Let's talk about XBRL from a slightly different perspective.

It’s the perspective of Saeed Roohani, a professor of accounting at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. He’s been a proponent of XBRL ever since the data-tagging language surfaced in the late 1990s, and he’s making sure his students are up to speed on XBRL as well.

Along with Eric E. Cohen of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Roohani is a driving force behind the annual Global XBRL Academic Competition, a contest that invites accounting, business and information technology students throughout the world to develop XBRL-related solutions in three categories – taxonomy, application and research. And some of the projects that have been submitted over the years have contributed significantly to the development of XBRL worldwide. The competition has sparked some pretty incredible thinking about how XBRL can best be developed and applied.

Listen in as Roohani describes the competition – and some of the groundbreaking work it has produced – in this MACPA podcast.

• Subscribe to our free weekly podcasts here, or open your copy of iTunes and search for "CPA Spotlight."

While we're at it, here are a few more XBRL resources for you to chew on:

• Virtual workshop examines reality of XBRL
• Slides from "XBRL and the International Future of Financial Reporting"
• XBRL International
• XBRL U.S.
• SEC resources
• IASB resources
• The ABCs of XBRL: Here's what it can do
• XBRL case studies
• Demonstrations of XBRL in action
• More demos: Microsoft | Edgar Online | Rivet Software Crossfire | Google OneBox
• XBRL taxonomies
• Six Steps to XBRL (from the Journal of Accountancy)
• ROI on XBRL (from the Journal of Accountancy)
• Improved Business Process through XBRL
• Benefits and uses for business