(March 31, 2012) XBRL International Inc. (XII) is seeking a Director of Standards Development.

XII is a global, not-for-profit consortium of companies and agencies responsible for the development, maintenance and support of XBRL, an XML-based language for the electronic communication of business information.

This is a hands-on, high-profile position providing strategic guidance and operational leadership to the Technical Boards and Working Groups of XII, including developing and managing work plans, resource planning and engagement and communications both internally and externally to XBRL stakeholders.

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Standards Development is responsible for managing the employees, volunteers and contractors to bring XII technical products to market and assuring that they meet market needs, through surfacing requirements, examining edge cases, testing assumptions, developing test cases, example code and conformance suites.

XII is a globally distributed organisation and as such, employee location is flexible.

The full job description is available here.

Please submit resume and any supporting materials to ceo@xbrl.org. 

(March 19, 2012) XBRL International, Inc. is now accepting registrants for its XBRL Foundation Certificate Program.

The XBRL Foundation Certificate is an online training and testing program consisting of discrete modules that take learners progressively through a curriculum designed to provide a solid foundational knowledge of the XBRL specification and its benefits.  Upon completion of the online training, candidates will have the opportunity to take an online exam.  A passing grade earns an XBRL Foundation Certificate from XII.

Click here to learn more about the program, including pricing and curriculum details. There is also a course demo available to view.

"Training and certification is a great chance for XBRL newcomers and experts alike to demonstrate their mastery of the fundamentals of this critical business tool," said XBRL International CEO Tony Fragnito. "As XBRL continues to develop as the predominant standard for sharing business information, programs like the XBRL Foundation Certificate become increasingly important in making sure developers, users and solution providers have the knowledge to succeed".

There are five learning modules in the XBRL Foundation Certificate covering a broad range of topics including a comparison of business reporting methods, the business requirements that drove the development of the XBRL Specification, the general architecture of XBRL, the specification's main components and the basics of modeling for XBRL taxonomy development.

The certificate program was overseen by the XII Certification Board, a select group of experts well-versed in the development and use of the standard. The training and exam were created in partnership with XBRL implementation consultants Business Reporting Advisory Group and ITpreneurs, a leading developer of highly innovative and advanced training solutions for IT best practices.

"We are extremely pleased to have been able to partner with the organization that created the XBRL standard to offer training and certification for this quickly growing segment," said ITpreneurs CEO Sukhbir Jasuja. "Our proven online delivery platform and innovative course design will provide an interactive and dynamic learning environment for those looking to master the fundamentals of XBRL."

By pre-registering, candidates will enjoy a 20% discount off of the list price of the course and exam. Pre-registrants will receive a registration code and will be notified once the training and exam become available.

February, 2012 – Leaders of the computer industry standards organization OMG®, and XBRL International, Inc. (XII) have agreed to establish a liaison relationship to further cooperate on the development of a standard abstract model for the XBRL language. OMG will become a Direct Association member of XII, and XII will become a Domain Member of OMG.

“OMG and XBRL have worked jointly in many capacities for over a decade and we are delighted to deepen the relationship with cross-membership and a joint effort to develop a standard abstract model for XBRL” said Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., chairman & CEO, OMG. “XBRL is becoming the de facto standard for structured business information, while OMG’s Model Driven Architecture drives increased adoption when applied to XML-based standards. Increasing the usability of those standards will result in wide use of XBRL even outside of the reporting world.”

“This formal liaison between XII and OMG is a result of the strong compliment and benefit that Model Driven Architecture brings to XBRL and OMG’s long term commitment to the standards development and business community,” stated Tony Fragnito, CEO of XBRL International, Inc. “This is in direct support of XII’s strategic commitment to making XBRL easier to use and reducing the barriers to XBRL software development”.

In other news, OMG and XBRL announced that a joint panel discussion will be held at OMG’s “Demystifying Financial Services Semantics” Conference being held in New York on March 13, 2012. (Register for the event here). This panel will discuss the joint framework to define and align XBRL semantics leveraging OMG’s modeling standards for business, architecture and technology. XBRL leadership will present the proposed framework along with the XBRL Abstract model and discuss the potential business applications that can be built off this framework and align XBRL taxonomies using OMG standards based “semantics registry” in a “public cloud” environment.

“More than two-thirds of the world’s market capitalization – trillions of dollars – is already being reported in XBRL format. Hundreds of XBRL initiatives are underway in more than a dozen countries that will benefit millions of companies as well as the users of their information,” said Liv Watson, Seconded to XBRL International, Inc. by WebFilings. “This session will examine how additional OMG semantics can be linked to XBRL data to allow for greater use, interoperability and comparability across countries, regions and industries to promote better accountability and transparency.”

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22 February 2012 – XBRL International (XII) is pleased to announce key Standing Committee Chairs for 2012 as selected by the committees and ratified by the XII Member Assembly. Committee chairs are responsible for setting the strategic direction for their committee and leading volunteer members in achieving results that advance the mission of XII to promote the adoption of XBRL on a global basis.

2012 Chair of the XII Board of Directors
Arleen Thomas - AICPA

2012 Chair of the XII Nominations Committee
Mike Willis – PWC

2012 Chair of the XII Membership Development Committee
Dave Van den Ende – Deloitte

2012 Chair of the Finance & HR Committee
Paul Penler

“The success of XII is due to the commitment and knowledge of our volunteer leaders. Congratulations to these individuals on their selection by these Committees and election by the Membership Assembly.  This is a testament to their ongoing contribution to the organization,” said Anthony Fragnito, CEO of XII.

XII is seeking a Director of Standards Development to provide both strategic and operational support to the Technical Boards and Working Groups of XII. The Director of Standards Development leads the technical work of the organisation by surfacing requirements, examining edge cases, and testing assumptions; as well as producing test cases, example code and conformance suites that both supports the adoption of XII work products and assures that market needs are met.  Daily responsibilities will include developing and managing committee work plans, resource planning and engagement and communicating both internally and externally to XBRL stakeholders.

Candidates should possess an MBA, Masters or equivalent; more than 15 years in SW Architecture, design, and implementation of large scale and complex computing systems. A deep understanding of XBRL and XML-related technologies is required.  

Interested parties should forward a current CV to ceo@xbrl.org. A complete description of duties and requirements is available here.

Current Chief Product Officer Liv Watson will continue in her current role until the Director of Standards Development position is filled. Watson has committed to contributing in a volunteer capacity with XII promoting XBRL member volunteerism and adoption in developing markets.
 

(27 December 2011) -- The XII Best Practices Board (BPB) is exploring interest in the formation of a Taxonomy Architecture Guidance Task Force to oversee the development and dissemination of a Taxonomy Architecture Guidance document (TAG).

Please indicate your interest in participating by emailing to tagtf@xbrl.org by Friday January 20, 2012. Learn more about the work the group will perform here.

Particpants should possess basic knowledge or experience of working with the XBRL standard, and especially XBRL taxonomies.




 

XBRL International (XII) is pleased to announce its Board of Directors for 2012, as confirmed by the XII Member Assembly.  The Board is comprised of representatives from the XII’s Jurisdictions and Organisational Direct Members, as well as at-large representatives. The group advises and assists in executing strategic opportunities as a result of XBRL’s growing international adoption, identifies critical reporting trends for which the XBRL standard is appropriate, and develops long-term growth and sustainability strategies for the XBRL international consortium.

“The members of the 2012 XII Board of Directors are leaders and experts in the global business community. Their broad experience in financial, business and regulatory reporting as well as standard setting will be an asset to XII and the XBRL community”, said XII CEO Tony Fragnito.

2012 Members of the XBRL International Board of Directors

Jurisdictional Representatives
Conor O'Kelly - XBRL Ireland
GA Ramaswamy - XBRL India
Ying Wei - XBRL China

Organisational Direct Member Representatives
Arleen Thomas - AICPA, USA
Cees De Boer - Deloitte, Netherlands
Juthika Ramanathan - ACRA, Singapore

At-Large Representatives
Al Berkeley - Vice Chair of Security First Corporation, USA
Juliette Kennel - Swift, Belgium
Karla McKenna - Citi Bank, USA
Yoshiaki Wada - NTT Data, Japan

The first issue of XII Instances, our monthly newsletter, is available in the Community Section of our website at xbrl.org/xbrl-news. 

At the request of the XBRL International Standards Board (XSB), the XII Board of Directors recently approved the promotion of two updates to the XBRL Specification to Recommended Status, with immediate effect. This action releases these enhancements to the marketplace. The updates include:

• Transformation Registry 2.0, updating certain calculations
• Formula Specification to Recommended Status, which drives validations based on XBRL instance facts and generation of derived data as output XBRL instance facts

“These are important advancements for the XBRL Standard that have undergone intensive testing, along with significant time for public comment”, said XSB Chair Conor O’Kelly. “Furthermore this reflects increased adoption and the advancing maturity of the XBRL specification. We believe that the market will respond with enhanced product development and further incorporation of XBRL into business reporting solutions”.

More information can be found at http://xbrl.org/SpecRecommendations

XBRL International (XII) is seeking three candidates to fill positions on the XII Standards Board (XSB). This is a call to all XII eligible participants who are interested in serving the organization as a voting member of the XSB. Since the release of the XBRL development roadmap, “Preserve, Promote, Participate” last fall the organization has undertaken a series of exciting new initiatives. The goal of this recruitment is to expand the resources of the XSB to deliver on this development roadmap.

The XSB is comprised of members that are both technically competent and business focused (see Section 2.3 “Spread of membership” in the XSB Charter). The current XSB charter and XSB composition can be found at: http://www.xbrl.org/StandardsBoard/

Procedure

XSB candidates may be nominated by any member of XII and may include self- nominations. The Nominations Committee will conduct interviews after the close of the nominations period. Final candidate recommendations will be presented to the XII Board for approval.

Term

The terms of these positions are annual but may be renewed for up to 5 years by mutual agreement.

Targeted Competencies

Architecture - focus on XML and specifically XBRL technology including competencies and experiences in designing and developing service oriented architectures (SOA), database application design for business intelligence solutions (analytics, reporting);
 
Business reporting management experts - with focus on the design and/or operation of end-to-end  business  processes  associated  with  performance  reporting,  including  competencies  and experiences in designing and managing information systems and defining  solutions architecture. 

Product management - focused on the gathering, analysis and prioritizing of requirements from business to functionality requirements. Experiences and competencies should include active team participation in technology projects or products from start to completed work or released Product.

Program  management  -  with  focus  on  the  design  of  feature  sets  based  on  functional requirements. Competencies include the ability to drive key trade off decisions, to illustrate the best sequencing of features over time from a design perspective that also meet requirements, and  evaluate  the  resource  requirements  for  development  and  the  delivery  capacity  of  a distributed, matrix team.

Candidates  should  demonstrate  a  record  of  working  knowledge  of  XBRL  implementation  with competencies in teaming, technical judgment, negotiation, and strategic planning.

Eligibility

Any XII Eligible Participant may be nominated as a candidate to the Standards Board. Individuals may self nominate for this position and no seconder is required. If you are nominating someone else please ensure that they are able to confirm nomination by the deadline.

Deadline for Submissions

The deadline for submitting nominations and candidate statements and for nominees to confirm they accept nomination is 2359 UTC, 9 December 2011.

There is no limit on the length of candidate statements. Please send nominations, candidate statements and confirmation of acceptance of nominations, if applicable, by PRIVATE E-MAIL to  nominate@xbrl.org.