I was scouring Twitter today for some interesting XBRL news when I came across this in a Tweet:
XPRL is XML for Business and Financial…
XPRL? At first I thought it was simple typo but then I discovered that XPRL actually exists – it stands for XML Public Relations Language. So that got me to thinking what could be in an XPRL taxonomy?
According to Brand Republic (back in 2002), XPRL could be the future of PR. Described breathlessly as “the liberation of the PR industry” XPRL was being developed at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK no less. Check out the benefits:
It is believed the language will make PRO’s lives immeasurably easier with programmes that help cut down the time spent writing press releases
As opposed to the onerous cut and paste used to create most press releases.
XPRL will help all in PR cut down on misunderstanding
Well that’s a biggie. Does the taxonomy have a special <bs>Blah…blah…blah</bs> element?
The steering group estimates that up to 30 per cent of a PR executive’s time is spent on mundane tasks that XPRL can eliminate the need for.
If only XPRL could eliminate the blah…blah..blah. Then there would be no mundane tasks left at all.
I’m assuming that the XPRL taxonomy was actually two taxonomies in one single instance. The “public” taxonomy contains lots of elements for gushingly describing products and services in as favourable light as possible but if you have the right access code you get switched to the data in the “private” taxonomy that prosaically provides the facts, for example:
<public>Dinky diapers soak up baby’s every spill, yet still remain fresh and odor-free.</public>
<private>Wear rubber gloves and a nose peg when changing a dinky diaper</private>
You get the picture.
So what ever happened to XPRL ? Or was this all based on a typo and everyone meant XBRL all the time?
