Unisys, IBM, Oracle, Platinum, Fujitsu, Softeam, Rational, Sprint, Sybase, Xerox, MCI Systemhouse, Boeing, Ardent, ICONIX, Integrated Systems, Verilog, NCR, NTT and Daimler-Benz are some of the vendors who are collaborating on the Object Management Group’s new XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) specification. XMI is a new open industry standard that combines the benefits of the web-based XML standard for defining, validating, and sharing document formats on the web with the benefits of the object-oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML). It provides application developers with a common language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting distributed objects and business models. The XMI specification quickly moved through the OMG’s Technology Adoption process and is currently undergoing the formal technology adoption vote by the OMG membership. Market demand for XMI is encouraging vendors such as IBM, Unisys and Oracle to expedite implementations of the technology and products as early as mid-1999. www.omg.com