Version 3.0 is a major architecture shift for the MISMO organization. For the past six years, MISMO has been developing the Version 2.x suite of standards and has achieved a high level of success. The number of implementations is growing and new opportunities have been identified for MISMO to address. However, as the industry continues to change and the concept of electronic documents (and true eMortgages) comes closer to reality, MISMO realized that a shift in architecture was necessary.

In order to reach adoption goals, Version 2.x was developed by reaching agreement on transaction content within each process area of MISMO (Credit, Flood, Title, Mortgage Insurance, AUS and others). This strategy worked to gain adoption, but it was achieved at the cost of uniformity.

At a high level, the goal of Version 3.0 is to provide a cohesive foundation to support the creation of the widest array of transactions possible. Objectives include creating a common architecture and logical model that promote a centralized view of the mortgage transaction with the explicit context and definition around usages and terms for broad adoption.

Benefits

Successful creation of the Version 3.0 architecture will provide the following benefits to the industry:

• Reuse Version 2.0 content to construct a framework to meet the new use cases of Real Estate Finance.
• Allow implementers of the standard to use a variety of XML tools to construct their implementations.
• Provide a platform-neutral design that allows implementations on various platforms to interoperate.
• Provide the ability to communicate multi-lingual information in the transactions.
• Make the standards extensible to meet the needs of a wider range of use cases.
• Incorporate the needs for stronger information security into the designs and practices.

In addition, MISMO will publish Version 3.0 in fully functional, W3C XML Schema. By doing so, MISMO is able to take advantage of architecture and functionality that is not available in DTDs:

• Publish using namespaces
• Stronger data typing
• Create custom data types
• Better compatibility with other, more recent, XML-based technologies
  • SOAP
  • The family of Web Service standards
  • The data security and integrity standards
• Richer level of metadata to describe the MISMO standards

How To Get Involved

First, anyone interested should sign up for the MISMO listservs. For the Version 3.0 effort, individuals should sign up for the ‘MISMO Version 3.0 Project Team’ and ‘XML Architecture’ listservs on the Listserv Sign Up page. All of the meeting and call information regarding the Version 3.0 effort are communicated via these listservs.

Once signed up, parties are encouraged to join the workgroup conference calls. Right now, MISMO has up to three calls per week regarding Version 3.0. These calls include:

• D3/Architecture – Thursdays 2:00 PM Eastern
• Property Reconciliation – Thursdays 3:30 PM Eastern

Delivery of Version 3.0

MISMO is targeting the end of 2008 as the timeframe for releasing the first Version 3.0 transaction sets. In order to achieve this goal, MISMO has developed a Version 3.0 Milestone document. The document outlines three distinct deliverables necessary for delivery of Version 3.0. The Milestone One deliverables, as defined in the document, have been posted on the Version 3.0 Milestone and Deliverables page.

Additional Information on Version 3.0

Listen to MISMO's Version 3.0 Chief Architect, Greg Alvord, discuss Version 3.0 in MISMO's Version 3.0 Podcast.