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Subject: [Fwd: [members] Standards development and TC Administration staffservices]
FYI from OASIS today on administration and support. > clark: > OASIS Members: > > The OASIS Standards Development staff is expanding and reorganizing to > meet the increased demand presented by our Consortium's growth. We > have been challenged to maintain support levels as first the number of > OASIS TCs and then the volume of approved specifications doubled (and > continues to grow), and as the revised OASIS IPR Policy added new > requirements to the TC workload. > > With the recent hire of Ram Kumar as Manager of Technical Committee > Development, we now have the equivalent of three full-time staff > allocated to direct support of TCs: Mary McRae and myself in the US, > and Ram in Australia. We receive additional assistance from Pim van > der Eijk in Europe and Brett Trusko, also in the US. > > Although OASIS TCs are designed to be mostly self-governing, some > degree of staff assistance is required to ensure the OASIS TC Process > is carried out effectively and TCs are receiving the support they > require. The OASIS TC Process specifically names a "TC Administrator" > to conduct specific official functions relating to TC management and > specification advancement. Some of these duties are policy-oriented, > such as interpreting rules and appeals, but most of this role relates > to everyday infrastructure acts, such as starting a ballot for an > OASIS Standard vote, creating a subcommittee, etc. > > In order to assure efficient turnaround time on these types of > requests, we have implemented three changes. > > TC ADMINISTRATION REQUESTS. First, we have reallocated Mary McRae's > time so that her top priority will be to serve as first responder for > all TC infrastructure requests to "OASIS TC Administration", and keep > the service queues up-to-date. To enable this change, it will be > necessary to re-assign some of Mary's direct TC relationships (details > will be sent in a separate message to the relevant TCs), but we expect > this change will result in increased service speed for all TCs across > the board. > > The principal types of TC-Admin support that TCs will obtain centrally > via Mary will be: > > Conducting a Public Review of a specification > > Conducting a Committee Specification approval vote > > Reviewing a submission and conducting a ballot for OASIS Standard status > > Reviewing and conducting votes on charter changes > > Converting pre-2005 TCs to an IPR mode under the IPR Transition Policy > > Running other TC ballots required to be run by staff > > Creating subcommittees > > TC STAFF CONTACTS. The second step we have taken is to clarify the > "TC Staff Contact" role, so that TC chairs and members know who to > consult for the support they need. Over the past two years, each TC > has been assigned a specific staff member to monitor their activities > and provide baseline assistance, designated as the "TC Staff Contact" > in the TC's roster. To a great degree, this has worked very well. We > have found, however, that some official functions do not lend > themselves to decentralization, which is why Mary will serve as point > person for the requests described above. > > Within reasonable limits, the TC Staff Contact will: > > Assist if needed with TC roster management issues > > Serve as an additional resource to make sure the TC's web pages are > current > > Serve as a contact point for questions > > Identify opportunities for liaison and re-use of the TC's work > > Keep OASIS aware of the progress and obstacles encountered by the TC > > As much as we believe it's important to maintain a designated default > contact for each TC, we must remember that OASIS runs on a thin-client > model. With over 65 TCs and only a few staff members, a TC Staff > Contact will be able to devote only a few hours a month to each TC. > It is our hope that this allocation will be sufficient to assist with > challenges and opportunities, while still leaving the bulk of the > governance and administration of the TCs in the hands of our highly > capable volunteer TC leaders. > > EXPLICIT SERVICE TIMES. Finally, our third step is to improve our > transparency and predictability by posting and executing a list of > explicit turnaround times ("service level agreements") for various > tasks. The TC Process establishes deadlines for some aspects of our > work; we are implementing additional deadlines to enable even greater > control and more efficient planning. > > Not only will these turnaround times provide a metric for staff > performance, they also will assist in TC planning, enabling chairs and > editors to take into account the necessary processing and approval > times. This should reduce the risk of a specification being rushed > into approval at the last possible moment -- and thus missing a > deadline due to a technical flaw in the submission. > > We have internally redesigned our handling and forwarding of service > requests to spool to a central location. Going forward, you should > direct all requests for the key actions listed below to: > tc-admin@oasis-open.org. > You may copy your TC Staff Contact on these requests, but please send > these specific TC-Admin requests directly to the central address > above, so that we can log and better track each request. > > (We're also considering the feasibility of making our service queue > publicly archived, with each request becoming a visible, time-stamped > ticket. Your comments on that idea are welcome.) > > Here are the turnaround times we will immediately support on items > when they are sent to "tc-admin@oasis-open.org": > > Action: Launch announcement of a public review after receiving and > evaluating a compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 3.2.) No > response time is specified. Staff will commit to act within five > business days (instead of previous practice of 15 days). > Action: Launch Committee Specification ballot after receiving and > evaluating a compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 3.3.) No > response time is specified. Staff will commit to act within five > business days (instead of previous practice of 15 days). > Action: Launch OASIS Standard ballot after receiving and > evaluating a compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 3.4.) Staff > will maintain the turnaround time set by the rule as 15 calendar > days. > Action: Run "Special Majority" Ballots for other reasons, such as > removal of TC chair, sec. 2.7. (TC Process Secs. 1(w), 2.13.) No > response time is specified. Staff will commit to act within three > business days. > Action: Create subcommittees on proper request. (TC Process Sec. > 2.14.) No response time is specified. Staff will commit to act > within three business days. > Action: Announce and post ballot results once ballot successfully > closed. (Per TC Process Sec. 1(w), 2.13.) No response time is > specified. Staff will commit to act within three business days. > Action: Review and respond to requests to designate acceptable > outside facility resources use, such as systems that support tools > not provided by OASIS. (TC Process Sec. 2.8.) No response time is > specified. Staff will commit to act within five business days. > Action: Review and publish compliant TC standing rules. (TC > Process Sec. 2.9.) No response time is specified. Staff will > commit to act within 5 business days. > Action: Launch charter clarification ballot after receiving and > evaluating compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 2.11.) Staff > will maintain the turnaround set by the rule as 15 calendar days. > Action: Launch rechartering ballot after receiving and evaluating > compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 2.12. Staff will maintain > the turnaround time set by the rule as 15 calendar days. > Action: Launch Joint Committee after receiving and evaluating a > compliant proposal. (TC Process Sec. 2.16.) Turnaround is set by > the rule as 15 calendar days. Staff will commit to act within 5 > business days. > > We have omitted actions that relate to prospective or forming TCs (as > opposed to already-running TCs), from this plan, because we think a > different channel for handling those requests may be optimal. We will > propose some changes and improvements to that process as well within > the next few months. > > Obviously the times stated above are our targeted maximums; we will > perform faster turnaround when feasible. We may also be able to > further reduce some of these times, and sharpen some definitions, > after we accrue some experience with them. > > We very much appreciate your continued contributions to the > development of open standards at OASIS, and your support in helping us > better assist you. We look forward to your feedback on how we can > continue to improve TC support. > > ~ James Bryce Clark > ~ Director, Standards Development, OASIS > ~ jamie.clark@oasis-open.org > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > This email list is used solely by OASIS for official consortium > communications. Opt-out requests may be sent to > member_services@oasis-open.org, however, all members are strongly > encouraged to maintain a subscription to this list.
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