ebXML: The e-choreography of business collaboration

I am now officially old enough to witness technology recycle itself. The first two years of my career were spent as a business analyst for an EDI standards committee for the railroad industry. The railroads never got enough participation from each other and progress was slow. However, exchanging EDI messages to track a customer shipment would have added business value. Rather than a customer having to phone every railway to track his shipment, he could receive EDI messages informing him of his shipment’s location throughout the trip plan.

http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/project/0,39006404,39163460,00.htm