Nice summary, Jeff. I'll buy you a drink for that if I ever see you in a bar!
Leah ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, October 22, 2010 7:51:23 PM Subject: Re: [EDI-L] EDIFACT vs. X12, public/free vs. nonpublic/expensive I'm jumping into this conversation late, but I've been following it. It seems to be that the viewer's opinion of public/free versus nonpublic/expensive seems to differ quite a lot based on whether you did the work (ie. have been on a committee) or you are doing the paying (just want to get the job done, but ran into a price tag)... (ok, so that's no new insight). My "new" contribution to this would be that, in IMHO, standards most help out those who are NOT the 800-pound gorilla in general. If you are working with a large retail house, most of the time you don't need the whole EDI dictionary, just the implementation guide for that house (or a good EDI consultant). The partner will pass it along to you. Now, because THEY (the partner) are the ones that will benefit the most (because they get to define the document, and have their "one map" whereas everyone else has to have one map for each entity), I think it works out. Those that benefit the most fromt the standard end up paying the most. Someone mentioned ebXML before. My main understanding about the "stall" in ebXML dream is finding some entity altruistic enough to host the entire community (standards, discovery, etc.). Free standards seem to be a great idea; but I've found the only real "free" standards are those that are agreed upon by two parties in a bar, scribbled on a napkin... (and sometimes those develop into non-free standards as well). In any case, for my 2 cents, I'm grateful for organizations that foster communication standards, whether they be fee-based (X12), sponsored (EDIFACT) or member dues supported (OAGI). We need these organizations because if they were not present, the largest organizations would tend to twist standards to match what their infrastructure already supports (attend an X12-N meeting if you don't believe me). Those of you for free standards, pony up to the bar, donate some of your time and effort... then (at least in this room) you'll be taken more seriously when expressing an opinion on "Free" standards. Jeff [B2B n EAI Personality] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> 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/
