Proposed Namespace URI Versioning Policy v3

["Scott Cantor" <cantor.2@osu.edu>]

Ok, third proposal, with stricter language about compatibility. This is
substantially rephrased in order to make the language less passive and to
clarify that it's really the previous stage of the document that matters,
not the new stage. In other words, once a namespace reaches CS, the *next*
CD or CS that breaks compatibility will change the namespace.

-- Scott

The OASIS XRI Technical Committee intends that the Extensible Resource
Descriptor namespace URI will be altered upon any revision to the
corresponding XML Schema document published in conjunction with a Committee
Draft or Committee Specification that results in a change that breaks either
forward or backward compatibility with a previously published Committee
Specification.

Under this policy, most substantive changes made to the XML Schema document
following publication in conjunction with a Committee Specification will
result in a change to the namespace URI in the next published version unless
compatibility can be verified.

While it is also the intent that incompatible changes will not occur between
Committee Drafts, the Technical Committee reserves the right to make such
changes without changing the namespace URI. In such cases, consultation with
the implementation community will be sought before doing so, but the final
decision rests with the TC's voting members.