individuals as SOs?

[Terry Allen <tallen@sonic.net>]

11 March 00

At the meeting Friday of the now properly constituted Advisory
Committee on XML.org (ACXO, replacing the XML.org Steering
Committee), the question arose of individuals submitting items
to an RA on behalf of their organizations.  That would imply
tha the individuals are their own SOs.

ISO 11179's model is that SOs (Submitting Organizations) have
a single human point of contact (although I have provided for
contact information for the SO itself as a corporate entity
in admin.dtd, too).  The definition of SO is:  "the organization
or unit within an organization that is responsible for the 
contents of the mandatory attributes by which the data element
is specified."

Obviously there can be many such units, thus an org can have
many SOs.  I can think of several potential SOs within Commerce
One.  A large organization will never know what all its units
are doing, nor should it be expected to (by us, anyway).  

But I am concerned that if multiple individuals from large companies 
submit items on behalf of their corporations and then change jobs,
it will be difficult for RAs to continue business relations
with those corporations ("Janelle Va Melvin?  A Boot DTD?
Never heard of her, and I don't know what a DTD is.  
You say she used to work for Sun?  You'll have to ask
Personnel, but we don't give out information on past employees."
or "Yes, I'm the contact for the Shoe DTD, but I've never heard of
Janelle.").

So I'm inclined to say that to encourage continuity of business
relations, individuals who are contacts for SOs should be 
encouraged to identify the SO by unit ("The E-commerce Department?
Oh, we call that the Commerce At Fiberoptic Speed Group now.  Let
me give you their number.").

Sound okay?

regards, Terry