[ebxml-iic-interop] Interoperability initiatives

[Jacques Durand <JDurand@fsw.fujitsu.com>]

All:

 

Forwarding to you a mail from Pim van der Eijk (OASIS),

on recent initiatives in Europe about ebXML interoperability,

from CEN-ISSS.

(Steve Yung and Matt have already mentioned this initiative.)

If anyone intends to attend the kick-off meeting in Brussels (Sept 25),

please let me know.

 

Clearly, the IIC has a pivotal role to play here, as there is a need

to synchronize with other initiatives such as UCC/DGI, as well as ECOM in Asia

that we formally contacted recently.

I believe the work we are doing on (1) deployment guidelines, (2) basic interoperability profiles,

is critical in positioning IIC for this role.

We'll discuss this in on-coming conference calls, although our immediate focus is still

on finalizing our test suites. As you can see, the demand is there...

 

A conference call is in the planning for the week of Sept 9th (unlike what the email says below)

Those interested to attend will let me know.

 

 

Regards,

 

Jacques

 

 

 

 

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Hello Jacques,

I am contacting you in relation to two initiatives related to the
work you are doing in the ebXML IIC TC.

First of all, as you may have read on the ebXML list, CEN ISSS
eBES is starting an ebXML interoperability pilot in Europe,
mainly aiming at some of the European e-business vendors, but
open to any organization that operates in Europe.  The initiative
aims at accelerating the migration to ebXML and aims to develop a
demonstrator that shows how organizations can exchange business
information using interoperable implementations of the ebXML
messaging specification.  OASIS has endorsed this initiative,
and I will provide some support to the project:

http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-dev/200207/msg00045.html

Clearly, the open invitation to join this project also applies to
the members of the IIC committee. 

The relation of this project to the IIC TC will minimally be
that the participants in this project will consume and apply
the guideline documents that you are currently working on.
There will also be some overlap in participating companies,
which will provide an informal liaison between the two groups. 

At this point I am interested to hear your opinion on whether
you would like to establish a more formal relation with this
initiative, and whether you would like me to make the relevant
introductions for you. Any thoughts you have on this are
wellcome.

You or another representative of the TC are also wellcome to
attend the kick-off meeting in September if you want to make
personal contacts with people involved in that initiative and
discuss any synergies.

It is not yet planned whether this initiative will produce any
technical deliverables itself, although I expect it to address
interoperability aspects of transporting EDIFACT over ebMS, to
support EDI systems that adopt the ebXML infrastructure but use
existing payload formats.   That might be useful as a "template"
like the one EAN and RosettaNet are working on, at which time
it makes sense for (some of) the participants in this initiative
to join your TC directly, either as individual members or as a
sub-committee operating in Europe.  But it is too early to say
anything specific on this.

A second interoperability initiative is an ongoing project
started by e-Centre, which is EAN's member organization in the
UK. This project pre-dates EAN International's decision to join
forces with the OASIS IIC TC.   They have a number of vendors
working in a joint project to implement a scenario where EAN XML
content is exchanged using ebMS.  One of the benefits to these
vendors is visibility as provider of solutions to the EAN and
general e-business communities, which may be increased if this
work could be brought into OASIS. Although EAN is interested
in the CEN ISSS eBES project and may participate in some way
in it (e.g. by providing business cases or scenarios), EAN are an
international organization so they would prefer to work in
another international forum.

One issue that we would like to address is what the relation
between their project and the ongoing IIC TC would be.  There
are various options, which Bolivar Pereira (EAN) and I would
like to hear your thoughts about.  Perhaps we could have a
telephone conference with you on this?  Suggested dates are
28/08, thu 29/08, wed 04/09, thu 05/09.  Also attending would
be Justin Webster of e-Centre and perhaps some of my US OASIS
colleagues.

Kind regards,

Pim van der Eijk

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