The April 1999 Snapshot (available to the public on May 5, 1999) of the POSC Interoperability Specifications includes all parts of the first snapshot, issued on March 31, 1999, plus some additions. Please refer to the Summary of Changes from the March snapshot.

POSC welcomes feedback on all aspects of the specifications snapshots. Please send all comments to the Interoperability and Business Objects project:

POSC members are encouraged to subscribe to the Interoperability email list that will be used to conduct technical discussions during the preparation of the next snapshot. To subscribe, send email to:

To send comments to the Interoperability discussion list, send email to:

This snapshot addresses the goal of delivering application interoperability to the E&P business practitioner (end-user). This will ultimately mean plug and play of application components from various sources and use of multiple datastores.

Achieving interoperability for end-users requires the use of an agreed upon architecture or description of how software components should be developed and how they are expected to inter-relate. Thus interoperability is accomplished through the use of common, shared services and well-defined business objects for use as application components.

This snapshot provides a standardized object-oriented architecture for distributed applications based on specifications that enable and support distributed, sharable objects, and domain specific object models (E&P business objects). In addition, standardized objects are defined for the E&P business, and for Subsurface Interpretation in particular.

They are presented as interface and usage specifications as extensions to POSC's current Software Integration Platform (SIP) specifications.

For more information on the meaning and levels of interoperability, see the table in the RFT Evaluation Report.

This snapshot is intended to serve three purposes:

• To give all POSC members the opportunity to participate in the completion, review, and acceptance of this work.
• To give the RFT submitters direct participation in the formulation of the POSC specifications based on their work.
• To give other projects and initiatives an understanding of the form and content of the POSC interoperability work so that they may constructively build on this work and contribute to the expansion of the overall set of POSC interoperability specifications.

Understanding that these different groups will have different initial levels of understanding of interoperability, the next section will give guidance on what to read. In addition, there are references to tutorial sites that can help readers to better understand the concepts and technology behind these ideas.

The active dialog around the snapshot material will be supported by:

• Direct member feedback to POSC. See feedback contact information above. All comments received will receive prompt responses.
• Member Technical Workshops. A workshop was held May 11, 1999 in Paris, France to discuss details of the snapshots. Meeting notes from that workshop are available.
• Joint meetings with submitter groups or other project groups. Please contact Alan Doniger at Doniger@posc.org to make arrangements.

As with all POSC collaborative activities, the active participation of the member organizations is essential to ensuring a timely and accurate result that meets both business and technical goals. We sincerely request your participation in this and the following snapshots.

The Interoperability Project has a long history that interested readers may not have been following. It is also using leading edge technology that may be new to many readers. For this reason, the following suggestions are given to guide people through this snapshot.

For those who are already familiar with the process, the following files will describe the snapshot:

• The documents that are being produced are described in the Overview of the Release
• The submissions received in response to the RFT, and other source documents for this snapshot, are given in the Source Material
• This being a snapshot, there are open items and known issues. These are described in Section 8 - Errata and Issues section of the Interoperability Introduction document.

Reference links

In terms of the RFT evaluation items (see summary table in Section 8 - Errata and Issues of the Interoperability Introduction document), the following items should be addressed in the next snapshot::

• #3 (Sampled Data)
• #14 (Reference Values)
• #15 (Units and Coordinates)
• continuing to move forward on item #1 (Consistency with Existing Specifications)
• the expansion of the scope of coverage to include Seismic, Faults, and Horizons.

Concentrated work on these topics leading to the next snapshot will resume after the receipt of revised submissions (anticipated in 1999 Q3) that will address or revise the coverage of Wells, Sampled Data, Seismic, Faults and Horizons. The next snapshot will also address issues raised concerning the content of the April snapshot, including feedback from the Member Technical Workshops (see Workshop Meeting Notes).