I write with details of a two-year CEN Workshop on Standards for electronic reporting in the engineering sector. The aim of this Workshop is to develop and improve computerreadable formats for engineering materials data and demonstrate their use in an electronic reporting proof-of-concept.

        In a CEN Workshop, pre-normative research in a specific domain is undertaken by a small project team, whose work in turn is overseen by Workshop registered participants (typically organizations with a vested interested in the domain of the Workshop). As a registered participant in a CEN Workshop, an organization can determine its level of commitment, ranging from simply reviewing the interim report and CWA, to participation at Workshop plenaries, to contributing knowledge/experience to the work of the project team.

        Given your interest in building, managing, and providing access to data about the properties of engineering materials, I believe that your participation in the CEN Workshop will keep you informed about important progress on improving our ability to share materials data.

        If you are interested to join CEN/WS SERES as a registered participant or simply to learn more about the objectives of the Workshop, please see the CEN webpage at http://www.cen.eu/cen/Sectors/Sectors/ISSS/Activity/Pages/SERES.aspx.

John Rumble： jumbleusa@earthlink.net