Re: [xtm-wg] TopicMaps.Org & OASIS

["Bernard Vatant" <universimmedia@wanadoo.fr>]

I support the move to OASIS.

I've not been so far, as an individual, an OASIS member, but I hope to be
able to participate in the future work as a Mondeca representative. I'm very
happy to see the community move on towards this "mature" reorganization,
both OASIS and ISO being natural supports now for our moving forward to
credibility and efficiency of the standard development.

Bernard

-------------------------------------------------
bernard.vatant@mondeca.com
Mondeca - "Making Sense of Content"
www.mondeca.com
-------------------------------------------------


> As requested at the Austin meeting, Steve Pepper and I met with Laura
> Walker, Executive Director of OASIS, to discuss how TopicMaps.org and
OASIS
> might be able to fit together.  This note provides a synopsis of the
> discussions.
>
> For those not familiar with OASIS (formerly SGML Open), it is a consortium
> of vendors and users of open standards, including SGML, XML, and CGM.
There
> are over 170 member companies from a wide variety of industries.  Some of
> the past work which people may be aware of includes a catalog
specification
> and a table interchange scheme.  They currently sponsor work on ebXML,
host
> maintenance of the DocBook specification, and are the parent organization
of
> CGM Open.
>
> Technical work within OASIS is done in two categories: technical
committees
> and member sections.
>
> A technical committee within OASIS is, by nature, temporary.  The
committee
> is formed to accomplish a certain task and then disbanded.
>
> Member sections are more permanent in nature and act essentially as a
> sub-consortium under the OASIS umbrella.  CGM Open is a member section.
> They have their own unique identity and can themselves form technical
> committees to accomplish specific tasks.  Member sections can have their
own
> web site, do their own marketing, publish technical reports, etc. with the
> assistance of OASIS staff.
>
> Based on this, we recommend that TopicMaps.org become a member section of
> OASIS.  This seems to be a natural fit.
>
> The implications of such a move include:
>
> 1) Anyone wishing to participate in the committee work must be a member of
> OASIS.  Invited experts are allowed, but actual work may only be done by
> members.  Only members have voting rights.  OASIS has a dues structure
based
> on membership level and size of organization.  This information can be
found
> at the OASIS web site (www.oasis-open.org).
>
> 2) Member sections control a chunk of the OASIS budget to support
marketing,
> web site maintenance, staff time, etc.  That being said we need to provide
a
> certain level of dues support to the consortium.  The number mentioned for
> the first year by Laura was $80-100K.  This number can be reached by
members
> stating they wish to participate in the member section.  There are
currently
> 5 OASIS sponsor organizations who are also participating member of
> TopicMaps.org (Sun, empolis, Mondeca, DataChannel, RivCom).  That gets us
> half way there.  Several current participating members have expressed an
> interest in joining OASIS at various levels.  In a seperate note, I will
be
> asking for indications of possible levels of membership for current
> participating members and other participants in the mailing list.  I will
> also ask current OASIS members if they would like to support the topic map
> work under OASIS.
>
> 3) The current specification work undertaken by TopicMaps.org would revert
> back to ISO.  As mentioned in a previous note, the XTM DTD will be added
to
> 13250 as a normative annex.  The XTM specification would probably become a
> technical report published by the OASIS member section with the copyright
> being owned by OASIS (a legal entity).  New specification work (processing
> model, constraint language, conceptual model, etc.) will be done under the
> auspices of ISO.  Current members who wish to continue to work on
> specifications will be able to so through OASIS relationship with the
> International SGML/XML Users' Group.  The mission of the member section
> would be geared more to community building and increasing the use and
> useability of topic maps in general.  Possible work items might include:
> interoperability issues, conformance suites, registry of PSIs, vertical
> industry topic maps and/or ontologies, publication of technical reports,
> etc.
>
> 4) The TopicMaps.org charter will be examined to identify any substantial
> differences with the OASIS charter.  These will be identified and
discussed,
> but in general the OASIS charter and process will be adopted.  As a member
> section, we can have our own bylaws.
>
> We would like to have a public discussion about the feelings of the ENTIRE
> community about this move, not just the voting members.  In this spirit,
> please address any questions or concerns to the entire list.
>
> A vote on this issue will be called in June.
>
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