The original Call For Participation for this TC may be found at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200403/msg00016.html

The charter for this TC is as follows.

Name of the TC:

OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Technical Committee

Statement of Purpose:

The purpose of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee (TC) is to define and maintain the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and to promote the use of the architecture for creating standard information types and domain-specific markup vocabularies.

DITA is specializable, which allows for the introduction of specific semantics for specific purposes without increasing the size of other DTDs, and which allows the inheritance of shared design and behavior and interchangeability with unspecialized content.

More specific semantics allow

• more automatable processes
• more consistent authoring
• better retrievability
• better applicability to specific groups

The work of this TC will differ from similar efforts such as DocBook because of

• broader scope, inasmuch as DITA applies to more areas than just technical manuals
• more specific scope, inasmuch as DITA applies to topic-oriented information rather than all technical manuals

Scope:

The TC will create specifications for the Darwin Information Typing Architecture suitable for submitting for balloting by OASIS membership for OASIS standard status.

DITA is an XML-based specification for modular and extensible topic-based information. DITA provides a model for defining and processing new information types as specializations of existing types.

DITA populates the model with an extensible hierarchy of standard types. DITA encourages reuse by reference either of topics or of fragments of topics. DITA topics

• can be assembled in different combinations for many deliverables or output formats
• are optimized for navigation and search
• are well suited for concurrent authoring and content management

Through use of a common specification, DITA content owners can benefit from industry support, interoperability, and reuse of community contributions. At the same time, through specialization, content owners can address the specific requirements of their business or industry.

This committee builds upon the foundation established by the work of IBM on DITA.

The tasks of the TC include

• To articulate the principles of the DITA architecture through formal specifications
• To assess the relationship of DITA specialization to emerging XML standards (such as the ontology initiatives associated with the Semantic Web)
• To define appropriate enhancements of the architecture
• To standardize the information types in the DITA type hierarchy

• To encourage cooperation within and between the various topical domains of potential DITA users

  It is anticipated that, in addition to the common information elements provided in the base specification, specific communities of users may develop additional, specialized type hierarchies of particular relevance to their use cases. The TC may choose to recognize new information types or domain specializations where a new specialization provides a standard solution for a well-established need, has broad support, does not conflict with existing types, and serves as a useful base for additional specialization. For example, the concept, task, and reference information types do so for the user assistance community. The TC anticipates maintaining a set of core information types of general utility, implemented in schema languages (such as DTD or XML Schema) selected by the TC. Recognized types may also be maintained by other groups (including other OASIS TCs).

• To design a generic methodology for specialized extensions of the base specification by user communities

  This methodology may address issues such as delivery of a reference implementation, operation of a public registry for specializations, suggested guidelines for development of a user community's information types, and so forth. When the above tasks are completed, the TC may reconsider further work, which will be defined as allowed by the OASIS TC Process.

List of Deliverables:

Within three months of the first meeting, the existing DITA specification will be contributed to OASIS by its author, will be further developed by the TC and approved as a Committee Draft, and then submitted to OASIS for consideration as an OASIS Standard. The specification consists of

• a formal definition of the rules for creating new information type and domain specializations through specialization
• the DTDs and XML Schemas for the initial DITA information type, domain, and map specializations
• a processing model description that defines standard usage of the DITA specifications

Within six months of the first meeting, the TC will seek to encourage specific specialized extensions of the DITA specification, as well as these deliverables:

• guidelines and methodologies for the development of DITA specializations by a user community
• a possible specification of a standards-based public registry or repository for such DITA specializations or a method for creating or federating such resources

The TC may consider the creation of subcommittees where there is an immediate interest in developing specialized extensions, but it is also anticipated that such extensions could be adopted locally and informally within specific information exchange communities

One year after producing the first DITA Committee Draft, the TC will produce a new major revision of DITA including

• evolution of the DITA architecture to address issues such as namespaces, type unification, extension by addition, and extensible enumerations
• formal specifications of all aspects of the DITA architecture with primers, use cases, and scenarios
• maintenance of the earlier DITA types
• addition to the base specification of those new DITA information types that appear from specialized uses to have general utility
• a continuing methodology for the harvesting and incorporation of additional, useful types into the base specification

Anticipated Audience:

• Writers of other specifications that could benefit from DITAs specialization model or other aspects of its architecture;
• Vendors offering XML authoring or development products;
• XML architects and developers who design and write XML applications;
• Information developers and information architects

Language:

English.