[tc-announce] OASIS TC Call For Participation: XRI TC

[Karl Best <karl.best@oasis-open.org>]

A new OASIS technical committee is being formed. The OASIS Extensible
Resource Identifier Technical Committee (XRI TC) has been proposed by
the following members of OASIS: Geoffrey Strongin, AMD; Krishna Sankar, 
Cisco; Joseph Moeller, EDS; Jim Schreckengast, Xavier Serret, and 
Phillipe LeBlanc, Gemplus; Winston Bumpus, Novell; Nat Sakimura, Hiro 
Ogawa, Tomonori Seki, and Tetsu Watanabe, NRI Pacific; Drummond Reed, 
Loren West, Dave McAlpin, and Marc LeMaitre, OneName; Dave Wentker, 
Rajeev Maria, Mike Lindelsee, and Gabe Wachob, Visa International; 
Michael Willett and Lark Allen, Wave Systems; and Bill Washburn, XNSORG.

The proposal for a new TC meets the requirements of the OASIS TC
Process (see http://oasis-open.org/committees/process.shtml), and is
appended to this message. The proposal, which includes a statement of
purpose, list of deliverables, and proposed schedule, will constitute
the TC's charter. The TC Process allows these items to be clarified
(revised) by the TC members; such clarifications (revisions), as well
as submissions of technology for consideration by the TC and the
beginning of technical discussions, may occur no sooner than the TC's
first meeting.

To become a member of this new TC you must 1) be an employee of an
OASIS member organization or an Individual member of OASIS; 2) notify
the TC co-chairs, Drummond Reed (drummond.reed@onename.com) and Gabe
Wachob (gwachob@visa.com) of your intent to participate at least 15 days
prior to the first meeting; and 3) attend the first meeting on 9
January. You should also subscribe to the TC's mail list. Note that
membership in OASIS TCs is by individual, and not by organization. You
must be eligible for participation at the time you time you notify the
chair.

The private mail list xri@lists.oasis-open.org is for committee
discussions. TC members as well as any other interested OASIS members
should subscribe to the list by going to the mail list web page at
http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl, or by sending a message to
xri-request@lists.oasis-open.org with the word "subscribe" as the body
of the message. (Note that subscribing to the mail list does not make
you a member of the TC; to become a member you must contact the TC chair
and attend the first meeting as described in the preceeding paragraph.)

A public comment list will be available for the public to make comments
on the work of this TC; a message may be sent to the TC via the address
xri-comment@lists.oasis-open.org.

The archives of both of these mail lists are visible to the public at
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/

Additional information on this topic may be found on the Cover Pages at
http://xml.coverpages.org/xns.html "Extensible Name Service (XNS)"

-Karl

=================================================================
Karl F. Best
Vice President, OASIS
+1 978.667.5115 x206
karl.best@oasis-open.org  http://www.oasis-open.org



(i) Name of TC:

Extensible Resource Identifier (XRI) Technical Committee

(ii) Statement of Purpose:

Increasingly, there is a demand for distributed directory services that
enable the identification of resources (including people and
organizations) and the sharing of data across domains, enterprises, and
applications.  There are currently no transport- and application-neutral
identification schemes to support this infrastructure.

The purpose of this committee is to define a URI scheme and a
corresponding URN namespace that meet these requirements. This TC will
also define basic mechanisms for resolving the identifiers in these
schemes and for exchanging data associated with these identifiers. This
work will enable the creation of Web-like collections of resources
(including, but not limited to, data, systems, services, organizations,
and people) that extend the WWW's current generalized addressing and
linking capabilities.

The URI scheme will conform to RFC 2396. It will also accommodate
human-readable names as a subset of the compliant identifiers.  The TC
will also produce an interoperable URN namespace specification compliant
with RFC 2141 and guided by the requirements in RFC 1737 for resources
that need the ability to be persistently identified and linked.

The TC will also define an XML schema to associate metadata with
resources and a service to manipulate this metadata and data associated
with the resources. Specifically, this service will reflect the simple
transactional nature of the WWW, i.e., it will use a small set of REST
(Representational State Transfer) or CRUD-like operators on an
infinitely extensible set of XRI-addressable resources.  This data
exchange service will provide a platform for integration with
directory-related specifications such as LDAP, DSML, and SPML.

This TC's work will be influenced by the general architecture described
in XNS and specifically by the XNS Addressing Specification.  The XNS
specifications published by the XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG)
will be contributed to the TC for consideration in the committee’s work.
XNS is licensed under RF terms as described in
http://www.xns.org/pages/XNS_License.pdf.

(iii) List of Deliverables:

Delivery schedule to be discussed at the first meeting.

The TC deliverables will include:
1) Use cases & requirements
2) A syntax specification for the URI scheme & URN namespace
3) A resolution specification for the URI scheme & URN namespace
4) An XML schema for associating metadata with identified resources
5) A REST/CRUD-like data exchange service and bindings for HTTP and SOAP

Relationship to Existing Activities:

This TC:

- is defining a URI scheme under RFC 2396 and a URN namespace under RFC
2141 and guided by the requirements in RFC 1737.

- will examine use of the IETF DDDS framework for resolution (RFC
3401-3405).

- will integrate the W3C XML and XML Schemas architectures for data
representation and description.

- will integrate the W3C Web services framework for messaging, service
description, and location.

- will integrate the OASIS Web services security framework for secure
messaging.

- will examine possibilities for expression and integration of the
directory services features with DSML, SPML, UDDI, and ebXML as well as
more established directory services specifications such as LDAP.


(iv) Language:

English

(v) Date and Time of First Meeting:

The first meeting will be held by tele-conference on January 9th, 2003
at 2pm Pacific, 3pm Mountain, 4pm Central, 5pm Eastern, 11pm GMT, Friday
7am Toyko.

(vi) Meeting Schedule for the First Year:

The XRI TC will meet via bi-weekly conference call, on a schedule
determined by the TC members. The phone call sponsors will be
determined at the initial meeting.  Face-to-face meetings will be held
as required.

(vii) Names, Affiliation, and Electronic Mail Addresses of members who
support the formation of this TC and are committed to the Meeting
Schedule and Purpose:

Geoffrey Strongin, AMD, geoffrey.strongin@amd.com
Krishna Sankar, Cisco, ksankar@cisco.com
Joseph Moeller, jpm2@eds.com, EDS
Jim Schreckengast, Gemplus, jim.schreckengast@gemplus.com
Xavier Serret, Gemplus, xavier.serret@gemplus.com
Phillipe LeBlanc, Gemplus, phillipe.leblanc@gemplus.com
Winston Bumpus, Novell, wbumpus@novell.com
Nat Sakimura, NRI Pacific, n-sakimura@nri.co.jp
Hiro Ogawa, NRI Pacific,  h1-ogawa@nri.co.jp
Tomonori Seki, NRI Pacific,  t2-seki@nri.co.jp
Tetsu Watanabe, NRI Pacific, tetsu@nri.com
Drummond Reed, OneName, drummond.reed@onename.com
Loren West, OneName, loren.west@onename.com
Dave McAlpin, OneName, dave.mcalpin@onename.com
Marc LeMaitre, OneName, marc.lemaitre@onename.com
Dave Wentker, Visa International, dwentker@visa.com
Rajeev Maria, Visa International, rmaria@visa.com
Mike Lindelsee, Visa International, mlindelsee@visa.com
Gabe Wachob, Visa International, gwachob@visa.com
Michael Willett, Wave Systems, mwillett@wavesys.com
Lark Allen, Wave Systems, lallen@wavesys.com
Bill Washburn, XNSORG, bill.washburn@xns.org

(viii) Names of TC Co-Chairs:

Drummond Reed, OneName
Gabe Wachob, Visa International

(ix) Meeting Sponsors:

XNSORG


------------------
Additional statement from the board of directors of XNS.org, regarding
the intended contribution of technical work to the new TC:

November 27, 2002

Board of Directors, Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS)

Dear Sirs,

The XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG) recently submitted a charter
proposing an OASIS Technical Committee on Extensible Name Service (XNS).
In subsequent discussions with OASIS Technical Director Karl Best,
several questions were raised regarding the TC charter, work product,
and related intellectual property rights (IPR).

With this letter, XNSORG and the sponsors of the TC formally submit a
revised TC charter to OASIS, attached, and the board of directors of
XNSORG provides to OASIS the following IPR statements regarding this TC
charter and work product:

TC Name and Trademark Rights

In this revised charter, the name of the TC is the Extensible Resource
Identifier (XRI) Technical Committee. This name was chosen to be generic
and XNSORG does not now or in the future intend to assert trademark or
other intellectual property rights related to the name "Extensible
Resource Identifier" or the abbreviation "XRI". Furthermore XNSORG does
not expect or require the term "XNS" to be used in conjunction with the
TC or its work product, as this term is currently a trademark of XNSORG.

Specifications to be Contributed

At the first meeting of the TC, XNSORG intends to contribute the
then-current version of the XNS Technical Specifications available from
the XNSORG website at www.xns.org. It is our express intent to
contribute these specifications to OASIS under the terms of the OASIS
IPR Policy as stated at
http://www.oasis-open.org/who/intellectualproperty.shtml.

XNSORG contributes this work only with the expectation that OASIS will
further develop the specifications and XNSORG grants OASIS permission to
create derivative works from the specifications. This includes the
ability for OASIS to distribute the TCs work product under its own
copyright, with attribution for any portions that were originally
contributed by XNSORG.

At the time it becomes relevant to the work of the TC, it is also the
intent of XNSORG to contribute the then-current version of the XNS
Technical Certification Specifications. Note that these specifications
are strictly for use in compliance testing and certification by
independent certification authorities and XNSORG does not intend or
expect OASIS to become a certification authority nor will it be under
any obligation whatsoever related to compliance or certification activities.

Relevant Intellectual Property Rights

To the best of our knowledge, the only intellectual property rights
necessary to practice the XNS Technical Specifications or XNS Technical
Certification Specifications are those conveyed in the attached XNS
License under Definition 22, "Patent Rights". All such rights are
currently under the exclusive authority of XNSORG as per the IPR
Agreement between OneName and XNSORG available on the XNSORG website at
http://www.xns.org/pages/licenses-and-agreements.html.

The board of directors and counsel of XNSORG believe that the terms of
the XNS License fully comply with the terms of the OASIS IPR Policy,
specifically section OASIS.IPR.3.2.C. Note that section 8 of the XNS
License, Sublicensing, has been revised in v1.1 to permit sublicensing
under the same terms as the original license.

Relationship of XNSORG to OASIS

XNSORG is currently a member of OASIS.  Subsequent to the contribution
of the specification, XNSORG will participate as an equal member of the
TC with other OASIS members and expects no special rights or privileges.
XNSORG will continue as an independent non-profit organization to
perform its other chartered functions to promote and advance technology
and infrastructure based on the specifications. In this endeavor, XNSORG
will be a consumer of the work product of the TC.

In conclusion, since XNSORG is required by the XNS IPR Agreement to
manage XNS as an Open Standard as defined in Definition 18 of the XNS
License, it is the sincere hope of XNSORG that this contribution
complies with both the letter and the spirit of the OASIS IPR Policy.
Should there be any additional questions, please contact the undersigned
and we will work to answer them as quickly as possible.

XNSORG looks forward to a long and fruitful relationship with OASIS in
our mutual work to advance standards for intelligent information
interchange.

Sincerely,

/s/ Bill Washburn, XNSORG President and Managing Director
	
/s/ W. Scott Blackmer, XNSORG General Counsel
	
/s/ Adam Engst, XNSORG Chairman
	
/s/ Drummond Reed, XNSORG Board of Directors
	
/s/ Dave Wentker, XNSORG Advisory Board