IT and communications for the deep sea commercial shipping sector

Shipdex - is this the answer to paper based technical manuals?

Shipdex (www.shipdex.com), a new initiative proposed by Grimaldi Group and Intership Navigation, aims to create a new standard in maritime data exchange by making this XML protocol for the compilation of technical data freely available to all in the industry. With Shipdex, shipping companies and their equipment manufacturers would have a common reference point for coding their data, which could, in theory, eliminate hours of work in the creation of ship databases.

Will this ambitious project prove to be a breakthrough in maritime data standards? Give us your opinions on the pros and cons of this systems, and any suggestions you might have that could help to improve this protocol.

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Permalink Reply by Torsten Ecks on March 5, 2008 at 20:39

Hi there,

Shipdex is an initiative with a respectable ambition.
We scan millions of paper files yearly for seveal industries (yes! we do a lot for shipping companies as well), re-format them sometimes and we put them into our document-management-system (DMS) which is not similar to those in existing shipping software.
These files were created in times nobody cared for a standardized format.
If one had at that time, most probably less paper would have been produced and it would be even easier to put information where it belongs to: into a DMS.
So we fully support the Shipdex initiative though we can help you getting rid of your paper files already today, by scanning them!
Nevertheless it will be a long way to implement such a standard in a dynamic industry like shipping.
I am looking forward to the conference in Hamburg which is at our doorstep....

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Permalink Reply by Andy on July 20, 2008 at 11:21

My father has been trying to acheive this goal for 20+ years as one of the primary developers/providers of shipboard operations software. Marine Management Systems was our family company. I can remember the day he told my about (early 90's) the capabilities of XML and the ramifications of providing a data dictionary and standard for the Marine Industry especially multiplatform (pre-java). This standard is a long time comming!! I am sure I could have some suggestions if pressed to do so!

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Permalink Reply by Efthymios Chaldeakis on July 21, 2008 at 14:52

Only history can prove if this is going to be successful! The general idea is of course nothing new but it is the first time serious steps were taken towards that direction.
The success of this endeavour is based on the participation of more members within the original scheme. Members being shipping companies, application vendors and of course machinery vendors.
If this will happen then for sure we will have a mostly anticipated and appreciated industry standard to work with.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Strand on October 6, 2009 at 18:04

I admit to having only a cursory overview of the shipdex goals. I think one of the most important aspects of any "standard" is that it is freely and openly accessible. Historically, when standards have tried to be implemented but failed it is usually for at least one of 2 reasons. First, the standard is really a veiled attempt at creating a revenue source for a group. The second reason standards fail is that the supporting documentation and tools to implement the standard are too vague and spartan. Mono (a multi-platform software development tool) is a good example of an ambitious project that is having great difficulty becoming accepted because of the second reason. Though, skepticism aside, standardization of document protocols, sharing and communication is a highly laudable concept. In my corner of maritime IT, a lot is spoken of integrated systems, but this usually just means a matrix switch tying together screen displays. What shipdex is proposing is truly integration that allow all channels to communicate and use information in a highly practical, productive fashion.