08.22.08
What’s that date again?
It seems that we’ve been launching new Technical Committees at an amazing pace and that’s a good thing. The OASIS TC Process has some very strict rules around the timing of a new Technical Committee launch to ensure that the requisite steps are completed as quickly as possible. All those rules can lead to quite a bit of confusion, particularly when trying to plan backwards – say, from the date of the first meeting, or the Call for Participation announcement. My notebook is full of such scenarios – each time a new date is suggested the planning starts again.
In an effort to make your life easier, as well as mine, I’ve built (with the help of Rob Weir at IBM) a spreadsheet that does all the calculations automagically. Enter a date in a yellow cell and each of the other milestones will display not only a date, but the day of the week (scheduling a conference call on a Saturday afternoon could result in poor attendance). There are three separate tables on the first worksheet tab:
- Submission Date Scheduler – enter the date of the planned/actual draft charter submission the OASIS TC Administrator to see the dates for each following step
- Meeting Date Scheduler – enter the planned date for the first meeting (either teleconference or face-to-face) and the charter submission date as well as all interim dates are created
- Call for Participation Scheduler – enter the planned date for the Call for Participation announcement and all prior and following dates are displayed
I’ve created a video tutorial to go along with the spreadsheet; the spreadsheet itself is available in both .ods and .xls formats.
There’s another tab in the workbook that will show the minimum timeline from Public Review through OASIS Standard ballot results announcement. More on that in the next post.
08.04.08
Joining a Technical Committee
If you’re new to OASIS, there are two separate steps involved to join a Technical Committee. The first is to get an OASIS login and password. Once you have that, you can then sign up for one or more committees – TCs for short.
If you want to actively participate in the work of the TC you’ll need to join as a “member” – this gives you read/write privileges. Alternatively, you may just want to keep up-to-date with the work of the committee, in which case you can join as an “observer.” Observers are, in effect, “read only.”
This very short video shows the steps:
Once you’ve completed the above process, there’s one final confirmation required before your name is added to the membership roster. You must be “approved” by your organization’s Primary Representative. If you are an individual or associate member, you will receive an email instructing you to visit a specific page and either approve or deny the request. You must complete this action. Once approved, you’ll receive an email to let you know that you have been added to the roster.
09.27.07
Webinars?
I’m currently experimenting with Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze). Duane Nickull was kind enough to secure an enterprise license for OASIS. Hopefully technical committees will be able to avail themselves of this free resource soon. One of the nice features is the wide range of supported platforms – including Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris.
I’m also working on a Kavi training webinar that will highlight each of the components of the groupware application. The intended audience is all users; another webinar will highlight the additional functionality that’s available to Technical Committee Chairs and Secretaries. I hope to have it available as a download so members can view it at their convenience. I’m experimenting with another new tool (at least new to me) – Camtasia Studio – to do the screen recording. It’s actually quite easy to use and I think will work well for mini-tutorials. The final result can be saved in a number of formats, including Flash, Windows Media Player, and iPod, so hopefully I can accomodate our entire membership.
Wish me luck.
07.26.07
Why You Can’t Post to the e-Mail List
When someone tries – unsuccessfully – to post to one of our e-mail lists I usually hear about it. With a little bit of investigation I can fairly quickly determine the problem and send a note with the requisite instructions. Here’s the most common problems and their resolution – hopefully I can help some of you avoid the frustration caused by a bounced message.
Trying to send to a Technical Committee Mail List
- you’re not a member of the TC. Only members can post; that is, someone with the role of member, voting member, chair, secretary, or leave of absence.
- if you’re an observer, you’ll need to:
- leave the group
- join the group, indicating “member”
- await your organization’s Primary Representative’s approval
- if you’re an OASIS member but not on the TC roster, you’ll need to:
- join the group, indicating “member”
- await your organization’s Primary Representative’s approval
- if you’re not an OASIS member, we’d love to welcome you. Please visit the Join page. As an alternative, you can submit your comment, feedback, concern or request to the technical committee comment list. You can find out more information by going to the Technical Committee’s home page and selecting the “Send a Comment” button.
- NOTE: if you are an individual or associate member, you will receive a message containing a link to the approval page. You must authorize yourself to participate in the TC before you will be added to the roster.
- if you’re an observer, you’ll need to:
- you are a member of the TC. Chances are you’re sending from a different email address than the one registered on our groupware application. Please check your account – note that you can set up a secondary email address.
Trying to send to a TC Subcommittee Mail List
- you’re not a member of the subcommittee. Only members can post; that is, someone with the role of member, voting member, chair, secretary, or leave of absence.
- if you’re an observer on the SC but a member of the parent TC, you’ll need to:
- leave the group
- join the group, indicating “member”
- if you’re an observer on the SC as well as the parent SC, you’ll need to:
- leave the parent TC
- join the parent TC, indicating “member”
- await your organization’s Primary Representative’s approval
- once approved and on the parent TC roster, join the subcommittee as a “member”
- if you’re a member of the TC but are not on the subcommittee roster, you’ll need to:
- join the subcommittee, indicating “member”
- if you’re an OASIS member but not a member of the parent TC, you’ll need to:
- join the parent TC, indicating “member”
- await your organization’s Primary Representative’s approval
- once approved and on the parent TC roster, join the subcommittee as a “member”
- if you’re an observer on the SC but a member of the parent TC, you’ll need to:
- you are a member of the TC. Chances are you’re sending from a different email address than the one registered on our groupware application. Please check your account – note that you can set up a secondary email address.
If you’re still having difficulties, feel free to send me an email and I’ll do my best to make sure the problem is resolved as quickly as possible.
06.28.07
The Checklist
Did you know that there’s a checklist? I created it earlier this year mostly as an aid for myself but also as something that could be used by TCs to check their submissions before sending to me. The checklist identifies all of those areas that are required in the TC Process, templates, and Naming / Metadata Guidelines and even includes hypertext links to the actual sections in case you need more details on the requirement.
I hope you find it useful. If you have further suggestions or additions, please let me know.
Why Valid isn’t Good Enough
It should be a “good thing” that OpenOffice has an XHTML export filter. It should be an even better thing that the resulting XHTML is actually DTD-valid. But, unfortunately, valid doesn’t always mean “correct.” In the case of OpenOffice the resulting document is of little use. Font sizes will change sporadically, and all numbering (paragraphs, lists) is out the window. What’s even worse is that I seem incapable of getting valid/usable XHTML out of OpenOffice no matter how many sidesteps I take. I’ve tried the Tidy trick. I’ve tried saving as a Word file. I’ve tried opening the OO file in Word using the new OO import/output filter. All to no avail.
So, if you’re one of those Technical Committees who are authoring your documents in OpenOffice, please just save as HTML.:-(
06.24.07
Welcome!
I’ll be writing about the creation and maintenance of OASIS Technical Committee work products – everything from using templates to creating conformance clauses. I’ll throw in some XML, XHTML and RDDL along the way, and tips on making sure your specification passes muster.
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