Bob Schneider is a Partner in 
Wilson So is the Director of Hitachi America, Ltd. Welcome
Written by Bob Schneider Posted October 5, 2006
Business professionals already have too much to read every day. So anybody even thinking of starting a blog aimed at them better have an awfully good reason.
We do. Over the next five years, XBRL will become one of the most important and exciting IT innovations for financial reporting and everyday business operation. Yet most people, including more than a few CFOs, will read the preceding sentence and say “What’s XBRL?”
That’s not surprising: Coping with Sarbanes-Oxley and other tough challenges have given CFOs and their staffs more than enough to contend with these past couple of years. And even for those who’ve heard about XBRL — or interactive data, as we’ll often call it — it hasn’t been viewed as a top priority.
That’s about to change. The interactive data playing field is becoming as action-packed as Yankee Stadium in October. Every week there are new developments, as governments worldwide move to adopt XBRL as a universal data standard. The U.S. effort is steadily picking up pace too. The adoption of XBRL-enabled call reports by the FDIC has been a major achievement. Building on that success, other Federal agencies — most notably the SEC — are moving ahead to expand the use of interactive data throughout government. Over the next few months, we anticipate major news that will make XBRL as familiar an acronym as ASAP.
This blog is aimed at business professionals who want to learn more about XBRL and who want to keep current with key XBRL issues as they emerge. We’ll offer both news and opinion. We’ll discuss how governments and companies are implementing XBRL. We’ll keep you abreast of the technology, in non-techie language you understand. (In other words, we figure you know a bit about taxable income and nothing about taxonomies.) We’ll stay on top of the literature and tell you what’s worth reading. And we’ll let you know about meetings, webcasts, and other events worth listening to.
Undoubtedly, many of Data Interactive’s most useful entries will be written by our guest bloggers. These are XBRL pros, working at the front lines, who are spearheading the effort toward XBRL adoption. Their experience and insight will make the war stories they tell valuable and compelling. We thank them for their vital contribution. And we want to thank you for reading. All of us bookmark lots of web pages, but very few of them ever get us back for a second visit. We intend to make Data Interactive one of those Favorites you return to regularly. We invite you to contact us with your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism.