Revising the Code List Representation TC charter and chairman

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

Fellow CLR TC members,

The Code List Representation TC was founded to establish the 
semantics of coded value domains, and a serialization of values and 
their semantics for any given code list. Our work products include 
the genericode XML file format and the context/value association XML 
file format. Genericode has found a use as well for sparse-table 
serializations for any kind of information, not only coded value domains.

It has been a decade since the CLRTC has produced any new 
deliverables. This is testament, I think, to the quality of what was 
produced and the utility it has provided to the community.

Our committee began in August 2006 with the generous donation of the 
genericode file format created by Tony Coates. I went through the 
process to found the committee and have chaired it since, so 14+ years.

A recent revision to the committee operations process dictates that 
chairs be re-appointed every two years:

https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/oasis-committee-operations-process/#chairs 


At the same time a recent revision to the TC process has introduced a 
need to revisit a TC's charter every four years:

https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/tc-process-2017-05-26/#tcVitality

At a recent UBL teleconference, new code list representation 
requirements were identified, or at the least, were posited. I heard 
of the need for a JSON serialization of the semantics. I have a 
Schematron script to add to the validation conformance clause. 
Perhaps there are other new requirements.

Our genericode committee specification never was taken to the step of 
becoming an OASIS Standard. Moreover, I heard it asked why this 
hasn't yet been taken to ISO as a Publicly Available Specification. 
Certainly we can look at the value in putting in the effort to do so.

I haven't heard of any new semantics that might be missing from the 
genericode specification, so perhaps we will be able to preserve the 
existing XML schemas so that the user community can be reassured that 
nothing has changed in the semantics. The Schematron value validation 
I've prepared codifies constraints that users should have been 
following all along.

Given the tight scope and existing work, I think it will not take a 
long time to address all of the topics that need to be discussed.

But first, we need to get the committee back up and running, while 
conforming to the new process requirements.

I would like not to continue as the committee chairman, though I will 
absolutely continue as a committee member. I have the editorial tools 
to move the documentation into a maintainable format that allows 
publication both to OASIS and ISO layouts to prepare for a possible 
future submission to ISO, so I can serve as the editor until someone 
takes it over. I will ask TC Admin for a git documentation repository 
and an artefacts repository in which the entire committee can 
participate by forking copies and making pull requests.

But I would like someone to step up and offer to become the chairman, 
please, to learn the OASIS TC process, to run the meetings and work 
with TC Admin in the running of the committee. Learning with such a 
small committee will equip you to take on other committees in the 
future. This isn't as scary as you may think! I will work along side 
you while you get your sea legs.

I would like to begin meeting in the new year so that the committee 
can be cleaned up and the work started and ended soon with an 
aggressive schedule. I propose meeting Wednesdays at 14:00UTC 
(08:00CST/09:00EST/15:00CET) in the hour ahead of the UBL meeting. I 
know this conflicts with one of the UBL subcommittees, but their work 
will be quiet for a while and our aggressive schedule would free up 
the time slot as soon as possible.

Our first meeting would be on January 6 providing that I am not in 
hospital or recovering from surgery. I will announce the 
teleconference details in advance of the meeting. Another reason we 
need someone else to chair.

Please take the time to consider all of the above. You are most 
welcome to ask questions publicly on this list or privately to me 
personally. Meanwhile, I will put out a call for participation to 
UBL-Dev and CLRTC-Dev. Yes, there was a CLRTC-Dev 
https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/clr-dev/ and I see that I need 
to talk with TC Admin regarding reviving it.

And please pass the word on to anyone you think would be interested 
in participating.

Thanks to you all. Have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season.

. . . . . . Ken

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