interested in investigating the creation of a DITA Member Section (or Joint Committee)? please step forward.

From Kristen’s 17 June DITA TC call draft minutes:

 

Outcome: People interested in
establishing a Member Section or Joint Committee should contact Jeff Ogden; a
few people have already expressed interest. They will try to outline a possible
charter and bring it back to the DITA Technical Committee for discussion on
feasibility, appropriateness, etc. This feasibility report is an action item
for July 8, 2007.

 

If folks interested in this could send me () e-mail by the end of the day
this Friday (20 June) letting me know and giving me dates and times next week that
would be good or bad for a conference call to talk about this, I’ll
schedule a call for later next week.

 

   -Jeff

 

 

From: Ogden, Jeff 

Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 1:58
PM

To: ''

Subject: RE: coordination between
DITA TCs?

 

I believe that we will follow-up on this
item during tomorrow’s DITA TC call.

 

I assume that an OASIS DITA Adoption TC
will be formed separately from the existing OASIS DITA TC.

 

What I hope we can decide tomorrow is (i)
if there is an interest in creating a group such as an OASIS Member Section or
a Joint Committee that would provide a forum to coordinate OASIS DITA
activities or (ii) if members of the existing DITA TC are comfortable relying
on informal cooperation between the DITA TC and the new DITA Adoption TC to
provide coordination and to resolve any differences between the two TCs that
may arise.

 

   -Jeff

 

From: Ogden, Jeff 

Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 1:23
PM

To: ''

Subject: coordination between DITA
TCs?

 

I was and remain fairly uneasy about the creation of two
separate OASIS Technical Committees both focused on aspects of DITA.  My
concern is that over time differences in the goals and approaches of the two
TCs may develop and, if such conflicts aren’t identified and resolved,
this could confuse the community of DITA users.

 

After the DITA TC call last Tuesday I spoke with Mary on the
phone about my concerns. During our conversation she raised the possibility of using
an OASIS Member Section which the two TCs could join as a way to provide
coordination and resolve any conflicts that may arise between the TCs.  

 

A bit later Mary also raised the possibility of reviving the
OASIS “Joint Committee” as a way of providing coordination. The
Joint Committee was part of the OASIS TC process in the past, but was removed
in favor of Member Sections. A Joint Committee may have somewhat less overhead
than a Member Section. 

 

And of course ad hoc voluntary coordination/liaison between
the two TCs through overlapping membership probably has even less overhead.

 

I think Don would like to make some progress on other agenda
items during next Tuesday’s DITA TC call, but we can probably discuss
ways to provide coordination between independent TCs during our call the week
after next and see if there is interest in pursuing either a Member Section or
a Joint Committee.

 

If you want to read up on the rules for Member Sections,
see:

 

           
http://www.oasis-open.org/who/ms_policy.php

 

And the old rules for Joint Committees are available here:

 

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process_2006.08.02.php#2.16

 

 

  -Jeff