Thursday, March 13, 2003

A World Wide Web Consortium committee began meetings on Thursday to sort out an array of confusing, yet critical, Web services standards. Critics have charged that Microsoft and IBM are reluctant to work with the existing WS-Choreography working group due to the W3C's strict royalty and patent policy. Under W3C guidelines, published specifications cannot include patented technology or demand royalties for usage. Ross-Talbot said that if vendors push standards linked to their proprietary products, "partners would be required to license stuff, and they should not need to. That's why it's absolutely vital to be royalty-free," he said. "Personally I think (IBM and Microsoft are) shooting themselves in the foot."

W3C seeks standards accord [source BusinessWeek]

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

For decades, businesses have organized their automation endeavors around the very unnatural and unbusinesslike concept of the "software application." Applications automate business functions such as accounts payable, order processing, inventory control, human resources, and so on. But today's business applications are often described as stovepipes because they are separated by function, time and the data they manage.

Tearing Down 20th Century Stovepipes With 21st Century BPM [source ebizq.net]

Saturday, March 01, 2003

The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) today announced the election results for its 2003 board of directors. Re-elected to a second term were Ismael Ghalimi of Intalio, Howard Smith of Computer Sciences Corporation, Jeanne Baker of Sterling Commerce, and J. Matthew Pryor of Versata. Newly elected directors include Sinisa Zimek of SAP, Georg Simon of IDS Scheer, and Stephen White of SeeBeyond. The election process was completed at the organization's Annual General Meeting in Costa Mesa, California. Board members will provide both business and technical leadership as the organization continues its work providing open, royalty-free standards for the management of business processes.

BPMI.org announces new board of directors [source BPMI.org]