By Mike Ricciuti
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 3, 1999, 11:55 a.m. PT
In an apparent about-face, Microsoft has joined an Extensible
Markup Language (XML) industry consortium supported by its competitors,
easing fears that a Java-like war will splinter the XML market.
Microsoft has joined Oasis, a nonprofit XML industry
consortium endorsed by Microsoft's rivals, including IBM and Sun
Microsystems.
James Utzschneider, director of Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, said the
company on Friday decided to join Oasis at the senior-member level, meaning
the company has paid Oasis a $7,500 fee and is participating in planning
meetings. Utzschneider also said Microsoft is evaluating a Web site
sponsorship pledge of $100,000 to the organization.
Just last week, Utzschneider said Microsoft was hesitant to join Oasis,
because he was not convinced the organization could handle the job. "Oasis
seems like a fine organization, and they have a good vision. But they only
have one employee and are in the process of raising funds to operate
XML.org," he said at the time.
Now, Utzschneider said Microsoft will help Oasis
define its charter and technical guidelines, a move that could help XML
adoption overall, said analysts--as long as Microsoft doesn't push a
proprietary agenda.
Both Microsoft and Oasis last week
launched portal sites for XML developers that host Document Type
Definitions (DTDs) that serve as XML data exchange blueprints for specific
industries, such as financial services and healthcare, for instance.
Microsoft's BizTalk.org Web site, and
Oasis' XML.org site are intended to serve
as DTD repositories and resource centers for companies implementing XML.
BizTalk.org will host BizTalk-specific DTDs, while Oasis intends to host
information for "any and all specifications," according to Laura Walker,
executive director of Oasis.
XML is touted as an industry-neutral language that has the potential to
revolutionize information exchange in much the same way that HTML has
forever changed user interfaces. But so far, many companies implementing XML
have done so using their own unique schemas, according to Steve Robins, an
analyst with the Yankee Group.
Microsoft's BizTalk, Ariba's cXML, and
Commerce One's CBL all employ
vendor-specific schema.
What XML proponents fear most is that the major software makers will use
their financial clout to hijack the consensus-building process, leading to
proprietary and incompatible versions of XML schemas that favor a particular
company's software and architecture.
Microsoft and Oasis compete, in a sense, since both seek to establish
industry consensus and provide a forum for XML definition.
Fears of a split
"To some extent, the uproar over BizTalk vs. xml.org caught Microsoft and
Oasis off-guard," said Robins. "They both felt that they were helping to
move the process forward. It's unlikely that Microsoft will commandeer Oasis
because Oasis has IBM, Oracle, and Sun as its members - and I don't think
that they will let that happen."
Robins said he believes competing DTDs will still exist, but that
Microsoft's membership in Oasis could help to reduce the number. "Note that
it's hard to know exactly what will happen as Microsoft joins Oasis. I think
that there will still be competing DTD's of some sort but [Microsoft's
membership in Oasis] will increase the interoperability between them and
this will likely consolidate or reduce the number of DTD's."
Microsoft's financial clout will certainly help raise the organization's
profile. While Oasis claims many big-name backers, the company has not yet
received enough vendor support in membership dues and firm commitments from
Oracle and Sun, according to Josh Walker, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Oasis to announce partners
Forrester's Walker said Microsoft's hat in the Oasis ring should be enough
to prod other software makers into providing support to the organization.
"This is exactly what we were hoping Microsoft would do. The combination of
the two sites is a great win for XML in general. [Microsoft's
involvement] certainly now puts the ball into the court of Sun, IBM and
other Oasis members--they now have to now step up and fund the group and
make sure it succeeds," he said.
"Overall, Oasis will become a better magnet for user companies if they know
[Microsoft and other software makers] are behind the effort," he
said.
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The larger conflict involved Microsoft's apparent split from the rest of the
software business over XML. Oasis counts among its members almost all major
software makers.
Oasis intends to announce a list of XML.org partners later this month,
according to Walker. Until that time, she declined to comment on who
will be on the list or how much funding the organization has received. "I
can, however, say that we are supremely confident that we will have the
resources necessary to pull XML.org off," she said.
Related news stories
• Taking sides on XML May 26, 1999
• Microsoft publishes draft of BizTalk May 24, 1999
• Standards group to develop XML schemas May 6, 1999
• XML: New way to do business May 3, 1999