Everyone, from IT architects to IT directors to government policy makers, wants it and constantly talks about it; and it is consistently a favorite subject for every ITC conference. But, because it takes considerable time, resources, and effort to achieve even modest progress, few initiatives are really successful.

International interoperability is even harder—requiring the integration of organizational, legal, technical, and semantic elements—and this is especially so in developing the foundations for free and efficient trade across borders such as in the recently proposed Asia Pacific Free Trade Area, in the European Union, and in other public sector initiatives[1]. In the private sector, eBusiness developments in international trade are growing fast but are mainly sectoral.

Illumonus has found the biggest challenges to interoperability in both the public and private sectors are at the strategic and semantic levels. At the strategic level, where concept models can help, the challenges also include the choice of a set of core business processes, and a scoping decision either to start with a global and cross-sectorial viewpoint, or to try to expand one’s domestic system in a one-size-fits-all approach.

But the really difficult area, requiring global knowledge and quality resources, is at the semantic level. Within any industry or service sector there is probably a well-honed understanding of semantical meaning built on many years of operating EDI systems within the same sector, but between sectors the semantic interoperability issue is acute.

For instance if a citizen of country A wants to purchase land in country B, the purchaser will be asked to submit the proper address data. Address data in both countries includes: full name details, street name and number, city name, as well as a post code. The order of the address details might vary. In the same language it may not be an obstacle to correctly order the provided address data; but across language barriers this seemingly simple effort becomes more and more difficult.

The critical issue is that if semantic data is interpreted differently, computerized collaboration is extremely limited.

So, beyond the ability of two or more computer systems to exchange information, semantic interoperability is the ability to automatically interpret the information.

The WCO Data Model – The Need for a Change in Policy

I write this open letter on behalf of my company, Illumonus LLC, and also on behalf of many others -­‐ software companies (global and niche), traders, standards experts and, informally, members of customs authorities -­‐ who have expressed serious concerns to me or to my colleagues concerning the WCO’s current highly restrictive policy regarding the dissemination and potential use of the WCO Data Model.

I also write with considerable experience of trade facilitation and international standards, and of the WCO’s past very positive role in contributing to them, having been one of the leaders of the UN/EDIFACT and ebXML standards developments, as well as for many years a senior Vice-­‐Chairman of UN/CEFACT.

Previously, WCO has made an unquestionable commitment to the development of open, interoperable standards. This commitment, as you will recall, was a core element in the championing by WCO of open standards as being the raison d’etre for the whole of its data model development.

The results from this position have been superbly successful worldwide. However, the adoption of the current sales and publication policy of the Data Model has, in our view, detrimentally changed the view of many regarding the WCO’s commitment to these open standards.

Leaving aside what many consider the associated, but separate, issue of the exorbitant price being charged for the Data Model, the intellectual property rights restrictions in place within the current publication and use policy of the Data Model are having a very negative effect on its wider global uptake.

This is more than disappointing given that the Model is an important standards development tool incorporating much work contributed by other organisations and experts that could, if made widely and freely available, make a real breakthrough in interoperability. Further, the current restrictive policy also brings into issue the question of the proper ownership of the intellectual property in this data incorporated in the Data Model.

Given these concerns, it is the view of Illumonus that the Data Model will never achieve its true potential until the WCO rescinds its current policy.

Therefore, I urge you and your colleagues to reconsider the current usage and pricing policies and adopt a truly open and non–restrictive policy to facilitate the widest possible use of the Data Model.

In our view that will be in the best interests of WCO, its members, all members of the international trade community, and the world’s standards developers and implementers generally.

A copy of this letter goes to the Directors General of Customs (or their equivalents) in the USA, UK, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Japan, these all being countries or trade areas where Illumonus has a presence.

Yours sincerely

Ray Walker OBE
Vice President eBusiness Development
Illumonus LLC


Brussels, 7 September 2011.

Mr. Maujok’s rationale for accepting the DIN nomination for ISO/TC 154 chair position were the following:

“Primarily the support from a number of TC154 colleagues and their confidence in him that he agreed pursue this position of trust.”

 Aligned to this is Mr. Naujok’s belief in and commitment to open standards and processes. He first got involved in the work of TC 154 in 1989 as a member of the Joint TDED (ISO IS 7372) Directory Reference Group (DRG) and as a member in the Data Element Co-ordination Group. Over the next fifteen years he actively participated in a number of other TC 154 standards developments, such as the EDIFACT Syntax (ISO 9735) and Representation of dates and times (ISO 8601). Mr. Naujok also had the pleasure to chair the ebXML work that was adopted by TC 154 as technical specifications (ISO TS 15000).

From 1991 to 2000 Mr. Naujok served as the UNECE Standards Liaison Rapporteur working closely with the ISO Central Secretariat and participating in the Basic Semantic Repository (BSR) project, SC14 – Data Representation and JTC1/WG3 – Open-edi.

In 2004 he retired from active standards participation, except for ISO TC154/JSWG (now JWG 1), in order to focus my energies on developing commercial opportunities through founding and directing Illumonus LLC.  Standards though have continued to lead throughout Illumonus work; actively promoting and utilizing standards for the eBusiness/eCommerce arena. This is a natural focus for Illumonus products and services offerings, given the target markets and customer communities with information exchange needs both domestically and internationally.

Mr. Naujok hopes as TC154 chair to facilitate the standards work to ensure that the current programme tasks are completed on schedule. In addition, together with the TC 154 secretariat, he will actively promote the work of TC154, showing current and future users that these standards and technical specifications are relevant to their business and industry needs and offer many benefits and return on their adoption investments