[For immediate release]
March 16, 1997, New York, NY. -- SGML Open, the international consortium that has guided the SGML industry since 1993, announced today that it has changed its name to OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. The name change reflects the consortium's expanded mission to embrace the complete spectrum of structured information processing standards including XML.
"XML is a leaner version of SGML, optimized for the Internet," says Michael Maziarka (Xyvision), chairperson of OASIS' board of directors. "Our members either offer XML products or services or plan to implement XML within their organizations. The majority of the W3C companies who initiated XML are members of OASIS. Driving the SGML standard for over five years now, OASIS is positioned with the expertise and the resources to bring XML to the forefront."
OASIS is made up of companies around the world dedicated to product-independent document and data interchange. The OASIS membership roster reads like a Who's Who in the XML/SGML industry. Sponsors include Adobe Systems, AIS/Berger Levrault, ArborText, Inc., Chrystal Software, Database Publishing Systems, Folio, Fuji Xerox, Inso, ISOGEN, Open Text, SoftQuad, STEP, Sun Microsystems, Texcel, Thomson and Xyvision. More than forty other vendor and user organizations are also OASIS members.
"The consortium is responding to market demands and member needs to focus on targeted initiatives -- particularly related to XML -- which are not currently addressed by other organizations," says Robin A. Tomlin, executive director of OASIS. "OASIS will provide a much-needed forum for issues such as XML conformance and interoperability and developing standard vocabularies."
The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for disseminating information across the Internet. XML opens new dimensions for Web documents, making them multidimensional, capable of being processed by different programs, delivered by different methods and viewed differently by different users.
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is the international standard (ISO 8879) for open interchange of documents and structured information objects. SGML was developed in 1986 to offer organizations a way to protect their investment in information and to make documents accessible and deliverable in a choice of mediums.
OASIS Sponsors include: Adobe Systems, AIS/Berger Levrault, ArborText, Inc., Chrystal Software, Database Publishing Systems, Folio, Fuji Xerox, Graphic Communications Association, Inso, ISOGEN, Open Text, SoftQuad, STEP, Sun Microsystems, Texcel, Thomson, Xyvision, and the Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation.
OASIS Contributors include: ActiveSystems, Inc., AGAVE Software Design, CITEC International, Ltd., Copernican Solutions Inc., Crane Softwrights Ltd., Data Conversion Laboratory, Document Solutions Management Inc., Electronic Data Foundry, General Dynamics Defense Systems, IBM Corporation, Information Architects, Inc., Information Dimensions, Inc., Infrastructures for Information, Jouve Software, Inc., InfoObjects, Inc., L. A. Burman Associates, Lonergan Digital SARL, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., Microstar Software, Ltd., Mulberry Technologies, Neville & Associates, Noldor Technology, Novell, Inc., NPC Digital Services, Progressive Information Technologies, ProText, RivCom, SAGRELTO Enterprises, SGML Resource Center, Structured Information Consulting, Synex Information AB, Tata Infotech, TetraSys, Tokyo Electron America, Inc., and Uniscope, Inc.
For more information, contact:
Carol Geyer
Program Manager
OASIS
Tel: +1.412.963.1479
Email: geyer@oasis-open.org