RE: [ubl-dev] Fwd: UBL 1.1 Code List Requirements Review -[resent unwrapped]

[kenneth.sall@gsa.gov]

Marty,

I'd like to suggest that we collect/post some use cases that will drive the
requirements to a degree.

A real world example just occurred in the US. In the past 10 days, NIST
withdrew 17 of its FIPS Pubs (Federal Information Processing Standards
Publications). [1] Two of these, FIPS 55-3 and FIPS 95-2, are used in
federal acquisition, as well as in many other aspects of business,[2]
Although we aren't yet using XML Schemas to define FIPS code lists, if we
were, an XSD processor would fail to locate the URI for the withdrawn code
list, assuming the file were removed. I'm assuming of course that the URI
points to the (hypothetical) NIST-maintained location rather than to a
local copy of the XSD.

It could be argued that this use case is really an organizational one
(how/when people are notified of a code list being removed [3]),  Perhaps
this is out of scope for the UBL code list effort, but without a fallback
mechanism such a use case makes it tempting to copy the list (against all
well-known reuse principles). One can imagine an implementation-specific
fallback (e.g., catching a Java exception from xerces as validation fails),
Maybe that's all we need to capture in the UBL document?

[1] http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/FR%2017FIPS%20Withdrawal%202005.pdf
[2] FIPS 55?3, Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary County Divisions,
and Other Locational Entities of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the
Outlying Areas. FIPS 95?2, Codes for the Identification of Federal and
Federally Assisted Organizations.
[3] In this case, it is a notice in the US Federal Register -- not
something likely to be on the daily reading list of an XML developer or
database admin.

Kenneth Sall
SiloSmashers
XML Specialist
GSA IAE Program Management Office
U.S. General Services Administration
1 Crystal Park, Mail Stop IAA
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 911
Arlington, VA 22202
Phone: 703.872.8589
Cell: 301-672-3269
Fax: 703.872.8598


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"Implementation of E-Government is important in making Government more
responsive and cost-effective."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
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