RE: [ubl] FYI: Article - OASIS Proposes Standard for Business Documents (Bu t will companies adopt common language that crosses industries?)

["Steve Capell" <steve.capell@redwahoo.com>]

Here's my take on that article:

The value of UBL is not in the collection of horizontal documents such
as order & invoice.  The value is in the naming and design rules
methodology that is harmonised with UN/CEFACT core components.  OAG,
xCBL, RosettaNet, and many other horizontal and vertical standards are
also moving toward harminisation of core components.

The difficulty in cross-industry collaboration is not whether the
document is this format or that (syntax issue) - the real problem is in
the meaning of the content (semantic issue).  Harmonisation of semantics
through efforts such as UN/CEFACT core components (and the W3C "semantic
web" for that matter) is the key to interoperability.  UBL provides by
far the best example of a message construction methodology that leads to
improved semantic interoperability.

If all the different industry standards kept their libraries of business
messages but used the UBL naming & design rules as a "reference
implementation" as they move towards harmonisation of the components
(building blocks such as an <address> element) then UBL will have been
an outstanding success.

Regards,

Steve Capell
RedWahoo
Sydney, Australia
Tel : +61 410 437854



-----Original Message-----
From: Grimley Michael J NPRI [mailto:GrimleyMJ@Npt.NUWC.Navy.Mil] 
Sent: Saturday, 17 May 2003 3:24 AM
To: UBL (E-mail)
Subject: [ubl] FYI: Article - OASIS Proposes Standard for Business
Documents (Bu t will companies adopt common language that crosses
industries?)




http://www.sdtimes.com/news/078/story3.htm

Thank You,
Michael Grimley