Establishing TCs: Food for Thought

["Laura Walker" <laura.walker@oasis-open.org>]

Hi everyone,

The following has come up several times recently, during conversations I've
had with industry communities who are considering forming a TC under OASIS.
I'd like you to think about this, not necessarily as something that has to
be incorporated into the TC process itself, but as one of the business
dynamics involved in successfully supporting our constituency.



Let's suppose ...

A group of firms determine that the would like to form a working group in
order to collaborate on the development of an XML specification.

They believe that joining forces with an organization who can provide
governance, infrastructure and resources would be the most expedient way to
accomplish this.

Further, they wish their product to be unbiased, vendor-independent.
Therefore, one of their criteria for selecting the aforementioned
organization is one that has a reputation for these things.

And so they come to OASIS. Logical, right?


Here's where it gets tricky....
In addition to forming a working group (or a TC in our nomenclature), this
group would like:
- to have a steering committee, which would be responsible for coordinating
and/or making decisions about non-technical activities related to the TC's
work (such as PR, marketing, recruiting, and other items such as the
following:)
- potentially, to request that additional funds be invested by the TC and/or
SC participants which would be used to hire a project manager and/or subject
matter expert

While our By Laws provide plenty of flexibility to do such things, I would
like to settle on a standard approach -- one that would be scalable and
transferable.


Thanks for considering this,
Laura