OASIS member database upgrade succesful

[James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>]

To our TC Chairs:

     We installed the latest upgrades to the OASIS member database system's 
Kavi software slightly after 6:00 am Eastern time on Tuesday.  OASIS staff 
tested the upgrades prior to installation and have installed them without 
any interruption or change to existing data.

     You will see several cosmetic and convenience changes, such as an 
increased use of sort-able, tabular information, and a drop-down navigation 
box near the top of many pages.  However, all the database-generated 
resources, including their content and URI locations, remain the same, as 
does the member / user authentication process.  No outward links or 
dependencies should be degraded.

     Functionality improvements include some option-setting regarding the 
mandatory sharing of uploaded documents to the public (in support of our 
rules), and a variety of small features including the following:

   --  There's now an RSS feed available for each TC or the "my Groups" page.
   --  The Roster is now available as a tabbed heading on the TC's members 
page.
   --  When adding a new event to the Calendar, a new field is available to 
add a note to the e-mail notification.
   -- On the TC's Documents page, you can now hide/display icons, 
descriptions and archives.

     This was the first in a series of steps to provide an optimally 
stable, long-term technical platform for more functionality to support our 
members in their standards development work.  Expect announcements about 
additional feature plans in the coming months.  In the meantime, the basic 
database features support the recordkeeping, work product and archiving 
needs of our technical committees.  OASIS provided some basic training to 
its TC chairs in early 2003 when the database system was first 
installed.  We are planning to provide to TC chairs some opportunities for 
updated training and rule Q&A, both asynchronously (web-based) and 
real-time (possibly at the Spring 2005 Symposium).   Those plans also will 
be announced to this list.

     While we've tried to ensure that everything functions properly, if any 
user encounters difficulties or special issues with the system please let 
us know.
     -- Technical difficulties --  support@oasis-open.org
     -- Member accounts / access -- member_services@oasis-open.org
     -- Rules or features -- tc-admin@oasis-open.org

Regards,
Jamie Clark and Mary McRae