DITA TC and open source GitHub projects

[Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>]

OASIS has given us the go-ahead to start open source GitHub projects. In fact, Chet said "DITA is the poster child TC for implementing an Open Repository. You all want it, you have a broad, supportive, enthusiastic community that will be positive about this, and just operationally speaking, you are a group that really runs smoothly and dots the i's and crosses the t's. (And I mentioned the way you all approached the OS vote as an example.)"

So what does this mean?

We can start open source projects that are affiliated with the DITA TC but not fully controlled by it. We could use this for the following sorts of projects:

• Open source development that might later be brought back into the OASIS standard process, for example, the semiconductor specializations
  
• Open source development for projects that we think are valuable but not appropriate for OASIS, for example, Eliot's tool for generating DTDs and XSD from RNG or a DITA test suite
• Enabling collaboration with companies or individuals who cannot afford to join OASIS

We'll need to think carefully about what open source projects we want to start, much as we need to think carefully before chartering any new subcommittees.

In order to initiate a DITA TC-affiliated open source project, we'll need the following:

• One or more TC members who will be the initial maintainer(s) for the project
• A description of the project and its goals and purpose
  
• A short description for use in the intro text for the project
• The license under which the project will operate (BSD-3-Clause License, Apache License v 2.0, CC-BY 2.0, or Eclipse Public License v 1.0)
• A GitHub name for the project

I had a phone call with Chet yesterday, in which I asked him about why OASIS was moving in this direction and more. Some TCs were already informally working on open source projects, and it has proven helpful -- for example,
the LegalXML Electronic Court Filing TC developed a test platform that uncovered flaws in their standard that would enable implementations to conform to standard but not be interoperable.

I think it is clear that had this option been available when the DITA TC was formed, this is how what later became the DITA Open Toolkit would have been handled.

Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Ok - next steps
Date:	Fri, 4 Dec 2015 15:38:00 -0500
From:	Chet Ensign <chet.ensign@oasis-open.org>
To:	Kristen Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>

Hi Kris, 

Good! I got it. I told them that, lacking a non-assertion TC that wants to do this now (that was the hold up), DITA is the poster child TC for implementing an Open Repository. You all want it, you have a broad, supportive, enthusiastic community that will be positive about this, and just operationally speaking, you are a group that really runs smoothly and dots the i's and crosses the t's. (And I mentioned the way you all approached the OS vote as an example.) 

To dot those i's, pass a motion to set up each open repo with the github name (e.g. dita-toolkit), a short purpose statement that we can use in the intro text for the project, a short description, and one or more TC members who will be the initial maintainer(s) for the project. You'll also want to pick the license - BSD-3-Clause License, Apache License v 2.0, CC-BY 2.0, or Eclipse Public License v 1.0. 

Then send me the request using https://www.oasis-open.org/resources/tc-admin-requests/open-repository-request 

We'll start that rolling as soon as the ticket hits my JIRA. 

Sound good? 

--

/chet 
----------------
Chet Ensign
Director of Standards Development and TC Administration 
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
http://www.oasis-open.org

Primary: +1 973-996-2298
Mobile: +1 201-341-1393