XBRL International Standards Board Forming

On April 3, 2006, XBRL International issued an announcement regarding the formation of the XBRL International Standards Board (XSB). XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

Background on the XSB
Michael Ohata, Director of Reporting Standards at Microsoft Corporation, has been appointed by the XBRL International Steering Committee (ISC) to serve as the XSB's founding chair.

The XSB will report into the ISC. Support for the XSB will be provided by XBRL International staff.

Objectives of the XSB are to:

• increase uniformly the quality, consistency and stability of XBRL International intellectual property,
• raise the level of openness and formality of the XBRL International standards setting process. Manage the process more actively, resulting in improved interoperability which will accelerate adoption of the standard, and
• form working groups charged with specific tasks & oversight and approve the work of certain standing working groups.

Membership of the XSB will consist of seven members appointed by the ISC. According to XBRL International, each of the seven board members would ideally fill a specific competency-role to ensure a balanced perspective and a blend of skills, as follows:

• three technical architecture experts,
• two business reporting management experts,
• one product manager, and
• one program manager.

Additionally, all members of the XSB are asked to "demonstrate a record of working in an international setting with clear competencies of teaming, technical judgment, negotiation, and strategic planning."

Nominations for XSB Sought by May 1
Nominations are sought for the open board positions on the XSB, with a nomination deadline of May 1, thereby enabling the ISC's review of applications at its May 15 meeting. Candidate interviews are anticipated to be held May 16-30.

Further information about the nominating process for the XSB is detailed in XBRL International's April 3 press release, and additional information is included in their April 4 press release.

Additional resources FEI's Committee on Finance and Information Technology (CFIT) has identified as one of its key initiatives working to educate FEI members about XBRL. Additional information can be found on the XBRL Information Page on FEI's website.

Also, as previously announced, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be holding a series of roundtables for feedback on the use of interactive data, including XBRL. Further information on the SEC's interactive data and XBRL initiative is available here.

Prepared April 11, 2006 by Edith Orenstein (eorenstein@FinancialExecutives.org), Director, Technical Policy Analysis, Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion, unless specifically noted above.