Alan Kotok
Alan Kotok is a Washington, DC reporter and writer, editor of E-Business Standards Today, published by Data Interchange Standards Association (www.disa.org/), and Chief Editorial Officer of Technology News and Literature. He is a frequent contributor to XML.Com and editor of the U.S. Techno-Politics page on Suite101.Com. Kotok and David Webber are the authors of the book ebXML: The New Global Standard for Doing Business on the Internet published in August 2001 by New Riders Press. He also serves on the ebXML marketing team.Website: http://www.technewslit.com/
Articles by this author:
Business at XML 2002Rounding up the news from the business side of the recent XML 2002 conference, Alan Kotok reports an increase in government clients for XML businesses. [Jan. 8, 2003]
Standards For Electronic Instructional Materials
A bill proposed to the U.S. Congress seeks to create an electronic standard for instruction materials that will help visually disabled schoolchildren. [Nov. 6, 2002]
Interoperability Summit: Good Intentions, Little Action
Alan Kotok reports from the second interoperability summit organized by e-business standards groups. He finds that it's still early days for e-business interoperability, and many more players need to come to the table. [Jul. 10, 2002]
Government and Finance Industry Urge Caution on XML
The XML world recently received a double-dose of sobering news, as reports from both the U.S. General Accounting Office and NACHA, an electronic payments organization, urged their constituents to move cautiously on any commitment to XML. [Apr. 24, 2002]
U.S. Federal XML Guidelines
The US Government's guidelines for use of XML in Federal agencies shows an encouraging appreciation of XML, but also highlights the difficulties inherent in drafting such guidelines. [Feb. 6, 2002]
Making XML Work in Business
In this report from the XML 2001 conference, Alan Kotok describes where XML is really working inside businesses. [Jan. 2, 2002]
Interoperate or Evaporate
Last week's business standards interoperability summit resulted in a clear message to standards groups from vendors: learn to work together or lose your support. [Dec. 12, 2001]
When the Going Gets Tough: Real World XML
When XML gets deployed in businesses, it's modeling and interoperability that prove key. But is that enough to meet the demands posed by today's economic circumstances? [Oct. 3, 2001]
ebXML: It Ain't Over 'til it's Over The final meeting of the Electronic Business XML initiative in Vienna marked the 18-month deadline set for the project, yet there is still plenty left to do. [May. 16, 2001]
Can XML Help Write the Law?
A report from the Conference on Congressional Organizations' Application of XML, where both the mechanics and the public benefits of making legislation available in XML were discussed. [May. 9, 2001]
ebXML Ropes in SOAP Our report on the latest happenings in ebXML covers their adoption of SOAP, and takes stock as ebXML nears the end of its project. [Apr. 4, 2001]
ebXML: Assembling the Rubik's Cube The fourth meeting of the Electronic Business XML working group sees the intiative make good progress. But will the group be able to meet its self-imposed 18-month deadline? [Aug. 16, 2000]
ebXML: Assembling the Rubik's Cube (part 2) [Aug. 16, 2000]
Even More Extensible Since our first survey of XML business vocabularies in February this year, the number of entries in our tables has more than doubled, highlighting the large push forward in vertical and cross-industry standardization activity. [Aug. 2, 2000]
ebXML Gathers Pace A recent meeting of the ebXML initiative was able to demonstrate proof-of-concept technology of some of its early specifications. A third of the way through its allotted 18-month timetable, ebXML has made definite progress, but still has a long way to go. [May. 24, 2000]
Extensible and More
Two years after the XML 1.0 Recommendation, we see XML being applied in many areas—especially e-business. Alan Kotok takes a snapshot of XML e-business activity. [Feb. 23, 2000]
The XML/edi Group's XML for E-Business Initiative
[Nov. 10, 1999]
Less Is More In E-Business: The XML/edi Group
The XML/edi Group's "XML for E-Business Initiative" seeks to deliver on the promise of XML for the many businesses currently unable to use established electronic business mechanisms. In this article, the authors explain the initiative and argue strongly for simplicity in XML specifications. [Nov. 10, 1999]
Tracing XML-based Bank Transactions
Does XML make money laundering easier? Alan Kotok looks into how the Web's new banking and investment services, many based on XML vocabularies, might help to catch the bad guys. [Sep. 29, 1999]
EDI, Take It and Leave It
EDI's precision, responsiveness, and ability to separate data from documents are to be admired. Its twin international systems and ever-changing standards are not. [Aug. 4, 1999]
XML to the Rescue?
XML offers not only a fresh start for universal standards, but it's also more affordable for small companies than custom EDI systems. [Aug. 4, 1999]
EDI, Warts and All
EDI was developed to replace the growing piles of hard copy documents in shipping and transportation companies. But as it grew, it developed some cumbersome tendencies and two distinct international standards that require translation. [Aug. 4, 1999]
XML and EDI Lessons Learned and Baggage to Leave Behind
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! Thirty years of Electronic Data Interchange yield valuable lessons for XML advocates. [Aug. 4, 1999]
