[ubl-comment] Fwd: Re: UBL and CEFACT

Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 23:48:30
-0800

To: "Kenji Itoh" <>

From: James Bryce Clark <>

Subject: Re:  UBL and CEFACT

Cc: , ,
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Kenji, thank you very much for your comments.   It is my hope
that the UBL and CEFACT representatives present in Geneva will be able to
work out a way to present and pursue their efforts as complementary and
unified.   I have two primary concerns.

First, the window of opportunity for obtaining industry and user support
for ebXML or any other web services schema is this year.  Another
year of continued divergent efforts, in appearance or reality, will
impair our ability to promote a unified nonproprietary eBusiness
solution.   

Second, the actual technical differences between the two approaches are
not great.   If put into the same room, I believe the authors
and experts would be able to resolve issues and forge consensual
answers.  By continuing to develop in parallel, we are encouraging
differing opinions to avoid reconciliation.  In my view we have
still failed to bring together the different opinions about modeling and
implementation that were raised in Tokyo in 2000.  Both viewpoints
have merit:  our project is unlikely to thrive unless we have
both forward compatibility with fully-modeled, object-valid
systems as well as smooth backwards compatibility with simple
deployment of document-based messages such as the EDIFACT set. 

Ray, Klaus and I did discuss the overlapping work issues with the ebXML
Joint Coordinating Committee on several occasions.  I believe that
OASIS continues to be committed to ebXML, but the May 2001 MoU with
CEFACT is not very clear or helpful in defining the relationship, and
OASIS does not believe that it has much ability to constrain or limit the
actions of its various committees.  I am confident that OASIS will
cooperate with whatever resolution the UBL TC itself reaches.  We
felt the best approach was to take up the issue directly with the UBL
team and its leadership. 

I am hopeful that the discussions this week will result in joint work
rather than continued parallel tracks.

Best regards    Jamie Clark

~ James Bryce Clark

~ American Bar Association Business Law Subcommittee on E-Commerce

~ 
www.abanet.org/buslaw/cyber/ecommerce/ecommerce.html

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