The Norwegian Standards Organization will host a meeting open to parties interested in development of data transfer technologies. This meeting is scheduled for 31 May 2001 during the week of the Norshipping Conference in Oslo. There is a growing need to facilitate the direct exchange of data between user systems without the need for manual processing. This requires an agreed standard between sender and receiver for naming and structuring of the data exchanged.

ISO/NP 16917 is a new standard in process that was initially proposed to provide a product structure directory standard for ships that identified product classes and the data items within the classes. The structure would support the neutral exchange of digital data required by shipbuilders, ship operators, equipment suppliers, and regulatory agencies over the life cycle of the ship.

The standard addressed the needs to exchange data between systems utilizing common data transfer software. Since the standard was proposed, the industry has moved rapidly from using structured data exchange models to exchanging data over the Internet using web based technology (XML). This facilitates the exchange of data at all levels and sizes of organizations without the need for common data transfer software. The identification of the data transfer requirements and actual implementation of test Data Dictionaries will be through industry teams supporting their specific areas of interest.

The project details can be viewed at ISO/NP 16917 site.