From rinehuls@access.digex.net Tue Dec 31 22:29:58 1996 Received: from access2.digex.net (qlrhmEbBUV1EY@access2.digex.net [205.197.245.193]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA04852 for ; Tue, 31 Dec 1996 22:29:56 +0100 Received: from localhost (rinehuls@localhost) by access2.digex.net (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id QAA11779 for ; Tue, 31 Dec 1996 16:29:53 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 16:29:53 -0500 (EST) From: "william c. rinehuls" To: sc22docs@dkuug.dk Subject: SC22 N2374 - Proposal for New Procedures for Standards Maint Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII _________________beginning of title page ______________________ ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces Secretariat: U.S.A. (ANSI) ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N2374 January 1997 TITLE: Proposal for a New Procedure for Maintenance of Mature Standards SOURCE: Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 WORK ITEM: N/A STATUS: See comments in document SC22 N2373. CROSS REFERENCE: N2365, N2373 DOCUMENT TYPE: N/A ACTION: To SC22 Member Bodies, WG Conveners and HODs for information or action, as appropriate. Address reply to: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat William C. Rinehuls 8457 Rushing Creek Court Springfield, VA 22153 USA Tel: +1 (703) 912-9680 Fax: +1 (703) 912-2973 email: rinehuls@access.digex.net ________________ end of title page; beginning of text __________________ ISO/IEC JTC 1 Information Technology ISO/IEC JTC 1 N 4353 DATE: 1996.11.26 REPLACES DOC TYPE: Other document TITLE: Proposal for a New Procedure for Maintenance of Mature Standards SOURCE: SC 21 Secretariat PROJECT: STATUS: This document is circulated to JTC 1 National Bodies for review and consideration at the December 1996 JTC 1 Plenary meeting in Paris. ACTION ID: ACT DUE DATE: 1996.12.13 DISTRIBUTION: P and L Members MEDIUM: E DISKETTE NO.: NO. OF PAGES: 3 Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1, American National Standards Institute, 11 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036; Telephone: 1 212 642 4932; Facsimile: 1 212 398 0023; Email: lrajchel@ansi.org ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21 N 10668 Title: PROPOSAL FOR A NEW PROCEDURE FOR MAINTENANCE OF MATURE STANDARDS Source: SC21 Interim Meeting, New York, 10-14th November 1996 Date: 14 November 1996 The Maintenance Procedures for Mature Standards specified in SC21 10667 are intended for immediate use and are an adaptation of the procedures of JTC1 Directives 14.4, with minimal changes from those procedures. SC21 believes that the fully effective maintenance of mature standards requires more substantial changes. This document states some principles that SC21 believes should apply to the maintenance of mature standards proposes procedures that SC21 believes would be effective summarises the changes that are needed to permit these procedures Justification and principles The nature of maintenance activities differs in some aspects from what must be recognized as the mainstream JTC 1 activity, i.e., the active development of new Standards. For mature subject areas, where the activity is limited to correction of problems, when they appear, and minor extensions, when required, it should not come as a surprise that participation in "classical" standard development activities, such as participation in National and International meetings, is low. But the pool of expertise must exist somewhere, or there would be no need to maintain the Standard. The technical maintenance of our Standards requires the recruitment of this expertise into the problem resolution process, but definitive changes to the Standard needs to remain under the control and subject to the approval of the National Bodies. The recruitment of outside experts will support and complement the declining level of expertise directly available to the SC when projects reach maturity. These objectives can be achieved by the submission of problems or requests for enhancement should be open to a larger audience, and facilitated (e.g., direct access); the consensus building phase (developing a response to the request) should be relatively informal, making maximum use of IT & T tools, involving experts who may not be Standards developers but with technical leadership from a rapporteur or defect editor. It may not require the participation of a defined number of National Bodies, as expertise is more vital at this stage than large consensus (many problems have a limited range of solutions); the approval phase should continue to be via JTC 1 and SC National Body ballot. the progress of reported problems should be openly and freely visible, to enable user- experts to track progression and to encourage them to contribute their skills to the process Outline of procedures The maintenance of mature standards (defined in a specific list, updated by SC21 resolution) is placed under the administrative responsibility of a Maintenance Secretariat (an SC21 NB) with technical leadership provided by a Maintenance Rapporteur. For each standard, or group of standards, an editing group is formed, consisting of: the defect editor and any other experts nominated by NBs (as for the editing groups defined in JTC1 Directives 14.4) the Maintenance Rapporteur any other experts co-opted by the Maintenance Rapporteur in consultation with the Maintenance Secretariat. These experts are not required to have any affiliation to an SC21 or JTC1 NB or Liaison Organisation. The Maintenance Secretariat will maintain a set of web pages which include the defect reports under consideration, the proposed responses, ballot results and final disposition. The work of the editing groups will normally be by email. In addition to the existing paths by which a defect report can be raised, any user of the mature standards will be able to send a problem query direct to the Maintenance Rapporteur directly, typically via a well-publicised email address. Following possible discussion with the editing group, and if appropriate, the query is formulated into a defect report, which is passed to the Maintenance Secretariat and included in World-Wide Web pages. After whatever discussion can be achieved on the email list, the Rapporteur, or a specific defect editor, will draft a response (Draft Technical Corrigendum, or lesser response) and submit these to the Maintenance Secretariat for placement on the web pages. If the response is a Draft Technical Corrigendum, the Maintenance Secretariat will initiate a three-month ballot of SC21 NBs, and inform the JTC1 Secretariat of the ballot, to allow JTC1 P-members who are not SC21 P-members to comment. For colloborative projects, ITU- T will also be informed. The ballot shall identify the location of the DTC on the Web pages but will NOT include the full DTC or the defect report and its response. Ballot responses will be sent by NBs to the Maintenance Secretariat. The ballot results are treated as described in JTC1 Directives 14.4, with the Maintenance Secretariat acting in the place of the SC Secretariat. If the TC is approved, it is submitted to ITTF for publication. If an issue arises from this process which would be a significant enhancement, requiring an amendment, the issue will merely be reported to SC21. The initiative and responsibility for any additional work will lie with SC21 and its NBs, and would typically involve a JTC1 NWI ballot, if there was appropriate support. Implications Extensive use of the World Wide Web, with open access, is assumed in order to provide the necessary visibility, encourage the participation of users, and ensure timely and efficient operation of the new procedures. It is not intended to circulate documents - progression of defect reports will be recorded by open web pages which are updated whenever particular milestones are reached. These pages will also contain the text for ballot. The web pages will thus be equivalent to the Implementors' Guides maintained by ITU-T for common text (and other) Recommendations. NOTE - It is not proposed to put the standards documents themselves on the web server. The final Technical Corrigendum sent for publication will be on the web server. Notification of changes to the web pages will be sent to the SC 21 Secretariat, National Bodies and Liaison Organizations and members of the defect resolution groups. Relation to immediate procedures The (immediate) procedures for maintenance defined in SC21 N10667 differ from the (intended) procedures outlined above in the following way: a) in the immediate procedures, the DTC for ballot is circulated to SC21 by the SC Secretariat (or the Maintenance Secretariat on behalf of the SC Secretariat); in the intended procedures the ballot is run directly by the Maintenance Secretariat and the DTC is made available only by reference to a Web document. b) the immediate procedures can be operated with access limited to the web-pages by password; the intended procedures permit open access to the web pages. Changes to be requested To permit the intended procedures, which are expected to provide a more effective defect resolution, JTC1 and ISO/IEC are requested to approve: a) the operation of a DTC ballot by reference to a Web document b) the administration of an SC ballot by the Maintenance Secretariat c) open access to the web pages containing the defect report, the proposed response, the results and comments from any ballot, and the technical corrigendum at both draft and final stage. ____________________end of document SC22 N2374 ____________________