Technical Committee (TC) Process (26 May 2017)

This version of the OASIS TC Process was approved by the OASIS Board of Directors on 26 May 2017, was announced to OASIS members on 23 June 2017, and became effective 01 July 2017. 

Table of Contents

Section 1. Technical Committees (TCs)
1.1 Purpose of TCs
1.2 TC Formation
1.3 First Meeting of a TC
1.4 TC Membership and Participation
1.5 Termination of TC Membership
1.6 Leaves of Absence
1.7 TC Transparency
1.8 TC Charter Clarification
1.9 TC Rechartering
1.10 TC Voting
1.11 TC Subcommittees
1.12 Closing a TC
1.13 Maintenance Activity of OASIS Standards Final Deliverables
1.14 Intellectual Property Rights Proceures
1.15 Commercial Terms and Conditions; Implementation Preferences

Section 2. TC Work Products
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Work Product Components
2.3 Updating References
2.4 Work Product Approvals
2.5 Approval of a Committee Specification Draft
2.6 Public Review of a Committee Specification Draft
2.7 Approval of a Committee Specification
2.8 Approval of an OASIS Standard
2.8.1 Submission of a Candidate OASIS Standard
2.8.2 Public Review of a Candidate OASIS Standard
2.8.3 Call for consent for OASIS Standard
2.9 Approved Errata

Section 3. Board of Directors Involvement in the TC Process
3.1 OASIS TC Administrator
3.2 Appeals

Section 4. Application to Existing TCs

Section 1. Technical Committees (TCs)

1.1 Purpose of TCs

An OASIS Technical Committee is a group of Eligible Persons comprised of at least the Minimum Membership, formed and conducted according to the provisions of this TC Process, to develop and approve TC Work Products and perform the other activities permitted by this TC Process. Each current version of the TC Process applies to previously established TCs upon its adoption.

The OASIS Committee Operations Process provides general provisions concerning the operation of all Committees that may apply to the work of a TC. The OASIS Naming Directives lists specific requirements that apply to TC Work Products.

Defined terms in this document have the meaning provided in OASIS Defined Terms. Additional definitions specific to the OASIS IPR Policy can be found in that document.

1.2 TC Formation

Any group of at least Minimum Membership shall be authorized to begin a Technical Committee by submitting to the OASIS TC Administrator a charter prepared using the TC Charter Template maintained and made available by the TC Administrator. The charter shall be written in English and provided to OASIS in electronic form as plain text. The name proposed for the TC shall be subject to approval by the TC Administrator. No information other than that requested in the template may be included in the proposal. Any documents referenced in the proposal shall be publicly available.

No later than 7 days following the submission of the charter, the OASIS TC Administrator shall either return the submission to its originators with an explanation indicating its failure to meet the requirements set forth in this section or shall post notice of the submission to an announced mailing list (or equivalent method), visible to the submission proposers and the OASIS Membership, for comment.

Comments will be received until the 14th day after the notice. Following the comment period, the OASIS TC Administrator shall hold a conference call among the Convener, the OASIS TC Administrator, and those proposers who wish to attend. Other OASIS Members who wish to attend may observe.

Following this conference call, the proposers may confirm that the existing charter stands or may amend it. The proposer group may submit an amended charter at any time until the 7th day before the Call for Participation. The proposers must also post a pointer to an account of each of any comments or issues raised during the comment period, along with its resolution.

Once all these elements have been received, the OASIS TC Administrator shall post them to the OASIS Membership with a Call For Participation and an announcement of a first meeting.

1.3 First Meeting of a TC

The first Meeting of a TC shall occur no less than 30 days after the Call for Participation in the case of a meeting held exclusively by telephone or other electronic means, and no less than 45 days after the Call for Participation in the case of a meeting held face-to-face.

If the first meeting of a TC is to be conducted as a face-to-face meeting, the Convener must arrange for teleconference facilities to be provided for those unable to attend in person.

Eligible Persons intending to participate in the first meeting must use the OASIS collaborative tools to register as a TC Member.

If the Eligible Person is an employee or designee of an OASIS Organizational Member, the Primary Representative of that organization must confirm to the Convener and to the TC Administrator that the person may become a Member of the TC.

Every Eligible Person who has so registered and been confirmed shall be a Member of the TC beginning with the first meeting. Every Eligible Person who has registered 7 days or more prior to the first meeting, been confirmed, and is present at the first meeting of a TC shall be a Voting Member of the TC beginning with the first meeting.

No later than 7 days prior to the meeting, the OASIS TC Administrator shall post a notice to the prospective Members on the TC’s general email list inviting indications of candidacy for TC Chair to be posted to that list.

The rules for conduct of meetings in the OASIS Committee Operations Process apply to the TC’s first Meeting. In addition, the first TC meeting has these rules:

1.3.1 The first meeting of a TC must occur at the place and time and in the manner described in the Call for Participation. Any initial TC meeting whose time or location is changed and any initial telephone or other electronic meeting that fails to grant access to every Eligible Person previously registering to attend shall be subject to appeal as provided in 3.2 Appeals.

1.3.2 At least Minimum Membership must become Voting Members at the first TC meeting or the TC shall be considered not to have been successfully started. A TC failing to start due to the absence of Minimum Membership may, with the approval of the TC Administrator, reschedule its first meeting. If the proposers do not reschedule the first meeting, the TC shall be closed.

1.3.3 At the first meeting of the TC, the Convener shall chair the meeting for the roll call and the election of the TC Chair or Co-Chairs. The TC must elect a Chair as the first order of business, from among nominations made by Voting Members at that meeting. Once the Chair is elected the role of Convener ends.

1.4 TC Membership and Participation

TC membership is per person, not per organization, and is not transferable from person to person.

Each TC Member is responsible for ensuring that their attendance at TC meetings is noted by the Chair and recorded.

1.4.1 Observer: An Eligible Person may become an Observer of a TC by registering as an Observer using the electronic collaboration tools provided by OASIS. If the Eligible Person is an employee or designee of an OASIS Organizational Member, the Primary Representative of that organization must be notified that the person has requested to become an Observer. The Observer is not a TC Member so has no attendance or participation requirements to maintain this status, other than to remain an Eligible Person.

1.4.2 Member: Any time after the first meeting, an Eligible Person shall become a TC Member by registering as a Member using the electronic collaboration tools provided by OASIS. If the Eligible Person is an employee or designee of an OASIS Organizational Member, the Primary Representative of that organization must confirm to the Chair and to the TC Administrator that the person may become a Member of the TC. Upon receipt by the Chair of confirmation by the Primary Representative, the Member may begin participating, but shall not have voting rights. A TC Member shall become eligible to vote in the TC when the requirements below are met.

1.4.3 Persistent Non-Voting Member: A Member or Voting Member who wishes to continue participating in the work of the committee but who does not wish to count for purposes of calculating Quorum, make or second motions, or vote may, at any time, change their role to Persistent Non-Voting Member by sending e-mail to both the Chair and the TC mailing list informing them of their change. The change will be effective as of the date of notice or future date specified in the email. A Persistent Non-Voting Member retains participation rights but is not eligible to vote and does not count towards Quorum. A Persistent Non-Voting Member who wishes to gain voting rights must send e-mail to both the Chair and the TC mailing list informing them of their intent to become a Voting Member and must follow the rules in section 1.4.4 as if they had lost their voting rights due to non-attendance.

1.4.4 Voting Member: A TC Member who lacks voting rights shall gain voting rights at the close of the second consecutive Meeting of the TC that he attends. If fewer than two Meetings are called within 60 days after the person becomes a Member, the Member shall gain voting rights at the close of the 60th day.

A Voting Member who is absent from two consecutive Meetings of the TC (as recorded in the minutes) loses his voting rights at the end of the second Meeting missed. If a TC has adopted a standing rule to conduct business only by electronic ballot, without Meetings, then a Voting Member who fails to cast a ballot in two consecutive Work Product Ballots for which the voting periods do not overlap loses his voting rights at the close of the second ballot missed. In case of multiple ballots taking place simultaneously, voting in a single ballot is sufficient to maintain voting rights.

Only a Voting Member may make or second a motion.

A Voting Member may at any time request to have his role changed to Member. As a Member, he will retain participation rights but will not be eligible to vote and will not count towards Quorum nor make nor second motions.

1.5 Termination of TC Membership

A TC Member shall be considered to have resigned from a TC upon his sending notification of resignation to the TC general email list.

A person who loses Eligible Person status shall have his TC Membership terminated.

Persons who lose Eligible Person status shall have up to 14 days of TC membership as an OASIS Individual Member in which to re-establish eligibility. A Member shall lose TC membership on the 15th day if Eligible Person status has not been re-established.

Termination of membership in an OASIS TC shall automatically end all rights and privileges of participation including voting rights in the TC and shall terminate membership in any Subcommittee of that TC.

1.6 Leaves of Absence

Every Voting Member of an OASIS TC may request a Leave of Absence. A Leave of Absence shall not exceed 45 days. Each request shall be made by sending an email to the TC mailing list at least 7 days before the Leave is to start. The Leave must be approved by the TC.

During a Leave of Absence, a Voting Member shall not have voting rights or participation obligations in the TC or its Subcommittees. Voting rights shall resume immediately when the Leave ends or earlier if requested by the Member.

1.7 TC Transparency

The official copies of all resources of the TC and its associated Subcommittees, including web pages, documents, email lists and any other records of discussions, must be located only on facilities designated by OASIS. TCs and SCs may not conduct official business or technical discussions, store documents, or host web pages on servers or systems not designated by OASIS. All web pages, documents, ballot results and email archives of all TCs and SCs shall be publicly visible.

The permanent minutes of each TC meeting and a record of all decisions shall be posted to that TC’s general email list. All official communications and discussions of the TC must take place on the email list. Subscription to the general email list shall be required for members all Members of the TC. All TC email lists shall be archived for the duration of the corporation, and all TC email archives shall be publicly visible.

Each TC shall be provided with a public comment facility, the purpose of which is to receive comments from the public and is not for general discussion. Comments shall be publicly archived and must be considered by the TC.. TCs are not required to respond to comments. Comments to the TC made by non-TC Members, including from the public, must be made via the TC’s comment facility, and shall not be accepted via any other means.

1.8 TC Charter Clarification

A TC may clarify its Charter only for the purpose of removing ambiguity or for narrowing the scope of the topic defined by the Charter. The list of deliverables may be expanded only if the new deliverables are within the scope of the topic.

Approval for clarification shall require a Special Majority Vote of the TC.

The TC Administrator may prevent the proposed clarification from coming to vote if it is not in conformance with OASIS policies. No later than 7 days after receiving the request to start the Special Majority Vote, the TC Administrator must either open the ballot or reply to the TC with the reason why the change cannot be voted upon.

The clarified Charter shall not take effect until approved by the TC and announced by the TC Administrator.

1.9 TC Rechartering

In order to expand the scope of a TC, it must be rechartered. The TC shall retain the same name, all email lists and archives, web pages, etc. Contributions made to the TC under the prior charter must be recontributed to be used under the revised charter.

Approval for rechartering shall require a Special Majority Vote of the TC.

Rechartering shall not change the TC name nor the IPR Mode of the TC. If a different name or IPR Mode is desired then a new TC (with a unique name) must be formed and the normal rules for creating a new TC apply (see 1.2 TC Formation).

A proposal to recharter the TC must be made by Resolution and submitted to the TC Administrator. The proposal shall include all the items specified in 1.2 TC Formation including item 2(b) (date, time and location of the first meeting under the revised charter) and excluding items 2(d) and 2(e) (list of co-proposers and Primary Representative’s Statements of Support). The proposal shall clearly mark all changes from the charter in effect at the time of the proposal. The date of the first meeting must not be less than 7 days after the close of the ballot to approve rechartering.

Not later than 7 days after receiving the request to hold a vote, and if the proposal is complete, the TC Administrator shall schedule the Special Majority Vote.

If the ballot is approved, the following steps shall be taken:

  1. Within 7 days of approval, the TC Administrator shall announce the rechartering to the OASIS Membership with instructions for how and when to join the newly rechartered TC.
  2. 7 days before the first meeting, all work of the TC shall stop and the TC Administrator shall send an email to the TC mailing list describing the procedure for re-joining the TC and remove all Members and TC officers from the TC roster.
  3. OASIS members wishing to (re)join the TC shall follow the normal procedures for joining a new TC. In the event that a member is not able to join in the 7 day period before the first meeting because of lack of online access, the member’s primary representative may ask the TC Administrator to add the member to the TC.

The same rules and procedures regarding the First Meeting of a TC specified under 1.3 First Meeting of a TC also apply for the first meeting of the rechartered TC, except as superseded in this section.

The time period for determining Members’ Participation Obligation shall restart at the first meeting of the TC under the revised charter.

1.10 TC Voting

TC votes require a Simple Majority Vote to pass, except as noted elsewhere in this Process. All TC ballots requiring a Special Majority Vote for approval must be conducted by the TC Administrator; the TC Chair shall request that the TC Administrator hold the Special Majority Vote, and the TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot.

A Member of a TC must have voting rights at the time a ballot is opened in order to vote on that ballot. Every Voting Member of a TC has a single vote. Organizations do not vote in TCs. Proxies shall not be allowed in TC voting.

TCs may conduct electronic ballots, either by using the TC’s general mail list or the publicly archived electronic voting functionality provided by OASIS. An electronic ballot must remain open for a minimum of 7 days. Any Work Product Ballot conducted as an electronic ballot must permit each voter to choose “yes”, “no”, or “abstain.” Eligible voters may change their vote up until the end of the voting period.

1.11 TC Subcommittees

The TC may by Resolution create a Subcommittee (SC). The TC must close a Subcommittee by Resolution.

The deliverables of the SC are made only to the TC for such further action as the TC may elect. Members of the SC must first be Members of the TC. Observers of a TC may be Observers of a SC, but may not become SC members without first becoming a Member of the TC. An SC member may resign from the SC and remain a Member of the TC.

1.12 Closing a TC

A TC may be closed by Full Majority Vote of the TC, by Resolution of the OASIS Board of Directors, or by the OASIS TC Administrator.

The TC Administrator must close a TC that has completed the deliverables listed in its Charter if the TC does not add new deliverables or that fails to elect a Chair for the period provided in OASIS Committee Operations Process.

The TC Administrator may close a TC that fails to conduct at least one Quorate Meeting or conduct any Work Product Ballots during any six month period; whose membership falls below the Minimum Membership; which has not completed its deliverables within the schedule listed in its Charter; or which has failed to show progress towards achieving its purpose as defined by its Charter.

1.13 Maintenance Activity of OASIS Standards Final Deliverables

Only one TC at a time may perform a Maintenance Activity on an OASIS Standards Final Deliverable.

Maintenance Activity on an OASIS Standards Final Deliverable is always within the scope of the TC that created the deliverable, whether or not the TC’s Charter explicitly references it.

Maintenance Activity on an OASIS Standards Final Deliverable may be done by a TC other than the TC that originated the deliverable, if: (a) the name of the OASIS Standards Final Deliverable to be maintained is listed as a deliverable in its Charter, and (b) if the originating TC is not closed, it has consented to the Maintenance Activity by a Special Majority Vote.

1.14 Intellectual Property Rights Procedures

The TC shall operate in accordance with the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy.

Notices of Disclosed Claims, as defined in and required by the OASIS IPR Policy, shall be made by sending an email message to the TC Administrator, who shall post the disclosure on the TC’s web page and notify the TC via the TC general email list. The TC shall make no formal decision with regard to the applicability or validity of an IPR disclosure.

Contributions, as defined in the OASIS IPR Policy, shall be made by sending to the TC’s general email list either the contribution, or a notice that the contribution has been delivered to the TC’s document repository; a URL or other reference to the document is not sufficient. Written contributions must be converted to electronic format and delivered to the TC’s general email list or document repository. The TC is not required to acknowledge or use any Contribution.

1.15 Commercial Terms and Conditions; Implementation Preferences

Provisions involving business relations between buyer and seller such as guarantees, warranties, and other commercial terms and conditions shall not be included in an OASIS Committee’s documents or Work Products. The appearance that a Committee or its output endorses any particular products, services or companies must be avoided. Therefore, it generally is not acceptable for a TC to include manufacturer lists, service provider lists, or similar material in the text of a Standards Track Work Product (or the equivalent). Committees may elect to supply or point to provider-neutral lists of known implementation claims, in non-normative statements or their web pages.

Where a sole source exists for essential equipment, materials or services necessary to comply with or to determine compliance with a specification or method, it is permissible to supply the name and address of the source in a footnote or informative annex as long as the words “or the equivalent” are added to the reference. In connection with a TC’s Standards Track Work Products that relate to the determination of whether products or services conform to one or more standards, that Work Product may include the process or criteria for determining conformity, as long as the description of the process or criteria is limited to technical and engineering concerns and does not include what would otherwise be a commercial term or product identification.

Implementations of all kinds are welcome (partial or complete; prototype, proof-of-concept, example, model, or reference implementation), provided that TCs do not designate any implementation of a specification as privileged or unique.

Section 2. TC Work Products

2.1 Introduction

The primary deliverables of an OASIS Technical Committee are its Work Products. These are descriptive, narrative documents and associated materials such as schemas, data dictionaries, UML models, or other associated content, that address the scope of work described in the TC’s charter.

Work Products may be either Standards Track Work Products (intended to specify how to implement some data interchange format, protocol, process definition, service protocol, etc.) or Non-Standards Track Work Products (intended to provide ancillary information to assist in understanding and implementing the Standards Track work). Non-Standards Track Work Products may not contain Normative content except as excerpts from a Standards Track Work Product.

This section defines specific requirements that apply to preparing, approving and advancing Work Products through the stages of the OASIS approval process. The OASIS Naming Directives lists additional specific requirements that apply to TC Work Products.

2.2 Work Product Components

In general, the content of a Work Product is the domain of the participants in the Technical Committee. They are presumed to be the subject matter experts in their field, best positioned to know both the solutions that must be developed and the optimum way to organize and present those solutions to their community.

The following specific requirements of the OASIS TC Process apply to all Work Products.

2.2.1 General. All documents and other files produced by the TC, including Work Products at any level of approval, must use the OASIS file naming scheme and must include the OASIS copyright notice. Work Products must be written using the OASIS document authoring templates, which shall be maintained and made available by the TC Administrator. The name of any Work Product may not include any trademarks or service marks not owned by OASIS.

2.2.2 File Formats. Editable formats of all versions of TC documents must be delivered to the TC’s document repository. Working Drafts may be in any format (i.e. produced by any application). All approved versions of OASIS Deliverables must be published in (1) editable source, (2) HTML or XHTML, and (3) PDF formats. The TC must explicitly designate one of those formats as the authoritative document.

2.2.3 Multi-Part Work Products. A Work Product may be composed of any number of files of different types, though any such multi-part Work Product must have a single Work Product name and version number. Irrespective of the number and status of the constituent parts, the Work Product as a whole must be approved by a single Work Product Ballot.

2.2.4 Allowed changes. After a Work Product has been approved as a Standards Track or Non-Standards Track Work Product (for example, as a Committee Specification Draft), no further changes may be made to the content of the Work Product except for those made by the TC Administrator as part of the official publication process of the Work Product. The TC may continue to make changes to the next working draft.

2.2.5 Computer Language Definitions. All normative computer language definitions that are part of the Work Product, such as XML instances, schemas or Java(TM) code, including fragments of such, must be well formed and valid.

For Standards Track Work Products:

  • All normative computer language definitions must also be provided in separate plain text files;
  • Each text file must be referenced from the Work Product; and
  • Where any definition in these separate files disagrees with the definition found in the specification documentation, the definition in the separate file prevails.

2.2.6 Conformance Clauses. A Standards Track Work Product that is approved by the TC at the Committee Specification Public Review Draft, Committee Specification or OASIS Standard level must include a separate section, listing a set of numbered conformance clauses, to which any implementation of the specification must adhere in order to claim conformance to the specification (or any optional portion thereof).

2.2.7 Notifications. Every Work Product must clearly indicate on the cover page whether it is a Standards Track Work Product or Non-Standards Track Work Product.

2.3 Updating References

A TC wishing to update a reference in its Normative or Non-Normative References section whose status is expected to change between TC approval of a Work Product and its publication may do so in cooperation with the OASIS TC Administrator. The TC must include the anticipated change in its motion to approve the Work Product and must alert The TC Administrator to the expected changes at the time the request to publish the Work Product is made.

2.4 Work Product Approvals

Technical Committees may only approve the following types of Work Products:

2.4.1 The following Standards Track Work Products:

  1. Committee Specification Draft,
  2. Committee Specification Public Review Draft,
  3. Committee Specification,
  4. Candidate OASIS Standard,
  5. Approved Errata.

OASIS Standards are approved by the organizational members of OASIS as described in this section.

Each of the progressions above must begin with step 1, and no step may be skipped. However, a TC is not required to progress a Work Product from one step to the next.

2.4.2 The following Non-Standards Track Work Products:

  1. Committee Note Draft
  2. Committee Note Public Review Draft
  3. Committee Note

Public reviews are optional for Committee Notes. A TC may approve a Committee Note without public review and request that the TC Administrator publish it to the OASIS Library. Approval of the draft shall require a Full Majority Vote of the TC. If a TC wishes to conduct public reviews before approving a Committee Note, the same procedures for approval and public review of a Committee Specification Draft as outlined in section 2.5 and section 2.6 apply.

A Committee Note is never progressed as an OASIS standard.

2.5 Approval of a Committee Specification Draft

The TC may at any stage during development of a Work Product approve a Working Draft as a Committee Specification Draft. Approval of these drafts shall require a Full Majority Vote of the TC. The TC may approve a Working Draft, revise it, and re-approve it any number of times as a Committee Specification Draft.

2.6 Public Review of a Committee Specification Draft

Before the TC can approve a Committee Specification Draft as a Committee Specification, the TC must conduct a public review of the work. The decision by the TC to submit the draft for public review requires a Full Majority Vote. The draft approved to go to review shall be called a Committee Specification Public Review Draft. The public review must be announced by the TC Administrator to the OASIS Membership, to any external stakeholders identified by the TC, and optionally to other public mail lists or other venues. The TC Administrator shall at the same time issue a call for IPR disclosure for the Committee Specification Draft.

Comments from non-TC Members must be collected via the TC’s archived public comment facility; comments made through any other means shall not be accepted. Comments made by Members of the TC must be made via the TC general email list. The TC must acknowledge the receipt of each comment, track the comments received, and post to its primary e-mail list its disposition of each comment after the end of the review period.

No changes may be made to the public review draft during a review. If the TC decides by Full Majority Vote that changes are required, the draft shall be withdrawn from review after the Chair informs the TC Administrator. The draft may be subsequently resubmitted by the TC for a new public review.

The TC may conduct any number of public reviews. The initial public review of a draft must take place for a minimum of 30 days, and any subsequent reviews must be held for a minimum of 15 days. Changes made to a committee draft after a review must be clearly identified in any subsequent review, and the subsequent review shall be limited in scope to changes made in the previous review. Before starting another review cycle the revisions must be re-approved as a Committee Specification Draft and then approved to go to public review by the TC.

If any changes that are Material are made to the draft after the public review then the TC must conduct another public review. The draft may not be considered for approval by the TC as a Committee Specification until it has undergone a review cycle during which it has received no comments that result in any changes that are Material.

If only Non-Material Changes are made to the draft after the public review, then the TC may proceed with the approval as a Committee Specification in accordance with Section 2.7 without conducting another public review cycle.

2.7 Approval of a Committee Specification

After the public review, the TC may approve the Committee Specification Draft as a Committee Specification. If any comments have been received during the most recent public review period, that vote may not commence any earlier than 7 days after the last day of that public review. The approval of a Committee Specification shall require a Special Majority Vote. The TC Chair shall notify the TC Administrator that the TC requests a Special Majority Vote for the advancement of the draft as a Committee Specification and provide to the TC Administrator any other required information. The TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot to approve the Committee Specification

If Non-Material Changes have been made to the draft since its last public review then the TC must provide an acceptable summary that is clear and comprehensible of the changes made since the last public review and a statement that the changes are all Non-Material to the TC Administrator. The TC Administrator shall announce the opening of the ballot to approve the draft to the OASIS Membership and optionally on other public mail lists along with the summary of changes and the TC’s statement. If any Eligible Person objects that the changes are not Non-Material before the ballot closes, the TC Administrator shall halt the ballot and require the TC to submit the draft for another public review cycle. If such objection is made after the ballot has closed, the TC Administrator shall reject it and the results of the ballot shall stand.

2.8 Approval of an OASIS Standard

Approval of an OASIS Standard is a multi-step process:

  1. Submission of a Candidate OASIS Standard (COS) to the TC Administrator,
  2. Completion of a public review lasting a minimum of 60 days, and
  3. A call for consent to approve the COS as OASIS Standard.
  4. A potential single, second call for consent after addressing negative comments.

2.8.1 Submission of a Candidate OASIS Standard

After the approval of a Committee Specification, and after three Statements of Use referencing the Committee Specification have been presented to the TC, a TC may resolve by Special Majority Vote to submit the Committee Specification as a Candidate OASIS Standard. At least one of the Statements of Use must come from an OASIS Organizational Member. The TC may decide to withdraw the submission, by Special Majority Vote, at any time until the final approval. The chair shall submit the request for the Special Majority Vote using the request mechanism designated by the OASIS TC Administrator.

No part of the submission may be changed or altered in any way after being submitted to the TC Administrator, including by Errata or corrigenda. Errata, corrigenda or other changes to a Candidate OASIS Standard are not permitted after its submission for OASIS Standard approval, except that changes which address comments associated with valid objections to a call for consent for OASIS Standard may be allowed as described in section 2.8.3 below.

2.8.2 Public Review of a Candidate OASIS Standard

A public review of the Candidate OASIS Standard shall be announced by the TC Administrator to the OASIS Membership list and optionally on other public mail lists. The public review shall remain open a minimum of 60 days.

Comments from non-TC Members must be collected via the TC’s archived public comment facility; comments made through any other means shall not be accepted. Comments made by Members of the TC must be made via the TC general email list. The TC must acknowledge the receipt of each comment, track the comments received, and post to its primary e-mail list the disposition of each comment at the end of the review period.

No changes may be made to the Candidate OASIS Standard during a review. If the TC decides by Full Majority Vote that changes are needed, then the specification must be withdrawn from review after the Chair informs the TC Administrator.

Upon completion of the public review, the Chair must notify the TC Administrator of the results.

  • If no comments were received, the TC Administrator must start the call for consent for OASIS Standard within 7 days of notification.
  • If comments were received, but no changes are to be made to the Candidate OASIS Standard, the Chair will request that the TC Administrator start a Special Majority Ballot for the TC to approve continuing with the OASIS Standard call for consent. The TC Administrator will begin said ballot within 7 days of receipt. Upon successful completion of that ballot, the TC Administrator will, within 7 days, begin the call for consent for OASIS Standard approval.
  • If comments were received and only Non-Material Changes are to be made to the Candidate OASIS Standard, the editor(s) may prepare a revised Candidate OASIS Standard. Changes may only be made to address the comments. The TC must provide an acceptable summary that is clear and comprehensible of the changes made and a statement that the TC judges the changes to be Non-Material to the TC Administrator and request a Special Majority Vote to proceed with the call for consent. The TC Administrator shall hold the Special Majority Vote and announce it to the OASIS membership and optionally on other public mail lists along with the summary of changes and the TC’s statement. If the Special Majority Vote passes, the TC Administrator must start the call for consent for OASIS Standard within 7 days of notification.
  • If comments were received and Material Changes are to be made to the Candidate OASIS Standard, the editors(s) may prepare a revised specification to be approved as a Committee Specification Draft by the TC and proceed with a subsequent Public Review as noted in Section 2.6. Before resubmission the specification must be approved as a Committee Specification.

2.8.3 Call for consent for OASIS Standard

In calling for consent to progress a Candidate OASIS Standard to OASIS Standard, each OASIS Organizational Member at the time of the call shall be entitled to express their consent. Consent shall be established using the publicly archived electronic voting facility supplied by OASIS.

An announcement will be sent to each member entitled to express their consent and shall specify the closing date and time for the consent period which must be open for at least 14 days. Eligible members are assumed to agree to consent and must explicitly use the voting facility if they wish to record an objection to the Candidate OASIS Standard’s progressing.

The TC shall be required to respond only to valid objections. In order to be considered valid, an objection must:

  1. Be entered on the electronic ballot prior to its closing, and
  2. Must be accompanied by a reason for the objection and/or a proposed remedy which would satisfy the objector, provided either on the ballot or publicly to the TC’s archived public comment facility or, for a TC Member, to the TC’s mailing list.

The TC Administrator shall make the final determination as to whether objections are valid or not.

Ballot results shall be publicly visible during the consent period. Eligible Members may change their opinion up until the end of the consent period. The results of a call for consent on a proposed standard shall be provided to the membership and to the TC no later than seven days following the close of the consent period.

If at the end of the consent period:

  1. There are no valid objections, the candidate OASIS Standard shall become an OASIS Standard.
  2. 15 or more of eligible OASIS Members have submitted valid objections, the Candidate OASIS Standard shall be deemed to have been rejected and shall not progress to OASIS Standard.
  3. There are valid objections amounting to less than 15 eligible OASIS Members, the TC shall have 30 days to try to resolve the objections or withdraw the submission. If the TC takes no formal action within this 30 day period, the Candidate OASIS Standard shall not progress to OASIS Standard.

If the TC chooses to attempt to resolve the objections, the TC shall be required to interact with each objector to discuss their objections and the proposed remedies. However, if an objector does not make himself available to meet with the TC or to provide written answers to questions from the TC within the 30 day period, the TC shall not be required to take further action on that objection. The TC shall not be required to make any changes to the Candidate OASIS Standard in response to specific objections nor shall they be required to satisfy any objector.

After meeting with the objectors and deciding how to resolve the objections, the TC shall prepare a comment resolution log, approve it by Full Majority Vote and submit it to the OASIS TC Administrator.

After submitting the comment resolution log to the OASIS TC Administrator, the TC shall have 30 days to take one of the following actions via Special Majority Vote:

  1. Withdraw the submission entirely.
  2. If no changes are made to the COS, request the TC Administrator to approve the submitted COS as an OASIS Standard despite the objections.
  3. Submit a Candidate OASIS Standard amended to address some or all of the issues raised by the objections and either:
    1. If no Material changes have been made to the COS, request the TC Administrator to approve the amended COS as an OASIS Standard, or
    2. If Material changes have been made to the COS, request a second call for consent to progress the amended COS to OASIS Standard.

The TC Administrator shall make the final determination as to whether changes to an amended COS are Material or Non-Material. If the TC Administrator deems any changes made to be Material, then a second call for consent shall be required. Decisions of the TC Administrator shall be subject to appeal as described in section 4.2 below.

A second call for consent shall be run in the same way as the initial call for consent with the exception that:

  1. If a valid objection from the first call for consent is substantively repeated, it shall not be counted as a valid objection for the second call for consent, and
  2. If Material changes are deemed necessary to satisfy valid objections to the second call for consent, the COS shall not become an OASIS standard.

A TC only gets one attempt to make Material changes in the consent process.

Failure of a call for consent for any reason shall not prevent a later version of the same specification from being submitted again as specified in this section.

2.9 Approved Errata

A TC may approve a set of Errata to an OASIS Standard that it developed as Approved Errata by:

  1. Adopting the set of proposed corrections as a Committee Specification Draft, in the form of a list of changes, and optionally accompanied by a copy of the original OASIS Standard text marked to incorporate the proposed changes,
  2. Confirming by Full Majority Vote that the proposed corrections do not constitute a Material Change,
  3. Submitting the proposed corrections for a 15-day public review, and completing that review, pursuant to Section 2.6, and
  4. After the public review, confirming the proposed corrections as Approved Errata by a Full Majority Vote.

Once approved, the Approved Errata shall be made available with the OASIS Standard it corrects, in any publication of that OASIS Standard.

A TC may not adopt Approved Errata to an OASIS Standard more than once in any six-month period.

Section 3. Board of Directors Involvement in the TC Process

3.1 OASIS TC Administrator

The OASIS TC Administrator shall act as the Technical Committee Liaison to the Board for the purpose of keeping the Board apprised of activities related to the TC Process. The specific duties of the TC Liaison shall be specified by the Board in consultation with the TC Administrator but shall, at a minimum, provide for the submission to the Board of a notice when a proposal has been received for the creation of a new TC and when a TC submits a Committee Specification as a Candidate OASIS Standard. Such notice shall be delivered via email to the Board immediately upon the receipt of the submission by the TC Administrator. The TC Administrator shall also send a copy of proposals for the creation of new TCs to the Technical Advisory Board (TAB) for their comment.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this TC Process, upon majority vote of the members of the Board at a meeting thereof duly called and constituted, the creation of a new TC may be prevented, or a proposed OASIS Standard may be withheld from voting by OASIS Membership; the proposal or the submission shall be returned to the proposers or the sponsoring TC for additional consideration, with an explanation of the reasons for such action.

The Board of Directors may amend this TC Process at any time and from time to time at its sole discretion.

3.2 Appeals

Any Eligible Person who believes that:

  • an action taken or not taken by or with respect to TCs, or
  • an action taken or not taken by the TC Administrator,

is in violation of the procedures set forth in this TC Process or OASIS policies specified by the OASIS Board of Directors, may appeal such action or inaction.

Appellants shall file a complaint within 30 days of the action being appealed or at any time with respect to an inaction. The complaint shall state the nature of the objection(s), including any direct and material adverse effects upon the appellants; the section(s) of this TC Process or OASIS policies at issue; the actions or inactions at issue; and the specific remedial action(s) that would satisfy the appellants’ concerns. Previous efforts to resolve the objection(s) and the outcome of each shall be noted.

Appeals regarding actions or inactions of a TC must be made to the TC Administrator.

Appeals regarding actions or inactions of the TC Administrator must be made to the OASIS Board of Directors.

In the case of an appeal to the TC Administrator: within 15 days of receipt of the complaint, the TC Administrator shall provide a copy of the complaint to the TC; and within 30 days of such receipt, shall render a decision, with a copy to the TC.

In the case of an appeal to the OASIS Board of Directors: such appeal, in order to be valid, shall be sent to the board comment list (oasis-board-comment@lists.oasis-open.org) and the relevant TC(s). The Board shall hold a hearing (with the appellants invited) within 45 days of receipt of the appeal. The Board shall render its decision within 30 days of the hearing. The decision of the Board shall be final.

The OASIS Board of Directors has the authority to effect such remedial action as may be necessary to remedy a complaint brought under this TC Process.

Section 4. Application to Existing TCs

This TC Process applies to previously established TCs upon its adoption.