XBRL International Call for Interest – Dimensions Working Group

14 Nov 2006

This is a call to all those who are interested in participating in an XBRL International Working Group devoted to the topic of Dimensional Taxonomies to make themselves and their interest known.  If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to WGAdmin@xbrl.org indicating your interest.  In particular, suitable volunteers to Chair the Working Group are being sought so if you are interested in doing so, please could you indicate that in your e-mail.

As you might be aware from previous announcements, the XBRL International Standards Board (XSB) has been assessing the various work streams that are being undertaken by the consortium and has determined that a number of Working Groups (WGs) should be formed.  One of these is the Dimensions WG.

The Dimensions 1.0 Specification (see http://www.xbrl.org/SpecRecommendations/) achieved RECOMMENDED status and was published on September 18th, 2006.  As experience is gained in its implementation, topics will arise that require addressing by XBRL International – the XSB felt that this should be the focus of a Working Group dedicated to this task. Such topics are expected to include:

· Guidance on interpretation of this Specification

· General Maintenance of this Specification (errata corrections, conformance suite updates etc.)

· Interoperability with other XBRL Specification initiatives (such as Formulas, Functions, Rendering etc.)

· Gathering and documentation of “best practices” in the creation of taxonomies according to this Specification

· Assembly of a set of “patterns” describing the most commonly encountered use cases in business terms, including samples

The XBRL Standards Board has set out certain minimum criteria that, it is believed, are necessary for a Working Group to function effectively, and these are documented in detail in the Consultation Draft of the Processes and Procedures document.  This document was previously distributed for comment and is available (to XBRL consortium participants) at http://www.xbrl.org/XSB/.  Once there is sufficient interest declared such that it is believed that these criteria can be met, a formal “Call for Participation” will be issued.

Announced by:

Hugh Wallis

Standards Development – XBRL International

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