Re: [chairs] Preview of the coming TC Process changes

Chet, this looks good.

      

      Of course, I've already heard from my competitive folks that
      "Drat, we won't be able to break any more records for votes." :)

      

      Best,

      Kris

      

      Kristen James Eberlein

      Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

      Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting

      www.eberleinconsulting.com

      +1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

      

    

    
On 6/14/2017 5:05 PM, Chet Ensign
      wrote:

    

    
      

        
OASIS chairs, 

        

        

        

        
Attached is a preview of the changes to the OASIS TC
          Process that I will announce next week at the Membership
          Meeting occurring in conjunction with the Borderless Cyber
          event in New York City. I wanted to give you all an advance
          look at this major reorganization.  

        

        

        
The Board Process Committee has been hard at work on these
          modifications for over a year. We had several objectives: 

        

        

        
- To simplify - to make the rules less verbose, imposing,
          and complicated while retaining essence of our rules &
          values; 

        

        

        
- To weed out – to minimize "how" details in the rules and
          focus on the "what;" 

        

        

        
- To re-organize – to extract content that can apply to all
          OASIS activities into their own documents so that the TC
          Process focuses on the rules that apply to specifically to the
          work of Technical Committees;

        

        

        
- To support – to set up our policies so that they also
          work smoothly for other initiatives such as our coming open
          source initiative.

        

        

        
In the attached zip file, you will find copies of the new
          policy documents. These are in Word for now but the official
          versions will be published in HTML on the OASIS web site prior
          to taking effect. There are three:  

        

        

        
- The streamlined TC Process, trimmed down to focus on the
          content that applies specifically to running Technical
          Committees and to advancing work through the OASIS process. A
          red-lined copy is included so that you can review the changes
          in detail; 

        

        

        
- The new OASIS Defined Terms document, collecting all the
          defined terms that apply to OASIS policies into one common
          source; and 

        

        

        
- The new OASIS Committee Operations Process, documenting
          rules that apply to the work of any committee. 

        

        

        
With one exception, we kept the rules as they stand. But we
          removed a lot of the language that made them hard to
          understand. Sections like Leaves of Absence, Allowed Changes
          and Designated Cross-Reference Changes for example have been
          reduced to focus and clarify the intent of the rules while
          letting common sense in their implementation prevail. 

        

        

        
That one exception? It is a pretty big one. The way OASIS
          Standards are approved is about to change. 

        

        

        
Why? Because the current balloting period is a
          fingernail-biting exercise for TCs. It motivates them to field
          'get out the vote' efforts, increasing the volume of emails to
          other TCs and OASIS Primary Representatives, and, most
          importantly, it does little, as far as we could see from five
          years worth of ballot results, to improve the quality of final
          work. 

        

        

        
Instead, OASIS is moving to a call for consent/objections
          model. We will start from the assumption that the experts know
          their stuff and that other Members respect that. A ballot will
          be posted but the assumption will be that the Candidate OASIS
          Standard will become an OASIS Standard *unless* organizational
          members have reason to object. 

        

        

        
So if the Candidate OASIS Standard receives no votes at all
          or only affirmative votes, it will become an OASIS Standard.
          If, however, valid objections are entered by 15 or more
          organizational members, then the call will fail. If objections
          less than 15 are made, the TC will have options for proceeding
          with objection handling and the possibility of a second call
          for consent. Section 2.8.3 Call for consent for OASIS Standard
          has all the details. 

        

        

        
We believe this shift will reduce both the stress and the
          email traffic associated with the current balloting process,
          while bringing forward meaningful feedback on the rare
          occasion where there may be reason to do so.

        

        

        
Please feel free to share this with your Technical
          Committees and, if you wish, share your reactions and
          feedback. If you do want to share comments, please send them
          to the 
          mailing list and copy me. 

        

        

        
Best regards, 

        

          

            

              

                /chet 

                ----------------

                Chet Ensign

                Director of Standards Development and TC Administration 

                OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information
                society

                http://www.oasis-open.org

                

                Primary: +1 973-996-2298

                Mobile: +1 201-341-1393