UN/CEFACT TMG is pleased to announce the release of Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 3 for second public review. The comments phase of this second public review will be from 16 April 2007 until 15 May 2007.

CCTS describes and specifies a semantic-based approach to the well-understood problem of the lack of information interoperability within and between applications and data bases in the e-business arena. It focuses expecially on a dynamic, flexible and interoperable way of standardizing business semantics of libraries for electronic business data exchange. Therefore, CCTS describes a revolutionary approach for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent the general types of business data in use today. This approach provides for the creation of new business vocabularies as well as restructuring of existing business vocabularies to achieve semantic interoperability of data. It defines meta models, and rules necessary for describing the structure and contents of conceptual and logical, and physical data models that can be used for collaborative business processes and information exchange.

UN/CEFACT has an open approach to developing its standards.  This open approach has five goals:

• Openness - All specifications must be open, free of any constraints or restrictions associated with intellectual property rights (IPR).
• World - wide Participation - All interested parties should have the opportunity to review, comment on, and contribute to Technical Specifications.
• Speed - In an area increasingly moving "at Internet speed", it is vitally important that the process of developing specifications be speedy so that the resultant specifications are relevant to the needs of the industry, developers, and users.
• Compatibility - Technical Specifications must not depend on features that are available only on one application or industry specification. Software developers and end-users around the world must be able to depend on technical applications that can be implemented the same way, and give the same results, on all hardware platforms and operating systems.
• Technical Excellence - UN/CEFACT working groups will develop all Technical Specifications with the active participation of experts, and liaisons.

The UN/CEFACT Open Development Process (ODP) calls for a eight step approach to developing UN/CEFACT Standards. These eight steps are: 

1. Proposal
2. Requirements Determination
3. First Draft
4. Working Drafts
5. Public Review
6. Implementation Verification
7. Approval The UN/CEFACT
8. Maintenance

The CCTS is currently at Step 5 - Public Review - 2nd Iteration. This version incorporates all appropriate comments submitted since the first public review period. This second round of public review is essential to moving the document forward to Step 6 - Implementation Verification.  Interested parties are asked to review the document for technical correctness and submit comments using provided submission template.

Documents for Public Review 

The provided and to be reviewed documents of this public review are:

Document	Link	Action
CCTS V3.0 Draft Version for Public Review	Specification_CCTS3p0 2nd Public Review 16APR2007.pdf	Draft Specification - Must be reviewed
Comment Log Template	CommentLog_CCTS 3p0 2nd Public Review Comment Submission.xls	Should be used for comments
Rules Comparison List of the rules between CCTS V 2.01 and CCTS V 3.0 Draft Version	Contribution_Rules_Compare_04APR07.xls	Could be used for comparison with rules of former version (CCTS V2.01)
Comment Log of the 1st Iteration of Public Review	Comment Log After 1st Iteration	Could be used for comparison with comments of the 1st iteration of public review

Submission of Comments 

Comments are due by 15 May 2007, and should be submitted to Project Lead and editor, and/or to the TMG web site as follows:

• Project Lead: Gunther Stuhec Mail: gunther.stuhec@sap.com
• Lead Editor: Mark Crawford Mail: mark.crawford@sap.com
• TMG Website
  1. Use Filename: "CommentLog_CCTS_V3.0_PublicDraft_<yourname>_<submissionDate>.xls
  2. Go to Link: CCTS - ODP 5 - Public Review
  3. Go to the part "Presentation and Upload" at the tab "Information"
  4. Click on [Browse...] and browse through your files and select the file you'd like to attach.
  5. Enter a description for the attachment in the left text field (optional).
  6. Click on [Attach]

Participation

Those who like to actively participate for the next steps of this project, please *sign up at our* web site, provide at your "User's Profile" the following information:

*+Communication+*
- *Mobile:*
- *Phone:*
- *Fax:*
 *+Address:+*
\\
\\
*+Level of Participation+*
"member" or "observer"

Guideline You'll find a detailed guideline for registration and participation at the following link: User Guideline - 1. Sign Up and Joining

Kind regards,
Gunther Stuhec
TMG Chair, and CCTS Project Lead
Jim Wilson
TMG CCWG Chair
Mark Crawford
CCTS Lead Editor