[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: Status of existing and future work (was) Groups - Monthly TC Call ...
Good afternoon. I look forward to joining your call later today. My colleague Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, who is Geneva-based, cannot join us today, but plans to attend your September UK face-to-face. As you and your organizations work out your future plans, let me share some of our consortium concerns. Our re-design and recent re-launch of our e-Government activity as an OASIS member section (see below) is part of that picture, but there's more to it. As an open standards host, we have general responsibility to ensure that threads of work are noted and supported in some appropriate way -- regardless of where they go. We cooperate closely with our peer groups to make sure that this is so. Doing so well is the topic of this message, in three areas: your work to date, your future plans, and your finalization of the planned OECD report. 1. First, we want to make sure that we're properly noting and acknowledging the work and requirements this group has created to date, during its lifespan. As part of any continuation, closure or transition, regardless, we ought to have a good collective "snapshot" about each. In some cases, this is easy -- providing links and broader pointers to implementation projects in agencies, such as the NL/AU implementation of web services and taxonomies described at your June 2007 meeting. In other cases, we want to make sure we have a clear shared statement of the status and intent of projects. These include your work on CoRs and indirect taxation models. We'll be in touch to confirm, and if needed refine, those descriptions and pointers, before your next F2F. 2. Obviously, if your community (or some of it) wishes to continue its general dialogue about needs and data structures, OASIS ought to provide appropriate hosting, if you wish to use it. We also hope to see your individual organizations participate, if they wish, in our broader activities around public administration use cases. As we discussed in Virginia, a different approach seems needed, for this group. The project-and-deliverables-based paradigm of a "technical committee", wherever hosted, may not fit your needs well. But you are not alone in that regard. Recent changes in our macro environment significantly changed the needs -- and scoping and licensing practices -- of many standards groups. Our own broader work on e-government has been re-organized into a broader, less-deliverable-based community approach, based on the input of our own community members. They told us this year that they wished to see a continued, but more effective, forum. You can see the outcome (and founding members) of this work at the "OASIS eGovernment Member Section" site at http://www.oasis-egov.org/ OASIS "Sections" permit broader, long-playing conversations among participants, and can spawn or discuss requirements for specific 'TC' projects. but are not themselves the place for deep technical work. The new structure was formally established this month, and will be widely announced next month. (We typically give additional joiners a few weeks to jump on.) Carol serves as that group's staff support. We hope that we will have the benefit of participation in that broader effort from some of you. Please expect us to contact you, on that topic. Also, though, there is the question of this group itself. We understand that you (or some of you) wish to continue to meet on your own tax-related matters. We realize that the 'housing' arrangements for a continuing committee are a challenge. I encourage you to feel welcome to do so within OASIS -- as a committee or subcommittee of that Member Section, or a similar parallel panel. We have launched a host of advanced tools and organizational structures to support this newer kind of collaborative work. (See links below.) As we've seen in the open source movement, I think this style of collaboration, generally speaking, is where the world is going. From our view, OASIS has four virtues for you as a host. We're globally reputable (an acceptable established choice to most governments); comparatively quite inexpensive (given our various individual and government member classes); the home of much related work; and most important, genuinely neutral. OASIS does not extract a 'strategy tax' from its projects. We are present to facilitate our members' goals, not to bend projects to the use of any particular favored party, architecture, vendor or standard. I can't emphasize enough how important, and increasingly rare, that is, in our increasingly-competitive world of XML and structured data. We'll look forward to discussing those options with you if you wish. For an example of a "Member Section" beginning to use its tools robustly, see http://www.oasis-opencsa.org/ For an example of the new collaborative interface we are using for public interaction with nonmember implementers, see http://dita.xml.org/ 3. Finally, we want to ensure that we are appropriately circulating your ongoing work on the draft "OASIS Tax XML Technical Committee’s XML Position Paper for Tax Administrations". There are a number of important tentative conclusions in the first two drafts. I believe your final report will be an important and widely influential document. As a normal part of open standardization quality control, we wish to confirm with you what plans are being made for airing and review of your final work product. As discussed previously, committees often work on drafts in a small environment, but generally bring any final report out to a broader consultative audience before its final release or transmission. There are strong public policy reasons for our public review protocol. They also are reflected in the WTO treaty on standardization (and implementing regulations of signatory states), and the OASIS Liaison Policy regarding QC of work being transmitted elsewhere. The OASIS public review procedure is described at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/liaison_policy.php#submitwork Our policies on work being transmitted interorganizationally is at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/liaison_policy.php#submitwork It seems to me that these steps are within reach without being a practical obstacle to your progress (or desire to finish the report by year end). We will be available to you to answer questions or discuss details at your next two meetings. Thanks for your attention, and also for your many acts as a group and individually to use, create and improve open data standards. Kind regards JBC ~ James Bryce Clark ~ Director of Standards Development, OASIS ~ http://www.oasis-open.org/who/staff.php#clark h.j.m.burg@minfin.nl wrote: > Friends, > Here the brief agenda for today's telecom. > * * * > Date: Thursday, 30 August 2007 > Time: 04:00pm - 05:00pm ET * * * > 1-202-927-2255 > Access Code: 567277 > * * * > Agenda: > Opening > Roll Call > Progress reports > planning Face to face september
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]