Minutes of Atlantic UBL TC call 25 June 2008

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

MINUTES OF ATLANTIC UBL TC MEETING
WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE 2008

ATTENDANCE

   Peter Borresen
   Jon Bosak (chair)
   Anne Hendry (guest, OASIS application pending)
   Zarella Rendon

STANDING ITEMS

   Additions to the calendar:
      http://ubl.xml.org/events

      PLB: CEN/ISSS BII Working Group 1 meeting, 9-10 September in
      Turin; CEN/ISSS BII meeting, 11-12 September in Turin.  The
      rest of the BII schedule should be set by the first week in
      July, at which time we should be able to revise the UBL
      schedule accordingly.

   Review of Pacific call

      JB: The DELSC is now established, with web page and mailing
      list up and running.  Every OASIS business expert fluent in
      German is invited to participate; contact Karsten Tolle
      (tolle at dbis.cs.uni-frankfurt.de) to join.

      ACTION: PLB to invite BII members from Germany and Austria
      to participate.

      No other comments on the Pacific call minutes.

   Support page maintenance

      No submissions this week.  Note that this is being
      transitioned to ubl.xml.org.

   Financial Information Requirements Task Group

      JB: From the Pacific minutes: "Stig Korsgaard of the Danish
      Bankers Association informs us that a staff person will be
      assigned to FIRTG at the request of the Danish government."

CUSTOMIZATION GUIDELINES

   JB: Haven't heard back yet from the authors.

UNTDED ROAD MAP SURVEY

   See

      http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200806/msg00015.html

   From Pacific minutes:

      "ACTION: The TC to study the draft (see URL above) and be
      ready to discuss in next week's Pacific and Atlantic calls
      with the objective of agreeing on a TC response to the
      questionnaire."

   AH: Do we have a representative to the UNTDED work going
   forward?

   JB: No, though I'm sure that one would be appreciated if anyone
   wants to volunteer.

UBL 2.0 NDR EDITORIAL REVIEW

   A work session has been scheduled for next Atlantic call (2
   July).

      ACTION: JB to request new PDF from BH.

   We need to add a section on code list metadata; see

      http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200803/msg00001.html

2008 TC MEETING SCHEDULE

   RESERVE HOTEL ROOM NOW FOR AUGUST MEETING IN MONTRÉAL.  You can
   always cancel later.

   Planned attendance so far:

      JB: Europa
      MC: Europa
      ZR: Marriott
      GKH: Residence Inn
      AH: with MC if able to attend
      BH: with ZR if able to attend

   PLB: Will attend to work on schematron rules with GKH.

   JB: We should aim to complete a first draft of the
   Customization Guidelines at this meeting.

TC CONCALL SCHEDULE

   See Pacific minutes.

OTHER BUSINESS

   PLB: BII WG2 (convergence) editor has been assigned to
   participate in TBG17.

   JB: See Pacific minutes of 17 June.

   PLB: There is still a lot of concern that the addition of
   eTendering documents in UBL 2.1 somehow violates the agreement
   we reached with UN/CEFACT in 2006.  Please clarify in the
   minutes.

   JB: The agreement arrived at 28 March 2006 reads as follows:

      Consistent with the Cooperation Agreement between OASIS and
      UN/CEFACT of June 2005:

      1. UN/CEFACT recognizes UBL 2 as appropriate
         first-generation XML documents for eBusiness.

      2. For OASIS and UN/CEFACT:

         (a) future UN/CEFACT deliverables constitute the upgrade
             path for UBL, and

         (b) the maintenance of UBL 2 remains with the OASIS UBL
             TC.

      3. In the expectation that UN/CEFACT will produce its own
         integrated set of XML schemas within a period of three
         years, OASIS will produce no further major versions of
         UBL past UBL 2.

      4. OASIS will grant UN/CEFACT a perpetual, irrevocable
         license to create derivative works based on UBL.

   There are several important things to note here.

    - The agreement specifically entitles the UBL TC to continue
      to maintain UBL 2.  "Maintainance" includes the addition of
      new data items to meet new requirements.  Document types are
      data items.  This was made very clear in negotiations with
      the UN/CEFACT Bureau leading up to adoption of the
      agreement.

    - "UBL 2" means *all* versions of UBL 2: 2.1, 2.2, ...  This
      was made very clear in negotiations with the UN/CEFACT
      Bureau leading up to adoption of the agreement.

    - The agreement binds OASIS to issue no further *major*
      versions of UBL during the three-year window we gave
      UN/CEFACT to come up with a suitable replacement for UBL 2.
      The meaning of "major version" is specified in both the UBL
      Naming and Design Rules and in the then current (and still
      current) UN/CEFACT Naming and Design Rules (not surprising,
      since the UN/CEFACT version copied the UBL rule).  Put
      simply, a major version is one that breaks backward
      compatibility with the previous major version.  Nothing we
      intend to do in UBL 2.1 will break backward compatibility
      with UBL 2.0.  According to both the UBL and the UN/CEFACT
      definitions of "major version," we will not be issuing a new
      major version and therefore are not in any way breaking the
      agreement we reached with UN/CEFACT.  The distinction
      between major and minor versions was made perfectly clear in
      negotiations with the UN/CEFACT Bureau leading up to
      adoption of the agreement.

    - While the considerations just listed are sufficient to
      demonstrate that we are adhering to both the letter and the
      intent of the agreement, the fact is that the three-year
      window during which we agreed to issue no further major
      versions of UBL will have expired by the time we issue UBL
      2.1 as an OASIS Standard in 2Q2009.  In reality, therefore,
      we would be completely within the terms of the agreement
      even if UBL 2.1 *were* a major version release -- which it
      is not.

Jon Bosak
Chair, OASIS UBL TC