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Subject: Re: [opendocument-users] Improvement submissions to the ODF-TC?


On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 8:04 AM,  <robert_weir@us.ibm.com> wrote:

> Whether something was discussed and whether it was addressed or not is
> best determined by by reference to meeting agenda and minutes which are
> posted to the list.

John, Rob apparently had a forgetful moment. There were numerous
occasions prior to Rob being anointed as co-chair when proposals never
made it onto the TC agenda even as discussion items. There were also
problems with agenda items falling off the agenda (repeatedly with one
interoperability proposal by the KDE team to specify document settings
to clear up the mess left by different implementations creating their
own custom settings).

Memorable among those proposals that never made it onto the agenda are
the five proposals submitted by Florian Reuter, now of Novell but
previously CTO of the OpenDocument Foundation, aimed at removing
interoperability barriers between ODF implementations and Microsoft
Office. (The Foundation is no longer a going concern but I was its
Director of Legal Affairs.) As I recall, three of those proposals were
on the TC list and the other two were on the Metadata Subcommittee
list.

Those particular procedural screw-ups were later defended by a Sun
Microsystems TC member (don't recall which one at the moment) as being
due to the fact that Florian had not used the magic word "proposal."
However, during my time on the TC, I saw many proposals processed that
did not use the supposedly magic word. Indeed, use of the magic word
was the exception rather than the rule prior to Rob's co-chairmanship.

I am surprised that Rob forgot the agenda problems while he was a TC
member but before he became co-chair. They were highly controversial
and as I recall he said that they were a motivating factor in his
agenda reforms. (I don't recall at the moment whether that
communication was on one of the ODF TC lists or on the OpenDocument
Fellowship mailing list.)

Both I and one of my associates are very familiar with the TC's
archives and could assist by providing you with links to relevant
communications if they exist; however we would need a more specific
description of the information you seek.

I'd be happy to help either on this list or by off-list email, but as
I understand previous rulings, such a discussion would be off-topic
for this list. So if you desire my assistance, off-list communications
would best avoid the wrath of the resident censors.

Even discussion of the procedural limits imposed by international and
federal law governing standards development work is deemed off-topic
for the ODF TC mailing lists. Compare these two posts from the last 24
hours.  <http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office-comment/200905/msg00028.html>
and <http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office-comment/200905/msg00022.html>.

So it's probably better to communicate off-list about getting you the
information you seek.

Best regards,

Paul E. Merrell, J.D. (Marbux)

Universal Interoperability Council
<http:www.universal-interop-council.org>


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