(September 23, 2002) - Members of the OASIS standards consortium have formed a technical committee to facilitate distributed systems management over the Internet. The work of the new OASIS Management Protocol Technical Committee will enable businesses to manage their own Web services and oversee their interaction with services offered by other companies. The OASIS Management Protocol will be designed to manage desktops, services, and networks across an enterprise or Internet environment. "The widespread need for the integration of systems and network management tools is causing the industry to take a more holistic approach to the management of networks--and Web services provide the ideal vehicle for making that happen," explained Winston Bumpus of Novell, chair of the OASIS Management Protocol Technical Committee. "Our work at OASIS will help level the playing field and allow companies to manage systems regardless of the platform they use." OASIS is reviewing a number of Web services standards and operations for potential use in the Management Protocol, including XML, SOAP, Open Model Interface (OMI), and the Distributed Management Task Force's Common Information Model (CIM). Information on joining OASIS can be found on www.oasis-open.org/join.