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Subject: FW: Revised OASIS Membership Agreement - Draft for your Review


Hi,

The eligibility rules for individuals are currently just a placeholder in
the draft Member Agreement, but I think I might have issues based on the
text of the announcement below.

I can only comment from my own position as a consultant and individual
member. My greatest involvement with OASIS is from my work with the UK
Government Cabinet Office eGovernment Unit (formerly the Office of the
e-Envoy). Here I work with John Borras, who is also an OASIS Director. This
department is an OASIS member as are others of my customers, but I think
that John was right in requesting that I also become a member to contribute
on their behalf. I agree with this principle and, in this case, it led to
additional memberships (he requested the same from other consultants) and to
my contributing to OASIS on my own behalf. When I say "on my own behalf" I
am not deriving direct benefit from my membership in the way that, say, a
software company does when it influences specifications and gets advance
sight of drafts. Benefit for an individual member tends to less defined - it
provides good networking, I enjoy the participation and it helps with my
credibility in the marketplace. This discounts the fact that there is work I
could not do for John without my membership as your revised eligibility
rules would appear to allow me to use the Cabinet Office membership for
this.

As a member, I occasionally contribute information from other Government
departments when it would be beneficial to the working of OASIS. With UK
Government there are rarely IPR issues in doing this. I feel that this
contributes to the work of the TCs (otherwise I wouldn't do it). Sometimes
these departments will join OASIS, but often this is a one-off contribution
that does not warrant membership.

I would be opposed to anything that prevented this contribution. It would
not add to OASIS membership (perhaps reducing it if I can rely on the
membership of the Government Departments that "control the contributions").
It would, however, reduce the wealth of information on existing practice on
which OASIS TCs rely to produce good specifications.

I can only guess what you are trying to achieve. I imagine you want to stop
companies relying on the individual memberships of a few employees or
long-term contractors giving them most of the benefits of membership at a
reduced fee. This seems a good idea; the danger is that, unless carefully
worded, an effort to increase revenue with both fail to achieve that aim and
prevent consultants from using their experience of a wide range of
organisations to contribute to the work of OASIS.

Regards

Paul Spencer


-----Original Message-----
From: member_services@oasis-open.org
[mailto:member_services@oasis-open.org]
Sent: 21 October 2004 15:57
To: paul.spencer@boynings.co.uk
Subject: Revised OASIS Membership Agreement - Draft for your Review


Dear Paul Spencer,

In order to more reliably apply our member policies, OASIS is implementing a
revised membership agreement, including some updated wording around
Individual Membership in OASIS. Your feedback is important on this, so
please review and respond to the mail list below.

This new agreement seeks to:
-  Meet contractual and cultural expectations in all jurisdictions by
requiring an explicit agreement signed by the member.  This is a change from
the previous click-through on-line agreement, and will accept either a
physical or electronic signature.

-  More clearly identify who has IPR licensing obligations, and provide
suitable documentation to ensure those obligations are met. The agreement
will help assure users of OASIS standards that they can rely on the
licensing obligations created by the IPR policy.

-  Reduce the procedural load on members in the annual renewal process.  The
revised agreement allows automatic renewal, where the previous agreement
required members to re-confirm their membership agreement each year.

-  Clarify eligibility rules for Individual Members. Under the modified
agreement, OASIS membership categories will specify that only persons who
are acting on their own behalf, and are not contributing someone else's
intellectual property (such as under a work-for-hire or employment
arrangement), may join in the "Individual" member class. The objective is to
better assure that the parties who actually own or control the contributions
made to a TC are the ones who become members, and therefore are bound by the
IPR Policy.

Please review the draft Member Agreement, and its related documents at
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/members-only/download.php/9659/
OASIS%20Membership%20Agreement-%20Member%20Review%202004.10.07.pdf

The draft documents can also be found at
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/members-only/index.php

Send your comments and questions about the membership agreement and related
documents to
member-agreement-review@lists.oasis-open.org


It is important that we understand your views as we seek to achieve the
above goals while minimizing any negative impact on our members.  Please
send your comments as soon as possible, but no later than 15 November 2004.

Thank you.

Scott McGrath
Director Member Services

scott.mcgrath@oasis-open.org
+ 1 978 667-5115 ext 202
+ 1 978-667-5114 fax
www.oasis-open.org

OASIS
PO Box 455
630 Boston Rd
Billerica, MA  01821 USA



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