DATA MINING GROUP AND IBM EXTEND OPEN STANDARD

The Data Mining Group (DMG), a consortium of technology organizations, has announced that IBM has joined the DMG in its endeavors to extend the Predictive Modeling Markup Language (PMML), the XML-based open standard for defining predictive models.

IBM joins founding consortium companies Magnify, SPSS Inc., Angoss Software Corp., NCR Corp., and the National Center for Data Mining (NCDM).

"PMML provides a simple, open framework for working with and exchanging predictive models so that clicks and mortar companies can more quickly exploit the information they discover in their online and traditional data," said Robert Grossman, chairman of the DMG and president of Magnify, Inc. "The momentum provided by IBM's support of this standard should make it easier for all companies to build business intelligence into their IT infrastructure."

PMML allows users to develop models within one vendor's application, and use other vendors' applications to visualize, analyze, evaluate, or otherwise use the models. The DMG currently is working on PMML Version 1.1, an XML-based language providing applications a vendor-independent method of defining models so that proprietary issues and incompatibilities are no longer a barrier to the exchange of models between applications. Predictive models express the patterns of information discovered in data mining, which companies then may use to develop specific strategies from which they can realize increased profitability.

For more information on IBM, visit http://www.software.ibm.com.

For more information on Magnify, visit http://www.magnify.com.