ECCMA To Introduce Global, E-Commerce Open Technical Dictionary During Its Third Annual Membership Conference.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

BETHLEHEM, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2002

The Electronic Commerce Code Management Association (ECCMA) will introduce the ECCMA Open Technical Directory (eOTD) at its Third Annual Membership Conference on open standards for content. The conference is scheduled for October 23 in Washington, DC, USA, at the beautifully renovated Union Station.

"The new open technical dictionary would not have been possible without the contribution of the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) in Battle Creek, Mich.," said Yvette Thomas, Executive Director of ECCMA. "This amazing work will give organizations a unique opportunity to specify goods and services using a common descriptive language, a common language that can be searched over the Internet and imported into sourcing, procurement and ERP systems with minimal data transformation costs."

Many of the industry groups are working on industry classifications and the eOTD is designed to support their work by providing a classification neutral dictionary of names and attributes (also referred to as characteristics or properties) of items: basically if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck regardless if it is classified as poultry or game.

A highlight of the conference will be three panel discussions by senior representatives from both governmental and commercial organizations, considered by many to be major "players" in global e-commerce, including:

-- Defense Logistics Information Service

-- NATO Group of National Directors on Codification

-- Defense Logistics Agency

-- Office of the Secretary of Defense

-- Register.com

-- Gartner Group

-- Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA)

-- e-Procurement Consortium (Japan)

-- Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA)

-- Zycus, Inc.

-- EJiva

-- Korea CALS/EC Association

-- Access21.Ltd.

Attendees at the conference will also have the opportunity to participate in an actual working session. The session will include demonstrations, presentations, discussions and networking opportunities relevant to the implementation of open standards for collaborative electronic commerce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: ECCMA is a not-for-profit membership association that oversees the maintenance and distribution of codes used in electronic commerce. ECCMA provides an open, transparent and efficient process for the development of open standards for content. The association manages several codes, including the Universal Standard Products and Services Classification System (UNSPSC). This is an international, hierarchical coding system used to classify goods and services. The UNSPSC code provides a standard index classification for electronic catalogs and standard account codes for performing in-depth Spend Analyses.

Web site address: www.eccma.org