OASIS Forms Technical Committee to Standardize Election Services UsingXML

[Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS Forms Technical Committee to Standardize Election Services Using
XML

International XML Interoperability Consortium Begins Work on Election
Markup Language (EML)

Boston, MA, USA; May 3, 2001 — OASIS, the XML interoperability
consortium, announced the formation of a new technical committee to
standardize the exchange of election and voter services information
using XML. The new OASIS technical committee will develop the Election
Markup Language (EML), an XML specification for the structured
interchange of data among hardware, software and service vendors who
provide election or voter services to public or private organizations.

“The need for a consistent, auditable, automated election system was
evidenced in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, but the requirement is
pervasive worldwide, especially in developing democracies where
implementing technology responsibly is critical,” noted Laura Walker,
executive director of OASIS. “EML, the first XML specification of its
kind, will provide a uniform way to allow systems to interact as new
global election processes evolve and are adopted.”

Government elections are just one aspect of EML. The OASIS specification
will also support private elections, such as those held by publicly
traded corporations, trade associations, labor unions, pension funds,
credit unions and not-for-profit organizations.

“The introduction of open standards for election solutions will enable
election officials to build upon existing infrastructure investments, to
evolve their systems as new technologies emerge and to simplify the
election process in a way that was never possible before,” added Gregg
McGilvray of election.com, chair of the new OASIS Election and Voter
Services Technical Committee. “Voters and taxpayers around the world
will benefit from open standard election solutions that save money,
increase auditability and most importantly, safeguard the sanctity of
every vote.  The ramifications of this work are huge.”

Accenture, election.com and Microsoft represent founding sponsor members
of the new OASIS Election and Voter Services Technical Committee. The
Office of the e-Envoy, UK Government; the International Foundation for
Election Systems (IFES); and the National Coalition on Black Civic
Participation (NCBCP) in the United States, among other governmental and
non-governmental organizations around the world, will also participate,
providing expert input and analysis on election technology and
procedures.

The committee plans to address a wide range of functionality in the EML
specification. The development work will include voter registration,
dues collection, change of address tracking, citizen/membership
credentialing, redistricting, requests for absentee/expatriate ballots,
election calendaring, polling place management, election notification,
ballot delivery and tabulation, election results reporting and
demographics.

“Right now, there are many election services vendors around the world,
all integrating different levels of automation, operating on different
platforms, employing different architectures,” commented Karl Best,
OASIS director of technical operations. “OASIS offers an open,
vendor-independent environment where both providers and users of
election services can work together on standardizing data interchange
with XML.”

Those interested in participating in the development of EML are
encouraged to join the OASIS Election and Voter Services Technical
Committee. More information is available on
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/index.shtml.

About OASIS
OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org) is the international, not-for-profit
consortium that advances electronic business by promoting open,
collaborative development of interoperability specifications. With the
United Nations, OASIS sponsors ebXML, a global framework for electronic
business data exchange. OASIS operates XML.ORG, the non-commercial
portal that delivers information on the use of XML in industry. The
XML.ORG Registry provides as an open community clearinghouse for
distributing and locating XML application schemas, vocabularies and
related documents. OASIS serves as the home for industry groups
interested in developing XML specifications. OASIS technical work
embraces conformance, security, business transactions, repositories and
other interoperability issues.

OASIS sponsors include Accenture, Access360, Adobe Systems, AND Data
Solutions, Arbortext, Auto-trol, Aventail, Baltimore Technologies, B-Bop
Associates, BEA Systems, Bentley Systems, Boeing Commercial Airplanes,
Bowstreet, Business Logic Corporation, Chrystal Software, Cincom
Systems, Cohesia, Commerce One, Critical Path, CrossLogix, DataChannel,
Dataloom, Deutsche Post AG, Documentum, EADS Airbus, election.com,
empolis, Engage, Enigma, Excelergy, eXcelon, Extricity Software, First
Call Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Informix, Infoteria, Innodata,
Intel, Interwoven, IPNet Solutions, ITEDO Software, Ivis Group,
Jamcracker, Logistics Management Institute, Mediaplex, Mercator
Software, Microsoft, Netegrity, NetFish Technologies, Netscape/AOL,
NextPage, NII Enterprise Promotion Association, Nimble Technology, NIST,
Novell, ObjectSpace, Oblix, OpenNetwork Technologies, Pearson Education,
Planet 7 Technologies, Popkin Software, Reuters Limited, SAA
Consultants, Sabre, SAP, SeeBeyond, Sequoia Software, Silverstream
Software, SoftQuad Software, Software AG, Sterling Commerce,
StreamServe, Sun Microsystems, Synth-Bank, Tata Consultancy Services,
The Tamalpais Group, Thomas Technology Solution, Tibco, US Defense
Information Systems Agency, Virtual Access Networks, Visa International,
Wavo, webMethods, Whitehill Technologies, Xerox, XML Global,
XMLSolutions and Xyvision Enterprise Solutions.


For more information:
Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.941.284.0403