[Fwd: [ubl-dev] UDEF applied to CCTS - a Proposal for Alignment]

[Anne Hendry <anne.hendry@sun.com>]

  Hi,

Here is a recent proposal sent to ubl-dev.  I think I recall a while 
back a discussion on UDEF, but I don't recall the outcome.  They seem to 
be working on defining a common set of semantic definitions for 
attributes of data elements used in business contexts, based on ISO 
11179 and ebXML core components naming conventions.   The issue of 
semantic equivalency was raised recently in a clsc discussion on code 
list requirments, and there seems to be some overlap with the tbg17 
controlled vocabulary work, although definitions differ.  Is UDEF 
something we want to (or are) looking into?

Thanks,
Anne

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ubl-dev] UDEF applied to CCTS - a Proposal for Alignment
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 06:27:26 -0500
From: "john hardin" <john@sanghainteractive.com>
Reply-To: <john@sanghainteractive.com>
To: <ubl-dev@lists.oasis-open.org>, "CRAWFORD, Mark" <MCRAWFORD@lmi.org>
CC: <dnickull@adobe.com>, <chiusano_joseph@bah.com>, 
<kenneth.sall@gsa.gov>, <dmoberg@cyclonecommerce.com>, 
<udef.builders@topica.com>, <ron.l.schuldt@lmco.com>, 
<dconnelly@openapplications.org>, <mrowell@openapplications.org>, 
<jdurand@fsw.fujitsu.com>, <david@drrw.info>, <psnack@aiag.org>



Hello Mr. Crawford, and all on the ubl-dev group. 

I have been discussing with Duane Nickull and many others the similarity between the Core Components work, and the UDEF (universal data element framework) that has come out of the Aerospace industry, and is now getting traction among a number of standards, eBusiness formats and industry associations. 

Duane's suggestion was that I initiate contact with the groups that are related to CCTS, and make a proposal to work together. His reasoning for this was that the two efforts are very closely aligned. 

We have been working diligently to create a non-intrusive, easily included approach for eBusiness formats to provide within their specs (perhaps Schema, RDF or other formats). It's based on ISO 11179 and utilizes alphanumeric identifiers (eg - d.t.2_6 is equivalent to purchase.order.document_date). The overall concept: primary Object words (eg Document, Entity, Person, Product) and Property words (eg Date, Amount, Identifier) are augmented in tree form with qualifiers (Order.Document) and combined together (Purchase.Order.Document_Date). Each of these has an alpha or numeric signifier, which is used to create the actual ID for inclusion in the eBusiness formats: d.t.2_6

The UDEF was originated by Ron Schuldt, currently at Lockheed Martin, to solve the integration problem of semantic equivalency.  This is intended to provide a large scale solution that all can adopt, and could work very well as a potential solution to the UID as proposed in the CCTS work.

Our outreach efforts have generated a number of active participants (and good group of persons staying informed) in Aerospace, Automotive, Transportation, and many leaders in eBusiness standards worlds. I'm sure that most participants here would be enthusiastic about aligning efforts with the CCTS work. There are significant peices of work under way, for example:

- the UDEF trees have been converted to XML format 
It can be found in PPT format for readability at http://www.udef.org/education.html under the UDEF 101 file download or http://www.udef.org/specdoc.html under the Master Trees link

- a global UDEF hosting/resolver architecture effort is about to begin. A multinational .org is being finalized as the hosting agency, and proposals are being submitted for the design / build phase. Use Case details can be viewed at http://www.udef.org/specdoc.html under the link Use Cases. 

There is detailed information available at the website referenced above, and there is a white paper that I have authored at http://www.sanghainteractive.com/whitepapers.html. There is a very active udef.builders list where we are planning and discussing at: 
 
Archive -
http://www.topica.com/lists/udef.builders/read

Subscribe - send mail to udef.builders-subscribe@topica.com

Please respond to my address and udef.builders@topica.com with comments as to interest / applicability. 

Best regards, and thank you for your time.
John

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
john c hardin
chief architect, ebXML - General Motors
313.667.4849

director / founder - sangha interactive
313.737.1197 cell
877.572.5691
john@sanghainteractive.com
http://www.sanghainteractive.com
http://www.udef.org
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