Re: ebXML for the SME

[Dan Weinreb <dlw@exceloncorp.com>]

   From: "Rachel Foerster" <rachelf@ix.netcom.com>
   To: <ebxml-dev@lists.ebxml.org>

   > "Perhaps the most far-reaching project in Raikes' group could be thought of
   > as the business equivalent of the human genome project. Norm Judah, a vice
   > president who once managed Microsoft's computer infrastructure, leads a team
   > that is trying to develop a schematic of every conceivable activity and
   > interaction that any business might require, both internally and with
   > customers and suppliers. 

   > Though Judah's project is still a long way from completion, his boss, David
   > Vaskevitch, sees it as the linchpin in Microsoft's strategy to lead the next
   > transformation of IT.

It is ironic that Vaskevitch should be advocating a strategy of
"developing a schematic of every conceivable activity and interaction
that any business might require".  In Vaskevitch's book "Client/Server
Strategies", he devotes extensive space to explaining why "building a
complete data model that represents all information used by an entire
large corporation is very hard, maybe even impossible" (see Chapter
9).  If it's so hard to model data within a single company, how hard
might it be to model "every conceivable activity and interaction"
between not just mahy companies within an industry but even across all
industries?