RE: Jon Bosak's suggestion that xCBL be adopted as the ebXMLBusinessDocument framework

[Todd Boyle <tboyle@rosehill.net>]

William J. Kammerer said, March 30, 2001

> I've heard nary a reaction to Jon Bosak's suggestion that xCBL be
> adopted as the ebXML Business Document framework.  Bosak - the "Father
> of XML" - made this proposal at the UN/CEFACT EWG in Washington, DC
> (well, actually, McLean, VA) last week. Or, at least, I could swear
> that's what I heard and saw Bosak present.  I do have a rich imagination
> which may have led me astray.  If I could get hold of his slides, that
> might prove that I am not making all this up.
> 
> Is the silence due to 1) shock, 2) Jon Bosak is regularly ignored, or 3)
> ebXML is going to handle this in secret sessions?  What impact would
> this have on the Core Components work to date, if any?

William, once again, heartfelt thanks for your post, which has 
resulted in such a useful and informative thread.  Your posts
are invaluable.

Please search your imagination for other imaginary things that 
were discussed at EWG/X12!  :-)

I'm most interested in EWG/X12 because the definion of CCmps 
seems to have migrated there.  I'm looking for the 1st tier
or stairstep of core components: static core components whose 
meanings never change, that can be used *immediately* by small 
business, as compared with the 2nd tier of context-sensitive 
vocabulary which will take longer, require RegRep and BSI's, etc.

Personally, I would be thrilled if UN/CEFACT adopted xCBL as 
the beginning of a new vocabulary.  What a breath of fresh air
that would be, for SMEs.  Sorry if xCBL isn't perfect.  We don't
need perfection--we need common vocabulary *fast*, rather than
perfect.  And xCBL is way better than certain other XML vocabularies,
which I won't mention.  If "professional modelers" are too slow,
their gold plated designs may become moot, like X500 email or SGML.

Two things immediately needed however.

1.  the owners of xCBL might have to agree to release it, which 
      is unclear, and

2.  xCBL lacks any GL schema, which raises questions what other
      basic infrastructure is lacking for A2A integration. 

SMEs are going to use hosted apps to execute transactions.  It is 
not trivial, to consolidate the dealings from among multiple hosted
apps.  You need a consolidated view of the balance sheet, cash
flow, AR, AP, and sometimes inventory. Otherwise only the giant
monolithic services providers like MS, Intuit, etc. can play,

Todd