[dsdl-discuss] Proposal for SC34 WG1 to issue a TR on document interoperability

Hi Ken

I had coffee with Alistair Teggart of Standards Australia. They want to
start up a national committee to handle SC34 issues, and he said
Australia is now a P body (or is getting P'ed), and invited me to
participate.

As you know, for about a year now I have been raising concerns that new
SC34 standards may be indiscriminately adopted with unrealistic
expectations. In particular, that regulators will adopt ODF (or HTML or
OXML, it is all the same) with the expectation that this will give them
guaranateed interoperability, when it will of course do no such thing.

So I would like to propose that WG1 should create and issue a document,
whether a technical report or standard, titled something like
"Guidelines for Document Interoperability", which will summarize the
major issues that an interoperable profile of ODF (or HTML or OOXML or
even PDF) would have to address.

The document does not need to be long or involved. Here is a list of the
issue that I think should be dealt with:

* Macros and scripts
* Embedded dynamic objects, such as Java or .COM objects
* Hyperlinks and pointers to external resources on the web
* Relative links to resources that form part of the same bundle
* Fixed lists of allowed media formats
* How extensibility is handled
* Deprecated properties, elements and fallback
* Enforcing the use of styles
* Use of meta-schemas or architectural forms (e.g. a Schematron schema
that operates on style values rather than element names)
* Restriction of even well-known namespaces, such as SVG to allow only
elements or features that are commonly implemented.

Also, guidance on when ISO HTML, ISO ODF or ISO PDF should be used. (Or
ISO OOXML if that happens.)

The target users of this document would be for profile-creators (such as
the Irish Government's RIG profile effort) and for regulators to use, so
that laws or regulations can specify something like
 "You have to use an interoperable profile of an open standard, where an
interoperable profile conforms to ISO XXXXX Guidlines for Document
Interoperability and an open standard conforms to the following
guidelines...."

Also, the document should encourage vendors in efforts like the CALS
Exchange Table Model profile, that proved so successful more than a
decade ago.

Conformance and profile guidance is certainly in scope for SC34's
traditional mission of providing enabling technology rather than actual
applications.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe

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