NEW YORK, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ — XBRL US today issued a Call for Research Partners to expand research and development projects already underway to develop taxonomies (digital dictionaries) for corporate actions, proxy and governance, and asset-backed securities. XBRL US is a nonprofit consortium for XML business reporting standards in the United States and developer of the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomy required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for public company financial statements.
In addition to taxonomy development, other areas of research will focus on the harmonization of XBRL with other standards such as ISO 20022 for financial services and the Federal Government’s NIEM framework, and advanced work on XML and XBRL implementations in the areas of identity management, extensibility, and rendering of tagged documents and data streams.
Research partners will fund cooperative research, provide expert research fellows who will work with XBRL US in their New York labs, and sponsor internships. Facilitated workshops with research partners are scheduled to begin in January 2010.
First XBRL US Labs Research Fellows Named
In announcing the Labs’ Call for Partners in an annual report to members at the XBRL National Conference, President and CEO Mark Bolgiano also named the first Research Fellows, three individuals recognized for major contributions to the development of the US GAAP Taxonomy initiated in March 2007 and completed in April 2008:
- Landon Westerlund, Partner, KPMG LLP, who coordinated accounting efforts for the project
- Dr. Walter Hamscher, President, Standards Advantage, a computer scientist and XBRL expert who joined the SEC’s Office of Interactive Disclosure in 2008
- Paul Sappington, Vice President of Software Development, EDGAR Online, project technology lead
“Being named an XBRL US Labs Research Fellow is an honor that I accepted as part of an amazing team of accounting experts, technologists, and information architects. It’s exciting to see that team and taxonomy development platform growing and evolving into XBRL US Labs,” said Mr. Sappington.
Labs will support increasing momentum of XBRL adoption in markets
“The professional staff, members, and domain experts assembled by XBRL US and the Labs, combined with our platform for ‘crowd-sourcing’ developing large XBRL taxonomies and subjecting them to public review, testing, and comment is a powerful force to move us to a more efficient, transparent world,” said Alfred R. Berkeley III, former NASDAQ President and XBRL US Chairman, “I’m confident that you’re going to see the Labs process yield significant advances in structured data technologies.”
Mark Bolgiano stated that XBRL US consortium members would have visibility into work in progress and that XBRL US Labs is committed to high quality, replicable research based on accepted experimental methods and analysis. According to Mr. Bolgiano, all qualified companies committed to open, inclusive, and cooperative research efforts are eligible to participate in the Labs.
The announcement was made at the first XBRL US national conference, “XBRL Financial Reporting: Advancing Transparency, Transforming the Dialogue,” which focused on the lessons learned from the SEC’s rollout of XBRL-formatted financial statements and future uses of XBRL for public company reporting. Information about the conference can be found at http://xbrl.us/events/Pages/NatCon2009.aspx.
About XBRL US
XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XML business reporting standards in the United States and is a jurisdiction of XBRL International. It represents the business information supply chain, including accounting firms, software companies, financial databases, financial printers and government agencies. Its mission is to support the implementation of XML business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies relevant for use by US public and private sectors, working with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting adoption of these taxonomies through the collaboration of all business reporting supply chain participants. XBRL US has developed taxonomies to support U.S. GAAP and common reporting practices, the Risk Return Summary in mutual fund prospectuses and the Schedule of Investments under contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission. . The XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies are available for review at http://xbrl.us/pages/us-gaap.aspx.
Related Links: www.xbrl.us
Contacts:
Michelle Savage Vice President, Communications XBRL US 917-747-1714 michelle.savage@xbrl.us
