Re: [dita-fa-edboard] Posting DITA specs to the wiki
From: Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>
To: Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:35:26 -0500
FYI, feedback from Rob Weir of the ODF
TC:
---------------
Michael,
+1
For ODF 1.2 we would like to do something
similar. The feedback we've received on the current public comment
approach is not good. At the very least it doesn't support the modern
image of a public, participatory online review process. It
is very 1990's.
From my perspective, a good public comment
period is not just about information transfer from reviewers to the TC.
It is just as important for its outgoing message. It reinforces
the idea of openness, of transparency, of public participation and helps
mold opinions.
Also, I believe that a more interactive
public review process will attract more and higher-quality reviewers which
will lead to higher-quality standards. We need to acknowledge that
to an outside expert, with time to donate, the review of an OASIS standard
is just one of several activities they can do. Developing open source
software, blogging, Wikipedia, etc., are others. We must consider
their motivation for donating time to review OASIS standards. We
are competing for their time and attention, Sending a comment via
a comment form will not rate highly. But something more interactive,
with more exposure, that will likely attract attention.
In the competitive market I'm in, with
document formats, intense scrutiny in a thorough, open public review is
a necessity. We're competing in a market where openness is a feature and
an important factor for adoption. We need to appear and to actually
be more open than the competition.
I wonder if this could be solved by
a Wiki site that required a login/password, required users to agree to
an IP statement, and preserved an audit trail of all changes/additions?
Maybe the processes could be linked so all Wiki changes generate
a note to the traditional TC comment list?
Regards,
Rob Weir
Co-Chair OASIS ODF TC
----------------
Michael Priestley
Lead IBM DITA Architect
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
Re: [dita-fa-edboard] Posting DITA specs
to the wiki
This is a total disappointment.
Let me attempt to summarize the points below:
- this would require a change to the TC process:
yes, otherwise we'd just do it without asking.
- no one else is doing it:
no one else was doing focus areas either. OASIS
opened the door by providing a Wiki for DITA. The fact that the Wiki cannot,
by OASIS policy, contain a commentable version of the subject of the
Wiki is ridiculous.
- tracking comments:
we already require signon to make comments
in the wiki. Is the bar really that much lower than the "comments"
form on the TC website?
- spec would need to be authored in XML:
actually, it would need to be publishable to
a Wiki. DITA happens to be in the privileged position of being used by
documentation professionals who have already encountered that requirement
and solved it. But I'm sure equivalent routes could be found for Word source
or HTML if another standard wanted to follow suit.
The final and overriding point here is that they think we're the only ones
who would benefit. Fine. It took them two years to notice that we're in
their pilot program for Wikis, and pilot programs create new requirements.
Which they are choosing to ignore.
I see two courses of action:
- get other TCs to join us in a petition; as maintainers of the specs,
they should care about the way they engage with the public, and the comment
forms are useless
- get a formal petition out to OASIS membership, regardless of TC affiliation;
as the people who pay for OASIS to continue, they should care about all
the TCs accountability to public input beyond the scope of the TC.
If we need to drag OASIS kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century,
I'm happy to contribute the first kicks and screams.
Michael Priestley
Lead IBM DITA Architect
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
DITA XML.org Editorial Board,
OASIS staff have been working hard to evaluate the Editorial Board's request
to
make the DITA specifications available for public comment on XML.org. While
we
are all excited by the opportunity to provide a more dynamic mechanism
for
receiving public comments, the project poses several significant challenges
that we feel may be insurmountable at this time.
The OASIS TC Process document (which is intimately connected to our
Intellectual Property Rights Policy) is very specific about the collection
and
handling of public comments. TCs are required to transparently acknowledge,
track, audit, and record the disposal of all public comments--and their
mechanism for doing so is expressly defined as a mailing list. Most other
standards bodies process public comments in much the way OASIS does--and
for
much the same reasons. Encouraging public comments through a wiki would
require
changing our TC Process, and that can only be done by the OASIS Board of
Directors.
We would recommend the Board consider a change if the Wiki comment mechanism
did not require much implementation resources or if it could be used for
most
OASIS specifications. Unfortunately, neither condition is true.
Simply installing a hyperlinked version of the DITA specifications in a
Wiki
would not address the requirements we have for access (user identification)
control and proper comment auditing, leaving DITA open to the risk of
unauthorized contributions and subsequent licensing claims against
implementers. The transactional machinery needed to protect DITA from these
risks would require a significant investment in programming time.
To take advantage of Wiki comments, OASIS specifications would have to
be
authored in XML and the vast majority are not. While the DITA standard,
along
with a handful of others, are authored using structured markup, most are
not.
The resulting HTML does not readily lend itself to the decomposition and
hypertext linking necessary to take advantage of a
wiki-based commenting system.
OASIS IT resources are currently prioritized on projects that benefit a
broader
range of our membership.
Although we do not believe this a project OASIS can take on at this time,
we do
intend to continue to evaluate this issue and hope to revisit it as soon
as
resources allow.
Mary McRae
Manager of TC Administration
OASIS
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