Carmakers unite on global data sharing.

This article features the Joint Automotive Data Model (JADM), which is designed to provide a common way for car manufacturers and suppliers to swap extensible markup language (XML)-formatted data. The format-neutral XML is widely viewed as far more flexible for Internet-based machine-to-machine data sharing than the decades-old electronic data interchange. The JADM effort is intended to preempt development of company- and region-specific formats that could prove incompatible and costly to support. INSET: Microsoft, IBM address carmaker needs.