Re: Message Service Specification Version 0.91

["William J. Kammerer" <wkammerer@foresightcorp.com>]

The Message Service Specification for ebXML Transport, Routing &
Packaging, Version 0.91, continues to show the <PartyId> element, in
section 8.4.1 - From and To elements, at line 493 with an optional
"type" attribute.   If "type" is specified, then the trading partners
have to agree on what they mean by "type" - not unlike the old "ZZ" or
"ZZZ" placeholders (by mutual consent) in X12 and EDIFACT.  The only
alternative is to use a URI (implied by omission of the "type"
attribute).

We've gone around in circles with this before, but we'll either have to
use a URL (which could change at any time, as URLs are wont to do; e.g.,
yesterday http://www.delta.com/ belonged to a poacher, and you had to
use http://www.delta-air.com/.  Then they got  http://www.delta.com/),
or this thing called a URN.   But there are no URNs defined, except for
ONE lone namespace for the IETF - see
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/urn-namespaces.  So when is
Dun & Bradstreet going to rush out and register themselves a URN
namespace?  Don't hold your breath;  in the meantime, RosettaNet and
BizTalk are identifying the sender and receiver by D-U-N-S number.

The second URN namespace might be for ITU-T Rec. X.660 (ISO/IEC 9834-1)
object identifiers; see OID URN namespace...., at
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000Jun/0455.html, which
refers to a draft of "A URN Namespace of Object Identifiers," by M.
Mealling, the newest copy at ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc3001.txt.

If an OID points directly to a company, as in the case of the private
enterprise numbers referred to in Mealling's e-mail, then that may be an
adequate and unique PartyId, which is well-known and uniform enough to
be signed in a certificate extension (so that you know who is purporting
to be so-and-so, really is).  So
<PartyId>urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.6255</PartyId> really does uniquely point
to Commerce One (at least after the oid namespace is allocated).  This
is all fine and good, and you can even do addressing by D-U-N-S, as in

    <PartyId>urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.519.1.782501225</PartyId>,

which uniquely points to FORESIGHT Corp., using FORESIGHT's D-U-N-S
number. Alternatively, I could be found via the ISO 6523 ICD (0060) for
Dun and Bradstreet:

    <PartyId>urn:oid:1.3.60.782501225</PartyId>

A problem arises when I want to define the naming authority via an OID,
but want to refer to the ultimate ID within the <PartyId> element data,
as in the case when the ID contains alpha characters which are not
allowed in an ASN.1 OID (e.g., a four character alpha SCAC, a Canadian
Tax ID, or a SWIFT BIC).  Then I would want to use the "type" attribute
to specify the URN for the naming authority OID, as in

    <PartyId type="urn:oid:1.3.21">BONEUS33XXX</PartyId>

which points uniquely to BANK ONE COLUMBUS,N.A. via the SWIFT BIC,
registered as ICD 0021 with the BSI which maintains ISO 6523; see
http://www.alvestrand.no/objectid/1.3.html.

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
+1 614 791-1600

Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"