OASIS forms e-gov XML group

A global standards consortium announced Dec. 5 the creation of a technical committee devoted to e-government Extensible Markup Language standards, and its membership includes several U.S. federal experts and officials.

The e-Gov Technical Committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) will bring together government officials from around the world to talk about common e-government needs.

"Setting global standards for e-government and e-business should enable significant reduction in [the] government's burden on citizens, businesses and government employees," Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government at the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement. OASIS formed the committee to help ensure that XML schemas and emerging technologies relying on XML, such as Web services, are not developed solely for private-sector needs, according to the organization.

The committee includes representatives from the General Services Administration and the Navy.