[ebxml-iic-interop] Interoperability initiatives

All:

 

Forwarding to you a mail from Pim van der Eijk 
(OASIS),

on 
recent initiatives in Europe about ebXML interoperability,

from 
CEN-ISSS.

(Steve 
Yung and Matt have already mentioned this initiative.)

If 
anyone intends to attend the kick-off meeting in Brussels (Sept 
25),

please 
let me know.

 

Clearly, the IIC has a pivotal role to play here, as there is a 
need

to 
synchronize with other initiatives such as UCC/DGI, as well as ECOM in 
Asia

that 
we formally contacted recently.

I 
believe the work we are doing on (1) deployment 
guidelines, (2) basic interoperability profiles,

is 
critical in positioning IIC for this role.

We'll 
discuss this in on-coming conference calls, although our immediate focus is 
still

on 
finalizing our test suites. As you can see, the demand is 
there...

 

A 
conference call is in the planning for the week of Sept 9th (unlike what the 
email says below)

Those 
interested to attend will let me know.

 

 

Regards,

 

Jacques

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Jacques, 

I am contacting you in relation to two initiatives related to 
the 
work you are doing in the ebXML IIC TC. 

First of all, as you may have read on the ebXML list, CEN ISSS 

eBES is starting an ebXML interoperability pilot in 
Europe, 
mainly aiming at some of the European e-business 
vendors, but 
open to any organization that operates in 
Europe.  The initiative 
aims at accelerating the 
migration to ebXML and aims to develop a 
demonstrator 
that shows how organizations can exchange business 
information using interoperable implementations of the ebXML 

messaging specification.  OASIS has endorsed this 
initiative, 
and I will provide some support to the 
project: 

http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-dev/200207/msg00045.html 

Clearly, the open invitation to join this project also applies 
to 
the members of the IIC committee.  

The relation of this project to the IIC TC will minimally be 

that the participants in this project will consume and 
apply 
the guideline documents that you are currently 
working on. 
There will also be some overlap in 
participating companies, 
which will provide an informal 
liaison between the two groups.  

At this point I am interested to hear your opinion on whether 

you would like to establish a more formal relation with 
this 
initiative, and whether you would like me to make 
the relevant 
introductions for you. Any thoughts you 
have on this are 
wellcome. 

You or another representative of the TC are also wellcome to 

attend the kick-off meeting in September if you want to 
make 
personal contacts with people involved in that 
initiative and 
discuss any synergies. 

It is not yet planned whether this initiative will produce any 

technical deliverables itself, although I expect it to 
address 
interoperability aspects of transporting EDIFACT 
over ebMS, to 
support EDI systems that adopt the ebXML 
infrastructure but use 
existing payload 
formats.   That might be useful as a "template" 
like the one EAN and RosettaNet are working on, at which time 

it makes sense for (some of) the participants in this 
initiative 
to join your TC directly, either as 
individual members or as a 
sub-committee operating in 
Europe.  But it is too early to say 
anything 
specific on this. 

A second interoperability initiative is an ongoing project 

started by e-Centre, which is EAN's member organization 
in the 
UK. This project pre-dates EAN International's 
decision to join 
forces with the OASIS IIC 
TC.   They have a number of vendors 
working in 
a joint project to implement a scenario where EAN XML 
content is exchanged using ebMS.  One of the benefits to 
these 
vendors is visibility as provider of solutions to 
the EAN and 
general e-business communities, which may be 
increased if this 
work could be brought into OASIS. 
Although EAN is interested 
in the CEN ISSS eBES project 
and may participate in some way 
in it (e.g. by providing 
business cases or scenarios), EAN are an 
international 
organization so they would prefer to work in 
another 
international forum. 

One issue that we would like to address is what the 
relation 
between their project and the ongoing IIC TC 
would be.  There 
are various options, which Bolivar 
Pereira (EAN) and I would 
like to hear your thoughts 
about.  Perhaps we could have a 
telephone 
conference with you on this?  Suggested dates are 
28/08, thu 29/08, wed 04/09, thu 05/09.  Also attending would 

be Justin Webster of e-Centre and perhaps some of my US 
OASIS 
colleagues. 

Kind regards, 

Pim van der Eijk