OASIS Signs Off on ebXML Messaging Service Spec

OASIS Thursday said it has put the
finishing touches on the ebXML Messaging Service Specification version 2.0
as the newest addition to the Boston-based e-business standard group’s
family.

Carved out by OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and
Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). The ebXML Messaging Service standard offers
a secure method for exchanging electronic business transactions over the
Internet. The core infrastructure specifications of ebXML are the messaging
service, the registry and repository, and the collaborative partner
agreement.

Just one measure of a suite of specifications that enables enterprises all
over the world to do e-business, ebXML Messaging Service v2 joins two other
specifications that were recently approved as OASIS Standards, including ebXML
Registry Service (RS) v2 and ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) v2,
which came to fruition in May.

ebXML Messaging Service v2 was developed by a mixture of major high-tech
firms, including Commerce One, Cyclone Commerce, eXcelon, Fujitsu, GE Global
Exchange, IBM, Intel, Mercator, SAP, SeeBeyond, Sonic Software, Sterling
Commerce, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, webMethods, and other OASIS Contributor
and Individual members.

As with all standards approve by OASIS, ebXML Messaging Service v2 was first
approved by its development team as an OASIS Committee Specification. After
being implemented by a minimum of three organizations, it was put through a
90-day open review before being voted upon and passed.

Ian Jones, chair of the OASIS ebXML Messaging Services Technical Committee,
said OASIS would be working with related groups such as the W3C to ensure synergy.

Brian Gibb, vice chair of the OASIS ebXML Messaging Services TC and
Director, Standards and Applied Technology for
Sterling Commerce, summed up what the passage of ebXML Messaging Service
means for e-business concerns.

“The ebMS 2.0 specification extends the current state of the art in secure
and reliable Internet data exchange for collaborative B2B electronic
commerce, most notably EDI over the Internet and business quality Web
services,” Gibb said. “With attention to B2B security, reliability and
extensibility, it effectively bridges legacy EDI with emerging Web
services-based infrastructure, technologies, interaction patterns and XML
documents — which is relevant and attractive for next generation B2B.”

It is the belief of some standards experts and analysts that ebXML will someday replace Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) ,
one of the first methods of e-business transfer. ebXML is far more flexible
than EDI. Making use of standards such as HTTP, TCP/IP, MIME, SMTP, FTP,
UML, and XML, it can be used on almost any computing platform.