XBRL : eXtensible Business Reporting Language

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a freely available and global standard for exchanging business information. XBRL allows the expression of semantic meaning commonly required in business reporting. The goal of XBRL is to standardize the automation of business intelligence (BI).

Highlights:

• XBRL International is a not-for-profit consortium of approximately 650 companies and agencies worldwide working together to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption
• XBRL is XML-based, it uses the XML syntax and related XML technologies
• Effort had began in 1998 and has produced a variety of specifications and taxonomies
• It is language for the electronic communication of business and financial data
• It is an open standard which supports information modeling and the expression of semantic meaning commonly required in business reporting
• It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information.
• It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data. 
• XBRL is a standards-based way to communicate business and financial information.
• These communications are defined by metadata set out in taxonomies.
• Taxonomies capture the definition of individual reporting concepts as well as the relationships between concepts and other semantic meaning.
• Provides identifying tag for each individual item of data such that it can be used by name
• The basis for this technology is a "tagging" process by which each value, item, and descriptor, etc. in the exchanged information can be given a unique set of tags with which to describe it. Using these tags, computer programs can read the data without human intervention.

For more information: http://xbrl.squarespace.com/