Emergency TC meeting tomorrow?

OK, if we want to have the DITA 1.2 spec voted on by OASIS in
November, we need to do the following:

 

1.     Have an
emergency TC meeting tomorrow, at which we rescind our motion for a 15-day
review; request that OASIS sets up a ballot for us to approve a committee
specification and submit the committee specification to OASIS for consideration
as an OASIS standard.

2.     Provide
Mary McRae with three statements of use tomorrow. Mary McRae will then expedite
our request and set up the ballot to run Thursday, 7 November 2010 –
Wednesday 13 November 2010.

3.     Get all
supporting materials to Mary by the October 15th deadline; she will
work with us to ensure that the submission is complete and that DITA 1.2 submitted
to OASIS on November 1, for vote November 16-31.

 

Shall we try to do this and get DITA 1.2 out this year?

Best
regards,

Kris

Kristen
James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical
Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies Division l (t) + 1
(919) 682-2290 l 

 

Please
consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

From: Mary McRae
[mailto:] 

Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 2:56 PM

Cc: Michael Priestley; ; Don Day (LbW)

Subject: Re: [dita] Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send
the DITA 1.2 spec to OASIS for a vote

 

Hi Kris,

 

  The only other thing you need to have before we
can start the CS ballot is the 3 statements of use. If you can garner those in
the next few hours (I doubt there should be any problem other than people
reading their email) then yes, your schedule works.

 

  Just keep me posted so I can be on high alert :)

 

Regards,

 

Mary 

 

On Oct 5, 2010, at 2:00 PM, Kristen Eberlein wrote:

Obviously, I made a finger fumble and typed November in the
second list item; it should be “Thursday,
7 October 2010 – Wednesday 13 October 2010.”

Best regards,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies
Division l (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290 l 

 <image001.jpg>

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

From: Kristen Eberlein
[mailto:] 

Sent: Tuesday, October 05,
2010 1:54 PM

To: Mary McRae; Michael
Priestley

Cc: ; Don Day
(LbW)

Subject: RE: [dita]
Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send the DITA 1.2 spec to OASIS
for a vote

 

Mary, if we want to withdraw our request for a 15-day review and
proceed with a CS approval
and OS submission ballot, what would that entail? Is the following an accurate
lists of necessary steps, and would you be available to help us meet those
milestones?

 

·         We
rescind our motion for a 15-day review; request that OASIS sets up a ballot for
us to approve a committee specification and submit the committee specification
to OASIS for consideration as an OASIS standard. (We could set up an emergency
meeting for tomorrow, Wednesday, 6 October to accomplish this, if necessary.)

·         You
expedite our request and set up the ballot to run Thursday, 7 November 2010
– Wednesday 13 November 2010.

·         We
have two days to get all supporting materials to you; you work with us to
ensure that the submission is complete.

·         DITA 1.2 submitted to OASIS
on November 1, for vote November 16-31.

 

Best regards,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies
Division l (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290 l 

 <image001.jpg>

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

From: Mary McRae
[mailto:] 

Sent: Tuesday, October 05,
2010 1:50 PM

To: Michael Priestley

Cc: ; Don Day
(LbW); Kristen Eberlein

Subject: Re: [dita]
Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send the DITA 1.2 spec to OASIS
for a vote

 

Hi Michael,

 

 Package acceptance is one of the rules. All
specifications must conform to those rules, again, ensuring all OASIS
specifications are uniform in appearance and contain the required content. I am
sorry that the new DITA toolkit processing prepared by the TC did not include
the proper notices statement, but this cannot be taken as a fault of OASIS
staff.  I think a four-and-a-half day turnaround (including a weekend) to
move an entire office, including a network, and get the new T1 connections up
and running was almost as good as we could have possibly hoped for. We are just
at the seven day mark with regard to the submission for a 15 day public review
and that includes a reprocessing on the part of the TC.

 

 I sincerely appreciate the desire of the TC to move
this as quickly as possible, and we will do everything within our power, and
our rules, to help you meet your goals. Unfortunately, that does not mean
disregarding  those rules.

 

  I am still hoping to get the public review
announced today, although time is now running short. If the TC wishes to
withdraw that request and feels that there were no substantive changes made and
is instead ready to proceed with CS approval and OS submission ballot, please
let me know asap.

 

All the best,

 

Mary

 

Mary P McRae

Director, Standards Development

Technical Committee Administrator

Member Section Administrator

OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society

email:  

web: www.oasis-open.org

twitter: @fiberartisan  #oasisopen

phone: 1.603.232.9090

 

Standards are like parachutes: they work best when they're open.

 

 

 

On Oct 5, 2010, at 1:00 PM, Michael Priestley wrote:

 

Hi Mary, 

>We have rules to ensure that each and every Technical Committee follows the
same process and there is no favoritism. "Bending" the rules in
effect breaks them and renders them useless. 

I can
appreciate this, but it sucks when our spec is pushed out to another year (!)
because of OASIS problems with servers and package acceptance. I feel like our
TC is being penalized for OASIS process and technology problems. 

Michael
Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)

Lead IBM DITA Architect 



http://dita.xml.org/blog/25

 

  
  

  
From:

  

  
  
  

  
Mary
  McRae <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
To:

  

  
  
  

  
Michael
  Priestley/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Cc:

  

  
  
  

  
,
  "Don Day (LbW)" <>,
  Kristen Eberlein <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Date:

  

  
  
  

  
10/05/2010
  12:52 PM

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Subject:

  

  
  
  

  
Re:
  [dita] Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send the DITA 1.2 spec
  to OASIS for a vote

  

  
 

 

Hi Michael, 

  Answers inline. 

Mary 

On Oct 5, 2010, at 12:22 PM, Michael Priestley wrote: 

Hi Mary, 

We missed the deadline by only a few days, which is really unfortunate since it
pushes us over a full month. 

There are still additional ballots to be held before the submission can take
place. Post review, two ballots (which can run concurrently): approval as CS,
and agreement to submit for OS ballot. Those are both 7 day ballots and again,
like most TC Admin requests, have an SLA of 7 days. We shoot for less, but that
needs to be built into your timetable. 

Is there any room for expediting any of the following: 

- the current 15-day public review - is it really required? 

That's up to the TC. The rule is that if substantive changes are made, an
additional 15-day review is required. If no further review is required the TC
can agree that no substantive changes were made and request the CS/OS ballots
to be initiated. Depending on when the next TC meeting is that may still not be
completed in time for a 15 Oct deadline. Don't forget you also need your
statements of use. 

- the
submission for voting - does it need to wait till Nov 15th, or could it be
submitted earlier, per the new process? 

to follow the new process you would need to instead have the 60-day Candidate
OASIS Standard review. 

- the 15-day
familiarization period - is that absolutely required, or could it be waived,
per the new process? 

see above. 

I urge everyone to read the new TC Process. It's an either/or - current section
3.4 or new section 3.4. New section 3.4 includes statements of use explicitly
referring to the Committee Specification, a 60-day review, and further
confirmation before proceeding with OS ballot. 

We have rules to ensure that each and every Technical Committee follows the
same process and there is no favoritism. "Bending" the rules in
effect breaks them and renders them useless. 

Any of those options would get us back into a November timeframe for the vote. 

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)

Lead IBM DITA Architect 



http://dita.xml.org/blog/25

 

  
  

  
From:

  

  
  
  

  
Mary
  McRae <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
To:

  

  
  
  

  
Michael
  Priestley/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Cc:

  

  
  
  

  
, "Don Day
  (LbW)" <>, Kristen
  Eberlein <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Date:

  

  
  
  

  
10/05/2010
  11:52 AM

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Subject:

  

  
  
  

  
Re:
  [dita] Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send the DITA 1.2 spec
  to OASIS for a vote

  

  
 

 

Hi Michael, 

 You would need to submit by 15 Oct for a November vote; that can't happen
since you'll still be out for public review. I agree and typically advise
against December votes, however WebCGM has done it and passed so we know it's
possible, and certainly DITA has a much larger following than WebCGM. 

Regards, 

Mary 

On Oct 5, 2010, at 11:32 AM, Michael Priestley wrote: 

Hi Mary, 

I think we're really looking for a standard in 2010. My one concern is that a
December vote would be hard to get numbers for. 

Is there any way to move up the process to allow a vote in November? 

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)

Lead IBM DITA Architect 



http://dita.xml.org/blog/25

 

  
  

  
From:

  

  
  
  

  
Mary
  McRae <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
To:

  

  
  
  

  
Kristen
  Eberlein <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Cc:

  

  
  
  

  
"Don
  Day (LbW)" <>, <>

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Date:

  

  
  
  

  
10/05/2010
  11:18 AM

  

  
 

 

  
  

  
Subject:

  

  
  
  

  
Re:
  [dita] Changes in OASIS TC processes and when we can send the DITA 1.2 spec
  to OASIS for a vote

  

  
 

 

Hi everyone, 

Thanks, Kris, for drawing everyone's attention to the process changes about to
take place. I think the TC is well within the timeline to get to ballot in Dec
or Jan under the old rules unless another round of changes is anticipated after
the public review that is about to be announced. 

The one point to consider if it's delayed beyond that is that another 60 day
public review will be required at the new Candidate OASIS Standard stage. 

I am planning to come to each TC meeting for a quick review of the changes and
to answer any questions and will be sending a message later in the week
requesting a 15-min time slot. 

Regards, 

Mary 

On Oct 5, 2010, at 10:30 AM, Kristen Eberlein wrote: 

Hi, Don and the rest of the DITA TC. 

I have an additional item that I think should move to the front of the agenda
for today’s meeting. It concerns changes in TC rules and when we anticipate being able to get
the DITA 1.2 spec out for an OASIS vote. (I also think that we need to work on
the items that must be submitted to Mary at the same time as the request for an
OASIS vote; see items highlighted in red below.) 

Will we potentially be able to send the DITA 1.2 spec out for a vote in 2010,
or will it need to happen in 2011? 

Under the old rules, the
following conditions apply, which would mean that the earliest an OASIS vote
could occur is December 16-31.

·         The
DITA TC can approve a committee specification no sooner than seven days after a
public review ends. The vote is by ballot that OASIS administration sets up.
The TC can simultaneously request to submit the Committee Specification to the
Membership of OASIS for consideration as an OASIS Standard. 

·         Upon
resolution of the TC to submit the specification for consideration as an OASIS
standard, the TC submits the following items (copied verbatim) to the TC
Administrator:

·         (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. The
specification may not have been changed between its approval as a Committee
Specification and its submission to OASIS for consideration as an OASIS
Standard, except for the changes on the title page and running footer noting
the approval status and date.

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

·         (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;

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

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

·         (f) The
Statements of Use presented above;

·         (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;

·         (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;

·         (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;

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

·         (k) A
pointer to any minority reports delivered 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.

·         The above submission
must be made by the 15th of any month to the TC Administrator, who shall have
until the end of the month to complete administrative processing and checking
for completeness and correctness of the submission. If the submission is
incomplete it shall be rejected but may be resubmitted at a later time.

·         The TC Administrator
shall submit the proposal to the OASIS Membership by the first day of the
following month. The first 15 days of that month shall be used by the
membership to familiarize themselves with the submission. Voting shall start on
the 16th of the month. The voting representatives of those OASIS Organizational
Members who were members at the beginning of the familiarization period are
eligible to vote, and must cast their ballots by the end of the month.

The new rules introduce the following changes (as
well as others):

·         There is no longer a
fixed timeline requiring submissions to be made by the 15th of the month;
submissions may be made at any time.

·         No familiarization
period is required prior to a vote by OASIS membership. 

Best regards, 

Kris 

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies
Division l (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290 l  

<image001.jpg> 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail 

From: Don Day (LbW) [mailto:] 

Sent: Tuesday, October 05,
2010 8:48 AM

To: ; 

Cc: ; Kristen Eberlein

Subject: Re: [dita] When will
the 15-day review be announced 

Hi. I'm bumping this request in hopes that I can provide the DITA TC with an
outlook at our meeting coming up later this morning. Given that the requested
changes were timely effected due to prioritized turnaround on our end, I
thought it would be considerate to get a sooner response.

--

Don Day

Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

On 9/30/2010 1:33 PM, Kristen Eberlein wrote: 

Hi, Mary and Kim. 

When will the 15-day review be announced? 

Best regards, 

Kris 

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA
Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured
Content Technologies Division l (t)
+ 1 (919) 682-2290 l  

<image001.jpg> 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail 

From: Kristen Eberlein [mailto:] 

Sent: Thursday, September 30,
2010 8:05 AM

To: Kim Goolsby; Mary McRae

Cc: 

Subject: RE: [dita] Changes
required to submitted document - Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
Version 1.2 

Many thanks, Kim! 

Best regards, 

Kris 

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA
Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured
Content Technologies Division l (t) +
1 (919) 682-2290 l  

<image001.jpg> 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail 

From: Kim Goolsby [mailto:] 

Sent: Thursday, September 30,
2010 7:26 AM

To: Mary McRae

Cc: Kristen Eberlein; 

Subject: Re: [dita] Changes
required to submitted document - Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
Version 1.2 

Hi all, 

I'll upload the spec this morning. I am so glad this is resolved! 

Best, 

Kim 

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 11:55 PM, Mary McRae <>
wrote: 

(one more time, sorry) 

And my apologies to Kim for trying to answer too many questions at once and not
paying close attention to the matter at hand. 

Mary 

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 11:10 PM, Mary McRae <>
wrote: 

Hi Kristen, 

Yes, that's fine since you have the separate change log; while the blank page
isn't perfect, it doesn't harm or detract in any way. 

Regards, 

Mary 

On Sep 29, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Kristen Eberlein wrote: 

Hi, Kim. 

1.       Since the “Revision history” was indicated
as optional in the OASIS template, we decided to omit it from our committee
drafts. Therefore we do not want to reintroduce it at this point. 

2.       I can delete page 1237 from the PDF output. However,
all the pages will continue to be marked with “Page x of 1237.” I
think retaining the blank page is better. 

Thoughts? I very much appreciate your help with this matter. 

Best regards, 

Kris 

Kristen James Eberlein l DITA Architect and Technical Specialist l SDL Structured Content Technologies
Division l (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290 l  

<image001.jpg> 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail 

From: Kim Goolsby [mailto:] 

Sent: Wednesday, September
29, 2010 12:42 PM

To: 

Cc: mary.mcrae

Subject: [dita] Changes
required to submitted document - Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
Version 1.2 

TCADMIN-243 

Please make the following change: 

1. Please add a 'Revision History' appendix to this document. 

2. Looking at the pdf, there is an empty page 1237 at the end of the document.
I suggest removing this. 

Thank you, 

Kim 

-- 

Kim Goolsby

Publications Specialist

OASIS Open: Advancing open standards for the information society

email:  

web: www.oasis-open.org

phone: 1.734.223.6890 

-- 

Mary P McRae 

OASIS

Director, Standards Development 

TC Administrator 

Member Section Administrator 

OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society

email: 

phone: 603.232.9090 

-- 

Kim Goolsby

Publications Specialist

OASIS Open: Advancing open standards for the information society

email:  

web: www.oasis-open.org

phone: 1.734.223.6890