[September 15, 1999] A new "Electronic Business XML Initiative" was recently announced by OASIS and UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport). According to the announcement, "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." Rationale is provided by Bill Smith (Sun Microsystems, president of OASIS): "To be effective for global business, it is vital that XML specifications are based on a common framework. That framework does not exist today and, consequently, there are many -- often competing -- efforts underway worldwide. This new Electronic Business XML Initiative will end the confusion and duplication of effort that currently exists." The new 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." UN/CEFACT [United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport] (www.unece.org/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 [OO-edi] and it strongly supports the development and implementation of open interoperable, global standards and specifications for electronic business." Details are provided in the text of the announcement, "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework."
References:
Press release (1999-09-15): "United Nations and OASIS Join Forces to Produce Global XML Framework."
[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." [local archive copy]
