IBM, Lotus, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Inc., Psion and Starfish Software announced today they have founded The SyncML Initative. The SyncML Initiative develops and promotes an open industry specification for universal data synchronization of remote data and personal information across multiple networks, platforms and devices. SyncML is an XML-based data synchronization protocol designed to create the optimal mobile computing experience by supporting enhanced data synchronization, including e-mail, calendar, contact management information, enterprise data stored in databases, Web-based documents and new forms of content from systems available in the future. The SyncML Initiative is open for industry partners to join in developing the specification. The SyncML specification will enable the creation of interoperable wireless and wireline data synchronization products across corporate servers, Web servers, computers, laptops, PDAs, handheld computers, mobile phones and other mobile devices, regardless of platform or manufacturer. The founding members of The SyncML Initiative have identified the following goals to achieve the successful development and adoption of an industry-wide data synchronization standard: Leverage existing open standards for structured data representation and industry object types; Operate over wireless and wireline networks; Support a variety of transport protocols; Support arbitrary networked data; Provide data access from a variety of applications; Connect mobile devices regardless of platform or manufacturer; Use existing Internet and Web standards and technologies; And provide easily accessible code for enabling support for the specification The SyncML Initiative will leverage XML, MIME, the vCard and the iCalendar to represent Internet Data, email information, personal contact information and calendaring information. Extending beyond currently available data synchronization technologies, SyncML will enable synchronization among wireless and wireline networked data, computers, laptops, handheld computers, PDAs, mobile handset and other mobile devices. www.syncml.org