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Subject: Minutes of the UBL TC meeting in Copenhagen 16-20 August 2004
MINUTES OF THE UBL TC MEETING IN COPENHAGEN 16-20 AUGUST 2004
REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS
All of these participants attended all of the plenary sessions
Monday through Friday except as noted. The TC was not quorate
and operated under our standing rules as a committee of the
whole. This means that all of the decisions noted below must
be approved by the TC. If no objections are received by COB 3
September 2004, these decisions will be taken as accepted by
the TC. If any voting member has an objection to any of these
decisions, please signify by posting that objection to the TC
list UNDER A NEW SUBJECT HEADING INDICATING THE ISSUE TO BE
RESOLVED so that the discussion can be properly tracked.
Please do not reply under the subject heading of this message.
Anne Hendry
Jon Bosak (chair)
Mikkel Hippe Brun [1]
Mavis Cournane [2]
Mark Crawford (vice chair)
Michael Dill
Stephen Green
Mike Grimley
Eduardo Gutentag
Tami Kamarudin [7]
Dongsoo Kim [3]
Sun Hyuk Kim
Sunho Kim [2]
Stig Korsgaard
David Kruppke
Monica Martin [8]
Tim McGrath [5]
Sue Probert
Marion Royal
Yukinori Saito
Shin Takagi [4]
Paul Thorpe
Sylvia Webb [6]
Catherine Williams [2]
[1] Absent Tuesday
[2] Absent Friday
[3] Absent Wednesday through Friday
[4] Absent Monday
[5] By phone Tuesday through Friday
[6] By phone Wednesday
[7] By phone Tuesday
[8] By phone one day (did not record which)
PLENARY SESSION MONDAY 16 AUGUST
The TC heard reports from the JPLSC and the KRLSC; these will
be uploaded to the TC document repository.
The chair shared the results of a recent authoritative
proprietary survey of North American IT executives showing that
30 percent of the 300 large and medium-sized companies surveyed
had already implemented some form of UBL and that 16 percent of
the companies surveyed intended to begin using UBL within the
next 12 months. Since at the time of the survey (April 2004)
UBL 1.0 CD had not even been released yet, and since there are
as yet no known sources of technical support for UBL, the
survey results support the theory that UBL is a viral
technology like HTML. It was also noted that the
U.S. Department of the Navy has recently announced its
intention to use UBL, providing further evidence that we have
been correct in assuming that UBL would prove attractive to
government agencies as well as corporations in the private
sector. The chair therefore intends to de-emphasize his UBL
marketing activities to focus instead on moving UBL 1.0 through
the OASIS standardization process and establishing working
relationships with relevant standards bodies for the
development of UBL 1.1.
It was noted that the namespace URN proposal previously
advanced in email had received no negative comments from voting
members of the TC and could therefore be considered as adopted.
Following the plenary session, the TC broke into separate work
groups that continued throughout the week to work on CD2
packaging, NDR document completion, and localization review.
PLENARY SESSION TUESDAY 17 AUGUST
In this session, the TC discussed our document targets and
other objectives for the future. Outcomes:
- We note the importance of aligning both with UN/CEFACT TBG
groups and also with the UNTDED.
- It is our general intention to create XML versions of the
data models provided by UNeDocs and the APEC initiative.
- We agree that new BIEs should be the ones provided by these
other initiatives.
- We recognize the need to review the universal information
model being developed by UNeDocs and to perform a gap
analysis against the UBL data models.
- We approve the current 1.1 items on the work list as
objectives for 1.1 and intend to begin working on them as
soon as we are finished with 1.0 CD2. Specifically, we note
that dealing with party types will help align with UNTDED;
that the Certificate of Origin submission is a good example
of an extension of UBL that is TDED-compliant and aligned
with UNeDocs; and that adding Certificate of Origin to the
document set will serve as a proof of concept and a model
for how this kind of work can proceed in the future.
- With regard to added functionalities such as digital
signatures, we will prioritize these on a case-by-case basis
rather than attempting to establish some general rule. With
regard to digital signatures, we note that the actual
requirement is "authentication."
During lunch we heard presentations from OSCRE regarding its
extension methodology and from Toshiba regarding its WS-based
implementation of UBL. These presentations will be uploaded to
the document repository when the chair returns from vacation
the week of 6 September.
The discussion of customization and context methodology
previously scheduled for the afternoon was omitted to make time
for work on CD2 and the NDR document.
An evening reception for the UBL TC and the Danish eBusiness
Working Group was hosted by Jørgen Abild Andersen,
Director-General of the Danish National IT and Telecom Agency.
Mr. Andersen's remarks on this occasion were reported in mail
to the TC 18 August.
PLENARY SESSION WEDNESDAY 18 AUGUST
The Wednesday morning session was devoted to the discussion of
a proposal from GEFEG to use EDIFIX as the repository of the
UBL 1.1 data model and to generate both normative schemas and
documentary spreadsheets from this data model.
Mavis Cournane was tasked with producing a clear description of
the proposal, and a team consisting of Sue Probert and Anne
Hendry was tasked with the production of a workflow that could
be employed under this proposal.
With regard to the idea that we might develop a process of
"preliminary acceptance" to allow implementors to begin the
deployment of certain additions to UBL before the release of a
new package, it was decided that requesters who care that
deeply about new features should join the TC process.
With regard to UBL ebXML registration, we note that we appear
to be missing a few pieces needed for full registration, and
also that the RIM spec for this is not completely done yet.
After lunch, we discussed the review of ATG NDRs, including CCT
and Unqualified Datatype modules. The review period for
comments back to ATG (via Jean Kubler, UN/CEFACT secretariat)
closes 10 September, the week before the next UN/CEFACT
meeting.
Regarding most aspects of the ATG NDRs, comments (if any)
should by sent by individuals, but the differences between the
CC modules proposed by ATG and the ones used in UBL 1.0 are
great enough that we should develop a position on this as a
group. If the ATG versions of the CC modules are adopted as
they stand now, problems with backwards compatibility (for
example, possible differences in the allowed values for some
attributes) will not allow us to adopt them until our next
major release (2.0). This problem was noted when the ATG
results were reported to the TC. See the report from the
Thursday plenary below for more about this.
With regard to the question raised on ubl-dev about mime types
for UBL, it was determined that this is a messaging issue and
therefore belongs to a different layer of the stack.
As before, the afternoon was spent working on CD2 and the NDR
document.
Wednesday evening the TC enjoyed a spectacular dinner at the
Tivoli Gardens courtesy of our host, Stig Korsgaard. The TC
honored its chair with the gift of an 1824 translation of Don
Quixote, which he is now reading with very great pleasure.
PLENARY SESSION THURSDAY 19 AUGUST
The Thursday plenary discussed relationships between UBL and
other efforts. Brief outcomes:
- UN/CEFACT: We still want to set up liaison relationships
with relevant UN/CEFACT WGs, and we want to make sure that
we do nothing going forward that would prevent our eventual
move into CEFACT. We hope that the attendance of several
UBL members at the UN/CEFACT Forum meeting in September will
help to establish a closer working relationship with TBG
groups.
- ATG2 and CC schemas: Will be a main agenda item for the TC
calls 1 and 2 September. Tim McGrath will draft a response
to ATG in time for discussion in these meetings.
- TBG17 and the UBL library: TBG17 has received submissions
for over 1000 data items, including the ones from UBL. The
group is nearing the end of the discovery phase and intends
to sign off on a group of 21 core components at the CEFACT
Forum meeting in September. UNTDED alignment is being
handled through ongoing meetings with ISO TC 154. After some
discussion, it was decided that the UBL TC should modify its
submission to TBG17 in a way that better aligns with the CCs
and produces recommendations for the future work of
TBG17. We will propose that the TC appoint a TBG17 Liaison
Team led by Marion Royal and including Sue Probert, Tim
McGrath, and additional volunteers from the former LCSC to
align the UBL submission with the draft CCs and to propose
additional candidate CCs where none yet exist that
correspond to the UBL data elements. The team will also
examine other submissions to TBG17 with an eye toward
further preharmonization. The team will meet by phone once a
week at 8 a.m. Washington time (8 p.m.in Perth), the first
meeting to take place 31 August.
- UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and IDA eProcurement
schemas: Discussions will begin in September regarding the
formation of a team to work on these inputs.
- UNeDocs, ISO TC154, and UNTDED: A mapping of UBL to UNTDED
is considered to be highly desirable if resources can be
found to do it. However, it is not clear where such
resources will come from.
- TBG15 and COML: Sue Probert will discuss a liaison
relationship with Gordon Cragge, chair of TBG15.
- RosettaNet, EIDX/CompTIA, and RosettaNet/UBL mapping:
Michael Dill reports that all of EDIFICE in Europe is
changing from EDIFACT to RosettaNet, and in the process has
found a lack of semantic interoperability between the two
standards and is now looking at CC to provide a more generic
approach. The chair is instructed to give up on his efforts
over the last year to find a group willing to perform a
formal mapping between UBL and RosettaNet.
- OAG: A CC group is being reinvigorated to aid in the
transition of OAGIS to a CC-based approach. Several TBG17
members have been invited and will participate in this work,
including Mark Crawford and Stig Korsgaard. Michael Dill
reports that OAGIS version 9 will use the CC types.
- eAC: Tim notes that the ebXML Asia Committee submitted input
to TBG17 and requests that the TBG17 Liaison Team look at
this work.
- Translations: Saito-san presented the current status of the
translation work. The JPLSC and KRLSC have completed
translations of the data definitions, and that work is now
in review. The ESLSC has reported translation of the
spreadsheets into Spanish, but it is not clear whether this
includes the creation of localized business terms. We
believe that the CNLSC is still in the process of revising
the translation it created based on UBL 1.0 Beta.
- Call schedule: The TC schedule for the next several weeks
was reported in mail to the TC 20 August.
After the traditional wine-and-cheese party at the close of the
Thursday session, the SOD met and received a report from Mike
Grimley concerning the recent travels of our mascot, Don.
Unfortunately, Don himself could not attend, having become lost
in transit, but he turned up Friday evening and was last seen
heading to California in an attempt to arrive in time for the
UBL TC meeting in November.
PLENARY SESSION FRIDAY 20 AUGUST
The following items were discussed and resolved as noted:
- EDIFIX proposal details: We will follow up on this in email.
Anne Hendry will review with Michael Dill and post a clear
description of the proposal to the list. [Note: this was
originally assigned to Mavis; see note above under
Wednesday. Mavis and Anne need to sort out this apparent
mixup.] This issue will be put on the agenda for the TC
meetings to be held 8 and 9 September. This will also be
the beginning of a discussion about (a) versioning and
source control and (b) the idea of a canonical format for
our data models.
- Localization status and review schedule: See minutes for
Thursday. The change log itself is included in the issues
list (last column at the end); Stephen Green will perform a
diff and follow up by posting a change list for the
spreadsheet definitions to the list by the end of next week.
Saito-san will then make appropriate changes to the Japanese
translation by the end of the week following. Jon Bosak
will send a list of changes to index.html when he gets back
from vacation.
- NDR document status: Work will continue after the end of
this plenary session, by the end of which we expect to have
done all of the examples and resolution of most of the
remaining issues, after which the MS will be transferred
back to Mark Crawford with a copy to the TC list. Mark will
change a graphic, circulate the draft within LMI for a week,
and then put out to the list Friday next week for UBL
review.
- CD2 packaging status: Jon Bosak will include everything
today except the /fs directory, post the package to the
list, let sit during sanity checks till week after next,
then send the final build out for ballot.
- UBL 1.0 schedule: Here is what the schedule for OASIS
standardization of UBL 1.0 looks like if everything goes
perfectly over the next month:
2004.09.08 CD balloting begins and final paperwork is
readied for submission to OASIS
2004.09.15 Balloting ends and the CD is submitted for
standardization (we believe that the changes made
between CD1 and CD2 are not substantial enough to
require yet another review cycle; the namespace URN
change is a technical correction to conform to RFC
3121)
2004.10.01 UBL 1.0 is sent to the OASIS membership
2004.10.16 OASIS balloting opens
2004.10.31 OASIS balloting closes
2004.11.01 UBL 1.0 is publicly announced
- 2005 TC meeting schedule: We recommed that the TC follow the
lead of some other standards bodies by going to three
face-to-face meetings a year. Here is the schedule we would
like to see adopted for 2005:
April/May: Seoul, Korea, or Fremantle, Australia. We
request that proposals to host this meeting be submitted
by 1 October 2004.
July/August: Ottawa or Montreal, Canada.
November/December: San Francisco.
- Membership review: We need to clean up our membership list
to move inactive members to Observer status. Jon Bosak to
send a message to the list informing inactive members that
they must indicate their desire to remain voting members or
be subject to a change to Observer status. Our
interpretation of the OASIS TC membership rules indicates
that every prospective member who has attended at least two
consecutive TC meetings should be made a voting member.
We thank our hosts, the Danish Bankers Association, for their
warm hospitality, their excellent meeting facilities, and their
fabulous food.
Respectfully submitted,
Jon Bosak
Chair, OASIS UBL TC
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