Requirements - XML and the contract

[Peter Meyer <pmeyer@elkera.com.au>]

Hello TC members,

Following our latest meeting, the plan is to review John's linking
requirements at the next meeting.

I am a non technical person and have to rely on our programmers to guide me
on more technical matters. I confess to being rather confused about just
what John is asking for and would appreciate some clarification before the
meeting.

At the moment, it seems that we really have to understand the role of XML
and the contract before we can understand what John is asking and how his
requirements might be addressed.

To assist, I would appreciate it if John will elaborate on his requirements,
using the questions I set out below as a basis for discussion. In so doing,
I ask John to please not mention RDF, CSS, XSLT or any other particular XML
standard or processing technology of that ilk. I think we need to understand
how it should work from a user and business perspective, not a technological
view point. Forget you are a technologist and tell me what you want as a
visionary businessman. If you could do this John, it really would be a big
help and very much appreciated. Once we understand the needs, then the
technical issues can be addressed.

My questions (firstly to John, but anyone else can have a go):

1. Do we agree that the XML document used to generate the contract document
will rarely, if ever be the evidentiary contract document? [I envisage the
exception may be in some automated electronic transactions.]

2. Are the parties to contracts free to use any kind of presentation
document as the evidentiary form of the contract or is it necessary for the
standard to mandate particular presentation formats?

3. If we are to mandate particular presentation formats, in what
circumstances and why (business reasons, not technological reasons)?

4. Is it necessary for the TC to mandate or recommend any particular
processing technologies for parties to generate particular presentation
formats and, if so, why (just business reasons)?

5. If the answer to either of 3 or 4 is "yes", how do we expect that we
would get compliance?

6. John recently set out a scenario in which he envisages a party sending a
letter with references to contract terms. I treat that example as fairly
representative of some of the linking issues that may arise. John wants a
link from the letter to the contract terms. John, please expand on this
scenario and explain how you envisage this will work:

(a) Do you agree that the letter would most commonly be printed, rendered as
a PDF document & attached to an email or sent as the body of an email?

(b) Do you agree that the contract may have been generated from an XML
source and then printed or rendered in PDF or some other electronic form
chosen by the parties to provide their evidentiary contract document?

(c) Do you envisage that the letter and the contract must be in HTML or some
other similar format on the sender's or someone else's web site so that
linking can occur?

(d) If so, do you expect that everyone using the standard MUST publish
everything generated from standard XML in HTML or a similar format?

(e) If not, what documents in our area of interest do you expect to find on
the web? [I can think of some that will, so don't get me wrong here.]

(f) If they are expected to publish documents to HTML, how do you deal with
confidentiality, security etc that must surround most contractual
transactions and related documentation?

(g) Does everyone have to use the same technology to produce the HTML (or
whatever) and, if so, why (without discussing merits of any particular
technology)?

(f) If the contract is in HTML or similar form on someone's web site, is
this HTML version just a rendering of the contract terms for information
purposes or do you expect it to be "the evidentiary contract document"?

7. These questions are rather broad and do not distinguish between different
types of contracts or user communities. Are we talking only about contracts
that arise from particular types of transactions, say web site click through
contracts or something else? Please elaborate.

8. Finally, if my perspective on this is so off the mark that you don't
think these questions allow you to explain your requirements, please feel
free to provide further explanation. Again, I would appreciate it if you
could avoid discussion of any particular technologies, at this stage and
focus on the business needs.

I look forward to hearing from you.

regards
Peter Meyer

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Elkera Pty Limited (ACN 092 447 428) - Knowledge management
Email: pmeyer@elkera.com.au
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