Why do we continue to discuss XML versus EDI as though this were an either/or issue?
Isn't the whole issue of EDI versus XML versus XML/EDI resolving down to the
application of syntax, semantics, and messaging medium in the synchronous and
asynchronous interchange of information? It has been stated from the beginning of
this group that we're seeking EDI in combination XML. (In some reports to my clients,
I've described interchange medium as "Carrier", interchange syntax as "Container", and
interchange semantics (metadata) and information/data as "Content".)
For years, traditional EDI has invested much useful effort in building up an organized
and standardized body of interchange semantics (business rules,
vocabularies/data-dictionaries, grammar, etc.) using the content translation syntax of
various information/data mapping tools/methods to work over a VAN medium. XML has
come out since 1996 providing a more powerful content mapping and translation syntax
over the TCP/IP medium of the Internet, while being semantically neutral. EDI via
XML, in its many open and proprietary forms, seems to be seeking to move the rich
semantic knowledge of traditional EDI onto the syntax of XML over the Internet medium.
It seems to me that traditional EDI folks are saying "disregard the power and
economies of XML and the Internet, and continue to use the expensive and proprietary
EDI mapper software over expensive and proprietary VAN". This hope that XML and the
Internet will not globally usurp Traditional EDI syntax and medium is not realistic or
rational.
Modern EDI: Semantics = Traditional Standard EDI Messages = Information Content
Syntax = XML = Information Container
Medium = Internet+Intranet+Extranet+VPN+VAN = Information Carrier
Roy
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