information model) and so has much functional equivalence to the "registry" region of the ISO 11179 conceptual model." This is however incorrect. Although the specification ebRIM v2.0 (5 December 2001) says at the beginning in its Design Objectives: "Leverage as much as possible the work done in the OASIS [OAS] and the ISO 11179 [ISO] Registry models" by the time of ebRIM v3.0 (2 May 2005) all reference to ISO/IOEC 11179 is reduced to a mention under informative references on page 76 of 78. It was recognised by some team members that the ebXML RIM data model had no place to store "fine grained artifacts" ie. the data elements which are at the heart of ISO/IEC 11179, but not until 2009 can an explicit and definitive statement from the team be found. ISO/IEC 11179 ISO/IEC 11179 says that it is concerned with "traditional" metadata: "We limit the scope of the term as it is used here in ISO/IEC 11179 to descriptions of data - the more traditional use of the term." Originally the standard named itself a "data element" registry. It describes data elements: "data elements are the fundamental units of data" and "data elements themselves contain various kinds of data that include characters, images, sound, etc." It also describes a registry with an analogy: "This is analogous to the registries maintained by governments to keep track of motor vehicles. A description of each motor vehicle is entered in the registry, but not the vehicle itself." ebXML The ebXML RIM says about its Repository and Registry that it is "... capable of storing any type of electronic content such as XML documents, text documents, images, sound and video … RepositorytItems (sic) are stored in a content repository". It also says that it is "... capable of storing standardized metadata that MAY be used to further describe RepositoryItems" which metadata "… are stored in the registry". It also describes itself with "...this familiar metaphor. An ebXML Registry is like your local library. The repository is like the bookshelves in the library. The repository items in the repository are like book (sic) on the bookshelves." It goes on to say "The registry is like the card catalog … A RegistryObject is like a card in the card catalog." What should be immediately apparent is that something which holds catalogue cards is not "like" a catalogue, it IS a catalogue. Unfortunately for a