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Subject: Re: UN/CEFACT response to UBL
Hello UN/CEFACT UBL Discussion Team,
The team appointed by the UBL TC to negotiate the proposed
transition of UBL from OASIS to CEFACT met Thursday morning to
prepare for discussion of this matter at our upcoming UBL TC
meeting in Montreal. As chance would have it, the timing of this
meeting allowed us to very briefly consider and discuss the mail
received from Margaret Pemberton via Klaus-Dieter Naujok a few
hours before the call. Thus I have been authorized to transmit
this response in time (we hope) for your consideration this week.
Discussion centered around this passage from Margaret's message,
which is copied in full below:
UN/CEFACT is looking forward to finalize this effort and would
like to meet the timing as specified in paragraph #1 of the
proposal below. Therefore, could OASIS/UBL confirm that they
are also able to meet the target date (15 September 2003)
We regret to state that several factors will prevent us from
meeting the targets we were forecasting 26 November 2002 when we
first made this proposal. Chief among these factors are the
following:
- At the April/May TC meeting in London, we inserted an
additional review cycle (0.8) this summer for the purpose of
gaining focused input from RosettaNet, OAG, and eGov
procurement experts. This cycle has added approximately three
months to our original estimates. Our revised timeline now
schedules release of UBL 1.0 from the TC into the OASIS
standardization process in mid-October 2003.
- It is increasingly likely that we will find it useful to
schedule another additional review period (call it 0.9) to test
certain design assumptions in real-world implementations before
finalizing 1.0. This has not yet been brought before the UBL
TC for discussion (we will be talking about this at our meeting
in Montreal beginning 28 July), but it is a real possibility.
Given the fixed timing of the OASIS standardization process, it
appears that the UN/CEFACT Forum meeting in March 2004 is a
more realistic target for the transition of UBL to CEFACT.
- Work scheduling aside, the delay of the CEFACT team in
responding to our proposal of April 2003 makes it impossible
for us and the UBL TC to consider the changes in wording you
have just proposed in time for any immediate action.
- The change just suggested for paragraph 5 of our April proposal
is especially problematic. Our proposed language was:
5. UBL shall be formally recognized as UN/CEFACT's preferred
document-centric XML syntax for business-to-business
electronic commerce.
Your proposed revision would read:
5. UBL shall be formally recognized as a UN/CEFACT preferred
document-centric XML syntax for business-to-business
electronic commerce.
This change clearly anticipates the existence of multiple
"UN/CEFACT preferred document-centric XML syntaxes." This
seems to misunderstand the whole point of the UBL effort, which
is to define a single international standard document-centric
XML B2B syntax. As we have stated before, we accept the very
useful distinction between document-centric and process-centric
XML B2B syntaxes. But we fail to see any advantage in the
definition of more than one such syntax as the basis for XML
business documents. Furthermore, it seems to us that the
existence of multiple document-based syntaxes will make the
future task of integrating the document-centric and
process-centric approaches virtually impossible.
At the very least, we need time to consider the ramifications
of the changes you have just proposed and to prepare
counter-proposals of our own.
- Finally, reports of statements made by key ATG members at the
recent meeting in Walldorf regarding the placement and function
of UBL in ATG need to be discussed and understood by the
negotiation team and the UBL TC before we can continue progress
in the direction of a transition of the work to ATG. We have
scheduled talks in Montreal for this purpose.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, we believe that a
reasonable timeline (assuming that we can resolve the remaining
issues, and taking into account the OASIS standardization process)
would have everything in place for a transition of the UBL
committees into ATG by the March UN/CEFACT Forum meeting in
Barcelona following a co-located UBL/ATG meeting in Wollongong in
January.
Best regards,
Jon Bosak
Chair, OASIS UBL TC
==================================================================
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 14:48:09 +0200
Subject: Re: [ubl-cefact] UN/CEFACT response to UBL
Cc: raywalker@attglobal.net, [email protected], [email protected],
mcrawford@lmi.org, [email protected], [email protected],
stk@finansraadet.dk, [email protected], [email protected],
Sue.Probert@commerceone.com, [email protected]
To: jon.bosak@sun.com
From: Klaus-Dieter Naujok <klaus@naujok.name>
Jon,
The message below was sent almost an hour ago to the list. However,
none of us got a copy back. Therefore, I am sending this out to the
list members suing their individual email addresses.
Regards,
Klaus
Begin forwarded message:
All,
In preparation for the OASIS/UBL discussion today, we are forwarding
you the updated proposal for confirmation, It is our understanding that
this version more clearly articulates the agreements that were reached
during the discussions between Jon Bosak, Mark Crawford and Ray Walker
in London. UN/CEFACT is happy and anxious to finalize this agreement
so that we can jointly publicize the consolidation of our activities.
It is critical that we move expeditiously, as the UN/CEFACT meeting in
Seoul is rapidly approaching. UN/CEFACT is looking forward to
finalize this effort and would like to meet the timing as specified in
paragraph #1 of the proposal below. Therefore, could OASIS/UBL confirm
that they are also able to meet the target date (15 September 2003)
Best Regards,
Margaret Pemberton
UNCEFACT/ ATG Chair; on behalf of the UN/CEFACT UBL Discussion Team
Revised Plan for Transfer of UBL to UN/CEFACT
13 March 2003; minor revision 17 May 2003
<new>Minor revision's 17 July to Paragraph 4 & 5:</new>
1. The development of UBL Naming and Design Rules and UBL Library
Content shall continue in the current OASIS organizational
structure until completion and OASIS standardization of Version
1.0 of the following items of work: the UBL Naming and Design
Rules, the UBL component library, and an initial set of UBL
document schemas. Completion of these work items is expected
in 2Q2003 and OASIS standardization is expected in 3Q2003. It
shall be the plan of the the OASIS UBL TC to complete these
items in time to become ATG items of work at the meeting of the
UN/CEFACT Forum in September 2003.
2. The UBL TC shall recommend to OASIS the creation of one or more
short-term mailing lists for the direct input of comments from
members of UN/CEFACT into the work of the UBL 1.0
specification. Interested UN/CEFACT members shall be invited
to participate informally in UBL TC and technical subcommittee
meetings. Input from UN/CEFACT members shall be given
consideration to the fullest extent possible within the limits
of UBL's current schedule, scope, and business requirements.
3. Upon completion of the initial set of deliverables and their
publication as OASIS standards, OASIS shall grant UN/CEFACT an
unlimited, perpetual, royalty-free license to continue
development of the standards and to publish works derived from
those standards as UN/CEFACT specifications.
4. Ownership of the UBL name and logo as applied to version 1.0
shall remain with OASIS; ownership of the UBL name and logo as
applied to later versions of the work shall vest in UN/CEFACT.
OASIS shall continue to distribute UBL 1.0 without charge to
users but shall discontinue further development of the
standard. UN/CEFACT shall publish future versions of UBL
without charge to users. If UN/CEFACT fails to <new> progress
work on progress work on UBL activities</new> <delete> publish a
version of UBL</delete> as a UN-sanctioned standard within one year
of
the date on which this agreement takes effect, or if UN/CEFACT
at any future time transfers development of UBL to some third
party or terminates its continuing development and maintenance
of UBL as a freely available standard, then OASIS shall have
the right to resume further development of UBL using the UBL
name and logo.
5. UBL shall be formally recognized as <new>a </new> UN/CEFACT
<delete>'s</delete> preferred
document-centric XML syntax for business-to-business electronic
commerce.
6. The OASIS UBL subcommittees shall transfer to UN/CEFACT as UBL
subcommittees of ATG chartered to continue development of
UN/CEFACT's document-centric XML syntax for
business-to-business electronic commerce.
7. This plan shall become effective when approved by UN/CEFACT,
OASIS, and the OASIS UBL Technical Committee.
--
Klaus-Dieter Naujok UN/CEFACT/TMG Chair
Global e-Business Advisory Council Principal Advisor
Business Web Site www.ge-bac.com
Personal Web Site www.klaus.naujok.name
TMG Web Site http://webster.disa.org/cefact-groups/tmg
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