4A's Unveil Comprehensive EDI Effort

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ADVERTISING Agencies pulled the curtain up on its electronic data transfer hub--eBiz for Media--Wednesday, which will help conclude a two-decade crusade to find a service that allows the media industry's buy side and sell side to conduct "eBusiness transactions."

The registry, at www.eBizformedia.com, is comprised of two parts: the Advertising Industry Registry and the XML Schema Repository. XML is the software transaction standard developed by the 4A's and MediaPort, a defunct venture sponsored by Interpublic, Omnicom, and WPP, and headed by media veteran Mike Lotito, who now runs his own media audit service, IQMedia.

The registry will allow media buyers and sellers to locate other compatible trading partners, and then use the information in the registry to initiate pure "E2E" or "Machine-to-Machine" communication via Web services, said Greg Smith, the chief information officer of McCann WorldGroup. Smith is the head of the 4A's standards committee on electronic data interchange (EDI).

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