08:22 Tue 14 Sep 2004 REF:1UCACBR1 TO: Duane NICKULL cc Halisa Consultants Vice-Chair UN/CEFACT OIC Management Committee UNITED NATIONS Duane - Congratulations on your election as Vice-Chair of UN/CEFACT ! - I agree the UN is better equipped to deal with the issues at a Policy level but it will still have to rely on ebxml members for implementation. Now we can move the interchange up a level or two. Thank you for the Draft PPT which I have reviewed and add some comments in R3 Rather than respond in one lengthy e-mail I thought it may be useful to include the thoughts and findings of many of my colleagues for your consideration hence the response is in 3 separate e-mails: R1 - What is the Problem - THIS E-MAIL R2 - The UN and Ports R3 - the UN/CEFACT slides R1 WHAT IS THE PROBLEM ? >The first is "When solving a problem, you must use different thinking than you did when you created the problem". What is the Problem we are trying to solve ? Is it: A Reducing the cost of trading with your SME trade Partners ? B Reducing time and cost for distribution goods for developing countries ? C Providing work (jobs?) and lifestyles for population ? D Getting off this planet en-masse before resources run out ? E Managing Electronic Information more effectively (ref PORTMIS information flows) ? A REDUCING COST TRADING WITH SMES ? Electronic Data Interchange [EDI] and ANSI-X12 was first proposed in 1979 to address the problem that large US Companies had with Accounts Payable costs. The problem was that 80% of their costs was spent on making payments to 20% of their suppliers. Those 20% were mainly SMEs without IT departments B REDUCING COST DISTRIBUTION GOODS In 1976 the 'United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific' commissioned the PORT Management Information System [PORTMIS] to enable Asian and Pacific countries to implement Port EDI Systems However John RAVEN the facilitation adviser to the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IPAH) provide a report that stated: "current EDI practices are temporary relief which plaster twentieth century techniques over nineteenth century procedures and enforce the employment of very expensive Value Added Network Suppliers" Ref: Peter BROWN Executive Director Australian Association of Port and Marine Authorities letter 14 Jan 1988 This is the real issue of a total review of the Business Process re-engineering for Trade Facilitation. C PROVIDING WORK (JOBS?) AND LIFESTYLES FOR CONSTITUTENTS This is obviously the objective of not only most politicians in a local sense but also the United Nations as a global policy. However there is a big difference in doing work and getting a paid job. In 1776 Adam SMITH produced "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" which stated that the Wealth of Nations is based on the "The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consists always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or what is purchased with that produce from other nations" This document has formed the basis of all international trade However the Wealth of Nations did not consider payment for: 1 Intellectual Property - ie most professional and creative services 2 House-work 3 School work 4 Sports work Intellectual Property has now been incorporated into the Wealth of Nations template with Free Trade Agreements and particularly with the creation of the World Intellectual Property Organisation [WIPO] However this again is likely to be to an added cost for developing nations. House work, School work and Sports work for a vast majority of a Nation's population are unpaid. This can be addressed with an e-Credits System that can be exchanged for local produce. The e-credits System can comprise 7 or 8 e-credits eg A Accommodation E Entertainment F Financial H Health L Learning N Nourishment T Travel Here is an example of an e-credits System developed by Members of the OIC XML & E-commerce Special Interest Group. It has been proposed that Local Councils would become the Electronic Notary for local community credits Further information on this issue can be reviewed on the submission to the Australian Senate Inquiry on the Australia-USA Free Trade Agreement D GETTING OFF PLANET BEFORE RESOURCES RUN OUT Currently the World's population is 6 Billion and expected to grow to 15 Billion by 2050. The problem is not producing food to feed the population but providing energy to distribute, heat/light, support and manage the waste. Cars only produce a small amount of the Carbon Dioxide that causes global warming. The majority is produced by Power Stations that burn fossil fuels. Developing nations need these Power Stations to create energy for the factories and provide light, heat, refrigeration, cooling for the Public. As a stop-gap the UN may want to consider developing houses or community places that have rooms with bikes/rowing-machines/walking-machines/weights linked to batteries so that when people exercise they develop the electricity that they need. It would provide a fitter population and enable the youth of developing countries to generate income Indeed Local Councils could have contests and awards to see which of its Citizens could produce the most power for the Community However at some stage before the end of the next century Man has to leave this Planet en-masse to find new resources before the resources run out. In fact this could be one of the Universal Objectives of the UN to the Youth of the World "the UN 50-year Steps to the Stars Strategy" Once we get into Inter-Planentary travel new problems arise with communications ref "E-mail the Final Frontier" This article explains the problems for e-mail travelling through space and the absolute necessity to minimise the amount of information that has to be transmitted and received due to the energy required for transmission. E-mail is the underlying technology for E-ccmmerce particularly for SMEs hence the importance of getting e-mail filing standards in place before e-commerce can operate E MANAGING ELECTRONIC INFORMATION MORE EFFECTIVELY Duane - this issue of managing Electronic Information is the common problem to all of the above. Since 1985 I and my colleagues have been working on an Information Management methodology developed by my step-father in 1963 for ATA-100 (Air Transport Association - Technical Manual Reference Standard) It is a very different concept to current EDI and E-commerce applications in that it was developed from an Office Automation background to automatically synchronise and update distributed Electronic Information bases that includes data,voice, graphics, film, x-ray An appraisal of the concept was commissioned by Fujitsu in 1994 The concept is a structured information architecture that uses the ASCII coding notation that is common to all computers The concept outlines how a template is held in a library at both sender and receiver so that only the variable information has to be transmitted. Each library, each template and each variable has a unique ASCII code. The variable information is selected from a number of options from a drop-down menu. If the variable information is not in the drop-down menu then it can be sent as a new option or one off option. Examples of this have been developed and implemented for the OTMG Tender Information Management Systems [TIMS] that has been licensed by the Open Interchange Consortium [OIC] since 2000 as an XML Application Each option has a code so that only the code is transmitted. When it is received at the other end it is stored on disk as that code. It is only when the user looks at the information that the codes are translated for the user. This issue of information management and effective up-to-date reporting have been refined in a number of ways including: 1 Type of Member Matrix - Member/Subscriber 2 Tender Interest Matrix - Industry & Application 3 Industry/State Matrix - Industry/State Many of the libraries are now being defined for e-Commerce eg Harmonised System, SPSC codes etc NEXT STEPS Duane - This e-mail is to define the problem as we see it. It may not be apparent how it fits with UN/CEFACT objectives but I will endeavour to explain that in the following 2 e-mails Regards Stephen GOULD Partner e-Projects HALISA INTERNATIONAL NETWORK 11:56 T 2004/09/14 Syd 2089 - please note this for R3 E: sggould@halisa.net W: SGG Expertise in Ecommerce On 10 Sep 04, at 9:42, Duane Nickull wrote: > Stephen: > > I think that the UN is better equipped to deal with this issue. I have > been working with UN/CEFACT for a while and recently got elected as vice > chair. Attached is a "DRAFT" PPT explaining our vision to level the > playing field for international trade (bridging the gap between the rich > and the poor). Please note that this is draft and should not be > distributed. > > Duane > >