OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop Web Services Component Model for Interactive Web Applications

Business Wire, Oct 22, 2001

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2001

Cyclone Commerce, DataChannel, Documentum, Epicentric, HP, IBM,

Logistics Management Institute, Macromedia, Sterling Commerce, U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency, and Others Collaborate to Advance

International Standard for Delivering Applications as Web Services

OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, today announced its members have formed the OASIS Web Services Component Model (WSCM) Technical Committee to create a Web services standard for interactive application access. WSCM will provide a coordinated set of XML vocabularies and Web services interfaces that allow companies to deliver Web applications to end users through a variety of channels--directly to a browser, indirectly through a portal or embedded into a third party Web application.

"Right now, there is no industry standard mechanism for packaging the display component of a Web service," explained Charles Wiecha of IBM, chair of the new OASIS WSCM Technical Committee. "WSCM will enable any Web application--a package tracker, a calendar application, a stock quote, anything--to be delivered and displayed to an end user as a Web service, regardless of the underlying Web platform, vendor-specific application format or display device."

With WSCM, companies will be free to syndicate their applications across different portals and Web site platforms without being limited by proprietary products. They will be able to dynamically share Web services without the time and labor of creating multiple vendor-specific connectors written to different Web languages such as Java, COM/.Net and Perl.

Wiecha emphasized that WSCM will be developed in light of standards and specifications issued by OASIS, UN/CEFACT, ISO, W3C and other relevant standards bodies. "We aren't trying to reinvent the Web presentation layer. Our goal is to harmonize WSCM as far as practical with existing Web application programming models (e.g., Portals), the work of the W3C (e.g., XForms, DOM, XML Events, XPath, XLink, XML Component API task force), emerging Web services standards (e.g., SOAP, WSDL, WSFL) and with the work of other appropriate business information bodies."

In the interest of convergence, the OASIS WSCM Technical Committee will consider contributions of related work from other groups and companies. The Web Services User Interface (WSUI), an initiative proposed by a working group of software providers earlier this year, plans to submit their specification to the new OASIS technical committee.

"From WSUI's inception, the goal was to submit our work to a major standards body," said Ed Anuff, chief strategy officer of Epicentric, one of the major WUSI contributors. "We chose OASIS because its members include some of the largest, most influential developers in the industry. That level of support is critical for widespread adoption."

"The nascent stage of Web services requires nurturing not just in terms of commercial credibility but also in terms of usable standards," said Tyler McDaniel, Director of Application Strategies at Hurwitz Group. "This concerted effort by OASIS, leveraging the work of WSUI.Org, will help the market address a key issue of presenting Web services throughout the Internet ecosystem. With strong vendor leadership, focused through OASIS, enterprises should get the benefit of a thorough specification."

IBM intends to contribute Web Services Experience Language (WSXL), a Web services-centric component model for interactive Web applications, as work to be considered in the OASIS WSCM Technical Committee. The WSXL reference document can be found on IBM's developerWorks site at http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-wsxl/index.html.> "IBM is pleased to contribute WSXL to be considered as part of WSCM," said Bob Sutor, director of e-business standards strategy at IBM. "As an XML and Web services-centric component model for interactive Web applications, WSCM will enable businesses to more easily distribute those interactive Web applications through multiple channels. It will also help create new ones by leveraging existing resources across the Web. IBM is a longtime supporter of OASIS, and we're very happy to have the opportunity to chair the OASIS WSCM Technical Committee."

"Much of the work around Web services is focused on giving developers tools to access remote application functions over the Internet," noted Karl Best, OASIS director of technical operations. "The OASIS WSCM Technical Committee aims to make those services accessible to the end user. We invite all who would be affected by this standard to participate in our work."

Initial members of the OASIS WSCM Technical Committee include Cyclone Commerce, DataChannel, Documentum, Epicentric, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Logistics Management Institute, Macromedia, Sterling Commerce, U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and other OASIS Contributors and Individual members. Participation is open to all OASIS members; interested parties will find information on joining OASIS at http://www.oasis-open.org/join.>