Rotterdam EWG resolutions and their implications for UBL

[Jon Bosak <Jon.Bosak@Sun.COM>]

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

Ewg-Rotterdam_output.pdf