[ebxml-dev] OASIS ebXML Registry TC Approves Updated Specs

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

OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee Approves Updated Specs

Consortium Membership to Vote on OASIS Standards

Boston, MA, USA; 30 January 2002 -- The OASIS ebXML Registry Technical
Committee announced its approval of the ebXML Registry Services
Specification v2.0 and the ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0. Both
are updated versions of specifications originally developed under the
ebXML Initiative, jointly sponsored by OASIS and the United Nations
Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). The
new versions of the specifications have advanced under the OASIS
technical process and have been submitted to the OASIS membership
at-large for consideration as OASIS Standards.  The OASIS membership
will vote on the ebXML Registry specifications in April 2002.

The use of registries facilitates business-to-business and
intra-enterprise transactions by enabling a manageable method of
discovering and connecting with partners, and exchanging business data.
ebXML Registry specifications provide a set of services that allow
information to be shared between interested parties, enabling
prospective trading partners to find one another and conduct business.
The shared information, which may include company profiles as well as
industry-specific messages, vocabularies and other data, is maintained
as objects in a repository and managed by the ebXML Registry Services,
defined in the new versions of the specifications.

"The goal of our technical committee at OASIS has been to communicate
the functionality of ebXML Registry Services to software developers and
specify the interface for Registry clients," explained Kathryn
Breininger of Boeing, chair of the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical
Committee. "We wanted to provide a basis for future support of more
complete ebXML Registry requirements."

In addition to defining the interface to the ebXML Registry Services,
the ebXML Registry Services Specification also identifies message
definitions and XML schema. A separate document, the ebXML Registry
Information Model, provides information on the types of metadata that
are stored in the registry as well as the relationships among the
various metadata classes.

Karl Best, director of technical operations at OASIS, emphasized that
the revised ebXML Registry specifications were designed to be compatible
with other ebXML specifications. "ebXML is a modular suite of
specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any
geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. In addition
to the defining and registering business processes through an ebXML
Registry, other ebXML specifications provide companies with a standard
method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, and
communicate data in common terms."

The two revised specifications have been approved by the members of the
OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee, which include Boeing, Fujitsu,
IONA, Logistics Management Institute, NIST, Sterling Commerce, Sun
Microsystems, Vitria Technology, webMethods, and others. The
specifications are now under review by the entire membership of OASIS;
voting on OASIS Standards will be held in April 2002.

About OASIS
OASIS (www.oasis-open.org), a not-for-profit, global consortium, drives
the development, convergence and adoption of e-business standards.
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 has more than 400 corporate and individual members in 100
countries around the world. OASIS and the United Nations jointly sponsor
ebXML, a global framework for e-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.


For more information:
Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS www.oasis-open.org
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209