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OASIS

standards, interoperability and conformance for XML

Mikula, Norbert H.

Norbert H. Mikula

Chief Technology Officer

DataChannel, Chief Technical Officer, OASIS,
Phone: +1 425 462 1999 600 108th Ave NE
Suite 900
Bellevue Washington 98007 USA email: norbert@datachannel.com web site: www.datachannel.com

Biography

Norbert Mikula - Mikula is responsible for directing DataChannel's efforts in the XML standards bodies as well as further advancing DataChannel's leadership in the arena of XML and Enterprise Information Portals. He developed one of the first XML parsers (NXP) and has been engaged in XML-related efforts since the early days of this standard. Currently, Mikula also serves as Chief Technical Officer on the board of directors of OASIS - the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. He is a member of the XML.org Steering Committee and he represents his company at the ebXML initiative. He is the author of numerous whitepapers and articles and has been a speaker and track-chair at a variety of national and international conferences and industry events. Mikula holds a "Diplom Ingenieur" degree in Applied Computer Science from the University of Klagenfurt in Austria.

XML opens the door for flexible publishing and information reuse and for collaborative distributed network computing over the Internet. But the rapid emergence of XML schemas and vocabularies presents new challenges. Issues of resource identification, classification, cataloging, conformance and delivery threaten to hinder XML reuse and interoperability.

That is why it is so important for the XML community to have an unbiased resource to track the issues, to provide a forum for discussing and addressing them and to advocate the development of industry- and world-wide XML standards.

Application standards begin with OASIS

OASIS ( http://www.oasis-open.org ) is a non-profit, international consortium dedicated solely to product-independent data and content interchange. OASIS provides neutral ground for fostering XML adoption and standardization.

OASIS has been providing open solutions for electronic data interchange since 1993. Dedicated from its inception to structured information standards, OASIS is the world's largest independent, vendor-neutral organization committed to the standardization of XML applications in electronic business. The primary mission of OASIS and its members is to identify and resolve interoperability issues that exist between XML applications and technologies.

OASIS strives to facilitate interoperability. The Consortium continually seeks to engender participation from across the industry, often bringing together competitors and overlapping standards bodies. Through open discussion and debate, OASIS reconciles sometimes opposing perspectives in order to create specifications that are representative of the industry as a whole, not of any one vendor or collection of vendors.

The technical work of OASIS

Members of OASIS advance XML interoperability through their work on Consortium technical committees. Frequently, OASIS members form new technical committees to address specific goals.

Over the course of the last months, OASIS has seen a tremendous influx of new ideas. Existing groups have finished their work and many new groups got started. A variety of deliverables have been produced which are readily available for download at the OASIS website. Updated Docbook DTDs, a specification for XML based tables markup, a registry and repository draft specification and an XML conformance test-suite (a result of OASIS' work with NIST), just to name a few.

At the Standards Update Session at the XML Europe Conference, the OASIS CTO will present the latest status of OASIS technical work, what has been achieved over the last few months and what new groups have been established. Too dynamic and fast paced is OASIS' standards work to put it down into a paper many weeks before the conference. That's why we are looking forward to seeing you at the Standards Update Session at the show to get a live update.

XML.ORG

OASIS hosts XML.ORG, an open community for advancing XML industry standardization. XML.ORG serves as a clearinghouse for XML specifications such as vocabularies, DTDs, schemas and namespaces. It provides effective, unbiased administration, forestalling unnecessary overlap, competition, confusion and duplication of effort while promoting the adoption of XML worldwide. Through XML.ORG, users learn about the standard, developers access resources, organizations publish their work and the XML community-at-large shares information and ideas, all in the open systems approach.

ebXML

ebXML is a joint initiative of the United Nations body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS to develop a technical framework that will enable XML to be used in a consistent manner for the exchange of all electronic business data. Industry groups and corporations around the world have joined to participate in the 18-month project. The success of ebXML will lower the barrier-of-entry to electronic business and facilitate trade, particularly with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developing nations.

OASIS membership

OASIS provides a membership structure that allows all interested parties to participate in XML specifications development. Individuals are welcome as full participants in the technical work of OASIS. Organizations join the Consortium as Sponsors or Contributors. Both categories of membership offer full participation in determining OASIS policies and procedures. Contributors are organizations whose primary interest is in the technical work of the consortium. Sponsors benefit from added visibility within in the market for their support and involvement in the consortium.

OASIS sponsors include Adobe Systems, Aerospatiale, AND-USA, Arbortext, Bentley Systems, Boeing, Bowstreet, Bridge, Chrystal Software, Cohesia, Commerce One, CommerceNet, CompTIA, Corel, DataChannel, DMSi, Documentum, Dun & Bradstreet, eCredit.com, Enigma, eXcelon, Extricity Software, GCA, Health Level Seven, IBM, InformIT, Informix, InterCAP, Interleaf, Interwoven, ISOGEN, ITEDO, JetForm, Keyfile, Mercator Software, Microsoft, NextPage, NII Enterprise Promotion Association, Nimble.com, NIST, Object Management Group (OMG), Open Applications Group, Pick Systems, POET Software, ProNet Technology Partners, Reed Technology, Reuters, Sabre, SAP, Sequoia Software, SoftQuad, Software AG, STEP, StreamServe, Sun Microsystems, Synthbank, Visa, Wavo, Webb Interactive Services, webMethods, Whitehill Technologies, Xerox, XMLSolutions and XyEnterprise.

Acknowledgements

The work of OASIS technical committees, depends on the volunteer contributions (time, effort) of its members. I would like to thank all the members of OASIS that are contributing to its undertakings and especially the chairpeople of TCs who continue to motivate the troops, collect feedback and drive things forward.


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