xml-dev - Re: Babel (again) or standard taqs and aliases (UDEF, Bizcodes)

["W. E. Perry" <wperry@fiduciary.com>]

It would be difficult to top the effect Len Bullard's four-language story, so
let me try to use it to shift the emphasis to a different (but, I hope,
related) point:

Every major vertical market I know is scrambling to promulgate a common
industry data (transaction) vocabulary (and every one that I know of is
XML-based). The economic incentives to do so lie in the advantages of
cartelization. Ultimately, this comes down to preferring (and preferring to
compete with) the devil you know. Having a common industry data vocabulary in
place provides some hope of keeping out the wide spectrum of unfamiliar
possibilities which strange new players might introduce to the game. If, one by
one, newcomers can be constrained to doing business only in the forms
prescribed by the pre-ordained vocabulary, they can be bullied by the other
players into accepting cartel discipline. This is not in the larger interest of
any of us. The promise of B2B is doing business on a peer-to-peer basis with
anyone capable, on any occasion, of taking the other side of a trade. The cost
of achieving that in a truly universal marketplace is that each transaction
must begin with the probing and the exchange of data necessary to establish its
own terms. After four probes, the Swiss could not get a counterparty to step up
to the transaction. But if there had been only one Aussie, or if it had not
been on their turf, the necessity to do business with whoever was available for
business might have compelled less recalcitrance and more accommodation in
consummating an ad hoc transaction.

Respectfully,

Walter Perry



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