(j3.2006) INCITS mischief

[Van Snyder]

Time to ask IEEE or ECMA if they want to be J3's parent?

On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 14:40 -0400, Dan Nagle wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I just returned from the tri-annual potty training
> at INCITS, and there's some news.
> 
> As of some future Doomsday, J3 can no longer have its own
> web site.  We must use INCITS.  They will automagically
> assign paper numbers, provide archive services, and so on.
> (I raised enough of a stink so J3 will be one of the last
> committees to be assimilated.)  Whether they understand
> the differences between standing docs and regular docs
> is unclear.  The protocols used to access the INCITS server
> are not yet specified (at least, to me).  Whether and how
> they will enforce J3's paper format rules is unclear.
> 
> How this affects the server during a meeting is unclear,
> but I felt ducking and pleading ignorance later was better
> than asking now.
> 
> How this affects the mailing lists is unclear.  I think
> INCITS intends to maintain the lists, with strict enforcement
> of membership rules.  How this affects the mailing list archives
> is unclear.  What this does to J3's INCITS archive (the Black Hole
> where I forward INCITS spam prior to deleting it from my computer)
> is unclear.
> 
> The committee membership will be maintained by INCITS
> on this new INCITS server.  A user id and password
> will be required to access anything considered private.  INCITS
> will decide what's public and what isn't (don't worry,
> they have rules).
> 
> Minutes must be submitted to INCITS for approval within 30 days
> of a meeting's end date and prior to being circulated to members,
> even attendees.
> 
> Notices of membership jeopardy must be numbered committee
> papers and must be included in the agenda of the upcoming
> meeting (implying 30 day's notice).
> 
> INCITS "recommends" that we maintain daily sign-in papers
> during multi-day meetings.  But there appears to be an escape hatch
> whereby we can develop our own rules for our own circumstances.
> Attendees can probably still order their own doughnuts.
> 
> In order to have a Friends of J3 list, we must specifically
> vote on it at a meeting.  I think INCITS uses the term "friends"
> differently than J3.  ;-)  But I didn't mention it because
> J3's kind of friend may be illegal in the new scheme.
> 
> There's a new specific format for votes on ISO matters.
> Failure to use the new format means our vote will not count
> (and we'll be listed as "not voting").  This one is Van's headache,
> not mine.  :-)
> 
> I view all this as the result of insufficient adult supervision.
>