Oct 15 1996 - JEPI Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact America: Contact Europe:
Hazel Kochocki Andrew Lloyd & Associates
The Weber Group +33 1 43 22 79 56
Sylvie Baranger
(617) 661-7900 +44 127 367 5100
(617) 661-0024 (fax)
Aaron Feigin
Fleishman Hilliard
(415) 356-1033
World Wide Web Consortium and CommerceNet Announce Major Step Toward
Resolving Industry-wide Internet Payment Challenge
Completed JEPI Specifications Provide Standard Way for Web Browsers
and Servers to Negotiate Payment Transactions Via the Internet
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, USA -- October 15, 1996 -- The World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C) and CommerceNet today announced that the
specifications for Joint Electronic Payments Initiative or JEPI has
been completed and that several run-time scenarios are available. JEPI
provides a universal payment platform that will allow merchants and
consumers to transact business over the Internet using many different
forms of payment.
The W3C and CommerceNet have been developing the JEPI specifications
with industry leaders - including Microsoft, IBM, OpenMarket, GC Tech,
CyberCash, Xerox, British Telecommunications and Digital - who are
implementing the Internet payment negotiation protocol in their
systems.
"One of the major ingredients needed for Web commerce is the ability
for different payment instruments and protocols to exchange
information. We are enthusiastic about JEPI because it effectively
addresses this need," said Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Web
Consortium and creator of the World Wide Web. "Together with
CommerceNet, we are committed to accelerating the feasibility and ease
of electronic commerce."
"Interoperability of payment systems and security is essential to the
ability to create open, digital marketplaces on the Internet," said
Dr. J Tannenbaum, Chairman and CEO of CommerceNet.
According to Daniel Dardailler, W3C, Project Manager for JEPI, since
not all merchants accept all forms of payment and transport
mechanisms, the Internet needs a standard way through which
applications can negotiate the appropriate payment methods. Both
CommerceNet and the W3C are working diligently to simplify the
technical side of negotiations payment, creating negotiation and
linkage mechanisms that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate a
wide range of payment instruments, data flows, transport mechanisms,
and external hardware interfaces.
"Both CommerceNet and the W3C are dedicated to working together on the
development and adoption of key technology components needed to
transform the Internet into a worldwide electronic commerce
infrastructure," said Randall Whiting, Vice President, General Manager
of electronic commerce at CommerceNet "This project is exciting and
critically important for CommerceNet because it starts to overcome a
substantial barrier to the development of digital markets on the Net."
JEPI is a standard mechanism for web clients and servers to negotiate
payment instrument, protocol, and transport between one another. JEPI
consists of two parts: an extension layer that "sits" on top of http
known as - Protocol Extensions Protocol (PEP), which was submitted to
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards body earlier this
summer; and Universal Payment Preamble (UPP), the negotiations
protocol that identifies appropriate payment methodology. These
protocols make payment negotiations automatic for end users, happening
at the moment of purchase based on configurations within the browser.
For more information on JEPI, please see the JEPI Web page on the W3C
site at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Payments.
World Wide Web Consortium
The W3C was created to develop common standards for the evolution of
the World Wide Web. It is an industry consortium jointly run by the
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) in the USA; the National
Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) in
France responsible for Europe; and Keio University in Japan
responsible for Asia. Services provided by the Consortium include: a
repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and
users; reference code implementations to embody and promote standards;
and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of
new technology. To date over 150 organizations are Members of the
Consortium.
CommerceNet,
with headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., is a unique business
development and research organization recognized as an industry leader
working to transform the Internet into a global electronic
marketplace. Launched in April 1994, the Silicon Valley-based
organization provides a variety of electronic commerce -oriented
business and technology services for over 175 members worldwide,
including leading banks, telecommunications companies, Internet
service providers, online services, computer manufacturers, software
providers and end-users. More information about CommerceNet can be
obtained by calling (415) 617-8790, sending e-mail to
info@commerce.net, or visiting CommerceNet's Internet site at
http://www.commerce.net.
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Now in its third decade, MIT LCS is dedicated to the invention,
development and understanding of information technologies expected to
drive substantial technical and socio-economic change. The LCS has
helped information technology grow from a mere curiosity to 10 percent
of the industrial world's economies by its pioneering efforts in
interactive computing, computer networking, distributed systems and
public key cryptography. LCS members and alumni have started some
thirty companies and have pioneered the Nubus, the X-Window System,
the RSA algorithm, the Ethernet and spreadsheets.
INRIA
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
(INRIA), the French National Institute for Research in Computer
Science and Automation, is a public-sector scientific institute
charged with conducting both fundamental and applied research, and
with transferring research results to industry. INRIA is made up of
five Research Units located at Rocquencourt (near Paris), Rennes,
Sophia Antipolis, Nancy and Grenoble. Areas of current research
include information processing, advanced high speed networking,
structured documents, and scientific computation.
Keio University
Keio University is one of Japan's foremost computer science research
centers and universities. It is one of the oldest private
universities in Japan, and has five major campuses around Tokyo. Keio
University has been promoting joint research projects in cooperation
with industry, government and international organizations, and is now
becoming one of the research leaders for the network and digital media
technology.
Further information on the World Wide Web Consortium is available via
the Web at (http://www.w3.org/).
# # #