1 Neal Hannon and Saeed Roohani XBRL Educational Resource Center At Bryant College XBRL Education Co-Chair Phone: The Next Technology Revolution XML XBRL Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants May 17, 2001

2 Today’s Objectives Overview of XML & XBRL Show you how this technology makes doing E- Business: –Faster –Cheaper –Better Conclusion

Find the best solution to connect the nine points together with no more than four straight lines without lifting your writing instrument.

What assumptions are you making?

If you do not assume that you cannot extend your lines beyond the imaginary square formed by the box the puzzle becomes easier to solve.

Henry Dudeney was born 144 years ago – 10 th April 1857 Dudeney is best known for his publications of mathematical problems and pastimes, some of which provoked serious mathematical research

7 “Everything “that can be invented “has been invented.” Charles H. Duell Commissioner of U.S. Office of Patents, urging President William McKinley to abolish his office, 1899

8 Don’t assume that the lines must pass through the center of the dots.

9 Don’t assume that the line must be thin.

10 Just to prove I can do it with two lines.

11 Don’t assume that the paper must be flat.

12 If you rip the paper into nine segments, you can stack them and poke your point through all at once.

13 Don’t assume that you cannot crease the paper.

14 Don’t assume that the lines cannot extend beyond the edge of the paper.

15 Don’t assume that you cannot rip the paper.

16 From Evansville Courier and Press Is There A Problem?

17 Let’s move up the Value Chain TransactionsData InformationKnowledge DecisionsTransactionsData InformationKnowledge DecisionsTransactionsData InformationKnowledge DecisionsTransactionsData InformationKnowledge Decisions

18 Searching for the word “Mercury” on the Web can provide search results such as-- Hg Content—without Context

19 47, 000+ hits, No Help

20 Evolution to Web Services Technology Innovation FTP, , Gopher Web Pages Web Services TCP/IPHTMLXML Connectivity Presentation Automation Browse the Web Program the Web Text Files

21 XML XML stands for: eXtensible Markup Language Universally accepted method of exchanging information

22 eXtensible Markup Language ……is a meta markup language the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) considers a universal standard for describing both structured data and the behavior of applications that process the language.

23 What Is XML? “XML is a platform-independent, self-describing, expandable, standard data exchange format

24 XML is Platform Independent Windows Unix Macintosh Mainframe Linux

25 XML is Self-Describing Example: – July 26, 1998 Describes the information, not the presentation Format neutral

26 XML is Expandable Whereas HTML has a fixed set of tags –,, XML lets you create your own tags –

27 How does it work? XML gives meaning to information through the use of tags Saeed Roohani Bryant College Chair, Accounting 29 Caution.. …Just because something is.. Does not mean it is accurate?

28 XML Document XML Document Core Schema Core Schema Company Specific Vocabulary Industry Specific Vocabularies Transformatio n Tools The XML Puzzle

29 How XML Works Improves the way companies -- and applications -- share information Enjoys strong industry and vendor support How XML Works

30 What is ‘XML’? NotWhat XML is Not –Not –Not a religion. –Not –Not the solution to all world problems. –Not –Not a solution for all electronic commerce problems. –Not –Not a solution to all legal-technology problems. ToolXML is a Tool Really Cool (Powerful) Tool! –XML is a Really Cool (Powerful) Tool! XML can be used wisely and unwisely. –Like all tools, XML can be used wisely and unwisely.

31 Why is XML so Important? Portable Vendor neutral Readable data format More flexible and easier to use than EDI All major software products are becoming “XML” enabled Defacto standards for data exchange Enabling new levels of interoperability

32 XML Widely expected to reduce cost of publishing to the Net by as much as 50%. And by next year … Gartner Group prediction 70% of all B2B transactions executed on the Web will be done using XML.

33 Who defines the tags? Tags are defined by industry consortiums Each industry’s standard tags are commonly referred to as a taxonomy

34 Astronomy Aerospace Music Industry Publishing or Mythology Chemical Industry Auto Industry “Content in Context” (Industry-specific)

35 Who’s Building Taxonomies?