Copyright OASIS, 2001 Developing Information Standards for the Tax Community Dale Waldt Program Development, OASIS 28 April 2002

Copyright OASIS, Introduction Dale Waldt –Currently Program Development, OASIS XML Training & Business Consultant –Previous Relevant Experience VP Product Technology, Research Institute of America, Tax Publishing Division of Thomson Corporation Author, SGML Implementation Guide (Springer 1995) Founder/Publisher, Structured Information Newsletter Electronic Database Specialist, Internal Revenue Service Taxpayer Since 1978

Copyright OASIS, Agenda A Vision for Tax Information Standards Standards Development Arenas Standards Development at OASIS A Vertical Community Case Study

Copyright OASIS, Why Build Tax Info Standards? Obvious Reasons –More Efficient & Accurate Information Interchange Filings & Reporting Research Documents –Leveraged Development Calculations Processing –Data Longevity Platform & Product Independence –Software Interoperability ERP Integration Financial Systems Integration

Copyright OASIS, Why Build Tax Info Standards? Counterintuitive Reasons (Concerns) –Information as a commodity or selling enhanced implementations? –Lose competitive edge or enable new partnerships? –Removing barriers to switching or simplifying processing –Participating proactively in the inevitable or playing catch up "Cooperate on standardization, compete on implementation."

Copyright OASIS, Activities Affected by Taxation Taxes Affect all Parts of the Business Systems Integration Opportunities –Finance & Banking –Business Planning –Commerce –Accounting & Billing –Benefits –Payroll –Reporting & Filing to Government

Copyright OASIS, Potential Tax Info Standards By Tax Type –Individual Income –Corporate Income –Pension & Estate –Sales & Use –Specialty By Venue Type –Federal / National –State –Local Jurisdictions –International –Specialty By Data Type –Financial & Accounting Records –Filing & Reporting –Primary Research Materials –Secondary Research Materials –Application Interoperability (APIs) By Application Type –Data Entry –Calculation –Forms & Reporting –Security –Messaging –Process Management

Copyright OASIS, Recommendations… Participation needs to be open Representation needs to be broad Clear & impartial process will eliminate proprietary obstacles Implementation may need to be "local" or specific, but with a big picture in mind Convergence & harmonization is likely to follow "local" implementation Leveraging existing standards & experience will expedite development

Copyright OASIS, Standards Development Forums De Jure Standards Bodies –ISO –UN CEFACT –Etc. De Facto Standards Bodies –OASIS –W3C –Etc. Industry Consortia –UDDI –Rosetta Net –Etc. Proprietary Specifications –Microsoft.Net –Sun (etc.) J2EE –Etc.

Copyright OASIS, What is OASIS? OASIS is a member consortium dedicated to building systems interoperability specifications We focus on industry applications of structured information standards, such as XML, SGML, and CGM. Members of OASIS are providers, users and specialists of standards-based technologies and include organizations, individuals and industry groups. International, Not-for-profit, Open, Independent Successful through industry-wide collaboration

Copyright OASIS, Mission OASIS drives the development, convergence and adoption of e-business standards.

Copyright OASIS, Where OASIS Fits Core protocols, messaging; e.g. HTTP XML, XSL, namespace, DOM, etc. Horizontal, e-business framework Vertical industry applications OASIS, industry associations OASIS W3C, ISO IETF

Copyright OASIS, OASIS Value Comprehension of & support for the Standards Process –OASIS experts charter the course to rapid development & adoption Democratic Process including an Elected Board of Directors & comprehensive Intellectual Property and Anti-Trust Policies –Work is guaranteed to be representative of the industry as a whole, not any one vendor’s view Global Visibility and Critical Partnerships –OASIS draws participation from around the world & aggressively promotes the work – to ensure viability and adoption

Copyright OASIS, What OASIS Offers Industry Time to Market: don’t waste your time and effort setting up –Committee process –Infrastructure (web site, mail lists) –IPR policy –Copyright protection –Program Management –Marketing/Promotion –Anti-trust Use your technical expertise on technical work, not on setting up administrative overhead

Copyright OASIS, Sponsor Members Access360 Adobe Systems, Inc. AND Data Solutions B.V. Arbortext, Inc. Auto-trol Technology Corporation Aventail Corp. Baltimore Technologies B-Bop Associates BEA Systems Inc. Bentley Systems Boeing Commercial Airplanes Bowstreet Bridge Chrystal Software Cohesia Corporation Commerce One Critical Path DataChannel, Inc. Dataloom, Inc. Deutsche Post AG Documentum EADS Airbus SA empolis Enigma Incorporated Excelergy Corporation eXcelon Corporation Extensibility Extricity Software First Call Corporation Hewlett-Packard Company IBM Corporation Informix Software, Inc. Infoteria Inc. Innodata Corporation Interwoven, Inc. IPNet Solutions ITEDO Software GmbH Jamcracker Logistics Mgmt Institute Mediaplex Mercator Software Microsoft Corporation Netegrity, Inc. Netfish Technologies Netscape/AOL NextPage, LC NII Enterprise Prom. Assoc. Nimble Technology NIST ObjectSpace Pearson Education Planet 7 Technologies Popkin Software & Systems Reuters Limited Sabre SAP Sequoia Software Corporation Silverstream Software SoftQuad Software Inc. Software AG Sterling Commerce StreamServe, Inc. Sun Microsystems Synth-Bank The Tamalpais Group, Inc. Thomas Technology Solutions U. S. Defense Information Systems Agency Virtual Access Networks Visa International Wavo, Inc. webMethods, Inc. Whitehill Technologies, Inc. Xerox Corporation XML Global XMLSolutions Corporation Xyvision Enterprise Solutions Inc.

Copyright OASIS, Board of Directors Colin Evans, Intel Corporation Patrick J. Gannon, OASIS Jim Hughes, Hewlett Packard Una Kearns, Documentum Christopher Kurt, Microsoft Norbert H. Mikula, DataChannel Simon Nicholson, Sun Microsystems Michael Weiner, IBM Corporation

Copyright OASIS, Alliances & Partners MOU –IEC, ISO, ITU, UN/ECE & OASIS UN / CEFACT OMG IDEAlliance ???

Copyright OASIS, OASIS Initiatives Technical Standards ebXML XML.org The XML Cover Pages CGM-Open Member Section Topic Maps Member Section LegalXML Member Section

Copyright OASIS, OASIS Standards Process Standards are created under an open, democratic, vendor-neutral process –Any interested parties may participate, comment –No one organization can dictate the standard –Ensures that standards meet everyone’s needs, not just largest players’ Open to all interested parties All discussion open to public comment One organization/one vote Resulting work is guaranteed to be representative of the industry as a whole, not just any one vendor’s view

Copyright OASIS, Progression of Technical Work 1.Any three OASIS members propose creation of a technical committee (TC) 2.Existing technical work submitted to TC; or TC starts work at the beginning 3.TC completes technical work, then votes to approve work as an OASIS Committee Specification 4.TC votes to submit the Committee Specification to OASIS membership for consideration 5.OASIS membership reviews, approves the Committee Specification as an OASIS Standard

Copyright OASIS, Active Technical Committees Access Control (XACML) Biometrics Business Transaction Protocol (BTP) Conformance Customer Information (CIQ) Directory Services (DSML) DocBook ebXML CPPA ebXML IIC ebXML Joint Committee ebXML Messaging ebXML Registry Election Services Entity Resolution Human Markup Localization Provisioning Services (PSML) RELAX NG Rights Language Security Services Topic Maps for Geography & Language Topic Maps Published Subj. Topic Maps Vocabulary Universal Business Language Web Services Interactive Applications Web Services for Remote Portals XSLT Conformance CGM Open (member section)

Copyright OASIS, Convergence Activities Vendors Migrate Specifications to OASIS –WSXL from IBMWSCM TC –XOCP from BEA SystemsBTP TC –xCBL from Commerce OneUBL TC –ITML from JamcrackerPSML TC –CRML from MSI Business Sol.CIQ TC Standards Converge at OASIS –AuthXML and S2ML SAML –TREX and RELAX RELAX NG –WSUI and WSXL WSCM –XRPM, ADpr, ITML PSML

Copyright OASIS, ebXML Joint OASIS, UN-CEFACT Initiative for the creation of an e-commerce framework Over 2500 participants from 60 countries Collaborated with other initiatives and standards development organizations; built on the experience and strengths of existing EDI knowledge Enlisted industry leaders to participate and adopt ebXML infrastructure

Copyright OASIS, ebXML delivers by Using the strengths of OASIS and UN/CEFACT and DISA/X12 to ensure a global open process Build on business process learned from decades of EDI experience, using lightweight XML syntax Creating the technical specifications with the world’s best experts Collaborating with other initiatives and standards development organizations

Copyright OASIS, Continuing ebXML Work Specifications completed May 2001; available at Infrastructure work continuing at OASIS –Messaging –Collaborative Partner –Interoperability, Implementation, Conformance –Registry & Repository – Content-related work continuing at UN/CEFACT –Business Process –Core Components –

Copyright OASIS, XML.org Central clearinghouse for accessing XML schemas, vocabularies & related documents Self-supporting, non-commercial resource created by & for the community at large Foster collaboration within & between industries Features: –XML.org Registry –XML.org Catalog –XML.org Portal –xml-dev mail list

Copyright OASIS, XML.org

Copyright OASIS, The XML Cover Pages The authoritative resource for XML info –News –Press Releases –Product Information –Specifications –Whitepapers

Copyright OASIS, The XML Cover Pages

Copyright OASIS, Member Sections Current Member Sections –CGM Open –Topic Maps –LegalXML Member Sections are Vertical Communities within OASIS –Self Governance –Steering & Coordination Committee –Retain "Identity" in marketplace –Specialized Events & Lists

Copyright OASIS, Case Study LegalXML – Independent Consortium –Founded in 1998 –Focused on Developing Legal & Regulatory Information Standards Statutes & Bills Regulations & Agency Notices Cases, Citations & Court Filings –Strong Membership Interest Federal & State Legislatures, Agencies & Courts Law Firms Legal Publishers & SW Developers Non-Legal Corporations Academia

Copyright OASIS, Case Study LegalXML – Independent Consortium –Struggled with "Start-up" problems Volunteerism insufficient to manage logistics Limited breadth of expertise in membership Competing for other membership dues Credibility limited by "newness" & lack of track record

Copyright OASIS, Case Study LegalXML – Member Section –"Merged" with OASIS in February 2002 –Formed Member Section Steering Committee –Converting Working Groups to OASIS Technical Committees –Maintain "Brand" & "Identity"

Copyright OASIS, Case Study LegalXML – Member Section –Leveraging & Benefiting from: Established Technical Process Breadth of Member Expertise OASIS' Recognition & Reputation Established Infrastructure & Administration –Providing Benefits to OASIS Membership Domain Expertise Addressing Common Business Issues

Copyright OASIS, The international presence of OASIS, especially the expertise and resources that its members bring, is very significant and accelerates global development efforts such as ebXML Ray Walker, United Nations/CEFACT ” “

Copyright OASIS, Developers of XML vocabularies and schemas look to OASIS as a central community resource that is open and objective. Lon Pilot HR-XML.ORG ”“

Copyright OASIS, ? ? ? ? An Invitation… You are invited to work within the OASIS Standards Development framework to foster convergence of Tax Information Standards –Develop Tax Industry Information Standards –Draw upon experts from around the world –Reduce confusion among customers & constituents –Work within an Open Process –Leverage existing infrastructure –Leverage existing standards –Deliver quickly & effectively –Avoid redundant logistics –Reduce membership costs TIGRES OASIS Core XML Standards IRS, IR, ATO, Etc. TaxML OASIS Tax XML TCs

Copyright OASIS, For More Information… Patrick Gannon CEO, OASIS Dale Waldt Program Development, OASIS