Acknowledgments

In this book, we frequently use the term process to describe a sequence of events and activities undertaken by businesses in partnership with each other. That word also describes how we came to write this book.We would like to briefly describe those processes, which will provide a way of expressing our genuine gratitude to the many people who helped us.

One of those processes involves our interactions with New Riders Publishing (NRP). In late 1999, David Webber proposed a comprehensive book written for businesspeople on XML business strategies, and brought in Alan Kotok as co-author . One of the publishers we contacted was New Riders Publishing, which led us to Stephanie Wall, NRP's Executive Editor.

We had to reengineer our original plans into something more feasible for us to deliver, but the fact that you're reading this page is a testimony to Stephanie's persistence and leadership on this entire project.Throughout the entire process, Stephanie kept in contact with us; when we saw an opportunity to focus the project on the (then) very new ebXML idea, she led the effort to make it happen. Stephanie combined effective encouragement with the occasional slap-upside-the-head to keep our work on track, and we sincerely thank her for being the godmother of this enterprise.

Stephanie got plenty of help from NRP colleague Ann Quinn and freelance editor Robin Drake, who together we dubbed las tres amigas , and we are genuinely grateful for all of their help. Robin gave both of us clear guidance on format and usage that made it possible to deliver the text in a style with which she could work. Robin also handled all of the technical editor contacts and corrected the inevitable inconsistencies that arise over the six months of copy preparation. Ann, our acquisitions editor, served as our main day-to-day contact with NRP, keeping the project on track, answering all of our questions, and providing much-needed morale building and support.

The stunning design of the book came about because of Suzanne Pettypiece, one of NRP's compositors /project editors. During this project, we came to appreciate the premium that NRP puts on good design and the attention to detail on human factors when interacting with a printed work.

The content of this book came about because of another process, the development of the ebXML specifications.We need to first acknowledge the incredible job of leadership by Klaus-Dieter Naujok, the chief technical officer of IONA Technologies and chair of ebXML. Klaus led an all-volunteer army of hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals. The fact that ebXML completed its work on time and in good quality, and followed a process completely open to anyone with an email account, is a testimony to Klaus's leadership.

As we discuss in Chapter 5, "The Road Toward ebXML," the ebXML initiative divided into several project teams, and we divided our efforts among some of those teams over the 18 months of ebXML's development.We would like to cite several individuals whom we found helpful to understanding the ebXML specifications or who stimulated ideas that we worked into the content of the book.

David took part in the Registry-Repository (acting team lead of this group at one meeting), Requirements, and Technical Coordination teams during this period. Lisa Carnahan and Len Gallagher from National Institute of Standards and Technology provided much of the intellectual firepower in the Registry-Repository Group , with important ideas for this very important part of the ebXML architecture. Martin Bryan and Chris Nelson, both XML consultants based in England, performed seminal work on the information models of core components and classifications and how they link into the registry system.

Mike Rawlings of Rawlings EC Consulting and Mark Crawford of Logistics Management Institute directed a team of requirements writers who crafted a document that gave the technical specialists a clear path forward for developing the technical documents.Tim McGrath led the technical coordination team and had the unenviable task of fitting the different pieces together, in which he succeeded admirably.

In the ebXML Marketing, Awareness, and Education team, Alan and the rest of the team struggled with the task of explaining a complex technical product in understandable terms to businesspeople. Many of the ideas in this book resulted in part from those discussions, and we need to thank project team leads Simon Nicholson of Sun Microsystems and Michael Weiner of IBM, and earlier Ann Bullen of PriceWaterhouseCooper and Rachel Foerster of Rachel Foerster and Associates. Also on the team were three excellent writers on e-business technology: Carol Geyer of OASIS, Ed Julson of Sun Microsystems, and William (Willie Joe) Kammerer of Foresight Corp. provided brilliant ideas and encouragement on communicating these complex ideas.

In developing material for the book, we called on several professional colleagues who deserve mention. Anthony Dutton, a colleague of David's at XML Global, prepared much of the CatXML material in Chapter 9, "Moving from Theory to Practice," which shows a working system that implements many of the ebXML ideas. Of course, CatXML itself would not have happened without the sheer determination of Bruce Peat of eProcess Solutions, who developed the EMall application for the Department of Defense, from which CatXML is derived. Bruce is a cofounder of the XML/edi Group (along with David Webber) and a participant in ebXML. We thank as well another leading XML/edi colleague, Betty Harvey of Electronic Commerce Connection, who is also an ebXML participant and who compiled the e-business/XML glossary in Appendix A, "Acronyms."

We would not have had the chance to establish our credentials on the topic of ebXML without opportunities to write about ebXML for leading technology web sites, and we need to recognize editors who gave Alan this opportunity: Edd Dumbill of XML.com and Larry Laing of PlanetIT.com, a part of CMP TechWeb.We also need to thank Alan's colleagues at Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) and its affiliates , who provided the support and opportunity to take part in the ebXML effort: Jerry Connors and Tim Cochran of the DISA staff, Jim Young of Continental Airlines, and Nick Lanyon of Lanyon, Inc., both of the OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) Board, early and strong ebXML supporters.

A special thanks goes to Don McCubbrey of the Daniels College of Business at University of Denver, a true pioneer in the use of XML in business, for providing the preface to this book. Don was one of the early proponents in the academic world for using XML for business data.

A heartfelt thanks also goes to our technical editors, Duane Nickull of XML Global Technologies and Beno t Marchal of PineappleSoft in Belgium, who kept the content of the book true to the technology. Duane served as editor of the ebXML Technical Architecture specifications, from which we drew a fair amount of the content of this book. Ben has become one of the very best writers on XML; his book XML by Example continues to be a bestseller on XML.

Alan needs to thank his wife Sharon for patiently enduring six months of incessant chatter of XML technical minutiae, lost weekends devoted to producing text, and for learning more about the book publishing business than she (or anyone, for that matter) would want to hear. If, after 25 years , our marriage can survive the processes of writing a book (my second one of these exercises), then anything is possible.

David, in the meantime, has to thank his wife Marjorie for tirelessly wrestling with three actively growing young children and explaining why Dad has to spend most of his life staring at a computer, talking on the phone, and surrounded by piles of paper litter in an effort to better the human condition globally and here at home.