Interoperability and Conformance TC formation proposal (0.4) -- ProposedFinal Text

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Here is (hopefully) the final draft of the proposed OIC charter. I've 
taken it through the internal IBM review process, so Don and I can now 
officially add our names to the list of supporters. 

Changes I've made to prepare this version:

1) I've removed all of my editorial comments,  which were previously in 
square brackets

2) On question 2b, we were required to state the date of the first 
meeting.  The requirement, for a first meeting by telephone, is no less 
than 30 days after the TC formation announcement goes out.  Since that 
date is not known with precision, I've stated we would have our first 
meeting  "30-35 days after the announcement of formation of this TC." 
Hopefully OASIS will allow us to refine this once the announcement date is 
certain.

3) Item 1 in our Scope of Work, dealing with the periodic review of the 
"State of Interoperability" could be read as conflicting with our 
prohibition against  "Acting as a rating or certifying authority or 
agency.  So, I've inserted some clarifying language in item 1 of the Scope 
of Work, giving us:

"Initially and periodically thereafter, to review the current state of 
conformance and interoperability among a number of ODF implementations; To 
produce reports on overall trends in conformance and interoperability that 
note areas of accomplishment as well as areas needing improvement, and to 
recommend prioritized activities for advancing the state of conformance 
and interoperability among ODF implementations in general without 
identifying or commenting on particular implementations;"

4) In "Similar work" (question 2a) I've added a mention of the recent 
interop paper by Shah and Kesan.  This was a request from Dennis Hamilton 
on the oiic formation discussion list.


I think this is ready to submit.  But do let me know if there is some 
glaring error.  Otherwise, now is the time for members to let me know that 
this charter meets their approval, so I can add your names to the list of 
supporters.


-Rob

===================================================

TC formation proposal


1a. Name

OASIS OpenDocument Format Interoperability and Conformance Technical 
Committee (OIC 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. 

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 a number of ODF implementations; To 
produce reports on overall trends in conformance and interoperability that 
note areas of accomplishment as well as areas needing improvement, and to 
recommend prioritized activities for advancing the state of conformance 
and interoperability among ODF implementations in general without 
identifying or commenting on particular 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 
particular 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. 

We also note the work of Rajiv Shah and Jay Kesan, "Lost in Translation: 
Interoperability Issues for Open Standards - ODF and OOXML as Examples?, 
The Proceedings of the 36th Research Conference on Communication, 
Information and Internet Policy (TPRC), Arlington, VA, Sept.26-28, 2008, 
available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1201708 

This work, its references, and similar comparisons among ODF 
implementations as well as translation efforts may inform the TC's initial 
approach to surveying the current state of ODF conformance and 
interoperability and determining priorities for the development of 
conformity assessment methodology specifications.
 
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, hosted by IBM, and will occur 
30-35 days after the announcement of formation of this TC.

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
2. Don Harbison / IBM


2e. Convener:  Robert Weir/ IBM

2f. Member section affiliation: None

2g. (optional) Contributions:  None

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

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