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Subject: Re: [dita-machine-industry] Status of the DITA Machine Industry subcommittee


Hi, Keld.

Good to hear from you. So your preference would be to NOT close the subcommittee. I can't quite tell whether you are suggesting that you would be willing to be a co-chair in conjunction with someone "who can handle all the OASIS rules" (3rd paragraph) or stating that you cannot afford to provide leadership (1st paragraph).

I'd like to hear from the other people -- it's a small list -- who are listed as members (not observers) of the subcommittee:
  • Chris Kravogel
  • Valerie Lipow
  • Tim Allen
  • Sissi Closs
Here's what we need to in order to NOT close the subcommittee:
  • A committed chair or two co-chairs
  • A minimum membership (at least five people) who have agreed to attend meetings and work on deliverables
  • Commitment from the leadership and members to meet regularly, preferably once a month and (at a minimum) quarterly
  • Some clear work items, preferably limited in scope and thus accomplishable

Regarding work items -- you mention a spare-parts structure. There also are a host of potential DITA 1.3 proposals that are on hold:

The following items are on hold, pending input from the Machinery Subcommittee

#

Owners

Requirement, links to final proposal, any amendments, or notes

Initial acceptance
(advance to proposal)

Proposal Approved
(create or update specification topics)

Approved and ready for 1.3

13011

Kravogel, Ziegler

Machinery Industry SC: Technical Data / Quantities and Tolerances.
Original proposals by Wolfgang Ziegler: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/document.php?document_id=27951, http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/document.php?document_id=27952
Test DTD for quantity and techdatalist: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200903/msg00006.html
July 5: This and other machinery SC items (13011 to 13019) are placed on hold while the remaining Machinery SC members determine whether / how to address.

7/5: on hold

--

--

13012

Kravogel, Closs

Machinery Industry SC: Maintenance Plan Email: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200803/msg00005.html

--

--

--

13013

Kravogel

Machinery Industry: Module Size Definition: a user proposal requesting a best practice description/definition what the size of a topic is.

--

--

--

13014

Kravogel, Lundin

Machinery Industry SC: Type Attribute Proposal, Email: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200810/msg00000.html
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200810/msg00001.html

--

--

--

13015

Kravogel, Lundin

Machinery Industry SC: ditatoctemp proposal. Email: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200810/msg00002.html

--

--

--

13016

Kravogel, Lundin

Machinery Industry SC: metadata proposal. Email: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200811/msg00004.html

--

--

--

13017

Kravogel, Lundin

Machinery Industry SC: Filtering attributes and conditional processing proposal. Email: http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-machine-industry/email/archives/200811/msg00005.html
NOTE: Related to filter / ditaval.

--

--

--

13019

Kravogel

Machinery Industry SC: Update of the Hazard Statement Domain and note attribute list

--

--

--


Thoughts from others?

I can host an OASIS call if folks would like to talk on the telephone.

Kris

On 7/25/2012 8:37 AM, Keld Jellesen wrote:

Hi all !

 

Personally I don’t think it shall be closed. However I must also admit that I cannot effort to drive a SC on this special topic

 

I also agree with Kris that DITA does not need a lot of specialization within the machine-industry (we do need a spare-part structure though). I use DITA in the renewable sector (heavy mechanical products with a long life-cycle) and yes we have made some specialization, but that is quite limited though. Next DITA is nice because it is fairly abstract to work with, so it can easily be applied to different things. The alternatives as I see them is iSpec200 and S1000D and that is not easy either I can tell you – I know them because I have been working with them for years and still is.

 

However I don’t mind to drive a SC within someone who can handle all the OASIS rules, then I would be happy to drive the technicalities for being able to apply it into the machine industry. Also if we can get a got DITA technical DITA person on-board I think a SC for the machine industry has all possibilities to become successful.

 

My dime !

 

From sunny and warm Denmark – Nice J

 

 

Keld Jellesen

CEO and Founder. MSc, BCom

advice2u Aps (www.advice2u.dk)

Email: keld.jellesen@advice2u.dk

Skype: keld.jellesen

Mobile: +45 30-277-965 (30-css-xml)

VAT/CVR #: 32670679

 

 

 

From: dita-machine-industry@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:dita-machine-industry@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Kristen James Eberlein
Sent: 24. juli 2012 22:10
To: dita-machine-industry@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [dita-machine-industry] Status of the DITA Machine Industry subcommittee

 

Hi, Jang.

If there is not sufficient energy to revive the subcommittee, then it should be closed. But I'd like to hear a general consensus from the current subcommittee members.

Yes, I agree that few (if any) companies in the machine-industry space are OASIS members.

However, I do need to disagree with you about the use of DITA in the machine industry. I've seen medical device companies move to DITA and use the machine industry task without further specialization or only very minor specialization. Several European companies are using SDL Trisoft and the machine industry task also.

I want to applaud the subcommittee for the work that it did to add the machine-industry task to DITA 1.2.

Best,
 
Kris
 
Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

 

On 7/24/2012 3:35 PM, Jang F.M. Graat wrote:

Hello Kris,
 
I totally agree that inactive SCs should be officially declared dead and I think the Machine Industry SC is a good candidate to kill off. A Dutch _expression_ states that it is useless to pull on a dead horse. I must state right away that this is my personal view, after having tried to revitalise and revive the SC for 2 years with no tangible result. We have been in a coma too long and it is time to pull the plug.
 
As everyone on the committee was involved in daily business and nobody from machinery businesses joined the committee to discuss their requirements for DITA, there was not enough energy available for the few active members to revive the SC. At the few occasions where we could meet face to face there seemed to be a renewed interest, but the follow-up proved us wrong each and every time. The last informal meeting I had was with my co-chair Jonathan Lundin when I was flying into Stockholm for a non-machinery related project. We imagined how the world of machinery documentation could be a much better place if only some of the important industries would consider using DITA and becoming active in our SC.
 
It might be useful for the DITA TC to understand why the Machine Industry SC is not working, and I do have a view on that. Fact is that true machinery businesses (and I am not talking about the Caterpillars or Siemens or any other large company but about the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized machinery businesses around the globe) were never involved in the SC. Some of us consultants were working for - amongst others - machinery companies but there was no immediate input from those companies into the discussions we had in the SC. In my projects with real-world machinery businesses there was no chance to talk about XML or DITA, as this is seen as a totally different type of work and something they do not want or dare to think about.
 
If I imagine myself in the position of someone who does work in a large machinery company and interested in discussing possible additions to the DITA standard, there is one enormous hurdle to take: my company will NOT become a member of OASIS just so that I, the manager of a small company that deals with the necessary evil of producing manuals, can have a say in a standard that might materialize in a couple of years and that has no connection whatsoever to any work anyone else in the entire company is doing.
 
I have tried to sollicit input from non-OASIS members who were in fact working in the machinery business but the LinkedIn group that was setup for this goal is only used for advertisement of software tools and hiring consultants. We simply fail to find the network where machinery businesses have their focus of attention. And as long as OASIS keeps focusing on software and networking and does not change their look and feel into something a business from another domain might even be willing to spend a couple of minutes on, we are not going to get people from those other domains on board in any kind of committee.
 
OK, my rant has gotten long enough. I have no solution for the problem I see with DITA and its too strong embeddedness in the realm of the software geeks. I tried and tried but I am giving up on the idea of introducing DITA into the machine industry. DITA is not at all ready for it, not in terms of the required elements, not in the required user-friendly tools and not in the marketing that is required to 'sell' the standard. Maybe in a decade. If a new Machine Industry SC is started at that time, I might consider re-joining it.
 
Kind regards from tropical Amsterdam
 
Jang
 
JANG Communication
Coaching - Copywriting - Consulting
Amsterdam - Netherlands
Tel.  +31 20 755 8466
Cell +31 6 5478 1632
http://www.jang.nl
 
On 24 jul. 2012, at 20:31, Kristen James Eberlein wrote:
 
OASIS has asked us to be more rigorous about ensuring that our subcommittees are active:
   • Meeting regularly
   • Having a minimum membership
   • Having strong, active leadership
   • Making demonstrated progress on defined deliverables
Accordingly, I am reaching out to ask about the status of the Machine Industry subcommittee. 
Is it time to close the subcommittee? Closing a subcommittee means that the SC Web page will be frozen and this e-mail list deactivated; the subcommittee can be relaunched later if there is interest in resuming the work.
Looking at Kavi, I see the following data points:
   • The subcommittee has not had a formally-scheduled meeting since 2010, although in-person meetings were held at both DITA Europe 2010 and DITA Europe 2011. Minutes from the DITA Europe 2011 meeting were posted to the SC mailing list.
   • The subcommittee does not have a chair.
   • There has been no e-mail on the list during 2012 and few posts in 2010.
I'd like to see discussion on the list about either reviving or closing the subcommittee.
If folks are interested in reviving the subcommittee, please let me if there are ways that Don or I or the larger DITA TC could help.
 
-- 
 
Best,
 
Kris
 
Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
 
www.eberleinconsulting.com
 
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)
 
 
 
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-- 
Best,
 
Kris
 
Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

-- 
Best,
 
Kris
 
Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)


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