[legalxml-econtracts] eContracts TC Minutes

Title: Proposed Procedures for Processing TC Specifications and Other
Deliverables

Dear
fellow eContracts TC Participants:

 

Below,
please find the minutes from our last meeting.  My apologies for the delay in getting these out.  The split of note taking between Dr.
Leff and I  (with consequent
stitching together) and the advent of the holiday season seemed to have
conspired to extend the time.  

 

The next
steps for this TC will be for our newly formed Requirements Subcommittee to accumulate
and share their work product.  I
expect the eContracts general list to be much more active in the coming New
Year as our activities pick back up again.  

 

I wish you
all a happy holiday season and look forward to working with each of you in the New
Year.  

 

Best
regards,

 - Daniel Greenwood, Chair of the OASIS/LegalXML
eContracts Technical Committee

 

==============================================

|  Daniel J. Greenwood, Esq. 

|  Director, E-Commerce Architecture
Program 

|  MIT School of Architecture and Planning

|  77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room
7-231  

|  Cambridge, MA 02139 

|    
http://ecitizen.mit.edu

|     or
http://www.civics.com  

|     Mobile: 617-851-0412

|     Desk: 617-868-1746

|     

==============================================

 

===

 

 

Minutes Teleconference of November 13th
first teleconference and meeting of the OASIS Legal XML Member Section
Electronic Contracts Technical Committee

 

Present:

 

Daniel Greenwood, Chair

Eddie O'Brien, Vice Chair

Jason Harrop, Vice Chair

Mike Thanos 

John McClure 

Roger Winters

Peter Meyer

Dave Marvit

Greg Wiley

Sergio Maldonado

Rolly Chambers

Dmitry Radbel

Donald L. Bergeron

Charles Gilliam

Dr. Laurence L. Leff 

Bill Hall

Barry Hansen

Lorin Brennen

Benjamin Grosof

James Clark

 

The meeting began with a welcome and
overview of the general goals and objectives for this Technical Committee (TC)
by its chair, Daniel Greenwood. 
Mr. Greenwood then facilitated introductions of participants and had
each individual describe briefly their background, and their goals for our TC
and its work products.  

 

After introductions, we reviewed the
procedure for establishing a committee

specification and then an OASIS
standard.  Mr. Greenwood reported
that he 

discussed the tradeoffs on having a
specification stay as a committee 

specification or proceed to a full OASIS
standard.  Other Technical
Committee

Chairpersons said that this decision is
best deferred until the specification

itself is closer to its final state.  Also, members were alerted that Legal
XML

Technical Committee specifications can
only include intellectual property

that will be licensed perpetually on a
royalty-free basis.  (This is
somewhat

stronger than the requirements of OASIS in
this area.).  The formal policy is

contained in the TC Charter.  

 

The Technical Committee next discussed our
charter.  Although some members

brought up some issues at this point, it
was decided that those concerns

were best expressed in the Requirements
Document.  

 

The Technical Committee specifically
decided to retain English as its

language in conformance with the practice
in other technical domains and

related business areas.  Thus, the charter for the OASIS Legal
XML Member 

Section Electronic-Contracts Technical
Committee was approved as proposed. 

 

The committee next discussed
requirements.  A committee under
the co-chairperson of Jason Harrop and Barry Hansen will prepare a draft of the
requirements specification.  This
subcommittee will have primary responsibility for soliciting, collecting the
business requirements for any standard from our group.  It will include scenarios under which
the XML will be used. 

 

Two issues will be deferred pending
development of other requirements issues.

One of these is whether our specifications
will support contracts in 

jurisdictions that are not
common-law.  The other concern
deferred is the

support of dispute resolution, both within
and out of courts.  (Some noted

that James Keane is starting up a
technical committee on online dispute

resolution.)

 

Elections:

 
Roger Winters will be the editor. 
Since he is editor for many, if not

 
all, of the Legal XML Member Sections Technical Committees, he will

 
ensure that all Legal XML standards have a consistent look and feel.

 

 
Laurence L. Leff, Ph.D., was elected Secretary and Webmaster.  Dr. Leff

 
noted that Western Illinois University has developed some XML software

 
for handling minutes.

 

Dr. Grosof, a professor in the Sloan
School of Business at Massachusetts

Institute of Technology introduced
himself.  He also mentioned that
the

RuleML effort (applying XML for the
exchange of rule-based information)

will be moving to OASIS.

 

Dr. Laurence Leff and Mr. John McClure
will be co-chairs of a subcommittee,

Technical Resources.  This subcommittee will put up a web
page containing

pointers and summaries of work already
done.  This web page will make
clear

that this information is
"non-normative" and is not an endorsement of any

of the technology mentioned.  This will also include possible groups

both in and out of OASIS within which we
may liaison and introductory

material from our Technical Committee's
members.

 

The committee discussed its intended
deliverables.  The timeline will be

developed later and it is premature to do
other deliverables before

the requirements are done.

 

The committee decided to have
teleconferences on a monthly basis. 
However,

several members noted that they are
extremely busy before the upcoming holidays.

 

Dr. Laurence Leff, as Secretary, will
solicit from all members of this

Technical Committee, those times that
would be bad for the members.

Then, Dr. Leff will propose several
candidate times for our next teleconference.

(This is your solicitation so please let
the Secretary know those times which

are bad for you.)

 

The Technical Committee decided to have a
face-to-face in April or May

of 2003.  It was suggested that we co-locate with the Web Conference

in Budapest or the Legal XML Electronic
Court Filing meeting in Atlanta

on April 17 to April 18th.  However, no decision was made as to the
date or 

location.

 

Mr. Greenwood, as chair, thanked everyone
for participation, particularly

the new Subcommittee chairs.  He noted that this is the "Right
Issue" and

OASIS is the "Right
Organization" in which to pursue these goals.

//end//