Regarding our suggestion to develop a Travel & Tourism related xml-based standard ("TourML"), there is important news for us. The Open Travel Alliance (http://www.opentravel.com) (short: OTA) is currently developing an open (?) standard, OpenTravel(TM!) in 5 working groups: air, car, hotel, travel service providers, and non-service providers (e.g. travel agents). First drafts of the data dictionaries are promised for the end of 1999.

While contributions to the standardisation process are welcome, there is also an Intellectual property rights notice on the opentravel.com website: submit whatever you like but it will be owned by us. (And licenced to users later?)

I have so far found no hint on their site to which standardisation body they want to submit their standard - it may not be so open after all?

Does anyone know more about OpenTravel? Please tell us.

As regards the impact on the TourFinder project, I think it would save us a lot of time to be able to draw on OpenTravel (flights, cars, accommodation) and SKIcal (http://ski.finns.nu/) for events. What may be our standards contribution could fall in the area of "aboutness": local attractions which are not explicit service providers, e.g., scenery, ruins, walks, nudist beaches, historic background; also local transport and environmental or political aspects as all these may influence tourists' destination choices. But I know we have to draw the line somewhere - this is just food for thought.

What puzzles me and makes me think about the status of OpenTravel is that it is not included in Robin Covers very comprehensive list of XML developments (http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml.html). All search engines come up broken link, so they must have moved the site recently without caring to reroute users.

In September Open Travel Alliance has asked DISA (data interchange standards association - http://www.disa.org/) to manage their standards development process. So they got themselves into a mess?

Please comment.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 1999