New OASIS discussion list: Domain-Independent Policy Assertion Language (DIPAL)

[James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>]

     OASIS members have requested that we open a new discussion list, 
regarding a possible new OASIS Domain-Independent Policy Assertion Language 
(DIPAL) TC.  The proposal confirms to our rules and is appended 
below.  Standards always are improved by broad participation.  OASIS 
encourages open discussions about possible new TCs, using a dedicated 
e-mail list. for OASIS members and non-members alike.      Anyone who 
wishes to participate may do so by sending a message to 
dipal-discuss-subscribe@lists.oasis-open.org. [1]   (If assistance is 
required,

     The discussion list is governed by Section 2.1 of the OASIS TC Process 
[2], and may last up to 90 days.  OASIS membership is not required in order 
to subscribe to a discussion list.  Typically, participants in the list 
will determine whether there is sufficient interest to form an OASIS TC, 
and then collaborate on a draft TC charter for submission.  If you do not 
wish to subscribe, but would like to monitor the discussion, archives of 
the list will be visible at [3].

     Please feel free to forward this announcement to any other appropriate 
lists.   OASIS is an open standards organization, and welcomes your
feedback.   We look forward to assisting parties interested in joining the 
community of implementers, technologists, academics and end-users 
contributing to open standardization for e-business and information 
exchange.   JBC

~  James Bryce Clark
~  Director, Standards Development, OASIS
~  jamie.clark@oasis-open.org

[1] Additional assistance is available, if needed, via the contacts listed 
at http://www.oasis-open.org/who/contactus.php
[2] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#2.1
[3] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/

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DISCUSSION LIST PROPOSAL

The OASIS members listed below request that OASIS start a discussion list 
about a proposed TC for a "Domain-Independent Policy Assertion Language", 
in accordance with the OASIS TC Process document, Section 2.1 "TC 
Discussion Lists".

The proposed DIPAL TC would develop a language that would layer on top of 
any Boolean web services policy framework, including WS-Policy.  The intent 
would be to make it work with whatever becomes the standard policy 
framework, whether that is WS-Policy or something else. Therefore, this 
activity addresses a different layer in the policy processing stack from 
WS-Policy and is complementary to such a policy
framework language.

The required information is provided below:

 >> The name of the discussion list, which shall not be the same as the
 >> name of the list in which the TC itself shall operate if formed.

dipal-discuss

 >> A preliminary statement of scope for the TC whose formation the list
 >> is intended to discuss.

The scope envisioned for the proposed OASIS TC is the development of a 
domain-independent language for expressing policy assertions, along with 
semantics for verifying such assertions, comparing or intersecting 
assertions over the same policy item from two different policies, and 
selecting preferred values from a set of permitted values.  The language 
would provide a generic way of expressing conditions that particular 
domain-specific policy items must satisfy.

The language would be designed to express policy assertions for use with 
any Boolean web services policy framework.  That is, the language would 
express assertions over individual policy vocabulary items, but
combining these assertions into a policy expressing acceptable combinations 
and alternatives would be relegated to a framework layer. The development 
of a policy framework for combining individual policy
assertions into policies is not within the proposed scope.

The goal of the language is to facilitate interoperability and 
maintainability of web services policies.  A single policy assertion module 
supporting this language should be able to verify, match, intersect, or 
perform preferred value selection using any assertions written in the 
language, from any domain.  This means policy processors would not need new 
code modules for each new type of policy assertion that is required for a 
system or application.  The policy framework may make use of policy 
assertions written in the domain-independent language as well as assertions 
written in other domain-specific languages.

If the discussion list ended with a proposal to form a new OASIS TC, we 
envision the TC operating under the "RF (Royalty Free) on Limited Terms" 
IPR mode as defined in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy. 
We also anticipate that one of the input documents to the proposed TC would 
be the draft "XACML-based Web Services Policy Constraints Language 
(WS-PolicyConstraints)" specification authored by Sun Microsystems and 
offered on royalty-free terms.  This draft specification is available at
http://research.sun.com/projects/xacml/ws-policy-constraints-current.pdf

 >> The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership affiliations of
 >> the three or more Eligible Persons proposing to create the discussion list.

Anne Anderson <Anne.Anderson@sun.com> (Sun Microsystems)
Frank Siebenlist <franks@mcs.anl.gov> (Argonne National Labs)
Jacques Durand <JDurand@us.fujitsu.com> (Fujitsu)
Frederick Hirsch <Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com> (Nokia)

 >> The name of the discussion list leader.

Anne Anderson

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