Minutes of Atlantic UBL TC call 25 June 2008

MINUTES OF ATLANTIC UBL TC MEETING
WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE 2008

ATTENDANCE

Peter Borresen

Jon Bosak (chair)

Anne Hendry (guest, OASIS application pending)

Zarella Rendon

STANDING ITEMS

Additions to the calendar:

http://ubl.xml.org/events

PLB: CEN/ISSS BII Working Group 1 meeting, 9-10 September in

Turin; CEN/ISSS BII meeting, 11-12 September in Turin.  The

rest of the BII schedule should be set by the first week in

July, at which time we should be able to revise the UBL

schedule accordingly.

Review of Pacific call

JB: The DELSC is now established, with web page and mailing

list up and running.  Every OASIS business expert fluent in

German is invited to participate; contact Karsten Tolle

(tolle at dbis.cs.uni-frankfurt.de) to join.

ACTION: PLB to invite BII members from Germany and Austria

to participate.

No other comments on the Pacific call minutes.

Support page maintenance

No submissions this week.  Note that this is being

transitioned to ubl.xml.org.

Financial Information Requirements Task Group

JB: From the Pacific minutes: "Stig Korsgaard of the Danish

Bankers Association informs us that a staff person will be

assigned to FIRTG at the request of the Danish government."

CUSTOMIZATION GUIDELINES

JB: Haven't heard back yet from the authors.

UNTDED ROAD MAP SURVEY

See

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200806/msg00015.html

From Pacific minutes:

"ACTION: The TC to study the draft (see URL above) and be

ready to discuss in next week's Pacific and Atlantic calls

with the objective of agreeing on a TC response to the

questionnaire."

AH: Do we have a representative to the UNTDED work going

forward?

JB: No, though I'm sure that one would be appreciated if anyone

wants to volunteer.

UBL 2.0 NDR EDITORIAL REVIEW

A work session has been scheduled for next Atlantic call (2

July).

ACTION: JB to request new PDF from BH.

We need to add a section on code list metadata; see

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl/200803/msg00001.html

2008 TC MEETING SCHEDULE

RESERVE HOTEL ROOM NOW FOR AUGUST MEETING IN MONTR�AL.  You can

always cancel later.

Planned attendance so far:

JB: Europa

MC: Europa

ZR: Marriott

GKH: Residence Inn

AH: with MC if able to attend

BH: with ZR if able to attend

PLB: Will attend to work on schematron rules with GKH.

JB: We should aim to complete a first draft of the

Customization Guidelines at this meeting.

TC CONCALL SCHEDULE

See Pacific minutes.

OTHER BUSINESS

PLB: BII WG2 (convergence) editor has been assigned to

participate in TBG17.

JB: See Pacific minutes of 17 June.

PLB: There is still a lot of concern that the addition of

eTendering documents in UBL 2.1 somehow violates the agreement

we reached with UN/CEFACT in 2006.  Please clarify in the

minutes.

JB: The agreement arrived at 28 March 2006 reads as follows:

Consistent with the Cooperation Agreement between OASIS and

UN/CEFACT of June 2005:

1. UN/CEFACT recognizes UBL 2 as appropriate

first-generation XML documents for eBusiness.

2. For OASIS and UN/CEFACT:

(a) future UN/CEFACT deliverables constitute the upgrade

path for UBL, and

(b) the maintenance of UBL 2 remains with the OASIS UBL

TC.

3. In the expectation that UN/CEFACT will produce its own

integrated set of XML schemas within a period of three

years, OASIS will produce no further major versions of

UBL past UBL 2.

4. OASIS will grant UN/CEFACT a perpetual, irrevocable

license to create derivative works based on UBL.

There are several important things to note here.

- The agreement specifically entitles the UBL TC to continue

to maintain UBL 2.  "Maintainance" includes the addition of

new data items to meet new requirements.  Document types are

data items.  This was made very clear in negotiations with

the UN/CEFACT Bureau leading up to adoption of the

agreement.

- "UBL 2" means *all* versions of UBL 2: 2.1, 2.2, ...  This

was made very clear in negotiations with the UN/CEFACT

Bureau leading up to adoption of the agreement.

- The agreement binds OASIS to issue no further *major*

versions of UBL during the three-year window we gave

UN/CEFACT to come up with a suitable replacement for UBL 2.

The meaning of "major version" is specified in both the UBL

Naming and Design Rules and in the then current (and still

current) UN/CEFACT Naming and Design Rules (not surprising,

since the UN/CEFACT version copied the UBL rule).  Put

simply, a major version is one that breaks backward

compatibility with the previous major version.  Nothing we

intend to do in UBL 2.1 will break backward compatibility

with UBL 2.0.  According to both the UBL and the UN/CEFACT

definitions of "major version," we will not be issuing a new

major version and therefore are not in any way breaking the

agreement we reached with UN/CEFACT.  The distinction

between major and minor versions was made perfectly clear in

negotiations with the UN/CEFACT Bureau leading up to

adoption of the agreement.

- While the considerations just listed are sufficient to

demonstrate that we are adhering to both the letter and the

intent of the agreement, the fact is that the three-year

window during which we agreed to issue no further major

versions of UBL will have expired by the time we issue UBL

2.1 as an OASIS Standard in 2Q2009.  In reality, therefore,

we would be completely within the terms of the agreement

even if UBL 2.1 *were* a major version release -- which it

is not.

Jon Bosak
Chair, OASIS UBL TC