(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4842) On CD ballots

[John Reid]

WG5,

You will be pleased to hear that there will be no change of policy re CD 
ballots. Here is a copy of a letter from the JTC1 secretary to JTC1 members.

John.

.......................................................................

19 November 2012

Dear members,

At the November 2012 JTC 1 Plenary meeting, the JTC 1 SWG on the 
Directives Secretary gave a presentation on changes to the 2012 version 
of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, and the JTC 1 Supplement. She also 
provided explanations as to why certain changes agreed to by ISO will 
not be adopted by JTC 1. As these explanations are only detailed in that 
presentation, this document has been prepared to further articulate the 
decisions made.

In document JTC 1 N 11110, JTC 1 members were informed that JTC 1 would 
adopt the ISO policy change that allows texts that do not receive 100% 
approval during the DIS ballot to proceed directly to publication if the 
committee responsible for the project agrees that the text could skip 
the FDIS ballot (via a one month consultation ballot). Upon further 
reflection and discussion of how this change would be implemented at the 
September 2012 meeting of the JTC 1 SWG on the Directives, it was 
decided that this change would NOT be implemented for JTC 1. As JTC 1 
utilizes the combined voting procedure that allows all members of ISO 
and IEC to vote on DIS and FDIS ballots, such a change to procedure is 
impractical and irrelevant. For a committee in JTC 1 to skip the FDIS 
ballot, all of ISO and IEC would need to be consulted on whether or not 
the document could proceed directly to publication. This consultation 
would not shorten the development time of a document in JTC 1, and 
therefore, the change will not be implemented. As this change is an ISO 
only change that JTC 1 will not be adopting, the JTC 1 Supplement 
requires no modification. This decision was subsequently supported by 
JTC 1 at the November 2012 Plenary meeting.

ISO has also decided that the Committee Draft (CD) stage is now 
optional. Committees are given the choice as to whether or not a CD 
ballot is necessary for a project. This topic was also discussed at the
September 2012 JTC 1 SWG?Directives meeting. The SWG on the Directives 
agreed that as there was little support and no criteria for doing so, 
skipping the CD ballot should not be an option within JTC 1. This 
decision was subsequently supported by JTC 1 at the November 2012 
Plenary meeting. It has been decided JTC 1 will continue to have CD 
ballots. As this change is also an ISO only change that JTC 1 will
not be adopting, the JTC 1 Supplement requires no modification. As 
always, if there are any questions, please feel free to contact the JTC 
1 Secretary.

Kind regards,
Lisa Rajchel
JTC 1 Secretary