Senior DoD leadership, through acquisition reform, has sought since the late 1980s to streamline the acquisition processes employed by the Department through automation and legislative and regulatory reforms. The movement toward "paper-free" Government contracting has generated many computerized applications designed to streamline contracting. These programs have created a new focus on system interoperability in contracting. At the same time, the advent of the internet and the desire for ubiquitous access and fungible web services seem to demand the complementary imposition of strict standards for data and presentation.

The standards which existed in the past are not sufficient to the present needs. Data should move seamlessly and persistently through the DoD enterprise, and also be protected as regards national security and legislative tenets. This is not the case. Maintenance life cycles, redundant data record keeping , obsolete business processes, and existing legacy system interfaces are all contributing factors which drive the need for strict new standards for both content and transport, championed by and implemented by all of the stakeholders.

Standards such as EDI have proven to be insufficient both functionally and technically. The communities of practice in DoD which are experiencing a variety of interoperability issues in the "connected enterprise" as it evolves in DoD are Procurement, Finance, Information Technology, Program Management, Legislative Liaison, and others. External to the Department, affected stakeholders include vendors, state and local government entities, and businesses which are part of the DoD readiness matrix.

The eXtensible Markup Language has been quickly adopted as a tool for presenting data especially on the Internet. Electronic Data Interchange format is already in place and widely used throughout government. This situation offers that Government a number of options concerning standard adoption or extension and cooperation with Standards bodies. AMS proposes a Town Meeting to discuss whether XML and EDI should continue as equally supported formats; should the Government attempt to impact and then to use Commercial XML standards; or should the Government develop and impose Government-only XML schemas on its own departments and their partners. Particular emphasis will be afforded the Government acquisition process.

The benefits of these schemas will be fewer Inventories with better access; content re-use; improved reporting; Interoperable components; intelligent use of BOTS; ubiquitous intellectual knowledge-ware and knowledge sharing; and economies of scale.

AMS proposes to host a Town Meeting that will include invited participants from such agencies and organizations as the National Institute of Standards, MITRE Corporation, National Contract Management Association, the Data Interchange Standards Association, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Development and Logistics.

The format of the meeting will allow each participant a short time to address the principle subject from their viewpoint in turn and then invite discussion by all the participants. The moderator will pose questions submitted in advance from the audience during pertinent debate. At the conclusion of the panel discussions the panel will accept questions from the floor.