计算机专业时文选读之二十八

Remember the promise of the paperless office? Computers communicating electronically with one another were going to replace the tons of paperwork that characterized business-to-business interaction: purchase orders, invoices, payments, confirmations, documentation. The list was nearly endless. Electronic document interchange (EDI) was going to be the savior of our systems and protector of our forests.

It didn't happen. EDI never met the challenges of connecting scores of proprietary and mission-critical applications. Now, a new successor is stepping up to the challenge.

RosettaNet is both a set of standards and a global consortium of more than 500 electronic component, IT and semiconductor manufacturing companies working to create, implement and promote open e-business process standards. Founded in 1998, RosettaNet aims to align specific business processes among trading partners by defining and standardizing up to 100 e-business transaction processes so that two companies' back-end systems can talk directly to each other.

RosettaNet takes its name from the Rosetta stone, which a soldier in Napoleon's army discovered in Egypt in 1799. Since it contained parallel inscriptions in both Greek characters and Egyptian hieroglyphics, it provided a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing.

This modern electronic translator speaks the contemporary languages of computer interoperability—XML and SOAP—which should allow disparate systems and business processes from different organizations to understand and exchange data with one another.

The consortium began its Herculean task by looking at supply chain processes. Members used business-process modeling to identify the elements of a working business process and create a clearly defined model of current trading partner interfaces. After extensively researching every level of the supply chain, as well as analyzing misalignments and inefficiencies, they developed a set of generic, standardized processes that could serve as the basis for real-world business-to-business alignment.

These Partner Interface Processes (PIP) are specialized system-to-system, XML-based dialogues. Each PIP specification includes a business document and a detailed business process that includes interaction, data transmission, security and error-handling requirements.

PIPs use two data dictionaries—one for business properties and another for technical properties—that help different companies define the same product in exactly the same way. The RosettaNet Implementation Framework defines an exchange protocol, and the Message Guidelines instruct implementers on how to encode individual PIPs into specific packages.

Such efforts at standardizing generic processes have been tried before and failed. RosettaNet, however, seems more carefully grounded in the real world, and its PIPs are tested by consortium members. After consortium partners have agreed through a voting process that a PIP meets industry needs, it is then published on the RosettaNet Web site and is available for anyone to use.

络世达网

还记得无纸办公室的承诺吗?相互提供电子通信方式的计算机将替代数以吨计的体现公司对公司业务的书面工作：订购单、发票、付款、确认、文档等，几乎没有穷尽。电子文档交换(EDI)将是系统的救世主和森林的保护神。

但是这一切没有发生。EDI从来没有满足连接众多专有的和关键任务的应用程序这个挑战。现在，一个新的后续者出来迎接挑战。

络世达网既是一组标准，也是一个由500多家电子元件、IT和半导体制造商组成的国际组织，它致力于制定、实施和促进开放的电子商务流程的标准。络世达网成立于1998年，其目的是通过定义近100个电子商务交易过程并对其实现标准化，以使贸易伙伴之间具体的业务过程互相配合起来，从而使两家公司的后台系统互相通话。

络世达网的名字来源于络世达石，该石头是拿破仑军队的一名士兵1799年在埃及发现的。由于它上面并列地刻着希腊字符和埃及象形文字，它为解读古代埃及文献提供了一把钥匙。

而这个现代的电子翻译讲着当代计算机互相交流的语言——XML和SOAP，它们允许不同组织的不同系统和业务过程能相互理解和交换数据。

该联盟从研究供应链的过程入手开始这个艰巨的任务。成员单位使用业务过程模型来识别一个工作着的业务过程的组成单元，并生成定义清晰的当前贸易伙伴界面的模型。在全面研究了供应链的方方面面以及分析了不一致和低效之处后，他们开发了一组一般化的标准过程，它们是真实世界中公司对公司整合的基础。

这些伙伴界面过程(PIP)专注于系统对系统、基于XML的对话。每个PIP规范包括业务文档和详细的业务过程，该过程包括交互、数据传输、安全和纠错的要求。

PIP使用两本数据字典，其中一本关于业务特性，另一本关于技术特性，它们有助于不同的公司以完全一样的方式定义同一产品。络世达网实施框架定义交换协议，消息指导方针指示实施者如何把各个PIP编进具体的软件包中。

这些对一般过程标准化的研究以前也有人做过，但失败了。而络世达网看来更小心翼翼地贴近真实世界，它的PIP由联盟成员加以考核。联盟伙伴在经过投票，确认了一个PIP满足业界要求之后，就在络世达网站上公布了，任何人都可以使用。