Report of June X3L8 Special Interest Group Meeting

Meeting Notes

X3L8 Special Interest Group Meeting

Held at the Information Technology Industry (ITI) Council

June 10 and 11, 1996

Attendees:

Bruce Bargmeyer, Environmental Protection Agency

Phil Diamond, Veterans Administration

Dan Gillman, Bureau of the Census

Paul Hawes, Bellcore

Henry Heffernan, EDPNS

William Kenworthey, Jr., Self

Doug Mann, Pacific Northwest Laboratory

John McCarthy, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (by telecon)

Judith Newton, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Phong Ngo, Science Applications International Corporation

Frank Olken, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (by telecon)

Burt Parker, MITRETEK

Geoff Steele, Environmental Protection Agency

Dan Gillman chaired the meetings, except Tuesday afternoon, when Judith Newton chaired the meeting.

The following reports the issues raised and decisions made:

1. Standards review

Phong Ngo reported that the following standards are coming up for review in 1997. The standards to x.43 Time of day; X3.50, Representations of US Customary, SI and Other Units; X3.61, Geographic Point Locations; X3.145, Identification of Hydrologic units. We need to schedule this work for next year's work plan.

2. ISO/IEC 11179, Part 1

Dan Gillman received comments from Jake Knoppers, who attended the WG4 meeting. He will produce another version soon for immediate comment and then a version by the end of August for the next WG4 meeting.

3. ISO/IEC 11179, Part 2

Bruce Bargmeyer will produce a new version by the end of August. We hope to have preliminary results from a test of the concepts expressed in the document.

4. ISO/IEC 11179, Part 6

The Ballot for this part is due to ISO on September 2, 1996. ANSI has earlier dates for the ballot process. The SIG recommends that the Plenary session vote to approve, with the following "editorial" comments:

Revisions for Clause 6.3

A. In the first sentence, insert the word "by" between the words "recorded RAs".

B. Replace the text for the "standardized" status with: "standardized: The certified data element that is established by the Registration Authority as a data element preferred for use in data interchange and in new or updated applications. The "standardized" data element may be unique within the registry or it may be the preferred data element among similar data elements."

C. Eliminate the status and entire text for "phased-out:". This is a transitional status, not parallel with the other registration statuses. A registration Authority can establish this as a Administrative Status, if desired.

D. Establish a new status to be called "Incomplete". Insert the following text before the "recorded:" registration status: "Incomplete: The registered data element does not contain all Mandatory Attribute Values".

E. For the "Recorded:" status, change the word "submitted" to "registered" and delete the words "and has been accepted and entered".

5. SC 14 New Work Items.

Judy Newton and Phong Ngo reviewed the status of these two new work items. Phong and Judy will produce new versions in July. The NWI ballot is out for voting. Phong will contact Brazil, China, the Netherlands, and France to encourage their participation in the projects.

6. Revision of X3.30, Date

Paul Hawes and Burt Parker prepared a new draft for circulation. We discussed the draft and made suggestions for some additional informative information. We want to make clear that there are many ways to represent date information. This standard selects a preferred representation for date from among many possible representations, including those described by ISO 8601. We also need to make reference to the efforts underway to make information systems accommodate the year 2000. It is desirable for the year 2000 system redesign efforts to implement this standard, because it will facilitate data interchange between any systems or organizations which desire to share data. Jean-Paul Emard and Kate McMillan from X3 talked to us about what we need to do to revise the existing standard, including specifying the latest approved procedures. Steps:

--X3L8 prepares Project Proposal for revision of standard. Request one year extension of standard, pending revision. Provides proposal to OMC. If OMC, in July meeting, recommends approval to X3 then:

--Issue press release in July (X3L8 can draft), address why revision and where/when next meeting will be held

--Have meeting of X3L8 so that people materially affected can attend ( Aug or Sept) take role call vote to forward to X3 Secretariat for public review. If many new attendees at the meeting (and dissention), then may need a second meeting to allow new members to establish themselves as members, so they can vote. At this point the draft becomes a dpANS with the same number as the present standard.

--X3 Secretariat issues for public review (two months).

--Concurrent with public review issue 30 day X3L8 ballot, also O.C. compliance done by X3 Secretariat, call for Intellectual Property Rights by X3 Secretariat.

.--resolve comments and formally endorse content at X3L8 meeting (by role call), if technical comments are received, may need second public review.

--O.C. for management review

--Forward to ANSI

We propose a tentative X3L8 Plenary meeting in October, in case a Second X3L8 meeting is needed.

7. Discussion of SC 31, Automatic Data Capture

The potential overlap of SC14 and SC30 was discussed. The committee is rewriting its Scope statement. We will discuss their scope at the X3L8 Plenary with Sandy Paul, of SC31. The new committee deals with capturing data using barcodes and other techniques.

8. Interaction with the Federal Geographic Data Committee, X3L1 and TC211 about GIS info.

John McCarthy and Doug Mann attended a FGDC Reference Model meeting at which John and Doug presented material about the X3L8 registration and metamodel standards. The X3L8 work seems very relevant for the FGDC work. The attendees at the FGDC meeting seemed open to the X3L8 work. We would like to invite Ed Riegelmann and Denise Perreca to the next X3L8 meeting.

9. X3.285, Metamodel for the Management of Shareable Data

Paul Hawes lead a discussion of the metamodel working draft. We reviewed the changes that were a result of the last X3L8 review and some changes triggered by the recent SC14/WG4 meeting. A few further refinements were made. Some attendees raised new issues and will submit them by e-mail. Paul explained the he would be unable to attend the next one or two SIG meetings. He asked that resolution of issues continue in his absence. This can best be done by analyzing those open issues marked as "probably already resolved" to find if there is consensus to label them as resolved.

10. Proposal for Project to revise American National Standard X3.30, Representation for calendar date and ordinal date for information interchange

Paul Hawes submitted a draft request for X3 approval of a project to revise the date standard. The attendees reviewed the document and requested a revision. Paul made the revision and provided the final document to Phong Ngo for X3L8 vote in the plenary meeting the next day.

11. Future meeting schedule

July 11-12 SIG meeting at NIST

September 11-13, 1996 at NIST North, room 201 (SIG meetings on September 11-12. X3L8 Plenary is September 13.)

September 11, NIST North, Room 201, Dining room C

September 12, NIST North, Room 201, Dining room A

September 13, NIST North, Room 210, Dining room C

Directions to NIST North: NIST North is Building 820. The address of this building is 820 West Diamond Avenue. Note that the building is located across the street from the main campus of NIST. Instead of turning onto Bureau Drive toward the main Gate of NIST, turn the opposite direction (North) onto Bureau Drive and take the second possible right turn to get to the NIST North building, The building has the name "NIST" on it in large letters. (From Interstate 270, driving North, take Exit 10, which loops under the freeway, and then turn RIGHT at the first stop light--this is the intersection of West Diamond Avenue and Bureau drive.)

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