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

This sounds like an excellent project, Rick, and I hope you get the
support you need in WG1. Bring it through WG1 as an NP and we'll see
what national bodies want to do with it.

I'm pleased to hear our P-membership will continue to grow with
Australia's contribution! We've doubled in size in the last few
months. I haven't yet heard from tcsupport but I will keep my eye
out looking for it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Ken

At 2007-02-12 12:42 +1100, Rick Jelliffe wrote:
>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

--
G. Ken Holman                    Crane Softwrights Ltd.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Secretariat  Standards Council of Canada
Committee correspondence:        mailto:jtc1sc34@scc.ca
Committee website:               http://www.jtc1sc34.org
Corporate correspondence:        mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Corporate website:               http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/a/
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