Collaboration Components: XML, UDDI, E-Speak

New Internet-based "e-speak" technologies promise to make collaborative B2B computing much more universal than ever before. XML, UDDI and the related technology called e-speak, could soon make it possible for any enterprise to exchange data with any other enterprise with very little additional integration.

XML, an application profile of SGML, is a metalanguage for describing mark-up languages. Because it comes without a predefined tag set, it also lacks any preconceived notion of semantics. All context is defined by applications that process XML documents or by HTML style sheets. XML allows data contained within documents,like catalog entries or pricing data,to be extracted and employed by other applications.

The UDDI project leverages XML to build a means for businesses to describe the products and services their Web sites offer and how those services can be accessed. The core component of UDDI is the UDDI business registration, an XML file used to describe a business through three components: "white pages," which describe basic contact information; "yellow pages," including industrial categorizations based on standard taxonomies; and "green pages," which contain the technical information supplied by the business. The goal of the project, led by Ariba, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft, is to open collaborative computing to any business located anywhere in the world.

HP's e-speak, based on Java, plays off both these tools. Its specialty is the creation of dynamic business relationships through the ad-hoc discovery and interaction of online data and services. To implement it, developers essentially "wrap" existing Web apps with the e-speak framework. The e-speak service engine performs the intelligent interaction of data;

ideally, depending on the application, e-speak can deliver lists of partners or goods selectively chosen according to preset criteria, such as price, geographic region or delivery times.

"The applications providing this data do not have to be e-speak-enabled," says Rajiv Gupta, general manager of HP's Open Services operation. "The power of e-speak is that it can provide this level of service without being pervasive within the Internet computing environment."