XML Community of Practice
Meeting Notes
September 20, 2006
This meeting was hosted by SAIC at its facility in McLean, Virginia.
Owen Ambur thanked Ken Sall and Mary Ann Melosh of SAIC for hosting the meeting and then made a few announcements. He mentioned the Collaborative Expedition Workshop that had been held the previous day focusing on financial management and XBRL, and noted that the October 24 workshop will recognize the 10th anniversary of OMB’s guidance, commonly known as Raines’ Rules, on implementation of the Clinger-Cohen Act. He pointed out that the Open Publish conference that had been scheduled for the end of September in Baltimore has been postponed till March 2007. He also mentioned EPA’s System of Registries (SoR) conference scheduled for October 3 and CENDI’s workshop on intellectual property rights markings scheduled for November 2. He suggested the xmlCoP should consider how best to participate in the XBRL International conference scheduled for December 4 - 6 in Philadelphia and the XML 2006 conference to be held in Boston on December 5 - 7. Finally, he noted that IBM’s DB2 would be the presentation topic at the DC Area XML User Group meeting later in the evening on September 20.
Attendees and teleconference participants then introduced themselves and briefly commented on their interests in XML.
Turning to the first item on the meeting agenda, with Ken’s assistance, Owen pointed out the most recent submissions to the ET.gov site and he gave Rizwan Millal the opportunity to speak briefly about Crosscheck’s SOA Testing product. Owen also noted that John Turnbull had planned to dial in to speak briefly about Propylon’s Legislative Workbench but was apparently unable to do so. With respect to Stage 2 and 3 CoPs, Owen observed that 12 are now at Stage 2 and four are at Stage 3 – most notably the IPv6 Work Group, which has identified the need for and plans to provide support for enhancements to the ET.gov site.
Time did not allow for discussion of additional XML/SOA/Web Service related specifications that should be included in the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Technical Reference Model (TRM). However, Owen encouraged participants to consider using the ET.gov site to identify and build .gov communities of practice around them so that they can be incorporated into the TRM.
Although the next item on the agenda was proposed enhancements to the ET.gov site/process to more fully support the needs of the CIO Council’s IPv6 Work Group, the dialog turned instead to prospects for extension of the xmlCoP’s charter and for the appointment of new co-chairs, in light of Owen’s impending retirement on January 3. As requested by Lisa Schlosser, co-chair of the CIO Council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee (AIC), Owen had drafted a proposed modification/extension to the charter. However, Owen pointed out that it will only make sense to renew the group’s charter if new leaders are willing and able to step forward.
Tim West expressed interest in co-chairing the CoP but wondered whether his agency affiliation might be a cause for concern by civilian agencies. Owen indicated that he did not think so and that he believes Tim is a great candidate who could bring both valuable personal skills to the role while helping to engage additional stakeholders who may have important contributions to make as well. Other attendees echoed Owen’s comments and were highly supportive of prospects for Tim becoming a co-chair. Participating by teleconference, Karl Hebenstreit of GSA also expressed interest in co-chairing, and Owen indicated he thought having an active co-chair from GSA would also be highly beneficial. He expressed the desire to do whatever he can to obtain approval from Tim and Karl’s agency managers to allow them to serve as co-chairs.
At that point the agenda took another unanticipated turn as Ken surprised Owen by presenting him a XML Community Leadership award on behalf of the community. Owen had a little trouble maintaining his composure as he expressed gratitude to the community for their thoughtfulness in recognizing his contributions. He indicated that he will continue to be as active in support of the community as he is allowed to be by those who remain in leadership roles in government and, thus, he is anxious to see dedicated and capable folks like Tim and Karl step up to such roles.
Following the mid-morning break, Adam Schwartz updated the group on the status and plans for Strategy Markup Language (StratML), which will be an XML vocabulary and schema for strategic plan and, eventually, for performance plans and reports as well. Ken suggested looking at the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Performance Reference Model (PRM) for definitions and that Andy Hoskinson might be a good contact since he has supported the FEAPMO. With respect to establishing relationships and linkages among the elements, Paul Woods suggested that consideration be given to XLink and IDREF. David Rafner suggested that optional elements be included to relate strategic goals and objectives to business processes.
Adam indicated the first meeting of the StratML community of practice will be held on October 11 at the Government Printing Office (GPO), and that the StratML CoP will meet every two or three weeks thereafter. Adam’s presentation and supporting spreadsheet and Visio diagram are available at http://xml.gov/presentations.asp#20060920
Since the xmlCoP’s current charter lapses on September 30, whether and, if so, additional meetings will be scheduled remains to be seen.
Those who registered their presence at this meeting included:
Owen Ambur, Co-Chair, xmlCoP
Joe Chiusano, BAH
Blake Edwards, GPO
Amin Hassam, i411
Mary Ann Melosh, SAIC
David Rafner, Data Blueprint
Ken Sall, SAIC
Adam Schwartz, GPO
Allyson Ugarte, XBRL US & Spain
Tim West, DIA
Paul Woods, BTS
Those who identified themselves as participating via teleconference were:
Brenda DuVall, CSC
TC Evans, GPO
Bill Graca, Gedas
Karl Hebenstreit, GSA
Ari Knausenberger, BAH
Rizwan Millal, Crosscheck Networks
KC Morris, NIST
Frank Napoli, LMI
Sylvia Webb, GEFEG
Tom Merkle of NIJ and CapWin conveyed his regrets at being unable to participate but expressed support for extending the xmlCoP’s charter.
Please convey any additions or corrections to Owen_Ambur@ios.doi.gov
