Conmergence

Thomas Erl Sends a Pointer to the Public SOA Design Patterns Review

<ed.note>Thomas writes:

Just wanted to let you know that a galley of the new soa design patterns book is being sent out to you. The design patterns are also published at www.soapatterns.org as part of an public, industry-wide review. Please refer any of your colleagues to this site that may also be interested in participating.

Best,

Thomas

Ed. - There is much more content at the site but I provide a snippet below:</ed.note>

From the site:

NOTE: The following content is part of an industry-wide SOA design patterns review that is being carried out until January 31, 2008. This content is still subject to change and is scheduled to be finalized by March, 2008.

The Public SOA Design Patterns Review

This site is currently dedicated to a public review of 60 design patterns from the upcoming book "SOA Design Patterns" by Thomas Erl.

The author is collecting feedback, opions, contributions, and validation from professionals and practioners from around the world in order to finalize the manuscript for a scheduled publication in March, 2008.

SOAPatterns.org will subsequently remain a community resource site, containing revised, concise descriptions of all SOA design patterns and allowing for new design patterns to be published and reviewed on an on-going basis.

15th Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference, July 23-25, Austin, TX

Agenda here.

SOA|UDEF Workshop, June 15 from 9.00am - 1.00pm EST

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is critical in a multi-enterprise healthcare ecosystem. Open Group has a major workgroup going on in SOA and Symantic Interoperability to address this issue. Most of our vendor/partners such as SAP, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco etc have not only become members of the Open Group but are pursuing SOA roadmaps. We are also asking all our vendors/partners to look into the UDEF Vendor Challenge for integrating the Stevens Academic Prototype on Diabetes - Remote Health/Blood Monitoring, Personalized Medicine and Electronic Medical Records with the National Health Information Network. For more details of the UDEF Vendor Challenge Click Here

The JJAPF Education Track is organizing a 1/2 day SOA workshop on Universal Data Element Framework on June 15 from 9.00am - 1.00pm EST. Webconferencing/location details are enclosed. Ron Shuldt, Chair Open Group/UDEF Project will be providing the instruction and several of our vendors/partners from the Open Group will also be attending this session.

UDEF is very similiar to the J&J meta-data stds (both have the origins in the same ISO stds). United Nations is using this and Homeland Security/Dept of Defence are looking at it. This is language/industry agnostic and can provide a consistent naming/numbering/indexing mechanism from Proforma artifacts to records/document management and can scale to the molecular level for chemicals/blood (eg could be aliased for the JNJ numbering scheme being used by ABCD in PRD)

The SOA/UDEF Training material will be presented live to allow for the students to interact with the UDEF trees that are viewable at http://www.opengroup.org/udefinfo/defs.htm . This can be currently downloaded as an Excel Spreadsheet at https://www.opengroup.org/projects/udef/protected/doc.tpl?gdid=13437

The first 90 minutes of the training will cover the key principles for selecting the correct property and the correct object. Specific examples on HR & Procurement will also be covered. The interactive session (about 90 minutes) that follows will provides the students with exercises that test some of the principles that they heard in the first 90 minutes. The UDEF mapping done during the Stevens Diabetes Prototype will be also demonstrated as an opportunity for future integration with the National Health Information Network.

We look forward to participation from our global community and especially the TOGAF/ITIL Trained/Certified members and the SOA Interest Workgroup. Please forward to others in your organization as well as your Open Group vendor/partners as appropriate.

Thank you,
JJAPF Education Track

SOA Forgot the Data: Composite Data Services and Data Governance

Ash Parikh and his colleagues Ajay Ramachandran, Premal Parikh, Bob Albo, and Murty Gurajada of the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo Best of Show Awards Finalist firm RainingData authored this "introduction to composite data services, a powerful framework in combination with XML data management, SOA registries and repositories."

Outsourcing the C-Suite [ Tweaked and reposted -- was: Ralph Szygenda believes that the high-tech industry can learn from the auto industry ]

<ed.note>The services and support industry no longer requires an overpaid, iddatarate management strata -- since it can easily be replaced by a webbed database, wiki or now, finally, outsourced. Shareholders, especially with the rise of "activists" coupled with the blogosphere, will get wise “that globalization hasn't gone far enough.” This is because there is no sphere in business to which Szygenda's "standards" do not apply and those standards lead to automation and outsourcing and real-time accountability ( interoperancy ) on a cost per unit basis. Adoption of service oriented architecture, the rise of financial services straight thru processing, and the push for transparent open book management is set to ignite a very interesting class war. Though the new money provided by increased productivity ( read: IT employees, whose data aggregation and process re-engineering produced the value ) produced has gone straight to "C" bonuses, rather than employees or stockholders, "C's" still feel a need to pull stuff like this and this.</ed.note>

A standard SOA paradox

Adam Michelson, guest commentary, http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com

What would service-oriented architecture be without standards? Not much. But is it any better off with the large number of SOA standards that exist? Java and the Java EE are feeling the backlash of a specification that is too complex with too many standards, as simpler scripting languages are making ground. SOA will suffer the same backlash if the number of SOA standards and specifications continues to grow in number and complexity. We already see the emergence of very simple REST Web services as IT professionals look for clarity through the morass of SOA standards. Simplicity is the pathway to adoption.

It is not easy to stem the tide of the creation of SOA standards. Many times the creation and support for standards is political, with certain standards backed by software vendors that have their own agenda. The standards that survive give their creators leverage, so the result is no shortage of standards being created and trying to be the fittest. Given the proliferation of SOA standards, there is an opportunity to take a step back and provide some perspective on all the SOA standards that exist. That is the purpose of this series of articles.

We will explore the key SOA standards and try to identify which are likely to be adopted. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. Identifying only the most popular standards is not a popular thing to do as there will be a few that may feel snubbed for not being included. But there are so many SOA standards that exist and they are changing constantly, so discussing them all is practically impossible. The different versions of all the standards compound the complexity. This article still lists almost 70 individual standards, way too many for the average IT worker to be expected to keep abreast of.

"Shared Vocabulary" in SOA

"Horizontal Future" by Peter A. Buxbaum, military-information-technology.com

What used to be known by the arcane terms of data taxonomy and ontology is now referred to as a “shared vocabulary,” according to Ken Pratt, chief architect at McDonald Bradley, which was the lead contractor on the horizontal fusion portfolio.

“Different organizations have different ways of describing information,” Pratt explained. “There must be 17 different ways to refer to an M-1 Abrams tank or an IED. By developing a shared vocabulary, communities of interest are able to describe the same thing in the same way.” This increases the relevance and reliability of data searches.

“We have long been proponents of paying attention to the data,” added Ken Bartee, chief executive officer of McDonald Bradley. “The network-centric strategy has little value to the warfighter in the field if the data layer is not usable.”

McDonald Bradley has brought 40 different defense data sources online, according to Bartee, who added, “But there are thousands are out there that are not online yet.”

Developing communities of interest involves bringing together different defense agencies that all deal with the same function or process, noted John Sutton, McDonald Bradley’s senior vice president for the Advanced Programs Group. Communities of interest can be of wide applicability, such as logistics or meteorology, or represent narrower areas as strike warfare, time-sensitive targeting and geospatial capabilities.

The shared vocabulary that results from the work of the communities of interest takes the form of metadata extensions to the core set of metadata set forth in the Defense Discovery Metadata Standard (DDMS). DDMS is a specification, which, along with various eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema, is being implemented throughout DoD in order to tag electronic resource holdings.

“Tags represent the content of the resource like a card catalog,” Pratt explained. “Instead of searching through an entire document, you search the metadata instead. This makes for a more efficient search and lends itself to a higher fidelity result.”

Registry the Right Way

"SOA for the real world" by Ash Parikh and Murty Gurajada, JavaWorld.com, 11/29/06

The focus of most SOA implementations today is on the service layer and often extends to the registry to publish and discover services. This approach to SOA is easy to comprehend. As mentioned previously, the concept of exposing services is not a new one. Most software architects and engineers have years of experience building services and should be comfortable applying their knowledge to expose services using the newer Web and XML technologies. Once the services are implemented, registry products based on UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) are used to publish and discover them.

With this architecture in place, enterprises already have much better visibility than was ever possible before WSDL (Web Services Description Language) and UDDI standards emerged on the scene. Unfortunately, it is because of this pleasing ROI that most implementations stop short in their tracks—that is, until it becomes apparent when trying to scale their model that a service layer with a registry is simply not enough for true SOA ROI.

A Roadmap for Interoperability of eHealth Systems

RIDE is a roadmap project for interoperability of eHealth systems leading to recommendations for actions and to preparatory actions at the European level. This roadmap will prepare the ground for future actions as envisioned in the action plan of the eHealth Communication COM 356 by coordinating various efforts on eHealth interoperability in member states and the associated states. Since it is not realistic to expect to have a single universally accepted clinical data model that will be adhered to all over the Europe and that the clinical practice, terminology systems and EHR systems are all a long way from such a complete harmonization; the RIDE project will address the interoperability of eHealth systems with special emphasis on semantic interoperability.

In order to create RIDE Roadmap, first the European best practices in providing semantic interoperability for eHealth domain will be assessed and the quantified requirements to create a valid roadmap will be identified. Based on these requirements, the goals, and the economical, legal, financial and technological challenges of the industry for the 21st century for achieving interoperability in eHealth solutions will be elaborated. RIDE will also focus on the limitations of the policies and strategies currently used in deploying interoperable eHealth solutions.

A research portal for sharing resources addressing semantic interoperability in eHealth domain will be created and maintained; the key actors and stakeholders will be coordinated around RIDE special interest groups to create a wide consensus at the European level. Through eight RIDE workshops a shared vision for building a Europe-wide semantically interoperable eHealth infrastructure will be created. After assessing the gaps between the 'as-is' situation and the 'to-be' eHealth vision, the emerging trends and opportunities to achieve the vision statement, the required advances in the state of the art research, technology and standards will be identified.

More here

webMethods Advances Fabric Vision with Acquisition of Cerebra

PR Here

As organizations move down the paths of SOA and BPM there is a growing realization that there is a price to pay for increased levels of flexibility and reuse. That price is complexity. Simply keeping track of all the assets that are relevant and available for the construction of a new business process is a challenge. Understanding what these assets do and how they interact remains largely unaddressed.

Metadata has long since been identified as a critical building block for any solution, but metadata alone does little to address the issue of complexity and in many cases accentuates it. The key lies with semantic technology and its ability to allow flexible and dynamic integration of metadata. Cerebra is a pioneer and recognized market leader in the use of standards-based, semantic technology for metadata management. Cerebra’s solution automates the integration and organization of IT metadata from any source.

Once embedded in the next release of webMethods Fabric, the Cerebra solution will allow greater visibility into the availability and dependencies of IT assets, consistent and compliant asset reuse across the organization and improved levels of collaboration across all stakeholders through the synchronization of a common business vocabulary.

The acquisition of Cerebra marks a fundamental shift in the levels of visibility and interaction our customers will have with their SOA and BPM assets, delivering greater insight into the opportunities for continuous business process improvement.

Enable real-world trading partner collaborations in SOA

[ An introduction to the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement standard ]

By Leo Fernandez, Ash Parikh, Varun Gupta, Javaworld.com

This article is part of a series of short articles that introduce readers to the industry's various Web services standards. These articles provide a quick introduction to these standards, their backgrounds, underlying architectures, benefits, status, and industry adoption. As some of the content may be a depiction of the authors' viewpoints, readers are encouraged to refer to the links provided in Resources to gain a deeper understanding of a particular standard. This article focuses on Web services-enabled trading-partner collaboration standards that influence a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

ebBP v2.0.3 packages has been approved as an OASIS Committee Specification

We are actively working within OASIS and with other interested user communities in Asia, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands to gain the implementation certifications to advance to OASIS Standard and hopefully to ISO to complete the ISO-15000 series (mentioned in OASIS Symposium last week).  We'd welcome your support in this regard.

We've consolidated a wealth of information relevant to our user communities at our public web site at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-bp  v2.0.3 Packages and, if desired, individual schema files, see "Technical Work Produced by the Committee."

ebBP is also in the news:

1. ebBP was featured in the SOA Business Session at the OASIS Symposium, May 2006, see "Expository Work Produced by the Committee."< /li>
2. ebBP was featured at the OMG Think Tank on "Business Collaboration Using ebBP" (also posted at the location above). Thanks to our team member Sally St. Amand for providing interested users and BPM enthusiasts with more details on ebBP at this event.

Both presentations are available at the public web site provided. Also, check out web site:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• ebBP Overview
  • Process definitions for
    • CPPA negotiation
    • UBL or UBL Small Business Subset (SBS) v1.0 process definitions: Features modular definitions and use of new document reference function and also includes CPPA package
    • Dutch government criminal justice instances and use case document
    • Business signal examples
    • Knit wear Italian draft process definitions
  • Draft ebBP editor: User guide and update are to be released very soon.

Note, the UBL Small Business Subset v1.0 is now an OASIS Committee Specification and includes a set of ebBP v2.0.3 modular process definitions, called Universal Business Processes.

As we've said before (and will say again politely), our focus on user communities is paying off - one example being the interest in the UBL community - and we now have achieved Committee Specification. We're interested in those that are developing their own process definitions and can show their successful use of ebBP. We encourage you to check out our public web site and keep abreast of our progress made thus far.  For those using or interested in using ebBP, please contact Dale Moberg and myself (particularly if you are an OASIS member!). Best regards.

Respectfully,
    Dale Moberg, <dmoberg @ us.axway.com>
    Monica J. Martin, monica.martin @ sun.com
    and the ebBP team

OASIS Committee Standardizes Use of Biometric Identity Assurance in Web Services and SOA

Members of the OASISinternational standards consortium are developing a standard for invoking biometrics-based identity assurance using Web services and service oriented architectures (SOA). The new OASIS Biometric Identity Assurance Services (BIAS ) Integration Technical Committee will complement the efforts of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), a standards development organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Where INCITS is working to define the taxonomy of functions that form a framework for deploying identity assurance in the biometrics and security industries, OASIS will define the methods and bindings by which that framework can be used within XML-based transactional services. The two companion standards are expected to reference one another.

"We expect that the INCITS and OASIS initiatives will inform and improve on one another," noted Karen Higgenbottom, chair of the INCITS executive board, which also serves as ANSI's Technical Advisory Group for ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1. "BIAS should significantly increase the opportunities for implementing biometric functions in XML-based systems. Likewise, current SOA methods for exchanging information and transactions data may provide useful parameters and patterns for the broader application of BIAS data in the security industry."

"Biometric systems are becoming more complex as they are integrated into larger identity management and credentialing systems," observed Catherine Tilton of Daon, chair of the OASIS BIAS Integration Technical Committee. "At the same time, there is a growing need for data sharing and reuse of resources and services within and across organizations. Today, custom built, proprietary solutions are the only option. The availability of a standard biometric services interface will allow systems to be implemented on an open architecture and provide users with greater choice in products and services."

"This project represents complementary development efforts between OASIS and INCITS, and we hope it will serve as a model for future collaboration," stated James Bryce Clark, director of standards development at OASIS. "It offers a compelling opportunity for existing SOA and XML security technologies to more broadly consume biometric technologies."

The new committee members foresee their work leveraging a variety of security, Web services, and SOA standards developed at OASIS, including WS-Security. In addition, vertical industry efforts that require secure identification and authentication may make use of the BIAS effort. It may also influence work produced by other standards bodies, biometrics research groups, SOA architects, vendors and users.

Laying the groundwork for 'process oriented architecture'

Just two Joes chattin' about SOA and POA

Bird Flu XML [was: ebXML at the CDC has been a success story]

Integration languages make B2B communication more effective

April 7, 2005 By Johanna Ambrosio, SearchCIO.com

... Granted, it's early going, according to experts, and adopting these kinds of communications protocols is anything but a quick-and-dirty kind of project. It can take years for systems to be built and for customers and partners to be brought fully into the loop.

But that's not stopping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. The federal watchdog organization over flu, hepatitis and other health threats has based the messaging portion of its new Public Health Information Network (PHIN) on ebXML. The protocol will act as the standard means for exchanging messages among all 50 states and the CDC. Other users -- including clinical facilities and medical laboratories around the country -- will be brought in as well, said Barry Rhodes, associate director for public health systems development.

At this point, PHIN has been implemented in about 15 state health departments, with the rest to be rolled out over the next three years, Rhodes said. PHIN, based on a bevy of computing and other standards, is about the secure and reliable exchange of information. It's envisioned to be a unifying framework built on top of existing standards whenever possible; for instance, Secure Sockets Layer and some Java technologies are included in the system as well.

For its part, ebXML is "the envelope into which we put messages," Rhodes explained. "Some are XML messages and some are not."

The CDC chose ebXML as the underlying message transport because it liked its approach. "The developers of ebXML looked at the business need of interactions between business partners, of how that could happen." Rhodes said. "We needed that business process modeling perspective that ebXML provides. [In comparison,] Web services tools take a bottoms-up approach -- that approach is more of a solution to a technical issue, of how to distribute functionality across servers and the Internet."

So far, ebXML at the CDC has been a "success story," because it has allowed much greater interoperability than what previously occurred among the states, Rhodes said. "Our ROI is about communication and getting more information to and from the CDC."

Rhodes was not able to share specific data, but he talked about one application -- in operation for years -- that gathers information about notifiable public health threats, including E. coli bacteria and the chickenpox.

"We look at the data and analyze it for things like latency and the amount of data received -- and we have compared those to what was happening pre-PHIN," Rhodes explained. "We've seen a demonstrable increase in the amount of data and a decrease in information latency."

The biggest threat to ebXML adoption, he said, is that it's early enough in the technology's lifecycle that it's not yet a sure bet that all the major computing vendors will support it. "It's one thing to put forth a standard," he said, "but if Microsoft and IBM choose not to implement it, that makes it very difficult. Predicting the future is a hard thing." ...

An OASIS White Paper: 'The ebBP' (ebXML Business Process Specification Schema)

By The OASIS Business Process TC (Dale Moberg and Monica J. Martin, co-chairs) For OASIS

Executive Summary

Business processes are key components to enable and drive collaborating partner relationships for electronic business (eBusiness). The ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS or ebBP) provides capabilities drive those eBusiness collaborative processes. As a part of the original eBusiness eXtensible Markup Language (XML) [ebXML] framework of specifications, the ebBP is targeted for monitoring of collaborative business processes among parties or business partners.

The ebBP (ebXML Business Process Specification Schema) defines a standard language to configure business systems for business collaboration execution between collaborating parties or business partners. It provides:

Standard and extensible business transaction patterns

Support for modular definitions to complex nested activities

Support for use of web service, hybrid and ebXML assets

Semantic tailoring for business processes and business documents

In the second quarter 2006, the OASIS ebBP v2.0.3 set of packages are moving towards OASIS standard. The changes and capabilities defined in the v2.0.x packages have substantially increased the business value-add for using standard process definitions. These definitions support tailoring of eBusiness processes and business documents to serve our user community.

The ebBP focuses on an integrated eBusiness adaptable approach in order to support heterogeneous environments, particularly Small- to Medium-Enterprises. As with other specifications and capabilities, ebBP can be leveraged other ebXML and/or emerging web services technologies.

It is the ‘community at large’ that has emboldened the development of ebBP and likely will drive its adoption.

Liberty Alliance Announces eHealth Workshop in Washington DC April 26

April 7, 2006 PRNewswire

Industry Leaders Gather to Address the Advancement of Open and Interoperable Identity Management Solutions in the Healthcare Sector

The Liberty Alliance Project, the global consortium developing open standards for federated identity, interoperable strong authentication and identity-enabled Web services, today announced its first eHealth workshop to take place from 1:00 to 5:00 PM on April 26th in Washington DC. This free event will be held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner and is open to all individuals interested in discussing issues and potential solutions to the technology and policy challenges surrounding identity management in the healthcare sector.

The workshop will be a lively discussion in developing strategies and solutions regarding collaboration and public/private partnerships to foster adoption of open standards, authentication, and the Federal Health Architecture for the National Health Information Network (NHIN) and regional health information networks. Confirmed speakers include Kelly Cronin (ONCHIT), David Temoshok and Marc Wine (GSA), Tom Leary and Pete Palmer(HIMSS Advocacy and RHIO Federation). Anyone interested in attending the workshop can register and get more information by visiting https://www.projectliberty.org/scripts/workshop_ehealth_apr26.asp

Liberty formed its eHealth group last year to advance interoperable and privacy-respecting standards for federated identity management and identity-enabled Web services in the healthcare sector. Members work collectively to address the technology, privacy and policy issues surrounding identity management in healthcare applications. Over 100 members from the global healthcare community currently participate in Liberty's eHealth group.

Bredesen creates e-health advisory board

April 3, 2006 Nashville Business Journal

Gov. Phil Bredesen has signed an executive order establishing an e-health advisory council to coordinate Tennessee's various initiatives leading toward the adoption of an electronic medical record.

The Governor's eHealth Advisory Council will encompass 16 members from various stakeholding interests, including employers, regional health information organizations, payers and consumer groups. Chairing the body will be Antoine Agassi, a former chief technology officer at Spheris and chief information officer for WebMD.

<ed.note>I'll keep checking my voicemail; nuthin' so far!</ed.note>

The council will advise state government on promoting the successful adoption of EMR's. Electronic medical records are viewed as a way to improve care by collecting a patient's updated health data and eliminate waste by cutting out the need for repeated tests. President Bush has made a goal of nationwide EMR adoption during the next decade.

Open Healthcare Framework (OHF) Project using IHE/XDS ebXML Registry [was: IBM To Launch Electronic Medical-Record-Sharing Project { or ebIBM }]

Posted by David Webber at ebforum news and ebxmlforum.net

The Open Healthcare Framework (OHF) Project is using the IHE/XDS secure document server developed by NIST using the ebXML Registry OMAR open source implementation - (http://www.freebxml.org).

At the recent IHE connectathon and HIMSS showcase the OHF team demonstrated a full XDS system, end to end. The XDS system includes XDS Registry, Repository, PIX server, ATNA, and all related clients - Document Consumer, Source, PIX/PDQ, CT. and ATNA.

The project includes collaboration between IBM, BEA, Mayo Clinic, Cisco Systems and other clinical participants.

For more information on the project see the website: http://www.eclipse.org/ohf/

Business Managers are leading the adoption of ‘Services’ with IT departments lagging behind

March 1st, 2006 Andy Mulholland, CTO, Capgemini, Monthly Technology Brief
Phone +44 (0)207 434 2171 andy.mulholland@capgemini.com

So what is driving the business managers? It’s a combination of two activities; the first is the overwhelming growth in the use of e mail as a business collaborative tool to orchestrate ad hoc process to answer the diversity of operational issues that the fast changing business market place introduces. The second is the growth in vertical industry trade associations agreeing XML based data sets for their members to interchange operational data between their enterprises. Nether of these is connected to either the ERP or Application models that IT departments are mandated and funded to manage on behalf of the business. It’s something new and different as a business requirement, even a business activity. The Internet and Architecture are common to both; in the case of e mail the Internet supports the universal connectivity whilst ‘service’ architecture the mechanism for any e mail client to send and receive with any other client regardless of product provider. XML interchanges work in a similar way around data and its comprehension to the two machines interacting.

So much promise, so much challenge

3/27/2006 By S. Michael Gallagher, washingtontechnology.com

SOAs link disparate systems, but still make federal agencies think

If ever a technology seemed tailored to the needs of government, it is service-oriented architecture. With the need for thousands of disparate systems to share information, particularly for homeland security, across organizational boundaries, SOA offers agencies an attractive shortcut to their data-sharing goals.

SOA lets organizations share their applications’ data and business logic with other applications, either in the same organization or across divisions, by publishing them as Web services. Because these services can use the same protocol used by Web applications, they also can be configured for use behind a firewall or across firewalls.

And because SOA uses a standard set of protocols, defined by organizations such as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, and the Web Services Interoperability Organization, IT can be used to tie together the functionality and data from widely disparate applications. Agencies can use tools from several software companies to connect Web services to nearly any information system, including mainframe “green-screen” applications.

The Defense Department, through its Defense Information Systems Agency, has begun to move forward with a significant cross-service SOA, Net-Centric Enterprise Services. Market analysts at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., estimated that by 2008, 80 percent of all new software projects will be based on SOA.

Release of Webswell Connect 1.4.1 open-source ebXML integration platform

Webswell Inc. released a new version of Webswell Connect, the open-source ebXML integration platform. Webswell Connect 1.4.1 constitutes a comprehensive ebXML integration platform that supports http, https and email communication while keeping it safe and reliable implementing digital signatures, encryption, acknowledgments mechanism, duplication elimination etc. Webswell Connect 1.4.1 contains the most recent versions of its components: Webswell Broker (ebXML message broker) and Hermes 1 (ebXML message service handler). The whole platform is production quality and has been implemented in business cases where it has been proving its interoperability with other integration platforms on the market. Webswell Connect 1.4.1 is entirely open source software distributed under Academic Free License. Download here.

The Webswell Connect 1.4.1 contains:

• E-business registry and repository
• ebXML messaging system
• Application connector called Webswell Broker
• Demonstration and monitoring utilities
• Components and libraries needed for the platform function
• XML editor

About Webswell:
Webswell Inc. is a Sacramento, California based integration company specialized in building ebXML and Web Services integration solutions and providing related consultancy. Webswells mission is to help companies of any size to build business integration solutions and exploit benefits that such integration provides. All Webswell software is based on open, non-proprietary standards and is open-source licensed.

Contact:
Ladislav Urban
http://www.webswell.com

TigerLogic Plug-In for Sun Services Registry

Ash Parikh* wrote recently

...Just wanted to inform you that the press release on the Plug-In is now live and the respective download page on our website is in place, fully tested and ready for download requests.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060302/lath057.html?.v=47

http://www.rainingdata.com/

http://www.rainingdata.com/products/TLSunPlugin/index.html

http://www.rainingdata.com/products/TLSunPlugin/signup/index.html

Cheers!

*Director of Development and Technology, EAG
Raining Data Corporation (NASDAQ: RDTA)
"Technology for Innovative Solutions"
www.rainingdata.com
+1 (510) 673-2922 - Office
+1 (510) 372-0432 - eFax
ash@rainingdata.com - Email

Co-Chair: SDForum Web services SIG
Founding Member: OASIS SOA Blueprints TC
Co-Chair: W2COG Technical Advisory and Oversight Committee
Member: OASIS, JCP, W3C, EPCGlobal, Supply-Chain Council, BPM Institute
Founder and President: World Wide Institute of Software Architects
Product Advisory Board Member: Iopsis Software, WindSpirng

Medical Banking Project Selects ECLIPSE For Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology Reference Architecture Initiative

Franklin, TN (February 21, 2006) -- The Medical Banking Project joined the Eclipse Foundation as an Associate Member to build out its C.O.M.B.A.T. reference architecture using the Eclipse Open Healthcare Framework (OHF). The OHF is the reference implementation platform for the Healthcare Services Specifications Project, supported by Health Level Seven (HL7) and the Object Management Group (OMG). MBProject will architect and build out medical banking functions using the platform.

"Eclipse offers a world class platform with a solid user base," said John Casillas, founder of MBProject. MBProject is focused on combating rising costs in healthcare by enabling banks to link consumers, providers, health plans, RHIOs, employers and others.  The Eclipse OHF will reduce the time necessary to build a reference implementation for this purpose." The effort includes new 'mbXML' profiles that banks could use to do things like present personal healthcare records via online portals or support real time settlement of claims.

"Eclipse is an excellent open source environment," said John Hardin, CIO of Kentucky-based MAPHIN.net and Chair of the Planning and Design Subcommittee for MBProject. "We are monitoring all of the standards harmonization mechanisms in the marketplace while linking our project to a state-of-the-art platform."

"We are looking forward to working with the Medical Banking Project.  They have extensive knowledge and experience in healthcare, financial organizations and large employers," said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation.  He was referring to organizations like Disney, ABAN AMRO, PNC Bank, Mellon, Wachovia, US Bank, Fiserv, United Healthcare and many others who have joined MBProject.

"Eclipse OHF is active in HSSP and will ensure that the standards we produce are not shelfware," said Ken Rubin, one of the co-chairs of the HSSP effort. "Commitments to these open solutions, such as the Medical Banking Project is making, are essential if the healthcare industry is going to realize the vision of reliable, secure, open interoperability. We are excited to have them aboard."

To centralize development activity MBProject selected Edifecs, Inc., a leading provider of transaction interoperability solutions. "Edifecs will help us to test and certify our transactions for HIPAA compliance and work through versioning of the system," said Hardin, a former GM e-commerce consultant. "We're very excited to be a member of MBProject and participate in the deployment of the community portal," said Herb Larsen, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Seattle, WA-based Edifecs. "Our solutions support leading firms around the world and we look forward to furthering our support for medical banking stakeholders, as well."

The C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative (which stands for "Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture and Technology") was announced in July 2005 and since has attracted a global following.  Further updates will be made at MBProject's 4th National Medical Banking Institute in Nashville, TN, starting on February 22, where leaders will convene to discuss how medical banking models can transform claims processing, adoption of personal healthcare records, coordination of community healthcare and other areas. Proceedings will be captured in a "Medical Banking Road Map for America, Version 2" and delivered to government agencies.

TradeXchange to serve 8,000 users by 2007

Kenneth Liew, ComputerWorld Singapore

A new trade and logistics platform, TradeXchange, is expected to go live in October 2007 and will support an estimated 8,000 users from the Singapore trading community.

In a speech at a Singapore Customs event last month, Lim Hwee Hua, Minister of State for Finance and Transport, said TradeXchange will be a neutral and secure platform that will enable exchange of information between shippers, freight forwarders, carriers and government agencies, to facilitate the flow of goods within, through and out of Singapore. This trade infrastructure will be able to provide seamless inter-connectivity among commercial and regulatory systems for our trade and logistics businesses.

...A 10-year contract to develop and operate TradeXchange has been awarded to CrimsonLogic. Valued at $6.5 million, the platform is expected to generate about $200 million for CrimsonLogic over the 10-year period through subscriptions.

...TradeXchange will be developed on the Java platform and based on a service-oriented architecture. It will also be aligned with global best practices and technical standards including W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), UN/Cefact (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business), Oasis (Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), ebXML and RosettaNet.

Using Your Cellphone as a Credit Card

February 8, 2006 By SARA SILVER, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Taking a service that is growing in Asia, Motorola Inc. is planning to launch a system that will allow people to purchase products simply by waving a cellphone with an embedded chip over scanners at the cash register.

<ed.note>The sweet spot will be being able to access your EMR, and M-Wallet pay your doctor from your HSA and have remittances settled in real-time. Accessing charity care eligibility is possible as well since cells are the most ubiquitous globally interactive data access device -- even the medically uninsured will have them. To learn about the open source cooperative reference architecture building toward that see http://www.mbproject.org/combat-homepage.php . Better yet, visiting the Feb 22-23 Medical Banking Institute would not be a counterintuitive decision http://www.mbproject.org . I find it interesting as well that there are Motorola phones which use iTunes and iPods which can host videos and Osirix. How long before I can go to iTunes to download my EMR and related scans? I just hope they'll be interoperable with the Intel and SCOPE boxes...</ed.note>

MAPHIN completes testing in Interoperability Connectathon

February 2, 2006 - Chicago, IL and Lexington, KY

The MAPHIN management team announces the successful completion of interoperability testing between the MedAccessPlus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN.net) and dozens of EHR/EMR and medical software vendors.

The 2006 Connectathon, held at RSNA headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., the week before last, brought together 64 vendors and 150 different systems, about 20 percent higher participation than last year. Joyce Sensmeier reports that about 90 percent of the testing was successful.

"I think that was a major achievement for all of them," says Joyce Sensmeier, vice president for informatics at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), one of the sponsors of the Connectathon, a week-long test of interoperability for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). IHE is a project of HIMSS, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and the American College of Cardiology.

"It was a very successful week," says Dan Russler, M.D., co-chair of the IHE committee on patient care and vice president of clinical technology, McKesson Provider Technologies, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based health-IT division of healthcare conglomerate McKesson Corp.

The vendors submitted their proposed testing criteria in December and had been testing their systems locally before the Connectathon. For the event, they had to repeat each same test with at least three other companies to prove true interoperability. "They want to make sure it works generally," Russler says.

In the case of electronic health records, the vendor receiving the information -- which IHE calls the "document consumer" -- should be able to: view the document; import and store the document for later viewing; and import specific patient information, such as test results or medication lists. (Senders are dubbed "document sources.")

MAPHIN.net is a provider of the "IT Infrastructure" components, which provide the middleware "glue" that ties all the EHR/EMR vendor software together to share the documents. These infrastructure components include the Cross Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS) server, the Patient Identifier Cross Referencing (PIX) server, the Patient Demographics Query (PDQ) server and the Audit Trail Node Authentication (ATNA) server. When operating together in a Service Oriented Architecture, these components use open standards from OASIS and HL7 to accomplish secure, real-time clinical document sharing across entire communities.

"EHR communication is oriented around sending and receiving of electronic messages," explains Russler, who is a member of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Vendors Association standards workgroup and a director of standards-setting body Health Level Seven.

With this test complete, participants can look forward to IHE's second-annual Interoperability Showcase at the Feb. 12-16 HIMSS conference in San Diego.

"The HIMSS demo is the first large-scale demo of a RHIO," Russler says. While last year's inaugural Interoperability Showcase was "kind of a practice run," according to Russler, "This is organized with the security and content standards that one would actually find in a RHIO."

About MedAccess Plus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN)
MAPHIN is a Kentucky-based eHealth firm with Electronic Health Record (EHR) networking technology that uses the Internet to integrate information generated by medical providers, insurers, hospitals and patients into a comprehensive suite of service. MAPHIN's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Steven Spady, is a highly respected Family Physician in Kentucky with a Master of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr Spady is seen as a leader in the field of eHealth, communicating his vision for real-time, integrated healthcare information processes to government and private health organisations since 1998. MAPHIN's Chief Technology Officer, John Hardin, is seen as a leader in the Internet business field. Mr Hardin most recently served as Chief Architect of e-Business for General Motors, and is the current chair of the OASIS e-business Service Oriented Architecture Technical Committee.

John C Hardin
Chief Technology Officer
MedAccessPlus Health Informatics Network
http://www.maphin.net
606.596.1061
john@maphin.net

MedAccessPlus Health Informatics Network. For the whole picture, instantly.

ebBP Editor wiki

This document provides brief information about the ebBP Editor, and a User Guide for end-users presenting the usage and capabilities of the ebBP Editor. Please note that, this document DOES NOT provide a background on ebBP. Moreover, the ebBP Editor is based on the ebBP v2.0.1 specification, but is not dependent on this specification. That is, it can be easily adapted to future specification versions.

The ebBP Editor is a tool designed to help the user in creating generic as well as domain specific Business Process Specifications based on ebBP Version 2.0 by using semantic mechanisms. The editor lets the user to create Process Specifications from scratch or use the existing ones.

CEN/ISSS Workshop eBES organizes three ebXML Market Survey Events

With the support of the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry, the CEN/ISSS Workshop eBES organizes three ebXML Market Survey Events.

These events will take place respectively in:

• Madrid on 31 January 2006
• Lisbon on 1 February 2006
• Oslo on 8 February 2006

If you are interested do not hesitate to contact the organizers or the eBES Secretariat

7 Software Applications Certified by Drummond Group for Global ebXML Interoperability

Interoperable ebMS Systems Mark Launch of Drummond Certified™ Program

AUSTIN, TX—Jan. 25, 2006—Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), the leading interoperability e-commerce certification company, today announced that seven software products from seven leading companies successfully completed the Drummond Certified™ program’s ebMS (ebXML Message Service)-4Q05 interoperability testing. This test round formally launched DGI’s Drummond Certified program designed for industries to drive adoption of technical standards and certify a stable foundation of software products to support their supply chains. Starting in 2006, all ebMS, AS1, AS2, AS3 and CSOS tests will be conducted under the Drummond Certified program.

ebMS is the messaging layer of the ebXML framework. The adoption of interoperable ebMS systems is critical to the growth of today’s marketplace to ensure that different information systems within numerous industries are able to exchange information efficiently and effectively.

Companies demonstrating interoperability among their products in the ebMS-4Q05 test round included Axway Software, Cleo Communications, Cyclone Commerce, Inc., Inovis USA, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Oxlo Systems, Inc., and Sterling Commerce. The software products from these solution providers deliver a cross-industry selection of tested standards- based, interoperable ebMS solutions to worldwide industries, including automotive, financial services, government, health care, public health and retail.

“For effective and timely responses between trading partners around the world, it is essential to choose tested and certified interoperable ebMS products,” said Rik Drummond, DGI’s chief executive officer. “Reliance on secure business data messaging techniques that are interoperable with various product versions and platforms will continue to advance to serve the needs of ever-changing industries throughout the world. These Drummond Certified solutions are ready to simplify and streamline the integration process between organizations and their customers at all levels.”

Interoperability and conformance testing of B2B and electronic commerce products are DGI’s core competency. DGI is structured to support an organization’s testing effort in an efficient, professional, cost-effective manner. By providing conformance and interoperability testing services, as well as certification and test development of software applications, DGI facilitates these professional, vendor-neutral services under its own newly- launched Drummond Certified program and various association-branded certification programs throughout several industries.

For specific ebMS-4Q05 test results, final report and registration information for 2006 test rounds, please visit: http://www.drummondgroup.com/html-v2/ebXML-companies.html.

The list below reflects products that passed the ebMS-4Q05 Drummond Certified™ interoperability test.

Company Product, Version
Axway Software ebMS Connector v2.1
Cleo Communications VersaLex™ v3.0 tested in VLTrader™ v3.0
Cyclone Commerce Cyclone Interchange/Activator/Central v5.3
Inovis USA Inc. BizManager 3.0
Oracle Corporation Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.2)
Oxlo Systems Inc. AutoTPX ebMS MSH, v1.31
Sterling Commerce Gentran Integration Suite/Sterling Integrator v4.1

Webswell starts ebXML certification process with KorBIT consortium

Jan 13th, 13:27 UTC , LinuxPR

Webswell Connect interoperability and ebXML standards conformance certification process launched

January 2006 - Sacramento, CA - Webswell Inc. has started the certification process of its Connect integration suite with KorBIT certification authority. During the certification process, Webswell Connect components will be tested for conformance with ebXML messaging standards (ebMS) and for interoperability with other state-of-the-art platforms.

• Conformance tests cover topics like Message Packaging, Core Extension Elements, Error Handling, Sync Reply, Reliable Messaging, Message Ordering and Security
• Interoperability tests focus on on-line communication between pairs of systems while various functions are monitored and evaluated, for example: Basic asynchronous or synchronous exchange with zero and more payloads, Acknowledgments processing, Error states processing etc.

Webswell expects from certification greater software quality and standards compliance guarantee that will significantly reduce efforts and costs of building B2B integration platforms.

Apart from certification process, Webswell and KorBIT agreed on closer cooperation. Webswell will build KorBIT adapter into future releases of Webswell Broker to provide prospective integration solutions developers with ability to test installed solutions for standards conformance and for interoperability quickly and easily. KorBIT will use Webswell Broker for more efficient usage of KorBIT testbed.

Webswell Broker release with built-in KorBIT adapter is planned for Spring 2006.

About KorBIT: Created in December 2002 in Korea, KorBIT is an open consortium formed to help enterprises to promote their interoperability in conducting businesses over the Internet. The KorBIT's mission is to demonstrate, validate, and assure interoperability among enterprises, by:

• Validating the conformance and interoperability of messaging, security, documents, and processes among enterprises;
• Validating the B2B, A2A, and supply chain solutions being used;
• Developing architectures, methodologies, and guidelines for automated testing and validation;

About Webswell: Webswell Inc. is a Sacramento, California based integration company specialized in building ebXML and Web Services integration solutions and providing related consultancy. Webswell's mission is to help companies of any size to build business integration solutions and exploit benefits that such integration provides. All Webswell software is based on open, non-proprietary standards and is open-source licensed.

enerbility Integrated CECID's Hermes for European Energy Trading

The Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and enerbility software gmbh of Vienna, Austria, are pleased to announce that the open source ebXML message service handler, Hermes, has been integrated in the electronic confirmation matching system enerbility 2.0.

enerbility 2.0 is the second generation of an ECM-system developed for the over-the-counter trading in the European energy industry. It is in use at major energy trading companies in Europe like E.ON, ATEL, Statkraft and APT.

enerbility focuses on the integration of best-of-breed third-party components into and around its transactional XML exchange and processing technology. To comply with the industry demand for ebXML, enerbility went for Hermes. In the selection process almost all available ebXML products have been evaluated and a selected subset has been tested.

Martin Schimak, the engineer evaluating the products, states: "In our evaluation process, we've considered all relevant aspects to find the best product concerning cost-performance ratio. We chose Hermes and are very satisfied with its stability and performance."

Hannes Stiebitzhofer, CEO of enerbility software gmbh, adds: "The reliability of Hermes - besides its ebXML MS 2.0 compliance as tested by ebXML Asia Committee - is a perfect complement to enerbility, running without any incidents for months."

CECID is happy about Hermes' first production use in the European energy trading market. "This is very encouraging to all of us. enerbility has demonstrated the use of Hermes in a 'raw material' supply chain. Without the support of our funding agency, the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong, we couldn't have developed Hermes. On the other hand, today's Hermes is also the result of contribution by developers in the open-source community around the world. I'm very pleased to see Hermes being chosen as the messaging gateway to facilitate the energy sector," says Dr. David Cheung, Director of CECID.

Thomas Lee, CTO of CECID, also responds positively to enerbility's decision. "enerbility is an innovative and fast-moving company. We are proud that Hermes, an open-source project that has been downloaded by 80+ economies, is able to meet enerbility's stringent requirements for performance and scalability in terms of handling a large number of messages reliably and securely."

MAPHIN and COMPASSCARE Integrate Electronic Health Record Documents Sharing

January 4, 2006 (Lexington, KY)

Now employers and community-driven health initiatives can connect together to securely deliver better healthcare for less costs and facilitate economical bill submission and processing for payers.

A leader in healthcare e-commerce solutions, MAPHIN is pleased to announce the completion of an integration project with CompassCare, one of the nation's premier Electronic Health Records and Practice Management software vendors. The integration signifies the launch of a joint marketing and business relationship between the two companies.

"This enables clinical documents to be located, selected and displayed between care providers and the software applications they rely on, greatly increasing the quality of information doctors need to deliver care," said John Hardin, Chief Technology Officer of MAPHIN. "Over the next few years there will be a dramatic increase in the productivity and interoperability of both clinical and financial information related to healthcare. MAPHIN is building the network to make the whole ecosystem work seamlessly."

The CompassCare system integrates clinicals, practice management, EMR, billing and communication processes on top of a rules engine driven architecture - all accessible from a secure, HIPPA compliant, web-interface. The combination of the CompassCare clinical solution and MAPHIN's connectivity capability make for a compelling proposition to regional community health initiatives and employers seeking solutions to reduce their healthcare costs and connect together providers community-wide. "Effectively managing the delivery of healthcare services is paramount for employers who often have employees disbursed broadly across their communities.  We designed CompassCare with the intent of improving the delivery of care on a massive scale.  This is being validated at by our MAPHIN connectivity project and with several other hospital systems that use our software," said Stuart Johnstone, CEO of CompassCare Inc." The CompassCare system helps hospitals reduce the costs associated with processing claims, ensure compliance with regulations, eliminate redundant data entry, manage the delivery of care, and improve communication flow between key stakeholders such as the healthcare provider, the employer and the insurer, all to ensure the injured worker gets the required treatment quickly and efficiently," says Johnstone.

The technical infrastructure components that make the integration possible are built based on the groundbreaking work of the HIMSS IT Infrastructure committee, and the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise e-business standards. Known as Cross Enterprise Clinical Document Sharing, the committee is in the 7th year of development of the technical standards. More information about IHE and the HIMSS IT Infrastructure can be reviewed at http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_IHE.asp.

The two companies will be participating in the annual Connectathon, a technical interoperability event where hundreds of software vendors andinfrastructure providers connect and certify the interoperability of their applications. Both companies will also be demonstrating the functionality at the HIMSS Conference's Interoperability Showcase. The technical team at MAPHIN is deploying advanced XML security and handling capabilities within the MAPHIN infrastructure. "XML-based Web Services traffic represents a new class of communications between systems, and as such can contain malicious code and other security threats that are unique to the e-Business ecosystems that will dominate IT over the next decade," said Hardin.

J. Antas' Blog Announces "US Government declares twenty Health IT Standards"

The US Government published (2005.12.23) a list of the 20 messaging and vocabulary standards that from now on will be used at the US Government funded health care information systems.

“The portfolio of 20 adopted standards will be used in all federal agencies implementing new, and to the extent possible, in modifying existing health information technology systems, as well as related business processes”

These seem to be big news as this list has the potential to be the basis for further Health IT Interoperability initiatives.

The main adoptees are: HL7 2.x, DICOM, SNOMED CT, LOINC and HIPAA (Trans. and Code Sets).

The list notice may be downloaded from the US Gov. Printing Office: US Government Health IT Standards

Source URL: http://e-healthexpert.org/node/357

freebXML ebXML Business Process descriptions editor and Collaborative Partner Profile and Agreement editor

Dr. Asuman Dogac of Middle East Technical University, Software Research and Development, Center at Ankara Turkey [ http://www.srdc.metu.edu.tr/ ] announces the availability of the new freebXML BP Open Source project at Source Forge.

The project provides a royalty free ebXML Business Process descriptions editor as well as a Collaborative Partner Profile and Agreement editor developed by the METU-SRDC Team as a part of the IST 2103 Artemis project sponsored by the European Commission DG Information Society and Media, eHealth Unit.

The project is committed to Sourceforge: [ http://sourceforge.net/projects/freebxmlbp ] The latest user guide is available under "doc" directory of the "distribution". The developer mailing list is: [ freebxmlbp-developer@lists.sourceforge.net ] User mailing list is: [ freebxmlbp-user@lists.sourceforge.net ]

Stephen Swoyer on [Stupid] People, Process, SOA; Me on SOA and the Outsourcable [Update]

9/19/2005 By Stephen Swoyer, "SOA Fatigue: It’s the People and Processes, Stupid", ADTmag.com

<ed.note>I rant here because Leavitt, Brailer and all those around NHIN have other factors to tackle in addition to interoperability.</ed.note>

Large-scale service-enablement is a doomed enterprise for one important reason, some codejockeys argue: bureaucratic infighting.

It’s not that the technology vision espoused by SOA advocates and their fellow travelers isn't viable—although most developers also question just how viable pervasive service-enablement actually is—but that the loosely coupled services infrastructure envisioned by most proponents will almost certainly be plagued by a very familiar array of people and process issues.

Call it turf wars revisited, or SOA petty fiefdom, of a sort.

“There is a 4-year old system in place at Wells Fargo that…interacts with multiple external credit-scoring companies to make granting decisions,” explains Jonathan House, an IT director with Amirsys, a medical technology company. Except that on the path to composite app bliss, reality got in the way. “Each of the organizations that we interacted with had their own proprietary software for accessing credit-score information. None were compatible with each other, and none were Web-services based,” explains House, a former programmer with Wells Fargo.

House makes this point to illustrate the implications of external turf wars: namely, that third-party credit-score providers have little or no incentive to accommodate the service-enablement agendas of companies such as Wells Fargo. “We built the ‘credit-score’ interface that the application used, along with four different implementations of that interface for each of the vendors we were working with. In two cases we asked the vendor to write the interface code for us, and offered to pay them to simplify our job, and in both cases we were turned down flat because they saw that the interface design made their service a commodity.”

<ed.note>SOA will bring to a head the corporate class war (you feel the rumbling!) between those who are outsourcable and those who are not. Will the outsourcable organize? Will they take global work condition requirements seriously (to force a "level playing field")? Will they buy their own lobbyist-senator package? Will they sue institutional investors who reward the unoutsourcable? Will they continue to practice only "whine therapy"?

Quick: it's national business exec quiz time. Clear off your desks -- with the exception of your laptop -- now diagram your business' key processes. Just sketch them. Use some standard biz tool (UML is a media darling). You have ten minutes. Ten days? Ten weeks? Ten consultants? What Mr. Swoyer was too diplomatic to say was "It's the stupid people in the process!" America's big "unexposed" vulnerable underbelly is that even if management wanted to SOA they don't have the skills to accomplish it. And they know if the org figures that out, they'll be outsourced or down-salaried.

Now the populist tag line here would be: "Maybe the folks in the process aren't so stupid after all!" But while rhetorically pleasing, it doesn't remove the reality that if your org doesn't SOA your processes some competitor will -- just not in a business culture or pay rate in which you feel comfortable operating. [Update: "In Tech Boards - The New Secret to Success in Bridging Business and IT" Michael Liebow describes the new approach companies such as FedEX, Mellon Financial Corp, PNC Financial Services Group and Pfizer Inc. have taken to get around that unpleasant reality that biz execs don't have the necessary tech skills to deal with a distributed, digital enterprise economy.]

Now the folks from Wells Fargo were right -- House's proposal would have commoditized their service -- but they would have at least had some ownership in the process. The WF folks thought they were being smart by avoiding the evitable. Now if their service is duplicated and commoditized and they are disintermediated, they'll be locked out of the process.

For organizations, obviously, the challenge is figuring out first and best what can be created by combining bizproc1 and bizproc2 (...bizproc127) when these services have never been combined before. Or at least not well. And anticipating the gaps in the SOA palette which will need to be filled in. And then filling the gaps. And applying the processes. Fast. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.>.

The one "stupid people in the process" element few mention is DIRTY DATA. When every data source is validated against every other data source, what happens when a trusted source gets it wrong? We'll have the stunning reliability of credit reporting services in every industry. But I digress...</ed.note>

THELMA to Provide Financial Transactions in US Health Network

ICSGlobal Limited has signed a Letter of Intent with MedAccess Plus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN), for THELMA to provide financial transactions such as insurance eligibility checking and electronic claims and remittance into MAPHIN's Health Informatics Network. The combined platform will be then rolled out across the United States, the world's largest healthcare market with over 30 billion electronic healthcare transactions per annum. MAPHIN is a Kentucky-based eHealth firm with swipe-card driven Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology that uses the Internet to integrate information generated by medical providers, insurers, hospitals and patients into a comprehensive EHR. The plan is to integrate THELMA's any-to-any electronic transaction technology with MAPHIN's EHR technology. The combined technologies will cover all functionality scenarios required to transform the US health system, and put MAPHIN and ICSGlobal at the forefront of eHealth system providers in the US.

The Letter of Intent outlines a non-exclusive arrangement between ICSGlobal and MAPHIN, with each party earning revenues principally through transaction fees from their respective technologies. MAPHIN will represent the MAPHIN/THELMA Network in the US. While there may be joint opportunities for the MAPHIN/THELMA Network in countries other than America, the initial working relationship will focus on the US health care industry. ICSGlobal and MAPHIN commenced a Proof of Concept for electronic claims and remittance in August, which is planned to be completed this calendar year. The Proof of Concept will see the MAPHIN/THELMA Network configured to send and receive transactions in 18 States of the US. The plan is then to implement the MAPHIN/THELMA Network on parallel fronts: firstly beginning in Kentucky, connecting health care providers to private health insurers as well as the State-based government Medicaid systems, then replicating this system through the other 18 States. In parallel, the Top 50 employers will be targeted, who are major payers in the US healthcare system. Discussions are in progress with General Motors and The Walt Disney Company.

ICSGlobal and MAPHIN met through their participation in the Medical Banking Project, a Tennessee-based firm whose objective is to integrate banking technology, infrastructure and credit resources with healthcare administrative operations to alleviate inefficiencies (see www.mbproject.org). John Casillas, the Founder and Executive Director of the Medical Banking Project, said the teaming of ICSGlobal and MAPHIN is indicative of a quickly expanding market opportunity for real-time healthcare transaction processing, not just in the US but around the world. "A highly secure and scalable web services architecture that is accessible via a simple card-swipe, like the MAPHIN/THELMA Network, can dramatically transform healthcare cost and quality. Even the large US employers are forming initiatives with the Medical Banking Project to implement this type of technology to contain soaring healthcare costs. We are at the ground floor of real-time financial and clinical processing in global healthcare markets, and the MAPHIN/THELMA Network is well placed to capitalise on this" says Casillas.

Released by: ICSGlobal Limited. For further information or media inquiries:
Tim Murray
Managing Director
ICSGlobal Limited
Ph: (02) 9247 2111
Tim.Murray @ icsglobal.net

About ICSGlobal and THELMA
ICSGlobal Limited is a publicly listed Australian company whose core business is the ownership and operation of the unique "any-to-any" health industry clearing house technology THELMA (Transactional Health Exchange Linking Multiple Applications). THELMA creates interoperability between the broad range of new and legacy software systems that typically exist in health systems. This enables health industry business partners in any country to conduct financial, clinical and administrative transactions electronically over the Internet. For more information visit www.icsglobal.net and www.thelma.com.au.

About MAPHIN
MedAccess Plus Health Informatics Network (MAPHIN) is a Kentucky-based eHealth firm with swipe-card driven Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology that uses the Internet to integrate information generated by medical providers, insurers, hospitals and patients into a comprehensive EHR. MAPHIN's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Steven Spady, is a highly respected Family Physician in Kentucky with a Master of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr Spady is seen as a leader in the field of eHealth, communicating his vision for real-time, integrated healthcare information processes to government and private health organisations since 1998. MAPHIN's Chief Technology Officer, John Hardin, is seen as a leader in the Internet business field. Mr Hardin most recently served as Chief Architect of e-Business for General Motors, and is the current chair of the OASIS e-business Service Oriented Architecture Technical Committee. For more information visit www.maphin.net.

ebXML registry suited for SOA complexities, say proponents

Sept. 05,  2005 By Colleen Frye, SearchWebServices.com
 
As deployments of service-oriented architectures grow more complex, the need for federated information management and governance is emerging -- areas for which an ebXML registry is particularly well suited, according to proponents. As such, the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee is hitting the virtual road this month with webinars aimed at educating attendees on the features and capabilities of the ebXML Registry v3.0, which OASIS approved as a standard in May.

Use of an ebXML registry is also "an obvious next step for people looking to migrate from EDI [electronic data interchange]," said Carl Mattocks, consultant and project leader, asset inventory process improvement for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Bridgewater, N.J., and a member of the technical committee (TC). Among vertical industries, Mattocks said e-government and health care are early implementers and, he predicted, "are obvious places where you'll see growth."
    
Vertical industry groups that have implementations of ebXML Registry include the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative, the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). "NIST has created a registry to help people register artifacts across the Web," Mattocks said.

ebXML Registry v3.0 Webinars - Thursday, 15 Sept 2005

Discover the advantages of the new ebXML Registry v3.0 OASIS Standard from the people who developed it. The OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee invites you to attend an open webinar to learn more about how ebXML Registry enables secure, federated information management within and across enterprises.

ebXML Registry provides the functionality you need to manage electronic artifacts for SOA including WSDL, XML Schema, BPEL, e-business and other process descriptions, ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profiles and Core Components, as well as application-specific artifacts. The OASIS Standard promotes service discovery and interoperability, while enabling secure, efficient sharing, reuse, and version control of artifacts. ebXML Registry can also be implemented for event or information asset registry and repository. In fact, any requirement you have for describing and registering items of interest to an organization can be accomplished with ebXML Registry.

ebXML Registry is particularly suited to support application- and domain-specific use cases. The fully ratified OASIS Standard has been adopted and deployed in vertical industries including government, health care, geospatial, telecommunications, banking, and finance.

http://www.oasis-open.org/events/webinars/webinars.php

Health IT leaders congregate

Aug. 16, 2005 By Janet M. Marchibroda, FCW.com

The number of policy changes on tap that relate to quality and health information technology are at an all-time high, both within the Bush administration and in Congress. The eHealth Initiative will host the second annual Health Information Technology Summit (www.hitsummit.com) Sept. 7- 9, 2005, in Washington, D.C. The summit will bring together national, regional and state stakeholders to discuss the current menu of emerging policy changes relevant to eHealth Initiative and its goals.

Health IT has been increasingly at the forefront of public and private sector efforts to improve health care safety, quality and efficiency. The federal government, Congress, some states and private sector leaders have responded with the introduction of a myriad of policies and strategies designed to improve the American health care system through IT.

Physicians as Retailers: Banking on Convergence

August 19, 2005 Richard L. Reece, M.D., HealthLeaders EXTRA!, HealthLeaders.com

A funny thing happened to healthcare on the way to the bank: Common interests of banks, HSAs, high-deductible consumer plans, information technologies and physicians converged. Doctors realized electronic records would allow them to be paid promptly, completely and reliably at the point of care, through cash or credit, debit or smart cards, just as with any other retail transaction. Banks realized they could market and serve as repositories for HSA funds. Consumer-driven plans realized banks could serve as powerful marketing and claims processing partners.

Suddenly everyone knew that a new era--with physicians as retailers with lower practice overhead; quicker, more transparent transactions; satisfied and more informed consumers; and efficient payment of physicians in their offices--was at hand.

OASIS Members Form Committee to Develop Blueprints for SOA Business Requirements

Carol Geyer, OASIS Director of Communications , +1.978.667.5115 x209

Adobe Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capgemini, DataPower, Infravio, MW2 Consulting, Raining Data, Satyam, Software AG, and Others Join to Define Examples of SOA Business Profiles

Boston, MA, USA; 15 August 2005 - Members of the OASIS international standards consortium announced plans to develop concrete examples of business requirements for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementations. The new OASIS SOA Adoption Blueprints Technical Committee will define vendor-neutral "recipes," focusing on use cases and real world requirements that can be fulfilled by the deployment of services using SOA methods.

"There is a shortage of clear, demonstrable examples of working SOA implementations that teams can use to jumpstart new projects," said Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst, ZapThink LLC. "By defining an archetypal set of business requirements and functions that SOA best practices can address, the adoption blueprints will encourage the production of useful implementation examples and lower the risk of SOA initiatives overall."

Each adoption blueprint produced by the OASIS Committee will provide a business problem statement, a set of business requirements, and a normative set of functions to be fulfilled, all on a vendor- and specification-neutral basis. Early work being contributed to OASIS as part of this project described the needs of a fictitious enterprise, "Generico," which could be fulfilled by a variety of SOA approaches. Multiple vendor and service providers have already implemented this specification. The OASIS Committee expects that external parties will continue to use these blueprints as patterns for comparable implementation examples.

"SOA builders and end users will be primary participants, as well as beneficiaries, of this effort," said Miko Matsumura of Infravio, proposed chair of the OASIS SOA Adoption Blueprints Technical Committee. "Each blueprint will provide a community of SOA best practice as well as a clear way to evaluate technology suppliers." He emphasized that the new OASIS Committee remains open to all interested parties, and strongly encouraged SOA implementers, regardless of their size or geographic location, to become involved.

Members of the OASIS SOA Adoption Blueprints Technical Committee include representatives of Adobe Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capgemini, DataPower, Infravio, MW2 Consulting, Raining Data, Satyam, Software AG, and others. The Committee proposers also plan to work closely with and consider use of other r