1. OASIS Technical Liaisons

OASIS believes collaborative relationships with other international standards-setting bodies are essential for minimizing the risk of divergent approaches to standardization, avoiding duplication of efforts and ensuring interoperability.

OASIS work together with other standardization bodies to increase coordination across many different international programs for more efficient standards development and more rapid adoption in the global marketplace. OASIS policies for Technical liaisons with other organizations is provided at The policy for submitting OASIS specifications for adoption by other international bodies such as ISO and ITU is given at

OASIS maintains active technical liaison relationships with the following groups:

OASIS participates in a Memorandum of Understanding on Electronic Business with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). The groups work together to increase coordination across many different international programs for more efficient standards development and more rapid adoption in the global marketplace.

The Electronic Business MoU establishes a coordination mechanism under a cooperative model to produce mutually supportive standards required in business transactions (data interchange and interoperability), as well as product design and manufacturing to meet the needs of both industry and end-users.

OASIS Agreements with ISOAs an ISO TC154 Class A Liaison member, OASIS actively participates in the technical work of this committee, which focuses on e-business standards. Likewise, TC154 is a Contributor member of OASIS, and ISO representatives are involved in related work of the many OASIS technical committees that develop e-business specifications.

OASIS is a Category A Liaison member of the ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 (the Subcommittee for Document Description and Processing Languages of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee One on Information Technology) is an OASIS Contributor member. This relationship allows representatives from each group to participate in the standards development work of the other.

OASIS is also an Approved RS Originator Organization (ARO) within ISO

--Need text to explain what it means (need to wait for the final ISO resolution)

Coordination with United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business

UN/CEFACT, the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, and OASIS jointly sponsor ebXML, a modular suite of specifications that enable enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes.

Coordination with Interoperability Summit


OASIS is a cosponsor of the Interoperability Summit that regularly brings together major standards groups and consortia from around the world to identify common ground and coordinate development of electronic business specifications. Other Interoperability Summit cosponsors include HR-XML, OMG, and XBRL.org.

Coordination with National Institute of Standards and Technology


The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a Sponsor member of OASIS that provides major contributions to the OASIS technical agenda, including XML conformance and ebXML development.

Coordination with Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA)

LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association, works in harmony with OASIS on developing standards for multi-lingual data exchange. LISA is an OASIS Contributor member, and OASIS is a Liaison member of LISA.

2. Why Should I start with OASIS if my final destination is an ISO or an ITU Standard

OASIS specifications are accepted world wide. In some occasions and due to the popularity of some standards, OASIS feels that the standard should also be adopted by other international or regional bodies in order to enhance the adoption of a given standard. As such, OASIS have an established process for the further adoption of its standards in other bodies (see

2.1 So why start with an OASIS specification if you intend to have a standard adopted in other bodies such as the ISO or the ITU-T. OASIS is an excellent choice for the following reasons

  • OASIS is a member-led consortium dedicated to building systems interoperability specifications
  • Members of OASIS are providers, users and specialists of standards-based technologies and include organizations, individuals and industry groups.
  • International, not-for-profit, open, independent
  • Successful through industry-wide collaboration
  • The OASIS technical agenda is set by our members; bottom-up approach
  • Technical committees formed by the proposal of our members
  • Each TC sets its own schedule and deliverables
  • Flexible IPR policies
  • Light weight organization that provides you with the ability for fast development of standards with wide participation of industry, academic, public and private sector players

2.2 How can an OASIS Standard be adopted as an ISO standard

OASIS has an active and formal relationship with ISO. In particular, OASIS has the following relationships with ISO

  • ISO TC154, e-business standards (Category A Liaison)
  • ISO/IEC JTC SC34, markup languages (Category A Liaison)
  • ISO/IEC JTC SC6, security (Category A Liaison)
  • OASIS is Approved RS Originator Organization (ARO)

In many occasions OASIS has pursued further adoption of its stanards in ISO. OASIS has a clear policy that allows it to submit its specifications to ISO by following the light weight process defined in Once OASIS approves that a specification can be proceed for further standardization at ISO, OASIS has several options to move forward with an ISO submission. In particular, an OASIS specification can be fast tracked as an ISO specification through a fast track ballot.

Examples of OASIS specifications that become ISO standards include:

  1. Open Document format
  2. ….

2.3 How can an OASIS Standard be adopted as an ITU-TRecommednation

OASIS is an ITU-T A.4 and A.5 Recognition organization.

Need to explain A.4 and A.5

In many occasions OASIS has pursued further adoption of its standards in ITU-T. OASIS has a clear policy that allows it to submit its specifications to ITU-T by following the light weight process defined in

Once OASIS approves that a specification can be proceed for further standardization at ITU-T, OASIS has several options to move forward with an ITU-T submission. OASIS will submit the specification to the most appropriate ITU-T study group for further standardization. In most cases, a member organization will take a lead role in pushing for the OASIS specification to become an ITU-T Recommendation.

Examples of OASIS specifications that become ITU-T Recommendations include:

  1. x.1141 (SAML 2.0)
  2. x.1142 XACML
  3. x.1250 CAP 1.1