Re: Core Components docs for review - and did you know that Greenlandis part of North America?

["William J. Kammerer" <wkammerer@foresightcorp.com>]

Thanks again to James Whittle for the latest Core Components documents
he gave us yesterday, available at the handsome and well-designed CC web
page at http://www.ebxml.org/project_teams/core_components/Latest.htm.

I think my comments in "Re: Tokyo document for review," from last month,
at http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-core/200011/msg00007.html, re:
section 7.3 Regional Context in the document "ebXML Definition of Core
Component Context Categorizations, Classifications, and Values," are
still germane and have not been addressed yet..

I gave Duane Nickull the address of the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, at
http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/, on Monday.  The section
on "Scope and applications of ISO 3166-1" makes it clear "ISO 3166-1
does NOT code: Names of languages (e.g. Gaelic), Names of nations or
peoples (e. g. Dutch), Names of groupings of countries (e. g.
Scandinavia), Names of continents (e. g. Asia), [nor] Names of
organizations (e. g. OAS, NAFTA, WHO)."

But the "Interesting links" section at the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency
does point to the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), at
http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49.htm, which has Country and
Region Codes for Statistical Use.  The UNSD's section on Geographical
regions, at http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49regin.htm, breaks
out the countries according to geographical area: Composition of macro
geographical (continental) regions and component geographical regions,
using the ISO 3166 3-digit numeric codes, which the UNSD develops and
maintains.

Note that the UNSD has defined three-digit codes for the continents and
major geographical areas, which, if we insist on categorizing these
areas, would be better suited for our purposes. These people (UN
bureaucrats) are undoubtedly better at geography than either Martin
Bryan or myself. Did you know, for instance, that Greenland is part of
North America?  The ISO 3166 three-digit codes are also available at
http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49alpha.htm, or in the CIA's World
Factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/app-f.html.
Perhaps stuff from section 7.3, Regional Context, can be replaced with
some template and examples referring to the UN materials, and appendix
8.1, Regional Classifications, could be removed altogether, reducing the
heft of the ebXML document.

Though I seriously doubt the trade organizational classifications within
section 7.3 and Appendix 8.1 will ever be useful in setting context of
core components - because they are way too broad-brushed -  Martin can
have a go at such a list made available by the Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities, at
http://eur-op.eu.int/code/pt/pt-5000500.htm. Unfortunately, this annex
is in Portuguese, and the English version doesn't have the organizations
noted.  But you'll be able to figure it out: EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, Mercosul,
etc. memberships are noted.

More interesting factoids: Anguila, Bermuda, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands,
the Falkland Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin
Islands, Montserrat, Saint Helena, and the British Indian Ocean
Territories belong to the UK (or Reino Unido da Gră-Bretanha e Irlanda
do Norte)?  I think the U.S. has been out-imperialized by the U.K. Set
some context on that!!!

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
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