ODF 1.2 Endgame Schedule (proposal for discussion)

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Now that the 60-day public review of ODF 1.2 has been completed, I'd like 
to review the work remaining for the TC before we have an official OASIS 
Standard.

The remaining stages are (and this is my interpretation -- feel free to 
consult the official process documentation for the fine details, and there 
are many, many fine details: )

1) Dispose the public comments received, i.e., decide what we will do in 
response to them.

2) If this includes revising the specification, and it certainly appears 
this will be the case, then we must approve a new CD, which would be CD 
06, and send that out for  a 15-day public review of the changes.

3) If we receive comments on CD 06, and wish to make changes, then we loop 
back to step #1. 

4) If we receive no additional comments, or elect to make no changes in 
regards to comments then we can vote on the CD as a Committee 
Specification.

5) We then submit the Committee Specification along with various 
additional pieces of documentation to Mary and request a ballot. 
Additional information would include:

a) TC's certification that the schemas are well formed

b) 3 statements of use from OASIS members using the Committee 
Specification

c) clear English summary of the standard.  (and I wonder if we could also 
optionally include a clear German, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Dutch, 
etc., summary?)

d) minority reports, if there are any, from any member(s) who abstained or 
voted against the Committee Specification.

e) a bunch of links to ballot results, the editable version of the 
specification, the public comment list, etc.



The OASIS Standards ballot run on a fixed monthly schedule, something like 
this:

a) We notify Mary that we're ready for a ballot in the first 2 weeks of 
any month

b) Mary has the last two weeks of the month to verify our materials

c) The ballot is sent out to OASIS members on the first day of the 
following month, but only FYI at that point

d) The actual OASIS ballot occurs in the last two weeks of that month

e) Ballot results are announced at the start of the 3rd month.

If this sounds complicated, it is because it is complicated.  There are a 
lot details.  Luckily we have a spreadsheet that helps calculate the 
dates, including logic to handle the monthly schedule for OASIS ballots: 

http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/TCHandbook/content/tcprocess/standardsapprovalprocess/specificationlifecycle.htm

November 1st is a Monday.  Suppose we are ready for a CD 06 ballot on 
November 1st, and do that via a 7-day ballot.   That results in an end 
game like this:

2010-11-08 OASIS TC Admin notified of request for public review
Mon 15 Nov 2010  TC Administrator must either post the specification for 
review or return with explanation for rejection
Mon 15 Nov 2010 Start of 15-day public review
Wed 08 Dec 2010 Request ballot for Committee Specification and OASIS 
Standard ballot
Wed 15 Dec 2010 TC Administrator must either start the ballot or request 
additional information
Wed 22 Dec 2010 7-day ballot close
Sat 15 Jan 2011  TC Chair must submit OASIS Standard Ballot submission to 
TC Administrator
Mon 31 Jan 2011 TC Administrator must accept / reject submission
Tue 01 Feb 2011 Familiarization announcement sent to OASIS membership
Wed 16 Feb 2011 OASIS Standard Approval ballot
Tue 01 Mar 2011 Announcement of Ballot results to membership

Because of the fixed monthly schedule for OASIS Standards ballots, there 
is some slack in the above schedule.  In fact, we could request the 15-day 
public review as late as December 2nd and still end up with the 
announcement date of March 1st.  On the other hand, if we can bring the 
public review request 1 week to November 1st, we end up getting a February 
1st announcement date, saving a whole month. 

In any case, please be aware, at least at a high level, that we have 
approximately 2-3 months of "process stuff" we need to work through, and 
that this is going to be very sensitive to timing.  A slip of a day at 
critical places results in a slip of a month in the end stage.  This 
doesn't mean we cut corners, but it does suggest:

1) Raise issues early

2) Review proposed CD's early

3) Try to move things along via meeting votes where possible

4) Obviously try to attend meetings regularly so we have enough people to 
do #3

5) Resolve issues early

6) Some items need more consideration or implementation experience.  We 
shouldn't feel bad about deferring items to ODF-Next if that is what is 
necessary to do them well.

I'd like to aim for a November 1st date for requesting the 15-day public 
review.  That would mean that the final CD draft text would need to be 
posted week before, say October 25th, or better yet the Friday before, 
which is October 22nd.

That suggest that we need to aim to resolve all open issues well before 
that date, so there is time to apply the fixed.  Something like October 
11th, e.g., 3 weeks from now.

Let's discuss this on Monday's call and see if we can agree to a goal.

As always, it is an honor to work with you all.  In some ways it is sad it 
see this come to an end.  But remember, this is only the next step for 
ODF, not the last.  There is even more interesting stuff in store for 
ODF-Next, so let's get moving toward it!

Regards,

-Rob