Information Interchange Standards
The Diffuse Project, funded under the European Commission's Information Society Technologies programme, has set up a website to provide up-to-date reference and guidance information on available and emerging standards and specifications that facilitate the electronic exchange of information. The Diffuse project was set up to report on developments relating to standards and specifications in support of Key Action II (New Methods of Work and Electronic Commerce) and Key Action III (Multimedia Content and Tools) of the IST programme. The emphasis of the project is focused on the needs of researchers, particularly those participating in the IST programme, although it also has a broader perspective of serving the information requirements of industry and public sector in general. The project builds on the accomplishments of the European Commission's Open Information Interchange (OII) initiative, which concluded in December 1999. Planned information services include a number of standards guides for business users, an updated standards and specifications list, and a list of standards fora. The latest addition to the site is the monthly report on information management standardisation activity (January-February 2000).