Technical Committee (TC) Process (30 July 2009)
Table of Contents
1. Definitions 2. Technical Committees 2.1 TC Discussion Lists 2.2 TC Formation 2.3 First Meeting of a TC 2.4 TC Membership and Participation 2.5 Termination of TC Membership 2.6 Leaves of Absence 2.7 TC Chairs 2.8 TC Visibility 2.9 TC Procedure 2.10 TC Meetings 2.11 TC Charter Clarification 2.12 TC Rechartering 2.13 TC Voting 2.14 TC Subcommittees 2.15 Closing a TC 2.16 Reserved 2.17 Intellectual Property Rights Procedures 2.18 Specification Quality 2.19 Designated Cross-Reference Changes 3. Standards Approval Process 3.1 Approval of a Committee Draft 3.2 Public Review 3.3 Approval of a Committee Specification 3.4 Approval of an OASIS Standard 3.5 Approved Errata 4. Board of Directors Involvement in the Standards Process 4.1 OASIS TC Administrator 4.2 Appeals 5.0 Application to Existing TCs
Section 1. Definitions
- “Approved Errata” shall have the meaning defined in Section 3.5.
- “Charter” is the organizational document for a TC comprised of the items included in the proposal to form that TC, as defined in Section 2.2, and may be modified as described in Section 2.11.
- “Committee Draft” is an interim document approved by a Technical Committee as specified in Section 3.
- “Committee Specification” is a Public Review Draft that has completed public review and achieved final approval by a Technical Committee as specified in Section 3.
- “Convener” is an Eligible Person who serves in the role of organizing the first meeting of the TC, as defined in Section 2.3.
- “Eligible Person” means one of a class of individuals that includes (a) OASIS Individual Members, (b) employees or designees of OASIS Organizational Members, and (c) such other persons as may be designated by the OASIS Board of Directors.
- “Errata” means a set of changes or proposed changes to a specification that are not Substantive Changes.
- “Full Majority Vote” is a TC vote in which more than 50% (more than half) of the Voting Members vote “yes”, regardless of the number of Voting Members present in the meeting. Abstentions are not counted. For example, in a TC in which there are 20 Voting Members, at least 11 Voting Members must vote “yes” for a motion to pass.
- “IPR” means intellectual property rights.
- “Leave of Absence” shall have the meaning defined in Section 2.6.
- “Meeting” is a meeting of the TC that is properly called and scheduled in advance as described in Section 2.10.
- “Member”, with respect to a TC, means an Eligible Person who is allowed to subscribe to the TC email list, participate in list discussions, attend and participate in TC meetings, and make Contributions to the TC. The process for becoming a Member of a TC is defined in Section 2.4.
- “Minimum Membership” means five Voting Members of a TC (or, in the case of a TC about to be formed, five Eligible Persons), at least two of which represent OASIS Organizational Members.
- “Normative Portion” shall have the meaning defined for such term by the OASIS IPR Policy.
- “Normative Reference” means a reference in a specification to an external document or resource with which the implementer must comply, in order to comply with a Normative Portion of the specification.
- “OASIS Draft Deliverable” means any of the following: Working Drafts, Committee Drafts and Public Review Drafts.
- “OASIS Final Deliverable” means any of the following: Committee Specifications, OASIS Standards and Approved Errata.
- “OASIS Individual Member” means an OASIS Member who is classified as such in their executed Membership Agreement.
- “OASIS Member” means a person, organization or entity who is a voting or non-voting member of the corporation, as defined by the OASIS Bylaws.
- “OASIS Organizational Member” means an OASIS Member who is classified as such in their executed Membership Agreement.
- “OASIS Standard” is a Committee Specification that has been submitted by a Technical Committee and reviewed and approved by the OASIS Membership as specified in Section 3.
- “OASIS TC Administrator” means the person or persons representing OASIS in administrative matters relating to TCs. All official communications must be sent to tc-admin@oasis-open.org.
- “Observer” is an Eligible Person who is subscribed to the TC email list, and may attend TC meetings, but is not allowed to participate in TC email list discussions, participate or speak in TC meetings, or make Contributions to the TC. The process for becoming an Observer is defined in Section 2.4.
- “Persistent Non-Voting Member” is a TC Member who has declared their non-voting status in that TC. The process for becoming a Persistent Non-Voting Member of a TC is defined in Section 2.4.
- “Primary Representative”, for any OASIS Organizational Member, means the person or persons designated by that Member to serve as the consortium’s principal contact for administrative issues.
- “Public” and “publicly” mean all persons, organizations and entities, whether or not OASIS Members.
- “Public Review Draft” is a Committee Draft that has been approved by the TC to go to public review as specified in Section 3 of this Process.
- “Quorum” is the number of Voting Members of a TC that must be present in a meeting so that Resolutions and decisions may be made. The Quorum for OASIS TC meetings is a simple majority (more than half) of Voting Members.
- “Quorate Meeting” is a TC meeting at which a Quorum is present.
- “Resolution” means a decision reached by a TC by vote. Resolutions require a Simple Majority Vote to pass, unless a Full Majority Vote or Special Majority Vote is required under this Process.
- “Simple Majority Vote” is a vote in which the number of “yes” votes cast is greater than the number of “no” votes cast. Abstentions are not counted. For example, in a quorate meeting in which 20 Voting Members are present, if 7 vote “yes” and 4 vote “no”, the motion passes.
- “Special Majority Vote” is a TC vote in which at least 2/3 (two thirds) of the Voting Members vote ” yes” and no more than 1/4 (one fourth) of the Voting Members vote “no”. These numbers are based on the total number of Voting Members. Abstentions are not counted. For example, in a TC in which there are 30 Voting Members, at least 20 Voting Members must vote “yes” for a motion to pass; but if 8 or more vote “no” then the motion fails. All Special Majority Votes must be conducted via electronic ballot by the OASIS TC Administrator.
- “Specification Approval Motion” is any motion to initiate a TC ballot to advance the status of a specification, including the approval of a Committee Draft, the approval of a Public Review Draft (initiating a Public Review), the approval of a Committee Specification, and the submission by the TC of a Committee Specification to OASIS for approval as an OASIS Standard.
- “Specification Ballot” is any ballot on the approval of the technical content of a document work within the TC, such as the approval of a Committee Draft, start of Public Review, approval of Committee Specification, or submission of a Committee Specification to OASIS for approval as an OASIS Standard.
- “Statement of Use”, with respect to a specification, is a written statement by an OASIS Organizational Member stating that it is successfully using or implementing that specification in accordance with the conformance clauses specified in Section 2.18, and stating whether its use included the interoperation of multiple independent implementations.
- “Subcommittee”(or “SC”) is a group of Members of a TC producing recommendations for consideration by the parent TC.
- “Substantive Change” is a change to a specification that would require a compliant application or implementation to be modified or rewritten in order to remain compliant.
- “Technical Committee” (or “TC”) means a group comprised of at least the Minimum Membership formed and conducted according to the provisions of this OASIS TC Process.
- “Voting Member” is a Member of a TC who has voting rights in the TC. The process for gaining voting rights is defined in Section 2.4.
- “Working Draft” is any version of a specification or other document produced by the TC which has not yet received any level of approval from the TC.
The use of the term “day” or “days” in this TC Process refers to calendar days.
Section 2. Technical Committees
Any group of at least three Eligible Persons may begin a publicly subscribable discussion list for the purpose of forming a TC by submitting to the OASIS TC Administrator the following items:
(1) The name of the discussion list, which shall not be the same as the name of the list in which the TC itself shall operate if formed.
(2) A preliminary statement of scope for the TC whose formation the list is intended to discuss.
(3) The names, electronic mail addresses, and OASIS Organizational or Individual Membership affiliations of the three or more Eligible Persons proposing to create the discussion list.
(4) The name of the discussion list leader.
No later than 15 days following the submission, the OASIS TC Administrator shall provide these materials to the OASIS Membership with a Call For Participation in a discussion list whose purpose is to propose the TC described in the application.
Discussion on the list is restricted to evaluating the interest in proposing a new OASIS TC, and defining the proposal for one or more new OASIS TCs. The list of subscribers to the discussion list shall be available to all subscribers. The discussion list shall automatically close 90 days after the Call For Participation is issued.
Any group of at least Minimum Membership shall be authorized to begin a TC by submitting to the OASIS TC Administrator, with a copy to those listed in 2(d) and 2(e) below, the following items, written in English and provided in electronic form as plain text. No information other than these items may be included in the proposal. All items must be provided in any subsequent revision of the proposal, and must be submitted in the same manner as the original submission.
(1) The Charter of the TC, which includes only the following items:
(1)(a) The name of the TC, such name not to have been previously used for an OASIS TC and not to include any trademarks or service marks not owned by OASIS. The proposed TC name is subject to TC Administrator approval and may not include any misleading or inappropriate names. The proposed name must specify any acronyms or abbreviations of the name that shall be used to refer to the TC.
(1)(b) A statement of purpose, including a definition of the problem to be solved.
(1)(c) The scope of the work of the TC, which must be germane to the mission of OASIS, and which includes a definition of what is and what is not the work of the TC, and how it can be determined when the work of the TC has been completed. The scope may reference a specific contribution of existing work as a starting point, but other contributions may be made by TC Members on or after the first meeting of the TC. Such other contributions shall be considered by the TC Members on an equal basis to improve the original starting point contribution.
(1)(d) A list of deliverables, with projected completion dates.
(1)(e) Specification of the IPR Mode under which the TC will operate.
(1)(f) The anticipated audience or users of the work.
(1)(g) The language in which the TC shall conduct business.
(2) Non-normative information regarding the startup of the TC, which includes:
(2)(a) Identification of similar or applicable work that is being done in other OASIS TCs or by other organizations, why there is a need for another effort in this area and how this proposed TC will be different, and what level of liaison will be pursued with these other organizations.
(2)(b) The date, time, and location of the first meeting, whether it will be held in person or by telephone, and who will sponsor this first meeting. The first meeting of a TC shall occur no less than 30 days after the announcement of its formation in the case of a meeting held exclusively by telephone or other electronic means, and no less than 45 days after the announcement of its formation in the case of a meeting held face-to-face (whether or not a telephone bridge is also available).
(2)(c) The projected on-going meeting schedule for the year following the formation of the TC, or until the projected date of the final deliverable, whichever comes first, and who will be expected to sponsor these meetings.
(2)(d) The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership affiliations of at least Minimum Membership who support this proposal and are committed to the Charter and projected meeting schedule.
(2)(e) For each OASIS Organizational Member listed in (2)(d), the name, electronic mail address, membership affiliation, and statement of support for the proposed Charter from the Primary Representative.
(2)(f) The name of the Convener who must be an Eligible Person.
(2)(g) The name of the Member Section with which the TC intends to affiliate, if any.
(2)(h) Optionally, a list of contributions of existing technical work that the proposers anticipate will be made to this TC.
(2)(i) Optionally, a draft Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document regarding the planned scope of the TC, for posting on the TC’s website.
(2)(j) Optionally, a proposed working title and acronym for the specification(s) to be developed by the TC.
No later than 5 days following the submission, 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.
The notice will announce that comments will be received until the 14th day after the notice, and will announce a date within 4 days of that 14th day for 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.
The proposer group may amend their submission at any time until the 28th day after the submission (except that changes to the roster of proposers may occur at any time until the final posting). By the 28th day the proposer group must post a pointer to an account of each of the comments / issues raised during that review, along with its resolution.
No later than the 30th day after the submission, if those pointers have been posted, and the last version of the submission from the proposer group meets the requirements of these rules, the OASIS TC Administrator must post them to the OASIS Membership with a Call For Participation and an announcement of a first meeting. Otherwise, the Convener may obtain a single 10-day extension for posting a compliant proposal with the OASIS TC Administrator.
Eligible Persons intending to participate in the first meeting must use the OASIS collaborative tools to register as a TC Member, and to specify whether they intend to gain voting rights, no later than 7 days prior to a meeting held exclusively by telephone (or other electronic means) or 15 days prior to a face to face meeting. No later than 7 days prior to the meeting, the OASIS TC Administrator will 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.
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 so registered, requested voting rights, 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.
The first meeting of a TC must occur at the place and time and in the manner described in the announcement. Any initial 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 Section 4.2.
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 and shall be closed.
At the first meeting 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.
2.4. TC Membership and Participation
TC membership is per person, not per organization, and is not transferable from person to person.
2.4.1 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.
2.4.2 Member: Any time after the first meeting, an Eligible Person shall become a Member of an existing TC 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 Member shall become eligible to vote in the TC when the requirements below are met.
2.4.3 Persistent Non-Voting Member: A Member or Voting Member may, at any time after joining a Technical Committee, send e-mail to both the Chair and the TC mailing list informing them of their change in membership status, effective as of the date of notice, or other specified future date. 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 2.4.4(c) as if they had lost their voting rights due to non-attendance.
2.4.4 Voting Member:
(a) After the first Meeting of a TC, a Member shall gain voting rights at the close of the second consecutive Meeting attended by the Member or, if less than two Meetings are called within 60 days after the person becomes a Member, at the close of that 60th day. OASIS Individual Members and the representatives of OASIS Organizational Members are equally eligible to serve as Voting Members of a TC.
(b) A Voting Member must be active in a TC to maintain voting rights. In TCs that hold Meetings, a Voting Member who is absent from two consecutive Meetings (as recorded in the minutes) loses his or her 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 Specification Ballots loses his or her voting rights at the close of the second ballot missed.
(c) A TC Member who has lost his or her voting rights shall regain them for a TC that holds Meetings by attending two consecutive Meetings (as recorded in the minutes), thus regaining voting rights after the end of the second Meeting attended or, if less than two Meetings are called within 60 days after the loss of such rights, at the close of that 60th day. A Member of a TC that does not hold Meetings may regain voting rights by making a request to the chair(s) to regain them, effective at the close of the 60th day after the request.
(d) Voting Members who lose their voting rights remain Members of the TC. A warning may be sent to the Member by the Chair, but the loss of voting rights is not dependent on the warning.
2.5 Termination of TC Membership
Except as provided in Section 2.6, membership in an OASIS TC shall be terminated under the following conditions:
(1) A Member shall be considered to have resigned from a TC upon his sending notification of resignation to the TC general email list.
(2) Persons who lose Eligible Person status for reasons including, but not limited to, change of employment shall have up to 15 days of TC membership as an OASIS Individual Member in which to request a Leave of Absence or re-establish eligibility. A Member shall lose TC membership on the 16th day after losing Eligible Person status or at the end of a Leave of Absence requested as specified in Section 2.6 if Eligible Person status has not been re-established.
Termination of membership in an OASIS TC shall automatically end voting rights in the TC as well as membership in any subcommittee of that TC.
Every Voting Member of an OASIS TC shall be entitled to at least one Leave of Absence during any one twelve month period. During a Leave of Absence, a Voting Member shall be exempt from the participation criteria specified in Section 2.4. A first Leave of Absence during any one twelve month period shall be obtained automatically by sending an e-mail to both the Chair and the TC mailing list. The Chair must notify the TC of all Leaves of Absence by reporting them in the minutes of the TC’s next meeting.
A Voting Member who has already been granted a Leave of Absence during any twelve month period may apply for a maximum of one additional Leave of Absence during the same twelve month period, but a second Leave of Absence during any twelve month period shall be granted only upon formal Resolution of the TC.
A Voting Member of a TC who has been granted a Leave of Absence shall not have voting rights in the TC and all of its subcommittees for the duration of the Leave; voting rights shall resume immediately upon the person returning from Leave.
The length of a Leave of Absence shall be specified in advance by the Voting Member requesting it and shall not exceed 45 days. A Leave of Absence shall begin no earlier than seven days after the date upon which the request was delivered to the Chair of the TC and shall end on the date specified, or at the beginning of the first TC meeting or subcommittee meeting attended after the Leave begins, or upon transmittal of the first mail ballot returned after the Leave begins, whichever comes first. Time allocated for a Leave of Absence but not used due to early resumption of participation cannot be carried over into another Leave.
Each TC must have a Chair. Only Members and Voting Members of the TC are eligible to be Chair or co-Chair. The TC Chair is initially elected at the first meeting. The Chair is elected by Full Majority Vote of the TC. If the TC does not have a Chair then all TC activities, with the exception of the selection of a new Chair, are suspended; if the TC does not have a Chair for 120 days, the TC Administrator must close the TC.
The responsibilities of Chair of a TC may be discharged by no more than two co-Chairs. In the event that the Chair position is so shared each co-Chair is equally responsible for the Chair duties and responsibilities. Throughout this TC Process, whenever a notification to the TC Chair is required this must be made to both co-Chairs.
A TC Chair may be removed by action of the Board of Directors or by a Special Majority Vote of the TC. In the event that a TC has co-Chairs each may be removed individually or both may be removed by a single action.
A vacancy in chairing a TC shall be deemed to exist when (i) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs has been removed, (ii) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs has resigned the position, or (iii) the Chair or one or both co-Chairs ceases to be a Member of the TC. Vacancies in chairing a TC shall be filled by election from the TC Members; the TC may elect at any time by vote to elect a co-Chair, if only one Chair is seated, or to leave a second seat vacant. Any TC chair or co-chair election shall be by Full Majority Vote of the TC, with each winning candidate having received a full majority vote regardless of the number of candidates.
The same provisions regarding Leaves of Absence shall apply to the Chair or co-Chair of a TC as to the other TC Members, and additionally the Chair must notify both the OASIS TC Administrator and the TC at least 30 days prior to any non-emergency leave of absence.
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.
Mail Lists: Each TC shall be provided upon formation with a general discussion email list and a means to collect public comments. Subscription to the general email list shall be required for Members, Voting Members, and Observers of the TC.
The minutes of each TC meeting and a record of all decisions shall be published to that TC’s general email list. All official communications and discussions of the TC must take place on the email list. All TC email lists shall be archived for the duration of the corporation, and all TC email archives shall be publicly visible.
The purpose of the TC’s public comment facility is to receive comments from the public and is not for public discussion. Comments shall be publicly archived, and shall be forwarded to one or more Members of the TC including the TC Chair. TCs shall not be required to respond to comments. Comments to the TC made by Members of the TC must be made via the TC general email list, and comments made by non-TC members, including from the public, must be made via the TC’s comment facility. Comments shall not be accepted via any other means.
Web Pages: The OASIS TC Administrator shall provide the TC with a publicly accessible web page. The TC must keep the following information current on the TC web page: the TC name and Charter; standing rules and other adopted procedures; meeting schedule; anticipated deliverables and delivery dates; list of TC Members; the name and email address of the TC Chair or co-Chairs as well as other positions such as secretary, editor, etc. that may exist; list of subcommittees, their deliverables, and members; links to a repository of the draft and completed TC documents with identification of the latest versions of the TC’s specifications; and a link to the IPR declarations for that TC.
Announcements: The OASIS TC Administrator shall create a publicly archived list for announcements from the OASIS TC Administrator regarding TCs. Any Eligible Person shall be able to subscribe to this list. Every important change in TC status shall be posted to the announcement list; such changes shall include but not be limited to the following: TC formation; TC Charter revision; start of Public Review; approval of Committee Specifications; submission of a Committee Specification as a proposed OASIS Standard; approval or rejection of a proposed OASIS Standard; and closure of a TC.
The operation of TCs shall be governed by Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, insofar as such rules are not inconsistent with or in conflict with this TC Process, the OASIS IPR Policy, the OASIS Bylaws, other Board-approved policies, or with provisions of law. The duration of a TC shall be considered a single session. Formal actions of TCs shall be governed by the same rules regardless of the language in which the work is taking place.
Standing rules may be adopted, amended, or rescinded by Full Majority Vote of the TC. The TC may not adopt standing rules or other Resolutions related to IPR, quorum requirements, membership, voting, participation, or that otherwise conflict with or supersede any OASIS Board-approved policy. Standing rules, and any amendments to them, must be communicated to the TC Administrator, who may rescind them if they are in conflict with OASIS policy, and, in order to be enforceable, must be published on the TC’s web page.
TC meetings must be properly called and scheduled in advance using the OASIS electronic collaborative tools. Meetings scheduled or conducted in such a manner as to exclude the participation of any Member is subject to appeal. Meetings may be conducted face-to-face or via telephone conference or other electronic media that allow participation of all Members of the TC. In order to enable the openness of TC proceedings, meetings should be scheduled and conducted so as to permit the presence of as many TC Observers as is logistically feasible. Meeting minutes must be recorded and published to the TC’s general email list and referenced on the TC web page.
Without a quorum present discussions may take place but no business may be conducted; those present may act as a “Committee of the Whole” as defined in Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, and make a report to the entire TC. Attendance must be recorded in the meeting minutes. Meetings without quorum shall still count towards attendance for purposes of Members gaining, maintaining, or losing voting rights.
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 TC may not broaden or otherwise change its scope of the topic of work. 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 clarification of the Charter may occur no earlier than the first meeting of the TC. The TC Chair shall notify the TC Administrator that a motion has been made to clarify the Charter, and the TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot.
The TC Administrator may prevent the proposed clarification from coming to vote if it is not in conformance with OASIS policies. The TC Administrator must within 15 days 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 and announced by the TC Administrator. The TC Administrator shall publicize approved changes as specified in Section 2.8 and any revisable publicly visible description (e.g., web page) promulgated by the TC shall be updated to reflect such changes.
A TC may be rechartered for purposes of expanding the scope of the TC. The TC shall retain the name of the predecessor, and all email lists and archives, web pages, etc. shall move from the predecessor TC to the rechartered TC. However, any Contributions made to the previous TC must be recontributed.
The rechartering may not change the IPR Mode of the TC; if a different IPR Mode is required then a new TC (with a unique name) must be formed.
A proposal to recharter the TC must be submitted to the TC Administrator, which proposal shall be in all respects the same as a proposal to form a new TC with the exception that the TC name and IPR Mode shall be the same as the predecessor TC. The TC Administrator shall reply to the proposers within 15 days, and if the proposal is complete shall schedule a ballot. Approval for rechartering shall require a Special Majority Vote of the TC being rechartered.
Upon approval of the ballot, the TC Administrator shall announce the newly rechartered TC in the same manner as a new TC Membership in the rechartered TC shall be determined in the same manner as for a new TC. The predecessor TC shall be closed at the end of the day prior to the date of the first meeting of the rechartered TC. The time period for determining Members’ Participation Obligation shall restart at the first meeting of the new TC.
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 notify the TC Administrator that a motion has been made which requires a Special Majority Vote, and the TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot.
Eligibility: A Member of a TC must have voting rights to make or second a motion, and 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.
Electronic 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. The minimum period allowed for electronic voting shall be seven days; the TC may specify a longer voting period for a particular electronic ballot. Any Specification Ballot conducted as an electronic ballot must permit each voter to choose “yes”, “no” or “abstain.”
A motion to open an electronic ballot must be made in a TC meeting unless the TC has adopted a standing rule to allow this motion to be made on the TC’s general email list. When such a rule has been adopted, motions made on the mail list must also be seconded and discussed on that list.
The TC may by Resolution create a subcommittee (SC). The Resolution must be minuted, and must include the name, statement of purpose, list of deliverables, and name of the Chair of the SC. All of these items must fall within the Charter of the TC and conform to OASIS policy.
The deliverables of the SC are made only to the TC. 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.
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 Section 2.7.
The TC Administrator may close a TC that fails to conduct at least one Quorate Meeting or conduct any Specification 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.
2.17 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.
All documents and other files produced by the TC, including specifications at any level of approval, must use the OASIS file naming scheme, and must include the OASIS copyright notice. All document files must be written using the OASIS document authoring templates, which shall be published and maintained by the TC Administrator. The name of any specification may not include any trademarks or service marks not owned by OASIS.
A specification that is approved by the TC at the 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).
A specification that is approved by the TC at any level must include a list of people who participated in the development of the specification. This list shall be initially compiled by the Chair, and any Member of the TC may add or remove their names from the list by request.
A specification that is approved by the TC at any level must clearly indicate whether each reference in the specification to a document or artifact is a Normative Reference.
Editable formats of all versions of TC documents must be delivered to the TC’s document repository. TC Working Drafts may be in any format (i.e. produced by any application). All TC-approved versions of documents (i.e. Committee Drafts, Public Review Drafts, and Committee Specifications) must be delivered to the TC’s document repository in the (1) editable source, (2) HTML or XHTML, and (3) PDF formats; and the TC must explicitly designate one of those delivered formats as the authoritative document. Any links published by the TC shall be to the HTML, XHTML and/or PDF formats stored using repositories and domain names owned by OASIS and as approved by the TC Administrator.
All normative computer language definitions that are part of the specification, such as XML instances, schemas and Java(TM) code, including fragments of such, must be well-formed and valid, and must be provided in separate plain text files. Each text file must be referenced from the specification. Where any definition in these separate files disagrees with the definition found in the specification, the definition in the separate file prevails.
A specification may be composed of any number of files of different types, though any such multi-part specification must have a single specification name and version number. Irrespective of the number and status of the constituent parts, the specification as a whole must be approved by a single TC ballot.
Any change made to a specification requires a new version or revision number, except for changes made to (a) the approval status, (b) the date, (c) the URIs of the specification as appropriate, (d) the running header/footer, and (e) any approved Designated Cross-Reference Changes, all of which must be made after the approval of the specification as a Committee Draft, Committee Specification, or OASIS Standard.
2.19 Designated Cross-Reference Changes
A TC wishing to update the Normative References or Non-Normative References in one of its OASIS specifications to reflect the outcome of a pending status change in another OASIS specification may do so, by adopting a “Designated Cross-Reference Change” as part of its Specification Approval Motion, which must include: (a) a list designating each of the other OASIS specifications (including version number) that are referenced by that Specification and whose cross-references should conditionally be updated; (b) a reference to this Section 2.19; and (c) an acknowledgement that approval and publication of the specification may be delayed by the Designated Cross-Reference Changes.
The text of a proposed Designated Cross-Reference Change to a specification shall only include for each cross-referenced specification:
- the current name, version and revision number;
- the current URI
- the expected approval status; and
- the expected approval dateof the cross-referenced specification.
The effectiveness of a proposed Designated Cross-Reference Change in a specification is conditioned on the resolution of the expected approval action for each cross-referenced specification. Therefore, if a Specification Approval Motion includes proposed Designated Cross-Reference Changes, the effectiveness of the subject specification’s approval will be delayed until the resolution of all other cross-referenced specification approval actions. The TC Administrator will withhold announcement and certification of the specification itself until all such cross-referenced resolutions are complete.
If the Specification Approval Motion (which includes Designated Cross-Reference Changes) passes, then, when the last cross-referenced approval is resolved, the final approved version will be published with all of its conditional descriptions of the cross-referenced specifications updated to reflect their correct status at that time.
Section 3. Standards Approval Process
3.1 Approval of a Committee Draft
The TC may at any stage during development of a specification approve the specification as a Committee Draft. The approval of a Committee Draft shall require a Full Majority Vote of the TC. The TC may approve a specification, revise it, and re-approve it any number of times as a Committee Draft.
Before the TC can approve its Committee Draft as a Committee Specification the TC must conduct a public review of the work. The decision by the TC to submit the specification for public review requires a Full Majority Vote, and must be accompanied by a recommendation from the TC of external stakeholders who should be notified of the review. The Committee Draft approved to go to review shall be called a Public Review Draft. The public review must be announced by the TC Administrator to the OASIS Membership list and optionally on other public mail lists; the TC Administrator shall at the same time issue a call for IPR disclosure.
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. The TC must acknowledge the receipt of each comment, track the comments received, and publish 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 Public Review Draft during a review. If changes are required the specification must be withdrawn from review then resubmitted.
The TC may conduct any number of review cycles (i.e. approval to send a Committee Draft to Public Review, collecting comments, making edits to the specification, etc.). The first public review of a specification must take place for a minimum of 60 days, and any subsequent reviews must be held for a minimum of 15 days. Changes made to a specification 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 specification must be re-approved as a Committee Draft and then approved to go to public review by the TC.
If Substantive Changes are made to the specification after the public review, whether as a result of public review comments or from TC Member input, then the TC must conduct another review cycle. The specification 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 Substantive Changes to the specification.
3.3 Approval of a Committee Specification
After the public review of a Public Review Draft the TC may approve the specification 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 is ready to vote on the approval of the specification, and provide to the TC Administrator the location of the editable versions of the specification files. The TC Administrator shall set up and conduct the ballot to approve the Committee Specification.
3.4 Approval of an OASIS Standard
Simultaneously with the approval of a Committee Specification or at a later date, and after three Statements of Use have been presented to the TC, a TC may resolve by Special Majority Vote to submit the Committee Specification to the Membership of OASIS for consideration as an OASIS Standard. Upon resolution of the TC to submit the specification, its Chair shall submit the following items to the TC Administrator:
(a) Links to the approved Committee Specification in the TC’s document repository, and any appropriate supplemental documentation for the specification, both of which must be written using the OASIS templates. The specification may not have been changed between its approval as a Committee Specification and its submission to OASIS for consideration as an OASIS Standard, except for the changes on the title page and running footer noting the approval status and date.
(b) The editable version of all files that are part of the Committee Specification;
(c) Certification by the TC that all schema and XML instances included in the specification, whether by inclusion or reference, including fragments of such, are well formed, and that all expressions are valid;
(d) A clear English-language summary of the specification;
(e) A statement regarding the relationship of this specification to similar work of other OASIS TCs or other standards developing organizations;
(f) The Statements of Use presented above;
(g) The beginning and ending dates of the public review(s), a pointer to the announcement of the public review(s), and a pointer to an account of each of the comments/issues raised during the public review period(s), along with its resolution;
(h) An account of and results of the voting to approve the specification as a Committee Specification, including the date of the ballot and a pointer to the ballot;
(i) An account of or pointer to votes and comments received in any earlier attempts to standardize substantially the same specification, together with the originating TC’s response to each comment;
(j) A pointer to the publicly visible comments archive for the originating TC;
(k) A pointer to any minority reports delivered by one or more Members who did not vote in favor of approving the Committee Specification, which report may include statements regarding why the member voted against the specification or that the member believes that Substantive Changes were made which have not gone through public review; or certification by the Chair that no minority reports exist.
The above submission must be made by the 15th of any month to the TC Administrator, who shall have until the end of the month to complete administrative processing and checking for completeness and correctness of the submission. If the submission is incomplete it shall be rejected but may be resubmitted at a later time.
The TC that originated the specification may resolve by Special Majority Vote to withdraw the proposed specification at any point after it is submitted to the TC Administrator for administrative processing and before the start of the voting period. 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 Committee Specification are not permitted after its submission for OASIS Standard approval; if changes are required the Committee Specification must be withdrawn by the TC, edited, re-approved as a Committee Specification, and then may be resubmitted as a proposed OASIS Standard. Proposed changes of any kind to a Committee Draft or Committee Specification may be maintained by a Technical Committee, but do not have any approval status until incorporated into a revised Committee Draft or Committee Specification.
The TC Administrator shall submit the proposal to the OASIS Membership by the first day of the following month. The first 15 days of that month shall be used by the membership to familiarize themselves with the submission. Voting shall start on the 16th of the month. The voting representatives of those OASIS Organizational Members who were members at the beginning of the familiarization period are eligible to vote, and must cast their ballots by the end of the month.
In votes upon proposed OASIS Standards, each OASIS Organizational Member shall be entitled to cast one vote. Votes shall be cast via the publicly archived electronic voting facility supplied by OASIS. Ballots shall be publicly visible during voting and may be changed up until the end of the voting period. The results of a vote on a proposed standard shall be provided to the membership and to the TC no later than seven days following the close of the voting period.
If at the end of the voting period at least 15 percent of the voting OASIS Membership has voted to approve the proposed standard, and if no votes have been cast to disapprove the proposed standard, it shall become an OASIS Standard immediately following the end of the voting period. If negative votes have been cast amounting to 25 percent or more of the votes cast, or if less than 15 percent of the voting OASIS Membership has cast positive votes to approve the proposed standard, the ballot is deemed to have failed and the submission fails.
However, if negative votes are cast amounting to less than 25 percent of the votes that have been cast, the TC shall be notified of the negative votes, after which the TC shall have 30 days to take one of the following actions by Resolution of a Special Majority Vote: (a) request the TC Administrator to approve the specification as submitted despite the negative votes; (b) withdraw the submission entirely; or (c) submit an amended specification, in which case the amended submission shall be considered as if it were a new submission, except that information regarding previous votes and any disposition of comments received in previous votes shall accompany the amended submission. If the originating TC upon notification of negative votes takes no formal action within the 30 days allocated for consideration of the results, then the specification shall not become an OASIS Standard.
Failure of a ballot for any reason shall not prevent a later version of the same specification from being submitted again as specified in this section.
A TC may approve a set of Errata to an OASIS Standard as “Approved Errata” to the corrected specification by:
(a) Adopting the set of proposed corrections as a Committee Draft, in the form of a list of changes, and optionally accompanied by a copy of the original specification text marked to incorporate the proposed changes.
(b) Confirming by Full Majority Vote that the proposed corrections do not constitute a Substantive Change.
(c) Submitting the proposed corrections for a 15-day public review, and completing that review, pursuant to Section 3.2.
(d) After the public review, confirming the proposed corrections as Approved Errata by a Full Majority Vote.
Once approved, the Approved Errata shall be with the specification it corrects, in any publication of that specification. Disposition of Approved Errata must be identified in the subsequent Public Review Draft of the corrected specification.
A TC may not adopt Approved Errata to an OASIS Standard more than once in any consecutive six-month period.
Section 4. Board of Directors Involvement in the Standards Process
The “OASIS TC Administrator,” as defined in Section 1 of this TC Process, 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 to OASIS for consideration as an 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.
Any group of three or more Eligible Persons who believe that
- an action taken or not taken by or with respect to TCs, or
- actions 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. 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.
5.0. Application to Existing TCs
This TC Process applies to previously established TCs upon its adoption.
Dates Approved: Thu, 2009-07-30 Effective: Mon, 2008-09-01