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Wilson So is the Director of Hitachi Consulting Corporation XBRL: Let’s Go to the Video Tape!
Written by Bob Schneider Posted on July 31, 2008
I’m sure I’m showing my age, but in the hundreds of times I’ve Googled for XBRL, I’ve rarely looked at the results in the Video section. Not surprisingly, when I finally spent some time there (and in the YouTube section too), I found some very good stuff. A Roger Ebert post on XBRL videos is definitely in order.
So welcome to the 2008 eXBy Awards. The nominees for Best Interactive Data Video are…well, actually, I’ve included most of the watchable XBRL videos I found in Google results. (I haven’t included so-called webinars, many of which would earn top ratings. I’ve also excluded any items from YouTube’s HitachiXBRL channel, which has the presentations of Mike Willis and Dr. James Canton at Hitachi’s NextFinance conference.)
How XBRL Works A short video by Charlie Hoffman that does a superb job of explaining the essence of XBRL and its raison d’etre. Charlie takes a typical financial statement footnote and demonstrates how its text can be structured for meaning (as opposed to merely presentation). He makes the argument of why a global standard (i.e., XBRL) is necessary and valuable for tagging business information.
How Can Companies Streamline Enterprise Business Jeff Thompson from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) explains that the uses of XBRL extend beyond financial reporting to such areas as SOX compliance. Jeff emphasizes that XBRL is as important for internal reporting as external reporting. He expresses the support of the IMA for XBRL adoption.
XBRL in Plain English This short, informative introductory video from Just Systems has lots of fun graphics and a cheerful narrative. I was put off, however by some of the overstatement, like “Information in a non-XBRL world is a terrible thing” or “No longer will companies be able to obfuscate financial information.” Still, the video is definitely worth recommending to someone who is completely new to the subject.
XBRL Convergence A series of six videos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6), each eight or nine minutes, of Mike Willis’s presentation in June to the CalCPA Council. Mike begins with a discussion of convergence and explains how it’s a much larger issue than simply combining IFRS and US-GAAP. He goes on to discuss XBRL in detail and how it will change the way financial professionals work. A very good introduction.
SEC Chair on XBRL This video from 2006, with Chairman Cox discussing his plans for developing US GAAP taxonomies, is now significantly dated. But it’s still useful for understanding how he views the benefits of XBRL for financial reporting.
The Business Value of Bringing XBRL into the SOA Fold — Part 1 (NOTE: I had technical glitches trying to get this video to work.) Presented by Dianne Mueller and the staff of Just Systems, the video touches on a variety of topics, including the use of XBRL at the FDIC and SEC, the corporate reporting supply chain, and XBRL taxonomies. Dianne does a good job of putting XBRL into the broader context of all XML languages. Part 2 and Part 3 cover the technical aspects of XBRL solutions and are of more interest to developers and other IT specialists.
And the 2008 eXBy for Best Interactive Data Video goes to…
….Charlie Hoffman for How XBRL Works. Congratulations, Charlie!
In truth, it simply isn’t fair to compare videos of widely differing lengths and purposes and award one winner. All of the nominees are to be congratulated, and I hope you’ll spend a little time checking out their work.