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Subject: Rotterdam EWG resolutions and their implications for UBL
For those of you curious about what happened at the EDIFACT Working Group meeting in Rotterdam, below are two documents recording the outcome of the meeting: first, an account of the resolutions, and second, a paper titled "EWG Proposal for the Future Structure and Organization for e-Business Standardization within UN/CEFACT." The most important resolutions as far as UBL is concerned are Nos. 58-60, in which the EWG adopted the Future Structure document. Also of interest is Resolution 76, which addresses the disposition of the JCC work. Adoption of the Future Structure document could eventually be of considerable significance for UBL. The ebWG envisioned in this recommendation to UN/CEFACT would have a structure much different from both the ebWG that was proposed earlier this year and the ebTWG that is serving temporarily in its stead. The most important difference is summed up in the statement that the new structure is designed to Separate the business requirement process from the technical solution. The proposed structure has isolated business operational view sub working groups from functional service view sub working groups, thus effectively isolating the business requirements specifications from the technical solutions. It is precisely the insistance on a mechanical connection between the business process modeling and the syntax definition that has caused us to seek an environment in which we can develop the bottom-up solution our industry needs in the short term. A formal abandonment of this requirement could pave the way for the collaboration between XML experts and business experts that we've been looking for. I'm very encouraged by the opening this new approach offers to cooperative ventures with organizations outside of UN/CEFACT: The proposed structure enables UN/CEFACT recognised external standards organisations the flexibility of either assuming the position of a business domain or simply presenting new work items in compliance with the new group's procedures and the finalised standard proposal for acceptance as a UN/CEFACT e-business standard. In fact, this proposal, if approved by UN/CEFACT, offers what seems to me to be the best resolution of the current situation. We've already started work in the UBL Group, and it will be months (March 2002 at the earliest) before the new ebWG is operational, so clearly we should not delay the UBL work begun within the OASIS framework. But given the willingness of the EWG membership to work with outside bodies, it seems to me that the UBL TC could plug right into the new structure. If we simply replace the box labeled "XML" in Figure 3-1 of the Future Structure document with "UBL TC," I think we're there. I see no reason why a properly constituted OASIS TC couldn't operate, in effect, as an ebWG subworking group; indeed, this would be functionally identical to what we were aiming for in the proposal that was rejected in June. The EDIFACT Working Group embodies two decades of hard work by some of the world's leading experts in electronic data interchange. UBL needs to be tied into that expertise so that it can be realized anew in syntax appropriate to the world of web services. It needs to be integrated into the assessment, harmonization, and approval processes that the EWG has struggled so hard to implement. It seems to me that the proposal approved by the EWG membership offers our best hope for accomplishing this integration. Exciting as this prospect is, however, I think that we have to focus on our deliverables and not let ourselves be distracted by a possibility that may not gain approval in UN/CEFACT. I suggest that we focus on the first phase of the UBL work for the next six months and then see where things stand organizationally. If all goes well and this new proposal from the EWG membership succeeds, then I think we should seek to meet collaboratively with the EWG (hopefully by then the new ebWG) at its next scheduled meeting 18-22 March 2002 in Barcelona. Jon Bosak Chair, UBL Group Designated Chair, UBL TC
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