Teleconference Meeting Minutes

[dan.ryan@accenture.com]

OASIS Election and Voter Services Technical Committee
Teleconference Meeting Minutes
August 21, 2001, 11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Savings Time

Teleconference Attendees
Oliver Bell, Microsoft
John Boras, UK e-Envoy
Anwar Choudhury, UK e-Envoy
Gregg McGilvray, election.com, Chairman
TJ Rainsford, IFES
John Ross, UK e-Envoy
Dan Ryan, Accenture
Jo-Ann Zakielarz, Unisys
Karl Best, OASIS (observer)

Previous Meeting's Minutes
No additions or changes to the previous meeting's minutes (which can be
found at
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/election/minutes/oasis_tc_minutes_20010724.shtml
) were made.

Resignation of Technical Committee Chairperson
Gregg McGilvray announced that he is stepping down as committee chair.  He
emphasized that he is very excited about the direction of the committee,
but feels that it would be in the best interest of the committee if it were
led by a neutral party and not by a vendor.  He said that he has received
feedback that more people would join the committee if a vendor does not
lead it, and that the eventual deliverables of the committee will also have
more credibility.  Gregg has said that his resignation will be effective as
soon as a new chair is elected.

Election of Technical Committee Chairperson
Gregg nominated Anwar Choudhury from the UK e-Envoy office for Technical
Committee Chair.  Gregg touted Anwar's expertise technical expertise and
his objectivity as a neutral party.  Dan seconded the motion.

There are currently 20 voting members on the committee.  A vote was then
held, and each voting member voted for Anwar.  Unfortunately, there were
only six voting members present, and OASIS rules dictate that a quorum of
voting members is required.

The election of the next technical committee member will then be held be
email through the mailing list.  The vote will be open until August 31st.

Project Overview
John Boras went over the project plan that he proposes the committee
follow.  John went over the seven strands of activity that Anwar, TJ, Gregg
and himself worked out earlier:


E-Democracy Policy Requirements
XML Schema Generation
Cross Cutting Strands
Applications
Stakeholder Engagement
Liaison with other committees
Promotion

Dan voiced some concerns about whether XML schema generation had been
de-emphasized.  John reassured him that it hadn't, that it was still the
primary activity for the committee, but that the other strands were
necessary to ensure that the schemas were comprehensive and that they
receive widespread acceptance.

John and the others had also proposed that the following mission statement:

"Implementation of technology to facilitate and deepen democracy".

Dan was concern that the mission statement didn't emphasize data
interchange, and agreed to suggest another alternative.

Schema Development

Gregg said that he and Krishna Sankar would work in the next few weeks to
develop XML schemas in time for the next meeting.  John offered to provide
resources to the effort, and suggested that all those involved get together
for a period of three to four days and work on generating the schemas.

Next Meeting
The next meeting will be a Face-to-Face meeting in Washington, DC at IFIS
headquarters on Tuesday, September 11th at 11 A.M.  A teleconference number
will be provided.  John Boras suggested that future meetings could be held
in the UK.


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