Commerce One under fire for e-markets 'standards' push

A newly created standards organisation for business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce, lead by Commerce One, may conflict with existing standards bodies and increase a feeling of unease among end users, analysts fear.

Called the Global Trading Web Association, the project contains a cross section of end users and ecommerce infrastructure vendors, and is aimed at establishing unified technical standards, such as XML, trading standards and codes of business.

However, the venture comes hot on the heels of a retailer-led B2B standards body, the Initiative for Global Commerce, which is also setting out technical standards for B2B marketplaces.

A spokesman at EAN, the technical driving force behind the Initiative for Global Commerce, had a dim view of Commerce One's motives for setting up the venture.

He said: "Commerce One's initiative is a buying and partnering opportunity, not an acceptable industry standard as such. They don't even acknowledge OASIS, the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards body, who is in charge of standardisation of XML and other technical issues."

Alexander Drobik, VP of ebusiness management strategy at Gartner Group, applauded Commerce One's initiative to set up a unified standardisation initiative. "Users of the marketplaces should get their act together in order to avoid supporting multiple standards," he said.

However, Drobik was sceptical that Commerce One would oversee a set of standards for the common good. He sees the independent organisations as the only solution for levelling the playing field.

"Companies such as Commerce One cannot afford not to set rules of the game as otherwise they will be left behind. But the only people who can set rules are independent non-profit making organisations," he said.