FW: [oasis-member-discuss] Upgrading OASIS document and file management services

Forwarding for Peter Roden to the esteemed Chairs.  

 

A pointer is also going to all Members, also encouraging
discussion on oasis-member-discuss.  This list is unique in that you need
only be an OASIS member to mail to that list, members needn’t subscribe,
unless they want to receive the mail.

 

All the best,

 

Scott…

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Peter Roden
[mailto:] 

Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 2:47 PM

To: ;


Subject: [oasis-member-discuss]
Upgrading OASIS document and file management services

 

The next significant steps in upgrading OASIS document
and file management functions, to support our technical committees, are a) the
roll-out of a new document management service and its interface and b) the
introduction of an in-house content versioning server.

 

OFFICIAL SUBDOMAIN    We plan
exclusively to use the domain "docs.oasis-open.org" for public access
to approved work product of its technical committees.  The
"docs" subdomain is in optional use today.   By 'approved',
we mean all work that has been approved under our TC Process rules as a
Committee Draft, Public Review Draft, Committee Specification or OASIS
Standard.  Normative use of this domain will simplify user and member
access to the output of OASIS TCs.

 

We plan to permit TCs to elect to place other files
there as well, or continue to use the current web-based database
("Kavi") document repository for those other documents.  During
November we will issue advice on any constraints that should apply to artifact
naming [1], based on input from our members, staff and Technical Advisory
Board, and begin plans for possible replication or symlink of older legacy
OASIS technical documents.

 

NEW UPLOAD GUI    To support mandated
use of the "docs" subdomain, we will provide a new, simple web-based
user interface for uploading technical documents to the "docs"
domain.  Our technical staff expects to have this completed and available
for production use by the end of the year.

 

CONTENT VERSIONING    OASIS technical
staff also is installing a content version control system [2] for optional use
by TCs for the management of highly-versioned documents.   Several
OASIS TCs explicitly requested this functionality.   We are
installing Subversion (SVN) software [3] which appears to fulfill all of the
required and requested functions.  We also had considered using the older
implementation CVS [4], but SVN appears to be easier for users, more
firewall-friendly, and easier to integrate.

 

We also considered, but rejected, using a system like
SVN as the exclusive document repository for all OASIS work, but its
complexity, and the need to use client software for write operations, makes it
unsuitable for everyday uploads of simple documents by users.  Therefore
we expect it will be primarily useful for the editing of long-running,
multiply-revised documents such as TC issues lists or complex specification
drafts prior to approval.

 

Our technical staff expects to have this completed and
available for production use by the end of the year.   We also will
modify the public TC document displays at that time, to include pointers to any
TC documents stored separately on the content versioning server.

 

FEEDBACK   OASIS Staff welcomes and requests
your feedback about the usefulness of these new services as well as any other
technical services provided to support TCs.  Please email your comments to
.

 

[1] Original proposed guidelines in 2003: 
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/chairs/200302/msg00119.html

[2] Concept: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control_system

[3] SVN software: http://subversion.tigris.org/ or
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/ [4] CVS software: http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
or  http://ximbiot.com/cvs/manual/

 

 

 

Peter Roden

Director of
Technology Development

OASIS

630 Boston Road

Billerica, MA 01821

USA

+1 978 667 5115
Ext. 210 (Office)

+1 978 761 1648
(Mobile)

+1 978 667 5114
(Fax)