OIC TC 2010-03-10 Meeting Minutes

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

Subject: OIC TC 2010-03-10 Meeting Minutes

OIC TC 2010-03-10 COORDINATION CALL

Date:  Wednesday 10 March 2010
Time:  14:30 - 15:30 UT

1. LOGISTICS
   ---------

The chat room: http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room/oic (doesn't count as attendance)

The call-in numbers: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/200903/msg00017.html 
Meeting agendas also provide the pass codes and the call-in numbers:
<http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/201003/msg00019.html>

The action items (log-in required):
  http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/oic/members/action_items.php

1.1 ROLL CALL AND QUORUM CHECK
The quorum consisted of 8 of the 11 Voting Members (6/11 required).

    MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE

    * Bart Hanssens, Fedict (Chair)
    * Donald Harbison, IBM
    * Mingfei Jia, IBM
    * Robert Weir, IBM
    * Dennis Hamilton, Individual (Secretary)
    * Hideki Hiura, Just Systems
    * Andrew Rist, Oracle
    = Svante Schubert, Sun Microsystems
    * Louis Suarez-Potts, Sun Microsystems

      [* = Voting Member at start of meeting (8)
       + = becoming Voting Member at conclusion of meeting (0)
       = = Persistent Non-Voting Member (1)]

    MEMBERS ABSENT

      Charles Schulz, Ars Aperta
      Xiaohong Dong, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000 Software
      Shuran Hua, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000 Software
      Alex Wang, Beijing Sursen International 
      Jeremy Allison, Google Inc.
    * Andreas Guelzow, Individual
      Peter Junge, Individual
      Thorsten Zachmann, Individual
      Cherie Ekholm, Microsoft
      Doug Mahugh, Microsoft
      Eric Patterson, Microsoft
    * Alan Clark, Novell
      Tom Rabon, Red Hat
    = Michael Brauer, Sun Microsystems
    - Bernd Eilers, Sun Microsystems
      Daniel Rentz, Sun Microsystems
      Jerry Smith, US Department of Defense

      [* = Voting Member at start and end of meeting (2)
       - = Voting Member becoming non-voting Member at end of meeting (1)
       = = Persistent Non-Voting Member (1)]

1.2 ACCEPTANCE OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES

Minutes for the 2010-02-24 Meeting 
<http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/201002/msg00056.html>: Approved without objection.


1.3 ACCEPTANCE OF TODAY'S AGENDA.
   <http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/201003/msg00019.html>
   The agenda was accepted without objection.

2. STATUS OF ACTION ITEMS

#0015 Template Scenarios.  Still on hold.

#0026-0027.  No report.
Dennis said he would ping Cherie Ekholm about this.

#0033 Best Practices for Document Authors.  Rob wants to have a draft by April 1.

#0034 Interop Demo Videos.  No change.

#0037 ODF Plugfest Spain. On today's agenda (item 4, below)

#0038 Clean OTT specification template.  Bart proposes to make one and give it to the TC Administrator between now and the next meeting.


3. FUTURE MEETING PLANNING

We agreed to keep the North American time constant.  Starting with the next call, on 2010-03-24, the meeting time will be from 13:30 - 14:30 UT.


4. ODF PLUGFEST SPAIN PREPARATION
<http://plugfest.opendocsociety.org/doku.php?id=plugfests:201004_granada:info>
The next ODF Plugfest will be in Granada, April 15-17, 2010.

Bart raised the prospect of doing something specific around YEARFRAC as a codefest activity or as something with tests (or both)
<http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/201003/msg00003.html>

We talked about two sort of things.  First, a codefest to see little trial implementations of OpenFormula functions as command-line programs amenable to scripted operation.  These could be developed prior to the plugfest, with people sharing their code and results.  This would be a way of demonstrating that implementations can be arrived at that agree with the currently-available definitions in OpenFormula.

Another aspect, often involving the same functions, has to do with being able to inspect for how implementations succeed within the restrictions of their data representations.  Implementation of OpenFormula operations and functions must necessarily deviate from the mathematical definition when limitations on representation are encountered.  Dennis is interested in defining the OpenFormula functions in a way that recognizes the existence of such limitations as ambient characteristics.  His thesis is that the boundaries that reflect those limitations can be inspected for with spreadsheets designed for that purpose.  These are different but complementary approaches.  Dennis suggested that both should be explored.

We will work on this topic more, with suggestion of a set of functions that it will be very interesting and revealing to attempt programming as a codefest leading up to the plugfest.

5. ODF 1.2 FEATURES/TESTING
<http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/201003/msg00008.html>
Svante provided more on his thinking about a feature taxonomy and how to test for them.  He is going to be presenting at SC34 WG5 in Sweden on his identification of ODF features.  There is also a presentation coming from the University of Bologna.
  There was more discussion on how the ODF Toolkit Union and the OIC might collaborate or cross-fertilize.  Rob Weir pointed out that one has to reconcile the IP rules of the different organizations, so more exploration is needed.
  There was more discussion on the difference between having an API, an ODF DOM, and tests related to behavior and exactly how the cross-over would work.
  We will continue to ponder over this.

6. TRAILING SLASH in URI/ZIP
  Dennis and Svante said this is really an issue for the ODF TC and its work on ODF 1.2 Part 3.  The discussion will continue there.  Dennis has a JIRA issue or two to create on this topic.

7. ROUND TABLE
There was a discussion about making Plugfests OASIS events.  The short answer was "no."  The rules for OASIS are more involved and involve greater lead time.

There will be a need for an OASIS Interoperability Demo event as part of the PAS submission of the ODF 1.2 OASIS Standard (once achieved) to ISO/IEC JTC1 for ratification as an ISO/IEC International Standard.  That event might be co-located at a Plugfest, but it would be a separate event, even if held in conjunction with a larger plugfest event.  Someone mentioned that the plugfest tentatively set for October might be the right timing.

8. END OF MEETING

The next meeting will be one UTC hour earlier, on 2010-03-24.

Respectfully submitted,

 - Dennis E. Hamilton