President's Message to OASIS Members - September 2004

["Patrick Gannon" <patrick.gannon@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS Members,

The energies of the Consortium continue to focus on responding to the needs
of our members.  The OASIS Staff, Board of Directors and the Technical
Advisory Board (TAB) are all working to meet the needs of our members, as we
understand those needs.  So, your feedback to us is paramount.  We
appreciate your concern about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and
creating standards that can be safely adopted in the marketplace.  We
understand you find value in coming together in forums and co-located TC
meetings.  We support your desire to see a strong OASIS presence in Europe
and Asia and an expansion of our technical scope.

As we begin these busy autumn months, I would like to personally thank all
of you for taking the time to review the proposed changes to the OASIS IPR
Policy.  This is a very complex issue with many ramifications for the future
of our work.  I'd like to express special appreciation to those who provided
feedback to the Board and to thank our Individual Members who completed our
survey on the impact of these new regulations.  The Board is in the process
of reviewing all comments now and we'll be posting responses at the OASIS
Members-only section of the website soon.

Final preparations are underway for the OASIS Adoption Forum, "Implementing
e-Business Open Standards for End Users and Public Administration," which
will be held in Brussels on 6 October.  All members are strongly encouraged
to attend this Forum and associated member reception and TC meetings.  This
is a great opportunity--especially for OASIS members based in Europe--to
gather, meet OASIS Board and staff, and network with representatives from
government and industry.  We strongly encourage our members to also invite
their customers, suppliers or industry partners to attend and provide their
views on what is needed to facilitate the adoption and implementation
process for open standards in the critical technology areas covered by the
broad range of OASIS Standards and emerging specifications.  The deadline
for early discounted registration is 15 September.
http://www.oasis-open.org/events/adoption_forum/.

For those OASIS members who have any involvement with governments and have
an interest in the use or direction of open standards, then the series of
events in Brussels is especially important for you.  In addition to the
OASIS Adoption Forum on Wednesday, the week will begin with the OASIS
e-Government TC meeting on Monday (4 October).  Then on Tuesday the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is sponsoring a seminar
organized by their Team of Specialists for Internet Economic Development
(TSIED).  The seminar theme, "Fostering Internet Enterprise Development by
Governments and by Large Companies through Subcontracting", will provide
technologists, business leaders and government administrators with valuable
information on issues affecting the use and implementation of Internet
technologies and open standards throughout the expanded European Union and
into transitional economies.  Please consider also the value of attending
this free seminar.
http://www.unece.org/ie/wp8/main.html

To help you in your planning for next year, we've also set 25-29 April 2005
as the date for the next OASIS Symposium, Annual General Meeting, and TC
meetings.  By popular demand, this event will again be held at the Marriott
Hotel in New Orleans.  Our goal is to bring as many members together as
possible, and we encourage all OASIS TCs to plan face-to-face meetings at
this venue.

With your support, we hope to continue to hold annual OASIS member meetings
and educational events in North America and Europe.  As membership in Asia
and Australia grows, we would also welcome the opportunity to schedule an
Asia-Pacific event on a regular basis.

We welcome all members of the DCML Organization to the Consortium, as the
new OASIS DCML Member Section is launched.  Expect to see Calls for
Participation for new OASIS DCML TCs soon.

When the OASIS Board meets in Brussels on 7-8 October, we will begin our
annual planning and budgeting for 2005 operations.  So, if there are any
specific areas that you as a member would like to see OASIS improve upon or
offer as a new service, then please let us know. Your input, either directly
to OASIS staff, myself or to any of my fellow Board Directors, would be
appreciated as we begin our annual planning process.


Regards,

Patrick Gannon
President & CEO
OASIS
+1.978.667.5115 x201  - office
www.oasis-open.org