From: Roy Roebuck [roy(AT)one-world-is.org] Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2000 1:23 PM To: 'Rachel Foerster'; 'XML EDI Listserver (E-mail)' Cc: 'Topicmapmail (E-mail)'; whetherwhat@egroups.com Subject: RE: [whetherwhat] Re: Article: Future of XML and EDI? - Future of IT? - Correction to Structure

Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Flagged

I mis-edited this portion, causing an error in line 2 of the structure. See correction and update below.

- information product/service, - information systems, - on an IT infrastructure, - guided by an IT architecture, - for business processes, - within business functional organization, - resulting from business strategies, - in pursuit of business performance measures (objectives, SLA's, QOS), - to achieve business goals, - in realization of the business vision, - for the sustainment and enhancement of the business mission, - in response to strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat assessments, - in review of the enterprise value-chain, - of a global customer-base of all products/services.

Roy

-----Original Message----- From: Roy Roebuck [mailto:roy(AT)one-world-is.org] Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2000 12:51 PM To: 'Rachel Foerster'; XML EDI Listserver (E-mail) Cc: Whetherwhat (E-mail); Topicmapmail (E-mail) Subject: [whetherwhat] Re: Article: Future of XML and EDI? - Future of IT?

Forgive the "Big Picture" view that follows, that always seems to upset so many list participants (until the seeds take root).

Rachel: Looking at the dawning horizon of our aggregate technical and managerial capability, I concur with your assessment, and would suggest an even deeper connection into business, on an unbounded global scale.

XML/EDI and EDI information products (syntax + semantics + medium) are at the top of a "pyramid" of

- information systems, - on an IT architecture, - guided by an IT architecture, - for business processes, - within business functional organization, - resulting from business strategies, - in pursuit of business performance measures (objectives, SLA's, QOS), - to achieve business goals, - in realization of the business vision, - for the sustainment and enhancement of the business mission, - in response to strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat assessments, - in review of the enterprise value-chain, - of a global customer-base of all products/services.

See /rer/owis/emeif.htm.

Without taking an enterprise "mission" view and tracking the mission's value-chain dynamics (especially in "Internet Time" pace of change), those laboring at the more-specific/tangible (e.g., hardware/software/data/metadata) levels of this business activity are working on "leaves, twigs, and branches" that have no direct-connection to the nourishment and "DNA instructions" (purpose) of their foundational "tree trunk and root structure" -- the globally-connected enterprise. This means these leaf, twig, and branch objects/activities are inevitably wasteful, fragmented, and impossible to integrate without redesign or replacement.

The cost of the inevitable global/enterprise integration (i.e., mission-driven capability-defragmentation) to business and our overall well-being is huge (and probably enough to pay down several national debts in a year or so, and improve the quality of life of our entire species). (At the same time, this is what keeps many system/software developers and integrators in business, and is thus a dis-incentive for them to show or support their customers' more coherent unitary-tree of solutions and capabilities. On the plus of this fragmentation is competition-driven creativity and market economics.) See /rer/owis/ue-gem/.

Having said the above, I foresee that over the coming decade:

- near-term enterprise-focused, mission-driven, strategically-managed informational capabilities, - incorporating the learned semantics of traditional EDI, existing MIS, and modeled processes, - probably leveraging the syntaxes of XML/XHTML, LDAP/DSML, SQL (Query and DDL), UML, WBEM, Java, and concordance-like searching and local/personal correlation (e.g., Wordnet http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/) of lexicon and metadata, - over the medium of current and future "nets"

will continue to grow in prominence, to the point that all major business (and individual/group/community/national/global) knowledge, requirements, and methods (semantics) will be captured, managed, applied, and maintained as a unitary-whole, without barriers, across a global value-chain. The result will be contextually relevant dynamic situational awareness/knowledge/wisdom for all those who are "connected", thus driving universal access as a mandate.

There will be many who don't see this until well after it becomes available, and will thus put themselves (and stockholders/stakeholders) into a diminished future role (obsolesence, loss of market/mind share, etc.) to their customers.

Roy (Nirvana? Or A Practical, More Capable, and Joyful World?) One World Information System 703-598-2351

-----Original Message----- From: owner-xmledi-list@lists.bizserve.com [mailto:owner-xmledi-list@lists.bizserve.com]On Behalf Of Rachel Foerster Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 10:31 AM To: xmledi-list@lists.bizserve.com Subject: RE: Article: Future of XML and EDI?

Betty,

I agree with and support your perspective and comments below -- except for one small suggestion. That is where you say that the data should be modeled.

Before you can effectively model the data you must first model the business process and analyze the process information requirements. Then, and only then can you proceed to data modeling and object development.

A small point, but a major issue. This is where traditional EDI and fallen on its sword...it's data-centric and not process-centric. That's why it's hit the brick wall.

Rachel