It looks like we have a "second," from Chris Feahr, to broaden the Project Purpose - so it more clearly indicates we're to build a specification for automatically "discovering" Electronic Trading Partner Agreements (e-TPA) which can be used to mechanically configure communication and translation software. So moved.
Now that this change is out of the way, it only seems appropriate that we put forward some additional changes to the 6010 ID & EDI Address Project Org Document to make the new Project Purpose "happen." For the existing document, see http://www.novannet.com/wedi/. Perhaps the Organization of the Project (Section 4.) needs to be changed around a bit to be more project focused, revolving around the production of "working papers" - right now we have the amorphous "Identifiers" and "EDI Address" Subgroups. Since no ideas on particular "Working Papers" have yet been proposed, I thought I might throw out a couple of my own suggestions which will give us something concrete to start on. These suggested "Working Paper" topics were garnered from the questions I asked in "Just what is it we're supposed to be doing?," on 26 February, 2002: (1) Interchange Identification and Routing Interoperability: How do you identify the sender and receiver of a standard transaction on the ISA? How can the ISA be addressed in a consistent way so interchanges can be delivered via intermediaries like VANs or CHs, or point-to-point? (2) Trading Partner Identification: Who are the trading partner entities involved in exchanging standard transactions? and what kind of identifiers are available for describing these entities? (3) EDI Addresses and Delivery Channels: How do we specify the destination technical address and its attributes? Now do you specify type of security - e.g., login and password? How would you accommodate scripting? How do you describe the multi-hop path traversed between trading partners through intermediaries and business associates? How do you describe the different "in-boxes" used depending on transaction type? What do you have to know about a trading partner's technical capabilities before you can send them a standard transaction? What information does a Trading Partner Agreement contain to answer any of these questions? What sort of communication protocols are in use today that need to be supported? and what sort of packaging techniques are used? (4) Electronic Trading Partner Agreements: Can a Trading Partner Agreement be made into a machine-processable form? Can we use the ebXML CPP? If not as it stands, then what changes would be needed to the CPP? Should we consider our own XML version of an e-TPA? How would EDI Addresses and Delivery Channels be represented in the e-TPA? Can an e-TPA completely supplant the need for paper TPAs? (5) e-TPA Discovery: How might electronic TPAs be automatically "discovered" for your trading partners? If we need a directory for "discovery" of Trading Partners, will UDDI or the ebXML RegRep suffice? If not, can we devise our own? Who would maintain it? (6) Application Identifiers: What's the relationship between the payer, plan and contract application identifiers and the identifiers used in the ISA? We need volunteers for the Working Papers. As Ben Stein would have said in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" - "anyone... anyone...?" And please remember: we have a teleconference scheduled for Friday March 8, from 1:30 - 2:30 EST, 703-736-7290, pin #1315331. William J. Kammerer Novannet, LLC. +1 (614) 487-0320
