OASIS, the Organization
for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, Wednesday unveiled XML.ORG, a global XML industry
portal operated by a non-profit corporation and devoted to open
information exchange.
Central to XML.ORG will be an open industry XML
registry and repository offering automated public access to XML
schemas. The registry/repository aims to help enable the use of
industry-defined XML applications for electronic commerce,
business-to-business transactions, and tools and application
interoperability.
As XML becomes a key data interchange format on the Web, XML.ORG aims
to provide access to industry-specific XML specifications, as well as
assistance in designing these specifications. XML.ORG hopes to provide
information on XML interoperability in five areas.
- XML.ORG will provide a registry and repository for the access and
management of XML schemas and other public resources (DTDs, namespaces,
stylesheets, public key certificates, etc.). Through XML.ORG, industry
groups will be able to register their XML data exchange specifications,
individuals will be able to look for specifications in their areas of
interest, and applications will be able to access XML resources needed
when acting on an XML document.
- The XML.ORG site will implement an architecture employing existing
and emerging standards for XML registry/repositories allowing vendors to
create interoperable versions of the registry.
- XML.ORG will serve as an information portal for the work of
OASIS-hosted industry groups defining and extending domain-oriented XML
specifications for industries that lack XML expertise or the ability to
support and refine these specifications on an ongoing basis. Any OASIS
participant may propose the formation of a working group to define or
extend an OASIS-hosted industry standardization effort.
- XML.ORG will provide a public source for interoperability
guidelines to ensure that XML can provide for the open exchange of
structured data. This work extends an ongoing OASIS technical initiative
to ensure XML conformance in cooperation with the U. S. National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
- XML.ORG will provide a public source for XML educational and
training materials developed by OASIS. Initially, XML.ORG will provide
basic resources to the XML community such as Robin Cover’s SGML/XML
pages, details of various industry schema efforts, free XML software, a
link to IBM’s xCentral XML search engine, news and education relevant to
the XML community.
As it evolves, XML.ORG hopes to become the reference portal for
XML developers, pointing them to available schemas and other XML
industry specifications. Through the site, XML developers will be
able to search for existing specifications used in their
industry and to monitor the work of groups designing
specifications for their particular market niche.
When the
registry/repository becomes fully functional later this year, the
portal will serve as a mechanism for the automatic resolution of DTD,
schema, and stylesheet references, providing an invaluable resource
for XML-based e-commerce and serving as a model for the distribution
of such services.
