Going forward

Dear Members of the CMIS TC:

It has been almost eight years since the formation of the CMIS TC in November 2008. Thanks to the support from all of you, I have the great honor, and great pleasure, to serve as the Chair of this TC throughout this period. With great enthusiasm, cooperation, and patience from all the participants, we have created and maintained a highly cooperative and constructive working atmosphere within the TC. Working diligently together, we have produced CMIS v1.0, CMIS v1.0 Errata, CMIS v1.1, and CMIS v1.1 Errata specifications. Today, CMIS is widely recognized as the leading interoperability standard for content management. This is a major accomplishment by you, as well as by your company, through efforts both inside and outside the TC. Indeed, I learned that CMIS v1.0 and v1.1 have recently been approved as a required ICT compliance for EU government procurement -- many thanks to Gershon Janssen and the Netherlands delegation who took the initiative and worked hard behind the scene to make this happen. We are beginning to see the light of a world in which information can be easily shared and reused -- a gradual liberation from a world of “content silos” which was the norm when we first started.

Nowadays, as the content management industry is busy deploying CMIS v1.0 and v1.1, the pace of our current work to define additional interoperable capabilities for ECM has slowed to allow the industry to catch up. This is understandable and prudent since we believe CMIS should be a solution to meet needs, not a prescription based on wishes. However, looking around and ahead, I see new opportunities and needs emerging since the content management industry has changed significantly in recent years due to technology advance and paradigm shift (such as wide acceptance of cloud computing, exploitation of analytics, and ubiquitous mobile computing), as well as new challenges (such as increased security and privacy threats). As technology and industry evolve, so do information management requirements. Therefore, information management standards also need to evolve to stay relevant. History has shown that new technology creates a need for new standard, which in turn provides a new platform that allows more technology to be created on top, and the cycle repeats. It is therefore important for us to be vigilant and move with the mainstream trend, bearing in mind that it would take about three years to produce a standard.

To explore new opportunities requires fresh ideas and new energy. The best way to do so often is to put in a new leadership. So far, the TC has created the CMIS standard and established its position in the information management industry. I hope the next Chair can lead the TC to make CMIS an even more versatile standard. The currently slowed operating pace actually presents a good timing for leadership change.

While OASIS does not impose a term limit on TC Chair, the position is never meant to be permanent for the incumbent. It is healthy to change leadership every so often to avoid stagnation. Eight years is a long time for a person to occupy the position. (And, adding the two years in developing the original draft of CMIS prior to the formation of this TC, it would be ten years for me.) To allow the TC to continue to achieve its potential, I therefore voluntarily offer to hold an election for a new Chair. I will step aside, continue to participate, and help smooth the transition. In this matter, I encourage everyone to review Section 2.7 “TC Chairs” of the “TC Process” document, which describes the OASIS rules that we need to follow.

TC Chair is a visible position and it offers an opportunity to bring significant impact to the content-related industry. We have many capable and qualified people on the TC who can lead us through the next era. I sincerely encourage them to consider running for this leadership position. To get this action started, I hereby invite TC members to nominate, or self-nominate, candidate for our next TC Chair. A brief vita of the nominee will be helpful, and the nominee will be assumed to be willing to serve if elected. The nomination period will be open through the end of November, to give potential candidates sufficient time to consider taking on this challenge and to discuss the matter with their management. Nomination may be submitted to this mail-list, or sent to me if the submitter prefers to remain anonymous. I will be more than happy to discuss this matter with any TC member either in this forum or one-to-one privately (david.choy500@gmail.com). I intend to hold the election in early December. In the meantime, the TC will continue to operate as before.

Thank you again for your support and your trust in me for the past eight years. I enjoyed working with all of you very much, and look forward to continuing to do so, albeit in a different role perhaps.

Best regards,

David

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