Season's Greetings and the OASIS year in perspective

[Laurent M Liscia <laurent.liscia@oasis-open.org>]

Dear OASIS Members,
You've done it again. You've spent a year working on the most diverse and innovative projects from Cloud-based authentication to Internet of Things protocols. You're changing the way Europe and soon the rest of the world does its invoicing; you're making it possible for clinical trials to be filed electronically; you're taking biometrics to a whole new level of ease and security.  Your efforts are not going unnoticed: more and more, the trade press is picking up on your word, and OASIS itself is getting recognition in the places that matter to the companies you work for and to your customers, like China and Europe in addition to the US.

And yet, this is not one of those years where I could have copied and pasted my Season's Greetings for last year. The technology world is changing faster than ever and the disruptive effects are rippling through our community. To be sure, there are some alarming developments: not a day goes by that we don't hear about some new, spectacular hack into a media company or a retailer (you would think that would underscore the need for a collective conversation on cyber-security and renewed activity in standards!).

Also, we're getting whiplash from watching the consumer market. We were told PCs were dead, but now it's tablets, and PCs are back. Increasingly, the mobile market is seen as a continuation of the desktop, whether private or enterprise-based, and BYOD is no longer about the phone becoming the main productivity tool, but rather being the hub of interaction for a workforce on the go.  This means the great standards we have going like CAMP and TOSCA have a bright future ahead of them, as long as they remain focused on market evolution. The Cloud is transforming the way we do business and while the savings to companies may not be materializing, the burden of running IT infrastructure has certainly been greatly reduced - placing the onus of security on Cloud providers. And yet, I'm not hearing much discussion on SLAs or performance metrics: another opportunity for standardization, right?

The biggest shift for OASIS, however, is the rise of open source as a new kind of de facto standard. Perception is everything and there's a growing perception that successful open source packages become standards "plus": plus because they keep adding requested features and aren't frozen in time at a certain version. If you're a startup and you're growing at a breakneck pace, that may be true. If you're building a car or a plane and you have people's safety or data security riding on your implementation, then using actual standards that are carefully devised and provide a stable description of interoperability is not just essential, it's indispensable. Our view is that even in the seething seas of Open Source, islands of stability could be of great value to the weary captain. If we're talking about a protocol, that's immediately obvious: you can't exactly change the way a transport mechanism behaves every two seconds. This notion might apply to APIs as well: wouldn't it be great if APIs evolved at a more consensual clip than their code brethren?  
To that end, OASIS wants to offer its membership a place where open source projects can choose to standardize at the same time as they develop code. We think this is going to be a tremendous winner in 2015 and we look forward to hosting your project.

What I'm about to say now shouldn't surprise you: much like the kind of open source project I just discussed, a Standards Development Organization (SDO) requires constant innovation and a core of stability.

• We've outsourced our IT to the Cloud to reduce the risk of system failure and we're already reaping the benefits. Our web properties are faster than ever and there hasn't been any significant down time for months
• We've introduced new event formats, like our OASIS watering holes, impromptu discussions of hot technology topics moderated by Jamie Clark. I defy you not to find these entertaining - here's an example featuring a discussion of the Internet Of Things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_GPmAXCke4 
• We've launched Interoperate IoT, an unbiased newsletter that covers IoT, whether the news agrees with the OASIS view or not!  You can read it or subscribe right on our web site: http://interoperate-iot.oasis-open.org/
• We've advocated across the world to add value to the standards you create: our submissions to ISO (and IEC) have gone without a hitch, Europe is giving OASIS standards its stamp of approval, even China is is getting more involved with our work 

On the stability side, we've also continued to deliver on our promise of operational excellence, and give you maximum value for your dues:

• Despite our considerable IT expenses, we've returned OASIS to a balanced budget, and we have 6 to 7 months of operational cash on hand. In other words, you're in no danger of having to find a new home for your standards any time soon
  
• We're still handling your TC tickets at a rapid clip, and we're looking for ways to increase the pace further. This will involve some automation
  
• We listen to your suggestions and try to solve your TC-related issues in real time - hopefully you feel you're in good hands. We're here to serve
  

That's the key point: our job is to listen to you, address your needs and help you get your job done efficiently. If you feel we're in the way, please let us know. And if there are other ways you'd like to see us highlight your work, we're game. You know where to reach us.

Thank you for the trust you place in us and your continued business. Happy Holidays, and best of health in the New Year.

Very truly yours,

-- 
Laurent Liscia, CEO
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society 
(510) 669-1261

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