When it comes to promoting electronic commerce standards, a number of industries have decided that bigger is better. Last month, RosettaNet, an electronics industry organization in Santa Ana, Calif., said it would merge with the Uniform Code Council Inc. (UCC), based in Lawrenceville, N.J.

In a separate development, the Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) of Alexandria, Va., and the Gas Processors Association (GPA) of Tulsa, Okla., also announced that they would team up for standards collaboration.

All of those groups are involved in developing standards for extensible markup language (XML), which many experts believe will be the most important tool for computer-to-computer communication and electronic commerce in the future. XML uses special tags to identify various types of messages, such as purchase orders and advance shipment notices, so they can be exchanged over the Internet between companies.

Launched in 1998 by the high-tech industry, RosettaNet has more than 440 members drawn from the semiconductor and computer industries. The organization has done extensive work in writing XML standards for purchase orders as well as for logistics-related messages. It's best known, however, for its development of "partner interface processes" (PIPs), which specify how trading partners in the supply chain exchange electronic information with one another. Under terms of the new agreement, RosettaNet will become a subsidiary of UCC but will continue to operate as a separate entity for its high-tech members.

The 30-year-old UCC has more than 260,000 members. The group helped set the standards for the ubiquitous bar codes displayed on retail and grocery products and is involved in the development of XML standards for supply chain applications, particularly in the grocery and retail industries.

At about the same time that the RosettaNet-UCC combination was announced, CIDX and GPA went public with their decision to work together on the adoption of XML-based standards within the gas processing industry. They also said they would collaborate on implementation of the "Chem eStandards" to facilitate electronic trade within and between the gas processing and chemical industries. Developed by the chemical industry, the Chem eStandards use XML to enable data exchange for the buying, selling and delivery of chemicals. Under the agreement, GPA will become an associate member of CIDX.

Although the combination of those groups is intended to spur the adoption of uniform standards across multiple industries, at least one industry analyst thinks cross-industry standards are unlikely to be widely used. John Fontanella, an analyst at AMR Research, believes that we will instead see wider adoption of XML standards that are targeted to specific supply chains.