Any interest in a "Design of ODF" Committee Note?

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

I've read some lamenting on the Doc Collab subcommittee list that we don't 
have an overall design or architecture document for ODF, something that 
explains the agreed on design constraints, approaches, etc.  The standard 
itself describes the "what", but we don't have a doc that explains the 
"why".

Of course, that doesn't mean that we don't have a design or architecture. 
It just means it was never written down, never codified.  We have a lot of 
shared principles that have guided how ODF was put together.

Although this lack of formality has worked in the past, it is not very 
optimal for those who are approaching ODF for the first time, especially 
for new TC members.  Since I'd like to see the TC continue to grow and 
thrive and attract new members, this lack of a design document is 
non-optimal.

So, I'm wondering if it would be worth putting together a Committee Note, 
something like "ODF: Design Principles", or "The Design of ODF", or 
(borrowing from Stroustrup) "The Design and Evolution of ODF"?   As you 
may know, a Committee Note is a new kind of work product that OASIS 
enabled last year, for non-normative reports/whitepapers, etc.  A 
Committee Note goes through the normal review and approval process, but do 
not have the effect of a standard.

If there is some interest in this, I'd recommend that we start on the 
wiki, drafting an outline, and then having members volunteer for sections 
of interest.  I think a document like this would be of moderate length, 
maybe 20-30 pages, in 6  or 7 sections.

As a side effect, the effort put into producing this Committee Note would 
help us clarify for ourselves these principles, and this would make the 
work on ODF-Next a little easier.


-Rob