A call for participation has been issued for a new OASIS Technical Comittee that will develop the Universal Business Language (UBL), under the chairmanship of Jon Bosak.

The main aim of the new technical committee (TC) is to "avert a crisis in electronic business caused by competing XML business-to-business document standards." To do this, the TC will begin with xCBL 3.0 as a starting point and develop it based on industry experience with XML business libraries and other similar technologies.

The TC also aims to harmonize UBL "as far as practical" with ebXML, and to recognize work done by standards bodies such as UN/CEFACT, ISO, IEC, ITU, W3C, IETF, OASIS.

As well as Bosak, those proposing the new TC include Bob Glushko from Commerce One, Lauren Wood from SoftQuad and James Werner from Boeing.

For more information please read the full call for participation.