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News From Graphic Communications Association

XML/EDI GROUP EXCEEDS 1,000 MEMBERS
AND 100,000 WEB SITE VISITORS

Issued March 17, 1999

Press inquiries: Contact Don Thieme
dthieme@gca.org
+1 703-519-8190

(Alexandria, VA) — On 26 February 1999, Matteo Mariani of Italy became the 1,000^th member of the XML/EDI Group. The next week, Robert Fuchs of Austria became the 100,000^th visitor to the XML/EDI Group’s web site at http://www.xmledi.org/. These two events signify how the XML/EDI Group has become the largest and fastest growing grass-roots organization for applying XML to electronic commerce.

In July 1997, an international group of visionaries lead by Bruce Peat and David Webber in the USA, Martin Bryan in the U.K., and Benoit Marchal in Belgium started the XML/EDI Group. In its brief 20-month history, the group has worked extensively with the XML and EDI communities to foster key work in the development of XML/EDI. The group has made available guidelines for the exchange of business data and specifications for repositories of business applications based on XML. In March 1998, the group became a special membership organization of the Graphic Communications Association (GCA) Research Institute.

Peat, chair of the XML/EDI Group, said, "The grass-roots nature of the XML/EDI Group reflects the benefits of XML, where anyone with the desire to contribute to the development of the technology can take part. We have people from all over the world contributing to our online discussions or attending meetings in-person at industry events."

Webber, North America chapter chair, added, "XML’s ability to exchange business data over the Web using ordinary browsers will revolutionize how companies interact. XML/EDI provides the structure needed for companies to exchange data without the high costs of EDI."

The European Community is seizing key opportunities by supporting the XML/EDI Group’s work. Under the leadership of Europe chapter co-chairs Bryan and Marchal, the European Standardization Bureau’s (CEN’s) workshop on electronic commerce has started a pilot test of XML’s ability to exchange business data, especially with smaller businesses. This pilot test focuses on statistics gathering, health care, and transportation industries. Bryan will discuss these developments at GCA’s April 1999 XML Europe conference in Granada, Spain.

Betty Harvey of Electronic Commerce Connection in Germantown, Md., an early member of the XML/EDI Group, said "These coordinated efforts in Europe and North America, as well as comparable work in Asia promise to make XML/EDI a worldwide standard for exchanging data, something traditional EDI has not done. Separate EDI standards for North America and the rest of the world have hampered global electronic commerce."

The XML/EDI Group’s networking structure makes it possible for participants to quickly learn XML/EDI principles and apply them to their own business needs. An impressive and growing list of applications includes:

The University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, has started work on a prototype of an XML/EDI business repository. The project, led by MBA candidate Rene Kasan under the supervision of professor Donald McCubbrey, provides a proof-of-concept test of XML/EDI repositories. The prototype uses off-the shelf products from POET Software.
GCA has begun developing specifications for a distributed database for exchanging paper inventory management data among publishers, paper mills, and printing plants.
Motorola Corporation is using XML for voice browsing in the proposed VXML specification, as well as with work in the Wireless Application Standard, and in document management.
Ocwen Technology Xchange, a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corporation, is part of a multi-company effort spearheading development of real estate and mortgage industry document-type definitions (DTDs) that will ease the ordering of real estate services through the Internet. The DTDs use XML to help customers apply for home mortgages and process pricing requests. The work will include requests for credit reports, appraisals, title insurance, and other real estate services.
Daniel Green Company proposed XML based standards for data exchange among footwear suppliers, retailers, and web sites, for sourcing and distribution. Early plans call for the definition of standard terms and the design of basic document object models that promote Internet commerce between suppliers and web-based retailers.
Suli Ding of WebMethods Inc. in Fairfax, Va. has developed an EDI-to-XML converter to help companies with large investments in traditional EDI expand to XML.
Edifecs Commerce has launched CommerceDesk, which includes a repository for hosting and distributing guidelines. Edifecs uses XML and XSL technologies to create and display these guidelines and standards. Guidelines were created and converted into XML using Edifecs' SpecBuilder, and with XSL converted into HTML for display on CommerceDesk.
Distributed Systems Technology Centre, an Australian research organization, is helping develop international standards such as the XML Metadata Interchange and Resource Description Framework, as well as investigating the use of XML in developing enterprise security policies and document management.
The Extricity Alliance uses XML for messaging at a client’s site (The North Face) providing a core business-to-business integration architecture. The company has built XML-to-EDI interfaces for EDI networks and translator software packages.
TNO-PG, a Dutch research institute is active in production of European standards for health care and a member of a consortium investigating XML for use with European CEN standards.
Instill Corporation provides data-exchange interfaces to the food industry, and plans to use XML to display incoming EDI and non-EDI data on web browsers for decisions by company account managers.
NAICS.NET uses XML and agent technology to power a search engine based on companies classified according to the North American Industry Classification system.
XFlat, developed by UniDex Inc., is a new XML language for describing flat files that contain complex application data. An XFlat schema describes the structure of a flat file, including the data types of the fields. XML Convert, also developed by UniDex, is a Java application that uses XFlat schemas to convert flat files into XML documents. Unidex unveiled XFlat and XML Convert at GCA’s XTech '99 conference in March 1999.
Redix International Inc. has developed XML/EDI authoring tools providing ‘Any-to-XML’ format conversion solutions to help companies implement successful, profitable XML/EDI programs.

XML/EDI Group members took part in the initial mapping of the North American (X12) EDI standard to XML, working with the Data Interchange Standards Association and CommerceNet. Advanced examples of the many other areas are group members working with HL7 Healthcare and their development of the V3 XML pilot, and the FIX Protocol FIXML development pilot. The group organizes workshops, seminars and presentations worldwide, for major corporate sponsors, local organizations, universities, and groups such as the ACM (American Computer Machinery Association). Transcripts and materials are available on-line.

The XML/EDI Group is a special membership organization of the GCA Research Institute. GCA (www.gca.org/) is the leading technical management association promoting the application of markup technologies and a supporter of XML since its creation.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: For more background on the XML/EDI Group and technical questions, contact Alan Kotok, vice president, Management Technologies, GCA at akotok@gca.org or +1 703-519-8173.

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Revision date: March 17, 1999