In 1998, Charlie Hoffman had the idea of XBRL as a way of totally transforming business reporting
Charlie enlisted the support of the AICPA to spearhead the development of XBRL with the goal of providing a standard, XML-based language for digitizing business reports in accordance with the rules of accounting in every country around the world
XBRL International is a global consortium with over 250 leading organizations concerned with the exchange and timeliness of financial and business reporting data
The consortium produced a framework of specifications and taxonomies to provide a standard, XML-based language for digitizing business reports
XBRL US (the US jurisdiction of XBRL International) operated under the AICPA volunteer committee structure from 1999-2006 until it became a separate, not-for-profit organization in September 2006