News

XML portal adds XML spec listings

• By John K. Waters
• June 25, 2001

XML.ORG is an open community resource for advancing XML industry standardization. Hosted by OASIS, it operates as a centralized portal that provides information to technologists and business people developing "purpose-built" XML languages. XML.ORG is funded by corporate sponsors that include IBM, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Oracle, Altova, Softquad Software, Documentum, and XML Journal.

Leo Kraunelis, general manager of XML.ORG, said the addition of the new content expands the XML.ORG clearinghouse on XML in industry, and provides "...a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate body of information on initiatives and specifications."

"The addition of the ZapThink XML standards content to our website is an important part of the XML.ORG vision," Kraunelis says. "The detailed information ZapThink provides extends the XML.ORG clearinghouse on XML in industry, providing a comprehensive, non-commercial body of XML initiatives and specifications listings."

Founded in 2000, ZapThink is a Waltham, MA-based research and analysis firm focused specifically on the use and adoption of XML. Updated quarterly, the ZapThink XML Report covers XML standards areas such as XML core standards (W3C, IETF, DISA), messaging, business processes, registries and repositories, horizontal and vertical applications, and vendor-originated standards.

The licensing agreement between ZapThink and OASIS provides portal users with access to summaries that include "key details" about standards originating from over 300 standards organizations. Those details include the standard name and founding organization, dates of inception, status, categorization, overview of the standard, and a brief sample. However, if they want more, OASIS members must pay for the report, albeit at a 10% discount.

ZapThink senior analyst, Ronald Schmelzer calls the site's new feature "a valuable, non-commercial resource for bringing XML communities together."

"This relationship with OASIS and XML.org is extremely important and very exciting to ZapThink," Schmelzer says. "It allows us to provide high-quality information regarding the current status of XML standards to a much wider audience. XML.org is a valuable, non-commercial resource for bringing XML communities together."

OASIS is an international, not-for-profit consortium that advances electronic business by promoting open, collaborative development of interoperability specifications.