For those who are interested, I have a free 25-minute tutorial that introduces XBRL @ http://www.bionicturtle.com/tools/tool/introduction_to_xbrl/
(Michelle, I hope you don’t mind?)

It does not sell anything; CFAs can earn 0.5 approved professional development credit.

Thanks, David Harper, CFA, FRM
http://www.bionicturtle.com

But ‘cumbersome’ requires explanation; ’significant learning’ is implied: so do Adobe Illustrator, Flash and Photoshop CS3, yet professionals chomp them up.

New technologies typically encounter resistance from those who only extrapolate from past practices. If it is cumbersome, then so is XML - and to refute XBRL you have to explain why this particular industry ‘vertical’ (financial reporting & analysis) will not be reaping the benefits of an standard version of XML, like other verticals. (hint: it is unlikely, in the long run). And your anonymous commenter is wrong about the tools: I’ve demo’d and seen demos, when you look at the applications of XBRL (i.e., the tools for non-geeks), you see how easy it is to learn. Yes, to build XBRL requires learning (like coding VBA in Excel), but running XBRL applications is perfectly within the toolset of the average professional analyst.

I haven’t ‘bought the dream.’ As you suspect based on your post, it will most benefit the SEC and the
big analyst houses. The data providers (like EdgarOnline) are lining up at the trough, too, inconsistent with the notion that Sally would reap huge benefits through bypassing them. It’s quite cumbersome and
requires a pretty significant investment in learning about it to use it effectively (and software tools will not solve that).

I agree the announcement is a underwhelming regulatory milestone. Many institutional investors are ahead of the SEC, the interesting applications are not to be found at the SEC. In regard to Sally Q, in the short run, I see no near-term benefit to retail investors; the benefit accrues instead to professional fundamental analysts who have time to process the tools.

Some of our analytical heuristics can be (are being) automated. What I mean is, some of what you do here at footnoted.org is apply heuristics to situations, developed implicitly over the years (e.g., a 280g tax gross up)- fundamental analysts do a lot of that with valuation/risk; e.g., a retail analyst looks for DSO deterioration. It is very powerful to pull the loose document thru the XBRL into an analytical template.