San Francisco, CA, USA; 23 February 2004 — Members of the OASIS international standards consortium have published an Action Plan aimed at breaking down barriers to widespread adoption of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology. Considered a foundational Internet security technology, PKI is used to authenticate people, secure commercial transactions, and protect the privacy of emails and telephone conversations.

"The industry’s understanding of how digital certificates can be effectively used in e-business and e-government systems has greatly evolved from the early days of PKI," explained John Sabo of Computer Associates, co-chair of the OASIS PKI Technical Committee. "The Committee believes that the security benefits provided by PKI can become more widely available with our proposed plan for addressing the current obstacles to deployment. We believe that following through on this action plan, which incorporates input from PKI experts and adopters, can greatly benefit those implementing emerging Web and e-business standards."

The OASIS PKI Action Plan builds on the results of a series of surveys conducted by the OASIS PKI Technical Committee with IT staff who have deployed or attempted to deploy PKI. The surveys identified five primary obstacles to adoption: 1) poor or missing support in software applications, 2) high costs, 3) poor understanding of PKI among senior managers and end users, 4) interoperability problems, and 5) lack of focus on business needs.

The OASIS PKI Action Plan directly addresses these obstacles, calling for clear and specific guidelines for using PKI in the most relevant application types–document signing, secure email, and electronic commerce. The Plan also defines the need for interoperability testing, improved educational materials, best practices and other measures to reduce cost, and outreach to software application vendors.

"We’re issuing an industry-wide Call-to-Action to increase use of a technology that is essential to achieve the level of security needed in today’s world," said Steve Hanna of Sun Microsystems, CO-chair of the OASIS PKI Technical Committee. "The tactics spelled out in the OASIS PKI Action Plan are not difficult, but they do require the cooperative efforts of the entire community. That’s why members of OASIS are calling on all PKI stakeholders–customers, vendors, standards groups, researchers and government–to join us in executing this Plan."

The OASIS PKI Action Plan is a work product of the OASIS PKI Technical Committee, whose members include Booz Allen Hamilton, Computer Associates, Entrust, FundSERV, IBM, KPMG LLP, RSA Security, Sun Microsystems, VISA International, Wells Fargo, and others. By working together to implement the Plan, the group believes that barriers to deployment can be measurably reduced and PKI usage increased.

Support for OASIS PKI Action Plan

Entrust "As a public-key infrastructure pioneer, we have actively participated in the development of the OASIS PKI Technical Committee’s Action Plan," said Sharon Boeyen, Principal Consultant with Entrust, Inc. "We fully support the goal of OASIS to increase awareness of PKI and foster the growth of Internet-scale federated identity management solutions based on the technology."

FundSERV "Having been in the PKI arena for the past four years, FundSERV has experienced many of the obstacles identified by the survey. A clear and universal action plan like the one that has been defined by OASIS will be of immense benefit to the PKI community and help overcome barriers to adoption," said Amir Jafri, Vice President of Technology, FundSERV Inc.

Sun Microsystems "Building public key infrastructure that realizes the promise of public key cryptography has proved more difficult than anyone imagined when Marty Hellman and I came up with the idea of public key systems in the 1970s," said Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Sun Fellow and Chief Security Officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "The OASIS PKI Action plan is an important step toward the eventual interoperability of all public key implementations. I am very pleased with Sun’s contribution to OASIS and delighted with our endorsement of the Plan."

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS PKI Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/pki

OASIS PKI Action Plan: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/pki/pkiactionplan.pdf

Press contact: Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 4 February 2004 — Members of the international standards consortium, OASIS, have organized to create a standard for sharing, linking, and synchronizing data over the Internet and other networks using XML documents and Extensible Resource Identifiers (XRIs). XRI is a URI-compatible abstract identifier scheme also developed within OASIS. The new OASIS XRI Data Interchange (XDI) Technical Committee will enable implementers to automatically interchange XDI documents and to express controls over the authority, security, privacy, and rights of shared data as XDI links.

"The goal of XDI is to do for controlled data sharing what the Web did for open content sharing," explained Drummond Reed of Cordance, co-convenor of the OASIS XDI Technical Committee. "XDI does not displace any specialized XML vocabulary designed to support specific applications or Web services. Rather, it augments them by providing a standard, generalized way to identify, describe, exchange, link, and synchronize other XML documents encoded in any XML language or schema–tying them all into one global ‘Dataweb.’"

"The formation of this technical committee represents an important step toward a shared vision for a more capable Internet," added Geoffrey Strongin of AMD, co-convenor of the OASIS XDI Technical Committee. "XDI will help solve fundamental problems associated with data sharing over the Internet by leveraging and building on the entire array of existing and emerging XML standards."

XDI will address interoperable, automated data interchange across distributed applications and trust domains. Examples of potential applications include:

• Exchange, linking, and lifetime synchronization of electronic business cards, public keys, and other common identity attributes across distributed directories (dynamic address books);
• Internet calendar sharing;
• Trusted search (searches that need to cross multiple private websites);
• Auto-configuration and intelligent data synchronization across multiple user devices (desktop, laptop, PDA, land phone, cell phone, etc.);
• Automated website registration, form-fill, and e-commerce transactions; and
• Cross-domain security and privacy management.

"By building on work created by the OASIS XRI Technical Committee, and with plans to establish liaison with other international efforts, XDI illustrates the synergy of standards development efforts that is taking place at OASIS," commented Karl Best, vice president of OASIS. "It’s gratifying to observe technical work that progresses from the development of core foundational standards to the building of complementary standards that address specific market and functional needs."

OASIS XDI Technical Committee members include representatives of AMD, AmSoft Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cordance, Epok, Neustar, NRI, and others. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals; OASIS will host a mail list for public comment.

Industry Support for XDI

AmSoft Systems "It is now well established that identity co-ordination is a pre-requisite to realization of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and XRIs provide an elegant solution to resolving resource context across domain (application, system, or network) boundaries. XDI leverages the universal addressing capability of XRIs to provide a ‘universal data model’ for XML. Thus XDI enables an enterprise to realize Data as a Service, whether the context is Enterprise Application Integration or Business Activity Monitoring or migrating to SOA without having to throw away existing applications and legacy data. AmSoft believes XDI will become a fundamental building block of any SOA infrastructure by providing common data representation, description, and assertion format for all ‘Dataweb’ documents and services," said Ajay Madhok, Founder and CEO, AmSoft Systems.

Cordance "XDI is the next step in building a trusted data interchange infrastructure using XRIs, which provide the first open standard for how to maintain a persistent, location-independent identity using either a human-friendly or machine-friendly identifier," said Vince Caluori, President and CEO, Cordance Corporation. "With XDI, identities represented by XRIs – people, businesses, devices, or applications – will be able to exchange, link, and synchronize data for the lifetime of a relationship while keeping control of the security and privacy of that data.” Noting the importance of privacy protection for Internet data sharing, Mr. Caluori added, “XDI will be the first standards initiative to enable implementation of the International Security, Trust, and Privacy Alliance (ISTPA) Privacy Framework, with whom the OASIS XDI TC intends to establish a formal liaison."

Epok "With the completion of the OASIS XRI 1.0 specification, the formation of the OASIS XDI TC is another major milestone towards standardization and the advancement of technologies for controlled data exchange, an area that Epok continues to pioneer. As the technology leader of XML-based identity services for large consumer federations, Epok plans to continue its role as a key contributor to the definition of a generalized XML data sharing service. Epok is rapidly bringing to market carrier-grade implementations of XRI technology to meet the crucial needs of identity security and ensure the privacy of shared data," said Adarbad Master, Epok CTO.

NeuStar "As the leading provider of neutral third-party registry services for interconnecting networks, NeuStar supported the work of the OASIS XRI TC in defining an abstract, location-independent identifier scheme. The next step is for the OASIS XDI TC to define a domain-independent method for exchanging data and metadata associated with an XRI, which can benefit many communities and networks that require common, interoperable registry services for trusted data interchange. This work is crucial for the support of emerging agent-based services and builds on NeuStar’s other initiatives in federated network identity and ENUM," said Mark Foster, Chief Technology Officer of NeuStar.

NRI "Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. has contributed to standardizing the expression of digital identity by using XNS and XRI. By describing and defining digital resources that combine information such as data type, data property and individually acquired ID, XDI will capture data traceability and access security–regardless of whether the data is changed or deleted. NRI regards XDI as new technology that will secure data credibility and security in the forthcoming network era. We support open OASIS activities and plan to promote XDI implementations in Japan," said Masaki Tochizawa, Corporate Vice President, NRI.

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS XDI Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xdi

XRI OASIS Committee Draft http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xri

Cover Pages Technology Report: Data Sharing, Mediation, and Synchronization

Press contact: Carol Geyer Director of Communications< OASIS carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Philadelphia, PA, USA; 10 December 2003 — Companies, users, and government agencies from around the world collaborated on four separate interoperability demonstrations of OASIS Standards and specifications at the XML 2003 conference this week. In scenarios as varied as epidemic management, weather portal aggregation, supply chain operations, and messaging, the practical usage of OASIS Standards was shown.

"These demonstrations provide more evidence that e-business, security and Web services standards are being deployed to solve real-world challenges," said James Bryce Clark, OASIS Manager for Technical Services Development. "The excitment here is not limited to what is being demonstrated. The types of participants–vendors and end users, large and small, government agenies–as well as the geographic span they represent clearly indicates buy-in from all stake-holders."

Demo #1: Achieving Interoperability Using Test Frameworks

NCA and NIST implemented a real-world ebXML test scenario involving a supply chain in which a buyer tests an upgrade with their solutions as well as with their customers’ solutions. The enhancements were then integrated into production operations. The demo also provided access to services via an ebXML Registry which supported the supply chain operations.

Demo #2: OASIS WS-Reliability Interoperability Demonstration

Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems demonstrated their independently developed implementations of the OASIS WS-Reliability specification. WS-Reliability is intended for use in mission critical applications that require guaranteed delivery, duplicate message elimination, and/or message ordering within a transaction. These three fundamental properties of the WS-Reliability specification were demonstrated utilizing a use case derived from a commercial scenario. Participants acted as servers and clients while various combinations of challenges were introduced in the network. Correct operation and inter-operation of these implementations were demonstrated with varying degrees of network-induced dropped messages, duplicated messages, and disordered messages.

Demo #3: Epidemic Management Using OASIS ebXML, UBL and XACML

Adobe, Cyclone Commerce, NIST, Sun Microsytems, and others demonstrated an end-to-end data transmission process using OASIS Standards for ebXML Registry, ebXML Messaging, ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPP/A), ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS), Universal Business Language (UBL), and eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML). In the demo, a public health care entity for disease control, uses a registry to manage epidemiological data. Laboratories, emergency rooms, and airports send periodic reports on persons that may be carrying communicable diseases to the registry. The reports are monitored by a scientist who electronically files a Communicable Disease form declaring the outbreak of an epidemic. Hospitals nationwide are electronically notified of the situation. At one such hospital, a software agent automatically follows a protocol specific to the disease and orders supplies needed for treatment. The demo concluded with the appropriate supplies being successfully delivered to the facility.

Demo #4: Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP)

BEA, Citrix, IBM, Oracle, and Vignette showcased a common use case for WSRP in which a weather site was configured as a portal. Pages on the site were aggregated by the portal and all of the application components used to produce the forecasts and other data were implemented as portlets. These portlets were then reused on other portals via WSRP rather than requiring the portals to separately install the complete set of portlets. WSRP was shown to maximize both control and availability for the weather site while minimizing costs for the remote portal sites.

The OASIS Interoperability Demonstrations were followed by a Town Hall meeting co-hosted by W3C and OASIS on "The Future of Standards for Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures." Technical experts from both organizations provided an overview of current activity in WS/SOA standards, followed by a public Q&A session regarding future developments, interoperability and convergence.

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. (http://www.oasis-open.org)

Press contact:

Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org)
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 8 December 2003 — OASIS, the international standards organization, today announced the election of three new members to its Board of Directors. Frederick Hirsch of Nokia, Jeff Mischkinsky of Oracle, and Michael Weiner of IBM were elected by the OASIS membership to provide business leadership to advance OASIS as a major standards-setting body for Web services, e-business security, and other applications. The three fill new seats created by a recent decision to expand the Board in response to membership growth.

Hirsch, Mischkinsky, and Weiner join existing directors, John Borras of the United Kingdom Office of e-Envoy, Edward Cobb of BEA, Colin Evans of Intel, Patrick Gannon of OASIS, Eduardo Gutentag of Sun Microsystems, Jim Hughes of Hewlett-Packard, Chris Kurt of Microsoft, and Laura Walker.

"OASIS open standards play an important role in moving the XML and Web services community forward in a timely and credible manner," said Frederick Hirsch, Senior Architect for Nokia Mobile Phones. "My work at Nokia gives me insight into both the mobile marketplace and the European standards community–perspectives that I hope will further enrich OASIS’ industry involvement and reach of influence."

"OASIS has emerged as a significant arena for the development of Web services standards with members doing work in technical committees for UDDI, WSRM, WSBPEL, WS-CAF, WSDM, WSRP, and WS-Security," said Jeff Mischkinsky, Director of Web Services Standards for Oracle. "Oracle is committed to promoting interoperability based on open industry standards, and we are pleased to have this opportunity to further guide standards organizations toward a common, cooperative vision for Web services."

"I am pleased to be returning to the Board of Directors” stated Michael Weiner, Program Manager, e-business Emerging Technology Standards at IBM. “I look forward to helping OASIS continue to grow as a leading standards organization for Web services standards."

About OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org):
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 19 November 2003 — The OASIS standards consortium today announced that its members have approved the Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. SPML provides an XML-based framework for managing the allocation of system resources within and between organizations. Encompassing the entire life-cycle management of resources, SPML defines the provisioning of digital services such as user accounts and access privileges on systems, networks and applications, as well as non-digital or physical resources such as cell phones and credit cards.

"As provisioning becomes a more widely available network service, the need for an open standard to support the integration of account and service management in identity infrastructures is clear," says Darran Rolls of Waveset, chair of the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee. "By fostering interoperability across business units or with business partners, SPML frees companies to focus on the business rules for provisioning user accounts and not on the technology to wire everything together."

"Enterprise architects should consider SPML real and deployable," said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "It provides a much needed starting point for a long-term user access provisioning strategy that can be implemented today within the enterprise and will work in the future for integrating with Web services implementations. We congratulate the developers of SPML 1.0 and invite additional participation from the community on advancing SPML 2.0 to achieve full Web services compatibility."

Members of the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee include Abridean, BEA Systems, BMC Software, Business Layers, Computer Associates, Entrust, Netegrity, OpenNetwork, Waveset, and other users and providers of identity management software.

SPML relates closely to another OASIS Standard, the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Together, SPML and SAML provide a standard way to create user accounts and validate users as part of an identity management infrastructure. The two offer the basis for integrating single sign-on and provisioning software for Web services.

Industry Support for SPML

BMC Software "BMC Software is excited about the ratification of SPML as an OASIS Standard," said Doron Cohen, Chief Architect, Security Business Unit, BMC Software. "This is a key milestone towards wide adoption of interoperable provisioning solutions in the marketplace. As a leading provisioning vendor and an active member of the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee, we are committed to helping our customers realize the benefits and gains delivered by SPML."

Business Layers "The ratification of SPML opens the door for interoperability of provisioning products within the enterprise, and between enterprises", said Adrian Viego, CTO of Business Layers. "This is an exciting step towards true delegated administration, and with it the promise of Web services."

Computer Associates "SPML will reduce the cost and complexity of provisioning Web services, helping organizations maximize the ROI on the deployment of next-generation business solutions," said Gavenraj Sodhi, eTrust product manager at Computer Associates. "By incorporating SPML into our eTrust Identity and Access Management Suite — which already supports SOAP, SAML, and UDDI — CA is ensuring its universal applicability and seamless interoperability with our customers’ existing Web services architectures."

OpenNetwork "We are pleased to see SPML accepted as an OASIS standard," said Bob Worner, vice president of engineering for OpenNetwork. "With native support for SPML in our flagship product, Universal IdP, our customers can experience the benefits of securely exchanging user, resource and service provisioning information across company boundaries, dramatically improving business efficiency and effectiveness."

Waveset "Waveset is proud to have been a leading contributor to the development and adoption of the SPML specification," said Kevin Cunningham, vice president of marketing at Waveset. "Looking forward to 2.0, we will leverage our experience in developing the industry? first open source SPML toolkit, and the success of our customers’ SPML-enabled deployments, to drive the continued standardization of a provisioning network service."

About OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org): OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.

More information:

OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee

Cover Pages Technology Report: XML-Based Provisioning Services

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Dublin, Ireland and Boston, MA, USA; 18 November 2003– The OASIS international standards consortium today launched the XML.org Focus Area on Localisation http://localisation.xml.org to provide domain-specific content on XML standards. The site has been developed in cooperation with the Localisation Research Centre (LRC), Europe’s information, research, and educational institute for the linguistic and cultural adaptation of software.

Localisation becomes the latest addition to a growing series of XML.org Focus Areas; others include Insurance, Human Resources, and Printing & Publishing. Each XML.org Focus Area covers news, standards and initiatives, vendors, consortia, trade associations, government agencies and implementers, events, and resources germane to each specific industry sector.

"The importance of localisation in today’s global marketplace cannot be overstated. Language technology standards provide the foundation for successful international business," said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS, in an address at the LRC Conference in Dublin today. "LRC’s expertise in this area ensures that the XML.org Focus Area on Localisation will provide a comprehensive and relevant resource for companies adopting XML-related industry standards."

"Localisation encompasses not only translating documents, but also adapting the cultural aspects of digital content, i.e., data formats, icons, writing directions, etc., so that products can be universally meaningful across a variety of geographic and linguistic boundaries," noted Reinhard Schaler, Director, LRC. "We are pleased to be part of the OASIS XML.org Focus Area program. It offers an ideal fit with LRC’s mission to serve as an information provider to the localisation industry worldwide."

The XML.org Focus Area on Localisation will also serve as an access-point to related information on the OASIS-hosted Cover Pages, http://xml.coverpages.org, widely regarded as the most comprehensive public resource for information on XML and related technical standards for the structured information community.

Future XML.org Focus Areas are being planned for Healthcare, E-Government, Financial Services, Aerospace/Defense, Education, Security, Retail, and others.

XML.org is sponsored by BEA Systems, Global Exchange Services, ISOGEN International, and SAP.

About LRC http://www.localisation.ie The Localisation Research Centre (LRC) is a research centre of the University of Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 1995 with support from the Irish Government and has since lead a large number of industrial and academic research projects. Most recently, the LRC established the European Localisation Exchange Centre (ELECT), the Localisation Technology Laboratory and Showcase (LOTS) and ELECT online, the information resource of the localisation community (www.electonline.org). The LRC runs the annual International Localisation Summer School, Professional Development Seminars and the annual LRC Conference, Europe’s premier Localisation, Internationalisation and Globalisation Event.

About OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, XML conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. OASIS has more than 2,500 corporate and individual members in 100 countries around the world.

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Tokyo, Japan and Boston, MA, USA; 17 November 2003–Members of the international standards consortium, OASIS, have organized to advance an XML-based standard for collaborative planning and scheduling in manufacturing. The new OASIS Production Planning and Scheduling (PPS) Technical Committee will develop common object models and corresponding XML schemas which can communicate to establish intra- and inter-enterprise planning and scheduling. The Technical Committee plans to conduct its work in Japanese and provide English translations of its documents and deliverables.

"Shop floor management must collaborate with enterprise management, so that manufacturers can react to dynamic changes in the market," said Yasuyuki Nishioka of the PSLX Consortium, convenor of the OASIS PPS Technical Committee. "Our goal is to develop a standard that will enable manufacturers to implement decision support systems that provide bi-directional communication between planning and scheduling software."

The PPS specification will address data handling for production planning orders, inventory levels, resource capacity, and scheduled or in-progress operations. PPS will be designed to reduce the expense and increase the speed and flexibility of developing new planning and scheduling systems, particularly for applications that include multi-vendor products or legacy systems.

OASIS PPS Technical Committee members include Fujitsu, Hitachi, Ricoh, and others. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals. Representation from a wide variety of manufacturing industries is key; system integrators, software vendors, database designers, industrial specialists, and planning/scheduling application engineers are especially welcome.

"This is the first OASIS Technical Committee to conduct its work in Japanese," noted Karl Best, vice president of OASIS, in a keynote address at the OASIS Open Standards Days held today in Tokyo. "Clearly, Asian companies are moving beyond adopting and adapting e-business standards created in Europe and North America. It is exciting to see the active role OASIS members in Japan are taking to drive the international standards that affect their markets."

PPS expands the growing body of supply chain standardization efforts at OASIS, which includes technical committees for Electronic Procurement Standardization (EPS), Materials Markup Language (MML), and Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS). OASIS currently has more than 60 active technical committees.

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS PPS Technical Committee

Cover Pages Technology Report: Planning and Scheduling in the Manufacturing Environment

Press contacts:

Keizo Okabe Japan Representative
OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) keizo.okabe@oasis-open.org

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Tokyo, Japan, 11 November 2003 — Electronic business standards from the international consortium, OASIS, will be the focus of a new event to be held in Tokyo, 20-21 November. OASIS Open Standards Days Tokyo 2003 will be the first conference in Japan where both management and technical professionals from business and government sectors gather to share information and implementation experiences on key OASIS standards. The event will feature expert speakers on ebXML, Universal Business Language (UBL), WS-Reliability, the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WSBPEL) and other OASIS specifications.

OASIS Open Standards Days Tokyo is sponsored by Computer Associates Japan, IBM, Infoteria, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Microsoft, NEC, Oracle Japan, and Synergy Incubate in cooperation with the East Asia Electronic Commerce Association (EA-ECA), Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM), PSLX Consortium, RosettaNet Japan, and XML Consortium. The event is supported by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications. The conference is managed and operated by Sunbridge Group and the Renaissance Center of Tama University.

Event information and registration is available at (Japanese) and (English).

To enhance support for its growing membership in Asia, OASIS has appointed Keizo Okabe as its Japan Representative. The Consortium, which is based in North America and has representation in Europe, is expanding its Japanese presence in response to heightened levels of Asian activity in standards development. Okabe will aid in supporting OASIS members and technical committees in Japan as well as directing local promotional events, such as organizing the OASIS Open Standards Days Tokyo.

"OASIS is enjoying heightened participation from the Asian community," noted Okabe. "OASIS sponsorship includes many of Asia’s largest technology companies, such as Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, and Sony, as well as Japan-based staff of international companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. These members are actively involved in advancing OASIS projects that include Web services, ebXML and security."

According to Okabe, Japanese organizations are drawn to OASIS because the Consortium encourages open collaboration on interoperability issues critical to Asian companies. The international focus of the Consortium facilitates global participation. Each OASIS Technical Committee selects the language they will use to conduct their work, and most discussions are held via email or conference calls to accommodate participants from multiple continents. When face-to-face meetings are held, OASIS Technical Committees choose locations convenient to their own members.

"We are honored to have a representative in Tokyo of Keizo Okabe’s stature, who will enable the Consortium to enhance the service our Japanese members have enjoyed since OASIS was founded," commented Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "With his extensive background in XML and Web services, Okabe will be a great asset to the growth of the Consortium."

Okabe also serves as XML Evangelist and Chairman of Web Services Promotion Committee for XML Consortium Japan and is a member of the RosettaNet Japan Steering Committee, the ebXML standard working group in Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM), and many other XML-related industrial consortia.

About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Press contacts:

Keizo Okabe Japan Representative OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) keizo.okabe@oasis-open.org

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 10 November 2003 — Members of the OASIS international standards consortium have begun work on a specification to enable the control and monitoring of asynchronous or long-running Web services. The OASIS Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) Technical Committee is developing an extension of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) that will accommodate latency between the request for a resource or service and its actual return. ASAP is applicable for areas as diverse as workflow, business process management, e-commerce, data mining, and mobile wireless devices.

"Not all services are instantaneous — especially when transactions involve human intervention or approval," observed Jeffrey Ricker, chair of the OASIS ASAP Technical Committee. "Probably the biggest breakthrough ASAP can offer is the ability to treat manual processes as Web services. Mass integration need no longer be held hostage by the weakest link. Mass integration can proceed without waiting for full automation of every process in every organization."

OASIS ASAP Technical Committee members include representatives of Computer Associates, DataPower, Fujitsu, and others. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, and OASIS provides mechanisms for public review and comment.

"ASAP represents a simple but critical component of Web services," noted Karl Best, vice president of OASIS. "Technical Committee members intend to incorporate full compatibility between ASAP and both the ebXML Message Services OASIS Standard and the OASIS Web Services Reliable Messaging specification to ensure the accurate delivery of transactions."

Industry Support for ASAP

"Asynchronous communication among Web services is critical to both the simplification of enterprise application integration and the facilitation of next-generation business models," said Gavenraj Sodhi, eTrust product manager at Computer Associates. "CA is actively participating in the enablement of this asynchronous communication by supporting standards efforts and incorporating those standards into our industry-leading Web services management, security, and provisioning solutions."

"The ultimate killer app of the Internet is email, and it is not an accident that it is completely asynchronous. Pervasive enterprise-grade XML web services will require protocols to work the same way that enterprise apps do — asynchronously, reliably and securely. We believe the OASIS ASAP effort can deliver a simple, pragmatic solution for DataPower customers deploying XML-aware networks," said Eugene Kuznetsov, chairman and CTO, DataPower.

"Fujitsu Software is proud to be a part of the OASIS Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) Technical Committee. We are dedicated to helping develop and promote open standards for system interoperability," said Keith Swenson, Chief Architect Fujitsu Software. "ASAP will be a key ingredient for linking Busness Process Management servers and Enterprise Application Integration servers to each other and to legacy systems. Openly developed standards in this area should make it much easier to link different process technologies together, lowering the overall cost of system integration and allowing for more effective automation of business processes."

About OASIS OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS ASAP Technical Committee

Cover Pages Technology Report: Asynchronous Transactions and Web Services

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 20 October 2003 — Developers of the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS) have decided to advance their work under the technical process of the OASIS international standards consortium. The newly formed OASIS ebXML Business Process (BP) Technical Committee will further define the royalty-free ebXML BPSS model for binary and multiparty business collaborations both within and between enterprises. ebXML BP will support the exchange of standards-based business process definitions, such as those developed by industry-specific organizations, enabling standard, interoperable process configurations that effectively meet business collaboration requirements for analysis, design, and production use.

ebXML BP is part of the modular suite of specifications that enable enterprises of any size, in any global region to conduct business using the Internet. ebXML comprises open, royalty-free standards for business process collaboration, core data components, collaboration protocol agreements, messaging, and registries and repositories. ebXML implementers span the globe and include General Motors, the US Center for Disease Control, the Pan Asia e-Trade Alliance, and TransCanada Pipelines. RosettaNet has formally adopted ebXML BPSS as a mechanism for expressing business collaborations involving RosettaNet PIPs®, and government agencies around the world recommend the use of ebXML.

"ebXML is the only framework that is at the same time generic and flexible and can be used for inter-administrations relations," concluded the European Commission’s Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) in its study, "Business to Business Frameworks for IDA Networks." "Moreover, ebXML is clearly the only trend for organised business communities. The general recommendation is to follow ebXML standards as much as possible."

"ebXML BP will enable legally enforceable, easily manageable, and fully traceable collaborations," said Dale Moberg of Cyclone Commerce, convenor and proposed co-chair of the OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee. "Industry standards organizations will be able to use ebXML BP schemas and formats to specify business process definitions for their own collaboration communities."

The OASIS ebXML BP TC will base its work on ebXML BPSS version 1.01 (http://www.ebxml.org/specs/index.htm), jointly developed by OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (CEFACT) and on derivative work expected to be donated by a range of participants.

"We’re excited to continue this work within the OASIS technical process," noted Monica J. Martin of Sun Microsystems, proposed co-chair of the OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee. "OASIS provides an environment for us to adhere to the ebXML principles of a loosely coupled, highly aligned specification set, while enabling support for other emerging Web service technologies, OASIS specifications, and products from industry standards organizations."

The OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee plans to collaborate with other relevant OASIS committees, such as those developing the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WSBPEL), the ebXML Message Service Standard, the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPP/A) Standard and the OASIS e-Government Technical Committee. Members of the new committee will also work to align with relevant efforts of other organizations, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Service Architecture Working Group and Web Services Choreography Working Group, RosettaNet, the Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGI), and CEFACT.

OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee members include Cyclone Commerce, Fujitsu, Sterling Commerce, Sun Microsystems, and others. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, and OASIS will host a mail list for public comment.

"We encourage business analysts, enterprise developers, and business process users to become actively involved in this work," said Karl Best, vice president of OASIS. "Trade groups, industry standards bodies, and end-users are welcome to contribute feature requests to make the sequencing constructs valuable for their specialized business needs and issues. Technology vendors wishing to contribute to ebXML BP under royalty-free terms also are urged to join."

Industry Support for ebXML BP

"Sterling Commerce is proud to continue its involvement with business processes standards under the new OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee. Sterling believes strongly in the importance of business process standards and has been a leader in supporting business process languages, such as ebXML Business Process Specification Schema, in its products," said Neelakantan Kartha, Ph.D, Senior Software Architect, Standards and Strategic Technology, Sterling Commerce.

"Sun supports ebXML and its continued development at OASIS as an answer to customer demand for a simple framework for conducting electronic business using cheap, widely deployed and dependable technologies," noted Mark Bauhaus, VP, Java Web Services, Sun Microsystems. "The ebXML framework is not a vision: it is a reality, a solution available and in deployment today. We believe the ebXML BP work at OASIS will enable continued delivery on ebXML’s promise of an interoperable suite of modular specifications that are useful today, while incorporating new technology developments — such as Web services — as appropriate to keep ebXML useful for the long-term future."

About ebXML ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language) was initiated in 1999 as a joint effort of OASIS and CEFACT. Since the publication of the full suite in 2001, customer deployments and vendor adoption of ebXML have grown worldwide, along with open source projects. To date, four ebXML specifications have been ratified as OASIS Standards. http://www.ebxml.org

About OASIS OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS ebXML BP Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-bp

Cover Pages Technology Report: Standards for Business Process Modeling, Collaboration, and Choreography

European Commission’s Interchange of Data between Administrations Study: "Business to Business Frameworks for IDA Networks"

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Boston, MA, USA; 7 October 2003 — Members of the OASIS international standards consortium announced plans to collaborate on a generic, open framework for applications composed of Web services used in combination. The OASIS Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) Technical Committee will define a set of royalty-free, interoperable, modular specifications that will enable the development of composite applications, ranging from simple to complex combinations of Web services and encompassing a useful range of transaction and coordination requirements.

"A serious problem remaining in Web services standardization is transactional coordination," explained Mark Little of Arjuna Technologies, convener of the OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee. "Web services combined in composite applications require interoperable mechanisms to set the boundaries of an activity (such as start/end, or success/failure), to create, access, and manage context information and to inform participants of changes to an activity."

"We expect WS-CAF specifications will become the building blocks for other Web services standards," said Martin Chapman of Oracle Corporation, proposed co-chair of the OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee. "That’s why we’re taking an incremental, multi-protocol approach, creating a modular stack of specifications. Instead of mandating a single protocol, we want to offer users the option to implement portions of WS-CAF based on their needs."

The OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee intends to accept as input the WS-Context, WS-Coordination Framework, and WS-Transaction Management specifications published by Arjuna, Fujitsu, IONA, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. Other contributions are welcome on an equal basis.

"Composability is a critical aspect of Web services," added Eric Newcomer of IONA, proposed co-chair of the OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee. "That’s why WS-CAF will be designed to be non-overlapping and interoperable with other open Web Service specifications. We plan to invest in gathering requirements input and defining relationships between related specifications and WS-CAF. Above all, we want to promote convergence, consistent use, and a coherent architecture."

WS-CAF specifications will provide WSDL definitions for context, coordination, and transactions. Message formats will be specified as SOAP headers and/or body content. The new group will collaborate with other OASIS Technical Committees, such as the OASIS Business Transaction Technical Committee, the OASIS Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) Technical Committee and the OASIS Web Service Business Process Execution Language (WSBPEL) Technical Committee. WS-CAF developers also plan to liaise with efforts of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), including the XML Protocol, Web Service Architecture, Web Service Description, and Web Service Choreography Working Groups.

"It is important that the industry agrees on a standard, interoperable way to demarcate and coordinate Web services activities," noted Karl Best, vice president of OASIS. "In parallel with the development of the framework, OASIS Technical Committee members will design and sponsor a testing/interoperability program for WS-CAF. This should go a long way toward ensuring widespread adoption."

OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee members include representatives of Arjuna Technologies, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cyclone Commerce, Fujitsu, IONA, Oracle, SeeBeyond, Sun Microsystems, Yellow Dragon, and other OASIS members. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, and OASIS will host a mail list for public comment.

Industry Support for WS-CAF

Arjuna Technologies "In Arjuna we spent a lot of time and effort listening to the requirements of our customers when working on the original submissions," said Mark Little of Arjuna Technologies Ltd. "It’s important that WS-CAF takes into account work from other specifications and use cases that have real-world requirements for context, coordination, and transactions. This is a great opportunity to unify the current state-of-the-art in this extremely important area. We’re excited to be involved in what should turn out to be critical infrastructural components for the Web services architecture."

Booz Allen Hamilton "Booz Allen is pleased to contribute to the advancement of Web services standards through its participation in the further development of WS-CAF," said Joseph Chiusano, Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. "WS-CAF is the latest in an exciting genre of specifications that advance Web services in critical areas such as transaction processing, coordination, and context propagation. We look forward to future applications of these important concepts for our clients."

Oracle "Oracle is committed to promoting interoperability based on open industry standards. WS-CAF provides a common and open foundation to build complex Web services, enabling multiple Web services to function effectively in a coordinated and interoperable manner," said Don Deutsch, Vice President of Standards Strategy and Architecture for Oracle Corporation. "As one of the original authors and major proponent of WS-CAF, Oracle is pleased to be a co-sponsor and co-chair of the OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee."

Sun Microsystems "Composable Web services represents the leading edge of a new software development model for our industry, with the WS-CAF specification set providing some important enabling technologies" said Mark Bauhaus, VP of Java Web Services for Sun Microsystems. "It is vitally important that the underlying technologies and specifications for Web services be based on open, royalty-free standards, and Sun is pleased to be both a contributor of technology and OASIS supporter in this important effort."

About OASIS: OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional information:

OASIS WS-CAF Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ws-caf

Cover Pages Technology Report: Messaging and Transaction Coordination

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209

Singapore; 29 September 2003 — Members of the OASIS international standards consortium announced plans to collaborate on the development of a global Web services framework that will define a methodology for broad-based, multi-platform, vendor-neutral implementation. The new OASIS Framework for Web Services Implementation (FWSI) Technical Committee plans to design a template for Web services deployment, enabling systems integrators, software vendors, and in-house developers to deliver eCommerce solutions faster and easier.

"FWSI will define the functionality required to help people build robust applications for Web services and Service Oriented Architectures," said Roberto B. Pascual of the Singapore Government’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), proposed co-chair of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee. "It will speed adoption of Web services by tremendously reducing the risk, complexity, and implementation effort involved."

The OASIS FWSI Technical Committee will specify a set of functional elements required for practical implementations of Web Services-based systems. These functional elements provide building blocks for developers to use when deploying Web services architectures, enabling rapid development of eBusiness applications by eliminating the need to re-invent elements for each implementation.

"The work of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee will be analogous to creating a recipe for baking a cake," explained Dr. Lee Eng Wah, of the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), proposed co-chair of the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee. "We will first develop a set of implementation methodologies, which will be like cooking instructions. Then we will focus on designing a set of functional elements for Web services–the ingredients for the cake."

Rather than define standards for implementing specific Web services components, FWSI will leverage applicable work within OASIS and other standards groups. Technical Committee members predict that the work of the WS-I Consortium will complement FWSI at OASIS.

"We are very pleased that the OASIS FWSI Technical Committee is being launched in Singapore and has the backing of so many companies and agencies here and around the world," said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS, in an address today at the iX2003 conference. "By creating a library of core eCommerce Web services, FWSI will accelerate the deployment of Web services and Service Oriented Architectures into the critical eBusiness marketplace."

Members of the new OASIS FWSI Technical Committee include CommerceNet, IDA, Information Technology Standards Committee of Singapore, RosettaNet, SIMTech, Sun Microsystems, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID) at the University of Hong Kong, Yellow Dragon, and other OASIS members. Participation remains open to all organizations and individuals, and OASIS will host a mail list for public comment.

About OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org):
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 2,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries.

Additional information:

OASIS FWSI Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=fwsi

Cover Pages Technology Report: Web Services Implementation

Press contact:

Carol Geyer Director of Communications OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.978.667.5115 x209