October 2008

The Table below
shows the current proposals for version 2.0 of SRU and CQL (current as
of the above date).  These have been proposed by the OASIS
Search Web Services Technical Committee.

For some proposals there is not yet consensus on an approach, and more
than one approach is listed.

The worksheet has two tables – one for a 60-day Public Review and the second for a 15-day Public Review, should additional reviews be required or requested.

I’ve created a video tutorial to go along with the spreadsheet; the spreadsheet itself is available in both .ods and .xls formats.

Try it out, and let me know what you think.

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:

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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.

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:

Joining a TC

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.

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.

Like many content content creation systems, the software in use by OASIS Technical Committees was designed around a notion of “workgroups” where only those who are part of the group can view the information stored. When an information asset of any kind is uploaded into the document repository, a URI is generated in the following format:

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/{tc-abbreviation}/
download.php/{uid}/{filename}

where:

• {tc-abbreviation} represents the short name of the technical committee (i.e. dita),
• {uid} represents a 5-digit unique identifier, and
• {filename} represents the actual name of the information asset.

This URI is only accessible by OASIS members; that is, someone with an OASIS login and password.

There’s a little trick that will convert any URI in the format above into one that is publicly accessible. Replace “apps/org/workgroup/{tc-abbreviation}/” with “committees” and the resource will become accessible by all.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/
download.php/{uid}/{filename}

If you are passing along a URI for information that has been uploaded into the document repository, please be sure to use the publicly-accessible version. If you are trying to access a document but are asked to enter a user name and password, convert the URI to bypass the challenge.

NOTE: All information assets uploaded to the OASIS Library (docs.oasis-open.org) are publicly accessible; there is no notion of “workgroup.”

The following week I’ll be in Montreal for four days – attending eXtreme. If any of you are planning on attending, be sure to say hello!

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.
• 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”
• 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.

Here are several options that are currently in use by various TCs.

XML

This one is my favorite. There’s a schema and a stylesheet that produces a wonderful report full of both internal as well as external hypertext links back to source documents or resolutions. You can always view the most recent list, or you can select any of the historical versions from the directory listing. In order to take advantage of this solution you’ll need someone to volunteer as Issues List Editor and be willing to work in XML.

http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/issues/Issues.xml

Spreadsheet

This is probably the low-tech solution — you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t familiar with using a spreadsheet for tabular information. The spreadsheet itself may be made available in several formats simply by uploading the file to the group’s document repository or by sending to me for upload in the OASIS Library (a/k/a “docs”). The advantage to the OASIS Library is that a single URI can be bookmarked that will always deliver the most recent version while retaining version-specific URIs; the downside is that until development is further along, upload access is restricted to the TC Admin.

(spreadsheet example)

Wiki

The wiki solution makes it easy for any TC member to add/update the Issues List. OASIS provides a wiki for each TC upon request. Previous versions can be viewed/compared.

http://wiki.oasis-open.org/xacml/IssuesList

Hopefully that gives you some ideas and you’ll find one of these methods perfect for your participants. If you’d like more help, you know where to ask.

Here they are:

• Announcement of Public Review: 5 business days
• Launch Committee Specification Ballot: 5 business days
• Launch other Special Majority Ballots: 3 business days
• Create Subcommittee: 3 business days
• Announce ballot results: 3 business days
• Requests to use external facility resources (such as systems support): 5 business days
• Publish standing rules: 5 business days