International XML Consortium Establishes Infrastructure for Interoperable Repositories

Philadelphia, PA; December 8, 1999--OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, announced public availability of the OASIS Draft Registry and Repository Technical Specification. The new OASIS Specification will be used in building the XML.org Registry & Repository and will contribute to the infrastructure needed for deploying interoperable XML repositories across the Web. "OASIS put a great deal of time and energy into developing this Specification," said Terry Allen (Commerce One), chair of the OASIS Registry & Repository Technical Committee. "Our goal is not only to specify an open format for our own vendor-neutral clearinghouse for XML and SGML DTDs and schemas. We want to establish the groundwork for a distributed, global web of XML repositories." Norbert Mikula (DataChannel), chief technical officer of OASIS, agreed, "Our motivation is to foster the creation of XML repositories by industry groups, users and vendors and to facilitate interoperability among those repositories. This draft specification deals with the process of submitting a schema to a repository and includes the metadata necessary for managing it in a registry." The OASIS Draft Registry & Repository Specification is being well received by leading industry standards organizations, including the Object Management Group. "OMG sees the OASIS work on this specification and the creation of the XML.org Repository as being very positive steps toward the ubiquitous use of XML," said Henry Lowe, director of liaison, OMG. "This will promote interoperability which, together with the support of a secure, transactional and scalable underlying transport such as CORBA, will make XML unstoppable." The OASIS XML Registry & Repository Technical Committee includes representatives from Arbortext, Commerce One, DataChannel, Documentum, DMSi, Dun & Bradstreet, Enigma, Extensibility, IBM, Isogen, Oracle, STEP, Sun Microsystems, XyEnterprise and others. The OASIS Draft Registry and Repository Technical Specification is
available; on http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/regrep/index.shtml.

About OASIS

OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org) is a non-profit, international consortium dedicated solely to product-independent data and content interchange. Focusing on product interoperability, OASIS embraces the complete spectrum of structured information standards including XML, SGML and CGM. OASIS sponsors include Adobe Systems, Aerospatiale, AND-USA, Arbortext, Bentley Systems, Boeing, Bowstreet, Chrystal Software, Cohesia, Commerce One, CommerceNet, Corel, DataChannel, DMSi, Documentum, Dun & Bradstreet, eCredit.com, Enigma, Extricity Software, GCA, IBM, InformIT, Informix, InterCAP, Interleaf, Interwoven, ISOGEN, ITEDO, JetForm, Keyfile, Microsoft, NextPage, NII Enterprise Promotion Association, NIST, Object Design, Object Management Group (OMG), Open Applications Group, Oracle, ProNet Technology Partners, Reed Technology, Reuters, Sabre, Sequoia Software, SoftQuad, Software AG, STEP, Sun Microsystems, Synthbank, Wavo, Xerox, XMLSolutions and XyEnterprise.

About XML.org

XML.org (http://xml.org) is a self-supporting community resource designed to provide a credible source of accurate, timely information about the application of XML in industrial and commercial settings. Hosted by OASIS, the world's leading independent organization for the standardization of XML applications in electronic commerce, XML.org serves as a reference for XML DTDs, schemas and related information. Sponsors of XML.org include: Commerce; One, DataChannel, Documentum, GCA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, SoftQuad and Sun; Microsystems.

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For more information:
Carol Geyer, Program Manager, OASIS,
+1.412.963.1479,
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org

Industry Comments on the XML.org Registry & Repository Draft Specification

"The OASIS/XML.org registry and repository architecture is a key piece of open technology for enabling world-wide availability of XML DTDs and schemas for e-business. Easy and efficient access to these XML resources from non-proprietary repositories will speed the adoption of XML for creating real-world business integration solutions for our customers,"
--Marie Wieck, Director of XML Technology, IBM

"The development and accessibility of schemas and DTDs is crucial to the successful adoption of XML. OASIS' work on registries and repositories presents a genuine opportunity to provide a common format to enable the development of interoperable XML repositories."
--Una Kearns, Documentum

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