ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34N0917

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ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34

Information Technology --
Document Description and Processing Languages

TITLE: UK Proposal for establishing a new WG within SC34
SOURCE: Dr. Alexander D. J. Brown
STATUS: Working group establishment proposal
ACTION: For discussion at SC34 plenary
DATE: 2007-10-19
DISTRIBUTION: SC34 and Liaisons
REPLY TO:

Dr. James David Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Chairman)
Y-12 National Security Complex
Bldg. 9113, M.S. 8208
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8208 U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 865 574-6973
Facsimile: +1 865 574-1896
Network: masonjd@y12.doe.gov
http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/
ftp://ftp.y12.doe.gov/pub/sgml/sc34/

Mr. G. Ken Holman
(ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Secretariat - Standards Council of Canada)
Crane Softwrights Ltd.
Box 266,
Kars, ON K0A-2E0 CANADA
Telephone: +1 613 489-0999
Facsimile: +1 613 489-0995
Network: jtc1sc34@scc.ca
http://www.jtc1sc34.org



UK Proposal for establishing a new WG within SC34

The UK considers that the recent interest in the standardization of office document interchange formats has proved problematic at the working group level within SC34.

The interests of the large numbers of people interested in this area are difficult to reconcile with WG1's ongoing interest in less application-specific information description, particularly in XML validation. Those with an interest in office documents are not necessarily best served by discussing XML validation technology; those interested in XML validation do not necessarily want to work on Office document formats.

As a solution to this, the UK judges that future work on reviewing and maintaining office document interchange formats could be more efficiently handled by a new Working Group, WG4, that could be established within SC34 for handling "Office Information Languages".

SC34/WG4 would be responsible for languages and resources for the description and processing of digital office documents. The set of such documents includes (but is not limited to) documents describing memoranda, letters, invoices, charts, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and reports.

WG4 would be expected to work on the maintenance of, for example:

and be responsible for reviewing any future office document formats.

19 October 2007