Digital Financial Reporting

This Columbia University white pater, An Evaluation of the Current State and Future of XBRL and Interactive Data for Investors and Analysts, is interesting at a number of levels.  It is worth reading.

The net, net if it all is this statement:

So it is not a matter of whether a method for structuring and communicating interactive, machine-readable data will arise, but more a matter of which method of collecting and consuming such data will both arise and remain relevant, in light of ever-advancing technological changes, as well as ever-growing demands for data by consumers.

Digital financial reporting is inevitable.  The truth be known, semantic, model-based, structured authoring of financial information is easier that current legacy approaches.  Time will prove this to be true.  Longer term, this is where things are going.  In the shorter term, who knows what will happen.