FW: [announce] Members Approve Election Markup Language (EML) as OASIS Standard

All,

 

Please see message from Carol, press release at:

 

http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-06-02-13.php

 

Regards,

Siobhan

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Carol Geyer [mailto:] 

Sent: 13 February 2006 15:45

To: Siobhan Donaghy

Subject: FW: [announce] Members Approve Election Markup Language (EML) as OASIS
Standard

Importance: High

 

Sioban,

Could you please send this message to the OASIS
E&VS TC members for me?

Thanks,

Carol

 

 

OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee Members:

 

The following press release was issued this morning
and is posted at http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-06-02-13.php. Your

help in raising awareness of this exciting news would
be most appreciated. Please consider:

 

*linking to this release from your organization's web
site

 

*translating this press release into another language
(notify me so OASIS can post or link to your translation)

 

*distributing the announcement to appropriate email
lists, forums, etc.

 

*issuing a press release from your organization in
support of EML and your participation in its development

 

*sending me links to any EML press coverage you see,
so we can add to the Committee's Press page

(http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/press.php)

 

 

With congratulations and thanks,

 

Carol

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Carol Geyer [mailto:] 

Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 8:06 AM

To: 

Subject: [announce] Members Approve Election Markup
Language (EML) as OASIS Standard

Importance: High

 

Members Approve Election Markup Language (EML) as
OASIS Standard

 

Boston, MA, USA; 13 February 2006 -- OASIS, the international standards consortium,
today announced that its members have approved

the Election Markup Language (EML) version 1.0 as an
OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification.

Developed through an open process by the OASIS
Election and Voter Services Technical Committee, EML enables the secure
interchange

of information between electronic voting systems,
software, and services. 

 

"EML provides a high-level overview of the
processes within an electronic voting system and XML schemas for the various
data

interchange points between the e-voting
processes," explained John Borras, out-going chair of the OASIS Election
and Voter Services

Committee. "It describes the data requirements of
the flows between electronic voting processes and addresses security issues

relating to the exchange of data."

 

Services addressed by EML include new voter
registration, membership and dues collection, change of address tracking,
redistribution

of electoral boundaries, requests for
absentee/expatriate ballots, election timetabling, polling place management,
election

notification and administration, ballot delivery and
vote counting, and election results reporting and analysis. 

 

"The increase in the use of electronic voting
techniques around the world has resulted in an explosion of products and
suppliers

addressing this market," said Siobhan Donaghy of
OPT2VOTE Ltd, secretary for the OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee.
"EML

provides the needed assurance that all these products
can work to the same standard." 

 

EML has been developed following work over several
years by key representatives from IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and other

suppliers in collaboration with international
government agencies across many countries. These organizations came together to

develop a robust and reliable standard that would
provide a secure approach and sustain voter confidence in voting practices. 

 

"EML is designed to benefit public officials who
oversee voting in local or national elections and referendums, as well as those
who

conduct private elections within corporations or other
organizations. Suppliers of electronic voting systems profit from EML by

reducing their development costs," noted Patrick
Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Of course ultimately, it's the voters
who

stand to gain the most from this standard. The added
reliability that comes from using common data elements in a consistent manner

provides more security and reduces costs in the
election process, which is a bottom-line benefit that has the potential to touch
us

all."

 

The OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee
remains open to new participation. Those interested in implementing EML are

encouraged to exchange information via the public
eml-dev mailing list (http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/). As with all
Consortium

projects, archives of the OASIS Election and Voter
Services Committee's work are accessible to both members and non-members, and

OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment on
the standard.

 

 

About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that

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. The consortium produces

open standards for Web services, security, e-business,
and standardization efforts in the public sector and for application-specific

markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000
participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100

countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, CAP,
DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML Registry, EML,

OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM,
WS-Reliability, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs.

http://www.oasis-open.org

 

 

Additional information:

 

OASIS Election and Voter Services Technical Committee:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election

 

EML FAQ: 

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/faq.php

 

Cover Pages Technology Report: 

http://xml.coverpages.org/eml.html

 

 

Press contact:

 

Carol Geyer

Director of Communications

OASIS



+1.978.667.5115 x209