European Committee for Standardization

Product Description And Classification ePDC – September 14, 2004 INTERIM REPORT

Report of the Expert Group on B2B Internet trading platforms (6/2003) Related to e-catalogues, but not identical, is the complex issue of e- classification of products. In order to find any given product in any given B2B Internet trading platform, products need to be systematically classified. This is currently not the case. It is reported that there are more than forty different e-classification schemes used in Europe today; some of them are vertical, others are horizontal. Standardisation should ensure that such systems encompass all industries, are multilingual, sufficiently detailed and maintained over the years. It is the view of the Expert Group that European Standards Bodies should play a stronger role in developing and promoting common standards for e-cataloguing and product classification. European Standards Bodies are thus encouraged to further promote standardisation work at European level, with the view to supporting convergence of different communication standards and to further developing harmonised product classification schemes and e- catalogues.

5 European Commission eEurope2005 Enterprise Directorate General Challenge 1 To promote e- business integration Challenge 2 To promote cross- border e- business Challenge 3 To promote trust and confidence in e-business Objective 1.1. Transaction protocols and standards (EDI/XML) Objective 2.1. e-Procurement standards (eCataloguing, eClassification) Objective 3.1. eSignatures/ IT Security standards Objective 1.2. Sectoral standardisation initiatives Objective 2.2. e-Payment/ Invoicing standards Objective 3.2. Open source standardisation Objective 4.2. Best practise Objective 4.3. Awareness & SMEs Challenge 4 To promote the use of standards in support of interoperable e-business Overall challenge To promote interoperable e- business Objective 4.1. Sectoral/national interoperability testbeds Objective 4.2. Best practice

We have seen: all necessary standards to describe attributes/characteristics are available (some parts are still in elaboration): ISO 13584, ISO 11179, IEC 61360, DIN V 4002,… Good examples of classification schemes and technical dictionaries exist: however they need either semantic refining, or compliance with ISO/IEC standards. There are (too) many classification schemes There is a definite lack of terminology standardisation for these schemes!

FACTS Why is ISO used so little? Some parts of the hierarchical structure exist, attributes standards exist but no global document is proposed Too many classification schemes; many are not aligned towards the existing standards There is no global common standard for catalogues (  eCAT) and for classification Multilinguality is a must in Europe The request for a global classification comes from everywhere and is insistent

Product Description and Classification Project (ePDC) October 10th, 2003 October 10th, 2003 Work Item 3 (W3): (Months 1-6) Decide on common architecture for technical dictionaries according to pertaining standards like ISO Work Item 2 (W2): (Months 1-3) Harmonize the terminology (terms and definitions)

Participants to ePDC CIDX (Chemical Industry Data eXchange – European contact: Ludwigshafen, DE). e.V. (Cologne, DE). TERMNET (Vienna, Austria). ENSMA/pLIB (Poitiers, FR). EAN International (Brussels, BE) UNSPSC (Lawrenceville, USA). ROSETTANET (Santa Ana, USA ). SEMI (San Jose, USA - European contact: Brussels, BE). PIDX (Petroleum Industry Data eXchange – Houston, USA). IAO – Fraunhofer Institute (Stuttgart, DE). ECC – European Content Club (Frankfurt, DE). PHOENIX EDH (Houston, USA). KIS – Korea Information Service (Seoul, Korea). PARADINE (Vienna, Austria). REQUISITE (Westminster, USA). MENZA (Lealholm, UK). CHINA NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STANDARDISATION (Beijing). EA-ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ASSOCIATION (Tokyo, Japan) SEMANTIC SCIENCES Corp. (Los Altos, USA) Etc…

ePDC1 ePDC2

3 GENERAL DATA 1st Plenary meeting: Oct. 10, 2003 (Köln) 3 Experts were nominated on Nov. 19, 2003: Jörg Leukel, Nikolaus Ondracek, Frans van Basten Start-up meeting of experts: Dec. 8 (Germany) First working meeting: Jan. 27, 2004 (Holland) Second meeting: Feb. 26, 2004 (Germany) 2d Plenary meeting: Feb. 27, 2004 (Köln) Third meeting: April 2-3, 2004 (Austria) Fourth meeting: May 6, 2004 (Germany) Fifth meeting: June 9, 2004 (Germany) Sixth meeting: Aug , 2004 (Germany) Seventh meeting: Sept. 13, 2004 (Germany) 3d Plenary meeting: Sept. 14, 2004 (Köln)

3 GENERAL DATA (2) The 3 experts published an interim report on May 6,2004 The report was accepted by the European Commission on July 5, 2004 A draft final report was sent to all participants in the ePDC workshop on Sept. 10, 2004 The final report is forseen for November 2004