White Papers

Componetizer: a tool for extracting and documenting XML Schema components
Data Interchange Standards Association, 17 September 2002
http://www.disa.org/technotes/TechNote2002_01.html
With Marcel Jemio.  DISA's first technical note describes the Componetizer, a tool developed by DISA to extract data items from XML Schemas and array them for visual display in tables or for further processing in databases.

Utility Deregulation Requires Effective E-Business Standards
Data Interchange Standards Association, 8 June 2002
http://www.disa.org/whitepaper.cfm
This paper analyzes business practices in the gas and electric power utilities industries resulting from deregulation, including the current use of e-business, and offers recommendations for e-business standards to support the goals of deregulation.

Standards-Based Methodology for U.S. E-Government Initiatives
Data Interchange Standards Association, 12 February 2002
http://www.disa.org/pdfs/white_paper02.pdf
This paper discusses the important role that open e-business standards can play in the current administration's e-government initiatives, and offers an approach to apply these standards directly to the current initiatives.

Magazine and Web site articles

Web services standards are good, but a Web services vision is better
WebServices.Org, 30 December 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/826/1/7/
While there may be no lack of energy devoted to developing Web services, the lack of a common vision for Web services still afflicts the industry and may be preventing customers from investing in this promising technology.

Uniform sales tax agreement paves way for levies on Internet purchases
Suite101.Com, 17 November 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/96443
The tax-free purchasing haven known as the Internet may be nearing an end, as delegates from 32 states on 13 November 2002 approved a model interstate agreement to reform and streamline the USA’s localized sales tax system.

Improving cargo security: the technology is here, but where's the urgency?
Suite101.Com, 28 October 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/95934
The Council on Foreign Relations issued a report on 25 October 2002 that outlined the lack of progress in the U.S. to prepare for another terrorist attack, and focused on (among other things) the need to secure America’s surface-freight cargo facilities. This lack of progress is all the more perplexing, given that the technology for tracking cargoes is readily available and in widespread use.

White House cyber-security plan cites big threats, offers little action
Suite101.Com, 23 September 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/95277
On 18 September, the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board released its draft National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, but most of the report’s recommendations offered guidelines for voluntary steps and little in the way of concrete requirements, timetables, or actions.

Register This: Registries That Make E-Business Happen
NetAcademy on Electronic Markets, 31 August 2002.
http://www.electronicmarkets.org/modules/pub/view.php/electronicmarkets-335
With David Webber.  This article outlines the purposes and functions of e-business registries, discusses the importance of standards in the development of such registries, examines the current leading registry standards, describes a few examples of working e-business registries today, and evaluates the leading registry approaches against the needs of doing business. Free site registration required to view article.

OECD guidelines seek culture of security for IT users
Suite101.Com, 28 August 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/94684
If anyone still harbors doubts that the civilized world now takes IT security more seriously, he or she should read an August 2002 report from the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development (OECD).

Amazon.Com Web Services ... a non-techie tries it out
WebServices.Org, 12 August 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/581/1/1/
When Amazon.Com announced its Web services program in mid-July, this technical wannabe saw it as an opportunity to try out Web services for himself. Why didn't you engineers tell me it would be so much fun?

Wi-Fi networks: a new technology and grass-roots movement
Suite101.Com, 29 July 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/93893
In recent weeks, a movement has emerged to take advantage of publicly-available wireless local area network capacity that so far has escaped the grasp of commercial interests and governments. And it shows once more the ability of the Web to spread ideas in a way that would make the early Web visionaries proud.

Interoperability Summit: Good Intentions, Little Action
XML.Com, 10 July 2002. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/07/10/interop.html
The Second Interoperability Summit showed that more e-business standards groups are willing to collaborate and showed various ways they can do so. The session also highlighted the need for more concrete action and urgency in achieving the interoperability goal.
 

IT professionals fear cyber terror attacks, say more preparations needed
Suite101.Com, 7 July 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/93336
A recent poll shows IT professionals, as a group, say we can expect more attacks on U.S. government systems, and they blame the government itself for not being adequately prepared.

Taking ebXML and Web services to the cleaners
WebServices.Org, 5 July 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/499/1/1/
Dry cleaners are the quintessential small business, with all the pain that goes with having a small business. But ebXML or Web services can help create new business opportunities for these small companies.

The e-business continuum: Web services, ebXML and EDI
WebServices.Org, 27 June 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/479/1/1/
Why we should visualize EDI, ebXML, and Web services on a continuum rather than three distinct alternatives. By virtue of their open and componentized architectures, Web services can support a wide variety of business processes. And these same properties suggest Web services can also support other business data exchange standards and methods.

DHS will need modern technology and a collaborative culture to succeed
Suite101.Com, 16 June 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/92753
President Bush's announcement of a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on 6 June focused largely on the rearrangement of organizational-chart boxes. But moving the boxes is the easy part. Getting a technical infrastructure and management culture that encourage the sharing of knowledge promises to be much tougher.

Why doesn't EDI just die already?
WebServices.Org, 11 June 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/447/1/24/
Web services and ebXML need to show that they can outperform EDI. It won't be easy. The use of EDI has increased significantly, and all indications suggest that its use will grow further. As a result, Web services and XML business frameworks (like ebXML) will need to prove their mettle against a persistent, efficient, and more affordable EDI.

Tell me about Web services, and make it quick
WebServices.Org, 4 June 2002. http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/articleview/429/1/1/
All of us at some point, even those deepest in the technical innards of an organization, will face the task of explaining to the CEO the meaning and value of Web services.

Public diplomacy and information technology: America’s semi-secret weapons
Suite101.Com, 28 May 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/92179
In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 events, it has become clear that misinformation about the United States can spread like wildfire, through information technologies (IT), such as the Web and e-mail. The United States once had a professional public affairs agency to explain American policies and ideas to overseas audiences, but since 1998, the U.S. Information Agency or USIA as it was known, has been sliced, diced, and scattered around the State Department.

Privacy and security concerns clash over standard driver’s licenses
Suite101.Com, 6 May 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/91637
Disclosures of how the suspected 11 September hijackers used driver’s licenses acquired with fake credentials to hide their identities, have stimulated calls for national standards on drivers licenses. Proponents believe uniform rules for driver’s licenses will prevent criminals from hiding their true identities and reduce incidences of identity theft. Privacy advocates, however feel driver’s license standards will erode individual privacy even further.

Government and finance industry urge caution on XML
XML.Com, 24 April 2002. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/04/24/gaonacha.html
In April 2002, the XML world recently received a double-dose of sobering news, as reports from both the U.S. General Accounting Office and NACHA, an electronic payments organization, urged their constituents to move cautiously on any commitment to XML.

Now it’s the geeks’ turn to play politics
Suite101.Com, 19 April 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_techno_politics/91137
Ever since the IT industry began exercising its political clout, the industry’s business managers known as Suits, have set the political agenda, rather than the Geeks -- the architects, engineers, and code-writers who actually create the technology. Now the Geeks want to be heard, and are getting organized.

Support continues for making the Web more accessible to the disabled
Suite101.Com, 23 March 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/90341
At the 2002 FOSE trade show, 19-21 March in Washington, DC, most vendors showed, to no one’s surprise, that security systems and services had the highest priority. But despite the overriding need to fight terrorism, some vendors still showed support for making Federal Web sites more accessible for people with disabilities.

California e-government on steroids
Suite101.Com, 4 March 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/89924
Much of the talk about electronic or e-government centers on new or innovative applications by public agencies that take advantage of the Web and Internet. A few innovators, however, take a more holistic and assertive approach to e-government, one that recognizes that far-reaching potential of the Internet to transform the relationship between individuals and governments.

Campaign finance -- the IT industry learns to play the game
Suite101.Com, 19 February 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/89514
With reform in the campaign finance laws becoming a real possibility, IT companies have shown how to use their muscle, with the battle over proposed broadband legislation providing a good case study

SEC sets up its own investment hoax on the Web, complete with leptins
Suite101.Com, 9 February 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/89271
Since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the U.S. has experienced an upsurge in fast-buck artists trying to cash in on the public’s hypersensitivity to terror-related fears. Many of the scams have involved investments, and in late January the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) itself devised a phony investment opportunity to show how easy it is to use the Web for fraud.

Federal XML guidelines unveiled
XML.Com, 6 February 2002. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/06/fedguidelines.html
The United States federal government's XML Work Group, a sub-committee of the Chief Information Officers Council (CIOC), drafted its first guidelines that spell out best practices for the use of XML in federal agencies.

Collaborative e-business and ebXML: a new approach and standard to make it happen
Managed Healthcare Executive Magazine, January 2002 issue. http://www.xmlglobal.com/news/articles/MHC-ebXML-Article.pdf
With David Webber.  The real payoff for e-business exists in business-to-business commerce, and as experience from other industries shows, collaboration is key.  The article shows how ebXML can address adverse drug events, a chronic problem in hospitals.

Another drama unfolds on antitrust regulation in the IT business
Suite101.Com, 20 January 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/88671
The Bush Administration thought it had a deal on antitrust oversight in the information technology and media industries.  Only they forgot to tell the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.  Both the Justice Department and FTC had to do some backtracking.

States pushing harder on  e-government
Suite101.Com, 7 January 2002. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/10818/88331
In the past year state governments have accelerated the integration of IT into their operations. That conclusion comes out of the latest annual Digital State survey conducted by The Progress & Freedom Foundation and Center for Digital Government.

Making XML work in business, a report from XML 2001
XML.Com, 2 January 2002. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/01/02/bizvalue.html
Several of the sessions at the XML 2001 conference in December showed how XML can deliver for businesses. But the discussions also suggested that the number of organizations able to take immediate advantage of XML is still quite small, and most businesses will probably not see benefits from XML until further down the road.
 
 

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31 December 2002
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