PAC: Revised draft of BS 0

[Jon Bosak <Jon.Bosak@eng.sun.com>]

Proposed language for Basic Structural Decision BS 0
Jon Bosak 2000.03.02

Note that this is for discussion by the OASIS PAC and has no
official standing yet.

This is a rewrite that incorporates changes suggested in the
meeting of 2000.02.17.

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BS 0. Filtering and interTC coordination

Background

OASIS can provide a lightweight administrative infrastructure for
the resolution of procedural issues, but OASIS cannot make and
enforce policy regarding TC initiation and coordination and still
remain scalable over an unlimited number of technical
specification activities.

Resolution

1. OASIS shall provide administrative oversight (chiefly so that
   procedural irregularities can be appealed) but not coordination
   per se.

2. Approval of a new TC shall be conditioned on formal criteria,
   but not on its intent or its actual or potential overlap with
   other TCs or existing industry efforts outside of OASIS.

3. Among the approval criteria for TCs is the requirement that the
   proposal shall contain at least the following items, written in
   English and provided in electronic form as plain text:

    - name of TC

    - statement of purpose

    - list of deliverables, with projected dates

    - proposed meeting schedule for the year following the
      formation of the TC (or less if to be delivered before then)

    - names of at least three OASIS members or employees of OASIS
      member organizations committed to the meeting the schedule

    - name(s) of chair(s)

    - names of sponsors for phone conferences, if any

    - names of hosts for face-to-face meetings, if any

   The stated purpose of the TC must be germane to the mission of
   OASIS, the definition of which is not the responsibility of the
   PAC but is presumably something in keeping with "Organization
   for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards."

   The TC must meet at least once before the target date of its
   first deliverable and must in any case meet at least once a
   year.  Phone meetings count as meetings.

   The number of phone conference sponsors or meeting hosts can be
   zero, but if any such exist, they must be identified.

4. Situations in which OASIS shall not attempt to coordinate TCs
   include:

   (a) The creation of a TC in direct competition with an existing
       TC in the same problem space

   (b) The creation of a TC to solve a problem generally regarded
       as unsolvable

   (c) The creation of a TC that addresses problems generally
       regarded as already solved.

5. A formal mechanism (the Motion to Connect, or form a joint
   subcommittee) shall be provided whereby multiple TCs can
   coordinate their efforts if they mutually agree to do so; but
   failure to coordinate shall not be subject to appeal.

6. A formal mechanism shall be provided whereby a certain number
   of OASIS members or members of OASIS organizations can notify
   one or more TCs of the existence of an issue needing resolution
   among TCs and request coordination to resolve the issue.  Thus,
   the process relies upon the oversight of communities of
   interest to identify conflicts, to suggest their resolution in
   public forums, and to prevail upon OASIS members to inform TCs
   when they think coordination is called for.

7. To enable the oversight process, notification shall be pushed
   to the OASIS membership at every change of phase.  Examples of
   phase transitions include list formation, TC proposal, charter
   publication, TC formation, publication of each working draft,
   release of the final committee specification, call for
   implementation, and call for approval as an OASIS standard.
   OASIS shall create a mailing list for public announcements that
   can be written to only by TC chairs and OASIS functionaries.

8. OASIS TC mailing lists shall be visible to the general public.

9. TCs shall provide a mailing address for comments that can be
   posted to by all OASIS members and members of OASIS
   organizations.  The comment archive shall be publicly visible.
   The comment list shall by default be closed to subscriptions or
   messages from outside of OASIS, but it can be opened to accept
   comments from other groups or the public at large by resolution
   of the TC.  The TC does not have to respond to comments.