Draft Interoperability and Conformance TC formation proposal (0,2)

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Sorry for the delay in getting back
with the second draft.  I think it is much improved after addressing
your feedback and doing some wordsmithing.   Please take a look and
send any additional feedback.  

I think we said our next task was to
shop this around to whatever contacts we might have with other ODF implementors
who are not already participating in OASIS.  I think this would be
more impressive if we had down some solid charter member to list under
question 2d.  So if you read the charter and like what you read, please
consider replying back to the list saying that you are "in".

If I don't hear any serious issues by
noon tomorrow, I'll post to the public discussion list and start notifying
my contacts, including whatever names I have by that point.

Note:  text in [square brackets]
for my editorial comments, questions, etc., and will not be part of the
final text.

Note also that OASIS staff as provided
some additional guidance on charter drafting on their wiki here:  http://wiki.oasis-open.org/staff-stds-wiki/StartingCommittees

I have take account of some of their
advice in this version.

Regards,

-Rob
---------------------------------------

TC formation proposal.

1a. Name:  OASIS OpenDocument Format Interoperability and Conformance
Technical Committee (OIC TC)

[Note that it is no longer "Implementation,
Interoperability and Confomance".  The general feeling on the
discussion list was that we had enough to worry about just doing Interoperability
and Conformance, and that implementation guides as well would be too much
work for this TC.   If there is sufficient interest in the subject
matter of implementation guides, we could probably host that activity in
the ODF TC]

1b. Statement of Purpose

The OpenDocument Format for Office Applications
(OpenDocument) OASIS Standard defines an XML schema for office applications
and its semantics. The schema is suitable for office documents, including
text documents, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents like drawings
or presentations, but is not restricted to these kinds of documents. 

There are several commercial and open source
applications available based on the OpenDocument Format, with more currently
under development.  With the depth and breadth of functionality specified
by ODF, achieving conformance and interoperability requires attention to
numerous details and diverse requirements.   

It is the purpose of the OIC TC to produce
materials and host events that will help implementors create applications
which conform the ODF standard and which are able to interoperate. 

[As some will undoubtedly mention, we do
not define "materials" here.  The meaning however becomes
clear in the  "scope of work" that follows, and it is that
scope statement that is binding on the TC.  So we define it one place,
in the Scope of Work.)

1c. Scope of Work

In accordance with the OIC TC's purpose, the scope of our work will include
the following activities:

1. Initially and periodically thereafter, to review the current state of conformance and interoperability among ODF implementations, and to produce a an impartial report that notes areas of accomplishment as well as areas needing improvement, and which recommends prioritized activities for advancing the state of conformance and interoperability among ODF implementations;
2. To collect the provisions of the ODF standard, and of standards normatively referenced by the ODF standard, and to produce a comprehensive conformity assessment methodology specification which enumerates all collected provisions, as well as specific actions recommended to test each provision, including definition of preconditions, expected results, scoring and reporting;
3. To select a corpus of ODF interoperability test documents, such documents to be created the OIC TC, or received as member or public contributions;  To publish the ODF interoperability test corpus and promote its use in interoperability workshops and similar events;
4. To define profiles of ODF which will increase interoperability among implementations in the same vertical domain, for example, ODF/A for archiving;
5. To define profiles of ODF which will increase interoperability among implementations in the same horizontal domain, for example ODF Mobile for pervasive devices, or ODF Web for browser-based editors.
6. To provide feedback, where necessary, to the ODF TC on changes to ODF that might improve interoperability;
7. To coordinate, in conjunction with the ODF Adoption TC, Interop Workshops and OASIS InterOp demos related to ODF;
8. To liaise on conformance and interoperability topics with other TC's and bodies whose work is leveraged in present or future ODF specifications, and with committees dealing with conformance and interoperability in general.

The following activities are explicitly not
within the Scope of the OIC TC:

1. Acting as a rating or certifying authority or agency for conformance of ODF implementations;
2. Authoring or distributing software that tests the conformance or interoperability of ODF implementations;

1d. List of Deliverables

1. Initial report on the state of ODF conformance and interoperability (March 1st, 2009);
2. Report on the best practices on profiles and recommendations on possible ODF-related profiles (April 1st, 2009);
3. A conformity assessment methodology specification, detailing how each provision and recommendation in the ODF standard may be tested for conformance (May 1st, 2009);
4. Interoperability test corpus documents,  released in batches, according to functional area (several incremental deliverables, Q4 2008 through 2009)

1e. IPR Mode

This TC will operate under the "RF on Limited Terms" mode

1f. Audience

The direct audience of the OIC TC's work will be:

1. Implementors -- Commercial and Open Source publishers of ODF native or compatible applications and tools.
2. Testers -- Third-party testing and certification labs.
3. Procurers -- Those who purchase or define requirements for the purchase of ODF-related technology.
4. Regulators -- Officials who specify the use of document standards.

Other, indirect users of the TC's work may
include:

1. Integrators -- Third-party developers and independent software vendors who interact with and/or integrate ODF.
2. Users -- End Users of ODF applications and tools, including both typical and "power" users.

1g. Language of the TC

TC business will be conducted in English.


2. Informative information


2a. Similar work

We note the work of Lotzi Bölöni at the University
of Central Florida and his initial work in defining an ODF "test suite",
work now maintained by the Open Document Fellowship:

http://develop.opendocumentfellowship.com/testsuite/


We also note that the work of the OASIS Test
Assertions Guidelines (TAG) TC may be of use to us in defining test cases:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=tag

Sun Microsystems has has also done some work related to ODF conformance
testing:

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/openoffice_org_odf_validation_service

We note that the W3C has test suite work
efforts pertaining so several of the standards which ODF references, including
MathML and XForms.  We would expect to consult with them on any overlapping
topics.

Finally we observe that the OASIS ODF TC
owns the ODF standard, including the definition of conformance for ODF.
  The OIC TC's work does not overlap, since our scope would not including
defining conformance for ODF, but defining test cases (preconditions, specific
test actions, expected results) that are traceable to the provisions of
the ODF standard and referenced standards.

2b. First meeting.

The initial meeting will be by telephone and will be hosted by IBM.  

[Date to be determined, likely late September/early
October, 2008 .  Must be no less than 30 days after TC is formed]

2c. Meeting schedule

We anticipate meeting, by teleconference,
initially every week as we prepare for an interoperability workshop in
November, and then reverting to a normal alternate week meeting schedule

2d. Minimum membership who support this proposal.

1. Robert Weir / IBM

[TBD.  We will need 5 OASIS members,
from at least 3 member organizations]


2e. Convener
    Robert Weir/ IBM

2f. Member section affiliation. None

2g. (optional) Contributions.

[Is there any work that will be contributed
initially?  That's fine if there is none.  Members or the public
can contribute at any time.]

2h (optional) FAQ's:  N/A

2i  (optional) Working titles and acronyms for specifications:  None.