[ubl-lsc] Outline: ACORD liaison press release

[Jon Bosak <Jon.Bosak@sun.com>]

UBL LSC members and observers,

In our UBL LSC meeting last Friday, I agreed to draft the outline
of a press release announcing the addition of ACORD to our UBL
liaisons.  The results of my efforts are given below.

I'm on vacation this week, but as noted in the meeting, the next
steps are up to the rest of you.  In particular:

 - We need a quote from Beth Grossman (or some other suitable
   person in ACORD)

 - We need OASIS info from Carol Geyer

 - We need everyone else to look this over and make sure I cobbled
   together the right information for your organization (most of
   this came from other press releases)

Please contact Carol directly with any changes or additions.

Jon

==================================================================

ACORD Brings Insurance Industry to UBL Liaisons

ACORD, the insurance industry standards organization, has become
the latest industry group to appoint a representative to the OASIS
Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee.  ACORD
joins liaisons from a broad group of industry standards
organizations in the subcommittee that provides guidance to UBL,
the initiative to define standard XML business forms for
electronic commerce.

[quote from ACORD goes here]

Other organizations with liaisons to UBL include ARTS,
representing retail sales; ASC X12, representing EDI standards;
EIDX, representing the electronics industry; RosettaNet, the
information technology consortium; and XBRL, the accounting
industry standards organization.  UBL liaisons provide input to
UBL and coordinate the review of standard XML business schemas as
they become publicly available.

About UBL

The OASIS UBL (Universal Business Language) Technical Committee is
an open, publicly accountable, nonprofit initiative to define a
common XML library for basic business documents like purchase
orders, invoices, and shipping notices.  UBL provides a standard
set of XML building blocks together with a framework that will
enable trading partners to unambiguously identify and exchange
basic e-commerce documents in specific business contexts.

The OASIS UBL effort builds on the Electronic Business XML (ebXML)
infrastructure developed by OASIS and the United Nations.  The
ebXML specifications provide for XML registry services, reliable
XML messaging, standardized trading partner agreements, a standard
data dictonary, and a business context methodology.  However, UBL
documents are usable in a wide variety of other ecommerce
frameworks as well.

UBL unites and harmonizes a number of currently existing XML and
EDI business libraries into a set of internationally recognized de
jure standards that designed to solve major interoperability
problems for both vendors and users and speed the entry of small
and medium-size businesses into the electronic marketplace.  UBL
is freely available to everyone without legal encumbrance or
licensing fees.  For more information on UBL, see
http://oasis-open.org/committees/ubl.

About ACORD

ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and
Development) is a global, nonprofit insurance association whose
mission is to facilitate the development and use of standards for
the insurance, reinsurance, and related financial services
industries. With offices in Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the
United States, ACORD accomplishes its mission by remaining an
objective, independent advocate for sharing information among
diverse platforms.  Affiliated with ACORD are hundreds of
insurance and reinsurance companies and thousands of agents and
brokers, related financial services organizations, software
providers, and industry organizations worldwide.  More information
about ACORD can be found at www.acord.org.

About ARTS

The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division
of the National Retail Federation (NRF), is dedicated to the
creation of an international, barrier-free technology environment
for retailers. The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's
largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises
all retail formats and channels of distribution, including
department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, and
independent stores. NRF members represent an industry that
encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments with
aggregate annual sales of more than $3.4 trillion. NRF's
international members operate stores in more than 50 nations. In
its role as the retail industry's umbrella group, NRF also
represents 32 national and 50 state associations in the U.S. as
well as 36 international associations representing retailers
abroad.  For more information about ARTS, visit www.nrf-arts.org.

About ASC X12

The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, accredited by the
American National Standards Institute and comprised of
cross-industry representation, develops robust e-business exchange
specifications and electronic data interchange standards that
interact with a multitude of e-commerce technologies and serve as
the premier tool for integrating electronic applications. Through
standards setting and active participation in emerging and
technically relevant initiatives, ASC X12 facilitates the
effective exchange of electronic information. Propelling global
e-business, ASC X12 serves as the entry point for the United
States into the United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for
Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT), an
international standard relating to the exchange of trade goods and
services. To learn more about ASC X12, visit www.x12.org.

About EIDX

The Electronics Industry Data Exchange Association (EIDX) is a
section of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA)
that represents the majority of companies in the electronics
industry.  EIDX researches and develops information exchange
methodologies for the electronics industry and develops and
publishes business models and standards implementation guidelines
that represent current and emerging practices.  For more
information about EIDX, visit www.eidx.org.

About RosettaNet

RosettaNet is an independent, self-funded, non-profit consortium
dedicated to the development and deployment of standard electronic
business interfaces to align the processes between supply chain
partners on a global basis. More than 250 companies representing
more than $1 trillion in annual information technology and
electronic components revenues, currently participate in
RosettaNet's standards development, strategy, and implementation
activities. A complete list of member companies and more
information on RosettaNet is available at www.rosettanet.org.

About XBRL

XBRL is an international consortium comprising accounting
standards bodies, accounting firms, technology companies,
financial information providers, corporations, and government
regulatory bodies. The XBRL standard is freely licensed and
permits the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of
financial information across all software formats and
technologies, including the Internet.  XBRL does not require a
company to disclose any additional information beyond that which
they normally disclose under existing accounting standards, nor
does it require a change to existing accounting standards. More
information on XBRL is available at www.xbrl.org.

About OASIS

[OASIS blurb goes here]