[ebxml-dev] OASIS Members to Develop Universal Business Language

[Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop Universal Business
Language

Companies Unite on International Standard for XML-Based Electronic
Business Documents

Boston, MA, USA; 17 October 2001 -- OASIS, the XML interoperability
consortium, today announced its members have formed the OASIS Universal
Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee to define a common XML
business document library. UBL will provide a set of XML building blocks
and a framework that will enable trading partners to unambiguously
identify and exchange business documents in specific contexts. Uniting
disparate efforts underway by companies and standards groups around the
world, the OASIS UBL Technical Committee intends to enhance and
harmonize overlapping XML business libraries and similar technologies to
advance consensus on an international standard.

"Agreement on a common set of XML business-to-business document
standards is essential for successful electronic commerce," said Jon
Bosak of Sun Microsystems, chair of the OASIS UBL Technical Committee
and organizer of the working group that created XML. "Our goal in
creating UBL is to quickly develop a synthesis of existing XML business
libraries using the OASIS open collaborative process."

"Anything that supports convergence and reusability of the wildly
proliferating -MLs in every business domain is absolutely
critical to realizing XML's promise," said Rita Knox, analyst, Gartner.
"Custom XML-defined transactions in every
line of business perpetuates proprietary solutions. Vocabulary-level
clearinghouses and repositories are essential to interoperability and an
approach end-users are beginning to understand and are ready to adopt
and support."

"Commerce One is pleased to submit xCBL 3.0, our XML component and
business document library, to the OASIS UBL Technical Committee as a
starting point for this work," said Dr. Mary Loomis, Senior VP of
Engineering. "Our company vision and products have always been based on
open XML specifications to enable interoperability between business
services and B2B marketplaces. Since xCBL's inception in 1998 we have
granted royalty-free licenses to anyone who wants to use it and will
make this submittal to the OASIS UBL TC royalty-free also. We are
confident that OASIS is the appropriate place to advance the UBL
standard, because of the consortium's broad industry representation and
international focus."

Karl Best, director of technical operations for OASIS, emphasized, "The
consortium urges all organizations that have developed XML business
documents to join this important effort. Our aim is to encourage the
widest possible range of participation in UBL."

Initial members of the OASIS Universal Business Language Technical
Committee include Arbortext, Boeing, Commerce One, SAP, SoftQuad
Software, Sun Microsystems, VerticalNet, Vitria, XML Global and other
OASIS Contributors and Individual members. Information on joining OASIS
can be found on http://www.oasis-open.org/join.

OASIS will host an open mail list, ubl-comment@lists.oasis-open.org, for
public comment on UBL. Completed work will be freely available to the
public without licensing or other fees.

Industry Support for UBL

"Sun is very supportive of the Universal Business Language (UBL) being
developed at OASIS," said Bill Smith, Director, XML Technology Center,
Sun Microsystems. "UBL will provide a much needed set of common XML
based semantics for business communications. We see this work as a
complementary and very important component of the XML standards
framework being defined by the industry now for electronic business."

"We are pleased to be a part of the Oasis UBL initiative," said Hugo
Daley, Vice President of Technology Strategy for Verticalnet. "As a
premier provider of software for business process visibility and event
management across enterprise networks, Verticalnet is committed to
advancing open standards that promote business interoperability. The
success of UBL should radically reduce the cost of deploying our next
generation software for extended enterprise management."

“XML Global is a committed and active supporter of the OASIS UBL
initiative," said Duane Nickull, CTO of XML Global Technologies, Inc.
"With our company’s leading edge ebXML work, and experience with
registries and business component taxonomies, I am pleased to be able to
offer my services and insights to the UBL TC with the objective of
seeing this initiative evolve into a workable and effective business
solution.”


About OASIS

OASIS is the XML interoperability consortium, advancing collaboration,
convergence and adoption of open specifications for structured
information exchange. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda,
using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry
consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS is the home for XML
conformance, web services, security, business transactions, electronic
publishing, topic maps and other interoperability specifications
development.

OASIS and the United Nations jointly sponsor ebXML, a global framework
for electronic business data exchange. OASIS operates XML.org, a
community clearinghouse for XML application schemas, vocabularies and
related documents. OASIS hosts The XML Cover Pages, an online reference
collection for interoperable markup language standards.

OASIS has more than 400 corporate and individual members in 100
countries around the world. OASIS sponsors include Accenture, Access360,
Adobe Systems, Agital, Airbus, Altova, Arbortext, Auto-trol, Aventail,
Baltimore Technologies, B-Bop Associates, BEA Systems, Bentley Systems,
The Boeing Company, Bowstreet, Business Logic Corporation, Chrystal
Software, Cincom Systems, Citrix Systems, Cohesia, Commerce One,
Critical Path, CrossLogix, Cyclone Commerce, DataChannel, Dataloom,
Deutsche Post AG, Documentum, election.com, empolis, Engage, Enigma,
Epicentric, Excelergy, eXcelon, Extricity Software, Fujitsu,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Identrus, Informix, Infoteria, Innodata, Intel,
Interwoven, IONA, IPNet Solutions, ITEDO Software, Ivis Group,
Jamcracker, Logistics Management Institute, Mediaplex, Mercator
Software, Microsoft, Neocore, Netegrity, Netscape/AOL, NextPage, NII
Enterprise Promotion Association, Nimble Technology, NIST, Novell,
ObjectSpace, Oblix, OpenNetwork Technologies, Oracle, Pearson Education,
Popkin Software, Republica, Reuters Limited, SAA Consultants, Sabre,
SAP, Securant, SeeBeyond, Silverstream, SoftQuad Software, Software AG,
Sterling Commerce, StreamServe, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Tata
Consultancy Services, The Tamalpais Group, Thomas Technology Solutions,
Tibco, Unisys, US Defense Information Systems Agency, VerticalNet,
Virtual Access Networks, Vitria, webMethods, Whitehill Technologies,
Xerox, XML Global, XMLSolutions and Xyvision Enterprise Solutions.


____________________________________________
Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
Tel: +1 978.667.5115 x209


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