Rachel, I think we agree, and are just saying the same thing in a slightly different way. I guess it boils down to the fact that if you want to "talk" electronically to your trading partner, you'll probably have to deal with the intermediary - the VAN. And that VAN will probably require you to subscribe with them (in order to "talk" to the partner), or charge onerous interconnect fees which will naturally be passed onto you by your own VAN.
As an aside, it shouldn't surprise us that trading partners are so stingy with information that allows others to connect with them directly. Either they are trying to avoid the hassles of direct connect and would rather have the hoi polloi "shunted" off to their VANs to handle, or they are paranoid privacy freaks. After all, take a look at the subscribers to EDI-L, who go into conniptions when their e-mail IDs are shown in the clear on mailing list archives. I think that it's sort of counter-productive to hide from others - you never know what opportunities will arise serendipitously simply by a stranger contacting you by e-mail based on something she's read with your address on it. You would think that, of all people, a "galvanizing provocateur" like myself would be the most likely to get hate mail from cranks because my e-mail ID is freely available, but I don't. William J. Kammerer Novannet, LLC. Columbus, OH 43221-3859 . USA +1 (614) 487-0320 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel Foerster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'EDI-L Mailing List'" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, 29 January, 2005 12:05 PM Subject: RE: [EDI-L] EDI Coordinator Trading Partner Contacts William, VAN's maintaining strict control and privacy over their trading partner directory is no different than other companies that maintain strict control over their customer list. A company's customers, as you well know, are their crown jewels and as such, considered extremely confidential and proprietary. Why should VAN's be any different? This is not holding subscribers hostage any more than any other company that controls the disclosure of its customer list. These subscribers (customers/trading partners) are free to choose another VAN for EDI services. Rachel Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd. 39432 North Avenue Beach Park, IL 60099 Voice: 847-872-8070 Fax: 847-589-8081 _____ From: William J. Kammerer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 7:08 AM To: EDI-L Mailing List Subject: Re: [EDI-L] EDI Coordinator Trading Partner Contacts Steve, nice sentiment, but I don't think it will fly. Don't look to VANs to maintain any public accessible registries: "There is no universal directory that VANs use to locate all enterprises, as a VAN treats its own trading partner directory as its family jewels. VAN interconnect is a very manual and unreliable process, requiring you to coordinate the link-up, as your new VAN would rely on you to tell them at which VAN your trading partners can be found. And sometimes other problems get in the way. With their monopoly on their subscriber lists, VANs don't just hold their own subscribers hostage - but sometimes even other VANs!" See http://www.novannet.com/vans.html William J. Kammerer Novannet, LLC. Columbus, OH 43221-3859 . USA +1 (614) 487-0320 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "EDI-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, 28 January, 2005 11:41 AM Subject: Re: [EDI-L] EDI Coordinator Trading Partner Contacts It would make sense for the VANs to maintain this registry, since they allready have that information. Let's say you are given an ISA ID and don't know who to contact the owner of the ISA ID you could go to a website to qd��uery a Name Service registry maintained and replicated by the VANs. That would also pave the way to unique ISA ID's across VANs. Regards, -Steve . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
