Expectations for subgroups

[Don Day <dond@us.ibm.com>]

At today's meeting, we agreed to move the indexing discussion, and
generally any other uncooked issue, to subgroup activities for completion
before bringing proposals back to the TC for disposition.

I'd like to clarify our expectations.  I don't expect all proposals to be
without debate--we come from many viewpoints and our users have various
requirements that we try to represent.  When a subgroup brings an issue to
the TC, I recognize that additional discussion may come up, as with
indexing last week.  In such a case, if there is not time in the TC meeting
to address the issues easily, the subgroup should involve those interested
parties offline and come back with a new resolution (even as Chris has
begun for indexing--thank you!)

Also, as we are approving proposals for going into 1.1, necessarily the
teams must go back to finish the design and spec-writing work, and its
expected that related sub-issues might arise. Just because an issue has
been approved does not mean that all the sub-issues are fully understood,
and I'd expect the subgroups to bring those back for the TC to understand
the new scope and impacts to overall schedule or design.  These might yet
be factors in whether the parent issue is really within scope for 1.1.

I'd summarize the implications as "be ready for many subgroup meetings in
coming weeks as we move from broad issues to the dirty details that have
been bogging down the TC calls."

Regards,
--
Don Day
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
IBM Lead DITA Architect
Email: dond@us.ibm.com
11501 Burnet Rd. MS9033E015, Austin TX 78758
Phone: +1 512-838-8550
T/L: 678-8550

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
 Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
   --T.S. Eliot