Page 26 - GAO-02-327 Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language
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Chapter 1: Background: Features and Current
Federal Use of XML
Figure 3: XML Can Facilitate the Use of Different User Interfaces and Display
Devices
Source: GAO.
XML Usage XML does not represent the first attempt by IT developers—or the federal
government—to standardize the process of data exchange. The EDI 3
Complements standards were also developed for this purpose, but their use has been
Traditional Electronic limited. EDI has been implemented mostly by large organizations, which
have the resources to buy the custom software generally required and to
Data Interchange set up private communications networks. Another obstacle to
Applications implementing EDI is that it requires individuals with specialized
knowledge to perform tasks such as converting an organization’s business
3
EDI is the automated exchange of predefined and structured business data among
information systems of two or more organizations.
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