Draft Interoperability and Conformance TC formation proposal (0.3)

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Here is draft 3.  I fixed a few typos and added significant text to the 
Scope or Work statement in an attempt to address some reported concerns.

Again, text in [square brackets] are my notes and questions and will not 
be included in the final submission.

-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 
Conformance".  The general feeling on the discussion list was that we 
would have enough to do with just doing Interoperability and Conformance, 
and that implementation guides as well would be too much work for this one 
TC.   If there is sufficient interest in the subject matter of 
implementation guides, we could probably engage in 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 to 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 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, ODF instance documents, 
expected results, scoring and reporting; 
3.      To select a corpus of ODF interoperability test documents, such 
documents to be created by the OIC TC, or received as member or public 
contributions;  To categorize and annotate this ODF interoperability test 
corpus; 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, 
interoperability workshops and OASIS InterOp Demonstrations 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 source code or executables that test the 
conformance or interoperability of ODF implementations.  Note: This 
prohibition should not be read as preventing the TC from writing scripts 
or macros in ODF documents where such code is necessary to test provisions 
of the ODF standard specifically related to scripts or macros.

[I changed number 2 to make it clear that we would allow the TC to write 
code if this was necessary to express a test case, such as if we were 
testing a part of the ODF standard where it talks about where macros can 
be added.  This is rather minor in existing ODF  versions, but one could 
imagine a future version of ODF where the ODF TC provides more details 
around scripting and we should try to preserve our options around testing 
such scripting interfaces in the future.]

To the extent such activities are conformant with OASIS policies, the TC 
may engage in other incidental and customary activities related to the 
TC's Scope of Work, including but not limited to, holding teleconferences 
and face-to-face meetings of TC members, giving conference presentations 
or webinars related to the TC's work, interviewing ODF implementors, 
users, and deployers related to their interoperability concerns, gathering 
requirements and producing use cases pertaining to any TC deliverable, 
engaging in outreach and publicity related to the TC's activities, and 
producing content related to the TC's work for publication on the website 
opendocument.xml.org.

[I added this to make sure we cover ourselves for all reasonable 
activities the TC might undertake in the course of executing on its 
primary deliverables.  Is there anything else we should call out here?]

Work of the TC may consider any version of ODF as well as profiles of the 
ODF standard,  including published versions and versions being drafted. 

[I think this needs to be stated, so it is clear that we can create a test 
suite for ODF/A or ODF Mobile as well, if such profiles are created.]

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)

[These are my wild guesses as to a timetable.  The exact size, interests 
and skills of the TC, once formed, will determine the exact pace, and 
perhaps even the ordering of these items.]

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 include 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.  I'm volunteering the use of 
an IBM conference line for the first meeting, with toll-free numbers for 
most of the world.  If anyone has a problem with this, or would rather 
host, let me know.]

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

[The Convenor represents the proposer group in dealings with OASIS from 
the time we submit the TC proposal until the TC Chair(s) are elected at 
the first meeting.  The Convenor's role disappears after that first 
meeting.]

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.