RE: What do people really expect from ebXML? - Is CC really a set ofLegos?

[Betty Harvey <ebxml@eccnet.eccnet.com>]

William:

	Truth be known - I have always disliked Legos.  Kids never
put them away, they are painful on bare feet, and they can destroy
a vacuum cleaner.  It may be better to use the analogy of cinder
blocks.  They are ugly, require cement to put them together but
they last for centuries with very little care.

	I have been working on a PHP, Apache, MySQL problem all
day so my mood isn't too great - so I apologize in advance if
it shows |-).

	I don't see what is so hard.  The problem seems relatively
easy to me.  For example, today I was ordering flowers for a friend
whose mother had died.  Every time you order something on-line,
individual or SME, it doesn't matter, you are required to fill
out the same information over and over again.  Why can't I send
them a VCard with the information they need.  The IETF had
developed an IETF DTD for VCard then rescinded it.  However,
I have included the VCard DTD, with modifications, in several
DTDs that I have developed for companies who are just establishing
their internet-based products. 

	When I have used Vcard, it is just a small component
of the bigger product.  For example, one DTD has over 900 
elements - (don't ask) but the VCard is just a very small
component.  However, it is a component that can be used
universally and consistently with everyone who understands
VCard.  

	In another DTD where where I included Vcard , we were 
using using GML (Geography Markup Language) and global
positioning data for scientist who were gathering live
environmental data from the field and transmitting it to
a local repository.

	My point is that ebXML does not know at this
juncture (elder Bush's word) how the core components will
be used because they are not aware of all the businesses
that will use them.  Yes, they are aware of the EDI world,
but remember that only 150,000 companies in North America
are using EDI and there are over 6 millions companies
(ducking to avoid arrows).

	If core components can establish building blocks
(legos or cinder blocks) that can be used universally, they
will have created a real benefit to global e-business.
Businesses do more than PO's.  I have been in business
6 years and have created 1 PO and have received 2 so
a PO is not big on my list of wants.  Let's face it
PO's are easy - contracts are not!   Including the capability
to create a PO from inside an IETM (Interactive Electronic
Technical Manual) is not!  It is the building blocks that
will facilitate the PO from an IETM (don't you love acronyms)
and ebusines.

	Core components should be one of the building blocks
(not all) for establishing the capability for doing global
ecommerce.  Core components, by themselves, will never equal
a whole!  ebXML and myself cannot envision how core components
will be used if they are created correctly, successfully and
easy to use, organizations will go elsewhere.   "Field of
Dreams" the voice said "if you build it they will come".  If Keven
Costner has built a swimming pool instead of a baseball field 
they would have stayed in the corn field!

Betty

	
	

On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, William J. Kammerer wrote:

> I just got through checking out my daughter's room to see if she picked
> it up, and something in it reminded me of Eija Aspelin's and Betty
> Harvey's analogy of reusable core components to Lego blocks.  Well,
> specifically, it *was* Lego blocks.  All over the floor.  In shoe boxes.
> On the bed.
> 
> Unless you have a tremendous amount of creativity or time, it's nigh
> impossible to come up with something interesting or useful (well,
> anything my little precious makes is interesting and useful) from these
> "core components."  The cute little bunny pushing the vegetable cart she
> got for Easter has disintegrated into individual Legos - and without the
> picture on the original package, never to be recombined again.  Entropy
> in action.
> 
> Folks will not easily be able to design messages from core components
> without the use of templates or patterns.  Most professional programmers
> have a really tough time taking objects and making them work together in
> a program, so I suspect building intelligible messages from the ground
> up using core components will be a formidable task.
> 
> So be prepared to devise the scaffolding (i.e., message structure) for
> core components.  In other words, I predict we're going to end up with
> POs, Invoices, Shipment Advices, etc.
> 
> William J. Kammerer
> FORESIGHT Corp.
> 4950 Blazer Pkwy.
> Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
> +1 614 791-1600
> 
> Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
> "accelerating time-to-trade"
> 
> 
> 
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