[ebxml-dev] RE: [EDI-L] Article on ebXML Core Components ...

[James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@mmiec.com>]

At 07:17 PM 4/19/02, Rachel Foerster wrote:
>Quite frankly, if the work of CC is valid, solves problems of today and 
>tomorrow, and the marketplace accepts it, it will stand on its own. If it 
>doesn't, all the defensive comments from current/past co-chairs and other 
>CC work groups won't mean a thing.
>
>[If] it's what the industry wants, needs and accepts, it doesn't need a 
>defense.

Hello Rachel --
     I agree entirely with your statement that market forces, not 
self-justifying statements for change or for stasis, will determine the 
dominance of e-commerce channels.
     Our ebXML plans for open, fully automated, modelled systems must look 
like a bad re-make of "Field of Dreams" or "The Absent-Minded Professor" to 
folks with 15 years firmly rooted in document-centric EDI.
     On the other hand, I've heard that the early authors of X12 healthcare 
transactions were told they would never fly, either.   Twelve years later, 
it looks like their work led to something after all.
     Ultimately, adoption will prove who's right.   My bet is that 
marketmakers in larger supply chains will pressure e-commerce to evolve 
beyond logically separate one-off transaction documents.  It's already 
happening.  That's why RosettaNet is so successful in its vertical.   It 
offered an moderate evolutionary jump beyond X12/EDIFACT, and their trading 
partner community jumped.   My guess is there will be more jumps, soon.
     Just my personal views.   Warm regards   Jamie Clark

~ James Bryce Clark
~ VP and General Counsel, McLure-Moynihan Inc.
~ Chair, ABA Business Law Subcommittee on Electronic Commerce
~ 1 818 597 9475   jamie.clark@mmiec.com
~ This message is neither legal advice nor a binding signature.  Ask me why.