UDDI initiative led by Microsoft and IBM

["Glushko, Bob" <Bob.glushko@commerceone.com>]

If you didn't see this article in today's NY Times about the UDDI initiative
then you might be surprised by it. It seems that IBM and Microsoft have been
working together to build an ecommerce registry for business and service
descriptions called the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
project.  A few days ago they revealed their imminent annoucement and
invited Commerce One, Sun, and a few other leading ecommerce players to join
them.  Since Commerce One has always been a proponent of open standards, we
were at first highly disappointed, especially by IBM's presence in the
initiative since they have been so active in ebXML, but decided that we
should go along in the hope that our presence can help ensure that this
effort proceeds in as open a way as possible since we all agree that we need
the kind of facility that UDDI describes. It appears that Sun made the same
choice, and is also listed as an endorser in this article. 

It is clear from the story here, however, that neither Microsoft nor IBM
revealed this effort to ebxml because it isn't mentioned at all. Note that
the eco framework project from Commercenet, which has made some significant
intellectual contributions to the ebxml work in the BP area, is mentioned,
but somewhat negatively as having lost momentum and in doing so opening the
door for this Microsoft/IBM alliance.

In any case, the overlap with ebxml's goals is significant, and we need to
determine how we can position our efforts now that this announcement will
come out with details on Wednesday (and the inevitable marketing juggernaut
from Microsoft and IBM that will probably follow).  

bob glushko

Plan Aims to Foster Electronic Commerce Between Businesses.htm