Re: Establishing TCs: Food for Thought

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

[Norbert@datachannel.com:]

| I would suggest that the PAC looks at this and
| comes back with a recommendation to the board.

Laura (see below) was asking about a hypothetical TC that
desired two things:

   - 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

Let me take these individually.

   1. How to set up a steering committee depends on whether you
      want the committee to steer or to coordinate.  Since I can't
      imagine a situation where a single TC needs a separate
      steering committee, I'm going to assume that what's being
      asked is how to set up a steering committee for the case
      where related work is occurring in two or more TCs and it's
      desired to coordinate or manage that work.

      a. If what's desired is a true steering committee (a
	 committee that can impose its will on the TCs being
	 coordinated), then our off-the-shelf mechanism is a
	 single TC that forms subcommittees and manages the work
	 of those subcommittees.  However, such subcommittees have
	 to be formally created according to the traditional
	 model.  In particular, their members must be appointed by
	 the TC that creates them (though their membership is not
	 limited to members of the TC).  Within that limitation,
	 any TC can recursively create subcommittee structures of
	 any desired depth; this feature of the traditional system
	 is available now and will continue to be available under
	 the augmented system we're designing.

      b. If what's desired is a mechanism by means of which TCs
	 that wish to be coordinated can participate in the
	 coordination but do not operate under a hard requirement
	 to obey the decisions of the coordinating body, then our
	 mechanism is the Joint Committee.  It's my job this
	 weekend (assigned at our last PAC meeting) to attempt to
	 specify Joint Committees.  I should have a first attempt
	 out in the next 48 hours; any board members interested in
	 this should monitor the workprocess list for details.

   2. How to authorize a TC to hire and manage employees such as a
      project manager or subject matter expert is, I believe, a
      completely new question for us, and one that I'm not sure we
      should be considering.  The bylaws place all business
      decisions in the hands of the board.  Amending the bylaws to
      allow autonomous TCs to make decisions that can create legal
      or financial obligations for OASIS seems to me beyond the
      present scope of the PAC.

Jon

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

   From: Norbert Mikula <Norbert@datachannel.com>
   Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 07:50:31 -0700

   I would suggest that the PAC looks at this and
   comes back with a recommendation to the board.

   ----------------------------------------------
   Norbert H. Mikula 
   Chief Technology Officer/DataChannel
   Norbert@DataChannel.com 
   Chief Technical Officer/OASIS
   Norbert.Mikula@Oasis-Open.org 
   DataChannel, 600 108th Avenue NE 9th Floor, Bellevue, WA 98004
   Phone: 425.462.1999 Fax: 425.637.1192 <http://www.datachannel.com/> 



   -----Original Message-----
   From: Laura Walker [mailto:laura.walker@oasis-open.org]
   Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 10:51 PM
   To: Workprocess@Lists. Oasis-Open. Org
   Cc: Soboard@Lists. Oasis-Open. Org
   Subject: Establishing TCs: Food for Thought


   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