ACTION: VOTE: UBL 1.0 Beta Committee Draft

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

UBL voting members,

   I am pleased to submit the UBL 1.0 Beta package for your
   approval as an OASIS Committee Draft.

   Balloting opens at 10 a.m. California time Wednesday 19
   November 2003 and closes at 10 a.m. Monday 24 November 2003.
   Since quick approval would be advantageous to our release
   schedule, however, I urge you to log in now to the UBL TC site
   and click on "Ballots" to record your vote.  DO NOT use the UBL
   mailing list for voting; use the web site.

BALLOT TEXT

   The question to be voted on reads as follows:

      Resolved,

      1. That the OASIS UBL TC approves the UBL 1.0 Beta draft
         currently located at
         http://ubl.cim3.org/~lcsc/lcsc-distribution-v1-0-beta/ as
         an OASIS Committee Draft and authorizes posting of the
         draft on the OASIS web site for implementation testing.

      2. That the draft editors are authorized to continue the
         correction of editorial errors in the draft package
         during the voting period.

BACKGROUND

   This draft is the result of two years of work in the OASIS
   Universal Business Language Technical Committee to create the
   basis for a standard XML business syntax.  Your vote to approve
   the draft authorizes OASIS to put it before the public in order
   to begin implementation testing.  If the draft is approved,
   testing will begin the week of 24 November 2003 and will end at
   a date in February that allows the collation of review input in
   time for the UBL TC meeting scheduled for 23-27 February 2004
   in Washington, D.C.  A UBL subcommittee, the Pilot
   Implementation SC, has been created to coordinate
   implementation activity during this period.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Q: Does a vote to approve the draft mean that we cannot change
      it later?

   A: No.  An OASIS TC may revise a Committee Draft as many times
      as it likes before submitting the specification to OASIS as
      a candidate for standardization.

   Q: Why is the draft currently on an external site?

   A: So that the editors can continue making corrections to the
      draft during the voting period.  For example, the package
      posted at the opening of the voting period is known to be
      missing two code list spreadsheets; these will be included
      before the approved draft is uploaded to the OASIS site.

   Q: Will the draft change in any substantive way during or after
      the voting period?

   A: No, the editors are not authorized to make any substantive
      changes that would affect decisions already made.

   Q: What should we do about typos or other editorial errors we
      find in the draft package?

   A: Send reports to bill.meadows@sun.com.  If the error is big
      enough to merit a change, the package will be revised to
      correct it; if not, it will be entered on the list of known
      issues.

   Q: What happens if we find a bug in the schemas?

   A: The primary purpose of the implementation review is to
      identify and correct problems with the schemas, so the
      discovery of problems that do not actually prevent
      implementation is an expected part of the review process.
      If a noncritical bug is found during the voting period, it
      will simply go on the list of known issues for input to the
      February TC meeting.  If a bug is big enough to prevent
      implementation, then of course the draft will have to be
      withdrawn and a corrected version resubmitted to you for
      another vote.

   Q: Does this draft represent the final "look and feel" of UBL
      1.0?

   A: With regard to the normative components, this draft is
      intended to represent UBL 1.0 as it will be released next
      year, with the exception of code list validation (which will
      be addressed by a Code List Subcommittee that has been
      formed for this purpose) and fixes for any major problems
      that may be discovered during the implementation phase.
      With regard to the non-normative aspects, in particular the
      formatting, illustrations, and documentation, this release
      is still a draft and will be subject to more editorial work
      during the implementation phase.  The purpose of this beta
      release, as its name implies, is to give implementors what
      they need to functionally test the specification and its
      associated deliverables; it is not the final product.