Are Current B2b Security Standards Antithetical To Global Interoperability?

This paper argues that powerful impetus exists for the realisation of a global multilateral electronic market infrastructure, as envisaged by the ebXML1 endeavour. Crucial in this regard is the problem of interoperability: making it possible for disparate systems to interact fluently. An obvious panacea would be to use a pre-specified set of protocols comprised of selected globally-accessible open standards. However, the status quo B2B-interaction implementations comprise protocol-neutral technologies and standards that propagate unwieldy permutations of possible trading partner configurations, which, ultimately, are antithetical to the creation of a global electronic marketplace. Allowing diversity in the choice of protocols is a limiting factor in cross-integration. It facilitates the relatively smaller numbers of participants to negotiate common terms of agreement for bivalent relationships, but each participant might have to configure a different protocol profile for each trading ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ISSA
• Authors: Maree Pather
• Keywords: Global, Global Electronic Marketplace, Global Interoperability, ISSA 2004, ISSA 2008