I'm pleased to report that OASIS and UBL have been taken note of
at a very high level in the international standards community.
On 8 and 9 November I was privileged to attend, at the invitation
of the UN/ECE Secretariat, the Sixth Meeting of the ISO IEC ITU
UN/ECE Memorandum of Understanding Electronic Business Management
Group. The MoU/MG is responsible for coordinating the work
relating to electronic commerce of the bodies responsible for
standards under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
After hearing a report on the progress of UBL, the MoU/MG passed
the following resolution:
The MoU/MG resolves that the Universal Business Language (UBL)
development by OASIS be maintained on the agenda of the MoU/MG
so as to follow up on the development and progress of work and
to monitor coordination issues. The MoU/MG thanks Mr. Bosak
Chair of the UBL TC of OASIS for his presentation.
So UBL is now officially on the agenda of the MoU/MG, and I will
be giving the MoU/MG another report on our progress when it meets
11 March 2002 in Geneva.
The MoU/MG also resolved as follows:
The MoU/MG recognises that the OASIS consortium qualifies as a
Participating User Group under clause 1.4 of the MoU, and
resolves that they should be invited to join the MoU/MG. The
MoU/MG requests OASIS and the Secretariat to prepare the
necessary register entry for signature by the MoU signatories.
In short, OASIS has been invited to join the group that
coordinates the world's electronic commerce standards. This is a
big step up for OASIS and for the UBL effort.
Jon