RE: [xml-dev] The year is 2027, and we need to examine archived XML docu

[Len Bullard <len.bullard@uai.com>]

And legal requirements also have to adjust to the technology changes.

When I started, a legal document printer was required to produce 1000dpi.
It made little sense and the need to move to faxed documents as well as the
costs of the printers changed that.

HTML is inserted into jail documents on a regular basis through template
software.  Problems of early or late release are usually not related to the
documents.  They are related to bad software implementations of the business
rules, procedural failures (human in the loop - failing to check photos),
and outright policy violations (having an inside clerk falsify a record).
While working public safety, we saw all three of those but no problems
related to the document formats.

Most primary sources are now in database records, not final fixed format
documents such as PDF although on the wire, PDF is preferred.  That actually
is a problem.   Database errors are tough to find if the kind or type of
problem that can occur isn't known in advance.  In these days of web-based
distributed processes, that is becoming much harder to solve.

This topic needs a new set of requirements from the customers.  My guess is
the overbuilt systems (OOXML) and the feature deficient systems (ODF) aren't
the best place to begin or to continue.  To solve the legal document
problem, a fresh start will be better.  Meanwhile, the customers can work
with what they have with more openness being a positive benefit.  So the
customers starting from scratch can go to ODF (no switching costs so
purchase costs are a higher priority) and the customers with significant
legacy get relief by applying OOXML and using the money for other more
pressing needs such as business rule definition, implementation and
debugging.

That's a win-win for the customers.

len


From: Richard Salz [mailto:rsalz@us.ibm.com] 
 
> no because the archive must be complete without external reference and 
> it must not require execution of embedded code (eg javascript) - at 
> least to make an old hacker like me happy that the archive is what 
> someone saw/would have seen at the time it was created.

This is not always how the real world currently works.  For example, 
zillions of business agreements are made by just faxing signature pages of 
emailed documents and those arrangements are legally binding.  Archived 
contracts do not normally include the entire set of relevant statutes, 
etc.

Be careful about asserting what problem must be solved.

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