EDI; only large companies are able to afford to implement it, and much EDI-enabled eBusiness is centered around a dominant enterprise that imposes proprietary integration approaches on its trading partners. In the last few years, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has rapidly become the first choice for defining data interchange formats in new eBusiness applications on the Internet. Many people have interpreted the XML groundswell as evidence that 'EDI is dead' -- made completely obsolete by the XML upstart -- but this view is naove from both business and technical standpoints. EDI implementations encode substantial experience in business processes, and companies with large investments in EDI integration will not abandon them without good reason. XML might enable more open, more loosely-coupled, and more object- or component-oriented systems than EDI. XML might enable more flexible and innovative eMarketplace business models than EDI. But the challenges of designing messages that meet business process requirements and standardizing their semantics are independent of the syntax in which the messages are encoded. The ebXML specifications provide a framework in which EDI's substantial investments in business processes can be preserved in an architecture that exploits XML's new technical capabilities." Review guidelines are provided on the ebXML web site; comments may be sent to the project team mailing list. [cache] [January 24, 2001] "XML Global to Host UN/CEFACT and OASIS ebXML Conference in February 2001." - "XML Global Technologies, Inc. (http://www.xmlglobal.com), a product focused, XML powered, e-business platform company, is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the upcoming ebXML conference scheduled to be held in Vancouver, BC on the 12th to 16th of February 2001. The conference, the first ebXML event to be held in Canada, will be co-hosted by DataChannel, NetFish Technologies and Cyclone Commerce. ebXML Vancouver (http://www.ebxmlvancouver.org) is a five-day conference focused on advancing ebXML as the accepted XML-based global infrastructure for electronic business. The conference is one of a series, the last one having been held in Tokyo in November 2000, with additional meetings scheduled for April and May of this year. The conference will attract CEOs, CTOs, software architects and developers from around the world, as well as members of the international press. XML Global has been an ardent supporter of ebXML since its inception in 1999 and is proud to have two of its management team as active members of the ebXML initiative. Duane Nickull, Founder and CTO of XML Global, is a member of the ebXML Steering Committee and co-editor, with Brian Eisenberg from DataChannel, of the Technical Architecture Specification. David Webber, Vice President of Business Development for XML Global, is involved with a wide variety of XML initiatives, including the ebXML interoperability standards project... ebXML (http://www.ebXML.org) is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS in late 1999 with a mandate to undertake an 18-month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) can be standardized. The goal of ebXML is to facilitate open trade between organizations regardless of size by enabling XML to be used in a consistent manner to exchange electronic business data." [January 25, 2001] "ebXML Registry Services." By ebXML Registry Project Team. Working Draft 1/20/2001. Version 0.84. 55 pages. "This document defines the interface to the ebXML Registry Services as well as interaction protocols, message definitions and XML schema. A separate document, ebXML Registry Information Model [RIM], provides information on the types of metadata that is stored in the Registry as well as the relationships among the various metadata classes... The ebXML Registry provides a set of services that enable sharing of information between interested parties for the purpose of enabling business process integration between such parties based on the ebXML specifications. The shared information is maintained as objects in a repository and managed by the ebXML Registry Services defined in this document. The ebXML Registry architecture consists of an ebXML Registry and ebXML Registry clients. Clients communicate with the Registry using the ebXML Messaging Service in the same manner as any two ebXML applications communicating with each other. Future versions of this specification may extend the Registry architecture to support distributed Registries. This specification defines the interaction between a Registry client and the Registry. Although these interaction protocols are specific to the Registry, they are identical in nature to the interactions between two parties conducting B2B message communication using the ebXML Messaging Service as defined by [MS] and [CPA]. As such, these Registry specific interaction protocols are a special case of interactions between two parties using the ebXML Messaging Service. Appendix A supplies the Schemas and DTD Definitions (ebXMLError Message DTD, ebXML Registry DTD). Appendix B explains the UML class and sequence diagrams. UML diagrams are used as a way to concisely describe concepts. They are not intended to convey any specific implementation or methodology requirements. The term 'managed object content' is used to refer to actual Registry content (e.g. a DTD, as opposed to metadata about the DTD). The term 'ManagedObject' is used to refer to an object that provides metadata about a content instance (managed object content)... [cache] [January 25, 2001] "ebXML Registry Information Model." By ebXML Registry Project Team. Working Draft 1/19/2001. Version 0.55. 39 pages. "This document specifies the information model for the ebXML Registry. A separate document, ebXML Registry Services Specification [RS], describes how to build Registry Services that provide access to the information content in the ebXML Registry. The Registry provides a stable store where content submitted by a Submitting Organization is persisted. Such content is used to facilitate ebXML-based business to business (B2B) partnerships and transactions. Submitted content may be XML schema and documents, process descriptions, UML models, information about parties and even software components. A set of Registry Services that provide access to Registry content to clients of the Registry is defined in the ebXML Registry Services Specification [RS]. This document does not provide details on these services but may occasionally refer to them. The Registry Information Model provides a blueprint or high-level schema for the ebXML Registry. Its primary value is for implementers of ebXML Registries. It provides these implementers with information on the type of metadata that is stored in the Registry as well as the relationships among metadata classes. The Registry information model: (1) Defines what types of objects are stored in the Registry; (2) Defines how stored objects are organized in the Registry; (3) Is based on ebXML metamodels from various working groups. Implementers of the ebXML Registry may use the information model to determine which classes to include in their Registry implementation and what attributes and methods these classes may have. They may also use it to determine what sort of database schema their Registry implementation may need. The Registry Information Model may be implemented within an ebXML Registry in form of a relational database schema, object database schema or some other physical schema. It may also be implemented as interfaces and classes within a Registry implementation..." [cache] [January 25, 2001] "ebXML Registry [Proposed XML syntax]." Posted by Len Gallagher. 12-Jan-2001. "As requested by Scott Nieman, attached is a proposal for XML syntax that could be supported in Phase I of the ebXML Registry. It is based very closely on XML syntax specified in the OASIS Registry/Repository technical specification... This is a proposal to ebXML Regrep that it adopt an XML-based syntax to support simple requests to an ebXML Registry. Following the definitions of Focused Query, Totally Ad Hoc Query, Constrained Ad Hoc Query, and Content Based Query given in the proposed requirements document distributed by Farrukh Najmi earlier this week, this proposal is somewhere between a Focused Query and a Constrained Ad Hoc Query. This proposal is much more flexible than a Focused Query because it allows Boolean predicates on the visible attributes of each class specified in the ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM). We are assuming that ebXML Regrep can agree on a simple syntax for Boolean predicates over a pre-determined set of character string, integer, or date attributes! The proposal is much easier to implement than Constrained Ad Hoc Query because it does not require the implementation to parse an unfamiliar Query language. The proposed syntax is more like a script to be followed rather than a language that must be parsed. The script depends on the classes and relationships defined in the RIM, so even very simple syntax may result in quite powerful requests to the Registry. This is demonstrated in the Example section below, which shows how each of the example OQL queries in Farrukh's proposed requirements document can be expressed in this simple XML..." cache [May 12, 2000] "electronic business XML (ebXML) Requirements Specification." ebXML Candidate Draft. 28-April-2000. By Team Leader Mike Rawlins (Rawlins Consulting) and Editor Mark Crawford (Logistics Management Institute). "This ebXML Requirements Specification represents the work of the ebXML Requirements Project Team. It defines ebXML and the ebXML effort, articulates business requirements for ebXML, and defines specific requirements that will be addressed by the various ebXML project teams in preparing their deliverables." [May 15, 2000] "ebXML Registry and Repository Part 1: Business Domain." Working Draft Version: 1.0, May 11, 2000. Abstract: "This document is Part 1 of the Functional Requirement Specification for an ebXML-compliant registry and repository. Part 1 defines the scope of the workflow to interact with a registry and repository, the actors involved in these interactions and the overall Domain Architecture for the e-Business Requirements of the registry and the repository. The Domain Architecture provides the basis of the detailed workflow specifications as defined in ebXML Registry and Repository Part 2: e-Business Requirements as well as forming the basis of traceability between Part 1 and Part 2." ebXML Requirements Specification. 5 March, 2000. Also available in PDF, Word (.DOC), RTF, and text formats. [local archive copy] [December 12, 2000] "United Nations CEFACT and OASIS to Deliver ebXML Technical Infrastructure Ahead of Schedule. Proof-of-Concept Demo with Thirteen Vendors Proves Readiness of Electronic Business Infrastructure." - "The United Nations CEFACT and OASIS today announced that the core technical infrastructure of ebXML, the Electronic Business XML Initiative, nears completion and will be delivered in March 2001, two months ahead of schedule. The technical specifications for the transport, routing and packaging (TRP), trading partner agreements (TPA), and registry/repository (REG/REP) components of ebXML provide the required pieces to ensure interoperability based on XML standards for global business on the Internet. Enterprises are demanding a standards-based framework for global trading, and developers are demanding the availability of an open, business-quality architecture that they can begin evaluating and implementing now. Progress on the 18-month ebXML initiative has been so substantial, organizers agreed to move the delivery date forward to meet this demand. At a recent ebXML meeting in Tokyo, hundreds of organizations from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America gathered to advance the development of ebXML. As a highlight of this meeting and a ratification of this decision, sixteen companies collaborated in an interactive proof-of-concept demonstration of the ebXML technical infrastructure. 'The ebXML specifications for transport, routing and packaging, trading partner agreements and registry/repository are stable and ready for evaluation and early adoption. This is great news for Web developers who want to get a jumpstart on creating electronic commerce applications built on global standards,' said Klaus-Dieter Naujok, chair of ebXML and member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Group. 'We are very excited to report our progress is significantly ahead of schedule and that we are in a position to deliver the ebXML technical infrastructure in 90 days.' Cisco, Fujistu, IBM, Interwoven, IPNet, Netfish Technologies, NTT Communications, Savvion, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, TIE, Viquity and XMLSolutions collaborated to build an interactive implementation of ebXML interoperability. In addition, Extol, webMethods and XML Global tracked the POC event closely and indicated that they would be interested in participating in future ebXML events. The demonstration, which was presented in North America for the first time today at a media event in San Francisco, showed how businesses can use ebXML to dynamically formulate trading partnerships through a registry service and exchange electronic business transactions using a consistent XML-based messaging infrastructure. The ebXML demonstration showed dynamic business transactions using payloads from the Automotive Industry Action Group. 'These vendors, many of whom are competitors, came together to prove that one of ebXML core strength's is interoperability', said Robert S. Sutor, Ph.D. of IBM, vice chair of ebXML and member of the OASIS Board of Directors. 'Early completion of the ebXML technical infrastructure will pave the way for rapid availability of multiple commercial integrated ebXML-compliant solutions. These will reduce the costs of deployment and ensure the flexibility required for e-commerce success in the global market." [December 07, 2000] " Backers to Demo Electronic Business XML Specification." By Roberta Holland In eWEEK (December 07, 2000). "More than a dozen companies involved with the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) effort will gather next week to show a working demo of the specification. The so-called 'proof of concept' demonstration is slated to take place Tuesday in San Francisco. Vendors participating in the event and the drive for the new specification include IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Extol, Fujitsu, Interwoven, IPNet, Netfish Technologies Inc., Savvion, Sterling Commerce Inc., Viquity, XML Global and XMLSolutions Corp. The demonstration will show that ebXML works and is interoperable. Participants also are expected to announce that the delivery date has been accelerated from May, as originally planned, to as soon as March, sources said. The standards effort was created jointly by OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) and the United Nations' branch in charge of e-business. The goal of the initiative is to create a standard framework for businesses to exchange data over the Internet, without having to go through the expense of Electronic Data Interchange. However, officials involved with the effort say companies that have already invested in EDI won't have to dump their existing system but can instead leverage ebXML on top of what they already have in place. 'The major significance of ebXML is that, really within the last year, [the effort] has managed to focus and direct the EDI community and really get them to accept that XML and Internet technologies are their future,' said Bob Sutor, IBM's director of e-business standards strategies, in Somers, N.Y. Sutor estimated companies will start coming out with products that support ebXML in the third quarter of next year. The effort has six general specifications, which are modular in nature and can be implemented piecemeal. They are: requirements, business processes, core components, transport routing and packaging, registry and repository, and trading partners. The group is furthest along with transport routing and packaging, which is the low-level messaging layer. Bill Smith, manager of Sun's XML technology center and member of the ebXML executive committee, agreed that being able to demonstrate running code is an important milestone. The effort will usher in 'the next generation for global trade,' said Smith, who also serves as president of OASIS." [September 30, 2000] "Final Messaging Services Specification Due From ebXML. SOAP to play no part in OASIS/UN standard, expected out November 6." By Douglas Finlay. In Software Development Times (October 01, 2000). "The ebXML initiative, a joint venture between the Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the United Nations' CEFACT (UN/CEFACT) body, is set to finalize and release the Messaging Services Specification at its next meeting in Tokyo November 6, 2000. It is the first specification from ebXML's Transport, Routing and Packaging (TRP) group and is intended to standardize how messages are wrapped and sent from business to business in an open environment across the Internet. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) architecture, in which Microsoft has played a leading role and which had been under consideration as a possible transport mechanism for the messages by the TRP group, was rejected as being too closed an architecture for the stated open and collaborative direction of the ebXML initiative (www.ebxml.org). Instead, the ebXML initiative chose MIME-XML technology to wrap and send the message. 'The goal of the ebXML initiative is to facilitate global trade between organizations of any size through a set of XML-based standards defined through an open and collaborative process,' remarked Ed Julson, business development manager for Sun Microsystems Inc.'s XML technologies and a working member of the group. Julson said the ebXML initiative, begun in December 1999 to help companies exchange data over the Internet in a public way at lower cost, would release a number of specifications over an 18-month time frame, and that all of the specifications are entirely platform- and language-independent. Areas in which specifications are currently being worked on include business processes; registry and repository; core components; and trading partners. Two prototypes of the ebXML specification have already been built, and both were spawned from prior ebXML proof-of-concept meetings in Brussels, Belgium, and San Jose, Calif. While Microsoft threw its hat into the open-source ring by submitting its SOAP specification to the ebXML committee for use as a transport mechanism for delivering the messages, Drummond said the TRP working group found that MIME-XML was best suited for the job. Fujitsu and Sun are solidly behind the ebXML initiative and have plans to implement any ebXML specifications as quickly as they become available. Jim Hughes, Fujitsu's director of industry relations, said the company was actively combining its popular reliable messaging technology for its mainframes into a prototype of the messaging spec to get the implementation into its products." [November 08, 2000] "Understanding ebXML, UDDI and XML/edi." By David Webber and Anthony Dutton. From XML.org. November 06, 2000. "The past six months have seen an extensive and accelerating amount of work on providing practical implementations and technical specifications to enable the development of open interoperable eBusiness interactions. This work is focused around utilizing the W3C XML syntax and the Internet as the underpinning technologies. In this context, the focus of the ebXML initiative is to develop a single global electronic market based on an open public XML-based infrastructure enabling the global use of electronic business information in an interoperable, secure and consistent manner by all parties. A primary objective of ebXML is to lower the barrier of entry to electronic business in order to facilitate trade, particularly with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) and developing nations. The ebXML initiative is sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS and is an open public initiative with now over one thousand participants. The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) initiative by contrast was started by IBM, Ariba and Microsoft about five months ago as a means to create an implementation of their technologies that deliver the underpinning for the interoperation of netmarket places and integrating business services using the Internet. UDDI is based around the concept of standard registry services that provide Yellow, White and Green Page business functionality. The UDDI focus is on providing large organizations the means to reach out to and manage their network of smaller business customers. The biggest issues facing UDDI are ones of acceptance and buy-in from businesses themselves, and implementation issues of scalability and physical implementation. By contrast the XML/edi Initiative was start three years ago as a grass-roots initiative to promote the use of XML for eBusiness. The XML/edi Vision includes the concept of the Fusion-of-Five: XML, EDI, Repositories, Templates and Agents to create next generation eBusiness. The ebXML and UDDI work represent embodiments of the XML/edi vision and as such we need to understand how far this work has come, and how much further is needed to fully deliver on the promise of XML and eBusiness... Within the software industry itself countries such as India and the Eastern European countries are already making significant in-roads into this domination as the labour pool for cost-effective development resources are stretched to the limit worldwide. Consequently over the next five years we can foresee that the industry is moving to an open global economy where new and profoundly different metrics will emerge. The measure of ebXML, UDDI and XML/edi will be how well they are able to provide and satisfy these needs." [September 11, 2000] "Global Manufacturers and Retailers Adopt ebXML. 850,000 Companies Select ebXML for New Global Commerce Internet Protocol." - "Members of the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) announced plans to use ebXML as the backbone of their new data exchange standard for business-to-business trade in the consumer goods industry. ebXML, an initiative of the United Nations CEFACT and OASIS, will provide the technical infrastructure for the Global Commerce Internet Protocol, a set of recommendations governing the management of data for Internet communication and other B2B interactions. GCI members include 40 major manufacturers and retailers as well as eight trade associations, which in total represent 850,000 companies around the world. Exchanges such as Transora, the WorldWide Retail Exchange, GlobalNetXchange, and CPGmarket.com are taking active roles in the GCI development. 'It is clear to us that ebXML will soon become the standard for all global trade,' said Peter Jordan, director of European systems for Kraft Foods and member of the GCI Board of Directors. 'By implementing ebXML as part of our infrastructure, GCI takes advantage of the excellent development work that's being accomplished to streamline many EDI processes and remove waste and redundancy from supply chains.' EAN and the UCC have made a major contribution to GCI's effort to quickly standardize Internet trading in the consumer products industry with the first in a series of electronic commerce standards. In order to support the GCI Internet Protocol, the UCC and EAN undertook an ambitious effort to provide GCI with a series of electronic commerce standards for the following processes: Item Synchronization, Party, Simple Purchase Order and Dispatch (Advance Ship Notice). This project encompassed the creation of business models, global data dictionaries, and XML schemas. GCI proof-of-concept trials are underway and the organization plans to demonstrate its protocol at the upcoming ebXML meeting in Tokyo, November 6, 2000. . . Founded in October 1999, the Global Commerce Initiative is the result of joint industry efforts in North and South America, Europe and Asia where, since the early-nineties, strategic collaborations have been developing between stakeholders of all sizes across the complex supply chain for consumer goods. Made possible by some of the world's best-known companies, they include the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) movements in Europe, North and South America and Asia, together with the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Association (VICS) in North America, EAN International and UCC, CIES, The Food Business Forum, FMI, AIM, the European Brands Association, and GMA." [September 05, 2000] "ebXML Sets Standard for Electronic Trading Partner Agreements." - "ebXML, a joint initiative of the United Nations/CEFACT and OASIS, announced plans to standardize electronic contracts and trading partnerships using XML. The newly formed ebXML Trading-Partners Project Team will develop a specification to define the technical parameters of trading partner profiles and agreements (TPA). The Trading-Partners team will complement other ebXML> project teams working to develop an open XML-based infrastructure that will enable business information to be exchanged consistently on a global basis. 'Standardizing on a specification for the electronic trading partner agreement is essential to widespread e-commerce,' said Klaus-Dieter Naujok of NextERA Interactive, chair of ebXML and member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Committee. 'TPAs capture critical information upon which organizations must agree in order for their applications and business processes to communicate. TPA will be a key element for interoperability among B2B server implementations.' Martin W. Sachs of IBM, leader of the ebXML Trading-Partners Project Team, defines an electronic TPA as an XML document that records specific technology parameters for conducting electronic business. Partner identification, communications protocol, security for message exchanges (including encryption, authentication, and non-repudiation), definition of requests and responses are all part of a typical TPA. Much of the new project team's initial focus will be based on previously proposed OASIS technical work surrounding tpaML (the Trading Partners Agreement Markup Language). tpaML was originally developed by IBM. The Electronic Business XML Initiative is a worldwide project to standardize the exchange of electronic business data. Sponsored by the UN/CEFACT and OASIS, ebXML will lower the barrier-of-entry to electronic business and facilitate trade, particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developing nations. ebXML is supported by hundreds of industry consortia, standards bodies and companies from around the world." [Announcement made available in .DOC format.] [August 22, 2000] "ebXML: Assembling the Rubik's Cube." By Alan Kotok. From XML.com. (August 16, 2000). ['The fourth meeting of the Electronic Business XML intiative sees the project make good progress. However, much remains to be achieved in order to hit ebXML's self-imposed 18-month deadline.'] "The fourth meeting of the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) initiative, 7-11 August 2000 in San Jose, California, saw the project consolidate some of its early progress, add new functionality, show off more of its messaging capabilities, and attract an important new industry partner to its cause. But despite the progress, participants at this latest meeting were bogged down fitting important pieces of its technology together to complete this comprehensive specification on time. The ebXML initiative, started last November, is creating a global framework for the exchange of business data using XML across industries and among businesses of all sizes. And while at first glance it may look like another business framework using XML, ebXML hopes to combine the experience from 20 years of EDI with XML's capabilities to fix EDI's shortcomings, which has prevented all but the world's largest businesses from enjoying the productivity benefits and process improvements of exchanging data electronically. The ebXML architecture combines message format specifications with business process models, a set of syntax-neutral core components, and distributed repositories with which businesses will interact. In their earlier meetings, ebXML's project teams wrote the requirements and outlined the various parts of the architecture. In this meeting, the development teams continued defining the individual specifications, but also started to reconcile these various parts..." [May 12, 2000] "ebXML Uses OpenTravel Alliance Specification for Early Tests." - "In its first plenary session, the electronic business XML or ebXML initiative announced two of its project teams will test early deliverables with content based on the OpenTravel Alliance specification. The ebXML initiative is developing the first common global e-business message structure and syntax based on the Extensible Markup Language or XML, and is holding its second working meeting this week in Brussels. An ebXML project team focusing on transport, routing, and packaging will develop a prototype using sample messages based on version 1 of the OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) specification. This specification, released for public comment in February 2000, provides a common customer profile for travel suppliers, intermediaries, and customers. The sample ebXML messages will test early versions of the initiative's message structure, as well as common addressing and security data. The test messages will generate and update sample customer profiles created by a travel agency and stored by an airline and car rental company. Another ebXML project team focusing on core components will test concepts for a system to generate sample data items common across business domains. This group will test items from the travel, tourism, and leisure industries using the OTA specification as a source. This ebXML team will test items from manufacturing and the international supply chain as well. The ebXML mission is to provide an open XML-based infrastructure enabling the global use of electronic business information in an interoperable, secure and consistent manner by all parties. Five individuals from OTA member companies are taking part in the May 2000 ebXML meetings, representing both their respective organizations and the Alliance. In addition, the Data Interchange Standards Association, that provides technical and administrative management for OTA, has two staff members participating in the current meetings. OTA, which began in May 1999, has over 120 members representing influential names in all sectors of the travel industry, including air, car rental, hotel, travel agencies, technology providers and related suppliers. The Alliance is comprised of five working groups air, car, hotel, leisure supplier, and non-supplier together, with an interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts. OTA defined its open messages with XML, the new high-powered language that makes it possible to exchange business data seamlessly among different systems, companies, and industries over the World Wide Web. The OTA will hold its annual OTA Advisory Forum on May 17, 2000 in Tempe, AZ." [March 21, 2000] "ebXML Initiative to Deliver Its Initial XML Interoperability Specifications in May 2000." - The ebXML Initiative [designed] to create a single global XML framework solution -- a joint effort of the United Nation/CEFACT and OASIS -- continued to attract the participation of major industry standards organizations and companies from around the world at its second working meeting in Orlando, FL, USA. 'ebXML may very well prove to be a major event of the new millennium, revolutionizing how business transactions are tracked, affecting worldwide impacts, removing paper from the process, and by empowering people to create whole new work models,' said David RR Webber, North American Chair of the XML/EDI Group. Others expressed the belief that the ebXML Initiative is the only chance this decade to establish an international electronic commerce standard. Participants representing 14 countries, 83 companies, government agencies and several national and international standards organizations extended to nearly 500 by virtual participation. Lending their knowledge and expertise to the ebXML Initiative are representatives from IBM, Sun Microsystems, Commerce One, Dun & Bradstreet, Oracle, Visa International, General Motors joined with individuals representing Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and United Kingdom. A full listing of countries, companies and organizations represented is at the end of this document. The energy and enthusiasm of the on-site participants was evident in all eight Project Teams' efforts. Each project team committed to an aggressive schedule to deliver the components of the ebXML(TM) framework. Specification components of the ebXML Framework to be developed between the Orlando meeting and submitted for approval at the next meeting to be held in Brussels include the following: (1) ebXML Requirements Specification; (2) ebXML Conceptual Architecture Specification; (3) ebXML Message Structure and Headers Specification; (4) ebXML Core Components Specification. The work of the ebXML project teams is carried out via extensive listserv discussions and regular teleconferences between each face-to-face meeting. Proposed specifications will be submitted for public comment via the ebXML listserv and the ebXML web site. Participation is open to anyone wishing to contribute to this critical and exciting initiative. Interested organizations and individuals can learn more about the effort, including details on how to get involved, by visiting the ebXML Initiative web site at http://www.ebxml.org. The next meeting is scheduled for 8-12 May 2000, in Brussels, Belgium. Subsequent meetings are scheduled for 7-11 August in the United States and 6-11 November in Tokyo, Japan. Details for the Brussels meeting are now available at the ebXML web site." [May 12, 2000] "The Problem of Business Semantics." By Jon Bosak. Slide Presentation (April 14, 2000). Stanford KNOWS seminar focused on Ontologies, E-Commerce, XML, and Metadata (CS 545), hosyed by the InfoLab (Spring 2000 Seminar Organized by Gio Wiederhold and Stefan Decker). Abstract: "For thousands of years, commercial transactions have consisted of two things: an exchange of goods and services, and an exchange of documents. XML is achieving wide acceptance because it allows us to implement the exchange of documents electronically. Originally designed as a more capable replacement for HTML, XML is becoming the technology of choice for a style of spontaneous trade in which previously unacquainted buyers and sellers meet and do business in a virtual marketplace. But trade -- especially international trade -- works only if we have common vocabularies and forms for the conduct of business. XML solves this problem on one level by providing a mechanism for the creation of an unlimited number of these vocabularies and forms, each designed for a different purpose. But clearing away the syntactic underbrush merely exposes the real problem: How do we arrive at shared systems of meaning across industries and cultures? This talk describes attempts to grapple with this question now taking place in ebXML, a joint initiative of two organizations -- the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) -- dedicated to the development of an XML-based infrastructure for electronic commerce." [March 15, 2000] A recent announcement from the Electronic Business XML Initiative: "The first ebXML Initiative Technical Specifications has been released for public comment. The ebXML Requirements Specification is available for download from the ebXML web site. This ebXML Requirements Specification represents the work of the ebXML Requirements Project Team. It defines ebXML and the ebXML effort, articulates overall business requirements for ebXML, and defines specific technical infrastructure requirements that will be addressed by the various ebXML Project Teams in preparing their deliverables. The document includes general guiding principles for the development of other ebXML Technical Specifications. Major requirements identified in the specification include: (1) general Business Requirements which relate to the need for a single consistent approach to use XML; (2) the need to support both vertical and horizontal solutions regardless of the user's level of sophistication; (3) the need to support a range of basic, low cost solutions for Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as complex solutions appropriate to large enterprises; (4) a general specification for developing XML-based schematas; (5) the need for globalized solutions that will accommodate national and international process requirements; (6) completely open accessibility, enabled by a registry and repository; (7) the need for an architecture that will ensure and maximize interoperability by supporting common business process, common semantics, a common vocabulary and common character encoding; (8) consistent transport, routing and packaging methodologies to ensure secure sending and receiving of messages over the Internet; and (9) digital signature and other security related capabilities. The specification is available for the full ebXML Work Group and all interested parties in the general public. Comments should be emailed as plain text in the body of the mail message or as an attachment to Mike Rawlins, ebXML Requirements Project Team Leader at rawlins@metronet.com or Mark Crawford, ebXML Requirements Project Team Editor at mcrawfor@mail.lmi.org. The review period closes 27 March 2000. The specification will undergo a second cycle of revision and review prior to the expected final approval at the May ebXML meeting in Brussels. The ebXML vision is to create a single global XML framework solution. It is a joint effort of the United Nation/CEFACT organization and OASIS. Participants represent 14 countries, 83 companies, government agencies and several national and international standards organizations. More than 500 people around the world participate via Internet mailing lists. Following the public comment period, the final Requirements Specifications will be approved by the full ebXML Plenary during its meeting in Brussels 8-12 May 2000. Full details about the ebXML Initiative, its project teams and meetings is at www.ebxml.org. Technical Specifications will be available for download from the ebXML web site as they are released." [January 15, 2000] "ebXML Registry and Repository Temporary Web Site." "This repository work effort is a joint work effort between UN/CEFACT and OASIS. UN/CEFACT has been focusing its repository work efforts to support the software development life cycle, specifically to support Unified Modeling Language and the Unified Process. OASIS work effort is focused on a DTD and XML Schema repository supporting industry specific vocabularies and data element reuse. It is very feasible that both goals can be achieved using the same specifications. In November [1999], the project team was formed at the first ebXML meeting. This site serves as the informational site for the project team as well as other interested in the work effort." [November 18, 1999] "TMWG Recommendations On XML." Techniques and Methodologies Working Group (TMWG). UN/CEFACT/TMWG/N089/Rev.5 (12 pages). 10-September-1999. "On behalf of UN/CEFACT's, TMWG has monitored closely the development of XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, and recognizes fully its potential to play a major role in facilitating all Web based business transactions. TMWG especially recognizes the opportunities that XML offers to small and medium sized companies, to developing countries and to economies in transition. It enables them to enter easily into the world of electronic business and, as a consequence, could bring very significant additional growth to world trade. XML has rapidly become the standard for defining data interchange formats in Internet applications. XML was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium to bring the power of SGML to the Web in a simplified form to overcome HTML's inherent limitations. XML makes it possible to encode information with meaningful structure and semantics in a very accessible notation that is both human-readable and readily processable by computers. Many forward-looking individuals and companies have started to work together to develop XML-based specifications for the information they most often need to exchange in a particular industry or domain. However, there is considerable redundancy to these specifications, because some of the information models they specify are common to multiple industries or marketplaces. Some concepts and constructs needed in these 'vertical' specifications apply to all business domains, but each new specification seems to 'start from scratch' and reinvent them. The overlapping scope and lack of standard content models and semantics clearly impedes interoperability. In principle, translating UN/EDIFACT directories into XML data elements seems like a way to provide a set of standard data elements that could be used by all XML vertical applications, thereby facilitating interoperability. However, there is as yet little agreement about the best method for encoding UN/EDIFACT data elements in XML. Recasting UN/EDIFACT semantics into Unified Modeling language (UML) Models first, while adding the missing process documentation into the models, would produce unambiguous XML vocabularies generated from the UML models..." [November 18, 1999] "Recommendations For ebXML Kick-Off Meeting." Techniques and Methodologies Working Group (TMWG). UN/CEFACT/TMWG/N104, 12-NOVEMBER-1999. "The UN/CEFACT Techniques and Methodologies Working Group met during the week of November 8-12, 1999 in Concord, CA. The XML Project Team met to continue its discussions on interoperability, and formulated recommendations for first ebXML meeting. The XML Project Team felt strongly that the first ebXML must have tangible outcomes. At minimum the team concluded that if project teams were formed, and deliverables were agreed upon, the first ebXML meeting would be a success. This document serves as a contribution from UN/CEFACT/TMWG to the first meeting of ebXML. It defines a proposal to structure ebXML into six project teams: (1) Messaging and Packaging; (2) Semantics and Message Architecture; (3) Semantic Foundation; (4) Registry and Repository; (5) Technical Support; (6) Marketing and Awareness. Attached is a matrix that addresses the main key issues that TMWG sees as essential that these project teams cover. We would like the ebXML attendees to review this document for consideration in the formation of project teams. With these working groups, the XML Project Team feels confident that interoperability of application to application data interchanges can be achieved..." [December 01, 1999] "Organizations from Around the World Gather to Launch ebXML Global Electronic Business Initiative." - "The Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), a joint effort of the United Nation/CEFACT and OASIS, attracted the participation of major industry standards organizations and companies from around the world at its inaugural meeting in San Jose, CA, USA. ebXML is an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be used in a consistent manner for the exchange of electronic business data. More than 120 representatives from organizations as varied as ACORD, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, Commerce One, DataChannel, DISA, UN/EDIFACT, IBM, OAG, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and others joined together to launch the ebXML initiative. Project teams were identified at the inaugural meeting and began work on the following: ebXML Requirements, Business Process Methodology, Technical Architecture, Core Components, Transport/Routing and Packaging, Registry and Repository, Technical Coordination & Support, Marketing, Awareness & Education. ebXML project teams will teleconference until the next face-to-face meeting, scheduled for 31 January - 4 February 2000, in Orlando, Florida. Subsequent meetings are scheduled for 8 - 12 May in Brussels, Belgium, 7-11 August in the United States and 6-11 November in Tokyo, Japan. [December 07, 1999] "XML Drumbeat Intensifies." By Michael Lattig In InfoWorld (December 06, 1999). "Extensible Markup Language's (XML) march to the forefront of IT infrastructures took a big step last week as more than 150 companies, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the United Nations' Center for Trade Facilitation and E-business (UN/CEFACT) kicked off a crusade for a global, cross-industry framework for electronic business. At the same time, the number of options for companies looking to get a jump on using XML for business-to-business application integration continued to swell. The goal of the global XML initiative, said Bob Sutor, a member of the board of directors at OASIS, in Billerica, Mass., is to tap into the vast technical and business experience of individuals from a number of industries and use that expertise to develop a universal framework for XML, to be called ebXML. 'With all the [XML] excitement, people are going off in small pockets to do their own thing,' said Sutor, who is also vice chairman of the ebXML project. 'Primarily what we're trying to get done is interoperability, trying to build an overall framework that anyone can plug into.' The ebXML group, which met officially for the first time last week, has outlined an aggressive strategy and hopes to have its initial offering within the next six months. That would put the group on target for delivering a final ebXML framework in 15 to 18 months. The goal of the project is to develop a cross-industry XML standard for e-business and encourage the continued development of vertical XML standards, not to pre-empt industry-specific XML standards, according to Sutor. UN/CEFACT has, however, requested a moratorium on XML development among its member groups to allow the ebXML initiative to take lead as the lone standard for cross-industry XML, according to Klaus-Dieter Naujok, chairman of ebXML and a representative of UN/CEFACT." [December 01, 1999] "Global XML framework for e-business planned." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld (November 30, 1999). "The crusade for a global, cross-industry Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework for electronic business is officially under way, with backing from over 150 companies, as well as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the United Nations' Center for Trade Facilitation and E-business (UN/CEFACT). The goal, according to Bob Sutor, a member of the board of directors at XML standards body OASIS, is to tap into the vast technical and business experience of individuals across a number of industries and use that expertise to develop a universal framework for XML, to be called ebXML. To accomplish that goal, participating companies have been split into eight project teams based on their respective areas of expertise, and those teams will be working over the next six months to develop the first framework for the ebXML framework. Those project teams will cover marketing awareness and education; technical requirements; business process methodology; technical architecture; core components; transportation, routing, and packaging; registry and repository; and technical coordination and support. While the goal of the project is to develop a cross-industry XML standard for e-business, it is not designed to preempt the development of industry-specific XML standards. On the contrary, said Sutor, OASIS and the UN/CEFACT will encourage the continued development of vertical XML standards." [December 02, 1999] "DataChannel Participates with United Nations and OASIS to Support ebXML Global Business Initiative." - "DataChannel, Inc. a leading developer of XML-based Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) solutions today announced its support of the Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), a joint effort of the United Nations CEFACT and OASIS. ebXML is an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. DataChannel is one of more than 50 organizations participating in the ebXML initiative. 'We are very pleased that DataChannel has joined this effort,' said Robert S. Sutor, chief strategy officer of OASIS and Vice-Chair of the ebXML Initiative. 'DataChannel is an active sponsor of the OASIS XML.org industry portal. We look forward to their contributions to the development of these important open XML standards for global e-business.' The first ebXML meeting was held November 17 - 19 in San Jose, California, and was attended by over 120 participants representing more than 50 companies, consortiums, and international standards bodies. ebXML.org is an international initiative established by UN/CEFACT and OASIS with a mandate to undertake a 15-18 month program of work to research and identify the technical basis upon which the global implementation of XML (Extensible Markup Language) can be standardized. The goal is to provide an open technical framework to enable XML to be utilized in a consistent and uniform manner for the exchange of electronic business data in application-to-application, application-to-person and person-to-application environments." Trade Facilitation Code Lists Codes for Units of Measure Used in International Trade Codes by name Codes by common code [September 15, 1999] "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework." - "The United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) have joined forces to initiate a worldwide project to standardize XML business specifications. UN/CEFACT and OASIS have established the Electronic Business XML Initiative to develop a technical framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. Industry groups currently working on XML specifications have been invited to participate in the 18-month project. The results of the Electronic Business XML Initiative will be placed in the public domain on XML.org. The Electronic Business XML Initiative will be led by Klaus-Dieter Naujok of the Harbinger Corporation, a senior member of the UN/CEFACT Steering Committee, and Dr. Robert S. Sutor of IBM, the Chief Strategy Officer of OASIS." For other references, see the main entry "Electronic Business XML Initiative." [cf. alt URL] [October 18, 1999] "ASC X12 Publishes Technical Report Representing X12 Semantics in XML Format Rising interest in XML initiatives prompts X12 to form XML group and endorse ebXML project." - "The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 embarked on an array of initiatives to express X12 semantics in eXtensible markup language (XML) syntax. At the recent ASC X12 meeting in Orlando, FL, October 3-8, 1999, X12's Communications and Controls Subcommittee approved for publication a technical report designed to provide an experimental representation of X12 semantics in XML syntax. In an equally substantive move, X12 formed a steering committee task group charged with drafting policies and procedures that relate to X12 and XML, serving as a liaison to other XML groups and creating common approaches for XML/electronic data interchange (EDI) development within X12. Additionally, ASC X12 members endorsed the efforts of the ebXML work group, formed by the United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). As a contribution to ebXML endeavors, X12 Committee representatives submitted the technical report on XML and X12 to the newly formed ebXML work group. Several X12 members plan to participate in ebXML efforts to define the technical basis for standardizing the global implementation of XML." See the main entry: "DISA, ANSI ASC X12/XML." [September 21, 1999] "Harbinger Director Chosen to Lead Joint UN/CEFACT and OASIS Initiative On Forming Standard XML Business Specifications." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, announced today that its Director of Messaging and Technology, Klaus-Dieter Naujok, had been selected by the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) to chair a working group developing the framework that will standardize eXtensible Markup Language (XML) business specifications. For more information on this initiative, go to www.unece.org/trade/untdid/sessdocs/xml.htm. Naujok is currently the UN/CEFACT Standards Liaison Rapporteur. He has been involved in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Commerce for 12 years and, in that time, he has served as chair of the Pan American EDIFACT Board (PAEB) and chair of the PAEB Technical Assessment. In addition, he is a member of the UN/CEFACT and ASC X12 Steering committees. At Harbinger, Naujok is Director of software development for the company's messaging security software product Harbinger Templar. He is also responsible for the Standards & Technology Group at Harbinger, providing the most accurate and timely information throughout the company, and out to E-Commerce professionals via the company's portal, harbinger.net. 'To be effective for global business, it is vital that XML specifications are based on a common framework,' said Ray Walker, Chairman of the UN/CEFACT steering group. ``Today, that does not exist, consequently, there are many - often competing - efforts underway worldwide to develop such specifications.... We are delighted that Klaus-Dieter Naujok will lead this group and are excited about the potential for worldwide harmonization.' [And] 'Harbinger strongly supports the UN/CEFACT initiative and is proud to have Naujok leading their efforts,' said Les Wyatt, Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and Management for Harbinger. 'XML holds strategic importance for our product development group. We are actively supporting and implementing a number of programs for XML, and driving industry leaders together to agree on a set of principles and standards for incorporating XML technologies in Internet Electronic Commerce.' UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and electronic business. Headquartered in Geneva, it has developed and promoted many tools for the facilitation of global business processes, including UN/EDIFACT, the international EDI standard. Its current work program includes such topics as Simpl-EDI and Object-oriented EDI, and it strongly supports the development and implementation of open inter-operable, global standards and specifications for electronic business." See the earlier announcement "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework" and the main entry "Electronic Business XML Initiative." [local archive copy] UN/CEFACT XML Reports: 17-September-1998. Harbinger XML White Paper - "This white paper is part of a series of E-Commerce resources from Harbinger on emerging E-Commerce trends and technologies. In addition to providing an introduction to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as an emerging technology, this paper also outlines major XML-based standards, areas of deployment, solution scenarios and Harbinger's plans for adopting XML to enable Internet-centric E-Commerce solutions." [local archive copy] "Harbinger, IBM Announce Worldwide Marketing Agreement for E-Commerce Products and Services." - "Harbinger Corporation, a worldwide supplier of business-to-business Electronic Commerce software, services and solutions, and IBM today announced a worldwide agreement. Under the contract, IBM will market and support E-Commerce end-user software products developed by Harbinger for translation and mapping." [1999-09-13]
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