Re: joining SVG WG

[James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>]

Dear Lofton & members of the TC:

I did ask Lofton to seek the TC's views, if any, regarding technical
dependencies or connections between the OASIS WebCGM effort and W3C's
SVG project, which were reported in your minutes of 7/7/2010.  Thanks for
your consideration of this issue.  I apologize that we as well have
taken some time to consult and review on this.

Unfortunately, it's extremely unusual for OASIS to place an OASIS
member into the membership of any other standards organization.  Doing
so creates a number of policy issues requiring special exception
handling.

Of course, we do have many cross-organizational liaisons.  But per our
Liaison Policy, these are populated by persons who have an independent
basis for membership in both organizations.  Because the designated
liaison is subject to the rules of both groups, OASIS takes no
liability.

Also, most of our peer groups prefer that we not use our liaison
relationships to create free access in cases where normally an
independent membership would be required.  We occasionally give out
freebies in OASIS, under our policy to suit TC goals, but it's
inappropriate of us to give out freebies in other orgs.  So we rely on
our members who have overlapping memberships, based on their own
marketplace priority decisions about multiple participation.

During the unusual pendency, for a few years, of parallel work in both
orgs on WebCGM itself, we did arrange for Lofton to represent OASIS in
the one W3C working group that mirrored ours.  That arrangement was
subject to specific limits, bounded both by the charter scopes of both
WebCGM panels, and a memorandum of understanding between W3C and
OASIS, approved by our Board as an exception.

The TC's goals -- to monitor the SVG effort, and ensure against
conflict with WebCGM in areas of overlap -- are entirely appropriate,
but should be addressed by conventional means here.

Thanks for your effort.  My boss Laurent Liscia is copied here;  as
always, you're entitled to take this issue up a level if you wish.

~ James Bryce Clark
~ General Counsel, OASIS
~ http://www.oasis-open.org/who/staff.php#clark  @JamieXML