OASIS Code List Representation (codelist) Technical Committee

The Charter for this TC was clarified on 22 March 2021. The ballot to approve the clarification can be found at https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ballot.php?id=3586.

The TC voted to recharter on 21 February 2021. The ballot to approve rechartering can be found at https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/ballot.php?id=3572. The first meeting after rechartering was held on 05 March 2021.

The original Call For Participation for this TC can be found at https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/codelist/200608/msg00007.html.

  1. Name of the TC

    Code List Representation (codelist)

  2. Statement of Purpose

    Many communities (for example business sectors and public authorities) exchange and process information in which commonly accepted semantic concepts can be expressed using concise mnemonics or abbreviations called "codes". Choosing a collection of these codes can constrain the expression of information to an agreed-upon set, requiring the exchange to reference one or more members from only a limited list of such codes, variously called "code lists", "enumerations", or "controlled vocabularies".

    Code lists then can be defined as controlled vocabularies or coded value enumerations.

    Examples of standardized code lists include country abbreviations, currency abbreviations, shipping container descriptors, and airport codes. Examples of non-standardized code lists used between trading partners include financial account types, workflow status indicators, and any set of values representing the semantics of related concepts known between the parties involved in information interchange. An advantage of using a controlled set of semantic concepts is in localization where the associated documentation for the coded values can include descriptions in different languages, thus not requiring the coded values themselves to be translated, or where translation is desired, the semantic equivalence of values can be described.

    Code lists have been used for many years, and they have been published and disseminated in manners that have not been IT-enabled for ease of computer processing. Therefore a standardized IT-enabled representation is needed.

    The Code List Representation TC purpose is to develop IT-enabling standards that support the machine expression, interchange, documentation, management, processing, and validation of code lists for use in any information technology context.

    Business Benefits

    The standards developed by the Code List Representation TC aim to be beneficial for any community that needs to disseminate IT-enabled expressions of code lists for the exchange and processing of enumerated values.

    Key stakeholders are standardization bodies that need to specify code lists and their representation for exchange and automatic process, registration and source authorities that publish code lists, business sectors and public authorities that use code lists in their business exchanges, and implementors of software and services that process code lists.

  3. Scope of Work

    Define, develop and maintain a semantic library for code lists (genericode) and related syntax bindings to represent code lists in XML and other machine processable formats for their interchange, documentation and management in any machine-processing context.

    Develop any related technical specifications to support the use of code lists.

    Promote genericode as the international standard for the IT-enabled representation of code lists.

    Should the TC decide so, submit genericode and any other standard developed by the TC as publicly available specification to external standard development organizations (SDOs) and, where possible, fulfill their associated responsibilities of being their designated maintenance authority.

    The publication of code lists is out of scope of this TC.

  4. Deliverables

    The Code List Representation TC maintains the existing genericode Committee Specification and oversees its evolution to the following set of deliverables:

    • a semantic model / meta-model of genericode
    • an XML serialization of the genericode semantic model, with the intent of backward compatibility (or even no changes) to the existing genericode
    • prepare examples of the use of and the reference to genericode resources
    • possibly develop new specifications such as operations on a code list e.g. create, add, delete, update
    • possibly develop new syntax serializations and schemas, such as JSON
    • possibly include sample non-normative software for transliteration between syntaxes
    • possibly develop a Schematron value validation script
    • possibly document the use of genericode as a sparse-table serialization, including concepts such as joining tables and foreign keys
  5. IPR Mode

    RF on Limited Terms mode

  6. Audience

    Anyone who works with code lists and has a requirement to transmit and process an IT-enabled expression of the code list values and/or their metadata between systems.

    Also source authorities and publishing authorities who create, publish, and disseminate code lists, based on specific business sector or public authority requirements, including those with pre-existing or 3rd party code lists.

    Users and consumers of code lists, who may also find a standardized IT-enabled deployment format for such lists easier to employ.

    Those who are responsible for defining XML vocabulariesvmay be interested in describing a constrained set of values to represent agreed-upon semantic concepts in order to control information items.

  7. Language

    English