Ontology.Org, an independent research organization founded by Computer Sciences Corporation announced its support for and participation in the Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML), an open, vendor-neutral initiative to establish a global technical and semantic framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner for the exchange of e-business data. ebXML is a joint effort of the United Nations CEFACT, a U.N. body whose mandate covers worldwide policy and technical development in the area of trade facilitation and e-business, and OASIS, a non-profit, international consortium dedicated solely to product-independent data and content interchange. Ontology.Org, founded in May 1998, is committed to improving XML practices through the adoption of knowledge engineering techniques and shared ontologies, which has become an important topic in the development of business-to-business commerce on the Internet. Ontology.Org has joined with more than 120 representatives from such varied organizations as ACORD, Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) x12, Commerce One, CSC, DataChannel, DISA, UN/EDIFACT, IBM, OAG, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems to launch the ebXML initiative. www.ontology.org