Metadata for e‐commerce: the ONIX International standard

The Online Information Exchange (ONIX) international standard is a collaborative project aimed at developing descriptive and administrative metadata for books. ONIX was first published in January 2000, and was a result of funding from the Association of American Publishers. It was conceived in order to provide Internet booksellers with rich, standardized data that could promote e‐commerce. The metadata initiative is currently in release 1.2, dated November 24, 2000, and is maintained cooperatively by three bodies: EDItEUR, an international group, which coordinates standards for electronic commerce; the Book Industry Communication, a London‐based organization charged with exploring electronic data interchange; and the Book Industry Study Group (http://www.bisg.org/), a non‐profit association stationed in New York, which develops technical standards for the book world.