Re: [chairs] your input on OASIS functionality enhancements

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

/ "Karl F. Best" <karl.best@oasis-open.org> was heard to say:
| Last spring we rolled out the new collaborative tools from Kavi,
| including membership roster management, balloting, email lists,
| document repository, action items, etc.

I remain utterly unimpressed. I will not go so far as to say that I
think the new system is an unmitigated disaster, but it is, IMHO, just
barely usable.

The system is awkward, the website is cumbersome, and I think it has
made the OASIS site less useful not only to TC members but also to the
general public.

 * There are parts chairs can't edit
 * The list of documents presented to the public is still a flat
   list lacking the hierarchy created by the chair or secretary
 * There's no provision for navigation within the pages of the
   of a single TC.

As I have said before, the most significant bug is that it is
impossible to publish documents with predictable URIs. I consider the
site unusable for publishing important documents until this bug is
fixed. (It works fine for meeting minutes and other things, but I
cannot reliably publish specifications, schemas, or other documents
that have internal URI references.)

For example, I just published a working draft of the XML Catalogs
specification for the Entity Resolution TC. The HTML version of that
specification includes URIs for the original XML sources and a PDF
version of the document.

While I can upload all three documents,I cannot make the links work
because I cannot predict what the URI for the XML or PDF versions will
be when I am generating the HTML.

And while we're talking about URIs, the URIs that Kavi creates really
suck:

  http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/4952/wd-entity-xml-catalogs-1.0_2e.html

Granted, URIs are technically opaque, but that URI doesn't even give
me a hint about what committee created it.

I'd happily go back to the days when I could have published:

  http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/specs/wd-entity-xml-catalogs-1.0_2e.html

Nevermind functionality *enhancements*, the system still has an
absolutely critical flaws.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM / XML Standards Architect / Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended
recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited.
If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by
reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.