Welcome to the Working Group Process Committee

[Jon Bosak <bosak@boethius.eng.sun.com>]

Welcome the the OASIS Working Group Process Committee.

Our task is to develop the process to be followed by future OASIS
technical committees.  We will begin with an outline that was given an
initial sanity check by the OASIS Board of Directors during its
meeting in London October 5 and has been subsequently revised to
incorporate changes suggested at that meeting.  See the end of this
message for pointers to this outline and to other core documents
relevant to our work.

After some study of the problem, it seems to me that our activity
should logically proceed as follows:

1. Consideration of the desired end state described in the
   process outline.  This has been given an initial review by the
   OASIS board, but several important details are still subject
   to debate.

2. Consideration of the "default OASIS committee process,"
   i.e., the process we currently have.  This means a careful
   reading of the OASIS Bylaws, of which I have prepared a
   lengthy exegesis.

3. Analysis of what changes or additions need to be made to
   the default process in order to provide the most immediately
   needed part of the structure described in the process outline,
   which is the part relating to technical committees.  I have
   prepared an initial list of items that needs further
   consideration by this committee.

Given our expectation that OASIS is soon to become the home for
hundreds or perhaps even thousands of industrial XML initiatives, it's
essential that we move with all deliberate speed in putting together a
process that is open, robust, and scalable.  For this reason, we will
have to work in parallel on the steps listed serially above.

To keep us moving, I am going to rely on the default committee process
we've inherited to decide questions that seem to have received enough
attention, and in doing so I'm generally going to require turnaround
time on email votes of 48 hours (not counting weekends).  This will be
tough but workable as long as we all commit to replying, no matter how
briefly, to every formal request for input.  As some of you know, this
is not the usual practice among participants in our technical
committees (among the less responsive of which I include myself), but
we are going to have to proceed quite a bit differently to accomplish
the work we need to do in the time available.

I am committed to doing what I can between now and (say) the end of
the year to put the new process in place, so if you are happy with the
way things are going, you should usually need do no more than read the
documents I put in front of you, register a brief response to indicate
general agreement, and vote when called upon to do so.  Active,
constructive engagement in the design of the process will be much
appreciated but is not expected.  Failure to evidence limited but
regular signs of life, however, will result in your removal from the
committee, for reasons having to do with the need to maintain a quorum
that will become clearer when you read my description of the default
process.

Your assignment this week is to read and consider the documents listed
at the end of this message.  Since several of you are traveling this
week, I suggest the following schedule:

   1999.11.01-07: Read and consider the documents below
   1999.11.08:    Post comments for consideration by the committee

The absence of a comment regarding any of the documents listed below
by 8 November will be considered a hearty (if informal) endorsement of
the contents of each document not commented upon.  If you are not
willing to have your silence registered as informal assent to a
document, you should either say something about it or ask to be
removed from the committee.  I don't really want to do this all by
myself, but I will if I have to.

Jon

========================================================================

(The locations below are intended to be temporary until we have spaces
set up on xml.org in which each committee can post its working
documents.)

CORE DOCUMENTS FOR BEGINNING THE WORK PROCESS DESIGN

The current OASIS Bylaws
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/src/oasisbyl.doc
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/src/oasisbyl.pdf
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/src/oasisbyl.ps

The overall process outline approved by the board
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/doc/xproc.100

   Which includes copies of the following:

      Placeholder for IPR policy
         http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/doc/ipr.100

      Placeholder for antitrust policy
         http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/doc/atrust.100
 
The current default OASIS committee process 
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/doc/defaultp.100

Changes to the default process needed to create technical committees
   http://metalab.unc.edu/bosak/wkproc/doc/changes.100