PLS REVIEW: Draft OASIS Standard submission for XRI Syntax 2.0

["Drummond Reed" <drummond.reed@cordance.net>]

Following is a first draft of the proposed XRI TC submission to OASIS of the
XRI Syntax 2.0 specification for an OASIS Standard vote after the close of
the current Committee Specification vote next Monday afternoon.

XRI TC members, please send ANY feedback on this submission to the list
prior to noon Pacific time on Monday. Gabe and I will then prepare the final
draft.

Note that items that must wait until after completion of the Committee
Specification vote are marked in [square brackets].


***** PROPOSED SUBMISSION - FIRST DRAFT ******

Mary:

On behalf of the XRI TC, we are pleased to submit XRI Syntax 2.0 Committee
Specification 01 to the membership of OASIS for consideration as an OASIS
Standard.

This email serves as our submission and has been copied to the XRI TC
mailing list. We list each of item required for submission under the
headings in section 3.4 of the OASIS TC process document
(http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#3.4). 

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a) Links to the approved Committee Specification in the TC's document
repository, and any appropriate supplemental documentation for the
specification, both of which must be written using the OASIS templates.

RESPONSE:

[to be added after completion of Committee Specification vote.]

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b) The editable version of all files that are part of the Committee
Specification; 

RESPONSE:

[to be added after completion of Committee Specification vote.]

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c) Certification by the TC that all schema and XML instances included in the
specification, whether by inclusion or reference, including fragments of
such, are well formed, and that all expressions are valid; 

RESPONSE:

The XRI Syntax 2.0 specification only specifies identifier syntax using
ABNF; it does not include any XML schemas. To the best of our knowledge, all
ABNF productions are well formed and valid.

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d) A clear English-language summary of the specification; 

RESPONSE:

XRI Syntax 2.0 specifies the normative syntax for a new type of identifier
called an XRI (Extensible Resource Identifier). XRIs are referred to as
"abstract identifiers" because they are intended to identify a resource
independent of any particular concrete representation of that resource on
the network (i.e., at a particular network location, domain, directory,
website, database, application, etc.)

XRIs build on the foundation of interoperable Web identifiers established by
URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers, RFC 3986) and IRIs (Internationalized
Resource Identifiers, RFC 3987). Just as the IRI specification created a new
identifier by extending the unreserved character set allowed in generic
URIs, and defined rules for transforming IRIs into valid URIs, the XRI
Syntax 2.0 specification creates a new identifier by extending the syntax of
IRIs and defines transformations of XRIs into valid IRIs (which can then be
transformed into valid URIs.)

The XRI Syntax 2.0 specification extends IRI/URI syntax in four ways:

1) It allows the internal components of an XRI reference to be explicitly
designated as either persistent or reassignable.

2) It allows XRIs to contain other XRIs (or IRIs or URIs), a syntactic
structure called a "cross-reference" that allows sharing of identifiers,
especially generic identifiers or "tags", across multiple authorities and
namespaces. 
 
3) It supports two new authority types in addition to the DNS and IP
authorities supported in URI/IRI syntax: a) global context symbols (GCS),
single characters that establish the abstract global context of an
identifier, and b) cross-references, which enable any identifier to be used
to specify an XRI authority.

4) It explicitly supports federated identifiers (both persistent and
reassignable) at all levels of hierarchy (not just the authority segment).


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e) A statement regarding the relationship of this specification to similar
work of other OASIS TCs or other standards developing organizations; 

RESPONSE:

The XRI Syntax 2.0 Committee Specification 01 builds directly on top of the
IETF URI specification (RFC 3986) and IRI specification (RFC 3987).

Although XRIs may be employed by any OASIS TC that currently uses URIs or
IRIs as identifiers (for example the identification of principals or
subjects in security-related TCs such as the SSTC), the only explicit
relationship to other TCs within OASIS is with the XDI (XRI Data
Interchange) TC, which is developing a generalized mediated data sharing
protocol based on XRIs.

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f) Certification by at least three OASIS member organizations that they are
successfully using the specification;

RESPONSE:

The following OASIS members have submitted certifications of successful
usage:

Cordance: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00044.html
NeuStar: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00049.html
Epok: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00054.html
AmSoft: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00055.html
PlaNetwork: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00051.html 
XDI.ORG: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00053.html 


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g) The beginning and ending dates of the public review(s), a pointer to the
announcement of the public review(s), and a pointer to an account of each of
the comments/issues raised during the public review period(s), along with
its resolution; 

RESPONSE:

XRI Syntax 2.0 Committee Draft 01 was submitted for a 30-day public review
on March 15, 2005, with a 17-day extension on April 13, 2005.
(http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200503/msg00005.html)

XRI Syntax 2.0 Committee Draft 02 was submitted for 15-day public review on
18 October 2005, ending 2 November 2005.
(http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200504/msg00004.html)

The XRI TC published an account of the comments/issues raised during these
comment periods at:

[final link to be added after XRI TC review; first draft published at:]

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri/200511/msg00068.html 


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h) An account of and results of the voting to approve the specification as a
Committee Specification, including the date of the ballot and a pointer to
the ballot;

RESPONSE:

[to be added after completion of Committee Specification vote.]

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i) An account of or pointer to votes and comments received in any earlier
attempts to standardize substantially the same specification, together with
the originating TC's response to each comment; 

RESPONSE:

There have been no earlier attempts to standardize this specification.


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j) A pointer to the publicly visible comments archive for the originating
TC; 

RESPONSE:

The XRI TC Comment Archives are available at:

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xri-comment/ 


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k) A pointer to any minority reports submitted by one or more Members who
did not vote in favor of approving the Committee Specification, which report
may include statements regarding why the member voted against the
specification or that the member believes that Substantive Changes were made
which have not gone through public review; or certification by the Chair
that no minority reports exist.

RESPONSE:

No minority reports were submitted.

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Respectfully submitted,

Gabe Wachob and Drummond Reed
Co-Chairs, OASIS XRI TC