Re: Tag Languages, UID's etc.

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

Duane Nickull shared with us his UID scheme (which I assume is the same
as his colleague's David RR Webber's Bizcodes) for the mechanical
conversion of XML tags, written in any language or alphabet, into the
(supposedly normalized) English tags.

I appreciate Duane's embrace of multiculturalism, and his efforts to
bring Thai merchants into the fold of e-commerce (or whomever's language
and alphabet was purported to be used in the tags of his example).  But
this is one time when HTML format and/or JPEGs should've been used to
send the e-mail so I could see the tags rendered in something other than
Latin character gibberish.

More practical examples would answer how we will accommodate fusion with
RosettaNet.  Instead of fantasy examples (as if the Thai merchant really
wants to jack around with XML - he or she will probably want to use
affordable shrink-wrapped software), perhaps Duane and David can
demonstrate how these Bizcodes or UIDs could be used to make RosettaNet
(or OTA or S.W.I.F.T. XML) messages understandable within the context of
ebXML Core Components.

Hisanao Sugamata has already explained that, at least in Japan, they
don't have a problem with using XML tags in English, or at least the
Latin alphabet.  Though Mr. Sugamata can't speak for every other
non-European, I'm guessing that all serious business folks would likely
concur. Obviously, the Japanese want to maintain their models in their
own language, which will be entirely possible because the ebXML
Registry/Repository will certainly support UNICODE, and I would assume
modeling tools at least support UNICODE for the model.   This probably
is an absolute requirement, as the complex business requirements being
modeled would require writing in the language the business analysts are
fluent.

But the XML tags are necessarily comprised of a limited vocabulary of
semantic units, which, if one is familiar with the Latin alphabet, can
easily be memorized or equated to one's own language.   For that reason,
even the Americans and English - not known for their multi-lingual
facility - would probably be able to accommodate a limited tag
vocabulary in any one of the Dead White Man (a.k.a. Indo-European )
languages, preferably a Hellenic thinking Germanic or Romance vernacular
using the Latin alphabet. Fortunately, the BSR Semantic Components are
in English. If they had been in German or French, I might have been
forced to memorize "Postadresse" or "AdressePostale" instead of
"PostalAddress." But like Curt Arnold, I'd rather do that then be
presented with something like 208AA0C4-8612-4327-823C-784278F0D0BE.

Hence, we don't yet have to rule out basing tags on a limited vocabulary
like that held in the Basic Semantics Register.  This avoids the
inconvenience of the indirection required by the unintelligent UIDs and
BizCodes.  By unintelligent, I don't mean Duane's proposal is stupid,
but merely that the UID by itself gives me no hints as to meaning.  Even
if political correctness dictated that the BSR Semantic Components be
expressed in French, they would still be useful and somewhat
decipherable to English-speaking programmers who had to sully their
hands with XML. Unlike UCC/EAN UPCs, our vocabulary doesn't really have
to be simplified (by conversion to numeric IDs) to the point where it
can be bar-coded and scanned.

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
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+1 614 791-1600

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