About the EXPRESS Language Foundation

Our mission

To facilitate the education, standardization, research, promotion, definition, usage of information modelling and programming languages, with a focus on the EXPRESS language family.

Our purpose

The EXPRESS Language Foundation is established in response to user needs of the EXPRESS language family, juxtaposed upon the current technology and usage environment that places additional demands on the language family not previously addressed.

Linguists consider languages as living things, and members of the EXPRESS language family are no different!

Our work

ELF funds future development and maintenance of the EXPRESS family of languages, and aims to support users of these languages.

Specifically, ELF aims to:

  1. develop and publish best practices, documentation and related tools for the definition, relation, usage, governance and dissemination of information models;

  2. foster and host a user community for those who work with the EXPRESS language family.

Organization

ELF is a registered public charity in the US. It has been approved by the US IRS as a tax-exempt organization under 501(c)(3), qualified to receive tax-deductible contributions, since January 19, 2022.

Standardization

ELF is an international standardization organization, similar to the roles played by ISO and IEC.

ELF creates international standards and contributes to the domains of information modelling, abstract languages and data management, relating to the understanding of shared data and the relationships between them, specifically for the EXPRESS language families.

Membership

ELF serves organizations and individuals alike with a need in defining interchangeable information models across information systems.

Please refer to the membership page for more details.

Governance structure

ELF consists of a board and members of the organization. Our members are organized into a central office with multiple technical committees:

  • The central office functions to support the activities of technical committees, including for the publication of standards.

  • Technical committees are organized by volunteers who are experts in a selected domain of the technical committee and develop best practices and information for the international arena.

ELF is composed of the following internal bodies and roles:

  • Board of Directors

  • Executive functions

    • President

    • Vice-President

    • Executive Director

    • Chief Financial Officer

  • Technical Coordination Committee

Technical work

Technical work at ELF is performed by its Technical Committees, including:

  • TC EXPRESS

  • TC EXPRESS-G

  • TC EXPRESS-I

International cooperation

The mission of ELF is international in nature, given that its founding team is spread across the globe.

ELF consists of international experts and will work with international partners.

Founders

The founders of ELF include the original inventors of EXPRESS, experts involved in enhancing EXPRESS, as well as EXPRESS stakeholders deeply interested in the achievement of the Foundation’s mission.