Re: [cmis] Survey on F2F, plugfest, and educational/promotional activities

[Karsten Eberding <karsten@eberding.eu>]

Hello,

I am sending my comments via email, as they are a bit longer than the 
field size in the poll.


RE educational/promotional activities:

I am strongly in favor for more educational / promotional activities by 
the TC, in addition to various promotions by participating vendors.

The TC should explain more what work is going on, what initiatives and 
directions have been agreed within the TC, what the value is from these 
initiatives, and why they are relevant for the ECM market. I have seen 
little communication from the TC since the release of CMIS 1.0 about 
further plans and activities, beside significant market changes for 
example around cloud computing and mobile devices. CMIS should be very 
relevant to these changes, and the TC should clearly educate how the 
ongoing work aligns with these changes.

The primary audience for the TC should be the software vendors 
themselves, inside and outside of the TC. I talked to quite a number of 
different people within software vendors and was surprised to see a lot 
of uncertainty about CMIS. Some support it, but cannot explain why, 
others want to wait until customers ask for it, and only few promote it 
wholeheartedly. The TC should also find ways to promote to vendors 
outside of the TC, who don't want to participate in writing the spec, 
but they want to use it.

Customers and end users are less likely interested in a standard per se, 
they want to see products and solutions based on it. This has to come 
from the vendors directly, the TC needs to stay away from product 
related promotions.

The TC has many members with strong technical skills, which is great and 
very important for getting a good spec out at the end. Not everyone 
wants to participate in marketing stuff, but maybe we can establish a 
subgroup with a focus on promotion and education. I would be happy to 
lead/participate, if more people think this is important.


RE plugfest:

there is an obvious problem with the timing. Vendors will have different 
release dates, and a different status of their software at any given 
date. I keep thinking about a "permanent online plugfest", based on an 
online environment in which various CMIS clients and servers can be 
connected together. It should be possible to collaborate online between 
vendors and to resolve any issues, as this is done with many other 
software projects.

Such online test environment may not completly replace a f2f plugfest, a 
real meeting with everyone at the same table makes discussions and 
resolution finding much quicker. But it may be possible to postpone a 
real plugfest, or organize it less frequently. Maybe we can discuss this 
in the next call.


Currently, less than 10% of the CMIS TC members have given their vote. 
Whether you agree or disagree with my comments, please vote on all 3 
questions.

thanks

Karsten Eberding

St.-Martin-Str. 19
85604 Zorneding

Phone +49 171 3090201
Mail karsten@eberding.eu


Am 19.03.12 22:04, schrieb David Choy:
> To all,
>
> I am setting up 3 surveys using the ballot tool to get your input on 
> the following matters:
>
> (1) We have a suggestion today to hold a face-to-face meeting to 
> finalize the v1.1 draft, which means that it should be held not too 
> far in the future (e.g. 2-3 months from now?). To make this event 
> worthwhile, we need a critical mass (at least a quoram) to 
> participate. Please let us know if you will likely be able to attend a 
> F2F; any constraint that you might have; and if you would be willing 
> to host the meeting (e.g. providing meeting facility and access to 
> Internet).
>
> (2) We would also like to assess the level of interest on a plugfest 
> for v1.1 implementations. Logistically this is best combined with the 
> F2F, but some vendor implementations may not be ready in the same 
> timeframe. We can hold a separate meeting for plugfest, but this 
> requires another trip. If you are interested in plugfest 
> participation, please let us know if you have any timing or travel 
> constraint.
>
> (3) Some people suggested in the recent OASIS survey that we should 
> engage in more educational/promotional activities. Do you agree? If 
> you do, exactly what we should do? Would you participate in, or lead, 
> such activities? Others voiced concern that such activities would 
> create a distraction from our primary activity which is spec 
> development. Our TC Charter does not explicitly include or exclude 
> such activities in its scope of work. So far, the TC is technically 
> focused. Such activities have been largely conducted by individual TC 
> member companies, other public organizations interested in CMIS, 
> consultants, and bloggers.
>
> This survey will remain open until shortly before the next TC meeting. 
> But, the sooner we get your input the sooner we can plan.
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Best regards,
>
> David