Industry Fragments as it Promotes Use of XML

Recently two separate efforts to promote the use of XML on the Web were announced. Ironically, the already bitterly divided high-tech sector seems even more clearly divided by these very similiar efforts to "accelerate the widespread adoption of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for electronic commerce and application integration." According to Mike Ricciuti CNET News.com, "Microsoft's attempt to jump-start adoption of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has drawn battle lines in the rapidly evolving market, in some ways reminiscent of the industry split over the Java programming language." According to Ricciuti, on one side is Microsoft's BizTalk initiative supported by an impressive list of BizTalk backers, including most of the major enterprise resource planning (ERP) software makers, eCommerce software and service providers like Ariba, and big-name technology consumers, such as Boeing. "On the other side is XML.ORG, an XML developer portal launched by Oasis, a nonprofit consortium. Oasis, which has been building its portal for a year, has been endorsed by virtually all other big-name software makers, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Novell, and Oracle."

In order to better understand what is happening, lets take a look at each initiative. . .

BizTalk.Org

The first effort announced to promote XML use was conceived of and launched by Microsoft. Rather than create a properitary Microsoft XML design clearing house, developer resource, and XML schema repository, Microsoft promoted the formation of a the new organization dubbed "BizTalk.Org." According to the press release, BizTalk.Org is "composed of industry-leading vendors,standards bodies and corporate customers, will independently manage the BizTalk.Org Web site and provide guidance on the future direction of the BizTalk Framework. Charter members include American Petroleum Institute, Ariba Inc., The Baan Co., The Boeing Co., Commerce One Inc., Concur Technologies Inc., Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), J.D. Edwards, Merrill Lynch & Company Inc., Microsoft, Open Applications Group (OAG), PeopleSoft Inc., Pivotal Software Inc. and SAP AG."

BizTalk.Org gets its credentials as a standards organization through the active involvement of DISA. And DISA is highly enthusiastic about BizTalk. "Many industries are developing XML schemas for their specific purposes, creating the need for an interoperability framework to facilitate the exchange of these schemas," said Judy Kilpatrick, president and CEO of DISA. "BizTalk fills this need, and DISA applauds the open and inclusive manner in which Microsoft is approaching this initiative."

The BizTalk.Org Web site will serve as an open repository for the submission and publication of BizTalk Framework schemas that will allow organizations to easily integrate applications and exchange documents such as product catalogs, purchase orders, and product and promotional information. This Web site will serve as the online reference for BizTalk schemas and will provide support for those using BizTalk XML specifications. The BizTalk.Org Web site will provide an automated submission and validation process for the review and publication of BizTalk Framework schemas. Once published, BizTalk Framework schemas will be freely available at BizTalk.Org. BizTalk will also provide organizations with the option of publishing schemas in a secure area for private use between trading partners.

The press release announcing BizTalk.Org concludes with a statement by Paul Maritz, group vice president of Microsoft's Developer Group."One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is application integration and the seamless exchange of business information over the Internet. We believe that the widespread use of XML is the key to breaking down these barriers. BizTalk will accelerate the adoption of XML standards by encouraging organizations to use XML in a consistent way."

XML.ORG

In what appears to be direct competition for BizTalk.Org, we have the announcement about the launch of XML.ORG. by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, OASIS. XML.ORG was announced as "the first global XML industry portal to be operated by a non-profit corporation devoted to open information exchange. Over 23 industry-leading corporations, organizations and individual experts have rallied to voice their support for the formation of XML.ORG." GCA is among the OASIS members supporting XML.ORG.

XML.ORG will provide an open industry XML registry and repository offering automated public access to XML schemas. The registry/repository will play a critical enabling role in the use of industry-defined XML applications for electronic commerce, business-to-business transactions, and tools and application interoperability. In the press release, Bill Smith, Sun Microsystems and Vice President of OASIS, stated that "a recent Forrester Research study on industry standards participation found that while 75 percent of IT executives are aware of standards groups in their industries, less than one-third of their companies participate. This statistic shows that the market is waiting for an organization like OASIS to take the lead."

Smith continuted to state that ,"we (OASIS) will provide an environment in which all industry players will be able to help make the universal data exchange capabilities of XML a reality for their market." The XML.ORG domain name was donated to OASIS by Jon Bosak, co-editor of the XML Specification, chair of the XML Coordination Group (also from Sun Microsystems).

And the Winner is. . .

At his keynote during XML Europe '99, Paul Nerger from Informix described the split in the Web marketplace with the African saying ,"When elephants fight, ants suffer." I think this certainly applies to BizTalk.Org and XML.ORG. The elephants are clearly Microsoft and Sun. The rest of us are the unfortunate ants. But there is some good news, and perhaps hope for reconciliation in the future.

The good news is that both of the competing industry groups recognize that XML alone is not enough for commerce to flourish on the Web. The availability of common tag sets (vocabularies or schemas) with clearly understood semantics is critical to facilitate business applications. Each Web faction is attempting to create a environment condusive to the rapid growth of Web-based business, yet because they (Microsoft / Sun) rarely cooperate outside the confines of the W3C, each is fostering XML in their own way. Each has made the mistake of championing a different standards organization to operate with or within.

It seems to me that there will not be one clear winner here. The "dark force from Redmond" is strong indeed. But the force of the light side is strong as well. The elephants battle on. So in the end, the ultimate question is whether these two "elephants" can somehow find a way to work together to enable the business activities of us "ants".

The Sun and Microsoft camps at times succeeded in working together for the common good. They certainly have done that as members of the W3C. But it seems that establishing the XML clearing house and repository is not within the scope of W3C. So they cannot work together in that forum. These two giants are also successfully working together in the ICE Authoring Group, a special membership group of GCARI (GCA's Research Institute). I remain optimistic that some way a peace can be negotiated for the overall good.

Dianne Kennedy

Editor, XML Files