Fri 10 Nov 2006 - STANDARDS AUSTRALIA RECONVENE IS/11 E-COMMERCE STANDARDS

Please submit your comments by 17:00 Fri 17 Nov 2006 to Stephen GOULD

11:42 Fri 10 Nov 2006						REF:AS2ACER1 
									Y/R: Eml 2006/11/08
TO:	Michael LANGDON			cc	Members of Parliament
	Communications, IT & eCommerce		Mayors & Councilllors
	STANDARDS AUSTRALIA			Interested Parties

Dear Michael - Thank you for your email.  Here is the additional information
requested on AS4590 which I trust will assist you to ensure there is
only a single eCommerce name and address format.

A	Background experience with Standards Australia
B	International Experience with IT Standards
C	Experiences with AS 4590
D	Next Steps

A	BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

In 1988 I represented the Australian Small Business Association [ASBA]
on the Standards Australia EDI IS/11 Committee.

At the 1st meeting 3 members of the Australian Bankers Association [ABA] 
put forward a proposal supported by the ABA that the US ANSI-X12 
Standard was implemented for 2 years.

When I pointed out that:

1	an interim standard would create enormous additional costs and 

2	Standards Australia was according to its charter supposed 
	to support the ISO Standards not ANSI Standards 

I was physically removed by a police sargent called by Standards
Australia and "removed from the premises for trespass".

This has been documented on this web site

It transpires that 12 of the 18 people on the IS/11 Committee had
an affiliation with IBM

B	INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES WITH IT STANDARDS

In 1990 I visited Alain BELLEGO Chief of Trade Facilitation at the UN 
in Geneva to discuss the problem of the UN/EDIFACT Standard having 
a deficient Address structure for effective eCommerce.

He suggested that I take the matter to the ISO Standards Headquarters 
also in Geneva which I did that day.

At the ISO Standards I was informed that as IBM were implementing
a free system in ISO, ISO Standards were limited in what could be 
carried out to change the Standard.

In 2001 there was an ebXML Australia Committee meeting attended by 
Mark BEZZINA Director Ecommerce Standards Australia

At that meeting it was agreed to established an ebXML Australia 
Marketing Strategy work group chaired by Mark BEZZINA

On 05 Feb 2002 Mark chaired the inaugural ebXML Marketing Strategy 
work group meeting.

At that meeting Keith FINKELDE the Chair of ebXML Australia stated 
that the eSuper Committee had to devised their own standard for the 
address format for eSuper because of the deficiencies with UN/EDIFACT

This was recorded by myself as the Work Group Secretary in the minutes.

The minutes were accepted by Mark BEZZINA

This Work Group was disbanded by ebXML Australia after the 1st and 
only meeting

C	EXPERIENCES WITH AS 4590

In 2006 32 Victorian Councils forming the EasyBiz Consortium
published a tender developed by SKM Consulting.

That tender stated that AS4590 was to be used as the interface
between the EasyBiz System run by Bizdex and the 32 Council
Computer Systems.

Apparently Bizdex was developed from an ITOL Grant for the
Australian Wheat Board [AWB] and sponsored by a number
of US companies including IBM, Intel and Microsoft.

However AS4590 like UN/EDIFACT is deficient in the Company 
Address Structure for efficient eCommerce transactions.

AS4590 has two address formats hence providing the "opportunity"
for software developers to chose different options and create the 
need for unnecessary check and conversion costs for each electronic
transaction

This was confirmed by Ram KUMAR Chair of the OASIS Customer/Party
Information Management Technical Committee at the recent OASIS
XML Conference on Fri 27 Oct 2006

NEXT STEPS

Michael as a number of Councils are now involved with developing 
a number of eCommerce applications, this issue of a single Address
format is extremely important.

If Standards Australia is prepared to re-establish the IS/11 eCommerce
Standards Committee I am offering my services as the Secretary for that
Committee as I am fully conversant with the issues for Local Government 
and Australian Business to use eCommerce effectively.

Please advise how we can address this issue quickly

Thank you

Yours sincerely

Stephen GOULD   
Chair
Local Government & XML Special Interest Group
OPEN INTERCHANGE CONSORTIUM   

E:	sggould@oic.org   
M:	0416-009-468   
W:	Local Government & XML Special Interest Group

On 8 Nov 06, at 15:15, Michael Langdon wrote:

> Dear Stephen, 
>  
> Would you be able to give me some more information on your item below which
> my Group Manager has fwded to me.  I've been project managing the AS4590
> revision.  Thank you
>  
> Regards, 
> _________________________________________ 
> Michael Langdon
> Project Manager, Communications, IT & eCommerce
> Standards Australia