Darmstadt, 1 June 2006 -- The AdsML Consortium issued AdsML Framework 2.0, Release 7 today, following a month-long balloting of AdsML members. Members approved proposed standards for Bookings, Materials delivery and E-Commerce Usage Rules & Guidelines for magazine and newspaper advertising. The complete suite of specifications may be downloaded at www.adsml.org. Members also voted to accept updates to previously approved specifications. They are packaged with the new release and reflect minor adjustments or changes needed to ensure the earlier specifications work properly with the new release. “Member adoption of these specifications means that advertisers, publishers, and vendors can implement them and be confident that they will perform as promised,” says AdsML Consortium Chair John Iobst, vice president, Technology Group, Newspaper Association of America, Vienna, Va. USA. “The standards are the products of a careful, collaborative development process carried out by developers and industry leaders from a broad spectrum of the worldwide advertising industry.” “A review of these standards is no small task,” notes AdsML Technical Working Group Chair Tony Stewart, director of consulting for Rivcom Inc. in New York, N.Y. USA. “I’d really like to thank all of the Consortium members who participated in the adoption process. The scrutiny and testing these standards received — during the two years of development and as part of the recent balloting process — laid a solid foundation for their implementation.” Ad Ticket Schema Debuts The new release also contains the first public distribution of the Ad Ticket specification, which defines how to embed metadata in an ad’s digital graphics files. Its publication as a “Proposed” standard signals its readiness for public assessment and comment. The Ad Ticket standard is considered stable and ready to implement, so developers expect to present it to members later this year for approval and adoption. “Following the guidelines of the proposed AdsML ad ticket specification will allow key identifying information to be embedded into digital artwork files, such as PDFs,” says Dianne Kennedy, vice president of Media Technologies for IDEAlliance, Alexandria, Va. USA. Kennedy lead the XMP AdTicket project. “The public review and comment phase is the next step for this standard. We encourage all for whom this standard is important to analyze it carefully and forward suggestions to us.” (Send comments to [email protected] or [email protected].) Next: e-invoice and e-tearsheet specifications Member approval was solicited throughout May by an e-mail ballot process. “Member adoption of these AdsML specifications completes the AdsML Consortium’s effort to formulate standards for the business processes that begin an advertisement’s life cycle,” says Harald Loeffler, vice chair of the Consortium and research manager for Ifra in Darmstadt, Germany. “The AdsML Technical Working Group will now focus on business processes at the other end of an advertisement’s life — e-invoicing and proof of publication. These e commerce standards will facilitate invoice reconciliation processing.”