With all the flavors of XML (Extensible Markup Language) floating around, things could get confusing. Industry group RosettaNet has decided to attack the issue by calling for some convergence of the various XML standards as well as by setting up things like common dictionaries to make the technology easier to use.

Santa Ana, California-based RosettaNet has come up with a conceptual model showing where different XML standards -- such as VoiceXML and ebXML (electronic business XML) -- fit and perhaps overlap, in an effort to identify areas where convergence could take place, the group announced Tuesday.

RosettaNet is an industry consortium helping to steer XML's development and has over 400 members including Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

In its attempt to clarify the XML landscape, RosettaNet issued its paper, "XML Standards Components and Convergence: A RosettaNet Perspective" on its Web site at http://www.rosettanet.org.

"Although many of the XML initiatives today are complementary, the sheer number of XML standards efforts is leading to confusion among implementers and key decision makers alike," the group said.

Using its conceptual model and a summary of the various XML initiatives, the group said it will become easier to identify complementary efforts as well as those that overlap, which might provide opportunities for convergence, the group said.

The paper includes horizontal and vertical areas that the group has standards efforts in, such as Universal Messaging Service and Universal Business Processes, as well as explaining why it has chosen standards for each, and what those standards are.

RosettaNet sees itself as a kind of electronic business equivalent of the Rosetta stone, which carried the same message in three different languages, enabling translation from hieroglyphics.