RE: [oasis-charter-discuss] BusDox: Charter issue

From
Mike Edwards <>
Date
2010-10-28T08:49:36+00:00
ID
Thread
RE: [oasis-charter-discuss] BusDox: Charter issue
Folks,

I don't see any relationship between
the BusDox proposal and OASIS CMIS.

Yours,  Mike.

Strategist - Emerging Technologies, SCA & SDO.

Co Chair OASIS SCA Assembly TC.

IBM Hursley Park, Mail Point 146, Winchester, SO21 2JN, Great Britain.

Phone & FAX: +44-1962-818014    Mobile: +44-7802-467431  

Email:  

From:
"Dennis E. Hamilton" <>

To:
"'Jeremy Roberts'" <>,
<>

Date:
28/10/2010 03:53

Subject:
RE: [oasis-charter-discuss] BusDox:
Charter issue

And let's not forget the OASIS CMIS Standard.

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

From: Jeremy Roberts [mailto:]

Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 12:38

To: 

Subject: RE: [oasis-charter-discuss] BusDox: Charter issue

I too have questions similar to those of Ed (so for brevity, I won't go

into them).  If someone closer to the project could give a comparison
of

this proposal to WebDAV, then many of my questions may be moot. 

Thanks, 

- Jeremy 

Jeremy J. ROBERTS 

Technical Director 

LonMark International 

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

From: Ed Barkmeyer [mailto:]

Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 11:39 AM

To: ; David Connelly

Subject: [oasis-charter-discuss] BusDox: Charter issue

The intent of the BusDox project is described in the Charter as three 

different ideas:

1. "The BusDox TC does not replace existing messaging service standards.

It provides a simplified interface independent of the various standards

used for the exchange of documents."

Interface between what and what?  "independent of the standards
used for

exchange" appears to be completely inconsistent with the description
of 

the TC output as a set of Profiles for the standards used for exchange.

What was really intended here?

2.  "Establish profiles for a lightweight and federated document

transport infrastructure supporting secure and reliable exchange of 

electronic business documents."  followed by many other bullets
that 

begin "Profile ... (some other network services standard)"

This seems to be a good idea, consistent with several efforts of CEN and

the EU -- to standardize a set of protocols and options for business 

document transmission, so that there is a well-defined layer cake of 

protocols that create interoperability at every layer below the document

definition itself.  But if this is the intent of the TC, then it defines

a total end-to-end interface _/in terms of /_existing and emerging 

standards, not _/independent of/_ them, as the sentence cited as (1) 

above says.

3.  "List of deliverables

The BusDox TC will produce an integrated set of Committee Specifications

including a set of XML Schemas and an XML-based request/response 

protocol for exchange of documents."

I do not understand how a Profile or a set of Profiles is an XML Schema,

or is usefully rendered as one.  Presumably the business documents

themselves are defined by standard XML Schemas chosen by the businesses,

e.g., ebXML or OAGI or PLCS or whatever.  And every layer of the Profile

below the document level is simply a specific configuration of the 

referenced standards for that part of the addressing, packaging and 

transmission controls.  So what kind of XML schema would this TC 

provide?  And for whose consumption?

The intent of the XML Schema appears to be an additional activity not 

mentioned in the Scope (as interpreted from "The committee 

Specifications will cover" list) -- the definition of an "XML-based

request/response protocol for exchange of documents".  And it
is not 

clear which bullet of the objectives list would lead to this activity.
 

Whatever this "development of a request/response protocol" is,
it should

be made one of the bullets of one of the lists.

This undescribed activity seems to be a direct replication of the ebMS

effort, to say nothing of the OAGIS and CEFACT simple webservices 

commonly in use, bearing in mind that those standards define standard 

document forms, and include acknowledgement messages (for asynchronous

one-way messages) and request-with-response rules for the use of 

others.  So it appears that the objective of this TC is not only to

profile the lower layers of the layer cake, but also to create yet 

another standard for the actual business message envelope at the top

level.

Simply stated, creating a standard profile for the layers of the layer

cake is a very worthwhile task.  Adding yet another "simple"
messaging 

standard for conveying an arbitrary text or XML payload is not clearly
a

worthwhile endeavour.  Choosing an existing standard for that purpose,

as part of the overall Profile, would be consistent with the overall 

intent of creating a standard interoperable suite of layers for 

conveying arbitrary business documents.

I believe the Charter needs to be clarified in these regards, so that 

the intent of this project is clear to the WS-I folk,  the ebMS folk,

and the CEFACT folk. 

Further, it is not clear that the identified participants include any 

individuals who have been involved in any of the major standards that 

are to be profiled, or any of the "similar or applicable work".
 Yet no 

formal liaisons are identified.  Some significant effort must be made
to

create and operate the liaisons between this TC and the organizations 

responsible for the standards the TC expects to Profile, and the 

implementors of those standards, lest this whole project result only in

academic shelfware.

-Ed Barkmeyer

-- 

Edward J. Barkmeyer                
       Email: 

National Institute of Standards & Technology

Manufacturing Systems Integration Division

100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263              
 Tel: +1 301-975-3528

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263              
 FAX: +1 301-975-4694

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