XBRL US Invites Participation in Public Review of the US GAAP Taxonomies

NEW YORK, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- XBRL US, Inc., the nonprofit consortium dedicated to the adoption of XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language), published the draft of the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies (collection of financial reporting concepts) for public review and comment. The public comment period provides an opportunity for stakeholders such as public company preparers, investors, financial analysts, auditors and software providers to review and comment on the taxonomy. The public comment period ends on April 4, 2008. To participate in the review and to learn more about XBRL, visit http://usgaap.xbrl.us.

The taxonomies provide a set of elements or "tags", each representing a unique financial reporting concept, for companies to report their financial information in XBRL. This robust set of elements will increase the accessibility and comparability of financial information for investors and analysts, and will limit the need for preparers to create company-specific extensions to accurately represent their financial statements.

"We've been saying that interactive data is on the brink of transforming the review and analysis of financial information for the benefit of investors and public companies alike," said David Blaszkowsky, Director of the SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure. "With the release of this taxonomy today, investors can now begin to visually see the progress being made, and so will every public company that uses GAAP. Interactive data is no longer merely an up-and-comer, it's becoming reality. We encourage both users and preparers of financial information to participate in this public review so we can advance interactive data to be recognized as, not only amazing technology, but a superior way of doing business and making faster, cheaper, and more informed investment decisions."

Participants in the review will be able to view the taxonomies online through an XBRL Review Tool and input their comments directly to an online interface.

About XBRL US, Inc.

XBRL US, the US jurisdiction of XBRL International, is a non-profit consortium representing the business information supply chain including accounting firms, software companies, financial databases, financial printers and government agencies. Its mission is to support the implementation of XBRL through the development of taxonomies relevant for use by US public and private sectors, working with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting adoption of XBRL through the collaboration of all business reporting supply chain participants. XBRL International is a non-profit consortium of approximately 450 organizations worldwide working together to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption.

About XBRL

XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL benefits all members of the financial information supply chain by utilizing a standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial statements and the information they contain. The world's leading accounting, financial, government and software organizations are involved in the adoption and use of XBRL in the U.S.

Web site: www.xbrl.us

Public Review web site: http://usgaap.xbrl.us