Re: Brief Guide to eCo

[Leslie Lundquist <leslie@commerce.net>]

Excuse me, there's a point that needs to be clarified here. Murray Maloney 
did not create this material, although he was instrumental in developing 
the eCo specification itself, which did include sample DTDs. The material 
you mention below was developed by CommerceNet and the ATP Joint Venture 
partners, including Commerce One, Cadabra.com (now part of goto.com) and 
BizBots, after Murray was no longer involved in the project. In fact, I was 
responsible for leading this work on behalf of CommerceNet to bring 
together some introductory materials about eCo.

Thanks,
Leslie Lundquist

At 12:45 PM 4/17/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Brief Guide to eCo from Murray Maloney.
>
>The Web entry point for eCo is http://eco.commerce.net/
>See http://eco.commerce.net/specs/index.cfm for an overview of eCo.
>Please see http://eco.commerce.net/specs/index.cfm for interfaces,
>XML DTDs, and sample instances.
>
>The eCo Architectural Specification describes an e-commerce system
>in seven layers that can be accessed to answer such business and
>systems questions as:
>
>         What other businesses can I find?
>         What services do they offer?
>         What kinds of interactions do they expect?
>         What protocols do they follow?
>         Can our systems communicate?
>         What application interfaces do they provide?
>         Are our interfaces compatible?
>         What information must we exchange?
>
>The basic model is:
>
>                 Networks                        ]
>contain         Markets         ]
>where                           Businesses      ]
>provide/use                             Services                ]
>which conduct                           Interactions]
>by exchanging                                   Documents
>]
>containing                                                      Information
>Items   ]
>
>eCo specifies document types and interfaces that must be implemented
>for each layer supported. The top three layers is all that is required
>to register and interoperate in a networked marketplace. The Service
>and Interaction layers can be used to publish eCo-compliant interfaces
>to your services and interactions (like your 'Business Process' and 'Step').
>The Document and Information Item layers (optional) are intended to be
>used by Network and Market makers to establish/register the business
>document and data element types that are used within a given network
>or market.
>
>Let me know if this helps.

****************
Leslie Lundquist
Vice President, Research Group
CommerceNet
408-446-1260 ext 225

CommerceNet: Venturing with Partners Worldwide
to Create Value through Innovation in Electronic Commerce.