RE: Are we losing out because of grammars?

[Michael Fitzgerald <mike@wyeast.net>]

Jonathan Borden wrote:

> But as in documents designed purely for human consumption, people have a
> need to continuously invent new terms for otherwise common things. It is
> both a way for members of a group to speak precisely about common
knowledge
> and as a barrier to entry for outsiders (for example medical terminology
:-)
>
> -Jonathan

Unfortunately it is easier to reinvent a new term than to find out what
everybody (or anybody) else has used to define a similar term. But consider
efforts by the UN and D&B to produce Standard Products and Services
Classification (SPSC) [*] to classify just about any product or service
available worldwide. Certain elements in ebXML and cXML documents, e.g.,
require (I don't say enforce) UN/SPSC content. Someday common XML elements
may be codified in a similar way (notice I am not even mentioning the word
*semantics* %^}).

Mike

[*] http://www.unspsc.org